Love Blooms At Ikea-Flash Mob And All!

This cute article by Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff at Yahoo Shine! Karen particularly loves Ikea, so this one's for her! I am actually partial to those famous meatballs.........

What’s in the water at IKEA?

Earlier this month, a New Jersey couple exchanged wedding vows in the picture-frame aisle at their local IKEA store, where they had first locked eyes eight years earlier. Now, in the latest romantic tale for the Swedish furniture retailer, a Miami man, Carlos Gatos, has staged an elaborate flash-mob proposal in the Sunrise, Florida store. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zj7CSoWY38k

For some couples, navigating the maze of an IKEA store the ultimate relationship test. But for Gatos and Rebecca Shackelford, it's the place they first met.  Two years later, on June 15th, Shackelford looked floored as a suit-clad Gatos descended the store’s long escalator, bouquet of flowers in hand. Then, at the end of a flash mob’s dance routine to Bruno Mars’s “Marry You,” Gatos dropped to his knees before Shackelford (and in front of a large crowd), saying, “You're the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. I can't think of my life without you. I love you. Will you please marry me?” She responded with a resounding “Yes!” 

Soon afterward, Shackelford told the Palm Beach New Times, “When I saw him, I was in shock. I'm still shaking.”

Gatos, a 29-year-old paramedic, said he was determined to propose to her in the place that brought them together. “I had to bring her back here because, against all odds, we met here,” he told the Times. “We had lunch in the cafeteria, separate checks, and then we spent the rest of the day here. When it closed is when we left.” He worked with Sean's Dance Factory of West Palm, where Sean Green choreographed the number and worked with the crew of dancers. 

“I love how it came out,” Green said. “I’m just excited for Carlos and his new wife-to-be. We thank IKEA for allowing us to be here and put this project together.”

It's not the first time Ikea played Cupid. On June 8, Shirley Stewart and Rashid Smith were married an IKEA store in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Shirley, a reciprocal clerk at AAA, had been shopping with her daughter when she noticed fellow customer Smith. 

“I couldn’t tell if he was wearing a wedding ring or was with a woman so I followed him around the store for an entire hour, trying to find a reason to talk to him,” she told Yahoo! Shine. “Eventually, my daughter got impatient so she offered to get his phone number for me.” That got his attention, and, eight years later, they tied the knot in the exact spot where they first spoke.

Earlier this year, in Australia, another couple tied the knot in IKEA, in a ceremony orchestrated and paid for by the store itself. “Meet Lynne and Chad. They're the lucky couple selected to hold their wedding at the IKEA Tempe store. For them it's a dream come true,” read a promotional announcement on the company’s website about the wedding, designed to show the public how it can still be possible to orchestrate an elegant, affordable event (with IKEA products, of course). 

“It feels right to be married somewhere we both love—and we adore IKEA,” the couple was quoted as saying, adding that their many shopping trips to the store over the years had brought them closer. "It's true, romance can be alive anywhere, even in the aisles of IKEA!"

According to IKEA spokesperson Marty Marston, such romances have been a part of the store's allure for a while now. "I remember 20 years ago we had a couple get married on Valentine's Day in the New Jersey store," she told Shine. At the Burbank store, she added, IKEA partnered with Universal Studios for the 2008 film release of "Mamma Mia!," marrying 20 couples in the store with a festive disco theme. 

"I think it's great that people feel so attached to the store that they want it to have a place in their memories," Marston said. As far as why love seems to bloom in their aisles, she posited, "You feel good when you're at an IKEA store. I think that promotes a very positive frame of mind."

It seems to be the case around the globe, including in Shanghai, China, where new IKEA stores were seen as magnets for older lonely hearts seeking a shot at romance, according to a 2011 Wall Street Journal story. Tang Yingzhuo, a retired widow, told a reporter she didn’t think it was right to try to meet men at bars, clubs or Karaoke joints, and preferred the aisles and café area of IKEA instead. But the new town square was fulfilling in other ways, too. "I make more senior citizen friends when I come here," Tang said. "There's more to offer than meeting a boyfriend at IKEA."

