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Would You Rent to This Couple?

Saturday, October 27th, 2012

They seem nice enough to me.

Apparently, though, Pauline Bailey, 27, and Paul Carty, 51, were not good enough for one employee of Stoke Park Hotel in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. Michele Connelly did not specify why she felt the couple were unworthy to wed at Stoke Park Hotel, but it seems she found them not ‘the type of people’ who should be allowed to marry there.

And how did the happy couple learn this factoid?

Well, it all started when they tried to book the hotel for their june wedding. They met with Connelly and were given a tour of the facility. They spoke of specific plans. They did not balk at the ten thousand pound price tag, and in point of fact added another thousand pounds to said price tag by asking for a fireworks display. They planned to invite only thirty guests, so it can’t have been that there wasn’t room for all those people, either.

The happy couple went home and waited to hear confirmation of their date… and waited… and waited. After ten days, they contacted Connelly to ask what was happening and why they hadn’t heard back. Connelly emailed back saying she’d been on vacation during that period and they would hear from her shortly.

They did.

The next day, Connelly sent an email to her sales manager, Carlo Zoccali, begging him to give her a way to deny the couple a spot on the calendar.

Too bad for her she cc’d it to Bailey and Carty, too.

The only reason Connelly gave for wanting to put the couple off was that they are ‘not the type of people’ she wanted to rent to. For the record, both are gainfully employed. In fact, Carty works for the Ministry of Defence as an engineer. Bailey is a counsellor. So unless she has an unreasoning prejudice against engineers or counsellors, what is the problem? There has been no accusation or evidence of untoward behavior on the part of the couple in question.

Bailey believes she knows the answer. Her theory? That it’s about the age gap between her and her intended, and possibly his pierced eyebrow.

And that’s why Bailey and Carty are currently seeking legal counsel with an eye to bringing a lawsuit in the matter.

Let that be a lesson to us all to a) do our best to treat all comers as fairly as possible, and b) always be very, very careful to whom we forward our emails.

Posted in Real Weddings, Vendors, Wedding Venues | Comments Closed

Scotsmen In Love… and Other Cool Weddings

Friday, October 26th, 2012

Sometimes it’s fun to go wandering about on other wedding blogs and take a look at some of the great weddings they feature. Here are a few of my faves from the past week I’d like to share.

First up is a delightful wedding of two handsome Scotsmen in kilts named Chris and Eric, featured on A Practical Wedding.

Kilts, more kilts, a pretty outdoor spot, yet more kilts, people dancing Gay Gordons (and that really is a dance, in fact Mr. Twistie and I did it at our wedding, too) and lots of pretty pictures would have won this wedding a spot on the list anyway, but I love this quote from the grooms most of all:

If you ever wonder how many people love you and how much, have a wedding. You’ll know.

You know what else? That’s absolutely true.
(more…)

Posted in Bride Blogging, Real Weddings, Same-Sex Weddings, Unusual Weddings | 2 Comments »

Take That, DOMA!

Friday, October 19th, 2012

(Image via Jet Fete Blog where you can see more pictures of this beautiful wedding held in Mexico)

Yesterday the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled (as have so many courts before it) that the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA is unconstitutional in that it violates the fourteenth amendment right to equal protection under the law.

The suit was brought by Edith Windsor, 83. She and Theda Clara Spyer had been engaged for forty years when they were finally able to tie the knot in Toronto, Cananda in 2007. Two years later, Spyer sadly died of multiple sclerosis. In Spyer’s will, she left all her property to her surviving spouse, Windsor. And since the federal government will not recognize same sex marriages, Windsor was forced to pay $363,000 (that’s three hundred sixty-three thousand smackers) in estate taxes. Windsor felt that was unfair since a surviving spouse in a DOMA approved marriage would not have had to shell out that kind of money to inherit.

A federal court sided with Windsor, but the decision was appealed. Now the appeals court also sides with the plaintiff… as has every other court that has heard similar cases.

Even the current presidential administration considers DOMA unconstitutional. President Obama announced that his administration would no longer defend it because – wait for it – it violates equal protection. The act is currently being defended by the Republican majority in the US House of Representatives.

Me? I say it’s time for DOMA to land on the ash heap of bad law. It hurts families, inflicts hardships, and does absolutely nothing to protect, defend, or support any marriage whatsoever.

My opposite sex marriage is in no way threatened by the fact that two men or two women may marry in certain places. In fact, my marriage is so cool and nifty that I want every adult who wants one to be able to get their own, regardless of gender identity, race, or preferred flavor of consenting adult to have one with!

Posted in Law, Same-Sex Weddings | 2 Comments »

In Arlo’s Darkest Hour

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

I’m not in the obituary business here at Manolo for the Brides. Death rarely gets a mention around here, and rightly so. We’re here to talk about weddings, and all the hopeful stuff around that grand institution of marriage.

