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Weddings: Weird, Woes & Disasters

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Serbian Wedding Guests "Down Plane"

Guests at a wedding in central Serbia have apparently shot down a small aircraft by mistake.
They were celebrating in the traditional way - firing off shot after shot into the air above the wedding party.

Unfortunately, there was a two-seater aircraft flying overhead.

One eye-witness told reporters the plane was shot in the left wing.

He saw flames coming from the aircraft which a few moments later it flew into overhead power-cables.

Two men on board are reported to have been seriously injured.

Firing weapons is a common way of celebrating here.

The Serbian Government has run public health campaigns warning of the obvious dangers.

Nevertheless, there are often injuries and even the occasional death following major sporting victories and New Year parties.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3185884.stm

Emp edit: See also:

Children marry dogs:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...gs-weirdness-wonders.13612/page-2#post-505390
 
Wedding woes

A thread for for good weddings go bad (or when bad weddings get worse|) ;)

'Royal Wedding' Turns Out to Be Fairytale



TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese "prince and princess" looked unlikely to live happily ever after Tuesday when they were arrested on suspicion of defrauding 13 million yen (7,900) from guests at a fake royal wedding in Tokyo.


Yasuyuki Kitano and Harumi Sakamoto, both in their 40s, issued 2,000 invitations to "Prince Arisugawa's celebration banquet" in April, attracting 400 people including celebrities, domestic media said.

Photographs of the reception shown on television depicted the "princess" in an elaborate multi-layered kimono of the type usually only worn by brides of the Imperial household, and the "prince" also in royal-style kimono.

The couple deny having pretended Kitano was a member of the now-defunct Arisugawa branch of the Imperial family.

"We never actually said we were royal," Sakamoto told state broadcaster NHK.

Guests at Japanese weddings are expected to bring cash gifts. In this case they are also said to have been charged 10,000 yen a time for taking pictures with the happy couple.

Source
 
Wedding Woes united for better or worse...
 
Marrying the dear departed

I thought this might have happened before but I couldn't find anythin on the message board so I'll start a new thread.

Last Update: Wednesday, February 11, 2004. 6:30pm (AEDT)

French lovers wed despite death

A woman in France has married her dead fiancee under an unusual law that allows such unions.

After receiving an approval from President Chirac, the 35-year-old woman married her late fiancee, a policeman who was killed in a car accident in 2002.

The ceremony in the city of Nice took place under a law introduced by Charles de Gaulle when he was president.

It allows a marriage between a living and a dead person if, before the death, they had completed formalities confirming that they had planned to get married.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1042988.htm
 
women weds dead boyfriend

French bride weds dead boyfriend
Dressed in black, a 35-year-old Frenchwoman has married her boyfriend.
But Christel Demichel's wedding needed special permission because her policeman boyfriend, Eric, was killed by a hit-and-run driver 18 months ago.

The bride said she knew some people might be shocked but Eric's death had not dimmed her feelings for him.

The wedding at Nice city hall, attended by the couple's close friends and family, took place on what would have been Mr Demichel's 30th birthday.



Respect

"Eric and I promised when he was alive that we would get married," Mrs Demichel told France's La Chaine Info TV.

"Even though he is dead, I respect the values I shared with him, especially as his death was not his fault."

Eric was knocked down on the outskirts of Nice in September 2002.

Mrs Demichel, who lost the couple's unborn baby after her fiance's death, admitted that getting married to a dead person might shock some people.

"I think it's out of respect for someone who has just died", she said, adding that she was proud to be bearing the Demichel name.

"I need to go beyond death", she told the French news agency.

Legal struggle

Mrs Demichel's lawyer, Gilbert Collard, said the fight to get permission for the marriage had not been an easy one. He said the law allowing posthumous marriage - a rarely used legal provision - was introduced in France by General de Gaulle.

"It provides a means of giving legal expression to an emotional reality," he said.

A man was jailed for two years and fined 4,500 euros after a court found him guilty of knocking down Mr Demichel while driving on the wrong side of the road.

BBC Monitoring , based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/3477779.stm

Published: 2004/02/10 22:40:27 GMT

© BBC MMIV
 
We must pray that she'll be soon demanding it's annulled on the grounds of
non-consummation! :eek!!!!:
 
Man Marries Own Grandmother

I hope this is the right forum for this.

