Choosing your groomsmen

The Usual Suspects
Picking the groomsmen can be more difficult, even though you have several slots open. This is because guys tend to have a group of really awesome friends from high school, college or work. However, if you're unfamiliar with wedding etiquette, here are the "usual" rules for including groomsmen in your wedding party:

Your Family

No matter what your family or friends say, there aren't people who "must" be in the wedding party. Be sure to pick buddies you're close with - not guys you feel obligated to ask. If you loved beating up your brother, but he's not your "best man", don't let your mother force your hand. However, family typically comes first when it comes to the groomsmen. Unless there are some unusual circumstances involved (such as, for example, you aren't on speaking terms), if you have brothers, they're in the wedding party. That's one slot down, a few more to go.

Her Family

The same goes for her brothers. The two of you are going to be family soon, and including her brothers is a great way to start things off. This should be based on mutual agreement with your fiancee. If she is trying to force your hand and by picking her slightly annoying and boring brother, you are within your rights to ask Bridezilla to back off. It can be more challenging if your bride has two brothers who are equally qualified to be groomsmen. GroomGroove.com suggests that you either pick neither of them, or leave it for your bride to figure it out. There is no point in starting off on the wrong foot.
Closest Friends

Your closest friends are great choices. But, remember, they have to be responsible guys. Just because you love to go out drinking with a guy on a Friday night doesn't mean he can handle the responsibility of being in the wedding party. He might be a great guy, but if he's going to show up late to the tuxedo fitting session, he's going to be a pain to keep in line. Let's face it: some guys just aren't wedding party material. If the first image that pops into your head when you think of a guy is him passed out and covered in permanent marker, he's probably not the right guy for the job.

Great Expectations
When you begin asking your friends to stand up in your wedding, be sure to explain what is expected of them, and importantly, how much it is going to cost.

The basics include:

* Travel and accommodations
* Attending the rehearsal and dinner
* Renting tuxedo and shoes and attending tuxedo fittings (or buying a suit and tie)
* Planning and attending the bachelor party
* Seating guests at the wedding
* Walking down the aisle with a bridesmaid (maybe)
* Dancing with same bridesmaid
* Wedding gift (unspoken requirement, of course!)

If this is manageable for your buds, then you're in business.
A Short Word About Wedding Costs

Weddings can be expensive affairs. You need to keep in mind that not everybody in your wedding party will have the financial means to buy a brand new suit with matching navy blue tie that you've picked out. Further, if a groomsman (and his wife and kids) are flying in from California and staying at a hotel, these costs add up. You are likely to be asking your groomsmen to shell out at least $250, not including transportation.

And Finally...

At the end of a smooth flight with a smooth landing, a cabin full of passengers will sometimes applaud. If you choose the right co-pilot and crew for your wedding, that allows you to focus on what you need to do to reach that altar, expect applause at the end of this flight.

Selecting your men

Important things to know about choosing the guys in your wedding party...
An airplane full of passengers needs more than just a pilot to make for a safe and pleasant flight to any destination. That pilot needs a co-pilot, and those pilots need a crew. A wedding is no different; you are finally the pilot and so it's your task to choose your co-pilot (best man) and crew (groomsmen) carefully if this trip to the altar is going to be a successful one. GroomGroove.com is here to help.
Two by Two: Groomsmen for the bridesmaids

Just as the groom is an "extra" when paired with his bride, the groom needs to find two to four men to act as "extras" to be paired with the maid of honor and bridesmaids. You'll need to tap one guy to act as your best man, and he'll be paired with your bride-to-be's maid of honor. The other men are paired with bridesmaids. You need to think long and hard about the candidates amongst your friends and family to find just the right gents to go with her ladies. Your wedding and your bride's memories aside, the matchmaking often leads to other weddings for you to attend down the road! As a groom, you'll want to put some effort into knowing who to pick, and who to leave in the seats.

The Best Man for the Job
This is the big one. It's also typically the easiest choice to make. Take a short trip down memory lane, and it becomes obvious. It could be the younger brother you used to beat up (and, though you would never admit to it, is a much better basketball player than you.) It could be your college roommate (and former wingman). It could be your best friend from high school. The choice is very personal, but probably obvious to you. You can only pick one best man.

That being said, you need to pick someone whom you can trust through and through, because this guy will have to do a whole lot more than just planning your bachelor party. In fact, the lead-up to the Big Day will present many tasks for this person.

