Manolo for the Brides

A few days ago, I saw a link to the Golden Age of Couture exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum on a blog. I cannot now remember whose blog it was, so I’m afraid I can’t thank them publicly for pointing out the show. Do forgive me, whoever you are!*

Two of the exhibition highlights scream bride to me, even though they were not originally intended as wedding wear.

This silk grosgrain dress was created by Pierre Balmain sometime around 1950. It’s flouncy, feminine dresses like this one that have inspired me to finally learn to sew. I lust over the vintage dresses on eBay, but I’m a bit bigger than the average upperclass lady who had her heyday in the 50s. Sewing my own is the only solution I can think of.

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I officially finished the first draft of my book last night–it was technically already done as of this past Sunday, but then I was reading it over, which meant there was a lot of, “Oh my gosh, what was I thinking using that word” and “This sentence has just got to go.” It has been a looooong two months, but there have been some nice little surprises to lessen the load.

Last week, I was lucky enough to receive some samples from Placetile Designs, which brightened my day considerably as my mail usually consists of nothing but mortgage insurance adverts and coupon booklets. I received some of these:

And one of these:

Company founder Kristin Bowen came up with the wonderfully clever idea of using erasable ceramic tiles as place cards and favors at her own wedding in 1999, and her guests loved them. The concept evolved to include all sorts of neat things, like wine cork place card tiles, menu tiles, napkin ring tiles, table number tiles, tiles for identifying foodstuffs, and a bunch of other lovely stuff you can write on with dry erase markers. So far, the wine stoppers are at the top of my potential book release party favors list.

For bigger, complicated receptions where there will be lots of attendees who don’t know one another, place cards (or at the very least, table numbers) are a must. I’ve always personally preferred place cards that double as favors or are integrated into favors because I like when everything in a tablescape has a definitive purpose. I’m envisioning a table with a erasable table number tile and wine stoppers or tags printed with guests names. If the bride and groom send the table number tile home with a guest, it automatically becomes a to-do list tile. Such is the beauty of being able to erase and rewrite.

On the off chance that the stuff from Placetile Designs is a little out of your price range, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. You can decorate your own erasable tile place cards and table numbers using the instructions here. Be aware, however, that you need to find tile that works like a dry erase board because some tile will hold onto the marker permanently. Check to be sure that what goes on can indeed come off before you buy bulk tiles, then go nuts with the paints!

I wasn’t really sure what sort of tags to append to this post or what sort of words to put in it. Just look at this and tell me if anything even relatively sane comes to mind…

I don’t know about you, but my main TP concern is that IT’S THERE WHEN I NEED IT. If it’s on the roll as it should be, I don’t much care if it’s white, off white, printed with a damask pattern, pink, purple, blue, yellow, or monogrammed. At over four bucks a rolls, this has got to be one of the weirdest themey items I’ve ever come across.

Now, being that we’re already on the subject of TP–and how did that even happen? should I blame the malfunctioning stove leaking gas into my environs?–I remembered today that I never posted a pic of the 2007 Cheap Chic Weddings toilet paper gown contest winner. Oops…hope they’ll forgive me if I link to them now. Here she is, Hanah Kim, TP seamstress extraordinaire:

I am consistantly amazed at the gowns these gals create because I wouldn’t even know where to begin! I’ve got The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Weddings on my reading list, but I believe that the book suggests crafting makeshift gowns from tablecloths, not TP.

Cap sleeves usually make me think of temple-ready gowns…specifically those temple-ready gowns that look like someone took a strapless dress, yanked it upward, and popped some sleeves on as an afterthought. Not all of them look like that, but some certainly do. Why you’d try to convert immodest into modest when there are so many fabu things you can do with modest is beyond me.

Of course, this Kittychen gown is sure as Schenectady not temple-ready–too much booby and not enough sleeve. Also, it’s not all white. Is it super freakin’ awesome? Yes. I think I’d buy something similar in black or brown or blue, and then make The Beard take me dancing. In this one instance, I’m giving cap sleeves the thumbs up…they look so dang fab with the empire waist.

I don’t know why I’ve been on such an LDS kick all morning–not to be confused with an LSD kick–but it could have something to do with dress shopping. It’s 30 degrees outside and stores are still full of teeny tiny mini dresses with short sleeves! Huh?! I can sometimes find really cute non-formal dresses that won’t leave me freezing my assets off in stores that have opted to make modesty a priority, i.e. stores that market their clothes to religious folks.

Anyhoo, enough of my rambling. I love this dress. Do you?

One of mt favorite party stuff shops–The Front Door–will be closing as of December 18th. *sniff* Capitalism is a fickle mistress. Anyhow, there were all sorts of little decorating and etiquette tidbits on the site, and I wanted to share one of the loveliest.

