Manolo for the Brides

I was recently sent two freebies to review, both of which sprang from the minds of event designers. It’s a common phenomenon — when you live in the world of weddings, it’s not that difficult to envision yourself creating a product that will bring joy to brides-to-be. (Note to companies looking for new product lines: I’m available. Really available.)

First Impressions
The Wedding Book: The Big Book for Your Big Day is indeed BIG. With it’s sweet two-column, multi-color design, it rather reminds me of the many home hack books I was given when I first moved out of my mother’s house. Not a page goes by where some tip of Weiss’ is highlighted in cream or taupe — overall, it’s very dignified. Information is easy to find, and there’s plenty of it!

Deeper Deets
I’ll admit that I had high expectations for this book, because Mindy Weiss is a highly sought-after event planner and “lifestyle expert.” It’s the little details she slips in, like three ways to fold a handkerchief, sample reception menus (Weiss admits that Thousand Island is her favorite dressing), an illustrated gown guide, and multiple wedding timetables make this book stand out among its peers. For those brides who like to jot things down, there are plenty of fill-in tables and blank note pages in the back of the book.

The Verdict
Other than iDo (which still has no reviews on Amazon, hint hint), this is probably my favorite book dealing with mainstream modern-traditional weddings.

First Impressions
I really like the box that envelops the Zinke Design Going to the Chapel gift set because it’s substantial and complicated. You really have to work to get the garter, ring bag, and handkerchief out of that box — I was almost afraid I was going to rip something, but Arin Robinson’s products are auspiciously sturdy. The trio of accessories matches The Wedding Book, which is a little weird in light of this review!

Deeper Deets
The set is made of satin, linen, lace, and the garter is lovely. It combines a ribbon with elastic, which means I can make it as small as my wrist or wide enough to fit over my head. I’m actually wearing it on my head right now. The hanky and the ring bag unfortunately gain nothing from being made out of linen. Both are pretty, but the handkerchief would do little to dry a tearful eye and I don’t know that putting one’s rings in a bag is the best of ideas. This leads me to believe that these items are meant just for show, and I’m a stickler for design that’s lovely AND functional.

The Verdict
I personally would not buy this $92 set for a bride-to-be, but I could see an older female relative doing so. When, exactly, do the rings go in the bag, anyway? Is it meant to be used before the wedding or as an alternative to the ring bearer’s pillow? I’d much prefer to give my hypothetical engaged friend or sister a vintage hanky embroidered with her initials or a handmade ring pillow I sewed myself.

Every now and again one of you sends me an e-mail that is so perfectly succinct that it needs no explanation or exposition. My good friend Jenny — whose own words, I must point out, are featured prominently throughout iDo — wrote this:

I’m watching one of those nanny shows, which is bad enough. But even worse, they just showed an advert for “Rock the Reception“. It’s a reality show…about people who are doing an unconventional first dance.

Let me say that again. A REALITY SHOW. About people who are doing an unconventional first dance. It’s an hour-long show…about a three-minute event.

Americans are complete whores for this crap.

I would have loved to have attended the concept meeting for this show. I’m picturing a member of TLC’s creative team, the wedding division. He’s late and he’s unprepared, and he’s hiding behind his laptop trying to look serious but secretly watching YouTube clips his deadbeat housemate e-mailed to him at 3 a.m. When the big boss looks in his direction, our ideas man draws on the first thing his eyes light upon, which is the video of a bride and groom dancing to U Can’t Touch This.

He’s saved! Saved by the Interwebs!

I was recently interviewed for an article in the NY Post, and it’s looking like I will be jetting off to NY tomorrow to film a TV segment. It was a false alarm — the network decided not to do the story. Ah well, better luck next time!

News of iDo: Planning Your Wedding with Nothing But ‘Net is getting around, thanks to my ubercool publicist at Simon & Schuster and the word getting around. The sweeties over at Aisledash called me a “wedding guru,” which made my entire weekend. I was quoted in an article on Smartmoney.com, and I’m being interviewed for an article in the NY Post tomorrow. And there was an entire article based on iDo in the NY Daily News!

If you’d like to see what all the fuss is about — or you already own one copy of my book and you’d like one for a friend — tell me in the comments what you think I should call my next wedding planning book. Be as silly or serious as you want to be — there’s no guarantee I’ll ever cop your title, but you never know!

