My afternoon treat today was finding journalist Christina Capecchi’s website, podcasts and article archive. Christina’s column “Twenty Something” (sorry, Claire) is syndicated in 50 Catholic publications across the country, but she also writes on technology, politics and culture for other publications like the New York Times and MinnPost.com (she’s from St. Paul).
Anyway. It was an old article from the latter that caught my attention today … “Here comes the Botoxed bride.”
Obviously, it’s about the wedding industry … and it how it convinces women that they NEED their wedding to look it was highlighted in The Knot or Modern Bride.
“They’re aggressively marketing to those brides, and they’re succeeding,” says one wedding consultant. “Suddenly you’re thinking, ‘Oh, maybe I really do need to have a seaweed wrap facial the day before the wedding so my skin glows!’ “
A bride, who will wear fake eyelashes at her Maui wedding: “You get a case of wedding-brain … It’s really easy to get carried away. The wedding fever catches hold of everyone—no matter how grounded you are.”
Perhaps this is really wrong and uncharitable of me, but I think the wedding industry is one that could stand a crash this year. It’s so jarring to go from the reports of foreclosures, credit crises and economic fears on your car radio, to walking into a bridal boutique where women who have been convinced that they are princesses at least since getting the ring are obliviously slapping down their credit cards — or their mothers’ credit cards; it’s like the craze infects both generations — for $200+ veils made of a two-foot piece of puffy tulle, a dress with a price tag of thousands of dollars and more.
Then again, Connecticut, at least, has recently sanctioned same-sex marriage … and the wedding industry is not far behind.
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March 3, 2009 at 11:34 pm
L
If everyone is so concerned about how they will look in the wedding pictures, why don’t they just not hire a photographer? Seriously… it’d be better to only have your memories (which tend to be rose-colored anyways) than to have the experience ruined by unrealistic future scrutiny.
-L
March 3, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Claire
Wow. Good call. A personal finance blog I picked up somewhere or other is already putting money away for his wedding, despite the fact that he’s not even seeing someone nor considering settling down in the near future, just because of the exorbitant price tag weddings carry. Whenever I think about organizing my finances, I always come back to that. Wouldn’t it be great to break free from all that craziness? (Though I think our crew largely has)
And I don’t mind sharing the title, so long as you occasionally share things so I don’t feel a need to subscribe to all her articles. That one was very good (slash scary).