Marry Me Live Guest Post

I’m just mad about her!

With the arrival of spring, bright airy colors, create that wonderful sense of serenity. When I saw these color inspirations from Eco-Beautiful Wedding Mag’s spring issues, it brought such a smile to my face that I wanted to share it with all of you.

Designed by Get Polished Events

Eco-Beautiful Weddings Magazine is the new “it” Green wedding magazine with online distribution and a popular daily blog that has guest writers that include some of your favorite wedding bloggers across the world. This is just my favorite sample from the magazine, but there are over 100+ pages of GREEN wedding inspiration to peruse.

By Erin Frank

If you’ve spent any time on wedding blogs, you’ve likely come across photos of a candy bar. Candy bars—referring to containers of colorful sweets guests can munch on and/or bag up as wedding favors—are a great way to move beyond the traditional cake-only reception. Guests can self-serve, freeing your staff and family members up for more important things than passing out rounds of cake slices.

But rather than filling apothecary jars with plain-Jane M&Ms and jordan almonds in your wedding colors, explore candies that are out of the ordinary. Find retro candies online at places like Economy Candy and Dylan’s Candy Bar or, even better, head over to Fiona’s Sweet Shoppe near Union Square in San Francisco.

Shop owner Fiona moved to San Francisco in 2005 and immediately missed her favorite sweets from her native United Kingdom.  She set aside her work in medicine for a career in candy, and she now sources sweets from across the pond and brings them to you via her small Sutter Street sweetery.

Fiona’s Sweet Shoppe’s offerings are unique, with creations like mango licorice, boiled sweets, strawberry bootlaces, and more. Below you’ll see chocolate toffee robin’s eggs, mini Rolos, and brown sugar cube licorice.

To really seal the deal, pick up some authentic metal candy scoops (I’ve found them at Kamei), tie colorful ribbons to the handles, and provide glassine bags your guests can scoop and snack from.

Fiona’s Sweet Shoppe

214 Sutter Street, San Francisco CA 94108

415-399-9992

www.fionassweetshoppe.com

By Megan Peters

You are probably wondering what N-Fini is in the first place. First off N-Fini Shape is fan of Plus Size Bride at bayareabrideguide.com. They are a company that sells quality shapewear sizes 0-30. I am thrilled to be contacted and thank them for introducing me to the best shape wear product I have ever experienced.

I was skeptical at first trust me. I have used many shapewear products from department stores including Spanx, which most women rave about. The truth is though the largest size I found in Spanx never fit me right. I guess because I am a tall and large woman.

I decided to give N-Fini Shape a chance and ordered a strapless cami dress undergarment. It happened to arrive in the mail on a day I had a girl friend over. So I gave my friend the “before” look with this cute little black cocktail dress on, and then the “after” look with the shape wear underneath the dress. Then I did the test of walking around and seeing if the fabric was cutting into my fat or if the garment was going to start rolling up under my dress. None of this happened. I could hardly believe it. I felt hot; I felt ready for a night out to show off my smooth curves. I would most definitely wear this under my wedding dress. I felt happy that there is a company who actually makes shape wear that works well for the very plus size.

I then read over the company look book, which is filled with product photos as well as info on the company and each garment they make. I was happy to find that they specialize in full figures. Thank you for the curve recognition! They actually create exclusive fabric on specially designed machines to produce larger sizes. Rather than a larger piece of fabric created on a standard machine. They call this their Tru-Plus garment that is created wider than standard shapewear. Typical plus size shapewear tends to make you feel compacted and uncomfortable and N-Fini does a fine job of making the garment feel like it was made for you personally. I only wish they could make my wedding dress this comfortable.

Along side this special fabric is a diamond shape fabric LYCRA feature. This I could tell was what sucked me in and made me look so good. There was extra support and shaping in the most needed places by the diamond support. It was extremely flexible yet helped firm my trouble areas.

The last special feature that makes this my new favorite under garment is that they put gel in a scalloped pattern on the hemlines. This is the secret to why it wasn’t rolling up or down. I looked at my other shapewear pieces and saw that they had a straight line, no wonder they didn’t work well.

