カテゴリー別アーカイブ: wedding

When contemplating the nature of love, don’t you ever hark back to the good old days when marriages were prudently negotiated? When a relationship was built on solid, practical ground? Like how handy your potential boo was with a plough, or how well they could withstand an acute bout of dropsy? Married At First Sight runs with this commendably pragmatic attitude towards coupling, combines it with shit-hot science, and takes sexual chemistry back to its natural home: the laboratory.

It hopes to show that modern medical technology can break love down to its component parts with genome sequencing, things written meaningfully on to clipboards, dippers whooshed about in spit samples, and questionnaires analysing the very foundations of how you love. Evidence is then sifted and a slick, biologically watertight and hormonally compatible union created between willing volunteers, the strength of which is tested by a very real and legally binding on-the-spot wedding. What Channel 4 joins together let no man put asunder.

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The concept of a dating show that – all going well – ends in holy matrimony is not new to TV, as fans of high-quality broadcasting such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad will note. As the extensive lab coats illustrate, though, Married At First Sight is an in-depth study of partnership. And if, after five weeks of closely documented will-they-won’t-they, they don’t, the matched couples are offered a very real and sensible divorce. I’ll admit, I don’t know a lot about wedded bliss, but I know these contestants won’t be the first people to walk down the aisle repeating the mantra that it doesn’t have to be for ever, so at least an element of tradition remains.

The tumbleweed love lives of the urban millennials involved is a symptom of a wider problem, the programme suggests. Thirty-one-year-old Emma is pretty typical of the test subjects as she stoically tells us about how she buggered up her chances of happiness with modern indulgences like “turning up to work”. Across the board, in fact, the hopefuls say that they’ve found themselves unexpectedly in their 30s – around the time most Londoners start idly fantasising about moving from their seven-person houseshare and settling down in a nice cupboard above a butcher’s/VHS outlet – single and sapped of any inclination to mingle.

The show’s scientific approach – and especially the Phones 4 U-inspired rolling contract to commitment – seems like a much better option than a solid decade of terrible dates. But, as most people will tell you, love can’t be quantified with beakers and charts. There is something ethereal in the bond that unites two souls, and it’s best summed up as the mortal fear of dying alone. Maybe the question isn’t whether modern science can determine compatibility, but whether five weeks is long enough to convince yourself that the person you’re now waking up next to is a better alternative than pegging it on the floor beneath a Morrisons turkey dinner for one. Or “let love grow”, if you want to get poetic about it.

This, I’m sure, is the real reason for love’s endurance, and trying to foretell how strong that love will be probably yields results similar to casting a chicken’s entrails over a divining table. This visual metaphor brings us nicely to the delicate matter of if and when the couples will cultivate the petri dish. Mash the mitochondria. Partake in a bit of horizontal housekeeping. When will the couples consummate their holy vows is what I’m trying to hint at here. At this stage, it’s unclear exactly how probing Married At First Sight’s research will be, but I’ll take my cue from the innocent optimism of the participants and hold out hope for some awkward night-vision footage.

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The fifth edition of Africa Fashion Week London, which is scheduled to hold between 7th and 8th of August at the Olympia, London, is set to deliver a platform that might change the economics of design on the continent.

Since debuting in 2011, Africa Fashion Week London (AFWL) has gone from strength to super-strength in its attempt to change how fashion is done and perceived in Africa. The balance of trade is tilted towards the developed west, because the African fashion industry, although harbouring a few out-of-the-box successes, is still largely undeveloped, with over a billion people to cater for. AFWL hopes to solve this conundrum, by showcasing young, upcoming, and unknown African designers to the world.

“It’s a conscious decision we made,” AFWL’s creative director, Sola Oyebade told THISDAY during a press conference in Lagos announcing the fifth edition. “We don’t go for the big names. We try to give a platform to young designers and help push their products out there. We’ve had top designers approach us, but told them, no, this is not your market.”

This, the bringing of the unknown to global consciousness, is invaluable in setting up the continent as a fashion destination. A plethora of accomplished designers can only be a good thing, as it boosts retail trade, even across the Atlantic. It probably accounts for why the South African Department of Trade and Industry is sponsoring 20 designers to AFWL 2015. Other African countries, including Nigeria, should do the same.

About 68 designers from all parts of the world will take part in the two day event, which will have three shows per day.

