Wedding Disasters – Punch ons and a runaway bird w Lena Moon  

Welcome to Wedding Disasters, an Australian comedy podcast hosted by stand-up comedian and celebrant Annie Louey. In our debut episode, Annie is joined by comedian, writer, and Twitch streamer Lena Moon. Lena shares her hilarious wedding disaster stories, including drunken family brawls and a charming live-streamed surprise wedding with an Elvis impersonator. Plus, hear their funny take on a runaway bird interrupting wedding vows.

 

Episode Transcript

Lena Moon: All the information that I got about this wedding was from my uncle being like, “you’re not allowed to tell anyone.”

Annie Louey: Welcome to Wedding Disasters, presented by Wedsure.com.au wedding insurance. This is the podcast where I, Annie Louie, chat with comedians about weddings that didn’t quite go to plan. Today’s guest is comedian, writer, and Twitch streamer—you may have seen her on the most upsetting guessing game—Lena Moon. Hello, welcome to the couch.

Lena Moon: Thank you so much. It’s such a pretty couch.

Annie Louey: It is very nice. You feel like royalty or like you’re in therapy.

Lena Moon: Sometimes it goes that way as well. I wish my therapist’s couch was this nice. I’d be concerned if she was dressed how I’m dressed though. Today we’re channeling Maid of Honor or Matron of Honor. Do you know the difference?

Annie Louey: I learned the difference. If you’re a maid of honor, you’re single. And if—

Lena Moon: And I was rude by accident and made you look at it.

Annie Louey: You’re still not the rudest guest I’ve ever spoken to.

Lena Moon: Oh really? Well, we’ll see if we can change that.

Annie Louey: I’m very excited to talk to you because the last time I spoke to you, you were on my web series, and it was talking about funerals. Yes. And you shared with me some dramatic stories. Please tell us the best one from there as a recap.

Lena Moon: It’s so funny because I was thinking about this and I realized I have some stories maybe about some of my family stuff to tell today, and the last time we spoke I told you about my mom’s wake and about how my family got so drunk—not the kids, the boomers like my aunts, uncles, everyone. They got so drunk that they got us kicked out of the pub we were in. It was a pretty forgiving pub. It wasn’t hard to get kicked out of this pub.

Annie Louey: We went to the pub to talk about what had happened, and they’re very chill there. And your family, you must have so many family members just causing a ruckus.

Lena Moon: Yeah. Going behind the bar at one point because someone wasn’t serving them quickly enough. And there was someone doing an open mic music set or like they were just there to be the musical entertainment. And my family kept asking for requests, very loudly. It was just a real mess.

Annie Louey: And so today we brought you to this show to talk about messy weddings and unexpected chaos that’s happened to you. Even though you’re not married, you’ve been at quite a few weddings.

Lena Moon: Have. Yes.

Annie Louey: What’s your experience so far?

Lena Moon: So, I mean, obviously been to very good ones and bad ones. Um, last year I did three in a month, which was, I think, some kind of epic wedding marathon.

Annie Louey: I don’t even do three weddings a month as a celebrant. It’s a lot.

Lena Moon: Okay. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So that was a lot, I guess I’m getting to that age now where everyone’s, we’re all kind of early thirties. We’re starting, it’s starting to happen, you know, and people may be not as many artists I know doing it. They’d rather spend that money on rent, but like I’ve been to quite a few or people starting to get engaged and cute backyard weddings and, you know, the chaos ones.

Annie Louey: I don’t think people know how much money is spent as a guest because that is such an expensive month for you. That’s three outfits. Three different gifts or money.

Lena Moon: They were in America as well. Destination wedding. Destination wedding. It was weird because the first one was the reason we went. And then we got invited to one in Brisbane on the way home. So it was, we’ll bookend it. Like I’ll go to that one, then that one. But then I managed to go to TwitchCon in the middle and I got surprise wedding invited because we were in Vegas and—

Annie Louey: You didn’t know they were getting married.

Lena Moon: No, I saw them, they’re streamer friends. And we were at the like, they threw this huge party on the first night of TwitchCon for all the people who were there. And you go to this big party, it was at this huge bowling alley place, and I ran into a friend of mine who had only known, like you’ve seen people in real life for the first time, which is wild.

