NC woman goes into labor at best friend’s wedding

Leslie Leith found out she was pregnant the same day her best friend Charley Norman got engaged to her now husband, Justin
“There was always a running joke it was going to happen the day of. It was just a joke,” Charley said.
The two women from Denver in Lincoln County have been best friends since 2007. They are loyal to each other to a T. It was only natural Charley would ask Leslie to be her Matron of Honor.
The joke about Leslie’s baby being born on Charley’s wedding day should have included some “knock on wood” gestures, because on the morning of May 30, Leslie woke up having mild contractions.
“They weren’t intense and they weren’t consistent, so I called the doctor and they said, ‘It sounds like pre-labor, just keep an eye on it,’” Leslie said.
So she went on to Charley’s wedding venue at Vesuvius Vineyards in Denver.
“I really wasn’t even going to tell them that I was in labor potentially, but as soon as I walked in they read my face and they were like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Leslie said.
The day progressed and the contractions kept coming. They came more frequently. They became more and more painful.
Leslie said at one point during the actual wedding ceremony she relaxed a little during the prayer and really had a moment where she thought she should head to the hospital. But she was determined to stand by her best friend’s side on the most important day of her life.
And she did. But just as soon as the “I do’s” were exchanged, Leslie and her husband Ian got in the car and headed to the hospital.
While her friends were all at Charley’s wedding reception celebrating, Leslie gave birth to a baby boy just 2 hours after her friend was married.
“When Jay came over that microphone and said ‘It’s a boy!’ two hours later, we’re like ‘wow.’ And it all set in that this happened so quickly,” Charley said.
After the announcement was made, the entire bridal party – still in their wedding attire – headed straight to the hospital to meet little Owen Alexander.

“It was epic,” Charley said. “And it just added to such an amazing day.”

Food trucks offer casual way to feed wedding guests

When they started planning their wedding, Samantha Davis and Nickie D’Alessandro knew they didn’t want to go the traditional catering route for the reception. • “I have a pet peeve about going to a wedding and being served cold chicken piccata from a buffet line,” said Davis, 29.
So the Ohio natives (and Oregon residents as of last year) hired a food truck to cater their July 11 reception at the Whetstone Park of Roses.
Along with their 75 guests, the couple feasted on hot fried artichokes, corncakes and pulled pork passed through the window of a Sweet Carrot truck.
“We just wanted something casual and laid-back,” D’Alessandro, 27, said between bites.
“A lot of our family and friends are really into food, and they loved the idea.”
Food trucks — already a popular sight at festivals and other events around town — are catering an increasing number of weddings in central Ohio and nationwide.
“Food trucks have made a major appearance at weddings in the past couple of years,” said Kristen Maxwell Cooper, deputy editor of The Knot, a website and quarterly magazine dedicated to matrimony.
Meals on wheels fit a broader trend toward more-casual weddings, according to wedding planners and food-truck owners.
After all, what pairs better with a Pinterest-worthy barn wedding full of Mason jars and twine than scratch-made barbecue?
Fans of food trucks tout the varied options, especially when multiple trucks are involved.
At the Davis-D’Alessandro wedding, guests fawned over fare ranging from chicken meatballs with sesame-ginger sauce to fried artichokes with chipotle aioli.
“When we found out there was going to be a food truck here, we were really pumped,” guest Julie Snyder, 29, said as she waited at the truck window with her husband.
“Everybody loves food trucks.”
Gera and Kristin Grabovich of Galloway had three food trucks at their reception in May at Camp Mary Orton on the Far North Side.
Paddy Wagon and the Cheesy Truck served gourmet sandwiches, tacos and sides for dinner; and, later, Mikey’s Late Night Slice slung pizza.
“When you go to a wedding, you remember the food and the dance floor,” said Mrs. Grabovich, 33. “ So we wanted that to be fun and memorable.”
The pricing didn’t hurt, either.
“There are a lot of cost benefits (to the food-truck route),” Mr. Grabovich said. “It’s . . . a lot more inexpensive to do it than some caterers.”
The couple spent about $2,500, he said, to feed 180 people — a per-person cost of about $15, compared with an Ohio average of $55 with traditional catering, according to the Knot 2014 Real Weddings Study.
Food trucks, however, aren’t always budget-friendly.
“People think, because it’s a food truck, it’s going to be cheaper,” said Catie Randazzo, chef and owner of the Challah truck, which specializes in Jewish deli-inspired fare.
“And that’s not necessarily true.”
The pricing structure — a la carte or per person — varies by truck and by food choices.
Her prices for weddings, Randazzo said, range from about $15 a person for standard fare to as much as $40 a person for a customized menu.
Yet food trucks don’t include the bells and whistles that traditional caterers might, said Arielle Gavin, a wedding planner who owns Wedded Perfection.
“You’re not getting all of the little extras,” said Gavin, noting that the plates and utensils lean toward the paper and plastic variety instead of fine china and silver.
With no clear-cut etiquette regarding food-truck receptions, Cooper generally recommends at least one truck for every 75 guests.
“The thing about food trucks is people are going to have to wait in line,” she said. “You want to make sure it’s not frustrating and that you can get guests through the food line as soon as possible.”
To avoid crowds, Cooper said, couples might consider summoning guests by table — “so you’re not having all 150 guests in line at the same time.”
Not all couples want a food-truck-only reception. Some book a truck to follow a more traditional dinner.
“It’s something to feed the guests after they’ve been on the dance floor for a while,” Cooper said.
Whether it covers the whole shebang or just munchies, though, the food-truck movement seems a good match for many members of the generation getting hitched nowadays, said Zach James, owner of the Paddy Wagon.
“They prefer something a little lighter and less stuffy,” he said.

“They don’t want that whole chafing-pan catering thing that everyone’s done for as long as people have been having weddings.”

Raleigh trial hinges on underage drinking at wedding

Carrie Taylor often told her teenage son to drive safely and to call if he needed a ride.
On Tuesday, the first day of an emotional trial about who’s responsible when teens drink illegally, Taylor recounted a series of text messages she had with her 18-year-old son on the last day of his life.
Charles Matthews, a Raleigh-based neurosurgeon, and his wife, Kimberley, are on trial in Wake County Superior Court, accused of aiding and abetting underage drinking that led to a fatal wreck.
Jonathon Gregory Taylor had graduated from Ravenscroft School in summer 2014 and was preparing for college in fall.
On June 29, Jonathon Taylor called his mother while she was out and asked where his nice clothes were.
He had just been invited to a wedding at the Matthewses’ home. Their daughter was getting married that day, and Thomas Matthews, a friend of Jonathon Taylor’s, had extended a last-minute invitation to several friends to join the family in what should have been a celebratory event.
What happened instead turned the lives of two families and a group of friends upside down. More than a year later, they remain wracked with grief, and the Matthewses are fighting criminal charges.
Jonathon Taylor never made it home that night.
Despite an appeal by Kimberley Matthews to stay at their home, Taylor left the wedding party inebriated. He wrecked the 2008 BMW he was driving about 7 miles from the Matthews family’s Vance Street home, on Hunting Ridge Road in North Raleigh. Law enforcement officers suspect Taylor, or “JT” as he was known among friends, was going 89 mph when the car left the road and landed against a tree.
Taylor did not survive the single-car wreck. His blood-alcohol level, according to court documents, was about 21/2 times the 0.08 threshold for impairment.
“He paid the ultimate price,” Wake County Assistant District Attorney Jason Waller said in opening statements. “This trial is about the Matthewses and what they did that night to allow this to happen.”
The jury will be left to decide, Waller said, whether the couple could have done anything to “put a stop” to what happened.
Hart Miles, the Raleigh attorney representing the couple, has described the prosecution as “malicious” and “selective.”
Thomas Matthews, the 19-year-old who invited Taylor to the wedding, pleaded guilty in Wake County Superior Court on Monday to purchasing a fifth of Jack Daniel’s whiskey while underage. None of the caterers nor the ABC clerk who sold him the whiskey faces criminal charges. The clerk initially was charged, but the district attorney’s office dismissed the case.
Taylor was among a small group of teens who shared the fifth, but they did so in a neighbor’s yard outside the presence of the parents. The teens also testified to drinking wine at the wedding, but added that at no time did the Matthewses condone what they were doing or stop and talk with them much.
Text messages among two teenage girls in the group and Thomas Matthews and Jonathon Taylor detail their plans to drink alcohol that night. But the girls testified they had planned to spend the night or call parents to pick them up so they would not be driving drunk.
The Matthewses face four counts of aiding and abetting the underage consumption of alcohol by minors.
The couple, Miles said, “were targeted very early in the investigation. JT Taylor’s death was a tragedy. This investigation was an emotional response to that tragedy.”
In tearful testimony during the first day of a trial expected to last several days, Carrie Taylor described her son’s last words to her as he got ready to go to the wedding.
“He said, ‘I love you, mama,’” Carrie Taylor recalled, wiping away tears.
At 6:15 p.m., Jonathon Taylor sent a selfie to his mother, a photo of him in his dressy blue shirt and blue bowtie. Blue was his favorite color.
“Hey maaaa I’m getting married!” he wrote.
His mother sent a text back stating he looked handsome and: “Call me if you need a ride later, Love Momma.”
Jonathon Taylor sent texts to his mother several more times; one read: “I’m sleeping over there YOLO.”
Greg Taylor had to explain to his wife that YOLO is text-speak for “You only live once.”
At 10:16 p.m., shortly after Carrie and Greg Taylor had gotten ready for bed, another text arrived.
“Can y’all pick me up,” Jonathon Taylor asked his mother.
“Yes, where are you?” Carrie Taylor responded one minute later.
At 10:20 p.m., her phone pinged with another text message, stating he was at Thomas Matthews’ house.
Greg Taylor, who doesn’t drink and said he had tried to impress upon his son the dangerous consequences of consuming too much alcohol, got up, dressed and headed toward the Matthewses’ home. He waited as the wedding party broke up, sending a series of texts to his son.
“I’m outside,” he texted three times.
“Let’s go,” Greg Taylor messaged his son at 10:54 p.m.
Worried after not receiving a response, Greg Taylor, a state trooper since 1999, drove up and down roads, hunting for his son.
At 11:31 p.m., he texted: “I really need to hear from you. Call or text immediately.”
Greg Taylor said he was acquainted with the Matthewses only through his son’s school. “I’m only a trooper, he’s a doctor,” Taylor said from the stand Tuesday. “That’s where I fit in that scheme.”
At some point, Greg Taylor picked up his wife, and they were in the car together when they came across a wreck scene with yellow police tape and flashing blue lights.
Neither wanted to believe it was their son, but they soon found that Jonathon Taylor had died in the wreck.
“I’ll never forget Carrie saying, ‘John’s dead,’” Greg Taylor recalled in a quiet courtroom. “That’s a haunting thing to hear your wife say.

