The Most Romantic Video For Your Valentine's Day.

Screen shot from video of a woman named
Vicky telling her boyfriend she's ready to marry.
In the foreground Jon learns Vicky's parents
approve, and Vicky in the background waits
for Jon's answer.  

It's Valentine's Day, which means we must have sappy love stories to celebrate the day.

So I found this random video. I like it because the woman named Vicky who organized it is such a romantic.

Her boyfriend, Jon,  had proposed to her a couple times, but she said she wasn't ready. Then Vicky thought about it, a little time went by, and she decided she was indeed ready to marry.

But she had to tell him. So Vicky organized the event you'll see at the bottom of this post.

This video was uploaded in late August of 2013, right around the date of my first wedding anniversary. I, too, was not initially ready to marry.  My husband waited a long time for me to propose - he wanted it to be my final decision.

Of course, he wasn't terribly shy about dropping hints.

I finally did propose, and we've been happily married for two and a half years now. My decision to ask Jeff to marry me was by far the best move I've ever made.

So happy Valentine's Day Jeff!! 

Anyway back to Vicky and Jon. I'll give you a spoiler alert. Things end up going well in the video, and it turned out Jon was ready for Vicky to be ready.

Though I probably spoiled any surprised in the video, it's still such a charming thing to watch.

I hope it inspires a few hugs and cuddles with your lover. Although caution: Kleenex alert with this video:

The Least Romantic Story EVER, Just In Time For Valentines Day

Who wouldn't fall for this guy? Well, nobody would.
Charles Manson is once again unlucky in love
as Valentine's Day approaches.  

Just in time for Valentine's Day, coming up this weekend, I have what is certainly the least romantic story I've heard in ages.

Hey, I've got to be a contrarian.

Before I go on, I have to tell you I'm not making up any of what you are about to read up. My imagination isn't that good, or that sick. Maybe people involved are making a lot of stuff up, but not me.

So here it goes:

If any of this is true, and it's coming from the New York Post, so it might be embellished, it appears the expected wedding of Charles Manson is not going to happen after all.

The news is enough to make your red roses wilt on the spot, isn't it.

Manson, you might recall, is the ringleader of a weird murder spree in California way back in 1969. He and his followers thought that if they murdered actress Sharon Tate and eight others to start some sort of race riot or revolution or something, I don't know.

Manson was sentenced to life behind bars and is now 80 years old.

But, romance blooms, even in prison, or so Manson thought. A woman named Afton Elaine Burton, 27, announced in 2013 she planned to marry Manson.

Rolling Stone magazine had all the deets on the marriage back in November, 2013. At least that's how things stood, until romance faded. So sad.

But back then the love affair between Manson and Burton, referred to as "Star" in Rolling Stone, was in full torrid bloom.  

Star and her apparently ex-fiance Charlie Manson in,
um, happier times last year.  

"Star is a (then) 25 year old brunette who's been loyally visiting Manson in jail since she was 19 years old and maintains several websites devoted to defending Manson and his pro-Earth environmental causes," Rolling Stone reported.

Too bad Manson wasn't also anti-murder, but I guess you can't have everything.

Rolling Stone goes on:

"In 2007, Star moved to Corcoran to be near Charlie, who she visits each Saturday and Sunday for up to five hours a day. 'Yeah, well, people can think I'm crazy,' she likes to say. 'But they don't know. This is what's right for me. This is what I was born for.'"

Well, she's right on one point. She did seem crazy. I guess at the time we would have congratulated Star for snagging the world's least available bachelor, and the one you'd least want to take home to meet Momma.

Burton, or Star, had some pretty strong opinions. She carved an "X" into her forehead to match Manson's lovely visage.  Star strongly resembles Susan Atkins, one of the members of Manson's "family" that carried out the horrible murders back in 1969.

Jealous lover that she was portraying, Burton, or "Star" hated Atkins. "That bitch was fucking crazy....She was a crazy fucking whore."

Alrighty, then.

But as I noted, sometimes blossoming love withers on the vine. And such is the case with Star and Charlie.

If the New York Post is right, Star's intention was not to marry out of love, but for money. Yeah, yeah, I know,  Manson doesn't have any money, given that he's been in prison for what, 45 years or so?

It turns out Star is an entrepreneur!

Her plan was to marry Manson, then when he died, she'd gain custody of his corpse. And it might not be too long before Manson dies. He is 80 years old. So Star maybe thought she was getting a quick return on her investment.

How would she make money, though?

Easy! After Manson dies, she and her pal Craig Hammond would put his corpse in a glass crypt. As the New York Post put it, "The pair figured their bizarre California version of Lenin's Tomb would draw huge crowds and make big money."

There's where I question the business plan.

It is true that California draws LOTS of tourists, what with Yosemite Park, Hollywood, the redwood forests, the beauty of San Francisco, the luscious wines of Napa Valley and Disneyland Resort (despite the measles epidemic.)