“Last year, we had designers that came from Thailand showcasing African fabrics. They are coming again this year. We also have designers coming from Uganda, Hong Kong and other places. So those two days, the 7th and 8th August will be remarkable for fashionistas ,” Oyebade said.

There will also be emerging designers such as Taiwanese Aimme Ku, who is flying the flag for Africa-inspired fashion in her native Taipei City; and a welcome back for one of the favourites of the 2014 catwalk, Nigerian designer, Needlepoint. The winner of the Mercedes Benz Best Designer in Africa, Mary Martin, will also make her bow on the AFWL 2015 catwalk.

The AFWL 2015 brand ambassadors are top models, Victoria Michaels and Noella Musunka Coursaris. Michaels is one of the most sought-after models for leading businesses in Africa. She has played major roles in commercials for Hertz Rent-a-car, Vodafone, MTN, Nexcafe, Da-Vica and Bela-Aqua mineral water. Noella, meanwhile, is also an international model and the founder of Malaika, a non-profit organisation which is aimed lives in her native Democratic Republic of Congo.

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“It feels really great to be chosen as the Brand Ambassador for a globally acclaimed proudly African event like the African Fashion Week London,” Michaels has said. “I am particularly excited to be part of this grand platform that showcases the original African creativity, style and talent.

“We have a very rich fashion culture and I look forward to working with inspiring African designers from both within the continent and the Diaspora as we thrill and dazzle the world with authentic mind-blowing designs that speaks only of our incredible creativeness.” For Noella, she is “delighted to be serving on this year’s Brand Ambassador to Africa Fashion Week London, and to help showcase the brilliant work of African designers. It has always been my belief that fashion can be a tool for breaking down barriers and transcending cultures.

“This industry has the ability to put Africa on the world stage and can provide for countless job opportunities on the ground and abroad, from local factories to international shops. It is time for the world to see the amazing talent that lies within Africa.”

Maggie Smith takes over from Chi-Chi Nwuba as the face of AFWL 2015, after being chosen in a pubic via social media. “Maggie is of Ugandan/Scottish heritage and with her beautiful personality and impressive work ethic, she is an excellent ambassador for African fashion, and the perfect representative for Africa Fashion Week London,” a press statement read.

“I’m so proud to be the face of AFWL 2015. The journey so far has been very overwhelming and the support I’ve had so far is incredible. I look forward to the rest of this experience, and I intend to enjoy every minute,” Maggie said. Moving Forward

A rare combination of brains and beauty, Ronke Ademiluyi is the founder and headmistress of the AFWL team. At the press conference, she wears a warm smile as she touches, in brief words, on how AFWL has managed to survive to its fifth birthday.

“A lot of fashion weeks that started with us have died. We try to do everything on a very tight budget,” she says, “but if you are walking with the right team, it makes things look very easy. And, this year, a lot of people wanted to see more, and that’s why we have a larger cast of exhibition and designers, and why we are very diverse with the choices we make.”

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Anyone in the Sterling area during the last two weeks would have been able to see smoke from the Card Street fire rising into the sky.

At the same time, something less visible, but no less present, has been wafting through the air: love.

As the Card Street fire burned through more than 8,000 acres of land since it began June 15, it has unfortunately taken several structures down in its wake. One of those buildings was the home of Bob and Hope Hensler, who, after a 14-year engagement, were married at the Sterling Community Center on Sunday afternoon.

The couple lost everything in the fire that destroyed their home, including Hope’s wedding dress. Melissa Daugherty, vice president of the community center’s board, said the couple was there receiving counseling from an American Red Cross representative when the wedding plans fell into place.

“(The representative) came and whispered in my ear that Hope lost her wedding dress in the fire and we need to find her a dress,” Daugherty said. “And I said, ‘We need to do more than the dress, let’s give her a wedding.’”

From that moment on, Daugherty assumed the additional role of wedding planner, and donations in support of the couple began pouring in. Everything from the dress and wedding cake to the guest book and ring bearer pillow were donated by local businesses and members of the community. The couple’s honeymoon is being donated by Land’s End Resort in Homer.

For Daugherty, it was heartening to see the surge of support for Bob and Hope, a completely separate phenomenon from the continuous stream of support for those affected by the fire thus far.

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“I remember my wedding — you know, how special it was — and to give that to (Hope) after losing everything, I don’t know how to put it into words,” Daughtery said. “I’m so proud to be part of this community.”