“John was my only son, my only child.”

Las Vegas looks to revitalize its image as a wedding destination

The King did it with his Priscilla.So did Mia Farrow and Ol’ Blue Eyes; Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford; Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. Mickey Rooney did it twice, with two women.
They all got married in Las Vegas, an indulgence that has long been considered the epitome of reckless romance for both celebrities and average lovers alike. At its peak, Sin City was home to 1 out of every 20 weddings nationwide; quickie nuptials with an Elvis impersonator officiating and in helicopters hovering above the Strip.
No more. In recent years, weddings have been leaving Las Vegas.In the last decade, the number of “I do’s” has fallen like the water levels at nearby Lake Mead: about 47,000 fewer couples tied the knot in the glittery hotels and walk-in chapels that line Las Vegas Boulevard. That’s a 37 percent drop and a loss of $1 billion annually.
But officials vow to reverse the trend.The Clark County Commission voted Tuesday to increase the marriage-license fee from $60 to $77. The $1 million annual windfall will create a new Vegas spin: as the world’s hippest hitching post.
“I’d like us to increase our presence on social media,” said Clark County Clerk Lynn Goya, who oversees the county’s Marriage License Bureau. “How about a Twitter account where everyone posts pictures of their wedding — wouldn’t that be cool?”
While Vegas weddings hit only 81,000 last year after a 128,000 peak in 2004, the city still holds the highest nuptial numbers of any U.S. county.
Experts are at a loss to explain the decline. Some point to the 2008 recession, while others cite the country’s overall drop in marriage rates, which fell from 2.3 million in 2004 to 2.1 million last year. Still others blame increased competition from wedding destinations such as Mexico, Hawaii and Dubai.
The downturn has forced more chapels to throw away their rice and close their doors. Those left are excited to have a concerted plan to handle advertising that they once did on their own.
“The top three things people associated with Las Vegas are gambling, shows and weddings. Normal people get married here too, not just stars and party people,” said Ann Parsons, marketing director for Vegas Weddings. “That whole hangover image of ‘Let’s get married tonight and annul it in the morning’ is just a stereotype. For one, it’s illegal to get married when you’re drunk. The movies have hurt the image of real people getting married.”
Still, Vegas has been home to countless serial-wedding artists, tying knots that soon unraveled. Witness Elvis’ marriage to Priscilla, which ended in divorce. Cher’s union to rocker Gregg Allman in 1975 lasted nine days. And Britney Spears has even that record beat: Her 2004 marriage to Jason Allen Alexander lasted a mere 55 hours.
Goya brought the Vegas wedding decline to light when she took office this year. “This is an elected office and all during my campaign I heard from wedding people who were pulling their hair out over the low numbers. They said nobody would listen.”
She pored over three decades’ worth of records to find that the first 20 years saw a 3,000-wedding increase each year. Then a steady decline began in 2004. “People had told me but I didn’t expect the drop to be so dramatic,” she said. “It was costing the county a lot of money, maybe $1 billion a year.”
She’s not sure the 2008 recession is totally to blame. “Since then, the tourists have returned to Las Vegas,” Goya said. “The weddings haven’t followed.”
Parsons hopes a new marketing campaign will lure couples back to a city where a ceremony, flowers and a photographer can run just a few hundred dollars at venues named Graceland Wedding Chapel, Viva Las Vegas Weddings and Chapel of the Bells.
In the past, couples here have been joined in a Kiss-themed ceremony with a Gene Simmons look-alike as officiator. They’ve gotten married atop the city’s faux Eiffel tower at the Paris casino; on a gondola at the Venetian; and even underwater, inside a 117,000-gallon aquarium at the Silverton casino.
“One couple got married on a zip-line ride in Boulder City,” Parsons said. “The minister was right there with them to offer the vows, saying, ‘Do youuuuuuu.’ ”
Another wedding joined two airline workers who had been told by their landlord in Dubai that they couldn’t share an apartment while unmarried. They flew to Las Vegas for their wedding and flew right home — problem solved.
Parsons wants the city to attract same-sex couples and people renewing their vows. “Some 78 percent of people who come to Las Vegas are already married,” she said. “We want to be known as this romantic place for people to get married all over again. That market has not been tapped.”
Even the grand old dame of weddings remains hopeful for the future.For six decades, Charolette Richards has run A Little White Wedding Chapel near downtown. In that time, the woman whose email address is “wedqueen777” estimates she’s been responsible for nearly 1 million weddings. “Perhaps not personally, but in our chapels,” she said.
She also coined a Vegas-themed ceremony: the drive-through wedding. The first one was held in 2001 when Richards spotted an elderly couple outside her chapel exiting their car on crutches.
“I thought ‘Oh, my goodness!’ and hurried outside,” she recalled. “I said, ‘Would you folks like to get married in your car?’ ”“Would that be legal?” they asked.“Of course,” Richards answered. “This is Las Vegas.”
She hopped into the back seat and read them their vows as they faced each other up front. And then she cried as the graying groom gave his new bride a big kiss.
She soon installed a wedding drive-through window. That Valentine’s Day, the line at the window led outside the parking lot.Richards is still smiling — and performing weddings.

“My husband died 35 years ago, so I’ve been by myself,” she said. “But other people have kept me young with all those kisses.”

Japanese Female Android Aiko Chihira Greets Customers at Isetan Shinjuku

In collaboration with Ifs Future Laboratory, Isetan Shinjuku is holding an event for introducing futuristic gifts. The event is open from Jul 22 to 28 on the first floor of the department store. For the first two days of the event, Japanese female android Aiko Chihira greeted customers and introduced the innovative gift products being lined-up.
In addition to conventional gift “items”, the event places importance on the gifts of experiences. The catchphrases of the event are “sending exciting traditional gifts”, “sending attractive and innovative gifts” and “sending laughter to everyday life”, which focus on providing joy to both the sender and receiving end.
Under the theme of exciting traditional gifts, Toraya and Ifs Future Laboratory present futuristic yokan, a type of Japanese confectionary made from azuki beans, sugar and agar, named “Suehirogari”. The yokan is available in one-bite sizes and on a stick, which makes it the perfect dessert for handing out at parties. A set of 8 pieces is arranged to look like a Japanese handheld folding fan and is priced at 3,800 yen. Comes in two different color combinations- red and white or green and black.
Japanese jewelry brand “Chimaski” introduces pearl jewelry inside boxes (13,500 yen) filled with white sand and seashells. Among others are chopstick rests (2,000 yen), born from the collaboration between Kutani ware (Japanese porcelain) and Ultraman, and mosquito coils (2,000 yen) designed by fashion brand Mina Perhonen.
As part of the attractive/innovative gifts lineup, DJ and music lover Peter Barakan will select ten songs with the image of the person receiving the gift. The selection will be played on a laser turntable and then burned onto a CD.

