Archive for the ‘Wedding Misadventures’ Category
5 fun movies with a honeymoon theme
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
Suzie Rodriguez – Examiner.com
Mention honeymoon travel, and almost everybody starts thinking about tropical islands, romantic cities, luxury cruises, national parks gifted with nature’s wonders, and all the world’s other fabulous destinations.Right?
So tell me why it’s nearly impossible to find a honeymoon movie that takes place in a gorgeous locale. Most of the time the destination isn’t even identifiable. Not to mention you wouldn’t want to spend your honeymoon or any other moments of your life around some of the deranged characters (ax murderers, for instance) found in many of these films.
The Internet Movie Database lists more than 200 movies about honeymoons. Here are a few highlights of the good, the bad, and the downright horrible:
Honeymoon in Vegas (1992): A comedy with James Caan, Nicolas Cage, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Honeymoon Locale: Las Vegas. Very funny, with lots of comedic twists and turns—who can forget the Flying Elvises? Caan, Cage, and Parker are all at their considerable comedic best. Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Definitely one of the better honeymoon movies to be found.
Once upon a Honeymoon (1942): A war-time drama/romance with Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. Honeymoon Locale: Europe. Grant is a radio correspondent in 1938 Europe, when he meets and falls in love with Rogers—who is married to an Austrian Baron (who, unknown to her, is a Nazi spy). Grant tries to expose the Baron, and complications ensue. These two superstars from the past are something to watch.
What Happens in Vegas… (2008): A comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz. Honeymoon Locale: Las Vegas. Two strangers vacationing in Vegas get drunk and wake up married—and totally disliking each other. A judge refuses a quickie annulment, ruling that they live together for 6 months before splitting the huge jackpot they won the night before (which precipitated their big drunk to begin with)…and the plot, such as it is, thickens. As one reviewer put it, “…the filmmakers assume everyone in the audience has both attention deficit disorder and dementia.”
The Honeymoon Killers (1970): A thriller starring Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler. Honeymoon Locale: Various seedy spots in the USA. When a womanizing con man and a no-nonsense nurse fall in love, they travel across the country as brother and sister. Their goal: to swindle and kill, in increasingly bloody fashion, the lonely women he marries. Based on the 1940s real-life “Lonely Hearts Murders,” the black-and-white film has a gritty reality and deserves a wider audience. New Wave French film director Francois Truffaut supposedly called this his favorite American film.
Haunted Honeymoon (1986): A comedy-thriller starring Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, and Dom Deluise. Honeymoon locale: Who knows? A genius of a comedy trio! Wilder & Radner are caught in his aunt’s big, spooky house out in the country with lots of wacky/scary people—and a werewolf on the loose. Wilder also directed.
Couple’s horror at fake wedding cake mistake
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
A NEWLY-WED couple choked with embarrassment when their wedding cake turned out to be made of POLYSTYRENE.
Bride Aimee West had paid £270 in advance for a three tier sponge decorated with white and dark chocolate icing and flowers.
But she was stunned when just as she cut into it with groom Tony, her mum declared: “The cake’s a fake.”
Horrified Aimee, 27, sliced through a layer of chocolate icing — then hit a block of white polystyrene underneath.
She said: “It was a terrible shock – I felt so embarrassed in front of all our family and friends.
“It was a lovely occasion and the ceremony was going to be the icing on the cake – only there was no cake.
Compensation
Bank worker Aimee and Tony, 26, had tied the knot in Cyprus a week earlier then flew home for their reception at a plush hotel.
They had pre-ordered the cake from confectioners Creative Cakes in their hometown of Llanelli, West Wales.
But just four hours before the evening reception was due to start Aimee discovered the cake company had forgotten to bake the cake.
Aimee said: “They admitted their mistake and said: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll get you a cake.’
“They turned up that evening and the cake was put on a table for all to see.
“We were just about to cut it when someone discovered the cake people had left four layers of sponge cake in the hotel reception.
“That set alarm bells ringing and when my mother checked the cake she found it was made of polystyrene.”
Aimee and apprentice plumber Tony said the cake cock-up ruined their reception at Ashburnham Hotel in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire.
The pair took Creative Cakes to the small claims court and were awarded £310 compensation.
District Judge Marjorie Taylor told them they could have made even more if they had filmed the cake cutting ceremony and sold it to TV’s You’ve Been Framed!
After the case Aimee said: “We are delighted to have been given our money back.
