Always a Blogsmaid

Engaging Proposals

While I realize that most of you reading this are a) already engaged and b) female,  I sort of think we've planned a perfect, creative proposal if the right guy is reading this!

First, make plans for a picnic at Bryant Park while watching (Maybe for The Apartment on July 28th or Superman on August 18th).  Instead of just bringing a blanket, pick up a pre-packaged picnic basket from Pera, at only $21pp (also great for an engagement celebration with friends!)  and maybe sneak in a bottle of bubbly.  And then at just the right moment, pop the question with personality by giving her a tricked out ring box from Euricase... .The ring boxes contain anything but just baubles, and instead contain personalized digital messages of photos of the two of you together, video messages (of your parents saying congratulations!) or just words of love that he's too nervous to say on the spot.   And then, when your over that shock, you can notice the ring inside.

Engagement Chicken

Last week, I answered a much discussed question about how to get a non-committal guy to commit.  We had a few comments from readers, but, to be honest, nothing really set off the googling frenzy quite the way the suggestion from Etiquettely Correct about Engagement Chicken.

Obviously, we hadn't heard of this phenomenon (otherwise, I would have saved a lot of breath and not gone into my theories of trickery and cunning wiles that I so went on and on about last week) that Glamour Magazine started back in '04. If you haven't been under a rock like us, here goes:

According to legend, women who prepare this chicken are nearly immediately (within one month) met with engagement and, tons of Commitment.  According to one recipient it "was the kind of meal a wife would make" The recipe was printed in January of '04 and supposedly, by June of '05, 21 women had been proposed to because of the chicken.  I'm assuming those women for whom the chicken didn't work simply don't come forward, so I don't know what the rate of conversion is for chicken service into Rock distribution/wedding vows. But, it seems to work and it's probably better than all that running around I had you doing.... I'm not afraid to admit when I'm crazy sounding. Besides, by all accounts, at the very least, it produces a very moist and tasty bird, so you have a nice meal together.

Then again, if it were me, from the moment he tasted the chicken, I would start acting all weird and be like "How are you feeling?" "Do I seem different to you?" The next day: "Didn't you love that chicken?"  Then the next 3 weeks would be like a bad sitcom episode where I keep waiting for the "Surprise" and getting all excited and watery eyed every time he puts his hand in his pocket.....

My question is, can you messenger these things? Like if you wanted immediate results right now, could this be sent to someone as a lunch, let's say.....Or maybe in a care package overseas?  Or maybe part of the whole things is the experience of serving the one you love a hot, roasty meal :-)

Life at the Top!

I'm so excited that Alltop, which collects the "All the Top" sights on the web just launched a wedding portal and included our blog as one of the best out there! It's quite and honor and I can see it's already gotten us a lot of new readers, so I hope you enjoy it also!  A lot of our blogging friends are also included- including Wedding Bee, Brooklyn Bride and Christine Tremoulet, who was nice enough to submit us for consideration!

It's really quite an honor and I added my HONOR badge to the site below! 

While on the topic of Web Resources, I did want to also mention that Brides.com just launched their own Wedding Blog called Wedding Bits.  I'm enjoying it, particularly for product and fashion suggestions- since they have such great access to the "bestest" and newest trends. 

Today is a short entry.  I have a bunch of great questions lined up for next week, but for now, I'm admittedly off to play hooky and go see a matinee of Sex and the City.   FYI, I'm updating my post from earlier this week, Things I'm Loving... Wedding and Non, because I had a really busy, productive week and have lots to gush about....

Flash Me! A little contest for our readers!

We are launching a contest for all of our Brides to Be OR Recently married brides out there and you can win Prizes! Yes, Prizes! 

Because Always a Blogsmaid is all about passing on great information, we partnered with SanDisk, the people who make the sexiest, cutest Flash Drives around (I never thought I could speak that way about something with a USB attachment!) for a little contest. Get it- passing advice, flash drives, passing info....

