Weddingbee Blog

Brides Against Breast Cancer is holding a charity wedding gown sale in NYC on August 17-19, with all proceeds benefiting Making Memories.

Every year Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation receives thousands of beautiful designer wedding gowns from bridal shops, manufacturers, and individuals across the nation. A foundation dedicated to helping terminally ill breast cancer patients, Making Memories has received over 25,000 wedding gowns for their nationwide “Brides Against Breast Cancer” events, including 2,500 brand new gowns that were recently donated by a national bridal gown manufacturer.

Shopping at a “Brides Against Breast Cancer” event is a great way to find a fabulous gown and save hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars, while making wishes and dreams come true for terminal patients.

The sale will feature new and used gowns from designers like Anne Barge, Carolina Herrera, Paula Varsalona and stores like Kleinfelds and Mark Ingram. Normally priced up to $15,000, prices start at just $250 at this event. The sale will kick off with a VIP preview sale on August 17th where they will have gift bags, a free cocktail hour and a raffle including prizes like a $1000 Confetti Cake, custom menu card design by SonicStefdesigns and a 5 night luxury Honeymoon at Raffles Resort Canoun Island.

Brides Against Breast Cancer is currently seeking dress donations from brides, and volunteers for the event itself. Please contact Sarah @ sarahgarfunkel@yahoo.com to make a donation or to volunteer. Please forward this to your friends that are getting married and help us spread the word about this wonderful event!

VIP Preview Sale
Where: Prince George Ballroom, 15 East 27th Street
When: August 17-19, 4 - 6:30pm
Cost: $150 for bride and one guest

Brides Against Breast Cancer Regular Event
When: August 18 (10 am - 8 pm), Aug 19 (9 am - 6pm)
Cost: $20 donation for bride and 2 guests

For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit makingmemories.

Dude, planning the honeymoon is freaking like pulling my fingernails off with pliers, then soaking my pulpy bloody fleshy nail beds in lemon juice, and then super gluing the nails back on just to do it all over again. Seriously.

In determining where we want to go I used three factors: Theme = BEACH; Cost = MODERATE; and Weather= NO EFFING HURRICANES. Seems simple right? Let’s take a look at where theknot.com says will be perfect:

OCTOBER
Australia, Bali, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Central & South Africa, Egypt, Fiji, French Polynesia, Hawaii, Italy, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Seychelles, Spain, USA

I think I will be soooooooooo ready for the beach after my wedding, I am not gonna be a happy camper if I need to sit on a plane for 10+ hours. So that whittles down the list a bit. I also want to avoid destinations that require a ton of pre-planning ie. sightseeing and waiting on long ass lines to see ruins or climb stairs or kiss a magical rock. Too bad the Caribbean is shadowed by the threat of rain and hurricanes man. Otherwise, it would be perfect. Most islands are but a few hours away from NYC, each promises Travel Channel beaches, turquoise waters la la la, and with so many competing resorts to choose from, prices are reasonable.

After much debate and months of surfing luxurylink.com (a fabulous vacation package website my BM Ange used for her own honeymoon) and cross referencing each deal by reading tripadvisor.com reviews, I said screw it, let the hurricanes come, I’m going to pick the places I want to go. If a hurricane does strike down upon us, shit, well I guess we’ll just have to honeymoon again at a later date. So I narrowed it down to a few places:

Marquis Los Cabos, MEXICO

With its gorgeous infinity pool and chic open air lobby. This hotel is a luscious delight. Their 7-night honeymoon package includes:

• VIP Transportation from the Airport to Marquis Los Cabos.
• Ocean front view, comfortable balcony for dining, hydro massage bathtub and separate shower, Bulgari bathroom amenities, imported luxury Italian Frette bed linens with a goose down duvet.
• Marquis Los Cabos signature welcome drink.
• Buffet Breakfast daily for two to be taken in our Restaurant «°®ista Ballenas?
• Three to Five lunches and 1 dinner for two to be taken in any of our restaurants including Suite Service during your stay (Include one hour of alcoholic drinks during the lunches and dinner).
• A daily bath turndown which consists of a special cocktail, the preparation of your hydro massage tub with scented bath salts and candles to set the mood.
• A chilled bottle of imported champagne upon arrival.
• A special romantic gift.
• A Rent-A-Car with budget for three days (Does not include insurance and gasoline).
• A Romantic Dinner for two in our Gourmet Restaurant «°…anto Del Mar?(including 1 bottle of wine).
• A special massage for both of you at our luxurious international Spa per stay.
• The pleasure of being pampered with one manicure or one pedicure per stay in our Spa.
• Unlimited access to our fitness center.
• VIP Transportation from Marquis Los Cabos to the Airport.