Gary Hale is a retired fire marshal from Soldotna with 40 years of experience, including 28 years with Central Emergency Services. When he got a call last Monday and was asked to walk a stranger down the aisle, it took him only a day to decide to say yes.

“It was an unusual request, but I got to thinking about it. What an honor,” Hale said. “I met them for the first time just before the march.”

Daugherty and other volunteers transformed the community center into a quaint, fairytale-esque ceremony space, complete with twinkle lights, hard hats, boots and cupcakes decorated to look like flames. Signs and banners reading “From Ashes to Hope,” were scattered throughout the building, embodying the resilient spirit of the happy couple.

Firefighters were there in more than spirit — several members of the Washington Incident Management Team 3 were in attendance.

Max Konkright, public information officer for the team, said never in his career has he known of, let alone been invited to, a wedding held in the wake of a fire.

“To me that was mind blowing,” Konkright said. “Here we are doing what we consider doing our job, and then they invite us to their wedding and give us the front row for their ceremony.”

Konkright said the couple’s gesture is a reflection of the community as a whole, which has responded by supporting each other and the firefighters with water, baked goods and other forms of support. He said that while he has interacted with several welcoming communities through the course of his job, this one will be hard to beat.

“I don’t remember the last time I’ve had a community this supportive on a fire,” Konkright said. “This community went above and beyond. There’s no firefighter that’s going hungry on this fire, I guarantee it.”

Daugherty said inviting and honoring the firefighters with her wedding is just part of Hope’s giving character. That character was reflected in the number of people more than willing to help make the wedding a reality. Hope’s dress will even be auctioned off at the community center on August 15, and the money raised will be donated back to the center.

“There wasn’t one time where I asked someone to help out that there was a ‘no.’ That’s amazing,” Daugherty said. “And even more than just not a no, it was ‘yes, and what else can I do?’”

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Peter and Margaret Gowing from Norwich fell in love at first sight when they were on a group outing in 1954.

The couple, who have five sons and three daughters, 15 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, were engaged after five months of courtship.

They married on 11 June 1955 at Belvoir Street Chapel when Peter was 27 and Margaret had turned 21. Mr Gowing, 86, worked as a Millwright after leaving school at 14 and was responsible for servicing machinery in windmills across East Anglia for F. Flowerdew & Son.

He later went on to work as a mill engineer before retiring at the age of 75.

Before raising the couple’s children, Mrs Gowing, 81, worked at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital as an Almoner’s Clerk after studying at Underwood Secretarial College.

The couple started off married life in Lincoln Street but later moved to Park Lane in the late 1960s where they still live today.

When asked their secret for a long and happy marriage Margaret replied ‘give and take’ before Peter joked: “I call Margaret ‘she who must be obeyed’, you’ve got to have a sense of humour.”

The couple are still very active and only have a couple of days a week to themselves.

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Amongst many commitments Mrs Gowing is the deputy organist at Trunch Methodist Church in North Norfolk and helps out at a luncheon club every Monday.

Mr Gowing is the chairman of Cromer and Sheringham Brass Band and has played the cornet for over 60 years having also played for Dereham Band and Aylsham Band.

Mr Gowing continues to tend his allotment keeping the family in fruit and vegetables, he said: “It is our lifestyle that keeps us going.”

The couple have holidayed at Mundesley for over 40 years and continue to stay in their caravan in the village every week.

Mr Gowing said: “We love the peace and quiet of Mundesley, it has a lovely beach and we have made a lot of friends there.”

The couple celebrated 60 years together at an event on Saturday with over 60 family members.

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“So much of our relationship has involved outdoor adventure that it was important to us to have the wedding reflect that,” says Sam Peterson.

Sam and Tania (Sherry) Peterson were married at Highbanks Metro Park on October 25, 2014. ”Many of our favorite memories together come from trips that we spent hiking, biking, or camping,” continues Tania. “We knew we wanted to have our ceremony outside. HighBanks was perfect because not only was it directly across the street from where we had our reception, but it had a beautiful private clearing called the Mansion Shelter that we were able to reserve just for our event.”

Many of their guests also spotted the bald eagles that live in the park, which Sam thought was a great extra.

Sam and Tania met by chance on Match.com.

