Grab your confetti and shine your shoes, weddings are all the rage at the minute with programmes like Channel 4’s The Wedding House and the BBC3’s Don’t Tell the Bride on TV, following on from the eye-popping extravagance of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (which needs to be seen, trust me)Let's be honest, a wedding day is supposed to be one of the biggest moments of anyone's life, but for the bride it has depths beyond the icing on a five tier cake. It’s the one day that all eyes are on her as she is made to feel like a princess for the day - or so she hopes. Because it's also the day where things can go horribly wrong - and frequently do.
With this in mind, would you invite a TV crew to your wedding? Even with a generous offer of £12,000 and a stately country mansion throw in, would YOU give up control of your big day? God, I wouldn't but luckily for us, there are enough masochists out there to fully stock both The Wedding House and Don't Tell the Bride with willing participants in the latest car-crash TV.
Both series share two key attributes…
1. The producers lure couples in with the promise of financial help, automatically putting them at their mercy.
2. They use the element of surprise to keep things interesting and to to rack up the drama.
For example, in Don’t Tell the Bride all decision-making is left to the usually clueless groom. This even includes the bride's dress – shock, horror! In an extra twist, the producers even make the bride try on her ideal wedding dress, one she’ll never wear, just for good measure. Ouch! If the dress chosen by her Prince Charming is an atrocity, she still has to march up the aisle to marry the plonker who selected it. It's evil, and it's genius!
Over in The Wedding House the experts give each couple enough rope to hang themselves by allowing them to decide the theme of the wedding, before running off with their own interpretations. The couple have no final say and will not see the results until it’s too late - double ouch!
Most importantly, it's the combination of Bridezillas, inappropriate themes, the arguments, tears, tantrums and happy endings which make both programmes hysterical to watch.
If you some proof, check out The Wedding House on the site right now to see some amazingly themed connubials - Moulin Rouge, bondage or Burlesque anybody? Or even better, witness a gay couple getting ready for their Victorian style civil ceremony, having been together for just three months. Even the registrar thinks it'll be curtains for them – hilarious!