In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Robben Island annually hosts a mass wedding on the island. This year marks the 20th time loved-up couples said ‘I do’. This year, 19 couples tied the knot, one of which was the first visually impaired couple to get married there. They also received the first marriage certificate in South Africa issued in Braille.
The keynote speaker, Minister of Home Affairs’ Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, said he was so happy to see these couples become a part of history.
Many brides, grooms and their entourages sported red and white in keeping with the Valentine’s theme. Others opted for matching traditional ethnic wear and one bride wore champagne coloured evening wear. Another couple chose to keep things casual with less formal fashion. The atmosphere was lively, the air abuzz with excitement and tangible emotion.
Best friend’s are there for each other through thick and thin. Having Adele as a best friend seems like it comes with all of that and more! The Grammy Award-winning singer officiated her bestie, Laura Dockrill’s, wedding this past Saturday (15 February) in London.
Dockrill, an author and illustrator, wedded musician Hugo White, a member of The Maccabees, at a pub called Mason’s Arms. After officiating for the happy couple, Adele provided some entertainment too. Imagine having Adele perform at your wedding! A dream come true, right?
She performed her breakout hit “Rolling in the Deep” and “Spice up your life” by the Spice Girls. Later, fellow singer Florence Welch also joined Adele on stage.
Credit: Instagram / Robert Emms
The songstress has known Dockrill for years, as they grew up together and have been friends since they were children. Adele even wrote a song for Dockrill titled “My Same”. The song can be found on her album 19.
Adele’s performance at this wedding was quite significant. She is a notoriously private person and in prefers not to be seen by the public during her day-to-day life. In fact, the singer has not performed at a big event since 2017 when she had a concert at Wembly Stadium.
Of course she knew guests would capture some video… she is Adele after all. So this must have meant a lot to her. What a great friend!
Apparently, congratulations are long over-due for Mya, who reportedly got married in secret in December 2019. The ‘Lady Marmalade’ singer had an island wedding in Seychelles.
This news comes as a shock to many, as the 40-year-old, singer, songwriter, producer, and actress has not publicly dated anyone in years. In fact, the identity of her new spouse remains a mystery.
In the past, Mya has been linked to NFL stars DeSean Jackson and Larry Johnson and rapper The Game. However, this was merely speculation.
TMZ released exclusive photos of Mya in her wedding gown. The gown features a floor-length tulle skirt and a plunging neckline.
She stands on her own, on the beach enjoying the perfect weather, looking absolutely radiant.
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The multitalented star has not commented on her nuptials, and – if we’re going off of her history of keeping her private life private – she is unlikely to do so. Mya is known for keeping her romantic life under wraps. The fact that we’re only finding out about her marriage status two months after the ceremony is a testament to this.
This was the star’s first marriage, and by the looks of it, she had it exactly how she wanted it…in private.
Megan Dean, who got married in October 2019, recently told TODAY the heart wrenching story of how she used her wedding dress to honour her deceased sister Rylie. In a Facebook post, on January 3 – which would have been Rylie’s 19th birthday – Dean detailed her tribute further.
Dean was only 4-years-old when her little sister passed away due to a heart condition. Despite having only known her for 8 days and despite having three living sisters, the now 23-year old Dean could not let her special day go by without including Rylie in some way.
Her plan was to integrate her sister’s baby blanket into her wedding gown. For this she employed the help of her mother, Rebecca.
“Getting her blanket required my mom and I to open up a box filled with Rylie’s things that we hadn’t looked at for years”, Dean told TODAY.
“Getting to talk with my mom about her experience and the memories she had was something quite special”, she added.
The bride-to-be at the time had her tailor create a patch in the shape of a heart using the blanket which had her sisters name embroidered on it. The patch was then sewed to the inside of Deans wedding gown.
Credit: Facebook / Megan Dean
In her Facebook post dedicated to Rylie she wrote, “This is the blanket you were swaddled in the moment you left our mother’s womb. It is what wrapped around you as our mom and dad held you for the first time…This is the blanket you wore during my last memory of you, kissing your forehead for one final time and not wanting to leave your side. I could not fathom celebrating a new beginning without you right there alongside me.”
If this wasn’t enough to tug at your heart strings, Dean had another idea. She requested that an identical patch be made, also using the baby blanket as fabric. The second patch would be a gift from her to her father; he would wear it as a pocket square as he walked her down the aisle.
“I was so excited to show my dad our tribute to Rylie. When I showed him the heart, I remember him saying through tears, ‘It’s her blanket,’ and we both began sobbing”, she told TODAY.
Credit: Facebook / Megan Dean
Dean also surprised all her sisters with the tribute to Rylie. We’re sure this made the day extra special.
Mere months after Northern Ireland officially legalised same-sex marriage, Robyn Peoples, 26, and Sharni Edwards, 27, from Belfast made history by becoming the first-ever lesbian couple to tie the knot in the region.
Activists in Northern Ireland have been fighting for years for same-sex marriage to be legalised in the country that has a conservative Christian majority. Despite homosexuality being decriminalised in the region in 1967 and various other parts of the UK legalising same-sex marriage over the years, the ban remained until recently. In October 2019, both abortion and same-sex marriage were legalised in Northern Ireland, leading many to celebrate their newly found freedom to make their own choices with their bodies.
Now, this deserving couple became the first same-sex pair to legally marry in Northern Ireland. The couple had their ceremony in Carrickfergus, County Antrim on February 11, 2020, also the date of their six year anniversary.
“We didn’t expect to be the first couple, it’s coincidental,” Edwards told The Guardian. “Today is our six-year anniversary so we wanted to go ahead with a civil partnership but when the bill was passed it was perfect timing and it was a complete coincidence, a happy coincidence. We couldn’t be more grateful.”
