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Tiffany Wedding Theme
Who doesn’t love to get that little blue box from that you know who jewelry
store? Perhaps that’s how this whole wedding thing got started! He gave you the
little blue box, and inside was the most perfect engagement ring you could
imagine. How could you not want that gorgeous blue to set the tone for your
wedding?
Summer Wedding theme
In planning your summer wedding,
whether or not you choose a beach theme, the
world really is your oyster!
With the beautiful colors of summer and the
availability of a wide variety of flowers,
you can have your pick of just about
anything your heart desires.
Summer themes can incorporate the garden, the
seashore, the tropics –
or even a harvest theme can be built around the ease of
acquiring fresh fruits and vegetables.

Western Wedding theme
So you’ve finally met the cowboy of your dreams
and you envision a western
fairytale wedding with the two of you riding
off together into the sunset when it’s all said and done.
What a perfect
way to start off your life together!
Las Vegas Wedding Theme
Lady Luck was on your side when you met, and now you want to roll the dice
and try your luck at a Las Vegas themed wedding!
Recreating the glitz and
glamour of a Vegas style wedding is as easy as finding an
Elvis impersonator in
a Vegas wedding chapel.
Victorian theme wedding
Steeped in romance, tradition and splendor, the
Victorian era has been captured in literature, television programs, and
movies. Now you would like to transform your wedding dreams into a
Victorian fantasy, and there are many ways to bring that bygone era to
life for your special day.
A great number of Victorian newlyweds celebrated their vows with garden
receptions, so the months of June and September often afforded the
Victorian brides perfect weather for such an event. In the early part of
the Victorian period, weddings were legally required to be held in the
morning, so the most common type of reception would be a breakfast held
in the garden of the bride’s home. These ideas to use as the starting
point for planning your own Victorian wedding.
Couture Bridal Designers Hit the Catwalk
Emediawire (press
release), WA - May 1, 2008
Bride.com.au also features articles on all
aspects of wedding planning from wedding music to
budgeting and fun honeymoon stories, as well as great ...
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Reading between the lines
Ha'aretz, Israel -
Apr 29, 2008
They did not manage to hold the wedding
before being sent by train to Auschwitz on March 12, 1943, where
they died a short time later. ...
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The fear of the wedding photographer
Ha'aretz, Israel -
Apr 14, 2008
Even her other films were created in the wake of
articles written for the paper, she acknowledges. In the case of
'Blood Engagement,' for example, ...
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Brides Buzzing
My Pressportal (press
release), South Africa - Apr 29, 2008
Whilst planning her wedding, Dimi built up a
collection of articles, tips and décor ideas that took seven
months to accumulate. ...
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Worried about your bachelor party? Find out how to ease your mind.
Are your fiancés friends planning a bachelor party with strippers included? Not
too happy about it? Here are some points that may help ease your mind.
If you know he is going to a strip club, you should already feel comforted that
your fiancé was honest with you. He told you because he wants to let you know he
has nothing to hide and you have nothing to worry about!
After the fact
If you find out about the stripper after the party, hear his side of the story
before you jump to conclusions. Maybe his friends �forced� him to go without his
prior knowledge. As we all know, peer pressure can be very easy to cave in to.
Let�s say he planned on going all along, but didn't tell you. Before you get
angry, find out why he didn't tell you. Maybe he thought you would be hurt, so
he kept it from you. Remember, guys think and communicate differently. But, now
is the time get out your communication kinks! Speak with him about your concerns
and let him explain his point of view.
What is the novelty?
Are you wondering why your fiancé is even interested in going? Aren't you good
enough? Why would he want to see a bunch of naked women dancing around? Why do
his friends want to buy him a lap dance?
Why is he interested in going? He wants to have a fun time with his
buddies and a strip club is labeled as the typical place for a bachelor party.
He is going there to bond with his buddies.
Aren't you good enough? Of course! That�s why he is marrying YOU!
Why does he need a lap dance? Strippers are there to make a lot of money,
not check out the men. Lap dances cost extra money, which strippers want. Your
fiancés friends want to embarrass him, so, they buy a lap dance.
If you are really curious, go check out a strip club and see what the fuss
is all about. A strip club is probably not what you would imagine. In my
experience, going to a strip club has actually calmed my worries of my fiancé
doing anything I would object to. And, your perception that only big-cheated,
beautiful girls are strippers, will quickly diminish.
Are your concerns valid?
