You’ve heard of miniature brides, but this one is pretty paw-some. Although it’s generally considered disrespectful to wear white to a wedding, this bride made a special exception for her cute little pup.
They say that dogs are man’s best friend, so why not include them in your wedding? That’s the exact thought New York-based bride Jennifer Hindieh, now Najman, and her then-fiancé Alexander Najman had. Their family of three was made when they adopted their adorable pit bull Bailey, who has since been there for every important moment in their lives.
“She’s pretty much my little partner in crime, my best friend, like our kid. She completely changed our lives from the day we adopted her,” Jennifer told I Love Dogs. “We love giving her the best life she can have and wouldn’t feel right not having her be a part of our wedding.”
So when wedding planning came around, they decided that Bailey should match her mom in a wedding dress of her own. Bailey’s custom made wedding dress was ordered from Etsy, and featured a ruffle skirt with diamante applique.
“I decided to get her a dress because honestly, she is my family, my baby and our life with her is what makes every day so special,” Jennifer told The Dodo.
Bailey looked absolutely adorable as she walked down the aisle alongside her mom. We’re sure the wedding was a barking good time.
The country’s most loved couple of the moment just gave us yet another healthy dose of the feels. Following his amazing performance at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Springbok captain Siya Kolisi wrote a touching tribute to the woman that has supported him all the way.
Siya and Rachel Kolisi have been together for many years, and have faced harsh criticism and racial abuse ever since they began dating. However, their love proved true. Now married and parents to four children, (two biological and two adopted), the couple have won over the hearts of the nation following Siya leading the Springboks to victory at the World Cup.
Rachel has been by Siya’s side supporting his rugby journey since they met, so of course she was front and centre cheering him on at the major sports competition. Her dedication has not gone unnoticed by Siya, and in a beautiful Instagram post, he thanked his wife for her unwavering support.
“I love you @rachel_kolisi Thanks for always being there for me, believing in me and pushing me to be the best I can be.” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Since being posted, the image has raked up over 100 000 likes, and various South African celebrities such as Janez Vermeren and Anele Mdoda have commented their support for the couple.
The couple seem to be incredibly loved up at the moment, and even jetted off to Paris together following the end of the Springbok Champions tour. Rachel shared this adorable picture from the city of love.
What is the secret to a long-lasting and successful relationship? Maybe we should turn to the experts on this one. This American couple celebrated their 82 year wedding anniversary, proving that love is not dead. And their secret? It’s much simpler than you might think.
103-year-old D.W and 100-year-old Willie from Charlotte, North Carolina are defying the odds. From both world wars, the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Era, they’ve seen the world through its many phases and changes. Yet here they are, still loving it up.
To honour and celebrate their love, granddaughter BJ Williams-Greene threw the centenarian couple a massive party. In addition, they each celebrated a birthday, making this party extra special.
“To see them at this age and still doing well, it’s just a blessing to have them here,” Williams-Greene told WSOC-TV.
So what’s the key to a strong relationship? How do they make it work this long?
“I don’t have no secret for that, just be nice to each other,” D.W. and Willie Williams agreed.
“It’s communication and loving each other and working together.” their granddaughter added. “They are each other’s best friend.”
When we marry, its with the intention of being with someone forever. But for some, that forever is cut short at the blink of an eye. Such is the story of Vanessa Lanktree and her late husband and best friend, high school sweetheart Eric. Years after his passing, Vanessa honours her late husband in a touching annual photoshoot.
Canadians Vanessa and Eric met back in 2006 when they were still in high school. They fell in love, and in 2011, firefighter Eric proposed to Vanessa on Christmas Eve.
“He was my first boyfriend, my first love,” Vanessa told SWNS. “Our relationship through the years was so strong because it started so young. I had no doubt about our lives together.”
They married on September 8, 2012 in a beautiful church ceremony.
“As I walked down the aisle with my dad, Eric was bawling his eyes out,” she said. “I already knew I wanted to marry him but when I saw him crying, I thought how lucky I was.”
Credit: Vanessa Lanktree
Two years after their wedding, however, tragedy struck. Eric was killed in a head-on collision with a truck in November 2014 while he was making his way home from a vacation in Vegas. He passed away soon after the impact, before Vanessa could even make it to the hospital.
