Botox for bridesmaids

Two worrying trends in our culture, spending too much on weddings and spending too much on elective cosmetic procedures, come together:

AFTER the band was chosen and the napkins color-coordinated to match her shoes, Kacey Knauer, a bride-to-be, had another critical matter to address: her skin, and the skin of the nine women in her bridal party.

So Ms. Knauer, the 35-year-old owner of TempTrends, a staffing agency in Manhattan, invited her nearest and dearest — including her mother and future mother-in-law — for a night out at the TriBeCa MedSpa, replete with mimosas and cupcakes. An aesthetician assessed each woman’s face and devised a treatment plan — a quick chemical peel, say, or an injection of a wrinkle-filler. Or maybe, for a bridesmaid with age spots, a series of Fraxel laser treatments over months, allowing for recovery time.

When watching historical dramas like the recent John Adams, I'm constantly amazed at how modest and understated the weddings seem. For the sake of all the brides-to-be who stress out about this so much, I do hope the wedding extravagance pendulum swings back in the direction of simplicity soon.

On the other hand, my own wedding was a rather grand and expensive affair (compared to other things in my life), and I enjoyed it very very much. So I suppose it's wrong of me to deny to others what I indulged in myself. Still, I'm proud to say that no one in the wedding party was encouraged to get a chemical peel or facial injection.