Under the theme of sending laughter, an annual pass for enjoying visits to Mori Art Museum, Tokyo City View and Sky Deck is presented at a price of 12,000 yen for two people. The pass allows the receivers of the gift to enjoy art and great views of Tokyo from Roppongi Hills for an entire year. Also, dolls from Bobby Dazzler are in store at a price of 30,000 yen for two dolls under the motto of “wanting the receiver to cherish each of the dolls”.

Eichers celebrate anniversary

My son, Benjamin’s, 16th birthday is today. We want to bake him a cake, but I forgot to ask him what kind he wants before he left for work at 5:30 a.m. It’s hard to remember each of eight children's favorite.
My husband Joe and I will have our 22nd wedding anniversary on July 15. Where have all the years gone? It hardly seems possible that it has been that many years. We have so many blessings to thank our Heavenly Father for.
I remember on the morning of our wedding when my mother, some of my sisters and I got all the chicken in skillets on the kerosene stoves to fry. Mom, sister Liz, and her husband Levi took care of the chicken until the cooks came to take over. Eighteen skillets were used to fry 300 pounds of chicken. We started frying chicken at 4:15 a.m. I helped until it was time to get ready before the guests started arriving between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m.
Daughter Elizabeth is back to work at the RV factory after two weeks of vacation. I think she is probably having more of a vacation back at work. She put in some long days helping clean and sew here at home. It’s hard to get her to take it easy, but I told her she has to be careful with having had double pneumonia. She still feels weak from it.
Timothy and Elizabeth’s wedding is now a month away. Elizabeth sewed everyone clothes for the wedding except she still needs to sew herself and Susan white capes and aprons they will wear at the wedding. Mose and Susan will be their witnesses. The bride and groom both choose witnesses so Timothy will choose some from his family.
I still need to cut out and sew my dress for the wedding.
We have three bedrooms cleaned upstairs and still need to clean the boys' bedroom. We also are cleaning the canning room. So, lots of jars to clean and put back on the shelf. Joe has been working evenings on making a bigger closet in our bedroom. That will need to be painted when he is finished with mudding the drywall. He installed a new shower in the bathroom, so the bathroom needs to be repainted too yet before the wedding.
Daughter Susan had a nice vacation. We are glad to have her home again. They could feed the deer from their hand in the cabin where they stayed and also saw black bears. They had a nice fishing trip.

We were surprised Thursday with a visit from Uncle Joe and Betty from Geneva, Indiana and Uncle Menno and Martha from Phoenix, Arizona. Menno and Martha were out in the Berne, Indiana area to attend the annual Coblentz reunion. We were unable to attend but sounds like the Coblentzs had a lot of fun — like usual. Menno and Joe are my Dad’s brothers.

Wedding fight leads to car crash and a murder charge

An argument that police say began between relatives at a church wedding and ended with a fatal traffic wreck has left a 75-year-old lawyer dead and an Alabama man facing a second-degree murder charge.
Chester Alpaugh, 34, of Vestavia Hills, Ala., was booked with second-degree murder in Tuesday's death of Robert Sarpy of New Orleans.
Sarpy was injured July 11 at Broad Place and Pine Street, while getting into his parked car, police said. Moments earlier, Alpaugh and a sibling were attending a wedding in a nearby church when Alpaugh became irate and an argument followed, according to the arrest warrant application.
The sibling left the church, got into his car and attempted to leave. Police and prosecutors say Alpaugh also got into his car and sped away, driving at a high rate of speed against traffic as he followed his sibling.
Alpaugh jumped the neutral ground, lost control of his car and struck Sarpy, according to police reports. Alpaugh's car then struck other parked cars. Sarpy reportedly also had attended the wedding. He was rushed to a hospital for surgery, according to a police report.
Alpaugh "showed complete disregard for public safety and operated the vehicle recklessly, due to (his) emotional state at the time of the incident," an NOPD officer wrote in an initial report.
Alpaugh was first charged with negligent injuring and reckless operation of a vehicle and was being prosecuted in New Orleans Municipal Court. After Sarpy died in a hospital on Tuesday, NOPD obtained a second-degree murder arrest warrant on Wednesday and rebooked Alpaugh.
Prosecutors dismissed the Municipal Court case on Wednesday, records show. Alpaugh's attorney sought to plead him guilty to misdemeanor charges in his absence last week, but Judge Desiree Charbonnet declined until she could review the result of a psychiatric evaluation, court records show.
NOPD homicide detective Theophilus Kent, who was assigned to the case Wednesday, wrote in the arrest warrant application that he "was requested" to book Alpaugh with second-degree murder. Kent did not elaborate on who asked him to select the murder charge.
Prosecutors would have to present the case to a grand jury in order to obtain a second-degree murder case against Alpaugh. If he is charged with that offense and convicted, he would spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of probation, parole or suspended sentence.
Alpaugh made his initial appearance Thursday before retired Jefferson Parish Judge Walter Rothschild, who is serving an appointment at New Orleans Magistrate Court. Prosecutors asked for a $1 million bond, leading Alpaugh's public defender Donna Weidenhaft to balk.
She said her client has no criminal history, did not commit a murder and said it was a negligent homicide or "at best, manslaughter." She asked for a $150,000 bond.
"If anything, your honor, this case is very sad," Weidenhaft said. "Everyone in this case involves family members."

Rothschild set the bond at $150,000.

Texas couple recreates their wedding photos for 40th wedding anniversary

A Texas couple celebrated a monumental wedding anniversary by recreating their wedding photos down to the exact same hat on the bride.
Carolyn and Dexter Johnson were married July 12, 1975, in Cleveland, Ohio. The groom was 27 at the time, the bride, 20.
Forty years later, at the ages of 67 and 60, the couple stepped outside their home in Katy, Texas, and celebrated their wedding anniversary by taking the exact same photos.
The couple took one photo of themselves in front of a tree, staring lovingly into each other's eyes, and another photo sitting together on Dexter Johnson's motorcycle in the driveway, just as they did 40 years ago.
"My mom wanted to recreate a couple of the photos," the couple's son, Jay Johnson, told ABC News. "They were going to Las Vegas that weekend for their anniversary but she didn't want to carry her hat on the plane so they just recreated it at their house before they left."
The photos of Carolyn, a data processor, and Dexter, retired from a career in construction, were taken just as a memento for themselves and family until Johnson, their only son, posted the photos on Reddit, where they quickly went viral.
"They definitely got a kick out of it," Johnson said. "They're happy to be spreading their love and joy to other people around the world."
It is that love, according to Johnson, that has not only stood the test of time, but has served as an inspiration to him in his own marriage.

"They have definitely been a strong unit of marriage," he said. "They make it look easy, so I'm now married and I try to mimic what they've shown me throughout life -- and it seems to be working so far."

