Friday, August 21, 2009

Recipe Shower


One of my favorite Bridal Shower themes is Recipe or Kitchen Showers. And lucky for me, I'm attending one tomorrow!! I am currently trying to choose a recipe to share with the Bride, current front runners include, homemade salad dressing, Chocolate Wacky Cake (no eggs or butter --WWII recipe), or my famous pasta salad. Feel free to vote below!



I love this shower idea because, #1 it's interactive. It allows guests to contribute a free gift to the couple!! Who doesn't love to give something significant without spending money? #2 The Bride (and potentially the Groom) gain a recipe for something new! And who doesn't love good food? #3 It makes my decision about what gift to buy lots and lots easier! Because I can be a super nerd and buy something off the registry that they could use to make my dish. Such as a salad bowl and dressing shaker; cake pan and mixing bowl; large kettle and produce knife. Can we tell I love a themed gift?

I will report in about the shower on Sunday, and which recipe wins!!!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Knot.com Philly event

Last week I went to a Knottie gathering in Philadelphia. It was loads of fun: free drinks, free food, a few vendors and lots of brides! It was held in the new Chestnut Club, which has yet to open to the public. This great historic theater has been transformed into a classic ballroom incorporating the old woodwork and little nooks. The ballroom also features a floor to ceiling window overlooking Chestnut Street at one end. It would be a fabulous downtown Philly location to have a ceremony and/or reception.

Click Here to see some photos of brides telling viewers what The Knot means to them at the event.


Featured is a pic of me and my best friend, who is getting married next June. I got a special MOH guest spot in the photo. She loves The Knot because "She would be totally CLUELESS without it."

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Brides with Ruby Slippers


and Blue, Green, Yellow, and Purple too!!

This is a trend I have totally fallen in love with. It warms my heart to see Brides slide into colorful and sometimes sparkly shoes on their special day. As a size 9 (occasionally a 9.5), I realized long ago white shoes on me look like skis. Hence, my plan to someday make my something blue a shoe! Really ladies, what a fun way to showcase your favorite color, coordinate with your bridesmaids, or just show off your personal style when you bustle up your dress to dance at your reception. Here is a collection of my favorite brides with colored shoes. Special shout out to my friend Kaitlyn (below) whose first wedding task was to find perfect Aqua shoes and then build the rest of her wedding around them. Enjoy!



Photo Credits: Red shoes, Martha Stewart.com; Blue Shoes, my friend Kaitlyn (great legs huh?!) photo by Hitched Studios of Boston; Green and Yellow shoes, Brides Cafe; Purple Shoes, jessicalynn402.blogspot.com

Monday, August 10, 2009

Great Giveaway - Save the Dates

Click here to read about a Save the Date giveaway. You could win 100 Save the Dates just by commenting on the page or becoming a follower of her blog. These amazing designs are produced by Rachel Jasper. If you win you get to pick a design of your choice!

http://thethirty-somethingbride.blogspot.com/2009/08/give-away-rachel-jasper-designs.html#comment-form

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Bridezillas, Eh?

This one is for you Erin.

Truthfully I have not encountered any true blue blooded Bridezillas in my time as a Bridesmaid or wedding guest. PTL. However, I have seen a few Brides on the edge under certain circumstances. Here are some things I've known even the most serene Brides to growl at:

1. Moms (mostly their own but occasionally the Groom's)
2. Money
3. Other people's ideas and traditions being pushed on YOUR wedding
4. Guest List Size
5. Shoes
6. Hairstyles/Veils
7. Pictures - angles, who's in them, how many, etc.
8. Bridesmaid dresses
9. Your weight/dress size
10. ???

What drove you nuts planning your wedding? Or what have you seen Brides get wacky over? Lmk I need #10

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Date Dilemma

In my wedding travels over the past few years I've noticed some inconsistencies in how Brides and Grooms decide to give out the coveted "plus ones." Being single for most of the time following college has placed me in the category of "to plus or not to plus." I find there are a few schools of thought out there...

Technique #1. All friends who live with and/or are engaged to someone are extended an "and guest." This rule is also occasionally stretched to include plus ones to friends whose significant others are known well by the Bride and Groom. All your other friends who may be actually single or in new relationships do not get the added guest--regardless of whether or not The Bride/Groom are actually better friends with the deemed Single guest or the guest living in sin (I'm kidding, but that's how my Gran says it). I find that with rare exception this technique places The Singles in a situation where they are asked to travel to a wedding alone, sit at a table of other forlorn Singles, have no dance partner for slow songs, and stay in a hotel alone.