“For Northern Ireland, we need to be the face of the people to show everyone it’s OK,” adds Peoples. “We fought so long and hard for this opportunity to be seen as equal and now we are here and it’s just amazing.”
“We feel humbled that our wedding is a landmark moment for equal rights in Northern Ireland. We didn’t set out to make history – we just fell in love.”
Grab the tissues for this one, you’re gonna need it. In a romantic grand gesture, Kyle enlisted the help of his fellow passengers on a flight to propose to then-girlfriend Staci 25 years ago. She was waiting for him at the airport, blissfully unaware of Kyle’s plans. He sneakily gave each person on the flight a red rose, and asked them to give it to Staci when they got off the plane. Southwest Airlines, the US airline that was in cahoots with the young man, shared the whole story on Twitter:
Twenty five years ago, Kyle gave a rose to everyone on his Southwest flight. They were instructed to hand their roses to a woman waiting for him in the gate area. pic.twitter.com/zfCpQcBBmJ
So, with Staci confused and an arm full of roses, Kyle was the last to give her a rose, then got on his knee and asked her to marry him. Naturally, she said yes!
Now, after 25 years of being happily married, Kyle decided it was high time he did something special to celebrate their anniversary. Again, he approached his trusted airline, and they happily obliged. This time, as they were about to leave for a flight together, Kyle told Staci he would meet her at the airport. When she got to the gate, though, Kyle was already there and had been handing disembarking passengers red roses again, which they delivered to Staci.
As the last rose was delivered, Kyle appeared, going down on his knees exactly like all those years ago and “proposed” all over again. She said yes, she still does! Watch how all the passengers played along:
Thousands of couples wed in a mass ceremony in South Korea this past weekend, despite the coronavirus outbreak that has instilled fear in many.
Members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, also known as the Unification Church, came together to say their ‘I do’s’ at the Cheongshim Peace World Centre in Gapyeongin near Seoul on February 7, 2020. This mass wedding is a popular tradition for the South Korean-based church. According to Reuters, a reported 30 000 people from over 60 different countries were a part of this event, 6000 of whom were getting married for the first time and the rest were either renewing their vows or watching the spectacle.
South Korea has reported 24 cases of confirmed coronavirus. The organisers took care to ensure everyone’s safety throughout the event. Participants were screened for coronavirus symptoms, and people who had recently been to China were banned. They also gave everyone masks to wear, although not everyone decided to wear them.
In celebration of her four year wedding anniversary, former Miss SA and Miss World Rolene Strauss took to Instagram to share some never before seen images.
The South African beauty married partner D’Niel in 2016, and since then have welcomed their first child. The pair is currently expecting their second child.
In honour of their new milestone, Strauss shared some never-before-seen footage from her wedding. In the IGTV video, Strauss can be seen preparing for her big day, walking down the aisle, and dancing with her new husband.
“Our Wedding Highlights ?? ??,” the model captioned the video. “I’ve never shared this before… Here is 3 min worth of heartwarming memories from our Wedding Day 4 years ago ❤️”
Following the coronavirus outbreak that has reached over 22 countries throughout the world and infected thousands, a Singapore couple opted against attending their own wedding in person after returning from China just days before. Instead, they joined their guests via live stream.
Joseph Yew and Kang Ting spent a week in China’s Hunan province visiting Ting’s family for Chinese new year, and arrived back home just three days before their wedding, scheduled to be held at a hotel in central Singapore in early February. The pair had already tied the knot in China in October 2019, and this second wedding was to be a grand banquet for all those that couldn’t attend the first wedding. Many of their guests expressed concerns over attending the wedding as a result of the coronavirus threat.
Many visitors returning from China have been warned to take precautions as the disease is easily spread.
“Some of them said they were not coming,” Mr. Yew told the BBC. “We wanted to postpone the wedding but the hotel was not willing to. They said everything had been arranged and it was non-negotiable. So we felt like we had no choice but to proceed with the wedding.”
Thinking outside of the box, this couple decided to go ahead with the wedding, except they wouldn’t be there. Instead, they would live stream into the venue from a different room in the same hotel the wedding was being held. They made toasts and speeches completely over the video call.
“We thanked the guests for coming and told them to enjoy the dinner,” said Mr Yew.
While it was not the wedding they wanted, the couple were still able to enjoy it.
“We were not sad but a bit disappointed,” said Mr Yew of his wedding. “I think there were no other option so [I have] no regrets.”
Cat lovers of the world, unite! This creative bride wanted to do something different with her wedding day, so she decided to make a bold statement by having the person who caught her bouquet adopt a cat. However, this wasn’t a normal bouquet…
Karen Mormo is a cat lady, Mom to two cats already, she really wanted to pay tribute to them during her big day. She’s also not one for tradition, and wanted to put a twist on the expected. So, instead of tossing a bouquet, Mormo decided to throw a cat-shaped plush toy into the crowd. The person who caught the ‘bouquet’ would be the next person to adopt a cat!
Credit: The DodoCredit: The Dodo
“I thought it’d be a fun way to include everyone regardless of gender or marital status, and it was very ‘me’ since everyone knows I’m obsessed with cats,” Marmo told The Dodo.
Her guests were excited about the idea, and all clamoured to be the lucky one to catch the plushie. Unfortunately, the person who ended up catching it couldn’t adopt a cat.
Credit: The Dodo
“The person who caught it was my friend, Emma,” Marmo said. “She didn’t mean to catch it since she’s allergic. Guests fumbled the stuffed animal and it landed on her when she was shielding her face. I donated to my local shelter to make up for it.”
Regardless of how it ended, we love this unique twist on tradition! It’s always great to add in an element of giving back for your wedding.
If you want to give back on your wedding day, consider one of these options instead of gifts!
