Weddingbee Blog

Today’s behind the scenes at Bridal Guide Magazine post comes to us from Associate Home Design Editor, Aimée Morgan.

Good day Weddingbee’ers! Has it really been 4 months since we last caught up??? Well, I’m guessing your wedding plans are rockin’, your mom (or m-in-law) is potentially driving you crazy and you would love to indulge in some bridal R&R… aka… my life! Last time, I gave you a sneak peek into my ridiculously-small-but-typically-norm NYC apartment and my chaotically organized office space (yes, there is such a thing!). Now, before I got my foot in the door, I always wondered, “What do they actually do?” Of course, I had visions of chic women… sort of a mix between Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada… that magically produced drool-worthy spreads while hardly breaking a sweat; power lunches, easy deadlines and fetching assistants. HA! I definitely watch too much TV. Take a tour with me and I’ll show you the real deal.

5:49am: What is that noise? Sit up, knowing there is a digital clock to the left… oh, right… I have a kid… Molly. With the time change, it’s still dark. Boo. OK… wake up, climb down ladder, change diaper, make bottle, dump Mols back in the crib (sounds harsh, but we have an agreement!) and go back to sleep. It’s 6:17am. Molly must sense I’m NOT a morning mom because she always gives me another 2 hours. I can’t really complain when this is what I wake up to:

8:31am: I have a routine with the TV. First, I go to NY1 for the weather (as you can see, it’s a lovely 41 degrees) and local news, and then at 9am, I switch to Live with Regis and Kelly for the best gossip. Somehow, in the next hour, I make Molly’s breakfast and feed her (eggs and Cheerios today), feed Jack, get dressed, curl my hair, put on my face, make the bed, do last night’s dishes and try to make my house not look like a mess before the sitter gets here. So so glam.

Here is Jack. My other kid. Thank goodness I didn’t have dog-walking duties this morning. Mondays are rough enough already! But isn’t he SO cute?

Warm boots on, heels in purse, out the door…Luckily, I only have to walk 5 minutes to Union Square to catch the subway. I have to be honest; I hate the subway. I prefer cars and cabs. But with the economic situation, I’m trying to be better.

My sub stop drops me at Broadway and 28th Street. Only an avenue away from Bridal Guide. The beauty of that is that I walk through the flower district on my way. A perfect route to scout props and in-season florals for upcoming photo shoots:

10:01am: This was the first thing I saw when I walked into my office. It’s the routing sheet for the Shopping Guide that fashion guru Alison and I compose together. Read it, no edits needed and passed it along to Mary… aka copyedit guru.

Today was a need-to-prioritize kind of day. Quickly scanned emails to see what was urgent, then put off the other 70 till later. I had a meeting with Diane (our lovely and larger than life Editor In Chief) and other staff members at 12:30pm and needed to review my notes and pitches for the meeting. Meant to bring the cam into the meeting but was so focused on upcoming stories that I forgot! No worries, the meeting went well… already planning July/August 09! I know, in BG time, Molly is already 1 and a 1/2! Here’s a little sneak peek- a guy’s registry story so you can finally include your future hubby in the process and a fab, unnamed designer who will give you invaluable advice on design, registering and how to survive the bridal saga.

11:35am: Call from Diane. Meeting was early. No worries. Melissa (my intern extraordinaire) and I headed in.

12:10pm: Meeting was over and Melissa and I cabbed it over to 41 Madison, hub of tabletop leaders. Our mission was to scout out dishes and glasses for my upcoming tabletop story. During market this building is buzzing but today, it was practically empty. We visited over a dozen showrooms including Wedgewood, Waterford, Lenox and Royal Doulton.

Here are some products we scouted. I was looking for modern, classic, romantic and eco for my tabletop story:

2:17pm: After our scouting expedition, Melissa and I walked back to the office, grabbed lunch (at Subway, of course!), checked the mail and finally had a moment to sit!

3pm: For every photo shoot, the art dept and myself scouts backgrounds with different styles and textures that will work for the story. Today, we had a meeting with Anne Martin and Victoria Pace who are basically the know-alls for wallpaper. They showed us almost 200 samples!

Seeing all these gorgeous designs makes me crave a bigger house!

In addition to Melissa and myself, I invited Lindsay and Mary Cate from the art department to join us. MC loved this blue paper with swirly sand designs. Yes! It’s actually sand!

Not very lady-like to sit on a table but it offered the best view:

I wish you could feel the velvet texture:

Lace, right? No! It’s actually vinyl imitating lace and retails for around $40:

Lindsay and me…such hams!

4:16pm: Anne and Victoria departed, leaving all of us wanting to redecorate our apartments. FYI- blue is still the most popular color for wallpaper and mustard yellow, purple and bronze are also hot this season. A and V (so Gossip Girl) recommend covering a “feature wall” where you have a pattern on one wall and solids on the others to tone it down. I liked so many, I can’t even choose!

4:34pm: Dana Wagner, fashionista, had an appointment with Reliable Corporation and she invited me along. Here’s Melissa demonstrating the Digital Velocity iron:

Have you ever seen the inside of an iron? Me, neither! The cool thing about this iron is that there is a special chamber that creates the steam, giving you more control over the temperature of the iron plate. That means that silks and linens can be wrinkle-free without the worry of burns.

While I was learning the ins and outs of ironing, Melissa was busy as a bee (not a Weddingbee…she’s only 19!) organizing our office. She’s been with me since August and is basically my other set of hands. It’s her mission to reorganize my office. Here, she was separating inspiration swipes:

And this is the redo of my library…all by category:

5:02pm: Today flew by! Usually, at the end of the day, I straighten up my desk and make notes for the next day. Not today. As you can see, my desk is a wreck and my obnoxious Blackberry is still buzzing with unanswered emails. I know 5pm seems early to check out, but I’ve got to get home and walk Jack before the sitter leaves, feed Molly and put her to bed, make dinner, take a shower and then tackle the pile of work I brought home with me!

What do you think…not as sexy as the movies, right? But still, at the end of the day, I really love my job. It may not be so glam and in-the-know, but it works for me. Cheers!