The Real Cost Of Theme Weddings

By Tom Miller posted Jun 12th 2009 11:00AM

20 years from now a Dark Knight-themed wedding may not have seemed like a good idea.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, being yourself is what's really cool (provided that the real you isn't wickedly uncool). The need to be cool (or classy or couth or cultured or cognizant) really leads to a lot of staid weddings. And that, as my almost 4-year old niece would say, is boring boring boring.

But what's cool now won't always be that cool later. While you plan the BIGGEST DAY OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE, you should take into account things like: "what will I think of these photos in 10, 20 or 50 years?", "will the many, many hours required to learn the final dance in Dirty Dancing be worth the sort-of amusement my friends will briefly feel?", "is it really worth bagging the honeymoon just to get James Earl Jones to record the invocation?" and "when we're living in an apartment instead of a sweet ranch-style house in two years are we really going to appreciate the 1/64th scale Fortress Of Solitude ice sculpture?"

All important questions, and if the answer to any of these questions is an unqualified oui, then get nuts. Also, feel free to spend like a crazy if the bride's family is mad rich or you both only have six months to live. Other than that, you'll just have to make appropriate, adult decisions.

For instance, BoingBoing has a sweet photo collection of weddings sweets. The piece de resistance (French for resistance piece, I think) is the Back To The Future wedding cake. This red velvet masterpiece has to cost some multiple of the average cakes cost. (Note: the average wedding cake runs between $500 and $600.) If you're not named Christopher Lloyd (or Crispin Glover), can you really have that much of a love jones for Back To The Future? If you bought that cake (or had Professor X officiate the ceremony), I hope to Yoda that the movie has some serious significance to your relationship; otherwise your BIG DAY might as well be a Björk fashion shoot as far as your older self is concerned. Read: Is Wedding Pie The New Wedding Cake?

Anyone attend a wedding in which they left feeling slightly-to-quite embarrassed for the couple vis-à-vis the theme, décor or words spoken (speeches, vows, invocation, et cetera)?