Was Taylor & Travis’ Wedding the Most Romantic Thing Ever?

or a flagrant flaunting of wealth and wasteful consumption?

Photo by Shamblen Studios on Unsplash

I know, I know.

On the outside, what kind of romantic, gorgeous, perfectly pulled off wedding was this? Amazing, right? Is that really even a question?

A beautiful and outrageously popular couple, beloved individually by millions, collectively, now by billions??

A fairytale courtship and proposal.

Who wouldn’t want these two perfect people to have the ultimate, most over the top, every detail perfectly executed and pulled off by thousands of (minimum wage) staffers — wedding on the planet?? Of the century?? Of the freaking millenium??

Secret texts to guests each step of the way about what, where, when and how. Madison Square fucking Garden. A theme of fairyland wonder with literal forests installed within, so each of the thousand guests would have their own space and not feel claustrophobic while kabitzing with fellow wealthy, beautiful people.

This tasteful, thoughtful, no stone left unturned, classy wedding scheme also assured that guests would be spared the inevitable trapped-in-a-corner-moments with other glamorous, famous people they did not care to speak to.

Not to mention the NO GIFTS FOR THE COUPLE directive, but expensive gift bags for the guests. Nice touch.

All told, everyone at this blowout bash had a blast! Tom Hanks was said to be partying pretty hard and was the last to leave at 5:00 a.m.

Although the final actual total for this most extravagant wedding has not been disclosed, CNN estimated that the tab would have to have run at least 10 to 20 million. Easy. Easy.

But, hey. Taylor Swift is beloved by millions of people and those people essentially paid for this wedding. Happily! Joyfully! Willingly! They forked over millions of dollars in ticket and merch sales to make Taylor’s wedding fantasy extravaganza come true.

Swift seems like a nice young woman, beautiful smile, smart, kind hearted. A savvy, talented business woman who kept on the straight and narrow and orchestrated a career that has made her wealthier than maybe even she could have ever dreamed. She is, by all accounts, a force to be reckoned with.

Kelce seems equally adorable. A charmer on the stage, screen and oh yes, the football field where he has been deemed the best tight end in the history of the game. A talented podcaster and overall nice guy. A multi-millionaire. And he worked hard, put in the sweat equity to get there, too.

Why shouldn’t he be rich and enjoy his wealth by throwing the party of the year to celebrate his union with the woman of his dreams?

Well.

Maybe it’s the timing.

I just read a local story about people who are working in their late sixties to early eighties at gigs like bartending and cleaning offices to be able to afford their medication. They get social security. Are on Medicare. They have a pension. It’s not enough to make ends meet.

I work with very talented, caring young people who want to help kids at the high school by working in classrooms as teaching assistants. After working in the classes for six hours, they grab a meal and go to their second jobs. On the weekends, they work at those or their third jobs. They also live with two to five other people to afford rents in Milwaukee. I can’t imagine what it is on the east or west coasts.

I also worked with a man who, after working all day at the high school, as a jack-of-all-trades, DJ’d at night to be able to swing rent, groceries and the kids. He lost his residence because of medical bills that went into collection because he did not have the cash. At age thirty-four, he had to move back in with his mother. He sees the kids on the weekends when and if he is not working.

I have a neighbor who is a social worker drowning in student loan debt and just learned that the rules have changed and she will no longer qualify for loan forgiveness after ten years of on time payments.

A good friend whose husband lost half his pension when the company he worked for closed up shop here and sent all its labor to Alabama workers who would work for non-union wages now works two jobs to keep them afloat.

I am fortunate enough to be okay right now. I am healthy. No medications. I will retire in three years at sixty-five, God willing. I earn a teacher’s salary — which has not increased for the last three years due to salary freezes and budget cuts. But I still pay half of my monthly wages to student loans, for my grad school debt and for my kids who graduated years ago now.

We own our home that we purchased forty two years ago. It’s not fancy and it needs repairs that we can’t afford on my wages and my husband’s retirement funds. But we will get by.

Still, the prices keep going up and wages keep the same. And the rich, as they say, get richer.

So, maybe that’s why this glorious affair has rubbed me the wrong way.

We are a capitalist society and yes, people can earn exorbitant wealth by being at the top of their games. (Or, as is the case with the president, by scamming, lying and cheating your way to billions.)

Are our priorities a little mixed up as evidenced by who we collectively agree, or concede, are worthy of earning that much?

Undoubtedly.

Am I just a bitter old woman who wonders what kind of party they would throw if money were truly no object? If I had more money than I literally knew what to do with?

Maybe.

But I would hope that I would read the room and see that my money-is-no-object attitude toward that party would be salt into the wounds of everyone else just trying to get by.

Who knows, though. Money does strange things to people.

Maybe I would throw an extremely lavish and indulgent party that would become the envy of the world, a pipe dream of women both young and old who now can just barely afford the marriage license.

Or maybe I would recognize how callous that is, how out of touch, the egregiously offensive optics of it all and just…not.