As the website Eternity Rose says, “It can be difficult to choose the best gift for a girl to demonstrate how you truly feel, and to show her the depth of your affections. It can also be hard to think of appropriate gift for women which will not only be appreciated by that special someone, but will also clearly express your intentions.” What better a gift than a wedding? Speaking of weddings….
The silver screen should never be used as your personal gold standard. Wedding movies may be a ton of fun to watch but talk about unrealistic expectations, there’s just no way to live up to those standards. The bar is too high. We won’t even mention perfect lighting, everyone always having perfect hair and makeup that never looks like someone’s aunt got dressed in the dark using products she bought in the 1980s. Every bride, groom, and parent wants a wedding to be perfect, memorable and in no way, a comedy of errors, but (as John Lennon or Allen Saunders said) life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
5. The Relationship Began as a Joke, Bet or Cover Story
Sure, it makes for a really fun story to tell the grandkids, but this never happens. It may surprise you to know that some sources cite as many as 17-20% of long term committed relationships and marriages began on dating websites. About one in six total relationships start online. However, they do not start because someone hired an actor or prostitute to be their date to a serious event. You will not meet a married couple anywhere who’s story begins with two buddies who bet that the next person who walked through the doo could be magically or scientifically transformed into the perfect… anything. Furthermore, no one ever marries the person who only asked them out because their friends thought it would be hilarious to get their hopes up only to later humiliate them.
4. The Bride NEVER Has to Pee or Get Through a Too-Small Door in a Ballgown Style Dress
This is the one real-life comedy that many overdressed brides can relate to and yet somehow Hollywood hasn’t used it. Perhaps the Screenwriters Guild has a rule about never portraying a fancy gown as a problem unless a teenage girl trips over it during a life-changing makeover process. Whatever the reason, it is seriously difficult to navigate anything designed for normal human proportions when you are over four feet wide at floor level.
3. Wedding Crashers Are The Best
Every single movie with wedding crashers portrays them in a positive light. They may be humorous, or they might perform heroic acts of kindness and in the process start dating someone who was legitimately invited. They are never shown as unexpected and unwelcome problems that have to be handled by an unsuspecting family member.
2. The Best Man is Stupid, Drunk and Hilariously Inappropriate
(Someone May Punch Him and Save the Day With Better Speech They Didn’t Plan) It’s traditional for the Best Man at your wedding to gently tease the groom, but most are not three sheets to the wind and completely clueless about even the most basic forms of etiquette. If your Best Man is prone to that behavior than no one wants to meet your other friends. Perhaps, in this case, an elopement is the best option.
1. Your True Love Objects and Saves You From a Bad Marriage
(And No One Complains or Accuses You of Infidelity) Weddings are expensive. They take a long time to plan and most people do not enter into engagements frivolously. Nor is it common to suddenly meet your soulmate while you are handling the extensive process that leads up to marrying someone else. Even if you should happen to find a better partner just before you walk down the aisle, you can bet that if they wait to stand up and profess their love until the moment the priest asks for objections, it’s not going to go smoothly.
*Bonus- Happily Ever After
Once the rice has been thrown (which is an awful tradition that actually kills the birds who eat raw uncooked rice left behind), and the car with the clever sign and cans tied to the bumper pulls away… real life does not fade to black and run a list of people who helped produce the magic day. Love in the real world is such a challenge that 41% of first marriages end in divorce.
Conclusion
As seen on TV is a lot of fun for weekend entertainment, but hopefully, most folks can distinguish between the real world and these lovely idealized images. Try kissing in the pouring rain sometime. Just because it looks good on film doesn’t make it a good idea. While living the (Hollywood produced, high budget) dream may be a goal, real life requires more effort, mostly because the important events take more than 2 hours from start to finish. The best-laid plans seldom turn out picture perfect, though that doesn’t mean the most important events in our adult lives are necessarily disasters, it just means that sometimes the caterer drops the cake, or you get stuck in traffic. Picking up and moving on after a challenge is easy enough with a positive, and realistic, outlook.
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