UK Couple Barters To Reduce The Cost Of Their Wedding

Dan and Gemma Scott, of Staveley Derbyshire reduced the cost of their wedding by about £9,000 by bartering for most of what they needed, including the church, the reception, their wedding photographs, wedding clothes and the cars they had organised for the day.

The couple worked free of charge for local businesses in exchange for wedding necessities. Dan, who is a plumber and part-time firefighter, installed lights at the church where the pair were married. In exchange, the pastor provided the venue free of charge. Gemma, who is a catering assistant, worked two days a week as a housekeeper at Ringwood Hall, the site of the couple’s reception, and Dan performed labour at a site owned by the company that owns Ringwood Hall. As it turns out, Dan worked on the couple’s honeymoon suite.

The idea to barter for the wedding and reception came from Gemma’s mother, who had seen a story about bartering on the BBC. The couple decided that they had nothing to lose, and worked hard to make their dream wedding come true.

In the end, the couple did spend £3,000 on their big day, but ended up not owing anyone anything, and had the wedding and reception they’d hoped for. The local businesses also felt like they got a bargain, and were happy to help the couple with their plans.

Keywords: Wedding Planning, Weddingblog, Wedding

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Diver Retrieves Wedding Band From New England Aquarium Tank

The centerpiece of the New England Aquarium is the Giant Ocean Tank, a 200,000 gallon container that houses some of the aquarium’s most honored guests. Bob Pirrmann, a marketing executive and diving enthusiast, was scratching the back of a 560-lb sea turtle in the tank when a water jet attached to the tank’s filtration system went off and knocked Pirrmann off balance. The jet also knocked Pirrmann’s wedding ring off.

Pirrmann, who was in the tank as part of the kick off of a marketing campaign he helped to create, didn’t realize that his wedding band was missing until he exited the tank. He asked the aquarium’s regular diving staff to keep an eye out for the ring, but after three months, gave up hope that the ring would be found. About a week after purchasing a new band, he received an email from the aquarium saying that they’d located his ring, on a piece of finger coral in the tank, while the tank was being cleaned.

The aquarium returned the ring to Pirrmann and invited him to take a second dive in the tank, which he did – without his wedding ring. He plans to wear the backup ring he purchased and keep the original band in a safe place. The original band, made of silver, is tarnished, but Pirrmann doesn’t plan to polish it. He’ll keep it as is, he says, for its “story value.”

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Gold Prices Could Soar During Indian Wedding Season

While gold prices reached record highs in March 2008, and have declined by 20 percent since that time, analysts expect another rise that will co-incide with the wedding season in India. According to an analyst with JP Morgan Chase, gold purchases from India account for price increases of about 10 percent annually from September to December.

India is the world’s largest purchaser of gold bullion, and analysts expect the price per ounce to rise to USD$900 by the end of the year. That’s about USD$130 lower than the high mark reached in March. Aside from the wedding season, India makes substantial gold purchases in preparation for Diwali. A good percentage of the gold sought by India may come from Australian mines operated by Newcrest and Lihir. Globally, gold production is down because the cost of producing the metal is rising.

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Worlds Highest-Paid Model May Be Planning A Wedding

Published reports say that Brazilian super-model Gisele Bundchen may be planning a wedding to American football star Tom Brady. According to sources, Ms. Bundchen approached the famed New York restaurant Tavern On The Green to help plan a wedding reception.

The world’s highest-paid model (according to Forbes magazine) has dated New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady since late 2006. Prior to dating Mr. Brady, Bundchen dated actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Before dating Ms. Bundchen, Brady was romantically linked to actress Bridget Moynahan, with whom he has a child.

Neither Bundchen nor Brady has confirmed the wedding plans, but the couple reportedly became engaged in April of this year.

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No Wedding For Ashley Olsen

Ashley Olsen has rubbished rumours that she will marry beau Justin Bartha next year in the French Riviera. Through her publicist, the actress and fashion designer has refuted media reports that indicated she was planning a million-dollar spectacular in the summer of 2009.