I highly recommend this product and am happy I don’t have to write an article about how average or unflattering this shapewear is. Instead I can say its fantastic, and N-Fini where have you been all my life? This is what every curvy woman needs on a fat day or even on a not so fat one.  Check them out at http://www.n-fini.com and use this promotion code to save $25.00 off orders of $50.00 or more. Code: Divine25, which expires 4/30/10.

As a beauty industry professional, I work with many brides and who for pre-wedding beauty tips all the time. I’ll publish a couple of them here, and feel free to comment on my post with individual questions if you’ve got them – I’d be more than happy to consult with anyone about their skin!

1. Be conservative!

Above all, I encourage brides to be conservative with regards to time and strength of treatment. Two weeks before the wedding is not the time to freak out and try your very first glycolic peel. Six to twelve months before your wedding, I would suggest consulting with an esthetician (or dermatologist) and sharing with them your concerns about your skin and your goals for the big day. Be sure to share any allergies, sensitivities, or issues you’ve had with any particular products or ingredients in the past.  They will work with you to develop a plan over the next couple of months to get your skin to where you want it to be.

2. A short list of DO NOT’s

DO NOT pick your face

DO NOT apply self-tanner, at home, by hand

DO NOT go indoor tanning or sit outside for a couple of hours to “get some color”

DO NOT get your hair cut less than a month before the wedding

DO NOT get a quick brow wax at the corner nail shop

DO NOT make any last-minute, untried changes to your appearance of any kind! You want to look like a shiny, polished version of yourself on your wedding day – not someone else.

3. If you get a blemish…

Pimples are mostly visible because they are red, inflamed, and swollen. If not for the redness, we probably wouldn’t even notice it – it would just be a bump. And how can you make a pimple into just an almost-invisible bump? Ice. Cold will take down the swelling and the redness and render that little monster almost invisible. Overnight, spot treat with benzoyl peroxide (apply very precisely, with a q-tip to avoid irritation in the area surrounding the blemish) and a clay-based mask. Above all, do not pick. Please, please, do not pick. I promise it will look worse. Go see your esthetician and she/he will extract it for you if need be!

4. Body beauty

Exfoliating the skin on your body is very important, both for healthy, blemish-free skin and in preparation for a spray tan (if you’re planning to go golden brown on your wedding day.) I’m a big fan of exfoliating towelettes, rather than the “shower poof version, which can harbor tons of bacteria.

If you tend to get acne on your back and chest and are wearing an open-backed dress, try an acne wash with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. Both of these ingredients are very effective on acne, but can cause additional sun sensitivity so be careful!

5. Be yourself!

Every bride is beautiful because she is happy. You don’t really need to do anything to your skin, hair or body to achieve that. But if you want to prep and pamper, have fun with it! And be smart.

by Vera Devera

By Elizabeth Zachry

Last weekend I attended a bridal shower.  I, like most people, dread bridal showers because they usually involve playing silly games that make the bride and/or guests look ridiculous and sitting around for hours watching the bride open her presents.  At one shower I went to the bride spent three hours opening presents.  Three hours!!

I have a friend who believes that low expectations breed positive results, and in this particular case he was dead on.  The Disney themed shower I went to last weekend wildly surpassed any expectations I had for bridal showers by providing us with good food, entertaining games, and quick present opening.  Here are some of the things I liked the best about the shower:

The Theme

I think that picking a fun theme is a great idea.  The Disney theme brought a different and fun atmosphere to the shower because it made the shower feel more casual and fun. The decorations were very cute and included Mickey Mouse centerpieces for the table, nametags with a Mickey Mouse outline, and a Mickey and Minnie topper on the cake.

Not every bride is a Disney nut, but when throwing a shower you can think about the bride and some of her favorite things and choose a theme that way.  Some ideas I have come up with include: the beach, Napa (wine and cheese), or old movies.

Games

This shower had some of the most fun bridal shower games I have ever participated in.  My favorite was the “Price Is Right” game.  The groom went to The Home Depot and took pictures with the items he needed for his “honey-do list.”  These photos included him holding a hammer, sitting inside a trash can,  and with a toilet seat around his neck.  Everyone had to guess how much the items cost individually and the person closest to the actual cost, but not over, got a point.  The person with the most right at the end was the winner.  The game was really hard, but that, along with the great pictures of the groom, made it super fun.  My other favorite game was gift BINGO.  We were given blank BINGO cards that we had to fill with items we thought the bride was going to open.  It was awesome because it made the gift-opening more engaging for all the guests.  (Does it count as cheating to have your sister pull up the gift registry on her blackberry and see what items were purchased??)

