Wedding Tactics

Your cake can be much more than a simple sugary dessert. It can be the centerpiece of the room sitting on an elevated display table for the duration of your ceremony and reception. It can be the one touch of vibrant color in the midst of a neutral ivory-themed room, or the cartoon-ish center of humor reminding you and your new spouse just what brought you together in the first place.

Wedding cakes today are hip, colorful and often times a major piece of decor in the wedding room.

This cake of delicate yellow and white icing framed in pearl-beading and soft daisies comes from the Ron Ben-Israel collection. This design can be found here.

Edith Meyer Wedding Cakes in Santa Cruz, California makes some amazing designs and they use all organic ingredients.

Many cakes, sold as groom’s cakes CAN be used as the one and only wedding cake, if you are looking for something a little more unique and creative.

This burger cake is made by The Cake Girls in Chicago, Illinois. According to their website, they currently do not ship cakes. This is THE cake for the couple who met and fell in love over a burger. Was your first date a cook-out? Why not make your wedding unique by having a cake that is just a little different from all the other weddings?

Confetti Cakes in New York City made this cake originally for a wine enthusiast.

If you see a cake design that you like, take it to your baker, ask them to design something, many of them are flexible and will jump at the chance to be a little creative.

This Alvina Valenta bridesmaid gown is gorgeous. The cowl neckline is sultry, sexy and trendy. It retails for between $250 and $350, a wee bit expensive for the average bridesmaid but the colors are absolutely breathtaking. I would love to see this gown featured in a fall wedding ceremony held in an event hall, museum or historic mansion.

For a less costly bridal attendant dress consider this fun party dress, I like it in red. Made by Eden Bridals it is part of the Eden Maids line. Expect to find this gown for under $150.

You can also consider dress lines where you can order the same gown in a variety of colors and allow your bridesmaid to choose from any or a few color options. Ideal Bite suggests doing this so that the maids can reuse the gown at an event of their own choosing.

The Benefits ( According to Ideal Bite )

* Reusing. Just wearing a dress once isn’t exactly eco-friendly; typical bridesmaid dresses are made from acetate or polyester - both petroleum byproducts that require a lot of energy to produce.
* Not breaking their banks. Bridesmaid’s dresses cost an average of $138 each, which adds up if you’re like we are and everybody you freakin’ know is getting married.
* A dress they’ll actually wanna keep.

If you want to give the maids more flexibility but don’t want a rainbow of colors at your alter, consider choosing a simple black or brown cocktail gown that they can wear to other occasions.

The magical links of the interweb have brought my attention to this. A bachelorette gift basket packaged in a trash can that is marketed as a BARF BUCKET. I’m really kinda at a loss for words on this one, so rather than pontificate about what I think is appropriate public behavior, I think I’ll take the high road and be gracious and just pass this photo along to all of ya’ll.

WHAT!?

Wedding Links for April 8, 2008. Below are some links to other wedding sites I came across today.

Best Wedding Sites features a page of links to Bridal Shows and Expos in every state. When I was engaged I attended two of these expos. At the first one I was a bit timid and just looked around and collected information. At the second one I made contacts and got exactly the answers I went there with. I knew what I was looking for and where to go. I suggest taking a friend or a mother as there is a lot of stuff to carry and it always helps to have extra hands and a smiling face in a sea of crazy brides-to-be.

The Dessy Group website has a new feature allowing you to see bridesmaid gowns from several new angles. This is a great feature to use if you are just starting your search for a bridesmaid gown. Take a look at these gowns from all angles and then decide if they are worth having your maids schlep into a store for a try on.

Brenda has a Real Weddings feature where she links to an full wedding album. What’s great about this new feature is that you can also get a list of the vendors who supplied the wedding materials.

Red Envelope is one of my favorite gift-giving sites. They have great gifts at a variety of prices and a special wedding section with suggestions for bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts. And for the next week they are running a special offering 25% off of purchases.

Every bride knows that her hair must be perfect on her wedding day. Brides all over search websites on their lunch breaks trying to find different styles of curls and straight and updos that will match their style, their dress, and be perfect for that long walk down the aisle. But if only you could see a preview of yourself with all those hairstyles.

Here it is ladies! A virtual-salon right here at your finger tips. Brides (dot com) is offering a virtual try-on studio for your wedding day hair style. All you have to do is upload a photo of yourself, a straight-on head shot with your hair pulled back against a simple white background and then choose different hair and make-up styles without the risk of split ends or a horrifying eyeliner experience.

Regardless of your wedding style, it is best to choose a style that you feel is wearable, and most importantly, a compliment to your dress. Hair that is pulled back too tightly can look severe and hair that isn’t pulled back at all can detract from your dress and neckline. You can never go wrong with a gentle style that accentuates your cheek bones and shows off your collarbones.