Nicole Caruso, a spokesperson for Ms. Olsen, says that the pair are not engaged. Caruso says that Olsen and Bartha are enjoying each other’s company and have no current plans to take their relationship farther at this point. Olsen and Bartha have been dating since the beginning of 2008. Bartha, who is best known for his role in the feature film National Treasure, has been mum on the controversy.

The diminutive fashionista recently lashed out at paparazzi photographers, whom she accused of turning her into a wreck. Olsen complained that the photographers go too far in trying to take her picture, and says she worries that someone – either herself or an innocent bystander – will get hurt. She says that photographers in Los Angeles are far more aggressive than those in New York, saying that they will run red lights to get close to her car. Olsen says that she cannot imagine driving with children in her car and “pretend for their sake that you are not scared.”

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Rachel Ray Delivers Wedding Dreams For Houston Couples Closed Out By Hurricane

Television cooking diva Rachel Ray, host of the self-titled Rachel Ray Show, says she will foot the bill for fifty couples who lost their reception venue and deposits when two Houston banquet halls declared bankruptcy following Hurricane Ike. Ray says she has created a one-hour episode about the couples that included a giant wedding on the baseball diamond at Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros baseball team on 2 November.

Some couples lost as much as $20,000 on deposits paid in cash to the venues. In addition to providing a venue large enough to accommodate all of the couples guests, the show has also arranged for donations of clothing, jewelry, food, flowers, photography, decorations, cakes, live entertainment and hotel space. Ray created a menu specifically for the event.

Ray, who normally works from her studio in New York City, sent a team of planning experts to Houston to work with the couples to create a special day. The show, which includes two weeks of preparation footage, will air sometime in late November.

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Gay Couples In California Rush To Beat Wedding Ban

Gay couples in California last week rushed to beat the November 4 election during which California voters were to decide the fate of gay marriage in that state. As it turns out, voters approved the closely contested ban, amending the state constitution to define marriage as a state that exists between one man and one woman. Los Angeles County officials stopped issuing marriage licenses to gay couples at midday on November 5, when the results of the election were certified.

Two other states, Arizona and Florida, also approved constitutional bans on gay marriages on November 4. Currently, about 30 US states prohibit gay unions. Only two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, have sanctioned same-sex marriages. New York recognizes the validity of gay marriages performed in other states, but does not offer same-sex unions within New York.

Neither the California legislature nor the state court system have determined the status of the thousands of gay marriages that were performed between mid-June and November 3. Proponents of the ban are expected to challenge the legality of the same-sex weddings that were performed in the state. Ultimately, the US Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue of same-sex marriage, but to date, the court has declined to weigh in on the constitutionality of the state bans.

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A Digital Twist On Table Cameras

Brides can now put a modern twist on placing cameras at the reception tables. MyFriendsPhotos.com.au will rent 5-megapixel digital cameras along with a digital card reader for the evening. Brides place the cameras on the table and ask their guests to snap pictures of the event. Before the reception ends, the cameras are collected and guests can contribute the contents of their own cameras via the digital reader.

The cameras are returned to MyFriendsPhotos.com.au and the pictures are burned to a DVD, which is sent back to the bride and groom. The wedding couple are given a special password that they can distribute to the wedding guests. Guests who visit the company’s Web site can download the photos of the wedding.

The digital approach provides couples with about 800-1,000 pictures for their event, significantly more than what they would get with traditional film cameras on the table, and without the expense of film developing. The service is also available for corporate events.

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Japanese Groom To Be Torches Hotel To Avoid Wedding

A Japanese groom who was scheduled to be married in a hotel ballroom at The Risonare resort hotel in the Yamanashi Prefecture was arrested on suspicion of arson after an early morning blaze broke out at the site of wedding ceremony. Police allege that Tatsuhiko Kawata spread kerosene around an entrance to the ballroom where his wedding was supposed to take place and lit a fire.

