Latest news with #ChurchofChrist
Style Blueprint
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Style Blueprint
When the Mother of the Bride is a Wedding Industry Pro …
When Nashville bridal expert Melanie Brown, owner of Bella Bridesmaids, found herself planning her own daughter's wedding, she stepped into a role she knows well … but this time, as the mother of the bride. With decades of industry experience and deep ties to local vendors ('friendors,' as she fondly refers to them), Melanie brought heart to the planning process — and some expert bridal advice! Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the results when a wedding pro plans one of life's most personal celebrations. Melanie even shares some of her best insider tips for moms of brides! Pin Pin For Melanie, the setting for her daughter Tori's wedding couldn't have been more sentimental. 'The wedding was here in Nashville,' Melanie tells us. 'The ceremony was at our church, Otter Creek West End. It used to be West End Church of Christ, and it's been around for 100 years. It's a very traditional church, and when Tori was little, she was a flower girl in a wedding there. It was the first church where we worshiped when we moved to Nashville, so it's special and sentimental. She would say, 'One day, I'll be the bride.' And then she was!' Pin Pin The reception was equally memorable. 'We had a church ceremony, and then the reception was at a new venue in Germantown called The Sloane. I think there was only one other wedding before ours,' Melanie shares. 'There had been smaller events, but it was the biggest wedding that they'd had yet. It's stunning and very different from other venues here, so it really fit the bill. Tori has been in about 11 weddings, so to come up with 'unique' is not easy!' As for what led up to the wedding day, Tori and Tommy had what one might call a 'modern meet-cute.' 'They actually met through Hinge,' Melanie says. 'Tori was just about to give up on the dating apps, and one of her friends said, 'Before you delete those, do you want me to check and see if there's anything you should look at?' So, she passed her phone, and as she was scrolling through, her friend was like, 'Oh, this guy looks promising.'' Before long, wedding plans were underway. As a seasoned pro in the bridal world, Melanie had plenty of connections she could call on during the planning process. 'I call them my 'friendors' — my vendors, who are my friends,' she explains. 'I knew I could trust them, let them do what they do best, relax, and enjoy this season of life.' Even though she knew the importance of letting professionals do their work, there were moments Melanie had to remind herself she wasn't the one calling the shots. Switching from her business owner hat to her mom hat wasn't always simple. 'One of the benefits of having relationships with these people is building trust and knowing how much pride they take in their work — just like I do. But I'm very detail-oriented.' That detail-oriented nature did kick in with one element: invitations. 'We were going to use an online resource for the invitation suite, and I just wasn't feeling great about what they were telling us and how they had no flexibility,' Melanie says. 'So it was very last-minute, and they worked us in, but we ended up working with White Ink Calligraphy. We went to their studio. We met with them face to face. They squeezed us in. And then I just felt total peace about it — I thought, This is a name and a face I trust. This is coming together the way that we had hoped now. ' Lucky for Tori, her mother was by her side throughout the planning process. 'Tori had a big vision,' Melanie laughs. 'We like a formal event, so we had a black-tie optional dress code. It was colorful, fun but formal, very Southern, and almost a little preppy. It was very Nashville. We even chose the foods based on things that spoke to Nashville. The venue itself has a bit of a European flair, and Tori is a big traveler, so there was a European sense to it, too. Colorful flowers played into the vision — peonies, and things like that.' The women also enlisted the help of a wedding coordinator. 'Early on, having a solid timeline for the planning was important to us,' Melanie tells us. 'Nobody has ever had to sell me on the importance of a good wedding coordinator, so that was an easy decision. My opinion on that didn't change, but it's cemented now! I could talk about Casey all day.' The dress was a highlight. 'Getting her wedding gown was such a beautiful moment,' Melanie says. 'We ended up getting Tori's dress at The Bride Room in Green Hills. It was a princess experience — all of that attention and joy.' The morning of the wedding was relaxed and joyful. 'We were at The Sloane all morning,' says Melanie. 