CELEBRATE: Honouring ALL Those Who Married on 29 April 2011...

...never mind 'the royal wedding'!

Flickr featured a blog entry of gorgeous images from some of the many others married on 29 April 2011:  Congratulations to Syahirah and Faizal, Suzie and Tamri, Walter and Tamra...


the wedding in Hirosaki park, originally uploaded by jsflickr2010.

Congratulations to these couples around York, PA:

The office of Clerk of Orphans' Court Bradley C. Jacobs issued the following marriage licenses for 4/29/2011:
Roberto Soto-Rivera and Maria Roque-Rivera, both of York.
Jesus Cortes-Diaz and Yvette Santo, both of York.
David Walker, Nanticoke, Md., and Gwyn Wallen, York.

Many couples were wed in Tulsa, OK (click on the April calendar). Pennsylvania TV station WNEP sponsored an "'Un-Royal' Backyard Wedding" promotion for lucky couple Kelly and Kyle.  The Knot website, or rather, their Newport-specific microsite, had the same idea in mind.

Best wishes to everyone else married today!

HISTORY: From Where Did This Celebrant Come From !!?

This weekend, a very special ceremony will be taking place. And NO, i am not talking about the royal wedding!  The important occasion marks the tenth class of the Celebrant Foundation and Institute (CF&I), which will be graduating this Sunday in Jersey City, New Jersey.  Graduation will be held in conjunction with the Collective Wisdom Conference and Workshop, featuring many CF&I alumni.  i wish i could be there!

Back in 2004, the NPR addict i am found herself listening to a story by Scott Simon, about an organisation of secular officiants called Celebrants.  i was struck by the occasion the Celebrants were commemorating: downsizing!  Through ceremony, Celebrants were acknowledging a very real and painful transition many people were facing at the time. i recall how moved i was by the story, and how logical it sounded to me at the time, even though my experience with ritual and ceremony in general had been, so far, quite limited to Brownies/Girl Scouts, math tournament awards, my father's and others' funerals, and various graduations...with a few weddings thrown in, including my own.

When i checked out the Celebrants' North American website, i learned how Celebrancy, which originated in Australia, was now being taught and led in the United States and Canada by a formidable group based in Montclair, New Jersey.  i applied for the Weddings and Couples programme, and thus began my personal journey as a Celebrant.  Today, i am extremely proud and honoured to be a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® and a CF&I faculty member teaching the very same Weddings and Couples curriculum/course from which i came from!

So congratulations, Celebrant Class of 2011!  :)

More info at the CF&I website

i so wish i could there with you this weekend!

BTW special thanks and recognition to our Tuesday night class - CAT, Cindie, Heather, Nancy, Nanette and Maryrose, who, as of Sunday, are no longer my students, [sniff] but my colleagues!  WOOOOOOOOOOO!

READING: Different, Funny & Appropriate - Ogden Nash at Your Literary Wedding Ceremony

Tin Wedding Whistle

by Ogden Nash

Though you know it anyhow

Listen to me, darling, now,

Proving what I need not prove

How I know I love you, love.

Near and far, near and far,

I am happy where you are;

Likewise I have never larnt

How to be it where you aren’t.

Far and wide, far and wide,

I can walk with you beside;

Furthermore, I tell you what,

I sit and sulk where you are not.

Visitors remark my frown

Where you’re upstairs and I am down,

Yes, and I’m afraid I pout

When I’m indoors and you are out;

But how contentedly I view

Any room containing you.

In fact I care not where you be,

Just as long as it’s with me.

In all your absences I glimpse

Fire and flood and trolls and imps.

Is your train a minute slothful?

I goad the stationmaster wrothful.

When with friends to bridge you drive

I never know if you’re alive,

And when you linger late in shops

I long to telephone the cops.

Yet how worth the waiting for,

To see you coming through the door.

Somehow, I can be complacent

Never but with you adjacent.

Near and far, near and far,

I am happy where you are;

Likewise I have never larnt

How to be it where you aren’t.

Then grudge me not my fond endeavor,

To hold you in my sight forever;

Let none, not even you, disparage

Such a valid reason for a marriage.

Many thanks to a FANTASTIC couple, Jenn and Rhys, for turning me on to such a truly lovely reading.

IDEAS: Paper Record Player Invitation Actually Plays Music!

Paper Record Player from kellianderson on Vimeo.

Huge thanks to @Ropeless for this!!!

TRADITION: What is a wedding?

A wedding is anything you want it to be!

According to the characters from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's Kurosawa-esque-ish episode, Rashomama -

GREG: (referring to the reason for eating at a diner)
...It's a tradition.

SARAH: Ah, tradition, like becoming property exchange between your father and your husband.

NICK: That's not what a wedding is.  It's a public declaration of love.

GREG: i'm with Vince Vaughn on this one.  Dozens of single horny women, with access to an open bar and coupling on the mind...

WAITRESS: Weddings are a Rorschach.  Everybody sees what they want to see.  My first five were good!

However you see your wedding, have your ceremony, your way.  For more information, please contact A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CEREMONY - A modern, inclusive officiant for the ceremony tradition.

i am a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant®, secular minister and civil officiator in Los Angeles and Orange County.  Creating and performing unique, custom-written, bespoke, one of a kind ceremonies and rituals for weddings, engagement, betrothal, commitment, vow renewal, animal or pet, rite of passage, funeral, memorial, celebration of life, baby naming or baby welcoming, new child or adoption, divorce, new job, business, downsizing, new home or any public, private or civic occasion to mark and honour a transition, anniversary, graduation, retirement, ending, change or other milestone.  ALSO: reverend, jp or justice of the peace.

NEWS: You've read her... you've loved her...

Now, let's help her.
Learn how to donate to Dana, also known as the B.A.B., to help tackle medical bills in excess of $18k, as she continues to have medical procedures done related to the autoimmune diseases, Uveitis and Granuloma Annulare.

Donate to the Broke-Ass-Bride!  (And, her broke-ass-husband, too...)