Weddingbee Blog

NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon is engaged to model Ingrid Vandebosch reports People.

Love your wedding dress? All About the Dress takes a photograph of you in your wedding dress, and renders it into a customized 11×14 illustration. $375.

Seriously. I am done. I’m overloaded and overwhelmed.

Why, oh why, are there sooooo many options for invitations? I really wanted to do the invitations by myself. I mean, how hard could it really be? You buy the type of invitation type, the backing layers, the invitation papers, the insert papers, envelopes, glue, etc. Maybe you even get creative and design a picture to go on the invitations. It can’t be that hard, right?

Wrong.

I chose the paper that I wanted for my invitations. A metallic champagne pocketfold, a cardstock backing layer, an invitation layer which would match all of the invitation inserts (custom cut), and a cute sticker or a seal to hold the pocketfold in place. What I didn’t take into account was the fact that my metallic champagne paper does not come in the form of a pocketfold - only in cardstock. So I can either buy a whole bunch of cardstock and make my own pocketfold, (like I could ever do that) - or I can choose a different color scheme. But I don’t like any of the other colors the company I purchased them from offer.

My other option is to switch companies and order from somewhere else. So I chose a whole new set of colors. Then I realized that I have to get the invitations and the inserts printed somewhere. Apparently, printing them yourself is pretty complicated. I’ve been advised that they either smudge, come out crooked, come out with ink stains, or some other unforeseen problem.

So where do I get them printed? Last time I tried to get my cardstock printed at Kinko’s (for my Save the Date backing layers), they told me that they will not print on cardstock because it’s too thick. I tried other local print shops who told me the same thing.

Fine. I like thermography anyway.

By the time I’m researching places to get my invitations printed, I realize that all I’m really doing is the assembly. Unless the assembly price is really expensive, then I might just pay for that too.

So I give up. I’m just going to get my invitations, envelopes, programs, menus, placecards and table cards all done at one place. Being a DIY bride is tough!! Too tough for me.

One of the most common questions we get here at weddingbee, is how much should be spent on wedding gifts. Traditional etiquette says to take into consideration how close you are to the couple, and how much you can afford when determining how much to spend.

Sure your relationship to the couple is a huge factor - I’m going to spend way more on a gift for a sibling than for a coworker. But in general, most people subscribe to some sort of guideline such as “covering your plate” when buying wedding gifts. For example, would you spend the same amount on a gift for a casual buffet style wedding as opposed to one at the Waldorf Astoria?

What’s your general rule when it comes to wedding gifts? How close you are to the couple? How much you can afford? Covering your plate? How much they spent on your wedding gift?

Jenn_unc - Beautiful pink and green themed North Carolina nuptials.

(photo: Dennis Huffstutler, Cinema One Photographer)

mrslinda262 - Casual Florida seaside affair.

HisPrincipesa - Classic pink, white and gold themed Florida wedding… with a dash of red.

(photo: Aylin Marcello)

I’ve got quite a few weddings coming up. Some are good friends, some are not, some have registries, some don’t. I have a general question that I hope can be answered:

