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What's Geekier Than a Ferengi Bridesmaid?
gbulmash asks: "The newly updated "Star Trek: The Experience" at the Las Vegas Hilton not only offers thrills, chills, and a Borg invasion... It's offering Trek-themed Wedding Packages. You can be married on a replica of the Enterprise bridge by a costumed starfleet officer and have additional Trek characters as guests. I thought "how geeky", but then remembered the guy who paid $22,550 for Joaquin Phoenix's white armor from Gladiator , claiming he was going to wear it at his wedding. All this has inspired me to ask what's the geekiest or nerdiest thing you've ever encountered at a wedding? There was a thread on geeky party favors for a wedding last year, but this question goes beyond that... getting married by a Gandalf impersonator, a cake shaped like Cthulu, groom dressed as Darth Vader and his best man is a stormtrooper. I know tales like these are out there, so please share them."
First paragraph offtopic. I've seen every episode of Trek since The Cage and I eagerly await today's Enterprise new episode "Damage" with glee. But despite having seen close to a thousand episodes of Trek, I'm at a loss for words trying to come up with a good Ferengi joke! So I'll just be serious instead.
People hate tradition these days. The evidence is all around us. Religion becoming less popular, holidays and birthdays being chores and not celebrations, family reuinions being avoided, social events feared and loathed, etc, etc, etc.
So it's no surprise that the ceremony of marrying a man and a woman is being looked at the same way. People want to defy tradition. What better way to defy tradition than to get married in the most odd manner possible?
Of course many people are content to just get married without a ceremony, or with a tiny one. And some people are content to just follow tradition because they have nothing better to do.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
In the Ferengi culture, females are not allowed to wear clothing. If your bride to be has the balls (no pun intended) to go through with a traditional Ferengi wedding, then you truly are marrying a goddess.
In related news, please invite me to your wedding. Thanks.
Speaking as someone who's been through the protracted loss of a partner, I can vouch for the necessity of taking time away from them. The normalcy of going to do your job or the triviality of Slashdotting is a good way to recharge your emotional batteries, so that the time spent together remains worthwhile. I'm not going to armchair-quarterback the specific incident he mentioned, but in general, maintaining a life beyond just caring for your loved one is not only appropriate, it's essential.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
From the journal...
So cut the poor guy some slack. I hope he tells his wife slashdotters say, "get well soon" -- instead of thinking about how some coward tried to make him feel even worse than he felt before.
Friends whom I would have sworn were going to get married in full SCA attire or dressed like Imperial Stormtroopers have gone meekly to the altar in white dresses and tuxes because of pressure from family and the spouse-to-be. The wedding is traditionally the province of the bride, and paid for by the bride's family, and many a foot has been put down about wedding details. I imagine conversations something like this:
"Honey, I want to dress like Darth Vader for our wedding." "No, you don't, dear." "But I really--" "No. You. Don't. Dear." "...So, tuxedo with tails, then?"
"And then the minstrels are going to go down the aisle--" "Wouldn't you rather have a nice, traditional wedding?" "Well, SCA is really important to us--" "I'm not paying for my daughter to be married in some medieval Halloween costume."
I suspect many, uh, "creative" wedding plans have been scrapped in favor of domestic tranquility and financing. So when you do get a true geek wedding, it's because both partners are hardcore geeks (or one is very tolerant), and they are secure enough financially and in their relationships with their families to do things their way.
That said...if I ever do lose my mind and get married: Vegas. Elvis impersonator. Biker boots and a leather miniskirt. Then a wild night of drunkenness in which my groom and I frighten old ladies and wake up the next evening with no memory of what transpired. Ah, I have such a soft spot for fantasy weddings.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
If you have those sorts of opinions of star trek or of whatever (I don't like star trek), then obviously it shouldn't be part of your wedding. No one is saying that star trek should be involved in everyone's wedding. But there are people for whom these are important. They are large parts of their lives and their identities. So they would rather have them as parts of one of the most important days of their lives than just something that is foreign and meaningless to them, like a "promise to God". Just because people want to incorporate things they care about into their wedding doesn't mean that they care less about their vows than you or that marriage isn't important to them.
I'd rather be lucky than good.
I mean really, you're making a promise to spend your life with someone and they basically make a joke of it. Why would you do that? It's supposed to be a solem occasion.
Supposed to be solemn? Sez who? When you get married, you're welcome to have whatever wedding you want, of course. But I think it's more important that weddings be serious and meaningful to the participants. Serious doesn't have to mean traditional, boring, or solemn.
A friend of mine got married a few years back. He is a delightful, creative freak, as are many of his friends. A traditional, solemn wedding would have made him and his friends miserable. Why would they dedicate their lives to making interesting art and causing lively trouble, only to pretend otherwise on their wedding day?
Answer: they wouldn't. As with everything else they do, they took traditional answers and shook them up. They had a wedding that was serious, heartfelt, and quirky, filled with love and laughter. It might have been their wedding but it was also their wedding.