DIY Wedding Overload
Posted by: Wendy Atterberry
Filed in:
relationships
12:00PM, Wednesday June 3rd 2009
Dear Brides and Bride-to-be,
Seriously, has it really come to this? Are some of you actually growing your own salads for your wedding receptions now? And if you aren’t, the Telegraph thinks you should. In a series called “Grow Your Own Wedding,” it published an article today that laid out what to sow and grow and mix together, from “Ruben Lettuce,” to I s**t you not, fennel bulbs, to create your own perfect wedding day salad. All I can say is thank God I’m keeping my engagement short and getting married next month because I don’t think I could possibly stand another half a year of this silliness. Everywhere I turn to for ideas or advice, I’m completely inundated with this DIY crap. Look, I get that it can be fun to get all crafty and put your own personal stamp on your BIG, SPECIAL DAY, but I have to draw the line at lining my RSVP envelopes and growing my own fennel, and maybe you should to.
I know, I know — far be it from me to tell you how to spend your time and money planning your wedding that I’m not even invited to and have nothing at all invested in. Fair enough. But could you at least stop talking about it so much — and, you know, pointing out every little thing that you’re DIY’ing? The thing is, no one really cares if you grew your own lettuce or bought it at a farmer’s market. And also, you’re kind of deluding yourself a little. It’s not the stuff you make that gives your wedding a personal touch, it’s the people you include. It’s the words exchanged, the promises made, and the moments you stop and memorize exactly how you’re feeling so you can recall them on rainy afternoons or years later when so much else has faded.
Maybe I’m just concerned some of you are getting a little too swept up in the glamour of creating the perfect day and the perfect way to impress people and show how clever and creative you are. And I guess that’s not the worst thing in the world, but if I hear one more bride brag about lining her wedding party gift bags with vintage wall paper she found on eBay, well, that just might be.
Best regards,
Wendy
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fallonthecity
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 12:13 pm: [report]
Lining gift bags with vintage wall paper? Sounds a little extreme since those gift bags will head straight to the trash once the gifts are opened.
Wendy Atterberry
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 12:23 pm: [report]
Oh, but people do it! And they’re all, “Did you notice how your gift bag was lined with vintage wallpaper? I did that! It was my PERSONAL STAMP! Did you notice, did you notice?!”
Backliteyes
wrote on June 3 2009 @ 02:03 pm: [report]
Four words: Justice of the Peace
I think DIY stuff started as a way to cut down the costs of a wedding, which can get enormouse quickly if you’re not careful. But now it has pretty much abandoned that purpose.
juliePS
wrote on June 4 2009 @ 05:31 am: [report]
what do you mean you want to have your wedding be the way YOU want it and not how your family/friends/magazines tell you it should be? how DARE you!
divegirl
wrote on June 5 2009 @ 03:08 am: [report]
Are you kidding me? Brides grow their own freaking lettuce for their wedding day? What?! I mean, I’m all about growing your own food in your backyard, but for 120 people for one day? I’m not a farm.
DIY stuff has definitely breached control. I’m getting married in August and the only DIY stuff I’m doing is buying wholesale flowers and making my own bouquets for the reception table centerpieces. Oh, and I’ve bought wine barrels for flower arrangements for either side of the altar. But that’s it. We’re spending more time daydreaming about our honeymoon and life after wedding than the weekend itself. As it should be…
retro chic
wrote on June 5 2009 @ 05:41 am: [report]
Interesting *tone,* but, this is not DIY. It’s elitist Martha Stewart in the guise of DIY. DIY is ordinary envelopes from the stationary store or Kinko’s, hand-addressed/inkjet labeled; the bulk salad and other trimmings loaded into the trunk of your car in front of CostCo; your aunts and friends making large batches of food in your/their kitchens, etc. See how brides get caught up in even this nondistinction? And it was not so long ago everyone was gathered ‘round to help solve “The Case of the Improperly Addressed Invitation” (equally “silly”). Btw, a bride’s honeymoon—is everyone else’s too. Maybe I’m on Wedding 411 Overload… sorry.
eden
wrote on June 5 2009 @ 10:00 pm: [report]
Ugh. I want my wedding to have our own personal touches, but I don’t want it to be ridiculous. The only thing I want to do myself is my new hubby, thanks!
Natasha
wrote on June 6 2009 @ 07:09 am: [report]
If it makes you happy go for it!
But if you hate it then do a few things and let it be.
I think it goes back to that old picture of the women begin able to make everything, like the Leave it to Beaver wife.