1. As mentioned last week, on Saturday I went to my first wedding here in Los Angeles at Smog Shoppe (photos are coming). Thankfully the time on the invitation was not the actual start time of the ceremony as we hit some serious traffic. I LOVE when ceremonies start later than the printed time and I love even more when guests are greeted with white wine sangria to sip before the ceremony begins. The bride was beautiful, the groom dapper, the food outstanding (I believe it was catered by Auntie Em’s in Eagle Rock) and the music kickin’. The wedding itself was beautiful, lovely and fun. I ended up going with the Donna Morgan strapless dress that I wrote about for SWS Fashion Friday and believe it or not another guest, a woman I had never met before, told me that she almost wore the exact same dress (glad she didn’t). I left my Solemates on my heels all night and felt great the next day. More inspirational details to come. 
2. I cannot believe it is almost August and that was only my first of eight weddings this year.
3. We’ve got an itinerary locked down for our Boston/Maine wedding roadtrip vacation! Was my boyfriend excited about the fact that this trip is going to cost us about $2k each? Of course not. Do I have fun vacation things planned including hiking and a night in the seaside town of Camden, Maine at the Camden Harbour Inn rated by Brides magazine as a top honeymoon destination? Absolutely. I think we both just need a getaway holiday and hopefully this week we will lock in a dog sitter for our two little muppets.
4. I learned that Wedding Paper Divas is having a sweet promotion. If you purchase your Save the Date cards with WPD you can receive a $75 credit towards your wedding invites. More info here: http://bit.ly/WPDstdc.
5. We received the invitation to our friends’ Australian destination wedding. Our names were printed on the actual invitation and I found this quite striking and very cool. Garden party chic is the requested dress code and right away my boyfriend knew exactly what he was going to wear.
6. A friend of mine introduced me to the website Dream Bridal. The site is essentially a bridal resale site - like The Green Hanger Shop -  that aims to offer dream designer dresses at affordable prices. I do not see much as far as wedding guest or bridesmaid fashion, but if your bride-to-be friend is looking for affordable options this may be another place to shop. My dream bridal dress looks something like this.
7. I bought a six-pack of blank wedding cards this weekend at Target for five dollars. With two weddings in the next three weeks I had to do it and I do recommend buying in bulk if you are attending enough weddings to justify a pack of anything.

Have a great wedding survival tip to share with the Survive Wedding Season community? Email your tips to solutions@surviveweddingseason.com.
Your Attendance Is Appreciated!™

I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day. Spending time with my boyfriend’s family was, as always, a lot of fun. I am constantly appreciative of how lucky I am to have found someone with such a kind, caring and loving family. And, in case you are reading baby, thank you. Side note: my custom Tiny Prints Mother’s Day cards were a hit, and so was my potato salad.

While I am not a mom, my boyfriend’s mom had a Mother’s Day present for me. Why you ask? Because she wanted to recognize that I am now the mother of two animals - my dogs. It was actually the perfect gift: liquid hand soaps. As the mother of two animals I am constantly washing my hands, especially as my two animals enjoy rolling around outside in the yard all day long.

The only person missing from the party was my mom. She was at home in New Jersey. Next year I will insist again that she come out to Los Angeles and I know now I will need to insist even harder. Plus my boyfriend’s mom invited my mom to stay at their home.

But I made sure to send my momma a dozen gorgeous roses from Organic Bouquet. To date this is my favorite online flower delivery store. And while for myself I don’t even really enjoy roses, OB’s roses are impeccable, long-lasting and beautifully fragrant.

Another Bridal Shower On The Books:

Yesterday the date was set for my boyfriend’s cousin Tanya’s Bridal Shower. July 18 here in LA. Officially I cannot go to Neena’s Bachelorette Weekend in the Hamptons, if it falls on that weekend, as I now have both a wedding and a family engagement. I need to remember to email the party planner this week. 

