The most powerful suggestions in this week's NY Times Weddings & Celebrations? If you write about dating or a hapless love life, all is not lost! Actually, we got that idea from Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City, too, but not everyone can end up with Mr. Big or marry a hunky principal dancer at the NY City Ballet. Anyway...
The most intriguing meet-cute is that of Kristina Grish and Scott Mebus, who were married yesterday. Grish and Mebus are both writers: Grish, a contributing editor at Women's Health and contributor to Marie-Claire, has written books like The Joy of Test: Dating, Mating, and Techno-Relating" and "Boy Vey: The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men," while Mebus has written the novels "Booty Nomad" and "The Big Happy," both about a man's quest for love. Grish and Mebus met under the auspices of an assignment:
In early 2004 Marie Claire assigned Ms. Grish to write an article about dating men who had written books about romance. Her task was to compare the seductive tactics described in the pages of their books to those they used in real life.
Ms. Grish’s editor told her find dates in each of four categories: nonfiction, fiction, self-help and cookbook. Ms. Grish’s fiction contenders were Mr. Mebus and Kyle Smith, who wrote the novel “Love Monkey,” upon which the former CBS comedy show was based.
“I thought,” she said, “ ‘Do I want to go out with a love monkey or a booty nomad?’ and I decided on the booty nomad,” she said, noting that she thought the title was “hysterical.”
And, in there's a silver lining everywhere category, apparently their first date was a disaster, with bad food and bad music! Clearly, there was a happy ending. One thing we would have loved in the write-up: A comment from Smith, who reviews movies for the Post, in the write-up about his unknowing part in the matchmaking.
More highlights:
- There were 36 wedding announcements this weekend
- Of the 36 announcements, 19 had photographs of the couple and 1 had a bride-only photograph (there's also the Vows column)
- The youngest bride is 24; the oldest bride is 60
- The youngest groom is 25; the oldest groom is 75
- The biggest age difference is 25 years
- Playwright Anna Deveare Smith officiated a commitment ceremony
- One bride's great-great-great-grandfather's company was founded to create the Gowanus Canal
- One groom's grandfather won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1953
- The menu for the Vows column's couple's wedding: "Kobe beef empanadas with salsa, cavatappi pasta in a yellow tomato sauce, and roasted beef with those quiver-inducing fresh ramps" (the bride is executive chef at Butter)
