The OurWeddingDay Blog

It's time for a new installment of one of our favorite blog series: Altarcations over at Gawker, in which Phyllis Nefler "reviews" the Weddings & Celebrations section of The New York Times.

This week Nefler attempts to review the newlyweds in rhyme!  And while it's not the most lovely poetry we've ever read, the fun and excitement of the nuptials make up for the fact that Nefler is no Wordsworth!

Here's an example:

Friehling fell "immediately in love with her, without a doubt,"
And when he served their table he would always go all out.
Although Hali found him too young (at that point he was 22)
They ran into one another on a Tulum beach; sparks flew.

See what we mean?  So cute!

Check out this week's special rhyming edition of Altarcations here!

Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, married in 1924 and officially the longest-married couple in the world, took to Twitter recently after they saw the fun their kids and grand kids were having with it.  It would be tough to argue with their expertise, so check out their advice in 140 characters bursts!

We don't see how anything could be cuter than this.  We really don't!

Of course Gawker's resident weddings expert Phyllis Nefler reviewed The New York Times' Weddings & Celebrations section on Valentine's Day... but in addition to discussing romantic nuptials she also unearthed something ugly: wedding crashers!

It all started when Nina Pajak was flipping through her wedding photos and the picture above caught her eye.

"Perplexed, she asked her husband Matt and her father whether they recognized the pair. No one did. The Pajak wedding was officially crashed.  "They're such familiar looking, clean-cut hipsters that I had to reread our relatively short guest list a few times before I was satisfied that I wasn't accusing someone who was actually invited," Nina told me.

"Bemused and curious, the Pajaks made a Facebook page called Find our wedding crashers! "Do you know these people?" asked the description. "We sure don't, but they were at our cocktail hour."

They set up a Facebook page called Find Our Wedding Crashers! and it worked: Two days later the crashers were identified!  Check out all the drama on that Facebook page here.

Check out this week's Altarcations here.

The Independent is reporting on a recent study claiming modern men are struggling with chivalry:

"While the passionately composed love lyric was an important feature of wooing in olden times, today's men are more inclined to use their mobiles to dash off a text (21%) or an emailed message (11%) to their loved one, according to the Lindt Lindor Code of Modern Chivalry report."

Other non-chivalrous behaviour that too many modern men are guilty of, according to the Independent, include: Not paying the check, not turning off the phone at dinner time and having a "wandering eye."

Says relationship expert Jenni Trent Hughes, "We may no longer be knights in shining armour or damsels in distress, but we still want and need romance - it is part of our emotional DNA."

Agreed!  But does a reduction in poetry writing really equal a reduction in romance?  What do you think?

Do you expect your groom to be chivalrous this Valentines day?

Check out the best and worst places to find a mate in America’s 104 largest cities, according to The Daily Beast.

Here's their criteria:

We entered every U.S. city with more than 200,000 people into our computers, then dumped in data surrounding five criteria:

• Singles ratio: The larger the percentage of singles, 18-and-over, according to U.S. Census data, the bigger the relative pool for finding the perfect mate.
• Social life: Using Citysearch, we determined a social life quotient—how many restaurants and bars there are per over-21 adult, as a proxy for meeting opportunities.
• Emotional Health: Studies show that happy people are more open to love. So we ranked cities based on the the Gallup-Healthways Emotional Health Index, based on thousands of questionnaires where respondents described how much they smile and laugh, whether they are treated with respect, whether they find enjoyment, get stressed, feel happy, etc. Cities in milder climes tended to fare better here, skewing those cities higher on rankings.
• Marriage ratio: Is a given city marriage-minded? To determine, we measured the percentage of people who got married in 2008, as a percentage of overall marriage-aged population. Greensboro, North Carolina, for instance, ranked in the top quintile for the percentage of singles, but it ranked toward the bottom for marriages, earning a D.
• Divorce ratio: It’s one thing to get married. True love means you stay married. So we measured 2008 divorces as a percentage of marriage-aged population. Stockton, California, which received an A grade for marriages, finishing in the top quintile, also received an F for divorces, ranking third from last on our list. Riverside, California, meanwhile, notched an A in both categories, placing it seventh overall.

These rankings are universal, designed to be neutral in relation to gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or age.

In spite of it's romantic bridges, New York City only ranks #58, while cities like Omaha and Newark rank much higher.  How does your home town rank?

New Yorkers have voted the Bow Bridge as the most romantic spot in Manhattan's Central Park.

The story behind Bow Bridge…

• Named for its resemblance to a violinist’s or archer’s - or Cupid’s - bow, Bow Bridge’s dreamy setting over the sprawling Lake has inspired many a lovers’ stroll.
• Designed by Central Park co-designer Calvert Vaux and his assistant Jacob Wrey Mould and built in 1862, Bow Bridge is the second-oldest cast-iron bridge in the United States. The Bridge spans sixty feet across the Lake, linking the cultivated and flowering landscape of Cherry Hill with the rustic and sprawling woods of the Ramble.
• Bow Bridge is one of the most photographed spots in the Park and is provides the romantic backdrop for many wedding proposals and classic film shots.

Looking for the perfect spot for your wedding photos?  Look no farther!  And if you're planing a New York City wedding, look no farther!

Gawker's wedding expert, Phyllis Nefler, is on vacation this week, so someone else took over for her reviewing The New York Times' Weddings & Celebrations section.  That in itself isn't unusual, but their choice for a guest writer is: Hunter Walker, a man!  Can a male writer do justice to all the bride-centric goings on?  Let's find out!

The answer is sadly, 'no.'  Hunter starts off by declaring that weddings are a "bigger deal" for women, and refers to a recent study showing how men benefit financially from getting married.  Hardly a romantic place to start an Altarcations column!  The Gawker editor seemed to think so too, as three separate comments (playfully) admonished Hunter!

When he finally gets around to this week's couples he's pretty rude about it, calling couples names and everything!  Check out this week's Altarcations here.

All in all, it was an especially sour Altarcations.  We're not fans of this Hunter character.  We miss Phyllis.

Celebrity wedding planner David Tutera is being sued by his former client Melissa Chin because he didn't show up to her Singapore wedding, even after she paid his airfare.

Tutera responded by calling Chin a 'fame-hungry Bridezilla,' and claiming payments were missed and that Chin's father told him not to come!

Check out the story here. The fight's already ugly and it only just started!

Now, we weren't there and we don't know what's true, so we don't know if we'd be on Team Chin or Team Tutura.  What we do know is that the whole thing seems like a headache and not something we'd want associated with our weddings!

Aren't you glad you're planning your wedding with OurWeddingDay, and avoiding hassles and egos like this?