Each country has its customs when it comes to weddings and other similar events.

I remember a funny story: some time ago, I had some foreign guests visiting my country, and I went with them on a trip to the mountains, to show them some castles and churches.

At a point, we entered a monastery where a couple was getting married. The bride was probably 20 years old, she looked very, very young, while the groom seemed to be like 50 or even 60. My guests were curious to know why was the groom so old. I gave them the first answer that came to my mind: It’s a habit here for young girls to marry old guys.

And the guests looked at me and said: This is very strange. In our country, couples are of close age, regularly.

I don’t know about other countries, but in my country, there is a funny tradition: in the wedding night, at midnight, the bride is stolen by some of the guests, then the groom has to seek for her, and to get her back by “bribing” the so-called thieves.

It is so funny! I’ve been to a lot of weddings, and absolutely all grooms got very upset because their bride was stolen. I really don’t understand why, as they know the habit, they are guarding their bride around the fatal hour, and then they refuse the game.

I remember one of the funniest scenarios was like this: we were all sitting at the tables, eating and chatting, when a group of terrorists dressed in black, with black masks, guns and ropes entered the room and started to shoot and cry that we shouldn’t move, then they took away the bride and ran through the door.

In the first moment I thought it was real. Later on, I was told that one of the guests arranged with some friends who were working as bodyguards to come and steal the bride.

We had a lot of fun, the groom had to pay with a big box of champaign bottles to get his bride back, and then he started to yell at her that she was guilty for going with the kidnappers.

Three years later, they divorced.

Another story was the one of my brother, who also got very very upset with his wife in their wedding night, exactly because of the same reason: she went away with the kidnappers.

Three years later, they divorced.

A cousin of mine got the same strange behaviour on his wedding night. He was unbelievably sad, but he didn’t yell at his wife.

Three years later, he was preparing coffees for his wife and her lover. After a while, she divorced. Perhaps my cousin made a lousy coffee.

Tip! Participate in wedding photography image competitions. It will give you the opportunity to have your work evaluated by peers and the motivation to improve your work quality.

One of the funniest and most outrageous comedies of 2005, Wedding Crashers will have you falling out of your chair with laughter. Directed by the underrated David Dobkin, the film features now veteran Hollywood funny men Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in their first film together as the central headliners. TV writers Steve Faber and Bob Fisher author the screenplay, a breakout hit for both, that has to be considered one of the best written comedies of the year. Of course, it helps to have the perfect comic duo delivering the lines, and Wedding Crashers offers just that. The onscreen personas of Vaughn and Wilson compliment each other extremely well, providing a flux between the laid back approach of Wilson and the fast talking banter of Vaughn.

Tip! Keep loose data like wedding receipts together with an accordion folder. This is a paper or plastic enclosed file holder with pockets.

Wedding Crashers follows the lives of two business partners and best friends, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn). Making their living as divorce counselors, they often mediate between warring couples. But in reality, neither man is married himself. They are, however, loyally dedicated to a set of principles: the wedding crasher rules. Adhering to a specific set of intricately engineered rules for crashing weddings, John and Jeremy share a common passion for wedding receptions and carefree bridesmaids.

When the new wedding season arrives, the two set out in earnest to schmooze with relatives, deliver masterful toasts, and conquer as many beautiful women as possible. No race, religion, or social caste is left untouched by their elite wedding crashing skills. But as the wedding season comes to a close with the ultimate crescendo, the wedding of Treasury Secretary William Cleary’s (Christopher Walken) daughter, the duo’s perfectly laid plans go awry. While chasing after the Secretary’s remaining two daughters, Claire (Rachel McAdams) and Gloria (Isla Fisher), the unthinkable occurs. John breaks a rule by harboring genuine feelings for Claire.

Tip! Build a relationship with your photographer: You will get back from your wedding photography experience what you put into it. If you click and really get along with your photographer your formal images will be better.

Things are further exacerbated when John breaks another rule and accepts an invitation to spend the weekend with the Cleary family so he can get closer to Claire. Masquerading as distant relatives, John must fend off the advances of Claire’s mother Kathleen (Jane Seymour) while also attempting to eliminate Claire’s pompous boyfriend Zach (Bradley Cooper). Meanwhile, Jeremy is tortured by an extended weekend with the clingy and borderline insane Gloria and her crazy brother Todd (Keir O’Donnell). As John gets closer to falling in love with Claire, Zach gets closer to blowing the lid off their wedding crasher conspiracy…

