My favorite wedding of 2012 was a fake one.
It was Save the Date, a performance art piece at the Corcoran Museum. Kathryn Cornelius married and divorced seven different people on one day in August. It was the busiest I’ve ever seen the Corcoran, as tourists joined with members of the wedding party to celebrate one marriage after another.
And the spectacle made some great photos. Given the Corcoran’s financial problems, maybe they should allow couples to actually get married there.
What did it all mean? For suitor Eames Armstrong, the message of Save the Date was marriage equality.
But to me, it was about marriage absurdity – why are weddings so big, expensive and overproduced? Weddings these days seem less about love and more about impressing friends and family with your wealth and taste.
The Onion, of course, put it best – Horrible Couple Really Wants Wedding To Reflect Their Personalities.
If there ever was an American institution deserving of mockery, it’s the modern American wedding. Save the Date demonstrated how bloated and silly these matrimonial performances have become.
