(Image via Imagur where you can see the entire process of how this ring was made)

No, this is not the One Ring to Rule Them All. It’s the wedding ring of Reddit user laporkenstein. What’s so special about it? How about the fact that he made it himself from a meteorite.

The meteorite cost him about $200 online, and then he got started forging. No, there is no matching ring. The lady had already fallen in love with something else, and neither insisted their rings had to be an exact match.

According to laporkenstein, he and his wife are now happily married for three years with a small daughter.

May this ring – and the marriage it represents – never be unmade.

But this does raise a question I’m curious about: how do you all feel about mismatched wedding rings? Love? Hate? Don’t care? Tell me what you think.

For my part, I think rings are a truly individual choice. I’m very much down with either choice, so long as both parties are happy with it.

When most women dream of their wedding day transportation, they think of limos, party busses, horse-drawn carriages, classic convertibles, or even helicopters. Jenny Klochko, however, hails originally from the Ukraine where it’s something of a tradition for brides to walk to the church so that everyone can see her and enjoy the festivities vicariously.

And so it was that she chose to take a city bus part of the way to her wedding at the Sutton Register Office in London. She and her bridesmaids walked the rest of the way.

The one downside to her choice? Says the bride:

‘I think they thought it must be a practical joke. No one even offered me their seat.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2125534/Bride-Jenny-Klochko-takes-BUS-to-church-Sutton-south-London.html#ixzz1rSuVpman

After the wedding the entire wedding party climbed aboard a party bus chartered for the occasion to take them to the reception in Wimbledon.

I don’t know about any of you, but I rather like the simplicity, practicality, and charm of a bride sharing the joy on public transportation… not that there’s anything at all wrong with a carriage or a limo. But life is a little more whimsical when at any moment a bride and her attendants might join you on a bus ride. I’m in favor of more whimsey in the world.

All the same, I think the groom was right in advising Jenny to give herself two hours’ leeway in case of snafus. You just never know with public transportation in some areas.

Once upon a time, if you mentioned an eco-friendly wedding, people tended to think of something like this:

You know, obviously hand-hewn, crunchy granola, unfashionable, and probably reeking of patchouli.

In short, even a lot of people who admired the commitment these couples made to living lightly on Mother Earth wouldn’t be caught dead in a ditch looking – or smelling – like them.

But times have changed. You don’t have to be a card-carrying hippie to care about the environment anymore. and you don’t have to completely reject both tradition and fashion to follow your convictions.
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Happy Pi Day!

(Image via Pie&)

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of pie. I’ll eat it any time of day or night. I love both sweet and savory pies. Blueberry? I’m there! Steak and Kidney? Equally there!

In fact, when Mr. Twistie and I were married, we didn’t have a cake. We had individual fruit tarts. They were delicious and festive and just a little quirky. Very us.

(Image via Achatz Handemade Pie Co.)

Mmmm…pie. Save a slice for me!

You learn something new every day if you’re lucky. Today was my first exposure to the concept of ‘marryoke.’ Well, okay, then.

Most of us know about karaoke, that staple entertainment of drunks who can’t sing everywhere. Yes, I have heard a couple people who really were good belting out a great song, but let’s face it, the vast majority of karaoke is sung by people who could barely keep the tune inside the bucket when they were sober… three shots ago.

I must admit the worst karaoke experience I ever heard wasn’t someone who was drunk, but a young boy attempting to sing all parts of Bohemian Rhapsody while in the throes of his voice changing. He didn’t know from one note to the next whether he was going to be a counter tenor or a basso profundo. Yeah, that was kind of the last mental straw for karaoke and me.

Then again, marryoke doesn’t involve anyone actually having to be able to sing. So what is it? I thought you’d never ask!
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Some of you may recall a recent article in which I discussed that new professional in the world of weddings, the proposal planner. Some of you may recall I wasn’t too crazy about the whole concept. The three of you who responded were equally – if not moreso – unimpressed.

Well, it seems we are not alone. Proposal planner Michele Willamson has written an article for Huffpo defending her profession. It seems to Wiliamson that we just don’t understand her calling. If only we understood, we would change our minds and appreciate her services, even if we didn’t use them ourselves.

She answers some questions about her job… but frankly I find that her answers don’t actually make me think her business any more useful than I found it before. After all, she says she plans intimate, personal proposals as well as huge, flashy ones. But if it’s intimate and personal, why does the gentleman (and she does divide the world into ‘men’ and ‘females’ which is a nasty habit more and more people seem to be falling into) require someone to tell him what would be intimate and personal for him and his lady? Or gentleman? And the fact that Williamson says she is present for most of these proposals frankly kind of skeeves me out.

She says that she does a lot of research by talking to the man about his relationship with his female… oops, I mean his significant other. She prompts him to remember things and consider questions that may not have occurred to him. But has this gentleman no friends? No family members he might consult? Has he no skills to discover for himself what his love finds romantic? Is it never possible for a woman to propose???

After all, the best way to make the proposal romantic is to consider carefully the tastes and personality of the person being proposed to, as well as the history and structure of the overall relationship. If, for instance, a man knows that his lady always sighs happily at movies when an engagement ring is discovered in a glass of champagne, he knows she’ll find that romantic. If she laughs her head off and talks about wasting a perfectly good glass of champagne, chances are that’s not the way to propose. If the moment just seems right while lying in bed on a lazy sunday morning… then why not take the chance? Only if you know she wants the down on one knee approach and for you to ask her parents for permission to marry her.

There is no such thing as a universally romantic proposal. And unless you’re trying to arrange the practicalities of a Jumbotron, a marching band, and a host of celebrities showing up to urge your beloved to say yes… chances are you can work it out on your own. And even then? Yeah, guys have been working out the Jumbotron thing at sporting events for decades all by themselves.

Sorry, Michele, but I still don’t see a need for your service. And while I will refrain from personal abuse, I laugh soundly at what you’ve chosen to do with your life and the people who think they need it.

A new professional has appeared on the wedding planning horizon… well, ahead of it, really. This smiling lady shown above is Sarah Pease, and she plans proposals. In fact, she calls herself the Proposal Planner. She’s one of a small but growing number of professional proposal planners. According to her Facebook page:

we’re the go-to source for men who want to create the perfect proposal. Not only do we know what girls want in their proposal, we know exactly what will knock their stilettos off.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would have wanted Mr. Twistie to go to a pro to figure out how to create some spectacular EVENT of a proposal. I like the fact that he chose the time and place on his own and said his own words.

There are a lot of people who wouldn’t have found Mr. Twistie’s proposal all that romantic. The setting wasn’t spectacular. In fact it was a family-style restaurant that still happened to be open when we got out of the theater ravenously hungry. The words weren’t poetic. In fact, it took me a while to get him to say enough words to figure out what he was trying to say.

But it was him and it him telling me in his own way that he’d thought hard about pleasing me.

To me, that was perfect. I didn’t need bells and whistles and hot air balloons. All I needed was for him to let me know that I come first with him.

And that doesn’t cost money.