'They started hair and makeup pretty early because of the number of bridesmaids (eight), Tori, and me. Everybody was so relaxed. We had mimosas and snacks. We would sneak out to look at the ballroom every few minutes to see as the florist came in and the chairs and tables got set.' There was no first look; the bride and groom got their first glimpse at the altar. 'That was a compromise for me,' explains Melanie. 'But Tommy only asked for two things: a live band at the reception and to see her for the first time walking down the aisle. It was beautiful, sweet, and special for them.' So what were Melanie's favorite moments from the big day? 'I will always remember the look on their faces as she walked down that aisle toward him. He was so excited, I thought he was going to run down and meet her halfway and get her! They were so happy,' Melanie recalls. Another highlight came before the ceremony: 'Traveling to the venue that morning, it was just my husband, me, and our two daughters. We don't often get that. And that was sweet.' Following the ceremony, the guests gathered at The Sloane for a lively celebration filled with Southern flavors, personal touches, and nonstop music. Cocktail hour set the tone for a fun, flavorful evening, with hors d'oeuvres like chicken and waffles, pimento cheese, ham biscuits, and signature drinks that reflected the couple's personalities. Dinner was served buffet-style. 'Prime rib, roasted chicken with cream sauce, green beans, and roasted potatoes,' Melanie recalls, and dessert offered a sweet surprise. 'We did not have a traditional big wedding cake,' Melanie says. 'We were having trouble settling on a bakery and a flavor … One day, I said, 'What if we just got a lot of cakes?'' They did precisely that, and guests loved it. As the evening drew to a close, the celebration ended on a playful, picture-perfect note. 'They departed through bubbles,' Melanie says. The light-filled sendoff was a joyful finale, giving guests one last chance to cheer for the newlyweds before they headed into married life. Straight from the Aisle: Melanie's Best Advice for Mothers of the Bride Don't lose sight of what really matters. This is Melanie's number one tip for mothers of the bride. 'With every interaction with your children, your number one goal is to have a relationship with them,' she says. 'There are very few things that are worth compromising that relationship.' Hire the pros. People ask me,' When a couple gets engaged, is the first thing you tell them to shop at Bella Bridesmaids?' And I say, 'No. Hire a wedding planner, then come shop at Bella Bridesmaids!' She also says it's important to let the professionals do their business, because 'there are so many details and decisions to be made.' Let others help. 'If your friends say, 'What can I do to help you?' Give them a job. Let them help you,' she advises. 'Let somebody bring you food when you're tired. Let somebody pick something up for you.' Above all, enjoy it! 'It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing to celebrate,' she says. 'Being married for 36 years makes me even more aware of how important it is to celebrate the beginning. Don't be too stressed. There are so many details that could consume you. So, perspective about the day, the beauty, and the joy should stay first and foremost. Don't get bogged down in too many minutiae. You have to go into these situations knowing whatever curveball comes at you, it's going to be okay.' RESOURCES Planning a wedding? Check out StyleBlueprint's two Wedding Resource Guides. (More to come!):
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Former Church-Goers Are Sharing The Thing That Made Them Stop Attending, And Some Of These Are Pretty Sinful
1. Warning: This post discusses domestic violence and sexual abuse. It's been said that you should never discuss politics or religion in polite company. But that doesn't apply to the internet, where everyone is impolite. Recently, Reddit user lowly_shepherd asked, "People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop?" People had A LOT to say. The question received over 16,000 replies! Here are some of the best comments: 2."They said my mom's cancer was God testing my family." —InspectorMadDog "Religion has no way to square how an all-loving God can allow such an indiscriminate killer to run rampant amongst its creation, so they come up with all sorts of unhinged explanations." —snukebox_hero 3."When I was 14, I stopped attending when my pastor told me that dinosaurs never existed." —Not_Cartmans_Mom "My pastor said, 'Maybe there were dinosaurs on Noah's ark.' That was the moment I realized it's all made up." —improvised-disaster 4."I started to realize that I felt guilty for things that weren't truly wrong and didn't negatively impact others. I don't need my church's interpretation of good and evil; I just do my best to be a good