• How much do you expect from guests if they’re giving money as a gift?
• How much is too little or too big to give?
• Is there a general rule on giving cash?
• Is there a difference in giving when going to a buffet style reception vs. sit down dinner reception?

~~~

I presume you’re referring to the “cover your plate” theory when it comes to determining “how much,” but there is no general rule when it comes to giving cash as a gift. How much to give once again depends on what you feel comfortable giving, and how close you are to the couple.

When gifting cash, I would give just as much I’d typically spend on a traditional wedding gift. If you’d like a general guideline, I’d think anywhere between $50-$150 would be a safe bet. But honestly your presence - not the amount of your gift - is what will be appreciated most.

When giving cash as a gift, are you likely to spend more or less than you would on a traditional gift? Do you abide by any general rules when gifting cash?

Last night we picked up our invitations from Peter Kruty Editions in Brooklyn. Peter gave me the grand tour of the studio and Kat wrapped up our invites. When she showed me a sample, I thought they looked great and said so. However, it wasn’t until I got home that I realized how much in love I am with our invites! I think I might like the invitations more than my wedding gown. I am so impressed with their letterpress work. I have to write Peter and Kat today to give them the appropriate adoration I so quickly walked out of the studio with last night.

The design of the invitations is a complete rip-off of something I had seen in Martha Stewart a few months ago, but I wanted a different dog (that looked like Sasha!) and bocce players instead of the other sporty kids the designer picked. My sister-in-law drew the little vintage graphics for us, which came out awesome, I think. In the end we opted to use the silly bocce kids on the rehearsal dinner invitations instead and use more traditional wedding graphics.

Our wedding is in September, which means our invites have to get out asap, but we are also moving on Saturday and still have an entire apartment to pack up by Friday night. What’s wrong with us?! We needed to make the decision of what needed to happen first: assemble and prepare the invitations or pack? The invites won over! Yay! And Mr. Grasshopper helped me all night with slicing up our custom labels.

I would prepare the individual labels on the computer:

And he would slice them up. Check him out hard at work. Doesn’t he look thrilled?

Anyway, check out Peter Kruty if you are interested in letterpress work. They were so, so great to work with and the invitations came out awesome (I think so anyway :)).

Much to my dismay, the following face appeared when I entered my weight into Weight Watchers’ online “weight tracker” feature.

For those of you who are robots and, thus, unable to interpret emotions, that is *not* a happy face. That’s right, Weight Watchers is not happy with my gain of +1 pound(s). Now, to be fair, this weight gain is since December, when I had already lost 9 pounds on WW, and was the last time I was so brave as to enter my weight into the tracker. You see, the engagement and the holidays caused me to gain back most of the 10 lbs. I had already lost on WW, between September and December. Slowly but surely, I have managed to re-lose all but 2 of those pounds. Which would otherwise be impressive if not for the additional 20 lbs. that I need to lose on top of the first 10.

They do hold out hope for me, though, as the computer tried to take the sting out of its grouchy face with this oh-so-inspirational quote:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt

So now I embark upon my no holds barred weight loss regime. This involves much kicking of my ass on the part of Matt Hayes, and his intense “bridal boot camp” program. Matt used to be in the Army and does not f around when it comes to torturing me. In addition to the two to three times a week that he comes to train me, I am now on an everyday, no excuses workout program.

My week thus far and looking ahead:

• Sunday: cardio combo: rowing and treadmill
• Monday: obscenely difficult “homework” weight training (i.e. weight without Matt)
• Tuesday: cardio combo: rowing
• Wednesday: Matt and his bag of torture
• Thursday: cardio
• Friday: Matt again!
• Saturday: more Matt…

And my diet? Also, medieval. Yesterday, for example, I ate the following:

• Breakfast: Quaker Weight Control oatmeal (3 pts.)
• Lunch: Campbell’s Select microwavable lentil soup (3.5 pts.) and 6 oz. of WW yogurt (1 pt.)
• Snack: Quaker rice cake with one wedge Laughing Cow Lite cheese (2 pts.)
• Dinner: Lean Cuisine Enchiladas Suiza (5 pts.)
• Dessert: Blue Bunny HealthSmart ice cream pop (0 pts.–miraculous!)

This is no fun at all. But since the wedding rapidly approaches, I need to focus up and stop screwing around. If anyone has *any* great diet tricks to share, I would greatly appreciate them. I am desperate!!

Emilie de Raven - star of Lost and covergirl for the most recent issue of In Style Weddings - wed actor Josh Janowicz on June 19th.

The glowing bride wore a Monique Lhuillier gown.

(source: usweekly)

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We apologize for the inconvenience!

I definitely want tall centerpieces with big vases stuffed with SOMETHING. I was leaning towards green apples but I’m not crazy about having centerpieces that weigh 50 lbs each. Hopefully, when I actually buckle down and meet with some florists, they will give me some more ideas. In the meantime, here are some other options:

Sales

Angel Sanchez
What: Bridal gowns and eveningwear for 50 to 75 percent off ($500 to $3,000).
Where: 526 Seventh Ave., nr. 38th St.
Phone: 212-921-9827 x18
When: 6/28 (10-7)

One of a Kind Bride
What: Bridal gowns for 10 to 75 percent off (normally $2,500 to $20,000). Cash only.
Where: 327 Lafayette St., nr. Bleecker St.
Phone: 212-645-7123
When: 6/21-7/10 (Mon.-Fri., 10:30-5 by appointment only)

The Bridal Garden
What: Gowns by Vera Wang, Ulla-Maija, and Anne Barge are up to 75 percent off ($295 to $2,995).
Where: 54 W. 21st St., nr. Sixth Ave., Ste. 907
Phone: 212-252-0661
When: 6/7 - 6/28 (by appt only)

Christine Arguaza Couture Sample Sale
What: Bridal gowns are 50- 75 percent off.
Where: Call for appt and location.
Phone: 212-780-9647
When: 6/22 - 7/22

J Couture Design
What: Everything is marked off 35% or more
Where: 179 Berkeley Place, off 7th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217
Phone: 718-783-6855
When: Now thru July 31st, Tues-Sun, 12-6 (by appt only)

Perfect Details
What: Bridal shoes from Vanessa Noel, Fenaroli, Nina and more are reduced to clear.

