Basic Trope: A bride who insists that everything be just right and that It's All About Me.
- Straight: Alice gets upset and has a meltdown 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 and wear tacky dresses so as not to upstage her beauty.
- Alice has the entirety of her wedding planned out, from her dress to the venue to the decorations, and has even met with various vendors and bought a dress and veil...except she's missing one (really important) thing: a fiance. She doesn't even have a friendly male acquiantance!
- Alice is a lesbian and is getting married to Betty, and they both act like this. It's a miracle the wedding venue is still standing.
- 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.
- Alice has a major breakdown, but it was in response to situation arguably worth being angry over. Alice merely overreacted a bit.
- 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."
- Alternatively, Alice isn't stressing out— her Hair-Trigger Temper is enough to make her a Bridezilla even without stress.
- 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.
- Alice is a perfectionist, and wants to make sure EVERYTHING goes according to plan.
- Alice is feeling insecure about her relationship with Bob.
- Alice has always been The Perfectionist.
- Inverted:
- Alice never once loses her temper with anyone (vendors, bridesmaids, Bob) even when they're being annoying. She may or may not be taking a large role in the wedding planning.
- Alice insists that everyone's making too of big a deal about her wedding and then goes to the wedding in her pajamas.
- Everyone except for the bride insists that everything must be perfect and over-reacts to minor mistakes, trying to live out their dream wedding through Alice.
- Alice under-reacts to everything about her wedding day from some infighting to a bunch of assassins putting poison in the cake.
- Alice is usually very aggro, but becomes nice at her wedding.
- 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. The florist is worried that she'll blow her stack, but Alice calmly agrees to meet with the florist to pick out a Plan B.
- Alice is a very grumpy woman, so she's expected to act that way on her wedding, but she hires a wedding-planner and delegates the lion's share of the wedding planning to her.
- Bob is worried that Alice will be an overly demanding bride because he knows she's a perfectionist. However, the bulk of the wedding planning is done by Alice's mother, who is also paying for the wedding.
- Alice does kick a friend out of the wedding party, but it's for a justifiable reason. That friend was causing problems, didn't help with any of the things Alice asked her to do (such as help with centerpieces and favors), and also hadn't even bought her dress with T-minus one week until the wedding.
- Alice's friends, knowing that she can be bossy if she's put in charge of something, worry that she'll be a pain in the neck on her wedding. However, it turns out that Alice is having a very small, intimate destination wedding on the beach.
- Alice's soon-to-be father-in-law phones her up and tells her not to be too demanding. As it turns out though, she and Bob are just going to go to the courthouse and then go have a quiet dinner at a nice restaurant.
- Alice is seen yelling at a vendor, but that turns out to be an imagining Bob is having. In reality, she and Bob decide to just elope on the beach at some resort and send wedding announcements after the fact.
- 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.
- And she argues with the planner a lot.
- Alice's mother sees it as a chance to live out her dream wedding that she never got (or relive her own wedding) through Alice. And this causes conflict, because Alice wants something very different for her own wedding than her mom wants her to have.
- Alice has, meanwhile, been a complete bitch to her other bridesmaids. Secretly, they can't wait for the wedding to be over. And she didn't even simply "demote" her friend from "bridesmaid" to "just another guest," she straight-up uninvited her.
- She gets into regular screaming matches with the wedding planner at the resort.
- Alice caves to pressure from her family to have a "real" wedding, and the stress of planning it gets to her.
- Alternatively, five years after she and Bob eloped, they decide to have a vow renewal and a reception. Planning that causes stress for Alice, which in turn causes her to lash out.
- Alice loses her temper with the printer, and is very particular about how the announcements look.
- Parodied:
- Alice literally turns into a monster.
- Alice turns her bridesmaids into her personal slaves.
- In a Yaoi with a wedding theme, the Uke starts acting like this.
- Zig Zagged: Alice overreacts to some things in her wedding, is neutral about other things, and underreacts to several accidents that happen.
- Averted: Alice has realistic expectations and makes sure they met her expectations without being too upset when they don't.
- Enforced:
- A Reality Show about professionals who deal with weddings is going to run into one of these, or make someone look like one.
- The writers are married, straight men who found their wives annoyingly snappish on their weddings. This trope can be Truth in Television after all.
- The work is a social commentary on the wasteful or annoying aspects of big weddings.
- Lampshaded:
- "Alice, I think this wedding business has gone to your head. Where is the cool girl I proposed to?"
- "Oh no, there goes Tokyo! Go go Bridezilla!''
- Invoked: Something goes wrong with a vendor because someone else pulled a Batman Gambit to make the vendor screw up and therefore make Alice mad.
- Exploited: Bob takes advantage of the chaos to sneak out and go to the pub.
- Defied:
- Alice doesn't scream, and comes up with an alternative plan.
- Alice and Bob look at the cost and the logistical hassle, say "screw this," and handle it at the local courthouse with only the judge and legally-required number of witnesses.
- Alice learns to delegate some of the tasks (instead of trying to do everything herself) and trust that the people she delegates them to will act in her best interests, doesn't leave everything until the last minute, and keeps it in perspective: it's one day.
- 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."
- 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.) Her normal attitude problem shows itself from time to time, but seeing as she isn't stressed, it's nothing worse than what Bob deals with on a day-to-day basis anyway.
- Alternatively, Alice and Bob decide that big fancy white weddings are overrated and just go to the courthouse or elope. Alice is still a bit rude, but that's just her personality.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice has a meltdown over something ridiculous.
- Alice hums the Godzilla theme and play-bites the groom.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice wants a fancy wedding because she never got nice things as a little girl, and she feels obsessed with them now.
- Alice's behavior surrounding the wedding causes Bob to strongly reconsider marrying her.
- Played for Horror: The reason Alice is being so mean on her wedding is actually because she's possessed.
- Implied: Alice and Bob get married offscreen. Alice looks satisfied, but Bob looks very stressed afterward.
Back to Bridezilla