The resulting blaze caused minimal damage to about 10 square meters of ballroom space, including the doorway, walls and ceiling. About 150 hotel guests were evacuated as a precaution, but were allowed to return to their rooms. According to a hotel employee, the sprinkler system doused the flames before any major damage occurred.

Kawata became a suspect after calling off the wedding and dropping out of contact. Police questioned Kawata at his home the morning after the blaze, and said that he had a reason to call off the wedding. According to the police report, Kawata confessed to setting the fire as a way to get out of his wedding plans because he was already married to another woman.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Plan Low Key Wedding

Actor Brad Pitt and long-time fiancée Angelina Jolie may be planning a low-key wedding. No date has been announced for the nuptials. Jolie said in a recent interview published in the Italian language version of Vanity Fair that she thinks the older children in their brood will pressure the couple to marry.

A friend of the family said that the couple will opt for a simple, civil ceremony rather than a showy, celebrity-laden event. The couple have not acknowledged that they plan to wed, but Jolie has often considered marriage to be in the couple’s long-term future.

Jolie, who is twice-divorced, is in no big hurry to tie the knot, preferring to marry when “the time is right.” Pitt was previously married to actress Jennifer Aniston and was cast in an unfavorable light when the couple split up. Shortly after they announced their engagement, Pitt said he and Jolie would marry when everyone in society enjoyed the right to wed, referring to gay marriage.

California, where the couple make their home, now permits gay marriage, but that could change following the November elections. A ballot proposal would create a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage in that state. If successful, the proposal would mean that California would join at least twenty-six other US states that constitutionally prohibit gay marriage.

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Worlds Heaviest Man Weds

Manuel Uribe, who holds the world’s record for weight, married his fiancée in a civil ceremony in Mexico on Monday, October 27. The ceremony, which was attended by more than 400 guests, marked one of the few times Uribe has left his home in the past six years.

Uribe married Claudia Solis and danced at his reception banquet, which featured a five-tier wedding cake. Uribe, 43, had just one bite of the cake. The couple met when Uribe went to visit a dying friend, who was also morbidly obese. Solis was married to the dying man, who passed away shortly after Uribe’s visit.

With Solis’ encouragement, Uribe, who once tipped the scales at 560 kg, has lost more than 250 kg to date and has a goal of whittling himself down to just 120 kg. Should he accomplish his goal, Uribe may also be entered in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person who has accomplished the greatest weight loss. Losing 250 kg has taken Uribe two years. If he continues to lose weight at his current rate, he will achieve his goal sometime in the middle of 2010.

Uribe’s wedding was videotaped by The Discovery Channel and will be the subject of an upcoming documentary.

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Hurricane Washes Away Dozens Of Wedding Plans

Hurricane Ike, which ravaged the US Texas gulf coast earlier this year, has apparently undone dozens of wedding plans. The owners of two wedding venues, the Bella Terrazza and the Tuscany in Garden Oaks, say that they will not be able to re-open the Bella Terrazza, and it’s not clear what will happen to the Tuscany in Garden Oaks.

Instead, the owners have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in early October. Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows a business to “reorganise” its debts and negotiate settlements with creditors. The owners did not place wedding deposits into a trust account, which means that the business’ secured creditors have first crack at the deposited cash.

Those holding “secured” debts, like mortgages, and equipment loans, will get paid first. The couples, however, are considered “unsecured creditors” and can look forward to settlements of pennies on the dollar, if they receive anything back at all. Unsecured creditors can place a claim on whatever assets remain only after secured debts have been paid.

Couples who placed deposits of between $1,800 and $30,000 are likely out of luck. The owners have not said when or if they can return the deposits for weddings that were booked through 2009. Some couples have been able to find good deals through other local venues, some at a discount. One bride said the facility threw up a red flag when it offered her a discount on her reception if she paid in cash, so she purchased a wedding insurance policy for about $300 before putting down her deposit. The wedding insurance policy means that she’ll get all of her money back, albeit through the insurance company. That bride said a friend of hers had lost about $20,000 on a similar wedding disaster, which prompted her to seek wedding insurance for her own event.