Utterly hilarious in every way, Wedding Crashers features some of the funniest movie scenes of 2005. A brief appearance by Will Ferrell who plays the role of Chazz Reinhold, one of the original wedding crashers, makes the film doubly hilarious. Apparently, Chazz has discovered that grieving women at funerals are easier to pick up than bridesmaids. So, of course, he turns to funeral crashing. The comic sequence where Vince Vaughn gets demolished playing football is ancient slapstick, but hilarious nonetheless. Isla Fisher can be annoying at times, but her character is so ridiculously insane that it become funny to watch her after a while, and some of the pick-up lines and wedding crasher techniques are just as entertaining. Overall, Wedding Crashers is a film you’ll probably want to watch more than once. If anything, just to catch the laughs you missed the first time around…

Tip! Maintain a to-do list for the major wedding-related jobs. If you use Outlook, this is easy to put together and print out with their Taskpad, along with percentage completion.

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Wedding Crashers (DVD).

Tip! Do get everything that can get done in advance done as far in advance as you can. You don’t want to discover the day before your wedding that you have forgotten to get your marriage license or that your dress isn’t ready.

When that which is perfect is come Then that which is in part Shall be done away with The fullness of love Once it is found Overwhelms and increasingly abounds Bringing indescribable joy Pleasures full of glory As God above Rewrites your love story Filled to overflowing With innumerable blessings Immeasurable expressions A love that cannot be contained Certainly such a feeling None can adequately explain Neither can intellects disdain. Such a love Which surpasses knowledge Is full of surprises With the power of the resurrection It continually and mightily arises Such a feeling is present Karla When I’m with you I need not to think I know what to do

Tip! Don’t neglect the business aspect of wedding photography. Learn to manage your business effectively.

Happily ready To get rid of the old And make room for the new For heaven above Has shined brightly upon you! To me none can compare With the glory I see in you For this reason I declare My heart is for you Though trials may come And tribulations arise All will be well When I look into your eyes.

Amazing love How can it be That God above Would so favor me Giving me such a prized opportunity To be a steward of your love To cherish every moment Treasure every experience Hold dear every tear Marvel in each new year Serve you in innumerable ways Bless you all my days Surprise you By what I do, write and say Love you magnificently Each and every new day.

Tip! Make sure you get references from previous clients, from the Better Business Bureau, from the Chamber of Commerce. Ask around at reception halls and churches the wedding photographer has worked at to see what they think.

Paul Davis is author of Breakthrough for a Broken Heart a book telling us “How to overcome disappointments and blossom into your dreams!” He is a minister, life coach (relational & professional), dating expert, popular worldwide keynote speaker, creative consultant, humor being, adventure capitalist, explorer, mediator, liberator and dream-maker.

Tip! Don’t be shy about speaking up for yourselves. This is your wedding.

Paul’s compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul has also brought revival to many in war-torn, impoverished and tsunami stricken regions of the earth. His organization Dream-Maker Ministries is building dreams, breaking limitations & reviving nations!

Paul’s Breakthrough Seminars inspire, revive, awaken, impregnate with purpose, impart the fire of desire, catapult people into a new level of self-awareness, facilitate destiny discovery and dream fulfillment.

Paul can be contacted at: RevivingNations@yahoo.com 407-967-7553 or 407-282-1745

For additional info: http://www.CreativeCommunications.TV http://www.DreamMakerMinistries.com http://www.PaulnKarla.com

And then it happened! On the corner of his favourite Tamil daily page, inside this small rectangle space was a banner proudly proclaiming… “Find your life partner.” “Get married now!!” It was an Internet matrimonial site ad. More so, an Indian matrimonial portal ad!!!

Now, Mr. Paul has 2 sons, both in their late 20’s, marriageable age, according to most Indian parents. Paul is familiar with newspaper ads. He’s been reading them for some time now and also has posted some ads for his sons. What could be different with an Internet ad?

So, Mr. Paul clicks on the Internet ad. He is lead to a page where the details are requested. Mr. Paul fills in the details and submits it. He is given an ID. Mr. Paul has to login to the account and check and update his account. So far so good.

A few days later, Paul as usual goes out for work and his wife is at home cooking, the phone rings and she picks it up. A small voice cracks up in the phone saying, ” Is this Mr. Paul’s house? We are friends of Ms. Aarti, She is 55, and divorced and we are looking for a suitable person for her. We are interested in his profile. Can we come and meet Mr. Paul?” The wife obviously is speechless, quite furious and doesn’t know what to do. And it didn’t stop with one call. There were a few more on the same day, enough to make her really give a hard & serious look at the situation.