“But in part only because Tania wanted a free smoothie,” says Sam. “She had just returned from four years in Peru in the Peace Corps and was living at home in Toledo. Her gym offered her a free smoothie if she referred three other people, but she hit the limit of people she knew in the area at two: her parents. Her brother suggested that she join Match.com to meet new people. Thankfully she messed it up somehow, because it showed her as living in Columbus; otherwise our paths may never have crossed. Conveniently, she was about to start grad school at OSU in the fall, so her time in Toledo was short lived.”

Many of their dates involved hiking and the outdoors, so Sam planned a perfect proposal at the cliffs at Conkle’s Hollow in Hocking Hills that would showcase the wonderful view. But sometimes, even the best laid plans are tough to execute.

“Well, Tania kind of ruined my first attempt [at proposing],” he says. “I had it all planned out. One day while hiking at Conkle’s Hollow, I suggested we stop and admire the view. Tania was having none of it. Despite my repeated attempts to get her to stop and sit down, she wouldn’t; she said we hadn’t been hiking long enough to take a break.”

“I feel a little bad to this day,” she says. “That spot happens to come towards the beginning of the hike, however, and when I get moving, I’m loathe to stop for anything. Sam pulled off at the viewpoint and tried several strategies to get me to sit down with him, but I insisted it was ridiculous to take a break so early in the hike and demanded that we resume hiking immediately. He eventually gave up, and our hike continued with me completely oblivious about his intentions.”

“We had to hike the trail a second time to get back to the spot I had picked out,” says Sam. “We stopped for lunch, and I proposed just before we ate. Tania was a little confused at first.”

“I was pretty surprised to get handed a ring, when all I’d expected was a bag of chips,” she says. The ring was a custom design Sam worked on with William Weidinger, incorporating two rubies for color, a small sparkly diamond, and a stone from Sam’s maternal grandmother’s wedding ring.

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For their reception, the couple was at first thinking of putting together a day at a park or a farm.

“After visiting several of those venues, however, we came to the realization that we just didn’t have the time to deal with all the logistics that would require,” says Tania. “Also, despite beginning our venue search more than a year before our desired wedding date, we were surprised to find that many places were booked solid.”

Her parents had always enjoyed their stay at the Northpointe Hotel and Conference Center, and the proximity to Highbanks was really nice.

“We resisted at first because we thought it might just be a generic event space, but when we finally went, we loved it,” says Tania. “The wedding coordinator we met with, Bryan Wright, was hilarious and competent, and totally “got it” that we didn’t want a traditional reception.”

The Edgewater Room at Northpointe has large picture windows that overlook a pond and let lots of natural light into the space. Being adjacent to a patio just outside was perfect for the cocktail hour.

Finding a wedding dress took a little time for Tania.

“I’ve never been one to dream about a big white dress, so I honestly had kind of a hard time figuring out what I wanted,” she says. “After a few failed attempts at David’s Bridal and some of the other bigger shops, I took a trip down to Cincinnati to the Reading Bridal District. I found “the dress” – an Eddy K – on a clearance rack at the back of one of the shops.”

Although still a bit above her price range, Tania’s aunt saw how happy that dress made her niece and offered to pay the difference.

“I’m so glad she did because I loved the dress!” says Tania. “The only alteration required was to have it shortened, and a family friend of Sam’s stepped in and did that for me for free.”

Sam found a dark gray Hugo Boss suit from Nordstrom, and loves that whenever he wear it, he’s reminded of his wedding day.

They asked their wedding party to choose outfits based on a couple of criteria: knee length navy dresses for the bridesmaids and gray suits for the groomsmen.

“I loved the result!” says Tania.

They did get to do some DIY with the flowers. The couple’s friend Ashley Arzy selected sunflowers, gerber a daisies, and spray roses to complement a theme of deep and bold fall colors, oranges, golds, and reds. The flowers were ordered and Ashely, and Tania, her mother, and sisters spent a nice evening together putting together the bouquets, centerpieces, and boutonnieres the night before the wedding.

“Tania loves cats, and unbeknownst to us, Tania’s mom and siblings managed to slip tiny plastic cats into each one of the centerpieces,” says Sam. The centerpieces were ceramic pieces that Sam made at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center.

“I’ve been taking ceramics classes for about six years,” he says. “Over the years, when other students have gotten married they’ve made wedding favors, or other ceramic pieces for their own weddings. I always thought that was a great idea.”

“Our guests loved them, and many people took them home as a keepsake from the wedding,” says Tania.

Guests also got to take home bags of sugared pecans made by Tania’s mother.

