March 2009 Archives

Alfred Sung, world-renown designer, has been creating wedding apparel since 1992. He launched his first wedding inspired fragrance, Alfred Sung Forever, back in 1993.
Now, he has a new wedding fragrance called Always Alfred Sung. This perfume was inspired by the elegance and style of Grace Kelly's classic wedding. Sung describes the scent  "... like a colorful bouquet built around orris, the most unique ingredient of my palate." Other notes are of water lily, neroli, kumquat, pink peony, honeysuckle, sandalwood and patchouli. The large U.S. rollout is scheduled for this fall, but will be available this fall at Elizabeth Arden's Manhattan flagship store.

Alfred Sung is known for his attention to details with classic styles that can make anyone look like a queen. His beautiful and elegant bridesmaid dresses are available here. There are many different styles and colors to choose from, so any bride can have the world's most stunning bridesmaids. For his wedding dresses and more information about his wedding line, visit the Alfred Sung Wedding Site.

Source - Women's Daily Wear, March 20, 2009

When you are trying to get ideas for your wedding, look to the past for a little inspiration. There are so many different eras chock full of different ideas and styles, its easy to find something you like and can incorporate into your own wedding.

If you are having trouble picking out colors, look at vintage posters and advertisements for ideas. Like this vintage railroad poster advertising travel to the Mediterranean. The combination of blues, oranges and yellows, is a great Art Deco combo that works just as well today as it did 70 years ago.

                                             Poster photo from Pop Art Iconix available for purchase here.


Another great sample of color and style are these prints by Amy of Old Sweet Song. She incorporates different ideas and styles from US locations that can inspire anybody, anywhere.



                                                                                         Photos taken from OnceWed.

Think about what era you find most beautiful and gather ideas from that.
What era/style do you think has the most appeal for brides?

In every part of the country, there are bridal shows. If you haven't been to one, you are missing out! Local vendors will be selling their wares, which gives you a great opportunity to find everything you are looking for. It also makes a great day out with your maid-of-honor and bridesmaid's. You all have a chance to talk about the wedding, and get input from your best friends about what looks good and what doesn't. Plus, there will probably be lots of free samples and great ideas!

Here are just a few bridal shows around the country:

The NotWedding - Atlanta, GA  4/5 and 5/31

Harlem Weddings Bridal Show - New York, NY 6/6

The Great Bridal Expo - Los Angeles, CA 4/19 (dates available around the country)

Bridal Expo Chicago - Oak Brook, IL 7/19


Find a bridal show in your area on OneWed.

                                                                      Photo from The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman

Everyone knows that the economy is in trouble and many businesses are offering discounts and specials to attract customers in this hard time. Well, for those of you that thought you would never be able to afford a wedding at the Ritz-Carlton, or those of you that are in the market for a beautiful all-inclusive wedding, now is your chance!

The Ritz-Carlton is offering the "Reconnect" promotion for weddings booked in their Caribbean and Mexico locations from 4/1/09 to 6/30/09. The wedding must be held sometime between 5/1/09 to 12/20/09.

With this promotion, you get a complimentary wedding ceremony that includes:
• Ceremony Location
• Wedding Specialist
• Wedding Concierge
• Minister
• Signature Bouquet
• Signature Boutonniere
• Signature Location Décor

PLUS, you get:
• Nightly accommodations
• Daily breakfast for two
• A $100 daily resort credit- for use at F & B outlets, Spas and for recreation activities.

Now for the best part! Included with this package you get a complimentary three-night stay at a Ritz-Carlton hotel in the region on your first anniversary! That's a great (and free) way to celebrate your first year of marriage!!! This is such a great deal, it just might change your wedding plans.

Get more details at The Ritz-Carlton website.

In the last blog post about spring weddings, I mentioned a few ways to incorporate this beautiful season into your wedding. Here are some more tips for having a perfect spring wedding.

The spring season is budget season when it comes to weddings. Most couples opt for summer or fall, but in extreme climates, summer is way too hot and fall can be too cold. Plan ahead, and negotiate deals with wedding vendors and suppliers. You can also find cheap destination weddings, and discounts on travel and honeymoons.

Wedding invitations are the first way your guests will know about your wedding theme. Use paper infused with seeds for the portion of the invitation your guests keep. The cost may be slightly more, but afterwards your guests can plant the paper and have wildflowers to remind them of you. You can also use this type of paper for your seating cards or any other printed material your guests can keep. This can double as a wedding favor for your guests.

On the topic of wedding favors, spring offers an abundance of budget minded wedding favors. Seed packets are a great idea! If the packet is in an envelope, have them customized with you and your groom's favorite flowers, and printed with a photo or instructions for planting. Birdseed can also be thrown at the wedding instead of rice, which is better for the environment, and the birds will love it! Make sure you check with the location first, since some do not allow anything to be thrown.