Inside A West Indian Day Parade Fashion Show At A Crown Heights Nightclub

The back room at Secrets in Crown Heights turned into a fashion runway on Sunday night for the official launch of this year's Phoenix International Mas Band, one of the dance crews that marches more than 100 strong in the annual West Indian Day Parade along Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway on Labor Day weekend.
Models in three-foot-tall ostrich and pheasant headdresses with matching wrist and ankle feathers and sequin bras danced down the bar over soca beats, while friends and family packed along the walls taking cellphone videos. The DJ cut through the music over and over: "Take a picture, tell a friend! Take a picture, tell a friend! You don't want to be on the outside of the ropes this year!"
The West Indian Day Parade, which rivals similar summertime street celebrations in Miami, Toronto, London, and Washington D.C.—and draws thousands of costumed dancers repping West Indian countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Barbados, and Jamaica—is more than a month away. But less-known and comparatively tiny band launches like this one are crucial for the designers, who spend most of the year constructing elaborate costumes worth hundreds of dollars, for bands like Freaks Mas, Boom Mas, and Phoenix. At the band launch, men and women get to see costumes in action for the first time. Phoenix's goal is to convince as many people as possible to buy them, and register to walk, or "play," with Phoenix on parade day.
A couple dozen models spent three hours getting their hair and makeup done before the show. Makeup artist Joel Angel did two rounds of makeup on each of them—pink and blue eyes and lips before the costume went on, and sticky gems and body paint afterwards. After dark, the models gathered at the bar for bright blue Bacardi cocktails in plastic cups, and leaned in close for selfies, brushing each other's faces with their feather headdresses.
Charles Matthew, the head designer for Shaka Zulu, a carnival band based in St. Thomas, flew to New York for the weekend just to debut his costumes. On Labor Day, he'll march as Phoenix's guest. "I can make about 15 to 20 headdresses in one night," he told us, pointing out the cowry shell detailing around his crowns. "They're my works of art." Bare-chested in a fur loincloth, Matthew led his models around the dance floor, crouching down for pictures.
"We start making costumes for next year as soon as the parade ends," said Phoenix designer G'Wayne on Saturday, standing outside his band's storefront headquarters at 832 St. John's Place, a few blocks south of Secrets. Here, band members hang out late into the night, blasting soca and calypso on giant speakers and hand-stitching chest pieces under bright floodlights.
Malcolm Phoenix, a soft-spoken Crown Heights costume designer in a white flatbrim hat, founded the band six years ago, and can bend the wire for a feathery headdress in just fifteen minutes. "Glam," he says. "I love glam."
Phoenix doesn't have the numbers or name recognition of larger Brooklyn bands like Freaks, but his members are loyal. Caress Turner has played with the band for three years, and Sunday marked her second year modeling. Malcolm had made her orange-and-blue costume overnight, and texted her a picture of it at 6:30 that morning. "Phoenix works with you," she said. "They're like family."
Phoenix has a big Jamaican contingent, but you don't have to be Jamaican to play with them—in fact, they've got a reputation for being open to just about anyone. Like Matthew Clayborne, whom we met at the bar. He's never participated in the West Indian Day Parade before, and has no West Indian heritage, but was decked out in orange gym shorts and a matching glittery orange chest piece.
"My laundromat was playing soca one day last fall," he told us. "It changed my life." For the past few months, he's been helping wrap wire frames in fabric for headdresses.
A typical lady's Phoenix costume is constructed off of a double-thick neon bathing suit, and is priced between $150 and $350. Some of the bottoms are bikini, some are high-rise with cutouts on the hips, and others are plunging one-pieces. All of them are embellished with fake gems and sparkly chains, with matching plume crowns and ankle feathers. A more expensive costume might have a backpack—fabric-wrapped wire that's bent to slip over the woman's shoulders, and frame her head like a halo.
Phoenix members are allowed to pay off their costumes in increments, often $20 or $25 at a time. "Costumes are expensive," Turner said. "As young people, some of us got jobs, and some don't. In other bands, costumes are sometimes $900. That's rent. I can't do that. But if you don't have a lot of money, Phoenix helps you out."
Esther Morgan lives in Crown Heights, and is originally from Grenada. She has marched with Phoenix as a lead player since the band was founded. On Sunday, she ran around dotting white body paint on hips, bellies, backs and shoulders. Once each model got into her costume, Morgan pulled her aside and watched her move. "Let me see you dance!" she said, nodding approvingly.
Morgan's grown son, Alex Agard, showed up at Secrets in khaki shorts and a t-shirt a few hours before the show, and sat on a bench along the wall, watching his mom get into character.

"I grew up in Crown Heights," he said. "When I was younger I used to go the parade with my mom." Agard wasn't planning to model on Sunday, but Morgan dragged him into the makeshift dressing room in the club's VIP area. The next time we saw him, he was in a massive black-feather headdress, with matching black and white cowhide around his waist, a shell necklace, and black, white, and red paint all over his face and chest. He shrugged and smiled. "I come to hang out with my mom, and this is what happens."

Is Balmain's sister-ad fashion's most epic stunt?

Earlier this week, Balmain shared with the world the first look of its new sister-themed fall campaign - featuring, of course, the famous celebrity siblings - Kendal and Kylie Jenner, Joan and Erika Smalls and Gigi and Bella Hadid. Shot by noted photographer Mario Sorrenti, the ads are devastatingly glamorous as is Rousteing's design - sexy and powerful.
Describing the campaign as 'a celebration of the unique and unconditional love of siblings', Balmain Creative Director and designer Oliver Rousteing sure knows how and more importantly where to get the most of the love. Rousteing, is a designer who knows his audience, he is well aware of the wondrous influence that pop culture has on the time we're living in. Known for the electrifying spirit his designs carry, his clothes are worn and desired by who's who from the worlds of music, fashion, film and television. Not only are they worn and desired but widely copied too.
Balmain debuted the first and the subsequent looks on its social media platforms - twitter and instagram, targetting millions of its followers. But the number doesn't end there. By tapping the power sisters (and their million followers), the fashion house has, most likely, hit the jackpot.
With Kendall Jenner (31.8 million Instagram followers, 11.6M Twitter followers), Kylie Jenner ( 29.4 million Instagram followers, 10.4M Twitter followers), Gigi Hadid (4.7 Instagram followers, 484K Twitter followers), Bella Hadid (1M Instagram followers, 107K Twitter followers), Joan Smalls (1M Instagram followers, 219K Twitter followers) and Erika Smalls (8K Instagram followers, 1K Twitter followers), could this sister campaign be fashion's most epic stunt, ever? It looks like so.
But how did it all start, what inspired the designer and what do the Jenner and the Hadid sisters represent about Balmain. Let's hear it from the creative genius behind the brand - Balmain Creative Director Oliver Rousteing.
How did the 'sister' concept begin:
This season's Balmain campaign was inspired by a brief, key moment that happened while we were shooting our last campaign. While I watched Mario capture a kiss last fall, I was struck by the love and emotion that I was witnessing in front of me. Starting with a determination to once again focus on the beauty of an intimate connection, my team and I quickly concluded that a celebration of the unique and unconditional love of siblings is a natural progression from the spirit of last season.
What do these 'power sister' represent about Balmain:
They represent the fresh, diverse and open spirit of a new generation of fashion.
What is the most beautiful thing you took from the campaign:

Watching them (sisters) work together made clear to me the universality of an age-old truth: the truly powerful strength, support, and love that family members can provide to one another.

Franklin wedding venue celebrates 10 years in business

Planning a wedding is one of the most exciting times in a person’s life, but it can also be one of the most stressful.
When Cj Dickson opened CJ’s Off the Square in 2005, she thought back to her experience.
“There were so many moving parts to what goes into the process and I wanted to change the way weddings were planned. I thought the idea of going to one place from beginning to end was great,” she said. “I floated the idea to some friends and they thought it made a lot of sense.”
She and her husband were married in May 2004, and six months later, Dickson quit her job to launch the business, which offers catering, rentals and lighting.
Today an average of 50 weddings a year are held at the 100-year-old historic home located at 218 Third Ave. N. in the heart of the city’s downtown district. It is the former home of photographer Sam Causey and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
To celebrate her 10th year in business, Dickson hosted a four-day trunk show spotlighting wedding dresses from BHLDN (pronounced “beholden”). The bridal boutique is a sister company of retailers Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters. BHLDN’s nearest stores are in Atlanta and Chicago.
“Even though we do all these weddings, (shopping for dresses) is the one piece of the industry I don’t get to be a part of,” Dickson said, adding that often, the bride’s choice of attire will help determine the theme of the wedding.
During the event, which began Thursday and ends Sunday, more than 70 brides were allotted an hour to try on a sampling of dresses.
Jessica McGuinn of BHLDN’s public relations department said the company hosted trunk shows for two months in the spring and will do a three-month tour in the fall.

“We’re very careful to select our locations. Chicago is our only standalone store, and all the rest are inside Anthropologie stores. We’d love to be here sooner rather than later,” McGuinn said.

