Weirdest weddings of 2009!

                         Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Green!
                        (No really--that's their name.....really.)

Marriage is rapidly changing in our society, and so are weddings.  We have become fascinated with new iterations of the wedding ritual and all kinds of creatives have stepped up to wow us with their weird and wonderful weddings.  Our curiosity about such weddings has become so insatiable that these days it's not unusual for an offbeat wedding to make national (or international) news.  Sometimes we marvel and sometimes we flinch, but America undeniably loves wacky wedding stories.

Over the past few years, weddings featuring zombies, vampires, pirates, fairies, Hello Kitty, animated/game/Star Wars/Star Trek characters, Disney princesses, steampunks, and other cultural icons have become commonplace, but 2009 brought new twists in the wedding ritual.  Many were notable not because they were outrageous, but because they signal significant changes in our thinking about weddings.  And some were just delightfully silly.  

Here are a few of my favorites from 2009.  Not a comprehensive list, but I hope a chewy one:

"GREAT RECESSION" WEDDINGS
As the economy went into freefall in late 2008, the wedding industry took a giant hit as couples scrambled to reduce costs.  2009 saw the rise of the "recessionista bride" and the "budget wedding" (or "frugal wedding" when marketing outlets flinched at the downmarket connotation of the word "budget.")  The ultimate budget wedding may have taken place at a Walmart Supercenter this year, but nine couples took advantage of the bulk discount when they wed at the 99-Cent Store on 9/09/09.  The cost?  99 cents each, of course.

However, the honors for 2009's most original implemetation of the theme "rapid decline" goes to Erin Finnegan and Noah Fulmor's Zero-Gravity wedding on June 20th.  Wheee!  

Speaking of money, 2009 also saw a shift around the taboo of asking for cash wedding gifts, as I noted in my article on the entrepreneur couple who not only solicited cash donations from their guests, but had all the wedding services--liquor, candy buffet, photography, and the like--sponsored by local vendors who received ad space at the reception.  Tacky? Or pragmatic?  Cash gifts became one of the controversial topics around wedding blogs this year as foreclosures and job losses forced couples to economize.

TECHNOLOGICALLY ENHANCED WEDDINGS
Another controversial wedding move was made by Dana Hanna, the groom who updated his Facebook relationship status at the altar and caused a national furor. The public was confused; was this a wed-cute, a computer geek addicted to his device, or complete wedding blasphemy and an insult to the bride?  I vote for A and B; if you watch the video, you'll see the newly-minted Mrs. Hanna also updating her status at the same time and hear the gathered guests heartily laughing.  It was a fun finish to a modern wedding, but a warning to those who are tempted to imitate: this joke was funny ONCE, and it's already been blogged and YouTubed to its comedy death.  Refrain, or reinvent the gag anew. That goes for emulators of the JK Wedding Entrance Dance too, 2009's most famous weird-wedding-gone-viral.

Of course I must make the comparison to this wedding where the groom, Mr. Jordan Iddings, also sported an electronic device (though unwillingly) after getting into some trouble at his bachelor party. 

Hanna, the JKs, and Iddings were merely end-users; I'm sure this LinuxFest wedding was full of obleek geek humor of the programming kind, and would require a libretto for us mundanes.

And just for larks: I was unable to find the source, but this definitely the winner of the WhatThe? Wedding Photo category.

THEME WEDDINGS
Offbeat theme weddings abounded too, and my favorite was probably this DIY wedding of two librarians who issued their invites on rubber-stamped book slips. Subtle, but fun--a literary sort of wedding.

A not-so-subtle but fun (and not-literary) Shrek Movie wedding made the 2009 list due to a lovely quirk: the groom's name is Keith Green.

And here's a full-on superhero wedding; I officiated a different sort of superhero-themed wedding earlier this year, no dress up (thankfully, since Spandex isn't always kind to us girls of a certain age.)   It was more of a comic book thing; I'll be writing a column with the details of this wedding after the New Year, so stay tuned.

And now, drumroll please!  The two Weirdest Weddings of 2009: 

1.  The gamer who married his virtual girlfriend from a Nintendo DS video game, and 

2.  The French woman who legally married her dead fiance. 

The original news story notes that legally marrying a dead groom in France is not uncommon, but it's hard to say if marrying anime characters will become more popular as we leap into the next decade.   Predictions, anyone?  

Until next time, a sweet and long life to you all, and Happy New Year!

National Wedding and Marriage Examiner Elizabeth Oakes welcomes your feedback at weddingexaminer@gmail.com; please share this story or subscribe by clicking on the Tweet This! button at the top of this column or the "Share This!" button below, or read more of Elizabeth's stories by clicking here.

Become a Facebook fan of the National Wedding Examiner or follow her on Twitter to receive instant notifications of new articles with her unique take on weddings, marriage, and culture.  She's also happy to answer your questions about getting married in Los Angeles (check out her work and inquire about availability at MarriageToGo.Com and RosePedalsBikeWeddings.Com.)

National Wedding Examiner articles ©2009 by Elizabeth Oakes; reposts permitted with copyright notice and link back to original article. All other rights reserved.

• Mexico City Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
• Woman Surprises Fiance With Airport Wedding
  
• Another Victorian Tradition: Winter Weddings Coming Back