Who knew?

Bride Gets a New Dress After Losing Original in Tornado!

Megan and Justin Acord (Photo by Megan Acorn)

• During hard times the things we cherish and embrace the most are family and friends. These friends knew exactly what to do to help ease this bride's burden and wrap her in friendship, love-and a wedding dress!
• Article by Elise Solé on the Yahoo Shine! Staff

Megan Acord is grateful that she survived the devastating tornado that hit her town of Moore, Oklahoma last month—even though her wedding dress did not. 
“My house had been completely destroyed in part by a truck that ripped through it and landed in my backyard,” Acord told Yahoo! Shine. “After making sure my family members were safe, my first thought was, ‘I hope my wedding dress is OK.’” After the tornado passed, Acord returned to what was left of her home and took the remains apart brick by brick. “I didn’t want to bulldoze in case the dress and other valuables were salvageable,” she says. In April, Acord and her now-husband Justin, 25, a senior airman in the Air Force, had gotten hitched in order to be transferred as a married couple to Justin’s next station in South Carolina. However, they were planning a proper wedding for July 12 for which Acord had purchased a $350 gown from David’s Bridal. “I liked the dress, but it was a little plain and I was on a budget,” says Acord. Sadly, Acord couldn't locate her dress and postponed her wedding. “I was devastated when it was gone. I wasn’t sure I could afford another one.” 

On Saturday, her friends offered to take Acord to lunch to cheer her up. While they were crossing the street in the town of Norman, one of them steered her in the direction of a wedding dress shop named BeLoved Bridal Boutique. “I didn’t understand what we were doing there but once inside, I saw my boss, Laura, and Channel 4 News,” says Acord. “Laura was smiling with tears in her eyes and said, ‘I hear you need a new wedding dress.’”  

Laura Hilgenfeld, co-owner of a local Chick-fil-A where Acord works as a cashier, told Yahoo! Shine, “We were saddened by the loss of Megan’s home and wedding dress. We started a fundraiser at Chick-fil-A for team members affected by the tornado but I wanted to do something special for Megan. So on Wednesday, totally on a whim, I called BeLoved Bridal Boutique and asked if we could buy one of their floor sample dresses at a discount.” 

The owners of the boutique jumped at the chance to assist. “We thought we could do better than help,” co-owner Andrea Mantooth told Yahoo! Shine. “We’re in the business of helping brides so we thought, ‘Let’s just blow her away.’ We called one of our designers, Stella York, and asked if they could donate one of their many gowns we had in stock. They immediately said yes.” 

Acord tried on 10 different dresses before settling on her dream gown: A $1,500 jeweled, belted “fit-n-flare” dress with a sweetheart neckline. “It was so rewarding to walk into a bridal shop and choose whatever gown I wanted,” says Acord. “It was every girl's dream! I’m so thankful to my boss. It was such a blessing."

The couple have rescheduled their nuptials for August. So, can we preview the new gown? “Not before my husband sees it. It's a surprise!" says Acord.

Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest!

I've heard of wedding dresses being fashioned out of duct tape, but this is a whole new concept to me! I'm not sure how wearable the dress would actually be, but it certainly scores high in the creative department. This article from Yahoo Shine! By Elise Solé.
An Albanian hairdresser from South Carolina is “flush” with pride after winning a $2,000 grand prize for her wedding dress creation, made entirely from toilet paper. 
Mimoza Haska, the first-place winner, was flown into New York from her home in South Carolina for the live judging event at RK Bridal on Thursday. 
The contest was sponsored by Charmin and hosted by Chic Cheap Weddings, a wedding-planning site created by a woman named Roxie Radford and her two daughters, Susan Bain and Laura Gawne. The three have backgrounds in restaurant ownership, catering, and event planning, and they share a love for “all things beautiful,” according to their website. 
“At bridesmaids parties, one of the games that you play is you wrap each other in toilet paper and you make these dresses and it’s normally a competition,” says Kate Pankoke, a judge. “Sometimes there’s prizes involved. But the girls who made these gowns obviously took it to a whole other level. So, as you can see here, the detail that goes into them. They’re only allowed to use Charmin toilet paper, glue, needle and thread and tape. So there’s no fabric in there. This is all paper. It’s amazing!” 
After winning the contest, Haska, wearing a ribbon sash, said, “Everybody did such a wonderful job. I’m honored, this is wonderful. I like clothes, I like art. I always create and I like to keep doing it and see where it takes me.”
Sounds like she's on a roll. 