And I ran into a friend of mine, and they were like, oh my gosh, it’s so nice to see you, it’s so nice to see you. Do you want to come to my wedding tomorrow? It’s like, yeah.

Annie Louey: How good is the internet? You’ve got friends now close enough that they want to have you at their wedding last minute.

Lena Moon: Last minute.

Annie Louey: How many guests were there?

Lena Moon: It was sweet because they live streamed it, which is just so sweet. Mind-boggling to me. It’s so streamer. I love it. Yeah. Like all those parts, like Vegas wedding last minute, like invited, live streamed, invited all of their Twitch friends and some community members who wanted to come and the kind of the varied, outfits based on like, who knew it was going to happen.

I was like, I already had a bridesmaid outfit from the wedding I’d been to two weeks before. So yeah, I mean, it was wild. And the first question I had for them was okay, Vegas wedding. Are you getting married by Elvis? And they said, actually like Elvis is like a little bit more expensive, which is so funny to me now that the meta has grown to the point where it’s actually more expensive to get, like this sort of tacky you know Elvis guy?

Annie Louey: Yeah. You can’t afford tacky Elvis anymore.

Lena Moon: Yeah. It’s like that’s more expensive. So they got married by. The guy who clearly plays Elvis, but just in a suit. And so he had like, yeah, yeah.

Annie Louey: I mean, how, already looks like you’re just paying for some gel and some sideburns.

Lena Moon: Well, the sideburns are already there cause he clearly isn’t taking those off. So it was. The same Elvis hair. What you are paying the 300 for is like a bigger collar and him doing a voice.

Annie Louey: Last year I got an inquiry. I did the wedding, but they wrote in the inquiry that they initially wanted an Elvis impersonator but he wasn’t available so they got me.

Lena Moon: What, what, how do, how do you even take that?

Annie Louey: I just go, I’ll take the work, sure, but I have a lot of questions.

Lena Moon: You’re like, I’ve got an Elvis.

Annie Louey: Yeah, why don’t you, yeah. I still want to do a costume wedding, that’s one of my dreams is to do a Shrek wedding in particular. Really? Yeah, I just think that would be so funny. I think I got inspired because my younger sister for markup day, they all dressed up as Shrek. They were five or six Shrek.

Lena Moon: They were all Shrek? Okay, so not even like—

Annie Louey: No, there was no, so they wanted to be, yeah, you know, protagonist, main character energy, as the kids say. So they all went as Shrek. And I just think like, that would be so funny. I want to use the face paint and I want to be a different color.

Lena Moon: But your dream is to be Shrek at a Shrek wedding. I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think if you’re at a Shrek wedding, someone in the wedding party, Shrek.

Annie Louey: God damn it. That would steal my limelight.

Lena Moon: You’re going to have to have your own wedding.

Annie Louey: Yeah. But a shrek’s wedding. A Shrek-sy celebrant. It’s very catchy, you know,

Lena Moon: Imagine that. Imagine them being like, we’re doing a Shrek wedding, but we don’t want to be the main character. Yeah. The main character from the film.

Annie Louey: Often people are shy on their big day. They actually want me to take the attention off them. So I will do that.

Lena Moon: You’ll fall on that sword.

Annie Louey: I would. Yeah. Yeah. But then tell me about how, how you live stream a wedding because this is a foreign concept to me. Do they, do they?

Lena Moon: Yeah. I mean, it was just, they, because we’re all, um, amazing tech people, they just had their own gear. So just like a camera, uh, you just need, there are all sorts of things you can get for kind of like IRL streams is what they call. So in real life streams, cause people do stuff like put a backpack on and walk through Japan and just stream.

Annie Louey: That’s a stream.

Lena Moon: Yeah. And so there’s all this gear you can get for it. So they had all of that, but I think my favorite part about that particular day shower was not Elvis. Uh, was instructed to use their Twitch handles instead of their actual names as part of the ceremony.

