Do you want to add some red carpet glamour to your wedding day? Shannon Nelson at Pierce Mattie Public Relations says that many brides are extending the definition of “something borrowed.”
From Shannon: “Renting a tux is no longer the only thing that is being borrowed for the big day; brides are also taking part in this wedding tradition, but in a whole new way. Just as celebrities don borrowed jewelry and other items for their walk down the red carpet, brides are seeking out retailers who also have a rental option available for their accessory needs. Bag Borrow or Steal is one such retailer that allows jewelry rental from such names as Vera Wang, Miriam Haskell and Chanel to handbags from Rafe New York and Badgley Mischka for as little as $10 a week.”
When wearing glitzy jewelry, it’s essential to wear your hair in an equally glamorous up do. In this video, Joe Carol’s Tolga Ackay creates a gorgeous up do with lots of height and style. He places rose petals into the hair and adds a wonderful tiara.
750 couples will gather in Pittsburgh on February 10 to renew their wedding vows.
This sold-out event, dubbed “Re-Union: The World’s Largest Wedding Vow Renewal Ceremony,” is expected to set the Guinness World Record for the most couples to renew their vows at one time.
The Honorable Luke Ravenstahl will preside over the Sunday evening ceremony.
“This Re-Union event coincides perfectly with the City of Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary in 2008,” said Mayor Ravenstahl. “I’m absolutely delighted to have the honor of presiding over this special, once-, OK, well maybe in this case, twice-in-a-lifetime occasion.”
The event is completely sold out, and the organizers regret that they cannot accommodate those who have not already registered.
The wedding vow renewal ceremony is the brain child of Kitty Julian, director of marketing for Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History and Pittsburgh 250 Committee Member.
“Besides potentially setting a new world record, this is just an ideal way for couples to celebrate their love in a meaningful and unusual way, and celebrate Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary themed ‘Reunions and Homecomings.’”
She said the ceremony was purposefully planned to occur near Valentine’s Day, and noted that some women are planning to wear their wedding dresses. Several families are participating together, with parents and their married children, or with siblings and their respective spouses.
The ceremony takes place in the romantic and elegant Carnegie Music Hall, site of about 60 wedding receptions annually.
Couples for the event are being asked to furnish a copy of their marriage certificates. The number of certificates collected will be the determining factor for the attempt to set the Guinness World Record. The current record - 272 couples - was set September 16, 2007, in Sydney, Australia, breaking the previous record of 232 at Orlando Bike Week set in 2002.
In addition to the thrill of potentially setting a new record, the ceremony will be followed by a champagne and wedding cake reception. All couples will receive a commemorative certificate of participation that is suitable for framing, along with a bag full of gifts and special offers.
“Re-Union: The World’s Largest Wedding Vow Renewal Ceremony” will take place thanks to major sponsors: TWOgether Pittsburgh, one of the most intensive marriage support initiatives in the Pittsburgh area, Great Western Champagne and radio sponsor Star 100.7.
Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History is working on the Re-Union event in partnership with VisitPittsburgh, the official tourism and promotion agency for Allegheny County, which is leading the “Reunion 2008 Initiative” of the Pittsburgh 250th Anniversary Celebration.
When planning your wedding, you should consider having someone in your wedding party or a family member read a love poem, biblical verse or other piece of prose during the ceremony. In making your selection, just make sure that it is not too long. You don’t want to bore your guests!
Here are a few of my favorite choices, which will add a touch of class to both civil and religious wedding ceremonies.
If Thou Must Love Me Elizabeth Barrett Browning
If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Except for love’s sake only. Do not say,
‘I love her for her smile - her look - her way
Of speaking gently, for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day’ -
For these things in themselves, beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee - and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love’s sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love’s eternity.
Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her Christopher Brennan
If questioning would make us wise
No eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
If all our tale were told in speech
No mouths would wander each to each.
Were spirits free from mortal mesh
And love not bound in hearts of flesh
No aching breasts would yearn to meet
And find their ecstasy complete.
For who is there that lives and knows
The secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need
To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?
Then seek not, sweet, the “If” and “Why”
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
And life in me is what you give.
The Art Of A Good Marriage (shortened version)
Wilferd Arlan Peterson
A good marriage must be created.
In marriage the little things are the big things…
It is never being too old to hold hands,
It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day,
It is never going to sleep angry,
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives,
It is standing together and facing the world,
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family,
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways,
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget,
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow,
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful,
It is not only marrying the right person, it is being the right partner.