For the next week, I want to hear from you ladies (and gentlemen out there) about the best lesson you've learned through planning  your wedding/ the thing you'd do differently or the BEST piece of advice you received!

I'd LOVE to hear the back story and I'll post the 3 most interestesting stories as well as ALL the advice given next week.  The 3 best Nuggets of Wisdom will win a set of 5 chic and sexy 10 Flash drives in your choice of colors.  They are snakeskin... ooooh!

Please email your submissions to blogqs@alwaysabridesmaid.us   we're gonna wrap up this contest on June 5th.   I'll post the winners on the 9th!

The King and I

This week, in a break from Wedding Wonder-ness, we've been working on a fabulous event in the advertising industry, The One Show.  It's recognizes creative achievement in advertising and last night was the MAIN event.  Burger King was winning a big prize, but unfortunately no one from their ad agency could come and pick up the award.  However, I got a call at 3 yesterday that they could send SOMEONE.  a little someone named THE BURGER KING!!!    He comes with an entourage and required a dressing room, but we were able to accomodate him AND Mayra event squeezed in time for a photo... Had to share.

Rehearsal Dinner: Extreme Edition

Brides, my apologies, I have a backlog of questions to get to, but I HAD TO post about this. Tascha, who works with us, sent this to me last night as a "joke" of what she'd like to do for her birthday. I OF COURSE thought WEDDING! Hello!?? For the couple that has simply "done it all" and dares to impress (or DISTRESS, depending on your guestlist) I present to you: Dinner in the Sky!

My question is (as usual) what about people like me: those of us with pea sized bladders, for whom a normal dinner includes an unfortunately Lohan-esque number of trips to the ladies room?

The Name Game

Brides, so much happening at the Always a Bridesmaid offices these days, I've been a negligent blogger!
Today, I bring you a little bit of fun- Weddingchannel.com has just launched a fun feature called The Name Game.

For brides and grooms who are thinking about blending their last names, all they have to do is enter it in this tool and we’ll come up with some fun options for them.  For example, my last name is Lee and my husband’s last name is Escueta.  So our blended last name could’ve been “Leeta” or “Esculee.”

Please let me know if you’d think about posting it on your blog.  I think it’d be a fun thing for people to play around with regardless if they’re engaged!  For example, try entering in the names of your favorite celebrity couple to come up with their “couple name” à la TomKat.

The Wedding Cake

Camille in our office sent this our way and I thought it was HILARIOUS!  I'm sure a lot of you can relate!!!
(This is PG-13, btw, so you might want to lower the volume at work)

Real World Wedding Invitations

Let me start with this: most of our clients (and myself) have PRETTY standard verse on their wedding invitations.  "The Honor of your Presence..." and so on and so forth", but there are some ladies out there who want something with a little more "zip".  This includes some people in both of our families and some of our friends (and probably some of you gals reading this).  Most of them are very lovely- including, "On this day, I'll marry my best friend" and, well you get the gist. 

Today we found some that we REALLY clever, because there was so much realistic subtext for why people would select these verses.  Like, for instance this one (I imagine an ultimatum was involved):

He asked, and she said yes...
or was it the other way around?
However it happened
Marcy Punter
and
Geoff Smiggler
are getting married
and they ask you to join them

I liked this one- for the couple that had been living together for years.......

W  e've decided to make it official
We're going to tell the world
that we
love, honor and cherish each other
Please gather with us
Janine Worthington
and
Peter Gable
and share our matrimonial moment

Wondering just how extreme these less than serious wording options are, we hit the internets and found some EXTREME winners

Susan "Wedding Schmedding" Smith
and
David "They'll Never Take Me Alive" Jones
gleefully invite you to witness
the eating of their words!
Come for the vows, stay for the gypsy jazz, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres!

These are real wedding postcards that we found on Stella Mars website.

In closing, I thought I'd point out Mayra's personal favorite for her own wedding invites (when that day arrives).  We found this on www.metafilter.com and I'm just so happy she's focusing on this instead of her former first choice "Everyone thought it was just a fling......"

