It Is T Time

What gift can you possibly give the women who will stand by your side on the big day?

Surely, no ordinary chachka will cut it for your bridesmaids!

Weddingchicks.com has some super cute, cozy, vintage t-shirts that your bridesmaid might actually want to wear!

Just go to http://www.weddingchicks.com/shop for these ts and other fun, non-cheesy stuff.

Hair, Hair, Hair, Hair!

To be (worn up)...

Or...

Not to be (worn up)...

That is the question.

Yes, it is the ultimate question for the bride and her mom when it comes to deciding on how to wear the hair on the big day.

My mom and I fell in love with the style above that certainly qualifies as "up," but still feels natural, simple and clean.

In fact, over the next few days, we're scheduled for a few hair & make-up trials. Can't wait!

Sealing The Envelope

Thank you to the folks at Arrow Stationary in New Jersey for spending what I am sure were several exhausting hours with us as we determined the right colors, font type, spacing, wording, and so on and so on of the Save-The-Dates!

We finally sealed the deal (or shall we say the envelope!) of our Save-The-Dates! Check out the cute tri-fold design that has a perforated edge at the bottom so guests can tear off their very own calendar and maybe even put on their fridge!

The above images don't do the card justice (and they're in the wrong color), but provide a bit of an idea.

Save Us...From Save The Dates!

For any wedding-obsessed (or shall we say it a bit more gently, wedding-involved?) bride-to-be and her mother, the Save-The-Date card is a big bridal deal.

It is the first, official time that the bride and her mom are making a statement to the world about the look, tone, feel and mood of the upcoming nuptials.

In true "Will You Marry Me...And My Mom?" fashion, my mom and I have been searching for the perfect Save-The-Date. That's where WeddingPaperDivas.Com came in very handy. Check them out: www.weddingpaperdivas.com.

Not only is their site a breeze to navigate, but they send you samples of their invites, so you can get a sense of the paper quality and colors. Check out some samples that came right to our front door!

All The (Wedding) News That's Fit To Print

No wedding obsession would be complete without the hunt for the perfect Save-The-Date cards. Along with this obsessive quest comes a flurry of questions: how can the cards be whimsical, but not childish? How can they be informative, but not cold? How can they give a sense of the wedding theme and color palette?

And with time ticking towards wedding day, the pressure is on!

Here are a few Save-The-Date options that fit our wedding's color palette.

Do Be Square!

The expression, "Don't be square," is officially out-of-date! Check out these super cute table settings that defy wedding tradition. Opting for a rectangle...a square...or a box...whatever it takes to make the center of the table look modern, clean and simple.

So, do be square with your table settings!

A Bride's Guilty Pleasure - Say Yes To The Dress TV Show

My mom and I are 100%, no holds barred, completely, insanely obsessed with TLC's "Say Yes To The Dress." Seriously, as sad as this sounds, there is nothing I'd rather do on a Friday night than watch at least two episodes in a row of this bridal bonanza.

When my fiance really wants to get on my good side, he actually DVR's all of the re-runs from the week and provides me with the best Friday night a girl could ask for: three or more hours of unadulterated wedding dress bliss!

The show documents the trial, tribulations, taffeta and sometimes tackiness of THE infamous wedding dress hunt at the quintessential wedding dress store, Manhattan's Kleinfeld's.

This Friday night's episode made our jaws drop even lower than normal when we met Jessica. While she may surely be a very nice person, her taste in bridal gowns is far from nice. Vampy. Trampy. Tacky are more like it.

But that's the fun of the show--you see the best, the worst, the ugliest and the prettiest that this bridal-obsessed world has to offer.

Here's to hoping that no one has this kind of reaction when they see my dress!

Make It Visual For Your Florist

My mom and I had our first official visit with a florist last week. And boy were we "newbies!" Sure, my mom (who I would call an expert wedding planner on the side) has met with tons of florists before. But somehow we didn't quite know what to do or what to ask.

Eventually, we made it through our appointment unharmed and with smiles on our faces, eager to see the proposal that our florist brings back to us.

But in looking back, my advice is to bring tons of pictures, scraps, color swatches, like the ones pictured above. The more visual and sensory the better. The less words the better. I think that artistic folks, like florists, respond best when they can truly see your vision...know what you mean when you say "rustic" and picture what the heck you have going on in that bridal head of yours!

Say Cheese Without The Cheese: Wedding Photographer

For some reason, it has always seemed to me that an event...or a party...or a moment...just doesn't seem real unless it is captured in a photo.

