It’s been barely a month since Country singer Shania Twain and her fiancé Frederic Thiebaud announced their engagement, but they couple has wasted no time exchanging wedding rings over this holiday season.
It was only in December that Twain was spotted sporting a 3 carat Emerald cut diamond engagement ring, and on New Year’s Day the two were married in a small beach ceremony in Ricon, Puerto Rico in front of 40 friends and family members at sunset. The bride, who was walked down the aisle by her son Eja, wore a white own with a black sash which she purchased from a small boutique in Switzerland, where the couple lives. After the ceremony the guest serenaded the newlyweds with the Beatles “All You Need is Love,” before being treated to a private fireworks show.
The couple originally met after their respective spouses at the time allegedly had an affair which led Twain and Thiebaud to lean on each other for support. According to Twain, who wrote about her new relationship on her blog last year, support turned to friendship, which turned into love. After all the drama of the past couple years, hopefully a 1-1-11 wedding anniversary will give this couple a little extra luck.
Television star Valerie Bertinelli was another celebrity that gave love another try on New Year’s Day when she married her longtime boyfriend, financial planner Tom Vitale. The two were married at her home in Malibu in front of 100 guests that included Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick, Bertinelli’s current “Hot in Cleveland” costars, as well as her former costars from One Day at a Time, Mackenzie Phillips and Pat Harrington.
Vitale proposed in March while the two were on vacation in Italy, and although they have been together for seven years, making the leap to marriage wasn’t exactly easy. In June he spoke to AARP magazine and explained that sometimes timing really is everything.
“We’re both still a little afraid of commitment, but then we were over there, and it was like our souls were calibrated,” he told the publication. “If the timing wasn’t right, I wouldn’t have asked.”
But it wasn’t just celebrities that decided to take the matrimonial plunge on New Year’s, Geoffrey Dubie and Bethany Phillips, a young couple from Atlanta became the first couple to get married in New York City’s Time Square during the city’s annual celebration.
The couple won the honor over 1,900 other couples through a competition hosted by Getmarried.com, which gave them the all-expense paid historical wedding.
However the ceremony was almost a no-go when the pair got stuck in Atlanta due to the snowstorm on the east coast over the holidays. When their flight was canceled Dubie and Phillips, who met while fighting in Iraq, decided that two marines were tough enough to brave the elements and make the drive to their wedding. A 19 hour drive and a few last minute replacements later, the florist, photographer, and make-up artist were all snowed out; the wedding went off without any noticeable hiccups.
Making history of another kind, 100 couples got married in a mass wedding ceremony in Taiwan on New Year’s Day outside of Tepai’s Presidential Palace. The ceremony was presided over by Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who was also on hand to mark Taiwan’s 100 years of self-rule.
Taiwan has been under self-rule since Chinese Nationalist forces fled to the island at the end of a civil war with the communists in 1949, making the patriotic celebration even more memorable, and fortunately for the years to come, an unforgettable anniversary.