Platinum Brides indeed

This past wkend my mom and I were watching the WE channel (Women's Entertainment) which ok, really, what do you think Women's Entertainment is, TV executives? I bet you ten bucks it's not what I think it is. Our definitions may vary a smidge or two. But that's another topic for another day...

Anyways, they had a marathon of two shows on Sunday - Bridezillas and Platinum Brides. I think because 7-7-07 was a popular wedding day, they decided to make it a wedding themed weekend. I've never seen either show before though I've heard a lot about Bridezillas, how crazy the women are and perfectionistic and darn well intent on their day being exactly the way they want.

In the few episodes I saw, I did see some brides with a spoiled attitude but I also saw some wacked-out, mean, unhelpful families. The brides just seemed really stressed and trying to coordinate spacy grooms, critical mothers, caterers that canceled at the last minute, and such. It felt like one common denominator for the brides on Bridezilla was that they didn't have that much money and were trying to pull together a dream wedding in a backyard or with half a cake or something. Key observation: there was no hired wedding coordinator to oversee all the logisitics and problems, and all of that fell on the bride.

Jump to Platinum Bride, which is the exact opposite show. How money, lots of money, makes life to be a walk on easy street. My jaw kept dropping watching this show. The show is like the girls from MTV's show Sweet Sixteen grew up and got married with thousands and thousands of dollars. I didn't know normal people spent this much on weddings. Stars, celebrities, ok but normal people? I guess the question is what's your idea of normal.

For one couple who I guess was around 30-32 (the woman was an events planner, the guy a record company exec), it was crazzzy. The bride's parents were paying for everything and I kept turning my mom and saying, "I guess you're glad I'm not expecting that." My favorite quote was the bride saying, "We started with a budget of $300K but threw that out the window right away!" Omg. $300K was the starting number but it couldn't even contain the first draft of your plans?! I estimate it cost $500-600K. Sure, their wedding looked cool but it made me nauseous to watch all that money spent on one event. And yes, they had an excellent wedding coordinator with a few assistants himself.

So when exactly did all of this happen? When did weddings become the billion dollar industry it is, with women buying into it all? Isn't there anyone out there saying, "No, this is ridiculous. Crazy. I'm not treating my wedding day as the day to spend my parents' savings or my own." As I'm not engaged or even dating seriously, I know it's hard for me have a complete opinion on this and I'm not against "modest" $15-20K weddings (which I know isn't a lot in wedding-world but still seems like a huge amount to me for a wedding) but I guess the whole thing makes me feel sad about the shopping-saturated, spoiled-princess-mentality culture we live in.

I think the WE channel would like me to laugh and criticize the Bridezilla brides for their frantic stress and outbursts, but envy the Platinum Brides with their platinum gold cards. But I feel a bit sad for both and can't help but think that the PlatBrides' calm and peace has more to do with their money, which pays for among other things a well-compensated wedding coordinator who handles all the crap, than with a deeper sense of love they feel for their groom.*


*And I do know that I will 100% have a wedding coordinator for my wedding even if it's my awesome friend Dar who is superwoman and can do anything including sew her own wedding dress and coordinate her own wedding to the 100th detail. People really underestimate the importance of logistics and having someone to manage it all. But I do not! :)