The bride glides down the aisle, her white dress gleaming in the muted candle light. The groom and his attendants add contrast with traditional black tuxedos. Bride’s maids and maid-of-honor stand in ballet-length dresses of soft blue. The ring bearer and flower girl giggle as they wiggle beside the adults.

The preceding paragraph contains details full of imagery. Any reader can “see” the bride’s trek down the aisle. However, are the details given the ones readers want? The words add nothing but unneeded padding to a newspaper account. For a story, the information may add needed atmosphere, yet it could be a distraction that stops the flow of the story. The details given wouldn’t help prepare for the wedding. Let’s examine, according to the purpose, what details are needed about a wedding.

First of all newspaper articles need the facts, only the facts, as Sergeant Joe Friday stated in the Dragnet series. The facts concerning a wedding include several things: the names of the bride and groom, names of their parents, their home towns, names of attendants, brief description of gowns, and a few other personal details such as where the couple work or attend college. Imagery, such as would be found in poetry, is avoided.

In a journal or diary entry, any kind of detail wanted can be used lavishly. Imagery, atmosphere, thoughts, feelings, or moods are vital additions to such writings. The writer can pour any and all impressions as well as physical details into words to be recorded.

Stories of other types need only the amount of detail to give readers a mental picture required for the purpose of the plot. A writer should avoid information which would derail the flow of the story. If the reader would skip the exposition, then the details are not needed and are wasted effort. The word-painting of a wedding should be as long as necessary and include enough detail to make the reader “see” the event to the extent required for the story to be complete.

Details should be exact and listed for preparation for the wedding itself. Someone, usually the wedding planner (whether a paid professional, a friend of the bride, or even the bride herself), keeps track of what needs to be done and has been completed. The wedding planner may have one list while the bride has another, a personal one. Keeping track of details before the wedding makes the event smoother.

Therefore specific details have their place, planning for a wedding rather than writing about it. The purpose is what determines the extent of the information used. A “detailed” wedding plan results in a flawless, or nearly flawless, wedding. A too-detailed news release could mean an article not printed. Too much detail can halt the flow of a story.

A retired teacher, Vivian Gilbert Zabel has a portfolio on http://www.writing.com, and she has two books, Hidden Lies and Other Stories and Walking the Earth: Life’s Perspectives in Poetry on Amazon.com. This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.Prye.Com/ which is a site for Wedding Invitations.