~~~

Every Tuesday we post listings for upcoming trunk shows and sales in the city. If you know of a trunk show, sample sale, or sale that we’re missing, please send it to us at tips@weddingbee.com. Thanks!

We’ve launched the tweaks to the site outlined in yesterday’s post! Thanks so much for all your positive feedback!

The biggest changes you’ll notice are the new drop down menus above, and the google text ads along the right side of the page. We hope the new features make the site easier to navigate and that you find the text ads relatively unobstrusive.

Google ads appear based on the text on the site, so we’ve noticed that ads for exterminators are appearing when you click certain bug categories like “Miss Ant,” and Volkswagon ads are appearing under Miss Beetle’s page. But we’re working on a fix for that now.

Meanwhile, please have a look around and let us know what you think!

Last night, I met with my florist from Flowers of the World who had arranged my centerpieces so that I could look at them. Now, I wasn’t going to post the pics since I wanted to keep certain parts of my wedding a surprise, but she made the centerpieces in the wrong color, so I can post pics!!

I was going to use yellow as the highlights throughout my color theme - but here is what they would look like. Just picture the whole thing in darker orange.

I love that the vases are stacked in different heights, so even though the flowers are only floating near the top, when you are sitting down, it looks as though there are flowers everywhere!

I also picked out the flowers I would use for my bouquet.

Those are two different colored calla lilies - but you can see how they would blend in with the orange color scheme.

And of course, I took all my color samples for the invitations so I could match up which would be the best orange.

The metallic champagne would be my folder, the metallic orange would be my invitation backing, and then the ivory cardstock is for all of the inserts plus the actual invitation. I’m probably going to use regular ivory envelopes too.

After my dress comes in, I am going back to the florist to look at the orange centerpieces, my bouquet, the bridesmaids bouquets, and some other stuff. I’m so excited because my florist is so talented and I completely trust her judgment - especially since she knows the space so well!

In the meantime, I just have to figure out all of the minor details that go into the invitations (OOT travel arrangements, parking information, rehearsal dinner information) - and I’ll be done with another major part of the wedding!

… which, according to most of you, will be thrown out anyways. *Sigh* Oh how the unappreciative peeve me…

Our printed invitation and RSVP cards arrived from Mygatsby last Friday. After finalizing the colors of the enclosure cards and picking up the rest of the components from Paper Presentation, we are down to the final decision of selecting a backing layer. My search for the perfect pink, brown and green pattern decorative paper has led me to the following choices. Ready, ok - BE INSPIRED~!

The Container Store - Wrap Delight: 5′ x 30″ [$3.99]

Paper Mojo - Chiyogami: 18″ x 24″ [$9.00]

Paper.com - Bertini: 19″x27″ [$48.51 for 15 sheets]

Paper-Source - Camden Fair: 26 1/2″ x 39″ [$6.50 for 2 sheets]

Luxe Paperie - Snow & Graham: 20″x30″ [$2.75] purchased at Paper Presentation in store [$7.50 for 2 sheets]

Even though I bought 5 rolls of the Snow & Graham print from Paper Presentation, I do not consider this choice our final one; I love the colors but the pattern is not busy enough. DECISIONS DECISIONS DECISIONS argh. I comfort myself with the thought that my research may serve to help or inspire others.