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US Customs OKs Dress - Holds Canadian Bride At Border

A Canadian woman who is engaged to marry a Texas man will have to wait in Canada while the couple sorts out her immigration status with the US Federal government. Christine Tyrrell was trying to board a plane to Houston, TX from Edmonton, Alberta when she got the bad news from US Customs officials: her dress, which she was worried about getting on board the plane as a carry-on item, was OK to pass, but Christine wasn’t going anywhere.

Tyrrell and her fiancé Mark Hughes were seemingly victimised by conflicting advice dispensed by Customs officials in Texas, who advised Hughes not to apply for a “fiancée visa” and border agents who told Tyrrell she couldn’t enter without one. Although the wedding was planned for September 20, 2008, the processing time required for fiancée visas exceeds their planned wedding date.

US Customs officials recommended that the couple either apply for a fiancée visa and delay their wedding or marry outside the US and apply for permanent entry for Ms. Tyrrell after the wedding has taken place. The couple have not yet decided what route they’ll take, but they’ll lose about USD$7,000 in deposits and associated wedding costs due to the cancellation.

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Actor Mark Wahlberg To Marry Long Time Girlfriend

Mark Wahlberg, 37, will marry long-time girlfriend Rhea Durham in a private ceremony in August 2009. The star of the current feature film “Max Payne” says that he and Ms. Durham have been making plans to marry. He did not name a specific date, but did indicate that the ceremony would be held in a Catholic church, and would involve only family and a few friends. He also said that the media would not be invited and that the couple have no plans to sell their wedding photos to the media.

Wahlberg and Durham have three children together, ranging in age from 5 years to one month. He recently purchased a USD$35 million mansion in Los Angeles to accommodate his growing family, and his desire to host guests at his home. The couple have their former home on the market for USD$16 million.

Durham is a fashion model and has graced the covers of Vogue, Marie Claire and ELLE. Wahlberg began his career as a recording artist and made the move to acting, directing and producing television programmes and films. Wahlberg, who has had several famous brushes with the law, credits his Catholic faith for helping turn his life around. This will be the first marriage for both.

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British Bride Busted On Her Wedding Day

A 21-year old Portuguese woman was arrested in London last month on suspicion of aiding an illegal immigrant to enter Britain. Just minutes after the bride left the church in Dulwich, South London, police moved in and stopped her car. The bride was wearing a white dress and veil, but the groom was nowhere to be found.

The groom, a 37-year-old Nigerian man, was not with the bride. He arrived separately at the scene and was arrested on suspicion of entering Britain illegally. A later search turned up several false passports with the same picture but several different names. The arrest was part of a crackdown in Britain on illegal marriages designed to help immigrants enter the country. The investigation was conducted jointly by Metropolitan Police and UK Border Agency investigators. The UK Border Agency is holding the ersatz groom in custody pending deportation proceedings.

The number of sham marriages in Britain has dropped dramatically since 2004, when Home Secretary David Blunkett instituted a series of investigations designed to find and prosecute citizens and non-citizens who participate in this type of immigration fraud. According to national statistics, the number of sham marriage prosecutions dropped to 400 in 2007, from a high of 3,500 in 2004. Police credit the stepped-up investigation and prosecution of sham marriages as the reason that so few are attempted now.

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UK and NZ Brides Pony Up To Try On Wedding Dresses

Brides in Britain and New Zealand can add another line item to the wedding budget: charges for trying on wedding dresses. Some high-end bridal boutiques are now charging brides who want to try on the dresses, ostensibly to cover the time of shop workers who must work with brides-to-be. Shop owners are saying that many women who enter the store have no plans to buy their expensive gowns and can waste hours trying on dress after dress.