A 25-year-old Indian man has married his 80-year-old grandmother because he wanted to take care of her.



"I felt she needed extra care as she is old. I can look after her better as a husband than as a grandson," Narayan Biswas told Reuters.


"As a husband, I am with her all the time, to care for her," said the high school graduate, who farms rice fields and also works as a tutor.


The grandmother, her back bent with age, says she is "happy" with her young husband whom she married in a traditional Hindu ceremony near Panchpara, a village 100 miles west of Calcutta. Her first husband died more than 30 years ago.


"I helped bring him up with my own hands and now he looks after me. He is a good husband and ensures I get my meals on time," said Premodas Biswas, a red vermilion streak on her forehead, the mark of a married Hindu woman.


Local officials say marrying a blood relation is illegal under the Hindu Marriage Act, but they have no plans to take action against the couple.


"There has been no complaint against them and they are living as husband and wife after a temple ceremony. Their own family has accepted them so we have no plans to act as of now," Dilip Das, a local government official, told Reuters.


Last June, a nine-year-old Indian girl was married to a dog near Calcutta after a priest told her parents the wedding would ward off evil.
 
Goat-swap wife runs home

By Metro
25 March 2004

A shepherd is demanding a refund after he swapped his prize goat for a friend's wife - only to have her run back to her husband three months later.

Todor Mitevski struck the deal when friend Vladimir Petrov complained his wife, Katya, had failed to produce children and was stupid.

When his wife came back, Mr Petrov told police in Bulgaria: 'I'm keeping the goat - he's welcome to the wife if he can get her to go back.'

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/9868157?source=Metro
 
New Meaning Of Shotgun Wedding

June 27, 2005, 9:44:19
bizarre

Thats bizarre: A Serbian bridegroom spent a night in the cells after injuring 15 guests while trying to shoot an apple with a shotgun.

The unlucky groom was taking part in a Serbian wedding tradition which is supposed to bring good luck to the happy couple.

But the groom, 47, who is a police marksman, used a shotgun instead of a pistol and hit more than a dozen people with ricocheting pellets after the stunt backfired.

None of the guests were seriously injured but police, who were called to the incident, arrested their colleague and confiscated his gun.

www.femalefirst.co.uk/bizarre/66562004.htm
 
:? I have read,or heard of, someone"celebrating"a marriage in some Eastern European(or Near East) country by firing off an AK47(or something similar)
On full automatic
In a packed room
With a(this is the crucial part)Reinforced concrete ceiling.

Does anyone know if this is true?
 
Strange Marriages

I did a search but there doesn't seem to already be a thread on this... so this is a thread for all those stories of people marrying animals, trees, dead people, twin sisters/brothers simultaneously, etc that seem to crop up in various parts of the world (India and the odder bits of the US tend to figure quite prominently)...

To start off with: Girl Wants To Marry Cobra And Live In River

(marrying animals because of odd beliefs about animal gods seems to be a fairly common variant...)

Discussion of marriage itself and its historical, political, religious, magical and fortean contexts also welcome... :)

[Emp edit: Threads merged]
 
ok, here's the cobra story:

(a few other forums prefer people to hotlink rather than post full text of news stories/articles, i presume either for bandwidth or copyright reasons... but i'm willing to do either way, as board policies prefer...)

Tribal girl wants to marry a cobra!
By Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar
Saturday, 29 October , 2005, 09:27

People are thronging an Orissa village to have a glimpse of a girl who insists on marrying a snake!

A few days back Kusum,15, of Kaliaguda tribal village about 60km from the district headquarters of Malkangiri had gone to bathe in the river Saveri nearby. While bathing she found a cobra getting wrapped around her.

Panic-stricken Kusum shook the reptile off and fell unconscious after that. When she became conscious again, she told her father Bhagaban Nayak and family that she has to marry the cobra.

Her family members dismissed Kusum’s statement. But to their surprise they started sighting the cobra often.

Meanhwhile, Kusum kept her demand on and wanted her marriage with the cobra solemnised.

