Wedding

Because I'm getting married this September, I recently went shopping for a special white dress. Well, mostly white. The one I found was flecked with purple leopard spots, and here and there a zebra stripe struck through the pattern like a lightning bolt. Not every bride needs such a dress, but I did - not for the wedding, but for my bachelorette party, which has always seemed to me to be a pivotal part of the pre-wedding hoopla. Perhaps it's a little more pivotal part than it should be, but then, I sometimes have a tendency to go over the top where celebration is concerned.

When she finally arrived, after a journey of almost 7,000 miles from her Pikesville home, Kara Silberg broke into tears. There before her in the train station in Tokyo, Japan, stood a woman she knew intimately, a woman whose wedding she had come to take part in, a woman she had never met.After 13 years of letters and photographs, but nothing more tangible than an annual birthday package, Kara had to reach out and poke Eri Okuba to make sure she was really...

Guests held on by the straps.The bride's father walked her down the aisle by stepping behind her because two people can't fit in the aisle.And the couple's wedding vows boomed over the same address system the driver used minutes later to pitch historic and shopping sites to the out-of-towners.Yesterday marked what transportation officials say was the first wedding aboard an Annapolis city trolley -- the new $293,000 grant-funded trolley for which the bride wrote the grant proposals."I didn't want to get married in the courthouse itself.

Unless you're in the seat construction business, you probably haven't heard of Grant Wedding. But if it weren't for him, fans wouldn't have anywhere to sit at the new Ravens stadium.Wedding's company, Wedding Construction, is installing the 69,000-plus seats at Camden Yards. He and his workers have only a small number to go.And it's no mistake to list Wedding among the workers."I'm a carpenter by trade, so I still get out there and work with my hands, too," he said.After arriving at the stadium at 6 a.m., he works outside until 2: 30 p.m. He then returns to his office, where he performs administrative duties until 6 or 6: 30."

Bob and Anita married on Aug. 10, 1996. Their three daughters, dressed in white and carrying summer flowers, walked with their parents across a field to where the minister and 20 guests waited. Jessica turned and saw all the people, set down her basket of roses and clapped.Afterward, under a tent on the patio at Peerce's Plantation, the guests drank champagne and ate crab cakes and salmon and chicken and a three-tiered wedding cake baked by one of Anita's friends. It was a cool day for August, and butterflies danced in the baskets of flowers another friend left in the field.

In 1981, she rode to her wedding to the Prince of Wales in a glittering 70-year-old "glass coach" on a sunny July day. Yesterday, she rode to her death in a Paris tunnel with a boyfriend in a gleaming limousine.In between, whatever she did and wherever she did it, Diana, Princess of Wales, was the center of world attention, ever the focus of loving publicity and venomous gossip.Diana burst on the scene as a beautiful, leggy teen-ager, the unsullied aristocrat Buckingham Palace had long sought as a bride for Prince Charles.

All about weddingsInvitations, gifts, flowers, food, drinks, toasts and dresses make a wedding. The many choices can be overwhelming. This month, future brides, grooms and guests can find help from teams of local experts.NightGoods, the gift store in the Gallery at Harborplace and in the Village of Cross Keys, has scheduled wedding- and shower-planning workshops May 16-17 at both locations. The programs (noon to 3 p.m.) are free and require no advance registration. Bridal consultants, floral designers and other experts will be on hand to offer advice on wedding etiquette, flowers, music, menus and gift selection.

Alfre Woodard and Anna Paquin (a Best Supporting Actress Oscar-winner for "The Piano") shine in one of USA's best made-for-cable movies to date, an adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel "Member of the Wedding" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., USA).The story pits Paquin's character, a 12-year-old Georgia girl, against the world she's been brought up in. The girl can't decide whether she's a beauty (as her family suggests) or a freak who belongs in a circus. When her brother gets married, she decides the only thing to do is get out of town by leaving with him on his honeymoon, an idea that meets with a predictably cool reception.

HAVANA -- The Palacio de los Matrimonios was once a casino, an elegant venue for the games of chance that made Havana fast and famous in the 1950s. The people in the palace are still gambling folk. They are brides and grooms.Every 15 minutes, the wedding roulette spins.Here are Lizette Dias and William Molinet -- she in chiffon, he in white linen -- waiting in the wedding queue. When their names are called, they ascend marble steps to pass Greco-Roman statuettes and a bouquet of plastic flowers.

The groom looked nervous, the bride radiant as sun poured through the skylight. Security guards clutched cups of rice. Shoppers wandered by slowly, eyes wide, jaws hanging low."Welcome to Center Court, Annapolis Mall," said Robert P. Duckworth, clerk of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. "We are gathered here today, to serve as witnesses "And so it went yesterday morning. Jeff Rogers and the former Charlotte Davis -- their love born of long walks through the mall where both still work -- exchanged their sacred kiss in the Cathedral of Consumerism.

