It’s a Chick Thing: 'Bridezillas' and 'Sex and the City'

I spent Tuesday morning literally in the heart of Times Square, on the island between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, alongside a 10-foot tall slice of wedding cake, decorated with more than 50 gallons of butter cream frosting.

In a stunt celebrating the fifth season of Bridezillas, WE had 10 brides-to-be—clad in wedding dresses, white helmets, and sneakers—scamper up the giant slice, in the middle of the morning rush. In the competition, the first woman to grab a bouquet at the top of the “cake” got a $25,000 check to go toward her coming nuptials.

The winner, Meghan Gressler of Basking Ridge, N.J., shot up the slanted slice so quick she left everyone else in her wake, wiping blue frosting from their hands.

This is the fourth year that WE has done a stunt to promote the return of Bridezillas, events which have included cake-eating contests and having women dive into a wedding cake. The contests may seem a little over the top and demeaning to some—having women compete in such a manner for a prize—but the stunts have drawn national press attention to promote the WE show. 

Men don’t seem to get WE’s Bridezillas, the way they don’t get Sex and the City. Well, guys, if you don’t get it, I can’t explain it to you: It’s a chick thing. We identify with the people in the show or know someone like them—blah, blah, blah.

By the way, props to SATC for busting the No. 1 spot in the box office last weekend and outflanking one of the most boring, ass-flattening, testosterone-driven movies of the year, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Boy, did we get suckered into that one Memorial Day weekend, when we didn’t know better!   

In contrast, the reality show Bridezillas—about brides who behave very badly as they face the pressures of arranging a wedding and walking down the aisle—has been WE’s highest rated series.

“The appeal is there’s very few times in your life where it’s acceptable to not be on your best behavior,” WE GM Kim Martin said. “But when you’re getting married and you’re really stressed out, that’s one of those very few times when it’s acceptable to lose your temper and your patience with your friends and relatives as you’re planning your wedding. People can relate. Either they’ve done it themselves, or they have a relative who has.”

So it is.