9 Common Wedding Planning Myths Debunked

This helpful article by Laurie Arons, wedding planner on Yahoo!Shine.com 

Planning a wedding can be overwhelming, and you can end up a stressed-out bridezilla if you make the wrong assumptions about how to smoothly plan a budget-friendly and well-executed big day. There are a lot of elements that go into a wedding, but at the end of the day, you want it to appear effortless. Here to help is wedding planner Laurie Arons, who shares her expert tips on how to make your wedding memorable and enjoyable for your guests, loved ones, and, of course, you and your beloved. Laurie debunks nine of the most common wedding planning myths - check 'em out now! 

• Myth: It's a good idea to mail invitations early, giving guests plenty of time to respond - "If you mail invitations too early, guests often set aside the invite, forget about it or lose it, and end up neglecting to RSVP," Laurie warns. "Or if they do RSVP, their plans can change if there are still a few months to go before the big day. Proper etiquette states four to eight weeks before is the correct time frame for sending the invitation. A save the date is a perfect tool for letting guests know about your wedding ahead of time and can be mailed up to a year in advance."
• Myth: Offering an entrée choice on the invitation is gracious for your guests and helps the caterer plan ahead. - "It can actually be confusing during dinner service to serve the meal the guest chose weeks ago," Laurie says. "Strict seating charts or place markers are needed so the caterer knows what to serve, but even then, guests forget or change their mind and ask to switch on site."
• Myth: Open seating is great for guests because it gives them the freedom to sit with the people they want. - "It can be chaotic and stressful for guests to find seats with their preferred companions," Laurie advises. "Always assign at least a table for the guest to sit at. But taking a little extra time to assign a seat really takes the guesswork out of the equation and puts guests in a group you think they'd get along with best."

• Myth: A wedding at home is more low-key and less expensive. - "Weddings at home are so special - I love them!" That said, Laurie notes: "However, big expenses come with readying a private home for a big event, including landscaping, valet parking, rental items, and portable restrooms . . . not to mention cleaning fees after the event is over. Weigh all of the costs before deciding to go down this path."
• Myth: Rustic weddings are less expensive and more casual to plan. - "Rustic weddings look effortless, but looks can be deceiving," Laurie points out. "Trucking rental items into a remote or rustic location can be a logistical ordeal - those beautifully crafted wood farm tables are heavy and bulky to transport. Plus, your caterer will have to build kitchens from scratch on site, lighting will be needed to help guests navigate woodland trails, uneven ground, etc."
• Myth: Registering for your honeymoon gives your guests a chance to buy you something memorable. - "While the honeymoon registry is a new trend that's catching on, it can be improper to ask guests to fund a vacation." Laurie says her opinion is controversial, but adds, "Guests love to buy long-lasting pieces the couple will cherish in their home. I advise my clients to register for the traditional china, silver, and crystal, along with other useful household items like linens and towels. Beautiful vases, candlesticks, and picture frames are also popular registry items that can be passed down to the couple's children later in life."

