Weddingbee Blog

I love these beautifully designed envelopes adorned with vintage stamps from Greer Chicago. Each one comes with an address label and note card, and can be mailed as is.

At $6-$10 each, they are a bit pricey, but what a cool way to send a unique invitation or save the date to each of your guests.

Bari Zaki who creates the envelopes is actually a bookbinder. She does some gorgeous custom work if you’re looking for a one of a kind wedding album.

My first gift from my FSIL.

I was so touched by the gift that I decided to show her my thanks for a bracelet that she’s been eyeing in my store.

I haven’t read the book yet, but it contains a nice quote I thought I’d share:

Your love is a great mystery/ It is like an eternal lake/whose waters are always still and clear like glass./Looking into it you can see/the truth about your life./

It is like a deep well/whose waters are cool and pure/Drinking from it you can be reborn./

You do not have to stir the waters/or dig the well./Merely see yourself clearly/And drink deeply.

Written by Lao Tzu

I know that some people get excited by the thought of getting a little clicker and running around stores picking out items to add to their gift registries. OK, I actually got this information from Charlotte on Sex and the City, but rumor has it that some brides really enjoy this task. But for me, and many others I know, setting up a registry and picking out gifts is not quite the same thrill. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I will be tearing off paper like a madwoman when my first gifts start rolling in, but for now we are still just trying decide where to register and what to ask for.

My fiance and I have lived together for 7 years. In that time we have built up our own collection of pots and pans, gadgets, dishes, etc. When we ask ourselves, “What do we need?” We mostly stare at each other thinking really hard and envisioning big question marks above each other’s heads. We definitely don’t have nice china (which I want and he could care less about), and we would like to upgrade some other stuff we already own. Since we have most of our basic items already, our registry looks a little on the pricey side at the moment and I need to figure out a way to get more reasonable items back on there (there are some normal things on there, I promise!).

I would love to hear from other brides how they have dealt with setting up their registries. How did you decide what to put on it? How did you decide how much to put on it? Has it been stressful or exhilarating? It’s tricky business asking for gifts.

One Heart Studio makes beautiful, customized keepsake boxes adorned with hand painted quotes, poems, vows, and messages on them. They offer many different styles, colors, and sizes that range from $20-$275.

I can see putting earrings or a necklace inside one of these as a bridesmaid gift. Or giving one of the larger trunks for the bride and groom to fill with wedding day memories. These are wonderfully personalized and meaningful gifts that the recipient is sure to cherish.

I’m thinking of ordering Mr. Firefly one of these custom comics by Mark Weber, whose work has run in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. The comics are frameable six-panel hand-drawn 8×11 art on 11×14 acid-free paper. Black and white is $150 and full color is $225. I think it would make a wonderful wedding gift for your fiance or even another couple you know.

… I wish I had found this before we got married!

Source: http://www.theknot.com/ NYC message boards.

I saw Joon & Jude’s lingerie travel bags at the BFF Bridal Event.

The luxurious bags are adorned with “bride” swarovski crystals. Tuck some lingerie inside and you’ve got yourself a great bridal shower gift!

I’d been coveting these ice cream cone cupcakes from Williams and Sonoma since I got them in my email box last week, but their summer catalog is filled with so many other wonderful things!

How can I resist these ice cream cone bowls and spoons?

Or these ice cream sandwich molds?

Or this sandcastle bundt pan?

They just scream summer! Don’t ya want to just add them to your registry?

This seems to be the ultimate topic on weddingbee at the moment. My friends have been stressing and asking me what I want. Not to worry. It’s really s-i-m-p-l-e.

I’ve told them all, gift cards. I personally would rather have credit towards my stores of choice, so I can slowly take the time with my husband-to-be to pick out things to furnish our new place. But for our friends that don’t like the idea of gift cards, I know they will come up with something that I love anyway.

Also, the #1 reason is time. It is not something my fiance and I have a lot of these days. The whole registry idea - pointing and shooting items of choice - seems like a lot of fun. But it’s nearly impossible to find a day in our schedules where we can meet up for even a few hours. When we finally get time for ourselves, I’d rather spend that as quality time to eat, laugh and maybe catch a flick instead. I feel it’s the only way we’ll keep our sanity and our record of three and a half years fight free.

It was my birthday celebration this past weekend. My wonderful girlfriends took me out for a night of what was supposed to be drunken fun. But we ended up not drinking so much - and we still had a ton of fun!!

Anyway, they got me a whole bunch of gifts, but I really like this one pictured below. It’s called Our Wedding Anniversary Memory Book - and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

The first page has a place for a picture on your wedding day, and a place to write down the details of your wedding - date, time, place, etc. The next page is a place for your picture on your 1 year anniversary, and a place to write down where you live now, important events and memories. Every page represents a different year in your marriage.

