Groom Receives USB Ring
In a society where people are being married and while still at the altar with their partner immediately changing their status on Facebook and Twitter, is it any wonder that Brides and Grooms all over are finding more unusual and modern gifts for their partners?
Ray Arifianto, a games software developer from Microsoft received an usual wedding gift from his fiancée. His present was a thick gold ring which had been sculpted to look like a USB drive and she had included a personal message engraved on the inside.
Someone jokingly reported that it could be possible that at some point in the future, people will refrain from being married in a Church or Registry Office and instead will be inviting their guests to attend their wedding during a conference call. The ‘traditional’ wedding does seem to be adapting with the times but surely that is a little step too far?
House in Flames before Wedding Goes Ahead
The build up to your wedding day is meant to be filled with joy and excitement especially as you have put so much effort into your preparations and this would have been the case for a couple from Ilminster who in the lead up to their wedding tragically lost everything in a fire!
One Thursday afternoon, just a few weeks before their big day, Aimee Storey and her fiancé Jon were out watching the kids at their annual sports day event when unbeknown to them, a fire was raging at their home. The battery of a laptop left to charge exploded causing the fire to make its way around the house destroying everything in its path.
The fire crew had arrived at the house just a few minutes after the emergency services were called but Aimee stated that everything they owned had been lost in the fire including all their clothes, the children’s toys, electrical equipment and their furniture. The family is staying with relatives until suitable housing can be found.
Thanks to the kindness of the community of Ilminster, people pulled together and gave generously to ensure that the wedding will still go ahead.
Couples Underinsure their Wedding Day by 30 Percent
As the wedding season gets into full summer swing, compareweddinginsurance.org.uk has published the results of a study which suggests that, on average, couples are underinsuring their weddings by 30 percent.
The average cost of a wedding for the period May 2009 to April 2010 was £17,000. However, the study found that couples insuring their weddings only purchased policies providing £12,000 of cancellation cover. This £5,000 insurance cover shortfall represents close to 30% of a couple’s total wedding budget.
“For many couples, their wedding day will be one of the most expensive purchases they will ever make,” comments Adam Leyton, founder of compareweddinginsurance.org.uk, “so while it’s encouraging to see that many couples are purchasing insurance to protect this investment, it’s concerning to discover this level of underinsurance.”
Adam goes on to say “Should the unthinkable happen and a wedding has to be cancelled or re-arranged, the couple may end up significantly out of pocket despite believing they were financially covered.”
There are a number of possible explanations for this insurance shortfall. It could be the case that couples ultimately spend way more than their initial budget and don’t increase their insurance cover accordingly. Or, they simply don’t insure themselves for the full amount, gambling that they won’t actually need to claim for full cancellation or postponement.
Wedding insurance provides financial protection should something that’s covered by the policy go wrong before, during or after the big day. That could be, for example, complete cancellation of the wedding due to death or illness, a supplier going bankrupt or something relatively minor like damage to hired suits.
Compareweddinginsurance.org.uk is currently the UK’s leading wedding insurance comparison website. It helps couples to easily compare products from a range of major providers, helping them to find a policy to meet their needs and get value for money.
Wedding Cake Eating Competition
The bride, the groom and wedding guest Joey Chestnut who is the number one ranked hot dog eating competitor in the world sat down with fork in one hand and glass of water in the other to see who could eat the most wedding cake in the fastest time.
Emily Wright and Hall Hunt wanted the wedding cake eating contest at their reception because not only was it unconventional but it’s part of Hall’s hobby and he holds the position of being ranked number nine in competitive eating by downing sixty three hamburgers in eight minutes flat!
Past girlfriends of Halls found his hobby somewhat disgusting and downright weird until he met Emily on a blind date and he quickly discovered they both shared interests in competitive eating and soccer and before long the pair were inseparable and in love.
Hall has a full time career as a civil engineer but loves nothing better to spend his weekends entering eating competitions and to date has won up to sixty thousand dollars after expenses.
At the newlywed’s wedding ceremony they served 300 hamburgers to their guests before the cake eating contest began. The three competitors were allowed up to thirty seconds and even though the bride was against the worlds’ number one and ninth rankers, she won!!
Bird of Prey Delivers Wedding Rings
Last year we wrote about Ollie the owl who, to the delight of his wedding guests, helped his owner deliver the wedding rings during his marriage ceremony and in a similar fashion to Ollie, another owl in Scotland has also been involved with a special air mail delivery!
The Bride, thirty year old Carol was very surprised to see a bird falling from the sky and even tried to take cover as the bird flew into their company. Guests all around them were stunned into silence as no one seemed sure how to handle the situation; little did they know that it had all been planned. The Groom, Euan Graham thought it would be a novel idea to have his owl, Puc, swoop in and surprise his Bride and their guests by delivering their wedding rings while they stood together at the altar.