Mr. Paul comes in from work to a fuming welcome from his wife. He is totally freaked out when his wife explains to him what happened. Then Paul explains that he had provided his details instead of his son’s details in the Internet site quite ignorantly in the perception that this was similar to the Newspaper ad.

The story ends with Mr. Paul contacting the support team of the matrimonial portal and getting help with deleting his profile. It’s sad that the search for a life partner for his son left his marriage in a soup.

The point is that, the Internet and other conventional mediums like newspapers work in completely different ways. Newspaper ads are mostly, what we can term as parent - centric wherein, the person posting the ad is more often the parent, relative or a friend to whom the ad is posted for. Whereas in the Internet, the onus is on the person who is actually looking out.

It would be quite a while before people get accustomed to how things work via the Internet. Until then, there will be some clicks that actually break a few marriages rather than make them.

Article by Daniel. Internet guru sarathy sadagopan is an Online marketing expert working at bharatmatrimony.com and also enjoys providing consutancy services related to online marketing, SEO to third parties. Copyrighted Article from Bharatmatrimony.com - Indian Matrimonial services provider.

This is just a Happy New Year to all of you who were brides during 2007 or who will be brides in 2008. May all your dreams come true, and your marriage be the best experience of your life.

Beware though at the 101 things not to say on the wedding night, or enjoy this dictionary for women, which will make you smile (at least). Here’s my favorite:

Argument (ar*gyou*ment) n.
A discussion that occurs when you’re right, but he just hasn’t realized it yet.

Do you know any wedding jokes?

Some brides believe in superstitions. Some other don’t, but because their friends do, they avoid doing those things which could bring them bad luck in their marriage.

Here are some funny if not strange superstitions regarding brides, grooms and weddings from all over the world:

1. If your wedding dress has pearls on it, this means you are going to cry in your wedding day
2. If the bride steps on the groom’s foot when they step out of the church after the wedding ceremony, this means she will be the “boss” of the new family.The same applies also if the groom steps on the bride’s foot (if she doesn’t kill him first )
3. If it rains on your wedding day, you’ll have a happy marriage and a wealthy family
4. If the guests throw rice on the bride and groom when they exit the church, it means good luck
5. If two brides meet, this means bad luck for their marriages
6. If a girl falls down, it means she’ll get married that year
7. The bride is never supposed to practice walking down the aisle during her rehearsal or it will bring bad luck

Can you add some more wedding superstitions to my list? Please feel free to add them in the comments section below.

There are many kinds of brides: blondes, brunettes, redhaired, slim, chubby…

But when it comes to their attitude, most of the brides fall under one of these three categories: good, bad and awful. Some brides to be can spread out terror inside their family, because they are so obsessed with perfection, that nothing is good enough for their wedding day. They can force everybody to rehearse the ceremony for hours, making them feel like in a bad movie. Thier intentions are not bad, they just want to be the perfect bride, in the perfect wedding day, when everything goes exactly as planned.

Do you have a friend who has married recently? Try to answer the 9 questions of the Bridezilla test, to see if she is one of the monster brides who scared averybody on a range of three miles from the wedding place.

If you know a funny story from one of your friends’ wedding, you are invited to publish it here (with your friend’s approval, of course), so we can have a piece of your fun.

If you have never been to a dull wedding, then you don’t know how much boredom one has to overcome, especially if he is a friend of the newly married family, and he cannot leave too early without being rude.

Don’t let this happen to your own wedding. It is very easy to bring a boring wedding to life if you follow some rules:

Have a theme: theme weddings are in vogue nowadays, due to the excitement and to the entertainment they bring to the guests. Don’t be afraid to play Cinderella, or Red Riding Hood, or some princess. Treat your wedding as it would be a theater play: have a scenario, and stick to it.

Insert entertainment moments: you can invite a comic to perform a 10-15 minutes stand up comedy for your guests, or you can have some piano player, or other type of singer to perform at your wedding. One wedding I still remember had a magician invited, and he did some cool tricks for us, which kept us in a good mood.

Alternate the music styles: none of your guests will eat forever, or will want to dance forever, so make sure you offer them relaxing music when you want them at the table, romantic music when you want them to dance close to each other, or dynamic disco music when you want some action. The best thing would be to hire a DJ who will mix for you the whole night.

Organize some contest: you can ask your guests to write you poems on some pieces of paper you provide them, then you can read the poems loud, plus you can choose some random winners (with symbolic prizes, such as a dance with the bride or with the groom, or a bottle of champaigne).

With a bit of creativity, weddings can be a lot of fun, and a nice memory for all guests. If you think you cannot handle this, you can always hire a specialized wedding agency which will put together some variants of party for you.