For those of us who don’t follow ice hockey—like me!—the Whalers are an ice-hockey team. According to Yahoo, the bride wore a dress, with a Whalers logo on the train and a Whalers foam finger for pictures; the groom wore a green tux with the Whalers logo; the bridesmaids wore Whaler blue dresses and the groomsmen wore Whaler jerseys; and the minister was dressed as a referee!

Although this seems strange to me as someone who isn’t a fan of sports in general, the couple seemed very happy in the available pictures of their special day. Then again, watching a couple get married, flanked by Klingons and married by a Star Fleet Captain, or a with Storm Troopers, or dressed up as wizards seems just as different and radical as getting married on an ice hockey field, sporting your team’s colors! But, whatever makes the couple happy on their wedding day is what matters.

Would you have a themed wedding? We’d love to know!

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Mr. Cloutier managed to sell the watch box for $10 without ever knowing the ring was inside. He told ABC, ““We never use [the watch box], so I said let’s make somebody happy. I looked in it, I didn’t see anything, and I sold it.” This was on June 1^st.

When Raquel returned on the 5^th, naturally she wondered where her ring had gone. She told KTLA, the local television station, “I go into my husband’s closet, can’t find the box, and then he tells me he sold it. I said, ‘You sold it? What do you mean you sold it?’ I immediately started crying.” And who could blame her!

My mother brought this event to my attention yesterday. She thought that Mr. Cloutier is at fault for not checking the box carefully enough before selling it. I think Mr. Cloutier could have looked more thoroughly, as well, but I also think Mrs. Cloutier could have left a note or said something simple like “Hey, I left my wedding ring at the house in your old watch box.” Ultimately, I think it was just a bad situation.

What do you think? What would you do in this situation? We’d love to know!

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It seems we live in a time of royal weddings, as these past couple years have seen many royals tying the knot: in 2010, Princess Madeleine’s older sister Victoria married her personal trainer Daniel Wesling; in 2011, Prince Albert II of Monaco married Charlene Lynette Wittstock, a member of South Africa’s 2000 4×100 m medley olympics team–also in 2011 was the biggest of the royal weddings, where Prince William and Kate Middleton wed; most recently in 2012, Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg married Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy.

It also seems strange that only one in those four weddings consisted of royalty marrying royalty. Growing up, we saw fairy tales of Disney characters marrying royalty; I, for one, always considered them just that: fairy tales, not something to really happen in real life.  Princess Diana is the household name that comes to mind when thinking of these fairy tale situations, but they’re undeniably becoming more an more common, as the above data suggests.

We received a further taste of this phenomenon back when the Princess Diaries came out in 2001–who else just lost their mind, realizing this movie came out 12 years ago? The sequel dealt with royal marriages, but it also kept exploring the theme of someone like us–a common, everyday person–going into an extraordinary role.

What do you think of royal weddings? We’d love to know!

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This is a sad occurrence that happens more frequently than we’d like to think, which is why services such as I Do Stream and My Streaming Wedding are becoming more and more popular. Both these services allow couples to live stream their weddings and allow couples to include guests that would otherwise be unable to participate in the celebrations.

Here’s an excerpt from idostream.com:

“Some of your friends and family can’t make it to your wedding? No problem. Broadcast and share your special moment live online with friends and family from anywhere in the world!”

Basic packages start at $199, with the do-it-yourself option. I Do Stream provides professionals to assist you at a greater cost. These streams can have up to 50 connections accessing the livestream—couples can purchase more connections in 50 connection blocks. All this means is there can be 50 computers accessing the livestream of the wedding at one time.

Here’s an excerpt from mystreamingwedding.com:

“MyStreamingWedding.com is, quite simply, the most advanced live streaming wedding videography service available. We are proud to offer a premium service to broadcast live weddings throughout the Philadelphia area and all over the country. Our team is made up of the finest professional videographers, all with years of both wedding and live-streaming experience, and we use the most cutting-edge, portable broadcasting technology that exists to make sure your webcast is a success!

Since we don’t need to be tethered by power and internet cables, we can broadcast from locations that typically would be inaccessible. For example, we can stream from inside an old church, outdoors, or even from a moving vehicle!”