person on my own terms." —thefastestfridge 5."The focus on appearances. It seemed like no one actually cared what went on behind closed doors, as long as they weren't forced to acknowledge it." —ThatsAmoreMyGuy 6."The many Evangelical churches I attended were purely social clubs. Everyone came to show off their clothes, babies, and 'holiness,' then go back to being horrible when they walked out the door." —nndscrptuser 7."Our holier than thou pastor was screwing his secretary for years while married." —hawken54321 8."Around 2003, we got these two sermons back-to-back weeks: First, we were told that being homosexual is an abomination against God, and it's a disgrace to the Lord that these heathens legalized same-sex marriage (in Massachusetts). The following week, they said that although priests were caught molesting children, we should forgive them, as Jesus forgave. That was the Catholic Church in a nutshell, and my entire family could not be part of this anymore. The hypocrisy was palpable." —WilmaTonguefit 9."They seemed to want money more than anything else." —GeekyBookWorm87 10."I have a theory that attending religious elementary school made my anxiety WAY worse than it would've been if I went to public school. All the 'God is watching and will know if you sin' messed up my already-not-great brain as a kid." —Karsa69420 11."I read the Bible and came to very different conclusions than what I was taught in church." —JT_Hemingway 12."I was raised in the Church of Christ, where women aren't supposed to speak in front of men. Instead, they're supposed to filter their voice through their husband or father. My raised-in-the-church husband beat me, cheated on me, lied, stole, and beat our kids." —Professional-Sink281 13."I stopped being forced to go." —Keypenpad "My dad said as long as I lived in his house, I had to go to mass. So I moved out." —MOXYDOSS 14."I went to a Baptist university that was building a new football stadium. One day, I was talking with a professor (who was also a preacher) about the new stadium. I'll never forget the look of disgust on his face when I said the money should go to helping the largely impoverished community around the university. He thought it should go to building more churches. I realized that I have fundamentally different morals and ethics than churchgoers." —niktrot 15."It just wasn't fulfilling anymore, and I came to the conclusion that most people use religion as a cover for their flaws." —Anonymous 16."I never really could connect with anyone in the church. They didn't seem capable of having conversations that didn't revolve around the church or the Bible, and I just couldn't talk about that 24/7." —TinaSparkles 17."I stopped going to church when the pastor told me I was not allowed to leave my domestic abuser husband unless he cheated on me. I left him anyway." —Illustrious-Tale683 18."As a kid, I was told not to believe everything on TV and to question things. At the same time, I was fed stories of a man who walked on water and fed hundreds of people with one fish and one bottle of wine. I was chastised when I questioned Bible stories, but the seed was planted." —StarPlantMoonPraetor 19."Early on in my time in Iraq, I was a gunner on a Humvee. Some kid threw a rock at the truck. I was pulling on the trigger before my brain realized a rock isn't dangerous. I didn't kill anyone, but it really messed with me. I was a devout Catholic at the time and went to confession to get help. The priest was more fixated on whether I rubbed one out than how close I got to killing someone. It spiraled for a few years before concluding that all churches were corrupt and morally bankrupt." —Tiredhistorynerd "The church has a disproportionate focus on sexual sins." —PeteSlubberdegullion 20."One of my four sons is gay. I love him without reservation. The church says he's a sinner because of who he is. I'm out." —Purpleappointment47 21."When you really get down to it, it's just people telling you they know what happens when we die. I'm not basing my life's ideology around something that's impossible to know." —Gooch_Rogers 22."The last time I went to my church was my mom's celebration of life service. It's been eight years, and I don't think I can set foot in the building without crying." —BusinessWarthog6 finally, on a lighter note: "Church is boring as hell." —No_Froyo_7980 H/T r/AskReddit Some replies have been edited for length and clarity. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
Buzz Feed
10-04-2025
- General
- Buzz Feed
Former Church-Goers Are Sharing The Thing That Made Them Stop Attending, And Some Of These Are Pretty Sinful