Judges face wedding issue

Denton County Justice of the Peace Joe Holland reads vows to Austin Heitkamp, left, and Matthew Nelson during the first same-sex marriage ceremony performed by a Denton elected official, on June 29.
Many same-sex couples have left the Denton County Clerk’s Office, marriage license in hand, in the past few weeks.
Some of the licenses are back already, filed as completed certificates with the signature of the clergy member or judge who presided over the wedding.
About five of the 25 or so marriage licenses issued each day in Denton County over the past few weeks were issued to same-sex couples. Weddings for same-sex couples are being performed by clergy and local elected officials alike, according to a Denton Record-Chronicle review of local marriage records since June 26, the day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell vs. Hodges that same-sex marriage was legal.
Joe Holland, Precinct 1 justice of the peace in Denton, and Becky Kerbow, Precinct 3 justice of the peace in Lewisville, have performed weddings for same-sex couples since then. In addition, District Judge Steve Burgess of the 158th District Court has presided over at least three same-sex weddings.
While the local justice of the peace may be a popular option for couples wanting a civil ceremony, three of the county’s other four justices of the peace — Gary Blanscet (Precinct 6, Carrollton), J.W. Hand (Precinct 4, Roanoke) and Michael Oglesby (Precinct 5, Sanger) — said they did not plan to officiate any more weddings of any kind.
Dianne Edmondson, chairwoman of the Denton County Republican Party, said judges who agree to officiate a same-sex marriage could be inviting a challenge to their election.
“It’s completely optional,” Edmondson said. “They don’t have to do it.”
Most of Denton County’s judges, from justices of the peace through district court, are in the middle of four-year terms. Only five district court judge seats are slated for the 2016 primaries and election. Burgess is not among them.
His term ends at the beginning of 2019.
James DePiazza, Precinct 2 justice of the peace of The Colony, said he does not base his decisions on whether it will get him elected in the next cycle.
“My character and integrity mean more to me,” he said.
DePiazza said that he considered halting performing marriages altogether following the high court’s ruling.
Instead, he has altered the form in his office and to note that change on the form itself.
“My conviction on marriage being between one man and one woman has not changed with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling,” he said. “I have decided that I no longer want to conduct wedding ceremonies, but will provide a mechanism for any couple who just want to get their marriage license signed. Historically, that is a high percentage of the marriages I have done in the past.”
DePiazza has received some flak in recent days for his stance and the form change, but has said and even recorded his office voicemail to note that he did so with no malicious or offensive intent, just to let people know his stance before they come to him to perform a wedding ceremony.
Officiating can be a source of income for judges, although not all judges charge for weddings. Denton Municipal Judge Robin Ramsay has presided over weddings of city employees and of friends.
He said he has never charged for a wedding, but he also hasn’t officiated many either. Denton Municipal Court isn’t set up for weddings, he said.
Judges declare officiating on their personal financial statements, required by state ethics laws, when it is a source of occupational income.
But a bill that would have required judges to disclose how much they made from weddings died in the Texas Legislature several years ago, according to James Wells, auditor for Denton County.

Fees paid to judges for performing weddings are considered personal income and do not flow through the county, Wells said.

Nicky Hilton Suffered Wardrobe Malfunction During Wedding

Nicky Hilton married James Rothschild on Friday, July 10, 2015, in London. The hotel heiress, who looked gorgeous in a stunning lace Valentino wedding dress, experienced a wardrobe malfunction during her wedding. Read on for more details.
According to E! Online, the dramatic long veil of Hilton’s gorgeous floral lace Valentino dress got stuck under the car wheel of a Bentley car when the bride arrived at the weddingvenue, London’s Kensington Palace.
However, a few of the guests who appeared for the weddinghelped Hilton by retrieving the veil from under the tire, making sure that no damage occurred to the delicate veil. Thankfully, the 31-year-old bride was perfectly ready by the time she went down the aisle.
The source reported that Hilton and the UK-based banker J, who was engaged on Aug. 12, 2014, got married “in front of a wall decorated with white flowers.” The source also added that a woman performed the non-denominational ceremony.
Hilton’s older sister Paris Hilton, who was the maid of honor, was extremely happy about her sister’s marriage. The guests who appeared for the wedding included their mom Kathy Richards, aunt Kyle Richards & her family, and Chelsea Clinton & her husband Marc Mezvinsky.
Canada Journal reported that the bride’s $77,000 dress flew up that accidentally flashed her “wedding night lingerie to her guests,” while they ensured that no damage was done to the veil.
Despite the serious wardrobe malfunction, HNGN reported that Hilton was cool and appeared to be one of the most beautiful brides. Hilton shared a sketch of her gorgeous wedding dress on Instagram with a caption, “Thank you Valentino Haute Couture for designing me my dream wedding dress.”

Congrats to the newly wedded Nicky Hilton and James Rothschild!

A New Wedding Trend Allows Families and Friends to Enjoy the Intimacy of the Ceremony

There is a new trend called "Unplugged Weddings" where guests are asked to refrain from using their smartphones during the entire event.
This new trend is actually beneficial in creating more intimate connections with the guests of the wedding. Nowadays, people are more interested and concerned with getting that perfect "selfie" than actually interacting with the other people in the wedding. That is why this "Unplugged Wedding" trend works.
Professional wedding photographer Lainie Hanlon recalled an incident when she had to ask a guest to take a seat because the guest was obstructing her view. However, the guest was persistent and kept on taking photos. Apparently, photography is the guest's hobby.
Hanlon added that she noticed the use of mobile devices in ceremonies has worsened over the years. Hanlon added that she tried talking the newlyweds out of this tradition. Most couples admitted that they did not really want the guests focusing on their smartphones all the time.
This is true for North Parramatta couple Amanda Watson and Sandy Free who got married January this year, according to SMH. They said they want their guests to enjoy the celebration and they would prefer to have the guest's attention focused on the wedding instead of their smartphones.
"Unplugged Wedding" is getting more and more popular. It is not just a fad. It is more of a reminder that people should stay connected in real life and not in social media.
Julie Petrella, a bride-to-be, told Press of Atlanta City that she wants to have an intimate affair with her family and friends when she gets married this October.
Petrella added that the flashes are just very distracting. "I've heard stories of frustration from brides and grooms about the role of social media during or after a wedding," said Petrella, 34. "People are sharing news that's really personal."

"Unplugged Weddings" bring us back to the basics, but it can also certainly improve the quality of connections of the people in the event as well as the privacy of the couple.

Newlywed husband plans second wedding for wife who lost memory in car wreck

Jeremy Stamper remembers his wedding day as the best day in his life.
The August ceremony was rustic and quaint, unfolding in front of 75 family and friends overlooking a lake at Hungry Mother State Park in Marion,Va.
“It was hectic at first, but once it actually started getting underway I was so lost in my love with my wife that I didn’t pay attention to anything else,” the 21-year-old, who met his wife 11 years earlier in Sunday school, told The Washington Post. “It was perfect, just perfect.”
Almost a year later, only one thing could make that memory any better: sharing it with his wife, who no longer remembers saying “I do.”
Only 19 days after the couple’s wedding, Justice Stamper was rear-ended in a traffic accident that sent her Ford Focus screeching across a Marion roadway before smashing into an embankment.
The violent collision slammed the 20-year-old’s head into her car’s steering wheel, causing her brain to bounce back and forth inside her skull. She was left with a traumatic brain injury known as a coup-contrecoup. Due to damage she sustained on the left side of her brain, several months of short term memories were wiped away, including her wedding, she told The Post.
The next month of slow recovery felt like a dream, Justice Stamper said. Dazed from medication, suffering from headaches and sleeplessness, Stamper — who was living with her husband’s family at the time — found herself living in a home she didn’t recognize, looking at wedding photos on the wall she couldn’t place. What was once familiar felt strangely foreign and she began to quietly worry that she was losing her mind.
“After about a month and a half later I went to Jeremy and said, ‘I don’t want you to be mad, but I do not remember the wedding at all,'” Justice Stamper told The Post, noting that at the time she wasn’t even sure she was married. “I was so scared to tell him, but the first thing he said was, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll do it again.’ He didn’t even hesitate.”
Even so, Jeremy Stamper called his wife’s inability to recall their wedding date “heartbreaking.” He said the pair still avoid discussing their wedding because it’s too upsetting.
“It’s that one memory that you assume you’ll be able to happily share with your spouse for the rest of your lives,” he told The Post. “Not being able to talk about it is frustrating, but once we have a second wedding we’ll be better off as a couple.”
For Jeremy Stamper — a college student at King University in Bristol, Tenn., with a part-time job — saving enough money for a second wedding has been no easy task. Complicating matters, the couple said, is the fact that Justice’s injuries forced her to drop out of school and quit her job.
She’s been unable to return to work and has suffered short-term memory problems, difficulty speaking and acute anxiety, which has made it difficult for her to get back on the road. She told The Post that her therapist, Denise Miller, diagnosed Stamper with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but she’s gradually improving and hopes to return to school and get a degree in criminal justice.
Jeremy Stamper stuck to his promise, but knew he would need help raising the money for a new ceremony. He started a Gofundme page requesting $5,000 to help the couple create “a memory that we both can talk about and reminisce without someone getting upset.”
The page has raised more than $9,800 and the couple said other married couples struggling with PTSD have reached out to them with words of support. He said his wife’s challenges have helped him become more patient and understanding, making him a better husband.
“There’s been a lot of pressure, but our bond is just a lot stronger now,” he said.
The wedding is scheduled for Aug. 1, their one-year anniversary. They’re expecting twice as many guests at this year’s celebration, which will be held at the original location. Justice Stamper said she plans to wear a new dress.
A local DJ and photographer have offered their services at no cost, and the Stampers have been offered a six-night honeymoon in Myrtle Beach free of charge.
The celebration and the guest list may have changed, but the Stampers said the biggest difference between each wedding will be the two people walking down the aisle.

