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This past weekend I went to a lovely wedding in Brooklyn at Steiner Studios. They film TV shows and movies there during the week, and have huge spaces to rent out for parties on the weekends. The venue was pretty great, with a more than 180 degree view of the Manhattan skyline as seen thru the slightly gritty veil of the Brooklyn Navy Yards. The space was almost all windows and the sunset was spectacular. Follow that up with random fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge and you have yourself a show! I wore the ensemble above with fishnets, a black hair bow and a pair of pearl studs. The dress was from ModCloth, (I had it altered slightly, because the fit was too boxy for me). The shoes were from Charlotte Russe and were perfectly perfect for the price.
This weekend is my wedding anniversary and I am going out for a fancy dinner with the hubs here, so excited to try this place in Providence. I can't believe we've been married six years and we have a one year old son! It's like we're grown-ups or something!

A Little Blog Love...The Urban Bride

A fabulous new blog just launched into the blogoshere! The Urban Bride is a blog from the masterminds behind Swoon Over It and The Wedding Boutique, created for city brides. This blog is dedicated all you city girls, loading you up with fabulous details and inspiration for your urban wedding! Their whole philosophy is that while we all love those gorgeous garden weddings, we all don't have them.

I love this because that is exactly how I felt planning my wedding. The trend these days is definitely toward the outside and organic feel and it is getting harder to get inspiration for much else. I feel planning an "urban" wedding is more difficult in a sense. We spent the first 6 months of engagement trying to find the perfect space. I wanted something historic and architectural. We finally ended up at St. Pete's Mirror Lake Lyceum, a stunningly preserved art deco hall in the heart of downtown (it is phenomenal and I highly recommend it). So, if you are like me, wanting a fabulous city wedding, then you must check out this blog. They are all about bringing everything city-centered to the "Urban Bride"!
P.S.- They also have a fabulous launch giveaway (the Ultimate City Swag Bag!) you need to check out!

I thought I would add a few shots from my wedding of the Lyceum as well! :)

and I couldn't resist popping in one of my favs of the Mr. and I...

All photos by the amazingly talented Tina Sargeant!

destination destination

I know loads of you are planning destination weddings. From the questions and comments I get about far flung affairs, I'd say it was the next big thing! Chances are that if you're reading this website (whether you're having a backyard affair or a Tahitian Ball), you've probably already picked your wedding spot. But lemme ask you this: Have you decided on the honeymoon? Lesley Scott of Fashion Tribes has posted a fabulous list of the most fabulous destinations- all perfect for a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon experience.
The image above is from Necker Island, Sir Richard Branson's private island resort. I'd love to hear about it if anyone has been there. It sounds pretty awesome.

sam and dave: the venue

Hope everyone's weekend went well! I'm going to pass you right over to Samantha, so you can get to reading about her venue breakthru. Here she is.


For me a backyard garden wedding was so befitting. However with the fantasy, came the reality. The more tent people my dad met with, the more my parents came to realize that putting in a floor that fit the entire tent along with drainage systems and gutters, was going to cost a ton. At least as much as renting a place. Plus having the wedding at home, you have to rent everything from silverware and linens to port-a-potties. So for fear I would go all Shining Bridezilla on them, they secretly started looking around the area for an outdoor venue that had a weather contingency plan.
Thursday they came in to the city to hang out with Dave and I. Over coffee and cake (the cake was to preemptively sooth me I think) they broke the news that having it at home could be a potential nightmare if it rained and difficult even if the weather were fair. After a little coaxing I realized that the alternative plan was better than the original. We’re having the wedding outdoors at this place called Dolce within the IBM complex a mile from my parent’s house in Palisades, NY (we still get to have a great brunch at their house the following morning). We still get to bring in our cupcake tree and hydrangea centerpieces. The place has hundreds of acres, a swan pond with koi, a beautiful stone wall and a tent leading into a room with all glass walls (guest rooms too!). If the weather is nice we’ll get married by the stone wall and then all walk to the tent for cocktail hour and then party inside with the large glass windows open to all the surrounding trees. So all bases are covered and I don’t have to meditate, pray and make deals with the world that it won’t rain. I’m hoping for gorgeous spring weather and the scent of lilacs in the air but if it does not happen that way, our guests won’t have to wear rain gear and use port-a-potties… phew.

tents in la la land

Normally, there's this weird thing that goes on when New Yorkers talk about LA. They get that "Honey, please." look on their face. You know the one? Like only people who would sell their soul for a bottle of Coppertone could actually live THERE.
Well not me. I'm jealous. Only in LA can you set up a gorgeous outdoor tent with voile curtains, plush "outdoor" furniture (that is not made of plastic) and yet remain completely confident that it will not rain. It will not sleet in LA. There are never, ever Nor'easters in LA. Today, in New York, if I had tried to set up a posh little tent, it would have gotten very wet, and very cold. It would have also been on my fire escape. Which would have been dangerous.

*crazy awesome tents from Raj Tents.

sam and dave: the venue

Again, it is Monday. This morning we have another installment from my good friend Samantha. Take it away Sam.



