The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories Preview – Celebrate Love Your Way

The Sims: My Wedding Stories game pack aims to flesh out how weddings are held in The Sims, as well as the other events that precede it. Screen Rant was able to preview an unfinished version of the pack, which officially releases on February 23rd. The development team’s focus in My Wedding Stories was on player storytelling, with an emphasis on authentic-feeling events and meaningful diverse choices. This latest Sims game pack is one of the most event-focused releases so far, and although the absence of some features is noticeable, the preview gameplay mostly succeeds in facilitating romantic moments.

The Sims: My Wedding Stories game pack is all about celebrating love and crafting romantic narratives. Alongside a new world, the pack adds a slew of new wedding-related events, including some cultural celebrations. All of these events come with new activities, many of which can be performed outside of a wedding as well. New formal clothing items and wedding-related items are available, as well as the new option to set a relationship between two Sims as fiancés while in CAS.

In a special press preview event, producers Rebecca Doyle and Morgan Henry alongside art director Cheyenne Kelsey outlined three key gameplay elements for The Sims: Wedding Stories:

• Find Your Marital Bliss: This pack aims to be the most romantic yet, with a whole new world centered around the celebration of love. The Mediterranean-inspired world of Tartosa is full of beautiful views and spots for lovers to have romantic moments, as well as several different wedding venues and homes for those Sims who wish to reside there permanently.
• Prepare To Party: Now Sims can throw a myriad of events before they say “I do.” Engagement parties, rehearsal dinners, and bach parties can now take place before the big day. Two new cultural celebration events, Chinese tea ceremonies and Indian pre-wedding dance parties, were also highlighted as part of EA’s continuing goal to make The Sims 4 more diverse and inclusive. Married Sims can participate in a vow renewal ceremony.
• Bring Your Vision To Life: Sims can plan their dream wedding by shopping at the many shops in Tartosa, where players can purchase bouquets, wedding cakes, and formal clothes. Players can set a date with the newly expanded calendar and decide what activities will be included in the wedding.

This pack is one of the few to offer a permanently inhabitable world as opposed to a temporary vacation destination. Tartosa is a beautiful world with 2 neighborhoods, 4 uninhabited residential lots, wedding venues, and a Town Hall for immediate marriages. There are also 5 more venues in the game’s gallery in different cultural styles. The world also features new lore that can be learned about through conversational interactions and exploration.

Shopping for Sims’ weddings is very similar to shopping in The Sims 4: Cottage Living expansion pack – vendors can all be found in Tartosa’s town square and utilize the same stall-based retail interactions from previous games, with no shop interiors to speak of. Players have a large amount of choices when it comes to their bouquet and wedding cake. The flower vendor sells both bouquets and individual flowers, and players with the Seasons expansion pack can craft their own floral arrangements for the wedding. The selection of wedding cakes is also fairly robust, and there is a large amount of customization that can be done to the cake’s topper. The wedding apparel store simply opens CAS where new outfits can be chosen, oddly at no cost.

Both before and after Sims walk down the aisle, there are many ways for them to celebrate their love. This game pack has taken the holiday calendar introduced in The Sims 4: Seasons and added several new nuptial events and activities players can plan, including walking down the aisle, dancing, cake cutting, and toasts. Weddings themselves are a beautiful affair which players can customize further through choices besides flowers and cake. Players can choose Sims of honor, a flower pal, officiant, and ring bearer to participate in their wedding day, and create a dress code for everyone attending. A few long-requested features have been added in this game pack: Sims can now slow dance, and players can make all guests sit down for the wedding ceremony.

Players who don’t wish to purchase the pack will still receive some of its features this week with the latest free Sims 4 update. This will add the CAS fiancé option to the base game, as well as several new swatches for existing formal clothing, a French manicure nail polish option, and the ability to adorn Sims with an Indian bindi. The song from the My Wedding Stories trailer will now play on the Romance station on Sims’ stereos. All players can also now build a new lot type: wedding venues.

While The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories succeeds in many ways, it is missing some features that may disappoint fans. Despite the emphasis on wedding planning, there is no addition of any new wedding-related careers for Sims to join. There are also no new deaths or Woohoo locations, which are always fun new additions for players. Wedding options such as objecting during the ceremony are absent as well, which is bound to disappoint players who love creating drama-filled storylines.

Despite these shortcomings, The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories adds robust new features to the game when it comes to weddings. While the diversity and cultural representation in The Sims4 still has a way to go, the inclusion of clothing and traditions from other cultures will help more players be able to see themselves and their culture represented within the game. The Sims franchise is all about players creating their own narratives, and The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories adds many new and unique ways for users to make their own stories.

The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories will release on February 23rd for PC, Mac, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. Screen Rant was invited to a special press preview and given an early-access game code for the purpose of this preview.

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