Party Favor

I love getting favors that I will actually use and appreciate, and this one did not let me down…everyone got a small bottle of wine.  What can be any better than that? They added stickers to the back of each bottle to make them more personalized.  They also found some great ribbon that says “Eat Drink & Be Married!” and wrapped it around the neck of each bottle.  Overall, it was a low cost and personalized favor that everyone loved.

Do you have any other tips you would like to share?  Any horrible, or awesome, shower stories?  I would love to hear them!

Marry Me Live Guest Post

My Wedding Concierge: an iPhone app, search engine, all around wedding planning tool.

It is hard to categorize Phyllis and Philip Cheung’s wedding planning platform, My Wedding Concierge, but the best way to describe it is Google for Wedding Planning Resources.

My Wedding Concierge delivers a smart search engine and iPhone application to enhance the wedding planning process for tech-savvy brides and grooms. It harnesses cutting edge technology to help couples organize and identify vendors for their wedding day. AND, the iPhone app is completely FREE for wedding couples. I did a Q&A with Phyllis Cheung, My Wedding Concierge’s CEO to uncover some of the best of what My Wedding Concierge has to offer.

What inspired you to start My Wedding Concierge?
My husband and I started My Wedding Concierge when I was 7 months pregnant with my son and on bed rest. I was going stir crazy and he was about to get laid off when we decided to write an iPhone app for the wedding industry. I’ve been in the wedding industry for nearly 8 years with a marketing background and my husband is a software engineer. We saw a future with mobile marketing and decided to fulfill that niche since no one was doing it yet in the wedding industry.

What is your unique value proposition?
Our unique value proposition is that our current products focus on features that are complementary to existing wedding planning websites. Our website is structured in a search engine type format. We also have a wedding blog search engine where it’s a one stop shop for brides looking for information. She no longer has to visit several blogs looking for say, a red bouquet. All she has to do is type in “red bouquet” and all the different ones will show up from different blogs. Our iPhone app is the only vendor-centric app available. We chose to focus only on wedding vendors because our brides enjoy our full screen images and the ability to rate and store the photos for future reference.

What was important to you when building the iPhone application?
We wanted our brides to be able to find wedding vendors and inspiration on the go. It had to be easy to navigate and have full screen photos and enough information so that a vendor could easily replicate their website on our app. Our app also offers one touch email, one touch phone calls, and one touch to the vendor’s website that loads within the app so that the bride doesn’t lose her place.

My Wedding Concierge’s iPhone app is available via the iPhone apps store. Download it. Play with it. Let Bay Area Bride Guide know your feedback!

By Erin Frank

Your invitations speak volumes about your wedding.  They can reflect your style as a couple, your colors, what the tone of your event will be and more.  But if you’re tying the knot in a destination location, why not showcase the city you’re celebrating in? I love these San Francisco-themed invitations by Hello!Lucky.

If you’ve been around the Bay Area wedding or craft fair scene (think hip, indie crafts, not creepy handmade dolls) you may have seen the stellar stationery created by Hello!Lucky. San Francisco-based sisters Eunice and Sabrina Moyle co-founded Hello!Lucky in 2003 with a vintage press in Eunice’s garage. Since then they’ve been creating lovely letterpress and printed items that have appeared in publications like Martha Stewart Weddings, Daily Candy, InStyle, and Real Simple.

For city-dwellers not based in San Francisco, Hello!Lucky also has invitation suites designed for London, New York, even Hawaii.  Go to www.hellolucky.com to find your destination invitation today.

By Megan Peters

I want to first start of by saying this feels a bit selfish registering for gifts. I would say I have lived a simple life and never expected things to come my way. So it feels odd to be asking for gifts, just because we are getting married? What an interesting tradition. Looking at the greater picture of things I see that many people have expressed interest in being apart of our next chapter in life, and are equally as excited about it as my fiancé and I.  Friends and family keep asking us “what do you guys want or need?” So I suppose a registry will help get things started off right in married life. Looks like it will start with proper household items and a beautiful honeymoon vacation!

This past weekend we decided to face the registries and find what we needed. We debated Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target but decided to pick Target and Bed Bath and Beyond for their affordability. We also came to the conclusion that we wanted a honeymoon registry most of all.

