Monogamy as a Marketing Campaign

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I’m just not sure where I stand on this. Hearts on Fire which according to their press is the pre-eminent consumer brand in the luxury jewelry diamond business is using monogamy to help brand their product. I kind of had it in my head that was already associated with wedding rings, didn’t you?

Their new campaign “Monogamy100” is being released for print, radio and TV. You can view the ads on their new website. Here is just one little blurb I pulled out of it.

“As The World’s Most Perfectly Cut Diamond®, a Hearts On Fire diamond is an enduring declaration of your commitment to a relationship that is deep, rich and meaningful. One that goes beyond conventional definitions. One that exceeds conventional expectations of love and monogamy. And one that deserves a diamond beyond conventional beauty.”

This quote makes me wonder if they are trying to convince me that if I get a better diamond I will get a better grade of monogamy. HUH?

I’m thinking emerald or sapphire at this point.

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Gorgeous Flower Ideas for Your Wedding

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There is a goldmine of flower ideas out there if you just know where to look. Rather than trolling through the same old galleries that you have looked at before here are a couple of new and wonderful site I have run across recently.

Wedding Flower Ideas. This one from the UK is just chock-a-block full of great ideas for anywhere you could possible want flowers from the ceremony to the cake to a really big collection of bouquets. I hope you have an hour or two to invest.

Asiel Design This company out of California is both a design service and floral company. Wait until you see their portfolio. Their site describe Linnea Asiel as what you would imagine if Pablo Picasso and Tim Burton had a love child. That pretty much sums her style up. Be warned, the opening page has music and I could not find any way to turn it off; so if you are at work (no, not you) hit mute before you open it.

The Flower Expert Once you have found all these beautiful flowers you may want to know just what they mean. This handy online flower encyclopedia will have the answer for you. Again, I hope you have a few hours to invest because this is another site that I could wander around on for a while.

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Guest Book Alternatives

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I helped work a lovely wedding this weekend. Lovely bride, lovely venue, beautiful décor, kickin’ lounge area, everything was lovely except the plain boring unloved guest book that went unnoticed. One of the most intimate and personal memories you will have from your wedding is the memory of those you cared enough about to ask to join in your celebration. So celebrate them already!

Rather than a plain boring guest book that will most likely go completely unnoticed and probably lost in a year do something different that you will keep out and alive for years to come. Here a just a few ideas for fun and interesting guest book alternatives.

Photo Mat. Yes I know it has been done to death but I still see them left off to the side at receptions and barely written on. How about you have it brought out and announced during the toasts to let your guests know that their presence means enough to you that you want to remember it always.

Wedding Quilt. This is for the bride that is an avid seamstress or has one in the family. Have a stack of quilting squares and a fabric marker for guests to sign. After the wedding have the signatures embroidered over and then have the squares make into a quilt. Yes it is a huge project but also a family heirloom.

Wishing Tree. Have the guests write a note of their best wishes on a decorated hang tag (so very Martha) and tie them to an arrangement of tree branches for all to enjoy. After the wedding you can add them to your scrapbook. If you are having a fall wedding use paper leaves instead of hang tags and make a collage out of them to frame for your wall.

Christmas Ornaments. Provide Christmas balls and markers for your guests to sign and place on a tree. It will start your ornament collection and each year as you decorate your tree you will relieve the memories.

Unglazed Pottery. I know you have seen the platters that you have your guests sign, well take that a step further. Go to one of those paint your own pottery studios and pick out a platter or other serving piece that really suits your style. Add a nice underglaze then have your guests sign it. Take it back to the shop and have it fired for a truly one of a kind memory saver.

Guest book for life. Instead of a small traditional guest book either hand craft a large scrap book or personalize a ready made one like this one from Jam Papers with your names or monogram and use it for every party or dinner you host through out your married life. Be sure to get one you can add pages to as it fill up. Include menus for each event and you will have a recorded history of all your entertaining. Too cool for the uber-hostesses among us.

Be creative and think outside of the box and you may just end up with a guest book that you will enjoy for all the years to come


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World Heaviest Wedding Gown

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In another installment of the “What Planet Are These People Living On” thread I bring you this from the UK courtesy of Bridal Wave. (Is it just me or does this stuff always come from the UK?)

At 425 pounds, this is thought to be the heaviest wedding gown on record. My question is why would you? According to the original story in The Daily Mail the dress had 30 layers of fabric, a 60ft train and 30,000 crystals. Created by Nico’s Dressmakers, in Liverpool, England it tipped that other scale at just over $31,000.! Again I ask, on what planet are these people living?

The diminutive 16 year old bride topped out at 5’3” and according to published reports spent most of her reception seated due the weight of this monstrosity. Because of the weight of the train it reportedly took 10 of her friends to PUSH her up the aisle.

Ok, why? Why not get a gown you could actually move in? How I would love to see the video of this. You devotees of YouTube please keep your eyes peeled and let me know if it turns up. I want to see them push this up the aisle.

