Since I’m on the subject of clothes… This morning, I read yet another post by the very funny and talented J.D. Simkins, who writes for the Military Times. I’ve read several of his articles and they almost always make me laugh. Today’s article was no exception. It was entitled “Bride kicks Marine out of wedding for wearing his dress blues“.

It seems that a woman posted on a subeddit called “Am I the Asshole” about how a Marine wore his dress blues to her wedding and it apparently upset the bride because she felt he was “upstaging” her. I will admit… of all of the services, the Marines probably have the most awesome uniforms. Marines are usually in awesome physical shape and they cut a striking pose in their dress blues. Weddings are supposed to be about the married couple, particularly the bride. Or, at least that’s the old fashioned take.

According to the author of the post, who was also the bride, the Marine was being a gentleman, but people were wanting to have their pictures taken next to him and thanking him for his service. The bride felt that his presence in that uniform took attention away from her big day. She accused him of “attention seeking”.

I suppose I can understand why the bride felt “upstaged”. Like I said, a person in a Marine dress uniform is a sight to behold. However, perhaps it never occurred to the bride that the Marine wore his uniform because he doesn’t own a tuxedo and can’t afford to rent one. Bill has always worn his dress blues when we’ve gone to events that required formal dress. He doesn’t have a tuxedo. For most of our marriage, he couldn’t afford to buy one and we don’t go to enough formal events to justify getting one. Of course, now he has a kilt, so the next time we take a Hebridean cruise, he’ll wear it instead of the uniform, which is getting too tight for him, anyway.

I think a lot of people on the cruise loved the uniform. It was quite a conversation piece. Some people probably thought Bill was showing off, but as I wrote in my earlier piece today, you can’t please everybody. Someone is going to criticize no matter what you do.

I do agree that wedding is supposed to be about the couple and it’s “bad form” to upstage the bride, especially. There’s an old rule of etiquette that one shouldn’t wear white to a wedding, because only the bride should wear white. On the other hand, people who host weddings should also be gracious. Personally, I don’t think a wedding should be about being on display. A wedding is a celebration of love, commitment, and a new family being born. The bride admits her Marine guest was being a gentleman. If he was drunk and disorderly and/or behaving in a way that wasn’t becoming, I think she would have been within her rights to throw him out. But simply being “prettier” than she was, wasn’t, in my view, a valid reason to ask him to leave. In fact, the idea of doing that kind of makes me cringe. I would think it would put a damper on the day.

I see on the subreddit that a lot of people are on the bride’s side. I can see why they would be. Personally, though, I love seeing men in their uniforms. Bill and I had quite a few in uniform at our wedding. I thought it made our affair more elegant and special. It never would have occurred to me to kick someone out of my wedding based on what they were wearing. And this lady had 300 people in attendance, so I’m sure not all eyes were on the Marine, anyway. I don’t know if I’d call her an “asshole” for kicking the guy out, but I definitely wouldn’t have done it. I love a man in uniform… quite literally!

On another note, I recommend reading anything J.D. Simkins writes. His witty style is a breath of fresh air.