The price: $2720 PER PERSON (the website does not indicate that their pricing is per person, it wasn’t until I called and spoke to the hotel that I found out.)

Luckily, luxurylink has an awesome package for them:

• 7 nights accommodation in Junior Suite Ocean Front
• Complimentary upgrade to Suite Marquis with private pool, if available upon check-in
• Round-trip VIP transfers for two between the airport and Marquis Los Cabos
• Marquis Los Cabos signature welcome drink
• Marquis breakfast for two each morning
• Complimentary use of the specially equipped Fitness Center
• Taxes and service charges

The price: an amazing minimum bid price of $2065

A little about Los Cabos’ weather:

Some say that San Jose del Cabo has the perfect weather - and that’s true. Most of the year, you will have sunny skies and cool breezy nights. Much like the summer weather that we are all used to. It does get warmer, and more humid in the summer months, leading up to September which is hurricane season. The heat and humidity are high, and the risk of tropical storms means that you will get many cloudy, and even rainy days in September. The weather breaks mid October and then it’s back to beautiful weather once again.

An indepth perusal of tripadvisor.com reviews sniffed out a few red flags namely snotty service; expensive meals and NO SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN. WHAT?!? So I called the hotel myself and confirmed that the beaches on the Pacific side of Mexico are indeed “unswimmable”. Apparently signs are posted all over warning visitors not to try. Bummer, no water sports? BUMMER.

The Palms, Turks and Caicos

Absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous white sand beaches and crystal clear water and a very chic and luxurious hotel. Their 7-night honeymoon package includes:

• Room Accommodations for 7 nights
• Luxury Oceanview
• Deluxe Welcome Amenity
• Continental Breakfast Daily
• Roundtrip Airport Transfers
• Champagne Upon Arrival
• Two Dinners for 2 in Parallel23
• One Couples Massage
• Room Tax and Service Charge
• Spa Gratuities

The price: $3325

A little about Turks and Caicos’s weather:

Even in the winter, the temperatures on the island remain quite warm at about 80 or 85°F (27-29°C), with the water being only slightly cooler at 75°F (24°C). However, thanks to the moderating influence of the Caribbean Sea and constantly circulating trade winds, the temperature rarely goes above the mid-90s Fahrenehit (35°C) even in the late summer, when the water is just over 80°F (27°C). The islands get a moderate rainfall of about 40 inches (100cm) per year, which means plenty of sunshine. However, the months of June through October constitute hurricane season, which can get quite severe in this area due to a lack of surrounding land to slow down the winds. Therefore, it is probably best to visit outside of these months; some tropical storms may still develop between November and May, but these are much milder and more infrequent.

An indepth persual of tripadvisor.com reviews reveals even more gorgeous candid photos from visitors and the boast of locals that TC has not been hit by a hurricane in over 20 YEARS. The reviews also talks of bidding wars over the cushy “sun pods” that line the inifinity pool and raves about the continental breakfast which includes pancakes and omelets. AWESOME.

Laluna, Grenada

Beautiful four poster Balinese beds set in Indonesian and Italian inspired open air rooms and thatched roof private pool side living rooms makes this place an absolute luxury retreat. Their 7-night honeymoon package includes:

• Accommodation for two in a deluxe cottage with private plunge pool
• Daily american breakfast for two
• Daily dinner for two (excluding drinks)
• Complimentary bottle of champagne on arrival
• Unique 4-hour guided island tour
• Laluna gift

The price: $4,343

A little about Grenada’s weather:

Average temperatures range from 75ºF to 85ºF (24ºC to 30ºC), tempered by the steady and cooling trade winds. The lowest temperatures occur between November and February. Due to Grenada’s remarkable topography, the island also experiences climate changes according to altitude. The driest season is between January and May. Even during the rainy season, from June to December, it rarely rains for more than an hour at a time and generally not every day.

Another great deal from luxurylink.com:

• 7 nights in a Deluxe Cottage or Cottage Suite with verandah & private plunge pool
• Bottle of champagne upon arrival
• Full American breakfast for two each day
• Dinner for two each evening, excluding beverages
• Guided 4-hour island tour for two on one day of your stay
• Access to the beautiful pool area, located directly on Laluna’s secluded, white sand beach featuring a covered open-air pavilion with seating areas and a bar, and complimentary beach towels.
• Complimentary use of Hobie Cats, kayaks, snorkeling equipment, and mountain bikes
• Laluna giftac
• Government taxes and service charge

The price: $2,773

An indepth review of tripadvisor.com reviews paints the picture of romantic seclusion in an old world style. Red flags include MOSQUITOS, lackluster pool, unimpressive beach and boredom.

