Digital Divide on the Wedding Aisle

Welcome to your first Wedding 2.0.Here comes the groom. Oh, look, there’s the bride; doesn’t she look lovely? The sound of an organ begins to fill the room. All standard fare, right? But wait, it gets better.“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in matrimony,” the priest, rabbi or minister says. “The bride and groom have asked you to use the same hashtag on photos shared to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.”I’ve experienced variations of this at several recent weddings. Other times, hashtags are written in the wedding program, on table arrangements or whispered down the aisle.The rest of the evening becomes a digital free-for-all: square oversaturated photos of the cake posted to Instagram; overheard moments from guests crumpled into 140-character balls on Twitter; and photos of the happy couple — taken from every angle imaginable, including selfies — shared on Facebook.Continue reading the main story.
A tradition barely unchanged since your grandmother’s grandmother was married has now been put through the social media washing machine. And wedding planners, photographers, brides and officiators are trying to figure out what it all means.Rosemary Hattenbach, an event and wedding planner in San Francisco, said: “There are two different camps with these digital weddings. Some people inherently detest that kind of experience and want to keep it old school, pure and intimate. Then there are others that embrace it all and look at social media as an opportunity to get more photos of the wedding.”A few months after attending my first hashtag wedding, I was invited to a more traditional ceremony (yes, wedding season is in full swing), where the bride sent out a flinty note to all the guests days before the event.“Please do not post anything online,” she wrote, noting that cellphones were strictly prohibited. “You are, however, welcome to make watercolors or use court-reporter sketches,” the bride added jokingly, obviously trying not to sound too fussy.That event, sans cellphones, was quite beautiful. During the ceremony, people clapped (with both hands) as the bride floated down the aisle. Guests listened attentively to the sermon. And at dinner, people did this very strange thing: They actually spoke to one another. Using their mouths. Not via text message or emoji.But while the analog wedding was beautiful, I kept finding men hiding in the bathroom checking their email or World Cup scores. Toward the end of the night, I bumped into a group of women trying to hide behind the tent while they took a group selfie. (One woman proudly told me she had smuggled her smartphone in her bra.)The ban on gadgets is understandable. Brides who choose a device-free ceremony have told me they don’t want to walk down the aisle and see their loved ones peering back at them through screens.For photographers, guests with cellphones cause even bigger problems. Jose Villa, a wedding photographer in Solvang, Calif., said frames that were once filled with smiling guests, are now a scene of people’s heads peering down at their phones.Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story“It’s no longer just take a picture and put your camera away, as it used to be when guests had film cameras,” he said. “Now it’s take a picture, crop it, pick a filter, share it on Instagram, then spend the rest of the night checking to see how many likes it has.”And it’s not just guests who go all in on wedding photography. The bride and groom are often the worst offenders, snapping their own photos to share online. “I’ve started to take client’s phones away, and I keep them in my pocket until the end of the night,” Mr. Villa said.For some couples, the cost of a wedding photographer, which can range from $6,000 to $15,000, can be too high, so they choose social media photos instead. But that leaves Aunt Gertrude and the rest of the guests with a lot of responsibility.Continue reading the main story

One maid of honor, who asked not to be named so as not offend her best friend, was recently tasked with promoting a hashtag among guests, but took it upon herself to subvert a possible disaster.“It’s an awful lot of pressure,” the maid of honor said. “So rather than spend the whole night trying to capture that perfect moment, and feeling terrible if we missed it, all the bridesmaids pitched in for a wedding photographer as the couple’s gift.”So what’s a bride (or groom) to do? To hashtag or not to hashtag, that is the question.“Right now there is the unplugged wedding versus the totally plugged wedding,” said Cassandra Santor, a Los Angeles-based wedding planner. She suggests a compromise: “I think that having an unplugged ceremony, but not having an unplugged reception, seems to be the juicy middle.”Portia Wells, a designer in Los Angeles who was married earlier this year, and her now-husband Mark Trammell, did this almost by accident. After a long debate, the couple decided to politely ask people not to use their cellphones during the ceremony, but didn’t set any rules for the dinner and reception.The morning after the wedding, the newlyweds woke up in their suite at the Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara, Calif. Ms. Wells looked over at her husband and excitedly said, “Let’s see if we can find any pictures of the wedding online.” (Pillow Talk 2.0, perhaps.)They grabbed their laptops and cellphones, and began searching. To their surprise, the couple found a hashtag, #tramwells, that guests had organized and used throughout the night.“We were able to find all of these amazing pictures and videos online, all under one hashtag,” Ms. Wells said. “We saw pictures the photographer couldn’t have captured: gorgeous photos taken from a completely different perspective.”

