Mason Jar Manifesto and Thoughts

Jonas Peterson recently re-posted his Mason Jar Manifesto blog post, and so I recently re-read it.

So many thoughts, here.

I think it extremely hypocritical to poo-poo on the industry that feeds you. That not only literally feeds you, but feeds your soul, and gives you room to perform a potentially amazing job like photographing weddings.

And yet, the more I think about it, the more I find myself in utter agreement. That's because this: the wedding industry does not cater to brides, grooms, and families who just want to get married. If you're recently engaged and dive headfirst into wedding planning, you're quickly ovewhelmed by people telling what you should do, what you need, what's trending, and perhaps more stressfully, what you should never do because people will think you're a terrible person, or worse, that you have no style. 

If you've decided you're going to have guests, you probably want them to feel like they're at a wedding (whoa, no way). So you turn to the wedding industry experts. Guys, what makes a wedding feel like a wedding? And they hear: Guys, what does a wedding feel like, and how can I convey that feeling with decor, favors, and cake? And suddenly you're avalanched in so much information that goes off in so many different directions, and you don't even know where to start.

That is the problem, or at least a problem. The brides and grooms or whoever is planning the wedding have every right to be concerned with the atmosphere of the party they're throwing. It's not that I have something against mason jars. But it is such a fine line we walk between running our businesses and advising the engaged couples about making their wedding day work, and then throwing everyone into hyper-wedding-planning overdrive. 

It can be frustrating for us on the inside to witness the transformation our own industry inflicts on some of these innocent people, most typically the brides, and that, I believe is where we can all take a lesson from Jonas' thoughts.


Somewhat related, I also recently read this article by Matt Mendelsohn, and it hit home really hard. If you want the short version, he contrasts a wedding day with an elderly friend receiving news of the death of his wife of 50+ years, and how the latter is what marriage is truly about (as depressing as that sounds!).