Blogs - bridalguide's blog - PostsBy Amy Rauch, BridalGuide.com Marketing Manager
Ahhhh, St. Lucia -- The island where couples flock for romantic bliss, lush mountain scenery, and luxurious all-inclusive resorts. It was no surprise when I visited for a media tour, hosted by Almond Resorts, that I saw numerous brides and grooms at the airport holding David's Bridal and Mens Wearhouse garment bags, and still others walking around sporting "Just Married" t-shirts and gleaming grins. I wish I had my camera out, but I was too busy waiting for my luggage to come off the plane -- last.
Amy and the Pitons
Almond Morgan Bay Property
Soufriere Thanks to Almond Resorts and their public relations firm, the Zimmerman Agency, I was able to get away for a few days from big-city living, and enjoy some tropical weather, pleasant Caribbean hospitality and even a little time for relaxation. Almond Morgan Bay and Almond Smuggler's Cove both offer great facilities for destination weddings and plenty of romantic appeal for honeymooners. I was lucky enough to stay at the deluxe Almond Morgan Bay property -- in a spacious one-bedroom oceanview suite no less! Did I mention the ginormous soaking tub in my bathroom?
The suite and buildings I found the resort property quite scenic, spacious and peaceful. It has a nice stretch of beach -- obviously well kept -- and 4 swimming pools, including one with a swim-up bar and another for adults only, tucked away on a hillside for extra seclusion.
Close up of pool area and private adult pool There are a few great spots for wedding ceremonies, including a gazebo in a private nook with beautiful mountain and ocean views, or under a palm-decorated arch, right on the sand. The resort also has Morgan's Pier, a spacious, covered platform over the ocean, which they can set up for private parties. I seem to recall the kitschy sound of Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" blasting from that direction one evening. Want more information specifically on Almond Weddings? Check out almondresortsweddings.com.
Gazebo
Arch at Sunset
Morgan's Pier My favorite dining experience at Almond Morgan Bay was dinner at Le Jardin, serving up French Creole dishes with island flair. I had the crab callaloo soup to start, the lamb curry over coconut rice for my main course, and chocolate cream pie for dessert. Delish! After hours, Le Jardin turns into a piano bar some nights, and a nightclub on others. Good times had by all I’m told ;-). Casual dining options are available throughout the day, whether you prefer buffet dining or a sit-down menu. Palm serves up buffet breakfast daily with a made-to-order omelet station, while Bamboo has a nice lunch menu -- including burgers and plantains dished hot off the beachfront barbecue.
Lamb Curry
Bamboo Restaurant
Amy & the Zimmerman Girls Call me spoiled, but when I go away, I always hear that little voice inside my head whispering, "Boooook a spa appointment." I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my hosts had already had a complimentary massage planned for me. Although the spa is a bit on the small side, they make up for this with an ample menu of services, including facials, body scrubs, and couples' massages, and impressively skilled technicians. My massage was absolutely fantastic, and all the ladies I was traveling with said the same. I had my choice of oils, and of course I picked coconut! Where better to relax and unwind than in the Caribbean, right? By Aimée Morgan, Bridal Guide Magazine Weddings & Home Associate Editor
Living in New York, it’s hard not to feel a little frumpy sometimes. I mean, there are some gorgeous women (and men, for that matter). They’re perpetually sun-kissed, have flawless skin and a runway-model body. Of course, they’re sporting Prada and Manolo’s…whereas I’m sporting Molly on my hip and Jack’s leash in my right hand. The problem is, I have gotten lazy. You know how it is: You work all day, spend your evenings and weekends scouting locations, tasting cakes, putting together favors, fighting with mom or the mom-in-law about the guest list…it’s exhausting! Plus, you still have to find time to shower, shop, make dinner and sleep. Same for me, except swap the wedding planning for a demanding toddler. My biggest issue has always been my skin (and this is where I have SO dropped the ball…as in not washing my face every night) so I decided to start there and enlist the help of an NYC skin guru…a.k.a. Dr. Galitzin.