“We could have asked for compensation for cutting the cake in front of all our guests but we wouldn’t be able to put a figure on that.”
Karen Williams, who runs Creative Cakes from her home in Llanelli, blamed it all on a mix-up.
She said: “By the time Aimee contacted me it was too late to make the proper cake.
“I would never have the time to bake a cake and ice it in that time.
“I explained I would be delivering an artificial cake – they are quite common at weddings these days.
“I offered them a refund so there was no reason to take me to the Small Claims Court.”
She was given three months to repay the couple plus their costs.
Chicago Cubs fans to say vows at Wrigley Field
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
From OneWed.com
While wedding planning, couples who are hard-core baseball fans may consider incorporating their favorite team into their nuptials – maybe with a cake topper, colors or favors.
Some brides and grooms take their passion even further and tie the knot on a baseball field. This Labor Day weekend, Jennifer Moran and Michael Blair will wed at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs, the News-Gazette reports.
Moran told the newspaper the idea arose because the pair had gotten engaged, but were struggling to get excited about wedding planning.
“I’m not really a girly girl, more of a tomboy,” she explained, adding that choosing a wedding dress and wedding flowers was “the last thing on my mind.”
So, baseball stadium nuptials seemed just the right theme to get both of them excited. According to the article, the pair will walk down the aisle to the theme song from the film The Natural, and guests will dine on hot dogs, corn and ice cream sundaes.
In the past, some couples who tied the knot at Wrigley Stadium have also featured their names in lights on the giant marquee outside.
Bride nearly a no-show at fairy tale wedding
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Sarah Schopp and Jonathan Silver celebrate at Deerhurst Resort.
Heather Greenwood Davis – TheStar.com
Sarah Schopp’s romance had all the makings of a fairy tale.
First there was the older brother of her childhood friend who turned out to be a “prince” of a guy.
Then there was his recognition, years after knowing her as “that kid who came around to see his sister,” that she was the “belle” for him.
And next came a fairy tale engagement among rose petals and candlelight.
But it almost went topsy-turvy when she locked herself out of the room in which the wedding was being held. “It was the longest 30 seconds ever,” recalls her husband, Jonathan Silver.
He was standing at the front of the room waiting for his fiancée to make her appearance when she failed to show.
A trick door was their undoing: The door through which her bridesmaids, the groomsmen and even the couple’s parents had entered was now locked. Schopp, standing alone outside, hearing the music play her grand entrance, realized she was locked out and there was no one to tell.
Instead, she hiked up her gown and ran to another door. Soon, a slightly frazzled bride made a shorter walk down the aisle, to the relief of her groom to be.
It was one more test of fate for a couple that’s no stranger to tests of fate.
The two first met when they were kids. Silver’s younger sister was Schopp’s best friend in elementary school and when Schopp returned to Toronto after completing university, her old pal lit the spark, suggesting that the two were a perfect match.
At the time, Silver was living and working in California so an encounter was unlikely. Then things were further complicated when a friend of Schopp’s, unaware of her growing interest in Silver, expressed interest in him after visiting him in California.
But an immigration snafu was the unlikely engine to set the wheels of romance in motion.
Silver came home for a wedding and was denied return access to the United States because of a glitch with his visa. Instead, he went to see his sister and it happened to be a weekend when Schopp was staying over.
“I saw Sarah, and I said to Naomi, `Sarah looks really cute these days,’” Silver, 32, recalls.
When Silver suggested they go hiking together, Schopp made sure to tell her friend.
“It was a little awkward at the beginning, but she got over it,” says Schopp. “She knew Jon wasn’t the one for her.”
One hike led to two and soon the fast friends had spent months enjoying each other’s company and common interests that included being outdoors and “weird Korean movies.”
Things grew serious after Silver invited a bunch of friends, including Schopp, for a night of camping. By the night of the trip, she was the only one who hadn’t cancelled. They pitched a tent and were sitting outside talking when a storm started.
“We ended up building a big bonfire and sitting outside in the rain, just talking and hanging out,” Silver says. “When the rain stopped, the stars came out, and it was perfect. Then we kissed.”
For Silver, love was always there.
“I think I knew right away. It took Sarah another three or four months to figure out that she was on board.”
“He was my first real boyfriend,” she counters by way of explanation.
She soon realized she wanted him around forever and although Schopp picked out her rings, the proposal details were left to Silver.
