Weddingbee Blog

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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UPDATE: Due to such high interest in the playbill programs, Hive member Sarah is now offering the template she created via Etsy! Mention that you found her shop via Weddingbee when you check out and you will receive a $5 discount off of the listed price!

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE PLAYBILL PROGRAM TEMPLATE

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Our guest blogger Andrea created these super fun diy playbill programs that she wanted to share with the hive!

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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This guest blog is by Emily of Blossomluxe, who made 90 pairs of earrings for her friend to give as wedding favors to female guests.

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This project was a real labour of love for a friend’s wedding. She and the groom planned to give beer coolers (stubby holders in Australian lingo!) to the male guests as favours and were looking for an elegant alternative for their female guests to bring the tone up a notch.

Together we came up with idea of earrings; I gifted her my time in making 90 pairs (!) and resources in sourcing the best quality but cheapest materials (which she paid for).

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by Sarah A. 

My second day back to work after the honeymoon, my counterpart at another organization called and asked point-blank what was going on. Apparently a month earlier, he’d called and asked for me, and was told I was “on leave due to a personal tragedy.” Two weeks later, he called again and was told I was on my honeymoon. Both answers were right.

On June 10, thirteen days before my wedding (and seven days before my birthday), my father was killed in a single-vehicle accident. Having lost my mother to breast cancer twenty years ago, and having been “Daddy’s Little Girl” since long before that, it was a huge, horrible surprise. Absolutely the worst thing I could imagine happening. As my tearful fiance called his parents and my boss, I could do nothing but pace around the house, mumbling “Oh my God,” and “I just can’t believe it” and “What am I going to do?”

What I had to do first was call the coroner, then my father’s widow (who had been driving, and I think still believes I blame her for the accident), then his sister, to try to plan out the next week. About four hours after we got the phone call, we cancelled a huge pre-wedding party that had been planned for the following weekend, emailing everyone we could think of, and posting the news on our wedding website. Then I wrote a eulogy because I couldn’t sleep, and went to bed. Still awake few hours later, I emailed a friend whose father had died of a heart attack just days before her planned elopement, and asked her to call me as soon as she could.

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by Andrea
 
I’ll admit. I didn’t really plan on having a “green” wedding. But a lot of what we are doing is really turning out to be quite environmentally friendly! We ended up ordering recycled paper for our invitations and envelopes, which was almost purely coincidence. But, it was the right color and I will admit to feeling a bit better about the price knowing it was recycled. And what’s leftover from the invitations, we will use for the programs. Pretty good deal. However! This is not a post about invitations, it is about my centerpieces!

I really wanted to keep this aspect simple for several reasons.

1) I plan to only have one or two variations of flowers, mainly the mini gerbera daisy
2) I am making them myself and want to do them ahead of time
3) I need this to be cost effective so I can focus my wallet on more important (to me) things

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Hi everyone, I’m Rhonda from Our Wedding Plus Blog. I’m honored to have this opportunity to guest blog on Weddingbee on such an important topic!

Having a “Green Wedding” may seem like the latest fad but in fact it is quickly becoming a necessity.  Global warming is expected to give us some major problems in the next 40 years and weddings can be a big drain on the environment.  But there are some simple things you can do to minimize that impact without taking away from the elegance of your event.  Here are my five favorite ideas to green up your wedding. 

1.  The Invitations – look for post-consumer or recycled paper for your wedding invitations.  Weddings generate a lot of paper…save the dates, invitations, response cards, reception cards, envelopes, etc.  There are many elegant recycled paper and tree-free invitation options out there such as recycled cotton invitations.  Harvesting tree-free fibers does not disrupt natural eco-systems. Also, processing tree-free fibers requires a lot less energy and chemicals than processing wood-based fibers.  One of my favorites sources, Cast Paper Art has some great hand-made recycled cotton invitations. 

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by wsukarebear 

I knew I could DIY and I think this project was successful! My mom and I made four pomanders for hanging from shepherd’s hooks from the entrance of the wedding venue. These are wonderfully bright and should look awesome!

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