Dr. Galitzin specializes in non-surgical treatments for aging skin. Hmm…I’m 31…I think I fit in that category. So, I ducked out a tad early and headed uptown to see him. I was nervous, but he quickly calmed my nerves. We discussed my history and skin concerns, which for me are dryness and uneven skin tone—nothing a bride should have on her wedding day. The entire time we’re talking, I’m looking at this huge camera mounted on his desk. Of course, I ended up posing for it; straight, to the left and to the right…I knew it! We then looked at my face on his computer. Can you say embarrassing?! But Dr. G explained that these photographs showed what the naked eye couldn’t see and allowed him to determine the best treatment for me. They also gave us a marker to see how successful my treatments would be in the future.
Okay, so a little embarrassment is worth it! One peel and five days later, my skin is glowing! So loving Dr. G! He also introduced me to a great line of skin care products that are amazing from PCA SKIN:
From left: pHaze 42 Anti-Redness Serum, pHaze 17 ReBalance Moisturizer, Of course, I had all you brides-to-be on my mind, so I asked the good doctor his top five tips for wedding day beauty. Here’s his advice:
This is your big day, so make sure you look your best. If you’re in the NY area, I highly recommend visiting Dr. Galitzin, and if not, check out his website, skincare5thave.com. You’ll be glad you did. Cheers! By Samantha Goldberg, celebrity event designer and wedding planner
Have you ever wondered what the richest families in the world can afford for their weddings?
Over the October 25 weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Ivanka Trump tied the knot with The New York Observer publisher Jared Kushner. One could only imagine that this was most likely one of the most elegant weddings of the decade in this country. What kind of wedding does someone of this stature have?
The answer: A small, "quaint" ceremony with 500 of their closest family and friends underneath a tent with glass walls. The guest list included Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman, Barbara Walters and Regis Philbin. When each person arrived they were handed a beautiful gardenia flower—what a wonderful touch! Golden Chiavari chairs faced a chuppah with cascading crystals, flowers and greens. I bet you didn't know Ivanka converted to Judaism. This is the interesting thing about marriage; you know a couple has given lots of thought into the future when a religion is changed. It shows a commitment in every sense.
Ivanka walked down the aisle in style wearing a couture wedding gown by Vera Wang, which was inspired by Grace Kelly’s wedding dress. Adorned with custom lace and tulle, this gown was classic, elegant and definitely made a statement. She wore more than $265,000 worth of her own fine jewelry collection to accentuate the dress. I would imagine having your own line of jewelry would be most convenient when getting married, right? The bridesmaids were also wearing some of her pieces along with their Carolina Herrera dresses.
Once the reception began Regis serenaded the couple in a room filled with more than one million flowers. The ceiling and walls were draped in ivory chiffon, and centerpieces of all heights and sizes and candles were everywhere. It was romantic yet not overstated. Her planner Preston Bailey did an amazing job of keeping things extravagant, like the Donald would expect, yet beautifully done like his daughter had asked.
The cake was an unbelievable sight. This piece of art was 13 layers of carrot, chocolate and almond decadence. They had to use a ladder to place sugar flowers on top!
When all was said and done you would have thought that was it for the celebrations—not even close. Three days later, on October 28, Ivanka and Jared had yet another reception at the Puck Building in NYC, which was hosted by the groom’s parents! The party was called a Sheva Brachot, which is a special Jewish blessing with a meal. Of course the meal was no ordinary spread. It included kosher food, hamburgers, hot dogs, steak sandwiches, sushi and a huge selection of mouth-watering desserts.
After all the wonderful celebrations it was finally time for the happy couple to relax and enjoy their dream honeymoon in Africa, right? Nope, Ivanka was back to work a day later! She's definitely a woman who knows what she wants!