Other service options include: See My Marriage, Live Streaming Weddings, and Vivaha Live, to name a few. Is this something you’d be interested in? Do you know anyone who has done this? We’d love to know!

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In “The Princess Bride,” viewers got to experience a thrill. With fairy tale elements, incredible swordplay, and incredible meta-storytelling (the grandfather relating the story to the boy as the movie plays out), the tale explored true love and how characters can come together in fantastic and incredible ways. Also—as a fun fact—the fight between Westley and Inigo was described in the script simply as “the second-greatest swordfight ever” and the fight between Inigo and Count Rugen as “the greatest swordfight ever.”

In “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” viewers saw how cultures could come together in a humorous and heartfelt manner. This movie utilized a heavy food motif, with the restaurant and the two cultures intermingling with one another. One of the funniest lines in a movie have been, “What do you mean he don’t eat no meat? Oh, that’s okay. I make lamb.”

“Bridesmaids” showed viewers how big events and weddings can mar our sense of self. In Annie and Lillian, we see great friendship and a bond we want to aspire towards. Lillian asks her lifelong best friend Annie to be the maid of honor in her wedding. This sometimes over-the-top comedy has its own moments where a proverbial warm center shines through.

Turning to television, we look at “Game of Thrones.” In the last day or so, many articles have been written on the events that have transpired from a story standpoint; they’ve neglected to comment on the implicit underlying meaning of the wedding. In the latest episode “The Rains of Castamere,” characters came together and engaged in the event known to viewers as the Red Wedding.

After being scorned, Lord Frey decides to murder the Stark family during the wedding, when everyone believes it to be a time of merriment and celebration. When stopping to consider it, weddings are an event for people to set aside their differences, come together, and not expect any foul play from the opposing family. Moreover, breaking that implicit and sacred vow of not harming guests underscores how vile people can be when they feel scorned. A rather bleak outlook on people, juxtaposed with the happy event of weddings, which makes this portrayal of weddings rather unique.

What are some of your favorite weddings in fiction—books, movies, or television—we’d love to know!

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The Knot offers a free wedding planner app called “The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner.” Some of the features in the app include: a countdown for the days until your wedding, a personalized wedding checklist, budget tools that track payments, inspiration and ideas for cakes, décor, hairstyles, and more, and synchronization with your account on TheKnot.com. Here’s a brief excerpt from thenkot.com on the app:

“Now you can access and input your wedding planning details anytime, anywhere. And, thanks to support from our friends at Bloomingdales — for a short time only — it’s FREE! The best part? Your iPhone planner will automatically synch up with your tools and account on TheKnot.com!”

Another great app is Seatingplanner+, done by GoBee Labs. This app allows you to import your contacts on your phone into the app and configure your list of people into their seating arrangements. This would be valuable to couples always on the go, really busy, or if they’re separated by distance during their wedding planning. Here’s an excerpt from gobeelabs.com on the app:

“The Seatingplanner +, an App developed for iPhone and iPad, is now launched. With focus on the guests, the functionalities will simplify and improve the planning of your wedding, party or dinner. Features include adding or importing guests from contacts on your iPhone/iPad or from your Facebook account, creating a variety of tables and exporting the final seating plan to text format or PDF.”

One last app to consider is the Animoto app. The program takes photos from the wedding and puts them to music, turning them into a short clip. There’s also an option to make a longer version, which could double as a wedding video. Videographers and photographers are budget consuming and this app presents a great alternative. Friends and family can send you their pictures and you can use the app to compile the photos and make your own wedding video! Here’s an excerpt from animoto.com on the app:

“Insert Photos & Videos
Upload from your computer or grab from Facebook, Instagram, Picasa, Flickr and elsewhere.

Customize Your Style
Select a video style, choose some music, add a few words of your own…and poof!

Watch & Share
Observe the awesomeness that is an Animoto video, and share it online with people you love.”

Be sure to check out other apps that’ll assist in your wedding planning! We’d love to know if you’ve ever used these or any other apps to help plan your special days.

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Getting married on Memorial Day or during Memorial Day weekend must be a great experience, especially for those in the armed forces who tie the knot with their special someone. The weather is usually nice, which is always an advantage, especially when having outdoor weddings. The weekend is also open, and Monday free, to plan a large celebration without worrying about time off from work.

