It’s the Best Day of Your Life: Dominant Discourses in Brides’ Wedding Planning

Counter-Hegemonic Narratives of White Weddings: Brides Responses to Wedding Disruptions During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…In the initial data collection, although both partners had the opportunity to complete the survey, relatively few men did so. This lack of participation among men reinforces the findings of previous studies that weddings are the “bride’s day” ( Stafford et al, 2020 ).…”

“…This division between private sphere and the public sphere exemplifies how dominant culture has separated the white wedding from the marriage. For instance, Stafford et al (2020) found that “the planning of a perfect wedding contrasts with a focus on the marital relationship, and the meaning of the wedding day as the bride’s perfect day contrasts with the meaning of the day as a union” (p. 240). In other words, the wedding ritual appears to be more about performance than the relationship of the couple.…”

“…We focused on heterosexual brides, because historically, the white wedding has been reserved for heterosexuals ( Bair & Kaufman, 2020 ). We focused on brides, because as Stafford et al (2020) observe, “when it comes to weddings and wedding planning, the bride is unequivocally the centerpiece and the primary planner” (p. 228). In this report, we begin by reviewing hegemonic and counterhegemonic wedding discourses before turning to a description of the methods used in the current project.…”

“…These wedding rituals are multilayered events symbolic of both separation from families of origin and the union of not only the couple, but of two families and the recognition of the couple in an extended network of family ties (Baxter & Braithwaite, 2006). From a young age, individuals are exposed to dominant discourses that conceptualize weddings as the perfect day and the best day of a woman’s life (Otnes & Peck, 2003; Stafford & Scott, 2015; Stafford et al, 2020) Dominant culture treats wedding planning as a meticulous process necessary to create the perfect day (Arend, 2016; Engstrom, 2008; Stafford et al, 2020). This process, predominantly undertaken by brides, can take weeks, months, or years (Carter & Duncan, 2017).…”

Relational Dialectics Theory

“…Meanings associated with the institution of marriage have been investigated in several studies. For example, Thomas and Scharp (2015) illuminated meanings of cohabitation, Stafford et al (2020) examined rituals and roles in brides' talk about their heteronormative wedding planning, and Moore et al (2015) studied the ideology of (non)tradition in marriages post cohabitation.…”