One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding
Author: Rebecca Mead
Rating: ā 3/5
Date Read: 2014/04/29
Pages: 256
Iām currently experiencing the twenty-something wedding deluge: it seems like getting married is all anyone does nowadays. Iāve spent a lot of time listening to details, reassuring friends that no one will really notice if they decide to save money by forgoing the aisle runner, while gently suggesting that they focus more of the budget on booze. Of course, Iāve also spent a lot of money on showers, parties, dresses, and cookware that, as an obsessive cook, I have a hard time packing up and sending to the bridge and groom.
At some point, I had a wedding-gift related breakdown. My kitchen was filled with cheap mis-matched pots and completely devoid of serve ware. I desperately wanted a Le Creuset dutch oven, and a Kitchenaid standing mixer, and some All Clad sautĆ© pans; however, I had taken for granted the fact that unmarried women donāt deserve nice things. As I once again forked over my credit card to buy a kitchen item that I had long coveted for an acquaintance whose idea of cooking was tossing some jarred sauce over pasta, I started to get fed up. Screw it, I decided. I was an educated woman with my own damn apartment and I didnāt need to live like an ascetic until the day came that I could ask my family and friends to buy me the escargot plates I so desired. I indulged myself with a cherry red Kitchenaid mixer.
In One Perfect Day, Rebecca Mead points out that marriage no longer marks a transition from the parental home to a new life in a new family unit. People get married later, usually long after they get the keys to their first apartment. Indeed, many couples cohabitate, and have already acquired a perfectly serviceable set of flatware. Yet, somehow, the wedding industry convinces the affianced that the wedding represents their one chance to finally get overpriced knife blocks and unnecessary creme brƻlƩe pans. Thus, what began as a way to help clueless youngsters begin a modest life in a new home has turned into an all-out gift grab. Awesome.
Mead blames the industry, not the bridezillas themselves. She talks about the fantasy of the handmade wedding dress, then describes the reality of the Chinese factories were these dresses are mass-produced. She describes videographers who sell the idea that watching you wedding video will make your marriage stronger (I cringe at the idea of seeing myself on film, and I canāt imagine that anyone would want a video of their wedding, let alone ever watch it. Better to spend the money to buy a top-notch photographer, the one wedding professional whose services are actually worth the cost. But I digress). Not that there are great ways to opt-out, as elopement has also become part of the wedding industrial complex.
This isnāt a particularly weighty account of the issue, which is why Iām only giving the book three stars, but it is an interesting read. I do recommend it for anyone who, like me, finds themselves inundated with wedding invitations. Just try not to bring up these topics at the wedding receptions. Instead, try to focus on the real meaning of the ceremony: people watching and free booze (and really, there better be free booze).