“I felt like I was the only one at that age that had lost somebody that young like their husband,” she told CBC News. “Our lives had just started — it takes time to finally feel like you’re not in a cloud anymore.”
Years later, on the day after what would have been the couple’s four year anniversary, Vanessa suddenly decided to don her wedding dress again. In her dress, she danced around her kitchen to their wedding song, Keith Urban’s “Making Memories Of Us”. Putting her dress on again was a cathartic experience, one that soon became an annual tradition.
“It has felt so good to put my dress on,” Lanktree told CBC News. “I love putting it on and just felt good and I felt good in it that day and I still feel good.”
“Grief doesn’t go away but somehow you find little things to help you cope, like putting on your dress,” she said to SWNS. “Most people get to go out with their husband for supper or a date night on their anniversary, and this is my thing that I get to do without him.”
Putting her dress on became a symbol of an incredible relationship and marriage, and a way to honour their time together. Vanessa says that she will most likely do this yearly for the rest of her life.
She has since found love again and her boyfriend, Kurtis Isbister, is very supportive. This year, he took pictures of her in her wedding dress whilst in a sunflower field.
Credit: Vanessa Linktree
Vanessa hopes that this tradition inspires others to deal with their grief and live their life to the fullest.
“Eric would have wanted me to continue on with life and find some happiness somewhere,” Lanktree said. “The thing is to somehow find a way that you can honour that person. You can still find a little bit of happiness.”
Theirs was a classic tale. Two people from different sides of the track met and fell in love. Fast forward a few years, and they have become a power couple. Siya and Rachel Kolisi share a truly South African love story, one of love with trials and tribulations. This is how it all began.
When Siya met Rachel:
Siya and Rachel met at a dinner party in Stellenbosch back in 2012. They soon became friends, but Siya always liked Rachel. He eventually plucked up the nerve to ask her out, an experience he has described as scary. “I knew I liked her and had to tell her,” he wrote on their wedding website. “It was scary. I asked her to lunch and that’s when I told her. She played hard to get in the beginning, but eventually admitted it as well. The rest is history. We have a beautiful family and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her.”
Family first:
Siya and Rachel have a big, blended family. Their first son, Nicholas Siyamthanda, was born in 2015. Their second child, daughter Keziah, was born in 2017.
Siya’s young half-siblings Liyema and Liphelo also live with the family. Siya and his siblings share a mother who unfortunately passed away in 2009, causing both Liyema and Liphelo to bounce from orphanages and foster homes for years until Siya and Rachel were financially able to adopt them in 2014.
Because of Siya’s busy schedule, Rachel left behind her career as an event manager and marketing executive to become a full-time mother to their four kids.
The couple became engaged whilst sky high. Siya popped the question during a helicopter ride over Cape Town.
They married on August 13, 2016 with a beautiful ceremony in Franschhoek that had many South African athletes and other notable attendees present, such as Aisha Baker. Top Billing was on hand to capture their journey to the aisle. Watch their wedding insert below:
Their relationship has not been without difficulties. Throughout their longterm relationship, the couple have been subject to much racial abuse from members of the public.
Rachel has also taken to social media after women have reportedly tried to interfere in her marriage. In response to a woman saying Siya was her type, Rachel tweeted,”Siya is not ‘a type’. He’s a married man responsible for four children. Just a side note. I’ve been there for all the good times. But I’ve also been there for ALL the bad times. Honestly, this should go without saying. Respect my relationship and woman to woman. Respect me.”
She has also publicly spoken out about women trying to reach out to her husband via social media, including a fitness model that sent Siya provocative photos via Instagram.
A national hero:
From his humble beginnings in Zwide township outside Port Elizabeth to representing the nation at the Rugby World Cup, Siya’s rugby journey has taken him to heights he never imagined. In 2018, Siya became South Africa’s 61st skipper and the first black African to assume the role. Most recently he led the Springboks to victory at the 2019 Rugby World Cup and brought the trophy back home, a third time for SA. His success will certainly inspire a new generation of South African athletes.