By Susan Schneider, Bridal Guide Magazine Executive Editor
Hello out there, to the budget minded among you—meaning ALL of you. That’s the ongoing trend in weddings these days, and wedding planners are coming forward with so many helpful suggestions to help you achieve your goals. Lori Stephenson, owner and senior event consultant with LOLA Event Productions (lolaeventproductions.com), offers words to the wise: “The trend toward smaller wedding size will continue into 2010,” she says, “with a guest list of 150, on average, as compared to 200–250.” Smaller wedding sizes, she says, open the opportunity to look at “creative venues like galleries, restaurants and lofts spaces, not just traditional hotel ballrooms.”
We’re on the same page with Lori when it comes to guest comfort—happy guests are the heart and soul of a wedding. She says that “amenities for guests can be added to make it more economical for those traveling to attend. For example, secure a range of price points for accommodations and ensure hotels offer features like a complimentary breakfast or a mini-kitchen. For guests traveling with a family, all-suite accommodations are a welcome option.” Lori adds that, with fewer people attending, you can “maximize little touches like hotel amenity gifts or inviting out-of-towners to a pre-wedding cocktail party. Another nice touch is to add interest with a complimentary sightseeing outing, like a museum visit.”
P.S. Before signing your venue contract, Lori advises reviewing your guest list in detail. “Take into consideration the number of out-of-town guests when negotiating your food and beverage ‘minimum’ with the hotel or other vendor. Nobody wants to pay for upgrades just to reach their food and beverage goals. If it looks as if you’re falling under the minimum, try to parlay this into a post-wedding brunch.”
 Tags: budget
By Naima DiFranco, Bridal Guide Magazine Fashion and Beauty Editor
Ann Taylor recently opened a wedding & events store to their online site. We love the glamorous jewelry they offer at great prices!!! The perfect accessories to complement your big-day look! The pavé ball drop earrings ($45) and the crystal bib necklace ($55) were some of our favorites:
Getting the right look, just got easier...find more at anntaylor.com. Tags: jewelry
By Erin Szeto Chan, BridalGuide.com Intern
It's great when couples play slideshows at their wedding. It adds such a nice personal touch, and it’s fun to see photos of the bride and groom throughout the years. There are a lot of Web sites that help create slideshows, and Animoto (animoto.com) particularly stands out for its user-friendly interface and snazzy, high-quality special effects.
Launched by a group of former MTV, Comedy Central and ABC producers, Animoto is a Web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos from your own pictures and music. Users simply upload their images, video clips and the song they want their video set to. Animoto then uses the same sophisticated production techniques used in television and film to create sleek, MTV-style videos with cool effects like fade in/fade out, pans and zooms and eye-catching photo transitions timed to the music. If you’re not happy with the results, you can add or delete images, change the soundtrack or click on “One Click Remix” to generate an alternate version.
Ready for your video-producing debut? Anyone can create 30-second videos for free (in as little as three minutes) or full-length ones for just $3. Completed videos can then be emailed, downloaded to your computer or iPhone and even embedded on Web sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. By Mara Berkoff, Bridal Guide Magazine Intern
You’ve seen them. Fanny pack firmly clamped around the waist, camera hanging from their necks and their noses stuck in a guidebook. We all fear becoming the dreaded tourist who does the "culture light" tour: only the famous places with some indigenous food thrown in, but none of the weird stuff. Istanbul: The Collected Traveler, An Inspired Companion Guide edited by Barrie Kerper unfolds before us a city so full of fun and adventure that to not want to explore is impossible.
