A beach wedding to remember — Jamerican style

Author’s Note: This article was originally published in the January 2012 edition of Businesswoman’s Magazine‘s Bride2B supplement. For more information, visit http://mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=95209 . The article starts on page 10.

By Rosalba Ugliuzza

Destination weddings at exotic places have been the flavor of the season for a long time.

Who can forget the wedding of Hollywood starlets Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in November 2006? They spared no expense when they tied the knot in a lavish, star-studded ceremony in the same city where they publicly declared their love a year before in Rome, Italy. Most girls could dream of having an elaborate wedding like the Cruises, but others like Lancaster County bride Christine Culp Keyser prefer a small, relaxing, yet intimate ceremony.

“Personally, I never thought I would be getting a destination wedding,” she said. “Jamaica allowed our families to travel together for the first time.”

The blue, clear sky served as a beautiful backdrop for Keyser and her husband, Brent, when they married June 9, 2011 on the private beach at the Couple Negril Resort in Negril, Jamaica.

Brent, an officer for the Columbia Borough Police Department, said he had hoped Mother Nature wouldn’t spoil their special day.

“Honestly, I [thought], I hope it doesn’t rain. The clouds were rolling in right at 11:00, and Chrissy was still in the room getting ready, and it had rained every day so far until that point,” he said.

With 38 close family and friends and some hotel guests in attendance, Keyser walked down the aisle in a mermaid gown and no veil to the Jamaican steel drum version of Pachelbel Canon D. The couple exchanged vows in a 15-minute ceremony.

“It was very simple. We didn’t want to make a big production out of it,” said Keyser.

After the ceremony, which ended around lunchtime, guests were treated to cake and champagne poolside and on the beach. According to Keyser, the resort staff did all the wedding decorations as well as take pictures of the ceremony.

When the couple returned home, a beach-themed reception was held for approximately 200 people at the Susquehanna Fire and Rescue Company in Columbia. Keyser wore her wedding dress and Silver Spring Restaurant catered the event.

“It was a fun party. We had a DJ,” she said.

It was exactly two years prior to their wedding date that the couple attended a mutual friend’s wedding at the same resort. Keyser said that Brent loved the resort so much that he suggested that they get married at the same place.

With the help of her two closest friends, Keyser’s goal was to have a simple wedding.

“I’m not the type of girl that likes a big production. The whole wedding (planning) made me feel narcissistic,” she said. “The theme throughout the process was about us celebrating our marriage. It was about spending time with family and enjoying each other’s company.”

The “down-to-earth” couple met right before Thanksgiving in 2005 at a local pub, where they were celebrating a mutual friend’s birthday.

“We started talking and he told me he was going hunting. He called me every day when he went hunting,” Keyser said. “Ever since then, we’ve been connected at the hip.”

Keyser received an early Christmas present in 2009, when Brent presented her with a diamond ring that he designed. Brent said he didn’t feel any jitters before proposing.

“My mom had a dream that we got engaged,” Keyser said. “We told people of the engagement through text message.”

Today, the couple lives in Elizabethtown. They enjoy spending time with their families, having bonfires with friends, going up to their cabin near Penn State University, and traveling. In fact, the couple is planning another group trip to Jamaica in 2013.

“Ideally, my husband and I would love to go every year,” she said. “We consider ourselves Jamerican.”

In addition to having a peaceful, healthy and happy lifestyle, Keyser said she hopes that she and Brent have a lot of stamps on their passports 50 years from now.

In the meantime, Keyser recommends future married couples to have their destination wedding in Jamaica.

“It’s a peaceful place. It’s a gorgeous place.”

 

Anne Hathaway: Jersey’s golden girl in a league of her own

Truth be told, there are a plethora of amazingly talented, young actresses in the film industry today.

Natalie Portman. Jennifer Lawrence. Marion Cotillard. Shailene Woodley. Michelle Williams. The list goes on and on.

