Weddingbee

Our guest blogger today is Cyd. Cyd’s Matron of Honor/FSIL had entered her into our Bella Figura Letterpress STD/Invitation contest about a year ago, and won! Cyd not only got letterpress invites, but had the opportunity to tour Bella Figura. Today she’s sharing an inside look at the letterpress shop with us!

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One of my favorite 2009 Bella Figura designs, Lexington.

Photo from Bella Figura’s Flickr Photostream

A little over six months or so ago now, I was home one night in the middle of the week carrying on with life as usual. My then roommate and I had a thing for watching Antiques Roadshow and taking long walks with our adopted dogs, a rescued greyhound and a frisky black lab, so I imagine our evening likely involved some of both. At some point in the evening my phone rang. It was my best friend/Matron of Honor/future sister in-law calling, presumably to talk about our upcoming plans for that weekend. However, instead of rambling on about dinner that Saturday night, she promptly asked me if I was sitting down.

Why, no. No, I was not. Should I have been?

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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.
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Today’s behind the scenes at Bridal Guide Magazine post comes to us from  Senior Associate Editor, Elena Donovan Mauer.

Greetings from New York’s Lower East Side—or maybe we’re technically in Chinatown. Either way, here we are wrapping up the January/February 09 issue’s “Party Planner” photo shoot (don’t we work mighty far in advance?) and I’m coming to you via my laptop.

As I was sitting here, watching everyone toil away trying to make these three magazine pages look gorgeous, I was thinking about all the things bridal magazine readers would probably never guess about what goes on at this type of shoot.

First off is the location. Certainly, there are plenty of stunning photography studios in New York City, but there are also some in very hidden spaces.

This is the entrance to the studio where we’re shooting. Doesn’t look like much, huh?
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Today’s behind the scenes at Bridal Guide Magazine post is by Senior Associate Editor, Elena Donovan Mauer,

One of the many hats I wear on our editorial team is that of a fine jewelry market editor. It’s my job to know about engagement rings and other wedding-day jewels, to choose pieces to include in the magazine and to write about shopping for jewelry. This is something that never, ever, ever feels like work.

I recently attended a spectacular event put on by The Diamond Information Center—this is the agency that represents the diamond industry to the press. The event was called “The Art of Diamonds,” and it took place in a beautiful loft space in New York. I was—along with our intern Isabel—whisked there by a car service for what ended up being a nice middle-of-the-day break (well, it felt like a break, but it was business). There, the DIC had diamond jewelry from a variety of designers on display, along with found objects to make them look like part of a modern art exhibit.

Here’s a bracelet and necklace set that’s worthy of the red carpet—or aisle—by Van Cleef & Arpels.
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This behind the scenes at Bridal Guide Magazine post is brought to you by Jenna Mahoney. 

Bonjour, hola and aloha, I’m Jenna the travel editor at Bridal Guide. I’m responsible for crafting the giant section highlighting fantastic honeymoon destinations, amazing experiences and some pretty hot exclusive offers. I also yap about travel trends, rub elbows with industry experts and sometimes, every once in a while, I get to dine with recording superstars and party with wannabe A-listers.

But the best part of my job is getting to jet across the globe in search of awesome sites and activities and all the while scoping out the coolest new in-room amenities and testing all of those comfy beds (that someone else makes!). I check out all the fantastique hotel and travel trends so my fellow brides to be (that’s right…I’m getting hitched this year too!!) can have the serious QT on the low-down of the best places to book a honeymoon.
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It’s time for another behind the scenes glimpse into the wedding magazine world!  Today’s guest post is by Bridal Guide Magazine Associate Fashion & Beauty Editor, Alison Rowe.

Can you believe it’s 90-degrees out and we are about to start working on the January/February ’09 issue—which, by the way, is going to be especially beautiful, as we are shooting the entire fashion well (that chunk of the mag that is full of fabulous fashion and beauty, aka, ad-free zone) in St. John in the USVI.

In addition to writing my pages (beauty file, style file and cover style), part of my job is booking all the models, so right now I am busy trying to find the next gorgeous girl to be on our new cover. I have a board where I pin cards of all my favorite models, new ones I want to keep an eye on, and ones that I want to keep in mind for future stories. I actually just gave it a thorough spring-cleaning about a week ago, so it’s less cluttered than usual.

 
Having all these perfect specimens staring at me makes me feel very guilty when I sneak chocolate or candy!

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Today’s guest post is from Bridal Guide Magazine Assistant Home Design Editor, Aimee Morgan.

Before moving to NY (on a whim and only for the summer—almost four years ago!), and working at Bridal Guide, I envisioned the city, and editors in general, as gurus in their chosen industry; every fashion editor MUST step out the door wearing Prada, Jimmy Choos and looking like a shampoo model, and every home design gal MUST have a home worthy of a four-page feature spread. I mean, come on, who hasn’t salivated over Sex and the City, or even, dare I admit, Gossip Girl? Yes, I watch Gossip Girl. Technically I’m not yet 30 and totally allowed to indulge.
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It’s time for another behind-the-scenes installment from Bridal Guide Magazine.  Read the previous entry on Bridal Market here! 

By Elena Donovan Mauer, senior associate editor, Bridal Guide 

At Bridal Guide, I need to stay on top of the latest wedding stationery trends, so every year I head to the National Stationery Show in New York. It’s a huge industry expo where stationery designers and suppliers show their new stuff to potential buyers and the press (that’s me!)

Believe it or not, all these people come from far and wide to see paper!
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Our guest blogger Andrea created these super fun diy playbill programs that she wanted to share with the hive!

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A lot of wedding programs looked like restaurant menus to me, so it was one of the first DIY projects I wanted to tackle.   My fiance came up with the great idea of making a playbill - we love the theater, so it fit us perfectly.

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Over the next couple of weeks, Bridal Guide Magazine editors will be writing some guest posts on behind the scenes happenings at one of the largest bridal magazines.  This first installment is by Dana Wagner, Fashion & Beauty Editor at Bridal Guide.

One of (and arguably *the*) most important aspects of my job is covering the bi-annual bridal markets—that’s when all the editors, buyers and industry insiders get first glimpse of the gowns that will be available for the new season and, in my case, what I will be featuring in the magazine in the upcoming months. It’s incredibly exhausting (they tend to run over the weekend and into the following week; this time around I worked 19 days straight!), but it’s incredibly exciting, too. After all, if spending your days watching a parade of gorgeous, frothy wedding gowns parade down the catwalk isn’t every girl’s dream…..
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