Two personal trainers from Alaska became the first gay couple to get married at the Empire State Building in New York City on Tuesday, February 14th, and the first gay divorce was announced the week before, when Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, the first gay married couple in Los Angeles, told the world they were separating.
New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa and sections of California either allow or have allowed gay marriages, with more to certainly follow.
Old News.
The big marriage news of the past few weeks is that Babylonia Aivaz’s spouse is a 107-year-old warehouse that sits at 10th and Union in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. She entered into what she described as “a gay marriage” with the building since she heard about the building’s upcoming demolition, making room for an apartment/small business location.
“If corporations can have the rights as people, so can buildings,” said Aivaz, referring to the recent Supreme Court decision on political advertising. “I’m doing this to show the building how much I love it, how much I love community space and how much I love this neighborhood. And I want to stop it from gentrification.”
Aivaz has invited the public to her planned wedding on Sunday. She is describing the event as a community potluck event, and asked attendees to “Bring Food.”
“Yes, I’m in love with a 107 year old building! Yes, It’s a gay marriage! Well there must obviously be a deeper story,” she said on Facebook.
… Just scant seconds left on that 15 minutes of her fame, her think.
Getting married on Halloween and expect a normal ceremony? Not going to happen. Expect a zombie-fied bridal party and guests to include robots, surfing nuns, and a gentleman that looks much like your strange bug-eyed uncle Dweeb, yet just a little less frightening. Movie themed weddings are passé – Star Wars, Harry Potter, Willy Wonka, Nudist, Underwater, Gilligan’s Island, Civil War Re-enactments – been there done that.
What does it to take make a true stand-out wedding today?
Earlier this week, we reported on an amorous ram and deer marriage in a south-western China zoo. In case you were wondering, the two species cannot produce any offspring.
17-year old “teen bride” Courtney Stodden and her 51-year old husband Doug Hutchison have been working the fame whore thing for most of 2011, but that’s not weird, it’s just creepy. Courtney’s parents, Krista Keller and Alex Stodden, had to give their consent for their underage daughter to get married in the first place. Mom is currently her manager, but you probably could have guessed that.
Weird enough yet? The wedding list continues, with real life and reality show weddings…
► Kim Kardashian’s sham wedding with Kris Humphries lasted 72 days.
► In contrast, the longest celebrity marriage may have been Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman’s. They lasted from January, 1958 until his death in 2008.
► Daniel and Susan (née Brewer) Bakeman tied the knot in 1772 and it lasted until she passed away in 1863, keeping a vow for over 91 years.
► In 2010, a man named Sal9000 married Nene Anegasaki from the Nintendo DS video game “Love Plus.”
► The U.K.’s Karam and Kartari Chand have been married since 1925, and are still going strong as of today.
► Virgin Eija-Riitta Berliner-Mauer married the Berlin Wall in 1979. She has reportedly not been back to visit since it was torn down.
► 90’s Fame ho’ Carmen Electra’s marriage to Dennis Rodman lasted all of two days, as did Britney Spears’ marriage to old school friend Jason Alexander (no, not the Seinfeld star)
► Crazy much? Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards shared three years of winning bliss.
► Erika La Tour Eiffel married the Eiffel Tower.
► At some point in late 1957, 23-yearold rocker Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year old cousin, Myra Gale Brown. That lasted 14 years.
► Liu Ye from Zhuhai city, China, married himself. “There are many reasons for marrying myself, but mainly to express my dissatisfaction with reality,”
There is all kind of odd wedding trivia too!
► The average cost for a wedding in the United States was $25,631.00, according to weddingreports.com.
► The wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Frances Spencer on July 29, 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK was watched by an estimated global TV audience of 750 million. 30 years later, her son Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s televised wedding was seen by an estimated 161 million people.
► Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’ was first played at the wedding of Dorothy Carew and Tom Daniel at St Peter’s Church, Tiverton, England, on June 2nd, 1847.
► About ten posthumous marriages are carried out each year in France, since they have a law pretty much saying that if everything else in order, the ceremony may take place with a deceased partner.
► For her January 3,2004 weekend wedding, Britney Spears was given away by her limo driver at the $200 chapel-blessed nuptial event.
It’s popular on TV, with current and recent shows including:
► David Tutera’s My Fair Wedding
► Bridezillas
► Say Yes To The Dress
► Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?
► My Big Redneck Wedding
For such a ‘happy occasion’, there seem to be a lot of jokes that look at a dark side of the ceremony, according to the groom’s side…
“The young girl leaned toward her mother and whispered, “Why is the bride dressed in white?”
Wishing to keep it simple, her mother explained, “White is the color of joy, and today is most joyful day of her life,”
The child nodded and asked, “Why is the groom wearing black?”
More From the Groom:
► I married Miss Right. I just didn’t know her first name was Always.
► Let me give you the same advice my father gave me upon the occasion of my own wedding: “There are two ways to handle a woman, and no one knows either of ’em.”
► I haven’t spoken to my wife for 18 months. I don’t like to interrupt her
► Marriage is a 3-ring circus: Engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffering.
► The last fight was my fault. My wife asked, “What’s on the TV?” I said,” Dust!”
► In the beginning, God created earth and rested. Then God created man and rested. Then God created woman. Since then, neither God nor man has rested.
► Why do men die before their wives? They want to.