So which did we choose? Ahh… stay tuned my pets… haha

Hi

First of all, I wanted to tell you that your site has been an indispensible resource thus far in my planning. Although I don’t live in NYC, I read daily as I particularly love to see the new product and gift ideas.

Which brings me to my next question:

Do you or your readers have any great ideas on where to find very inexpensive satin kimono style robes? I would love to throw a monogramed robe in with my girls’ gifts but since I am paying for thier dresses amongst MANY other gift, I am on a tight budget.

Thanks for all of your help!

A Bride

First of all, I wanted to say I really enjoy your website and reading all the bloggers’ crazy wedding exploits- you really have to be a bride to relate. Your site is great, with lots of functionality and features

Thanks & keep up the great work.
Amanda

~~~

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - we will definitely look into it.

Meanwhile, we’ve been toying with the idea of launching our own messageboard. There are already many popular boards out there - theknot, weddingchannel, liweddings, ultimateweddings, pricescope, indiebride… do you think there’s a niche for a weddingbee messageboard?

Ok, so it’s common knowledge that the wedding industry is a bit of a racket. Everyone has heard the stories of how if you book a venue as a wedding they charge something like 20% higher than if you book a venue for “a party”; how flowers suddenly cost more; etc.

So I didn’t expect a wedding veil to be a complete bargain. (After all, it has “wedding” right in its title). But I so did not expect to have the vendors try to pull the wool tulle over brides’ eyes to this degree.

Judging by my less than amused expression, I’m still able to see the price tag through the netting.

The veils I looked at were a) without lace; b) without embroidery or embellishment of any sort; c) not cathedral length. Essentially, the veil I seek is tulle, with a cord-edge on the veil (fingertip length) and a blusher that *doesn’t even have cording*. It’s essentially a cut piece of net sewn to a plastic comb. So when I was quoted about $500 for this, seemingly, simple piece of fabric, I was shocked. Shocked!

So what are my options?

My mom found this site: Bridal Store Online, which has about a million veils priced under $100. Then there’s David’s Bridal, where the veils, I imagine, would be reasonably priced. But do I do a less expensive veil to go with my not-less-expensive dress? Does it even matter?

I still have to figure this out though. Can anyone recommend a place where you have had veil success? (and if you don’t mind giving a price approximation for what you bought, that info would certainly be helpful!)

yeh-eun is still looking for an affordable NYC florist that offers free delivery, Jasmine is looking for a place that can turn a piece of her dress into a tie for her FH, vi is looking for a seamstress who can create a wedding gown, h is looking for a kickass trainer, and yukirei is looking for sparkling wine recommendations.

To add your question to the beehive, leave a comment below and we’ll update this post to include your question above.

This weekend is my bachelorette party! We are headed to Montauk for the weekend to get in some proper beach and quality time together. It’s a small gathering of just the ladies in the bridal party minus one who is in California and is getting ready to head to Berkeley for law school in the next few weeks, so she is excused, but of course we’ll miss her. Anyone who has held a competition between her friends to see who could kiss a guy from each state of the U.S. first is always fun to have at a bachelorette party.

Speaking of such games, my sister and matron of honor, who is my senior by nine years and mamma of three, has so graciously organized this weekend’s festivities, but was the first to admit she is too old for the traditional bachelorette party antics. So she properly named my roommate from college the “social chair” and said social chair wondered if even we were too old for a scavenger hunt with the t-shirt checklist. Thankfully she asked me about my weekend expectations and it was clear we were all on the same page that this weekend would be more about sipping daquiris in beach chairs and less about drinking body shots off the Montauk townies. Not that I don’t like dancing on bars as much as the next bride-to-be, but I think I checked off most of those scavenger hunt tasks in my early twenties at such bars as Automatic Slims (I hang my head in shame).

I’ll report back to everyone on Monday and let you know if the weekend turned out as tame as I suspected. Have a good weekend everyone!

New York Metro is offering a 2 for 1 special for Shecky’s Girls Night Out event. I’ll be attending so say hello if you see me!

Weddingbee was quoted in an article yesterday:

But as weddingbee.com reports, “many wedding-videography companies are now offering live Webcasts, so anyone in the world can be ‘at your wedding.’ “

Haha I feel like an authority now.

I addressed 158 labels yesterday!

Unfortunately, we have only 100 invitations.

Ooh. That’s bad.

So, now I’m scrambling to make an extra 58 invitations.

I need them done by today. These are my options; what do you think I should do?

1. Hand draw a design, then scan it and print it out on my laser printer — punk rock style.

2. Hand write 58 individual cards.

