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Weddings

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There are two pieces of jewellery that you’d never want to lose or replace. These are your engagement ring and your wedding ring. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen.

You could lose your ring by mistake, misplace it or forget it in a different city while you’re travelling. It could also get stolen or it may get damaged. If any of these were to happen, we know you’d like to ensure that you can replace the ring, or get it fixed.

Solutions may cost you big bucks though. That is unless you have insurance. Ring insurance is imperative! You’ve probably spent a lot of money on the ring. It’s bad enough that you lose the sentimental value of the ring. Let’s not have you lose the monetary value too. That would just add insult to injury.

Getting insurance isn’t that difficult to do, so make it a top priority post engagement.

All you need to do is call up the insurance broker and ask them what insurance options are on offer. Often people think jewellery is automatically covered in home insurance. However, this is often not the case.

If your ring is stolen from your home, it will be covered under home insurance. But often, if the ring exceeds coverage limits you won’t be able to claim for it. If you’re planning on wearing your ring outside the house (of course you are) you will need to specify the ring under “All Risks” on your insurance policy.

It is, of course, possible to get stand-alone insurance for your ring, however its much more affordable to have the ring insured under an existing homeowners policy or something similar to that.

Important to remember for ring insurance, is that you can’t just call and ask. You have to show the insurer the proof of value of the ring. This is what to do before you call any brokers. Get your ring appraised and keep the evaluation as proof of ownership too. If you can’t produce this evidence, insurers may not cover you if your ring is lost or stolen.

So if you’ve just been given a ring, get those documents and get it insured. You’ll ensure that all is not lost, even though your ring may be.

Image: Unsplash

Serena Williams is a force to be reckoned with. The iconic tennis player has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era. She also formally held the Women’s Tennis Association title for World number 1 female tennis player on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017.

Williams continues to be wildly successful in her tennis career. She has said though, that her proudest achievements were in the last few years after welcoming daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. to the world with husband Alexis Ohanian. We take a look at this couple’s journey of love.

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Williams and Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, met by chance in May 2015 while in Rome. Williams was dining with friends at the Cavalieri Hotel when Ohanian sat down at the table next to the group.

“This big guy comes and he just plops down at the table next to us, and I’m like, ‘Huh! All these tables and he’s sitting here?'” she told Vanity Fair.

To encourage him to move, William’s group told him that there was a rat at the table. Ohanian didn’t fall for the story, so Williams invited him to join their table. He also watched her play at the Italian Open that same day.

Later that same month, Williams invited Ohanian to watch her play in the French Open after she performed poorly at the Italian Open. He flew to Paris to watch her, and they spent six hours together prior to the tournament walking around the city and falling in love. The pair went Instagram official over a year later in November 2016.

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In an interview, Williams explained why she fell for Ohanian.

“Alexis doesn’t dim my light. He doesn’t try to dim my light. He puts me in the light, even if I don’t want to be. He pushes me to further points I never thought about,” she said. “It always was something that I could see in some relationships – my light would be dimmer. Now I feel like I can shine really bright and still do everything that I want to do.”

The pair were engaged in December 2016 at the very same table at the Roman hotel where they first met. Soon after the proposal, Williams posted a poem to Reddit announcing their engagement.

“I came home/A little late/Someone had a bag packed for me/And a carriage awaited/Destination: Rome/To escort me to my very own “charming”/Back to where our stars first collided/And now it was full circle/At the same table we first met by chance/This time he made it not by chance/But by choice/Down on one knee/He said 4 words/And/r/isaidyes,” she wrote.

A month after their engagement, they found out they were expecting their first child. They welcomed daughter Alexis Olympia in September 2017. She was named after her father and her initials (AO) also represent the Australian Open, which Williams won in 2017 while pregnant.

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The pair tied the knot two months later on November 16 at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. Their extravagant wedding was ‘Beauty and the Beast’ themed, and featured A-listers like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Kelly Rowland, Ciara, and of course, sister Venus Williams.

