Archive for June, 2008

Win a free autographed copy of iDo: Planning Your Wedding with Nothing But ‘Net!

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

iDo! Do you?

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.

Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness: The Incredibly Surreal Edition

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

You all know how this works by now. I find a picture that amuses me in some way…often a slightly horrified way, but that’s a way, too. Anyway, I post it, you comment with your best captions, and next week I declare a winner.

This time I found a doozy of an image I just had to share with all of you. Aren’t you lucky? Take a look at this one:

Ready…set…snark!

A Real Simple Way to Court Disaster

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

A few days ago I found myself at the local mall over lunchtime entirely sans reading material or a companion. I have no problem eating alone, but if that’s what I’m going to do, I prefer to have a book or a magazine in my hand. Going home where all my books live wasn’t an option since I had more shopping to do (it takes fortitude and visits to several stores to find lightweight summer pants, sometimes), so I headed for the lovely brand-spanking-new Borders that had just replaced the anemic little Waldenbooks we used to have. Same corporate masters, much bigger store.

I marched in and what to my wondering eyes did appear? Dozens of bridal magazines smack dab in my face almost as soon as I was through the door. The one that really caught my eye, however, was a Real Simple special wedding publication. I rather liked the clean, fuss-free imagery on the cover of a bride (well, most of her, since we see her pretty much only from about mid-torso to toes) sitting holding a simple bouquet composed of several large, plump, purple hydrangeas and a few glossy green leaves tied with pale blue ribbon. Her shoes are ballet flats. The gown is unadorned. In short, it looked all about the simple, the stripped down, and yet the elegantly lovely.

Even the tag line at the bottom of the magazine cover looked like the sort of philosophy I have always liked best: ‘Your personalized plan for a stress-free, beautiful celebration.’ Who wouldn’t want that? I snapped up the magazine and proceeded to read it with growing gawk over lunch.

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Color…don’t fear it

Friday, June 20th, 2008

When I was choosing my wedding colors, green scared me. It seemed too bright for my daytime outdoor wedding in the height of summertime. Now I’m seeing all of these wonderful green, black, and white inspiration boards on the other wedding blogs, and said green is beautifully vivid and not garish at all.

I’ve come to realize that I shouldn’t have been afraid of green. After all, I love all green flowers without exception and almost anything limey or appley is all right with me!

So here I am posting my own floral inspiration board with images from The Art of Flower and Old Town Florist in the hopes that it will perhaps inspire some of you.

And for the record, let me also say that you shouldn’t ever fear color. I mean any color! The blue-jay blue, hot cherry red, or Sunkist orange you’re picturing in your mind may seem like too much for a wedding, but don’t discount it until you’ve done your homework. I’d wager that there are at least some pictures of weddings employing said hues out there in Internetland. You may just discover it’s everything you’re hoping for and more!

LOVE/HATE: the gender equality edition

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

If you want to tell the world that either you or your spouse is a dedicated commitmentphobe, there’s no shortage of cake toppers that will help you do just that. Perhaps you had to carry your man to the altar? Or reel him in with a fly fisherman’s gentle touch? Are you ready to choke him for waiting for so long?

Notice a trend? In case it doesn’t jump right out at you, I’ll spell it out: It’s always the poor little plastic groom that’s being dragged around, forced into matrimony, or even physically injured!

Thank goodness for Archie McPhee, right? Finally, someone is manufacturing a tacky cake topper for those heterosexual couples in which it’s the lady-half who isn’t quite ready to say “I do.”

As you probably already have guessed, I HATE it, but that’s because I generally hate all cake toppers that aren’t something kooky like Matchbox racers or action figures. I’m kind of enamored with the notion that someone thinks there is enough of a demand for guy-dragging-girl toppers. At least they’re ready to admit that not all men secretly want to stay swingin’ single and not all women are frothing at the bit to get married.

Is this what modern-day gender equality looks like? Yeesh!

Forget fresh — here’s what’s hot in faux

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Here are four cool alternatives to fresh flowers, all of which can be found on Etsy. They’re all over the map when it comes to prices, from perhaps excessively expensive to entirely reasonable.

I’m curious to know where you think each bouquet belongs on the price continum. Is the crystal bouquet the most expensive? Do the paper blooms fall squarely in the middle? Give us your guesses in the comments!

If you want to check your answers, you can find the bead bouquet here, the crystal bouquet here, the hand-shaped claycraft bouquet here, and the paper bouquet here.

Thanks for sharing!

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

I know a goodly number of you are addicted to the WE channel train wrecks like Bridezillas and ::vomit:: Bulging Brides. As disgusted as I usually am by the brides-to-be on these shows, we can certainly agree on one thing. Getting an inside look at the intimate details of other people’s weddings is a guilty good time.

The couple above? They’re Sarah Lucas and Jonathon Kass. I know that he — a policy analyst and legislative aide to a city councilman in Washington — has major issues with indecision. She’s into boats and prefers to jump feet first into life’s choppy waters. And it took Kass eight months to finally decide that kissing Lucas would indeed be a good idea.

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