Aggh! I was a bridesmaid in my friend Karen’s wedding a few years ago. As her Mom lovingly helped her step into her beautiful white gown, she stood behind Karen posed for picture to zip her into her dress. Zip, tug, pull, rip.

Saved the day.

 The zipper broke minutes before Karen needed to walk down the aisle. Surprisingly, the Bride did not freak out. Her Mother did – but that’s another story. I reached into my ‘bag of tricks’ and whipped out a sewing kit. Down on my hands and knees I threaded that needle as fast as Jack Bauer plotted against the bad guys. We were running out of time. Thankfully, I had taken a fashion class in College and stitched Karen into her dress. With half a spool of thread, a couple of pinpricks and many soothing words, we got her ready to walk down in the aisle in a few seconds. She looked beautiful.

That little incident made me understand the true Girl Scout values of being prepared. When my best friend Amanda took on role of Maid of Honor with my sister Stacey, they came prepared. Here is a special list of things you need in your “Wedding Day Emergency Kit”

• Sewing Kit – lots of white thread
• Band-Aids
• Deodorant
• Sponge (to clean off deodorant)
• Perfume
• Lipstick
• Tissues
• Mascara (Oh heck, toss in the make up bag)
• Toilet Paper (travel size)
• Lotion
• Make Up Remover
• Panty Hose
• Socks
• Pop Tarts (sustenance)
• Granola Bars
• Bottled Water
• Chalk – for stains on your dress
• Safety Pins
• Bobby Pins
• Hair Spray
• Mirror
• Tums
• Advil
• Imodium (You never know)
• Fabric Tape
• Lint Roller
• Clear nail polish
• Nail File
• Small scissors
• Tampons / Pads (Again, you never know)
• Earring backs
• Eye Drops

I could go on and on – but this is a huge list to start. Not creative or don’t have time to pull this all together? You can buy an Emergency Wedding Day kit from stores like Target for around $50 bucks. Worth every penny.

Here is a picture of Amanda’s “Bag of Tricks” It does not give you the full picture, but as you can see – our room the morning of was a mess – and almost everything that she brought that day came in handy!

It's the blue one on the floor...

Oh and Karen? Those little scissors came in handy too – when we had to cut her out of her dress.

 You can never be too prepared – especially on your wedding day.

Brides -
How did you decide where to have your wedding? What was the first decision you made? Since I’ve started blogging for NCE I’ve learned that there are so many amazing resources out there for brides to plan their Big Day! There seem to be far more than when I got married just a short while ago.

So, I want to know- what was the first thing you planned?

• Was it the date?
• The dress?
• Buy a magazine?
• Start a list?

There are so many things to do where do you even begin? Not to mention most of these things take a ton of time!

Are you planning to change your name after you say those magical words, “I do”?

Here’s a little tip from me to you: choose Name Change Express.

That' us!

We make it super easy to change your name after the wedding. You fill out one profile, tell us whom you need to inform, and we do the work for you.  Trust me. When I changed my name, it took me about 20 hours. Between trips to SSN, DMV, Banks, etc, etc, I wish I had known about NCE a few years ago.

So now I’m giving you the tips I never got: check us out!

Oh, and for those million other things on your list, follow these amazing wedding experts on twitter:

• twitter.com/cardboxdiva
• twitter.com/recycledbride
• twitter.com/kelimorris
• twitter.com/clubwedd
• twitter.com/getmarried
• twitter.com/weddzilla
• twitter.com/paulpannone
• twitter.com/relentlessbride
• twitter.com/stylemepretty
• twitter.com/chatterberries

As I shared in my last post, for the next few blogs we’ll be sharing the top wedding themed receptions and ideas.  For my hubby and I we swung the pendulum from both sides. Discussing our wedding reception ideas was like trying to figure out where to go to college; it wasn’t absolutely going to determine the rest of your life, but it was certainly something you’d be thinking about for years and years to come. So for us, it became a conversation about what kind of couple we were, what kind of feeling we wanted our guests to have and frankly, how much was this big shebang going to cost us.

One gorgeous and sometimes very inexpensive (or expensive) option is the Beach Wedding! Since Spring is just around the corner and I’m craving flip flops, I thought it would be fun to discuss!

Ahhh - to say I do here!