For their nuptials, Williams stunned in a beautiful ballgown designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, the same designer who created Kate Middleton’s wedding dress. She later changed into two different Vera Wang dresses for the reception.

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Two and half years later, the couple are still going strong. Daughter Olympia has become a social media star in her own right as she has her own Instagram account (run by her parents, of course).

In January 2020, Williams won the ASB classic, her first singles title since 2017. Ohanian is a large proponent for paternal leave and runs a podcast called ‘Business Dad’ where he interviews fellow celebrity fathers.

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Feature image: Instagram / Alexis Ohanian

The wedding of the King of rock ‘n roll, Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley has gone down in history for its unusual nature. We take a look at this infamous couple’s walk down the aisle.

Presley met his future wife, Priscilla Ann Beaulieu in 1959 when she was only 14 years old and he was 24. At the time, Elvis was serving in the army and Priscilla’s family lived on the base as her father was an Air Force Captain.

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After Elvis returned to his estate in Memphis, the pair kept in touch until Priscilla’s parents allowed her to move there when she was 17. According to Country Living, her parents only allowed it on the condition that they would eventually get married.

The pair became engaged in 1966 when Elvis proposed to Priscilla with a three and a half carat diamond ring, with 20 smaller diamonds surrounding it. It is rumoured that, at the time, Elvis did not want to get married. Rather, he went through with it as he felt pressure from Prescilla’s father to do so.

This wedding has gone down in history as one of the most-talked-about ceremonies in the 20th century.

The wedding was organised by Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager. He gathered everyone to Palm Springs for the big day. “Just after midnight on May 1, [1967],” wrote Elvis’s school friend George Klein in a book, “the wedding party snuck out the back door of Elvis’s Palm Springs home, climbed over the backyard wall, and got into a car to head to the airport. Elvis had been loaned Frank Sinatra’s private jet for the occasion.”

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Another plane brought the guests, and they arrived at the Aladdin Hotel where they exited through the back to ensure they weren’t seen.

Elvis and Priscilla made it official early in the morning after they were given their marriage license at the Las Vegas Courthouse.  A supreme court judge married the pair in a suite at the Aladdin, and the room was filled with flower petals and candles. There were only 14 people present.

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“My wedding was very unusual,” Priscilla once said. “It was the people closest to us, and private, and that’s how we wanted it. We didn’t want a fan club. We didn’t want a circus.”

Priscilla’s sister was the maid of honour, and two members of Elvis’s entourage, Marty Lacker and Joe Esposito,  stood as the co-best men.

After their intimate wedding, they held a press conference and then threw a breakfast buffet for 100 guests. They served roast suckling pig, oysters Rockefeller, lobster, Champagne, and Southern fried chicken.

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They had a six-tier sponge cake, with apricot marmalade filling and liqueur-flavoured cream for dessert.

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In 1968, the couple welcomed their first and only child together, Lisa-Marie. Their marriage struggled after both had affairs, and Elvis’s touring took him away from home for extended periods of time. They separated in 1972 and formalised their divorce in 1973 after six years of marriage

Image: Instagram / elvispriscilla

Princess Raiyah of Jordan married British journalist Ned Donovan on Tuesday, July 7 in Engalnd, making this the first Royal Wedding to go ahead amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The couple had to change their wedding plans following the pandemic. Originally, they were set to marry in Jordan in April but went with England for safety reasons.

“Thank you all for your kind messages on our wedding! While it was originally planned for April in Jordan, the pandemic derailed those plans and it was safer for my husband’s family to hold it in the UK. God willing we look forward to celebrating in Jordan once the situation allows,” she wrote on Twitter.

The pair were engaged on October 26, 2019.

Donovan is the grandson of author Roald Dahl, and a British writer based in London. He previously worked as a journalist for the Mail on Sunday and The Times.

The Princess is a decorated academic, with a Master’s degree in Japanese Studies from Edinburgh University and a Master’s degree in Japanese Literature from Columbia University. She is currently studying towards her Ph.D in pre-modern Japanese literature at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

She is the fourth child of the late King Hussein of Jordan and Queen Noor.

