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If you and your fiance have children, either your own or those from a previous marriage, you might be looking for ways to include them in your wedding ceremony in a way that expresses their important role in your family. Here, at weddingwire.com, are several thoughtful and creative ideas for doing just that. Going beyond the simple flower girl/ring bearer/reader role, many couples have younger children stand with them through the ceremony. For older children, consider having a family unity component in which the kids participate with you in lighting a unity candle or filling a sand vase. Other ideas include presenting them with a family medallion ring during the ring ceremony, or including them in your vows. It is a good idea to discuss wedding plans with children beforehand to avoid embarrassment or, if they are going to be your step-children, feeling that they are betraying their biological parent by participating in your ceremony. With a little thought and planning, your ceremony can help children feel like they, too, are entering into a new and loving family.

Colin Montgomerie might not have made the Masters, but at least that gives him more time to prepare for his upcoming wedding. The golfer will miss the Masters for only the second time in 17 years.

Monty's wedding to Gaynor Knowles is scheduled for April 19 on the banks of Loch Lomond. Approximately 400 guests are expected, among them such Hollywood royalty as Hugh Grant and such actual royalty as Prince Andrew. However, he refused to spill any more details on the lavish occasion, other than to say it would be "an extraordinary event."

This will be the second wedding for the 44 year-old pro golfer, having been married to his first wife, Eimear, for 14 years and having three children with her before getting divorced.

Traditionalists will give a firm "no!" to that question. White, they say, symbolizes purity (by which they mean virginity, of course.) We won't dwell on the fact that it's rather rude to speculate about the personal life of the bride, and we certainly won't be so crass as to speculate as to what percentage of first-time brides "deserve" to wear white.

Anyway, it turns out the traditionalists aren't as "traditional" as they think. Prior to Queen Victoria's wedding, women didn't tend to go out and buy something special for the event. They just wore their best dress.

We've discussed weddings without children before. It's a potentially difficult issue, but the bride and groom do get to establish the type of ceremony and reception they prefer, and if they decide "no kids", then no kids it is.

There is one wedding, however, at which the presence of children is not only a given, but pretty much a requirement: the second wedding where one or both of the partners has kids. Unless the two of you have a spontaneous wedding on that weekend trip to Reno, if you're going to get married, you will include the children, particularly if the children are children, and not adults. And it is under-age children we've been discussing.

Children who will be living with you, full- or part-time, after the ceremony should be in attendance. Often, they will take part in the ceremony. There are lovely child-friendly ways to involve the younger set, if you're interested. If you want to get your new family off to a good start, make sure the children know that they, too, are an important part of this new union.

Friend of AisleDash, Jenorama, and Aisledasher Ilona share more than a few things in common. One of those things is a second wedding. As is often the case with second weddings, both couples opted for small and casual.

Jen and husband Dereck had an intimate city hall ceremony with only their witnesses and Jen's eldest son (as ring-bearer) in attendance. Once the deed was done, they had a Big Party at a nice local pub with friends and family. Friends and family who were invited only to a party, and didn't find out until they arrived just what they were celebrating! Now that's an informal wedding party!

Here are Jen and Dereck on their Big Day -- before the Big Party. A suit and boutonniere for the groom, a pretty summer dress and bouquet for the bride.

If you are bringing a child or two into this marriage along with the two of you, you'll want to find ways to include them in the day. There are the traditional roles, depending on their ages, everything from ring bearer and flower girl through bridesmaids and usher to witness on the documents.

They can take part in the ceremony with tangible symbols which have emerged over recent years: family medallions, unity candles or unity sand. There is, however, one wedding symbol which has been around forever which can easily include the children: the ring.

In one ceremony which my husband officiated, the bride's four-year-old son took part in the ceremony during the exchange of the rings. His mother and her new husband exchanged rings, and then the adults gave the little boy his own, matching ring. At this point, the little boy turned to the officiant, pointed to the groom and explained. "We're marrying him. She's marrying him, and I'm marrying him, too." I'm sure this little boy will treasure his ring -- and his new family -- for a long time to come!

If this is your second marriage, announcing your engagement starts at home. Your children will be the very first people you inform. If they live with you, your announcement probably won't come as a surprise, but you just never know! Children can be remarkably oblivious to their parents' private lives. (They HAVE a private life?)

If they were harboring private hopes that mom and dad might still get back together, your announcement will not be received well. Their response may be further complicated by feelings of loyalty to the other parent. If the other parent is still single, the child(ren) may feel guilty sharing your happiness when they believe the other parent is lonely and unhappy.

Will you have engagement pictures taken? If you've decided yes, you'll want them to be the very best they can.

1. Have an idea of what you want. Do you want a formal, posed picture? Do you want something more candid? Color? Black-and-white? Your ideas don't need to be cast in stone; the photographer will have ideas, based on their experience and preferences. It does stream-line the conversation, though, if you have a few basic ideas before you go into it.