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The Fun in a Hyper-organized Wedding

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Back in September I posted the first installment in the saga of the Michigan wedding that friend of the Dish Courtney Hammons had the pleasure of participating in as a bridesmaid rather than the highly qualified wedding planner that she is. Well I finally wrangled the rest of the story out of her.

Let’s see if you find bits of this as funny as I do. The commentary at the end is purely my own; sometime an outsider sees thing a little differently. At least there weren’t any bomb scares at the wedding. Read Part I here and Part II here

Wedding Day – Sept 15th

7:30am and my mom is knocking on my hotel room door – I am being told that it is time to go get ready for a 5pm ceremony. Seriously what is wrong with this picture?1 So out I go in my powder blue sweat suit (that matches my mom, sister and all the other bridesmaids!!!)2 Once at the house of the parent’s of the bride the fun begins! I guess when you are doing hair and make-up on 18 people you got to start some time.3 Mom is first so that she can go back to the hotel and take care of my niece. It’s amazing that even when she get’s her hair done it looks just like she did it. Mom is back to the hotel with my sister and I settle in for a day of lounging around. By 1pm everyone is done with hair and make-up and we begin the task of getting everyone dressed. All the dresses are hung alphabetically (did I tell you we had to ship our dresses ahead of time)4 Some dresses are to big and others are to small but in the end everyone is in their dress and ready to help the bride put on her one of a kind bridal gown. She looks gorgeous and is so happy to be marrying my brother. The flowers arrive and I all can say is please consider the size and weight when choosing bouquets! The bride’s bouquet came in at 10lbs can you imagine that for the next 10 hours.5 Pictures went without incident at the house and once everyone was loaded into the 2 limos and the Bentley off to the ceremony. A beautiful ceremony it was but the pictures afterwards took FOREVER! Not only were we a hour late to the reception we somehow managed to miss the sunset shot. Now let me take a moment and explain the reception one room was for dinner and the other room was for the band and dancing. So we have everyone enter the dancing room for announcements, first dance (which the band did not know!!) and the father daughter dance. We than move everyone (250 plus people) to the dinner room and than towards the end of dinner we ask everyone back to the dancing room for the Horah and the mother son dance! Anyone else see some challenges here!6 Well that’s it! After a year of planning, parties and excitement it was all over in a matter of 8 hours! Off to Belize went the bride and groom. And back to Tennessee came my husband and me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  1. Do you have any idea how exhausted everyone is going to be by the end of this day? Sure the bride and groom are off to sleep it off in Belize but the rest of the world has to get back to their real lives.
  2. Please, please tell me they did not have “Bridesmaid” embroidered across the butt. Please.
  3. Ok if you subtract the two mothers and the bride that leaves 15 attendants. What! you asked your entire sorority to be brides maids???
  4. I don’t even know where to start. Hung alphabetically? OK then, that takes being organized to a new level. Add to that the “ship our dresses ahead of time” thing, which was so the mother could install identical bustles and you are bordering on obsessive. Can some one explain to me how long of a train a bridesmaids gown has to have to require that it be bustled?
  5. Piece of cake. You only thought that the reason a bride must spend the year before their wedding lifting weights was to tone their arms, it’s really so they can lug around 10 pounds of flowers in addition to the weight of their dress. Never forget that it’s not just a wedding – it’s a marathon. Train, train ,train!!!
  6. This is the one that cracks me up. I can only picture this crowd of 250 rising as a single unit and shuffling from room to room, sitting in unison and then repeating again and again. Reminds me a very well dressed, multicolored giant amoeba.

I am glad that Courtney survived with her marvelous sense of humor in tact.

I want to hear your tales of wedding excess, leave them in the comment section so we can all share in the joy.

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If Its Sunday Then It Must Be Nuts

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Of course it was. Sunday was a blur.

We started with the Gala show at the Waldorf, them Reem Acra, Monique Lhuillier, Pricilla of Boston then Claire Pettibone and finally Junko Yoshioka. In between I took time to visit with friends at Tigerlilly, Veil Trends, Kelly Chase and Mon Cheri.

Let me start by giving you two trends that have carried through all three markets. First and most important is a return to soft romantic gowns in soft sheer fabrics layered one over another to add texture and dimension. You can still find heavily structured bodices in some of the collection, notably Pricilla of Boston and Reem Acra but even they had some soft lovely layered gowns.

Look for shoes to take on greater importance as the gowns lose structure. Quite a few gowns with shortened hems, anywhere from the ankle to the knee, showed up in the collection. If this catches on it may become a real option for the bride not bent on being a princess for the day.