Of course, his family was there every step of the way to cheer him on.
“I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me. – Allegiant by Veronica Roth
“I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.” – The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
“It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.” – Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
“Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.” – Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith
“You don’t love because, you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults.” – The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner
“You and I, it’s as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to earth together, to see if we know what we were taught.” – Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
“I’ve never had a moment’s doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life.” – Atonement by Ian McEwan
“I don’t ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember. Somewhere inside me there’ll always be the person I am tonight.” – Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
It’s a storybook romance for the ages. A commoner caught a Prince’s eye, they fell in love and married in an elaborate fairytale wedding. Prince William and Duchess Kate’s relationship has had its ups and downs over the years. However, this story of their pre-wedding marriage pact might just restore your faith in love.
In her 2013 royal biography, Kate: The Future Queen, royal expert Katie Nicholl details a touching story in which the royals made a promise to each other years before their wedding.
According to Nicholl, the pair made the pact back in 2007, four years before their April 29, 2011 wedding date. Following their short-lived breakup, the couple flew to the island of Desroches in the Seychelles for some alone time. Nicholl writes that Kate was feeling insecure about their relationship, and William wanted to prove his commitment to her.
“There on the paradise island, William promised Kate that he was in the relationship for the long term,” Nicholls wrote in her book. “For the very first time, they talked seriously about marriage, and with the ocean before them and beneath the night sky, they made a pact to marry.”
And the pact held true. In 2010, the couple announced their engagement to the world after Prince William proposed to Kate in Kenya. Who can forget that iconic 12-carat sapphire engagement ring that once belonged to Princess Diana? They then married in 2011 in a grand ceremony broadcast all over the world. In the years after their wedding, they became parents to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
For many of us, characters from TV shows are like friends. We’ve cried with them and laughed with them. We’ve seen them fall in love, and even get married.
There have been many iconic TV weddings that are still spoken about to this day. Whether it be because of the long and complicated relationship leading up to the event or a crazy moment on the day itself, these weddings have stood the test of time.
Here are some of our favourite TV weddings.
Jim and Pam – The Office
The ultimate ‘will-they-or-won’t-they’ couple, Jim and Pam had audiences frustratingly waiting season after season for them to realise they were perfect for each other. The couple finally wed in the show’s sixth season in a hilarious two-part episode that saw the entire cast dance down the aisle to Chris Brown’s ‘Forever’.
Leslie and Ben – Parks and Recreation
Leslie and Ben of Parks and Recreation are one of the most adorable and loved couples to ever grace the small screen. In season 5, the couple impulsively decided to say ‘I do’ earlier than planned and spent only two hours planning the wedding. They enlisted their friends and co-workers to help, which led to many successes and mistakes. Leslie eventually gave up, but her best friend Ann arranged for them to get married in their office in front of all their co-workers.
Luke and Lorelei – Gilmore Girls
The finale of Gilmore Girls left many fans needing closure on the future of Luke and Lorelei’s relationship. Their prayers were answered in the Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls, a Day in the Life.
The couple started out as friends that were clearly in love with each other but annoyingly could not see it. After breaking up and making up, they decided to elope the day before their wedding, marrying in a magical ceremony that saw their friends and family decorate Stars Hollow to perfectly match the couple.
Marshall and Lilly – How I Met Your Mother
As one of the most adorable and long-lasting couples of the show, How I Met Your Mother‘s Marshall and Lilly captured the hearts of thousands of viewers. However, their wedding day went from disaster to disaster. From Lilly’s ex trying to stop the wedding to the harp player going into labour right before the ceremony, this day seemed beyond repair. However, they decided to rather hold a small ceremony officiated by their friend Barney under a park tree, like how they had always wanted.
The Red Wedding – Game of Thrones
This wedding is one of the most iconic weddings to ever be aired on television, although it wasn’t for being warm and fuzzy. What began as a nice, normal wedding ended in absolute carnage.
The wedding of Edmure Tully to Roslin Frey turned out to be a ruse for Walder Frey to exact revenge on King of the North, Robb Stark, after he went back on his promise to marry one of Frey’s daughters. At the reception, Frey had his men murder Robb, his pregnant wife Talisa and his mother, Lady Catelynn.