This outdoor wedding at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden is featured on TheKnot and shows good use of nature and simple colors .

I recently got some fan-mail from Reader Daniela telling me about a site that sells fabulous Ketubahs.

The Ketubah Company (dot com) has some really unique, simple and romantic ketubahs for sale for reasonable prices, too.

A ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract. It is signed by the bride and groom and the Rabbi just before the wedding ceremony or sometimes as part of the ceremony. It explains the basic responsibilities of the husband and wife. It is also signed by two witnesses.

In a conservative or orthodox ceremony, it must be signed by men who are not related to the couple, and who are of course, also Jewish. In a reform ceremony, such as mine, it can be signed by anyone the bride and groom choose – as long as the participating Rabbi agrees. In our case, we both have one paternal uncle who will be signing as our witnesses. This is special to us because they are part of our family and we want our marriage and wedding to be very family-centric.

Historically, Ketubahs protected a woman’s rights in the case of a divorce. Ketubahs come in many different texts, orthodox, conservative and reform; some are just written in Hebrew and some Hebrew and English.

Click here for more details and pictures from a previous postings about how a ketubah is featured in a Jewish wedding.

The Ketubah Company offers work done in several different styles and mediums, including calligraphy, watercolor, sketching, oil paint, paper collage and graphics. There is a ketubah here for all tastes.

A runway-ready 2008 Carolina Herrera wedding gown.

For the simple but elegant summer bride, JCrew offers a line of wedding dresses.

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Having written for a wedding blog for over a year now, and in that year, having my own wedding, I am on about seventy gagillion email lists for various wedding paraphernalia. I usually just delete these emails but sometimes they give me ideas and sometimes it is just nice to indulge myself in a girlie moment and admire some pretty wedding invitations.

Hello Lucky is a great website featuring some gorgeous invitations.

Invitations can be a dark forest of options enough to make you choke on the words modern floral embossed script lettering, but sometimes it is just fun to look at the pretty ones.

Actually, invitations are important to setting the tone for your wedding. You can match it to the theme and color exactly or just use an elegant simple invitation and leave the colors and theme a surprise.

When picking your invitations it is important to remember above all to stay within your budget and to pick something that fits your personality and the tone of your wedding. When in doubt, go simple because too many colors and decorations and ribbons can detract from the information.

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The perfect cake for those who grew up in the mid-eighties and get how iconic this really is. You know, or for a groom’s cake.

I’ve been writing for Wedding Tactics for a full year now. When I started maintaining this site I didn’t know what it would become and how long I’d be writing. In fact, at the time, 451 Press was still just getting off the ground. In fact, its been pretty amazing watching the network grow along with my site.

My first posting discussed the differences between a marriage and a wedding. The first few months following this entry I used the planning of my own wedding as a guide for what to write about.

A few times I mentioned the issues in gaining a new set of parents and specifically, the mother-in-law.

I wrote a lot about dresses and veils and accessories.
And for a few months I had featured columns on certain days of the week, Trends on Tuesday and Traditions Thursday. I used these headlines as a means to explain traditions like the tossing of the garter.

April was a very popular month on this site. My stats went thru the roof, but that was a very popular wedding time of year. I get asked frequently about the Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue thing. The meaning and its history are detailed here.

One of my all-time favorite posting was about what guests should wear to a wedding. I noticed during the Spring months that several clothing stores were featuring lines of dresses for wedding guests. This is a good guide to style options depending on the wedding venue.

I got married in May. Then, I started a new job in June and my postings got a bit less frequent for awhile. Meanwhile, I did profile some great summer wedding themes.

As the year went on I tried to focus on all the different issues surrounding weddings, including mens clothing, or, tuxedos and a few funny stories too, like this one about a guy who lost his wedding ring.

And, finally, the most recent repeating column, Wedding Tactics: On Location, features vendors and venues in random cities. By featuring actual wedding business providers across the nation, I hope that readers from all states will be attracted to read and follow along and also to ask questions and participate in the Wedding Tactics dialogue. The On-Location feature can be seen here, here and here. And also here.

Thanks to all the readers who made this a successful year for me and 451 Press. I look forward to another even better year here.

Happy New Year!

Click here for all kinds of naughty party favors and party decorations.

bachelorette party, party favors, naughty

Cakediva.com has a great website with extensive cake galleries. The extensive press and client list includes Geraldo Rivera, Bride Magazine and MTV.

wedding cakes, wedding, new jersey

Eden Bridals is one of my favorites, they have a great variety of classically styled gowns.

This organza gown has an empire waist with beads and lace. The skirt is an A-line and the train is chapel length.

This strapless satin gown has a full skirt and a chapel length train with beading, pearls and crystals.