Want an Invite to The Aisle NY's Wedding-Focused Flash Sale Website?

Get ready, to-be-weds and the just engaged!  The latest private member-only online sale website is THE AISLE NEW YORK (TANY).  Gilt, ideeli, Groupon and similar sites, which post various bargains, deals and items for a limited-time only are all the rage these days...but TANY is the only one centered on the wedding market.

Invitation from The Aisle New York, the web's only
wedding-based flash sale site...  :)

A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CEREMONY has a handful of The Aisle New York 's invitations to join, in case you're curious to learn what it's all about.  Please leave contact information in the comments of this blog, or email celebrantvenus [AT] gmail [DOT] com directly!  First come, first served, and you're under no obligation to our officiant services (although, we'd love to ask you about your ceremony plans!).  For more information, please read on.

Lovely art from The Aisle NY's homepage.

According to a press release issued on eWEDNEWS.com, the website's founders consist of David Yassky (former Fashion Editor and Stylist at Women’s Wear Daily and W Magazine, where he covering the bridal industry in-depth); corporate attorney Shara Levy; Deborah Moses (of Moses Media and previously Elegant Bride Magazine's Editor- in-Chief and Creative Director) and Mark Ingram (owner and founder of New York City’s Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier).  Pre-registration for TANY began in August 2010.

The press release went on to say:

"Most featured merchandise including wedding dresses and gowns, veils and headpieces, designer and fine jewelry, lingerie, shoes, and evening bags are promotionally priced, passing along significant consumer savings.  The site also offers select new collections and designer initiatives at regular prices. Merchandise ranges from one-of-a kind runway pieces, coveted designer archives, new custom-made orders, and exclusive designer capsule initiatives.  The platform’s editorial section [vks - read: online magazine!], Inside The Aisle, features dynamic content for everything wedding, from aspirational fashion imagery, to ecommerce shopping guidance, and tips and pointers from industry experts. And to spread the love even further, The Aisle New York donates a portion of proceeds from every gown sold to the charity of the designers’ choice."

 Of course, please visit our website if you need an officiant (also known as a minister, reverend or clergy) for your Southern California ceremony!

LGBT: Sheila Alexander-Reed Performed Skype Wedding in D.C.

Has anyone, not just an LGBT couple, been married via Skype in the U.S. before?

You may have heard about the Skype-officiated wedding ceremony of Mark Reed and Dante Walkup.  While the couple and their loved ones were in Texas, the officiant was in Washington, D.C. where all people, whether in same sex or breeder relationships, may legally be married.

The officiant SHEILA ALEXANDER-REID (also named "Shiela Reid-Alexander" in the wedding video) runs a lesbian-owned wedding officiant business with Deborah Thomas called MARRY ME IN D.C. 

"After serving the LGBT community for over 15 years, and working so hard for Marriage Equality in the District of Columbia, it only seems fitting that I would continue to serve my community through Marry Me in DC." 

Thank you, Sheila.  You are an inspiration to all of us! 

BTW see this article about Alexander-Reid which was printed in 2007 in the Metro Weekly, Washington, D.C.'s gay and lesbian news magazine. 

Own Your Equality and Use Technology - And as i continue to follow the developments of this story, i will try to research the legal aspects of the wedding ceremony and explore its ramifications.  Please stay tuned.

And CONGRATULATIONS, MARK AND DANTE!

READING: Eloquent Excerpts from 'The Little Prince'

Are you considering using a short quote or literary passage in your ceremony? 

from The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice, but falling in love with you I had no control over.”


“Perhaps love is the process of (someone) leading you gently back to yourself…Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.”

When you can't find just the right excerpt or passage, need help writing your ceremony, or want assistance from a professional officiant / minister / reverend and certified Life-Cycle Celebrant, contact A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CEREMONY for your civil union, commitment, engagement/betrothal, anniversary, vow renewal or wedding ceremony in Los Angeles, Orange County & Southern California.

Operation: Secret Wedding!

Congratulations to this Washington state couple, married in a wedding ceremony at a Southern California Amusement Park, also known as the "Most Joyful Area on This Planet".

Discreet Los Angeles Wedding Officiant, originally uploaded to FLICKR.

The day they chose in November 2010 happened to be their 15-year anniversary to the day!  The couple brought just two other people to witness the special morning event. Best of all, the bride and groom each wrote their own wedding vows and read them to each other off their own Blackberry.

Mission impossible?  NO, because you CAN have your wedding your way!  If you are seeking a discreet Orange County officiator or Los Angeles Wedding Officiant to make your non-traditional ceremony vision come true, even at Disneyland, underwater, or any place of your choosing, please contact www.ceremonyceremony.com .

DISCLAIMER: The above wedding was planned solely by the couple, and i complied as their officiant.  Please note, some private and public properties do not encourage, nor allow, impromptu weddings and other gatherings to occur on their premises.

WEDDING: Officiant for Newport Beach Wedding at Private Home

Tony & Charlotte.  photo by Kat Monk

Officiant for Newport Beach Wedding at Private Home Ceremony, originally uploaded by dj venus.

In Southern California, nearly any day is a good day for a beach wedding. But in July, what better place to assemble your closest friends and family, than at a beach house rental?

Whether you desire a multicultural, intimate, simple, tourist, destination, not religious or secular wedding, you CAN have the wedding ceremony YOU want! And, at the location of YOUR choice. For more info: Try a Modern Officiant for the Ceremony Tradition.

Many thanks to KAT MONK for her photography. She's an artist! You can reach her at www.katmonk.com.

ELEMENTS: Rainbow Roses are incredible natural, multi-colored flowers.

Rainbow Rose, originally uploaded by INTVGene.

i would LOVE to have these flowers at any ceremony, but i immediately thought about how perfect they would be for a same-sex / LGBT wedding!!!  Florists, take note...

