Tag: United States

Receiving a Presidential Wedding Greeting is easier to obtain than you think. The White House Greetings Office will honor citizens with a special Presidential Wedding Greeting.

All greeting requests must be submitted in writing. Brides and grooms can either mail or fax their request to the White House Greetings Office. Faxed requests should include the same information as a mailed request as well as the name and phone number of the sender.

If you decided to mail your request, you’ll need to send your request to:

The White House, Room 39
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20502

If you would like to fax your request, you need to fax it to 202-395-1232.

Your request for the Wedding Greeting should include the following information:

couple’s names
titles such as Mr. and Mrs.
couple’s complete mailing address, including zip code
full date of marriage, month, day, year

Your request should be submitted about four weeks prior to your wedding day.

For more information regarding Presidential greetings, please call the National Contact Center toll-free at 1-800-FED-INFO or visit the http://www.whitehouse.gov/greeting/

Please review these guidelines carefully before sending your request to the White House.

1. U.S. CITIZENS ONLY. The White House will send greetings to United States citizens only, for special occasions as outlined below.

2. ADVANCE NOTICE REQUIRED. Your request must be received six (6) weeks in advance of the event date. We make every effort to honor every request, but we cannot guarantee a greeting if this guideline is not met. (Greetings are generally not sent after the event date, except for wedding congratulations and newborn acknowledgments.)

3. ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS. Anniversary greetings are extended only to those couples who are celebrating their 50th (and subsequent) wedding anniversary.

4. BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. Birthday greetings will be sent only to individuals 80 years of age and above.

5. OTHER GREETINGS. A limited number of special occasions other than birthdays and anniversaries exist for which the Greetings Office will send appropriate recognition to United States citizens. These occasions include important events such as:

a. Wedding (send your request after the event)
b. Baby’s Birth (must be born during the George W. Bush Administration; send request only after baby’s birth)
c. Eagle Scout Award
d. Girl Scout Gold Award
e. Bar/Bat Mitzvah or equivalent occasion

6. REQUIRED INFORMATION. Please include the following in your request:

a. name and home address of honoree(s)
b. form of address (Mr., Ms., Mrs., Dr., Miss, etc.)
c. exact date of occasion (month, day, year)
d. age (birthdays) or number of years of marriage
e. your (the requestor’s) name and daytime phone number
f. Wedding (Include couple’s married names and current or new address)
g. Baby’s Birth (Include baby’s date of birth and full names and address of baby and parents)

7. WHEN TO EXPECT YOUR GREETING. In most cases, greetings will be mailed from the White House approximately ten (10) days prior to the event.

The cultural differences factor in to wedding events, and how the wedding is organized. Some weddings are artistically designed while others are civil.

India weddings for example are much different from other cultures. The cultural differences are denoted as Hindu weddings and often it involves bright events, which may continue for many days. Most times the India weddings are large events whereas more than 1000 sometimes attend.
Most of the people who attend India weddings either know or are related to the bride and groom.

Most times the marriages are arranged. In urban areas though love marriages take place. The original weddings though are about family socially wedded whereas little emphasis is placed on the individuals.

Traditions vary across caste, religion, language, ethnicity, and region for the most part. Most times the weddings are pre-prepared and consist of Varmala, Phere, and Baraat and finally Vidaai. In each part of India, however wedding events have slight or even something huge cultural differences. In some areas and before the big day of a Hindu wedding in the eastern parts, Bariksha occurs. What this means is that the groom has established an agreement with the parents and that the intentions of him marrying the bride is known.

Tilak is another part of Hindu weddings, which involve the parents of the bride traveling to the groom’s resident to formalize their relationship. During this time, a large meal is prepared by the groom’s family.

Once these actions occur, it is highly rare that the couple will not get married. In our area, in the United States though, those cultural differences change because our law allows practically all immorally wrong behaviors that are not subject to prosecution by their standards.

At India weddings Varmala and Jaimala is the next step to the altar once the couple’s parents have feasted and formalized the marriage. Most of the east and north parts of India celebrate weddings during the late hours. Many of them start at the stroke of midnight and can last although the night.

In America, most weddings take place during the day hours and lasts a couple of hours. Usually, the main event of the wedding involves the groom appearing with his family in a Baraat. There is also a reception and feast accompanying the wedding ceremony, so the chief ceremony is often split into two sections. The two sections may include the Varmala and the Reception, which is followed by a ritualistic event that involves the priest.

Once the groom arrives at the wedding, the Jaimala ceremony begins and the bride and groom joins to exchange the garlands. Once the ceremonial event ends, the well-wishers congratulate the couple and give their gifts. Everyone gets together to eat after.

In the USA most times weddings emphasis is placed on the couple and in many events, family is less important. In other words, India people place more emphasis on family and holding marriages together while many American’s have lost so much morale and value; it is commonplace for men and women here to divorce on about any ground.

In 2008, more than two million couples married in the United States alone. While in Canada, around 115,000 marriages happen daily. China, the most populous country, has 9 million marrying couples every year, spending $19,900 dollars per wedding. Such an escalating rate attracted many capitalists to what we know today as the wedding industry.

