Okay so you have survived the holidays with your waistline…somewhat…intact. I’m sure that your wedding day is creeping up on you, but have no fear, there are millions of people who vow to lose weight every new year, so you’ve got plenty of company. First things first, ladies, check out your BMI (Body Mass Index), mine is 25.09, just over the being considered overweight. So here are some of my ideas, to lose those pesky extra pounds.


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If you’re over the age of 30 you may remember being one of the 750 million television viewers worldwide who watched the broadcast of Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding. From the cathedral to the carriage to the gown, the ceremony embodied the fairy-tale wedding ideal that many brides since have strived to emulate.

In the past twenty years, the extravagant “white wedding”—a term connoting the Western tradition of a white wedding dress, made popular in the Victorian era—has become the norm in America, says Beth Montemurro, associate professor of sociology at Penn State Abington. Until the 1980s, only the well-to-do engaged in lavish weddings, she explains. But thanks to the affluence of that decade and an increasingly celebrity-obsessed consumer culture, expensive weddings have become the standard.

“The lavish wedding has allowed people to have a little bit of celebrity for one day. The image of the indulgent wedding is so prevalent in the media, you feel like that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Montemurro says. Reality TV shows like VH1’s My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding or TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress send images of the pricey wedding into living rooms across America.

The cost of the average American wedding climbed from $15,208 in 1990 to $27,852 in 2006, according to a Conde Nast Bridal Media research survey. However, as Montemurro points out, today’s slowing economy and rising prices have left many couples and their parents feeling squeezed. Those who opt to pay for their dream wedding by credit card may find themselves dealing with steep debts even before the honeymoon tans have faded. So should we expect a return to a more demure event like those of generations past? Probably not, says Montemurro.

“If anything people are getting more extravagant,” she notes. “If tight finances cause people to sacrifice in other parts of their lives, they start to feel like their wedding is the one day they shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything. They feel it’s a once in a lifetime event and they should indulge,” she adds.

However, with 13 percent of men and 14 percent of women marrying more than once, weddings are increasingly not a once in a lifetime event. Now couples often pay for a formal ceremony the first, second and third time they’re married.

“People like to legitimize the relationship, whether it’s the first marriage or the third,” she explains. “Instead of getting remarried quietly, as was the norm fifty years ago, people want to show a new marriage is worth spending money on.” Delayed marriages have also perpetuated the trend of pricy nuptials. Typically, later on in life, people make more money and can spend more on their wedding, remarks Montemurro.

The recent trend of “destination weddings” has raised the bar for indulgence even higher. In a destination wedding, guests travel to the ceremony location for a long weekend, extending the marriage celebration—and the cash needed to fund it. In the past ten years, destination weddings have increased to 16 percent of all nuptials with the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii being the most popular locales.

In addition, multiple ceremonies have become a growing trend. Minorities now comprise 34 percent of the total U.S. population, with Hispanics and Asians being the fastest-growing groups. Notes Montemurro, many Asian couples pay for a traditional Chinese or Japanese ceremony and a big white wedding as well. Sometimes multicultural couples will scrap their traditional wedding altogether and choose to have only a Western-style ceremony.

Montemurro’s book Something Old, Something Bold: Bridal Showers and Bachelorette Parties explores how pre-wedding events and rituals have also changed with society. Many women now have multiple bridal showers, which costs more money for the bride and her guests, says Montemurro. The term “bachelorette party” wasn’t used until the 1980s, she notes. “It’s the female answer to the male bachelor party, a symbolic acknowledgment that women give up the single life when they get married too.”

“For the bachelorette party to become standard, society needed to accept that many women had a sex life prior to marriage,” Montemurro points out. “They had to accept that women too are committing to monogamy with marriage. When we have gender equality, we have to acknowledge that both parties are gaining something and losing something.”

In a backlash against the opulent wedding, some couples are choosing alternative nuptials. Environmental consciousness has created a recent trend of “green weddings,” which focus on reducing the wedding’s impact on the environment.

But while wedding styles come and go with changing societal norms, some things endure, says Montemurro. “The things that will stay the same are the things that have been there for the past 100 years: the white dress, the wedding cake and the celebration following the wedding,” she predicts. “We find symbolism in these things, and I don’t see them going anywhere.”

Dundee has played host to a spooky wedding between a serial killer and a 1950s pin-up.

The ceremony was carried out by a dark hooded figure while comic, horror and children’s TV show characters watched on.

In reality, it was a Halloween-themed marriage with the bride, groom, guests and even the registrar dressed up.

Mark Robinson and Tammy Wilson decided 31 October was the ideal day to wed as they met at a Halloween party.

