Modern Bride Magazine

I'm newly engaged. This giddy bride-to-be has spent a lot of time with her bum plastered to the seats of Barnes and Noble cafe, leafing through all the Bridal magazines they offer. One of the first magazines I read was Modern Bride. As I began looking through it I though "ooooh look at all these pretty pictures." Thirty minutes later my eyes were glazed over from desperately trying to find a useful article among all those ads. Personally, I love looking at pretty dresses. But, I already found a pattern for my dress ( a copy of a very expensive designer gown) and now I want some useful tips on planning a wedding. Every issue of Modern Bride is the same thing. 90% of the magazine is ads for dresses, invitations, registry items and honeymoon spots. The articles they do write are barely useful. This is not the magazine for you if your hoping to find ideas on how to keep the cost of your wedding down. With magazines like Modern Bride and it's other 500 page cousin, it's no wonder the average wedding cost is $20,000. Look at the rag that is trying to guide us.

I visited a married friend the other day. She has been helping me with wedding plans. She showed me her old issues of this magazine. They were from 1996. I nearly died laughing. All the articles are the same. After four years, they are still writing the same exact thing. They just change the words around a little bit. They need to get with the times and be a little more innovative.

One part that really gets my goat is the honeymoon section. Will someone please inform the editors that not every couple wants to spend their honeymoon in a tropical location? There are hundreds of adds and articles on tropical resorts. We're planning on going to Scotland. If you look very carefully, you will usually find a three line blurb about European destinations. Come on, give us some variety!

If you want to find pretty dresses, invitation companies, honeymoon ideas or planning advice, I suggest you visit one of the many quality bridal websites, like The Knot(http://www.theknot.com). The sites are free and you'll get more useful information than Modern Bride could ever hope to give. If you want to read Modern Bride, go to a place like Barnes and Noble where you can read it (and enjoy some overpriced coffee or tea) without the obligation to buy. Or go to a library. It's not really worth the 5 bucks, especially when there are other quality magazines out there.

Oh yeah, someone needs to tell Modern Bride that not all brides are rich, white, 6'0", 95 pound clear-skinned models. A lot of us are real women. What a concept....