Something old, something new: wedding gown lost in Hurriance Sandy found at reopened cleaners

Nicole Pagliaro said she thought the dress she wore at her wedding reception was lost forever when Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Staten Island dry cleaner she took it to after her July 2012 nuptials. But after the shop’s owner opened a new store, Pagliaro and her husband drove by and saw the frock in the window.
A lost gown a Staten Island woman danced in on her wedding night has resurfaced nearly two years after she feared Hurricane Sandy washed it away forever.
Nicole Pagliaro’s reunion with the floor-length white chiffon gown came as she and her husband, Michael, celebrated their second wedding anniversary Tuesday.
“I never thought I’d see the dress again,” Pagliaro told the Daily News Tuesday night, adding that she wants to someday see her daughter, Mia Grace, now 18 months, wear it to her wedding.
The 30-year-old nurse thought the dress was lost forever when Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Sand Lane dry cleaner she took it to after her July 29, 2012 nuptials.
She said she bought the dress to wear to her wedding reception, while choosing an aunt’s 41-year-old gown to say her “I dos” in.
“I actually signed my marriage certificate in that dress,” Pagliaro told The News.
She returned the vintage dress to her aunt, Amy Maniscalco, and took the reception gown to the South Beach Cleaners, paying $160 to have it cleaned and put in a secure box.
Hurricane Sandy’s surge that October flooded the dry cleaner with 5 feet of water, putting owner Hector Pacheco out of business.
Pacheco, 30, said he found the dress floating on the water at the back of his decimated shop, but with all his computer records destroyed he couldn’t track down the owner.
When Pacheco finally reopened the cleaners in February in a new location on McClean Ave. in Arrochar, Staten Island, he displayed the dress in the window hoping its rightful owner would claim it.
“I hoped that one day she would drive by,” said Pacheco, who turned down offers from people wanting to buy the dress.
Pagliaro said that last week her husband was driving her to the subway station at 6:30 a.m. when they went past Pacheco’s new shop for the first time.
“We were caught at a light and I nonchalantly looked to my right. I said, ‘Honey, I think that’s my dress in the window.’ He said, ‘No way that’s your dress,’” Pagliaro said.
On Monday, Pagliaro went to the store to reclaim her dress.
“Like every woman does, they have to prove their husbands wrong,” she said. “I walked into the store and said, ‘I think that’s my dress.’”
Pacheco said he instantly remembered Pagliaro’s face and big hug.

Her husband, Michael, added that finding the dress was not only a great anniversary present, it “is another symbol of our relationship surviving everything.”

westillcoming: the truth about the viral wedding photo and the 'uninvited guests'