He set the stage for months by telling her all the ways he might propose: A ring in a bag of Scrabble letters while they were playing; or on one knee during a couple’s massage. He had fun watching her expect something week after week, especially during a weekend trip to Vermont, knowing full well he had a plan in motion back in Toronto.
“My brother had come to my house on the Saturday that we were coming back. He put like a million flowers I had bought the morning before and candles everywhere,” Silver recalls. By the time they got home, Schopp was tired after a weekend of non-proposals.
“She was so mad at me by then,” he recalls, laughing. “When she walked in the door, her face just dropped. She was so surprised.”
A champagne toast, a speech and an engagement followed.
Wedding planning started immediately. They knew they wanted an event, not just a day, and planned for a weekend-long intimate occasion for friends and family at Deerhurst Resort. An out-of-towner dinner, golf tournament and more filled a fall colour weekend in the woods capped by a Sunday wedding in a small room at the resort with a large window overlooking the trees.
After the ceremony, a cocktail reception on the patio preceded dinner in the ballroom.
Dancing included the traditional Jewish hora, a first dance was to the Motown hit “Cruisin” and in a moment of pure happiness Schopp developed her new signature dance move. Wearing her white strapless gown, she did a running slide through her husband’s legs and landed on her feet.
“My parents were, like, `I didn’t know Sarah danced,’” Schopp recalls, laughing. “I don’t know what came over me. I wasn’t even drunk! I was having the best time of my life. I was having so much fun with all my friends and family. I guess I was just so high on life.”
Silver agrees. “It’s a moment I’ll never forget. We still feel like it was the best day of our lives.”
Wedding goes awry but reaction takes the cake
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
By TOMMY TOMLINSON
McClatchy Newspapers
They had been married five minutes when they found out.
Samantha Hicks and Richard Houser had started dating in high school, broke it off, then got back together three years ago. Now they were 21 and in love and they had just told the world.
The wedding had lined up just the way they wanted. They had 125 friends and family in the house. They wore their special wedding shoes Richard’s red Converse sneakers, Samantha’s red ballet slippers with the white polka dots. And they had stashed their secret wedding-cake topper salt and pepper shakers glued together. They’d seen it in a movie called “Fireproof,” as a symbol of a couple that would never part. Samantha’s shaker wore a veil. Richard’s had a cowboy hat.
The newlyweds had said their vows and were in a back room, waiting to be officially announced as man and wife. Then Samantha’s aunt walked in with the news. The caterer didn’t show.
No food. No drinks. No wedding cake.
This, of course, was a Bridezilla moment. Imagine your own wedding day, 125 people expecting to be fed, and you haven’t got a crumb. This is when couples melt into tears, when they invent new profanities, when they grab the Yellow Pages and turn straight to Lawyers.
Here is what happened at Samantha and Richard’s wedding:
“We were all kind of freaked out for about two minutes,” she says. “And then people started figuring out what to do.”
The best man and the guitarist and a bridesmaid jumped in a car and took off for Food Lion. The other groomsmen went ahead with their plan to “kidnap” Samantha; they told the crowd they’d have to pay a ransom to see her. Everybody chipped in for the new couple, and Samantha was released to the custody of her husband.
Then, imagine this, everyone just stood around and talked, and nobody griped.
“We pretty much had the attitude before the wedding that if it didn’t get done, it wasn’t going to get done,” Richard says. “We didn’t expect this to not get done. But our friends really stepped it up.”
It wasn’t that long before the crew came back from the store, bearing fruit trays, soft drinks, cheese and crackers. The crowd dug in and everything was fine.
It turns out the caterer got overwhelmed some of his help bailed on him, and he fell too far behind, and he was so embarrassed he didn’t answer his phone. He has promised to refund his fee and pay for the food the couple’s friends bought.
Nobody’s suing. Nobody’s even angry. Samantha giggles about the whole thing as she describes the wedding over the phone.
“The flower girl wouldn’t go down the aisle,” she says. “I didn’t have the recessional music ready until that morning, and my dad and I walked down the aisle too early. So everybody made some mistakes.”
And the cake? Well, you don’t buy a wedding cake for 125 people at the last minute. Then again, maybe a wedding cake is meant for two. Samantha and Richard got out their salt-and-pepper shakers bound together for life and placed them on the tiny Food Lion cake.
They were a perfect fit.
Tommy Tomlinson has written a local column for the Charlotte Observer since 1997. He was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary.
