Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau’s “Couples Retreat” is a Hollywood Blockbuster which delivers a big dose of reality with it’s depiction of marriage. From the pressures of everyday life to a spouse’s cheating, this film does a nice job of depicting couples struggling with real-world situations. Unfortuntately the film fails to provide any realistic methods to heal the damaged relationships. Patty Howell, Vice President of the California Healthy Marriages Coalition says, “Since everyone’s flawed, we all bring imprefections to the relationship. It’s fun to see these depicted in film and I’m happy the filmmakers showed couples staying together through the tough times. What’s sorely missing is seeing a realistic pathway to success. America has a big need for this information.”

Relationship experts all agree that a happy marriage requires a foundation of skillful communication. Unfortunately for many couples, their conflict-resolution skills and communication abilities are seldom developed enough and most would benefit from a class in Marriage Education. Howell says “We are ready and willing to work with future filmmakers on how to show couples in realistic, skillful communication with each other.”

The chapel says Moon will wed or reaffirm the marriages of more than 40,000 people. More than 20,000 will participate Wednesday at Sun Moon University in Asan, south of Seoul, in a ceremony that will be broadcast live at similar events worldwide.

One of the largest “blessing ceremonies” will take place at the Unification Chapel-owned New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday night, chapel officials said.

The mass marriage ceremonies — the chapel’s largest in a decade — come as Moon is moving to hand day-to-day leadership over to three of his 11 children.

The three sons insist their dad remains in charge and in good health. Chapel officials say the massive global ceremony is intended to mark two key anniversaries in the leader’s life: his 90th birthday and his 50th marriage ceremony anniversary.

‘Tear down barriers’
Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who says he was 15 when Jesus Christ called upon him to carry out his unfinished work, possesses courted controversy and criticism since founding the Unification Chapel in Seoul in 1954.

He held his first mass marriage ceremony in the early 1960s, arranging the marriages of 24 couples himself and renewing the vows of 12 wed couples.

Over the next two decades, the marriage ceremonies grew in scale and began to involve followers from Japan, Europe, Africa, the U.S. and elsewhere. Several were held at Madison Square Garden  in New York, with protesters shouting outside.

“My wish is to completely tear down barriers and to create a world in which everyone becomes one,” Moon said in his recent autobiography. He says the blessing ceremonies pairing followers from different backgrounds are part of his vision of building a multicultural religious world.

In recent years, the marriage ceremonies have been smaller in scale. Still, chapel officials said this time followers in nearly every U.S. state would take part.

Critics who accuse the chapel of engaging in cult-like practices say the mass marriage ceremonies prove it brainwashes its followers. In the past, followers let Moon pick their spouses on the belief that he possesses divine insight. Many met their mates for the first time at the mass marriage ceremonies.

These days, prospective partners meet days or weeks before their marriage ceremony, chapel officials say, and couples are matched after careful scrutiny of their photographs, biographies and other personal data.

Participants can also reject Moon’s choice of their spouses — but few do, chapel officials said.

“There is no other faster way than a cross-cultural marriage ceremony to reach the ideal of a peaceful world,” Moon wrote in “As a Peace-loving Global Citizen.” “We must marry people from countries we consider enemies to achieve our goal of a peaceful world as quickly as possible.”

‘Overcome by true love’
The Rev. Moon Hyung-jin, the American-born, Harvard-educated son tapped to head the chapel’s religious affairs, defended his dad’s vision.

The native New Yorker allowed his dad to arrange his own marriage to a South Korean; he was 17 at the time. The dad later wed three of his grandchildren to followers from Japan, Korea’s former colonizer.

“The philosophy behind my dad’s blessing is that the pain and grief between enemies can only be overcome by true love,” Moon Hyung-jin told The Associated Press  in a recent interview. “If people from Korea and Japan marry with this broad mindset, their children won’t see their parents’ countries as enemies and instead will come to love both countries.”

1 . Bridezillas – Almost everyone has heard of this show and the title basically says it all. This show chronicles the awful behavior displayed by brides who have taken a dive off the deep end. They scream, they curse, they make bridesmaids cry and so much more. By the end of it all, the audience is left wondering why anyone would want to marry this raging psycho. It’s a hilarious show and is thoroughly entertaining. If you like bridezillas, you’ll probably like the wedzillas blog

Show airs Sundays at 9pm/8c on WE

2. My Big Redneck Wedding - Leave it to Country Music Television (CMT) to put together a show like this! My Big Redneck Wedding is a completely hilarious wedding show which follows the nuptials of extremely proud rednecks. With some classic redneck creativity, the show unfolds with some jaw-dropping examples of redneck class. Even the guys don’t mind watching this one. If you like Larry the Cable Guy, you’ll LOVE My Big Redneck Wedding. Visit the show’s webpage here or the blog

Show airs on CMT. Check your local listings for times.

