Running of the Brides®

If you are in the New York City area you probably already know about this, but tomorrow, February 27th will be the famous sale in Filene's Basement now officially called the Running of the Brides®.

This annual event dates back as early as 1947 and today brides-to-be can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on designer wedding gowns. The day of the sale, brides-to-be and their helpers line up early and sometimes even the day before, with lawn chairs and pop up canopies, stake their place in line. When the doors open, they run full speed towards the racks. In less than 60 seconds (the fastest time has been recorded at 37 seconds), the racks are stripped bare, store employees have to hold on to the fixtures so they don’t topple over. The brides and their entourage of helpers grab whatever gowns they can, haul them off to a corner, the bride then strips down to her undergarments and starts trying on dress after dress. Minutes later the trading begins. Every dress, no matter what size, style or color, gets bartered for another, as each bride tries to find the gown of her dreams at a cut-rate price.

With original prices ranging from $900 to $9000, these designer gowns are then sold at a fraction of the cost with price points of $249, $499 and $699. Can you imagine the mayhem? Me personally, I don't even like to stand in a buffet line to eat or wait in line overnight to buy the next best game system that my son just had to have. BUT, if I were a bride-to-be in this current economy, I might just have to make an exception for the gown of my dreams. How about you, if you had the opportunity would you go to a sale like this?

All the best & 'til next time,

Adding some "Sass" to your Wedding Day Fashion

A short time ago a wonderful photographer, hiking buddy and good friend of mine, Marcia Mauskopf of Marcia the Art of Photography had a bride that was asking about some purple shoes. This bride wanted some stylish shoes in her color scheme and desperately wanted to steer away from those "old school" dyeable bridal shoes and I would have to agree!

I found a few really stylish possibilities on BLUEFLY.com. Now she didn't mention what her budget was, but one thing I know is, when a girl wants a particular pair of shoes to grace her tootsies, the sky is the limit.

When, I saw these Christian Diors, I fell in love and thought man I bet those would make for some amazing photos. They are so adorable, I just love the bow detailing and of course the little Dior charm is the cherry on top. These babies are dripping with style and I bet they can make any girls legs - oh so SEXY. These were my absolute favorite!!!

There were also some cute Christian Louboutin's, the Mary Jane style might make for a more comfortable shoe to dance the night away, but then again, who really thinks of comfort when it comes to sexy shoes.

For the more sophisticated bride there was a violet colored, pointed toe, patent leather slingback from Dolce & Gabbana.

So, if you want to add a little more of your own style and personality into your wedding attire, don't forget some Shoe Love!!

All the best & 'til next time,

Invitation How To - Part 3

This will be our final post on wedding invitation how to, but remember if you have any questions or if you would like to inquire about purchasing wedding, bar/bat mitzvah, quinceanera invitations, etc. you can always contact us and we would be more than happy to assist you.

Tip #6
























Tip #7

Be sure to take a completed stuffed invitation to the Post Office in order to determine the proper postage. Remember it is not only based on weight, but if an invitation is an unusual shape it may require additional postage. You wouldn't want to place the wrong amount of postage on the beautiful envelopes that you have spent so much time addressing, to only have them returned for the incorrect postage, it will end up costing more time in the long run, not to mention the delays in informing your guests.

Tip #8

Be sure to send your invitaitons out 6 to 8 weeks prior to your wedding. The 8 week time frame will apply if you have quite a few out of town guests and you did not inform them earlier with a save the date notice.

Tip #9

If you are wanting to put custom postage on your invitations, you can use one of our pre-made postage designs or of course create your own, check out Zazzle.

All the best & 'til next time,

Invitation How To - Part 2

In my last post I was giving a few tips for sending out your invitations, so here we go again:

Tip #3

I'm going to digress just a bit, early in the planning stages as you begin compiling your guest list, the easiest method that I have found is to begin that list in a spreadsheet program such as Excel. You can then manipulate your list in many ways. You can put in a column for your's, mine and our's, then sort it by that column and then e-mail that list to your Mom and FMIL, so that they can help fill in the blanks on any missing addresses. If you didn't do that in the beginning, it definitely wouldn't hurt now that you are sending your invitations, it may aid in keeping track of responses, # of adults, # of Children, if your guests have the option to choose their entree, gifts received, thank you cards sent, etc.

Then later in the planning stages, another option with this list in a spreadsheet format is you can generally upload this information into a program that will aid in creating your seating plan. If you are not using a coordinator that most likely has this type of software, you can use an on-line tool such as WeddingWire. Upload your guest list, create a floorplan, then drag and drop your guests to the appropriate table. If you find that Cousin Susie can't be near Aunt Jane for fear of a knock down drag out, then drag these ladies back to the list and start over. Once your seating plan is finalized, you can easily create a report by sorting the list alphabetically and also by the table #'s giving you two different reports to be kept by your coordinator or escort card attendant, in the event that an escort card is picked up by another guest or lost. I feel that the more information that is available on day of, the better.

Tip #4

When you are sending out your invitations be sure to include a pre-stamped response card. Yes, I know that will be more expense for you, but you will get a much greater return rate, if all your guest has to do is check the appropriate field, slip the card back in the envelope and put it in the mailbox. If you do not include that stamp, your response card will most likely get put to the bottom of the pile on Uncle Fred's desk or ride around in Grandma's purse.

Tip #5

Do you know what the M___________________ on a lot of response cards means? If not, you are not alone. I was a bit surprised to find out that a lot of people do not know that is to complete Mr. & Mrs. John Smith. Some bride's prefer to put Name_______________ on their response card and that is just fine. But what happens when your guest forgets to write in their name at all or recently I had a guest put their last name only and guess what their were quite a few family members invited to this wedding with the same last name - go figure!

The way to solve this mystery, write a small number on the back of your response card, then the corresponding number on your guest list. Then if it comes back blank or they entered Mr. & Mrs. Smith and you are not sure if it is John, James or Jacob Smith, turn that response card over and Mystery Solved!

A fun gadget to have is an invisible pen and blacklight, your guests will never know that you don't trust them by putting a number on the back of their response card.

All the best & 'til next time,