Sam and Tania also wanted to have a fun, community atmosphere at their wedding, and the food played a big part in creating that feeling.

“One of our early decisions was that we wanted to have a hog roast for the food at our wedding,” says Sam. “Family friends of mine back home used to throw a big hog roast party at the end of the summer. They’d roast the hog, and all the guests would bring a side dish to share. Tania went with me to one of the last ones and had a great time. We wanted to recreate that feeling of community for our wedding. We couldn’t do a potluck, but we could at least roast a pig.”

Northpointe put together a fabulous menu that included a hog roast (with pulled and sliced pork), house made bbq sauce, baked beans, sweet potato salad, grilled vegetables, vegetable lasagna, and salad with pecans and cranberries.

People came from all over to share in the couple’s love.

“The wedding gave Sam and me the opportunity to see friends and family that, in some cases, we hadn’t seen for years,” says Tania. “It meant seeing my sister who had been working on her PhD in Australia, my friends from Peace Corps, and Sam’s friends from as far back as elementary school. We skipped a lot of the typical wedding traditions, so it felt like a huge, laid-back reunion, complete with a roasted hog and strong cocktails.”

The couple took a quick getaway to Asheville, North Carolina for a few days after the wedding. Then this spring, they took a longer trip to Argentina.

“We went at the end of March and had a great time,” says Sam. “We went to Buenos Aires and we also spent a lot of time down in Patagonia. We went hiking, horseback riding, and spent one day trekking on a glacier.”

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Though “Dance: Movement, Rhythm, Spectacle” occupies just one large room (arranged to feel like three) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, it seems to open windows in many directions. Its exhibits range from the 1890s to the 1980s, vividly demonstrating how radically that century brought change to social dance, dance theater and ideas of dance in art. Diversely diverse, the show, which opened this month, offers a panoply of artistic media (photographs, paintings, watercolors, prints, woodcuts, etchings, graphite drawings, lithographs and film), dancers of various races and a huge assortment of dance costumes. Its binding thread? The depiction of movement.

Several items here are startling and singular. In Pablo Picasso’s 1939 “Woman With Tambourine” (aquatint and etching), Picasso’s mistress Dora Maar, naked breasts in the air, is shown as a follower of Bacchus, her face and limbs viewed from several angles. She’s multidimensional, and so is her dance. This is a complex piece, a powerful cartoon that’s halfway to sculpture. Alexander Calder’s 1942 “Score for Ballet” is a two-dimensional notation for a three-dimensional dance that was probably never performed. Calder’s mobiles have always had dance qualities and have often impressed dancers; this evidence of his own idea of dance theater is intriguing.

A number of pieces are abstract (Charles Searles’s 1982 “Dance in the Blue Sky III,” for example, beautiful in its play of color) or close to abstraction (in Joan Miró’s 1963 “Danse Nuptiale,” the two figures and their bridal dance are dramatic and suggestive while completely devoid of human detail). And there are other riches to be found in the earliest pictures, which just show couples waltzing.

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Here is Pierre-August Renoir’s etching of “La Danse à la Campagne” (around 1890) — an endearing and classic image of a couple dancing in the open air. (The artist’s more celebrated painting of the same dance is on the poster for the Philadelphia Museum’s big forthcoming exhibition of Paul Durand-Ruel’s work as an art dealer, “Discovering the Impressionists,” but here it’s good to see Renoir’s skill in line without color.)

Now turn from that to three other images of the waltz. In Anders Leonard Zorn’s 1891 etching “The Waltz,” a dense array of hatched lines potently evoke a high-society ball (men in white tie, women with long skirts flowing like trains).

An 1893 Eadweard Muybridge zoopraxiscope, “A Couple Waltzing,” works like film to give you the impression of a slightly less refined pair stepping as they rotate. The title figures in John Sloan’s 1905 etching “Man, Wife and Child” are all in a small room in a New York apartment; the husband, his suspenders dangling behind him, grips his wife close in a dance, and their child observes. (The picture, considered risqué, was rejected from one exhibition on grounds of vulgarity.)

We’re given depictions of the jitterbug, Lindy Hop, other dances of the early 20th century — with several views of the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. The series brilliantly documents how body language has changed from the waltz, and indeed how it kept changing. (The violent physical extremes shown in Miguel Covarrubias’s lithograph “The Lindy Hop” are amazing, with the women throwing their weight every which way.) In the same group, Charles Demuth’s 1916 watercolor “The Green Dancer” proves one of the most exciting items in this whole collection, with three vaudeville dancers rising into the air, arms outstretched, toes pointed; the sense of energy, light, exuberance is terrific.

