Every so often a video from someone’s wedding day goes viral. Usually it’s some kind of embarrassing, inappropriate or just blatantly disrespectful moment that’s painfully hard to watch — which also makes it impossible to look away. You know the kind I’m talking about: the insulting vow videos or the awkward trend of bridesmaids handing out “spicy Polaroids” of the bride to the groom.
One of the most common wedding-day-gone-wrong videos — which has survived the America’s Funniest Home Videos era and found continued virality on social media — is the cake smash. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, here’s what I mean:
In this particular video, which has over 30 million views on X, a bride and groom are seen cutting their cake together, and before the first slice has even been tasted, the man grabs his new wife’s head and smashes her face into the cake. While this tradition is nothing new, this one feels especially diabolical because the icing is bright purple. Even worse? When she’s speechless afterward, blinking and seemingly unsure how to react, he howls in her face and pumps his fists.
If this is something that a couple plans to do together ahead of time, that’s a different story. Consensual cake shenanigans are A-okay. But the surprise face smash? I’m really bothered by the whole concept.
For one, plenty of women look forward to their wedding for years — they romanticize it, dream about what they’ll wear walking down the aisle and how they’ll look in the moment. When it actually comes around, why do you think she’d want you to randomly pull a Jekyll and Hyde on her and ruin the moment? Especially given that hair and makeup can cost hundreds — even thousands — of dollars, it’s a clear indication that you lack mutual respect for the person you’ve chosen to spend the rest of your life with. And it’s a bad sign for the future of a marriage you literally just started.
There’s also something repulsive about how comfortable some men seem to feel grabbing their wives in such a manner. And in front of all your friends and family, too? Is that really how you want to be perceived? As the guy who ruined his wife’s hair, makeup and potentially her entire wedding day, all for a laugh?
I’m far from the only one who has a problem with this. There are a lot of theories floating around about how the style of cake-cutting can be an indicator of underlying issues in a relationship. Some wedding photographers have even come out and said that nonconsensual cake smashes are one of the biggest red flags they see at weddings — and that a lot of those relationships have ended in divorce.
This all kind of feels like I’m stating the obvious here, but due to the continued appearance of these videos, I think I have to repeat it: don’t be an asshole and embarrass your wife on your wedding day. Hopefully, if you love and respect your partner enough, forcing her face into multiple tiers of sponge and icing is probably not the first instinct you’ll have as you go to cut the cake together. But if you did this to your wife and she’s miraculously still with you years later, you should probably go apologize right now.
More Like This
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