Annie Louey: It’s not legal here in Australia. If you did that it wouldn’t be valid as a married couple you have to use your full legal name.

Lena Moon: Really no, they, they were, it literally is just like, so do you take no hat, no play to, to, uh, you know, for the rest of your life, uh, Mr. Jangles. Like, it’s just like, you know, like

Annie Louey: What if you change your handle?

Lena Moon: I guess. I guess you’re not married anymore, but also like, it’s very hard because like, you know, taking a surname, do you take like the numbers part of the, do you know how do you blend that? But yeah. Um, it was so lovely. It was actually, I really, uh, I always thought maybe I wanted to get Vegas. I was, I was like the idea of like eloping and I, I think I’m glad I went now and saw someone else do it and had that feeling of like, I think I would want my, maybe my friends and family there. But if, if we did all of it, if we’re all away together and it was a fun adventure like that, but I think that was like the one thing that was missing for me.

Annie Louey: I mean, you were invited and you’re practically a stranger.

Lena Moon: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Annie Louey: You don’t want that for your wedding.

Lena Moon: It was so them, like it was so lovely. And then, yeah. They, and they loved it. They were so stoked to have all their friends there. And I feel closer to them for getting to go. And then, you know, to have a reception, it felt like a movie, like they looked gorgeous and had a little wedding dress. And then we went to the food court of the Venetian, which is one of the fancier strip casinos and cause it looks all like Greco Roman Venetian. And we had like 15 vodka sauce pasta that was pretty gross. And then, you know, bought margaritas that were like big shake weights that had been like, do you know, do you remember shake weights? Yeah. They look like that, but bigger and full of margarita, just like frozen margarita.

Annie Louey: How do you drink out of that? Where?

Lena Moon: Oh, you are just, you’re just using it as a weapon by the, like you, you’re just rolling around with this huge thing all night and there’s a big straw and you, you look ridiculous, but you’re like, I’m in Vegas. I’m at a Vegas reception, wedding reception, uh, rolling around with this giant shake weight. Trying to get into.

Annie Louey: You just throw all the rules out the window.

Lena Moon: Oh, nothing. I don’t think, I do believe that Vegas is lawless. Like, it’s its own, it’s another planet.

Annie Louey: And they hadn’t planned to go to a reception per se. It was all, let’s come here, buy your own drinks, let’s have the best time.

Lena Moon: Yeah, we’re driving down. We’re driving down to Vegas for TwitchCon, and on the drive down from LA, we’ve decided we’re getting married. And we’re just gonna invite a bunch of people.

Annie Louey: That is so bonkers. Yeah. I feel I am getting all the goss about how weddings work in America, because often people ask me if it’s hard to become a celebrant, because they’ve seen too many American movies and reality TV shows where they get drunk, and then they go online. And they’re like, Oh, I got certified and I’m like, actually you had to do a full legal course, but here it sounds like you can just,

Lena Moon: If you look enough like Elvis, you’re allowed to be a celebrant.

Annie Louey: Well, obviously I look a lot like elvis. That’s why I’m getting a lot of inquiries. And you’ve not just been, I guess, at a wedding overseas. You’ve done a few here where you’re in the bridal party. Tell me about that.

Lena Moon: Yeah. Okay. So. Here’s where the fun family stuff starts. I was, I want to take you back to the magical time of 2001.

Annie Louey: Yeah, you’re a similar age to me, so how old are you in 2001?

Lena Moon: I would be about, so graduated, I’d be in grade 4 or 5. So, yeah,

Annie Louey: so little baby primary school Lena to a wedding

Lena Moon: and I’m actually going to be one of the flower girls, which is so exciting. Um, it’s for my uncle, he’s marrying my aunt and on the Gold Coast and the wedding is going to be on New Year’s Eve. Um, which is so many words in a sentence that should raise any of those

Annie Louey: individually are already a riot. You’re on the Gold coast, it’s New Year’s, it’s a wedding.

