If you’re anything like me, you take a curious interest in movies or TV wedding shows, delighting in being amazed, shocked and horrified while enjoying the spectacle. I know even ‘reality’ wedding shows are very much staged. So, here are my differences between real and screen weddings:
1. Ordinary people have to pay for real weddings. Most people work, save, get help from family and don’t do things like, fly the bridesmaids to another state for the Hens’ weekend (a gem from an American movie I saw recently). They just can’t afford it.
2. I have yet to meet a Bridezilla. The brides I’ve dealt with have been lovely people, all wanting to make their wedding day memorable without turning those around them into slaves. I’m sure there are stressful and frustrating moments for many of them but these don’t become triggers for major melt downs.
3. Real weddings involve lots of people even if they’re small – friends, family, colleagues. Screen weddings have a cast that is limited to the characters who can appear on screen in 60 or 90 minutes.
4. Real weddings are more honest. They are just that – real. Shows like ‘Married at First Sight’ are not. The couples do not actually marry, they have a sham wedding because legally it can’t be done without signing a Notice of Intended Marriage at least one month before.
5. OK, I have to concede that perhaps screen weddings are funnier, after all they are set up to entertain rather than be one of life’s great milestones between two people.
Am I going to stop watching wedding movies and TV shows? No way!
