Today's Wedding Custom - Mexico

In the Mexican tradition, padrinos, who are bridesmaid and groomsman pairs, are considered for different roles in the wedding ceremony.

Padrinos de ramo provide the bouquet (ramo) for the bride. Padrinos de lazo furnish a special symbolic rosary used to show the unification of the couple during the ceremony. Another pair of sponsors, the padrinos de arras, bring 13 silver or gold coins in a special basket or box for the ceremony. They also provide the cojines or kneeling cushions for the bride and groom during the wedding mass.

Younger bridesmaids (damas) and their escorts (chambelanes) are invited to participate. These are usually teenage relatives or friends of the two families. The bride and groom pick a little girl and boy to be the flower girl and ring-bearer for the ceremony. In Spanish they are called pajecitos, which means page, from the royal term for young attendant.

In the Mexican tradition, all of the wedding attendants are listed on the invitation with their special significance as padrinos noted. Also information about the reception and dance are printed on the invitation or included as separate cards. A guest must remember to bring the entire invitation along to the festivities to gain admittance.

On the day of the wedding, everyone is up and dressed early in preparation for the big day. Even the groom and groomsmen who celebrate the American-style bachelor party the night before are expected to fulfill their duties. They must decorate the cars to be used in the wedding party as early as possible. If the couple are not using a caterer for the reception, then family members will be busily cooking barbecue or mole, frijoles, Mexican rice and chile con queso for the wedding reception that afternoon or evening.

The attendants and the bride and her family travel to the church in the decorated vehicles. The groom awaits the rest of the wedding party at the church with the priest. Before the ceremony begins, the priest blesses the couple and the articles, which will be used in the ceremony. A traditional bride will carry a rosary and Bible for the special day. Roman Catholic belief is that marriage is one of the seven sacraments, which a person receives in life. This is a most reverent and spiritual time in a young person's life.

Guests begin arriving at the church, and children of all ages often attend these border celebrations. Little ones are more likely to remain with their parents than be taken to a nursery or to be left home with a sister. Border weddings are truly a family affair.

When the ceremony is to begin, the padrinos begin to procession into the church followed by other attendants and then the pajecitos. All of them take their proper places at the front of the church. As the bride enters, escorted by the father , the congregation stands and watches the bride proceed to the altar.

For the Catholic service a regular mass is held, and the marriage ceremony is conducted. Often in our area the ceremony is conducted in both English and Spanish out of respect for the bilingual community.

During the ceremony the groom presents the arras to the bride as a symbol of support in their married life. Thirteen coins represent the 12 apostles and Christ. He pours the coins into the bride's hands as she accepts and promises to use the provisions for the care of the family.

The couple next kneel on the cojines to take communion together. The priest and the padrinos de lazo place the lazo around the couple. The lazo is two rosaries joined together with a cross. Placing the lazo around the couple signifies that the couple are united as one. The traditional belief of the lazo is that if the couple pray the rosary together every night , their marriage will endure.

The congregation is invited to share in community with the bride and groom. The priest offers advice to the new couple, and the mass is ended with a prayer for the congregation. The church is then filled with the sounds of music, and the attendants precede the new married couple down the aisle.

Following a photo session, the wedding party joins guests at the reception and dance. Halfway through the wedding dance another custom is observed, a blend of Anglo and Hispanic customs. The bride throws the bouquet for a single women, and the groom tosses a garter for the single men. The guests chant, "Beso! Beso!" encouraging the recipients to kiss. They are supposed to be the next married.

And the Bride wore.......

Melton bride Emma Dunn showed how you can get wed without getting into the red after snapping up her perfect wedding dress for just £2.50.

Emma (23) searched for her wedding dress on the internet and eventually found one she liked with a £1,500 price tag. But Emma decided to hold back and see what else she could find. And her decision paid off when she found the same dress while searching on eBay. Emma quickly put in a bid of £2.50 for it. After a nervous wait she got an e-mail back confirming she'd won her dress.

Click here to see the rest of the article...

Creating lasting memories....

I was all dressed and ready to go at 6:45 am on Monday. I'd been up since 4:00 am. Was I a little eager? Of course, it was to be our first girl's trip away just the two of us.... my daughter Georgina and I and we were both incredibly excited.

