Bride of the Year Winner
If you have been following our blogs you will remember that in April we reported on the four couples going forward for the Bride of the Year Competition being run by the Hartlepool Mail Newspaper and Robert Usher Photography. We can now tell you that the winners of the competition are Bride-to-be Michelle Davison and her fiancé Stephen Jewson.
The competition spanned over a period of ten weeks and when the winners were announced, the couple, who are both thirty three years old, could not believe that they had won.
After being short listed last month, thirty three year old Michelle, a Lecturer at Hartlepool College and Stephen a machinist, had to plead their case to a panel along with three other couples. On the night of the announcement, Michelle was recovering from a bunion operation but she will have recovered completely by the time the wedding comes round.
The pair will most definitely enjoy their wedding worth ten thousand pounds which will take place at the Staincliffe Hotel in Hartlepool in August of this year.
Best Ages to Marry
What is the secret to a long and happy life? Everyone has their own opinion about what makes someone live longer and what can make someone happy. Recent studies have shown that a woman wanting to live longer should marry a man of her own age!
Previous studies have shown that in a lot of cases, men who marry younger women are more likely to live longer. This is possibly due to the fact that the younger woman keeps her man ‘feeling’ younger and therefore he is more active and healthy and is therefore around for more years than expected.
The most recent study took place in Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research by Sven Drefahl. He found that whether a woman is older or younger than her partner, if there is a large age gap then she is more likely to pass away before her husband. In fact he is certain that if a woman marries a man older than herself that it will shorten her lifespan and if her husband is considerably younger than she is then her lifespan is decreased even more.
Some studies even show that men benefit from getting married more than women do but all of these studies should be perhaps taken with a pinch of salt!
1940′s Themed Wedding
Bride Sharon Lynn, 40 looked as if she had stepped back in time with her vintage 1940s wedding dress complete with swept back hair style and flowers from the 40’s era as her father drove her to Leeds Town Hall in his Willys military jeep.
Groom Iain Woods stood waiting for her dressed in a white suit with their wedding guests all dressed in 1940s outfits and fitting in well with the era of Swing music and Glen Miller theme.
The Leeds couple are lovers of 1940s music and met and fell in love while dancing to their favourite songs.
Iain and his new bride Sharon posed for photos outside the Leeds Town Hall on board the 1940’s jeep after the wedding ceremony with eyes only for each other.
They went on to enjoy their 1940s themed reception at TJ’s Woodhouse club where everybody enjoyed the sounds of the Forties and keeping with the 40’s theme the buffet was home- made sandwiches and cake that had been made by the families of the newlyweds.
A typical example of ‘its your day’ and enjoy it however you want it!
Accident Prone Bride
An upcoming Bride-to-be has won first prize in a competition which leaves her with the title of being the woman most prone to having accidents within Scotland!
Thirty five year old Lorraine Crozier from Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, complete with her long list of accidents, went up against over one hundred other applicants and along with her title also won a thousand pounds.
The money will certainly help Lorraine keep stocked up with pain relief and plasters which is something she definitely needs to keep a stock of after she has been seriously injured on over twenty occasions. Mother of one Lorraine has fractured her elbow, dislocated her shoulder, broken her coccyx and four of her toes as well as chipping her collar bone along with a plethora of other injuries.
Despite the title, let’s hope that Lorraine has some good luck on her wedding day and remains accident free throughout the whole occasion!
Dissolvable Wedding Dress
A lot of Brides struggle with the idea of ‘getting rid’ of their wedding dress. Unless they know a wonderful seamstress who could perhaps transform their dress into a dress for them to use on another occasion or even a christening gown for any future children they might have then most Brides resort to packing it away in a box and keeping it locked away somewhere. A group of students from Sheffield Hallam University in South Yorkshire have perhaps created a solution to this dilemma by designing a dress that is disposable!
The students, studying fashion and engineering have come up with an idea that will transform a wedding dress into five new separate items which will allow any Bride to utilise her dress to its potential. The pieces are made from a material called polyvinyl alcohol and they actually dissolve in water which makes it possible for the material to be used again so as long as it doesn’t rain on the day a Bride could use her dress over and over again.
The students have made five dresses so far and their eco-friendly creation is due to be showcased in an upcoming exhibition about sustainable marriages.
Small Wedding for Brand and Perry
With so many celebrities wanting to have the ‘huge’ weddings with hundreds of guests and of course the magazine deals, it is comforting to know that some stars like things small and private with regards to their up coming nuptials!