Kusum's father first took her to a medical doctor and later to a witchdoctor. A rigorous rituals-laden puja of the cobra followed but to no avail. Kusum refused to back of from her demand. .Finally her father Bhagaban appears to have relented. "May be it is the wish of the God,"he says.

But as people came in hundreds to have a glimpse of Kusum and the cobra, the snake has vanished. But Kusum says that the cobra keeps on appearing to her in her dreams.

Some old tribal men believe that there is a Cobra-God on the banks of the river Saveri. He has rescued many men from drowning in the river. The tribal community has now come to believe that the girl would marry the cobra and live in the river!
(hope i did the quote right)
 
and here's one of the "man marries sisters simultaneously" stories:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/ ... m=storyrhs
Home > Specials > Unusual Tales > Article
Man marries two sisters

November 27, 2003

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Related:
- Groom agrees to marry bride's handicapped sister

In an odd twist on Hindu marriage tradition, an Indian man has married two sisters, one of them handicapped, in a double wedding that has the consent of both families so that the ill sister can be guaranteed lifelong care.

Amar Verma, 26, from Lucknow, capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, married Ragini Verma, 18, and her physically disabled sister, Preeti, 21, in a simple ceremony in the brides' home town of Jalaun on Tuesday.

The groom said that, when he had asked to marry Ragini, her father, a retired schoolteacher with little money, insisted that he also marry Preeti.

"It seems he is concerned about Preeti's future after he is no more," the groom said.

In Indian weddings, the groom takes a vow to take responsibility for all of his wife's needs for the rest of her life, a more binding commitment than a simple promise to care of her sick relatives.

Divorce is virtually nonexistent in rural areas of India, so the women's father felt more confident of Preeti's welfare if she became Mr Verma's bride.

The marriage was solemnised in accordance with Hindu rites. Preeti, who was brought in a wheelchair, was the first to place a garland around the groom's neck.

"I am happy with this marriage. ... I know my responsibilities," he said.

"We viewed the situation from a humanitarian point of view," the groom's father, Ram Swarup Verma, told The Asian Age, an Indian English-language newspaper. "Preeti is confined to a wheelchair and it would be difficult for her to fend for herself alone."

"After a long deliberation we agreed to double marriage, thinking that Preeti would be Amar's responsibility after marriage and, moreover, if the two sisters lived together after the marriage there would be no adjustment problems either," he said.

The groom said he had now "developed a liking" for both sisters. "I am confident there will be no problems later on," he said.

Legal experts, however, questioned the validity of the union. According to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 a person cannot already be married at the time of the wedding. It does not specifically prohibit a person from having more than one spouse, and it is that technicality the Vermas are relying upon.

Purdendu Singh, a marriage counsellor in Lucknow, said it would not be easy to charge Mr Verma with bigamy as he married the sisters at the same time.

"It would be difficult to prove which of the two is actually the second marriage since the girls are being married simultaneously. Hence the court cannot nullify the second marriage."

Vijay Vikram, another lawyer, said: "Besides, there is no aggrieved party in this case as both sisters have consented to the marriage."

AP
which reminds me slightly of the double wedding of the conjoined twin sisters in "Freaks"...

(i'm disabled, so i'm probably allowed to say that... :twisted: )

and some discussion of it on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3228449.stm

(ime BBC stuff is archived long term, so probablky doesn't need fully quoting)
 
Oh boy oh boy:

British woman weds dolphin


December 30, 2005 - 8:27AM


British tourist Sharon Tendler has finally made her dream match - by "marrying" a dolphin she has been visiting for 15 years in the Israeli resort of Eilat, the mass-circulation Yediot Ahronot daily reported.

Tendler, 41, has been visiting the city on the Gulf of Aqaba two or three times a year to spend time with her 35-year-old underwater sweetheart.

"The peace and tranquility under water, and his love, would calm me down," the Israeli daily quoted her as saying.

Last week Tendler finally plucked up the courage to ask the dolphin's trainer for the mammal's fin in marriage.

The wedding took place Wednesday, with the bride, wearing a white dress and watched by amazed spectators, walking down the dock to where the groom was waiting in the water.

She kissed him, to the cheers of the spectators and then, after the ceremony was sealed with some mackerels, was tossed into the water so she could swim away with her new husband.

