Wedding Shows That Make You Think

OK, I'm going to try real hard to post as much of my journal as quickly as possible; since I'll be doing a whole bunch of wedding stuff this upcoming week! I have two cake tastings, two bridal shows, and a consultation with a possible DJ/photographer. I really would like to post those relatively close to when it actually happens, but we'll see. I am pet-sitting, and so I don't really have much time on the internet. Well, anyway, enough rambling. On to the journal entry.
-
-
Dec 18, 2009
-
Celia came running to my room, informing me that I HAD to watch this one show. She also reassured me that if anyone acted "like this" she would personally kick their ass. She had been watching a montage episode of the TLC network show "Say Yes to the Dress." The show follows bridal gown consultants as they attempt to make a sale. This particular episode was sort of a season highlight reel. Celia called me in for a segment where everyone the brides bring shopping with them give their all-out opinions. Sometimes you wondered who the dress was really for. So frustrating seeing those brides just take it! Thank God Celia's got my back. ^_^
-
I ended up watching the rest of the episode, even when Celia left with Peter. I watched the next episode too. And the one after that. TLC themes the episodes, and so the ones I watched were about overly opinionated mothers and then plus-sized girls. All-in-all enjoyable shows. I even re-watched the encore presentations with Mom. Mainly, so I could go, "OMG! See? I'd deck someone!"
-
Anyway, there were two mothers - one from each episode - that made me SO grateful for MY mother! The first was from the "mothers" episode. A girl named Amanda had literally grown up in beauty pageants. She had been in them since she was nine months old! And CLEARLY "mom" hadn't come to terms with the fact that her twenty-three-year-0ld wasn't a pageant queen any more. So the bride tells the consultant that she wants to stay away from the poofy ballgowns because they drown her five-foot-two figure. Then Mom - getting death glares from her daughter the whole time - informs the consultant that she wants an over-the-top, dramatic, princess ballgown for the bride. Before you could blink, trying on one or two ballgowns to appease Mom turned into Mom will only pay for a ballgown. The mom kept telling the bride that she didn't know what she's talking about and to just trust her (mom). Soon the bride broke down in the dressing room and informed the consultant of a wonderful non-pageant, non-ballgown dress that she had fallen in love with while dress shopping in Philly. After encouragement from the consultant, the bride reminded her mom of the dress. The I-Know-Best woman informs her daughter that she didn't look good in that dress and to just forget about it already. There were a few more tear-filled disputes before the consultant gave up on the sale and convinced her bride to go buy the other gown from Philadelphia. Man, did I want to strangle that mother. However, she still wasn't as bad as the second one!
-
This time from the plus-size episode, one of the cruelest, most shallow mothers I've seen. This time the bride was shopping about a year before her wedding. She was planning to lose about twenty or thirty pounds, but couldn't wait to start shopping. She was just so excited about the engagement and trying on dresses, and yet she brought along her mother and cousin. Now, to fully set the scene: Mom was equally - if not more so - overweight, and the cousin was probably about ninety pounds dripping wet. They were also some of the rudest women I've ever witnessed! The bride looked SO pretty in just about every dress that she tried on, but her "support team" just kept laughing and teller her she looked ugly! Ugly! Not that the DRESS looked ugly, but that THE BRIDE was ugly! The cousin said such things as "[the groom] will take one look at her and say 'that's it, I'm not marrying her.'" or "that dress looks so cheap!" The cousin also asked the bride, "why do you have to go all hoochey-mama? It's gross when you're over weight." And the bride's good old mom would just laugh to the point of tears, agree with the cousin, and point out where you could see the bride's rolls! Nice mom! No sale here either.
-
Now, why am I venting in my wedding journal? I don't really know. Maybe because it's a wedding-related rant. Maybe because it helps me appreciate my Mommy and her actual support. Anyway, the next part is still sticking with TLC's wedding programming, but it had some interesting things to spark ideas for my wedding - and so it seems to fit a little better here. Whatever, the next show was a sneak preview for the new show "Four Weddings." The basic concept is that four brides score each other's weddings and the highest score gets a free Honeymoon. I won't talk about the show itself this time. Instead I'm just going to point out those points that I want to think about for my wedding.
-
First, I'm such a mush. Every time they got to the vows I thought of mine and Remy's and got all misty-eyed. Just wanted to throw that out there. *clears throat* Anyway.
-
The first wedding was held outdoors and two things I wouldn't have thought of came up. One was that the officiant was two HOURS late! What will Remy and I do if this happens to us? Not only will the guests get restless, but it throws everything else off. There will be longer rental fees for the ceremony, there will be paid-for-but-not-used reception fees, and a choice between either a shorter reception or shelling out more cash for the same reception time we originally set. The vendors will also be thrown off, such as the food arriving two hours before being needed, paying more for longer hours for the DJ, photographer, videographer, transportation.... The list goes on. Oh boy, would I prefer to be married on time! So now I'm trying to figure out how to manage that. Do we have a second officiant on stand-by? I voted that, since I'm scripting it all anyway, we could have an aunt/uncle/cousin/friend/whatever officiate via script and then legalize the marriage via justice of the peace after the fact. Yeah, Remy shot that idea down quick, "we're going to be legally married at our wedding!" Perhaps I could ask my just-happens-to-be-a-pastor aunt to be our contingency plan....
-
The second unforeseen disaster was that of the wind - and so bringing up the worry of nature in general. The problem was that the wind was so loud - and no one had a microphone - and so no one heard the vows, not even the TLC camera men! I'm not putting all of this effort into something we can't hear being said! We'll have to talk to the eventual sound crew about some ideas to insure that won't happen.
-
In the end the $70,000, five-hundred guest, Big Fat Greek Wedding won the Honeymoon. The cheapest of the four weddings was about $25,000 for a guest list of 120. Remy and I have a ways to go with our savings! He did give me about sixty bucks in change, and so it IS growing slowly but surely. Better than before when it didn't grow at all. We're currently at $172 - all in change. I also really need to switch up my accounts at my bank. Currently, I'm still with my "student free checking" account; which completely ignores the fact that I've been out of school for three years now. *blush* AAAAAAANYWAY... I need to talk to the bank and see about possible smart options for saving up for the wedding and also the possibility of opening a new savings/checking account specifically for the wedding fund. Maybe I should look into do so with another bank - one that Remy can also easily access so he can deposit up by him.... Gah, I'll figure something out, I guess.
-
-
OK, I THINK that was a touch more coherent... Oh well. I'll try for another post tomorrow.