• Myth: When it comes to personalizing your wedding, more personal touches mean a more fun guest experience. - "With all the wedding blogs and magazines out there, it's easy to get overinspired to include every cute detail you see. But it can quickly get overwhelming and expensive." Laurie's solution: "Pick a couple cute details you like and include them on the day, but try to stay consistent in the look and feel of your wedding for a seamless guest experience."
• Myth: DIY wedding elements are a special way for brides to feel a part of the planning process. - "Homemade favors, printed pieces, and desserts sound like a wonderful idea at first," Laurie notes. "But if you're stuck baking and crafting into the wee hours the week before your wedding, you will be too stressed and tired to enjoy the occasion. If you can get something done well in advance, go for it. Then leave the last-minute details to professionals or friends so you can relax and enjoy!"
• Myth: If your venue has an in-house wedding coordinator, you don't need to hire a wedding planner. - "On-site coordinators are wonderful at managing the flow at the venue and executing their event operations," Laurie says. "But their assistance usually doesn't leave their grounds. If you need help with wedding invitations, wedding party attire, transportation at hotels, etc., a professional wedding planner will be the one to guide you. Venue coordinators usually love when an organized, thoughtful wedding planner is on board, so they can team up to deliver the perfect wedding day to brides."

A 'Bonnie' Wedding in Cambria, California!

Saturday I had the pleasure of officiating for a Scottish-Style wedding (complete with bagpipes!) at Cambria Pines Inn in Cambria, CA. It was such a fun wedding and delightful change to my traditional garb! Also a wonderful venue to have a wedding, beautiful surroundings, great staff, charm and ambience! So in the spirit of the Scots, here is a Celtic blessing for the very special couple I married this weekend:

May you have,
Walls for the wind
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks bedside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire

A Wedding Story To Give Us Hope

Just saw this on Yahoo News this morning. This one needs no explanation. With all the grief, sadness and violence in the world today-this one is a story of love, hope and gratitude.

Strangers Donate Dream Wedding to Bride With Cancer

By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff 

Gargano, left, and Batugo at Sunday's dream wedding. Photo: COCO Gallery.Of the thousands ofweddings that no doubt took place in the U.S. on Sunday, there was at least one—between Jennifer Batugo and Brian Gargano, held in a picturesque Japanese garden on a Los Angeles hilltop—that had become a matter of life or death. 

More on Shine: Grab the Tissues: A Husband Documents His Wife's Battle with Breast Cancer

At least it felt that way for the bride, who was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive form of breast cancer in late March. Told by doctors that she may only have a few months to live, Batugo, 29, and her fiancé decided they would move their August wedding to April. “We were given kind of a deadline, you could say,” Gargano told Yahoo! Shine. But they had no concrete plans set, and found themselves daunted not only by Batugo’s prognosis, but by the idea of pulling off a wedding so quickly.

More on Yahoo!: Pregnancy is Safe After Breast Cancer

For help, Gargano placed a call to L.A. wedding officiant Elysia Skye. Though he didn’t know it at the time, Skye also happened to be a breast cancer survivor who runs a non-profit breast-cancer support organization. She said she cried when she heard the young couple’s story, promising Gargano, “I’ll take care of it all.” Then she sprang into action, kicking off an Indiegogo fund-raising campaign for the wedding and for medical expenses (which, active through April 26, has raked in nearly $13,000 so far). She also easily convinced Yamashiro Hollywood to donate its venue to the couple’s 30-guest event and got some of the top wedding vendors in L.A. to donate their services, mainly by enlisting one very dedicated wedding planner, Laura Guerrie of Rebel Belle Weddings, to orchestrate the event in 10 days flat.

Sunday's wedding was picture-perfect. Photo: COCO Gallery.“All of the usual push-pull between what the bride wants and keeping everybody happy is gone,” Guerrie told Shine, adding that there were no formal contracts with any vendors, just an overwhelming flood of enthusiastic verbal commitments to create a magical day for the young couple. And it paid off.

“It gave me a lot of hope,” Batugo told Shine two days before the wedding. “I’m fighting now.”

Just after the wedding, for which the bride wore a champagne-hued gown given to her by an engaged friend—as well as a flowing, dark wig (donated) to cover her own hair, which has already begun to thin from treatments—Batugo sounded positively gleeful. “It was such a beautiful day,” she said happily, “and we’re grateful for the graces we received.”

