November 10 was a big day for fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. It was his birthday, for one thing (Happy birthday, Neil! I love Neverwhere all to pieces and back again!). For another, his longtime lady love Amanda Palmer gave him a very unusual gift.

You see, once upon a time, long before the two met, Amanda made her living as a street performer. Her gig was being a live statue of a bride. Not that she thought getting married was such a good idea:

i always said i wouldn’t get married.
why not just live with someone for christ’s sake?

plus, everybody in my family was divorced and just kept getting more and more divorced.
it just seemed stupid.

And yet, for Neil’s birthday, she decided to surprise him with a ‘wedding’ and get herself up in her bridal statue finery one more time.

First, she bought him a top hat. Then she took off, bribing him to meet her later with the promise of a cup of tea (and don’t even try to tell me that isn’t dirty pool when your guy is English!).

Amanda got into her costume and makeup and gathered her ‘wedding party’ on the courthouse steps. Alas! more people came than were originally expected as word of the impending event spread. The group had no permit, so they were asked to move on. They did. They gathered again in Jackson Square.

Again, they were informed they would need to move on by the authorities. Amanda texted Neil to meet her at the steps of a church just outside the park. He got there moments later, in top hat, tee shirt and jacket. Seeing Amanda in her statue finery, he placed $5.00 in her basket. Amanda then ‘came to life’ and handed him a rose. At this juncture, the witnesses came out from their hiding places along with Jason Webley who had introduced the happy couple in the first place. Jason performed the ceremony with great enthusiasm.

Best of all? Neil got his cup of tea, even if he did have to drink it through the clown white Amanda left on him with the kiss.

Okay, so it’s not legal, but Neil and Amanda are actually engaged. In the meantime, here’s what Neil has to say about this practice run:

Next time we get married, I’ll marry the lady, not the statue, and there will be invited people and not a flash mob, and I’ll know it’s happening in advance, and there will be a paper and it will be legally recognised, but I cannot imagine it will be any more joyous than this was. And truthfully, after that morning’s magical wedding, I don’t think I could ever feel more married.

And truly, I doubt there could be a wedding more appropriate for the man who created London Below.

Check out their wedding album here. Thanks to Just call me Sugah for the tip off!

Last month, you may have read that Katy Perry enacted a ‘no sex before marriage’ rule with sex addict Russell Brand in the months leading up to her wedding. But holding off on the pre-nuptial nookie isn’t just a celebrity thing! I know at least a few couples who gave it a go, enacting a ‘no sex during the engagement’ rule that was made to be broken.

Keep in mind that I’m not talking about people who are saving themselves for marriage or anyone who decided to go celibate after doing the deed. These are couples who’ve been hitting the sheets up until one of the pair decided to put a ring on it, so it’s not a purity or chastity thing. Nope. It’s an excitement thing. They’ve been doing the deed up until now, but what a deed it’ll be if they haven’t done it for six months or twelve months or sixteen months!

So these are sex bans intended for wedding night enhancement. I can’t say I love the idea, but I don’t hate it, either. Whatever brides and grooms want to do (or not do) in the bedroom is up to them. But I do think it’s a little silly – the no sex before marriage dam has already been breached. If I figured these same people would have occasional sex bans to spice things up, it’d be one thing. But these sex bans are specifically tied to weddings. What do you think?

I had totally intended to do a pre-wedding post about the Chelsea Clinton nuptial extravaganza, but I think I just got bored reading over and over again about how her Astor Court wedding will cost a zillion dollars and isn’t that irresponsible and this or that political bigwig is hurt because she’s not invited and oh em gee isn’t Chelsea skiiiiiiny! But in case any of you haven’t been following the former first-daughter’s wedding plans, here’s a sampling of links to wet your appetite for tomorrow’s celebration.

• According to the proverbial “insider,” the food will include vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes.
• How do you explain this bridal bacchanal to the folks in Haiti, who could use that $3 million and the oversized air-conditioned tent?
• An insider provided us these exclusive photos of Astor Court—the palatial mansion serving as the venue—plus some inside information.
• Does it say something horrible about us that we desperately desire to see Chelsea’s wedding? I don’t think so.
• So, just what does it take to score an invitation to the hottest — not to mention most secretive — political wedding of the summer?
• Chelsea Clinton is possibly going overboard with her pre-wedding exercise regime, having been spotted going to the gym avidly over the past week in an attempt to get trim.
• It’s been reported that both President Barack Obama (and wife Michelle—we can’t wait to see what she wears) and Oprah Winfrey are amongst the 500 invitees.
• When the guests arrive, they’ll tell the front desk the room number they were assigned and will get their room key.