Lena Moon: Yeah, there’s a lot of things happening. I just remember getting fitted for my dress that was this like hot pink, like just like this very, it was just, I just remember just feeling so weird. I’m not, I’ve never been. Particularly dress wearer, nevermind just this thing that was so eye catching and they were like, and what, you know, don’t worry, Lena, we’ll glam it up. And I was like, it’s already too much and so then they’re putting like, um. Like gold ribbon down it. And we’re going to be wearing gold jiffies, what they were called at the time. I, they’re just ballet, um, they were so uncomfortable. I remember because like, you are supposed to break them in and I, they like ended up like just blistering my feet all night and I will never forget on the day when I went in to get my hair and makeup done, what they did was they took rows of my hair and like. plaited it, like, so, which is not good. And then it had little, like, these little like push pin with like very bad diamonds on them. So I had like little diamonds pushed into all of this to about here with like this gold headband that was too tight for my head, but I had to wear it. And then my hair was crimped.

Annie Louey: What is going on? This is like the wedding. It’s too much, even on your head. Yeah.

Lena Moon: Yes. It’s a beautiful metaphor for the wedding. Yeah. So you can imagine that’s how I’m dressed. Like that’s the. That’s the tone we’re setting.

Annie Louey: Was there a, a page boy equivalent?

Lena Moon: No, there was just two of us that looked like that. There were two flowers. Oh, there might’ve been a page boy. I mean, all I just, my biggest memory of this whole day was how uncomfortable I was. It’s like my head hurts, my feet hurt. Every time I try to sit down, they’re like, The little split on the back because I don’t know how to sit down in dresses. I kept sitting down wrong and splitting the split higher and higher.

Annie Louey: You’re just a kid though.

Lena Moon: I’m just a kid. Yeah. Yeah. And so I ended up splitting it like pretty much right up to just under my butt. Uh, I was a total rat bag. And, um, the wedding itself, I think one of my favorite parts is my family’s Scottish and it was in this little chapel, super humid. So my hair was crimped to be frizzy, but it was frizzy anyway. And as part of the wedding procession, we had a bagpipe player, which is Pretty awesome. I love bagpipes, but where I don’t love bagpipes is in a very small chapel.

Annie Louey: Oh, yeah, it’s so freaking loud, and I talk about this in my comedy, but I lived with a bagpiper. So imagine how contained that space is. Yeah. Right above your head.

Lena Moon: Yeah, that’s true.

Annie Louey: I know this too well. So you don’t need to preach to the converted.

Lena Moon: Yeah, there’s no turning bagpipes down.

Annie Louey: You can’t even when you’re warming up, it’d be like, Uh, like that’s the warm up.

Lena Moon: Yeah. It’s so funny. It’s like, cause I feel like even with like other wind instruments, you can kind of just like, not go as hard.

Annie Louey: Yeah, like a trumpet. You’ve got a little muter thing, right?

Lena Moon: Yeah. But this was like no full bagpipes, tiny chapel. And I. I will never forget everyone doing that at the same time.

Annie Louey: Cause it’s like putting their hands in their ears.

Lena Moon: Yeah, and then, uh, and you know, I think, you know, like we’ve talked about this with, uh, funerals as well. I think like, I love events that have gravitas and you’re meant to be serious and it’s meant to be beautiful and things don’t. I love it when things are okay.

Annie Louey: It’s so much pressure and that’s when things can go wrong so easily. But that’s comedy as well. It’s that tension and release, right? Yeah. There’s so much tension.

Lena Moon: Yeah. And I just remember like, Me, the kid not being allowed to laugh at everyone, pretending like their ears weren’t bleeding, like just sitting there like, Oh, look at them.

Annie Louey: It’s so beautiful.

Lena Moon: Coming down the aisle. It’s so, um, what a lovely day, just like a slow bleed from the ear. So that was so funny. And then this is where it starts to really kick off and become a story about my family. But we go to the reception. Uh, again, New Year’s Eve. Um, the, the, the, the only details I really remember before the big kickoff was, you’re not allowed to go, please don’t, please don’t get drunk and swim in the canals because there are like, yeah, they were like, yeah, I don’t know. It was like a river. They’re like, don’t. And I was like, that shouldn’t have to be said, like, why is that?

Annie Louey: You are the wisest person at this wedding.