Guerrie added, “Jenn has one of the most positive, bubbly, lively personalities of anyone I’ve ever met, and she was absolutely ebullient today—laughing and dancing and enjoying every minute of the party.”

It was a marked improvement from how Batugo was understandably feeling just after her rare diagnosis of angiosarcoma of the breast on March 22. Until that point, she had been looking forward to marrying Gargano, 34, a respiratory therapist based in Phoenix, with whom she had embarked upon a whirlwind long-distance relationship, becoming engaged to on Valentine’s Day. But on that fateful day, she learned that she may not live through the summer, and that she would need to start aggressive, weekly chemotherapy treatments right next door to the hospital where she was employed as a gynecology oncology nurse.

“I feel overwhelmed, loved, blessed, but the fear and sadness is new. Anxiety keeps me up...” she wrote on her cancer support blog MyLifeLine.org. “I feel hopeless, but I’ve put on the brave, optimistic, smiley exterior people know me to have... but how to keep it up?!!”

The answer came unexpectedly, through the outpouring of love from people who had never even met her before, beginning when Gargano placed his call to Skye’s company L.A. Wedding Woman, which he found on Yelp.

“We met to talk about the wedding, and Jenn was asking me all these questions about treatment and wigs and intimate situations,” said Skye, who was diagnosed with stage-3 breast cancer just after her 24th birthday. After undergoing a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and many reconstructive surgeries, the wedding officiant started a side project, the Elysia Skye Breast Cancer Organization, focused on education and prevention.

“What’s inspiring to me is how much Jenn is inspired. Three weeks ago she was like, I guess I’m going to be dead this summer,” Skye told Shine. “Since this [wedding planning] started, she’s said I’m going to beat this. It just gives me purpose.”

In addition to the thousands of dollars raised through the Indiegogo campaign—which will not only be put toward Batugo’s medical expenses, but Gargano’s hurried relocation to L.A.—the crowd-sourced wedding welcomed a slew of donations. Those donated food and drink, photography, videography, makeup, accessories, balloons, hotel accommodations, flowers, music, wedding cake (“So many people wanted to donate the cake, it was crazy,” Skye noted), a white 1959 Rolls Royce, and, of course, the services of Skye and Guerrie. The total cost of the wedding, had it been paid for, would have run in the ballpark of $20,000, Guerrie noted.

The newlyweds said that having something positive to focus on has been vital to getting them through these past few weeks.

"There are so many bad things happening today, it's good to know there are good people out there, willing to help complete strangers," Gargano said.

Batugo told Shine just before the big day, “I think, in moments when I’m alone, and it’s quiet, like at the end of the day, I figure, oh, I’m still sick, and after this wedding I’ll have to still fight this cancer. But everyone has been coddling me with love, and I’m so grateful.” After the wedding, Batugo said that a personal highlight of the day had been the father-daughter dances, which Guerrie elaborated on for Shine.

“Instead of just doing the traditional ‘father-daughter’ dance, Jenn and Brian also chose to dance with the other’s respective parent. So Jenn danced with her dad, then his. And Brian danced with his mom, then hers. For that last one, their song choice was ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ by the Beach Boys,” she said. “Six-foot-plus Brian, and Jenn’s tiny little mom, and a message of ‘everything will turn out all right.’ Not too many dry eyes in the house at that moment.”

Roger and Chaz Ebert-A Marriage To Admire

I was greatly saddened by the the passing of Roger Ebert. I have always been inspired by his bravery, tenacity and zest for life as cancer mercilessly ravaged his body and significantly altered his way of life. I am even more inspired and awed after reading this article from "OMG" in Yahoo News. A remarkable man, a remarkable woman, an inspiring  friendship and marriage. 

For Roger Ebert, there was one person in his life who got a perennial thumbs up: his wife Chaz.

The fabled film critic found the love of his life relatively late in life, after spending most of his adult years as a bachelor (and even once going on a date with Oprah Winfrey). The woman he'd marry at age 50 would become his best friend and life partner right away, and after Ebert's cancer diagnosis more than a decade ago, would become his liaison to concerned fans (often using humor to share bad news) and the rock he leaned on throughout his illness, until the day he died.

