CDC offers survival guide … to weddings

Have an out-of-control bride on your hands? Trying to escape a tornado that has rudely interrupted your wedding? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some tips for you.

The U.S. agency, tasked with promoting and protecting public health, has unveiled a tongue-in-cheek wedding survival guide similar to its emergency preparedness campaign last year for the imminent zombie apocalypse.

"Planning a wedding isn't much different from planning for a disaster," Caitlyn Shockly writes on the CDC's Public Health Matters blog. "Just remember: Get a kit, make a plan and be informed ."

While it may seem ridiculous, the guide does offer some practical tips. For example, the CDC suggests equipping the bride's "go-bag" with safety pins, spare makeup, snacks, water, a first-aid kit, extra cash, important documents and, yes, sedatives. In case of inclement weather or even a tornado, make sure you know what the venue's emergency plan is.

But how do you deal with the potential threat of a bridezilla? "Try to remember your loved one is probably stressed out and will soon return to her caring self after the wedding is over," the blog says. "Be supportive and have some bottled water from your emergency kit and a box of chocolate on hand." Because every woman can be simply appeased with chocolate.

Not everyone is amused with the CDC's attempts at levity. Jezebel's Katie J.M. Baker argues the guide perpetuates sexist wedding stereotypes. She adds that she gets enough wedding-centric nonsense from magazines, television, movies and even her grandparents. "Do I really need to get it from the government, too?" she writes.

And as Scott Hensley points out on NPR's health blog, the guide presumes that "every bride is going to be an emotional basket case, requiring an army of people to attend to her needs. There are plenty of cases of rock-solid brides having to deal with jittery grooms."

What do you think of the CDC's guide? Is its use humour an effective strategy, or is it just sexist?