(This may be a short-term memory lapse. Or it could be the fact that I just love looking at pictures. Or maybe it is because my dad was once an amateur photographer and I wish I had his "eye.").

Regardless of the reason, it was crucial for me to find just the right photographer for my wedding. And rule #1: cheese is simply not allowed. No poses. No fakeness. No rehearsal.

Simply unstaged. Unrehearsed. Simply those moments that are happening even when you don't realize they're happening. I didn't have to look far to find the photographer for me, Zlatko Batistich. He is based really close to my hometown in New Jersey.

Check out some of his beautiful work: http://www.zlatkobatistich.com/

Mom Deals With Future Son-In-Law

As the mother-of-the bride, this is my first official posting!

After a bit of coaxing from the bride-to-be, I'm finally ready to share some of the fun tips and stories we've been learning along the way.

First up is my soon-to-be son-in-law (wow, that was a lot of hyphens!). I am really thrilled that he will soon be a member of our family.

My advice to other mothers of the bride? First and most important: make sure your daughter finds someone she loves and you can love, too.

And second: have fun!

Great Wedding Gift For Bride

One of the best gifts my mother gave me when I first got engaged was this beautiful, bright pink calendar set. Not only is it pretty (and pink!), but it allows me to capture all of the great moments throughout the process.

Already several months into planning, it is fun to look back and remember all the juicy details I wrote down like...the day we decided on the location or the day we decided on the dress.

So take a moment to jot it down!

View Wedding Dresses Online--Better Than Before!

Every bride who has searched for "the dress" has experienced the dreaded moment when she goes online to view one of the dresses she's fallen in love with in a store...only to find that the dress looks H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E online! Finally, my mom stumbled upon a great way to view your dress online. Not on some super skinny, anorexic, frowning model...but on a real, lifesize, happy girl--like you.

Check out preownedweddingdresses.com. Click on "dress search," find your designer and then search for the wedding dress you liked instore...and you can view it on a real person.


For example, here's how a dress looks on Paloma Blanca's website--hard to tell what it looks like!

Here's how it looks on preownedweddingdresses.com on a REAL person. Much better!

The Bridesmaid Blues

When thinking about walking down the aisle...it is really fun to imagine those special women who will be up there with you. Your bridesmaids! With a blue and white color palette in mind, my mom and I have begun thinking about the right bridesmaid dresses. Here are a few options that could be interesting to explore.

The Wedding Website

As a true digital novice, creating a wedding website was surely a daughting task! But after scouring the internet for the best sites, I finally landed on wedsite.com.

While you have to pay about $50 for the year, the site had some really beautiful design options. And knowing how your site is your guests' first glimpse of what your wedding will entail, I wanted it to be as beautiful as possible. For more information, checkout http://www.wedsite.com/ Happy website designing!

Can't Wait For The Weekend!

Nothing is more exciting than waking up on Friday morning and knowing that the weekend is nearly here!

And with tons of wedding planning to be done, the weekend is the perfect time to check off wedding to-do lists with my mom. Next stop on our to-do list train is a florist.

Here are some flowers that my mother and I like.

Everyone Has Her "Mom Moment"

Today I shared this blog with my colleagues at work and they all had the same reaction--"Yes, my mom played a HUGE role in my wedding planning."

We even joked that our moms seemed--at times--to be planning their own weddings, instead of their daughters' weddings!

Here's my mom!

Back-Up Dresses

Priscilla of Boston Dress (this was the first dress I tried on)

Paloma Blanca Dress #1--With Pockets! :)

Paloma Blanca Dress #2--Also with pockets!

Amsale Dress--a bit like a balerina!

My mom and I seriously scoured every single wedding dress store in the tri-state area.

Above are a few of our favorite picks--they were the back-up dresses only. Not "the ONE!"

THE Dress

Perhaps no decision was more challenging for my mother and me--well, really my mother--to make than deciding on THE DRESS.

After the months of searches for the perfect dress...miles driven for the the most beautiful slightly heart-shaped neckline...and hours online looking for "it," we finally decided on the beautiful Amsale dress above.

Will You Marry Me...And My Mom?

There is no relationship more sacred than that between the bride-to-be and...

Well...Um...Hmmm...HER MOM!

That is the inspiration behind this blog, "Will You Marry Me...And My Mom?" We're here to document every joyful move we make through the wedding planning process as bride and mom!