Here’s Loie Fuller on film (her “Serpentine Dance,” from the late 1890s) and in 1904 gypsographs (embossed prints) by Pierre Roche; here’s Isadora Duncan, caught in three 1920s watercolors by Abraham Walkowitz, and as reconstructed in dance by Lori Belilove in a 1987 film; and here’s Martha Graham both in silent film (a minute of the 1940 “Letter to the World,” with Erick Hawkins and Merce Cunningham making brief appearances) and in a Barbara Morgan photograph. These three women — Fuller, Duncan, Graham, each from a different generation — did much to create American modern dance and to become breakthrough emblems of American womanhood.

One of the supreme dance masterpieces of the last century is Bronislava Nijinska’s “Les Noces” (1923), still danced by the Royal Ballet and other companies in the somber colors that Natalia Goncharova provided for the original Diaghilev production. But Goncharova originally planned bright colors; it was Nijinska who insisted on a darker and far more subdued scheme. The impresario Diaghilev approved — a rare example of his allowing a choreographer to change an element he had already endorsed. And here (one of several décors from the Ballets Russes) is the Goncharova’s original curtain design, with flamelike yellows, oranges and reds in an exhilarating display of folk culture.

Every item is of interest. Daringly, this exhibition omits Degas, whose depictions of ballet form the most celebrated dance imagery in all of art. That’s fine; there’s more than enough here.

The film clips are too few and too short, but I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Rubberneck Holmes in the 1940 film “The Notorious Elinor Lee”; the plasticity with which he moves is laden with rhythm and glee. (The museum has upstairs a bronze of the Degas “Little Dancer,” by the way, and several other pieces of dance note, including a 1973 film of Lucinda Childs choreography in a room on minimalist art.) Anyone can imagine a Philadelphia Museum exhibition of dance imagery that occupied several more rooms and contained many more pieces; this one more than whets the appetite.

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First things first: If you decide you simply must see every show at the inaugural Fort Lauderdale Fringe Festival on Saturday, you’re dreaming of the impossible.

Twenty shows are scheduled between noon and 10 p.m., all but one with two performances each during the festival, so even though that translates to 39 performances spread out over 10 hours, you’d be hard-pressed to see everything. The math just doesn’t work.

Not that fringe fest fanatics wouldn’t try.

Fringe-savvy artists and audiences alike just love the fringe theater experience. The Orlando International Fringe Festival, at 24 the oldest such festival in the United States and the largest one in the Southeast, will present over 700 performances of 130 shows May 13-25 at venues that ring the city’s Loch Haven Park. But until Broward College decided to back a Fort Lauderdale festival this year, the concept hadn’t come to South Florida.

Thomas Meyer, dean of the college’s Downtown Center on Las Olas Boulevard where the festival will be held, credits Broward College President J. David Armstrong with providing the impetus for the festival.

“President Armstrong had the vision. He thought it would be great to do a fringe festival in Fort Lauderdale. Supporting the arts and the community fits with our mission,” Meyer says.

Meyer is serving as the festival’s managing producer, but the college reached into the theater community for an artistic director. Vanessa Elise, who graduated from Miami’s New World School of the Arts in 2013, got the gig and will also appear in Sonia Cordoves’ play Reality Sucks at the festival.

Elise, who acknowledges that she’ll be “going a little cray cray” as the festival ticks down to its start, just finished a run in New Theatre’s Women Playing Hamlet and last fall performed her one-person show Noise: An Interruption at the United Solo Festival in New York. Taking her show to Manhattan taught her a lot, as did going to New World, where “they prepare you for anything,” she says. Advice from the Orlando Fringe and its producer, Michael Marinaccio, has also been invaluable.

“Looking down the road, we want this to be something amazing for South Florida,” Elise says. “We’re learning and growing. We have different types of audiences and artists here … We have rich Hispanic, African-American and Haitian communities here.”

Part of what makes a fringe festival different is explained in the way the Fort Lauderdale describes its shows: uncensored, unjuried performance art. The content can be plays, musicals, scripted pieces, improvised shows — whatever the artist decides.