We've been to many weddings in different places: fabulous lofts in Manhattan, tents on farms and on vineyards, campus chapels, all lovely in their own way. My main wish is that, wherever we have our wedding, the venue represents Dave and me. I really want it to be personal. So we've decided to have it at home...my parents' home, that is--we live in a tiny Manhattan studio. 130 people in there? I think not. My parents have a great aesthetic. My mom's an artist and my dad has an amazing eye. So if the three of us put our heads together we'll come up with some fantastic centerpieces and décor (I saw some lovely paper poppy pomanders somewhere…if only I could remember where).

The plan (as of now) is to have the wedding on June 9th-ish. We'll get married in the backyard under a big oak tree and then move next door to a lovely little one-room school house from the 1800's (now a community center) with a tent and dance floor outside. We'll have appetizers and champagne while mingling and listening to music. Later, we'll do a buffet dinner and watch a slideshow of me and Dave as kids. I adore slideshows! (We may even project it onto the barn in the yard). The only glitch is that if the weather is inclement, we would have to get married in the tent. Which I think would be less scenic. My dad made me promise to have fun regardless of the weather. His fear is that, if it rains, I'll sit there all night crying. (Dad, this is not my 1st-grade birthday party! I promise to roll with the punches.)

wedding on the lake

This is the first of a couple posts I'll be doing about Tait and Karen's wedding this past weekend. I'll do a separate post with pictures of the flower balls and centerpieces because I haven't gotten the pictures I need yet. I took a ton of photos of the decor with my father-in-law's camera, which he lost. So until I can collect some other images from other guests, or his camera turns up, we'll just have to look at the lovely bride and the handsome groom.
I think every bride has their stories of the last minute snafus. With me, it was the jukebox. Damn that jukebox. With Karen, it was the Port-a-Pottys and the hair-do.
At the last minute, Karen's hairdresser called and said that she couldn't come. Which, I have to say, would have freaked me out. But Karen was calm, and we decided that I should do it. I am a designer. I make pretty things. I have hair. I was fairly confident I could do it. It's just hair. Right?
Lets just start by saying that my hair is NOTHING like Karen's hair. Mine is fine and slippery and dark, Karen's is curly and thick and red (and also "foamy" according to Tait). In my opinion, if our hair got together, and had a hair baby it would be the best hair on the planet, but I digress. (You might think I'm about to brag here... and you'd be one hundred percent correct). But didn't I do a great job? It's dreamy. No?
There was also the dress, can we focus on her dress? Karen designed it, and her mother made it. MADE it. As in, from scratch. All in all, no less than a hundred hours of work must have gone into this dress. Karen was making adjustments to the details of the dress whilst she was putting it on. It was an insane labor of love for both Karen and her talented mother. Alas, the life of the dress was fast and hard. It rode in a boat, it got married, it danced the rhumba into the wee hours of the morn, and on the way to bed, it met it's end. As Tait was carrying Karen to bed (collective sigh, big romance points) he tripped over a root, dropped her in the dirt (collective gasp), and went ass over tea kettle into the mud himself. The dress was... muddy. Very muddy and damp. Only the good die young. They were good natured enough to have a good laugh about it.
More on the wedding to come. Soon. I hope.

*photos by Nuno Serrenho

a coupe for two

Not really feeling the limo vibe?
Personally, I was dying to rent a vintage taxi cab for my wedding, but sort of gave up on it because it seemed too difficult to coordinate. You can imagine my delight when I saw an article in Brides New York Magazine about filmcars.com, a NYC area business renting antique cars and drivers out for films, photo shoots or weddings.
There are, I've found, other companies renting antique cars around the country, often for prices better than those of limo rentals. A good listing of companies offering this service can be found at antiquecar.com.

we like toronto

Hello everyone! I'm back. I was in Toronto for the weekend to see my family-in-law. We like Toronto.
I came across some fun things there that I think you all might like. First stop: The Beadery. Gorgeous beads from all over the world, but better yet, the website is full of instruction on how to use them! Everything from instructions on making your own chandelier earrings to a glossary of tools for jewelry making. Check that out.

Next stop: The King Edward Royal Meridien. The nicest brunch buffet! Hot food = hot. Cold food = cold. Harpist in the corner, 40 foot ceilings, super service, great coffee, all the fresh squeezed OJ you can drink, beef wellington, and a chocolate fountain! If you're in Toronto, don't skip this place. They have one of the nicest banquet spaces I've seen so if you're getting married in the area, it's worth a look. If the wedding spread is anywhere near as great as their Sunday brunch buffet, your guests will be totally overjoyed. (I'm seeing about photos right...now. I'll post them in a bit).

Last stop: Karen's house to test a paper poppy pomander. See pics...the results were amazing! The unfortunate part is that we used every last flower we made on one center piece/pendant light combo. In order to finish enough flowers for 13 of these, we'll need to enlist more helpers or we'll need to sell our souls to the devil. It's up to Karen, which ever she wants to do. *that's brother Jay who's cut in half in the photos...hi Jay!*