wedding

Sometimes it can be easy to miss a friend's engagement or wedding announcement on Facebook's News Feed. So the social network has decided to do something about this.

Facebook announced today a new feature called "Weddings and Celebrations." Similar to the birthday feature, the weddings and celebrations feature shows friends' status on the top right-hand side of the page once they change it to "married" or "engaged."

Here's what a Facebook spokesperson told CNET in an e-mail:

Facebook has just made it easier to announce same-sex marriages on the social network by providing icons analogous to the ones heterosexual couples have long used.

The social network has long offered newlyweds a special bride-and-groom "cake topper" icon to include in their timeline to accentuate their announcement, but not all weddings are accurately represented by a bride and groom icon. With that in mind, Facebook this weekend rolled out new groom-groom and bride-bride icons to represent same-sex unions.

One of the first appearances of the new icons was with the wedding announcement of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes … Read more

The DJ plays a critical and often misunderstood role in any wedding ceremony. If you can afford a professional, by no means should you use the following tutorial to skimp out. You'll save yourself loads of hassle and be able to enjoy your day with one less concern floating around in your head.

Also be aware that the term "professional" does not apply to your estranged pothead cousin who owns a bunch of DJ gear and could really use some extra cash. In fact, that scenario is potentially more stressful and prone to failure than doing things yourself. Really, if you can afford an experienced wedding DJ, it is worth every penny.

That said, not everyone can afford a DJ for their wedding. I sure wasn't able to when I got married years ago. My wife and I sunk our budget into the venue and catering. For the rest, we either tried to do it ourselves, or got it on the cheap. We figured that with enough good food and wine in a beautiful setting, the wedding would be a success, even if the place settings weren't up to Martha Stewart standards.

One thing I did have was access to a great PA system and enough time on my hands to assemble a handful of useful iTunes playlists. The results, while not fairytale-perfect, worked well enough to steer a beautiful ceremony into a fun party with a full dance floor.… Read more

Geek love manifests itself in many ways. You can have a computer conduct the ceremony or beam a bridesmaid in on an iPad. Or you can choose a romantic Super Mario Brothers theme for your special day.

Mario's dedicated quest to find his princess has emerged as a metaphor for real-life nerd love before. We know of at least one guy who proposed to his lady through Super Mario.

More recently, designer and artist Larry Quach was pressed into service for his friends' video game-inspired wedding. Bride Esther Tanouye specifically wanted to kick it old school with an 8-bit Super Mario theme. … Read more

It's a good thing Apple came out with a white iPad 2. It fit in perfectly with the decor of Jonathan Alberico and Jamie Wilborn's wedding in Denver, Colo. Bridesmaid Renee Armstrong was 1,500 miles away in Richmond, Va., at the time, but she still got dressed up and appeared in her best friend's wedding party--via an iPad and FaceTime.

"Unfortunately, the economy sucks. She just didn't have the means to make it out to Denver. It was absolutely devastating when we found she couldn't come," the bride told CNET. As she sat around mulling over her options, the iPad idea came up.

A groomsman carried Armstrong's virtual presence down the aisle and she had a front row seat to the vows. "I got all teary-eyed during the ceremony, and I couldn't have got that from pictures," says the virtual bridesmaid in a video shot by wedding attendee Jamie Goswick.

You can hear muted giggles from some of the guests at the start of the ceremony as Armstrong's iPad is escorted along. That was probably due to the Max Headroom effect. "Everyone agreed that it was a super cool idea," Goswick says.… Read more

The cost of the recent royal nuptials over in England has been estimated at more than $20 million. The happy couple could have saved a lot of cash and hassle by getting hitched by the AutoWed instead.

The AutoWed is a one-off device built by Concept Shed for Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Detroit. The creators describe it as part parking meter, part Cadillac, part cathedral, and a little bit steampunk. It stands an impressive 8 feet tall.

The Pepto Bismol-pink device lets users choose from straight, gay, lesbian, and Best Friends Forever unions. For $1, the machine dispenses a pair of plastic rings and a customized receipt for commemorating your special day.

The ceremony is accompanied with mechanized music and a stiffly robotic voice. It's like having Robby the Robot officiate at your wedding.

If you think programming in C++ is romantic or you have a gift registry at RadioShack, then this is the marriage ceremony for you and your sweetie.… Read more

Environmental responsibility is all the rage with European royalty these days. Prince William and Kate Middleton drove away from their nuptials in a bio-ethanol-powered Aston Martin DB6, and now Monaco announced that Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock will make a post-ceremony procession in a Lexus hybrid.

The Monaco royal car won't be a humble HS 250h or even an RX 450h SUV, but a flagship LS 600h L, specially converted with a Laundelet roof. To install the new roof, Belgian coachbuilders Carat Duchatelet had to remove the existing roof and strengthen the car's body with Kevlar and honeycomb structures to restore lost rigidity.

The roof itself is a polycarbonate transparent shell covering the rear seat. It was designed by a French company that also builds canopies for helicopters and other aircraft. The 8-millimeter thick shell weighs 57 pounds and can be removed for an open-air rear seat.

The Lexus 600h L retained its original drivetrain, a 5-liter V-8 enhanced with an electric propulsion unit. The wedding procession, which occurs July 2, goes from the palace down to Monaco's harbor, and then along Boulevard Albert I to Sainte-Devote Church. The procession's slow speeds will allow the LS 600h L to operate under electric power for most of the route, according to Lexus.

After the wedding, the car will go on display at Monaco's Oceanographic Museum. … Read more

In this episode, we talk about how cable companies' attempt to port their services to digital apps both frustrates and confounds us, the debut of the NFL 2011 iPad app, what's new in Netflix streaming, and how busy broadcast news was this week--from the royal wedding to the reported death of Bin Laden.

Bonus: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time! … Read more

You are, no doubt, catching up on your sleep after getting up in the middle of the night to watch all of the Royal Wedding.

You will have enjoyed your favorite moments: admiring the slimness of the bride, the baldness of the groom, or the wonderful joy of the cartwheeling clergyman.

However, the Web seems to have spoken with a resounding definitiveness and taken one small image of one small girl and turned it into a meme for the ages. Or at least the week.

The picture in question involves neither kissing nor hugging. Instead, it is one small section … Read more