Kate MacHugh has a fabulous fiancé, except when it comes to wedding planning.
“When I was a little girl I always envisioned it as ‘my wedding,’ where I would make all the decisions and my faceless groom would show up when I told him to in the suit that I picked out and he paid for,” said the Beachwood, N.J., social worker and bride to be.
“Flash forward to now — my fiancé has an opinion on EVERYTHING,” MacHugh said, endorsing that approach with this caveat: “He’s a huge procrastinator and doesn’t understand that planning a wedding takes a boatload of work, time and coordination. He believes every small detail will fall into place without any effort on our part.”
So goes the dilemma of many modern-day grooms. No longer on the sidelines, they’re ready, willing and able to participate, but what’s a groom to do when he hasn’t been planning every detail of his dream wedding since boyhood, has never shopped for or worn a tuxedo and doesn’t know his carats from his karats?
“My advice for all you grooms out there? Listen to your bride. She knows what she’s talking about. If she tells you that at the eight-month mark you should have picked a venue, she’s right. If she’s droning on about getting your frat brothers’ addresses for save-the-dates, you really need to get them to her. And never, I repeat, never call her a bridezilla,” advises the 26-year-old MacHugh, who’s getting hitched Oct. 10.