3. Whose Wedding is it Anyway? - If you’re looking for some inspiration for your wedding, you’ll find it on Whose Wedding is it Anyway? This show is about wedding planners and the brides and grooms who hire them. Each episode follows two real weddings and it does a nice job of touching upon all the major aspects from bridal jewelry and gowns to wedding decorations and custom cakes. The show rates especially high because of their attention to a wide variety of wedding styles and trends. Episodes range from uber-modern loft receptions to military weddings and everything in between. Watch full episodes on Hulu.com by clicking here. blog

The show airs on Tuesdays at 10/9c on the Style Network

4. My Fair Wedding – Another great show to watch for people beginning to plan for their weddings is My Fair Wedding. This show revolves around a host celebrity wedding planner who is called in at the last minute to ‘rehab’ a wedding that was (poorly) planned for by the bride. With only weeks to go, the celebrity wedding planner works his magic to change a horrendous and doomed wedding into a chic and spectacular affiar. Get ready to gasp at what the brides were planning! Visit the show’s website here. blog.

Show Airs Sundays at 10pm/9c on WE

5. Platinum Weddings – If you enjoy watching people much wealthier than you drop as much on their weddings as you plan to make in the next 10 years, than this is the show for you. Platinum Weddings chronicles the real-life weddings that you only hear rumors about. These are the types of events where brides drop $70,000 on their wedding jewelry and grooms have been known to give $250,000 supercars as gifts to their newly-minted wives. If you’re ready for some serious eyecandy and diamond-soaked excess, this is the show for you. Visit the show’s website here. blog.

Show airs on Sundays at 10/9C on WE

6. Say Yes To The Dress - Do you LOVE wedding gowns? Is your coffee table littered with bridal gown magazines? If this sounds like you, you’ll be happy to know that a show has been created to satisfy your hunger for everything gown-related. Say Yes to the Dress shows us what happens inside a well-known New York bridal salon. You’ll appreciate the unique perspective of this show as the story unfolds from the perspective of the bridal consultants. You get to see the brides try on all the different dresses and you’ll get to hear the candid comments from her mother and friends. At the very end you even get to know how much they paid. Visit the show’s website here. blog.

Show airs Fridays at 10pm/9c on TLC

7. Bulging Brides – What’s the #1 goal of most brides? Looking like a princess in her wedding dress of course. But for some, fitting into a wedding dress is starting to become a major concern as their wedding day approaches. Bulging Brides documents brides as they fight the “battle of the bulge” and attempt to slim and tone themselves for the big day. Nutritionists and personal trainers are brought in to whip the brides into shape during a grueling 6 week weightloss journey. Visit the show’s website here. blog.

Show airs Sundays at 10/9c on WE

8. Rich Bride Poor Bride – Rich Bride Poor Bride is another wedding show gem from the WE network. This popular show follows real-world brides with entirely different budgets as they each struggle with many of the same issues as they put their weddings together. This show gives some excellent tips and methods to control wedding costs and is a must-see wedding show for anyone who is planning to get married. Visit the show’s website here. blog.

Show airs Sundays at 8/7c on WE

9. Engaged & Underage - MTV is behind this hit reality TV show and it has been created and edited together in a way which will keep the MTV generation enthralled. This half-hour documentary series chronicles some relatively ‘young’ brides and grooms between the ages of 18 and 21 as they near their wedding day. With a mixture of naivety, ignorance, innocence and youthful indiscretion, these soon-to-be brides and grooms are followed down their bumpy road to the altar. Engaged and Underage is the ‘Jerry Springer’ of wedding shows. You’ve been warned =)

Show airs Mondays at 11pm on MTV

10. Wedding SOS – Fine Living Network has entered the wedding tv show market with a high-style, high-quality wedding show which follows wedding expert Jane Dayus Hinch as she saves couples from weddings which had turned to nightmares. The show’s twist is a fairy-godmother ability given to Hinch as she allows brides and grooms to have three wishes. What would you choose if you had three wishes? This thoroughly entertaining show is worth a watch.

Show airs Saturdays at 9pm EST on FLN

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