"I'm the happiest girl on earth," the bride was quoted as saying.

"I made a dream come true. And I am not a pervert."

www.smh.com.au/news/world/i-do-dolphin/ ... 17451.html
 
Another report on the dolphin story:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 23,00.html

Brit Jew marries dolphin

Unusual wedding: British woman marries her beloved dolphin in Eilat ceremony
Joe Kot

Till death do us part? An unusual wedding ceremony was held in the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, as Sharon Tendler, a 41-years-old Jewish millionaire from London married her beloved Cindy, a 35-years-old dolphin, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.

The groom, a resident of the Eilat dolphin reef, met Tendler 15 years ago, when she first visited the resort. The British rock concert producer took a liking to the dolphin and has made a habit of traveling to Eilat two or three times a year and spending time with her underwater sweetheart.

"The peace and tranquility underwater, and his love, would calm me down," the excited bride said after the wedding.

After a years-long romance, Tendler decided to embark on the highly unusual path of tying the knot with her beloved dolphin. Last week, she approached Cindy's trainer Maya Zilber with the extraordinary request.

Zilber accepted the challenge and "talked the idea over with the fellow," who apparently consented.

'I'm not a pervert'

And so on Wednesday afternoon, the thrilled bride, wearing a white dress, walked down the dock before hundreds of astounded visitors and kneeled down before her groom, who was waiting in the water.

Cindy, escorted by his fellow best-men dolphins, swam over to Tendler and she hugged him, whispered sweet nothings in his ear, and kissed him in front of the cheering crowd.

After the ceremony was sealed with some mackerels, Tendler was tossed into the water by her friends so that she could swim with her new husband.

"I'm the happiest girl on earth," the bride said as she chocked back tears of emotion. "I made a dream come true, and I am not a pervert," she stressed.

Tendler said she and her newly wed husband will probably spend their wedding night bowling.

"But what kind of children would they have?" one of the children in the crowd asked his father.
 
And this, altho i suspect it's an Onion-style satire site...

http://www.pcomelet.com/articles1details.asp?NewsNum=14

Lonely Canadian Man Marries Local Maple Tree
By Mark Motz

Arrooahhh! Try scoochin' a bit to the left, eh?
BEAVER DAM, ON - Beaver Dam resident Henre' Larouge recently "traded sacred vows" with a local Maple tree, located in his friend Josh Grogan's back yard. Larouge explained his seemingly bizarro commitment.

"It all started off quite innocently. I had just gotten divorced and was perfectly available, not to mention lonely, eh? I was walking in my friend Josh's back yard when I came across this gorgeous Maple tree with a beauty figure. When no one was around, I climbed up into her seductive, beckoning "Y", and everything went electricity and bells after that. It was love in the lumberyard, so to speak."

Henre' Larouge was not the only Canadian man to fall in love with vaugely feminine shaped inanimate objects. Local tales tell of lonely suitors falling for everything from bales of spring hay, discarded rolled up shag carpeting, to cylindrical lodge lounge pillows. Indeed, anything even remotely soft and mountable is fair game for randy canuck males, it would probably be safe to observe.

Larouge pondered his future with "Clarice", his pet name for his tree dreamily.

"Clarice and I have to plan a honeymoon, eh? Of course it will have to be right here, on account of her root system, and all. But I can accommodate. True love can overcome any obstacle."

Larouge admitted that a relationship with a tree lacks some of the same warmth and amenities of that with a human female, but adds "She never says no, never gains weight and already has all the rings she'll ever need."

(i think there has been a *real* case of someone marrying a tree tho - poss in India? think it had something to do with the older sister needing to marry before the younger sister was allowed to, but not wanting to marry a man - so she married a tree... think it might have been in FT a while ago...)
 
must..resist...temptation...to...say...'That's nothing, I married a PIG!
 
Woman Marries Dolphin

Woman weds dolphin


Tel Aviv, Israel
December 30, 2005 - 6:34AM

British tourist Sharon Tendler has finally made her dream match - by "marrying" a dolphin she has been visiting for 15 years in the Israeli resort of Eilat, the mass-circulation Yediot Ahronot daily reported today.

Ms Tendler, 41, has been visiting the city on the Gulf of Aqaba two or three times a year to spend time with her 35-year-old underwater sweetheart.

