Creative Pre-Wedding Pictures

A wedding is a huge event in our lives when someone close to us gets married, and I, for one, want spectacular pictures of the events leading up to the wedding. While the wedding is the main event the rehearsal and the dinner the night before the wedding will hold good memories, too, and you'll want to record these events.

To get spectacular pictures, I, if no one else, need to plan the event around the kind of pictures I want to take. The wedding camera shots of the wedding dinner the night before need to be carefully planned to make sure we get the type of shots we want, and to be sure everyone has a good time. This includes the children; be sure to include them in your planning. Stuffy formal sitdown dinners the night before the wedding are a thing of the past. Be creative when you plan the dinner.

Unless you and everyone else in your family know the members of your soon to be in-laws, the dinner is a good place for everyone to get acquainted. A bar-b-que in your backyard would be one way to get everyone to mingle and get to know each other. If you're going to an exotic place on your honeymoon like an island in the South Pacific, or Paris, France, use that as a basis for your theme. How about an excursion to a sports event since usually stadiums have group rates. These are just ideas. What do the couple like to do? That could be a basis for a theme for the dinner. Be sure to ask what the other family doesn't like to do and avoid that activity. We're trying to have fun, not put someone's nose out of joint.

The children at the dinner could have their own table covered with butcher paper with crayons for each child. They can then enjoy coloring on their tablecloth, and it keeps them busy. Usually there some children that don't want to color and you will need to plan an activity (or several) for the children. Make sure there is child friendly food for the children. There's nothing worse than a hungry or bored child. Feed and entertain them to keep the party running smoothly.

The wedding and honeymoon are over. You've finally gotten the pictures you've taken of the wedding events back. Now is the time to make sure you have a record, using a pencil, on the back of each picture, of the name of every subject in that picture. My husband inherited a box of pictures; his grandparents are all deceased, his mother and father are deceased, his older brother and sister are deceased, and he has no idea who some of these people are in the pictures. It's very important to do this as soon as possible.

All pictures should have the names of the subjects listed on the back in pencil, not pen. A pen can ruin the picture.

Dale L. Edwards

Graduate Degrees

Capella University is a distance learning institution that was founded in 1993 and is a subsidiary of Capella Education Company located in Minneapolis, WI. They offer graduate degrees in business, information technology, education, human services, and psychology and bachelors degree programs in business and information technology. They offer 76 graduate and undergraduate specializations within these areas and 16 certificates.

Currently they service 16,000 students from all 50 states and 63 countries. Capella is a national leader in online education. They are committed to providing high-quality accademic excellence.

Education is very important, and taking classes over the internet is a good way to learn. We can learn at our own pace, and not have to be at school at a set time.

Dale L. Edwards

Heraldry - A Language All It's Own

In the Middle Ages the practice of heraldry had a very important purpose on the field of battle and in jousts. When a man was covered in armor from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, heraldry identified the knights. The art of designing, displaying, describing, and recording each coat of arms became very important when the nobility took up heraldry and the coats of arms became inherited. The coat of arms was worn by all male descendents of the House. In some countries every male descendent wore the exact same coat of arms, but in other countries the arms were changed slightly for each son, and others could tell at a glance whether the knight was the noble himself, his brother and which brother, his heir, his nephew, or his 6th son. At this time in history most of the people were illiterate, even the nobility.

We don't really understand the language of heraldry any more. Each part of a coat of arms told others something about the man who was wearing that coat of arms. The following terms and short definitions are just a sampling of the unfamiliar words dealing with heraldry.

• Cadency - any systematic way of distinguishing members of the same family
• Herald - an officer of arms that carries messages and proclamations
• Tincture - colors used in the coat of arms
• Blazon - a formal description of a coat of arms or flag
• Lozenge - a diamond shaped charge
• Charge - an image on a sheild
• Ordinary - a simple geometric figure on the arms
• Aspilogia - armory

There are many more words associated with heraldry that are unique to heraldry or are used in ways most of us have never heard before. In the United States we use the word crest to mean a coat of arms, but the crest is only part of a complete acheivement of arms. A complete acheivement of arms is another way of saying coat of arms.

I have just scratched the surface of heraldry. Many people have spent many years studying heraldry. It has a very complex set of rules. Before I started reading I didn't realize women and clergy can have coats of arms of their own. After knights no longer wore armor, the coats of arms were used in stained glass, sealing wax, needlework, and other depictions of the coat of arms.

Dale L. Edwards