Source: Tango Any bride will tell you—at great length—how stressful it is to plan a wedding. But what about the guests? Rarely does anyone acknowledge their pain. As this summer’s wedding season heats up, my stateside pals tell me they’re counting on cinematic comic relief: They have high hopes for the July movie
Wedding Crashers , featuring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as randy rogues who prey on starry-eyed bridesmaids at their most susceptible. I can sympathize. Even here in Britain, the country that produced
Four Weddings and a Funeral , that wry, candid classic of champagne-fueled hookups and heartbreak, we haven’t mastered the art of attending O.P.N.’s (Other People’s Nuptials). Every year there are around 2.2 million weddings in the United States, and roughly 300,000 weddings here in the U.K. Multiply that by the length of the average guest list—about 200, in both countries—to get a sense of just how many of us go through the familiar routine: pick main course, pick present, pick outfit, pick date. If you’re in a serious relationship, the last choice is already made for you, but you can still ?nd yourself picking—at each other.
The truth is that these lovely, sacred events—opportunities for voyeuristic romance and, hopefully, some amour of your own—often wreak havoc on relationships that are, shall we say, at the tipping point. Is it the sight of another couple making the ultimate commitment? The “are you two next?” factor? The sense that your friends are moving forward with their lives, and you’re in a holding pattern?