Manolo for the Brides

How cute are these itty-bitty bottles of soda with custom labels? Mike 78 recently posted an easy-peasy DIY pop bottle tutorial – with pics! – over at 100 Layer Cake. She suggests using them as reception seating cards, but brides and grooms could bottle just about anything (juice, cider, champagne, local water, etc.), slap labels on them per her instructions, and give them away as wedding favors. Maybe not for a chilly wintertime wedding, but imagine how grateful your guests would be to find themselves in possession of an ice cold drink custom made by you at your outdoor summer wedding or unseasonably warm springtime affair!

A friend sent me a link to a doubleX feature entitled The Humiliation of the Bouquet Toss. Clicking it, I found myself hoping for a deep discussion about the implications inherent in lining up the single women so they can lunge at a tossed flower arrangement in the hopes of being the next to marry. Instead I found myself reading a debate about weddings and the pull of traditions.

Ah, well. The bouquet toss remains something I’m curious about. At most of the weddings I’ve attended in the past few years, no bouquet was tossed. At the weddings where the bouquet toss did happen, it felt like most of the participants were on the parquet reluctantly and retreaded when the bride let fly, though I did go to one wedding where the bouquet toss was greeted enthusiastically *and* the groom removed the garter with his teeth! When I was kid, however, all of the weddings I attended included a bouquet toss and a garter toss.

Now, a quick search tells me that there’s no shortage of toss garters out there, which means that someone, somewhere is tossing bouquets and garters at their wedding receptions. But they’re sure not doing it in my social circle. I made a toss bouquet, just in case, but never really intended to use it. What I’m curious about is whether the bouquet toss has just become a relic among today’s brides or whether my not encountering them has more to do with my location (the northeastern U.S.), my culture (recent European descent on mom’s side, daughters of the Revolution on my dad’s side) or my age group (late 20s to early 30s). Maybe Hispanic gals in their early 20s in the Midwest are flinging bouquets with impunity?

I’m not suggesting you have the answer — though if you do, spill! — but I would like it if you’d be so kind as to participate in a little poll and then explain yourself, if you wish, in the comments!

It struck me that brides and grooms thinking of planning a baseball themed wedding like my friend Mike mentioned in last week’s post might be inspired and impressed by seeing some of his plans. These are some of his and his fiancee’s wedding plans, and I am truly astounded by their thoroughness. It’s one thing to weave a theme into your wedding, but quite another to let your theme take center stage!

• I had David Wright help me with the proposal — he’s one of the most popular players on the Mets right now, if you didn’t know.
• The ceremony is going to be held at Citi Field, where the Mets play. How cool is that? All of the Mets games start 10 minutes after the hour, so the ceremony is going to begin at 1:10 p.m. and the reception will start at 7:10 p.m.
• We invited everyone attending our baseball themed wedding to join us on our first week of the honeymoon on a cruise, so we sent out magnetic save-the-dates with the wedding date and cruise dates colored in the way a baseball team does on its schedule of games.
• Our wedding invites are going to look like tickets with the stub being the RSVP.
• The wedding programs will look like baseball programs, with the bridal party listed as the starting lineup, the minister as the umpire, our parents as the managers, etc.
• Trish’s dress has a Mets blue sash, and my tuxedo vest will have the Mets logo on it.
• We even found a place that makes boutonnieres out of baseballs! And Trish’s flowers will be either blue or white or orange and white.
• The tables will be blue and orange and named after Mets players instead of the typical 1-12, and we’ll be at the number 41:Tom Seaver table. (We were going to make each table a baseball stadium that we have gone to.)
• We will be introduced at the reception as a starting lineup, and Trish’s daughter is going to throw out the first pitch to me. (ed. – awwww) I also think the bridal party is going to make arches with baseball bats for us to walk under.
• The last hour of the reception, instead of being a Viennese hour, will be a baseball hour with peanuts, Cracker Jack, ice cream in batting helmets, pretzels, hot dogs, etc. And we are going to change into “Team Wilder” baseball jerseys for that.
• Finally, the thank you cards will look like baseball cards featuring me and Trish.

Now that’s taking a wedding theme all the way!

