Archive for the ‘Bridal Party’ Category

If you haven’t heard, this Saturday, November 27, is Small Business Saturday! American Express is encouraging everyone to shop locally and support your local small businesses in an effort to build our communities and reinvest in our local neighborhoods. As a small business, we’re pretty excited about this and hope you will take the time to consider the innovative, flexible, and impressive products available from local sources.

In that effort, we will be highlighting some of our favorite small businesses in the wedding industry. Our features will come from across all wedding elements – attire, decor, stationery, favors – so check back for new ideas and some fabulous sources for wedding details. Don’t miss these great vendors!

To kick off the week, we have a his and hers accessory feature: Unveiled Bridal Designs and OoOTie.

Unveiled Bridal Designs

{  unveiled bridal designs }

Dorene of Unveiled Bridal Designs creates stunning custom veils. Her gallery demonstrates the breadth of her creativity: french tulle, birdcage, blushers… each one is beautiful in it’s own right.

Highlight: each veil is custom made. Starting with either an idea or an image, Dorene will create a veil that compliments your dress and personality.

OoOTie

{  OoOTie }

(pronounced “Oh tie”, to rhyme with bow tie) We heard about OoOTie recently and have since fallen in love with the colors, designs, and panache that is now on the market. Looking for something specific? Contact them to discuss groomsmen gifts, or just a special tie for your groom. You never know, it just may revolutionize his wardrobe.

Highlight: Each of their “off the shelf” offerings come with a Do and Don’t style guide. This baby blue and white number comes with the guidelines:

DO: Pair this with cool summer suits; white or khaki linen, a straw fedora and dress shoes sans socks.

DON’T: Wear anything too heavy or dark with this bow-tie. Leave the black and grey pinstripes at the office and don’t combine with bright colors.

Happy Monday!

While flipping through GQ (information is everywhere!) there was an article on hosting fun and manageable parties. It seems like an interesting article — as much as I love hosting events it seems like the details of a small dinner party can so quickly get away from you if you don’t plan, prepare, and smile.

The article’s premise is a good one: a good party has good food, drink, and entertainment; a great party has the same, plus a happy host.

Rule No. 2: You’re the evening’s cruise director. Your guests look to you to set the tone.

This should be Rule No. 1 for your wedding day… but that is another conversation for another day.

With all of this in mind, what are a groom’s “can’t-live-without-would-rather-just-elope” wedding items? GQ has this to say:

1. Drinks. Something good but not too complicated. A house drink is nice but don’t try to be a mixologist. Don’t forget to offer at least one interesting option for those who forgo alcohol — the only option shouldn’t be sparkling or flat!
2. FOOD!! A meal that is not only coherent across courses, but also doesn’t shout “Martha Stewart is in the kitchen”. Keep with the core of simple appetizers, a meal with good variety, and end with something sweet. This means you must order a great cake!!
3. Entertainment. And don’t skimp! Receptions typically have two phases: dinner and dancing. The meal won’t carry your entire experience, so hire a great DJ or band and leave your iPod for your marathon training.
4. Classic touches. Guys could care less about the bows you painstakingly tied to each favor, but they will notice and appreciate wine service at the dinner table, dinner plates served from the left and cleared from the right, and a gorgeous classic get-away car.

It truly is that easy to keep the groom happy. He doesn’t want to think about how to cut the cake or when to ask you for your first dance. Follow his advice and hire someone else to worry about the day-of details. After all, will you really be that relaxed if your aunts are asking you wedding-related questions every 2 minutes?

Cheers,
__Jessica

This weekend the Sowa Open Market will open for the summer. It is an open air market for artists to showcase everything from jewelry to Indie art and is quite the South End destination.

Opening Weekend

Hours: 10:00am to 5:00pm
Saturday and Sunday, May 15 and 16
Address: 460 Harrison Ave., Boston

There is something here for everyone… including your bridal party, or just the perfect accessory for the wedding. At the very least, it is a great weekend morning date for you and your fiancé. If you’ve ever been to Washington DC’s Eastern Market then this will be a similar experience.

Some brides find the neat, custom details for the wedding. An adorable headband for the flower girl, typewriter cuff links for the guys, or some accessories for a custom “photo booth”.

{ Photo “booth” }

So get shopping and enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Cheers,
__Jessica

What are your plans for the day of your wedding? Are the guys golfing and the ladies being pampered? If so, get them together (and keep them together) in a comfortable, convenient location by hosting them at a bed and breakfast.

{ Captain Farris House, Cape Cod }

Many of the couples I’ve worked with choose to say goodnight after the rehearsal dinner, then see each other at the altar. The night before the wedding, the bride and her friends spend some quality time together, while the groom and his friends do the same. They can pretty much do this anywhere, hotels included, but the comfort and privacy of a B&B is better than many options out there.

The fun is in reserving an entire house for the ladies, and another (just down the road) for the guys. On the morning of the wedding everyone is free to roam the house without worrying about curlers in your hair or *accidentally* seeing the bride before the ceremony.

