Weddingbee Blog

There is something incredibly narcissistic about taking great delight in reading anything and everything on weddings when one herself is a bride, but I justify it as a subtler and more private way of being a bridezilla.

I just finished reading May’s release of Collen Curran’s edited collection of essays, Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, and What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings.

The Writing-degreed part of me would like to believe that some of the essays are stronger than others, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I simply took more pleasure in those that seemed to be speaking directly to me (or about me).All brides will find at least one essay topic with which they can relate. Janelle Brown’s “The Registry Strikes Back” will tickle the bride who registered many of the same items at multiple stores to please a mother who insisted her daughter just had to be registered at Bloomingdale’s. And you DIY gals will scream at seeing yourselves in Rory Evans, as she details her almost-breakdown at hand crafting “four hundred self-portrait clothespin cake toppers” in the essay “My Bridal Meltdown.”

(These are not Rory Evans’ clothespins, but I thought some would enjoy these and get a better idea of what “clothespin” people even are. You can see a collection of others here.)

I must admit that some of the content also made me feel a bit commercial and shallow about all the money and time that was going into planning my own wedding.

(Anyone else feeling this way sometimes?)

Amy Bloom and Dani Shapiro, who are both amazing writers, wrote essays in the “for Better or for Worse?” section with their thoughts on how we need to focus on more than just the wedding itself. But in the end, even Bloom agreed: “I admire marriages: I puzzle over them, I analyze them, I long to get it right. But I love weddings.”

Who doesn’t?