Customer Reviews

Bad Bridesmaid: Bachelorette Brawls and Taffeta Tantrums--Tales from the Front Lines

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was a fun little book -- it's always entertaining to read about Brides Gone Wild. And make no mistake, despite the title, the villains of this book are the brides.

I do wish that Agrell had chosen to include the article that she wrote (and which got her booted out of her friend's wedding). I wasn't able to find it online, unfortunately. Agrell's interpretation of events seems to be that the article was fun, light and humorous and that the bride overeacted. However, the bride seemed to feel it was a personal hatchet job which justified Angrell's firing. Who is right? Hard to say without reading the article -- maybe the bride had a legitimate beef.

This book was okay for a good "girl" book. A quick read with a few hilarious stories where I was litterally laughing out loud. I was hoping for more stories, more details and less fluff in between the two. I have to agree with other comments here- I was looking for the article she wrote that got her kicked out of the bridal party, destroyed her friendship with "The Bride" and spawned this book. That would have been a nice inclusion. It seemed at the end of the book the author is trying to make up for all the "Bride" bashing of the entire book by saying "we really do love you" but it was too little too late. Being a five time bridesmaid and a bride I didn't mind the bride bashing, weddings are what they are, dramatic and stressful. These stories were entertaining, a good fluff read.

I had been wanting to read this book for a while... the creative title piqued my interest right away. It was a quick and interesting read, by no means an intellectual or sociological look at the wedding industry like Cinderella Dreams, but it was still fun to read for someone who is interested in the behavioral aspects behind weddings. If you watch the reality shows on TV about weddings you will probably like this book... it offers examples and stories upon horror stories of crazy brides and the poor bridesmaids put in terrible situations. The complacency of the bridesmaids was a bit unnerving and I have to admit that these stories convinced me that the author only used the most extreme examples she could find of these pre-weddings gone wild situations. But that was the purpose of her book I suppose and we are not supposed to take the book as a whole too seriously. Enjoy it, don't let it scare you away from weddings forever, and try to remind yourself that it's just a silly read and you'll be happy.

I loved this book. Too bad more of the insanity was not in it. I too hate all things commercialized wedding. Having stood up a few times (always wonder why anyone would ask me with me being so vocal in opposing)I hated every single minute of it. My brides were very nice and paid for the dresses and we did not have to do all the crap some bridesmaids do. Do people really expect bridesmaid to throw a shower? Have you no family that likes you? Do brides really expect bridesmaids to do their errands? COME ON!

Dear Brides,
If you really want people to enjoy your wedding then don't ask them to stand up. Simple as that. No one likes to stand up. It sucks! This whole, "It's my day" crap is just that, crap. We barely want to attend the wedding let alone deal with you. Who hasn't shuddered at the sight of an obvious wedding invitation in the mailbox? Who hasn't called everyone in the family to warn them it is coming. I personally think you should ask your enemies to stand up for they deserve it more.

This book showed how goofy weddings can get. I'm SO very glad I'm old enough to never again be asked to be a bridesmaid!!!!! In my day, we threw a shower, showed up for rehearsal, did the wedding and promised not to get drunk at the reception!!!

I was a bad bridesmaid - almost twice.

My near miss was when my best friend asked me to be a bridesmaid. Tho' I found it impossible to support her choice in groom, I agreed. Until she then informed me that even tho' I was her 'Best' friend I was the 5th person she asked and she wanted at least 3 bridesmaids! Evidently she was having a hard time finding enough random strangers to wear a "baby-teal" 80's-reject, prom dress (with sleeves bigger than a basketball) for her kegger/wedding. My ego let me back out within 10 minutes of being asked. (their marriage lasted slightly longer than that.) Oddly enough our friendship survived that awkward blip in our 16 year relationship.

Even when I finally went "all the way" with it for another friend things were so difficult and AWFUL, that after the wedding we quickly broke it off and neither of us have ever looked back - Thank God!

At first I really thought it was me, I felt guilty. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a bridesmaid, maybe I really am the anti-wedding witch. Or maybe my friends lost their minds (and souls) when they became engaged.

Thank you, Siri Agrell! Your book has provided me with the thearpy and knowledge I needed to realize: It is not just me! There are others out there like myself who were put in exploitive & mercilessly compromised situations all because we knew someone (either well or randomly) who lost all common sense the second they got engaged.

This book made me laugh...and wince, but mostly I identified.

This book is somewhat funny and serves as a great reminder that perfectionist, micromanaged showers and weddings are not normal nor healthy and can ruin friendships. However, I was expecting a "Chicken Soup" like book, with individual, developed stories around different themes. Agrell tries this somewhat, but the stories come off as only brief sketches, many of which are generic or seem made up. Don't get me wrong, some of the stories are very funny and real, but others seem contrived as for a comedy routine. I also wish Agrell hadn't felt the need to keep emphasizing the "Bad Bridesmaid" theme. No, just because you maintained your sanity and refused to an outlandish request by the bride you do not deserve the bad bridesmaid label. Agrell feels the need to reiterate this on almost every page, the effect being a "Am I right? Am I right?" after each sketch. Also, the book runs 171 pages hardback, but with spacing and all that it is a much shorter read. Ultimately, buy this book if you want a little humor and perspective about the whole wedding process, such as how far does a bride have the right to go and when do sanity and decency trump a bride's vision of her day?

If you're looking for a humorous look at the wacky things that bridesmaids do, this is the wrong book for you.

If you want to read about how American women have gone over the top planning weddings and putting undue burden on bridesmaids,or if you like books that never cease to complain and offend just about everyone who's ever gotten married or worn a tacky dress for a friend, then maybe you'll like this book. Unfortunately, I was looking for the former, but the book seems to be Agrell's way of getting back at the friends who have asked her to be a bridesmaid.

Agrell painfully, repeatedly, and dully recounts tales of expensive dresses (which we already knew are expensive and ugly, no insite there!), expensive showers, embarrassing and expensive bachelorette parties, and countless brides who burden their friends as bridesmaids.

The other victim of Agrell's alleged wit is the Catholic church. Catholic weddings are described as long, elaborate, and boring; perhaps a valid point to people who are not Catholic. Yet she goes out of her way to insult Catholic parents, Catholic women, and the Catholic church. In one of many Catholic insults, Agrell describes one bride as "raised by her Catholic family to have a healthy fear of alcohol and adult situations." Apparently a Catholic upbringing is responsible for one bridesmaid selecting a male stripper dressed as a policeman. Follow that? No? Neither did I! Aside from bashing a religion, the big sin is that none of it was even remotely amusing.

All of the above would be completely tolerable if the book was funny. Sadly, it is not. It is not witty or self-deprecating. This book does not share any glimpses of real or touching moments about weddings, brides, or bridesmaids. It is a painfully boring and pathetic tale of one woman who is obviously still angry that she has ever been asked to be a bridesmaid. I don't think she'll have that problem anymore.

If you want to read a hugely funny memoir, go look at Jen Lancaster! She is fabulous at describing her wedding and her whole life in "Bitter Is The New Black" and it's sequels.