via Successful marriage proposal via 3D-printed ring.

I answer this woman’s question via my new video podcast! So what do you do when you’re dating someone way older than you and all your friends are against it?  You might be surprised by my advice.

You’re getting ready for your day and you want everything to be picture perfect—the gown, the flowers, the cake, the venue, your nail polish, and even the weather. And it better not rain, or the heavens will pay. That’s because you have high standards and you’ve been planning for months and months, so of course you expect absolute flawlessness in every possible way.

Pretty soon, as your day nears, you find that you are not having a good time. Everything is wrong. The gown has a beige hue, the cake is too sweet, and the weatherman says it’s going to rain. What will this do to your image and who you are? You bark at your husband to be, your mother, your sister, and even the darn dog. It’s not surprising to find a bride fussing over minutia. And it’s not surprising that she is driven to crazy making.

The perfectionist seems to have it all together, appearing competent and confident. However, she does not feel perfect, nor does she feel in control of her wedding or her life for that matter. This precision takes away from enjoying and engaging in the people around her. After all, that is the real point.

via The Perfect Wedding | Psychology Today.

You’re getting ready for your day and you want everything to be picture perfect—the gown, the flowers, the cake, the venue, your nail polish, and even the weather. And it better not rain, or the heavens will pay. That’s because you have high standards and you’ve been planning for months and months, so of course you expect absolute flawlessness in every possible way.

Pretty soon, as your day nears, you find that you are not having a good time. Everything is wrong. The gown has a beige hue, the cake is too sweet, and the weatherman says it’s going to rain. What will this do to your image and who you are? You bark at your husband to be, your mother, your sister, and even the darn dog. It’s not surprising to find a bride fussing over minutia. And it’s not surprising that she is driven to crazy making.

The perfectionist seems to have it all together, appearing competent and confident. However, she does not feel perfect, nor does she feel in control of her wedding or her life for that matter. This precision takes away from enjoying and engaging in the people around her. After all, that is the real point.

via The Perfect Wedding | Psychology Today.

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I’m preparing a sermon series based on the movie, Fireproof. As I’ve been working on this series, the issue of cohabitation has come up a few times.

This is a big issue today. I’m seeing a lot of young couples who are living together before marriage. This troubles me for several reasons, not the least of which is that living together puts a couple in a place of enormous temptation to have premarital sex, which is a sin.

A few years ago, I came across this flier on living together. It’s been helpful to me in explaining some of the other reasons why living together before marriage is not a good idea (when the sin angle isn’t enough of a deterrant ), maybe it will be helpful to someone you know.

When Lexi Poklemba’s fiancé tried to take her to the Catoctin Mountains to surprise her with a proposal last fall, she flat out refused to go because of the weather.

“It was pouring cats and dogs,” she recalled. “I said to him, ‘You can go hiking by yourself,’ which really ruffled his feathers because everyone was waiting for the big day to happen.”

Two days later, on a clear day, he proposed to Poklemba who happily said yes, but not after a few questions.

“He is a man of many words and all he said was, ‘Will you marry me?’” she said. “I remember asking, ‘Are you for real? Is that thing really real?’”

Poklemba is in the midst of preparing for her wedding to be held this May, and like many engaged couples, she is feeling a mix of happiness and anxiety.

“Even though we’ve been dating for seven and a half years, it’s very stressful,” she said. “I’m really ready, but anxious.”

Couples, both young and old, can feel the stresses of an engagement, said Anne McKenna, director of the Marriage Resource Center of Carroll County.

“Couples get so wrapped up with all the preparations for that particular day,” she said. “It’s fun, but it’s just one day.”

The Advocate of Westminster and Finksburg

The couple (who had the same surname even before they were married) wed at their favourite Taco Bell location, which was littered with hot sauce packets that read, “Will you marry me?”

globeandmail.com: Poor bride, crafty bride

The invites weren’t given out until after the ceremony.

Created by invitationers Lehr & Black, Fergie and Duhamel’s invitations were “a reflection of both of their personalities,” says the Los Angeles business’s Ellen Black.

Check Out Josh & Fergie’s Wedding Invitation, Caricature – Weddings, Fergie, Josh Duhamel : People.com

In a poll taken last week on the popular wedding blog weddingbee.com, more than half of engaged brides (56%) say the current recession has no effect on their wedding budget. Many of those cite their already frugal ways and prior plans to have a simple wedding. “Recession or no, our plan was always to KISS –Keep It Simple Stupid. For us, it’s about getting family together to celebrate a happy occasion.” says blog reader “cantabrigian”.

Brides Planning Weddings Are Not Fazed by Economic Downturn – PR.com

DioGuardi, 38, and Mike McCuddy, 34, were engaged Dec. 8 while on vacation in Mexico, DioGuardi’s rep confirms to PEOPLE.

New ‘American Idol’ judge is engaged – msnbc.com

In an age where the internet (particularly Facebook and the like) is an often all-too-defining instrument in our personal relationships, one little mouse-click can get you into a sticky situation. On the She Knows message board, one regular poster talks about her husband’s FB friendship with an ex-girlfriend:

Just (Facebook) Friends | Bride.net – wedding, marriage and bridal news and reviews

While most partners of the Hollywood elite don’t cash-in until the divorce settlement is finalized, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy are bucking the trend. Although they’re not married and currently have no plans to do so, Carrey has set up his girlfriend with a $50 million trust account for her and her son. If anything should ever happen to him, Jenny and her kid will be well taken care of.

Jim Carrey Sets Jenny McCarthy Up with $50 Million Trust Fund | Cleveland Leader

For example, the NY Times reports that at Rush Hambleton’s wedding in 2005, “my wife and I left the wedding on a restored Vespa motor scooter, sailing off into darkness,” he says. “The photographer missed the shot.”  Luckily, a friend happened to snap a picture, and sent a print to the thankful couple a few weeks later. This experience led Mr. Hambleton, to wonder how many significant photographs are taken by camera-toting guests — and how many brides and grooms never see them.

A graduate student at Babson’s F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business, Rush Hambleton invented a computer-based kiosk for events like wedding receptions. As guests leave, they are invited to insert their cameras’ memory cards into the device. The kiosk stores the photos on a thumb drive that the bride and groom can take home. (His research showed guests didn’t want all those photos anyway.)

The kiosk, the size of a small cabinet, has been to 11 weddings so far as well as summer camps. The next step is to raise half a million dollars to pay for miniaturizing the kiosk — he wants it small enough to be packed and shipped. “That’s how this goes from a concept to a business,” he says.

Mr. Hambleton, 33, isn’t new to start-ups. In 2001 he founded a company that provides services for yacht captains, and he sold it three years later. Last year, bubbling over with business ideas, he enrolled at Babson. He marvels at the relevance of the learning: “There have been times when I’m doing homework on Tuesday that relates to what I’m talking to investors about on Thursday. These are just-in-time lessons.”

In any case, whether you are using Mr. Hambleton’s invention or rigging up your own contraption, this is a great idea for anyone who wants to make certain of keeping all the prize-winning wedding pictures… before your geusts dissapear with them forever!