The wedding industry is composed of many business enterprises including the jewelleries, caterers, couture, flower shops, printing press, music, transportation, photography and videography. Because no company provide all of this in one-stop shop, the wedding planning sector also emerged to relieve couples from the stress. A recent study showed that one out of two brides hire a wedding consultant for the planning.

This industry has further expanded to education sector. The increasing number of schools offering certification on wedding planning and management is an evident of a sustainable industry.

In discussing such occasion with a wedding planner, the usual spending goes to reception cite, engagement ring, honeymoon, wedding rings, photography and video, rehearsal dinner, bridal gown, bridal accessories, bridesmaids, flowers, music, limousines or any transportation, formal wear, and the clergy or chapel.

The industry started as a potential commerce when women were regarded as a commodity and sold in exchange for valuable goods like cattle and grain. In history, wedding ceremonies mark the alliances of powerful tribes or families known today as arranged marriages. The following decades have changed but weddings still played an important role in the society. In some countries, a wedding ceremony reflects the societal status and economic class of a couple. Hence, lavishness in gowns, themes, and reception has become a trend.

Globalization further contributed to the growing industry. As the 60’s and 70’s marked the non-traditional wedding ‘a ceremony outside the church’ destination wedding becomes a vogue. Tourism turned out to be an important economic factor giving ample revenue to countries. The weddings of Hollywood artists greatly intensified the trend.

For example, a traditional Japanese wedding would cost a couple an average of $70,000 according to the Census of Japan in 2005. Because marrying in Guam is cheaper by 60%, the Pacific Daily News reported a 25% wedding of Japanese couple in Guam last year.

Las Vegas, Nevada is ranked as number one city where most couple from all over the world plan to wed, with around 106,000 weddings a year. It is followed by Istanbul, Turkey with 92,000 annually. Gatlinburg in Tennessee and New Orleans in Louisiana, both in the United States, are the next in line respectively. Expensive destination weddings are the Caribbean, Mexico, and almost all parts of Europe.

The Philippine wedding suppliers also penetrated the global market in 2008. Banquet Specialty Shoppe Inc. provide services to several Asia Pacific events. The Jardin de Miramar gained recognition internationally when it was featured in the international news agencies Associated Press and Reuters. Led by Mr. Lito Genilo, the Smart Shot Studio received recognitions from the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) and its local counterpart, Wedding and Portrait Photographers of the Philippines (WPPP).

Las Vegas is known for its speedy weddings, and many consider getting married in Las Vegas tacky. However, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the wedding capital of the world is changing to include more elegance.

Brides can still get married in Las Vegas for $50 at a speedy drive-thru chapel, but many brides are choosing to make their Las Vegas wedding more elegant, planning 9 months to a year in advance and choosing medium to extravagant ballrooms to host their event.

Casinos have always had the capacity to host large extravagant weddings in their ballrooms, but until recently, they used those ballrooms for corporate events. Casino owners didn’t think twice about using the ballrooms for a Las Vegas wedding reception or Las Vegas wedding chapel.

Now, elegant Las Vegas wedding chapels are the most competitive Las Vegas wedding business out there. All the major casinos and even small hotels have a chapel and / or ballroom in their Las Vegas venue, and they all advertise heavily online for brides to choose their Las Vegas wedding chapel.

According to “TradeBit,” the average wedding cost in Las Vegas is $24,860. This is quite a bit different considering Las Vegas was known for its $50 dollar Elvis weddings at the Little White Wedding Chapel.

Las Vegas is often the middle state of couples getting married from opposite ends of the United States. Long term relationships where the bride lives in California and the groom lives in New York, many times end up married in Las Vegas with family present.

Couples getting married in Las Vegas soak up everything they can get their hands on with a Las Vegas theme for their Las Vegas wedding. Las Vegas wedding favors with a Las Vegas theme include poker chips with a bride and grooms name on it. Las Vegas wedding invitations now feature photos of the venue that the bride and groom are getting married in, as well as Las Vegas wedding invitations that feature photos of the Las Vegas city lights from the strip and the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Even toasting glasses and guest books are being engraved with the phrase “Las Vegas” or “Viva Las Vegas” instead of the couples names.

Couples are now planning to elope instead of spontaneously getting married in Vegas. Because of this those couples order their announcements weeks in advance so when they get back from their Las Vegas wedding they can immediately send out their Las Vegas wedding announcements.

While celebrities like Brittany Spears and others have eloped to Las Vegas and were married in a small Las Vegas wedding chapel, other celebrities are choosing to get married in Las Vegas at extravagant hotels, and they are still calling it “eloping.”

Whether a bride gets married in a small Las Vegas wedding chapel or a large Las Vegas wedding ballroom, whether they plan their Las Vegas wedding for one year or five minutes, every couple married in Las Vegas can say that they have eloped to Las Vegas.

Thus, what happens in Vegas … stays in our hearts.