Lena Moon: I remember being like, that’s so weird. They asked us not to swim at night, um, on New Year’s. And then everyone got so drunk, um, at the wedding that they forgot to serve the dessert.

Annie Louey: That’s my favorite part of a wedding though. I’d be, I’d be mad.

Lena Moon: Dessert.

Annie Louey: Dessert.

Lena Moon: Yeah. But also like, you think that made you mad? This is where it gets a little bit, maybe not suitable for work.

Annie Louey: That’s fine. It’s not work.

Lena Moon: Yeah. But like, basically what I know happened was someone in my aunt’s family said something disparaging about their niece. And their niece’s, um, sexual proclivities, I guess is the word.

Annie Louey: Is the niece the bride?

Lena Moon: No, just another family member. And that ends up in like a screaming match. And then the shouting turns to fist fight, and then the fist fight turns to someone putting their foot through a plate glass window and ending up in the ER. And we’d gone home by this point, so all the information that I got about this wedding was from my uncle coming into our room the next day and being like, You’re not allowed to tell anyone this. So had you already gone back to your motel room at that point? You’re not allowed to tell anyone. We’d seen some of the real messiness.

Like there was like puking all the, the beauty of, um, New Year’s Eve. Uh, but this particular plate glass window incident had happened later. Cause they took my, my mom took me home, but my dad and stuff had stayed. So there was a lot of like, they came home and they’re like, man, I got. Weird. It got real weird.

And then my uncle comes in the next day and he’s like, you’re not, we’re going to the brunch and we’re not to repeat this.

Annie Louey: We’re just pretending that never happened.

Lena Moon: Yeah, but this is what happened. In case you see these people and wonder why they are.

Annie Louey: Yeah, but if the man has a giant, you know. moon boot, a cast or something, you’re supposed to just ignore it.

Lena Moon: Yeah, that’s exactly why he came over. Cause he’s like, they’re going to look real roughed up. And you don’t ask.

Annie Louey: These are your blood relatives, don’t ask.

Lena Moon: Yeah, don’t, you’re not, we’re not doing that. And so we go and there is, it wasn’t even a, it was a woman in a, in a full like cast on crutches. And so we’re just clocking who got in the fight by based

Annie Louey: on what they did. You know, you’ve got like hands covered in cast, eyebrows.

Lena Moon: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re like, okay, so I think that one punched that one. I mean, it’s so messy. It’s like, I just, I guess like my family’s chaotic, but I don’t think we’ve ever been like. Brawl chaotic, you know,

Annie Louey: you reached a new level.

Lena Moon: We did

Annie Louey: unlocked a new level that day.

Lena Moon: Yeah, I think, and we, you know, we, we signed it with a marriage certificate. Like we sealed it with a marriage certificate.

, in blood. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, I mean, it’s an all-timer. I really,

Annie Louey: I want to go to any wedding or funeral you’re going to, because that always ends in some kind of disaster.

Lena Moon: Yeah. Yeah. We know how to party or we don’t. I don’t know, it’s, it’s like, we can, but we can’t.

Annie Louey: Yeah, someone needs to say, you know, no one needs to get seriously injured or kicked out for it to be a good time.

Lena Moon: I would agree with you. Yeah, I would agree with you that that is, um, that’s true.

Annie Louey: But it’s bad for comedy though.

Lena Moon: It is really bad for comedy.

Annie Louey: You should continue on the path that you’ve started. Yeah.

Lena Moon: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I hope they keep doing stuff like that.

Annie Louey: Wedsure episode of wedding disasters, breaking you out in a cold sweat. You can’t control brawling family members, but you can give yourself peace of mind with Wedsure’s wedding insurance. Visit Wedsure.com.au for more information.