Amy and Ian Hicks saw their unique wedding photo and the story about it everywhere in recent weeks — in People magazine, the New York Post, the Daily Mail and of course on Reddit, where the tale went viral. But they didn’t recognise what they were reading.
The articles all said different things, but the thrust was that the couple in the photo had accidentally sent a text message to a stranger inviting him to their wedding photoshoot. The invitation circulated. Supposedly, when the bride figured this out and tried to uninvite the stranger, she got message saying “we still coming'', which became a trending Twitter hashtag, westillcoming.
The photo accompanying the story in People showed the person wasn’t lying. The wedding party in the photo was surrounded by a a group of new friends.
It just didn’t happen. “I really wish they knew the real story,” Amy Hicks said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It’s amazing how many legitimate news publications will post anything online.”
No publication called them to get the real story, they said.
Here’s what they say did happen. It’s the story behind the photo.
Amy, 25, and Ian Hicks, 28, live in Washington, DC, where she works in government relations and he works in sales for a furniture manufacturer. Their wedding took place in Detroit because Amy is from Michigan.
After Amy and Ian got married at the Colony Club in Detroit, the bridal party jumped on an antique trolley-bus and stopped at several locations for photos. When they stopped at the Michigan Central Station, a once-grand but now decaying and abandoned structure, they encountered more than 30 young black men - a rap group called “7262″ filming a video for their new album using tricked out blue and gold Chevrolet Monte Carlos as props.
As Amy exited the trolley-bus, she said the group clapped and congratulated the young couple. While Amy and Ian positioned themselves in front of the station for a photo, the groomsmen in their tuxes decided to mingle with the rappers in their brightly coloured street threads.
But pictures weren’t enough for Adam Sparkes, the couple’s wedding photographer and a lifelong resident of Detroit..
“They looked over at us,” Sparkes told The Post. “We waved back at them and then we said, ‘we are going to come over and dance in your video.’”
Amy and Ian summoned the bridesmaids from the trolley-bus and they all got out, with the crowd of rappers whooping and hollering. 7262 turned up the music — and for the next 15 minutes Amy, Ian and their bridal party danced to the “Anthem” rap song, all the while being filmed for the video.
One week later, they received a link to 7262’s first video - “Anthem.” The video opens with the bridesmaids exiting the trolley-bus and running toward the group. Several groomsmen are featured dancing.
The photo that went viral was a mobile-phone picture from that moment. Someone uploaded the picture to social media and it’s been spreading — with the fantasy story — for the last month.
Danta Norris, 20, and Joshua Norris, 18, rap as Mojo and Jojinooo in 7262. Mojo said that he doesn’t mind the extra attention that the photo is getting because of the incorrect story.
“It’s all cool that people making what they make up,” Mojo said. “It’s making it blow up more.”

Here is the link to the 7262 video. Warning: The language is very graphic.

A Change of Plans: Greer Cotton and Bill Black Destination Wedding

Greer Cotton and Bill Black originally planned to have a small wedding at a traditional church in Birmingham.
They'd even booked the church and date. It was to be family only. After all, it was a second wedding for both. Still, something didn't feel right about hosting such a small ceremony in a large space. After talking it over, the couple decided the beach would be the best place for their wedding ceremony and celebration.
"We had both done the church thing," Greer says. "We thought, what's more beautiful than God's creation? When we thought about what we really wanted, it was to get married on the beach with our children and closest family and friends present."
They moved up their wedding date by almost a month, and on March 22, with the ocean as their backdrop, they married on Grayton Beach in Florida.
The couple decided to marry during spring break . Greer's a teacher at Crestline Elementary, and it allowed their children — they now have five combined — to attend without missing school. It only gave them about a month to plan, but more were able to join in on the celebration since they were beach bound anyway.
Their children served as their wedding party, and friends and family pitched in to help make the event happen in such a short time.
Donnie Sasser of Montgomery's Two Blessings created the flowers arrangements with baby's breath and burlap ribbons, as well as the arbor draped in burlap that the couple said their vows under.
Another friend drove the some five hours to the beach with their three-tier cake from Olexa's. Brian assembled it himself. The couple's Birmingham pastor officiated, and close friend Heather Durham was their photographer.
On the day of the wedding, family and friends set out the chairs, and Bill made the sign directing guests to leave their shoes as they headed to the beach for the ceremony.
Before saying their vows, the soon-to-be family of seven spent time together exchanging gifts. The couple gave the four girls cross necklaces, and their son a compass. "We've been very fortunate," Greer says. "They've all got along really well since we introduced them."
After the ceremony, they posed for family pictures on the beach before heading to a nearby beach house for the reception.
Family and friends pitched in again to provide the food. In all, about 100 attended their wedding event at Grayton Beach.
After a honeymoon in Mexico, the couple returned to another celebration, this one in Birmingham. Friends again came together to host a Birmingham reception for the couple.

"We really do feel like everything just all fell in place," Bill says. "Everybody did such an amazing job."

How Long Do I Have to Send a Wedding Gift?

