Winter Wonderland

Happy Winter Solstice!

Today is the shortest day and longest night of the year, and according to Reverend Brockway, it's a fortuitous time to get hitched.


Also, according to an Old English rhyme on choosing the best month to marry, you December brides can breathe a sigh of relief. May brides, on the otherhand...

Married when the year is new, he'll be loving, kind and true,
When February birds do mate, you wed nor dread your fate.
If you wed when March winds blow, joy and sorrow both you'll know.
Marry in April when you can, Joy for maiden & for Man.
Marry in the month of May*, and you'll surely rue the day,
Marry when June** roses grow, over land and sea you'll go.
Those who in July do wed, must labor for their daily bred,
Whoever wed in August be, many a changes sure to see.
Marry in September's shrine, your living will be rich and fine.
If in October you do marry, love will come but riches tarry.
If you wed in Bleak November, only joys will come, remember.
When December snows fall fast, marry and true love will last.

*It was the Greco-Roman experience to honor the dead during the month of May
**June takes its name from Juno, goddess of the hearth and home and the prosperity it brings


I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate being cold. I'm always cold. Getting married in October outdoors was pushing it, because if I felt as so much as the tiniest nip in the air, I would have had to rig up little portable heaters under my dress and break up some of those chivari chairs for a bonfire, because I can tolerate a lot, but being cold on my wedding day was unthinkable. So that said, if marrying in a winter wonderland is the wedding you'd always imagined for yourself, do I have the venue for you! Just make sure you pack some whale blubber.

And the award for the Most Irrestible Headline of the Day goes to:

Wedding bells behind bars as drug mule finds love at breakfast

Happy Holidays! Posts will be a bit more sporadic until the New Year...so enjoy the remaining days of 2006!

15 Questions to ask before taking the plunge

Once again the NYTimes is doing all the hardwork for me, serving up 15 questions whose answers they feel should be bandied about between you and your honey before taking that big step forward:

1) Have we discussed whether or not to have children, and if the answer is yes, who is going to be the primary care giver?

2) Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?

3) Have we discussed our expectations for how the household will be maintained, and are we in agreement on who will manage the chores?

4) Have we fully disclosed our health histories, both physical and mental?

When you hit #12, consider how long they courtesy-pause before answering; you may then have a little insight into whether he/she is truly The One.

continued...

Blood Diamonds

Timed with the opening of Leo DiCaprio's latest Hollywood flick-with-a-message Blood Diamond, today's NYT runs a piece on the dilemma of shopping for an engagement ring when that sparkly bauble could represent the deaths of innocent men, women and children forced to mine them:

MONICA GIBSON says she is not particularly political, but when she heard about conflict diamonds on an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” last week featuring the cast and director of the new movie “Blood Diamond,” she looked down at her engagement ring and thought not of love but of wars and violence.

Her fiancé gave her the ring last summer, she said, and she may never find out where its 24 diamonds came from. But as the couple now shops for diamond wedding bands, Ms. Gibson said she won’t buy unless the jeweler can vouch not just for the stone’s cut, clarity and color, but also for its origin.

“So many times you feel helpless when it comes to these major issues,” said Ms. Gibson, 36, an administrator with a telephone carrier in Pittsburgh. “I will feel I had some small little piece in helping people somewhere.”


So I'm not sending you off depressed and dreary into your weekend, what has more saris, elephants and dancing than a Bollywood wedding? Why, 15,000 Bollywood weddings! All on one day!

Faint of heart

If there is a lesson to be learned from this youtube compilation, just as there will be a bride and groom and officiant at a wedding ceremony, one of them has a 98% chance of passing out. Especially when it's time to pray.

Pray that you don't lock your knees.

The Giving Season

In your current frenzy to snatch up that perfect gift for the 50 odd family members, co-workers and friends who've made the cut for this year's holiday list, it's not only easy to abandon the spirit in which giving these gifts was intended, but - I'd argue- it's encouraged."Save on shipping!," "Only 10 days to score that perfect gift" and other email salutations have become more intimate and familiar to my inbox than my husband's occasional online hello. It's seems you can't escape from the Buy Buy Buy mantra and all the stress and panic and insecurity that it fosters. My family and I talked about how great it would be if everybody in the world would just agree to take the money they were lavishing on each other during the holidaysand direct it toward the people who really need it. And then we went back to discussing stocking stuffers from Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie's free shipping.