1. Warning: This post discusses domestic violence and sexual abuse. It's been said that you should never discuss politics or religion in polite company. But that doesn't apply to the internet, where everyone is impolite. Recently, Reddit user lowly_shepherd asked, "People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop?" People had A LOT to say. The question received over 16,000 replies! Here are some of the best comments: 2. "They said my mom's cancer was God testing my family." — InspectorMadDog "Religion has no way to square how an all-loving God can allow such an indiscriminate killer to run rampant amongst its creation, so they come up with all sorts of unhinged explanations." — snukebox_hero 3. "When I was 14, I stopped attending when my pastor told me that dinosaurs never existed." — Not_Cartmans_Mom "My pastor said, 'Maybe there were dinosaurs on Noah's ark.' That was the moment I realized it's all made up." — improvised-disaster 4. "I started to realize that I felt guilty for things that weren't truly wrong and didn't negatively impact others. I don't need my church's interpretation of good and evil; I just do my best to be a good person on my own terms." 5. "The focus on appearances. It seemed like no one actually cared what went on behind closed doors, as long as they weren't forced to acknowledge it." — ThatsAmoreMyGuy 6. "The many Evangelical churches I attended were purely social clubs. Everyone came to show off their clothes, babies, and 'holiness,' then go back to being horrible when they walked out the door." 8. "Around 2003, we got these two sermons back-to-back weeks: First, we were told that being homosexual is an abomination against God, and it's a disgrace to the Lord that these heathens legalized same-sex marriage (in Massachusetts). The following week, they said that although priests were caught molesting children, we should forgive them, as Jesus forgave. That was the Catholic Church in a nutshell, and my entire family could not be part of this anymore. The hypocrisy was palpable." 9. "They seemed to want money more than anything else." — GeekyBookWorm87 10. "I have a theory that attending religious elementary school made my anxiety WAY worse than it would've been if I went to public school. All the 'God is watching and will know if you sin' messed up my already-not-great brain as a kid." 11. "I read the Bible and came to very different conclusions than what I was taught in church." — JT_Hemingway 12. "I was raised in the Church of Christ, where women aren't supposed to speak in front of men. Instead, they're supposed to filter their voice through their husband or father. My raised-in-the-church husband beat me, cheated on me, lied, stole, and beat our kids." — Professional-Sink281 13. "I stopped being forced to go." — Keypenpad "My dad said as long as I lived in his house, I had to go to mass. So I moved out." — MOXYDOSS 14. "I went to a Baptist university that was building a new football stadium. One day, I was talking with a professor (who was also a preacher) about the new stadium. I'll never forget the look of disgust on his face when I said the money should go to helping the largely impoverished community around the university. He thought it should go to building more churches. I realized that I have fundamentally different morals and ethics than churchgoers." 16. "I never really could connect with anyone in the church. They didn't seem capable of having conversations that didn't revolve around the church or the Bible, and I just couldn't talk about that 24/7." — TinaSparkles 18. "As a kid, I was told not to believe everything on TV and to question things. At the same time, I was fed stories of a man who walked on water and fed hundreds of people with one fish and one bottle of wine. I was chastised when I questioned Bible stories, but the seed was planted." 19. "Early on in my time in Iraq, I was a gunner on a Humvee. Some kid threw a rock at the truck. I was pulling on the trigger before my brain realized a rock isn't dangerous. I didn't kill anyone, but it really messed with me. I was a devout Catholic at the time and went to confession to get help. The priest was more fixated on whether I rubbed one out than how close I got to killing someone. It spiraled for a few years before concluding that all churches were corrupt and morally bankrupt." — Tiredhistorynerd "The church has a disproportionate focus on sexual sins." — PeteSlubberdegullion 20. "One of my four sons is gay. I love him without reservation. The church says he's a sinner because of who he is. I'm out." 21. "When you really get down to it, it's just people telling you they know what happens when we die. I'm not basing my life's ideology around something that's impossible to know." — Gooch_Rogers 22. "The last time I went to my church was my mom's celebration of life service. It's been eight years, and I don't think I can set foot in the building without crying." If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website. If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