But there’s one actress, in my opinion, who sets the caliber so high for other young actresses that every time she’s onscreen, she shines like gold. That leading lady, my friends, is Anne Hathaway.

I adore her! In fact, I adore her so much that she’s one of my favorite actresses to date, alongside Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Sophia Loren! Though Anne has only been nominated once for an Academy Award, I believe there’ll be many more nominations in her future, and the chance of actually winning an Oscar one day is certainly bright.

She is so graceful, down-to-earth, well-spoken in her interviews. She exudes the elements of class and dignity that so few women can master. When it comes to her acting and singing performances, she’s been compared to film legends like Meryl Streep and late Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn.

But even the young actresses can’t mimic them because each has developed their own methods of acting. Though she could carve a path like them, Anne Hathaway has clearly proven that she’s in a league of her own.

Hailing from the Garden State, the Millburn native got the acting bug at a very young age after seeing her mother perform on stage. However, it wasn’t until she was in high school that Anne performed in many school plays. Her portrayal of Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star nomination for Best Performance by a high school actress. She was the first teenager to be admitted in The Barrow Group Theater Company’s acting program. In the late 1990s, Anne, a soprano, was a member of the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus that performed at Carnegie Hall. She furthered her education by attending Vassar College and New York University.

Anne has co-starred in hit movies like Becoming Jane, Ella Enchanted, Brokeback Mountain, Get Smart, Valentine’s Day, Alice in Wonderland, and One Day. She has also done voice-over work for the film Rio. In 2010, she received an Emmy award for her voice-over performance on The Simpsons. A trained-stage actress, the year before, Anne was nominated for a Drama Desk award for her performance as Viola in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater.

It was Academy award-winning actress Shirley MacLaine who professed at the 2009 Oscars that Anne was “an amazing example for every young actress in this business” and is never afraid to show off her dark and bright side onscreen. This is true because she fearlessly exudes this raw talent that makes us suspend our disbelief through her countless roles. For example, we’ve seen her dazzle as a princess and in Prada (The Princess Diaries 1 & 2 and The Devil Wears Prada, respectively). She has portrayed a woman with Parkinson’s (Love & Other Drugs) and as a drug-addicted, grief-inflicted sister who’s been in and out of rehab (Rachel Getting Married, in which she received her first Oscar nod).

If you think for one second that Anne Hathaway is kicking back and milking on her success, then you’re completely from another planet. She’s got two more movies ready to be released. First, she’ll be the next Catwoman/Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, the third Batman installment which is set to open in July. Second, she will portray Fantine in Les Miserables, the musical drama based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 French novel of the same name opening on December 14.

I’d like to take a moment to discuss the latter movie. I love Les Miserables — it’s the only show I’ve ever seen on Broadway. Set in 1815, the novel and play follow the lives of several French characters through the 1832 June Rebellion and also focuses on Jean Valjean’s early struggles and redemption. In addition to Broadway, the novel has been adapted into concerts, West End productions, television, and radio. Directed by Tom Hooper, the 2012 film is the adaptation of the stage musical.

After seeing the first trailer for the movie, Christmas can’t come soon enough for me.

Anne takes center stage in the trailer with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream”. We don’t hear any singing yet from Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, or Amanda Seyfried, but this increases the anticipation! What’s so unique about this movie is that all the singing is not recorded. The cast is actually singing, which makes their performances more raw, emotional, and believable.

Many actresses have portrayed the role of Fantine over the years, but I sincerely think that this could be Anne’s golden performance, one that could garner her many accolades including an Oscar nod. I think this role was perfect for Anne. Just in the trailer alone, you can see the depth that she goes to portray the struggling factory worker who turns to prostitution in order to support her daughter Cosette. She chopped off her locks and reportedly lost weight. This movie is a prime example of Anne’s ability of showing both her dark and bright side.

No matter what future roles she will portray, Anne will no doubt shine because she’s, in fact, in a league of her own. I’d like to leave you with something that cumulatively illustrates my point.