(Photo by)

There are many you and your guests can enjoy wine at your wedding reception. If you’re a wine aficionado, you might choose a few of your favorites to serve rather than having an open bar pouring the venue’s house wine. Some brides and grooms who want to introduce their guests to wines they may not have had before will dedicate some corner of the reception space to a wine tasting table. And a multi-course reception menu might come with a wine that harmonizes perfectly with the meal.

There’s another way to serve wine to your wedding guests, however, and this is a method of delivery of which I’m entirely too fond. Namely, cupcakes. That’s right, wine cupcakes… for the vineyard-inspired wedding, perhaps? Or the wine lover’s wedding?

Wine cupcake pioneer Enjoy Cupcakes of California — don’t worry, they ship — has you covered if the thought of wine and cake in one easy to eat package makes your eyes light up. Imagine giving your wedding guests a choice between Ginger Lime Chardonnay, Strawberry Champagne, Cherry Vanilla Merlot, and Chocolate Blackberry Syrah cupcakes! Maybe even paired with a matching wine option. FYI: Wine cupcakes aren’t all Enjoy Cupcake does (far from it!) but it does appear to be a signature feature of their weekly storefront menu.

You can, of course, try whipping up a batch of wine cupcakes yourself, as there is no shortage of recipes online, like this one for Chocolate Cannonau Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing. I’m thinking I might just give these at this week’s end.

Hosting a wedding reception means serving refreshments… no exceptions. And it doesn’t matter if you’re planning on digging into cake and champagne or looking forward to a seven course gourmet reception dinner, you have to provide somewhere for guests to sit and enjoy their repast. While it’s entirely possible to wine, dine, and entertain your wedding guests without assigned seating, I’d venture to say that most brides and grooms create seating charts to avoid the possibility of wedding guests bum rushing the good seats as soon as the reception venue doors open.

One can, of course, order a custom seating chart and place cards that wouldn’t look out of place in a calligrapher’s portfolio or create a seating chart and place cards using one’s home computer. These can be spiced up by creatively naming tables with monikers such as elements from the periodic table or cities known for being romantic. Then again, don’t discount the idea of really working your theme into your reception seating chart, like so:

Created by Bellinter House in Ireland, this clever multi-part seating chart features muddy wellies flocked by farm scenes in miniature, complete with grass fields and livestock. Topping it all off were table cards named after various breeds of cow.

I love it! Piggies and wellies wouldn’t have fit into my wedding theme — which was simply “wedding,” if you can call that a theme — but for an upscale farmhouse affair, it would be divine. It’s cute, a little quirky, and potentially inexpensive if you happen to have a large family living in a rainy clime. However, I do believe I would have left the mud out of doors where it belongs, which I’m sure most reception venues would appreciate.

What say you?

(Photo by Jeni Glasgow)

I know, I know. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking ‘balloons’ is Junior’s third birthday party, not a chic wedding reception. But while it’s common to think of balloons as juvenile, don’t discount them just yet.
Done wrong, they’re admittedly ghetto unfabulous. Done right, balloons at wedding receptions can be quite pretty… but there are a few tricks to using them in your wedding decor. First, think of balloons as auxiliary reception decor, not the focal point. Balloons work best as wedding reception decor when they fade into the background. Second, wedding balloon bouquets and other novelty balloon creations? Pass. And third, stick to plain latex balloons. Mylar balloons really are for the kiddies.

For those brides and grooms even considering using balloons in their reception decor, here are the dos and the don’ts:

DO treat balloons as a means of camouflaging boring or ugly reception venue ceilings. A mass of subtly colored helium balloons with dangling strings bobbing just below a very high ceiling can look rather ethereal. A somber space can even become rather radiant with the judicious application of lighting and balloons. Rather not use helium? Balloons can be hung upside down from ribbons strung from wall to wall.

DON’T look to your senior prom for inspiration. I’m sure plenty of us remember the sand-filled, cellophane-wrapped centerpieces that serve no purpose other than using up space on a table and keeping a bunch of balloons from floating into space. These are not, I repeat not, elegant. They’re shiny, and there’s a difference.

DO stick to a simple color palette. Pastels work surprisingly well, possibly because the subdued hues let the balloons become an innocuous splash of color that blends into a larger decor scheme. In other words, think of balloons like filler flowers rather than the main blossom. They shouldn’t be standing out.

