Please give a hearty hand to Ms. 122, the winner of The Beau-coup Wedding Favors mini contest! If you’re reading this, Ms. 122, someone from Beau-coup Wedding Favors should be contacting you shortly so you can snap up some of the plantable seed favors you like so much. Congrats!
Archive for July, 2008
Congrats to Ms. 122!
Thursday, July 31st, 2008LOVE/HATE: Memorytube
Thursday, July 31st, 2008As far as I’m concerned, Memorytube is a neat idea with a pisspoor name. I know tubes are in…we have YouTube and snarky references to the “Intertubes” (Thanks Senator Stevens!) and the extremely NSFW RedTube…but Memorytube?
The people behind the company want brides and grooms to ditch the guestbooks, photobooths, and videographers in favor of five foot tall kiosks that empower attendees to make multimedia memories that will later be stamped in a DVD for the newlywed couple. So what does it actually do?
- A built-in cam takes guests’ pictures or films their well-wishes
- Camera-shy guests can type their salutations in an electronic guestbook
- Card readers of all sizes and Bluetooth tech allow guests to upload their snapshots and videos before going home
Hiring out a Memorytube kiosk costs about £299 — oh, right, it’s currently only available to our friends in the UK.
Now I could see this being a big hit at a reception populated by tech-savvy guests, though if yours is a big wedding you may have to cope with watching your guests queuing up to see what all the fuss is about. I can’t say that I particularly love or hate the idea.
On one hand, it’s neat…sort of the upscale version of the brides and grooms who set up a laptop at the reception so guests can upload their photos before the last dance. On the other hand, people tend to be a touch more thoughtful when they’re leaving their mark in a proper book. I can just imagine the sorts of things all the kids at my wedding would have been saying into the poor kiosk’s cam!
What do you think? Is it a fantastic idea…or a gimmicky one?
An unabashedly super cake
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008I don’t know what it is about the Nintendo themed cakes that I love so much. I’m guessing it’s a nostalgia thing, seeing as that I spent most of elementary school with a NES controller in my hands. We’ve featured a Super Mario Bros. cake and a stacked console cake, and now my good friend Miller found a Super Mario Kart/Super Mario Galaxy cake!
According to the Flickr set, the entirety of this amazing confection is edible, from the chocolate decadence cake itself to the Piranha Plants and turtle shells. The couple who chose this as their dessert centerpiece both play video games, and they chose Let The Eat Cake in Costa Mesa, California to do the honors.
Having a friendly and easy to work with baker was… well the frosting on the cake. We felt we made the right choice in choosing Beth for our Mario cake when on the way out of the bakery we heard her ring tone, it was the Super Mario Bros. theme.
I love it, though I have to say that I’d be a little afraid of damaging it while dismantling it to cut and serve.
The Beau-coup Wedding Favors mini contest
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
It’s nice to get a little help in what the radio keeps telling me are these tough times, especially when everything wedding related costs a pretty penny. Why, favors alone can eat up a good portion of your extras budget when you’re trying to ensure that your guests aren’t going to toss your gift in the nearest trash bin!
If you’d like a little help, you’ll be happy to know that Beau-coup Wedding Favors got in touch with me the other day because they want to give one lucky bride-to-be (or nuptial enthusiast) a $75 gift certificate toward favors. To enter to win, just leave a comment on this post telling us what kind of favor you’d like to receive at the next wedding you attend. Personally, I’d like a mini tin of loose tea.
At noon on Thursday, July 31 at 12 p.m. EST, I’ll use my trusty random number generator to choose a winner.
Encore! Encore!
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Second hand and sample gowns aren’t for everyone — there’s always the risk of loose beading or a spotty hem or worse, the ghost of a failed marriage — but they are a great way to cut costs, especially when you want to wear a designer gown but you can only afford to pay off-the-rack prices. Encore Bridal is one site that’s capitalizing on the fact that many brides-to-be want to wear an unforgettable gown even if their budget doesn’t allow for it.
The site sells gowns on consignment, as well as a limited selection of sample gowns that come from upscale boutiques making room for new inventory. The pros are that it’s easy to navigate and you can buy your gown right there online. The biggest con, as I see it, is that you can’t visually inspect your frock before making the purchase. The good news is that Encore accepts returns, as long as you get in touch within seven days.
How sweet are the deals? The limited-edition Monique Lhuillier gown above was marked down from $5,700 to $2,590 by the seller. Size two and strapless, this asymmetrical organza number has been embellished with a unique botanical pattern in black and steel gray. If you have that kind of scratch — and that kind of body — it’s still available!
Scattered, smothered, covered, and legally wed
Monday, July 28th, 2008What do you do when, for years, your plans to get married are thwarted by unaccommodating work schedules? If you’re George “Bubba” Mathis and Pamela Christian, you get married at work! The couple always dreamed of getting married on their July 4th anniversary, but it just never worked out. This year, Pamela got the day off at the last minute, but George was scheduled to work the morning shift.
Perhaps it was fate or maybe it was the lure of a post-wedding hash browns, but whatever the reason, the couple decided to tie the knot at Waffle House.
Before walking down the makeshift aisle that led from the back of the Waffle House out to the eatery’s parking lot, the happy bride-to-be chatted with a reporter from the Gwinnett Daily Post.
“Waffle House is as much a part of our lives as our kids are, and we’ve been working together at Waffle House for almost three years now. When he had to work, we just knew then that we were going to have it here.”
Congrats to Pamela and George, and kudos to them for making an unusual venue choice to avoid having to compromise on the date! Though, truth be told, I do have to wonder why their boss wouldn’t just give them the day off.
In Which Twistie Reviews iDo
Sunday, July 27th, 2008Let’s get self-referential here for a minute or two.
My esteemed colleague, Never teh Bride, has recently had her book, iDo: Planning Your Wedding With Nothing But ‘Net, published. She was kind enough to send along a copy to me. Of course we all know that free copies of new books to the media are meant to be review copies…okay, she seemed both surprised and amused when I broached the concept to her, but you don’t send a copy of your latest novel to the New York Times Book Review in hopes that they won’t write it up, and, well, I do write about weddings and wedding planning and wedding goodies for sale. It seemed only reasonable to me that our readers should get the skinny on this volume if not precisely from the horse’s mouth, then from the mule next door.
So what did I think? Click the link and find out. Yes, I’m a tease. What? This surprises you?