We tackled the shopping part first. Our adventures started with a Club Wedd Registry at Target, which was not as easy or fast as I had imagined. After we arrived at Target and began the process we realized this was not just fun but also a serious task. It hit me, this was going to be for our first house together and we are registering for things that will be ours. More importantly I wanted everything to sort of go together as a whole, to have a certain warm welcoming vibe. I wanted to pick things that felt like us as a couple.

My fiancé helped me graciously pick colors, styles, and brands but after awhile started to lose interest and patience. At this point we had only made it down four isles and a whole hour had already passed. Yikes! Note to self warn your husband–to- be that this may take awhile and some serious patience. We energized with some coffee, thank you Starbucks for being inside of our local Target. We went on, I sent him off to find the perfect electronics for the house as well as some outdoor backyard stuff. Which is more his style of shopping than mine. After over three hours of the slowest well thought out shopping we have ever done together I am happy to report we picked all the things we needed from Target. Mainly natural colors for all the household items, stainless steel appliances and one kick ass outdoor patio set and fire pit. Yes, can you tell I am practically drooling over the patio set we found? I can’t wait to sit and have brunch out side with the dogs, or have family over on a warm summer night for an outdoor dinner to be followed by wine next to the fire pit. Okay I’ll stop dreaming for now.

Our second registry is at Bed Bath and Beyond where I the bride to be graciously went with out husband in hand to pick out our bed linens, flatware, and all the things that Target had but was not to our liking. I have to say I was surprised at how helpful the Bridal Registry Consultant was. She made my task to register the remaining items so much easier. I wish I had just started here and then went to Target for the rest, oh well. She happily greeted me with something to drink, a bride guide pamphlet to the store, a checklist and then walked with me to make recommendations and point me in the right direction. Thankfully my task was done in one short hour.

Lastly, our third registry, the one we are the most excited about. Which is our honeymoon registry. Without the help of our friends, family and fans, we would not be able to take one. After much research and through recommendation we decided to use http://www.honeyfund.com, which is a free honeymoon registry site designed for guests to contribute to different things related to your honeymoon i.e. airfare, dinners, hotel, champagne, day trips and more. We thought this was a fantastic idea and would be great for guests who would prefer to help give us an adventure of a lifetime rather than material items.

That ends the adventure of registries, one husband-to-be down, two coffees later, and one pair of very sore brides feet. I look forward to setting up our house and taking our vacation but most of all I cant wait till my Plus Size Bride Wedding happens in 243 days.

I want to thank you all in advance, and let you know we appreciate the gifts that help us on our journey together as husband and wife. If you are a hardcore “Plus Size Bride” fan you can view our registries here:

Target Registry: http://www.target.com/registry/wedding/3GZXEHH5DXA2O

Bed Bath and Beyond Registry: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?order_num=-1&wrn=%2D1488720286

Honeymoon Registry: http://www.honeyfund.com/wedding/meganandsam

My fiance and I looked at several different catering companies to use for our August 14 wedding, but Fork and Spoon was the clear winner. They don’t do just catering – like they say, it’s an event production company. From luxury port-a-potty rentals to flowers to ideas for tablescapes, our first meeting with Jen was productive as well as mind-expanding. Since they have so much experience in the Bay Area, chances are they’ve done an event at your chosen location. When we told her where we were having our ceremony, she knew the place immediately. Her suggestions about minimally decorating the austere but beautiful natural wood facade of the church were things we never thought about and they’re going to look amazing.

Jen was able to “get” right away to the look that I was going for – minimal, clean lines, natural and sophisticated, with an eye on conservation. I am pretty sure of what I want, and was apologetic for being bridezilla-ish, to which she replied:

“It’s much easier and better for us when a couple has an idea of what they want. You have no idea how many people come in and they’re not sure what they want. They like everything. Those are the difficult ones…”

So the take away? Don’t be afraid to speak up for what you want.

I’ve gotten this far in the article without even mentioning their food, which is by all accounts amazing – fresh, seasonal, inventive. But that’s something I would take for a given from any catering company – Fork and Spoon is so much more than just the amazing food.

Be sure to check out the cover of Martha Stewart weddings this month – a Fork and Spoon wedding is featured and has a several-page pictorial.