Gouda's Cheesewheel

Call me obsessed...

...but I've had weddings on the brain lately. Between two of my friends preparing to get married--one in July and one in September next year--I'm knee-deep in dresses, colors, venues, decisions. Granted all that stuff is their problem when it comes down to it, but what kind of friend and/or bridesmaid would I be if I didn't at least offer a helpful opinion or two? Not to mention it's made me explore my own long-term intentions; I've been in a steady monogamous relationship longer than both of them combined, and they're already tying the knot? Am I missing something here? Are they being hasty and stupid or am I dragging my feet? Or is there something more at work here? In an attempt to find out, I've been checking out (and sometimes purchasing at an extreme discount) every analytical wedding book known to man and woman. Well, that is an exaggeration. I've read about 3 that were analytical, and the only reason it even occurred to me that such books existed was that I was looking at what you might call "practical" wedding books: etiquette, elopement ideas, weddings on a budget, etc. In my search I came across a book that was half memoir, half psycho-social retrospective analysis. Through references it made to other works, I acquired two others. One studied the American wedding industry from a marketplace/financial viewpoint (e.g. "Why do Americans spend so much g*dd*mned money to get married?"), while the one I'm reading now is very sociological/anthropological (it makes me feel smart!) and focuses on the reasons people--specifically women--want to get married so badly in the first place.

What this all boils down to is that I'm caught in a strange limbo between feeling good about considering marriage as a logical next step and feeling like the decision deserves extreme scrutiny. I'm drawn to the nice package deal that comes with an established institution, but I'm skeptical of something so many people walk into blindly. There's no reason to rush the decision, of course, but there comes a time when you have to shit or get off the pot, so to speak, and that time will come eventually. Not to mention the whole childbearing consideration, which still seems quite far off until you consider I've got maybe 10 years to make that decision for certain, before I start to worry about birth defect and all that. Ack.

In any case, you can't argue with the fact that weddings are pretty. Here's one I found particularly alluring, even if it hadn't specifically been a wedding.

posted by Greta @ 10:10 AM