This wedding takes the cake

Recently, a Houston couple asked guests to pay $450 to attend their wedding. Not surprisingly, most declined the invitation. Easy fix? Have a cheaper wedding. Not an option in a world of influencers who believe they have a personal brand which must be enhanced and protected. Marketing 101: Excessive discounting will destroy your brand. Faced with a tab of $200,000, $450 per person was their preferred solution. It failed.

Can this marriage be saved? Will people “pay to play?” Maybe, if you have the chutzpah to ask and are willing to approach it like another strangely similar event: the excitement and spectacle of a heavyweight title fight. You need a wedding promoter not a wedding planner.

Both are one-time events, marriage statistics notwithstanding, that are usually held at a special venue often in an exotic locale. At a boxing match gambling is expected and encouraged. At a wedding, the gamble is the marriage. The participants have been preparing for weeks, physically training to get in the best possible shape and will probably never look this good again. While each fighter commands an entourage of supporters and hangers-on, the wedding couple has bridesmaids and groomsmen. Admittedly, a boxing match and a wedding differ in some aspects. A wedding has no referee so it’s much easier for things to get out of hand; there is a lot more crying and no one is asking for a rematch.

Similar to a boxing crowd, wedding attendees are a conglomeration of the familiar and unfamiliar. People we see all the time, people we never see, and people we don’t want to see. Everyone is blinged-out and dressed to impress. There’s a lot of uncertainty leading up to the main event. Getting through the bachelor and bachelorette parties without physical and emotional injury can be difficult. The rehearsal dinner, the matrimonial equivalent to the weigh-in, can be tense and unpredictable. Sparks can fly when family, in-laws and alcohol get together in close quarters. The all-important wedding toast needs someone who brings everything to a fever pitch, someone like boxing announcer Michael Buffer:

“Ladies and Gentleman, Let’s Get Ready To C O U P L E !”

Like a knockout in the first round, sometimes it does not live up to the hype and is over quickly. You’re out a lot of money, but that’s the risk you take.

If paying to attend a wedding catches on I would suggest amending the vows: …“till death do us part or at least until the check clears.”

M.A. Duca is a resident of Twin Lakes, narrowly focused on everyday life.

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

All are welcome at The Mahaiwe

Paquito D’Rivera performs at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on April 5.

Geandy Pavon

Natalia Bernal is the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center’s education and community engagement manager and is, in her own words, “the one who makes sure that Mahaiwe events are accessible to all.”

The Mahaiwe’s community engagement program is rooted in the belief that the performing arts should be for everyone. “We are committed to establishing and growing partnerships with neighboring community and arts organizations to develop pathways for overcoming social and practical barriers,” Bernal explained. “Immigrants, people of color, communities with low income, those who have traditionally been underserved in the performing arts, should feel welcomed at the Mahaiwe.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Living with the things you love:
a conversation with Mary Randolph Carter
Mary Randolph Carter teaches us to surround ourselves with what matters to live happily ever after.
Carter Berg

There is magic in a home filled with the things we love, and Mary Randolph Carter, affectionately known as “Carter,” has spent a lifetime embracing that magic. Her latest book, “Live with the Things You Love … and You’ll Live Happily Ever After,” is about storytelling, joy, and honoring life’s poetry through the objects we keep.

“This is my tenth book,” Carter said. “At the root of each is my love of collecting, the thrill of the hunt, and living surrounded by things that conjure up family, friends, and memories.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Beloved classic film ‘The Red Shoes’ comes to the big screen for Triplex benefit
Provided

On Saturday, April 5, at 3 p.m., The Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington and Jacob’s Pillow, the dance festival in Becket, Massachusetts, are presenting a special benefit screening of the cinematic masterpiece, “The Red Shoes,” followed by a discussion and Q&A. Featuring guest speakers Norton Owen, director of preservation at Jacob’s Pillow, and dance historian Lynn Garafola, the event is a fundraiser for The Triplex.

“We’re pitching in, as it were, because we like to help our neighbors,” said Norton. “They (The Triplex) approached us with the idea, wanting some input if they were going to do a dance film. I thought of Lynn as the perfect person also to include in this because of her knowledge of The Ballets Russes and the book that she wrote about Diaghilev. There is so much in this film, even though it’s fictional, that derives from the Ballets Russes.” Garafola, the leading expert on the Ballets Russes under Serge Diaghilev, 1909–1929, the most influential company in twentieth-century theatrical dance, said, “We see glimpses of that Russian émigré tradition, performances we don’t see much of today. The film captures the artifice of ballet, from the behind-the-scenes world of dressers and conductors to the sheer passion of the audience.”

Keep ReadingShow less