If you’re not an uber formal couple, the beach might be the way to go. Think about the beach; beautiful blue sky, gorgeous emerald ocean and soft cool sand. There are so many ways to go with it! Picture this:

It’s sunset. The temperature is a cool 70 degrees on a gorgeous summer evening. You, dressed in a gorgeous flowy but not to frilly gown, bare feet. Your fiance, cad in a khaki suit, blue tie, barefoot. Your guests, lined on either side standing to watch the beautiful unity of your marriage.  Beautiful hues of yellow, blue, green and pink sprinkle the flowers that stand on either side of you as the setting sun kisses the water just as you and your hubby say I do and share a first kiss as husband and wife.

Sounds nice right? I know!

It was one of our choices and while I wouldn’t change anything about our wedding – its something I’m wondering now…why didnt we choose this option?

That’s right – our option would have been to host a restaurant style reception overlooking the water. During beach season some of the popular places down the Jersey Shore would have cost us around $150 / person. That doesn’t include booze. Oh well. 

Picturesque sunset

But – there are ways to do it less expensively!

• Ask the restaurant if they have buffet options and opt for a smaller open bar.
• See if they’ll accomodate passed tapas and a speciality cocktail.
• Opt for an afternoon wedding and serve lighter fare.
• Get married just before or just after beach season; the prices are nearly cut in half.

There are also gorgeous ways to accessorize your wonderful beach wedding no matter how formal!

Theknot.com has some amazing insight into choosing the dress, venue, colors, flowers and cake for a beach wedding.

getmarried.com has a great blog on “Life is a Beach” which has beautiful pictures of beach weddings done right!

So – while you’re at the beach this summer, think about what it would be like to hold your own wedding there – or, if you’ve already booked, start to plan out renewing your vows! Either way, make your wedding your own – let it reflect the couple you are and enjoy every moment. Like the sunset, it’s beautiful, but it’s over far too fast.

My gown! Want to buy it?

My husband and are plotting our next LCE (life changing event). Don’t get any ideas, no baby talk-yet. But we are considering…a massive yard sale! It’s time to clean house – Spring is coming and we have a lot of stuff including a ton of leftover wedding ‘stuff’.  So, we need to go through three plus years of our collective ‘we’re a new married couple’ stuff and decide what to keep, toss, donate or sell. It’s harder than it seems.  Trust me.

Our first line of attack are online sales and figuring out what can be sold through eBay and various other sites.  I’ve made the difficult decision to sell my gown. Let’s be honest. I’m not going to wear it again and beautiful as it was my sister probably won’t either. Sadly.   So after much deliberation I opted to sell.  I recently came across a site that can be considered the eBay of brides- www.recycledbride.com.  I found out about the site through Twitter and the Owner and CEO, Tracy, is a delight!  My dress is now available on her sight awaiting any bids. I’m excited to see if it can sell and I’ll share my experience here!

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.  In the meantime check out @recycledbride on Twitter and visit the site for more information!

You're fired. But can we still be friends?

Remember that moment when you asked your best friend or sister to be your maid of honor?  This coveted title of MOH is one that many women can’t wait for.  Personlly, I’ve yet to be asked (but know my day will come), other people may have been asked multiple times…like my best  friend who probably could have starred in the movie 27 Dresses.

My sister has been asked twice: my wedding and her best friend – we’ll call her Julie.

Julie’s life is notably different than my sisters but they’ve remained friends through it all; divorce, baby, and now Julies engagement.  My sister set about in her MOH duties the way a good MOH does: planning the shower, dress shopping, bridal gown consulting, conversing with the other ‘maids, etc.  So, it came as a quite shock to my little sis when she recieved a call from Julie that went like this:

Julie: “Giving you the title MOH has made me assess our friendship. I don’t feel were as close as we once were and well, Craig and I would prefer if you came to our wedding as a guest instead of my MOH.”

Of course there’s more backstory here but the fundamental jist is that my poor sister…got fired.

The silver lining, and of course I always look for one, is that she was going to have to put out a good sum of money to participate in this wedding and now she didn’t have to. The ‘maids were opting for a Shower that “set the tone” for the wedding which would have cost each of them around $500. While one may love their friend and want to give them the best, this is not a small price to pay. 

Toss that in with the other expenses that come along with being in a wedding and you’re looking at around $1,000 or more.

• Shower: $500.00,
• Dress: $150
• Shoes: $50
• Hair / Make up: $75
• Gifts: $200
• Miscelleaneous: $100

Granted, it wouldn’t be fair to say that my sister felt ‘relieved’ when she was let off the hook, but considering she’s nearing the end of grad school, that money can be better spent. 

All that in mind – she’s still trying to salvage a friendship with Julie and is considering going to the wedding.  How would you have reacted? Would you still want to be friends? Would you still go to the wedding?