This Week in Weird Wedding News

You know, sometimes just plain weird stuff happens in the wonderful world of weddings. I’m not talking about Uncle Ralph getting blitzed and deciding the DJ is providing karaoke services or Cousin Vi insisting on bringing her Peke along as her ‘and guest.’ No, I’m talking about the deeply unexpected, just plain head-scratching weird stuff that you don’t even think to pray won’t happen to you because you’d never in a million years imagine it possible.

As luck would have it, I happen to have run across three such stories in the last week. Here’s the weird I’m talking about:

At a wedding in a park in Suverito, Italy, a bride and groom hired a microlight plane to fly past their reception. The idea was that as pilot Luciano Nannelli buzzed the crowd, passenger Isidoro Pensieri would toss the bouquet to the single ladies in attendance. Kind of a fun idea, except that it didn’t work. When Pensieri tossed the flowers, they got sucked into the engine of the plane, causing some unexpected fireworks as the plane caught fire, exploded, and plunged into a hostel.

Mr. Pensieri suffered multiple fractures and a head injury, but the pilot and the fifty people in the hostel all appear to have escaped unscathed.

I’m sure you’ll all join with me in wishing Mr. Pensieri a speedy recovery…and in taking note that sometimes the spectacular is just a tidge too risky to make it worth attempting around a crowd.

In other news, NBA player Richard Jefferson and his fiancee, former New Jersey Nets dancer Kesha Ni’Cole Nichols, decided to call it quits several days before they were scheduled to say ‘I do.’ What’s so strange about that? That’s not the strange part. Even with lead time and all the resources at their disposal, it seems that a large proportion of the guests were not notified that there was no reason to come to the Mandarin Oriental in New York City, where the wedding had been expected to take place.

At least Jefferson sent a friend with his black AMEX card and instructions to make sure the people who showed up for a wedding at least got a party.

Still, I do have to wonder why so many people weren’t contacted. With a reported budget of two million bucks, you’d think that would include the means to start a phone, email, or blackberry tree to let people know there’s no longer a reason to get dressed up.

And last, though I’m not certain it’s least, comes a story of an elaborate proposal. She thought they were going to the movies for her birthday. He’d hired a cinema, hired a crowd of extras to be an ‘audience,’ had tickets printed, and made a film of himself lip-synching Daniel Beddingfield’s If You’re Not the One…in his underwear. In fact, there are multiple changes of underwear through the song.

Why did he choose to do it this way? Because he said he knew this would happen only once and he wanted to make it special.

The lady must have agreed. She said yes.