I actually feel quite sorry for Chelsea Clinton with regard to her wedding – imagine having to invite scads and scads of your mother and father’s political cronies to satisfy obligations that aren’t even your own. Bleah. It’s bad enough that so many brides and grooms end up inviting people they’ve never met in the form of their mom’s colleagues or their dad’s bowling team.

Need some inspiration to blow away the Tuesday blahs? As if the rolling hills in the background of this outdoor wedding space were not enough, this bride and groom pair was married in a unique and fascinating open air wooden chapel. The couple said their vows in the bride’s parents’ backyard, and it was the bride’s brother who built the structure complete with pretty windows and doors and a striking yellow altar.

The chandelier is one of the details that really make this ceremony space a success. And how about that amazing dresser? The whole color scheme is so pretty and rustic without being too country.

The chapel looks like it was open enough to retain an outdoor wedding feel while also giving wedding guests the impression of being in a cozy, private, and intimate space. It’s the best of both worlds!

(Images: Green Wedding Shoes; Photographer: Stephanie Fay)

Notable people have a way of influencing fashion, even wedding fashion, which tends to move from trend to trend at a glacial pace. And it just happens that Ivanka Trump wore *gasp* sleeves at her wedding to New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner. Sure, they were rather short sleeves. And they were sheer sleeves. But the fact that Trump’s Vera Wang wedding gown had sleeves at all can give us hope for the future of wedding fashion, I think.

Isn’t she gorgeous? Would that I had looked a fifth as lovely on my wedding day!

Do note that Trump’s famous mother Ivana also wore sleeves at the reception following her 2008 wedding to Italian model-actor Rossano Rubicondi, though I would not not NOT! suggest that you look to her as an icon of good taste.

Pass the Pepto!

Thanks to the fabulous Toni for the tip! / Image via / PopSugar has more pics, yum

You may not know this, but I’m a huge My Name Is Earl fan. At the risk of stepping into TMI territory, I’ll confess that the show basically carried me through all of my infant daughter’s nursing troubles. I’d put reruns on in the middle of the night, and struggling to feed my baby didn’t seem too too bad. It’s odd, but now that the show wasn’t picked up for a fifth season, I almost feel like I’m missing part of my parenting arsenal.

Baring my life as I just did was mainly a way of leading into a post about how My Name Is Earl star Jaime Pressly married entertainment lawyer Simran Singh this past Saturday at a 6 p.m. ceremony on the Dick Clark estate on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Pressly wore an ivory silk Jenny Packham gown lushly embellished with over 800,000 Swarovski crystals, glass beads, and sequins, while Singh wore a tuxedo from Hugo Boss. According to JustJared, she walked down the aisle to the Etta James classic “At Last.”

At the reception, Pressly changed into a ’40s-inspired open-back cocktail dress, also designed by Packham, and the couple danced their first dance was to Adele’s “To Make You Feel My Love.”

I wish them all the best, of course, and hope that Pressly has found what she described in this quote in her new husband:

“I’d like to be with somebody who isn’t afraid to take care of me – whether they have the same financial means as me or not,” Pressly told Redbook in March. “What’s important is that they realize there are other ways of taking care of me that have [nothing] to do with money. Like cooking me dinner or going to the grocery store or picking up after yourself.”

*In case you aren’t a My Name Is Earl fan, note that the title of this post is a play on one of the character Joy’s typical greetings.

I’m feeling a little political today, but it turns out that tying weddings and U.S. politics together isn’t easy. Sure, pregnant Bristol Palin is engaged to a self-described redneck, but like they say on the Internet, pics or it didn’t happen. And there are no pics yet, because it hasn’t happened. Nuts. I did find pictures of both the Obama wedding and McCain’s wedding (to Cindy, Not Carol).

The deets: Michelle and Barack’s wedding ceremony was performed by the now infamous Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois on October 18, 1992.

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