Seventieth Wedding Anniversary
In today’s society, not everyone reaches wedding anniversary milestones such as fifty years or even twenty five years married but for one couple in Port Seton in Edinburgh they have reached their platinum wedding anniversary!
The couple, eighty eight year old Margaret Mack and her husband, ninety two year old Charlie were married seventy years ago in a civil service ceremony in January 1940. They had met two years prior to their wedding when they were both members of a local bike club.
Along with a card from the Queen, they also received from their local minister a blessing from their church which meant a lot to them as they did not have a religious wedding.
Charlie, who worked as a miner and Margaret who was a fish filleter, were blessed with three children, Ellen, Beth and Andrew who went on to give them six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
The couple are proud of their accomplishment and they celebrated their achievement with a get together with family and friends at the Port Seton Centre. They had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and account their success in marriage down to the fact that they never held a grudge with each other or went to bed not speaking!
Author - Pauline
Rough Guide To Weddings
The Rough Guide to Weddings is a practical and down-to-earth guide for modern couples, providing all the advice and information you need to plan your dream day, whether that be a “green” wedding, a Civil Partnership ceremony, an alternative bash, or a traditional church-and-champagne affair. From the practicalities of budgets and venue-booking to the emotional curveballs you’ll be thrown along the way – whether cold feet or mutineering bridesmaids – it will help you pull off your perfect wedding without losing your mind.
Packed with ideas for making your big day both unique and memorable The Rough Guide to Weddings also features credit-crunch-busting tips that could save you hundreds of pounds, no-nonsense advice on etiquette and real-life anecdotes from brides and grooms on the highs and lows of wedding planning, disasters to avoid and top tips to steal. The Rough Guide to Weddings is the ultimate guide to getting hitched.
Well they would say that wouldn’t they!
I thought I had better grab myself a copy and put the claims to the test – not by getting married again, I don’t think the current Wife would approve, but by seeing how the advice stacks up against our own site. It’s not exactly a fair test, as they state themselves, this is a book – and a book can’t have dynamic content and vibrant forums for social interaction – on the other hand it is dangerous to soak in the bath with your laptop!
At 238 pages long you would be right to expect a lot of advice covering all aspects of planning and exercising your wedding – it does not disappoint.
It makes for an easy read, tinged with humour and serious warnings to ensure you don’t make any major mistakes in your planning. The book progresses through in the normal manner, money, roles, guest lists and so on through to the party at the end. It also steps back to take closer looks at the key areas such as flowers, food, photos etc
When the Bath Goes Cold
The book has a liberal sprinkling of links to websites that offer extended information or inspirational ideas so you can always fire up the laptop once the water has gone cold in your bath.
It has been written to appeal to both the US and UK markets and there are many cross references to the way it happens on the other side of the pond, you may find this an interesting aside – but it can easily be skipped if not.
The only real criticism of the book is that I was unable to find a single reference to WeddingChaos – how very dare they!
Seriously, if you like a book that you can hold in your hand and is made from paper then this is a great choice and one I can highly recommend.
STOP PRESS
A very nice lady called Holly has given me 3 copies to give away as competition prizes to you lucky people 
To enter the competition make sure you sign up to the Wedding Chaos Newsletter and keep an eye on your inbox next week!
If you are not lucky enough to win the competition, or can’t wait, then you can buy the book from Amazon
Author - David
Children in Need 2009
You may have watched, or maybe you joined in, the Children in Need 2009 fund raising event where charitable people raised and donated over £20 million towards children in need.
On that night I was busy working when I noticed a ‘tweet‘ from Lesley from Lesley Wood Photography
Bids invited, all money 2go2 BBC CHILDRED IN NEED:A 1/2day childrens lifestyle portrait session (in NW UK) & 10×8 framed print-(worth £245!)
Well… Katherine had been asking me for a while if we could have some professional family photos taken so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to donate to Children in Need and score some brownie points with the Wife at the same time
With a few minutes left the bidding had reached £135 – at this point I decided to step in and offer £180 to Lesley – it was more than we needed to bid but, heh, it’s for Charity and Lesley was giving all her time for free – seemed only fair that we bumped it up a bit
You can read more about it on Lesley’s blog
We are all looking forward to the photo shoot this summer – hoping for a nice day to go to the beach!
Author - David
Burglar’s Jail Sentence Reduced to attend Daughter’s Wedding
A man from Walworth in South London who was being sentenced in London Crown Court had his jail term reduced by the sentencing Judge so that he could go to his estranged daughter’s wedding!
Forty six year old Christopher Taylor is a serial burglar, a drug addict and has had convictions all through his childhood. In order to sustain his addiction he stole almost one thousand pounds worth of computer hardware from a nearby neighbour and faced up to three years in jail.
Christopher’s daughter, who he has not been in touch with for quite a few years, managed to trace her father through Facebook after their separation and invited her dad to her September wedding.
Christopher’s defence lawyer, Mr Timothy Forster stated that Christopher had new hopes for the future following his daughter’s invitation. Judge Duncan Matheson who feels it would be beneficial for Mr Taylor to be reunited with his daughter therefore took into consideration the time Christopher had already served and sentenced him to two years. He will only serve half of that time and will therefore be released from jail before the wedding.
Philip Davies, a Tory MP has commented that the recent sentence given was absurd and that Mr Taylor should not have done the crime in the first place if he had wanted to go to his daughter’s wedding!
