Inspiration vs. Copying

There has been an interesting discussion/drama going on over at MODG's blog this week. If you don't read her blog, you really should, she's hysterical. Anyways, earlier in the week she posted about another bride who essentially copied almost her entire wedding that took place 4 years ago. She even posted side by side picture comparison's (which she later took down per the other bride's request). The other bride had copied all the main components of her wedding including her venue, photographer, cake, dress (yes her DRESS), decor, even down her hairstyle and fur wrap.

Needless to say MODG was a little creeped out and pissed. She had worked hard designing her wedding which was later posted on TheKnot and various other sites including her photographers and for another bride to come in copy almost everything left her understandably upset.

Here's my take, almost every bride uses magazines, wedding shows and the Internet for wedding inspiration and ideas, I know I certainly did. None of my ideas were 100% original (though Kristian thinks they were and that's fine with me). Countless other brides have had photo guestbooks, CD favors, lace wedding dresses and a black/white/pink color scheme. The difference is that I put my own personal touches on those items. While I may have used similar ideas none of those items were exactly like anybody else's (at least that I know of). And more importantly when you look at my wedding as whole it doesn't look exactly like anyone else's.

And here's the thing I wouldn't want it to! Don't get me wrong I see pictures all the time of gorgeous weddings that I covet and in my fantasies would have loved to have. But ultimately I wanted our wedding to reflect US and not anybody else. That's what a wedding is, a personal representation of your relationship. Why would you want to copy someone else's?

I get that some people aren't as creative and haven't been planning their wedding their whole life like some of us but that's no excuse to just see pictures of someone else's wedding and do the exact same thing. Not to be mean but it just shows laziness and lack of personality in my opinion. So many brides works their asses off to make their weddings original and personal that it just baffles me that someone would do something like that.

So what do you think? Where do you draw the line between inspiration and straight up copying? And would you ever copy all the main components of one person's wedding for your own?