Real life Bridezilla

I wrote last week about a channel devoted to weddings and the show Bridezillas. For me, it is pure hell, but JennyBento commented that her drive to watch the show is 100% schadenfreude and it makes me feel good about myself. This is for you, JennyBento!

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41-year-old Bernadette Gbondo and her husband Eric will be featured on two episodes of the WE TV series Bridezillas, "A girlfriend of mine submitted my name (to the show)," Gbondo said. "I kind of took offense to it initially. And then I thought 'no, I have nothing to be embarrassed about. It's my wedding."' [It's my wedding! is the bridezilla refrain]

Gbondo. She looks very unhappy.



So in the days leading up to the big day, the WE TV cameras began rolling, recording everything that went wrong and every little fit and tantrum that came along with it. After the process was through, the newlywed said she probably lost a dozen friends, including three women she had initially chosen as her bridesmaids. The first one was ousted after Gbondo's engagement party a year before the wedding on Nov. 22. She fired two more the day before the wedding - one of them wasn't able to make it at the designated time for pictures. "You don't do that to somebody 24 hours before the wedding. Or at least not to me," Gbondo said. The other was asked to leave after complaining about the groomsman with whom she would be walking down the aisle. Gbondo found a replacement an hour a half before the ceremony. "People can either not be in the wedding, or be in the wedding," she said. "I started realizing that people were not being as flexible as they could have been. Everybody had an opinion regardless of what I wanted or what Eric wanted."

As for the remaining bridesmaids, groomsmen and family, the key to escaping the wrath was to take it all in and stay out of the way. "You take the good and the bad," said one of Gbondo's bridesmaids, Barbara Charles. "She's demanding. That's the best way to put it. But it was just one of those things you have to take. She's the bride and she wants what she wants, you just have to go with it." Charles admitted she had seen the show "Bridezillas" before and didn't think Gbondo's personality would rival the rest of the fit-throwing participants. "I really didn't expect the outbursts. I've never really seen her frazzled. I've seen her upset, but not frazzled the way she was to the point of tears," Charles said. She added that Gbondo, who changed into three dresses for her traditional African wedding, was controlling, demanding and, at times, downright rude.

But not all of the failed friendships are Gbondo's fault, Charles said. They were the result of a combination of overreactions on both sides and the fact that people didn't follow through with their promises. "Towards the evening, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong," said Charles, using the crooked wedding cake as an example.

Now, the Gbondo couple is settling into a new life together. "It's a growing process. Your relationship takes on another turn. We're growing and trying to get into the groove ... We're trying to gel and hopefully stay married forever if possible," Gbondo said.

As for her We TV debut, she's getting together with her remaining friends to watch the episode.

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The bridesmaid says anything that could go wrong did go wrong. I really think this happens when people are too overbearing or specific. People get confused about what they're supposed to do and lose focus. Most wedding professionals are just that - professionals. Bridezillas of the world, let them HELP you. Don't be so pushy! You don't go to a restaurant and tell them how to cook your fish.

-Kay