And just like that, two major characters were killed off in one fell swoop.
The Purple Wedding – Game of Thrones
Clearly the Game of Thrones writers do not like weddings. Another wedding aired on the popular HBO show ended in death, this time for the much-hated King Joffrey. After marrying Margaery Tyrell, Joffrey was poisoned at his wedding reception by Lady Olenna Tyrell, although his uncle, Tyrion Lannister, was blamed for it. The image of Joffrey choking on his own bile has become stuck in the mind of every GOT viewer since.
Cam and Mitchell – Modern Family
This wedding was a long time coming. The adorable Cam and Mitchell were one of the most hilarious couples on Modern Family, and had many fans rooting for them. A series of mishaps threatened to ruin the wedding, including the wrong tux being delivered and wildfire that caused everyone to evacuate. The couple is about to cancel their wedding when Mitch’s father, Jay, announces that he has secured a country club as a wedding venue. They finally wed as a voiceover from Mitch’s sister details her beautifully written ‘best person’ speech.
Chuck and Blair – Gossip Girl
Chuck and Blair’s love-hate relationship was greatly detailed through the six seasons of the popular CW show. While they couldn’t seem to make it work, fans always dreamed of a happily ever after for this feisty duo.
They finally wed in the show’s finale episode, after being on the run after Chuck’s father plunged to his death. Chuck’s uncle convinces the pair to marry so that Blair would have spousal privilege and not have to testify against Chuck, which they eagerly agree to. Right after their first kiss as a married couple, Chuck is arrested. We would expect nothing less from this dramatically iconic couple.
Monica and Chandler – Friends
As a much-loved couple, Monica and Chandler’s wedding was highly anticipated by fans. After Chandler gets cold feet and leaves the night before the wedding, the plans seem to be off. However, Ross is able to convince him to go forward with the wedding.
Chandler and Monica wed in the show’s seventh season in a surprisingly simple and sweet ceremony officiated by Joey. Their tear-jerking wedding vows remind us all that love still exists.
Photos from a US-based couple’s wedding has made the rounds on South African social media, and inspired many.
Beautiful couple Stef and Renee wed at the La Mare Wine Estate in New Jersey in August 2019. Their photographer, Kaleido Shoots, captured many incredible images throughout the day that truly represent their love.
These images have grown in popularity and were recently shared to South African Facebook group #imstaying. Sipho Khanyile shared some of the images to the popular group and was met with many positive reactions. Many took to the comments section to show their support for the loving couple.
Here are some of the stunning photos from their wedding day:
Losing a family member is heartbreaking – and when it comes to getting married, their absence is often amplified. Acknowledging these special people can become overwhelming, especially when trying to maintain a celebratory atmosphere throughout your day.
Fortunately, weddings are sentimental occasions, leaving room for a myriad of ways to acknowledge those dearly departed. The trick is to strike a balance – honouring loved ones without turning your big day into a memorial service. Whether the gesture be small and personalised or open and public, there is always a tasteful way to do it.
Here are five simple and subtle ways to remember someone passed at your wedding:
Attach a small photo to your bouquet: This is particularly meaningful for a bride who has lost her father – a highly personal yet subtle gesture that is the perfect little reminder that your dad is walking you down the aisle in spirit.
Incorporate old fabric into your suit or wedding gown: Keep the spirit of your lost loved ones close by – literally. Use mom’s wedding dress to create your own gown, or transform one of dad’s old ties into a trendy pocket square.
Reserve a seat at the ceremony: Of course nothing compares to having your loved ones physically by your side but reserving them a seat while you say your “I dos” can be a special reminder of their irreplaceable presence. Mark their seat with a favorite flower or sentimental possession.
Set up a photo display: This is a great option for couples who want to keep their tribute lighthearted. It avoids creating a heavy atmosphere for guests as family members can step aside to acknowledge deceased family members in private.
Dedicate a song: Whether it is your first dance or just a casual slot on the playlist, dedicate a song to someone no longer around. Levels of discretion can be altered to your personal taste here; make a grand gesture with an announcement or toast or simply appreciate the special moment to yourself.