That's when I was thrilled to see what Oxfam was doing. An international nonprofit devoted to wiping out world hunger, Oxfam has the challenge of not only competing for donations during the busy holiday season - when most are inclined to part with a few bucks for that "good cause" that allows you to keep trolling for PS 3s and gift cards, they fight to make the world a stronger, safer place everyday, with or without your financial support. However - and now for our wedding portion of the program - Oxfam's British outpost has come up with a brilliant method for brides to find their dream dress - and feel good knowing their purchase goes toward helping the less fortunate. If you're a UK bride, get thee to an Oxfam retail store where one can browse through discounted gowns from the London catwalk, fashion shows and high end retailers. You get the glorious high of finding that special dress and helping the less fortunate - and all because you fell in love and want to celebrate it.

And if you're not in the market for a gown, you could always donate a little something to Oxfam and still get that warm fuzzy.

Ribbed for Their Pleasure

First, there was the toilet paper dress. Then the cream puff gown And just in time for Aids Awareness Day, they truly outdid themselves. What bride wouldn't take, um, pleasure in walking down the aisle in her condom wedding gown?

Big Day Q&A

Needing a little Jack Bauer fix before 24 premieres in January? OK, so Jack Bauer has 24 hours to ensure that lecherous Uncle Albert and volatile ex-Aunt Eugenie are seated at opposite ends of the head table, scrap the planned peanut butter groom's cake that might conflict with his mother in-law's alleged potentially fatal allergic tendencies and find the Best Man whose gone missing after the bachelor party's "poker night" took a minor detour to Crazy Girls. All while wearing silk organza. No, CTU hasn't gotten into the business of wedding planning, but smartly, someone at ABC saw the potential in showcasing the drama and comedic gold inherent in planning a wedding. ABC's The Big Day (which premiered last week) follows the adventures of Alice and Danny as they fumble their way - 24 style - toward the altar. Big Day Staff writer Jessica Goldstein answers some burning questions.


VR: Is anyone one the staff married or currently planning a wedding? Are single staff writers more terrified about holy matrimony after researching/writing for the show?

JG: My writing partner, Chrissy, is getting married in April. She is a living, breathing resource for all things wedding right now. But story ideas came from all of the writers' wedding experiences as hosts and guests. The show is really about the different personalities involved and what happens when they are thrown together on a very emotional and chaotic day... so ideas came from everywhere. As the token never-married staff writer, I realized that sitting in a room for months talking about weddings, surrounded by wedding magazines was brainwashing me - somewhere in the middle of one of those "Do's and Don'ts on Decorating the Bottom of Your Pre-Rehearsal Dinner Shoes" articles... I remembered that I don't care! I don't feel more terrified about holy matrimony, just wedding planning. I feel like I should go back and send a second gift to all of my friends whose weddings I've been to now that I know what they went through to make it all happen.


VR: With the show often being compared to 24's format, are we going to get to see the Bride scream "PUT DOWN THE SEATING CHART AND STEP AWAY FROM THE COORDINATOR!" or any other Jack Bauer shout-outs? Or is that my fantasy?

JG: It's not your fantasy. The world of wedding planning is just as dangerous, just as exciting as any episode of 24. I wouldn't be surprised if after watching Big Day, we see a season of 24 where Jack Bauer is planning Chloe and the ghost of Edgar's wedding.



VR: On a more serious note, what challenges do you foresee in picking that format? Have you found enough things that could go wrong during planning a wedding that could sustain 24 episodes?

JG:There's always something that can go wrong during a wedding. If anyone from ABC is reading this, please make note of this.


VR: Are you surprised by anything you've learned about weddings/marriage after writing for the show?

JG: I still can't believe how much money goes into these suckers. I guess what I learned about marriage is that the actual wedding has very little to do with it.


VR: How fabulous is Wendy Malick?
JG: Wendy Malick is indeed fabulous. The cast is great. The whole is experience has been amazing and I'm really proud of the final product.


VR: What's your favorite thing about the show?
JG: please see #5 :)

Thanks to Jessica for dropping by!

The Big Day airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC

Diamonds are a desk with lots of loose paper's best friend

Chiasso.com is carrying what they are billing as a fabulous, glittery paperweight, but c'mon now. If we are creative, what uses could you come up with a giant, honking fake diamond? I just ordered mine (as it is on backorder until the 6th), so that gives me plenty of time to dream up some fun uses for it.

What would you do with your pretend 120 carat diamond?

Have a wonderful weekend...stay tuned for an Q&A with a writer on ABC's The Big Day and more wedding weirdness!