Here's her new choice: A former coworker and his bride did what looked like a formal, engraved wedding invitation. Once you looked at the wording a bit more closely you saw:

Blah blah blah
[groom's name] and [bride's name]
Blah blah blah
[date of wedding]
Blah blah blah
[Location of wedding]


It really *did* say blahblahblah everywhere. Of course, they did do a few traditional wedding invitations for grandparents and the like but I thought the blah ones were hysterical.

Freeze!

The Q: O M G, I heard you found the MOST amazing, instant wrinkle reducing cream?"

The A: O, I totally did! Not since I went to a Barney's event and got the Tracy Martyn eye patchy things have I been this excited about a beauty product. I had a little freak out! Saturday, Mayra and I were doing a walk through of the boathouse (amazing day here Saturday, btw) and decided to pop into Saks because we got lovely gift certificates there from a past client (yay). I walked in with a gift certificate and still managed to walk out spending a decent amount of my own money, but that's the lure of Saks for me. It's cryptonite to my check book really.

Anyway, I had a new bag under my arm and was thinking about my impending "MAJOR" birthday and the bags under my eyes when I saw it! The FREEZE 24-7 counter. I'm not a big beauty product person. I still use Oil of Olay basically, and I think I look pretty good for my age, but the impending birthday is playing a mind trick on me and late nights at weddings, etc. etc. I thought I'd try it. I SAW AMAZING IMPROVEMENTS RIGHT THERE!!!!

Before we could even tell the woman what we did for a living she was telling us how great this product is for under your make up on a special occassion like a WEDDING and how it's so much like a lotion that she, as a make up artist has put it on a few grooms' faces who over did it at their Rehearsal Dinner!

The results on my left eye were so great that Mayra tried it too and the next thing you know I was at home doing demonstrations on my husband. "Don't I look younger??"

For $115 for a 6 month supply it's a daily way to feel a little fresher and a little more firm, even if it's just to get you over the hump of your wedding stresses!

www.freeze247.com

Martha Madness: It's a Colorful World

I don't know if you've all seen this, but there is a special issue of Martha Stewart out there that is pretty fantastic. It's a special color issue that helps bride's find the color pallette of their dreams and maybe inspire you to take some chances that aren't as obvious. Color is sometimes hard since a lot of us are afraid of it, or don't do a ton of it in our everyday wardrobes, and I think this issue is a must read for brides starting to tackle the design issue. Color is the basis for the most magical looking weddings- but remember- read with caution- nothing is worse than a color pallette that doesn't "go" with your reception venue or ceremony site.
For a smaller scale tutorial on the same topic, you can also check out the last issue of Bride's.

Here Comes the Bridesmaid Dress!

The Q:"I have a collection of bridesmaids dresses. Some hideous, some not so much, but I just feel that I am wearing a bridesmaids dress whenever I have it on, thus making me never want to wear it in public, ever. What can I do with these dresses?" - Xochitl, while talking to herself every time she opens her closet. Brooklyn, NY

The A: This is an age old dilemma! Indeed, just last Halloween, I was desperately trying to find 2 friends willing to don the OTHER TWO cranberry colored Jim Helm bridesmaids gowns that I owned (that are nearly identical) so that I could FINALLY spend the holiday as a Supreme, the way I was meant to spend it. (Alas, no one else wanted to wear the other gowns!)

So, now that you are the Bride, we know you wont be putting anyone in anything ugly, but what do you do with your OLD collection!

May we present TWO solutions! First, the charitable one! Donate your PRETTY AND STYLISH dress for a young girl to wear to her prom! Imaging the wonderful "2nd Career" your dress could have as some young ladies gown of a lifetime (or at least of high school!) The Glass Slipper Project takes old bridesmaids dresses and matches them with wearers. www.glassslipperproject.org

Now, the less charitable one: Post your HIDEOUS Dress on People Magazine's Real Weddings: Ugly Dress Page! http://reallifeweddings.people.com/ They have some real winners up there! The site also includes space to post on how your FH popped the question!