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eupomene's review
3.0
I picked this up hoping for more of a sociological look at the history of our wedding traditions. It started off in a promising manner, but in the end fell short of my expectations. Still, for those of us interested in such things, it's a fun look at weddings in the U.S. since Victorian times. The pictures of wedding costumes from other decades are a blast. I wish she'd given a chapter to the phenomenon of engagement rings, though. This seemed like a major omission.
ejdecoster's review
3.0
Plenty of interesting information, but a bit scattershot in organization, meaning some information was repeated and some themes were difficult to follow. Overall, interesting social history of changing ideas of marriage, even though it's already become a little bit dated.
ehlupton's review
4.0
An intriguing look at the traditions behind the American wedding, for all brides who ever wondered why we're nearly required by society to wear a big white dress, spend $26,000 on one day, carry a vast array of flowers, serve a formal sit down dinner to everyone and his second cousin, and smile through the whole thing like we were auditioning for Miss America.
All in all, I appreciate having the ammunition so I have an easy answer if someone asks me why my fiance and I decided not to observe tradition x at our wedding. And from a historical perspective, a history of weddings is very much a history of women (since during much of history being a wife/mother was essentially a woman's career), so it was interesting to see how our forebears handled the situation, their expectations of it, etc. My main problem is that although the book goes all the way to the early 21st century, gay marriage isn't mentioned until about the last 50 pages, and then only once in passing, although the fight has been around since the 1970s in America, with a much longer history elsewhere. This complaint might be countered by the idea that the book is about weddings, whereas the fight for gay marriage is more about, well, marriage. But that seems like a cop out; surely there's something interesting to be said about gay weddings and the way the Wedding Industrial Complex looks at them.
All in all, I appreciate having the ammunition so I have an easy answer if someone asks me why my fiance and I decided not to observe tradition x at our wedding. And from a historical perspective, a history of weddings is very much a history of women (since during much of history being a wife/mother was essentially a woman's career), so it was interesting to see how our forebears handled the situation, their expectations of it, etc. My main problem is that although the book goes all the way to the early 21st century, gay marriage isn't mentioned until about the last 50 pages, and then only once in passing, although the fight has been around since the 1970s in America, with a much longer history elsewhere. This complaint might be countered by the idea that the book is about weddings, whereas the fight for gay marriage is more about, well, marriage. But that seems like a cop out; surely there's something interesting to be said about gay weddings and the way the Wedding Industrial Complex looks at them.
bookmage's review
3.0
This was pretty cool just because it confirms the belief that weddings can be, and are most of the time expected to be, super ridiculous. Why do some brides wear tiaras? Because a magazine decided to compare brides to some royalty that was getting married that year. And now we wear tiaras. I personally only wear tiaras when I'm hanging out watching TV, but that's a whole different therapy session.
Why is the poofy white dress (of which I must confess I ultimately succumbed to despite believing I was "not that kind of girl") a thing that seems standard? Because we don't like change and we also love anything English royalty do. Also the patriarchy!!!!
How come [insert basically anything wedding-related here]? Because retail stores LITERALLY made it all up. Thanks, Obama.
I know I sound angry, but I'm actually just amazed. A lot of wedding "tradition" is almost entirely nonexistent and is less than 100 years of steadily evolving complications mostly having to do with consumerism. But am I going to cancel my videographer and live band and chocolate dessert fountain and wear something that doesn't make me look like a literal faerie queen? Hell to the no. (Also I think it's too late to cancel those things. So there's that.)
Why is the poofy white dress (of which I must confess I ultimately succumbed to despite believing I was "not that kind of girl") a thing that seems standard? Because we don't like change and we also love anything English royalty do. Also the patriarchy!!!!
How come [insert basically anything wedding-related here]? Because retail stores LITERALLY made it all up. Thanks, Obama.
I know I sound angry, but I'm actually just amazed. A lot of wedding "tradition" is almost entirely nonexistent and is less than 100 years of steadily evolving complications mostly having to do with consumerism. But am I going to cancel my videographer and live band and chocolate dessert fountain and wear something that doesn't make me look like a literal faerie queen? Hell to the no. (Also I think it's too late to cancel those things. So there's that.)
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