We decided we would visit London in the school summer holidays, but a "secret" business meeting was requested and I decided to combine both. I know it's all a little cloak and dagger, but I am very superstitious and don't want to tempt fate! As my PR guru Claire would say, this meeting was stratospheric for me and my business....and it went exactly as I wanted, Georgina sat at the boardroom table like a little angel!

The commuting time is approximately three and a half hours but it is three and a half hours of heavenly solitude. No baby wriggling, no argumentative children (Gee was on her best behaviour!) and no husband questioning me on my inability to travel light! Nope, it's just me and Gee – and yes I brought everything but the kitchen sink, but hey I'm the one carrying it!

During the nice leisurely train ride I see families heading to the capital for their holidays, and I think "my kids would love this trip but THANK GOD I don't have them all with me." My mobile rings I look at my caller ID. It's my husband, ALREADY!!! He just calls to wish me well and he says he misses me. How sweet eh? Then he reminds me to remember I have Gee with me, and not to absent mindedly leave her behind, whilst my attention may be drawn to a pair of Cesare Paciotti's!

On arrival at our hotel, Radisson Edwardian Mountbatten we quickly checked in, here I was reminded it was actually 9 years since I had stayed in this hotel.....it only seemed like a year or two, considering in that time my life has changed beyond recognition, then I was "just" one half of a couple now I am that and more...throw into that 3 kids and voila! Gee was very impressed, she thought the receptionist had remembered me personally!

We quickly located the nearest stop for the Original Bus Tour and off we went, we spent the next few hours in the glorious sunshine atop of the open decked bus viewing all the sites. These included Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe, Tate Modern, London Eye and more bridges than you can count. When we had done the full circle of this tour, we dashed through the streets of the west end, quickly glancing through the crowds awaiting the arrival of the celebrities, for the London Premier of the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight. We had arranged to meet my Australian niece, currently living and working in London, for dinner. After a rather swift dinner we went to see Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre, no wonder this show has received rave reviews and Olivier awards...one word BRILLIANT!!!

Next morning, off in a taxi to my "secret" meeting, that's all I can say except it was very productive, watch this space. Then we headed for Madame Tussaud's, and thanks to the wonderful lady black cab driver we had, she assessed the queue and said that it would be a 2 hour wait!

So off to the Westminster and a river cruise instead, then onto another bus tour, then to the London Eye. Where I had forgotten I was afraid of heights, only to remember after the pod door had been closed. Those 25 minutes seemed the longest of the entire trip.....once off the London Eye we had a lovely walk along the embankment then onto our final bus tour of the trip.

We arrived back at the West End in time for afternoon tea and some retail therapy, well it was a girl's trip! Once again we were joined by my niece for an early dinner, we then said our goodbyes and then headed for the station for our train home.

Once we had slipped off our shoes and relaxed as the train pulled out the station, Gee asked for some paper and pens. Then she began, oh my word did she begin. Here was I thinking at my "secret"meeting earlier in the day, she had been quietly listening to her Ipod, when in fact she had been taking in every word that was said. She suddenly proclaimed that now going to be a wedding planner, just like Mummy.

Gee then proceeded to spend the next two hours writing down and discussing loudly, every miniscule detail as she planned a wedding aboard a luxury yacht moored at Sydney Harbour. I had to persuade her that stretch Hummer's are not de rigeur for a sophisticated wedding in Sydney. She wanted to know which were the very best local flowers suitable for the bridal bouquet, which location she should look to book the honeymoon hotel, she even drew a carriage and a table plan! This was all to the amazement of fellow passengers within earshot, but everyone seemed to enjoy her stories!

So watch out Georgina may be planning your wedding in the not too distant future :-)

Today's Wedding Custom - Finland

It is a Finnish wedding custom for the newlywed's to sit together in designated seats of honour at the wedding reception. The bride holds a sieve, covered by a shawl, into which guests deposit gifts of cash.

At some weddings, the bride's mother-in-law or godmother puts a china plate on top of the her head when the newlywed's begin their wedding dance, usually a waltz. After the plate falls, the pieces of broken china foretell the number of children the couple can expect to have.