As far as the shower I will help wherever help is needed (I just can’t drink too much wedding champagne the day before) as I really want it to be a fun and special day for Tanya. While Tanya loves entertaining, she does not feel the same way about having lots of attention is on her. I hope she will let us shower her with love and attention at her shower and her wedding.

Side note: our friend Jesse took Tanya and her fiance Steve’s engagement photos. I share this because Jesse has a photo blog online where he posts a photo a day. You should check it out here as there are some stunning images from all different parts of Los Angeles.

DIY Overload:

Tanya, Steve, and Tanya’s mom have been hand-crafting the wedding invitations for their August 7 wedding. To date they have probably spent over two and a half weeks - after work and on the weekends - assembling what will be a total of 125 invitations when all is said and done. They are even gluing of jewels onto the card stock. I am glad to know that her fiance is participating and helping. I think the groom-to-be should get involved as it’s his day too. 

Tanya said that she was originally planning to make all the wedding programs, table cards, and all other needed paper goods, but based on how long everything is taking just on the invites, she may buckle and call in a printer for the rest. I say for the remainder of the stock card requirements design and order everything online with a company like Wedding Paper Divas - hassle free and more time for other things. But I cant wait to see these truly personal and unique invites they are making.

When The Internet Doesn’t Save Time And Money:

I mentioned to Tanya that I got invited to my first wedding where there was no response card, just a note to RSVP online. Tanya recently read about a couple who did an online RSVP and only two guests actually RSVPed this way. What did this mean for the couple? They had to then call all of their guests and confirm whether or not they were attending the wedding. What a waste.

Sure they saved on postage and printing cards, but when they then had to make more time to go back and actually confirm their guests. I’ll have to ask my busy bride friend Monica how it’s working out so far with her online RSVP.  As far as utility I whole-heartedly support an online RSVP, but if it doesn’t fulfill what it is supposed to then what is the point? Also, know your audience. If you have a lot of older people attending your wedding go for a response card.

Ring-Shopping Together Is Whack:

I forgot to mention last week that my man thinks the concept of shopping together for engagement rings is the least romantic thing he has ever heard of and thinks it focuses too much on the ring and not the choice to get married. This all came up because we have friends who have been dating for about four years and now they are going ring shopping together. Boyfriend’s view is that it puts a lot of pressure on the guy to fulfill and satisfy some sort of materialistic ideal instead of focusing on the decision to establish a serious commitment to each other.

I tried to explain to him that a lot of times men like to go “hypothetically” ring shopping just to get a sense of what their fiancees might enjoy. This concept was not met with any sort of “oh right I get it,” just another confirmation of how materialistic this way of shopping felt to him. So before moving on to a more interesting, conversational topic I just put out there that for whatever reason should he have any jewelry questions - in general - he should consult with my aunt and my friend’s Erin and Jackie on what I might like.

Then I wondered why we were even having this conversation. We are not even talking about marriage anytime soon and are just getting ready to move in together. So, I moved back to the topic of what a delicious meal we were having at Church & State.

If wedding season has taught me anything, it is to focus on the present and enjoy one’s current relationship to the fullest. Wedding season has encouraged me to stay in my now and not wander off to some fantasy future full of big fantasy rings. But that is not to say I don’t have a fantasy ring, because guess what? I do and it’s made by Erica Courtney.

But that’s just fantasy. What I would love in a ring - any ring - is what it represents. And I have had friends with big rings fail at marriage, so bigger is not always better. But I am sure there is some millionaire matchmaker out there that would just at the chance to argue that smaller is not always better either.

More On Giving Back On Your Big Day:

It made me very happy to discover today that the Wedding Channel offers Charity Wedding Favor reception cards. They are perfect and I am a huge believer in this type of favor as I would be happier knowing a donation was made in my name/attendance than receiving some sort of fridge magnet. Also, Wedding Channel is currently having a wedding favor sale until May 17th. Click here for more details.

Have a great wedding survival tip to share with the Survive Wedding Season community? Email your tips to solutions@surviveweddingseason.com.

Your Attendance Is Appreciated! ^™