Bridesmaids: What's the Point

TWO-THOUSAND AND TEN has been the year of weddings for me. In addition to planning my own wedding (not taking place until 2011, of course) we have been invited to a record number, Matt has been a groomsman in one and I will be in two weddings in October (one as a bridesmaid and one as a maid of honor). Having never been in a wedding before, everything I know (or think I know) about what it means to be a bridesmaid I have learned in my extensive wedding research that began with my first bridal magazine and currently stands at subscriptions to over 50 wedding blogs and several magazines. I think I can safely say that I am well educated on all-things-wedding, but I have found the variances in opinions on who does what, how and when to be quite interesting. People in Ohio clearly have a different way of doing things than people in New York or Alabama. Part of it is tradition and part of it is cultural. However some expectations, or lack there of, are simply a result of not knowing. And I think that's where the role of a bridesmaid becomes confusing. What are the common expectations? The realistic ones? Why and who do you choose? 

Going to Extremes: Please Plan My Wedding

A good friend of mine was recently back in town for a wedding, in which she was a bridesmaid. Over dinner a few days after she filled me in on her most recent experience. This particular bride had high expectations of her bridesmaid, which was made clear the minute they were each given their "assignments."  Her personal responsibility was the flowers. The bride gave her some direction, a budget and told her to take care of the bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages. Her fellow bridesmaids were assigned invitations, centerpieces, seating cards and assignments. Talk about the ability to delegate! This bride clearly has a future in upper management. The plan worked and the bridesmaids successfully completed their tasks and a beautiful wedding resulted, but was that appropriate use of your bridal party? And if not, what is appropriate?

The Opposite End: Stand There and Look Pretty
Yesterday at my first official meeting with my own bridesmaids, my cousin (whose upcoming wedding is one that I am in) commented that she thought the sole responsibility of a bridesmaid was to stand with you at your wedding. That's it! And that seems to be reflected in some of the ladies she chose. While I was doing my MOH duties to plan the shower and bachelorette party, several of her BMs were completely absent while others helped here and there, quite unreliably. Clearly their expectations are the same as my cousin's.

Which brings me to The Bible for wedding planning: TheKnot.com.

According to The Knot:
Technically, bridesmaid duties only require you to buy the dress and show up to the wedding on time, but bridesmaids can offer to help:

• shop for bridesmaid dresses, her wedding dress
• assist in addressing invitations
• package wedding favors. 
• attend the ceremony rehearsal and rehearsal dinner
• run any last-minute errands on the day of the ceremony
• "The bridesmaids also generally plan and host the bridal shower, including helping the bride to keep track of who gave her which wedding gift so she can send out thank-you notes later. And do not forget the bachelorette party! The bridesmaids will generally plan and pay for this event as a gift to the bride."

So there you have it. The truth is that truly nothing is required besides standing up there with you in a church and doing a little partying with you after.

The Real Truth
That being said, I am sure that the quality of the bridal party is directly proportionate to the quality of a friendship. Although I have two bridesmaids whose involvement will be limited by their physical distance (one lives across the state and another across the globe), I know that my girls are true friends, picked because I have loved them for years. And I know they like to help, plan a good party and will want to be there with me and, more importantly, for me during the most important days, weeks and months of my life. They are enthusiastic, proactive and are already researching how to throw a great shower - and they have over 5 months to go. One took my engagement pictures for me, free of charge. Another is helping to make my dessert buffet. Already they are going above and beyond.

I consider myself to be quite lucky to have such great friends. And I'd advise any bride to be to seriously consider who will be a help and who will be a burden because they is exactly what you'll have on your hands.

Breakfast at Tiffany Themed Bachelorette Party

I am a huge Audrey Hepburn fan. Growing up I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roman Holiday and Sabrina over and over. Her chic sense of style is envied around the world to this day. What better muse could a bride find for a fabulous, sophisticated, yet sexy bachelorette party?

Luckily I have a best friend getting married who loved the idea of a Breakfast at Tiffany themed bachelorette party so I got to work with Publisher, sticking to the B2B's color scheme: red.

Postcard Invite (to be printed at home on postcard templates found at Office Max)


Front

Back 

Favors for Everyone

light-up, "diamond" rings and "pearl" necklaces


Decor for the Bride to Be

Red gloves and lots of jewelry

All the girls in their "Little Black Dresses"


And the best moment of the night: the Piano Crawl!

Stay Tuned....

To watch me do what I do best.... SHOPPING!

Online, in-store, catalogs, home parties... I don't care what form it takes, I love shopping. I've been a mall devotee since my first paid babysitting gig and over the years, I believe I've become quite a pro. I know how to track down a great bargain from the clearance racks. But I also know what pieces are worth investing in. Sometimes you get exactly what you paid for.

As an experienced shopping, I have come to love CSN Stores. They have everything, from a dutch oven to dog toys. Which is why I am so looking forward to doing a review for them! What should I choose? Stay tuned to find out.

Flowers, check!

I Love Flowers.

During the growing season, I love having fresh flowers in the house (and try not to kill those growing outside...). I am lucky to have a fiance who caters to my obsession and buys them for me ALL the time. They're usually inexpensive farmers market flowers like zinnias and sunflowers, which also happen to be my favorites (who said I have champagne taste?!?!). 

Originally Matt and I planned a September wedding and I was looking forward to making a hand-tied, rustic little bouquet of zinnias. Something with beautiful oranges and reds like this:

But unfortunately, we moved the wedding to February when zinnias, along with many, many other flowers are NOT in season. Boooo!

