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| RSVP TO krystal@elegantbeginningsinc.com |
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Bridal Budget Tips: UPDATE!
CLICK HERE to download a helpful planning checklist to help you stay on track and on time!
*courtesy premierbride.com
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Old Traditions Made Modern: A look at Celtic Weddings
Celtic Weddings
Many of the Celtic wedding customs of our ancestors do not travel very well to our present times. If you break short bread over the head of the bride or groom as they leave the church what are the chances that the unmarried youths present will scramble to eat a bit of it off the ground to insure a good match for their own marriage? Cutting the cake over the seated bride's head at the reception has replaced this tradition. It was also customary to salute the bride and groom by firing guns in the air outside the church. Try that in the suburbs. If you did have your wedding at a venue where you could use firearms, what statement would you be making? Chances are at least some of your guests would think you are a gun nut rather than a traditionalist. Honking the horns of the cars in the procession from the church replaces the guns.
Resource: Bride & Groom
Many of the Celtic wedding customs of our ancestors do not travel very well to our present times. If you break short bread over the head of the bride or groom as they leave the church what are the chances that the unmarried youths present will scramble to eat a bit of it off the ground to insure a good match for their own marriage? Cutting the cake over the seated bride's head at the reception has replaced this tradition. It was also customary to salute the bride and groom by firing guns in the air outside the church. Try that in the suburbs. If you did have your wedding at a venue where you could use firearms, what statement would you be making? Chances are at least some of your guests would think you are a gun nut rather than a traditionalist. Honking the horns of the cars in the procession from the church replaces the guns.
Resource: Bride & Groom
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Open House! You are Invited!
Elegant Beginnings Inc. Thanks YOU. our vendors, for 10 Fantastic Years! We are inviting our vendors and friends out to tour our brand new state-of-the-art showroom, feast on gourmet delights by Chef Mickey and drink in the most luxurious linens you can rent here in Houston and the surrounding areas. We have been proud to offer linen rentals and party rentals of all kinds in Spring, Humble, Atascocita, The Woodlands, Conroe and more and we have expanded our space to offer even more luxury items.
Thank you for making 10 years possible for Elegant Beginnings, Inc and we hope you join us to celebrate!
Thank you for making 10 years possible for Elegant Beginnings, Inc and we hope you join us to celebrate!
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| RSVP to krystal@elegantbeginningsinc.com |
Monday, October 18, 2010
Wedding Day Traditions: Did You Know?
Many centuries ago, before the women's rights movement, men who had decided upon a wife often had to forcefully take her with him (or kidnap her) if her family did not approve of him. The tradition of a "best man" probably has its origin with the Germanic Goths, when it was customary and preferable for a man to marry a woman from within his own community. When women came into short supply "locally," eligible bachelors would have to seek out and capture a bride from a neighboring community. As you might guess this was not a one-person operation, and so the future bridegroom would be accompanied by a male companion who would help. Our custom of the best man is a throwback to that two-man, strong-armed tactic, for, of course the future groom would select only the best man he knew to come long for such an important task.
The role of the best man evolved. By 200 AD his task was still more than just safeguarding the ring. There remained a real threat that the bride's family would attempt to obtain her return forcibly, so the best man remained at the groom's side throughout the marriage ceremony, alert and well-armed. He continued his duties after the ceremony by standing guard as sentry outside the newlywed's home. Much of this is German folklore, but is not without written documentation and physical artifacts. We have records that indicate that beneath the altars of many churches of early peoples (the Huns, Goths, Visigoths, and Vandals) there lay an arsenal of clubs, knives, and spears. The indication is that these were there to protect the groom from possible attack by the bride's family in an attempt to recapture her.
