In October 2022, Dr. Olivia Arden Sacks’s professional life as a surgical resident was consumed by long hours, an academic paper, and thoughts about her rotation. But amid all the hard work, she had a moment of clarity: Anika Lynn Bieg was the person she wanted to marry. Such precision is “how I make decisions,”…
When Zach Horrall, a social media specialist at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Corlan McCollum, a children’s librarian, got engaged two years ago, they wanted to connect their wedding to a larger event. At first, they considered Halloween, but when they realized Indianapolis was in the path of totality for the April 8, 2024, solar…
Amy Shack Egan describes herself as an “anti-wedding” event planner. The company she founded in 2015, Modern Rebel, creates what she calls “love parties,” personalized events that celebrate the couple and their relationship and often include modernized or reimagined wedding traditions (or sometimes almost no traditions at all). The couples she works with may forgo…
Weddings are steeped in tradition, but where did those traditions come from? And how do those customs differ in other cultures? In our new column, “Traditions,” we aim to explore the origins of various wedding customs from the United States and around the world. Early on in the planning process, Kristina Trejo was steadfast about…
Last fall, Emmali Osterhoudt was at a Goodwill store in Birmingham, Ala., when she stumbled upon a Galia Lahav wedding gown. Though she was not yet engaged, Ms. Osterhoudt, 21, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to purchase the find: The gown was priced at $25. Her thrifting success went viral on TikTok, and brides chimed…
In January, Tessa Tookes tried on her dream wedding dress at a bridal boutique in Ontario. When the store employees told her she would have to pay $200 for the bra cups of the gown to match her skin color, her heart sank. The beige cups that had already been built into the dress, however,…
About two weeks ago, a woman who goes by the name Reesa Teesa created a 50-part series on TikTok to recount her whirlwind relationship saga with a man she began dating and quarantining with in March 2020. In the eight-hour epic, titled “Who TF Did I Marry?,” she referred to her ex-husband as a “pathological…
When a member of one of India’s wealthiest families gets married, big-name guests and showstopping pomp and circumstance are nothing unusual. But it’s not every day that the invitees include royalty, business titans, Bollywood luminaries and Rihanna, for three days of a pre-wedding spectacular, months ahead of the actual ceremony. The lavish festivities getting underway…
In October 2020, Melissa Cuc was visiting friends in South Florida. They were excited about attending a party that weekend. She was not. “I said I’d rather die than go out for Halloween in Miami,” Ms. Cuc, 27, said. She relented and wound up at the party, wearing a leopard-print skirt. Early into the event,…
Graduating from medical school takes a lot of hard work. Falling in love while you’re doing it takes a whole lot of luck (and some work as well). Dr. Liu was in her third year of medical school at U.C.L.A., and Dr. Park was just starting his first year of ophthalmology residency training there. Dr.…