Like brides, museums come in all sizes, and they’re just as full of wonder, mystery and beauty. No longer a stuffy, dusty home to boredom, museums can bring a wedding reception to life like no other venue can–with artwork, sculpture, artifacts and the past. And you’d be surprised how many museums rent their fantastic facilities for events, both large and small.

At the left is a wedding at the American Museum of Natural History. Bet those wedding guests talked about that affair for days! Needless to say, the rental price at a museum like this is pretty pricey, but there are wonderful, small museums throughout the country, many with amazing architecture and intriguing exhibits–all there for you and your guests.

Here are four museums around the country that are fascinating and open to wedding receptions:

The Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ is home to spectacular Native American art. The Spanish Colonial-style architecture of the Heard Museum and its arched walkways, spacious galleries, outdoor bricked patios and fountains, and lush desert landscapes create a completely romantic ambience for your reception. Collections feature textiles, katsina dolls, pottery, jewelry, baskets, cradleboards, paintings and sculpture. The Heard is a true southwestern jewel.

If you’re a modern southern belle, you may want to hold your reception at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History not far from downtown Atlanta, where you can eat, drink and be married in the shadow of one of the world’s largest dinosaurs–or his skeleton, to be exact (and I’m not even sure if it’s a “him.”) Incredible features, including limestone fossil floors and the twinkling Star Gallery, simply add to the elegance to your reception.

For brides in the Northwest, let me turn you on to a sweet, little museum that makes choosing a theme–and wedding favors–easy and fun. The C.M. Russell Museum is an amazing place where the old West is still alive. Artist Charles Marion Russell, a true Renaissance man of long ago, was a historian, advocate of the Northern Plains Indians, cowboy, outdoorsman, writer, philosopher, environmentalist, conservationist, and last but not least, an artist who captured the landscapes, the spirit, and the culture of the West during the late 1800s and early 1900s. His artwork is part entertainment, part history lesson–and his museum welcomes wedding receptions!

Now we’ll head back down South to Key West, FL, where the Ernest Hemingway Mansion is also a museum that makes a terrific wedding venue! You’ll have all an ocean full of unbelievable activities, water sports and the charm of Key West to entertain your wedding guests, and your reception is surrounded by literary history. Not a bad way to start off your own family history, is it? And you thought it was just a museum…

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The photo at the left is the “before” picture of a bride’s beautiful bouquet. Rather than throwing her wedding flowers away, pressing them in a book or simply drying the blossoms, she chose to let Missy Cannon create a beautiful work of art that will surely become a treasured family heirloom! Believe it or not, the exciting, visually stimulating work of art on the right is the product of Ms. Cannon’s marvelous multi-media talent.

Ms. Cannon, who resides in Lafayette, LA, has a BFA in painting and has done years of research in flower preservation. Flowers Into Paintings is her own original, one-of-a-kind concept. Missy says her flower presentation is “not a craft, but a work of fine art.” She combines actual flowers with the fine art of painting, in which she believes flowers are not lost in time, but take on a new life. Another remarkable example of a bouquet before and after (at the left and right) is a testament to her philosopy.

The process begins when you deliver or ship your bouquet (in good condition) to Missy somewhere within 10 days after your wedding. Your flowers are then pressed over a four-to-six-week period, after which they’re applied to your custom painting. You can choose the color and style of your painting or leave it up to Missy, who will choose the colors that look best with your flowers. Each painting undergoes a preservation process to make sure your artwork endures for years. The complete process, from pressing to painting, takes 12 to 15 weeks, depending on the size of your order.

Enchanting Wall Flowers 

Not surprisingly, size matters when it comes to her rates, too. The artwork on canvas only, which allows you to frame it after you receive it, runs from $250 for an 11 x 14 to $440 for 20 x 24. A custom gallery-wrapped canvas (shown at the left) will cost you from $265 for a 12 x 12 to $795 for 36 x 36. Missy will also do custom sizes to fit your needs.

 Bring Art to Life for Your Wedding

When you think about it, there are a number of ways to incorporate art into your wedding plans. Design your theme around a famous work of art by your favorite artist, like “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh. Use his rich palette of blues, gold and white for your decor, and choose wedding favors that support your theme, like the “Wish Upon A Star” Bottle Stoppers.

Like Missy Cannon, it just takes a some thought and creativity to come up with a work of art, no matter what your medium–and is there any moment in time more personal, memorable and enduring than your wedding?

