Welcome to our wedding! On your right you will see the sentient plants, on your left feel free to grab a hand towel from the Lichtenstein-painted lady …
Author and activist Mikki Kendall shared a brief TikTotk wedding video to Twitter, summarizing our gut reaction by asking, “Is the theme of this wedding panic attack? I have questions.”
Is the theme of this wedding panic attack? I have questions pic.twitter.com/SZflkiKfW4
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) May 16, 2021
First things first, kudos to this over-the-top wedding, which appears to be in the Hamptons, for at least seeming to abide by COVID safety measures. The servers and some performers are wearing masks, the artistic antics are all taking place outside, and there is an airy tent for further festivities. Cool! But there’s also a lot happening here that makes for quite the tableau as you walk through a greeting gauntlet.
The people poised in the flower pots making sinuous gestures are a lot, but then you turn and see the hedge people—performers wearing costumes so that they blend into the foliage (until they don’t). If that blink-and-shriek WHAT wasn’t enough, there’s also camouflaged human arms reaching through. I’m sure this is all fine if you were to stumble upon them after too many glasses of champagne.
In case you were curious about the seemingly incongruous polka-dotted lady:
Based on a Lichtenstein painting.
— Melanie Vaxxed-and-Wearing-a-Mask See (@seemomster) May 16, 2021
The video was posted on TikTok by smashceo (Smash Entertainment, tagline “make your event … a smash!”), the account behind a service that offers “unique entertainment for events and parties.” Smash Entertainment was established in 2004 and we love that they say they’re female-owned. Their TikTok page indeed showcases a wide variety of strange and extraordinary events, product launches, and celebrations that feature performances like these as their signature.
There are “living statues” for a Swatch party, living trees that give Ents a run for their money, more plant people for a Sag Harbor Earth Day, voguing “reindeer” on stilts at the Bronx Zoo, and many, many more. The performers who work with Smash Entertainment appear to be incredibly talented and capable of physical feats including difficult acrobatics and dancing within a hula-hoop of fire. Past clients have included everyone from Citigroup to Beyoncé to The Red Cross to The Obamas.
Yet they are not the typical sight you might expect to see when you enter a wedding reception—which I suppose was the point here. The responses to Kendall’s Tweet summarized many of our feelings when we first saw the video.
With apologies, I am herewith rescinding my RSVP, as upon arrival to your blessed nuptials, the hedge attempted to grab me.
— Ahsoka Tano (@AhsokaKnows) May 16, 2021
Especially this one!
It’s the baroque aesthetic of the Hunger Games Capital adopted without any irony. It didn’t work out so well in the films, or in 1770s France.
— Ben Rodgers (@Rodge156068) May 16, 2021
OK, fair enough:
NGL I kind of want to see del Toro wedding planning now.
— GOALIES! (@SparkleTindi) May 16, 2021
Or perhaps more Tim Burton-driven?
The theme is Mars attacks?
— Valerie Complex (@ValerieComplex) May 16, 2021
It’s really that arm that does it.
The arm in the ivy wall! pic.twitter.com/fJmNQ8U7bj
— eee 📎 (@eee1313) May 16, 2021
The invitation:
Bring Your Own LSD— Julia Griffin (@juliacgriffin) May 16, 2021
And to add to our current conversation about vast wealth disparities …
So, about the wealth tax…
— JWMC #BLM (@JWMCArtist) May 16, 2021
The theme is “confiscatory taxes are good”
— ps (@ide_lol_ogy) May 16, 2021
All other things aside, I am very upset that I have never had the opportunity to attend a clown marries clown wedding:
Your experience sounds beautiful; I think this might be different? My instincts say this is a weird wealth-flaunting flex with all the performers uninformed about the “grand vision.” (Who can tell tho?) Clowns marrying clowns sounds like creative indulgence for its own sake
— Free Palestine 🇵🇸 (@FireflyFluff) May 16, 2021
But wait, there’s more! Lest you thought these performers were only there to provide a unique wedding-entrance experience, nope! As we noted, Smash elements like the people undulating in flower pots have been present in other capacities. Check out this event at The Standard Hotel in New York City.
I could not eat like this. I could not pic.twitter.com/HR41pO9jMt
— Melissa Martin (@DoubleEmMartin) May 16, 2021
Many artistic fields have been hard-hit by the pandemic, and so this wedding is also an important opportunity for performing artists to get paid. Though it does raise the question of how one might explain this going forward:
Just thinking about how the performers identify this work on their resumes.
Employer: oh you did the crispin glover
wedding, what role did you playPerformer: oh I was Arm Through Leaf Wall. Ya. Super rewarding work.
— Ohh Hi There (@StillFrettin) May 16, 2021
Of course, not all of the respondents on Twitter were against this sort of over-the-top display.
I just would be so entertained and enthralled at this. I would live to go…panic disorders and all.
— Jamika (she/her) (@JamikaJams) May 16, 2021
I think this is cool as hell. Then again, I want a reception with contortionists, fire eaters, and a vampire theme, soooo…yeah.
— Jeanette *Gini* Ponder (@giniponder) May 16, 2021
And perhaps the only explanation for what’s happening here that makes sense in our book …
Poison Ivy deserves happiness. pic.twitter.com/MF9bJPsl2J
— (((RuggedAmethyst))) (@GrooveSDC) May 16, 2021
In the end, I feel the following tweet best pulls together our disparate reactions:
What in the Edward Scissor Hands meets Beetlejuice’s Handbook for the Dead is going on here?
— Virginia Kase Solomón (@KaseVirginia) May 16, 2021
What do you think? Are you enthralled by the plant people, or might you turn around and run?
(via Smash Entertainment on TikTok, image: screngrab)
