Happy 15th Anniversary to Me!

I find it somewhat ironic that we are going through Shawna-Marie's wedding disaster, when today I am celebrating my 15th anniversary of wedded bliss (ruby is the anniversary stone, in case you are interested). I had what would be called in the Dallas area, a wedding that was moderately expensive, and which was quite expensive for me. It took a long time to pay all those bills down. My wife and I got some contributions from my parents and her parents, but their beliefs on the subject were very similar to the ones which Lynn Johnston is espousing, i.e. you only spend so much on a wedding ceremony and anything above that comes out of your own pocket.

My wife and I put our creative energies into it for more than a year, mainly because I insisted on being married in June and most of the decent places are booked about a year in advance or more if you want to get married in that month. Afterwards, my wife complained about it being too much time in preparation, but I have no regrets. We had an early Renaissance musical group with whom I used to perform play as guests were seated; we had a slide show depicting us through baby pictures growing up which we narrated and carefully selected both the pictures and the music accompanying the slide show; we had a small chorus with whom my wife and I used to perform, sing songs, one of which we had written especially for the ceremony; and we had my wife's stepfather's country-western band "The Amazing Cattletones" perform at the reception. It was one of the highlights of my life.

And of course we had our little series of disasters with respect to our relatives who attended the service. These things touch on so many people in our society, it would be child's play to create a situation for poor Shawna-Marie where Lynn Johnston could make her point about a wedding going out of a bride's control and still be funny or poignant. That's what makes today's strip such a complete and utter failure. There are very few people in our society who have not been in or attended a wedding. It is a common bond around which a "slice of life" strip could really do up and make people say, "That's funny because it's true." Lynn Johnston apparently knows so little about weddings, and is so uninterested in researching them (which would be so easy considering many of her staff are married); she doesn't seem to realize you can't make a point criticizing something that you fail to understand in the first place. Her wedding to Rod Johnston as a single mother must have been such a small, crude, unpleasant affair. Lynn Johnston does not realize how much fun a wedding can be, and it makes her strips criticizing them distinctly unfunny.