3. Make color copies of the poster, and send that.

4. Decide to elope, and forget this whole invitation thing.

I totally forgot to post photos for our programs!

Thanks to Bee I was able to do the programs on my own. It took me all night. And when I say all night, I literally mean ALL night but the end result was so worth it. The hard part was incorporating Korean translations into my program especially since I don’t have Korean font. Our minister printed a program in Korean and I scanned each of the pages, cut out the parts that I needed and pasted them into my final template. By 7am I looked over my finished project, patted thyself on the ass after shaking hands with thyself, and then rewarded thyself by going into work. I know. P S Y C H O! My co-worker locked me in the storage room at 11 so that I could take a nap on the floor for an hour. Suh-weet Jesus! I lubbing her so muchie.

Cover

Inside Cover / Page 1 - Ceremony Order

Page 2 - Hymn & Bible Verse / Page 3 - The Wedding Party

Page 4 - Announcements / Page 5 - Thank You’s

People pick their bridesmaids for various reasons: you’ve been friends forever; she’s (or he’s) your best friend; she’s your sister; she supports you- the list goes on. I have a little from each group: I have my sister, my best friend since forever, the friend from grade school, my college roommates and a friend from post college.

When people hear I have six bridesmaids they tend to laugh or say “wow!” and I think “Um… excuse me?” One guy from work said to me when he heard I had six bridesmaids, “WHAT?! You’re not 22 anymore!” Ha. I told him I was still extremely popular at the elderly age of 27.

Ya, it may seem like a lot of bridesmaids to some, but I have heard of people having more, like WAY more, and for me, these were the girls I wanted close to me the day of the wedding.

Last week in the midst of writing some thank you notes, Mr. Grasshopper came in with the mail; in it was a check from one of my bridesmaids for her dress. Here is the note that she sent with it:

I opened this letter and could not stop laughing and I thought THIS is why I picked Maggie to be in the wedding, because I need her humor on the big day to help keep me laughing all the way to the ceremony when my instinct is to freak out about my hair starting to frizz.

In light of Mr. Bee’s post about the groom’s involvement, I thought we might do a poll.

At the launch of her new online poker site, Pamela Anderson revealed her plans to have four weddings with fiance Kid Rock in the next month - first in St. Tropez, then Malibu, then Detroit, and finally Nashville.

(source: socialiteslife)

I wrote this post a long time ago but thought it was too controversial to post. But Mrs. Bee says that we should publish it anyway, so I am publishing it here under protest. I hope that you all don’t hate me after reading this.

I have enjoyed reading about wedding planning from a female perspective. I have to admit, it is very different from the traditional male perspective. So I thought I’d share how one man (me) experienced the wedding planning process.

Men are very different. For most men, we don’t really care very much about the wedding in and of itself. Well actually when Mrs. Bee and I first started planning the wedding, I was pretty excited to plan out a nice day. However, the number of decisions and details required quickly overwhelmed me - and I realized that I didn’t care enough to make the effort to plan out the sort of wedding that I had visualized. So in my mind’s eye, I started fantasizing about a ceremony at City Hall followed by a small intimate dinner (something along the lines of what ended up being our Rehearsal Dinner). I had the good sense not to suggest this as an option.

We men end up caring about the wedding of course, but for very different reasons than you women. We don’t really care about the details of the wedding. But we end up caring, for three very specific reasons:

• We care about your happiness. Because it is so important to you, it is important to us.
• We care that our friends and family will be there. So it’s important not to be embarrassed or look bad.
• We care how much this will all cost. Nuff said.

I’m pretty sure it bothered Mrs. Bee that I didn’t care enough about these details. I thought I gave a lot of mindshare overall though, relative to how much I actually cared in general. I am good at making decisions, so after Mrs. Bee would do the research, I Would help her make the final call. I know that didn’t make up for my lack of interest though. Over time, I got less and less involved and Mrs. Bee just made all the decisions herself.

Overall, I give myself a C- for my wedding involvement. My grade would be lower, but I was very supportive overall - which I define as not objecting too much over the cost of the wedding (I can not stress enough how shocking the cost of everything was. It’s been over a year, and I am still in shock!). But Mrs. Bee just enjoyed wedding planning so much, it was clear that she had found one of her life passions (which turned into a career, much to our mutual delight!). But when it came to the little todos, I learned that I should either be totally involved or not at all. Too often, Mrs. Bee felt she had to run decisions by me and I ended up as yet another obstacle in the decision making process.

Maybe this is just how me and my guy friends think about weddings. Is your future husband truly into the wedding planning process?