Traditionally, the bride stands to the left side of the groom. This was much more than meaningless etiquette. Among the Northern European barbarians (a name given to them by the Romans), a groom placed his captured bride to his left to protect her, as he kept his right hand free to use for defense. Also originating from this practice of abduction, which literally swept a bride off her feet, sprang the later symbolic act of carrying the bride across the threshold of her new home. It may well be that even the honeymoon had its origin with this capture scenario. It may well have served as a cooling-off period for the bride's family. It was the groom's hope that when the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon that all would be forgiven.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Spooky Deals for Spooky Ghouls!
Just when you thought it was safe: Elegant Beginnings, Inc is offering a GHOSTLY Special this Halloween! Perfect for the holidays, the icy new luxury acrylic arm chair is sure to scare even the friendliest ghosts! Hurry in and take a look at this fabulous new line of rental chairs in the Houston, Humble, Atascocita and Spring areas! NOW RENTING chairs can be so much fun!
Modern Day Traditions: Where Did Favors Come From?
We often wondered where some of the ideas for weddings came from, a look at their history and how they went form Wedding Day Trends to actual TRADITIONS:
Traditions & Trends
Do you know where the ideas for favors at the wedding came from? I don't think anyone has pinpointed where they came from for sure, however, they have become common tradition at most weddings you see now days. Here are a few traditions that you might find fun and interesting:
- Jordan almonds, a favorite at most weddings, are centered on Middle Eastern weddings. This favor dictates that you give 5 pieces to each guest to represent the five wedding wishes: fertility, health, wealth, happiness and longevity. The almond is candy coated representing the bitter and the sweet of marriage.
- Decorated eggs are a symbol of fertility for the couple with this Malaysian tradition.
- Glass charms in the shape of an eye were given on the couples wedding day in this Greek tradition to protect them from bad luck.
- "Bridal Sugar" is a Dutch favor tradition. It is given in sets of 5 cubes to represent: prosperity, virility, happiness, loyalty and of course love!
- In the Victorian Era, "party crackers" were very popular.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Modern Day Traditions: Did You Know?
Shoes Tied on the Car Bumper
Brides' shoes once were considered to be symbols of authority and possession. They used to be taken from her when she was led to the wedding place, and given to the groom by her father, effecting the transfer of his authority to her husband and as a sign that the husband now had possession of her (and she couldn't run away). The new husband then tapped her on the head to show his new role as her master.
It is obvious why this doesn't continue, but it helps to explain why we tie shoes to the back of the get-away car. Incidentally, the ever-popular horn honking has its beginnings in the days when brides traveled in open carriages. They were an easy target for evil spirits, so defenders would use bells and firecrackers to scare them away. No chance of any spirits getting in your way -- it's honeymoon or bust!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
NACE Houston Meeting: October 20, 2010
October Meeting
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Monica Pope - October Presenter Named 2009's Best Chef at the Houston Culinary Awards, Monica Pope is a 2007 James Beard Award Nominee for Best Chef: Southwest and the owner of t'afia and Beaver's in Houston. The only Texas woman to ever be named a Top 10 Best New Chef by Food & Wine magazine, Pope first learned to cook from her Czech grandmother and went on to earn her Chef's title from Prue Leith's School of Food and Wine in London. After working in Europe and San Francisco, Pope returned home to Houston to open her first restaurant, the critically acclaimed The Quilted Toque. Soon after opening her second Houston restaurant, Boulevard Bistrot, she garnered national praise from top critical publications including Travel & Leisure, which hailed her "one of the most ingenious restaurateurs around." Her latest venture, t'afia, has been featured in Gourmet, O: The Oprah Magazine, Bon Appetit, and Fortune. She recently published a digital cookbook, Eat Where Your Food Lives(available at http://www.chefmonicapope.com/ and is currently working on a cooking memoir entitled Eating Hope (and Other Things I've Had to Stomach). | |||||||
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Hindu Weddings: A modern look at an ancient tradition.
