Bridezilla/Playing With
Basic Trope: A bride who insists that everything be just right and that It's All About Me.
- Played Straight: Alice gets upset when she finds out she can't afford the wedding dress she wants.
- Exaggerated: Alice gets upset with a bridesmaid who is slightly out of step at the rehearsal, and insists that her bridesmaids gain weight so as not to upstage her beauty.
- Downplayed: Alice doesn't lose her temper, but she does have a long and detailed set of expectations for her special day...and she doesn't thank the family members and friends who helped make it possible.
- Justified:
- A wedding vendor whom Alice has signed a contract with is not living up to their contractual obligations.
- Alice (who already has a Hair-Trigger Temper) is stressing out over planning the wedding, which is a lot of work, and she is overly concerned about "everything being perfect."
- Alice is pregnant, and her hormones are acting up, causing Mood Whiplash.
- Alice (whatever her numerical age) is emotionally immature.
- Alice is under pressure from overbearing, meddlesome relatives (and soon-to-be in-laws) to do things their way.
- Inverted: Alice never once loses her temper with anyone (vendors, bridesmaids, Bob). She may or may not be taking a large role in the wedding planning.
- Gender Inverted: Bob screams at one of the groomsmen or vendors.
- Subverted: The florist calls and tells Alice that the flowers that she wants are not available. Alice calmly agrees to meet with the florist to pick out a Plan B.
- Double Subverted: But then Bob wants to have his friend's garage band play at the reception, and Alice vehemently insists that they don't, getting into a screaming match with Bob over it.
- Deconstructed: Alice is stressed, but she is taking out her temper on people she cares about, and who are trying to make Her Special Day as special as possible. Her treatment could alienate them from her. It could also result in divorce (or cancelling the wedding) if this alienation extends to Bob.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice doesn't take on more responsibility than she can handle, isn't obsessed with perfection (knowing that the marriage is more important than the wedding), and doesn't leave planning until the last few months before. She also sticks to her budget, and she gets reliable vendors (and a day-of coordinator or a wedding-planner to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.)
- Alternatively, Alice and Bob decide that big fancy white weddings are overrated and just go to the courthouse or elope.
- Parodied:
- Alice literally turns into a monster.
- Alice turns her bridesmaids into her personal slaves.
- Lampshaded: "Alice, I think this wedding business has gone to your head. Where is the cool girl I proposed to?"
- Averted: See Reconstructed
- Enforced:
- Most Writers Are Male, Truth in Television
- The work is a social commentary on the wasteful aspects of big weddings.
- Invoked: Something goes wrong with a vendor.
- Defied: Alice doesn't scream, and comes up with an alternative plan.
- Discussed: "Ever since she got engaged, Alice has become such an entitled, selfish bitch. It's like she's a different person."
- Conversed: "She probably always had that in her; the stress of wedding-planning just makes it worse."
- Played For Laughs: Alice has a meltdown over something ridiculous.
- Played For Drama: See "Deconstructed"