When is a Wedding not a Wedding?

Gone are the days of a quick trip to the church followed by a sit down buffet at the local pub to celebrate a wedding. Marriages can cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds. When spending this amount of money it is worth checking that your dream wedding is ACTUALLY legal.

When is a marriage not a marriage?

1) when you play around with your vows!

Judith Middleton, partner at Latimer Hinks warns that personalising wedding ceremonies could mean that some couples may not be legally wed. Leaving out key words from wedding vows may mean they do not comply with marital laws. See the full story: When is a Wedding Not a Wedding

2) when you have been married to a friend ordained online!

A couple from Conneticut had their ceremony performed by a friend who had been ordained online by the Universal Life Church. Having heard of other couples who were married that way, they assumed it was legal. But Connecticut is one of a half-dozen places that do not recognize marriages performed by someone who became a minister for the sole purpose of marrying people. See the full story: Great Wedding But Was It Legal?

I'm sure there will be many other examples of Non legal marriages however, i'll keep this blog short. If anyone would like to provide other examples, please feel free.

No Award at the North East Digital Awards

Thursday night last week saw Judith Middleton (Judith's Divorce Blog) and Social Networking Guineapig at the North East Digital Awards 2007.

The awards were held at the Hyena Club. We wandered in after taking a sip of complimentary bubbly and sat ourselves near the exit as it was VERY warm.

The awards were billed to provide a networking opportunity but the set up in the Hyena Club did not lend itself to this. There were very long tables packed very closely together. Once you were sat down, you were basically "stuck".

Food was served - in a box, fish, chips and mushy peas - again not ideal for networking. Fish and chips were followed by...cheesecake (and I wondered why I had indegestion!)

The awards were late to start but when they did it was all over and done wit in about 20 mins.

Social Networking Guineapig did not win an award - here is the press and list of the winners. Winners were provided with a paper certificate. Woohoo! The overall winners received a small glass trophy/award which was not given to them when they were initially called on stage. The glass awards made an appearance at a photo opportunity at the close of the awards.

I did expect a slightly more glamorous ceremony where we would learn why the winners were made winners - this is what would interest me.

All the above apart, congratulations to all of the winners and a pat on the back for all those shortlisted. You never know, they may "glam" it up for 2009!