Friday, September 30, 2011

Sean Connery in a wedding gown

Here's a random image to send you off into the weekend:


Sean Connery in a wedding gown. Supposedly from Zardoz in 1974. What the what?

-KB

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cute film from 1956 - puppies get married

This clip is from a 1956 newsreel about Alexandra Williams, a champion breeder of Pekingese Dogs.


The bride wore a full ivory dress with crochet trim, a floor-length veil, and carried a tiny bouquet of silver and yellow flowers. The groom wore a black classic tuxedo with jaunty top hat.

One bridesmaid wore a blue dress, blue floral headpiece, and carried a basket of flowers, while the other bridesmaid wore a salmon pink gown and carried a bouquet.

No word on whether these poor puppies were drugged to be so docile while humans made them wear embarrassing clothes.

The video quality is impressive, right?! The clip is from British Pathe, an old-timey newsreel company that show in very high quality.

-KB

Monday, September 26, 2011

Elizabeth Taylor's wedding gowns will go to auction

Two of Elizabeth Taylor's wedding gowns, along with many of her other custom-made clothes, will go to auction on December 15.

Not only clothing, the auction is said to include hundreds of purses, scarves and other accessories owned and worn by the actress. Taylor’s iconic jewelry, including a ruby necklace that contains a 16th century pearl, is expected to fetch millions.

Wedding gown #1 (to Burton; #5 for Taylor)

Though the jewelry may bring in the most money, the real stars of the show will be Taylor’s two wedding dresses. The gowns were worn in 1964 and 1975 at her weddings to Richard Burton. The pair wed twice, for the first time in 1964 living “happily ever after” for 10 years before getting divorced in 1974. The couple reconciled and married again in 1975. Their second marriage lasted a mere 11 months and eventually ended in divorce.


Click the link for more details about Elizabeth Taylor's weddings to Richard Burton.



Her small, second wedding to Burton took place in Botswana.

A portion of the proceeds of the auction will reportedly go to benefit the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation. The foundation, set up by Elizabeth Taylor in 1991 is her legacy in the fight against AIDs. The actress became an outspoken advocate for those living with AIDS in a time when it was a taboo subject. The foundation works primarily with providing services to those affected by the disease.

-KB

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

First Don't Ask, Don't Tell wedding

DADT was repealed yesterday and that immediately prompted 16-year Navy veteran Gary Ross to marry his long-time boyfriend Dan Swezy.

From Vermont:
The couple traveled from Arizona where same-sex marriage is not legal to get married at the Moose Meadow Lodge in Duxbury, the same location as the first same-sex marriage in Vermont back in 2009.



"It means a lot to me just because I'm a part of it. I'm a part of history. So that's what makes it exciting for me," said Greg Trulson, co-owner of the Moose Meadow Lodge.

Though the couple is making history, they say they aren't getting hitched just to make headlines. "We didn't come here at the stroke of midnight to be the first or to make news," Swezy said. "We came here because we wanted to get married for years and we didn't want to wait a moment longer than we had to."

But Ross says hiding his relationship any longer would be a dishonor to his duties. "As an officer in the military I am expected to be a leader. And it would be a huge waste of the taxpayers' money if I stopped leading now just because I was a little bit nervous about people's reactions," Ross said.

Though he says he has some apprehension about returning to work Thursday, Ross hopes it will soon be back to business as usual. "I'm still gonna come to work in my same uniform, I'm still gonna boot up my computer and read my emails, pour my tea, whatever I do… nothing's going to change. And I hope once people realize that that everyone will be OK with that," he said.



Ross now proudly wears his Naval Academy ring on his right hand and a wedding band on his left, displaying his love for his country and for his new husband.

The couple says they made the decision to come to Vermont partially because it's one of six states allowing same-sex marriage and also because it's Eastern Standard time-- they wanted to be married the first moment they legally could.