This cake topper/coin bank from the muchofamuchness Etsy shop is too funny not to share: It shows a bride and groom resplendent in their wedding finery and reverses to show what they look like after a few years. As you can see in the gallery, it's not exactly pretty. We think that the fact that it doubles as a coin bank is just precious.

What a great cake topper for a wedding - or a 50th anniversary party!

Unfortunately this vintage item has sold (sorry!) but it just goes to show you that it pays to look outside of the traditional sources - you never know where you'll find a treasure like this.

Via Just My Cup of Tea

They were married in Barbados, but Siân and John Williams wanted to share the experience with all their friends and family. So, when they returned home to Wales, they had a beach party -- indoors! They set the tone of the event with their invitations, which were written on beach balls!

The folks at the five-star St. David's Hotel and Spa in Cardiff are a pretty adventurous crew. The first dump truck of sand pulled up at seven Friday morning, and for the rest of the day, wheelbarrows of sand were trundled through reception. In the end, the sand was a foot deep. Children (and some adults!) played with pails and shovels.

In keeping with the theme, there were fake palm trees, a fake rum shack (with real rum!), and guests in beach wear. This being a second wedding for both, John and Siân declared that they didn't want something "frumpy." We'd say they succeeded!

I'm not sure what's weirdest about this story. It starts with bigamy, but while that's not an everyday occurrence, there has always been the odd guy who figures that if one wedding was fun, two would be double the fun. So it's wrong and illegal, but it's not really, really weird.

How is this story weird? Let me count the ways:

1. The bigamist, Randolph "Ranchie" Edge, was caught because he invited someone to BOTH weddings. Yeah, that's pretty weird. And just plain stupid. I know it was a whole five years earlier -- but did he really think they'd forget about the first one?

2. His second bride was 21 to his 54 years. Ugh. Can you say "pedoph" -- oh, never mind.

A proxy wedding is one where either the bride or groom is absent from the ceremony, with someone standing in on their behalf. I don't know how common these weddings are but I imagine there must be a jolly good reason for doing it.

On Wednesday, another type of proxy wedding took place. Quite an unusual one at that. For at this wedding ceremony, neither the bride nor the groom were present. It sounds like something from a crazy Steve Martin movie, doesn't it.

But it wasn't anything zany at all. The bride and groom, both in service to the US Army, were on overseas duty at the time of their wedding. The bride, 29 year old Barbara Hines, is stationed in Afghanistan whilst the groom, 25 year old Ryan Thompson, is stationed in Iraq.

Helen Mirren puts me to shame. At 60+ years of age, she continues to merge beauty, class, and sex appeal into one spectacular silver bundle. In a world where designers are clamoring over who can dress the next hot young thing in the wildest gown, Mirren consistently wears dresses that cause the jaws of men half her age to drop while still, somehow, remaining age appropriate.

This outfit is a perfect example -- it would also work perfectly as a wedding gown for anyone looking for a slightly more mature look. Here's why:

• The dress itself is strapless (or at least looks strapless), which right off the bat is sexy. It shows off a bit of decolletage (what lotion does she use -- her skin looks flawless!) without being too much. Depending on your own bust, you might opt for something that comes up a bit higher.

Any wedding is fraught with stress and tension and, sometimes, peppered with family feuds. How much more so when you're doing it for the second time and there are children from previous marriages involved. (Did you know that more than 25% of marriages in the USA involve children from previous relationships?)

It needs careful planning and thought to avoid hurting children and causing any of them to feel left out. Kids and resentment are a potentially explosive mix!

You could involve them by having a son act as a best man, or a daughter as a flower girl or bridesmaid...or a son could give his mother away.

If, however, you choose not do this but still want to include your children in the ceremony (and some experts maintain this is very important in helping children accept a new partner) then you could have them light a unity candle with you and your spouse, or give them rings, or, present them with a family medallion.

The family medallion symbol includes three equally merged circles. Two circles represent the marriage union while the third symbolizes the importance of children within the family. This visual and tangible affirmation of their importance in your life is incredibly powerful for children.

It's a lovely way of integrating your children and step-children into your wedding and a really meaningful way of showing them that your love and commitment to the new marriage extends to them too.

I was recently introduced to a new concept -- the casserole lady. Casserole ladies are generally single women who live in a retirement community, or at least in an area where there is a large population of retirees. They watch the obituaries for wives to pass away, and then they bake up their best casserole and go calling on the widower to offer food and condolences and who knows what else.

Men can also take on this role, although more often with men they're asking a newly widowed woman out to dinner or a show to take her mind off her grief.

The above description makes the whole thing sound a little lewd, and in some cases I'm sure it can be. However, in a retirement community, single men are a hot commodity because women generally outlive their spouses, so it's really not all that surprising that women, many of whom might have been single for some time, make an excuse to go over right away and get to know the newest eligible bachelor, even if he won't be ready for the dating scene right away. And I'm not going to blame anyone who's looking for companionship -- it's hard to be alone.