Some of the most often asked etiquette questions are centered on the wedding gift; and one of the main questions is: How long do I have to send a gift?
Giving gifts to the wedding couple is a longstanding tradition. The gift serves as a tangible representation of your affection and support of the marriage. The #1 gift etiquette rule is: If you're invited to a wedding, you should send a gift, whether or not you are able to attend.
With that established, "When should I send a gift?" is the next question. It's traditional and the best practice to send the wedding gift before the wedding. The gift is typically sent to the bride's home, whether she lives with her parents, on her own, or with her fiancé. If you purchase from the couple's wedding gift registry, the gift will be sent to the address the couple provides, so you don't have to give it a second thought.
In some areas it may still be the tradition to take a gift to the wedding reception, but I strongly discourage this practice. It creates extra work for the family, attached cards can be lost, and it's sad to say, but there have been reports of gifts being stolen.
Now the wedding date has come and gone, but you didn't get around to sending the gift before the wedding. Maybe you were busy, maybe you were strapped for cash, maybe you weren't sure what to buy so you put it off. Whatever the reason, the question is: "If you aren't able, or don't send a gift before the wedding, how long after the wedding do you have to send the gift?
There is a popular myth that you have up to one year to send the couple a gift. But think about it; if you got married and didn't receive a gift after a few months, wouldn't you assume it wasn't coming? So the correct answer is: It's best to send the gift within one month after the wedding, two months at the most. With online gift registries and mobile shopping, there is really no reason, other than finances, not to send your friend a wedding gift before or shortly after the wedding.
Peggy Post, Director of the Emily Post Institute says, "One year is actually really long. Try sending the gift as close to the wedding as possible. It's good manners."

Of course, there are always extenuating circumstances. For example, if you spent more money than anticipated on attending the wedding and find yourself in a situation where you need some time to save up for a wedding gift, it's understandable. "Better late than never" perfectly applies to this situation. The answer is always -send your gift as soon as you can!

'Super showing' at Nashville's first LGBT wedding expo

Gay and lesbian couples planning wedding ceremonies in Tennessee often spend countless hours tracking down gay-friendly wedding vendors before even considering the details of their big day.
That's probably why Nashville's first ever "Same Love, Same Rights" LGBT Wedding Expo today attracted nearly 400 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered couples to the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, where 33 such vendors were all in one space.
For nearly 12 years, the national resource RainbowWeddingNetwork has hosted more than 100 LGBT Wedding Expos in 26 states – Tennessee became the 27th today – to help couples find the resources needed to plan their dream ceremonies.
And the states where gay marriage is not legal is where attendance of these events tends to be the highest, said RainbowWeddingNetwork co-founder Marianne Puechl.
"It was a super showing for this event. We have been wanting to come to Tennessee for a long time," Puechl said. "There is such a dynamic community here that wants this. These resources are needed whether marriage equality is even being discussed here."
Teresa, left, and Kendra Washington, of Nashville, talk to a cake maker at Sunday’s “Same Love, Same Rights” LGBT Wedding Expo at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel.(Photo: Jamie Page / The Tennessean)
Kendra and Teresa Washington, of Nashville, married two weeks ago in Illinois and are now planning their wedding ceremony in Memphis, where many of their friends and relatives live.
"This event saves gas," Kendra said. "Normally, we would have to go on the Internet and find all these, and it's hard when you have to go around and check out a lot of places. So, with this event, you get to see the places that want to help with this kind of wedding. It really helps to narrow it down."
For free, they checked out caterers, cake and cookie makers, reception venues, formal wear, apparel, florists, photographers, videographers, DJs, musicians and officiants.
Couples received LGBT-specific planning tips, signed up for give-aways, heard speakers on marriage and family equality, and picked up free samples and swag bags.
Aisha Forman, 25, and Antoinette Chavous, 26, scoped out vendors for their September 2015 wedding.

"It's amazing because you never see this," Forman said. "We are able to plan our wedding that's not even nationally recognized. It's just nice to see this many people even do gay and lesbian weddings."