Every year for the past 100 years, Hungarians in the city of Roma would bury a double bass to signal the end of the wedding season and also would confess their sins that were committed against the instrument. Then they followed up with an all night party. A strange custom to be sure, but a custom nonetheless. Well 2008 saw that custom nixed from Hungary’s event calender. The bureaucrats in Hungary basically forgot to put it on the list of festivals that has been held every year on the first Thursday of every February.

The festival is included along with the carnival that celebrates the arrival of Spring. The custom is really a tradition of the gypsy musicians who have carried on the tradition year after year. However, the strangest part is that the local government of Roma had no choice but to ban the ceremony since it wasn’t listed on Hungary’s Festival List.  So even if it was an accident, it doesn’t matter. It’s not on the list, so it doesn’t exist.

And you thought our government was strange.

Movie review: 27 Dresses
by guest blogger Donna L.
27 Dresses gets my two thumbs up! I had the pleasure of attending the special advanced screening of this hysterical chick flick last night in Atlanta. Of course, I brought three close friends with me — our first night out celebrating my December engagement! Hundreds of people lined up to see what turned out to be a very entertaining evening, complete with hors d’oeuvres and a delicious pink cocktail at the VIP reception.

Katherine Heigl (Jane) delivered an outstanding performance as the wedding-obsessed girl who is always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Her crush on her boss turns to jealousy and frustration when he falls in love with her kid sister. The movie follows her journey as she works through the now-strained relationship with her sister, her boss, and the journalist who relentlessly pursues her. I especially related to the scene where she tried on the multitude of ridiculous bridesmaids’ dresses that were crammed into her closet, and judging by the laughter in the audience, so did many others! We left with smiles on our faces and a fabulous goodie bag filled with Kate Aspen wedding favors and Vera Wang perfume to name just a few!

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What would life be without the occasional (or frequent, for that matter) passionate kiss? And passionate kisses often lead to even more intimate activities. In fact, in a recent study of 1,041 college students by Susan Hughes from Albright College in Pennsylvania, she learned that only 10% of women would have sex without kissing their partner first. Not surprisingly, about 50% of men would do so. She also learned that there is definitely an art to kissing. First, you might be interested to know how kissing got started. Then I’ll give you the poop on kissing (ooh, that one even made me cringe…)

As with many things that began before recorded history, we can only theorize about the genesis of the kiss. One popular belief holds that the act of kissing began with prehistoric mothers chewing up food, and then pushing it into their babies’ mouths with their tongues. (Get that image out of your mind the next time you lock lips with someone.) Others think kissing evolved from the smelling of a companion’s face as an act of greeting, perhaps to determine the mood, disposition, and recent adventures of the newcomer (think cats and dogs.) Then foreheads, noses and lips started touching, and I guess they liked the lip thing so much, they took it to the next level.

Now that you know how it all started, we’ll check in on those kissing stats:

* Fifty-nine percent of males and 66 percent of females confessed they would end a relationship if the first kiss left something to be desired, possibly due to the exchange of hormones that occurs during kissing. The chemical cues you transmit through breath and saliva may alert your mate to your sexual psychology and reproductive status. We might see it as “Was it sloppy? Did he have horrible breath? Did she bite my tongue by accident?” What we may not realize is that the hormonal cues in our saliva are actually guiding our mental thought processes.
* Men want to kiss someone based on their perception of facial attraction while women focus more on a man’s teeth before puckering up.
* Kissing is more important for women than for men in having a satisfying sexual experience.
* Men prefer wetter kisses with more tongue than do women.
* Everyone likes more tongue with long-term partners.
* Men are more than twice as likely to have sex with a bad kisser than are women.
* 59% of men and 66% of women have been turned off by a potential partner’s kiss at some point in their romantic lives.

I don’t think there were any shocking revelations here. One thing Susan Hughes didn’t cover is the effect of lipstick on a kiss. After a very unscientific search on the Internet, I’ve learned that guys don’t seem particularly fond of kissing lipstick-coated lips. The words “greasy” and “slimy” were used a few times, as was “bitter-tasting.” Their other complaint was having the red stuff all over their faces, often without knowing it and walking around for hours wondering why they were being stared at and laughed at. Guys didn’t seem to have any problem with flavored Chapstick or lip balm. I guess it feels less slimy than lipstick. So, ladies, get yourself a sweet-tasting lip balm (which, incidently, make great bridal shower favors for obvious reasons), load–and lock! But don’t forget–like beauty and the beholder, good kissing is in the lips of the lover.