One of Little Spoon's guilty pleasures is the show Bridezillas, in which the misbehavior of a variety of women is chronicled and edited together with the sweetest and snarkiest of narrators describing the proceedings. Some of them have minor emotional meltdowns, but others become physically and emotionally abusive to those around them. There have even been a couple who seem to play up their "bitchiness" for the cameras - after all, they wouldn't want to be deprived of their $2500 and free wedding video for not making enough of a show!
After watching some episodes of this, it seems like these brides would all be high in a personality trait called stress reaction; namely, they are moody, react strongly to even minor stressors, and seem to be unable to put things in perspective. However, many times this stress reaction seems to stem from a belief that the wedding day is supposed to be all about the bride, that everyone else is supposed to be her slave, and that the perfect fulfillment of every one of her multitudinous wishes is only a reasonable expectation - not a recipe for insanity.
Keeping things in perspective - that your wedding is just a day in the grand scheme of things, your friends and family still deserve to be treated with respect as on any other day, and everyone still has their limits - can go a long way to reducing the Bridezilla mentality. If you can step back and remember that your wedding is a celebration not just of your relationship with your future spouse but of all the relationships with your friends and family that got you to this point, it might help take the aggressive edge off.
From personal experience and from this craaaazy show, I have no worries that I will end up a bridezilla. None whatsoever. Planning has been fun and I look forward to the rest of it. I even look forward to having the future in-laws with us the week before the wedding!
ReplyDelete