The best man will:

* plan your bachelor party, but also keep you in line
* lead the groomsmen and make sure they arrive on time
* hold the wedding rings for the groom on the day of the ceremony
* make sure you get to the ceremony on time
* assist you through the wedding day jitters you are going to have (trust us, they're not just a myth)
* act as legal witness to your wedding
* make a wedding toast (at minimum) or speech (better yet)
* take care of the turbulence at 30,000 ft. (like your drunken Uncle Larry) so that you (and your bride) don't even notice

You and your "Best" will be in constant contact, and since he has some serious responsibilities, it might be helpful (though not critical) for you both to be in the same city.

A Groom's Specific Tasks

With us so far? Good. There are also a number of jobs that are specific to you. Just as it's important to work together on the above items, it's equally important to show initiative and handle your groom-ly responsibilities in advance. Here's a quick list of responsibilities that will almost certainly fall on your shoulders:


* Choose your wedding attendants (best man and groomsmen)
* Select wedding attire for you and for the men in the wedding party (she may want to help)
* Get groomsmen measured up for tuxedos early, and no matter where they may be
* Arrange transportation to the ceremony for the bride, the father of the bride, the bridal party, the best man, the groomsman, and yourself
* Arrange transportation for the entire wedding party from the ceremony to the reception (Why two types of transportation? You'll be arriving separately, but leaving as a couple. While you can take a taxi or hitch a ride to your wedding, try to find something nice for afterwards)
* Arrange for accommodations for out-of-town guests
* Purchase gift for your bride-to-be
* Purchase groomsmen gifts for your groomsmen
* Obtain a marriage license
* Plan the rehearsal dinner
* Prepare a toast for the rehearsal dinner
* Prepare a speech for the reception

Some of these tasks, such as obtaining a marriage license or planning the rehearsal dinner, can be done with your fiancée, but you should seriously consider (and offer) to handle them yourself. They are fairly painless ways to arrange major parts of the wedding experience and avoid putting all the pressure on your fiancée. That's one way Bridezillas are born!
Things for the groom and bride to do, together

There's a whole host of things that you and your fiancée can do together. You should always feel free to do more - it's your wedding, too, after all, and seeing how involved you are in this event is sure to make your fiancée glad she picked you - but if nothing else, work with her to do the following:

* Set wedding budget and size (put your spreadsheet powers to work!)
* Finalize a date, time and location and book it (sounds simple, but think again)
* Select the officiant, if you are not having a religious wedding
* Book reception site
* Settle on a wedding theme and style for your reception
* Book entertainment
* Draft a guest list (this will take lots of time)
* Select and order invitations
* Mail out invitations
* Plan the reception menu
* Hire a photographer and/or videographer
* Create a gift registry
* Plan the honeymoon

Being a groom can be nerve-wracking. There's a lot expected of you, and a multitude of tasks to check off the list. However, if you only had one job throughout this entire process, it would be this: no matter how crazy things get, never forget that you love each other and that the hectic preparation period is just one stop on the road to your life together. Get involved, have your say on the floral arrangements, and get your marriage started on the right foot!

Duties of the groom

Start your marriage off on the right foot and have some fun getting involved in wedding planning. Believe it or not, there are plenty of tasks that are perfectly cut out for you!
Just think about planning a wedding. Let your mind lock onto the first image that pops into your head. If you're like most guys, you're picturing your fiancée happily picking out floral arrangements and place settings with her best friend or her mother at her side. You may not even be in the picture at all. That's okay- that's often how it is. Your bride-to-be has probably been dreaming of her wedding since she was a little girl. She may have a much clearer picture in her head of what she wants the wedding to be like than you do. This production, however, is no one-woman show. You've got to do more than just "pitch in" because you can help alleviate her stress and earn some points in the process by stepping up. The wedding is something your bride will be talking about for a long time to come.


Planning a wedding is a massive undertaking. It requires patience, dedication, and plenty of hard work. If you're not the most aesthetically-minded guy, it's okay to leave things like the flowers, wedding favors, and decorations to her. There's no shortage of other things you can do with her.
The Budget

Major decisions like the budget and size of the wedding, or key elements, such as figuring out a date and location are things that should not be decided by just one person. Sit down with your fiancée and talk these things through to see what you both have in mind. Trust us, if you have these conversations right up front, it will save you both a lot of headaches down the road.
Religious Matters

Another big issue is whether or not you're planning to have a religious service. Again, be sure to take the time to work this out with your fiancée from the start. Don't make the mistake of assuming she'll know what you want or vice versa. It is not uncommon for people who haven't even been inside a house or worship in years to insist on getting married in one. If you're a mixed-faith couple and you both want a religious wedding, you may have to get creative. It gets particularly tricky when trying to find a clergyman to officiate the ceremony. Some clergymen won't perform mixed-faith weddings, others have no problem with it. Choosing - and, if possible, meeting - the officiant together is critical to ensuring that you will have a wedding that you are both comfortable with. Religion can be a sensitive issue for a lot of people, so be sure to talk openly and honestly with your fiancée from day one.