But sometimes death brings perspective. Yesterday, I was saddened to read of the death of Jackie Guthrie, wife of folksinger and all around fabulous entertainer Arlo Guthrie. This is what they looked like at their 1969 wedding:

… held on their front lawn with Judy Collins serenading them.

Forty-three years later, she’s gone from liver cancer, but the love remains.

Here’s what Arlo had to say about their marriage:

“We didn’t always like each other. From time to time there were moments when we’d have our bags packed by the door. But, there was this great love that we shared from the moment we met – a recognition – It’s YOU! And we would always return to it year after year, decade after decade and I believe life after lifetime.”

I can tell you from experience that you won’t always like your spouse. If one of you is a performer, spending weeks, even months at a time on the road, the hardships are even harder. There are moments when I look at Mr. Twistie and wonder what the hell I was thinking all those years ago.

But when it’s right, when there’s true love, you get past those moments. You find ways to appreciate one another and you reconnect.

For Arlo and Jackie, it worked for forty-three years and four children (as well as her child from a previous liason with David Crosby) and ten grandchildren. That’s not a bad legacy to leave behind.

So the next time you don’t like one another very much, take a moment and see if you still love one another. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get past the moment.

Posted in Celebrity Weddings, Marriage | Comments Closed

The Answer Lady is In

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Darlings, it’s been a long week and it’s only just wednesday. My brain is fuzzy, it’s too hot even to think about coffee (Oh, caffeine, sweet nectar of life!) and my imagination is completely shot. That shot up there? Is a terrifyingly lifelike rendition of my current mental state.

And so it is that I’m opening the floor to question time!

Ask me anything about weddings, marriage, and any vaguely related topic you please.

No, I won’t answer the questions today… but I will do my best to cover them all in the course of the next week. Delving into vast stores of knowledge, plenty of research materials, and an endless supply of firm opinions, I’ll type til my fingers fall off to get you the information you want.

So if you have a burning question – or even just mildly niggling one – in any way related to weddings and married life, this is your chance to get it covered.

Hit me with your best shot!

Posted in Weddings | 4 Comments »

Anne Hathaway Ties the Knot

Monday, October 1st, 2012

sunset at Big Sur was the backdrop for Anne Hathaway’s wedding to longtime love and Ryan Gosling lookalike Adam Shulman on saturday.

Guests to the extremely private ceremony were shuttled in by bus… and needed special bracelets to board. No bracelet, no wedding. No exceptions. Apparently some 180 people did wear their bracelets.

Rumors say that the wedding was designed and planned by Yifat Oren who recently worked the magic behind Natalie Portman’s wedding.

What is definite is that the bride’s gown was specially designed for her by Valentino, who considers her ‘like a daughter.’

I hope you’ll all join with me in wishing the happy couple every joy and many delightful years together.

Posted in Celebrity Weddings | Comments Closed

Never Too Late for Wedding Photos?

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

Sometimes things don’t work out like you hoped… and then you have to decide whether to make what you really wanted happen anyway.

For Liu Fu, the dream in question was to have a beautiful wedding album filled with glamorous shots. It wasn’t in the cards when she married her late husband, Feng. The couple had little money, so they had a very small wedding. There was no funding for the sort of wedding album the bride had in mind.

In fact, there is not a single photograph of Liu’s wedding day.

The couple were happy and had four children together before Feng’s death some thirty years ago.

Now, at the age of seventy-six, Liu has the money to have the wedding album of her dreams, so she hired a photographer and a team of make up artists and wardrobe experts to create the photo session she wishes she had had all those years ago. Since the groom could not be a physical part of the proceedings, Liu dressed in men’s clothing for some of the shots so that he could be there in spirit.

Liu appears in the photos in both traditional Chinese dress and western dress for her album. Some of the photos show her as a Chinese empress, some as emperor, some in modern western bridal white, and some in 1920’s Shanghai male gangster threads.

Is this something I would do? No. I’m one of those people who thinks the moment is there and either you capture it then or you don’t. Time is ephemeral. It cannot be recreated, and I wouldn’t want to try.

But while there are plenty of people laughing at Liu, or vilifying her choice, I am not among them. She simply did something that mattered to her on a very personal level. It doesn’t hurt anyone. It makes her happy. It’s something she hopes her children will treasure to remind them of both her and their father when she’s gone.

Is it a foolish gesture? Perhaps. But I don’t think that really matters. I think it matters that she’s happy with her decision, that it reminds her of her late husband she loved so much, and that her lack of fear of the ridicule this engenders is an excellent example to her children and – I assume – grandchildren of how to be truly individual.

Rock on with your bad self, Liu Fu!

Posted in Photography, Unusual Weddings | 1 Comment »

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