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Some Couples Prioritize Wellness as a Key Part of Their Weddings

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Some Couples Prioritize Wellness as a Key Part of Their Weddings

Kara Ladd-Blum said she was “pushed into the wellness world” after being diagnosed in 2016 with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer affecting the body’s soft tissues.

“I became hyper-aware of what I was putting on and in my body, and that evolved into this spiritual awakening,” said Ms. Ladd-Blum, 32, of Brooklyn, who has been cancer-free for eight years. Now, she works with wellness brands as a conscious marketing consultant and hosts a podcast focused on mindful living.

While planning their Sept. 15, 2024, wedding, she and her husband, Brandon Blum, 32, who runs a content marketing agency and apparel brand, were eager to incorporate some of their favorite wellness practices. On the morning of their wedding, they meditated and journaled together, as they often do at home, and incorporated healing crystals and tarot cards into the celebration.

“I feel like weddings are just an extension of people’s energies,” Ms. Ladd-Blum said. “We both love, live and breathe that world.”

For many couples, health and mindfulness are an integral part of their everyday lives, and they want their weddings to reflect these values. And with more event planners and venues catering to the needs of those who prioritize wellness, it’s easier to accomplish that.

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“It definitely has weaved its way into weddings and events,” said Ali Phillips, the owner of Engaging Events by Ali in Chicago. She said around three-quarters of the weddings she planned each year contained a wellness element.

At Ocean Edge Resort and Golf Club in Brewster, Mass., wedding groups can enjoy candlelit floating sound baths, acupuncture happy hours and beach yoga sessions. At Canyon Ranch Woodside in Woodside, Calif., couples and their guests can sign up for spiritual growth sessions, botanical tea making and strength-training workshops.

Miraval Berkshires Resort and Spa in Lenox, Mass., specifically offers a mindful weddings program, which includes spa treatments and guided morning meditations. There’s even an anniversary “reflection visit” for couples, where they can participate in a sacred stone ceremony, hike or work out in a nature ropes course.

“We live in this fast-paced, extremely distracted world where self-care and also relationship care can often take a back seat,” Danielle Vega, a senior group sales manager at Miraval Berkshires, said.

On the morning of Ms. Ladd-Blum’s wedding, at Corrida, a Spanish restaurant in Boulder, Colo., she met with Maureen Dodd, the spiritual mentor she had worked with throughout her cancer treatment, to engage in a solo healing session, which she described as “a self-love ritual.”

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“As someone highly sensitive to others’ energy, I wanted to anchor in my own energy and love before welcoming others into the space,” Ms. Ladd-Blum said.

While getting ready for the wedding ceremony, she listened to some of her favorite so-called love frequencies, or frequencies of sound waves believed to have healing properties. Ms. Ladd-Blum also performed other rituals like a lymphatic drainage massage. She then met a few of her closest friends and her mother for a bridal blessing, which Ms. Dodd, who is based in Phoenix and Sedona, Ariz., also led.

To ensure positive energy for the day ahead, Ms. Ladd-Blum placed her engagement ring and wedding band in a selenite crystal bowl, which is said to have protective properties. But her favorite practice from the day involved having guests — who received welcome bags that included palo santo sticks, which are meant to help get rid of negative energy — pass around and bless a heart-shaped twin crystal during the wedding ceremony. “They were all infusing it with good energy,” she said.

Samantha Cutler, 33, and her husband, Trevor Mengel, 36, who live in Delray Beach, Fla., have also actively embraced wellness practices as a couple, some of which they integrated into their May 4, 2023, wedding at the Addison of Boca Raton.

“Wellness and nutrition and all the pieces of health have really been a core foundation of my lifestyle and my relationship with my husband as well,” said Ms. Cutler, the founder of Mindfull, a meal planning and health coaching app. “There was wellness sprinkled throughout our entire wedding.”

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She described the welcome bags that she curated for guests with Mr. Mengel, the founder and chief executive of Cloutdesk, a creator marketing platform, as a “wellness bundle.” The bags included vitamin supplements and a copy of “The Five Minute Journal,” which is designed to promote reflection and gratitude.

The day after their 69-person celebration, the couple hosted a wellness day at the Ray Hotel in Delray Beach, where guests were treated to matcha, vitamin B12 shots and drip IVs containing electrolytes and vitamins claiming to revive the body following alcohol consumption, stress and more. After a Pilates session led by one of Ms. Cutler’s fitness instructor friends, attendees could participate in a golf session or relax by the pool.

“It was just really fun seeing your husband and your best friends working out with your parents,” Ms. Cutler said. “It felt like a family affair in so many ways, without it feeling too gimmicky.”

Even an hourlong meditation session before the wedding can be helpful for wellness-focused couples. Katharina Kutscher, 30, and Zane Witherspoon, 28, who runs a tech startup, hosted a small wedding celebration on Aug. 30, 2024, in Central Park but started their day together at the Ludlow Hotel.