“I am devastated by the loss of my love, Roger -- my husband, my friend, my confidante and oh-so-brilliant partner of over 20 years,” Chaz said via a statement on Thursday. “We had a lovely, lovely life together, more beautiful and epic than a movie. It had its highs and the lows, but was always experienced with good humor, grace and a deep abiding love for each other."

So who was Chaz Ebert and why was her relationship with Roger so special? Read on for a peek inside their marriage.

The scoop on Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert.
Chaz is a Chicago native and received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and got her law degree from Chicago's DePaul College of Law, eventually working as a litigator at the law firm of Bell, Boyd, and Lloyd. She married an electrical engineer and had two children, divorcing after 17 years of marriage.

It was love at first sight … or at least second.
According to Roger, he was dining with Eppie Lederer, better known as advice columnist Ann Landers, after an AA meeting in 1989 (he first sought help for alcohol dependency 10 years earlier) and Ebert went to say hello to a couple of people he knew at a nearby table, who happened to be dining with trial attorney Chaz Hammelsmith. "I didn't know her, but I'd seen her before and was attracted. I liked her looks, her voluptuous figure, and the way she presented herself. She took a lot of care with her appearance and her clothes never looked quickly thrown together," Roger wrote in a blog post for the Chicago Sun-Times in July 2012, to mark their 20^th wedding anniversary. "She seemed to be holding the attention of her table. You never get anywhere with a woman you can't talk intelligently with."

Roger fell hard on their first date.
"She had a particular quality. She didn't seem to be a 'date' but an equal. She knew where she stood, and I found that attractive," he shared in the piece. "I was going out to Los Angeles a few days later, and I asked her to come along. We formed a serious bond rather quickly. It was an understood thing. I was in love, I was serious, I was ready for my life to change."

The couple in 2000. (Brenda Chase/Stringer/Getty Images)

She wooed him with her … grammar?
Both Chaz and Roger have talked about how, during the early days of their relationship the two would write love letters in the form of daily emails to each other. "Her love letters were poetic, idealistic and often passionate," he recalled. "I responded as a man and a lover. As a newspaperman, I observed she never, ever, made a copy-reading error."

Chaz quit her law job after they married so she could join Roger during his frequent travels, but would eventually become vice president of the Ebert Company.
Roger insisted it wasn't just a title, and just the business mind he needed to counter his. "She organized my contracts, protected my interests, negotiated, wheeled and dealed. I've never understood business and have no patience with business meetings or legal details," Roger wrote in the 2012 Sun-Times post. "I had a weakness for signing things just to make them go away. She observed this, and defended me. It was a partnership."

After Ebert had part of his jaw removed in 2006, the couple chose to eat their meals separately.
"I don't like to eat in front of him because it just seems kind of cruel," Chaz said during a 2010 interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." "He prefers to [have meals] private." Ebert had to be fed through an IV drip four times a day.

After her husband’s hip fracture late last year, Chaz kept fans in the loop with humor.
"Roger in hospital with hip fracture (tricky disco dance moves) but he is doing well, asking for computer, will probably tweet," she tweeted on December 7, followed a day later by, "Roger Sweetie, lets heal that fracture and get you Dancing With The Stars as soon as possible." She also expressed frustration a few weeks later: "Hospitals have up and down days. This is a down day, intense PT, but Roger is making progress. Fractured hip a bitch," she wrote alongside a younger photo of Roger.

Towards the end, the couple created a language of signals.
After his cancer robbed him of the ability to use his voice, Chaz was constantly by Ebert's side to help him communicate. While he often wrote notes, he used different hand signals to explain what he wanted, as demonstrated during the Oprah segment. He had a signal for asking Chaz to read to others from his notepad, one for requesting a trip to the men's room, and there was one signal, Chaz explained that had "a lot of meaning." When Roger placed his right hand on his heart in front of his wife, it meant, "I love you."