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.

Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum

By Anisa Kadri  - DigitalSpy.com

Jenna Dewan has revealed that she has really got into cooking since her marriage.

According to People, Dewan, who wed Channing Tatum in July, admitted that she started to enjoy cooking a lot after being given lots of kitchen accessories as wedding presents.

She said: “I’ve been really passionate about it, so I’ve been learning some new dishes and getting into it.”

Dewan also said that she is thrilled to be married: “I’m so unbelievably happy. I get happier every day, if that’s possible.”

The pair hope to move from Hollywood to Tatum’s hometown of Wetumpka, Alabama in the future.

Bill Selig and Sarah Lefton let the good times roll during the shtick portion of their reception.

by Stacey Palevsky – Jweekly.com

Some might say Sarah Lefton and Bill Selig met by accident.

Others might call it fate.

For years, Sarah had looked for her beshert at parties, classes, mixers and synagogue programs. She also tried JDate. But no one she met was quite right.

Then, one Friday in March 2006, after going to the Mission Minyan and a Shabbat dinner, on a whim she decided to stop at a friend’s house for dessert. And that’s where she met Bill.

They clicked immediately. They went out to a sushi restaurant on their first date. Bill casually mentioned to Sarah he had tickets that night to an acoustic show by Frank Black (of the Pixies) at Café du Nord — if she wanted to go.

“When I squealed and said, ‘Oh my God, yes!’ he knew it was going be a good date,” Sarah said.

Sixteen months later, Sarah was in Israel for a conference. Bill surprised her there, and proposed while they were on a sailboat in the Red Sea off the coast of Eilat.

In February 2008, they wed in an egalitarian Jewish ceremony at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco.

“Part of the appeal of getting married where we did is of course that it’s upstairs from Café du Nord,” Sarah said.

Bill is a stage director and actor. Sarah created the Jewish Fashion Conspiracy T-shirt line and currently produces

G-dcast, an Internet cartoon series based on the parsha of the week.

The couple lives in San Francisco.

Something old: Instead of tossing the bouquet at the end of the night to a gaggle of embarrassed single women, Sarah presented it to the couple with the longest marriage — her great aunt and uncle Sophie and Ralph, who have been married for more than 60 years.

Something new: In recognition of the couple’s many LGBT friends at the wedding who could not legally marry, “We interrupted the traditional chuppah ceremony to pour out a glass of wine onto the floor to ‘lessen our joy’ — Pesach style,” Sarah said.

The gesture was “received with tears and appreciation, and was extremely important to us.”

Bill and Sarah encourage other marrying couples to consider adding such a gesture as a public recognition of legal injustice.

Something borrowed: The couple decided to save money by not hiring a band, and instead borrowed music from friends and relatives.

“Our friend Jim, an ethnomusicologist, provided an amazing sampling of simcha dancing music,” Sarah said. Another friend, Evan, taught the guests to sing “our favorite niggun” as Bill and Sarah walked down the aisle.

Something Jew(ish): Both Bill and Sarah wanted to immerse in a mikvah before their wedding day, but neither felt that a traditional mikvah was the answer.

So they decided to visit the waters of the “wild and freezing” Pacific Ocean at Baker Beach. Sarah went under starlight the night before the wedding and Bill went early in the morning on their wedding day.

Both brought their best friends to supervise.

“It was both meaningful and exhilarating,” Sarah said.

from TheDailyGreen.com

Your wedding is supposed to be one of the most memorable events in your life. However, in the current economic situation, you are probably cutting back on expenses for your special day.

That’s why Minoo Hersini, creative director of Au Ciel Design Studio, has some tips on how to respect your budget while still having that fairytale wedding you always dreamed of:

- Invite fewer guests. Limit attendees to your close family and friends.

- Look into unusual spaces such as barns, galleries, studios, rooftops. Also, consider the use of your home and your friends’ and families’ homes.

- Choose a location that is in a close vicinity to your guests.

- Create a more casual environment by sampling food dishes.

- Create your own cocktail. Find an original name to reflect your wedding.

- Use the most creative people in order to give you the simple solutions for decor.

- A great DJ is the way to go instead of live music.

- Encourage your guests to donate to a specific charity of your choice.

