Welsh rock-star Kelly Jones, vocalist with renowned band Stereophonics has spoken out against claims that football hero Wayne Rooney is attempting to sue him.

Kelly, aged 34 revealed that he was initially stunned when his band was asked to play at Rooney’s honeymoon party, the day after he wed long time girlfriend Colleen McLouglhin in Santa Margherita, on the Italian Riviera.

He said:-

“I was stunned when I got the call to play for Wayne to be honest. I knew he was a big fan and had been coming to our gigs for a long time and Colleen said she’d love to have us there to surprise him at the honeymoon party the day after their wedding.

So they sent a private plane over, as you do, and we suddenly found ourselves on the Italian coast.”

He went on to say that the party was not the star-studded extravaganza that he had been anticipating, it was simply the newlyweds close family and friends.

Soon afterwards newspapers were awash with reports that Rooney was considering legal action against Jones over a comment that he had reportedly made during an interview with a music mag.

The singer denied the claims saying:-

“All that came about when I told them about how Wayne supposedly tried to pinch a hoodie from the merchandise stall at one of our shows when he was a nipper and got smacked by one of our guys for his trouble.

I think some of his people saw it and got a bit anxious about it, but Wayne doesn’t give a s*** – he was texting me all during that time and didn’t even mention it once.”

Being a bride-to-be can be a stressful time in a woman’s life as can being a Mother-to-be can be, but being both at the same time, whilst exciting is surely enough to frazzle enough the steadiest of nerves.

But walking down the aisle sporting a bay bump needn’t take any of the enjoyment away from your wedding day.

In today’s market, maternity wedding gowns for pregnant brides are not the sack like wedding dresses for pregnant brides of yesteryear; in fact many of them are as elegant and as pretty as standard wedding gowns.

There are now a multitude of styles available to the expectant bride, including off the shoulder and strapless styles to suit any size of bump and skirts vary from empire line, to full skirted and even fitted.

Well-designed and stylish wedding dresses of georgette and lace are being crested with the pregnant bride in mind. A quick scour of the internet reveals well cut feather woven maternity bridal gowns and floor length cocktail style maternity dresses.

If you discover that you are expecting a baby after you have purchased your wedding gown, or indeed have a growth spurt before your big day, remember it is possible to have extra panels sewn into your gown by an experienced seamstress.

Delighted Bride from Simonside, South Shields was proud to be the very first bride to be walked down the aisle at a new registry office in South Shields recently.

42 year old Tracey Worthington married her beau Ian Kirkpatrick at the brand new Broughton Road registry office in front of the pair’s family and friends.

Accompanied by her sons Colin, aged 26, and Mark aged 22, Tracey arrived at the pristine Barrington Suite to find it decorated with a festive theme.

The blushing bride said:-

“We had no idea we’d be the first couple to get married here, we only found out last week, so it certainly was quite a surprise.

It’s a nice thing to have happened though, not many people can claim to be the first people married in a place and now we can.”

She also spoke of her relief that the weather managed to hold out as she arrived at her wedding venue in a luxury limousine:-

“The weather was awful this morning and there were reports of snow on its way, so we’ve been very lucky it’s held off.”

The happy couple were wed by superintendent registrar Maria Schromek, who said of the occasion:-

“This is a very special day for Ian and Tracey as they start their married life together and also for us as registrars as this is the first ceremony to take place in our new registrar office.”

Afterwards the Tracey, her new husband and their friends and family celebrated with a reception at the New Crown pub, South Shields

A Scottish bride had a unique request on her list of wedding gifts, when she asked her guests to donate blood as a gesture of gratitude and appreciation to the donors who helped doctors to save the life of her beloved grand-mother.

Margaret Smith, aged 81, was the guest of honour at the wedding of her grand-daughter and her groom, 35 year old Iain McKenzie.

Margaret had emergency surgery to remove her leg above the knee and survived thanks to a highly skilled surgical team and a live saving blood transfusion.

The 31 year old bride Claire tenderly embraced her gran outside St Mirins Cathedral in her home town of Paisley before walking down the aisle to meet her husband to be.

At their wedding reception, the newly weds gave out ‘Give Blood’ themed wedding favours and the groom offered information on local donor centres during his speech.