“We’re going to cherish the moment this time around,” Jeremy Stamper said. “All we have is memories and they can be taken from you in an instant and then they’re gone forever.”

Texas' New Wedding Capital Greets Gay Couples

When Austinites Tavanya Wright and Amber Gregg got engaged last year, the two women weren't expecting to be able to get legally married in Texas.
Now that theSupreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage, their ceremony in October will be recognized by the state. It will take place in Dripping Springs, which state lawmakers recently named the wedding capital of Texas.
"It was all meant to come together," said Wright, 26, who met Gregg, also 26, eight years ago.
Some of the lawmakers who designated the city asthe state's wedding capitalmay not have had in mind weddings like the Wright-Gregg union. State Rep.Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, the measure's author, was one of 62 state lawmakers, in addition to Gov.Greg Abbott, who signed a court brief in 2014 calling on a U.S. appellate court to uphold the state's ban on same-sex marriage.
But in the wake of the ruling thatoverturned Texas' ban, Isaac said it’s "certainly their right" for venues to host same-sex weddings. Isaac said he had not heard of any gay weddings happening in the area,but a half-dozen venues said they have scheduled a same-sex wedding in coming months.
“Dripping Springs is a welcoming community and I don’t expect that to change,” said Sherrie Parks, executive director of the Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Dripping Springs is partly defined by love. Located 40 miles west of Austin, the city with a population of 1,870 features rolling hills and wide fields punctuated with one wedding venue after another. Options for couples looking for a place to get married recently exploded — there are 36 venues within a 17-mile radius. This year, close to 3,000 couples will say “I do” in Dripping Springs.
And there are locations of all kinds. Couples have their pick to dine under stringed lights at Pecan Springs Ranch, taste local olive oil from The Orchard at Dripping Springs or kiss in front of the white chapel at Heritage House.
“People love coming to the Hill Country and that expanded in people’s minds that it would be a great place to get married,” Parks said. “It built from there. Now everybody wants that destination wedding.”
In the spring, the Legislature designated Dripping Springs as the state wedding capital and Abbott signed the resolution. The measure passed unanimously in the House, and, in the Senate,Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, was the only member to vote against it. Isaac proposed the official name after he was approached by the Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce with the idea.
“It’s good for economic development in the region,” Issac said. “We can get out there and promote the Hill Country.”
One day eight years ago, Wright received an unexpected message online.
“Hey, ma!,” read the Myspace chat from Gregg, who had spotted Wright at a basketball tournament days before and tracked her down online.
Wright replied, jokingly, “Don’t call me ‘ma.’ Have some manners.”
A few months later, they began dating. One night at a friend's house last year, when Wright heard her favorite song come on and saw her father walking down the stairs, she knew what was coming.
“I cried before anything ever happened,” Wright said. “I cried and then she proposed.”
The couple booked the Terrace Club a month after getting engaged. They were drawn to Dripping Springs' beautiful scenery and the venue just felt right.
Everyone in Dripping Springs has been welcoming, from the photographer to florist to baker, they said. And with the union now legal, the wedding will be even sweeter to them.
“With us being, obviously, gay, when we started looking for wedding things, you have to wonder what are they going to say,” Wright said. “You have to be prepared for someone to say, ‘I don’t support this.’ Now that it’s been decided, we don’t have to tiptoe around people’s views anymore.”
And this fall, Wright, a Sprint store manager, and Gregg, a personal trainer, will get married in a Tiffany-blue ceremony surrounded by 100 of their closest friends and family.
They say they plan to become parents soon. Wright wants two children; Gregg, three.

“Just the title of being married is pretty good,” Gregg said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”

Man Finds Lost Wedding Ring 15 Years Later While Planting 'Lucky' Bamboo

Forget having a green thumb while working in the yard — this man’s ecstatic to have a golden finger.
While planting bamboo in his backyard, Maan Moughawech, of Bloomfield, New Jersey, stumbled upon something he thought was lost forever — his 22-karat gold wedding ring from 15 years ago.
“Yesterday, I decided I wanted to plant bamboo in the corner of the backyard. While digging a hole to plant it, I saw something yellow and shiny in the dirt,” Moughawech told ABC News of his unexpected discovery. “I kneeled down to inspect it, and I instantly knew that it was my lost ring!”
In 1998, he and his wife, Savitree, both bought their gold wedding bands for their civil ceremony. In 2000, they purchased the home in Bloomfield where they still live today.
“We were renovating the house to move in, and I was doing some painting,” Moughawech recalled. “I took out my wedding band and gave it to my wife to hold, but she hooked it to her bangle to keep. We both continued working, and she went outside to do some work in the backyard. At the end of the work day, I asked for the ring back and she discovered that it fell out from her bangle!”
Completely distraught, they searched everywhere for the missing ring, even retraced Savitree’s steps in hopes of finding it, “but it was nowhere to be found,” he said. “I assumed that it may have been vacuumed up by the lawnmower.”
They eventually purchased a 14-karat replacement ring, but “It didn’t feel right,” he added. “It did not have the same meaning as the original ring. Once in a while, I would go around the property in search of the ring, but to no avail. So I gave up.”
Just when Moughawech least expected it however, there it was again, a shining prize in the soil brought back to him by some lucky bamboo that “definitely has a place” in his backyard now.

“I took my phone out to take pictures of it, then I cleaned it off and wore it back where it belongs, fifteen years later,” said Moughawech. “My wife was in complete disbelief.” Despite missing the wedding ring all these years though, “I am happy to say that 15 years later, we are still happily married.”

Same-sex wedding cake ruling is ‘persecution of Christians’

The Christian owners of an Oregon bakery who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple
— and were sequentially fined by the state for doing so — said they plan to fight that decision amid an impending deadline. Aaron and Melissa Klein, the husband-and-wife proprietors of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, were told earlier this month by the state Bureau of Labor and Industries to pay $135,000 “in damages for emotional and mental suffering” after the agency concluded they violated a state discrimination law prohibiting denial of service on account
of sexual orientation.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said that the Kleins have to figure out how they’ll be paying the sum by next week, but the couple adamantly said they will appeal.
“For this to go this far, it’s ridiculous,” Mr. Klein told a local Fox News
affiliate Wednesday. “It should scare every American.”
According to the Kleins, catering a same-sex marriage offends their religious ideals. When the bureau found them guilty of discrimination, however, it noted: “This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage. It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”
Mr. Klein told the Blaze that the ruling is an example of “the persecution of Christians in this country.”
“I will use every legal remedy I have to make sure that this man cannot do this to me, cannot do it to my wife, cannot do it to my five children, cannot do it to any other American,” he said. “I will not relent. I will continue.”
Charlie Burr, the labor bureau’s communication director, said the agency needs to know by Monday if the Kleins will pay the sum in full, plan to make monthly installments or ask for a stay. Presently the couple says they will pursue a stay, and if successful they’ll be spared from making any payments until a court can weigh in.
Mr. Avakian is expected to decide whether to grant the Kleins‘ request for a stay within a month of it being received by the bureau, though he isn’t required to put a pause on his ruling while he decides. The state could elect to put a lien on the Kleins’ home
if arrangements aren’t initiated by next week, Portland radio news station KXL reported.
Meantime, Mr. Klein said he has no plans to “pay anything.”
“I would appeal to everybody in the state of Oregon,” he told KXL this week. “Understand that this is the way things operate. We need to institute change, take the government to task for violating our constitutional freedoms at whatever level they are doing it.”
The couple who was refused service by Sweet Cakes, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, said in a statement earlier this month the situation has been “a horrible ordeal for our entire family
.”

“We never imagined finding ourselves caught up in a fight for social justice. We knew it was on us to set an example for our two kids — to stand up for what is right,” they said.