“I was very nervous for the wedding day,” said Ms. Kutscher, who lives in Manhattan. She tapped a meditation and mindfulness coach friend to lead a meditation session for her and Mr. Witherspoon via Zoom.

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While completing breathing exercises and setting their intentions for the day, Ms. Kutscher, a content creator who also works in marketing, was able to reflect on what was truly meaningful. “The whole goal of this day is to get married to the love of your life,” she said, “and that’s the most important thing.”

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Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize after all

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Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize after all

Satirist Bill Maher is this year’s recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Maher will receive the award at the Kennedy Center on June 28th. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.

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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Bill Maher will be receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after all.

There’s been some confusion about whether the comedian and longtime host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher would, indeed, be getting the top humor award. After The Atlantic cited anonymous sources saying he was, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “fake news.” But today the Kennedy Center made it official.

“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” said Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations in a statement. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse – one politically incorrect joke at a time.”

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Is President Trump, chair of the Kennedy Center’s board, in on the joke?

Maher once visited Trump at the White House and he tends to be more conservative than many of his comedian peers but after their dinner Trump soured on Maher, calling him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT” on social media.

Maher’s acerbic wit has targeted both political parties and he’s been particularly hard on Trump recently, criticizing his decisions to wage a war with Iran and his personnel choices.

“Trump said, ‘when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.’ Um, who’s ‘we?,’” Maher said in a recent monologue.

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Past recipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Conan O’Brien, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy and Carol Burnett.

In a statement released through the Kennedy Center, Maher said, “It is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”

Maher will receive the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on June 28. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.

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What European Luxury Can Learn From American Fashion

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What European Luxury Can Learn From American Fashion
This week on The Debrief, BoF’s Diana Pearl explains why brands like Coach, Ralph Lauren and Tory Burch are outperforming many European luxury houses — and what their turnarounds reveal about pricing, product, retail and long-term brand building.
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Suit asks court to force Trump administration to use ‘The Kennedy Center’ name

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Suit asks court to force Trump administration to use ‘The Kennedy Center’ name

Workers react to the media after updating signage outside the Kennedy Center on Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

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Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio is asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to force President Trump and the board and staff of the Kennedy Center to revert to calling the arts complex The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The motion, which Beatty filed on Wednesday, asks a federal circuit court judge to reverse the Trump administration and the center’s current board and staff’s decision to call the complex “The Trump-Kennedy Center.”

In the filing, Beatty’s attorneys wrote: “Can the Board of the Kennedy Center — in direct contradiction of the governing statutes — rename this sacred memorial to John F. Kennedy after President Donald J. Trump? The answer is, unequivocally, ‘no.’ By renaming the Center — in violation of the law — Defendants have breached the terms of the trust and their most basic fiduciary obligations as trustees. Shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress designated the Kennedy Center as the ‘sole national memorial to the late’ President in the nation’s capital.”

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In a statement emailed to NPR Thursday, Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, wrote: “We’re confident the court will uphold the board’s decision on the name change and the desperately needed renovations which will continue as scheduled.” NPR also reached out to the White House for comment, but did not receive a reply.

In December, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the complex would heretofore be called “The Trump-Kennedy Center.” Although the new moniker was never approved by Congress, the Center’s website and publicity materials were immediately updated to reflect the administration’s chosen name, and the same day as Leavitt’s announcement, Trump’s name went up on the signage of the complex’s exterior, over that of the slain President Kennedy.

Later that month, Rep. Beatty who serves as an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, sued Trump, members of the Kennedy Center board appointed by Trump, and some ex-officio members, arguing that the complex’s name had been legislated by Congress in 1964. Wednesday’s motion is part of that lawsuit.

In a press release sent to NPR on Wednesday, Rep. Beatty said: “Donald Trump’s attempt to rename the Kennedy Center after himself is not just an act of ego. It is an attempt to subvert our Constitution and the rule of law. Congress established the Kennedy Center by law, and only Congress can change its name.”

For many patrons, artists and benefactors of the Kennedy Center, the name change was the last straw in politicizing the performing arts hub. Following the White House announcement of the new name, many prominent artists withdrew planned performances there, including the composer Philip Glass (a Kennedy Center Honors award recipient, who received his prize during the first Trump administration), the famed Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and the 18-time Grammy-winning banjo master Béla Fleck.

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The Washington National Opera (WNO), which had been in residence at the Kennedy Center since 1971, also severed its ties in January after ticket sales dropped precipitously. Earlier this month, WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello told NPR, “We did try as best as we could to encourage [the patrons] that we are a bipartisan organization, but people really voted with their feet and with their pocketbooks. And so we realized that there was really no choice for us.”

On Monday, a coalition of eight architecture and cultural groups also sued Trump and the Kennedy Center board in federal court over the complex’s scheduled closing in July for unspecified renovations. Their suit seeks to have the White House and board members comply with existing historic preservation laws, and to secure Congressional approval before moving ahead with the renovation plans.

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