I'm sure I've mentioned how much I LOVE military uniforms - especially at weddings. I think they're adorable, and I love the matching white-on-white bowties. The Moose Meadow Lodge is very beautiful and masculine at the same time, so it's perfect for them. The website says the Lodge is close to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory, but remember Misters Ross-Swezy that a wedding is no place for ice cream. Cake or GTFO! :) Congratulations!

-KB

Monday, September 19, 2011

Renew your vows on the Weezer cruise

It seems that celebrity cruises are all the rage (not Celebrity brand cruises, but cruises with celebrities), and Weezer is jumping on the cruise wagon. For as little as $500 you can cruise from Miami to Cozumel with Weezer, Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, and The Knocks.

"Weezer bassist Scott Shriner [will be] performing ceremonies for married couples to renew their vows.


This reminds me of the Bruce Campbell zombie wedding and mass vow renewal - maybe vow renewal is a trend with these celebrity events?

The rest of the Weezer cruise details:
Drummer Pat Wilson will challenge fans in a shuffleboard tournament, while guitarist Brian Bell will host a midnight movie pajama party and Weezer frontman, Rivers Cuomo, will read selections from his book The Pinkerton Diaries.

I know there are some ravenous Weezer fans out there who will readily pay $500 for special performances and a meet-and-greet with the band. I guess it's like a music festival on the water - hopefully with better food and sanitation!

Here's my favorite Weezer song:


-KB

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Adorable mini wedding cakes in your own kitchen

I don't know how it's possible that I don't have this:



ADORABLE! My favorite baking blog Baking Bites recently posted this adorable cake mold. It makes tiny tiered cakes - aka wedding cakes without all the excessive frosting and gross-tasting fondant.


Needless to say, Me Wantee!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Not the Onion: Wedding inspires a lack of vanity


There are some people who cannot resist their own reflection - I once had dinner with a guy who was so busy looking at his reflection in a window that he faced the window to watch himself speak. Weird, right? Kjerstin Gruys is the opposite of that guy; she has vowed to avoid her own reflection until after her upcoming wedding.

Behold: Last March, the 28-year-old PhD student embarked on a year-long project, banning herself from gazing at her own reflection — no mirrors, no reflective surface at all.

Gruys started the project, which she chronicles on her blog Mirror Mirror … OFF The Wall, after an exhausting March day spent shopping for her wedding dress. “All these insecurities about my body came out after staring at myself all day.”

She later posted on her blog, "At some point my dress search stopped being fun. I hated feeling vain, insecure and indecisive. Never one for subtleties, I rejected these obsessions by rejecting my reflection."


It isn’t an issue that women use mirrors, Gruys says. "It’s that they stare at themselves — even though there is often no new information. So it represents a loss of time and energy. They use mirrors as a tool to turn their bodies into a project, something to improve and work on."

Over the past six months Gruys has not cracked although her resolve has been tested, mostly when she was feeling lonely. On those occasions she gets metaphysical. Mirrors have helped her through periods when she’s questioned her value and even her existence. “When I have those ‘Who am I?’ moments, I feel the urge to look at myself.” She had also had been looking to mirrors for affirmation. “I felt my mirror was my companion.”

The project is about trust, says Gruys — and not just trusting that someone will tell her if there is spinach or a poppyseed stuck in her teeth. She has had to learn to trust compliments. “Before when someone said I looked great I wondered if they meant it.” She admits she often ran to a mirror to make up her own mind about whether the compliment was justified.

As she prepares for the final fitting of her wedding dress in early September, Gruys has assembled a coterie of friends, she says, who she trusts will tell her if the dress is all it should be. So if her friends say yes to the dress — that will have to do.

What do you think? I respect her mission - it's true that women spend an exhausting amount of time criticizing appearances. It's not useful or productive. Weddings especially have so much vanity tied in with them; maybe she'll enjoy the day more if she's not obsessed with looking and being "perfect".

-KB