For some, the charge is a nuisance, ranging from £10 to £20. Other designers charge as much as £175 for “mirror-time” at their boutiques. For pricier stores, the charge is often deducted from any purchase a bride makes at the store. Store owners see nothing wrong with asking brides to pay to try on dresses, especially when it discourages brides from looking at dresses they can’t afford.

Shoppers aren’t as enthused, but many confess to understanding why shopkeeper are levying the charge. Many have also said that they would not mind paying the fee if it were deducted from the purchase price of the gown.

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Justin Timberlake Proposes To Jessica Biel

Actor Justin Timberlake, 27, has proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Jessica Biel, in Rome, Italy. Biel and Timberlake were in Italy for the wedding of Beverly Mitchell, one of Biel’s co-stars in the US television programme “7th Heaven.” Ms. Biel, 26, has accepted Timberlake’s proposal, although the pair have not formally announced their wedding, nor set a wedding date.

The couple have dated since 2006. Timberlake is known for his role in the pop music group NSync. He has also starred in recent theatrical films, including Shrek The Third and The Love Guru. He began his entertaining career as a member of the New Mickey Mouse Club with co-start Britney Spears.

Ms. Biel is best known for her role in 7th Heaven, but has also appeared in theatrical films, including Easy Virtue, Hole In The Paper Sky, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Ulee’s Gold. This is the first marriage for both Biel and Timberlake. Previously, Timberlake had been romantically linked with Spears, actress Cameron Diaz and briefly, actress Scarlett Johansson.

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UK Church Hosts Second Wedding In Its 119 Year History

A UK couple won the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury to marry at St. John’s in Monmouth. The church, which was opened in 1889, does not hold a council wedding license, and as such, has only hosted one other wedding in the congregation’s 119-year history. Such weddings at non-licensed churches are only held with the permission of the church.

Jane Ridley and Nigel Griffiths applied for, and won permission to marry in St. John’s, a congregation that normally has 10 or 11 people, according to the bride, but can hold as many as 57 people inside the church building. Ms. Ridley has been a member of the congregation at St. John’s for about two-and-one-half years, and felt that it was important to marry in front of her congregation. According to the church warden, only one other couple have ever sought permission to marry there.

The Archdeacon of Monmouth, Reverend Richard Pain, who was also instrumental in helping the couple win the church’s permission to marry at St. John’s, performed the wedding. Ridley and Griffiths are among the youngest congregants, so it is unlikely that there will be any weddings in St. John’s immediate future.

The Ridley-Griffith wedding comes at a time when couples in the UK are enjoying the benefit of newly relaxed rules about Anglican church marriages. Under the old rules, couples could only marry in the church they attended or the parish they lived in. Now, couples can also marry in churches where they have a special connection, as long as they have lived in the area for six months, or their parents or grandparents married in the church the couple wish to use. Ironically, the Church of Wales is disestablished, so the relaxed wedding rules that apply to other churches in the UK are not in force in Wales. In Wales, couples can only marry in a church at which at least one member of the couple attends.

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Wedding Trumps Babys Arrival But Not By Much

Emma Lowdon and her fiancé Sean Allum were getting married at a Registry Office in Ashington, Northumberland when Lowdon’s labor pains began. The bride, 36, and her husband-to-be had chosen October 3 as their wedding date months earlier, when Lowdon found out that she was expecting the couple’s first child.

On September 30, the new Mrs. Allum’s waters broke but her labor did not begin. The couple considered canceling the wedding due to the baby’s impending arrival, but Lowdon confesses that she was determined to be Mrs. Allum by the time the baby was born.

During the ceremony, Mrs. Allum’s contractions began, but the couple were able to enjoy a bit of their reception with family and friends before Mrs. Allum was taken to hospital to await the arrival of Baby Joshua, who was delivered five weeks early. The hospital staff renamed Mrs. Allum’s room the Honeymoon Suite, and report that mother, father and Baby Joshua, who weighed in at just five pounds, are all doing fine.

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