FAA Investigates Congressman's Drone Wedding Video

The Federal Aviation Administration indicated Wednesday that it is investigating whether a video of a congressman's wedding last month violated the agency's ban on drone flights for commercial purposes.
The agency's carefully worded statement doesn't mention Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., by name, but said it was looking into "a report of an unmanned aircraft operation in Cold Spring, New York, on June 21 to determine if there was any violation of federal regulations or airspace restrictions."
Maloney has acknowledged hiring a photographer to produce a video of his wedding using a camera mounted on a small drone. The wedding took place in Cold Spring on June 21. Maloney is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's aviation subcommittee, which oversees the FAA.
Top agency officials have testified extensively before Congress about their concern that commercial drones could collide with manned aircraft or injure people on the ground. Congress has been pressing the FAA to move faster on creating regulations that will allow commercial drones access to U.S. The agency has been working on regulations for about a decade.
"On their wedding day, Sean and Randy were focused on a ceremony twenty-two years in the making, not their wedding photographer's camera mounted on his remote control helicopter," said Stephanie Formas, spokeswoman for Sean Patrick Maloney, said in a statement.
The FAA has approved a few limited commercial drone operations. But the agency has also been sending letters to commercial operators across the country — including other videographers and companies that hire videographers — to cease their drone flights or face fines.
One videographer, Raphael Pirker, challenged the $10,000 fine the FAA tried to level against him for flying is small drone in an allegedly reckless manner near the University of Virginia. An administrative law judge sided with Pirker, whose attorney argued the agency can't ban commercial drone flights when it hasn't formally adopted safety rules governing drone flights. The FAA has appealed the case to the five-member National Transportation Safety Board. A decision is expected this fall.
Formas, citing the judge's ruling, said there was "no enforceable FAA rule" or regulation that applied to "a model aircraft like the helicopter used in the ceremony."
The wedding photographer subcontracted Parker Gyokeres of Propellerheads Aerial Photography of Trenton, N.J. to shoot the video. Gyokeress posted outtakes of the wedding on his company's website and created a YouTube video.

Maloney's wedding video was first reported by the New York Daily News.

Boy nine, 62-year-old woman repeat wedding to please ancestors

Sanele Masilela is now nine and his wife, Helen Shabangu, is 62 years old.
Yesterday's wedding was held to introduce the groom to the bride's family in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga.
According to an agreement between the two families, much of last year's formal wedding needed to be repeated before the couple changed into traditional gear for the second part of the ceremony.
The traditional marriage took place in Mkhuhlu township, where Shabangu has a home. Last year, their white wedding was held in Mamelodi, Pretoria, where they live separately.
Early yesterday, there were busy preparations for the traditional ceremony as curious onlookers gathered at Shabangu's home.
The house was abuzz with women from the village preparing umqombothi (beer), pap and chakalaka. A cow was slaughtered to feed the guests.
Shabangu's real husband, Abel Shabangu, was among the men who came to help to put up a tent and three gazebos. He also bought a three-tier wedding cake.
"I'm here to support my wife. We all want this day to go well. Our children couldn't come, but they also wish us well today," said Abel.
An aunt of the bride, Anah Khosa, said the family was happy that the wedding had come to Mpumalanga because they could not afford to go to Pretoria last year.
Last year's Valentine's Day wedding had all the elements of a real one: R7000 lobolo was paid for Shabangu, who wore a white wedding gown, and they kissed before exchanging rings and vows. The ceremony, it was said at the time, was not binding but merely a ritual to appease the ancestors.
Since that white wedding, the couple have returned to their normal lives - Sanele being just a schoolboy and his spouse a working woman.
Before yesterday, they had not seen one another since November.
Sanele, a Grade 4 pupil, claimed to have been having a series of visions of his late grandfather, which were interpreted as a sign that his grandfather, Busy Masilela, who never married, wanted Sanele to do so on his behalf.
Sanele's mother, Patience Masilela, said the wedding attracted much international media interest last year. She said people who were not familiar with the ritual thought the couple were living together as husband and wife.
The young groom now lives with his elder sister in Venda, where he attends school.
Patience said that when her son told neighbours in Mkhuhlu that he was getting married in a traditional ceremony, everybody pitched in with the cooking and other arrangements.
"The ceremony moved from a small thing to a real one - like the white wedding of a mature man," she said.
"Everyone who attended had been invited by Sanele. He understands why he had to do this. And one day, when he is older, he will choose a girl his age to marry.
"I did whatever I could to protect him from the ancestors. If we didn't do this, he would have been sick or gone crazy," she said.
The groom's mother said the R18000 white wedding also attracted the interest of social workers, who sent the boy for mental evaluation.
But, she said, they realised he was stable and merely practising his culture.
Shabangu, a close family friend, works with Sanele's mother at a dumping site where they collect material for recycling and resale. They left Mamelodi for Mkhuhlu two weeks ago to prepare for yesterday's wedding .
Yesterday, a neighbour, Jane Mashaba, said people were happy for the spirits of the ancestors and hoped they would not trouble the boy any longer.
Shabangu did not show any signs of age as she danced with her bridesmaids, girls of between four and 10 years.
Masogana A Bapedi dancers provided entertainment and the guests drank soft drinks.