Hercules: South Bay couple seeks wedding photos stolen in car burglary

Ryan and Keri Brady tied the knot on June 26, a historic day for weddings for another reason in the U.S., in a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall and a reception at Boulevard with a stop at St. Francis Yacht Club for photographs.
The South Bay couple by happenstance months ago picked the day the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage a constitutional right, and were married right inside the city hall dome where one of the day's biggest parties was happening outside.
And by happenstance, their wedding photographer parked five days later on July 1 outside a Hercules Starbucks where burglars broke a window and stole cameras, gear and the memories of the Bradys' wedding day, police said Tuesday.
"She called me and I couldn't even understand her she was crying so hard," Ryan Brady said of when his wife called him with the news. "It's one of those priceless moments in your life that you expect everything is so well planned, you expect everything is going to be perfectly documented. ... (Nothing) is going to capture the magic of that day."
Police said the photographer went in for a coffee at the shop in the 3700 block of San Pablo Avenue and returned to the car to find the camera equipment gone. Witnesses said a Lexus SUV drove away after the burglary but police Tuesday had no suspects.
The Bradys met as co-workers at San Jose State, were engaged April 24 and planned a small wedding with 46 family members in time for Keri Brady to attend a Ph.D. program in the fall at Boston University, where she will study health services research, her husband said.
They hired the photographer for $3,000 to take pictures at City Hall, Boulevard restaurant, and around Crissy Field, said Ryan Brady, a composer who also works in information technology at San Jose State. He said the couple planned the wedding for June 26 without realizing until days before the Supreme Court would rule on same-sex marriage.
"We showed up and there was a press conference outside," said Ryan Brady, who lives with his wife in San Jose. "(Mayor) Ed Lee was on the steps. The flags were draped everywhere. It was super positive energy.

"At this point they told us they don't even care about the gear, they just want us to have the photos," he said. "They are trying to help us salvage something."

Oh, You've Not Yet Planned Your Wedding Moon? Time to Get Cracking

Quick question for those of you out there who are in the stages of planning your wedding: Do you ever feel like you’ve got too much time on your hands, or like you’re not spending enough money, or are hoping for another item on your checklist? Fear not, you rare birds: There’s a new Thing in town and it’s a -moon.
You’ve your got honeymoons, your baby moons, and your mini-moons (quickie honeymoons, which I didn’t realize were referred to as anything other than “quickie honeymoon”). But who cares? No big deal. You want more. You want to be where the spendy people are: planning a “wedding moon,” wherein the engaged couple skips town for a few days in advance of their actual wedding. As if a woman’s life didn’t have enough moons in it as is?
Fox NY alerts us to Rachel and Frank, who are getting married this coming weekend and have thus been dealing with the typical stress of last-minute planning. So instead of waiting to catch their breath on their honeymoon, the pair decided to get out of town for a few days in advance of the wedding, just to take a quick break from the madness. This is actually a really nice idea (if you’ve got the time and the money, in which case, lucky you): it’s a lovely way to redirect your focus on one another and, if needed, remind yourselves why you’re getting married in the first place.
But because this mini-vacay is in the same orbit as the wedding, it cannot just be a nice thing you did. The wedding industrial complex—known for its disconcerting ability to take tap water and turn it into Screaming Eagle-expensive wine—has no choice but turn this “nice thing some people do” into “this is definitely a Thing people (you) should do (in order to complete your wedding experience),” complete with hotel packages to reinforce the concept.
Rachel and Frank aren’t the only ones breaking from the standard wedding-then-honeymoon routine and taking a trip before the big day, says Jamie Miles, the online managing editor of TheKnot.com. She says it is a way for couples to avoid the stress of planning for a couple of days and just spend time together before the ceremony. […]Miles says the trend is even inspiring hotel chains to cater to couples with special wedding moon packages.
Of course this wedding moon business comes from The Knot: Branding every element of your pre-nuptial life since 1997. Give it a few months and we’ll probably hear from sister site The Bump about a “conception moon”: that particularly adventurous or lavish trip some couples take as a last hurrah before they try to start aiming sperm for an egg.

(As a side note: How about we stop adding “moon” to vacations that precede or immediately follow major life events—events which, not coincidentally, are considered major markers in the traditionally feminine life. Cutesy “moon” language further infantilizes these moments, just another step backwards in our reverse march towards the ultimate twee-ification of women’s rites of passage.)

How to make your wedding eco-friendly

For many couples, planning the perfect wedding it isn't just about food, flowers and invitations. These days, it's also about going green and protecting the environment as well.
"Every single part of the wedding process can be eco-friendly, and not necessarily the color green," says Katie Martin, wedding planner and editor-in-chief of "Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine."
She said keeping things close to home is the first step.
"It's all about going local. The more local you have your vendors, the better you are at being sustainable and having your wedding be less wasteful," Martin said.
That includes local florals and local favors.
"Pick something seasonal. Pick something that comes from local farms. An easy thing to do is to go to the farmers markets and see what's happening in season now. That way you still have something beautiful that will actually be at its peak. So you're being eco-friendly but you're also going to get a better product from that," said Annee Gillett, the Director of Catering for Hotel Monaco in Alexandria, Virginia.
Items that are in season often have a lower price tag.
Greener Planning, Party Favors
Couples can also come up with greener alternative for items at the reception, such as fewer wedding programs, or having only one menu per table. Martin also suggests using recycled or seeded paper as another good idea.
"It basically has seeds from wildflowers and herbs woven within it. So the guests can actually take that home and plant it and then have a little memory of your wedding of their own when their wildflowers grow," Gillett said.
That same idea can translate to greener party favors such as a packet of seeds that can be planted or something edible. Either way, there is no waste.
For couples who want a more eco-savvy celebration, but don't know where to start, Martin says to just ask.

"It begins with you as the consumer, to say, You know what, I want a wedding that gives back to the community, and I want to know what my vendors are going to do about it," Martin said.

Nine Ways To Deal With Seeing Your Ex At Your Child's Wedding

Currently, 42 per cent of all marriages end in divorce (in England and Wales). Amid the many challenges that the end of a marriage presents, one that few people think of until it slaps them in the face years later is how you deal with your ex-husband or ex-wife at your child's wedding.
To throw a further spanner in the works, the years between your divorce and your son or daughter's wedding could have brought someone else into your life and you could well have a new partner, as could your ex.
How does everyone find a space within the wedding party that keeps the focus on the two people about to take their nuptials?
Counsellor Mariam Prag insists this is what's paramount. She urges parents to understand: "As tough as you might find it to deal with your ex, your child's wedding is not about you, but about them."
To keep this thought top of mind might be easier said than done, though. The tips below should help ensure that everyone enjoys the big day and that the wedding photos after show people on their best behavior, with genuine smiles and not through gritted teeth.
1. Respect The Bride And Groom's Decisions
Regardless of how acrimonious your divorce may have been, the fact remains that your ex-wife or husband is one of your child's parents. If your son or daughter wants them to be part of their wedding, accept it. It'll make things easier in the long run.
2. Focus On The Big Picture And The Date
With weddings being the extravaganzas they've become, the run-up to it could take months, or (whisper it) even a year, but the day will come and the day will pass, and you can go back to living ex-free.
3. A Short Memory Is Your 'Something New'
Now is not the time to reminisce about your ex-partner's failings of years past. Put your focus on the now.
4. Boundaries Are Allowed
Try to be as flexible as possible with your child's wishes but remember that boundaries are positive things. If there are any situations you're asked to be involved with that you know you just cannot handle well, say so as soon as possible.
5. The Bride Or Groom Is Boss
If your ex has any questions about the way you are doing things for the wedding, he or she needs to take it up with your joint child, the bride or groom, and not with you.
6. Current Partners Have Feelings Too
If you've since remarried, don't let your child's wedding take over your life. Yes, it is exciting, and yes, it may be fraught, as dynamics long dealt with return to play a pivotal role in your life. But for your current spouse, it could be tough to watch you spend so much time and energy on something that doesn't include them.
If emotions and maturity levels allow, see if there is a way to include them in a meaningful way in the wedding preparations, such as taking the happy soon-to-be-married couple for a meal before their wedding. Your ex may be a thing of your past once the wedding is over but your current spouse won't be, so take care to think of their feelings too.
7. Laughter Is The Best Medicine (And Diffuser)
Many a tense situation can be diffused with a bit of laughter. You don't need to develop a comedy routine, but some well-placed wit could be your best weapon.
8. Weddings Are Celebrations
Even in the most simple of family set-ups, it can be difficult, when preparations and nerves are running high, to remember that weddings are a time of celebration. They are, though, and the happy memories of the day will be what everyone remembers afterwards.
9. Your Child's Happiness Will Make It All Worth It

At times, you might need to grit your teeth to get through the run-up to the wedding. But come the special day, the smile on your child's face will take away most, if not all, of the stress and strain. It's a trade-off worth making as your child and their spouse start their married life together.