Rainbow roses, also known as 'happy roses', who also create/sell rainbow mums, were developed and perfected in the world's flower mecca of Holland by inventor PETER VAN DE WERKEN.  You can order them from HAPPY ROSES and RAINBOW ROSE COMPANY.  The average price is about $90 for a half dozen, minus overnight shipping!!??

Wonder how they're made?  They start as cream-coloured roses, and differing accounts state they are introduced to different coloured dyes either via injection or via water.  See the video below!

If the above video doesn't work, go directly to the REUTERS link.

To cite the sources for the above: see Snopes.com, NY Daily News and the UK's Daily Mail...and apparently, there are imitation Happy Roses/Rainbow Roses, according to the Flowers Insolita blog.  i tried to find other links but couldn't...  but they're reportedly less expensive and not as vivid.  But beware, i also found ads for "rainbow roses" where you get a vase of several different single-coloured roses!

Huge thanks to Shawna Yamamoto Event Design's blog for turning me on to this gorgeous flower!!  i'm totally obsessed.

WEDDING: Officiant for Hollywood Writers' Ceremony at the Elegant Ebell of Los Angeles

CONGRATULATIONS, Christine and Eric!

Officiating the 23 October 2010 wedding of Christine Boylan, writer and story editor of TNT's Leverage television show and Eric Heisserer, screenwriter of 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street and 2011's the Thing at the EBELL OF LOS ANGELES was truly an honour and a very special experience!

Via email, i collaborated with Eric and Christine to create a wedding ceremony fit for (and out of the minds and hands of) two writers. In the processional, the bride walked down a staircase alone, and proceeded unaccompanied until the groom walked up to meet her halfway down the aisle.Together, they completed the journey to the altar together, to "signal their conscious choice to walk together in their lives". The ceremony included a community vow, where the officiant asks the friends, family and other loved ones in the audience to affirm their love and support for the two people about to be married:

Eric requested we not ask if anyone present objects to his marrying Christine, since there was no room in the budget for trained snipers.  Instead, I would like to invite you, the cherished guests, to give your support to this union.

As they go forth in their life together, Eric and Christine will need each of you to embrace them, help them and lift them, as they experience all the joys and challenges that lie before them.  And so, as their community, do you pledge your support and caring to Christine and Eric?

COMMUNITY: Yes, we do!

i have never performed, nor attended, a wedding filled with more applause!  Gotta love Hollywood people.  ;-P  And, as they stood together beneath their 'chuppah-cabana',  a Khalil Gibran passage, On Marriage, was read by a cherished friend.

Please see the happy couple's New York Times wedding announcement (if link does not work, please see pdf on our website). 

Event coordination and planning by Michelle Buckley herself, of MINT JULEP SOCIAL EVENTS.  Ceremony music by string trio from Essence Entertainment.  Cocktail hour jazz ensemble: _______  Reception big band: the Fabulous Esquires.  Photography by MAX WANGER (not above).  About the location:  The Ebell, originally founded by women in 1864 as an educational and philanthropic organisation, is a historic venue on Lucerne Ave. at Wilshire Bl.  Be sure to see this gorgeous facility with rich wood interiors and details straight out of glamourous old Hollywood's yesteryear and vintage Los Angeles.

INTERESTING: Marriage proposal on Wikipedia?

i'm actually quite surprised this hadn't been done until now.  It's about time!

Here is the Wikipedia proposal...

 

and the  Wikipedia acceptance!

WEDDING: 10/10/10 Officiant for International Couple

The Vietnamese bride /Dutch groom held a traditional Vietnamese wedding in the bride's home in Fountain Valley.

Officiant for International Wedding: Vietnamese/Dutch, originally uploaded by dj venus.

You can be married in a wedding within your own culture and traditions! If you simply need a qualified person to take care of the legal ceremony for you in California, please contact venus, ordained officiant and certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® at A Non-Denominational Ceremony.

WEDDING: Officiant at Park Avenue Restaurant in Stanton, CA

Congratulations, Michele and John! 

Married on 25 Sept. 2010. It was my honour to officiate the ceremony while Chef David Slay, his right-hand man Mansour, and Park Avenue Restaurant's fine staff kept a crowd of about 150 friends and family members very happy as they celebrated the marriage of the Orange County-based couple. 

Many guests expressed how much they enjoyed the ceremony!  :0)  The couple collaborated with us to create a warm ceremony focusing on how their love stood out by being the exception to all their previous 'relationship rules'.  The wedding featured two short readings from LE PETIT PRINCE (The Little Prince).

The ceremony took place on the private lawn area of the restaurant.  The PARK AVE. website calls it an oasis, and it absolutely IS.  We were there from the late afternoon; the lawn, restaurant garden and the lawn-adjacent private dining room provided an ideal, secluded setting for the wedding reception, well past 9pm in the evening.  The weirdest part was how easy it was to forget we were actually on Beach Boulevard, just south of Katella Avenue.  The crowd's mix included some fun vintage motorcycle and car enthusiasts: many were friends of the groom, who's a mechanic and restorer of vintage Indians and similar bikes.  And i have a new passion for mashed potato bars; the texture of the mash with the taste and feel of a seaweed type of ingredient, called green caviar was simply amazing.

And awesome photographer month continues!  RONI RAMOS and JENNY SERSION , who were hired via the groom's friend Curt (apologies for the seemingly irrelevant details, but i'm trying to keep the connections straight in my head) were very friendly, enthusiastic and down-to-earth.  For those looking for a photo team who are pretty much up for anything, Roni and Jenny are for you!  [Please note, they did not take above photo; i will post their work as soon as i am able...]