Sanele and his bride shared a bottle of Fanta Grape.

How a Family of 21 Throws a Wedding

Every father of the bride braces for the moment when he walks his daughter down the aisle and gives her away to the man she loves.
But Gil Bates will likely take that walk 10 times for each of his 10 daughters. He also has nine sons to marry off.
The Bates family is an evangelical, conservative Christian family who are deeply faithful and live a modest lifestyle at their home outside of Knoxville, Tennessee.
With 19 biological children, Gil and Kelly Bates believe God is in charge of family planning. At 25 years old, Zach is the oldest, followed by Michael, Erin, Lawson, Nathan, Alyssa, Tori, Trace, Carlin, Josie, Katie, Jackson, Warden, Isaiah, Addaliee, Ellie, Callie, Judson and baby Jeb, who is 2-and-a-half.
Alyssa, 19, the most recent Bates child to walk down the aisle, was married in May after getting engaged in January to her now husband John Webster, the son of Florida Congressman Daniel Webster.
Alyssa was Gil and Kelly’s third child to head to the altar. Zach, the eldest child, was married to his wife Whitney in December and settled just down the road from his family. They are expecting their first child -- the first Bates grandchild -- in October. Erin, 23, is also a newlywed. She and her husband Chad Paine live in a cottage also not far from her parents and older brother.
Anyone who marries a Bates must share their strict Christian values and it’s not always easy to get parental approval. Gil turned away a suitor for Michael, their oldest daughter, when she was 16. She watched her two younger sisters, Erin and Alyssa, become brides before her, but soon it will be her turn. She and her boyfriend Brandon Keilen are courting and both said they want a big family.
“Thankfully, praise the Lord, we agree, we both want a lot of kids, so, but if the Lord just gives us two, that’s wonderful too,” Michael said.
Before their wedding, Alyssa and John had never been alone together, even though they had dated for over a year. As part of the Bates’ family’s rules of courtship, the couple barely had any physical contact before marriage.
Since Alyssa has so many siblings, not all of them could be in the bridal party so just nine of the 19 Bates children were in the wedding. As for the wedding dress, no strapless or plunging neckline allowed. Alyssa even had to have her dress altered to add cap sleeves.
“On the wedding day, she should feel beautiful, comfortable and appropriate,” said her mother, Kelly.
Six hundred people were invited to the wedding, including the Bates’ friends and America’s most famous mega family, the Duggars, the stars of TLC’s reality TV show, “19 Kids and Counting.” Raising 19 kids is not cheap, so the Bates like to live frugally and that includes how they throw a wedding. The signs, the decor, even the pot luck desserts were all made by the family.
Gil runs a tree-cutting business and preaches, which provides enough for the family to get by. Lawson, the Bates’ fourth child, started his own lawn care company when he was just 13, which has been profitable enough for Lawson to help out his family.
“I bought a new truck. I buy everything cash. I don't like to borrow money,” he said. “Zach needed $1,000 to help buy a car, so I loaned him that. Erin needed a couple thousands to go to college, so she's paying me back. They're real good about paying me back, which is fine with me. I don't mind.”
Kelly has been pregnant 23 of the last 25 years and has had 14 home births with the help of a midwife, without epidurals or anesthesia. But as she got older, she had a harder time with pregnancies and suffered three miscarriages, so she started taking progesterone to increase her chances of having successful pregnancies.
While the Bates do not believe in birth control, because they say they don't want to use medical intervention to prevent a pregnancy, they are willing to use modern medicine to sustain a pregnancy. They argue a 2-day-old embryo is as deserving of medical intervention as any of their children because they believe life begins at conception.
“Although we just want to trust God, but at the same time, if there’s already a life living, we don’t want to deny medical help for a baby that’s in trouble,” Kelly said.
After her hormone treatment, Kelly gave birth to Jeb, baby No. 19, almost three years ago, and said they would have more if that’s what God intended.
For most of the kids’ lives, the Bates family members have all lived under one roof in a five-bedroom home. But Alyssa will be the first to move away from the family’s hometown, which gave everyone pre-wedding jitters.
“Right now I am all excited about getting married, but it’s going to affect me after I move,” Alyssa said.
Soon she and her new husband will move 700 miles away to John’s hometown of Orlando, Florida.
“It’s sad, it’s really sad,” said Tori Bates, who is 13 months younger than Alyssa. “Erin stayed here, Zach stayed here. ... Alyssa, she is moving straight to Florida. When she leaves the wedding, that is the last we’ll see of her.”
Although the Bates family doesn't own a TV, they have a massive online following. Lawson has more than 12,000 followers on Instagram. Alyssa, who started using Instagram to share photos with family and friends, now has 23,000 followers. She mostly shares photos of her and her new husband with the hashtag "#LoveMyHusband."

