The difference between a Gypsy wedding and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings

From Pop Up Weddings

You’ve probably guessed already that the fairytale frocks and girl-grabbing exploits of Channel 4′s Big Fat Gypsy Weddings are not quite representative of what you can expect to see at most Gypsy weddings. A realistic look at Gypsy weddings though, may still surprise you.

Non-reality TV

We all know that ‘reality TV’ is a bit of a misnomer.

If you were given a camera crew and told to make an outrageous, unmissable TV show about shoelaces, you might just find yourself seeking out the craziest, most bizarre shoelace manufacturer in the country.

You can’t make extraordinary TV by picking ordinary examples, so ‘reality TV’ is an inherently misleading term. A more accurate name would be ‘extreme example TV’.

With Big Fat Gypsy Weddings though, it is not just the name of the genre but also the name of the show that is misleading. The majority of the families featured are Irish Travellers, who are quite distinct from Romany Gypsies.

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