So yesterday I got an email from someone who runs a website dedicated to the confessions of engaged women. I'm not going to link it because I found the site rather icky and repulsive … and evidently I wasn't the only one.

Here's the thing: I realize that there are frustrations to being a bride. But being engaged doesn't excuse the disgustingly superficial, prestige-obsessed whining that the anonymous brides on this site indulged in. Nothing does, really.

Missa deconstructed several of the superficial, tacky confessions and provided her own hilarious sass-backs. Here's my favorite:

I love my huge diamond. I get this little rush from looking at other womens rings and knowing that mine is better.
I get this little rush from reading your post and knowing that there will always be someone more pathetic than me, and it'll probably be you.

Thanks to Cassandra from I Heart Indie Weddings for sending me a link to this New York Magazine article:

Attack of the Indiezilla
When getting married becomes an elaborate display of unharnessed self-expression, the result is a wedding that doesn't look like a wedding at all.

The article peeves me a bit, and it's not just the title or the subhead's suggestion that if your wedding doesn't look traditional, it somehow doesn't count. For instance, there's this incredibly weak argument:

One potential problem with planning a wedding without the support of the wedding-industrial complex is just that: the lack of support … Doing things your own way often means doing things yourself.

In other words, you should go the traditional route because it's easier. Well, perhaps that's true. But it's fucking sad and makes me angry. So, you should buy into traditions that degrade you because it's easier? You should spend a fortune on overpriced crap because it's easier? You should let someone else define your marriage because it's easier? You should go to Disneyland on your honeymoon instead of hiking in Costa Rica because it's easier?

Continue reading "Indiezilla" →

Dan Savage recently blogged about Engagement 101, a creepy wedding industrial complex rag that features coverlines like "The hottest celebrity ring trends." The best one reads "Have you found THE ONE? How can you tell?"

Dan actually went to far as to scan the terrible quiz you can take to find out if you've found "THE ONE." (Crucial clue: what he gets you for your birthday!) It's awful and amusing.