It’s almost the end of wedding season which is traditionally considered to be between May and October. 2023 saw many illustrious weddings, some of which included Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge, Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin, Tish Cyrus and Dominic Purcell, Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff, Taylor Hill and Daniel Fryer, and most recently, Joey King and Steven Piet. Each of these weddings had its feature in Vogue, along with a variety of social media posts discussing the dress, venue, attendees, and many other details. With all this discourse and media coverage of these famous weddings, it begs the question, “Why do we care so much?”. I mean, we care SO much. The wedding industry is constantly being revolutionized and reimagined, with burgeoning trends and designers. Most people expect to have only one wedding in their life (of course this isn’t always the case, as 2023 also saw many celebrity divorces, but that’s a whole other topic). Anyway, your wedding is supposed to be a celebration of the love between you and your partner. It’s supposed to be all about the couple. If weddings were solely a display of both lovers’ commitments to one another, wedding trends would cease to exist.
The reason is envy, a trait that’s just in human nature. Our ancestors were envious and our descendants will be too. We have figured out how to turn this harrowing feeling into an ironic way to make a profit, and Vogue Weddings has mastered it. Pinterest is a contemporary way of funneling these envies into cute little boards to “manifest” this certain life. If envy is a sin, all of us Pinterest girlies are going straight to hell (but so is literally everyone else so it’s okay!!!).
A large portion of “wedding envy” is focused on the wedding dress, but when you zoom out the timeline of wedding history, the importance of the dress developed fairly late. A couple hundred years ago, it was normal for brides to wear the nicest gown they had to their wedding because the idea of purchasing an expensive dress for one evening was absolutely absurd. A white dress is also a relatively newer fascination in Western culture. In many ancient cultures, brides would wear yellow, violet, and red. Western brides didn’t start wearing white wedding dresses until 1840, when Queen Victoria wore a white gown to her wedding. A common misconception is that the white dress symbolizes virginity and purity when in reality, white fabric was simply more expensive and harder to keep clean, so it became a symbol of wealth and status. Now you can just buy a white wedding dress on Shein.
The most envy-inducing wedding this year was that of Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge. Dubbed the “Royal Wedding of 2023”, this nuptial made waves across several social media platforms when Sofia posted countless videos of her getting ready for the wedding week celebrations. This birthed yet another fad from TikTok that’s basically just a mix of the “clean girl aesthetic” and “quiet luxury” and is literally called “the Sofia Richie style”. I’m not at all trying to come after Sofia Richie-Grainge. I think she’s lovely, her wedding was absolutely beautiful and I watched every one of her TikTok videos. However, I think this widespread infatuation with her wedding was a droll that catapulted us into a whirlwind of many more celebrity wedding obsessions and discussions.
Speaking of Royal Weddings, Westminster Abbey has seen quite a few extravagant ceremonies that have captivated audiences all over the world since television could show them. Society has been infatuated with the royal family, and this infatuation only grew when Princess Diana was introduced to the public. She was cool, she was stylish, and everyone was excited to see what she would wear to her wedding. On her “special” day in 1981, she wore a lovely gown designed by Elizabeth and David Emmanuel that was made from silk, antique lace, over 10,000 pearls, and a 25-foot veil. This was a dream of a dress in the 80s. It set a precedent for royal wedding gowns in the future. In 2011, Kate Middleton wore a stunning lace and satin gown designed by Sarah Burton. Then, in 2017 Meghan Markle got married in a simpler gown designed by Clare Waight Keller. Each of these gowns, while differing greatly, was incredibly gorgeous and showcased the personality of each bride, as well as set a standard for weddings happening all around the world. I’m not sure if people are obsessed with royal weddings because they’re wedding fanatics or if it’s because the royal family is so incredibly powerful that it’s refreshing to see them do something as human as getting married.
A common theme here is that the more a wedding detail is lusted after, the more it costs. This brings us to the root of all evil — money! Money is the leading cause of envy. If you can’t afford a Lake Como wedding, odds are you will obsess over celebrity Lake Como weddings (and there are a lot to pick from). Maybe you’ll make a bunch of Pinterest boards for your lovely fictional Italian wedding. It’s understandable because it’s an escape, a distraction from the stresses of life, so of course everyone is envious of the rich and famous celebrities. Disguising that jealousy as simply an obsession over celebrity weddings seems like the easiest way to handle it, so keep reading Vogue Weddings, keep making your Pinterest boards, and keep watching celebrity TikTok, because lavish weddings will always be entertaining, and a little bit of envy never hurt anyone.
Words by Alix Russell-Mann.
Graphic by Emily Strycharz.