Here's the 2009 winner of the Toilet Paper Wedding Gown. I would say it is Green Friendly and an Economic Gem for this time period. But, I can't see any of my brides trading in satin and lace for toilet paper - Even if it's quilted. Also I don't want to compete with this girl at a wedding shower when they pull out the TP. Are hats coming back?
1950
Notice how the side pleating, sweetheart neckline and lace of the 1950's are
being repeated in the wedding gowns of today. Next time you attend a wedding
or stop in a bridal store notice the elements from fashion history.
You have to love the bride that isn't afraid of high style and wants a different look. This feathered headpiece really grabs your attention. Do you think she was influenced by the headpiece in Sex in the City?
Yes, Martha is always coming up with new Marketing Ideas. And now Martha's Stewart's University seems to be one of those ideas.
Posted by Darcy Miller, Editorial Director
Some people like to read a good book on their way to work. I, on the other hand, like to catch up with some of my favorite segments from the Martha show. Or I do now that you can download one of five Wedding Ideas programs from "Martha University" onto your portable MP3 players or computers. Each program is about 60 minutes long and features the best advice Martha Stewart Weddings has to offer, from how to find the perfect dress to sweet cupcake towers to charming place card ideas. Take a look! After all, you can never have too much help when it comes to planning your wedding!
I simply couldn’t understand the awe the custom inspired in these parts of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio—until I came face to face with the cookie table itself. It was a wonder, with acres of colorful baked treats, perhaps a couple thousand of them, each one more extravagant than the next. All were arranged like jewels on tiers of silver platters that had been carefully adorned with tulle and lace.
Liz Nohra, curator of a cookie-table exhibit at the local history museum in Youngstown, Ohio, traces the custom back to immigrants—mostly Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Greeks—who worked in the steel mills and perhaps couldn’t afford a wedding cake. As to where the custom originated—Youngstown or Pittsburgh—no one is certain. At Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, in Youngstown, it can take all day to set up a proper cookie table. The record number at one wedding, according to Lou Fusillo, who manages the catering for the church, is 15,000 cookies. People may notice the bride’s dress or and swoon at the flowers, he says, but it’s not a successful wedding until guests pronounce judgment on the table. “And there better be lots of cookies,” he adds.
Usually, the bride’s family does most of the baking, but everyone is welcome to pitch in. Bakers win points for creating bite-sized delicacies that come from family recipes, and the more difficult to make the better. The most popular cookie may be the ladylock, a flaky pastry horn with a silky cream filling. It’s also called a clothespin cookie, because grandmothers wrapped the pastry around a wooden clothespin that was later extracted to make space for the cream filling. Another favorite is the pizzelle, a flat wafer, round and lacy, like a snowflake, with a whisper of anise or lemon. And everyone loves the buttery Greek and Italian wedding cookies, dusted with powdered sugar, as well as the Czech kolaches, rolled leaves of dough that are either crispy with nuts or sweet and chewy with fruit.
There are wonderful tales of the angry aunt whose specialty wound up at the back of the display and a bride’s family fallen into disgrace when store-bought cookies turned up in the mix. But most of the lore surrounding the cookie table is about happy times. “It’s a way of bringing people into your celebration,” says Nohra, “sharing a heritage of family and food.” And the cookie table is spreading; she has tracked them not only to weddings but also to anniversary celebrations, graduations, showers, and baptisms as far away as West Virginia, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. I can vouch for one turning up in Connecticut. When I got married there last summer, my Pittsburgh relatives staged a cookie table full of our family favorites. The wedding cake made quite a splash, but it was the cookies that stole the show."
Thanks for the momories.
Chicago Just posted this bit of candy on their blog and I thought it was worth passing on to all those do-it-yourself brides, especially in this economic downturn. Call Epoch soon before there's no room at the table or is it the bar. Hopfully they will offer more classes if this session is productive.
Flower arranging is a bit like beer brewing (stay with us).
You know what you like, but you rely on others to do the grunt work.
Get your hands dirty with a how-to class with Mike Hines, co-owner and creative director of Epoch. Sign up with friends, sip on brewskies (it’s BYOB), and listen to Hines’s mantra.
During Wedding Day Do It Yourself, you’ll learn to make your own bridal bouquet, set up bridesmaids luncheon tables, and leave with your designs so you can recreate them.
In Hand-Tie It, Hines teaches architectural floral design (juxtaposing wood and delicate flowers, creating monotone bouquets) using rare blooms like Vanda orchids and coral peonies. Take home two of your creations or have them delivered.
You’ll leave with mad skills (and flower jargon to boot).
In other words, you’ll be bud wiser.
Available at Epoch, 1700 West Hubbard Street, at Paulina Street (312-226-2968 or epochfloral.com). Classes are August 5, 12, and 19. 
Here is a current post from their blog.
Amazon's Kindle DX is very Green when it comes to eliminating the carbon footprint of your paper trail. The Kindle readers are wireless reading devices. But the new Kindle DX has increased its reading area and added other goodies. The Kindle DX is light in weight but it is no light weight. It is bigger and better. Over 300,000 books to read, not to mention the NY Times and virtually anything else that is in print.
Even our
Luxurious Wedding Style Report is available on Kindle. Loving that!
You can read wedding books, blogs, magazines and newspapers on Kindle. Or ask the Kindle DX and it will read books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers out loud to you. Feeling so pampered. Transfer your MP3 files to Kindle DX and listen to music while you read. Feeling so soothed. Upload your wedding inspiration boards, contracts and PDF's to read at your leisure or on the go. Feeling so organized.
With Kindle there is no wireless setup, no monthly wireless bills, data plans, or commitments. You are ready to shop, purchase and read right out of the box. Kindle DX has a long battery life. You can read on a single charge for up to 4 days with the wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for up to 2 weeks.
1. Diana, Princess of Wales (42%)
2. Grace Kelly (13.68%)
3. Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City (11.53%)
4. Katie Price (8%)
5. Jennifer Aniston (4.8%)
6. Pamela Anderson’s white bikini (4.5%)
7. Victoria Beckham (4.4%)
8. Cheryl Cole (3.8%)
9. Madonna in Like a Virgin (3.25%)
10. Bianca Jagger’s white tuxedo (2.8%)
The report into modern attitudes on marriage was commissioned exclusively by UK magazine LIVING to coincide with their new wedding series Four Weddings.
Complete relaxation!
