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Give the bridezillas a break, if only for one perfect day

If Kate's tossing tiaras in right royal tantrums, it's all for a noble goal.

Anyone who has ever been involved in preparations for a wedding is probably wondering the same thing: has Kate Middleton been fighting with Prince William over the wedding plans?

Is she throwing right royal tantrums because the theme of her wedding is Ye Olde England Royalty and she wanted a Bollywood style extravaganza? Have tiaras been flung and tears shed over floral arrangements or kilts for the corgis? Has she, in short, turned into a bridezilla?

The word ''bridezilla'' was coined about 15 years ago to denote an unpleasant change in personality wrought by the pressures of planning a wedding. Like many other pejorative terms, there is no male equivalent, although this undoubtedly has more to do with the fact that wedding planning is still dominated by brides-to-be than it does with men being immune to stress-related personality disorders.

While it's very easy to treat wannabe princesses-for-a-day with scorn for their immersion in Wedding World, I've spent a lot of time thinking about weddings and have come to the conclusion that it's time we gave all the bridezillas out there a break. Because maybe turning into a bridezilla doesn't automatically mean you have lost all perspective on what is truly important.

So, how do you find the meaning of life while poring over bridal magazines or agonising over seemingly trivial details such as butter dishes and sashes for chairs? (By the way, is it just me or is anyone else perplexed by the fact that only beauty pageant winners, fascist dictators and wedding chairs wear sashes?)

How is it possible to retain a balanced outlook on life while drilling down to a level of organisational detail that is really only necessary when planning a nuclear evacuation procedure? The answer lies in the undeniable fact that all of these actions are the reflection of a truly noble goal: the attempt to create One Perfect Day.

Perfection isn't something most of us strive for on a daily basis. Most days we're happy to scramble and scrape through, going to bed content if we've managed not to pay attention to Charlie Sheen or inadvertently wear a sash.

But when it comes to our wedding days, we demand perfection. Nothing less will do for one of the few times in our lives that we will stand up and publicly celebrate love, trust and commitment.

A wedding day is dedicated to celebrating abstract ideals that we all honour, made tangible through the form of people we love. Striving for these noble ideals, a bridezilla becomes a warrior queen, letting nothing and no one get between her and the only Welsh harp player in a 700-kilometre radius.

Bridezillas don't need anyone to remind them that marriage is more important than the wedding. But perhaps those who ridicule them need a reminder that the whole point of having a wedding in the first place is that you care deeply about this event. It matters in a way that few other occasions in your life will.

So, I say go ahead, Kate, and all you other brides-to-be and have a few guilt-free shouting matches with your fiance over calligraphy fonts and buttonholes and the sorts of thing that you're never going to think about again for as long as you live. It might even be a good way to relieve some stress.

However, my defence of bridezillas does come with one caveat. Once the wedding is over, you need to move on. If you're happily married and still trying to match your shoes to your stationery, then it's time to seek professional help. Unless, of course, you're Princess Kate of England. Because, most unfairly, real princesses, unlike us princesses for a day, generally have a free pass to behave like a bridezilla for life.

But who'd want to strive for perfection every single day, anyway? Not me. I'm off to wear a sash and get me some tiger blood.

Melanie La'Brooy's latest novel is Bittersweet.

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If the blokes could be persuaded to organise weddings it would be called "assertiveness" or "avoidance of wedding rip offs" or "navigating the treacherous waters of catering for 80 rellos who didn't really want to see each other anyway". As it's us girls I guess we're stuck with bridezilla. Having organised a wedding recently whilst maintaining a full-time job and busy family I completely sympathise with all bridezillas. I realise the honeymoon is for the bride to recover from organising the whole shebang. Having said all that, walking into Harrys and seeing all of my family and friends, and my beautiful husband-to-be standing there, was the best moment of my life. Go figure!
Posted by bellsy, 14/03/2011 2:05:15 PM
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