Wedding Wire Rocks

Like you I am always on the hunt for great planning tools and wedding websites. In all honesty, I have to say that I don’t check out every new wedding-centric site that pops up. Most of them are just lame excuses for sucking advertising dollars off wedding vendors. They have a list of vendors, a few out of date articles on planning and little else.

Today I ran across one that is worth its pixels and is about to get even better. Wedding Wire is a relative newcomer to the game; launched in June of 2007 it has just been scarfed up by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Wedding Wire was created by a team of entrepreneurs including 2 founding members of Blackboard. This is not some lame site put together by a former bride to be or a former magazine ad sales person. These creators have some serious internet chops. As proof, take a look at how functional the tools they have created for brides are. In addition to wedding websites, budget tools and timeline planners they also have the coolest drag and drop seating chart tool.

The galleries look to be fairly large and are searchable by color as well as item. So if you search “purple” you will get everything, bouquets, décor, invitation, favors or anything else in purple. The events page is searchable by zipcode and event type. If you are looking for all the upcoming bridal or trunk shows in your area this is the place to look. The communities look a little thin still but I’m sure that will come with time.

With the additional resources available to them now that MSLO owns 40% of the company you can bet that the content will be just as top notch. If you love Martha Stewart Weddings, then this is definitely the wedding planning website for you.

This one really has me excited.

My Favorite Bouquet. Ever.

I have always thought that flowers in and off themselves are works of art. Sometimes arrangements and bouquets can get a bit too contrived and you miss the independent beauty of individual blooms. Just to give you an idea, this is the image I have on my desk top.

Over the last few days I have been working with images for a website I am building and ran across this bouquet. Oh my. I am pretty sure that this composite bouquet has to be my favorite bouquet ever. In this creation, Vicki Sanders of Branching Out Event Florists has captured the intrinsic beauty of a Stargazer Lily and pushed it to the limit.

A word of warning: each one of those petals is individually wired and taped. Then the ‘bloom” is composed out of the petals. The petals of lilies aren’t the hardiest little buggers, so you always have to make extra in case a petal becomes damaged in construction. Having said that; don’t expect a bouquet like that to be a low cost option. It certainly makes a statement though. Can you just imagine how fabulous it smells. Ahhhhhhh.

Top photo by Christine. Bouquet photo copyright David Wright Photography.

Live Journal

Is anyone else out there a fan of the wedding planning group on Live Journal? Well I am. This has to be the nicest most helpful bunch of brides on the net, none of the snarky juvenile garbage that you find in some of the other wedding communities. If you have ventured into the communities at the Knot.com then you know what I mean.

You can follow them as they plan their weddings right along with you. The comments are almost always both amazingly helpful and supportive. You may only post or add comments if you are a member of the community. It’s open to all and you can join here.

The tag cloud for this group is huge; I mean there must be over a thousand* tags in it. It runs nearly the entire length of the first page of the archive. So if you can’t find something close to what you are wanting to know you must be looking for something really off the wall. I didn’t find a search feature though. If you know where there is one, let me know. *Ok so I’m a geek. I just ran a word count on the tag cloud and it’s only 996.

There are even links to other more specific communities like Bridal Weight Loss Support and Wedding Makeup.

Whether you are a bride or a wedding professional this is a must read. Just keep it nice.

Always A Bridesmaid…

It’s about time! Everyone knows that a wedding is all about the bride but what about the supporting cast? There is an overload of information for brides on the web but not so much for the lovely ladies that have to deal with her. Bridesmaid Essentials.com launched yesterday to fill the gap in information.

Since it is a brand new site the communities aren’t packed yet but some of the things they are offering look like they might take off. If you think about it the average wedding has 5 bridesmaids and only one bride, right? If you get all of them together you should have a pretty big community with a lot in common (think Frankenbrides and ugly dresses).

