Photo: Elizabeth Hoard Photography

Shelby Swink, 23, met the love of her life in college and got engaged. The couple started planning for their wedding ...

"I poured my heart and soul into the wedding plans to try and make it the best day it could be. It was going to be a celebration of our love and commitment ot each other, so I wanted it to be absolutely amazing. A few weeks before the wedding I had everything planned out to a T and was so excited for our big day," Swink said to Offbeat Bride.

And that's when the unthinkable happened. Just five days before the wedding day, Swink's fiance told her that he was not in love with her and did not want to go through with the wedding.

"Bam. My dreams of marrying and having kids with what I thought was the man I would spend the rest of my life vanished," Swink told Buzzfeed. The next couple of days was filled with frantic calls to calling guests and to cancel services, but thankfully Swink's friends and family rallied around her.

But what of the dress? Swink said that a few people brough up the idea of trashing the wedding dress. "My mother spent so much money on the dress and alterations, so I was nervous to even think about destroying it ... but after thinking about it, I knew that doing something to mark the occasion was the perfect thing for me. I was not going to let my ex-fiance's mistake of letting me go take away my happiness."

On what was supposed to be her wedding day, Swink and her friends and family had a different kind of ceremony - all captured in photos by Elizabeth Hoard:

"The moment the paint hit my dress ... I was free. All the disappointment, all the hurt ... I just felt it leave me. I can't even describe how liberating and cathartic the experience was for me. I let go of all the hurt and became myself again," Swink said.

Even Swink's mom and dad got in on it!

The Beastie Boys may have fought hard* for your right to party, but The Man can't be beat.

This sign, posted outside the Palace Hotel in Sydney's Central Business District (CBD), noted that your right to party, fought so hard by Beastie Boys, have been taken away from you by the city's 1:30 AM lockout laws.

*Except that according to the Beastie Boys, the song "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)" is actually making fun of those people who like to party.

Redditor ZyloV spotted this great offer in Mexico. I can't tell you how often I've gone into a supermarket to purchase both mayonnaise and toilet paper and, for that matter, only mayonnaise and toilet paper. They naturally belong together. Some smart retailer finally figured out how to capitalize on this basic human need.

Parents, you never know what grandma and grandpa might have up their sleeves. The worse you were as a kid, the more you may have coming to you in the years ahead. The holidays are a great way to exact a little revenge, as the latest comic from Lunarbaboon illustrates. 

(Photo: unknown)

Making ugly Christmas sweaters is becoming a high art form. This fantastic sweater is a great example. Why take up so much room with a tree? Just have this young lady hold up her hands in the middle of the living room.

-via American Digest

(Photo: Nick Mattlock)

They look like ice shelves, but that's not what's happening in this photo. A wire fence stretches along the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, UK. The wind blew straight at the fence from the right. Ice particles gradually built up along the wire. A spokesman for the Met Office, which is the UK's weather bureau, explained to the BBC:

There has to be a strong wind, temperatures have to be between plus one Celsius and minus one Celsius and there has to be plenty of moisture. This can either be from water vapour in the air, from snowfall or from freezing rain. The wind blows the moisture over the object, in this case the fence, and it freezes, building up a thick layer of ice on the windward side. This means that the wind was actually blowing from the right to the left of the photo.

-via Twisted Sifter

'Twas the night before Christmas
Gotham slept without fright.
No criminal lurked
Thanks to the Dark Knight.

If Afred Pennyworth decorates the Batcave for Christmas---let's admit that Bruce Wayne is not the sort to get into the Christmas mood--then he would surely put up a wreath like this one over the entrance. Kat and Cam of Our Nerd Home made this wreath using a foam core backing and Christmas garlands. You can find instructions on how to make your own here. 

(Photo: Hong-Anh Nguyen)

J.K. Rowling acquired vast fame and wealth through the Harry Potter series. She published her last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, in 2007. But, not letting it rest, she has resumed writing within the Harry Potter universe in recent years. This month, she's releasing 12 new stories.

Honestly, though, it's time for her to stop. This story, published under the pen name Kilian Dunphy in the Journal of Medical Ethics, really clinches the argument.

-via Ka-Ming

Why is the 1989 monster flick Godzilla vs. Biollante rated PG? It's not for foul language or frightening situations, but "Traditional Godzilla Violence." Besides being a great band name, Traditional Godzilla Violence should be the aspiration of every work of fiction.

That film, by the way, pits Godzilla against a huge mutant rosebush--a story as old as time itself.

-via Jeff Treppel

Last Thursday, visitors to the Grand Canyon in Arizona witnessed a spectacular event: the enormous valley filled up completely with fog. Natasha Greiling of Smithsonian explains that this event is known as a "total cloud inversion." That's when cold air becomes trapped in the bottom of the canyon beneath a heavy layer of warm air. This occurs once every few years at the Grand Canyon during unusual conditions.

Fortunately, the National Park Service staff who work at the canyon were ready. They took some amazing photos, as well as a time-lapse video of the event, which you can see below. It looks like the canyon is filling up from the bottom. 

-via Ace of Spades HQ

(Photo: Sally Williamson)

Craig and Sally Williamson of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, UK, grow potatoes on their farm. To promote their goods, they put up this chrèche in their farm shop. The little spud looks comfortable in his manger. If he's hungry, maybe the sheep in the scene can be put to good use.

-via Jonah Goldberg

(Image: WDKY Fox 56)

John Wayne, also known as Michael Fleet, escaped from a prison in Kentucky last week. Or that's the impression you would get by this graphic shown by WDKY Fox 56, a television station in Lexington, Kentucky. It displayed mugshots of the two escaped prisoners. One of them showed the late actor John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn, a character that he played in two western films: True Grit and Rooster Cogburn.

The news broadcasters later explained that the graphic shows the image of John Wayne as a default setting. They neglected to upload a photo of escaped prisoner Michael Fleet before displaying it on live TV.

-via Dave Barry

It's shaping up to be a chilly winter in the American Midwest. Tom Gill, a photographer, can see and feel that with certaintly. He takes photos of the natural environment around Lake Michigan. Recently, he snapped pictures of a lighthouse in St. Joseph, Michigan. The 35-foot tower and the catwalk leading to it were covered with thick layers of ice. It's a beautiful sight. You can see more of his photos of the lighthouse here, here, and here.

-via Huffington Post

Come here, kitty. British street artist JPS shows this cat's graceful balance on a wall in Barcelona, Spain. Can you walk the chain as confidently?

-via Street Art Utopia

Twitter user @smellyghostgirl writes, “my stepdad makes sundials that make a rainbow go thru ur house when the sun hits it and.”* Rainbow Cat brings a technicolor grumpiness to everyone he meets. Rainbow Cat, tell us the secret of eternal grumpiness.

-via Colossal

*She might mean suncatchers instead of sundials.