So we’ve reached the point of the chat where I want to introduce you to a story of someone else’s wedding disaster. And I wonder if this is as bad as what you’ve just told me. I feel like it’s not even. This is from Reddit. Yep. A recent couple of mine thought it would be cool to have an owl fly down the aisle with the ring tied to its foot. Lovely. The only thing that overlooked was the massive mirror at the ceremony side of the room, which to the bird just looked like more room. So the groom is standing there with the leather glove on his hand, waiting for the owl to deliver the ring. The owl flies past him at speed and like, Oh. Wile E. Coyote cartoon splats against the mirror and starts to slide down towards a bunch of lit candles. Oh dear. I think expecting my last shot to be of a burning bird flying around the room. Luckily it missed the candles, but did then proceed to fly around the room for about 10 minutes with all in attendance.

Their heads were moving in unison, watching it. And the poor groom standing there with the leather glove is still held up waiting for this poor creature to land with the ring. So I think this person must’ve been a wedding photographer and they were taking photos of the entire cursed scene.

Lena Moon: Oh, that’s incredible. He’s just like, come Hawke, please. Yeah.

Annie Louey: Pathetically with a glove on and the bird never comes.

Lena Moon: Oh, it’s so rough. I mean, what do they say in showbiz? Never work with animals or kids. Yeah. And that’s all a wedding is. That’s just ring bearers of children. And like, some people use their pooches and stuff.

Annie Louey: Yeah. I have worked with quite a few dogs and most of them have been, well behaved, but there’s always a curve ball where they don’t expect, um, how the dog is going to go. So one of them thought they’ve got a video message, a GoPro on the dog’s back and it would go around greeting guests and you could record a message off the GoPro. Except they didn’t expect that the dog was going to be very food motivated. It spent the whole wedding with its head inside a bin. So they had no footage.

Lena Moon: Oh, beautiful memory. An old, yeah, an old banana peel. That’s so funny.

Annie Louey: There was another one where the, recently the greyhound was a rescue and it was a, a hot day, but it’s when it gets excited, it starts chattering. So its teeth were like, and everyone was like, is the dog okay? It seems stressed and like, it’s, it’s always like that.

Lena Moon: Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing. It’s like, even this story, it’s sort of just like, well, I mean, look, compared to the one I told, that’s like, it’s terrible. I think it’s worse because I love animals, people beating each other up. You guys know better. Yeah. An animal flying into itself. Devastating.

Annie Louey: Yeah, it is.

Lena Moon: Um, but, and like, I, that’s the thing. My cat, if I tried to involve my cat in anything in my life, it is the most indifferent, and I know cats and dogs are different, but like, I, my cat would ruin a wedding, and, and half my friends who have dogs, I feel like their dogs are these like beautiful, cause my friends are, you know, love rescuing animals, a lot of their dogs are very chaotic, and I just, you’re just asking for like,

Annie Louey: Yeah, you need to have someone minding the animal on the day as well, but people do love their cats. And I saw a video of a guy who takes his five cats on holiday to Europe and has a special cat backpack.

Lena Moon: Can I go, can I be one? Yeah.

Annie Louey: So I think there’s definitely been weddings out there involving cats. You just know it. Like this could be a scratching post. This whole thing could be a cat wedding.

Lena Moon: Is that the dog’s the weirdest animal you’ve encountered? Is it?

Annie Louey: Yeah. The only animal, to be honest, no one else is. Yeah. I haven’t had anyone wanting to bring their parrot to a wedding.

Lena Moon: Yeah, okay.

Annie Louey: I would welcome it though.

Lena Moon: I just think not enough people own parrots. I think that’s the first problem.

Annie Louey: It makes us look a little crazy. Bird people we’re a little unhinged.

Lena Moon: My friend had a free roaming, um, parakeet Yeah. In their house, and I hated having sleepovers there. Oh, because you’d just wake up with a bird in your hair.

Annie Louey: Yeah. That is weird. Yeah, because I used to have a, a lorikeet and. Uh, inside the house. They can’t be trained not to shit everywhere.

Lena Moon: No. Yeah. That was another flaw in the plan of this bird. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, that’s wild. Maybe I’m going to, I mean, I’m considering now a Vegas wedding with like a. horse

Annie Louey: You know, if you, if you need, I’m happy to play Elvis. I’m very qualified as we have seen.

Lena Moon: Or Shrek,

Annie Louey: just one or the other. That’s all I’m offering.