March 20th marks the first day of spring, which is great news to anyone living in a cold climate (especially us in New England!) Spring weddings are joyous and bright, celebrating growth and birth. Naturally, the colors of a spring wedding tend to be pastels, pink, yellow, blue, lavender and green. There are many ways to incorporate spring into your wedding with flowers. Daffodils, tulips and calla lilies are good examples, while hyacinths, magnolias and lilacs add color and a beautiful scent. Wedding times in the afternoon, when it is the warmest, make for a nice outdoor wedding, but have a back up plan for those "April showers." Food for a spring wedding could reflect the season with "baby" vegetables (carrots, asparagus, haricot verts, new potatoes.) Sweets can also reflect the season with colorful and beautiful seasonal fruits like strawberries. Petits fours can also be customized to match your color scheme and taste.

However, the best way to welcome spring into your wedding is through you and your bridal parties attire. Recently seen in the Martha Stewart wedding blog, The Bride's Guide, as pictured above, are the beautiful bridesmaid and flower girl dresses from Vivian Diamond for the Dessy Group. These dresses are invocative of spring with their bright pink color and clean, simple lines. Find more bridesmaid dresses here.

One important member of your wedding party that is often overlooked is the flower girl. Maybe it's the thought that spring is almost here, but lets look at what you can do to make your flower girl an essential part of your bouquet.

A flower girl is a traditional part of a wedding, a girl four to eight years old that the bride or groom knows or is related to, who walks down the aisle right after the bridesmaids. The flower girl (and ring bearer) usually contribute a fair amount of cuteness and levity to the ceremony.
A good rule is to have one of your bridesmaids look after your little flower girl. It is one less thing that you need to worry about. Make sure that they will dress them (if necessary,) tend to them during the ceremony and then get them back to their parents. Having a "buddy" for your flower girl will help calm her down and make things go a lot smoother.

What should your flower girl wear? A flower girls dress should mimic the bridesmaid dresses. The colors should coordinate and the style should be age appropriate. Longer dresses will be easier for older girls. Here are some really cute dresses that can easily be coordinated with bridesmaid dresses.   

When it comes down to it, your flower girl will add something special to your wedding. If you cant choose between 2 or 3 girls, put them all in! But make sure you don't get too hung up on making sure everything is perfect. Give your flower girl room to grow, and if she makes a mistake, your guests will think it is adorable. 

After a wedding is said and done, all you have left are the sweet memories and photographs. Heather Gilson, at One Love Photo, is creating photographs that any bride wanting a fairy tale wedding would dream of. She uses a combination of techniques and different equipment to capture photos in her vintage style. If you cant get her to shoot your wedding, use her photos as an inspiration on what you want your photos to look like.

Here are a few of samples of her wedding photography work:

I love you, Man (Official Site) - release date 3/20/09

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) just got engaged to the woman of his dreams (Rashida Jones) but, whoops! He doesn't have a Best Man! Peter never had any male friends, and now, when it comes time to pick a Best Man, he comes up short. Peter goes on a hilarious journey to find a best friend in time for his wedding. Peter goes on a series of "man-dates" to find a new friend. Enter Sydney Fife (Peter Segal) who shakes up his world. Now he has to choose between the love of his life and his new bro. Watch the crazy "bromance" unfold in this tale of friendship versus relationship.




Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Official Site) - release date 5/1/09

Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughy,) a terminally insensitive bachelor, is headed to his younger brother Paul's (Breckin Meyer) wedding. Just like in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Connor is visited by the ghosts of his past girlfriends to show him what went wrong, and what he needs to change in order to find true love. Sparked by an old flame, Jenny (Jennifer Garner) the best friend of his brother's bride, Conner finds out the hard way that his reckless lifestyle isn't going to get him the woman of his dreams. This comedic love story will take you on a wide ride showing you what NOT to do to when finding true love.

The last thing on any bride's mind is what to give to other people, when the focus is on herself! The bridal party usually receives gifts from the bride and groom, ranging from jewelry to monogrammed tote bags, but keep in mind you want something personal and memorable that the bridesmaid or groomsman can use for years to come.

Here are some ideas for bridal party gifts:

• Gift certificates - personalize them for each person. These will save a lot of time and guarantee that each person gets something they will really use.
• Destination gifts - if your wedding is in a memorable destination, give them something they can use there. If you are having a beach wedding, consider an assortment of beach related items (towel, flip-flops, coverlet, etc.) If having a nice tan is something your bridesmaid/groomsman likes consider paying for a few tanning sessions that they can use when they get home to keep their sun-kissed look fresh. 
• Edible gifts - a good bottle of wine with glasses makes a nice gift for anyone. Print out labels or find a winemaker that will customize labels, to add a personal touch. For non-drinkers, do the same with a sparkling cider (or other drink in a nice bottle) or order a customized pack of Jones Soda (they print a photo of your choice on the label.)
• Homemade items - this can be more time consuming but shows that you are making an effort to say thank you. Soaps, candles, scrapbooks and jewelry are all easy and fun gifts to make.
• Pay for some of their expenses - paying for the dress/tux, shoes, accessories or hotel room can make a huge difference for many bridal party members. In some customs, this is the traditional bridal party gift.
  

There are so many options to what to give your bridesmaids and groomsmen, but make sure you figure this out early. You don't want to be scrambling at the last minute to get gifts for everyone when stress levels are at their highest!