“It will be an adjustment,” Kelly said of Alyssa moving away. “We are going to miss her personality, her talent. She is a big help to the family. She cooks, she organizes. She will be missed, it will be an adjustment. But thank the Lord for texting. I plan on texting every day.”

Jessica Simpson’s Wedding Ring

Jessica and Eric finally said ‘I Do’ — and they made it official with a stunning wedding band that was just as gorgeous as her sparkling engagement ring! Do you love her new bling?
Jessica Simpson, 33, and Eric Johnson, 34, are officially married and we couldn’t be happier! The two lovebirds said their vows at San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito in front of 275 guests on July 5. The lavish wedding looked incredible — we wish we were there! How can anyone forget Jessica’s breathtaking, (and huge!), ruby engagement ring? Well, People mag shared a photo of her wedding band, and it’s just as beautiful and compliments it perfectly. What do you think of Jessica’s wedding ring?
Jessica Simpson’s Wedding Ring:
Simpson’s engagement ring, a Neil Lane, three-stone gold ring with a big ruby in the center surrounded by two diamonds, was so unique and beautiful, we loved it the moment we saw it.
The celebrity jeweler sure knows what he is doing, because he made Jessica a wedding band that is just as divine. It is a band complete with circle and pear-shaped diamonds going all the way around and outlined in gold. The wedding band goes perfectly with her engagement ring and now she has a finger clad with giant diamonds and rubies — every girl’s dream!
It wasn’t just Simpson that got a custom ring from the jeweler, he also designed a special ring for Johnson that consisted of a gold band garnished with artistic designs and a ruby to match Jessica’s ruby ring, (which is also her birthstone!). How cute is that?!
Jessica Simpson’s Wedding Accessories:
As if Jessica’s rings weren’t more than enough, she also donned a pair of 12-carat Neil Lane circle-drop earrings — wow!

Jessica & Eric’s wedding looked magical and we are so happy for them! We want to know what you think?

New Details From the Singer and Eric Johnson's Wedding

Jessica Simpson was a blushing bride—literally!—when she flubbed her marital vows.
Sources tell E! News that Jessica's father, Joe Simpson, officiated her wedding to Eric Johnson July 5. The 33-year-old bride walked down the aisle at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif., wearing a custom Carolina Herrera gown. She and Johnson exchanged vows in front of more than 250 attendees, including celebrities Jessica Alba,CaCee Cobb, Donald Faison, Topher Grace, Evan Ross, Ashlee Simpson and Cash Warren. Guests traveled from states like Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Texas.
The couple's 1-year-old son, Ace, served as a ring bearer and their 2-year-old daughter,Maxwell, 2, walked down the aisle as a flower girl. Maxi was accompanied by Ashlee's 5-year-old son, Bronx Wentz.
When the 34-year-old groom began to recite his vows, he choked up and had to start over again. And, according to sources, Jessica was just as nervous when she said hers. In fact, she was so overwhelmed that instead of addressing Eric, she said her own name! Luckily, she laughed it off and started over again.
After swapping vows, the newlyweds gave a statement to People. "We are overwhelmed with complete happiness and love having made our eternal commitment," Jessica and Eric gushed. "To say 'I do' in front of family, friends and, most importantly, our children has been the happiest moment of our lives."
During the reception, Eric's father gave a touching toast, but neither of Jessica's parents made speeches. "It was very emotional," a source said. An insider adds, "Jessica looked very happy on her wedding day."
The bride didn't dance much, sources tell E! News. Instead, she chose to chat with family and friends. That didn't stop the fashion designer's guests from busting a move, as some of them stayed until 5 a.m.
When guests exited the wedding, women were given rose-colored leather totes. They were filled with items personally designed by Jessica, including sunglasses. Each bag also had delectable treats to eat.
Following an 80-month engagement, the wedding went off without a hitch. "You better believe it was, 'Wow!'" one guest told E! News. "That freakin' thing must have cost a million bucks. It was fantastic."