Heidi and Scott Komorouski

From New Richmond News

Once upon a time, a young River Falls couple entered a contest to win a fairytale wedding.

Three weeks ago, 22-year-old Heidi Foster and 24-year-old Scott Komorouski learned — on live TV — they’d won the $18,000 package that includes everything from clothes, flowers and cake to rings, a honeymoon suite and the coolest of venues.

The couple weds on live TV at the Minnesota State Fair Friday, Aug. 28 during the 3-4 p.m. KSTP/5 Eyewitness News show, “Twin Cities Live.”

“Our first official date was at the State Fair,” said Komorouski.

Their history with the fair was one thing that swayed contest judges to pick their application over the other 199 received. Their wedding planner, Gretchen Culver, helped judge the contest.

She said judges looked for 1) a good State Fair story, 2) someone who would appreciate the opportunity and 3) true love and excitement about a life together.

Their application was one of only two submitted by a husband-to-be.

Foster saw the contest online and told Komorouski about it. She said he completed and sent the form with essay questions.

He found out they won on a Wednesday — two days before they were scheduled to appear on TCL as contest finalists. Keeping the secret, he went shopping at Wedding Day Diamonds to pick a ring that would replace the 50-cent gumball-machine plastic piece he’d given his love nearly two years before.

The excitement nearly swept Foster off her interview chair as she sat on live TV, found out they’d won and got a new ring to replace the plastic one.

“He proposed to me on the show on Aug. 7,” Foster said.           

Komorouski said he was just praying as he got on a bent knee that he wouldn’t fall off the tall stool while getting in position to pop the question.

Theirs will be the only wedding taking place at the fair this year, according to the TV station KSTP (5 Eyewitness News). As far as Foster and Komorouski know, it’s the first time a couple has wed during a live TV broadcast from the fair. It’s also the first time the 1-year-old TCL show has held the contest.

Dream wedding details

As the beaming couple approaches the big day, they describe a whirlwind two weeks of dress and tux shopping, cake tasting and lots of meetings with Culver, who they frequently characterize as “awesome.” Both say despite the short time frame, planning has gone smoothly and easily for them.

They say planners have focused on their preferences during the entire process.

Foster said her two bridesmaids will dress in fuchsia-colored dresses. She found herself a beautiful gown at Pearls & Lace too but won’t reveal too many details.

As of last week, they said the only outstanding detail is to take dance lessons. The honeymooners will also spend their wedding night in Minneapolis at the Hotel Ivy.

The couple’s parents live in New Richmond and, along with other family and friends, will come to the fair for the ceremony and a reception afterward. The bride and groom were given a small number of admission tickets to offer guests.

She said about their loved ones, “They’re really excited.”

Foster and Komorouski met four years ago through mutual friends introducing them. They began dating about two years ago.

They’d planned on marrying but never made it any more official than Valentine’s promises made on the plastic ring.

The two moved to River Falls from New Richmond in the last few years. She just graduated UW-RF with a degree in communications and works as a marketing coordinator in Inver Grove Heights.

He says a small layoff at former employer O’Keefe left him between jobs and thinking about returning to school.

Foster and Komorouski say the whole FAIRytale wedding experience feels surreal, like a dream. They’re excited and welcome everyone to share in their joy by watching the broadcast or joining them live at the fair for the wedding.

He said, “Everyone’s invited.”

She said, “We’re making history here!”

The FAIRytale wedding comes to Foster and Komorouski courtesy of KSTP/TCL, Bellagala, Wedding Day Diamonds, Pearls & Lace Bridal and Formalwear, Men’s Wearhouse and the Hotel Ivy.

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.”

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.

Hank Baskett and Kendra Wilkinson

By Mark Gray – People.com

With the backdrop of a sunset and an altar bedecked with white flowers, Kendra Wilkinson’s wedding was “absolutely beautiful,” according to one of the bridesmaids.

As for the bride, “She looked like a princess,” Holly Madison told PEOPLE a few hours after Saturday’s nuptials at the Playboy Mansion. “It was a beautiful setting for a wedding.”

Before some 300 guests, including ex-boyfriend Hugh Hefner, the bride and groom Hank Baskett recited traditional vows. Wilkinson wore a white dress with a “tight bodice and poofy skirt,” Madison said.

