Bridal Blues
ONCE UPON A
TIME
WEDDING PARTIES
WERE HELD IN
THE SAME OLD PLACES.
NOW YOU'RE HAVING
THEM IN THE
WIDE OPEN SPACES.
That is if you're having your party at the
Embassy Suites Hotel in Southfield.
• Like our Magnificent Atrium Setting
• Three Deluxe Banquet Rooms
• A Grand Ballroom for larger parties
Receive a complimentary honeymoon suite for
the bride & groom when you book your party
with us (minimum 50 guests)
For further information and arrangements
Contact our Catering Director
350-2000
EMBASSY
SUITES
HOTEL
28100 Franklin Road
Southfield
I
Another florist whined that his
reputation would be ruined unless we
agreed to bring in $700 worth of ren-
tal trees for the occasion. Had the
wedding been set for anywhere but
the city's official greenhouse we
might have coughed up the paper
green.
Not even the much ballyhooed fairy
tale of finding the perfect wedding
dress escaped the PWS toll. The me-
mory of standing in a flourescent-lit
cubicle with what looked like a pink
mesh beekeeper's mask over my
head and listening to seed pearls pop
off a too-small floor sample as the
saleswoman soothed, "Every bride
loses weight," is indelibly etched in
my mind.
Then, when I told the bridal dress
consultant I wouldn't wear a veil or
a train, she was so crushed I wrote
her a conciliatory note.
Finally, I learned that the term
"wedding budget" is an oxymoron.
Even though our heartfelt desires
coincided with a bare bones event —
no open bar, no video camera crew,
no Rockettes — by the time we were
through we actually considered stag-
ing a fundraiser to underwrite the
festivities.
It is a law of Pre-Wedding Syndrome
that a wedding budget abhors a
vacuum. For nearly two months my
calculator remained embedded in my
right palm while I stared dolefully at
the bottom line estimates, willing
them to change. Sometimes they did.
But the victory of "saving" on dis-
count drugstore aspirin for the ladies'
room emergency basket was short-
lived. For instance, considering what
Tiffany's charges to engrave station-
ery, I figure they should have written
my thank you notes for me.
Then I started having preliminary
twinges of postpartum blues about
the wedding being over.
During the final 48-hour offensive
of PWS, one of my friends said that
planning a wedding was a lot like
childbirth: you remember the joy, not
the pain.
The morning after our wedding, my
husband and I agreed she was
right.
This article is reprinted with permission of
Inside magazine. Philadelphia, Pa.
56
Brides 1991