Who am I?

As of yesterday afternoon, both of my eldest children began their school summer holiday. Part of me is delighted. No more frantic evenings trying to get homework done, bags sorted and uniforms laid out. Nor is there any after school multi-skills activities and Saturday school of performing arts are on their summer break too....hurray! Hence why I am still in my pj's and the emptied toy chests are strewn across the orangery floor, the villain-on-wheels ( baby in baby walker) is flying across the floor at speeds Lewis Hamilton would qualify with, and the children are playing outside in the sunshine wearing raincoats under their umbrella's! No more pestering my kids for not realising the importance of being in bed on time.... I have no excuse they know it's the holidays.

Just as the up side to the summer solstice is that the days are getting shorter, the downside to school holidays is that while the children might be out, work is still in. Due to childcare expenses, my usual monthly spend will have been depleted by week one. Demands for increased television time, and fights over who's watching what are already kicking in. By Monday, I'm quite sure "I'm bored" will have been voiced at least once.Not that I'll be home to hear it....

I'm off to London. Ok not fully escaping my parental responsibilities as taking my daughter with me, I'm so excited to spend some quality mother daughter time with my precious girl. Were off to see Hairspray the musical and lots of sightseeing, including the London Eye.

I go to London often for business and leisure but I've not taken Gee (my daughter) since she was a toddler. So we have lots of exciting things planned. I have also been asked to attend a meeting for work whilst there, very exciting, sorry I can't reveal anything at present as it's all under wraps but watch this space! Let's hope Gee's boardroom skills are up to scratch as "the people" I'm meeting are more than happy she comes along.

This week I have frantically being trying to clear my inbox in preparation for both my trip and the school holidays. I have liaised and networked with various wedding colleagues across the globe, planned weddings in Jamaica, Lapland. Hawaii, Malaysia and Thailand. I have written articles and expert hints for several national wedding magazines....in between all this I played football in the park, took the kid's for modelling shots, did all the normal mum of three "stuff" and had a night out with the nursery mum's from school.

After having shared the 10ft x 8ft space, that is the nursery cloakroom, for 10 months with over 20 woman I still only know about 5 of them by name...ok so I lie I only share this space one morning each week,after nursery - Seb my eldest son, aged 4. goes to wrap around care on the other days.

After receiving an invite via a mummy friend, last week I was honoured they even knew my name let alone who's mum I was...so I accepted their kind offer of a drink and pizza.

This invitation was much to the hilarity of my husband, you see he is the only father who religiously does the school run every single day....actually I lie, the morning of the harvest festival assembly, I did take both children to school. Anyway I digress, but after having Theo in November last year Phil's offer to take over my usual Wednesday pick up was duly accepted. Combined by not being allowed to drive for six weeks following my "sunroof" delivery, it was about February before I was back into the swing of things.

I duly arrived at nursery one wet morning to collect Seb, I anchored my specs upon my head and tried to focus on the teacher calling for the children upon recognition of their Mummies! I thought, without my glasses on, that teacher was indicating Seb, my son, was busy and would be through in a moment.

There were all the mums collecting their little cherubs, all huddled together talking, an overcrowded cloakroom obscuring my view of Mrs Teacher. Then all of a sudden Mrs Teachers head pops through the throng of chattering mothers and loudly enquires to me "who are you here to collect"!

OMG the embarrassment! Without my specs I had not realised she was previously trying to subtly ask me who I was, by me just smiling back at her she had waited until she had the full attention of everyone in this tiny room before booming this out.

I'm sure I imagined the sniggers, and shuffled forward to admit that I was collecting Seb as I was his mummy! She tried to disguise her embarrassment as she mumbled something about "oh you look so well I didn't recognise you"...jeez thanks (I thought) I must have looked a car crash victim prior to this day then.

I giggled to myself as I left nursery and took Seb home. To this day I regret ever telling Phil this story, he has dined out on it ever since...."remember your son's teacher didn't even know who you were" :-)

So anyway I did go along for a few drinks and a bowl of pasta the other night, and thankfully almost all the mum's knew my name, what I did and where I lived and guess what? I still haven't got a clue about any them!