The Weddings & Celebrations section of the New York Times may sometimes seem like a parody of itself (“The bride, 26, was until recently a second-grade teacher at Fancy Schmancy Prep School…”), and this old joke finally reaches its apotheosis in sketch comedy group Kasper Hauser’s new parody, Weddings of the Times. The book is a collection of fake wedding announcements that look and read remarkably like the ones in the Sunday paper. Their humor is so subtle, in fact, that if you lose your context for a second, you might forget you’re reading a parody. (And it gets even freakier when you check out the videos that go along with the book.)
With that in mind, we decided it was time for another lit quiz: here are some excerpts from the book interspersed with real wedding announcements. Can you separate the real from the fake? Answers below.
1. Lauren Harding D’Elia and Matthew Paul Pressman are to be married Sunday at the Wychmere Harbor Beach and Tennis Club, in Harwich Port, Mass. Rabbi Deborah Pipe Mangan is to officiate. The bride, 28, will be taking her husband’s name. She is an account executive at Serino Coyne, an advertising agency in New York that specializes in Broadway shows.
2. Regina Harrison and Jimmy Holgren were married Sunday at the Zen Buddhist Peace Center in Carmel, Calif. The ceremony was performed by Buddhist Monk Budiman Prang. The bride, 26, is studying to be a massage therapist. The bridegroom, 27, is a yoga instructor and peace activist.
3. The two met using an online dating service known as People-Meeter.com. “We’re so perfect for each other,” said the bride, a hairdresser from Naples, Florida. “Ron likes books; I like books. I like beaches; he likes beaches. The computer matched us perfectly.”The bridegroom, 27, is a yoga instructor and peace activist.
4. The bride and bridegroom met in 1999 during a five-day hiking trip for members of the incoming freshman class at Dartmouth, from which they both graduated, he magna cum laude. People on those excursions refer to each other as “trippees,” Ms. D’Elia said. “We had 50- to 60-pound backpacks and set up tarps in pouring rain. We hung out and hit it off and started dating a month into school.” Now Ms. D’Elia loves to tell other Dartmouth alumni, “I’m marrying my trippee.”
5. And on June 27, in the back garden of the Winkler home, Rabbi Kenneth Chasen of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles performed their wedding ceremony before 270 guests. Mr. Reinis declared the many things he loves about her, including “the way her entire body wiggles when she’s nervous.”
6. The day of the wedding was selected by an astrologer based on its auspiciousness. Before the ceremony, the assembled monks chanted. The guests then said the Vandana, Tisarana, and Pancasila readings, after which the couple lit incense sticks and candles around a Buddha statue. Vows and rings were exchanged using the Sigilovdda Sutta as a guide. Immediately following the ceremony, the D.J. played “A Whole New World,” from the Aladdin soundtrack and pretty much blasted everyone back to fucking reality again.
Highlight the blocks below to see how you did. 1. Real 2. Fake 3. Fake 4. Real 5. Real 6. Fake