Indeed it was. "The whole weekend was magical for us," Simpson told People. "We feel complete."

Full House Cast Reunion at Dave Coulier's Wedding to Melissa Bring

Full House, full hearts! The cast of the beloved '80s and '90s family-centric sitcom Full House reunited in Paradise Valley, Mont., for Dave Coulier's wedding to Melissa Bring.
The nuptials, held in a scenic field surrounded by lush greenery and mountainous terrain, took place on Wednesday, July 2. There to witness the union between husband, 54, and wife, 31, included Coulier's former costars, John Stamos (Uncle Jesse), Candace Cameron Bure (DJ Tanner), Andrea Barber (Kimmy Gibbler), Bob Saget (Danny Tanner), and Full House show creator Jeff Franklin.
Barber, 38, who went as Bure's date to the wedding while their husbands watched their kids at home, shared a snap with Stamos wedged between the two girls. "Full hearts here at @dcoulier and @melissabring's wedding," she captioned the Instagram pic.
Bure, 38, also expressed joy in being reunited with her onscreen bestie. "This is love..... friends forever, K&DJ, A&C," the DWTS alum wrote, alongside a pic of the two posing in a field.
As for the men of the house? Franklin tweeted an adorable picture -- taken moments after Coulier and Bring exchanged vows -- with the "three funniest guys I know, for 28 years...Love these guys!"
Bure also shared a picture with the groom, who protectively wrapped one arm around his onscreen niece's shoulder. "Happy wedding day Dave & Melissa!!! I love you both SO much!!!, she wrote alongside a snap of the two standing in an open field decorated with wooden picnic tables, white tents, and matching table settings.
The decorative wood, it turns out, was a highly-coveted item at the wedding -- from Stamos' perspective, at least. Saget, 58, shared a picture of the hunky Uncle Jesse, 50, looking sharp in a navy suit and aviator shades and holding a plank of burnished wood. "Stamos walking away with wood at Dave's wedding," Saget captioned the funny picture.
John Stamos joked around at the wedding carrying a piece of wood.
Credit: Courtesy of Bob Saget
Us Weekly exclusively reported the news of Coulier's engagement last month. In a statement, Coulier (who played the beloved Uncle Joey Gladstone on the smash show) expressed how excited he was to get married to his longtime love Bring, a photographer and producer.

"Melissa has been my best friend since I met her nine years ago," he told Us. "I feel like the luckiest man on the planet. I get to marry my best friend, and she doesn't mind that I have a really bad gas problem."

Kendra Wilkinson steps out sans wedding ring

Kendra Wilkinson did not like what she found when she looked into cheating rumors surrounding her husband Hank Baskett.
When the 29-year-old former Playboy model got wind of reports that Baskett had an affair with a transgender model, she laughed it off, Us Weekly reported in its latest issue.
However, once Wilkinson, who just gave birth to couple's second child five weeks ago, "started snooping," she discovered an "unexplained charge on his credit card," a source told the mag.
The blond reportedly "flipped out and punched walls in their home."
Wilkinson allegedly then threw photos from their wedding into their family pool, and took off her wedding ring and flushed it down the toilet, the insider continued to the mag.
"She was extremely angry."
Wilkinson further back up the rumors when she stepped out in Los Angeles Tuesday with her wedding ring visibly missing.
Baskett's indiscretion apparently took place with transgender Ava Sabrina London in April, the National Enquirer reported.
London sat down with the tabloid and shared her side of the story.
"He contacted me through a video I had posted on YouTube and we exchanged information," she said of how they first got connected.
"Hank never identified himself by his real name. But he used, I believe it was Steve, as his name," London recalled of their tryst.
"Hank absolutely knew that I was a transsexual and he told me that I was the only transsexual he's ever been with," she claimed.
"He thought I was beautiful."

The family, including newborn daughter Alijah Mary and the couple's 4-year-old son, Hank Jr., were seen out together post the affair news over the weekend of June 21, but Wilkinson was not wearing her rings.