Only you and your fiancé can decide the boundaries of your relationship and what
you are comfortable with. Most of all, people can�t help the way they feel. But,
if you need to rationalize your concerns, here is my perspective. Many view lap
dances, and strip clubs in general, as something in which their fiancé
experiences some level of intimacy with another, therefore considers it
cheating. However, club settings are public places and lap dances are not
intimate. Your fiancé is not even allowed to touch the woman, and besides, he is
too busy turning red while his friends laugh at him.
Be concerned when�
� His friends hire a stripper to come to someone�s home or hotel to dance for
them. There are no bouncers and strip club rules, which means anything can
happen.
� He starts going to strip clubs on a regular basis. A strip club is fine for
bachelor parties and the like every so often. If he is going once a week,
something is wrong. It�s time to communicate!
Still not comfortable?
� Address your concerns. With some women it is a self-esteem issue. If that is
the case, discuss it with him. He will assure you that you are the only one for
him! Or, do you not want him to go because you don�t trust him? Trust is a
bigger issue that goes beyond strip clubs. If you are afraid he is going to
cheat, it is time to reveal your suspicions and possibly seek counseling to
rebuild the trust in your relationship.
� Plan your bachelorette party the same night as his party. You will be too busy
having your own fun to worry about what he is doing!
Most importantly, communicate your feelings to your fiancé. Make an
agreement and stick to it. If you do that, you can both enjoy your
bachelor bachelorette
parties, and share your crazy and embarrassing stories!
The "First Dance" Negotiations
Just as a committed couple's first turn on the dance floor doesn't really happen
at the wedding reception; their relationship doesn't really begin at the
wedding. A couple does a lot of negotiating about the patterns and rules of
their emerging partnership long before the day of the wedding. The wedding
really doesn't make the partnership. That creative work begins at the
"continental divide" in their relationship when a couple agrees to leave
courtship behind and full commitment opens the door to a future together.
Courtship has its own set of rules. There's even a book outlining courtship
rules. But full commitment brings the necessity for a new set of rules. For
example, you may find it increasingly important to let your partner know exactly
what you really think and feel. (Before your mutual commitment, it was
appropriate and acceptable to keep some things to yourself.) The relationship's
new level of emotional closeness may demand changes in the way you communicate
and what you need to talk about.
As fully-invested partners in the life you now share, it gets harder to let
misunderstandings slide. You may fight more, rather than less, as joint
decision-making becomes more appropriate and necessary. Old family scripts about
what partners "should" do and how they "should" treat each other may emerge in a
fully committed relationship although they never surfaced during dating and
courtship.
At that pivotal, creative moment in your relationship, you face each other as if
the music was about to start for your first dance together. You've never really
"danced" with this person before, in the context of the full commitment you now
have. How will the two of you really put it all together, now that courtship has
been replaced by a present and future partnership? Who will lead and who will
follow in this situation or that circumstance? How will you make decisions
together, now that there are real-life decisions to be made?
What will your emotional rhythms be like; and can the two of you dance through
them together? Will your partner take your strengths and weaknesses into account
as you create your "dance" patterns, and are you willing to do the same? Will
you capitalize on your strengths or be frustrated with each other about your
"rough spots"?
By the time the wedding day arrives, the two of you will have worked out &
perhaps without realizing it & many of the rules you will follow and patterns
you will replay in your second and five-hundredth partnership "dance" together.
The "first dance" decisions you make consciously or unconsciously will set the
pattern of your partnership for years!
It's easy to be distracted by the looming reality of the wedding day on the
horizon. But the first dance negotiations about your relationship will proceed
unconsciously if you don't pay attention to the process. If you are currently
engaged, or in the first few years of your marriage, important decisions about
your relationship's unique "dance pattern" may have been made while you are (or
were) distracted by the looming reality of The Wedding. In the chapters that
follow I will outline segments of the "first dance" negotiations couples do
which are especially important.
Anything that involves imperfect human beings is usually far from perfect. The
relationship the two of you create will be a mixture of nourishment and
challenge, hard work and delight. That's not a problem. It is important,
however, to take a conscious look at the patterns you are setting in place. You
can't change anything until you know what is. Until you take a good look at your
first dance, your relationship may be on a kind of automatic pilot.
Reviewing issues couples encounter in their "first dance" may help you notice
patterns of your relationship dance that need renegotiation:
- how you handle the fact of difference;
- the relationship of talk and intimacy;
- sex and touching;
- emotional communication, especially those uncomfortable feelings of anger and
jealousy; - issues you bring to your relationship from your family of origin and
- expectations you have of your partner to change, now that you are in a
mutually committed relationship.