The new Mrs Robinson dressed up as model Bettie Page - complete with black leather wedding dress and black gloves.

The groom put on a top hat, cloak and kilt and carried a bag with a blood-soaked knife to be Jock the Ripper.

Guests dressed as Grotbags (the bride’s grandmother Margaret Wilson), a demonic jester (best man Darren Revill), and Freddy Krueger (the bride’s cousin Shaun Anderson).

Also attending were the Joker, Dr Who, Tinkerbell, Cruella de Ville, Iron Maiden’s Eddie, and various zombies, vampires and fallen angels.

And not to disappoint - the theme from Halloween was playing as the bride walked down the aisle.

The wedding promises were also untraditional as Mrs Robinson pledged not to fall asleep when her hubby talks about his computer programming and to only kick him gently when he snores.

Mr Robinson promised to understand his new wife, even when he didn’t, and to reacquaint himself with the toilet brush and bleach.

The new husband told the BBC Scotland news website that Halloween was the perfect time to get married - and not dark or strange at all.

He said: “Me and Tammy met six years ago at Halloween and we just thought, ‘why not?’ It’s something a bit different.

“The way that we’ve kind of promoted everything is that it’s the sacrifice of two souls to become one.

“So our single lives are getting sacrificed and we’re becoming one.”

Mrs Robinson added: “We’re both horror fans and we thought it’d be really cool to get married on Halloween.

“I didn’t want a traditional white wedding and he didn’t want a traditional white wedding so we decided fancy dress was the best option and it has been proved that yes it was.”

And on her choice of wedding dress, the new bride said: “She’s just such an icon. I love everything about the 1950s, the music, the clothes, the hairstyles and she’s just the ultimate sex siren of the 50s.

“And I thought, if I’m going to come as anybody I’m going to come as Bettie Page.”

The couple chose Halloween for their wedding as that was when they met
The couple’s parents also got into the swing of things.

Tammy’s mum, Kate Wilson, dressed up as DC Comics character Killer Frost.

She said: “This is typical of Tammy and Mark. They’re a lovely couple, they’re very, very good with one another.

“They have their arguments like most people, but they always say sorry straight away.”

The groom’s mother, Vicky Bruce, came as a cabaret star in top hat and tails. She was a bit sceptical about the idea at first but did come around.

“I thought it was extremely strange and to be honest I wasn’t looking forward to it at the start,” she said.

“But now it’s all fine. It was a little bit weird for me, but it’s a bit of fun and it’s actually nice.”

The wedding took place in the city’s Bon Appetit restaurant, where the couple went on their first date.

Registrar Grant Law said: “It’s a great idea and great fun.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a Halloween wedding, it’s the first time I’ve had to participate in a themed wedding.

“Halloween’s a time for celebration, its a time for fun, it’s not a morbid celebration at all, it’s not about death it’s about life.”

It is the dream of every little girl. But for pupils at an Edinburgh school, their wedding day has come a lot earlier than their parents would have expected.

The junior school at St George’s School for Girls spent three weeks planning a ceremony between two six-year-olds, taking charge of every detail, from transport to catering, and buttonholes to dresses.

And to help them celebrate their big day, guest at the wedding – which was conducted by Reverend Alex Stewart of St Ninian’s Parish Church in Corstorphine – included nursery pupils and the girls’ parents, who were all serenaded by their very own choir.

The idea to have a mock wedding ceremony at the Garscube Terrace school came from the primary two pupils after reading the Katie Morag books – one of which featured the young girl attending a wedding in the Highlands.

The girls decided they should have a wedding too – and gained immediate approval from their teacher, who decided to turn wedding planning into an imaginative way to boost their learning.

Even the fact that there are no boys in the school didn’t put the youngsters off as pupil Alexandra Nairn eagerly volunteered to sport a kilt to act as the groom.

The P2 girls organised the whole wedding in record time, sending out invites, baking cakes and sourcing their own outfits from dress-up boxes for the bride, groom and host of bridesmaids.

Louisa Prvulovich, the lucky bride, was chosen by the class and teacher for her overwhelming enthusiasm for the project, while her classmates took roles in the wedding party.

Some of the pupils also volunteered to take charge of the essential behind-the-scenes work such as preparing the bouquets, drawing up name cards and even filming the wedding.

Liz Stewart, head of early years at the school, said: “As young girls, they’re engaged in imaginative play and love dressing up so decided they would like to have a wedding like in the Katie Morag books.

“It’s taken their learning forward in all ways.”

The children thought of everything, and as well as securing the school’s catering facilities to make a wedding cake, they also drew up a health and safety risk assessment form for the trolley which transported the happy couple to the ceremony in the school hall.