"The peace and tranquility under water, and his love, would calm me down," the Israeli daily quoted her as saying.

Last week, Ms Tendler finally plucked up the courage to ask the dolphin's trainer for the mammal's fin in marriage.

The wedding took place on Wednesday, with the bride - wearing a white dress and watched by amazed spectators - walking down the dock to where the groom was waiting in the water.

She kissed him, to the cheers of the spectators and then, after the ceremony was sealed with some mackerels, was tossed into the water so she could swim away with her new husband.

"I'm the happiest girl on earth," the bride was quoted as saying.

"I made a dream come true. And I am not a pervert."

- DPA

source
 
That reminds me of a short story I read. I can't remember the name of the author - it was in a short story collection called "Tart Noir". The ed was Stella Duffy I think. Anyway, in the story, a woman who is married to a not very nice person, is having a secret affair with a dolphin. it's quite perverted in places - am not sure how correct it is though, as some friends and I did some research and what the woman in the story was doing does not come recommended.

I think I remember a baby in it as well, so i think the story was definitely in the realms of fantasy. I will dig it out tonight and see if I was right.
 
Marrying a dolphin - what's the porpoise of that?

:laughing:

---

Littlegreylady, there's something very similar in a Sharyn McCrumb short story collection (if you haven't encountered her work before try and dig them out, they're a great read). Basically in one of the stories a woman attempts intercourse with a dolphin and as a subsequence drowns when the dolphin becomes receptive.

amazon link


http://www.sharynmccrumb.com/
 
From my, somewhat limited, understanding of dolphin physiology I believe attempting penetrative intercourse with a dolphin is risky. If you're on the receiving end, that is.

The dolphin's equipment is substantially larger than can be accommodated by most, if not all, women (or men).

I have actually seen instructions on the best way to have sex with a dolphin (which advises against being penetrated by them for the reasons stipulated above), from a website catering to such people. I don't recall why I was reading it, but I do recall being somewhat shocked at just how pretentious the people involved were (pretending they had some kind of higher purpose, rather than just being a bunch of sad perverts).
 
I nearly married a dolphin once, it didn't work out. My mother said there were plenty more fish in the sea.

I'm here all week... try the veal.
 
I googled Dolphin s*x





Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaahaaaaahaaaaa!




(Only recommended for over-21's)
 
Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4748292.stm

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.
 
RSPCA criticises 'rabbit wedding'

A stunt in which two giant rabbits were married in a mock wedding has been criticised by the RSPCA. Continental Giant rabbits Roberto and Amy, who are both more than 3ft long, were dressed up in hats and veils.

But the animal charity called it "belittling" and said it sent out the wrong message about animals.

The rabbits' owner Annette Edwards, of Worcestershire, denied the ceremony at Wookey Hole in Somerset was cruel saying the rabbits were well cared for.

A bowler hat was placed on the head of Roberto, aged three, who is 3ft 6in long and is believed to be the biggest rabbit in the world.

These animals are totally spoilt and very well looked after
Annette Edwards, owner

Organisers dressed Amy in a mini veil and a wedding band was placed around her paw.

RSPCA spokeswoman Joanna Barr said: "We would be opposed to anything that would cause distress or suffering to animals and we are opposed to the dressing up of animals as it belittles them.

"This puts the wrong message across. Animals are not toys to be dressed up."

World's biggest

Rabbit-lover Ms Edwards, who runs the Bunnyland pet shop in Worcester, said: "These animals are totally spoilt and very well looked after.

"What is cruel is the large number of rabbits that are left uncared for in their hutches all over the country."

A spokesman for Wookey Hole Caves, which has hired the rabbits for the Easter period, said: "The ceremony is not cruel at all. The owner wouldn't have allowed the rabbits to be involved if it was."

The Guinness Book of Records previously confirmed that Roberto was the longest rabbit they had heard about.

But the organisation has stopped accepting records for large pets in an attempt to stop owners overfeeding their animals.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/e ... 877338.stm
Published: 2006/04/04 16:56:53 GMT

© BBC MMVI
 
Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat

Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.


Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 748292.stm

Published: 2006/02/24 16:40:00 GMT

© BBC MMVI
 
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