Wedding Was Icing on the Cake

Instead of cutting the wedding cake, a Portuguese couple were married inside it. Hundreds of tourists and curious bystanders in Loule watched as Maria da Conceicao Revez, 19, and Joao Pedro Guerreiro Ramos, 20, were married inside the four-story-tall strawberry and apricot cake, made by Revez’ father, who is chief pastry chef at a luxury hotel. The cake was built over a frame of wood and metal and was a replica of the church of Sao Lourenco in nearby Almansil. It took more than a month to construct and was made from 12,000 eggs, about two tons of sugar, nearly a ton of flour, half a ton of margarine, 700 pounds of chopped fruit, 1,500 pounds of fruit preserves, 100 gallons of port wine and 200 gallons of lemon syrup.

--There wasn’t a tractor or a pair of overalls in sight as participants donned string bikinis and slathered on suntan lotion at the World’s Biggest Beach Party, held in a cornfield in Williamsburg, Iowa, 1,200 miles from the ocean. “It’s just like in Hawaii. You just got to hang loose,” said promoter Steve Gander, who organized the party, bringing 3 million pounds of sand from Florida, California, Texas, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Alaska, Michigan, Mexico, France, Brazil and the Caribbean to construct the beach. A crowd estimated at 20,000 for the two-day event paid $10 each to participate in such events as a surfing competition in which contestants attempted to ride a Canadian-built contraption billed as the world’s only mechanical surfboard.

--Cindy and Robert O’Brien didn’t plan on having their children share the same birthdays. But they do--right down to the minute. At 3:38 p.m., the Corpus Christi, Tex., couple’s daughter, Kelly Lynn, was born--four years to the minute after her brother, Robert. Photos taken by Robert O’Brien of his two children immediately after birth show them being held by the doctor in front of a clock in the Spohn Hospital maternity ward. “The clock shows they were only five seconds apart,” Cindy O’Brien said.

--The Kennedy clan went to Mass and then celebrated the 96th birthday of matriarch Rose Kennedy two days early. “Because the family was all gathered for the wedding it seemed an appropriate time,” said Father Edward C. Duffy, pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church, near the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. Rose Kennedy, confined to a wheelchair since she suffered a stroke in April, 1984, was too ill to attend the wedding Saturday of her granddaughter Caroline Kennedy and Edwin A. Schlossberg.