The artist pays a fee to perform, then gets all or a percentage of ticket sales, depending on the fee paid up front. More than 30 performers or groups applied to be part of the inaugural Fort Lauderdale festival, and 20 were accepted on a first-come, first-booked basis. Eleven of the shows will have an adult content advisory label on their tickets.

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“As an institution of higher education, we embrace diversity and free speech,” Meyer says.

Casey Dressler, who took her solo show The Wedding Warrior to the biggest-in-the-world Edinburgh Festival Fringe last summer, is performing it again at the Fort Lauderdale Fringe and will take it to the United Solo Festival in the fall. Born of her experiences as a Key Largo wedding planner, the comedy is about the craziness of putting together someone else’s wedding while searching for love. Like Elise, Dressler is all about being a self-empowered artist.

“This is an opportunity for artists to have their voices heard,” says Dressler, who recently appeared in Alliance Theatre’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. “I don’t always get the part because I don’t always fit the costume. This lets me do whatever the hell I want. I wrote and produced it.”

Performing in a fringe fest can be a spur to creation, too. Miamian Francesca Toledo applied with just a title, Senseless, then collaborated with Michelle Antelo, Melissa Ann Hubicsak and Randy Garcia to devise an aimed-at-adults piece about love.

“We had to decide what it was that we wanted to tell — about how we fall in love, what love is, how it changes us, what we become when we accept love, how it shapes us,” Toledo says. “And that losing someone is like a little death, like a process of grief … Then we had to make it more simple, tell a story so that people could come on that journey with us.”

Jerry Seeger brings deep experience as both an actor and a teacher to his fringe fest piece Demerits, Detentions and Dismissals. The director of drama at Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Seeger has put together a piece built around the poems of New York slam poet (and former teacher) Taylor Mali. Seeger’s wife and partner in Underdog Productions, Carbonell Award winner Elena Maria Garcia, is directing the show.

“I performed at the ninth Orlando Fringe Festival, and it was one of the best experiences of my life,” says Seeger, who did the Eric Bogosian solo show Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll there in 2000. “What we produce [as Underdog] is on the edge. Now you have a theater festival that offers so much stuff that’s just out there. Theater isn’t just helicopters taking off and falling chandeliers. As good as theaters like GableStage are, theater isn’t just one size fits all. Now we can all rally around this festival.”

Though the first Fort Lauderdale festival has yet to happen, organizers are already looking ahead to the next one, hoping to add more stages to showcase more artists. Orlando’s Marinaccio, who started as a performer in 1997 and took over as producer several years ago, has tips on what’s important in making a fringe festival successful.

“You need to make it a great experience for the audience and the artists. You want to build a core of artists and give them a supportive platform so you can get them back. Really, the audience curates the festival,” says Marinaccio, alluding to the importance of ticket sales as a draw to artists.

“For the audience, you need to keep ticket prices low (tickets in Fort Lauderdale are $5 or $10 per show). If you see five shows at $10 apiece, you can have an entire Saturday full of theater. For artists, you don’t control any of the creative content. There’s no filter. And that can really be magical for both the artists and the audience.”

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Lacey-Lee channelled Priscilla Presley for her bridal look. Her dress was an original vintage number which she had reworked to the exact style she wanted. The groom, Cam, is of Orcadian heritage so he wanted to wear traditional Scottish attire. Not an obvious paring you might think, but it really works!

The theme of combining both their passions continued into the rest of the wedding. “Cam and I always knew we weren’t going to have a normal wedding”, Lacey-Lee said. “We both have quirky interests and we wanted it to be a collaboration of lots of different elements. We are both touring musicians so music was also always going to play a huge part. I decided to DJ which allowed me to really set the tone exactly how we wanted it to feel. It also made the evening really special.”

“Our catering was also unique. We didn’t want the typical buffet or sit down mean so when everyone entered the reception we had the room centred around a huge food display with beautiful canapés and a dessert bar. Then later, we served gourmet tacos!”

The day was held at Whonnock Lake Centre in Maple Ridge, just outside of Vancouver. “I would call our wedding theme ‘Mystical Mod’”, Lacey-Lee continued. “The moody, enchanted forest backdrop with traditional Scottish styling representing the mystical elements, and the vintage brass décor and sixties styling represented the Mod.”

“A lot of my DIY was buying the brass items for the décor from thrift stores. I also created all the signage and laid out the reception furniture. I loved how everything came together in the end. It’s how I visualised it in my head. From the mood, décor, food, music… It was perfect.”

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