Punchy Opinion Pic on Wedding Pinterest Posts

Pinterest brings new light to an age old problem – the planning of your wedding before there is even a wedding. To be fair I was guilty of this before the invention of the Internet too, but the difference was I only shared my dream wedding with my closest friends, not 400 plus of my faintly acquainted Facebook friends. And to be extra fair there’s no problem searching Pinterest to get ideas (and we need users populate options), but there’s also something to be said about squirreling ideas away for an imaginary wedding. Wedding Pinterest fanatics might argue that there’s no harm in electronically bulletin boarding your dream wedding much like a serial killer might for its crimes in his or her isolated, creepy basement; and maybe they’re right. But instead of planning a wedding that doesn’t even exist, why not spend your time enriching your mind with Tolstoy or Betty Friedan instead (you bet your ass I just grouped those two authors together) than collecting things to buy and receive or with things that are pretty, letter pressed, thematic and color coordinated. And maybe I’m being unfair a little, but I haven’t seen guys Pinteresting their dream wedding. And that discrepancy alone says a lot.

A few months ago I attended a taping of TLC’s Randy to the Rescue (it was basically a big wedding expo with video cameras, dress racks, vendors advertising their services or products and a nice swag bag. And I will say Randy was really just the nicest guy, who said the most positive things about experience, body image and feeling good about yourself – things, even I, as the Feminist Bride approved of. I even got to tell him so). No, I didn’t go as an anti-wedding ninja, but I did go around interviewing the ladies there, asking them questions about weddings. I came across some ladies not in relationships but preparing for their future, non-existant weddings. One said her motivation was to be prepared herself as a bridesmaid and to help her friend plan her wedding, others were just there to get ideas and clearly enjoyed weddings, as if it were an informal hobby. Perhaps their real motivation was attending a TV show taping, but one has to wonder how much these wedding shows encourage pre-mature wedding organization.

Gone are the days of magazine dog earring pages quietly alone at home, now all your Facebook friends can view and attend your wedding from the comfort of their couch. That saves most of us the pain from dancing all night in high heels, cash bars and the chicken dance (maybe not the chicken dance, I haven’t seen that dance at a wedding in over 15 years). But thanks ironic, witty someecards.com for pointing out a very real Pinterest trend that none of us bothered to “Like” on Facebook; then again I should remind readers now would be a good time to Pinterest this article.

What do you think? Is planning a wedding before there’s a ring or even a fiance okay?

One Comment

  1. dlzn July 12, 2013

    “But instead of planning a wedding that doesn’t even exist, why not spend your time enriching your mind with Tolstoy or Betty Friedan instead …And maybe I’m being unfair a little, but I haven’t seen guys Pinteresting their dream wedding. And that discrepancy alone says a lot.”

    That Someecard expresses my sentiments very well. But reading that paragraph I think you are glossing over a lot.

    You probably didn’t mean it this way, but it seems to suggest that people interested in weddings are not interested in mind enriching activities and that whatever men do is the standard.

    The underlying assumption is that things related to wedding planning- decoration, scrapbooking, event planning, fashion, cuisine- are inherently girly and thus less valuable. I think this is a popular assumption that we as feminists should try to debunk.

    My boyfriend and I are currently navigating the waters of engagement ring, proposal, announcement to friends and family, etc. I find myself struggling to honor my cultural traditions (Latino Catholic on my side, European Catholic on his side) while honoring our personal beliefs (green, feminist, agnostic). But I also have found that I do want certain things that go along with a traditional wedding. I do want a pretty engagement ring (and he does too). I do want a white dress. And I think that’s okay.

    That’s why I came to this site: to help me navigate the complicated compromise between family traditions, the more modern beliefs we have as a couple, and our own personal tastes in fashion.

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