AIBU to think that this might be the end of Bridezilla-style weddings? [Contains spoiler for the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special - added by MNHQ]

[BarkLife]

In 1965 (bear with me!) A Charlie Brown Christmas was broadcast on US TV. It featured a rather anaemic-looking real Christmas tree. Sales of 'fake' trees plummeted in the USA.

Watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas episode, alongside over 12 million others, I wondered if perhaps a similar fate might befall extremely 'showy' Instaweddings. Given that Smithy's jilted bride is now the most reviled person in the UK, might people now opt for karaoke and close friends/family Smithy-and-Nessa style, instead of a Bridezilla-ish 'big do'?

I didn't think the Sonia wedding was particularly big, just meant to seem a bit generic, but with her only obsessing over the look of it all. Bunch of people going to a country house/ hotel/ Hall and sitting on those chairs in a nicely decorated room is pretty much the norm round here. The price differences come in the place or details.
Occasionally you get a church service first.

Probably a good and generally popular thing if the very expensive hen ‘night’ holidays died a death, too. And the stags ditto.

You do realise people have different weddings now and in the past and will in the future

No every couple has the same wedding as the next, but i do wonder if you are bored?

@MolkosTeenageAngst

If you haven't watched it yet then (a) you're not arsed about seeing it and (b) the spoilers are fairly abundant; I don't think this thread merits a content warning ⚠️

Having a nice time and being 'wowed' are not the same thing. Matching shoes, for example, have nothing to do with the guests enjoyment.

It seems MN is fairly split on this!

I think a PP has a good point about the writers capturing a zeitgeist, but also thinking about the kind of wedding that would suit each couple.

Some family members attended a wedding where a disabled elderly relative was asked not to take a walking aid to the ceremony 'as it will spoil the photos', so I have been reflecting on this phenomenon a lot recently.

Pick me 🤮

I love Gavin and Stacey but a lot of the attitudes I’ve seen to Sonia on here since smacks of internalised misogynistic to me. She might reasonably have thought their commitment to each other was a given following a six year long relationship and that focusing on the wedding didn’t detract from that, to have expected her fiance not to have cheated on her in a relatively new relationship, and to at least listen to her/do what he had said he would do re the details of an expensive and (on her part) labour-intensive party ostensibly hosted by both of them. And Stacey and Nessa’s behaviour over her hen party was shocking. Let’s also not forget that Nessa and Smithy referred to each other in terms such as ‘that’/‘it’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘vile’ for the first several years of knowing each other while sleeping together. Sonia’s behaviour to Smithy was pretty tame in comparison.

I expected him to walk out then! How many grooms go along with all the hysteria about weddings I wonder? It seems to be the start of a hen-pecked life.

@MiddleParking

Agree to an extent about internalised misogyny, with one caveat: Smithy paid for it all, because Sonia emotionally blackmailed him (she heavily implied that she'd dump him if he didn't cough up).

It was literally on 2 days ago, at 9pm on Christmas Night! It’s a busy time, not unreasonable if there are some of us who haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. It’s not hard to just put a spoiler tag in the title; I genuinely had avoided any spoilers until this thread.

That’s why the stats of women murdering their husbands are so high, because women have too much power in their individual relationships and society overall.

Agree. I didn’t watch it and don’t know anybody who did.

I haven’t watched it yet because I’ve been busy (it’s Christmas!) and staying with family who aren’t interested. I hadn’t seen any spoilers before this thread, I’ve just avoided anything which mentions the show which hasn’t been hard to do, especially as it’s Christmas so I haven’t been going to work or places it might come up in conversation. It’s always good practice to put a spoiler alert in the title if discussing TV, especially something that only came out 2 days ago. It’s not like it’s been out for weeks!

Gavin & Stacey topped the ratings for Christmas, yes, but 54,000,000 people in the UK alone did not watch it and don't give a shit about it, so, no I don't think it's going to change the face of weddings forever.

To be fair I commented how beautiful they had dressed the venue for Smithy and Sonia's but frankly as the wedding is more about the people and the fun surely you can have just as fun time in a pretty room as a plain one?

I agree that it was Charles and Diana's wedding which sparked the fashion for big weddings. So cultural events do have an impact, I'm not sure Gavin and Stacey will have quite the same impact, though.

So few people seem to get married these days, and the cost of a house deposit means there are more important things for most people than a lavish wedding. My teen DD has told me she wants a whole orchestra at her wedding, so I sincerely hope the fashion is for low key weddings in 10-15 years.

I'm not talking about wanting them to have a nice time, I'm talking about your need for them to be "wowed". Being wowed and having a good time are not the same thing. But I don't think Sonia would have seen that either.

Granddaughter in Australia watched it live via a nifty bit of laptop and phone set up! I have almost identical photos of her 2019 reaction at the end and her 2024 reaction at seeing Sonia.

I get what you are saying, and the programme highlighted the 'insta' culture that people are caught up with, an 'influencer' being a genuine career now for some.

However, as people have mentioned, the Smithy /Sonia thing was six of one and half a dozen of the other, which is why it was portrayed as them being 'different ' rather than a good guy/bad guy thing.

There's plenty of flaws with the main characters to be honest, as many as Sonia has.

I agree that it was Charles and Diana's wedding which sparked the fashion for big weddings. So cultural events do have an impact, I'm not sure Gavin and Stacey will have quite the same impact, though.

I quite agree 😄

Charles and Diana's wedding - watched by 750 million
Gavin and Stacy - watched by 12 million

I never said I needed them to be wowed though? It was nice that some of them were wowed since my family had went to a lot of expense.

This sort of response is exactly why I made my comment on the first place.

If you don't want to have a big wedding then don't you have one but don't piss over someone else's enjoyment and preferences and make assumptions on their personality and values.

It's only on MN that small, cheap weddings are somehow more worthy than big, expensive ones.

Big weddings are culturally the norm all over the world, they're going nowhere.

To be fair 12 million people watched it when it aired but there are several million more moaning fuckers who want any mention of it embargoed on the internet til it suits their personal plans.

Why click on it then! A friend years ago when we lived in Germany and there was no internet etc managed to get to Monday evening without knowing the score in the FA cup final, however the opening titles included the winning captain holding up the trophy!