Quirky Theme Weddings: State of the Union
“My Star Trek wedding in Vegas…Too bad
it wasn’t that easy to get divorced.”
—an unfortunate Ship’s Ensign spied
on a popular Internet video site
(Other quirky-wedding links to be
found at the end of this article)
Weddings have become amazingly creative and unique in modern times. More and more ceremonies are bearing the very personal touch of the bride and groom involved, and the individual and cultural markers that have meaning in their lives.
Now, where this may indeed have the potential to enhance the bond between the two people in question, it’s somewhat difficult to imagine that being the case across the board.
While researching this piece along the highways and by-ways of Net-space, one thing I found quite unsettling was the level of impulsiveness that seemed to underpin many of the nuptial plans I came across. In several cases, couples seemed to be placing the bulk of their focus on stage direction and faithfulness to pop-cultural detail than perhaps they had on selecting an appropriate companion for the occasion.
I was mildly horrified to discover, after reviewing a charming little science-fiction-inspired wedding, a comment written by one of the very young partners featured in the story:
“My Star Trek wedding in Vegas…Too bad it wasn’t that easy to get divorced.”
Well, it looks as if somebody had gone perhaps a little too boldly where no one had gone before on that one.
So, while the links I have compiled here are intended to inform and amuse, I present them with a clear acknowledgment that we are living in increasingly self-serving, sensation-hungry times, and that the real gauge of whether a marriage has a shot at survival hasn’t anything to do with whether the wedding made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, or whether the majority of guests termed it “the most fun wedding I’ve ever attended”, as was the case with a number of ceremonies I perused.
By way of encouraging example, there’s a rather nice story of two people who—notwithstanding the cyber-happy, Trek-themed, and heart-stoppingly geeky nature of their courtship and wedding—seem to have invested a great deal in coming to know each other before setting out together for the final frontier.
A closing thought on the subject: If you yourself, dear reader, should ever be compelled to leap from an aircraft in mid-flight with the objective of landing, newly married, in some designated dropzone for a champagne wedding toast to remember…consider taking that plunge only with someone whose imperfections you have seen and can live with, as well as his or her particular strengths.
After all, it’s worth remembering that, even hurtling giddily through the atmosphere at a distance-eating 120 m.p.h.—it’s still a very, very, long way down.
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Here now, a glimpse at unusual slices of the contemporary wedding scene:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20020303/ai_n12836463
Long-ish article; a British reporter’s take on the zaniness of Las Vegas wedding options
http://www.peopleweddings.org/wacky_weddings/index.html
People magazine’s “Amazing Real-Life Weddings”
http://www.kelthaven.org/wedding/index.html
Wedding of a couple in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)–you know, the group that enjoys staging medieval and renaissance festivals throughout the country
http://gregkahn.blogspot.com/2007/05/nascar-wedding.html
Snapshots from a NASCAR-inspired wedding. Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines…
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/en_US/weddings/index?name=CeremonyLocationsDetailWeddingsPage
Scroll down and click onto the “Disneyland Hotel” wedding slide show, for example. At Disney, they go in for a more traditional affair; though the wedding couple can arrange for a Magic Kingdom carriage ride—and one package allows use of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle for the ceremony—there is a policy barring The Mouse and Co. from being on hand for any real-life wedding going on there.
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