The stunt became clear when the best man Gavin was seen with a falconry glove on his hand and everyone realised that the owl was holding the wedding rings in his feet.
The couple who were married at Castlehill Church in Ayr in Scotland had actually discussed having the owl present during their wedding but the idea was dismissed so it truly was a surprise to the Bride when the bird flew in!
Soldier Arrested on Wedding Day
A Court in Bishop Auckland in County Durham showed leniency towards a Groom after he was arrested for fighting during his wedding reception!
Twenty eight year old Keir Allan, a serving soldier who recently completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan where three of his Army buddies were killed in action, was enjoying his wedding reception at the Elm Road Working Men’s Club in Shildon when Ben Hall, a friend of Keir’s was stabbed and the Police were called. As Keir watched his friend, who was also a soldier, being carried by paramedics into an ambulance he tried to reach him but was stopped by the Police.
PC’s Christopher Spencer and Iain Bulmer both tried to restrain Mr Allan using gas sprays and batons but they were unable to do so and chaos ensued.
Keir was lucky as a jail sentence could have easily ended his Army career and he will no doubt face disciplinary action on his return. Keir admitted his charges of assault and resisting arrest and was charged over one thousand five hundred pounds in compensation, court costs and fines.
The Bride’s brother, twenty year old Carl Hannon was arrested for the stabbing is currently awaiting a trial date.
Island Romance
So many young women dream of travelling to a beautiful island and meeting the man of their dreams and for one couple this did become a reality!
Laura Wilson, a resident on Herm Island in the Channel Islands attended a wedding at the St Tugual’s Chapel just over a year and a half ago and there she met Neil Collier who was to become her husband.
Neil was there at the wedding as the Best Man to Groom Mat Nicholl. Laura, an accounts assistant worked on the Island for fourteen years but after a year of travelling back and forwards from the Island to Reading where Neil lived, she decided to leave the Island and moved back to England to be with Neil.
The pair returned briefly to the Island and with a Scottish piper playing the bagpipes in the courtyard, the couple were married in the St Tugual’s Chapel where they first met and went on to enjoy a wedding reception at the White House Hotel with friends and family from on and off the Island.
Simpson Models Banned from Wedding
A lot of weddings take place with some unwanted guests at the ceremony or the reception but one couple from Wales were told that their famous family would be banned from attending the civil ceremony as they were not dignified enough!
Thirty four year old Glyn Stott and his partner, Roy Culliford were married at the Registry Office in Cardiff and they had hoped, being big ‘Simpson’ fans, that they would be able to bring along their life sized models of Homer, Marge and their kids. They were banned from doing so after the staff felt that the models were far too large (and heavy) in size and were just not appropriate for such a venue.
The couple from Merthyr Tydfil were very disappointed not to have their American guests with them and instead made do with the Simpson theme song as they walked out of the room after being joined and their wedding cake was also in the theme of the Simpsons.
The models Homer and Marge are over five and six feet respectively and instead, the replica family spent the day at the couple’s home along with the other collectable Simpson items valued at over a hundred thousand pounds!
Mass Weddings to be held at Pub
A pub in Nottinghamshire is hoping to set a record which will make them the pub that has held the largest amount of marriages in just one day!
The Full Moon pub which is located in Morton want ten couples to get married at their venue on the 10th of October this year. They aim to complete all ten weddings in just ten short hours (each wedding being around half an hour apart from the previous one) and so far they have taken seven bookings so they currently have three slots open for any willing couples.
The pub, run by Will and Rebecca White, has been able to host civil ceremonies since January 2008 when it first received its licence and over the past year the pub has hosted around thirty weddings which has greatly improved their business.
Rebecca stated that they are always having to think of new ideas to get more business coming into the pub and the couple are hoping that once a couple holds their wedding there that they, and their wedding guests, will make an effort to return.
Telegraph Newspaper Saves Wedding
Thanks to a national newspaper, the wedding of a Bride from Forfar in Dundee went off without a hitch after the paper managed to locate a much needed Bridesmaid dress!
Twenty two year old Kim and her new husband twenty four year old Richard have two children together, Leo who is nineteen months and baby Mya who is just six months old. Kim works for Specsavers but is currently on maternity leave and Richard is a manager at a plant-hire company.
The pair were busy making their wedding plans and just a few weeks before the big day during a fitting it was discovered that one of the bridesmaid’s dresses was too small and they were unable to find a matching replacement as they had purchased the dresses on sale in Debenhams. After searching for the same dress they decided to put a plea in the letters page of the Telegraph and luckily, just a few days before the wedding, a lady called Laura contacted them with an offer of a matching dress in the right size.
The newlyweds, grateful to Laura and the paper got married in Coupar Angus at the Red House Hotel.