He Said, She Said

I was recently reading my brother-in-law Ed’s blog entry regarding his eighth wedding anniversary, and I couldn’t help but get to thinking, regarding the wedding photos he posted therewith. It got me to thinking about one of the most obvious differences between men and women.

The photo at right was gleaned from a random web site using Google Image Search. It’s certainly no one I know, which is exactly why I used it: I don’t want anyone to think I’m singling them out specifically. The question I’m getting at, though, is this: what do you see here? On the right, we have a bride, dressed in a beautiful white gown and veil. Her hair is perfect; her face, perfect; if we could zoom in on her nails, I expect they’d be perfect too. Add to this her long, blonde hair, and this bride is the epitome of worldly perfection in every conceivable way.

On the left, we have a guy in a suit.

Is it just me, or is this pretty typical? I know a lot of guys rent tuxes for their weddings, but even that seems almost laughable compared to what their brides go through for their weddings. I mean, come on… a rental? At least I bought the suit I wore to the temple. (Of course, granted, it’s also the suit I’ve worn to probably 75% of the Church meetings I’ve attended in the twelve years since, but at least it’s not the same tux that 83 other guys got married in.) ;-)

As an aside, here’s one of the very few extant photos of my bride and me, on our wedding day. You’ll note that she’s not even wearing her wedding dress. Our receptions were still a few days away, so she changed back into “street clothes” immediately following our sealing. (Our wedding brunch was an unplanned stop at Bennigan’s, so it’s not like we needed to impress anyone.)

Anyway, this photo is actually from the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center, where they were hosting a “Christmas Around the World” exhibit. Nice, huh?