Wedding comics, past & present
Plus - paintings from a weekend away
It was our third (?!) wedding anniversary at the end of June, so I thought I’d share some of the wedding-related illustrations I’ve done over the years.
I hated wedding planning - it was so finicky, expensive, stressful, and full of *gross unexamined heteronormative dynamics* at every stage that made me feel like a little puppet of a woman!!! - pretty much the opposite of how I ever want to spend my time. The original wedding invitations I designed reflected this mindset. They were generic and “safe” because I was so overwhelmed with decision fatigue, and bogged down with how a wedding SHOULD look - pretty, traditional, feminine, ughhhh
A little comic i drew about it:
We had initially planned for the wedding to be in the summer of 2020. This did not go forward, for obvious reasons. Terror and upheaval aside, I was very relieved to be able to put off wedding planning. We did a seaside elopement instead and it was perfect - highly recommend eloping, pandemic or not!
On our first wedding anniversary, I drew a New Yorker daily cartoon that was among those shortlisted for a Pulitzer! Ha.
We had the actual wedding party in 2022. Nothing mattered anymore, and at this point I’d been a full-time cartoonist for two years (gigantic covid glow-up), so I was emotionally in a place to make wedding things that actually made me feel good.
The program was my favourite.
Most recently, I drew a comic strip about my wedding that appeared in the April 10, 2023 issue of the New Yorker.
Last weekend, we spent the weekend by a lake in Whistler for an anniversary.
It was extremely nice!
We also went to the Scandinave Spa, some of the only true relaxation I have ever experienced as an adult. You can’t talk or use electronics so I just painted, napped and unsuccessfully tried to read a book, when I wasn’t in a sauna or a freezing pool.
Here is a dog we saw on the way back.
And our own dog.
What’s new - I have just finished the first draft of my graphic novel pitch (more on that in the paid Substack this week), which is extremely exciting - AND, later this week, I’m visiting New York for a few days! Excited for lots of friends and drawing and drawing and friends. Keep your eyes on the ‘stack for all the updates.
xo Zoe
I love your anniversary sketches!
Oh man, wedding planning can be so creepy when it comes to ppl insisting that you "have" to X, Y, & Z.
Especially when X,Y, & Z are almost always random, expensive, and highly gendered.
I fell prey to some ideas I didn't fully resonate with because I had never fantasized about a wedding either and therefore often felt confused by it all.
I also drew my own wedding invitations!
I love yours, they are so pretty and professional and the pigeons are really just the icing on the non-specified-event cake!