Those 12 words above open each issue of Manhattan Bride, celebrating your positive outlook — and your commitment to love and success.

We want to offer you new ideas (as well as time-tested solutions) for your wedding and your marriage. We even enlist our advertisers as knowledgeable professionals and "members of the team." They help us give you the information you need ... plus the fun "Contest Gifts" here on our website.

But none of this would be possible without the generous help of our real wedding couples, models, suppliers, friends, and bridal professionals ... plus our dedicated staff ...

Manhattan Bride’s Editor & Publisher Rick Bard launched the publication and this accompanying website in 2000, as well as the print magazine's digtial and iPad versions. He also started Manhattan Magazine over 25 years ago. Since then he has won over 50 national and international awards for his celebrity, environmental, and fashion photography, writing, and design.

As a noted photographer, he has taken Miss France on location to the glistening beaches of Tahiti, took Miss USA to the jungles of the Amazon, gone to the elegant boulevards of Paris with Miss Russia, and to the Bahamas, Morocco, Acapulco, Maui, Milan, Los Cabos, Antigua, Jamaica, and other exotic locales on photo trips with top models, actresses, and dancers. His trips have been sponsored by national departments of tourism, major resorts, and airlines.

Rick’s photos have appeared in publications worldwide, from the cover of a #1 New York Times best-selling book and other best-sellers, to publications such as Time, Newsweek, Elle, Dance, Self, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Rick also was honored with the prestigious Award of Excellence from the United Nations Society of Writers, for his environmental articles and photography.

He graduated near the top of his class from both MIT and Harvard University, was a Golden Gloves boxing champion, a business consultant for Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood and also for Bankers Trust in New York, and a computer programmer at the MIT Instrumentation Lab for one of the legendary Apollo Moonshots.

He also was the founding Editor-Publisher of Studio 54 magazine, and his award-winning photographs have been exhibited in museums and at the United Nations.

Rick also launched a charitable foundation, which he ran for almost 20 years. During this time he held some 40 charity benefits, with regular annual fund raisers for Homeless Children and Breast Cancer Research.

For these charity events he hosted fashion shows, raffles, photo exhibits, and awards ceremonies at major venues, including The Plaza Hotel, where he welcomed as many as 800 guests for black tie dinner-dances. Well-attended by celebrities, models, and socially prominent personalities, these charity events were covered by local papers, magazines, and ABC-TV.

Also, as a “Principal for a Day” in the New York City school system for several years in the South Bronx, he went on to employ various inner-city students as summer interns, and for years has been personally involved with the charities he supports.

Serving as stylist on the publication’s award-winning fashion shootings, she works on-location at sites ranging from grand venues in New York and New Jersey to glamorous overseas resorts. She also travels to exotic locales to help create some of the magazine’s honeymoon pieces.

She also assists in the regular updates, expansion, and marketing of Manhattan Bride’s website and of Manhattan Bride magazine in its print, digital, and iPad formats.

Noemi was awarded a full scholarship at Columbia University, where she graduated as a PALS Scholar. While there, she also founded a student company providing health and fitness services, emphasizing dance-based workouts derived from her years training women of all ages, including numerous brides-to-be. She also created a special website and blog for her student fitness company.

As a member of the Glee Club, Girl’s Ensemble, and Chamber Choir while at Horace Mann high school, where she also earned a scholarship, Noemi traveled to Brazil, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, where she performed at the Notre Dame Cathedral. An avid traveler, she has also visited England, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.

Noemi loved planning her own wedding and helping her sister-in-law plan her wedding as well. In her own words, she is thrilled to use those insights at Manhattan Bride, where she combines her love of weddings with the writing skills she developed at Columbia University.