Most brides end up with (literally) thousands of photos from their wedding. Besides the photos from your photographer, other people at your wedding are probably snapping shots of things you may never think to photograph. Assign someone who will be at your wedding, maybe a member of the bridal party or a relative, to set up a photo sharing account that allows users to upload their own photos. Have that person give the web address to everyone they see at the wedding with a camera, so that there will be a central location for all of the photos. After all of the photos are uploaded, pick out some of your favorites. Instead of pulling out a bulky wedding album to show your friends and family, show a few select photos that capture moments that are important to you and your guests. If you select a photo that a guest has taken, consider framing it and giving it to them as a gift as a thank you. Knowing that they made your special day a little brighter will make them feel even more special.

A fun wedding idea is to put disposable cameras on each of the tables at your reception. Encourage guests to share the camera and take pictures of anything they like. After the wedding when you have the photos developed, you may be surprised at what you get!

The third installment of Here comes the groom! focuses on etiquette. Weddings are a time when lots of rules of etiquette come into play. There are so many rules for the bride to focus on, that sometimes the responsibilities of the groom get shoved aside. It's just as easy for the groom to learn some simple rules of etiquette as it is for the bride.

There are many websites and blogs (like this one!) that have resources for grooms. There are also many books, such as The Engaged Groom: You're Getting Married. Read this Book. By Doug Gordon and The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Being a Groom by Jennifer Lata Rung, that can guide your groom in the right direction. There are even books like Essential Manners for Men: What to Do, When to Do It, and Why by Peter Post, just in case your husband-to-be needs a complete etiquette makeover.

If there are things that drive you crazy, sit down and tell your groom. Don't blow up at him like a typical bridezilla. Sitting down and going over your standards and expectations early on will help avoid stress-induced arguments later. As for the rest, let your groom do his homework. You are in fact marrying him, so you have to have a little trust that he will do what he needs to do. Give him the tools but let him build the structure.  

Brides, any etiquette advice or resources you found helpful?

For part two of Here comes the groom! we are talking about grooming your groom. You might have everything picked out for the groom, thinking that he looks spectacular, and forget all about making him look good. Brides spend so much time worrying about their own hair and makeup that they don't think too much about the groom. Well before the wedding, give him the task of making a checklist of everything that he needs to do before the wedding and what he needs to bring to the wedding (hair products, deodorant, etc.) Make sure you take a glance at the checklist, just to make sure all of the bases are covered!

Men have their daily grooming routine, but for the wedding they may need to branch out. Recommend that he gets a professional shave. This is not only relaxing and pampering, but it will make him look his best and it's a great activity to do with his groomsmen. Besides barbers, a lot of hotels have in-house spas that can provide this service.

Most women have a slew of bath and grooming products, but men sometimes only have a bar of soap. A nice gift for your husband-to-be might be a grooming kit (like the Here Comes the Groomed Kit - which has everything a man needs to look his best.) Or put together your own kit full of items you would like your groom to use. You never know, but he may love the products and special treatment and want to incorporate it into his normal routine.

For the first installment of the web series, Here comes the groom! we are going to look at fashion. Traditionally, the bride will do most of the wedding planning, simply because its not what men are in to. But I'm sure most brides would love to get a helping hand from their groom (a guided helping hand, that is!) The key to getting your man involved is putting things in terms he understands. Most men are not going to be interested in things like which flowers go with which or what type of china to serve the wedding cake on, but most men these days know something about fashion. If you have your dress picked out, and your wedding location, get him involved in picking out what he and his groomsmen are going to wear. There are so many options beyond a traditional tux! Think about your wedding location and your own attire and choose styles that are appropriate. Work within those parameters to help your groom pick what he likes. 

Give him popular men's magazines, like GQ and Maxim, and have him pick out outfits or special touches that he likes. Collect all of these ideas into an outfit for him and the groomsmen that you can both agree on.

Take him shopping! Popular culture has given us the idea that men absolutely hate shopping, but what if he is the focus? Take him to higher end men's stores (think Bergdorf Goodman) and have him try on things that he likes. That gives both of you the opportunity to see what works and what doesn't.

Brides, how did you get your groom involved in picking out his outfit?

A lot really, especially if you expect on receiving RSVPs after May 11. The United States Postal Service just announced a two cent price hike, from 42 cents to 44 cents for a regular First-Class Mail stamp. Usually RSVPs are stamped, for the ease of the guest. To make sure that you get all of your RSVPs back, make sure that you account for this price change. If your invitation only requires a First-Class Mail stamp, consider getting the Forever stamp, which can be used after the price change. If your invite needs more postage, or you want a nicer looking stamp for your invitations, look at these new stamps unveiled by the USPS last week:




A new design for a 44 cent stamp.










New 61 cent stamp with a photo of a wedding cake.





These stamps will be available on or before May 11. Another creative idea for personalized stamps is PhotoStamps. Upload whatever photo you want, and create truly personalized stamps for a unique wedding invitation.

Photos taken from the United States Postal Service, read more here.