At noon EST on Wednesday, June 25, I’ll use a random number generator to pick the lucky commenter who will win an autographed copy of iDo.

One: Remember how I made soap using a soap kit from Bramble Berry? If you read the whole post, you may recall that I used regular old food coloring (the sort in the teardrop shaped bottles) so I could enjoy a little more sudsy variety. Because I didn’t want anyone who tried the kit getting mad at me, I wrote: “I don’t recommend you do the same because I’m not yet sure the resultant soaps won’t turn you blue or green.”

However, I am now happy to state that I’ve been using one of my dyed-with-food-coloring soaps for a while not and have not yet turned green.

Two: Check me out over at iVillage! In honor of iDo’s official release, they asked me to create a list of five web sites I think every bride-to-be should visit while planning her wedding. The result is up on the iVillage wedding blog From “I Will” to “I Do”.

I got all excited as I was preparing for this post because, hey, it’s finally Thursday and that means it’s time for LOVE/HATE and I have a picture of an uber gorgeous short dress that I’ve been sitting on for weeks now! At least I thought it was so gorgeous as to be beyond reproach.

Maybe I just wanted to love it so badly that my mind played seamstress?

You see, this dress has so much going for it: It hails from the gray matter of Ramona Keveza, who I utterly adore. It’s short, and I like when bride’s switch it up with something abbreviated. Plus, it’s sort of ruffly but not too ruffly, if you know what I mean.

And yet I just can’t shake this weird feeling that if the camera angle was just a tad different, we’d all come face to face with the model’s right nipple. I mean, where exactly do bosoms go in a dress like that? Once they get to wherever they’re supposed to go, are they in danger of falling out during bouts of serious boogying?

In conclusion, there’s a part of me that does love this dress, along with its more colorful cousin. There is, however, an even bigger part of me — a part that measures in at 36DD — that hates this dress and all dresses like it for being a forever unattainable ideal.

FYI: My book, iDo: Planning Your Wedding with Nothing But ‘Net (Paperback) is arriving on people’s doorsteps! This is neat both because it is happening slightly ahead of the June 10 schedule and because, duh, it’s my first book! I’m just a tad excited, and I do hope you’ll check it out…whether that means buying it or asking for it at your local library.

Grays, gunmetals, pewters, and silver are hot right now. So here are two dresses for two bridesmaids who are taking part in what are obviously two very different weddings:

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Writer and filmmaker Elise Mac Adam certainly knows her stuff, if her essays on Indiebride are any indication. Those quirky columns were my introduction to her sharp, spot-on way of schooling brides-to-be — and everyone else — in the fine art of etiquette. I remember looking through the site’s archives (Dear Indiebride, Update your site more often, Kthnxbye) and being tickled by these words:

“Bridezilla” is a special kind of insult — too cute to mean anything serious, yet devastatingly demeaning. To call a woman “Bridezilla,” even if her prima donna antics put Diana Ross to shame, categorizes her bad behavior as a comic “syndrome.”

So when I was offered an opportunity to check out Mac Adam’s new book, Something New: Wedding Etiquette for Rule Breakers, Traditionalists, and Everyone in Between, I naturally said, “Heck yeah! Send it over!” Then, of course, life intervened and I had no time at all to read, which is why the book has been sitting on my coffee table for the last month.

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Ever dreamed of a Hollywood wedding? Ever dreamed of walking the red carpet? Ever dreamed of being married on the red carpet in Hollywood? Well, here’s your chance.

In honor of Patrick Dempsey’s new film Made of Honor in which McDreamy (and I really, really thought that name was made up as a joke on Television Without Pity for a very long time) discovers he’s fallen in love with a longtime platonic female friend just as she’s being swept off her feet by the man of her dreams in Scotland and asks Dempsey to be her MOH, The Knot and Sony Pictures are teaming up to hold a contest. The winning couple will get married on the red carpet at the premiere of Made of Honor. Runners up will win shopping sprees and Made of Honor gift packs (contents unspecified). If you’re interested, you can get the details here.

Other than that, I was giggling at a couple wedding-related articles at The Onion, and thought I’d pass on the links so others can enjoy a laugh.

Mommy’s Wedding More Fun Than Daddy’s

Peasant Wedding Gets Out of Hand

And in conclusion, I give you the Peeps Bachelor Party: