This is what my living room table looks like right now:
NOW SHOWING: "Attack of the Bridal Industry Publications"
These are mostly issues that were on shelves when I first got engaged in December. I really haven’t bought too many since. In fact, Mama Dish bought me most of these.
Let me tell you a story: Once upon a time, there was a girl who desperately wanted to get engaged, and who desperately wanted to plan a wedding. Nevermind that she hadn’t found the right guy yet. She would walk past a magazine aisle and drool over the beautiful, glossy, bridal covers. Now she knew that there’s no rule against buying bridal magazines without being engaged. I (I mean, this girl… who the story is about) had been in plenty of weddings, surely there are plenty tips in there for bridesmaids and such. But it just felt dirty.
One lovely summer day, I was going to the beach, and stopped at a drug store to get sunscreen. In a moment of weakness, I picked up a bridal magazine…. and sandwiched it between an Allure and a Glamour, of course, trying to be discreet. I laid in the sand, soaking up the sun, flipping through the pages, trying to be proud of myself that I had overcome my fear and had finally purchased one. But instead of feeling excitement, I just felt sad. The whole thing felt wrong.
And so I… I mean the girl… went back to reading about the summer’s hottest beach accessories and vowed never to buy a magazine about brides until she was really about to be one. The End.
Don’t worry! There is a happy epilogue to this modern, dysfunctional fairy tale. On December 10, 2011, when I came flying through the door, weeping, with a diamond on my finger… Mama Dish had a whole stack of wedding reading material ready for me. (She obviously knew I was getting engaged because Mr. Dish had asked for my parents’ blessing a few days before. *SWOON!*) I read them cover to cover.
I still get overwhelmed sometimes. I look at these gorgeous, extravagant weddings and think, “My wedding will never top that! My wedding will never be in a magazine!” Then I turn the page, calm down, and a new idea jumps out at me. My wedding probably won’t end up in a magazine, and that’s OK. So far, everything is going according to plan, and I still have more than a year to make sure things are unique, special, and fun… with the help of an article or two!