After all the hard work you put into planning your wedding, you definitely deserve a relaxing honeymoon. As a modern bride, though, you might (just might) end up having to plan that too.
I know you’re excited now. You’re honeymoon is supposed to give you a break from the everyday; it’s supposed to be a time for you and your new hubby to enjoy your first few days (maybe even the first few weeks) of your marriage.
As nice as it would be to go gallivanting all over the world, sometimes that’s not the best option. Do you have a passport? Do you have enough time to attain a passport before your wedding? Do you have an extensive budget to accommodate a Caribbean getaway? Do you have family or work that can be accommodated from afar?
Clearly there are a lot of things to consider before you even decide on the location of your honeymoon! In any case, for one reason or another, it might suit you and your hubby-to-be a little bit better if you choose to remain stateside rather than jetting off to some remote location.
You might be a little disappointed to find you can’t or shouldn’t cross an ocean for your honeymoon, but you really have a lot of options if you choose to stay here in the U.S. Think about it, the United States is home to beaches, mountains, national parks, historical cities, and even islands. Really, it’s a world of endless possibilities if you just use your imagination!
That said, there are certainly a lot of places you could go, but maybe you’re not so sure where you should go. To help you decide, we’ve decided to include the top 10 stateside honeymoon destinations courtesy of About.com. Take a look at these locales and let us know which one you choose! Enjoy!
Hawaii
Las Vegas
Florida
California
Texas
Georgia
Virginia
New York
North Carolina
Colorado
(Note: These top stateside honeymoon destinations were acquired from About’s Vacation Travel Spots USA. Their data was derived according to page hits on About’s Honeymoon information website.)
So maybe you’re approaching that first year and you’re trying to find the perfect gift. Granted, its been a whole year, and you could probably safely give your new husband or wife anything you choose, but why not go traditional?
I should probably practice what I preach, and I, in fact, did not give my husband the traditional paper gift on our first anniversary. I, however, didn’t have such an excellent resource to help me figure out what paper product I should give my honey. I thought the ‘paper anniversary’ meant I’d be stuck giving my sweetie a drawing or poem, and he’s not really into that…
But I was wrong. And so, just so you can be one step ahead of where I was after a year of wedded bliss, here are your 5 most creative paper gifts for that first anniversary:
Paper roses: A gift that lasts forever is always a good one! You can make these yourself (good luck!) or you can order them. Some really nice ones I’ve seen are available at Architect’s Touch Online; check them out for yourself!
Plane Tickets: If you have the money, why not take a trip for two? Nothing is as romantic as getting away from it all, and this is a great way to put a modern twist on a classic tradition.
A star: I know it sounds cheesy, but really how many people have their own star? This would be a classic gift that would never be forgotten. Clearly the star isn’t made of paper, but you’ll be able to give your sweetie the certificate of ownership, and that certainly is paper!
A newspaper from the day you got married: This one takes a little bit of forethought, or a lot of luck. Usually you’re so wrapped up in the events of the day that you wouldn’t think to grab a newspaper to commemorate the day. This gift will definitely go down in the books as sentimental and thoughtful.
A tree: So it’s not technically paper. It could become paper. In any case, if you have a house, this is a very original way to celebrate your first anniversary, and watch your marriage grow throughout the years. Though you probably won’t be living in the same place in 50 years, you’ll always remember that tree, and how far your love and marriage has come.
Wearing a tiara is a beautiful way to look and feel like a princess on your wedding day. If you have decided to wear a tiara for your wedding (I did!), there are a couple ways to wear it which will make you look simply gorgeous.
Front-Mounted Tiara
This is one of the more common options for wearing a tiara. Wear it toward the front of your hair or even as low as your forehead. This type of mounting is popular because you can wear a veil directly attached behind the tiara. As with all tiaras, make sure it is securely attached with pins. However, don’t make it so tight that it becomes uncomfortable. You wedding day is long - you don’t want to be in pain all day!
Crown Tiara
If you are wearing your hair in an up-do, such as a bun, you can attach the tiara higher on your head and around the hair-do. The crown tiara should fit tightly against your hair and be secured by your hair dresser after they finish styling your hair. You can also add a veil behind the up-do. Your hairstyle should be slightly higher than the tiara. You don’t want the tiara sitting on top of the hair like an actual crown.