One of the things that really bummed out a friend of mine when she was planning her wedding was that she would see photographs of really spectacular tables and have no way to replicate them because she wasn’t sure what anything was. Problem solved if you like this particular table. Head over the the site (in the next 18 days) to find out about the menu cards, place cards, napkin rings, fabrics, accessories, and centerpieces used to create this look.

Pretty much everything shown is DIY friendly and easy, to boot. You could source a lot of the materials on the cheap from a discount outfit like Save-on-Crafts…one of the best go-to craft supply sites online, IMHO, though I would love to hear your craft site suggestions.* Now if only more sites that claim to offer ideas for brides- and grooms-to-be would break down tables (and other items) into their component parts, we could all have fun pretending to be Martha Stewart.

* For realz, people. I am about to embark on a serious adventure in sewing, so I’d love to hear about the fabric, materials, and tools sites that you can’t live without!

I’d never advocate charging admission to your nuptials, but I adore the idea of using tickets as save-the-dates and invitations. There’s a fun app at Says-It that lets you create a custom event ticket to put on your wedding web site. If you want a really professional looking ticket, buy ‘em from professionals like Admit One or Ticket Printing. As far as the price goes, it’s pretty darn reasonable!

This would work best for casual weddings or weddings taking place at sporty locations. You could also use these for shower invites, rehearsal invites, bachelor party invites, or favor tags.

So apparently it’s Cyber Monday, the online analog of Black Friday? I predict that in fifteen or so years every day of the year will have it’s own shopping name. Someone on Metafilter said, “Black Friday is for people who haven’t heard of pre-ordering or online shopping” and I agree completely. I always look for free shipping because shipping charges are the last online buying barrier.

Am I shopping for something today? Yes, but it’s not my fault! Somewhere along the line I apparently offered to bake Christmas cookies for family members. That’s a big oops. That’s why I’m getting ready to buy reusable gift bags right now. I hate wrapping paper…almost as much as I hate rolling out cookies.

You guys know the rules. I post a pic, you respond your best captions, and next Saturday I declare a winner who receives the adulation of the masses. So come on folks, hit me with your best shot for this one:

More and more folk seem convinced these days that if a marriage proposal is just a simple question asked privately, that’s not nearly enough. Almost every day, it seems, we hear tales of guys who did it ‘right’ by hiring casts of thousands, organizing hugely elaborate rituals, or submerging perfectly good rings in glasses of good champagne to the sorry detriment of both items.

The thing is, if you ask someone to marry you in public and they say no, there’s pretty much no way not to be publicly humiliated. You need to be very certain a) that the answer is going to be yes, and that the askee is going to be okay with the very public nature of the moment.

After all, you don’t want to be this poor guy:

But if you’re very certain of the answer, and certain she (or he; after all, it’s the 21st century and women can do the proposing, too) will appreciate something very public and very elaborate, then by all means go for it…particularly if you have the sort of friends this guy has to help him out:

Start your engines, people—the holiday shopping season has officially begun. Some people start stock piling prezzies in February, and stores have been displaying Santa Claus stuff since October, but who cares? It’s Black Friday! Hours and hours ago, large groups of utterly insane people drove through the dark to malls and big box stores to take advantage of deals like $3 DVDs and $800 HDTVs.

My stepmother is a seasoned Black Friday shopper. Ignoring the fact that she got up wicked early the day before to start cooking, she gets up even earlier—around 3 a.m. or so—on Black Friday to ransack the nearest Wal*Mart. When you have seven kids, it makes a lot of sense. Christmas gets damn expensive. Me? I don’t have the stomach for a pre-dawn trek to a crowded store. The whole thing is one big marketing gimmick designed to get shoppers into the store by offering them seriously limited quantities of deeply discounted merchandise. Bleah.

I prefer to shop from the comfort of my own desk chair for two reasons. One, I am a wuss who just can’t handle the Black Friday “action,” and two, I can find the things I actually want online. Those $3 DVDs? I’m guessing it’s a big bin full of copies of movies like Zardoz and Bride of Chucky. No thanks!

I’ll admit that I am shopping today. The Beard and I don’t exchange gifts in the name of frugality, but I’ve got family members who are expecting presents. My gift giving strategy involves buying people things I want for myself, and it’s worked well for going on five years now. Seriously, I win Christmas. If you’re stumped for gift ideas this year, feel free to get everyone on your list stuff I’d like to see in my stocking. As always, clicky for more info.

Dresses are good all year long, but knit dresses rock my socks in the wintertime. I have three younger sisters, all of whom are pretty girly. Do they know they want dresses? No, but they’ll love ‘em anyway!

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