I absolutely love this gift! I have a mental image of myself flipping through this book when I’m old and gray, laughing at the little things that have happened over the years, and telling stories to my grandchildren about the different points in our lives. It’s so sentimental.

I highly recommend getting this for anyone who’s getting married - especially if they love sappy stuff like me!!

Now I consider “geek” to be a compliment. A clever salt and pepper shaker set for the geeky bride-to-be.

(via betterlivingthroughdesign)

I’ve been working late a lot more recently and usually I come home pretty tired and cranky. Last night I came home and Mr. Spider told me we got our first wedding present. WoHOoHooo~!! One of our groomsmen, Wes, sent us a gift from Houston. I had a good feeling about what it was going to be since Wes called Mr. Spider from Disney World last week:

Awww, they are bobble heads with magnetic noses that “kiss!” Thanks Wesley, we heart you!

What did you get as your first wedding present?

These Hug Salt and Pepper Shakers are adorable!

At $25 a set, they’re too pricey to give out as favors, but they’d make a lovely shower gift.

(via destinationdesign)

Domino Magazine has some awesome deals this month for presents that are perfect for the bride-to-be.

Toss Designs is a fun line of products that help keep you organized on your trips away. Bright bold prints in argyle, houndstooth, polka dot and more adorn their home, travel, and pet accessories. Get 20% off your entire purchase when you enter “DOM06″ at checkout.

Stephanie Johnson has make-up and jewelry bags, rolls and cases galore in prints and solids so you can travel in style. Enter “DOMINODEALS” at checkout to receive 25% off your entire purchase.

And finally Paper+Cup Design (one of our favorite sites) is offering 25% off their personalized stationery. Plus you get a free travel journal with the stationery purchase! Enter “DOMINO DEALS” on the order page.

Ok, as I alluded to in a prior post, my china pattern has returned from the dead.

Orsay Powder Blue by Philippe Deshoulieres.

“But, how ever could a china pattern be so swiftly resurrected?” one might ask. The answer is, it’s fairly easy when the pattern was, apparently, never discontinued in the first place.

Flashback to April 28, 2006. On that day, my mom’s friend went to Bloomingdale’s, 59th Street, to purchase some china off my registry. An unidentified registry sales associate informed her that the pattern had been discontinued. Upon hearing this tragic news (trust me, it *was* bad news–it took us-for-freaking-ever to pick a pattern), my mother also contacted Bloomingdale’s, whereupon the discontinuance was confirmed. Reluctantly, my mom called me to break the news. I wasn’t looking forward to choosing another pattern, but I was definitely far more consolable than Mr. Daisy who highly dreaded another scorched earth china search mission.

Unwilling, to take Bloomingdale’s word for it, I contacted the china manufacturer, Philippe Deshoulieres. In my very poor French, I asked them if this were true. When I didn’t receive any answer, my mom–being ridiculously helpful–went to Bloomingdale’s and switched our registry over to Bernardaud’s ElysÆ’©e, which we had previously seen and quite liked:

The fact that the cost of an ElysÆ’©e place-setting is roughly 2x the cost of an Orsay setting stuck in my craw, but only for a bit. I came to love my ElysÆ’©e even more than the Orsay that came before. But then, I received the following email in my inbox:

From: [Bloomingdale's Registry Guy]
To: Miss Daisy
CC: [Philippe Deshoulieres Lady]
Date: Friday - June 9, 2006 2:41 PM
Subject: Fw:
RequÆ’ªte envoyÆ’©e depuis le site internet Philippe DESHOULIERES

Dear Ms. Daisy,
I’m not sure why you were told that Philippe Deshoulieres “Orsay Powder Blue” is no longer made. It’s our best selling china pattern from Philippe Deshoulieres. It is still manufactured, we still carry it, and we would be happy to register you for that pattern.
Most sincerely,
[Bloomingdale's Registry Guy]

Below his email was my original email, which had been forwarded to him by the Philippe Deshoulieres’ national sales manager. She had written the following note:

Hello,
Sorry for not sending this email to both of you sooner but I am still cleaning up from my maternity leave. I will translate and summarize this email from a Bloomingdales bride: She emailed the factory to find out if the factory was still making Orsay Powder blue, the pattern she is registered for because she had been told by the store that the factory had stopped the production of this pattern.
Best regards,
[Philippe Deshoulieres lady]

So, now, what do I do??? Do I stick with the pricier ElysÆ’©e, or do I take back my poor, beleaguered Orsay? (wasn’t Helen Hunt faced with a similar choice in that movie Cast Away?)
I need guidance*!
~~~

* And, as Mr. Daisy knows by now, despite my own request for such guidance, I reserve the right to ignore any and all guidance with a “Whatever! I do what I want!” It’s kind of my life motto, modeled after the great Eric Cartman.

CB2 - the more modern sister of Crate and Barrel has just introduced a registry.

Shelter Sofa $799, Palm Leaf pillows $24.95