If you are looking to buy a tiara, consider one of the beautiful options at Princess Bride Tiaras. They have a wide selection of tiaras, bridal jewelry, veils and other accessories.
You’ve dreamed about your pale confection since your favorite Barbie doll zoomed through the kitchen in her pink Malibu convertible. You chose the sleeves by third grade, the train length by fifth, and the groom by sixth (that one didn’t work out). But have you ever parsed out why you want a white wedding dress with seventeen layers?
It’s because of Queen Victoria. Yes, she who reigned during one of the most prudish eras in history. She who allegedly proclaimed “Lie back and think of England” during the marital duty. This might lead you to the natural conclusion that Queen Victoria wore white to her wedding in 1840 to demonstrate her purity and blushing innocence. Actually, she wore white to show that she was really, really rich. White was highly impractical in the 19th century. Few women could afford a dress they would wear only once, and the likelihood of dripping wedding supper roast fowl on a white bodice was high.
Women continued to wear more somber shades after Queen Victoria donned her white gown, but the domination of white had attached its grasping claws to the collective minds of the marriage-minded public. When the Industrial Revolution brought on the rise of the middle class, giving women more money and spare time, white started to bloom again. In 1890, Ladies Home Journal set their stamp of approval on the white wedding dress with a heartfelt but inaccurate “From time immemorial, the bride’s gown has been white.”
Cementing the trend was Coco Chanel who created the first short wedding dress in the 1920s. In white. Thanks to the vagaries of history and economics, you no longer need to be royalty to afford a white wedding dress. Just have a sturdy Visa card.
So maybe you’re all about the contemporary wedding: you’re going green, you’re adding a dash of color to that gown of yours, and you’re even getting married far, far away on a beautiful tropical island. But even if you are a completely modern bride, there’s one tradition I bet you’ll keep: something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Sound familiar?
It’s a cute little rhyme that you’ve probably had memorized since you were a little girl, right? But do you have any idea where it comes from? Most brides don’t, they just know it’s supposed to bring good luck.
Well, it’s time for a little history lesson ladies!
The rhyme we quote so well in our sing-song voices actually comes from an Old English Rhyme that originated in Victorian times, and it hasn’t changed too much since then. The poem originally went like this:
Something olde, something new,
Something borrowed, something blue,
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.
The big question though, is why exactly each of these items is so important on your wedding day? Well, it’s all about tradition. Even though the poem originated in Victorian times, it was customary for brides to follow its advice for hundreds of years before then. Each item is meant to bring the bride luck, in it’s own symbolic way:
Something old symbolizes continuity with the bride’s family and the past.
Something new means optimism and hope for the bride’s new life ahead.
Something borrowed is actually supposed to be loaned from a happily married friend or family member, whose good fortune in marriage is supposed to carry over to the new bride.
Something blue goes back as far as ancient Rome, when brides wore blue to symbolize love, modesty, and fidelity.
The silver sixpence of course represents a wish for wealth and good fortune. Really, where would you put it other than your shoe?
So now that there’s actually some meaning behind each of these items, be sure to incorporate them into your big day! You certainly don’t want to turn your back on an age old tradition. Besides, there’s so many fun ways to incorporate old, new, borrowed, and blue items, that the good luck might just be an added perk!
750 couples will gather in Pittsburgh on February 10 to renew their wedding vows.
When planning your wedding, you should consider having someone in your wedding party or a family member read a love poem, biblical verse or other piece of prose during the ceremony. In making your selection, just make sure that it is not too long. You don’t want to bore your guests! 
After all the hard work you put into planning your wedding, you definitely deserve a relaxing honeymoon. As a modern bride, though, you might (just might) end up having to plan that too.
So maybe you’re approaching that first year and you’re trying to find the perfect gift. Granted, its been a whole year, and you could probably safely give your new husband or wife anything you choose, but why not go traditional?
Wearing a tiara is a beautiful way to look and feel like a princess on your wedding day. If you have decided to wear a tiara for your wedding (I did!), there are a couple ways to wear it which will make you look simply gorgeous.
You’ve dreamed about your pale confection since your favorite Barbie doll zoomed through the kitchen in her pink Malibu convertible. You chose the sleeves by third grade, the train length by fifth, and the groom by sixth (that one didn’t work out). But have you ever parsed out why you want a white wedding dress with seventeen layers?
So maybe you’re all about the contemporary wedding: you’re