Top Five Best and Top Five Worst Things About Wedding Magazines
Posted at 5:00 AM Mar 01, 2010
By Merritt Martin
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On February 15, I got engaged. For our third anniversary, the boy bought me a nice dinner, made me a mix CD, did a fake shoe-tie and asked me to marry his sweet ass. Clearly, I said yes. And the Beyoncé jokes did follow.
So, on a recent day off, my mother goaded me into hitting the bookstore for some bridal magazines. "You don't have to start planning, but it'd be fun to see what the latest trends are." Something like that. Some tall tale. Because as soon as you open a wedding magazine, you immediately start yes-ing and no-ing every page and the ideas start building. Once you flip the first page, you start planning--even if (if you're better than I am about relaxing) it's just a little bit. Then people start asking, "Have you set a date?" and you realize, this shit is all real. We gotta deliver.
Thus, with the help of The Knot Texas, Real Simple Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings and D Weddings (a Dallas-area mag), I offer you the best and worst things about hitchin' rags.
The five best things about wedding mags:
5. Preeeeeetty!
I'm not generally a girly-girl--save my penchant for Lifetime Original movies--but I can appreciate a stunning dress and beautiful nature. It also helps that some of these mags are telling me the names of awesome flowers and dress shapes so I can go forth and purchase responsibly.
4. Budget honeymoon recommendations
Apparently, two newlyweds can go to Dublin, Aruba, Belize or Morocco for under $2,500. At least, The Knot Texas claims as much. This gives me hope as it seems, based on the same magazine, that I cannot go to the altar for less than four times that amount--at least.
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3. Advice to put crazy shit on your registry
That couch at Crate & Barrel you could never afford? Put it on there. The bestest Dyson pet hair-sucking vacuum? Click on it. And apparently, video game systems are totally acceptable (yes!). Board games, towels that didn't come from your mom's closet, pillows that support, books, DVDs and a shoe shine butler? Yep. Please, someone tell me that Hammacher Schlemmer has a registry!
2. Disaster tales
O, schadenfreude. There's nothing like stories of cakes and bridesmaids gone wrong to make you laugh and think to yourself, "Well, I'd totally be cool if that happened on my wedding day. I'm ready to just enjoy myself." Who doesn't love a false sense of emotional stability?
1. I now feel like the most innovative, enterprising, budget-minded bride-to-be ever
This wedding crap costs waaaay too much. It's a racket, really. I've always heard tale of crazy wedding tabs, but damn, the stories are true. After seeing some of the ads and ideas for favors and centerpieces, I find myself thinking about how I'd do it myself and do it for way less. You can just look at a reception photo and think: I don't have to rent dish chargers and I can use Mom's jar collection for arrangements. A bonus: When you see reception photos with a hot pink and zebra striped theme, you immediately feel like you have the better sense of style.
Comments
Make sure you check out offbeatbride.com ! It's the antithesis to wedding magazines.
Posted 03/01/2010 at 10:08:43 AMLavender gives both my sister and me headaches.
Posted 03/01/2010 at 10:23:19 AMI would love to elope, my parents even offered $5000 cash if I would skip the stress of planning a wedding and elope. Sounds like a good idea to me. My plan has always been to go elope somewhere romantic like Napa or somewhere in Europe, have a photographer on hand for the event then go on the honeymoon, take lots and lots of pictures and come back and have a reception for your friends and family and set up a projector to show the photos from the wedding and the honeymoon.
My boyfriend doesn't like that idea. He wants to have a traditional wedding. Granted he hasn't proposed yet so I still have time to change his mind, but I really don't want to have to worry about picking out bridesmaids dresses and floral arrangements. Its not my thing.
Good luck though, and congrats!
Posted 03/01/2010 at 11:40:27 AMThank you, Sara! (And that sounds awesome, for the record.)
Seminymous Coward: Thank you for the tip. Lavender is crossed off the list.
Posted 03/01/2010 at 12:36:44 PMCongratulations Merritt!
Posted 03/01/2010 at 03:14:10 PMI'm not really a wedding person and am baffled by a lot of the insanity surrounding nuptials, but I will admit to getting enthusiastic whenever one of my friends decides to take the plunge.
Just remember that despite indications to the contrary, it is YOUR day (and the fiance's as well of course) and you should do what YOU want. Screw everybody else.
I assume that was a joke; I'm not in a nursing home. ;)
Best Wishes? ( http://www.digsmagazine.com/host/host_etiquette_3-28-02_3.htm )
Posted 03/01/2010 at 04:18:02 PMSeminymous Coward,
I was just joking, yes, but now I think you brought up a good point and it might be too fragrant!
And thank you!
Posted 03/01/2010 at 05:28:14 PMCongrats to you!
Tell me you're gonna trek to Boston for a Filene's bridal run? I'd pay to read the book you'd have to write to cover all of that! :)
Posted 03/01/2010 at 05:49:15 PMWedding shenanigans are just not for me - the BF and I are heading to Vegas to get married by Darth Vadar. The relatives can watch on webcam... future M-I-L is not happy about it but it's not her wedding, is it?!
Posted 03/01/2010 at 09:55:38 PMMerritt, you stud! Congrats on getting engaged. Take a deep breath and get ready to sit on your ass until three months out and then have a heart attack! Oh yes, also, if you can do a wedding for $5,000, I'll pay you $5,000. Just wait until you start looking at the invitations. Sure, you could get flat ink for $200 but then you see the raised ink for just $100 more...
Posted 03/02/2010 at 10:30:00 AMOne piece of advice you won't hear elsewhere: include your fiance in the myriad decisions. Sure, he's not going to care too much about colors and some other details, but he'll have some clutch advice when you most need it. For example, I was racking my brain to come up with a "theme" for the wedding, which is advice from the Knot and the florists and other wedding gurus. I asked my fiance and he had the best answer. "The theme," he said, "is marriage."
Oh, yeah....
The reason we don't see more in mags about cheap wedding is pretty straightforward. The money is in spending money. Magazines that cater to budget-minded people tend to go out of business.
Best way to keep it cheap? When it comes to guests, think quality instead of quantity. Invite only the best. Our wedding cost $5000 because we only had 25 in total. It also helps to book a venue that owns things like chairs, plates, forks... you'd be amazed at what these "caterers" will forget to include in their prices.
Good luck and try not to stress! If all else fails, realise that at some point you WILL channel the spirit of Bridezilla and it's not the end of the world :)
Posted 03/02/2010 at 01:20:10 PMOnce you add the word wedding to anything that you are looking for the price will at least double, which is mad.
When else would you spend hndreds of dollars on cake? or buy the most expensive dress you have ever bought and only wear it once? That is the madness of weddings!
If you are determined to have a gorgeous cheap wedding then you will find a way!
Good luck finding all of the cheap wedding ideas.
Posted 05/08/2010 at 10:22:39 AM