However, there are things to be conscious of for Memorial Day Weddings. For one, get those invitations out early, as many people make plans to go away from Memorial Day, and ensure your potential guests won’t have any alternate plans! Traffic will be congested for the day, so it would be prudent to give ample time between the ceremony and the reception. Book your vendors early, as many will most likely either be booked or on holiday. And remember that it’s Memorial Day! Be sure to use many reds, whites, and blues to tie in the theme of the day.

Congratulations to Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul and Lauren Parsekian as they married yesterday during Memorial Day weekend. Their Malibu Wedding proved to be a dream and success! Here is this People-exclusive wedding photo, courtesy of www.people.com.

Here are some Memorial Day weddings and armed forces wedding celebrations to get your thoughts running on how you might want to spend your next Memorial Day!

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After researching through different articles, here are some items that really popped out at us! These websites included wedding.theknot.com, www.bhg.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and Yahoo.

Towels

Bhg.com specifically noted to not forget to register for extra towels. They make a great point that they’re “an everyday essential, so don’t skimp on them.” It’s easy to overlook the fact you might have a guest bedroom when you’re busy planning for your wedding, but you can never have too many towels, and the more towels you have, the less frequent you have to do laundry! Hand towels and washcloths are also good to have on hand!

Cleaning Supplies

After perusing through some registries, we found that the observation by Yahoo was correct: many couples don’t add basic cleaning tools to their registries, including irons and vacuum cleaners. These are essential for keeping the home neat and clean. Not many people had garbage pails on the list either, but when someone gets you a garbage pail that slides out from beneath the sink, you’ll be wondering how you lived without it!

Seasonal Gifts

If you’re planning that special day during a light snow fall in December, don’t forget about where you’ll be in the coming months. Plan ahead when thinking about your wedding registry and consider items like barbecue sets, gardening tools—also consider the other side of the calendar as well if your day is in the July heat: Christmas ornaments, menorahs, holiday-themed tablecloths and china are always a good thing to have if you’re hosting during the season!

Deposit A Gift

The Huffington Post lists Deposit A Gift as a cash gift registry service where couples can create list of items they’re expecting to purchase—from simple china to a house. Instead of buying these items for the couple, Deposit A Gift allows friends and family to simply put forth the money and allow the couple to spend the money how they wish, with the list of items acting as a “this is how we’re planning on spending the money.” This is a great alternative for couples who don’t know exactly what they want, or have more than they could need! Check it out at http://www.depositagift.com.

Honeyfund

We’ve all seen the popularity of Kickstarter and Gofundme, where people can assume the role of a benefactor and fund projects or endeavors. Honeyfund is a similar service, allowing couples to list honeymoon-related gifts, such as the flight, a dinner, or an excursion. This is similar to a wedding registry, in so far as friends and family pay for the services as “gifts.” However, instead of getting the happy couple a new blender, you’d be treating them to a lovely sunset beach-side dinner with romantic candles and all. http://www.honeyfund.com/

Be sure to check out different sites on the web for ideas on wedding registries! What kind of items were on your registry? We’d love to know!

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Although Griffin has, according to Yahoo, “signed a four-year, $21,119,098 contract that is fully guaranteed,” his fans decided to go and buy items on the couple’s registry. They found his registry on Bed, Bath, and Beyond’s website—a feat easily replicated. For those interested, it can be found at http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?wrn=-549291893&. Some items on their list include place settings, martini glasses, flatware sets, napkins, pots, pans ,and other assorted items.

The quatrterback thanked his fans on his twitter page, which can be seen below.

Already, however, there have been reports that hate has gone towards Griffin for this happening. He’s been quick to confirm that he “didn’t ask the fans to buy [him] anything” and that “they found it on their own.” I think we could all agree someone making over $21,000,000 in four years has no right to ask his fans to buy anything for him, but I think this speaks about the character of Griffin’s fans and how much he’s inspired them. Below are some comments from Griffin and his fans on twitter.

We’d love to know your opinion on this! Do you think that it’s appropriate for fans to buy items on the couple’s registry? Check the registry out for yourself and tell us what you think!

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