DON’T go overboard. If you have balloons floating above, don’t also have balloon columns flanking the doorways and a balloon arch over the cake and balloons tied to tables and a balloon tunnel leading into the ballroom. In fact, don’t have large archways or tunnels at all. Use balloons sparingly at in your reception space for the best results, lest your wedding end up looking like a Sweet 16 in the 80s.

DO go for larger balloons when your balloons will be tethered to a table, as seen in the first pic in this white wedding color scheme post. Bigger balloons, oddly enough, look less like balloons and more decorative, like rice paper lanterns or globe lights (especially when backed by some kind of light source).

And finally DON’T do this:

I’m not even sure what *this* is and why it was done, but just don’t.

So before I tell you what I think of this week’s LOVE/HATE, I have a confession to make. I must confess that I’ve never been a huge fan of sweetheart tables at wedding receptions. Especially when they’re raised on a platform, surrounded by an archway of balloons or flowers, or flocked by absolutely huge wicker chairs that are not in keeping with the rest of the reception decor. I would never in a million years suggest that a bride and groom who wanted to sit apart not do it, but I think that sweetheart tables are a little silly. You don’t need a sweetheart table, however, to set the bride and groom apart.

Hmmmm… I’m torn. On one hand, these signs from The Back Porche Shoppe are cute. I like the distressed look, good for a rustic-y country wedding. And even though everyone at that wedding presumably can pick the bride and groom out of the crowd, it’s nice to set the happy couple’s chairs apart from those of the hoi polloi. On the other hand, just what does one *do* with a bride sign and a groom sign months or years after the wedding? Much more useful, I should think, would be Mr. and Mrs. signs (also sold by The Back Porch Shoppe), which could hang in one’s living room before hanging in one’s foyer before hanging over one’s workbench in the garage before being put on a table at a yard sale without selling before eventually being tossed out with the trash or given away on Freecycle.

What say you?

Brides-to-be take note: I just cannot stand having to lean around a too-tall, too-wide centerpiece to converse with the tablemates seated across from me at your wedding receptions. I may not know anyone at my table other than The Beard, but I am not afraid of making small talk with strangers, and would gladly chat with your high school friend or mother’s aunt’s daughter’s best friend who simply had to be invited and is consequently feeling rather awkward… if there wasn’t a tall vase filled with apples, twigs, flowers, and sparkle nuggets in the way. You don’t don’t have to take my preferences into account when choosing your reception centerpieces, of course, but before you go ga-ga over tall and elegant, consider opting instead for short and sweet. Here’s some inspiration:

One low square vase plus one wide ribbon plus oodles of fresh flowers and trailing greens equals one simple reception centerpiece that a bride or groom could put together themselves with a little DIY skill. But if you’re hiring a florist to take care of your wedding flowers anyway, why not leave it to the experts?

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Friday the 13th, la la la. I’m not listening to any superstitious nonsense, but I am surrounding myself with everything that is extra pretty and fun and sparkly just in case of entirely non-cosmic downers! Which is why I went looking for a deliciously upbeat and cheerful reception table to feature in today’s post.

I think this delightful table from Lollipop Events & Designs fits the bill, don’t you? Blue and orange weddings sound weird but are actually wonderful. How about that wood grain table runner or the decorative accents made from nothing more complicated (or expensive) than buttons, yard, and thread?

Rough cut fabric and a plain cream button turn a boring white favor box into something beyond cute. Want the look? Hit up the nearest fabric store and grab your hot glue gun, ladies and gents, because you can do it. And while you’re at it, use some of the same fabric and buttons to create napkin rings!

I heart mason jars, and not just because they’re free if you buy the right sort of pasta sauce from the supermarket. At this blue and orange wedding, each guest received custom crafty favors and mason jars accented with bright tangerine colored straws that had “Sip with Love” tags attached. Yummy!

Lollipop said forget the flowers and went with centerpieces created using tall vases and bud vases featuring ribbons and pearl buttons and topped with foam balls covered in yarn in lieu of blooms. Those details, more than any other, keep things like the wood grain fabric and buttons and mason jars from turning the whole affair into a country jamboree.

BONUS: DIY brides can get the look at Lollipop’s DIY tutorials page!