A Hindu wedding is thought to be the bringing of two people who are said to be compatible. Hindu wedding ceremonies are traditionally conducted at least partially in Sanskrit, the language of most holy Hindu ceremonies. The local language of the people involved is also used. They have many rituals that have evolved since traditional times and differ in many ways from the modern western wedding ceremony and also among the different regions, families, and castes such as Rajput weddings and Iyer weddings. The Hindus attach a lot of importance to marriages, and the ceremonies are very colorful and extend for several days.
In India, According to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, passed by the Parliament of India, for all legal purposes, all Hindus of any caste, creed or sect, Sikh, Buddhists and Jains are deemed Hindus and can intermarry. By the Special Marriage Act, 1954, a Hindu can marry a person who is not Hindu, employing any ceremony provided specified legal conditions are fulfilled.
The pre-wedding ceremonies include engagement (involving vagdana or oral agreement and lagna-patra written declaration), and arrival of the groom's party at the bride's residence, often in the form of a formal procession. The post-wedding ceremonies involve welcoming the bride to her new home.
Despite modern Hinduism being largely based on the puja form of the worship of devas as enshrined in the Puranas, a Hindu wedding ceremony at its core is essentially a Vedic yajna (a fire-sacrifice), in which the Aryan deities are invoked in the Indo-Aryan style. It has a deep origin in the ancient ceremony of cementing the bonds of friendship/alliance (even among people of the same sex or people of different species in mythological contexts), although today, it only survives in the context of weddings. The primary witness of a Hindu marriage is the fire-deity (or the Sacred Fire)Agni, and by law and tradition, no Hindu marriage is deemed complete unless in the presence of the Sacred Fire, seven encirclements have been made around it by the bride and the groom together.
The ancient system of Hindu/Vedic marriages did not differentiate between male and female, as is done in modern times.
The sangeet sandhya is an evening of musical entertainment. This event takes place two or three days before a wedding in a banquet hall or at home. The bride's family puts on a show for the groom and bride.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Mazel Tov!
Mazel tov or mazal tov (Hebrew/Yiddish: מזל טוב, Hebrew: mazal tov; Yiddish: mazel tov; lit. "good luck [has occurred]"). The phrase is used to express "congratulations" for a happy and significant occasion or event.
Etymology and pronunciation
While the words mazal (or mazel in Yiddish; "luck" or "fortune") and tov ("good") are Hebrew in origin, the phrase is of Yiddish origin, and was later incorporated into Modern Hebrew. The phrase is recorded as entering into English from Yiddish in 1862 as "mazel tov".[1][2]
The main difference in pronunciation is that, like many words, in Hebrew the emphasis is on the second syllable, whereas in Yiddish it is on the first one. In addition it is mazal in Hebrew andmazel in Yiddish.
The expression comes from the Mishnaic Hebrew mazzāl, meaning "constellation" or "destiny." This in turn is thought to have derived from the Akkadian language manzaltu, mazzaztum.[2]
[edit]Translation
Although mazel tov literally translates to "good luck", the phrase is not used in the way that the expression "good luck" is used in English (typically as "I wish you good luck"). It rather means "good luck has occurred" or "your fortune has been good" and is an acknowledgement of this. The phrase "mazel tov!" parallels the use of the phrase "congratulations!" and conveys roughly that "I am pleased this good thing has happened to you!".
The phrase for wishing good luck to occur in Hebrew, in the way "good luck" does in English, is b'hatzlacha (בהצלחה), literally meaning "with success".[3]
[edit]Usage
In the diaspora, "mazel tov!" is a common Jewish phrase, such as after a bar or bat mitzvah or a wedding, the congregation may be inclined to shout "Mazel Tov!" For instance, at a Jewish wedding, after the groom breaks the glass everyone yells "Mazel Tov!" In addition it is one of the most well known cultural references that non-Jews know regarding Jews.
In Israel, "mazal tov" is used for all sorts of happy occasions, whether they be a new driver's license, a birthday, or the end of military service. Another common use is to acknowledge a bad event or experience being over—for example, after a very hard test.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Fantastic Friday! New Linen!
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