The goal is to make the relationship better! It doesn't get better by keeping
the sore spots hidden from yourself and/or your partner. Get it out on the table
in the context of love and concern! Name it! It's the first step to relationship
growth.
The dance-like patterns of a good relationship are the result of intention and
practice. If you and your partner are committed to being a great "dance" team,
use your first dance as a resource to discover what you need to work on the
most.
- Discuss and replay different aspects of your "dance," & your patterns of
relationship & realizing you can't read each other's minds.
- Practice.
- Offer each other constructive criticism and coaching.
- Practice some more.
- Observe how others "dance" their relationship and, although your dance will be
uniquely your own, learn from studying other "dancing" couples.
- And practice.
- Realize that neither of you will become a perfect "dance" partner. You will
continue to be two human beings who make mistakes sometimes, even in the context
of good intentions and lots of practice.
Think of Romance as a Way of
Experiencing Life
Written by
David E. Sanford
If you think of "romance" with your partner as a
special time in your life, it�s probably long gone. On the other hand, if
"romance" means an attitude and a way of approaching experience, you can bring
it back to the relationship � no matter how long you have known each other.
Romance with a new partner is a gift from life, demanding nothing from you but
acceptance. Romance with a familiar partner must be deliberately cultivated,
however. A certain mind-set is required. It has the following five elements:
1. A willingness actively to promote romance. A passive, "dreaming of romance"
attitude won't do. You must create the conditions that make romance possible.
The work includes making sure that the relationship does not succumb to boredom
and habit and that the mundane and trivial do not dominate your contact. The
work also includes being openly appreciative of each other and managing conflict
in such a way that each of you sees the other as someone with whom you�d like to
experience romance.
2. A desire to experience your partner anew. Because romance is discovery and
delight in fresh experience, you can�t have romance with someone about whom you
think, I know this person 100 per cent. No matter how "old shoe" your partner
may be to you, cultivate discovery, if romance is your intention. Regard your
partner as a changing person, someone about whom you must reach no final
conclusions, nor entertain any unquestioned assumptions. Instead, adopt an
attitude that says, I am willing to learn about you and from you. I am willing
for you to be my new experience. Asking your partner new questions will help.
Imagine that you are meeting this person for the first time. Ask the questions
that will reveal him or her in the most interesting light possible. (E.g., "When
you were a child, what big questions did you have about life and your world?
Which ones do you have now?")
3. A willingness to give. The romantic attitude is generous. It notices
generously. It compliments and celebrates. It is the attitude of the lover who
touches and makes love with words of praise and appreciation. To encourage
romance, make your partner feel special. Then pursue pleasure together, romance
being a matter of enjoyment first and foremost. To regain the romantic sense of
yourselves as lovers, focus on the pleasure bond between you. Deliberately give
each other pleasure - not expensive gifts or elaborate vacations, but the small,
day-to-day gifts of sharing and simple generosity that cost little and please
much.
4. An attraction to the moment and a delight in the senses. Romance is what we
experience in this moment. Someone who is driven, task-consumed, always in the
future and never in the present has no moments and, thus, no romance. Romance is
about a look in the eyes, about the touch of skin, about the smell of hair just
washed, about a soft breeze and a full moon. It�s about the body, the senses and
standing still and allowing yourself to be moved. Romance takes time and
attention. Stop. Be still. Get out of your head. Go to your body and your
senses. Allow experience. These are the directions that point to romance.
5. A willingness to feel. Romance can�t exist without feeling. Cold, calculated
seduction that masks as romance can, but romance itself is the expression of
feeling. To be romantic is to surrender to the moment and to the feelings of
that moment. To be romantic is to allow spontaneity. People who choke off their
feelings (e.g., through excessive rationality) or who deaden their feelings
(e.g., through alcohol, drugs or overeating) can�t experience romance � not
while they are in flight from their feelings. Together, these five elements make
up the romantic mind-set. When cultivated, they promote a romantic orientation
to experience and make possible new romance with the "old" partner. They can be
learned, even by harried, overworked couples. Required is a willingness to make
developing the romantic attitude a priority, setting aside the time, focusing
your attention � and realizing that learning how to approach experience
romantically, as a lover, is an accomplishment well worth the effort to achieve
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