Thirty four year old Russell Brand, a TV and radio presenter well known for his quirky wit and his fiancée, twenty five year old singer Katy Perry have decided to keep their wedding on the smaller and more intimate size. The small ceremony will take place with only a few guests in attendance, those that the couple feel are important figures in their lives.
At some point in the future the couple will then splash out on a giant reception for all their friends and family that they did not include in their tiny ceremony.
It is understood that the Bride-to-be has been talking to John Galliano with regards to the design of her wedding dress but it is yet to be confirmed who will be designing it!
Lucky Religious Wedding Day
The 16th of May which this year is a Sunday, is a very lucky day for any Hindu Bride and Grooms wanting to get married. Today there will be a lot of couples getting hitched in the hope that the luck from such an auspicious day will continue throughout their wedded life together.
The significant date is known as The Akshaya Tritiya which translated from the Hindu language of Sanskrit means never diminishing. Hindus believe that the day brings success and good luck to all those who are joined together and that they will definitely be blessed with prosperity and success.
It is believed that around seventy thousand marriages will take place today in Mumbai with another twenty thousand taking place in Delhi with many more the world over within other Hindu communities.
This certainly will be a busy day for Hindu priests as the next ‘lucky’ day on the Hindu calendar does not take place until November.
Shrek Wedding
Following in the footsteps of Christine and Keith Green who in May 2009 dressed as Shrek and Princess Fiona for their wedding day, a couple from South Wales have gone that little bit further and made their whole wedding about the animated film!
Thirty three year old Tracey Williams and her new husband, fifty three year old Vivian decided on their Shrek themed wedding as it was the first movie that they saw together when they first began dating. Some of their friends had even teased them about looking like the characters so it seemed like an apt choice of theme.
The couple from Bridgend in South Wales, after completing their vows to each other at Bridgend Register Office toured the streets wearing green paint on their bodies and adorning fake ears while riding a horse drawn carriage. Tracey’s outfit included her white wedding dress and a bright red wig in an effort to be just like Princess Fiona while Vivian had on some brightly coloured checked trousers.
The pair, keen to involve everyone in their wedding plans, had their friends and family dress up as other characters which included Lord Farquaad, the Fairy Godmother, Snow White and Monsieur Hood.
Heidi Klum and Seal Celebrate Fifth Wedding Renewal Vows
Since marrying five years ago Heidi Klum and Seal have renewed their wedding vows every year and this year’s renewal ceremony theme was based on brides and grooms with all members of their family and friends dressing in white and black.
The celebration took place last week in Costa Careys in Mexico where the couple held an outdoor reception in a thatched roof palapa for eighty guests. Candles, flowers and chandeliers were dotted around giving the themed brides and grooms renewal vows the romantic look the couple were aiming for.
Heidi and Seal wanted their fifth wedding anniversary renewal ceremony to feel more like a real wedding but still wanted a theme.
A karaoke party held the evening before the renew vows was the beginning of the celebrations for Heidi and Seal who are parents to Leni, six, Henry, four, Joan, three and seven month old baby Lou.
Wedding invitations were sent out in the shape of wedding cake with bobble heads of the entire family on and words that read ‘Five years, piece of cake’!
Seal said: “Each year, Heidi and I get remarried. It’s a great party, but for about an hour, we go off on our own down to a private beach. We sit there with the kids and read vows to each other as the sun sets. It’s a very special moment to us.”
What a lovely and romantic way to remember those vows you said on your wedding day. Renewing vows does not have to be about holding parties and spending money! It’s the meaning of why you say them and they can be said between just the two of you, or amongst your family and friends – anywhere, anytime, anyplace!
Bomb Threat Hoax at Wedding
While attending their wedding reception, a couple from Market Harborough in Leicestershire and their guests were almost evacuated from the hotel following the false allegation of a bomb being present within the hotel grounds!
Twenty seven year old Alan Woodhouse and his new wife, twenty five year old Beckie had a lovely start to their wedding day after the ceremony which took place at St Dionysius Church. They were celebrating their nuptials along with their friends and family, some of which included fire fighters and even an expert at bomb disposal, at the Three Swans Hotel in Market Harborough when at around 10.30pm, someone make a crank call to the hotel stating that hidden within one of the wedding gifts was an explosive device. The Police were subsequently called and a thorough inspection of all the gifts was made.
Helen Connell, who is believed to have something against the family, had made the call in an effort to ruin the wedding. She was confined to jail overnight after being cautioned for making the false call.
After averting the potential disaster at their reception, the couple were unfortunate to have their honeymoon to Miami cancelled due the volcano explosion in Iceland so instead had a small honeymoon in Tenby and plan to go to Africa later on in the year!