It only gets better from there. This book is not a tourist’s guide to the big monuments or “must see” destinations while in Istanbul, it’s more like someone telling you a story about their beloved homeland and their treasured memories. People who have lived and worked in Istanbul and felt its elusive pull write the collection of articles and essays. You can feel the love pouring out of these people’s souls as they describe the history of Topkapi palace with its lavish dinner parties and turtles trained to carry lit candles on their shells, or the Grand Seraglio where the wives of the Sultan wore 200 emeralds at a time and the gold knives were set with diamonds (where can I register for those!). For travelers with big imaginations, a trip to these sites is worth it to imagine such great wealth in what remains of these buildings now. For all their fancy things, food is extremely important to the Turkish. Engagements were sealed with sherbet, a sweet coffee called lokum, and candy to ensure a sweet marriage. Imagine having your fiancé hand you a Milky Way instead of a ring! Wedding dinners themselves had meat pilaf, warm vegetable dishes, fruit and nuts, and a bonus tray of desserts for the bride’s family if all went well that night. Newsweek’s “coolest city in the world” is the European Capital of Culture 2010, and with good reason. Istanbul: The Collected Traveler, An Inspired Companion Guide lets you fall in love with the history, but keeps you intrigued with recommendations for the present. If it’s your dream to get lost in the emotion and color of Istanbul, this book educates without making you feel like an outsider, with the hope that you will be just as much in love with the city as the people who call Istanbul home. By Samantha Goldberg, celebrity event designer and wedding planner
Just as I’m about to sit down and eat breakfast, I hear The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick is marrying Molly Malaney! Just to refresh your memory, Jason was the bachelor who proposed to Melissa Rycroft and dumped her for Molly, the runner-up. I really hope he doesn’t decide right before the wedding that this girl isn’t for him…again.
I’m sorry, but this is so beyond words. Who really cares? I really don’t think it’s going to last because this guy seems like such a commitment-phobe. It's pathetic. know reality TV shows make things more dramatic than they really are—it has to or you would get bored—but was it necessary for him to add more fuel to the fire and create more drama? The big question is, can you really find true love on a six-week show? I don't know about you, but I think a show about finding love is just not the way to go. It’s already tough to find someone under normal conditions—imagine dealing with that pressure in front of millions of people. You may end up kissing a few guys, maybe even take it a step further, but it's lust...not true emotion. Relationships need to be based on more. Take a look at The Bachelor's and The Bachelorette's track records—how many of these couples actually stayed together? The only person who’s had any real success was bachelorette Trista Rehn. I have to admit, I found my husband through the online dating site JDate.com. I didn't have time to meet boys through friends and decided to take fate into my own hands. I met my husband three months after he moved to Chicago from the East Coast. It took us a good year to decide to move in together, another six months to get engaged, and a year to plan the wedding. I think it was safe to say we were a good match. But again, in life there's no guarantee. I felt pretty confident after this amount of time—we were pretty much on a good path to bliss. Well, married bliss. Do the butterflies last forever? With lots of patience and work, it can stay fruitful, but it takes effort. Let's face it, marriage is not easy. Meeting someone on a love reality show just makes it more complicated. What do you think? Have you thought about meeting someone online? Have you tried out for a reality show? If you did find a love interest on a show, would you jump into an engagement? I’d love to hear your stories. I’ve had some great clients who have found love online...I’m a believer in that for sure! Looking forward to your tales whether they’re good or bad! Tags: engagement
By Susan Beth Schneider, Bridal Guide Magazine Executive Editor
Party planner Jes Gordon has a hot new book out called Party Like a Rock Star—we like the sound of that! And Jes has her head on straight when it comes to cost-cutting for weddings. Here, a few tidbits of wisdom:
Look for Jes Gordon’s book at BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, Target.com or Borders.com. By Erin Szeto Chan, BridalGuide.com Intern
Now your guests can have their cake and eat it, too—in mini chocolate form! The Little Candy Cake Company handcrafts miniature wedding cake-shaped chocolate favors that are as adorable as they are delicious. The elegant little treats are available in solid milk or white chocolate, and founder/chief cake designer Lucinda Sierra can custom-decorate them with beautiful hand-sculpted fondant flowers, seashells, fruit, ribbons and anything else you can envision in your personal wedding colors. Sweet!
Prices start from $5.50 apiece for a two-inch candy cake to $14.50 for a four-inch cake, and are determined by how elaborate the design is. Shipping is available throughout the United States, and you can find out more by calling (631) 470-9367 or visiting thelittlecandycake.com. Results per page:
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