Maybe I'm closed minded, but I don't think tourists would exactly flock to see Charlie Manson's dead body. If I went to California as a tourist, that would be extra low on my bucket list. But what do I know?  I'm not the lead editor at Travel and Leisure, so my expertise in tourism might not be up to snuff.

The Post reported that a journalist told the paper that the cunning Manson found out about that Star was in it for money, not love, so Manson pulled the plug on the wedding plans.

Besides, Manson reportedly had another reason not to go along with Star's plan. He believes he is immortal, so Star would have no corpse to display. No corpse, no tourist attraction, right?

As you can see, this story isn't exactly a lovely Valentine. But now you can be cheerful.

Even if there's no romance in your life at the moment. Even if Mr. or Ms. Right hasn't entered the picture yet. Even if you're going to spend Valentine's Day alone watching re-runs of "Divorce Court," your life is still much more romantic and lovely than Manson or Star's.

You've got to count your blessings, right?

Marital Spat: Photogs, Minister Go At It During Wedding Ceremony

A viral video is making the rounds that shows what might be the ultimate awkward moment at a wedding ceremony.

Bride and groom look mortified as the pastor
lectures the photogs in a video that has
gone viral.  

The video starts off looking nice. The handsome groom and the lovely bride are at a pleasant outdoor setting.

The pastor is about to administer the vows, when he turns to the photographer, the guy shooting the video we are watching.

In to uncertain terms, he tells the photographer to scram.  "This is not about photography. This is about God," our angry pastor thunders.

The bride and groom both look aghast. In fact the word "aghast" in the dictionary now has their photo.

Here's the video, with more commentary below it.




Somebody who identified himself as Michael Borrielllo uploaded the video. There's no background information as to how this got going, so context is lacking.

But jeez, couldn't this have been handled better. As many have pointed out, couldn't the photographers and the minister had a conversation beforehand as to where the photos should be and what they should and shouldn't do?

And the minister is an ungodly jerk here. Yes, he was annoyed at the photographers, and maybe he was justified. But did he have to stop the entire ceremony to lecture the photogs?  Maybe he could have had a nasty private word with them afterward?

Yes, he thinks the whole ceremony is about God and everything else is secondary.

But maybe God would have liked a more dignified ceremony? And the event is about the bride and groom, too. Don't they account for anything. After all, presumably they or their families were paying for the minister's work here.

The incident also prompted a lot of conversation at Improvephotography.com. The conversation kind of goes along with  my line of thinking that there really indicates there was plenty of blame to go around.

Thank goodness when Jeff and I got married, we enlisted our niece Staci Stengle to perform the ceremony. No muss, no fuss. She was beyond awesome. Staci even stayed cool when in the middle of the ceremony, I absentmindly handed her a Kleenex I'd used when I got emotional. Now that's awesome!

I'd hate to think how the pastor in the video in this post would have managed our ceremony. But I bet he won't get hired to do many more in the near future!

Thank Goodness We Didn't Hire THIS Organist For Our Wedding

I can't believe it's been almost a year since Jeff and I got married.

I'm happy to report I'm still immensely enjoying married life.

Maybe a bit of the reason for the contentment is we got off on the right foot. The ceremony was beautiful, I must say, thanks to Jeff's planning and design work. (He also has this nice habit of making the house look beautiful too, but that's another story)

Anyway, we didn't go the traditional route in the marriage. For instance, we didn't do the cliched "Wedding March" that you always hear on church organs in every wedding.

Which is a great thing if you consider the organist at the wedding in the video below. The musicianship is hilariously painful:

Classy Wedding? You Can Get Married at a Denny's!

As readers of this blog might know, I'm getting married very soon (Twelve days to go!)

Of course, the wedding plans are set. The venue is ready, so is the caterer, the photographer and everything else that goes with some fine nuptials. It will be a glorious day.

This Las Vegas Denny's will have a wedding chapel

However, when Jeff and I were planning our wedding, we were unaware of the following option: We could have gotten married at a Denny's in Las Vegas!

Yep, a new Denny's diner about to open in Vegas has a wedding chapel as a centerpiece.

Just think. Instead of getting married in a venerable old theater on a lovely Vermont college campus, we could have said our "I do's" amid some drunken partiers who have late night munchies.

Instead of hirinig a caterer who will offer some tasty hors d' voeuvres,  we could have had some runny eggs and rubbery pancakes to celebrate the beginning or our new life together.

Jeff and I hired a photographer named Andy Duback, a talented professional who has done superb work at countless weddings, and in lots of other settings. Plus is pretty much the staff photographer for the theatrical productions that are regular features in the theater where we will wed.

Geez, maybe we could have just had the staggering masses in the Denny's shoot lopsided, blurred images of us with their barely functioning iPhones.

But no, we'll skip the Denny's wedding. I think fast food leads to fast marriages. You know, the ones that are over in a flash. Jeff and I plan to stay married for a long, long time. As in forever.