Week in and week out, dozens of wedding planning stories, some serious and some silly, challenge the Certified Wedding Planner to stay informed of wedding industry news and trends. To help you sift through the barrage of information, each week we will continue to offer a recap of wedding industry headlines from the past seven days.

While wedding planning is being accurately acclaimed as a profitable business option and some industry veterans are reporting business to be improving, many planners are utilizing innovative ways to raise awareness of their services. In an economic atmosphere of downsized budgets, deferred dreams, and wedding debt, some wedding professionals are writing wedding advice columns and sponsoring photography raffles.

In other efforts to counteract the effects of recession, planners in Texas shared their Bridezilla stories in a newspaper contest, County Hall registrars in Britain offered free weddings, and New York City spent over $12 million on new civil-wedding chambers in a bid to overthrow Las Vegas as the world’s top wedding destination.

Internationally, engaged couples in Taiwan have been rushing to the alter to avoid a superstitiously bad 2009, legislation in England is working to protect victims of forced marriage, and in a child wedding story that is more touching than troubling, two very young children in Germany were stopped by police as they attempted a New Year’s Day elopement to Africa.

Meanwhile, the ongoing battle over same-sex marriage rights continued in states, courts, churches, and legislative bodies. Proponents of the California Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage filed a lawsuit to hide the identities of donors to their cause amidst reports of threats and other backlash.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown advanced his challenge to the recent ballot initiative and repudiated a marriage definition bill he signed as governor three decades before. Former congressman and author of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act Bob Barr wrote an op-ed recommending that his legislation defining marriage as between one man and one woman be repealed in favor of states’ rights on the issue.

And in trying to make sense of it all, conservative writer Andrew Sullivan presented a patient perspective on human rights, family dynamics, and the healing power of love and marriage.

As usual, Hollywood had plenty to report from the matrimonial front. Secret weddings were revealed for “Dark Knight” and “Harry Potter” actor Gary Oldman and his fourth wife, jazz singer Alexandra Edenborough, as well as CBS “Late Late Show” host Craig Ferguson and his third wife, art dealer Megan Wallace Cunningham. Similar news was adamantly denied for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, although the former husband of Jennifer Aniston was clear that no adultery precipitated their divorce.

Celebrity couple engagement news included Alyssa Milano promising her hand to Hollywood agent David Bugliari, “High School Musical” star KayCee Stroh singing the praises of her finance Ben Higginson, and Jennifer Love Hewitt cancelling wedding plans with former fiancé Ross McCall. Black Eyed Peas singer Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson made news for her pre-nuptial workout and parties leading up to her scheduled wedding on Saturday to actor Josh Duhmael.

On the reported downside of marriage were Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and the upcoming movie, “Not Easily Broken”. And continuing the Hollywood trend of mining tragic comedy from the wedding genre, and in the process insulting at least half its audience, the predictable flick “Bride Wars” offered little more than a shallow perspective on good and bad cinematic bridal gowns.

Tags: Certified Wedding Planner, Wedding Industry Trends, Wedding News, Wedding Planning News, Wedding Planning Trends

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