Claire speaks about the grand mother’s ordeal, who is currently reliant on electric wheelchairs :-

“Gran was diagnosed with critical limb ischemia in her left leg and her only option of survival was to have the leg amputated above the knee.

She required at least three pints of blood following her op and had people not donated that blood, she simply would not have been here to celebrate our big day. It means the world to us to have her at our wedding, so we decided to try to recruit as many donors as possible on our special day.

Instead of giving everyone favours they would just leave behind or stuff in a drawer, we thought it might be nice to ask guests to give something back.

There’s a massive shortage of donors in Scotland and the situation is worse around Christmas, so hopefully some of our guests will try giving blood. My gran is doing really well now and even though she is in a wheelchair she promised to bum-shuffle on the dance floor at our reception.

Without the blood transfusions she would never have made it this far.”

Claire, Iain and their immediate families all give blood on a regular basis.

A 25 year old PHD student and bride to be has recently been forced to deal with the fact that she may have to face her wedding day without her Mother after immigration officials refused her entry into the country.

Devastated Catherine Dunford plans to marry her fiancé of two years, 37 year old Hugh Martin in St Andrews on 6^{th December.}

But if their appeal to the UK Borders Agency is unsuccessful, Catherine’s Mother, Shariwa must remain in Zimbabwe thousands of miles away.

Zimbabwe remains in the throes of an economic catastrophe, with inflation in the country currently at 231million %.

Immigration officials are reported to have informed Catherine who lives in Cupar with her husband to be, that they suspected that the application for a visiting visa was simply a ruse to enable her Mother to stay in Britain on a permanent basis as a route of escape from Zimbabwe’s economic ruin.

Catherine, who lost her British Father to cancer, feels that time is running out in the race to bring her Mother to the UK in time for her wedding.

She said in a statement to a local newspaper:-

“In the last few days before my wedding I thought I would be stressing out about flowers, not something like this.

I feel cheated that my mother, my only surviving parent, won’t be there. Aside from my disappointment, it’s knowing how disappointed my mother will be.

It’s also upsetting that my mother may never meet my future in-laws.

We tried to put in the best application possible. My mother was completely honest about everything, her life—her finances, everything they requested, and we did the same.

My mother has never had any desire to live in Britain otherwise she would have come here with my father.”

Catherine has also requested the help of her local MP Sir Menzies Campbell in an attempt to have her Mother granted access to the country in time for the big day, but his offices have so far only confirmed that he is ‘considering the situation’.

• A recent study has revealed that the average couple gets engaged 2 years, 11 months and 8 days after beginning a relationship, but most women consider themselves ready to wed after just 2 years, 7 months and 24 days!
• According to a survey by You & Your Wedding magazine, the average wedding cost £20,273, which includes £7,724 for the reception, £1,412 for the engagement ring, and £3,220 for the honeymoon.
• One in five single professional women claim that they are secretly putting aside cash for their wedding day - despite the fact that they have not yet found a groom!
• In England and Wales, the Marriage Act of 1836 and the Registration Act of 1836 were enforced by the national authorities during 1837. Throughout 1838 there were 118,000 marriages in England and Wales.
• The concept of marriage as a religious sacrament can be traced back to Saint Paul, who, in a Letter to the Ephesians, related the connection between a man and his wife to that of the holy Christ and his church.
• According to one researcher, washing the dishes together is the secret to a long and happy marriage, followed by sharing other household chores
• Of 3,000 engaged or married couples who took part in a recent survey, one in ten had set a time limit to be married after their engagement, and 75% claimed that they would have ended the relationship had the time limit been exceeded

After your engagement has been announced, friends and family will no doubt begin to ask you when the big day is.

Some couples will have already decided before they announce their engagement, but the majority will not yet have a date in mind.

There are many options, and simply looking at a calendar will offer many prospective dates, many of equal attraction, but how exactly do you narrow them down?

The first thing to consider is the venue; even the most flexible of brides can be unwilling to compromise in certain areas. If you have your heart set on a particular church or wedding venue, checking out the availability can narrow down the dates naturally.

If you haven’t already decided on a venue or church, there are other way to narrow down prospective dates for your big day, for example if your minds eye sees you being married amidst falling snow, the month of June probably isn’t going be on your short-list, and if you picture a garden wedding under a blue sky, December probably isn’t the month for you!

