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Two arrested on wedding day for breaking lockdown rules

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The 21-day lockdown in South Africa to curb the spread of coronavirus has effectively brought social gatherings of any kind to a halt during this time. However, some people don’t take the lockdown seriously and continue to go about life as normal.

A couple in Nseleni, KwaZulu-Natal decided that their wedding day would still go forward, despite the government banning unnecessary social gatherings.

According to SAPS national spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo, about 50 people gathered to witness the big day. The police received a tip-off that the wedding was happening and showed up to break it up.

The bridal couple were caught red-handed and in a video, they can be seen getting into the back of a police vehicle.

Naidoo says the couple have contravened the Disaster Management Act, and everyone that was present will be questioned.

“People are still taking chances, not realising the seriousness of this virus,”  Naidoo said.

“The prosecutor will guide us on exactly which charges will be preferred against them. I don’t think we can be expecting any explanation from them at this point in time unless we have spoken to the senior prosecutor.”

Feature image: Twitter

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In Celebs

Hykie Berg and his Gerridene tie the knot

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Binnelanders actor and Survivor SA winner of 2011, Hykie Berg has said ‘I do’ just before lockdown descended upon the nation.

His now wife Gerridene, a lawyer, was radiant and the epitome of joy on their big day. The pair tied the knot on the Serengeti golf estate in Kempton Park.

Hykie lovingly teases that he really does deserve to marry her by now, since he has proposed to her seven times! Every time, Gerridene found a reason to say no, including that he hasn’t asked her parents yet, he hadn’t bought a ring yet or the time simply wasn’t right. Hykie was adamant, however, and kept asking. In June of 2019, after being together for 10 months, she finally said yes!

Gerridene wore a romantic beaded white dress with a train and thin shoulder straps.

Take a look at the special day:

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Image: Armadillo Media

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In Emotional

Family serenade social distancing couple on 50th anniversary

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50 years of marriage is a huge milestone, one that is worthy of a big celebration. However, when this couple’s plans were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their family stepped up to make sure their day was memorable while still maintaining a safe social distance.

Dan and Janice Kauffman from Ohio had planned an anniversary dinner to honour their relationship with all their family and friends. However, the elderly couple were forced to give up their plans as the coronavirus spread worsened in America.

The couple had to self-quarantine to avoid contracting the virus, meaning physical contact with their family was cut off.

This couple’s family could not let the anniversary pass by without doing anything. They decided to make a beautiful tribute to Dan and Janice. Standing in small family groupings, they held hand-made signs and cheered on the patriarch and matriarch of the family while performing for them. One family member serenaded the couple with a guitar performance and one child played the violin for his grandparents.

Watch the sweet video below:

Feature image: video screenshot

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In News

Couple’s dog films their wedding

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Julia Luckett and Nick Pierce wanted their best friend to be part of their special day. Zhivago (their dog) has been part of their little family for three years, and they weren’t about to get married without him.

So they made him the photographer! “We knew we wanted to incorporate him into the wedding somehow, but he’s definitely a very adventurous and spirited dog,” Luckett told Insider.  “It just seemed like an amazing idea that’s really quirky.” They tied a GoPro to his collar, so all Zhivago had to do was be around them.

“For the whole portion that has cocktail hour, he’s just running from person to person and getting snacks and treats from everyone,” Luckett added. “There’s 10 minutes of footage where he’s just hanging out with one person who’s feeding him cheese off of the appetizer table.”

Watch the special event here:

What a clever idea, especially if you’re getting married at home during lockdown and can’t get a photographer.

Image: Jacquelyn Potter

 

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In Food

Couple donate wedding meal to healthcare workers

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After their wedding was cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, this bride and groom decided to do something good. They donated their entire reception meal to 400 healthcare workers.

Fiona and Adam Gordon had planned their wedding day for 120 guests. However, with the COVID-19 outbreak, they instead had a much smaller day with only two witnesses. Since their big day had already been fully planned and paid for, they were left with a lot of food.

Their caterer asked the couple if they would be willing to donate it, and of course the couple said yes.

The food was served to 400 healthcare staff by charity group, Hull4Heroes.

“We’re just happy to help bring a bit of light in the middle of all this. It is times such as these when you realize what’s important,” Fiona told The Birmingham Mail. “The fact that we managed to help in some way because of this is a silver lining.”

“The reaction we have had for doing this is absolutely amazing, but of course the real heroes here are the charity workers,” she added.

Feature image: Pexels

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In News

Couple exchange onion rings after cancelled wedding

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Loved-up couples the world over are being left devastated as their weddings have to be cancelled amid the COVID-19 outbreak. When this couple were unable to go through with their wedding as planned, they decided to exchange rings of a different kind.

Laura Acton, 25, and Adam Woods, 32, from Oldbury, West Midlands, were scheduled to tie the knot in March. The couple had been saving money to put toward their dream day for four years. However, as the coronavirus outbreak worsened, their big day was forcibly cancelled – less than 24 hours before they were set to walk down the aisle.

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About 18 hours before, their wedding venue contacted the couple to let them know they were closing due to the COVID-19 spread. The couple could not get a refund, but could postpone their wedding to a later date.

“It was one hell of a 24 hours. I am beyond heartbroken. I was supposed to be marrying my best friend but our venue cancelled on us,” Acton told Metro UK.

Devastated, the couple went on ‘honeymoon’ in Liverpool to avoid their home that was covered in wedding decorations. Along the way, they stopped off at a Burger King, where Woods had the idea to exchange onion rings in place of wedding bands.