They came up with solutions to all possible scenarios for the short journey – including being kidnapped and falling off.

The girls spent weeks researching different types of ceremonies – mostly using their parents’ experiences of being wedding guests.

They will continue with their learning next week by visiting Rev Stewart’s own church to see how a real wedding is carried out.

Headteacher Dr Judith McClure, who sported her best coat and a large hat for the ceremony on Friday, said: “I was proud to join their parents in the celebrations.”

Thirty-three Houston-based brides who saw their wedding ideas swept away by Hurricane Ike will finally have the chance to say “I do” in a new episode of the Rachel Ray show.

The TV presenter has organized a mass ceremony for the displaced couples, which includes everything from wedding photography and cake to flowers and decorations.

As part of the hour-long show, set to air on Friday, a reception will be held at Minute Maid Park - home of the Houston Astros - and Wynonna Judd will stage a special musical performance.

In preparation, a team from Ray’s show helped the contestants get ready for their big day, with fashion and style guru Gretta Monahan and lifestyle contributor Colby Donaldson helping both brides and grooms choose the best attire for their walk down the aisle.

Ray told the Houston Chronicle she was inspired to step in after she heard the “tragic” story of the couples’ ruined wedding day.

“We tried to replace a bad experience with a really beautiful memory,” she explained

Joey & Maria have decided to postpone their wedding, initially scheduled to begin at Spotlight 29 Casino on November 29. The “Original Joey & Maria’s Comedy Italian Wedding” will now take place January 10.
“Look, I ain’t got no cold feet,” bridegroom-to-be Joey Gnocchi said. “We just had to rearrange a few things, alright?”
Bride-in-waiting Maria Cavatelli said, “Listen, honey, Joey ain’t got cold feet. It’s like this, alright? My best friend Nikki is supposed to do my hair and she’s, like, major pregnant, OK, and there is no way she could get my hair as big as I want it because she couldn’t even reach it now with the baby in the way. And grandpa’s angina is actin’ up again, and cousin Vinnie ain’t even out of jail ’til the end of the month anyway, so we wanted to wait ’til the new year, that’s all. Joey ain’t got cold feet. This friggin’ wedding is on!”
The Original Joey & Maria’s Comedy Italian Wedding is a real piece of work, but in a good way. The fully interactive dinner show tells the story of the long-awaited wedding of the Gnocchi and Cavatelli families. Tickets are $49.50 plus tax and gratuity. The fun takes place each Saturday night starting January 10. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available now by calling (800) 944-5639.
Put the spotlight on “family” fun at Spotlight 29 Casino, the Coachella Valley’s most exciting place to play. Spotlight 29 Casino is a business venture of the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians

When it arrived in my boyfriend’s mailbox last summer, the invitation to the September wedding of a college friend immediately posed a problem. “It’s on a Saturday,” he said, scanning the R.S.V.P. card. “In Maryland.” Saturday meant Shabbat — the day of rest when Sabbath-keeping Jews like him (and more recently me), abstain from driving, using electricity, spending money and engaging in the 39 types of “creative work” identified in the Torah. Dancing after the ceremony was fine. Traveling there by car was not.

Still, my boyfriend was determined to go while following Shabbat’s laws. The nearest hotel was four miles from the wedding. We could arrive Friday before dark, he reasoned, wake up late and walk to the midafternoon ceremony with time to spare. “Sure,” I said, when he asked if I would go with him. “Sounds like fun.”

As the day approached, my excitement about our journey began to build. I remembered a line from my days as an environmental-studies major: “Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation.” Was that Gary Snyder or John Muir? No matter. We’d walk the terrain that Shabbat afternoon and pray with our feet! When the day arrived, we set out from the parking lot of our hotel with enthusiasm and plenty of time to make it.

Less than a mile into it, however, it was clear that our route was not meant for walkers. The few existing stretches of sidewalk dwindled away, swallowed by the hot highway. Cars hurtled around sharp bends. But we continued, past gas stations and car washes. Past enormous housing developments and swaths of undeveloped land with For Sale signs sticking like birthday candles out of the soil. Make a wish! Buy your dream home!

One mile became two. Under the sun’s glare, the relaxing Shabbat evening we’d spent in the hotel slipped away, and so did my poetic sentiment. Freckles of sweat dotted across my boyfriend’s T-shirt as he trudged a few steps ahead of me. I thought about my slinky black dress, now crumpled in his backpack. Kicking a pile of dusty stones, I drained my water bottle, irritated that I’d neglected to bring reserves. The “not purchasing stuff on Shabbat” rule was still new to me.

