A Catering Must.

Foie gras (the livers of overfed fowl) is a luxurious addition to any matrimony's menu. If you're hosting your wedding in Chicago, however, you'll have to find a more humane hors d'oeuvres.

The American Wedding

The average American Wedding costs about $26,000 according to The Wedding Report, an online database of wedding statistics and market research for the wedding industry. The report says surprising things about who's paying and who today's brides and grooms are. How do you measure up?

Avg. Engagement Time: 17 Months
Avg. No. of Guests: 167
Avg. Bride Age: 26
Avg. Groom Age: 28
Average Budget: $14,250
Destination Weddings*: 11% (251,964 people)
Outdoor Weddings: 36% (824,608 people)
Weddings at Church: 53% (1,214,006 people)
Weddings at Hotel or Country Club: 22% (503,927 people)

* Originating from this location.

Estimated Weddings in 2007: 2,290,578

2007 Who Pays

Description	percent	# Weddings
Brides Parents	57	1,305,629
Grooms Parents	31	710,079
Bride & Groom	79	1,809,557
Sponsored Wedding	1	22,906
Other	3	68,717

* Numbers not equal to 100% due to multiple contributors

2007 How They Will Plan
68 percent of women use Bridal Magazines to plan their weddings, while 81 percent use internet resources and 88 percent rely on family and friends.

Only 17 percent use a wedding planner.

Most Expensive Celebrity Wedding

According to MSN.com...

Liza Minnelli & David Gest

Estimated cost of the wedding: $3.5 million


"Oscar-winning entertainer Liza Minnelli wed producer David Gest in March 2002 in New York City's Marble Collegiate Church. The over-the-top nuptials featured Best Man Michael Jackson and Maid of Honor Elizabeth Taylor. Among the 500 or so guests at the reception were superstars Diana Ross, Lauren Bacall and Mia Farrow. Backed by a 60-piece orchestra, Tony Bennett entertained VIPs, who feasted on a 12-tier wedding cake and received personalized favors encased in satin candy boxes embossed 'Liza and David 4 Ever.' (The pair divorced the next year.)"

Read on to see the 20 Most Expensive Celebrity Weddings.

Your life on display

Display your wedding album in a new and imaginative way through Titus Kana.

All prints are made from ultra-high resolution digital files and are fully retouched, meaning you can forget about the zits you failed to cover up on the big day — and maybe also about the extra 20 pounds you weighed, depending on how you tip. Prices for individual photos range from $8 per 4x6 print to $75 for 18x24s.

If Wedding Bashers knows Bridezilla, however, we know it takes more than a mounted portrait on the wall to satisfy her. Fork over $2,000 (next month's rent?) and relish in a custom-designed 60-page coffee table-sized account of your wedding day, down to the boogers hanging from cousin Jimmy's airbrushed nostrils.

Fit for Royalty

In honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 60th wedding anniversary, BBC News has released 60 facts about the royal couple's wedding, from the number of attendees down to the arrangement of the flowers on their wedding day.

Our ten favorite facts:

1. While most women are lucky to get Grandma's hand-me-down diamond, Elizabeth's platinum engagement ring was crafted using diamonds from a tiara belonging to Prince Philip's mother.
   
2. Two-thousand guests were invited to their wedding on November 20, 1947. That's a lot of thank you notes!
   
3. Some of the better-known guests included the King and Queen of Denmark, the King and Queen of Yugoslavia, the Kings of Norway and Romania, and the Shah of Iran.
   
4. The bridesmaids' bouquets were composed of white orchids, lilies of the valley, gardenias, white bouvardia, white roses, and white nerine.
   
5. There were 91 singers at the wedding, made up from the Abbey Choir, the Choir of HM Chapels Royal and additional tenors and basses. They sat in the organ loft as the choir stalls were occupied by various dignitaries.
   
6. Elizabeth's wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold from the Clogau St. David's mine, near Dolgellau.
   
7. The Royal couple received over 2,500 wedding presents, including a piece of crocheted, cotton lace made from yarn personally spun by Mahatma Gandhi. The central motif reads "Jai Hind" (Victory for India).
   
8. The official wedding cake measured nine feet high in four tiers, with painted panels featuring both families's coats of arms, and included the monograms of bride and groom, sugar-iced figures to depict their favourite activities, and regimental and naval badges. The cake was cut using the Duke's Mountbatten sword, which was a wedding present from the King.
   
9. Although he was the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh was not crowned or anointed at the Coronation ceremony in 1953. He was the first subject to pay Homage to Her Majesty, and kiss the newly crowned Queen by stating "I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. So help me God."
   
10. With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, the Queen became the first reigning Sovereign to give birth to a child since Queen Victoria, whose youngest child, Princess Beatrice, was born in 1857.
    

Field of dreams

Serious sports fans can pay homage to their team of choice like this couple, who recited their vows on the Seahawks' 50-yard-line.

Your wedding can save the planet!

With Al Gore preaching daily about the dangers of global warming, you have to admit that environmental awareness isn't just for Hippies anymore. Now there's something you can do:

3 WAYS TO PLAN A GREEN WEDDING

1. Plant a tree. Request that each guest, as a wedding gift, donate to charity or plant a tree in your honor. Not ready to give up that ceramic knife set or Uncle Mike's savings bond? Then take the initiative to plant a tree or donate $1 toward a charity of your choice for every guest that attends. The Arbor Day Foundation is one of many groups you can use to plant much-needed trees around the country.

2. Save the birds. While it's a myth that rice will explode in a bird's stomach, rice is still unhealthy for some North American birds, and wedding guests can easily slip on the grains littering the floor as you and your groom take off into the sunset.

• Native (local) wildflower seeds or freeze dried petals
  
• Ecofetti (biodegradable confetti)
  
• Blow bubbles from recycled containers
  
• Waving ribbon streamers can provide a festive send-off
  

Ecostudio warns that birdseed is a good alternative to rice "ONLY if you are having a city wedding, or will be tossing birdseed in a landscaped yard. Most birdseed mixes contain non-native plants and throwing these seeds in a natural location such as a nature preserve or state park can cause damage to the ecosystem."

3. Use recycled paper. Whether you're ordering invitations, setting out place cards, or putting together a wedding scrapbook, be sure to order products created from recycled paper. SealandSend, for example, produces eloquent economical invitations on 100 percent recycled paper.