Princess Beatrice was set to marry fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in May, but has since postponed the wedding due to the ongoing pandemic.

Feature image: Twitter / Princess Raiyah

A group of women in Rome took to the streets to protest againt the City’s lockdown restrictions that have resulted in their weddings being cancelled.

About 15 brides-to-be gathered to begin the protest at the Fontana di Trevi, then moved to the parliamentary buildings where they were joined by affected wedding industry members such as caterers and musicians.

This was not an ordinary protest, however, as the women wore their wedding dresses and carried white parasols to make a statement. They also carried placards that translate to ‘weddings without restrictions’, ‘you broke our marriages’ and ‘church doors closed to weddings’.

The protest is being called the ‘Flashmob of the singles and unmarried ones’. It was reportedly organised by Airb, an Italian wedding association, who claim that 90% of weddings in the city have been postponed to 2021 which has negatively impacted the industry.

“Everything was postponed to 2021. So we asked the government for help to reach 2021. About 500 thousand operators in the sector and, as a consequence, their families are at risk of unemployment,” said the president of Airb, Luciano Paulillo.

Marriage ceremonies and other non-essential activities are currently banned in the city for two months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Civil ceremonies have recently been allowed to continue, but guests are limited to two and strict social distancing measures must be employed.

Feature image: Unsplash

David and Victoria Beckham celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary this past weekend. The pair, despite their massive fame, did what most others would do on an occasion like this and had a romantic dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Posh Spice gave fans an inside look into the date night on her Instagram page. She posted a picture of the two of them looking cozy and casual in a rustic restaurant, with a dessert laid out in front of them. Written on the plate in chocolate were the words “Happy Anniversary”.

On the day of their anniversary, the former footballer took to Instagram to celebrate his marriage to Victoria. He posted a video showing images of the pair through the years, with some snippets of Victoria performing with the Spice Girls.

“Well about 23 years ago I was sat in a room with Gary Neville and the spice girls were on the TV and I turned around to him and said ‘ohhhh I like that one in the little black catsuit’ ? who would have thought that all these years later we are celebrating 21 years of marriage and have 4 of the most beautiful and perfect kids.. Thank you & Happy Anniversary I Love You ♥️,” he wrote.

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Victoria did the same, posting another video with the caption: “Happy Anniversary @davidbeckham ❤️❤️❤️ I can’t believe it has been 21 years since we said ‘I do’. Four children, four dogs, so much laughter and I love you more each day. xxxxxx”

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The pair share 4 children, Brooklyn (21), Romeo (17), Cruz (15), and Harper Seven (8). The older three each posted sweet “happy anniversary” messages to their parents.

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David and Victoria met at a charity football match in Manchester in 1997. Just a year later on January 25, 1998, they announced their engagement.

A few months before they married, they welcomed their first child, Brooklyn. On July 4, 1999, the famed couple tied the knot at Luttrellstown Castle near Dublin. Posh wore a Vera Wang gown, paired with a gold crown designed by jeweller Slim Barrett.

Image: Instagram / Romeo Beckham

The wedding industry may have taken a backseat amid the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean planning has to stop. Wedding planner Lisa Barnardt of Nooitgedacht wine estate lets us in on how she is adapting to the times, as well as her top tips for weddings.

Barnardt works as the Nooitgedacht wine estate’s wedding planner, where she first began as an intern. She says that prior to lockdown, she was very busy planning weddings at the estate and making sure the couple’s day was perfect and everything they wanted was organised.

However, with weddings temporarily halted, she’s been keeping herself busy with researching ways to still offer great service.

“I’m working from home and actively busy researching what we can do to adapt to the new norm, such as having more intimate weddings as well as implementing social distancing such as splitting a wedding ceremony and invite family in the morning or afternoon and a small group of friends for an evening reception. I’m currently working with fellow industry professionals in making sure all our weddings will align with the protocols as outlined by the government.”