The one thing that I notice when I come to couture market is the fabrics. Brides always ask me why some gowns are so much more expensive than others. The answer is the fabrics. You can almost always find a gown in a similar style in another lower priced line than the top designers. What set these gowns apart is the sumptuous fabrics. These fabrics scream out to be touched; they drape better and hang more beautifully. When you go gown shopping look at some of the high end gowns in person; photos don’t tell the whole story. Go to the salons and touch them, look at the way they reflect light differently, take note of the way they fall. Our Grandmothers knew the difference; I think it is high time that this generation learned.

Another mark of a top end gown is the quality of the beading and embroidery. The patterns are matched perfectly, the beads are fully attached and the appliquéd lace is not just left hanging on the edges. All of these things take time and attention to detail not found in a less expensive imitation. They may sound like little details that you can live with out but they are the things that take a gown from nice to exquisite. Take the time to look at the difference before you do something silly like order a designer gown for $200 over the internet. Discover the differences the real thing has.

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The Greening of the American Wedding

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One goal of most every engaged couple is to find ways to express themselves in their wedding; to make it a truly personal representation of who they are as a couple. To do this more and more couples are bringing their social consciousness to the party. From environmentally friendly weddings to ethical jewelry to charitable donation registries, today’s couples are seeking out ways to proclaim their love for the planet and its inhabitants as they proclaim their love for each other.

Going green doesn’t mean wearing hemp and taking your vows in a field of daisies while munching on organic tofu. In 2007 you may not even see much of a difference on the surface. This means that you can do your part for the planet without freaking out Granny.

The key factor in having a green wedding is to make conscience choices and to ask questions. Many vendors in the event industry are catching on to the different options available and jumping in to fill the need. From when and where you decide to get married to the invitations to your honeymoon there are ways to lessen the impact your wedding has on the environment.

As you start to plan your wedding consider the time and place. A ceremony and reception held in the spring or fall will require less energy to heat or cool the space. Host your wedding in a location central to most of your guests to minimize the miles traveled. If possible have your ceremony and reception in the same location or you can provide transportation between the two.

Invitations

If you think about it weddings require an amazing amount of paper goods. This is also one of the easiest ways to go green. Recycled paper has come a long way from the brown rough texture of the early days. Now you can get beautiful invitations printed on recycled papers from most of the major manufacturers. You can also find printers that use soy ink.

Take it another step further and you will discover all the beautiful handmade papers now available for the bride that want to make her own invitations. There are papers that come with embeds like flower petals or seeds. The seeded ones are especially nice to use for your program; guest can take them home and plant them after the wedding. No waste and a new plant in the bargain. Anything you need for your ‘paper wardrobe’ can be found in an ecologically friendly format.

Décor

When you talk about decor the first thing most people think of is flowers. Even though flowers are a natural product they are one of the hardest places to have an impact. Unless you live in an area with a long growing season it can be very hard to find the kinds of flowers you want locally and organically grown. Don’t despair, there are still thing you can do. If you get married in a garden you have flowers all around you. For your table centerpieces you can use a tablescape of small potted plants, maybe a combination of flowers and herbs. Pot them up in a moss lined basket or put them in pretty little pots and have you guests take them home for their gardens. If you still want a more traditional look you can order organically grown flowers on the internet from Organicbouquets.com. Even if you go with completely traditional flowers you can make arrangements with your florist to donate your flowers afterwards. Perenity is an all volunteer organization that will pick up your flowers after the wedding and use them to make arrangement that are delivered next day to patients in hospice care. Harriet Karo of the local Perenity group told me that this trend has grown in Nashville to the point where they quite frequently receive enough donations to not only cover Alive Hospice but the Ronald McDonald House as well. Way to go Nashville brides! Not only that, but the florists love it too. Vicki Sanders owner of Branching Out said “not only are we doing something worth while but we don’t have to haul the leftover flowers back to the shop afterward.”

This is just the beginning of ways you can do your part as you celebrate your marriage. Tomorrow I’ll take a look at fashion and jewelery. Stay tuned.

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Market Wrap-up From Head to Toe

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These are the last of my pictures from the National Bridal Market Chicago. The mosaic below showcases the crowing glory of wedding regalia for either the bride or her guests.

The lovely lady in the center image is Jolene Picone, designer for Veil Trends out of Denver. As is my warped habit, I asked Jolene to model her favorite piece out of her collection. Although I am not sure it shows up well in the image, the veil she is wearing is called Neapolitan, the three layers are pink, white and light brown; how very fun.

Also showcased are Mandy Greenan designer for Tiger Lilly in the white veiled fascinator and Brenda Waites Bolling in the stunning pink hat. Oh how I wish hats were in fashion for wedding guests in the states. The beautiful jeweled combs are courtesy of Erica Koesler. The feather fascinators on the black velvet pillows are from Sara Gabriel and the tree display of feather fascinator in the third position are from Veil trends.

There were lots of gorgeous shoes to be seen but these two are the ones worth talking about. From Saugus Shoes the platforms on these are made out of memory foam.

Nothing can compare to a shoe this sexy AND comfy. WooHoo. These are shown in white silk but also come in black or can be dyed to match your look.

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