Although we are having a winter wedding, I was surprised by the number of flowers that are actually in season. Tulips, hydrangea, roses, ranunculus... typical and traditional, but lovely. I have decided on the following bouquets:
A base of aqua hydrangea like these:

It's not quite turquoise, but it's as close as the flowers can get. Turquoise flowers do NOT exist in nature. There I go picking the wrong flowers. Oops!

Add into the bridesmaids hydrangea base red roses and yellow spray roses.


And for my hydrangea base we'll be adding red anemone, yellow ranunculus and ivory hypernicum.


I'm sure at this point many of you are questioning my taste in flowers/color combos, but in my head it looks fabulous and two of the florists I met with got REALLY excited by the color and flower selections. Keep in mind that the hydrangea is a base and will be broken up by the other flowers inserted into it's larger blooms. Basically, there won't be much of the blue left in the end.


Selecting A Florist
As for the florist I chose one that is pretty new to the Columbus area, but well known among Dayton brides. The Flowerman is a unique concept... it helps brides "do it yourself" and cut down the cost of flowers. Basically a bride works with their consultant to pick and plan the flowers. Then, a day or two before their wedding, they come into the Flowerman with a few friends and, with the help of their consultant, put together bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres with the flowers they selected. Based on the quotes I received, it's about 1/2 the price of a traditional florist AND you have their help and support while you DIY it!

If you think you might be interested in the Flowerman, I highly recommend taking one of their bouquet making classes ahead of time. For around $20 you get 2 dozen roses, a 3 hour class in making all-things-wedding and a taste of what doing your own flowers will be like. I took the class a couple of weeks ago to make sure my allergies wouldn't go crazy if I did them myself. I was fine!

Picaboo Photobook Deal

I am addicted to Groupon. This amazing discount site posts "daily deals" for local businesses in your own city (check here to see if you're city is on it). I've bought mani/pedis, ballroom dancing classes, bike tune-ups and car details all at a fraction of the price. It's a great opportunity for local businesses to introduce their product to a new audience and for me to SAVE MONEY!

Today's groupon is not limited by geography and it's EXACTLY what I need! The coupon is $25 for $100 worth of photobooks from Picaboo! I plan to use a photobook of our engagement pictures for our guest book (leave blank space around the pictures for guests to sign).
 

And how much fun would a photobook of your honeymoon pictures be?

Check out today's deal and register for Groupn here.

Enjoy!!

Domesticity courtesy of our CSA

Spring through fall, our favorite way to spend a Saturday morning is strolling through one of the local farmers markets. There are quite a few in Central Ohio, but our favorite is the Worthington Farmers Market. This year we bought a CSA share from PJ's All Natural Farms. The two-person share was an amazing deal. It works out to around $13 per week and we get a crate full of veggies, fruit and eggs. Yum!

This past week we had some beautiful produce. We got beets, green beans, 4 ears of corn, a tomato, a green pepper, blueberries, an onion, red potatoes and half a dozen HUGE eggs. So I started baking...

Blueberry Zucchini Muffins 
adapted from allrecipes.com

Gathered my fresh ingredients.

yummy veggies

Added shredded zucchini to the batter.


Stirred in the blueberries.


Modification to the original recipe: baked at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes for the muffins and 40 minutes for the small loaf.

Definitely some of the best muffins I've ever made! The recipe called for more sugar than I prefer to use, so next time I'll be trying some modifications to that. Otherwise, this recipe gets rave reviews!

Beet, Goat Cheese & Walnut Salad

As a child, I loved picked beets. My mom did too, so we had them around all the time. A few years ago I had a beet and goat cheese salad for the first time. I think beets and goat cheese are the PERFECT combination. And, since Matt does NOT like beets, when they showed up in our CSA, I knew they were all mine!!!
I scrubbed and trimmed them and put them on the stove to boil away for about 30 minutes.

Then I pulled off the skin (surprisingly easy!) and diced them up

I added them to a salad of mixed baby greens from my garden, goat cheese, walnuts and a vinaigrette made of  evoo, aged balsamic and lemon juice.

So easy, and probably the yummiest thing I have ever packed for lunch!

We had way too much corn on the cob stacking up in the fridge, so I blanched and froze most of it to be used in the winter as needed. The rest I used to make a corn salsa. Another super easy recipe that I pretty much made up myself. I can't tell you how accomplished that makes me feel!

Easy Corn Salsa

• 2 ears of corn, blanched with corn removed from the husk
• 1 - 2 tomatoes diced
• 1 green pepper diced
• 1-2 onions diced
• 2 - 3 jalapenos to taste
• juice of 1 lemon (lime would be better, but I didn't have any!)
• evoo (splash)
• rice wine vinegar (splash)
• garlic salt & pepper to taste

Matt scarfed it down and completely ruined his dinner. Oh well! It must be healthier than the burger he was planning to eat, right?

There are only seven months and three days to go until our wedding. It sounds like an eternity, but I also said that with eights months to go and I have very little to show for the past month! So, I have officially started a countdown with a coordinating to do list. I hope it will be a great motivation to keep checking things off. I've been letting too much slide and it's time to get a move on!

Now that the girls are (mostly!) dressed, it's time to focus on the boys! Matt was pushing for a classic tux, perhaps something like this: Yum.

Men's Warehouse


But then he actually had to fork over the money to RENT one for a wedding he was in. Ouch! I don't think he had a clue how expensive renting can be. Which means I have won him over to my idea: finding suits for the groomsmen to buy. Woohoo! It'll be something quite simple and sexy.

Men's Warehouse


But even more fun, are the accessories. As you may remember the girls are in this:

turquoise necklace included, black shoes.

So for the guys, I'm thinking a funky red and turquoise tie would be perfect with the dresses and black suits.

Tie Drake


Toybreaker at Etsy.com


Toybreaker at Etsy.com

I can't wait to show these to Matt.  What do you think - number one, two or three?