Maids Of Honour Cakes Recipe

Recipe dated from 1525 AD when Henry VIII tried on at his court.

Ingredients

* 1/2 pint whole milk
* 2 tablespoons fine dried bread crumbs
* 4 oz butter; melted
* 2 ounces ground almonds
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3 large eggs
* 1 lemon zested
* 2 dozen round puff pastry shells (1 to 2 inches in diameter)


Directions

1. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine milk and bread crumbs.
2. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine the bread mixture, butter, almonds, sugar, and zest; mix well.
4. Preheat oven to 350^F.
5. Fill each pastry shell with a tablespoon of filling.
6. Place on a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 12 to 15 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
8. Garnish with powdered sugar and serve.

Maid of Honour

Maids of Honour were the junior attendants on a Queen in the royal households of England and later of the United Kingdom. Anne of Brittany is said to have instituted the Queen's Maids of Honour at the court.


Role

Traditionally, a Queen regnant had eight Maids of Honour, while a Queen consort had four.

A Maid of Honour was a maiden, meaning that she was unmarried, and was usually young. Lady Jane Grey, for example, served as a Maid-of-Honour to Queen Catherine Parr in about 1546-48, when Jane was only about ten to twelve years old.

Maids of Honour should not be confused with Maids of the Court. Maids of Honour were almost always in their sixteenth year or older. Anne Bassett was deemed too young to be a maid of honour to Anne Boleyn, but she gained a place under Jane Seymour.[1] Under Mary I and Elizabeth I, maids of honour were at court as a kind of finishing school, with the hope of making a good marriage. Maids of the court could be younger. Elizabeth Knollys was a maid of the court at the age of nine.

Some of the Maids of Honour were paid, while others were not.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the title 'Maid of Honour in Waiting' was sometimes used.

A Queen mother often also had Maids of Honour. In 1915, for example, Ivy Gordon-Lennox was appointed a Maid of Honour to Queen Alexandra.

At her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II had Maids of Honour who attended her throughout the ceremony, especially carrying the trains of her robes.

The term Lady-in-Waiting is used to describe a woman attending a female member of the Royal Family other than the Queen regnant or Queen consort. An attendant upon one of the latter is styled Lady of the Bedchamber or Woman of the Bedchamber, and the senior Lady-in-Waiting is the Mistress of the Robes. The Women of the Bedchamber are in regular attendance, but the Mistress of the Robes and the Ladies of the Bedchamber are normally only required for ceremonial occasions.

"Maid of Honour" led to the American English term "maid of honor", usually the best friend of a bride who leads her bridal party.

The term also refers to a small cake, the recipe dates from 1525 and the reign of Henry VIII.

Marriage

The gift of sacred marriage is one of God's greatest blessings. In today's world, the understanding of sacred marriage has been limited by concepts and customs that were created in an earlier age. Today, at the cusp of humanity's transformation into a plant of light, the nature of all relationships, including those of sacred marriage, are being raised to a new level of consciousness and awareness.


In God's reality, all is One and all individual souls are part of the One that is God. From the perspective of our individual, human consciousness, we often feel alone and long for connection, companionship, and fulfilling relationships. The aloneness that we feel is a part of the consciousness of individuation that humanity has evolved since taking physical form, and at the current time in our evolution, there is now a much greater possibility to move beyond this to tap into the depth of god's love through our relationships and connections with others.

What makes more possible now in human relationships is related to the expansion of spiritual light on the Earth, which has accelerated humanity's transformational process. This influx of light has begun to awaken the hearts, minds and bodies of many people who are beginning to have a direct experience of god's love and light. This kind of direct experience can transform a life, and can heal that which may have felt impossible to heal.


In previous eras, the nature of sacred marriage was connected with duty, or related to practical necessities. Nowadays, as human relationships transform and become more conscious, the nature of sacred marriage enters a whole new domain of possibility that is related to two souls who become One in God, without releasing their individuality or unique identities.