{ Cliffside Inn, Newport }

If your wedding is set in a city there are bed and breakfast options there, too! There are several gorgeous brownstones that have an intimate and elegant style. The best part about a bed and breakfast in the city is that everything is just outside your front door and it is easy to take a cab anywhere (for when you run out of hairspray and the bridesmaids need to make an emergency trip to Rite Aid).

{ Charles Street Inn, Boston }

Hosting your bridal party will be fun – and practical – so have a blast!

Cheers,
__Jessica

Earth and community friendly products are no stranger to the wedding scene and as time progresses the options are increasing – to include your wedding dress. Designers are creating fashions that support everything from local causes to environmental efforts so selecting one of these will help you feel and great as you will look!

Sustainable Fabrics

The most common sustainable fabrics (organic cotton and peace silk) offer basic selections for the formality of your dress. Organic cotton is just as breezy and polished as your favorite summer dress but is better for the environment – exposing ecosystems to fewer chemicals and pesticides.

{ Natural Bridals }

If you’ve never heard of it, peace silk is harvested naturally without harming silkworms. The fabric is incredibly soft just like any other silk you can find – other than the process for collecting peace silk, you’d never know there was a difference!

{ Adele Wechsler }

Vintage and “Once Wed”

Selecting a vintage or “once wed” (previously worn) dress has several positive sides. Vintage fashions are incredibly chic and have made a comeback, so if this is your style then talk with family or friends about borrowing a wedding dress. Online sources are also good and offer plenty of options.

{ Posh Vintage Girl }

Gently worn dresses are good for the environment and your wedding. Not only can you find an incredible, dreamy dress at reduced prices, making the dress a fantastic find, but it is also good for the environment – because there is no additional drain on the environment for creating a new dress.

{ Monique Lhuillier }

Some great sites include

• Recycled Bride: dresses, accessories, and attire for your bridal party from every designer (my favorite being Monique Lhuillier)!
• Vintageous and Posh Girl Vintage have good selections of 1940s and 50s dresses
• Once Wed: the site that inspired the phrase. Excellent selection!
• Brides Against Breast Cancer: check out our previous post

Local Designers

Just like buying local produce contributes to ecological efforts, working with local designers is eco-friendly. Local designers have access to locally or regionally loomed fabrics and will create your dress in a local shop, contributing to the local economy and reducing the greenhouse emissions for transporting your gown.

Happy shopping!

Cheers,
__Jessica

Bridesmaid gifts can be difficult to find, especially when you are trying to find something that represents your appreciation for all they have done. While you can never truly tell them how much their support means to you, you can offer a thoughtful token as a special thank you.

Things to Consider

Keep in mind the emotional support, time, energy, travel, and (often forgotten) financial commitment your bridesmaids have made to you and your wedding. These women have planned and hosted parties, taken your weepy calls, and reassured your every worry. Your bridesmaids have purchased things from matching headbands to multiple airline tickets to share in the multiple aspects leading up to your big day – so remembering this will help you select the right gift.

Two other things to keep in mind: purchase something they would love to have and find a way to make this gift personal. Personal can mean monogram, but it more accurately means something that reflects a bridesmaid’s personality and/or interests.

Options

{ Monogrammed Vera      |      charm      |      gloves }

These are great bridsmaid gifts for smaller budgets. The small Vera Bradley duffel is a perfect gym bag and the monogram is a nice touch (I have the same pink Vera as this photo from MCC!). For the bridesmaid who enjoys jewelry, consider a charm – on either a necklace or for her charm bracelet. If there are any sorority ladies in the group, consider giving a charm of a sorority-related symbol. And for those Boston bridesmaids, beautiful gloves are always appreciated!

{ Veuve Cliquot champagne }

A graceful gesture would be a delivery, of almost any kind, to each of the bridesmaid’s home either a few weeks before or shortly after the wedding. Who wouldn’t want to be surprised with a fabulous bottle of champagne?! Plan ahead for this kind of gift and never give any sort of liquid gift to your bridal party over the wedding – with increased airport security your beautiful gift could become a burden.

{ wine tasting  |  Museum of Fine Art }

The bridesmaid who has everything would appreciate an experience more than something tangible, and these items are great. Tickets to the best concert of the year, a membership to her favorite museum, wine tasting, or a cooking class will give them something to enjoy and remember.

{ dress }

One last suggestion… Thanks to a modernization of bridal-thought and couture bridesmaid dresses are more fashionable than ever. Yet even the best intentioned bride must understand that very few bridesmaids will ever wear their dresses again. Count it off to personal style – some people don’t like bright apple green.

Considering that your best friends will purchase the dress, without a peep of dissention, a gift card to their favorite store is a wonderful gift. They will have far more use out of the dress and will credit you when they wear it.

And remember – it is a gift…so paying for wedding expenses, or giving a gift that you require them to use for the wedding, is kind but not a gift. After all, have you worn the earrings that match your lavender bridesmaid dress?

Cheers,
__ Jessica