
Happy Valentine's Day
“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” - Robert Heinlein
This Valentine’s Day, many engaged couples, new and perpetual, are taking the opportunity to celebrate their impending nuptials by working on their wedding plans. Many Certified Wedding Planners are gearing up their businesses for another very busy wedding season. Many wedding venues and vendors are speculating, innovating, rehabilitating, and reinventing their approaches to try to succeed in what promises to be a strong, but changing, wedding market.

Valentine's Day in Karachi, Pakistan
“Love conquers all.” - Virgil
As many as one out of every ten engaged couples says “I will” on Valentine’s Day. For many couples, a fantasy wedding will be very much based in the reality of tough economic times. While many will choose discounts, others will choose debt to finance their wedding day dreams. The couple who won the Clay Hill Farm $25,000 green wedding contest is the fortunate exception to the wedding budget rules.

Vegan Chocolate Cake
“What I need to live has been given to me by the earth. Why I need to live has been given to me by you.” - Author Unknown
Inspiration for turning Valentine’s Day green can come from decadent vegan chocolate cakes and dissolvable dresses. It can come from recognition of the impact the gift of millions of greeting cards, boxes of chocolates, and flowers has on our environment. Wherever it comes from, the desire to make your Valentine’s Day celebration eco-friendly shows your love for our planet and benefits us all.

Dissolvable Dress
“When love is not madness, it is not love.” - Pedro Calderon de la Barca
‘Party planner to the stars’, Colin Cowie may travel in the mad world of celebrity weddings and events, but his heart is apparently in the right place. His steadfast rule states: “If you make anyone on my staff cry, you get your check and your contract back.” In a Hollywood culture of musical marriages and laissez-faire engagements, integrity is a welcome attribute.

Kristy Swanson and Lloyd Eisler
“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.” - Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
While Valentine’s Day is providing a much needed economic boost for wedding planners, venues, vendors, and marriage bureaus nationwide, engaged couples in New York, California, Nevada, Texas, Illinois, Utah, and every state in between were recently denied the right to marry. This week marks the 12th anniversary of Freedom to Marry Week. As we celebrate the holiday of love, named after Christian martyrs, let us remember that the struggle for marriage equality continues.

Married in Canada, Denied in Dallas
And perhaps someday soon, we can all agree that our world is better off for all the love it can muster.
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss

Peace and Love