Lena Moon: I’ll just dress up as like, just like the most obscure, just a fairytale character and be like, no, it’s Shrek.

Annie Louey: I’m in the background of Shrek. Well, this is kind of like the fairy godmother there. I think people get inspiration from TV and movies when it comes to their weddings.

Lena Moon: A hundred percent. Yeah.

Annie Louey: Owls make me think Harry Potter. Maybe they’re Harry Potter fans. Oh God, I have an owl.

Lena Moon: I love, I love a Harry Potter wedding. Cause it just like, nothing would date your wedding more than those sorts of like themed weddings. Yeah. And like, imagine doing that. And they’re not like, there are all those like photos online of like people or like. Like shows that I used to watch of people who do like, they look at all their old photos and they’re like, wow, I got married in the two thousands therefore everything was two thousands. Yeah. Like I thought silver and pale blue were the two colors that I should use. Like there’s all these regrets. I love that. I love that sort of timestamp on a wedding. And like, for that, I find I like, I’m obsessed with like, I love Love is Blind. And like, just like, I love weddings. I love love. I’ll say that. But I also love shows that. Like, just make a mockery of these things, because it’s not like we’re doing that with funerals. It’s not like we’re doing like, Hey, this is the, you get a funeral in a day show. Like, we’re only doing that with weddings. Yeah. Oh my God. That would be very funny.

Annie Louey: I mean, a lot of funerals can be planned in a day because you’re freaking out. You don’t have any time.

Lena Moon: Yeah.

Annie Louey: But yeah, weddings that’s been commercialized. You can have a reality TV show. Love is blind. They do always end with a wedding.

Lena Moon: That’s the whole point. It’s all leading up to the hype. And it’s the most ridiculous thing in the whole world. They get put in a box, they trauma dump on someone, and then they get engaged before they see them, and then they have to pretend they’re into it for a while, and then still make it to the altar. And those Those weddings, the thing, actually, what I love about those weddings is that they’re very cookie cutter.

Like, I love weddings that are celebrations of the people that are getting married, right? Like, I want to see like the most like true form of two people coming together. I want it to be a real celebration of these people. What I don’t understand is like, there’s this, you can pick from the same dresses, but in different color. Or you, and it’s the same, I don’t know, like there’s just these sort of things that I’m like, why wouldn’t you make it you?

Annie Louey: Yeah, we’re in the age of personalizing your wedding. Yeah. These people, they, they go to a chapel that the TV show has. arranged for them. They wear the same, pretty much like very similar. You have to have the white dress because that’s what we expect. Yeah. And then you watch them, some of them get rejected. Like, why do we do that? Like, is that your favorite part?

Lena Moon: I, I cry in those shows all the time, like all the time. And not because of the people getting rejected. It’s for the people who are going through with it, because there is some part of my brain chemistry that believes Love can happen like that.

Annie Louey: You work in the entertainment industry and you still believe.

Lena Moon: I know. I’ve worked in reality TV and I still believe. And so that like, for me, it’s like the dad doing the speech that’s like, these are our families coming to you. I’m like, yeah, it is you guys.

Annie Louey: I met two days ago, but yeah. All right.

Lena Moon: It’s like they are coming together. It might not be for long, but they are. And these people seem to be supported in that. I love it when people get supported to make decisions. So sue me, uh, don’t sue me. Okay. Um, also like, yeah, I just, I love, I do. I love these shows. I love, I love making a mockery of something that is, I just, I just don’t know why. I think it’s amazing that we’ve decided that’s where we’ve gone with weddings.

Annie Louey: Do you go and stalk them afterwards on social media? Yes.

Lena Moon: I am in a very, very, very weird, weird trend of following all the cast of Love is Blind while I’m watching it. And then I, like six months later, I’m like, who’s this person? And I unfollow them, but there are a few that leave a mark and then. But not long enough for me to keep them.

Annie Louey: Do you watch the after shows as well? What do you call those? They’re like

Lena Moon: the reunion,

Annie Louey: the reunion. Yeah.

