Telling It Like It Is

When planning a modern wedding, who pays for what? In decades past, because of the old tradition of dowry, the bride’s family traditionally paid for most or all the wedding costs. “Traditionally”, around the 17th or 18th century, the brides mother and/or father would pay for everything needed for the wedding and reception, including the venue (location of wedding/reception), bridal gown, music, flowers, venue, food, bar costs, gratuities and anything else. Then they also give a generous wedding gift to the happy newly married couple. However, times have changed.

Nowadays, it is very common for the bride and groom to pay for all or most wedding expenses themselves, or to more evenly split the wedding related expenses among both sets of parents. Why have the traditional rules of who pays for what in weddings changed, and how should engaged couples, parents and families deal with the more modern view of wedding etiquette in relation to the wedding budget and the question of who will be paying for the cost of the wedding?
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A lot has been said about how contestants on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette “reality tv” shows on ABC have to sign a contract, but very few people have been able to actually read the “shocking” contract themselves. Now you can. Reality Steve has talked at great length about the crazy contract, and how the heavy editing causes some contestants to be given “bad edits”, where they are made out to be and are treated like villains on and off the show.

Rozlyn Papa got a very bad edit during her stint on The Bachelor with Jake Pavelka “On The Wings of Love”, where claims were made that she and a producer had a shocking sexual affair or “inappropriate relationship”. Didn’t happen. What may be good for boosting ratings and viewership for the show hasn’t been good for Rozlyn’s reputation.
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Vampire Academy is an ongoing series of six vampire-based fantasy/romance novels by USA Today and New York Times best-selling author, Richelle Mead. The Vampire Academy series of books include titles such as Vampire Academy (Book 1-2007); Frostbite (Book 2-2008); Shadow Kiss (Book 3-2008); Blood Promise (Book 4-2009); Spirit Bound (Book 5-May, 2010) and Book 6 with a to-be-determined title scheduled for release in December 2010.

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school. It’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rosemarie “Rose” Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Vasilisa “Lissa” Dragomir, a Moroi Vampire Princess.
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For people that drink as much coffee as we do, our recent experience with a single serve coffee maker in our hotel room during our Chicago vacation created temporary disappointment. I can only guess as to why hotels choose to provide hotel guests with one-cup coffee machines versus one that brews more than one cup of coffee at a time, but we weren’t impressed.

The moment we checked into our hotel room and saw the tiny coffee making appliance sitting on the counter at the hotel we stayed at, we knew we weren’t going to make it through our entire vacation trip with that silly looking coffee maker. We made a beeline to the nearest store and bought a cheap, black 12-cup automatic coffee maker that was sitting all by itself on a discount clearance shelf for just ten dollars.
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Reality Steve has done it again with his Bachelor spoilers! This one is a doozy! Reality Steve’s blog is reporting that not only are Jake Pavelka and Bachelor “winner” Vienna Girardi still together, but they are actually ENGAGED and planning on getting married! Jake proposed to Vienna. Are you shocked? Whether or not the engagement will last, or if a wedding will actually take place, is anyone’s guess.

Every Bachelor fan knows that Tenley and Vienna are the final two contestants on The Bachelor “On The Wings of Love” hit show and who Jake chooses to be his wife. The “After the Final Rose” shindig was taped last Sunday, February 21st in Los Angeles.
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I have been a Skype user for a long time now, keeping in contact with friends and family living in the U.S and abroad. One of my family members lives in Spain, and having Skype to at least instant message or chat while on different time zones has been great. Email only does so much, but Skype is better. While instant messaging with Skype helps keep me closely connected with family and friends who don’t live nearby, instant messaging on Skype isn’t enough for me anymore.

I’ve known about webcams for Skype but hadn’t taken the time to learn how to use Skype with a webcam, and I needed to find out more about choosing a good webcam to use with Skype. I’ve heard there is a way to use a digital camera with Skype too, but using Skype on my home computer with a webcam is all that matters to me at this point.
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Are you stuck in a rut in your relationship with your husband or wife? Are you ready to get out of the rut you’re in and put some fire back into your marriage? Is your marriage lacking emotional intimacy, where you feel like your marriage to your spouse has become routine and boring? Are you in a sex starved marriage? Do you ever ask yourself “how do I get out of a rut in my relationship with my partner or spouse?”

If you’ve been feeling sad or depressed that your marriage seems to have become a boring, monotonous routine lifestyle that never changes, it probably means you are stuck in a rut. A relationship rut. It’s time you get out of the rut you’re in, spice things up a bit and reestablish intimacy, friendship, fun and sex in your marriage.
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Every year, as our wedding anniversary approaches, we always check to find what the anniversary gift timetables show as being the traditional and modern anniversary gifts for each year. We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on January 25, 2010 and according to the tables and charts, the traditional gift idea is wool or copper.

The modern anniversary gift for a seventh anniversary is desk sets. Hmm, seems as though the traditional anniversary gifts would be somewhat more romantic. The idea of giving or getting a desk set as an alternative anniversary gift didn’t appeal to either one of us.
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Although 72 percent of Americans have fillings, caps or crowns and one in six had a dental emergency during the past 12 months, most are not prepared to deal with dental care emergencies, according to a recent survey conducted by Majestic Drug Company, a leading provider of oral care products.

Interestingly, in the national survey of 1,000 Americans, those with a lower income (less then $35,000) were more likely to have had a dental emergency in the past 12 months (vs. 14 percent of those who make $100,000 or more).

Of those who had a dental emergency, 23 percent involved a loose crown or cap, 10 percent involved a lost filling, while 72 percent said their dental emergency involved something else.
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Spoilers alert! Bachelor fans out there want to know if Ali is going to return to The Bachelor, fight for Jake Pavelka’s heart and actually be the “winner” on this 14th season of The Bachelor in a major reality tv coup de jour? Not so fast. Sure, sure, ABC has a promo circulating with Ali making a phone call to Jake saying she wants to come back to the show. Is Ali returning to The Bachelor this season? No.

Not gonna happen. Reality Steve, our sarcastic and snarky reality tv blogger at www.realitysteve.com sure knows how to tell a great story about the Bachelor goings on, doesn’t he? Reality Steve (Steve Carbone) makes clear on his blog that Ali, just like all the other Bachelor contestants, are under contract to say and do what they’re told to do while they’re on The Bachelor and thereafter.
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