“Maybe we could knock on one of the houses and ask to fill up,” he said. But the homes gave off an impenetrable air, like fortresses with cul-de-sacs. The manicured lawns were absent of children. There were no women in wide-brimmed hats aiming garden hoses at the begonias. Living in New York City for four years, I have grown accustomed to the clamor of pedestrians on the sidewalks. But the only people we passed were two young Hispanic women heading toward one of the houses from a bus stop. “They must be cleaning ladies,” I said aloud, alarmed by my assumption and the suspicion that I was right.

Around Mile 3, a rummage sale on the side of the road appeared like an unlikely mirage. “Did your car break down or something?” asked the man sitting in a lawn chair, surrounded by bric-a-brac. We assured him we were fine, throwing him shoulder-shrugging smiles. How, in exurban Maryland, could we explain that we were actually walking on purpose?

My thirst was starting to get serious when we heard the faint sound of drumming. It was celebratory, slightly militaristic. An S.U.V. streaked by trailing colored streamers; a high-school football game was nearby. We practiced asking for water as we approached the outdoor stadium. “Should I explain that it’s Shabbat and we can’t pay for a bottle?” I asked. My boyfriend said, “No need to answer that question if it’s not asked,” showing far more experience than I with moving through the world as an observant Jew. The woman at the gate raised her eyebrows, but she took the empty water bottle from me to refill it.

When we finally “pulled in” to the small farm where the wedding guests were gathering, I felt my dreamy naturalist euphoria return. “We made it,” I said, grinning. My boyfriend said, “Thank you.” I went into the bathroom, splashed more water on my face and neck and changed into my miraculously unwrinkled dress. Outside, I found him looking handsome in dress pants and a tie, coming from the bar with a drink for each of us. We quietly agreed not to bring up our walk to the other guests. The walk was ours, but the day belonged to the bride and groom.

Later that evening the late summer sun set, signaling both the end of Shabbat and the party. We hitched a ride with a guest back to our hotel — back past the stadium, the cul-de-sacs and the gas stations. I strained my eyes in the darkness, trying to catch familiar glimpses of the landscape now blurring by at 40 miles an hour. It took us more than two and a half hours to get to the wedding that afternoon. The drive back took 10 minutes.

A week after the official announcement of the break-up of South Africa’s first-ever reality radio couple, a heartbroken Gail Brookstein has poured her heart out about how her fairytale marriage has gone pear-shaped.

Defiantly still wearing her wedding ring, Brookstein this week revealed that she now needs counselling to cope with the end of her brief relationship with Derrick Matthee.

“It was the most challenging three months of my life. I cried a lot. I’m definitely going to see a counsellor,” she said.

Matthee and Brookstein made history as SA’s first couple to wed in a reality radio show without meeting face-to-face before their wedding in May.
The aim of Kaya FM’s 2 Strangers and a Wedding was to match two complete strangers to fall in love over the airwaves and get married. Listeners were hooked.

Despite warnings from experts that the marriage would be doomed from the start, Matthee and Brookstein nonetheless tied the knot.

The couple claimed an instant connection and pledged they were in it for keeps.

But three months later their R1,5-million wedding has come crashing down with their split-up and division of their prizes. These included a lavish wedding ceremony, a honeymoon in Mozambique, a rent-free penthouse flat for one year, R100 000 in cash, and a car each.

Although they have yet to receive their cars, they have seen their penthouse and were set to meet on Friday to discuss what they would do with it after the divorce.

Kaya FM, meanwhile, has revealed its plans for another instalment of 2 Strangers and a Wedding.

Matthee last week claimed that their marriage failed after their honeymoon, when they realised there was nothing between them. He maintains they never lived together.

But Brookstein denies this, and says that when they returned from their honeymoon they were “in love” and she spent time at his townhouse for two weeks.

“I stayed at his place [in Centurion]. We had deep, intimate moments. We slept together. That never changed. We even joked about having twin girls.”

But things turned sour at the beginning of July.

Brookstein claims Matthee was the one who changed and that the relationship failed because he had resistance from his family and friends in Mossel Bay.

“Initially we were going to do everything to make it work. But he got resistance from his family and he suddenly backed off. They weren’t happy and will never accept our marriage.

“I never spoke to them [the Matthee family] or met them. He shut me out. He spent a lot of time on his own.”

But when the Saturday Star confronted Matthee about their failed marriage last week, he retorted: “I need someone old-school, someone I can grow with, someone who is independent and has reached a particular maturity level.”

This week, Matthee turned down the Saturday Star’s request for an interview.

“For now I think enough has been said and I don’t have any further comment.”