I love the idea of their Flip That Dress page. List your used bridesmaids dress or pick up one that you might be able to use. How great would it be if you could get the entire wedding party to list theirs together, you might just save some other group of maids a few $$$ and a bunch of time. I spied a 2 piece Vera Wang maids gown for $60. That’s a bargain.

The one thing I would add is a page on how to remodel bridesmaid’s dresses so you really could rewear them. Once again, if you can get input from this potentially large community you could do some real damage to that corner of our closets filled with past gowns. Ya think??

Pass this site on to all the lovely ladies that are your supporting cast to make their live just a little brighter today.

They will thank you for it.

The Lipstick Jungle

Last night was the premier party for Lipstick Jungle the new series based on Candace Bushnell’s book. I have to tell you that the girls in attendance loved it. You should have heard the whoops and hollers when Kirby tore off Nico’s pantyhose…Definitely a must see, it premiers Thursday on NBC.

But on to the party itself. Even thought the weather was shall we say inclement, you know your wedding diva wasn’t going to miss a girl’s night out with other wedding industry insiders. Courtney Hammons hosted the event at a new art gallery/venue in the heart of the city, Take 121. Just too perfect for the premier of a show set in Manhattan, don’t you think.

I finally got to meet fellow bridal netizen Ashley King Carter. If you haven’t checked out her site, AshleysBrideGuide, you are missing something. It is probably one of the best local bride’s guides I have run across. It’s hip, lively and informative. What more could you want. BTW Kickin’ boots girl!

I also ran across a cool new vendor with a way cool new product: lasar cut confetti. Check it out at their site, designs in paper.

Have a great weekend; I’m off tomorrow to a Bridal Luncheon at the Hermitage Hotel. I’ll have all the details on Monday.

Coolest New Find


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j72NFVg9I-M&rel=1&border=1]

I found the coolest new product at The Special Event. No, literally. How about amazing ice sculptures delivered to your door?

Ice Caters has developed a line of ice sculptures and service pieces packaged in special no freezer needed packaging. Everything from elaborated custom pieces to ice shot glasses or martini glasses can be shipped anywhere you happen to be. We had the best time playing with the martini glasses. You can even order the martini luge to go with it. Love that!

The also have partners around the country that can order then for you and handle the set-up. That’s’ really the thing to do to save a bit of sanity on your wedding day. I mean really, who wants to lug a block of ice around while in a lovely wedding gown? Just find what you want and tell your caterer where you found it and let them do the rest; ice and easy.

I told you it was cool.

Best Wedding Planning Tool EVER

As you can imagine, anytime anyone releases a new website for brides I get pinged. Most of them are just more of the same, but I got a real WOW in my inbox this morning.

Clio pinged me about the new site she is a part of, Muse. Right now Muse has three parts: Budget tool, Task manager and Idea folder. I’m not a big fan of budget tools but the other two just blew me away!

On the Task manager you have 3 pages, Do Now, Do Later and Done. Each is divided into the standard categories like ceremony, beauty photography, etc. It couldn’t be easier to add and delete tasks or move them from list to list. It all stays organized and neat. Love it. No more making lists, losing them and having to recreate them. I wish it was available for my grocery lists.

The idea folder is just as easy to use. You can ‘Capture an idea’ again in the standard categories and then keep it front and center or move it to the back burner to revisit later.

Clio tells me that they have even more tools in the works as the site keeps growing. If they are any where as cool and useful as what they have now Muse may quickly become the hottest planning site on the web.

Thanks Clio for ‘getting it’.

Saturday Round-up

Here are just some of the wonderful things I have found on the blogs this week.

First up this from Ariel over at Offbeat Brides. Some really cool, taffeta free wedding websites and matching invitations from Nearlyweds.

How to write a thank you note from Style Me Pretty.

What really makes a bespoke invitation from Oh Happy Blog

Filigree cupcake wrappers courtesy of Something Old Something New

Finally this from Miss Peppermint over at Wedding Bee on just one of the more unusual pitfalls of DIY

That’s it for this weekend as I am off to paint, decorate and the universe willing, move into my new office. Wish me luck.

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