“It was a princess dress, which was fitting. It was really pretty and she looked gorgeous,” said Madison. who on Sunday returned to Las Vegas, where she stars in the PEEPSHOW revue.

Baskett and the groomsman also donned white for the wedding.

Though Wilkinson, who is due in December, is “getting more pregnant every day,” there was little sign of baby bump in her bridal gown.

Like the wedding, the reception was very traditional. While Wilkinson and Baskett danced the first dance to George Strait’s “I Cross My Heart,” the bride saved the second dance for Hefner.

“They’re definitely ready for their honeymoon now,” Madison said. “They need a vacation.”

Kendra Wilkinson Wedding at Playboy Mansion

Las Vegas Skyline

from Tri City Herald

The time has come in every soon-to-be bride’s life that she embarks on a journey with her closest girlfriends. There will be 4-inch heels. There will be plenty of lip gloss. There will be fake eyelashes. There will be Vegas… Are you not entertained?!

So while most of you have seen The Hangover and have since banned your boyfriends from ever partying it up bachelor style in Vegas, I feel like every guy deserves a chance to walk on the dark side. Granted, if that dark side includes vajayjay up in his face, then that’s pushing it.

Mr. Big’s friends took him to the City of Sin for his bachelor party last week. He drank, he toured, he conquered. Then he came back to work the next day hungover. While I encouraged Big to go to a strip joint just for giggles, only a couple of his friends actually sought-out women in g-strings at 6 in the morning. As I’ve explained to some of my girlfriends, I trust Big, so strippers are not an issue. And my sister gave him a stern lecture that if he did go see strippers, to not touch them because herpes can jump.

Anyway, so now it’s my turn to go to Vegas and as my dad would say, whoop it up. There will be no male strippers or Chippendales adventures. I don’t like banana hammocks all up in my space and male dancers remind me too much of Arnold Schwarzenegger, which creeps me out. Like Kendra Wilkinson, sometimes it’s hot to have female strippers over guys. That way, you get ideas.

While we don’t have any set plans besides eating, shopping, hydrating, clubbing, and sleeping – there are plenty of fun and free things to do in Vegas that aren’t so naughty.

I have yet to see the Bellagio fountains. It’s one of the biggest attractions that takes place every night, but I somehow am nowhere near the Bellagio hotel when the fountain display begins.

The Ferrari display room at the Wynn is only $10. For around the same price you can walk over to the Palazzo for their Lamborghini showroom. Two fabulous brands of cars that you probably can’t afford…

Then there’s the not-so-thrifty things you can do in Vegas, such as entering zero gravity with your friends. It’ll run you over $3,000 – but when else can you pretend to be in outer space besides riding in the rocket ship ride outside of a grocery store?

If you’re a wannabe spy, you should try the Stiletto Spy School, where they teach you hand-to-hand combat, shooting guns and how to mix martinis. Again, it’s over $3,000 for a weekend full of faux spy-filled espionage. Is it really worth it? Maybe… But most of us will never know.

Last time in Vegas, we visited Madam Tussauds’ wax museum for roughly $15. It was a fun tour, ending with the Master Chief from Halo. While I’m more of the video game freak than my friends, it was a good ending to a wonderful trip.

It’ll be hard to top our previous trip last year. Free booze, free clubbing and free silly pictures on the strip – it’s hard to beat. There was even a hot bartender our last night who looked like David Beckham. I hope he still works there…

If you’re not the partying type (surprisingly, I’m not) there’s tons of other family-friendly things to do in Vegas.

Alyssa Milano wedding pictures

Check out the first wedding pictures of Alyssa Milano and Hollywood agent David Bugliari!

The couple tied the knot on Saturday at his family’s New Jersey estate. The walked down the aisle to John Lennon’s Imagine.

“We wanted a wedding that was reflective of who we are as a couple,” the 36-year-old actress told People. “My Italian family still eats Sunday dinner together every week, so we wanted to capture the same feeling with people passing around beautiful bowls of food and talking and laughing.”

She wore a custom gown by Vera Wang. Bradley Cooper of “The Hangover,” a friend of the groom, was among the guests.

Alyssa Milano Wedding Dress by Vera Wang

Alyssa tweeted, “I’m on my honeymoon [in Tahiti], enjoying my husband, and loving life. Be well. Smile. Until we tweet again…”