This summer we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Wood - sturdy and beautiful. Natural. We gave each other lovely jewelry boxes crafted by an artisan whose work we had long admired. A meaningful but private celebration - just like our wedding had to be. You see, we were married in Canada. Not because we were rebellious young people who eloped because our parents disapproved (though they did). But because our own country would not legally recognize our relationship, which had by then already lasted 25 years.

How often is it that you see women compete to be the one wearing the ugliest outfit? That's part of the fun of "Bridesmaids' Bingo." A couple hundred women descended upon the Scottish Rite Temple to try to outdo each other in both hideousness and bingo to raise money for My Sister's Place Women's Center. Event co-chairwoman Jenny Trostel sported a kitschy black chiffon gown, "designed by Goodwill" - a store that seemed to be one of the go-to shops for this party's suggested attire. "All of my friends go out to Goodwill and buy $10-$12 dresses.

In a week, Holly Beatty, 34, and her partner of seven years, Jessica Leshnoff, 30, will be married in a Jewish ceremony in Washington, where they met. They'll celebrate at a reception for 200 guests with Middle Eastern food, a disc jockey and dancing, and a large wedding party with a dozen attendants. The reception hall will be awash in romantic hues of ruby - on the tablecloths, vases, silk flowers and lighting. And the couple, engaged since December, have vowed to banish all thoughts of Beatty's recent layoff.

Florist? Check. Photographer? Check. Police traffic coordinator? Double check. Several Towson-area brides-to-be will share their big day Saturday with Michael Phelps, star of a parade that will shut down the town's main thoroughfare for hours. To something borrowed, something blue, add something stuck in traffic: an entire wedding party. Enough to morph the sweetest vision in white into Bridezilla. "We freaked out a little bit at first," said Elizabeth Rowley, who is to be married at St. Pius X Church, situated on the parade route formerly known as York Road.

Because I'm getting married this September, I recently went shopping for a special white dress. Well, mostly white. The one I found was flecked with purple leopard spots, and here and there a zebra stripe struck through the pattern like a lightning bolt. Not every bride needs such a dress, but I did - not for the wedding, but for my bachelorette party, which has always seemed to me to be a pivotal part of the pre-wedding hoopla. Perhaps it's a little more pivotal part than it should be, but then, I sometimes have a tendency to go over the top where celebration is concerned.

Robin Williams as a marriage counselor. Funny idea? If you think so, then License to Wed still isn't funny. But at least the idea appeals to you. The rest of us will be hard-pressed to find anything praiseworthy about a film that's an early favorite for worst comedy of the year. Williams, as a priest who forces his couples to pass an emotionally sadistic wedding-preparation course before exchanging their vows, completes his descent from innovative comic to cringe-inducing self-parody. Mandy Moore, as the female half of our couple-to-be, could not be more adorable or engaging, but is woefully unprepared to carry a film alone.

How far is too far, when it comes to protecting the people you love? What is reasonable, what is off-limits, and who's to decide the difference? Susanne Bier's After the Wedding asks viewers to consider a host of issues, not the least of which may be: How much overwrought melodrama can they take? But the movie is filled with fine acting and piquant storytelling. Those willing to overlook its emotional grandstanding will find much to admire and even more to think about in this Oscar-nominated Danish drama.

Spring is here, and any seasonal-savvy fashionista knows that oversized handbags are the best accessory for spring, as they allow necessities such as umbrellas, ponchos, windbreakers, sunglasses and even emergency ballet flats to be concealed within their seams. But don't just settle for one of those boring canvas totes. Susej Designs of Washington offers handbags with beautiful designs that are hand-painted on embroidered, rich, recycled leather by Dionne Green, owner and creator of Susej (which is Jesus spelled backward)

On Friday morning, Tracey M. Buchanan had four blocks of Styrofoam, a shoebox-sized hunk of taffy-like fondant icing and, for inspiration, the purse her mother carried on her wedding day. Yesterday, after about 14 hours of work, less than an hour of sleep and hundreds of carefully placed icing drops, she arrived at the Carroll County Agriculture Center in Westminster with her interpretation of "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"...

Alexandra Deutsch said her groom looked "hot" on their wedding day, a compliment unlikely to be heard in the halls of the William Paca House 250 years ago. At the historic Annapolis home Saturday, Kyle Cunningham indeed looked dashing as he dramatically appeared from behind the shrubbery and escorted her down the garden lane wearing a beaver felt hat, a sea-blue silk jacket and black breeches. While every bride plans her wedding day down to the last pin in her hair, Deutsch, the curator of the Paca House, reached back to its liveliest days to create her period wedding, with perfect attention to the dress, customs and manners of the day. But their union was infused with 21st-century touches.