What are Barnardt’s top three tips when it comes to planning a wedding?  “Firstly, the food! People won’t necessarily remember the decor at a wedding but everyone remembers the food. If you have an amazing menu and enough for everyone to eat, then you’re likely to have a successful wedding. The one thing you don’t want is your guests leaving early because they’re still hungry.

“Secondly, that personal touch. Every wedding is special, but what makes the occasion even more special is having a personal touch to everything – a special message for each guest on their seat, a photo booth, a personalised cocktail or having grandma’s famous cake for dessert.

“Thirdly, admin and organisation are key. As a planner, being organised takes the stress of organising the big day away from the couple so that they can enjoy their wedding day.”

Finally, Barnardt reveals what she is most looking forward post-lockdown.

“I’m most definitely going to take a long walk on the beach, visit a few local wine farms to indulge in some wine tasting, and of course I will be back at work doing what I love which is creating lasting memories.”

Feature image: supplied

A veil is the perfect accessory to finish off your bridal look. No matter your aesthetic, there is a veil to match.

If you’re going for a more classic look, you’re in luck. Veils adorned with delicate lace, subtle pearl detail or embroidery will work well to complete your bridal dream. Remember to take in your specific gown’s look and cut when determining the length and fullness of your veil.

Here are some different veil styles that will appeal to a bride wanting to look elegant on your big day.

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Feature image: Pexels

We all  know the makeup makes the look. Don’t hold back on the lips! From bold and bright to subtle and toned down, anything goes. Speak to a stylist about what works with your hair colour and skin tone to make sure your pout stands out.

Scour these gorgeous lip looks for inspiration:

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Image: Unsplash

A proposal leads to a ring and the ring, without a second thought, gets put on the 4th finger of the left hand (or the ring finger). The practice is so long-standing that nobody ever gives it a second thought, it almost comes naturally.

Have you ever wondered why we wear wedding rings on this specific finger? Or has the thought simply never crossed your mind? Well fret not, you won’t have to be in the dark for much longer. Here’s why we do it.

The practice can be traced back to ancient times. Archeologists and researchers found evidence in hieroglyphics that suggests brides wore rings, according to Readers Digest. However, this evidence says nothing of which finger the ring was worn on. In other ancient cultures, including ancient Greeks and Romans, they wore wedding rings on the left ring fingers specifically.

At the time, these cultures believed that the vein in the fourth finger of the left hand (the ring finger) ran directly to one’s heart, according to Brides. As a result, the vein was named “vena amoris” which means “vein of love”.

Therefore, to represent a union that focused on love, a wedding ring was placed on the finger in which the vein of love ran through.

This very sweet reasoning behind the practice is, however, based on false beliefs. Modern science has shown that in fact, all fingers have veins connected to the heart.

In China, a theory developed about ring fingers. According to Mervis Diamond, each finger on the left hand represents either the past, present or future generations of your family. The thumb represents your parents, the index finger represents your siblings, the middle finger is you, the fourth finger is your life-partner and the pinkie is your future children.

The theory goes like this: Place your hands together and allow the middle fingers’ knuckles to touch, at the same time allowing your other fingers to touch. Then pull each finger apart individually. All the fingers, apart from the 4th fingers, will be able to pull apart. This represents the fact that you are not meant to stay with your parents, siblings, or children forever, but your life-partner will stick with you.

Try it out by following this video:

Some people credit the Anglican Church for the ring finger tradition. Insider reports that in around 1549, the Anglican Church’s Book of Common Prayer told members of the church to wear the ring on that finger, so that they would be separated from Catholics and other Christians, who wore wedding rings on the fourth finger of the right hand.

Today, the practice is still widely recognized. However, not everyone practices it in the same way. Some couples in Europe from countries including Austria, Denmark, and Germany, wear their rings on the right hand. Married couples in India wear the ring on the right hand too, as the left hand is considered unclean, according to Readers Digest.

Image: Unsplash