Polygamous Montana trio applies for wedding license

A Montana man said Wednesday that he was inspired by last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage to apply for a marriage license so that he can legally wed his second wife.
Nathan Collier and his wives Victoria and Christine applied at the Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings on Tuesday in an attempt to legitimize their polygamous marriage. Montana, like all 50 states, outlaws bigamy — holding multiple marriage licenses — but Collier said he plans to sue if the application is denied.
"It's about marriage equality," Collier told The Associated Press Wednesday. "You can't have this without polygamy."
County clerk officials initially denied Collier's application, then said they would consult with the county attorney's office before giving him a final answer, Collier said.
Yellowstone County chief civil litigator Kevin Gillen said he is reviewing Montana's bigamy laws and expected to send a formal response to Collier by next week.
"I think he deserves an answer," Gillen said, but added his review is finding that "the law simply doesn't provide for that yet."
The Supreme Court's ruling on Friday made gay marriages legal nationwide. Chief Justice John Roberts said in his dissent that people in polygamous relationships could make the same legal argument that not having the opportunity to marry disrespects and subordinates them.
Collier, 46, said that dissent inspired him. He owns a refrigeration business in Billings and married Victoria, 40, in 2000. He and his second wife, Christine, had a religious wedding ceremony in 2007 but did not sign a marriage license to avoid bigamy charges, he said.
Collier said he is a former Mormon who was excommunicated for polygamy and now belongs to no religious organization. He said he and his wives hid their relationship for years, but became tired of hiding and went public by appearing on the reality cable television show "Sister Wives."
The three have seven children of their own and from previous relationships.
"My second wife Christine, who I'm not legally married to, she's put up with my crap for a lot of years. She deserves legitimacy," he said.
Collier said he sent an email asking the ACLU of Montana to represent him in a possible lawsuit. ACLU legal director Jim Taylor said he has not seen the request.
Taylor said he has no opinion on Collier's claims, though the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage "is about something very different."
Anne Wilde, a co-founder of the polygamy advocacy organization Principle Voices located in Utah, said Collier's application is the first she's heard of in the nation, and that most polygamous families in Utah are not seeking the right to have multiple marriage licenses.
"Ninety percent or more of the fundamentalist Mormons don't want it legalized, they want it decriminalized," Wilde said.
A federal judge struck down parts of Utah's anti-polygamy law two years ago, saying the law violated religious freedom by prohibiting cohabitation. Bigamy is still illegal.
The state has appealed the ruling, and the case is pending in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Wilde said most polygamous families are satisfied with the judge's ruling and believe taking it further to include multiple marriage licenses would bring them under the unwanted jurisdiction of the government.
But she said the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage should strengthen their chance of winning the appeal.

"We hope the Supreme Court decision will show the direction the nation is going," she said. "It's more liberal, it's more understanding about people forming the families the way they want."

Eight prime locations for a destination wedding on a budget

The proposal may have come as a surprise, but what shouldn't at this point is just how much that resulting wedding is going to cost you. Because whether you've said "I do" once before, stood at the altar as a member of a wedding party or simply attended a destination wedding, you know just how pricey they can be. But this doesn't mean you have to quash your dreams of getting married overlooking the ocean or on a hillside retreat. Oyster.com did some research and found eight romantic locales where you can have a beautiful destination wedding on a budget.
Belize
Belize offers visitors more diversity than your run-of-the-mill beach destination, and flight prices are about the same as those you'd find to popular wedding locales such as Mexico. Not only does Belize boast beautiful sandy beaches, but it's also home to lush rainforests, Mayan ruins and the second-largest barrier reef in the world. And once you're there, it's easy enough to save some green -- and go green, for that matter. Belize has very few expensive mega-resorts and instead is dotted by eco-lodges and inns where room and board can be found cheap -- if you're willing to give up some "luxuries" such as air-conditioning and Wi-Fi. Another perk? With lobster being a local specialty, it comes much cheaper here than stateside, so you can impress wedding guests with a lobster dinner for a lot less.
Where to wed: The owners of the affordable Portofino Beach Resort have been helping to plan laid-back weddings for over a decade.
Destin, Fla.
If your heart is set on a beach destination wedding, choosing a stateside locale will definitely help you (and your guests) save, and Destin is a great option for budget-friendly nuptials. Less expensive than Florida hot spots such as Miami and Panama City Beach, Destin offers a quieter, quainter vibe and rates that are affordable no matter the season.
Where to wed: Emerald Grande at HarborWalk Village is one of the most popular wedding hotels in Destin for good reason; it features a beautiful outdoor deck with a grand staircase for the bride to make her entrance.
Vermont
Vermont, with its quaint villages and scenic landscapes, is probably your best bet for a back-to-nature, budget-friendly wedding. If you can totally see yourself posing for the pre- or post-wedding photos along tumbling streams, thick woodlands and gorgeous views, search no more. The state's small, cozy inns and B&Bs are perfect for intimate weddings and small receptions, and the green meadows and steep mountains make for great backgrounds when reciting your vows. You will probably need to hire a shuttle bus to transport your guests, as Burlington's is the only major airport serving the entire state, but the scenery you'll discover as a result will be well worth it -- and the cost of transportation pales in comparison to what you'd pay for the same in numerous other locations.
Where to wed: The historic Grafton Inn is a popular choice for weddings due to its picturesque location and reputation for delicious food.
Sedona, Ariz.
Sedona is becoming an increasingly popular destination for weddings, not only because it's relatively more affordable than other areas nearby, but also because of its stunning desert-meets-forest scenery. Sedona's famous red rocks are the perfect backdrop for the ceremony -- especially at sunset -- and the region's numerous resorts offer all a couple might need before, during and after their wedding day. From hikes to the red rocks to guided tours to Sedona's "vortexes" (concentrations of spiritual energy) and great shopping, there's so much for visitors to do here that guests will probably be more than happy to take a few days off to celebrate your nuptials.
Where to wed: One of the top value hotels in Sedona, Bell Rock Inn will help you and your guests save some cash -- and it doesn't hurt that it sits on picturesque Highway 179 in the Village of Oak Creek.
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic almost always makes the list of affordable beach destinations. Not only is it relatively easy to get to -- with direct flights leaving from the U.S. and Europe daily -- but it is filled with all-inclusive resorts, many of which offer affordable package deals. Plus, conveniently for couples on a tight budget, peak wedding season falls largely during the D.R.'s off season, which means cheaper flights, cheaper room rates and more tranquil hotel atmospheres for your big day. Sure, June through September can be very hot and humid, and hurricanes are a possibility in the later months, but c'mon, what're the chances?!
Where to wed: Couples at Natura Cabanas -- where rustic-chic rooms lack TVs and A/C -- can say "I do" on the private beach or in the Templo del Saber (Temple of Knowledge).
Savannah, Ga.
Savannah, settled in 1773, is one of the best-preserved spots in the South; those planning a classic, traditional wedding will probably find Savannah to be their perfect match. With its gorgeous historic mansions, quaint cobblestone streets and pretty public squares, the city provides a beautiful backdrop for the big day -- and it's an equally beautiful, but less expensive, alternative to a destination such as Charleston. While Savannah is not known for its nightlife, it's legal to consume alcohol outdoors in the historic downtown area, so you can even take the post-rehearsal dinner party outside if the weather is nice.
Where to wed: Certainly not the least expensive B&B in Savannah, Dresser Palmer House has rates that nonetheless generally stay under $200 a night and the grounds are truly lovely. Couples can splurge by booking the entire house for a weekend, or opt for the more budget-friendly elopement package.
Jamaica
It may not have an international airport, but Negril is nonetheless easy and relatively inexpensive to get to (visitors fly into the airport at Montego Bay and then take a shuttle), and boasts some of the cheapest digs in Jamaica -- which is already one of the more affordable of the Caribbean islands. Famous for its Seven Mile Beach -- one of the softest and longest beaches in the country -- Negril is a popular spot for destination weddings, and couples and guests can save cash here in many ways: Not only are the room rates low (the area is home to an eclectic jumble of beachfront motels, cliff-side cottages and hippie bungalows), but public transportation is convenient, safe and cheap, and you can find excellent seafood at nearly all of the hole-in-the-wall spots along the beach.
Where to wed: To ensure each couple gets plenty of attention, the Rockhouse Hotellimits weddings to one per week (with a max of 20 per year). Rates, though, which are about 1/3 of those at the slightly chicer Caves, are likely what will really make couples happy.
Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Lake Tahoe is probably better known for skiing than weddings, but around 300 days of sunshine annually, a wide range of value hotels and lots to do in the area make it a solid pick for a budget-friendly destination wedding, too. Couples can say "I do" against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful lakes in the U.S., hold the reception in a charming alpine lodge-style venue and then spend their first days as a married couple hiking the area's scenic trails -- all for an extremely reasonable price. It's a great option for San Franciscans in particular, as the drive takes just about 3 1/2 hours.

Where to wed: The entire Olympic Village offers numerous spots to wed, including in the peaceful garden at the Olympic Village Inn.