#164 - I Hate Wedding Culture (& Love Weddings) with Anna Sun

First of All

Weddings! Love. Joy. Family. Friendship. Magic! Celebration!! .... Stress. Tension. Regrets. Bills. Fights. FOMO. As beautiful as these momentous milestones are meant to be, let's be real. Weddings can be as painful as they are joyous. In the whirlwind of dreams coming true under very strained budgets while juggling tons of deadlines, expectations, logistics and relationships...it can be anything but a fairytale. In this episode, Minji unpacks her issues with the insanity of modern wedding culture with her dear friend and fabulous producer - actor and mama Anna Sun. Together they share 15 weddings as bridesmaids/maids of honor, and Anna has been a bride herself. For the record, they both LOVE love and love weddings, but there's much to examine when it comes to the culture surrounding them nowadays. From price gouging to bridal party expectations, fragile relationships, pressures to perform and be perfect, toxic entitlement, cultural layers, social media, and MONEY issues, they break down some of their toughest experiences, lessons learned and the societal norms that have gotten out of hand when it comes to tying the knot. They share their battle stories to empower folks to make their special days the way they truly want, do things differently, normalize having those hard conversations and truly be surrounded by love!

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• Twitter (@minjeeeezy)
• Instagram (@minjeezy)
• Clubhouse (@MinjiChang)

▫️ Music featured in this episode include "Uzutrap" by Uzuhan and “Monster” by Meg and Dia
▫️ Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter and support our Patreon
▫️ This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Produced by @marvinyueh & @AnnaSun
Supported by @JulianaDeer

00:00:00 - Intro’ing + please be kind
00:04:38 - How we feel about this topic
00:07:53 - A sprinkle of positive commentary
00:13:01 - Anna’s engagement story
00:16:09 - The laugh/ cry moment of becoming a bridesmaid
00:20:09 - ALL the pressures + expectations
00:22:30 - How to prioritize ALL those decisions
00:25:01 - Nonexistent convos about money as a bridesmaid
00:30:31 - Bridesmaids v groomsmen
00:34:32 - BREAK - [Books & Boba Podcast]
00:35:41 - [Ways to support FOA]
00:37:29 - The wedding party selection
00:41:13 - The BM experience (esp in our 20s)
00:50:05 - Beware of becoming a bridezilla
00:54:52 - Always a bridesmaid
00:58:00 - Dealing with the guest list, parents and gift etiquette
01:08:20 - The best parts about Anna's wedding
01:10:31 - What Minji loves/ would change about weddings
01:18:58 - FOA Q’s for the guest
01:23:41 - Outro + Music by Meg and Dia (Monster)
01:26:20 - [Modern Minorities Podcast]

Mentioned in this episode:

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"Inheriting" is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities. In each episode, NPR’s Emily Kwong sits down with one family and facilitates deeply emotional conversations between their loved ones, exploring how their most personal, private moments are an integral part of history. Through these stories, we show how the past is personal and how to live with the legacies we’re constantly inheriting. New episodes premiere every Thursday. Subscribe to “Inheriting” on your app of choice

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