Lena Moon: Yeah. They’re the best part because they’re the bits where people come together and go. So we did make it to the altar and then, um, he. They made me go first and I said, yes, and then he said no. Um, and then I cried for three hours and, um, anyway, we’re still sleeping together. Like it’s, that’s always how it goes. Like if the, if someone gets rejected and then they get reached out to that person who’s always going to be like, yeah, I mean, like you really hurt me. Maybe you can try a

Annie Louey: few unexpected hookups between them and yeah. Yeah, there wasn’t the partner that you had gone to down the aisle with.

Lena Moon: Yeah, like, and I think that maybe my history with messy weddings is why I love this, but yeah, I just, I think it’s so funny. I think it’s so, it’s like what we, like I said before, I just, I love taking something expensive and sacred and that really can be so beautiful. Like I’ve been to weddings that like, one of my favorite things recently was my friends. , they got married and it was so them and they, uh, everyone got a raffle ticket when the, um, the wedding started. And if your raffle ticket was called, you got to be one of the people who witnessed Oh yeah. The wedding.

Annie Louey: I have heard of this. Yeah.

Lena Moon: And I, I just thought that was, so these guys, and then they, you know, their vows were a mad Libs game that everyone had been playing all day. So we put all this stuff, it’s Mad Libs. Mad Libs is like. Where you go, like you get a box that says like noun and everyone puts a noun in it and then they pull the noun out and so they’ll be reading like a cookie cutter, like vowel, but it will be like, I, Blank you so much. And it would, you know, and then they would be like, I hate you so much. Like, and so they, that’s how they put, yeah. And I mean, because I think they already know how they feel about each other and they know that they love each other and they, uh, you know, that’s what I loved about that particular wedding. Cause it was like, no, these two people have sort of. It’s not a show, it’s not TV, it’s, it’s real and they, you know, and you know, it’s not to say that I, I like going to comedians weddings because I like seeing them. We’re all so bad at being vulnerable, like, there’s a vulnerability to performing, but like, I like going and seeing them being themselves. And, and I think that’s when you get to see that in the vows is like this, just when they talk about, I love watching people talk about loving someone.

Annie Louey: Yeah, that’s beautiful. Cause when comedians, when they have their weddings, they’re going vulnerable, but for the normies, they’re putting on a show.

Lena Moon: Yeah. I guess I never thought about it like that. But yeah, it’s like, it is, it’s so, um, it’s such a different muscle, just like that sort of like talking about, I just, I love, love, I’m the person who cries even if I barely know the person. As soon as I walk down the aisle, I’m like, my favorite moment at a wedding is when like, you know, you’ll stand up and you’re supposed to turn around and like see the bride usually. But I always turn back and look at the groom.

Annie Louey: Yeah, that’s always what I’m doing as well, because I have the best view in their house and I can see everyone and do everything. And when the groom cries,

Lena Moon: I’m like, I’m out, tap me out. I’m, I’m weeping if the groom’s crying. Cause they do that thing where they go,

Annie Louey: We’re trying to control it.

Lena Moon: Yeah. And you’re like, cry boy. I love men’s tears. Yeah. It’s, it’s intoxicating. Um, yeah, that, that’s like, that’s why you go to weddings. Like, yeah.

Annie Louey: to watch men cry If you could have one thing at your wedding and we’ll wrap up on this, what would it be your most wanted item?

Lena Moon: Ooh, that’s hard. I don’t know. I think, I don’t think I have even really a funny answer because the earnest answer to that is like, okay, you know, it depends on who I’m marrying and probably something that is significant to both of us. Um, maybe if I could have one thing at my wedding, it would be, A yard that I own attached to, a house that I own. . . I would like that.

Annie Louey: Yeah. So property, we would like to secure a property.

Lena Moon: Yeah. Like just your basic millennial wishes to own a property. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Annie Louey: That’s great. That’s fair enough. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for joining us, Lena.

Lena Moon: Thanks for having me.

Annie Louey: Always great to catch up. And thank you so much for joining me on Wedding Disasters, presented by wedsure.com.au wedding insurance. I’ve been your host, Annie Louie. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast and jump onto the Wedsure socials for the latest, and visit wedsure.com.au for your wedding insurance.