Occasionally one gets lucky and attends a wedding with other FUN Singles (Yes, Virginia they do exist) and one does not miss having a date in the slightest and may in fact be better off without one. After all, introducing your hired escort to your 50 college friends can be tiring. Most of the time however, attending weddings as a Single is depressing, costly, and takes the spirit of love out of the experience.

I would like to say I understand that per head costs are pricey. Having been a bridesmaid a couple of times I know that your Chicken Cacciatore can cost $120 a person for no good reason. I am not minimizing that at all, instead just explaining the plight your single friends may experience if you do not extend them a plus one. Some final food for thought, female guests are likely giving 3 gifts (shower, bachelorette, and wedding) is it so much to give them the gift of a dance partner?

Technique #2. Friends of a certain age, say over 21, all get plus ones (without attention to their current relationship status). Of course this then runs over into cousins and others over the age of 21 also potentially needing dates. This obviously would multiply quickly, but it may be the most fair strategy I've come across. It's certainly objective.

Technique #3. Friends of a certain closeness with the Bride or Groom (or perhaps their Parents, if they are paying for the wedding) get plus ones regardless of personal relationship status, and friends who are your fringe friends but are nicely being included in the guest list do not get plus ones. Example: All your college girlfriends who were there when you came home from your first date with your Husband-to-be can bring a Gent of their choice. But the girl who you worked with at your latest job is invited as a Single, even though she lives with her bf.

This technique asks you then to sort your friends and single family members into most important, very important, and generally important piles and then dole out those desirable plus ones in tiers. This could help you decide to give only Bridal Party members plus ones, but not other friends. Or help you make a point to your mom that your Cousin Maggie can attend alone, since after all her parents will be there.

The White Wedding Guest Dress

Say that title 10 times fast, I dare ya...

This past Saturday I attended a wedding of two college friends and saw one of the more appalling things I have ever seen at a wedding: a female guest wearing a solid white dress. I'm going to let that sink in for a minute... Lucky for her, I did not know her or her date. Her date was a friend of the groom and she was nicely included and attended with him. I don't know about her, but where I was raised, a guest of a guest need obey even higher standards-- but alas I digress. Allow me to set the scene...

It's a sunny afternoon at a mid-size Catholic church, sitting in a pew is little me, waiting for my turn to rise for communion when I see a girl on the groom's side rise to reveal her tea length white lace dress. This dress was not unlike many I have seen Brides put on for receptions or post-wedding parties or day after brunches. It was delicate, beautiful, strapless, fitted, and white. Then suddenly I realize, "WAIT!!! The Bride is on the altar, not in a pew to my right. Who does this floosy think she is!?" At that exact moment, I hear a sharp gasp behind me, uttered by my best friend (also a bride to be next July). Knowing what she has just seen, I turn around and mouth a definitive, "I know." To which she turns, makes eyes at our other friend and so on and so forth for 3 more pews. (Obviously all 6 of us had to sit on the end to have optimal picture taking range, duh.) So as 6 perfectly coiffed hair styles turn in succession, like shiny dominoes, we begin to step into the aisle for communion. It is then that I lock eyes with the Maid of Honor, another one of my bffs, and telepathically scorn this woman with laser beams shooting out my eye balls.

Okay enough, it's too painful. Now, on to the question my boyfriend asked me when I recounted this story later in the night (he was not present for the mental stoning of this harlot), "Do people still tell their daughters you can't wear white to weddings?" So internet blogging community I ask you, "Do they?!!" Because as a little girl I distinctly remember my mother scolding me for trying to wear a white and blue sundress to a wedding, for as she said "It is not your day to wear white, your day will come." Has this respect for the Bride and her one day to symbolize innocence, virtue, possible (haha) virginity, and general spectacular center of attention-ness gone out the window?!?!

Mothers of America, please tell your daughters, there is only one day you wear white to a wedding, and that is on your own wedding day. Not some one else's.

Books hurt Trees, Blogs are Free

This afternoon my friend Kevin (who has been to nearly 300 weddings) joked that he and I could write a book about all our funny stories of attending and being attendants in various weddings. While I don't see that happening any time soon, I thought a blog about my adventures as a wedding guest and bridesmaid could be fun to write about. I have been to... hold on I'm counting...12 weddings in the past 2.5 years, involved in 3, and invited to about 10 others. Recently, I've run out of cup-cake and icing jokes to account for all the pick-up skirts a girl can stand, and I've come to peace with the realization that by the time I get married NOTHING will be original. Even my brilliant idea (from 5 years ago!!!) to wear blue shoes, but I'm not bitter, I swear.

I hope you enjoy reading it. Feel free to leave comments!