This new form of relationship is the culmination of humanity's transition process, first from beings of light in the spiritual realms, who then took physical form while retaining their connection to the One... and then as increasingly physical beings, who became immersed in matter and became less aware of the spirit. Now, the circle is completing so that souls who attained the maximum individuation and separated consciousness are beginning to awaken to the remembrance of spirit.

when a soul begins to reconnect with their divine origins, a whole new world opens up before them. Many "needs" that were felt from the ego level of personality begin to disappear once the soul realizes its divine connection with the source of all love. As the soul begins to relax into its spiritual identity, doorways begin to open both emotionally and on the spiritual levels. A divine flow begins that weaves the threads of God's love and light into all aspects of daily life. Relationships take on a new brilliance and fullness, and there is less ego attachment which promotes the open exchange of greater levels of spiritual light.

As more souls begin to reconnect with their divine origins, the possibilities for relationships multiply exponentially. Love becomes the guiding force which breaks through all barriers of fear from the ego level of the self, and takes on a life of its own. It can be said that in a divine partnership, two become One within God. In such a divine partnership, two souls come together in surrender to God's will, which directs the relationship.

A sacred marriage comes about when two souls are guided through their love for each other, to join their hearts, minds, bodies and daily lives together into a new entity that is greater than either individual alone. A sacred marriage bond creates a synergy and a blessing that radiates outward to the world, and that can be seen and felt tangibly as the presence of light and love.

Sacred marriage exists in all cultures and religions, for it is not the beliefs or customs related to as marriage which create its sanctity, but rather the sacred intentionality of the participants. In today's world which sees both the dissolution of many marriages, and also much pain and confusion about the nature of intimate relationships, there is little guidance or information available to help those who wish to enter into such a partnership.

Sacred marriage requires an ongoing commitment from each participant, to love fully each day, and to release ego attachments and negativity that would cloud communication and create disharmony within the relationship. This kind of commitment is in essence a spiritual one, which brings the soul into alignment with God's love and divine purpose for that soul. Sacred marriage is a blessing and a gift, which models the way home, to a place and time when all of humanity lives in sacred relationships with each other and with all of life.
from here

Arab wedding customs

Although Christian weddings in the Arab World bear similarities to Western weddings, Muslim weddings in the Arab countries are influenced by Muslim traditions. Muslim weddings start with a Shaikh and Al-Kitab (book) for the bride and groom. It is a western misconception that the groom may not see his bride until the wedding day; indeed, a wedding is not Islamically valid unless both bride and groom are willing, and the groom is often encouraged to visit her before the wedding (as advised in many hadeeths of the prophet Muhammad). However, these visits must be chaperoned to ensure purity of action between the two. Men and women in wedding ceremonies and receptions are segregated, with areas for men and for women.

An old tradition, now rarely observed, involves the women at the ceremony symbolically mourning the loss of the bride by doing the "wedding wail". The bride's dress is an ornate Caftan, and the bride's hands and feet are decorated in intricate lace-like patterns painted using a henna dye. Women guests do not show their hair, shoulders or legs; and all guests at a Mosque remove their shoes on entering. Guests may give gifts to the bride and groom. In many Arab countries including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, the practice of carrying the bride and groom on chairs and dancing in a circle around them (dabke) is still carried out. The bride and groom hold separate corners of a handkerchief. Arabs may have Western-like weddings, but still preserve most Arab customs and traditions.[citation needed]
Arabic Weddings, called Farah (ar: فرح ) have changed greatly in the past 100 years, where more preception of Islam, and more understanding of what is Haram and Halal, usually the Arabic Wedding were very much similar to modernday bedouin weddings, and rural weddings, they were unique from region to another, Weddings in Lower Egypt were quite different to ones in Cairo, and in Cairo then Upper Egypt, and so on, even though the Christian Arabs have very similar weddings to the Western Weddings, the Muslim Weddings are greatly influenced by Islam, the Muslim Marriage Process usually starts with the Fixed Meetings, and ends with the "Dokhla", or the entrance, it is usually misconceived in the west that Arab weddings and Muslim weddings forbid the groom from seeing his bride until the wedding day, on the contrary, in fact it will not be considered as an Islamic wedding unless the Bride and Groom agree on the marriage, while the groom is welcomed in the bride's house, but with Parental existence, to maintain the Purity between both sides.

I miss summer!

I don't want cold hands and feet anymore! Please sun, rise and shine for me!