30.4.11

Armchair Wedding Dress Commentator

My interest in English history has made Anglophiles of my children.  There are three shelves in our library with English histories from the Angevins to the Tudors.  No Stuart history for me.  As much as I'm a republican, I have no stomach when it comes to chopping off the king's head.

No surprise that Friday morning dawned with all the females in the family watching the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  If there's one thing that the Brits do well, it's pageantry.  Precise and punctual.  Every details exquisite.

And her dress!  Did you see her dress?  William was right to whisper "Beautiful" when Kate had processed to the altar.

Her dress proved that a woman can be sexy without being slutty, stately without being stuffy.  Please, American women, follow Kate's lead!

Not that Carolyn Bessett looked slutty when she married John-John but as with many other things that Americans take to extremes, there has been a steady decline in decorum in brides' choices of wedding dresses.  What started as a trend of mannequin-built brides showing off the dedication to diet, exercise, and healthy genes has devolved into backless dresses that show too much decoletee, either in front with breasts or in rear with buttocks.

Weddings used to be solemn occasions celebrated in churches.  Hotels, parks, judges chambers have been pressed into service when the happy couple considers themselves free from the restraints of the Church.  Yet they still invoke the same rites and, in some cases, words that are heard in a church. 

Who in her right mind would wear a sleeveless or backless or VPL-denying swatch of drapey or clingy material under God's roof?  Again, it goes back to Carolyn and John.  Where once women showed respect by at least wearing a lace bolero during the service and shedding it for the reception, now every woman wants to show off her sculpted body - front, side and back.

Hurray for Sarah Burton, she of the House of Skulls!  Kate's dress was reminiscent of Grace Kelly's, another commoner who married a prince. 
I'm hoping this heralds the beginning of a new age of restraint and respect in weddings across America.

7 comments:

  1. Classy is the perfect word for Kate. But Will? Where was his kilt?! He looked like a nutcracker.

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  2. I am in total agreement. A lovely bride was she.

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  3. You know, I have a problem with this..

    "Hotels, parks, judges chambers have been pressed into service when the happy couple considers themselves free from the restraints of the Church. Yet they still invoke the same rites and, in some cases, words that are heard in a church."

    My husband and I got married on our family's property with our family surrounding us.

    And isn't it said in Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

    I am glad I married my husband where I did, and we sure did not do it outside the constraints of our faith or our church. Our minister counseled and married us.

    What say you to this?

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  4. @Becca, I am sure you're not one of those people who considers herself, as I said, "free from the restraints of the Church." Those are, at best, the C&E Christians (Christmas and Easter are the only services they attend all year). I know too many people who claim to be agnostics or atheists or don't care for church so, when they got married, they didn't have the ceremony in a church but they used the same wording as the rites of the Church.

    That's why Church was capitalized in that sentence in my blog rather than lower-case. "The Church" is entirely different from "the church". The church is a building. The Church is the communion of believers with God. The difference in capitalization gives the word a different meaning. Just like god and God.

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  5. @dbs, I didn't think of that! He looked like a nutcracker or a toy soldier.

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  6. @gail, She stole the show! Notice how William was cropped in the photo I found online.

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  7. I am glad you enjoyed the wedding Wifie, i blogged it as I was on my own watching, and it was me having a conversation. I do entirely agree that in Britain pageantry is done perfectly, with no room for error, also agree on the decline in some of to-day's standards of dress, and not only in the bridal scene, but then i'm probably too much of the old school.
    I can't understand dbs's remark that William looked like a 'nutcracker' or is it an American joke? also why should he be wearing a kilt, as far as I'm aware he's not Scottish nor does he belong to any clan by association or birthright. hmm.

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