Why I Won't Watch "The Wedding Planner"

I detest "The Wedding Planner". It's my absolute least favorite movie of all time. It's not that I have anything against Jennifer Lopez per se, its her portrayal of the events industry that I have issue with. In the movie, J.Lo sails through any number of wedding snafus without even breaking a sweat. What the movie doesn't show are the swollen ankles after a grueling sixteen hours on your feet, the screaming clients, temperamental caterers and all too frequent panic attacks in the bathroom when things just aren't going your way.

As a meeting and event professional, I know that the industry is anything but the glamorized Hollywood version portrayed by Jennifer Lopez. Back-breaking, yes. Fulfilling, yes. Exciting, sure. Glamorous, maybe to some, but it wouldn't be my first choice of words to describe the profession.

The funny thing is that I am not even in the weddings end of the business. Sure,
I did a few weddings in my day, but quickly migrated to meeting and event planning in the corporate world. You could say that I did exactly enough weddings to know that I never wanted to do any more! However, I do feel a kinship with wedding planners. We may be in different segments of the business, but we are all ultimately meeting and events professionals.

I have several friends and contacts in the weddings industry and they were all equally outraged by "The Wedding Planner". (For the record, they brought up the topic first!) The romanticized version of wedding planning portrayed by Jennifer Lopez bears little to no resemblance to the day in the life of a real wedding planner. It's not that a wedding planner doesn't actually do what Jennifer Lopez did in the movie. Sure, they go on site inspections, meeting with clients and coordinate with caterers. Its just that there is so much more involved in these tasks. Wedding planners work hard, putting in 16 hour days, consoling hysterical brides and running from location to location making sure that the client's dollar is working as hard as it can. Maintaining that balance between fantasy and reality to create that perfect day is a challenging task for any wedding planner.

Ultimately, the fact that Jennifer Lopez was a wedding planner was just a backdrop to the romantic storyline of the movie. Hollywood never claimed that "The Wedding Planner" was a documentary on the weddings industry. With that being said, you may be asking yourself what exactly is the point of this article (besides being a cross between an emphatic rant and pointless ramble).

Here's the rub-being a wedding planner is a job and a difficult on at that. Beneath the seamless flow of your evening lies a trail of trails and tribulations. No one likes to see their life's work misrepresented. I'm sure that there were more than a few raised eyebrows at Arnold Schwarzenegger's interpretation of a kindergarten teacher in "Kindergarten Cop".

So for moral purposes, I have decided to boycott the "The Wedding Planner". However, if Hollywood ever recruited Jennifer Lopez to do a reality show on wedding planning-that I would watch.