But Brookstein said: “He’s trying to exonerate himself. My story’s not going to change. I was the most honest contestant. If you look at it, Derrick has been at the centre of all the controversies. There was the Ashley saga.”

A week after their wedding, startling claims emerged that Matthee’s ex fiancee, Ashley Michaels, was harassing him.

Michaels, of Mossel Bay, claimed she was engaged to Matthee until just a few days before his marriage and that Matthee was only marrying Brookstein for the prize money.

“He didn’t really give me a chance to be a wife for him. My whole life changed and he is just walking away. I don’t know what to believe - he is a stranger. I don’t hate him. He hurt me, but it is not for me to judge him.”

Kaya FM’s marketing manager, Mark Mdlela, said the station had several “touch base” meetings with Brookstein and Matthee since their return from honeymoon.

“The guys insisted they were fine. At no point would it benefit us to say they’re together or not. The reason we did this [show] is because it’s a social experiment. It’s not on if you manipulate what’s going on. Whatever happened now is purely their choice.

“Counselling is still available, but it doesn’t look like they want to go that option. It’s between them to handle that [their prizes], as any couple would in a marriage.” - Additional reporting by Sheree Bega

City Hall marriages are so popular that the city may expand the service.

The City of Ottawa is performing about 940 marriages a year at City Hall and city clerk Pierre Pagé says he expects that number could grow considerably in coming years. Many couples from Europe, South America and China are especially keen on city hall marriages because it is a tradition in their native countries, he says. Other couples just want dignified non-religious ceremonies.

Justices of the peace used to perform marriages, but increasing court workloads saw an end to that practice a number of years ago. While some ministers will officiate at non-religious ceremonies for a fee, members of the public complained that there should be an option to have purely civil marriage ceremonies at city halls or courtrooms, so the Ontario government gave city clerks’ offices the power to officiate weddings in 2004.

The City of Ottawa started a pilot project the following year, then made the service permanent in 2006.

The city does not offer much extravagance or even customization in the ceremonies because it doesn’t want to compete with ministers who are making it their business. Nevertheless, women in wedding dresses and men in suits have become a common sight at Ottawa City Hall, especially on Friday afternoons in the summer.

The city can accommodate 10 people — including the participants — in a small room on the second floor. A ceremony lasts 10 to 15 minutes and Mr. Pagé says staff members in his office love to perform the ceremonies.

The fee is $145 for a wedding during business hours and $258 for one on Friday evening or Saturday afternoon. A last-minute weekend wedding will cost $324. Couples also pay a $145 marriage-licence fee.

Some people complain that the room for the ceremony is so small that friends and family can’t attend. So Mr. Pagé says he will look into finding quarters at City Hall to handle up to 30 people. And, given the strong demand for the service, he wants to look into performing marriages at two other locations, perhaps the former Cumberland city hall in Orléans and Ben Franklin Place in Nepean.

Sarah and Samuel Dennis are proof you can hold a big wedding on a tight budget. The Canterbury couple invited 200 guests to their summer country wedding, yet the bill was only $5000, including the honeymoon.

The couple, who now have a 3-month-old baby, used the connections and skills of family and friends, as well as their own budgeting skills, to ensure their big day was “as cheap as possible”, said Sarah, 25.

“We married on January 14. It is possible to have a cheap wedding,” she said. “You just need to compromise on a few things.”

Catering for afternoon tea was “much cheaper” than a full meal.

Decorations for the church and wedding vehicles, including a Rolls Royce, were lent by friends, another friend donated flower arranging skills, and the considerable sewing skills of the groom’s mother came in handy for alterations.

The cake was made by family but iced by a professional, and the couple made their own invitations using computer templates and buying special paper.

When it came to renting suits for the groomsmen, the couple shaved $200 off the cost by ditching dinner jackets, which they said wouldn’t have been needed anyway considering the summer heat.

Even the honeymoon was discounted. “My sister worked at the Crowne Plaza Hotel so we got a family discount.

“The rest of the honeymoon we travelled to Huntington State Park and stayed in a cabin at a lovely campground. It was amazing and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Hubby Sam, a PhD studentadded people wouldn’t have known the wedding was done on the cheap.

“Lots of our guests said - and not just to us - that it was the best wedding they’d been to. It was a lovely country wedding.

“But we couldn’t have done it without the very generous input of family and friends.”

Tips for a big day without the big budget:

Get a relative to make the cake.

Use an iPod hooked up to a sound system. Make your invitations.

Get married in the same place as your reception.

Have a wine/beer bar instead of full bar.

Limit the number of bridesmaids and grooms.

Sunday weddings can be cheaper.

Try not to mention “wedding” when obtaining quotes - some caterers and suppliers bump up prices for weddings.