Another consideration might be the honeymoon. If you have a certain destination in mind, the chances are that some dates will be perfect to travel, but others may see hurricanes risks or seasonal rains, again this can often help you to exclude dates from your calendar.

Your own important ‘life dates’ will perhaps also offer you more guidance than you might first consider. Can you and your husband to be both have the same dates off work? Another thing to consider is the availability of your guests, for example at certain times during the summer months, many of the them may be away on holiday.

If all else fails, try to pick a date that is meaningful to you both as a couple, it might be the date that you met, the date of your first kiss or the date that you became engaged.

A few days before a traditional Greek wedding is to take place, the bride and groom hold what is know as a ‘Krevati’ in their soon to be marital home. Krevati is a pre-wedding celebration with traditional Greek food, drink and music for the friends and relatives of the couple.

It is customary for those present to place money and young children on the bed of the couple about to be married, this is thought to bring the couple prosperity and fertility.

On the day of the wedding the groom visit’s his bride family home to request her hand in marriage, once her Father has agreed and given the couple his blessing, the best man, known as the ‘koumbaros’ leads the bride and the groom to the church. Traditionally the appointed koumbaros will be the god-father of the groom, but in modern times, many grooms choose a close male relative or male friend.

After the couple exchange bouquets of flowers the wedding ceremony begins and the koumbaros puts the wedding crowns on the bride and groom. Traditionally the crowns are fashioned from orange blossoms or twigs and are wrapped in silver and gold. They are attached by a ribbon and switched on the marrying couples head three times.

This symbolises that the marriage is noble and that the bride and groom are beginning a new life together, and is representative of the Christian belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The koumbaros then summons the couple to walk together around altar table, again three times, whilst the koumbaros, the bride’s maid of honour and the marital priest encircle the altar table, and the priest begins his traditional Greek prayers to bless the couple

Lastly the couple exchange their wedding rings - again three times.

Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson and her actor husband Ryan Reynolds are reportedly planning to hold a second wedding ceremony.

The pair, who originally wed in the grooms native Canada are rumoured to be planning a ’simple and classic’ ceremony in the presence of a wedding party of 150.

This second ceremony is thought to be an opportunity for family and friends of the couple who were unable to be present at the first ceremony, to help celebrate the couple’s marriage.

Their initial clandestine wedding ceremony took place in a remote backwoods resort on the fringes of Vancouver, British Columbia. The location of the secondary ceremony has yet to be disclosed.

The new Mr & Mrs Reynolds began met early in 2007 shortly after the break down of Ryan’s long term relationship with Canadian-American singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette to whom he had been engaged.

The couple publicly announced their engagement on May 5th this year when world famous Scarlett was spotted wearing a 3 carat diamond engagement ring estimated to be worth around £16,500.

Just before their first ceremony the bride revealed her resolve to control the privacy of her wedding and confirmed that their wedding pictures would definitely not be posted in any celebrity magazines.

Concerned brides-to-be are anxious that their forthcoming nuptials could be devastated after Scottish branches of a wedding store closed down suddenly and without any prior warning.

Pronuptia, a French wedding chain has closed the doors of its franchises in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, reportedly leaving more than 150 brides without wedding dresses.

Lauren Smith, one of the distraught brides affected by the closures, put down a deposit of £300 on her dream dress a the Glasgow branch of Pronuptia and was knocked for six when she received a letter in the mail one week later confirming that the store had closed. The classroom assistant from Stewarton, Ayrshire who is due to wed her fiancé Amer Hussain in April of 2009 said:-

“It was awful. I was in tears. I thought they were one of the most trusted companies.”

Trading standards officers in the region confirmed that they have been swamped with complaints from distraught members the public affected by the closures, and confirmed that they had been in contact with the director responsible for the two Scottish stores, Robert Devlin.

Mr Devlin issued a statement from his £1million home in Sussex which is currently on the market. He said:-

“Pronuptia were not supplying goods on time and that’s why one or two closed. Another bridal shop has taken on orders and there’s no problem.”

Perfection Bridal and Menswear in Glasgow have confirmed that they will step in and ensure that all the brides involved receive their ordered wedding gowns.

A spokesperson for Perfection backed up Mr Devlins statement, saying:-

“Pronuptia in Glasgow will reopen as Perfection and all orders will be fulfilled. We’re not making any money out of this.”