Runaway Bride

I've been thinking a lot about the girl in Duluth (outside Atlanta) who hopped a bus out West the week of her enormous wedding.

First, my consideration for her depends probably too much on whether this flight was premeditated or spontaneous. Second, I think we have no idea what went on in that relationship. Third, I think it's terrifying that she had 14 bridesmaids and no one to talk to.

That being said, she obviously messed up BIG TIME.

But I think her plight is fascinating. Here's this lovely young woman who is marrying some southern scion in a princess wedding. The whole town is coming (no one does gi-normous weddings like the South. I've been a 'maid in a few) and everyone's SO DARN EXCITED FOR HER! (This former is being said in an Atlanta accent.) But she wants out, yet she feels like she doesn't have the option of calling off the wedding!

How many times do people get cold feet? All the time, I'm sure. My friends have flipped every now and again. (I have a friend in B'more now who's about to marry the wrong woman and he knows it yet he continues because he doesn't think he can do any better than this hot little blonde psychopath.) But this is something different. This is fleeing from something terrible, whatever terrible means in that addled girl's head. It's terrible enough to ruin her in some ways.

She's going to catch hell when she gets home. Her town will never treat her the same way. I would recommend high-tailing it out of the state and starting fresh. But this might be a GOOD plan. Maybe it's time to leave Duluth and the Southern Prince. Something was so desperately wrong that she couldn't ask for help or couldn't delay the wedding, etc. We embrace the expectations and wishes of others nowhere more than in weddings and careers. I feel sorry for this woman, both because she's obviously desperately unhappy and because she is now infamous. This is a doomed combination for a southern woman, even today.