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“Adam ordered some onion rings and when he came back to the car, he told me to put them on – and said we can still exchange rings. You just had to laugh. Seeing as we couldn’t exchange wedding rings we exchanged onion rings.”

She added: “We can still laugh through this as we have each other. If you sit and cry the whole time, you’re only going to make yourself feel worse.”

Feature image: Instagram / Laura Acton

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In News

Women in lockdown wear their old wedding dresses

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Throughout the world, many are isolating themselves at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. Sitting at home, however, loses its spark quite quickly, and its necessary to find something interesting to pass the time. So why not put on your old wedding dress?

When bestselling American author Curtis Sittenfeld posted this picture in her old wedding dress, a trend was born. She captioned the image, “Social distancing Day 12: Today my kids wanted me to wear my wedding dress at lunch & I couldn’t think of a reason not to.'”

The tweet now has over 240k likes and 18k retweets. Sittenfield’s followers decided to join in on the fun, pulling their own big day dresses out of retirement.

Feature image: Twitter / Curtis Sittenfeld

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In Engagements

Man takes the last flight during global pandemic to propose

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In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this man had to make a decision of vital importance: to stay in Cairo or take the last available flight to Canada to be with his girlfriend. He chose the latter.

Eihab Boraie was in Cairo when the covid-19 broke out. His Italian-American girlfriend, Francesca Brunndisini, is in Quebec City. As the global health crises deepened and became increasingly serious, Boraie realised he had to act fast.

Soon things became more tense, as Egpyt announced that airports would shut down on March 19. This meant that the very few left over tickets were much more expensive than usual. But Boraie took his chances anyway. He didn’t expect things to work out.

“I assumed the only way I would be travelling home was if the Canadian government sent a plane to retrieve stranded Canadians,” he wrote on CNN.

Miraculously, he secured a seat on the very last flight to Canada. So he set off  to be with his girlfriend, leaving behind his loving parents who’s health he worried about.

Once he arrived in Quebec City, he couldn’t wait any longer. The first thing he did when he saw Brunndisini was to get down on one knee and propose.

Credit: Facebook / Eihab Boraie

“She was completely caught off guard as less than 48 hours before she didn’t know when and if she would ever see me again, let alone predict that I would ask her to marry me,” he said.

“She accepted my proposal, we removed our masks and made it official with a long kiss,” he added.

Boraie joked that they sealed the deal with a ring and the possibility that he could have passed her the virus in that moment.

“When the world is healed, our plan is to get married in Italy on the island of Giglio, but it’s hard to imagine when that will be. Until that day the only couple goals we set in stone is to stay isolated and survive the quarantine,” he said.

Image: Facebook / Eihab Boraie

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In Engagements

Agent E helps men find the perfect ring

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Finding the perfect engagement ring is a tough task! If you’re a groom-to-be, or have experienced the ring shopping rush then you know a bit about this. We bet a one-stop-shop for finding the dream ring is exactly what soon-to-be-husbands are yearning for.

Rowena Cumner, a 34-year-old Londoner, launched her engagement business, Agent Engagement, in 2015. The business helps men find the perfect engagement ring, assisting them in the full process including sourcing the ring and transporting it through airport security.

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Cumner offers the service at no cost at all, with her income coming from commission from jewelers. According to Daily Mail, Cumner thought up this business idea when her friend requested that she assist in bringing a ring across London.

About her business she said: “I started being Agent E to help people save time, hassle or money when searching the engagement ring market and it just became really fun. From teachers to doctors, builders to bankers, my clients seemed to find it fun too, pretending to be 007 running around creating the perfect ring.

“The best part is that my clients never tell their partners that I’ve helped them. They want them to think they did it all by themselves,” she added.

Included in her job description is ensuring that brides don’t catch on to the upcoming proposal. She claims that at times she speaks to clients more than 30 times a day, if they’re working with a deadline.

Apparently, getting rings through airport security is the most difficult part. “Usually we get around this with a giant post-it note on the ring box alerting airport staff that it’s a surprise engagement ring and not to be opened carelessly,” she said.

“Sometimes the rings are so precious we can’t risk a problem in security, so I once booked a £1 EasyJet flight to Dublin, just so I can get the ring through airport security slowly, in order to pass it over to my client outside Pret a Manger in Gatwick while his girlfriend was in the loo,” she added.

Cumner takes pride in her business and is tremendously happy helping clients create the perfect proposal. “I will stop at nothing to help my clients pop the question with complete peace of mind – as long as it’s legal,” she said.

Here are some of her happy clients:

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Image: Instagram / Agent Engagement

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In News

Couple stage Lindt bunny wedding after cancelling own

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The show must go on in any way possible, right? This couple took a humorous approach to their postponed wedding by having a miniature wedding in quarantine…for their wedding favours.

Frankie and Mark, living in Thailand, were scheduled to marry in the UK. Of course, with the coronavirus outbreak, their wedding had to be postponed. The couple were left with 115 Lindt bunnies they had planned to use as wedding favours. While disappointed that their wedding could not go on as planned, the pair decided to have a little fun and lighten the mood.

They lined all the bunnies up and staged a mini wedding, complete with a veil for the bunny bride.

“We decided to stage some recreations – mainly to stop us just scoffing the whole lot of them.” Mark told Metro UK.

Mark shared the big day on social media, writing, “So our wedding has been postponed for obvious reasons and we had 115 chocolate Lindt bunnies as wedding favours – time for a bunny wedding of course!”

This wasn’t the end of the bunnies day. They then hopped onto an ark (while maintaining safe social deistancing, naturally) and even competed in the Bunny Olympics.

Feature image: Instagram

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