Chicago Tribune
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: First modern Olympic games held
Today is Sunday, April 6, the 96th day of 2025. There are 269 days left in the year. Today in history: On April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece. Also on this date: In 1830, Joseph Smith and others met in Fayette, New York, to form the Church of Christ — now known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the following day. In 1917, the United States entered World War I as the House joined the Senate in approving a declaration of war against Germany that was then signed by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., responding to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's broadside against him on 'See It Now,' claimed in remarks filmed for the program that Murrow had, in the past, 'engaged in propaganda for Communist causes.' In 1968, 41 people were killed by a pair of explosions spurred by a natural gas leak at a sporting goods store in downtown Richmond, Indiana. In 1994, Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed when the jet they were riding in was shot down by surface-to-air missiles as it attempted to land in Kigali, Rwanda. In 2012, five Black people were shot, three fatally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Jake England and Alvin Watts, who admitted to targeting the victims because of their race, pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to life in prison without parole. Today's Birthdays: Scientist James D. Watson is 97. Actor Billy Dee Williams is 88. Film director Barry Levinson is 83. Actor John Ratzenberger is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven is 74. Actor Marilu Henner is 73. Actor Michael Rooker is 70. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is 61. Football Hall of Famer Sterling Sharpe is 60. Actor Paul Rudd is 56. Actor Zach Braff is 50. Actor Candace Cameron Bure is 49. Musician Robert Glasper is 47.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
On This Day, April 6: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints founded
April 6 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, originally known as the Church of Christ, was founded between three groups of followers in Fayette, Manchester and Colesville, N.Y. In 1851, Portland, Ore., was founded. In 1896, the first modern Olympics formally opened in Athens, Greece. The Olympics had last been staged 1,500 years earlier. In 1909, explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole. It would be November of the same year before the National Geographic Society confirmed the accomplishment. In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, propelling America into World War I. In 1938, DuPont researchers Roy Plunkett and Jack Rebok stumbled upon the chemical compound that was later marketed as Teflon. In 1947, the first Tony Awards, honoring distinguished work in the theater, were presented in New York City. In 1968, federal troops and National Guardsmen were deployed in Chicago, Washington and Detroit as rioting continued over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1973, American League baseball teams used a designated hitter for the first time. It hasn't always been a popular rule. In 1994, the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were among those killed when their plane was hit by rockets as it was landing in Kigali, Rwanda. The attack triggered fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that left hundreds of thousands of people dead in what became known as the Rwandan Genocide. In 2004, the University of Connecticut became the first school to win both the NCAA Division I men's and women's college basketball championships the same year. The UConn teams did it again in 2014. In 2005, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, one of Europe's longest-reigning monarchs, died from multiple organ failure at the age of 81. He was succeeded by Prince Albert, one of three children of Rainier and his wife, movie star Grace Kelly, who died in a car crash in 1982. In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy's Abruzzo region, killing 307 people and causing damage throughout the city of L'Aquila. In 2019, for the first time, a tremor was detected on the surface of Mars by the InSight lander's SEIS seismometer. NASA described the phenomenon as a marsquake. In 2020, the British Open was canceled for the first time since World War II, becoming the first major golf championship to be eliminated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Forbes' annual World's Billionaires list grew by 660 people, adding $5 trillion in worth despite the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon CEO Jeff Beoz topped the list for the fourth year in a row.
