Adrian Tomine and Weddings

My name is Christina Kang. Recently, I read a memoir by Adrian Tomine, called Scenes from an Impending Marriage. As someone who usually doesn't read memoirs, this one caught my eye and was definitely an interesting read. It described the struggles and decisions that a couple faces when deciding on the many different aspects of a wedding – more specifically on the wedding of Adrian Tomine and his wife Sarah Brennan. Since I had found that the story showed realism within the troubles and decisions needed to be made in preparation for a wedding, I decided to write my first ever blog on Adrian Tomine. As I was doing some research on him, I learned that Scenes from an Impending Marriage was actually created as a wedding favour for the guests at their wedding, to be something a bit more personal for their guests to enjoy (Tomine, 2011). This was also relayed within the graphic memoir directly, with her request for several strips for their guests.

Recently several friends of mine have been getting engaged, and getting ready to be married so this story gives some idea as to what they must be going through to get ready for their own weddings. As some people say, weddings are for the families and the guests, not for the bride and groom.

Excerpt from "Scenes"

This memoir definitely awakened me to realize how stressful the whole process is for the couple and how much work must be needed to ensure that their wedding goes off without a hitch.

Excerpt from "Scenes"

It also gave me a new-found appreciation for the work that people go through in order to confirm their love for each other in front of their friends and families.

While looking into Adrian Tomine, I found out that he grew up mostly on the west coast of America and moved to New York in 2004 (Terzian, 2012). He mentioned in one interview that he was constantly being asked if he preferred living in New York, or in California. His response to that question was that it wasn't really comparable as when he was living in California, it had been in the same apartment since he was in college and living a ‘collegiate’ life (Terzian, 2012). Meanwhile his decision to move to New York had been with the intention to get married, start a new life and family, leaving behind 30 years of life on the west coast (Terzian, 2012). Therefore as the situations were completely different, it was difficult to say which was better. I found a video on YouTube that uses the songs Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and California Love by 2Pac to show various locations and teams that represent each state.

As mentioned already, the reason he moved to New York was in order to marry his wife, Sarah Brennan, who was already living in the city at the time (Terzian, 2012). It was for this reason that Scenes from an Impending Marriage was created, bringing a short, cute and realistic view of a couple getting ready to be married.