Author - Pauline
Policeman Jailed for Conducting Weddings
A policeman from the Greater Manchester Police Force has been given a jail sentence after he took a ‘second job’ in which he was marrying couples.
Forty nine year old Mohammed Patel from Bolton has been with the Police for twenty three years and in January 2003 he took a second job as a Deputy Registrar for Bolton Council. He was given permission to perform the wedding ceremonies by his employers but he had been restricted to working in certain regions.
At his trial at Manchester Crown Court, it was stated that Mr Patel began spreading his services to a wider area without informing, or in fact getting the permission of his main employer. Not only did Mr Patel sometimes perform these extra services while still officially on duty, he had on occasion called in sick and even used the police car as a means of transport.
The irony to this situation is that the department that Mr Patel worked for in the Police actually looks into misconduct by officers serving in the Police. Mr Patel received a jail sentence of nine months after he pleaded guilty.
Author - Pauline
Top Gear Wedding Driver
Who wouldn’t want a celebrity look alike at their wedding? One lucky Groom from Derby was surprised by his Bride-to-be when the chauffeur that drove him to the church looked exactly like Stig from the TV programme Top Gear!
Thirty four year old Richard Skidmore, a huge fan of Top Gear, received the lovely surprise from his new wife, thirty one year old Jennifer on the morning of the wedding. He was told to wait at their local pub that morning, the Out of Town Inn located in Ripley and when his car turned up, it was driven by the Stig lookalike. Richard, along with Joshua his seven year old son and his Best man were then chauffeured to the Church in a foxy red Ferrari.
Richard a retail estimator and beauty therapist Jennifer have been together for almost four years and were married at the All Saints Church in Ripley followed by a reception at the Horsley Lodge.
The Stig is famous for his fast driving and testing cars on the show which Richard and his son enjoying watching regularly. Thankfully, while driving to the Church they didn’t receive any speeding tickets along the way!
Author - Pauline
Wedding Budget Donated to Earthquake Victims
Following the devastation in Haiti, a bride from Maple Grove in Minnesota has decided to give what she can to Partners in Health and has allocated over two thousand dollars which is around twenty five percent from her wedding budget to give to the earthquake victims!
Leah Bogen, like any normal bride-to-be, has been busy planning her wedding from the dress to the reception food but after seeing pictures and hearing of the tragedy the residents of Haiti have suffered, she felt that she could not continue in her planning and felt the need to help in some way.
The money that she and her groom-to-be, Will Nicholson, have agreed to donate is the total amount that they had put aside for their wedding dinner and the pair have joked that they may be serving jam and peanut butter sandwiches on the day which is due to take place in June.
Will is full of admiration for his bride and her selfless decision!
Author - Pauline
Groom Makes False Claim
A lot of people tell little white lies, a lot of people get cold feet or become nervous in the lead up to their wedding but what they don’t do is to make false allegations to the Police about being robbed of over a thousand pounds in order to get out of paying for the wedding!
Twenty seven year old Taman Senai Utama from Kulaijaya in Malaysia was originally due to be married in July but after his father in law moved his wedding forward to February he panicked. Unable to raise enough money to pay for the wedding he resorted to lying and informed the Police that he had been robbed at knifepoint by two men on a motorbike while getting into his car after he had taken out a substantial amount of money from his account on four separate occasions that day. Not only did they take the money but he reported that they also snatched his receipts and cash card. He was unable to tell them a lot about the men but described the bike as a black Honda EX5 and that the fender was damaged.
When the Police looked into the matter, they found that the man, a factory technician, had in fact made withdrawals that day but that he had claimed to take out much more than the withdrawal limit allowed which raised their suspicions. When questioned further he admitted to the false report and was arrested. The money he withdrew was in fact hidden in his house!
Author - Pauline
Couple Marry on Mountain
Being on cloud nine for your wedding day is not normally taken literally but for one couple from Bridgewater in Southern Australia, they tried their best to get as high as they could when they got married on top of Aoraki Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand!
Gary Cook and Melinda Gaughwin decided on a venue in the Southern Alps and chose the Tasman Glacier as the location for their wedding ceremony. They were almost seven thousand feet in the air with temperatures of zero degrees when the couple said their vows, although the bride surprised her groom by singing her vows to him.
The couple who are both in their thirty’s completed the day with photographs, a hike around Hooker Valley and then a reception dinner at the Hermitage Hotel.
Tourist operators are saying that this type of wedding is becoming increasingly popular as more and more couples find new ways and locations to get married.
The couple commented that to them their wedding was more than they could have hoped and was just perfect!
Author - Pauline
Cheap Bubbly Pay Out
A castle located in Dundee in Scotland has been forced to pay out hundreds of pounds to a family who celebrated their wedding there after it was discovered that they had served a cheaper version of wine than the bride and groom had paid for!
The bride, thirty four year old Sheonagh Taylor stated that her family were embarrassed and felt deceived by the company’s actions.
Sheonagh’s father, Peter McLaren had paid the suppliers over three hundred pounds so that when guests arrived, they would be greeted with a glass of sparkling wine. What the guests received was Lambrini.
Mains Castle owners, Victor and Eva Peterson stated that when purchasing the Lambrini it was located in the wine section headed sparkling wine and defended their actions further by saying that a lot of couples serve a cheaper drink that is lower in alcohol initially.
Dundee Sheriff Court agreed with Mr McLaren that the product they had been served was inferior to that which they had ordered and awarded the retired law lecturer almost four hundred pounds. The family had lodged two further complaints which were denied.
Author - Pauline