Catching up on my Google Reader is unfortunately an every month or so process!  I love reading all the different blogs and hearing what the experts have to say and seeing so much inspiration.  As usual, I spent my Saturday morning with a coffee treat and some excellent reading.  Check out a few of the stand-out posts I read:

Audrey Snow

Wedding by Socialites outlines all of the different types of sessions you can have with your photography to help tell your entire wedding story from beginning to end.  It starts with the engagement pictures and ends with a trash the dress session—and don’t forget about the sexy boudoir photos for your future husband!

If you are a do-it-yourself type of bride check out DIY Bride for creative ideas to personalize your wedding and hopefully save money in the process!  She also has an I Love Letterpress blog that features great ideas in making your wedding papers unique!  Start designing your Thank You cards now!

Be Inspired by Elizabeth Anne Designs and The Nichols Blog with this colorful and out of this world wedding!

Don’t miss out on Eventology 2010 announced!  I missed the 2009 show and am planning ahead for this year.  It is a great time to focus on your business and network with great professionals in the industry.

Not only can you learn How to Choose a Wedding MC…but disgustingly enough you can also see 25 things made of meat on The Man Registry Blog.  Warning…the items pictured are not edible!  Those guys are always full of jokes and never cease to surprise you!

Finally check out Savvy Scoop from It’s A Jamie Thing on lighting up your wedding with lanterns.  A Great DIY idea that will leave your guests glowing!

Until next Saturday and more great posts—I hope you get out and enjoy the rest of the summer while it is still here!!

I mentioned these purse valets back in April when I found them at Cherished Gifts and Favors. Now With This Favor is having a purse valet giveaway!

What woman wants to put her purse on the dirty floor?  Or those inconvenient situations where you have nowhere to put your purse so you end up practically sitting on it in the chair with you?

I love these purse hooks that you can carry around with you and always have somewhere to hang your purse off the table!

If you are from the U.S and have your eye on this purse valet, all you have to do is sign up for the With This Favor newsletter before August 26th!  They have 50 of these valets to give away so your chances are pretty good!

Source: With This Favor

OneWed received a fabulous new makeover not only to its appearance, but a great new addition: Wedding Pre-Party. I have only begun to explore all that the new Wedding Pre-Party has to offer! Current and future brides have so much to look forward to in way of photo inspiration, tips and ideas shared amongst their wedding party.

This is such a great way to involve your friends and family and build excitement for your big day!

Get Started Today: Wedding Pre-Party

Official Press Release below:

ONEWED LAUNCHES WEDDINGPREPARTY.COM: THE MARRIAGE OF WEDDING PLANNING AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

Wedding Planning Website Introduces Social Networking Platform and Implements Facebook® Connect to Make Wedding Planning More Social

Chicago, IL (July 28, 2009) /PRNewswire/ — OneWed.com, the wedding planning website with the largest online directory of local wedding vendors, brings the fun and convenience of social networking to the wedding planning process with the newly launched Wedding Pre-Party. This social wedding planning site enables the wedding party and guests to socialize, share information, post photos and help the engaged couple plan their wedding in a private online forum created by the bride and groom. It’s a virtual way to start the celebration early and keep in contact, while building excitement before the big day.

As an added convenience, with Facebook Connect, Facebook users can quickly and easily authenticate into WeddingPreParty.com using their already established Facebook account. When Facebook users log in to WeddingPreParty.com, they are able to publish their actions back on Facebook, which enables them to share more information with their friends if they so choose.

“WeddingPreParty.com provides the perfect opportunity for brides, grooms and guests to stay connected from the engagement to the wedding and beyond. Weddings are a celebratory, social event – our philosophy is that the planning process should be just as fun and social as the event itself,” says Jennifer Napier, VP of Marketing for OneWed.com. “By utilizing an interactive wedding site, everyone involved in the wedding can communicate, share ideas and engage with each other online.”

The unique features of WeddingPreParty.com for the bride and groom include:

• Invite-only access to the bride and groom’s private, personalized wedding planning site. Privacy controls prevent the general public from viewing the content.
• Niche wedding planning social network where the wedding party and wedding guests chat with the bride and groom and offer wedding planning tips, advice, ideas, inspiration, styles of wedding dresses, photos and more, conveniently compiled and easily accessible in one virtual space.
• His & Hers status updates to share first-person feedback on the wedding planning process and playfully interact with participating guests. This blog-like platform essentially serves as an interactive online diary of wedding planning updated in real time.
• A personalized, interactive wedding checklist to help the bride and groom manage details with the option to add, subtract and edit tasks. Couples can also delegate items to other guests active on the site, who may be notified via email and Facebook updates.
• Access to the largest online directory of local and national wedding vendors, ratings and reviews directly from your personalized wedding planning social network.
• Photo albums of wedding pre-parties such as engagement showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties to which couples and guests can upload photos.
• Tools to build the bride and groom’s public wedding website, including customized pages to welcome guests, share photos, tell the engagement story, post event details, update travel information, link to the registry and include honeymoon notes.

The benefits of WeddingPreParty.com for the guests are:

• Ability to view photos and profiles of the other wedding guests in advance, creating a valuable opportunity to meet and mingle well before the ceremony and arrive at the wedding at ease, having virtually met other guests before the big day.
• Opportunity to send the bride and groom customized conversational messages through sharing of “tips,” “toasts” and “truths.”
• Facilitate simple group discussion, whether contributing bachelor/bachelorette party ideas or determining best options for wedding travel plans. Instead of creating long email chains, the wedding guests can use the bride and groom’s main page to communicate in a convenient shared forum.

Source: OneWed

Brides spend hours planning and brainstorming ideas to give their guest as a favor or thank you for celebrating their special day with them.  You look for a favor that represents you as a couple, but you also want one that will go along with the theme of your wedding.  You may want a monogram or initial on it, or you might insist that it is practical and your guests will actually use it.  Their are price constraints and color choices, but in the end every bride usually finds a favor that makes all the cuts and ends up to be the perfect representation of you and a memory of your wedding celebration!  Everyone has different likes and dislikes which is one of the reasons Sunflower Favors has such a large variety of wedding favors—you can’t not find something in her selection that catches your eye!

I picked out a few of my favorite favors on her list, the first one being the “Olive You” – Tuscan Oil Bottle, perfect for an Italian countryside wedding.  If possible, fill it with a local oil that is famous in your region, or one that you and your fiance have tried together.

Olive You – Tuscan Oil Bottle

I am picturing this Diamond Ring Paperweight shown below as the perfect bridal shower favor.  I think this is such a fun gift for your bridesmaids.

Diamond Ring Paperweight

I think this candle would be fun if you hosted a martini-themed bridal shower or wedding.  Create a signature martini or host a martini bar for your guests and pass stuffed olives for appetizers.

Martini Glass Candle

Visit them at Sunflower Favor Blog.

Congratulations goes out to Julianne Smith for her stylish garters making it on the Today Show recently.  On the annual NBC “Today Show Throws a Wedding,” Nick & Leigh were married and these personalized garters were featured!  Check out the Show Clip on their blog:

Follow The Garter Girl Blog to get the most updated news on Julianne’s newest items!

Check out the Today Show Clip on their website!

You wear your wedding ring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I can not imagine not loving the piece of jewelery on your finger!  To help you find that perfect ring One Wed has launched a new Engagement and Wedding Ring Gallery.  Search between white gold and platinum, princess cut and square diamonds until every detail of your ring is personalized to you!

The trend has started now it is up to all of you confident women to carry it on, more and more women are proposing to their men now-a-days than ever before.  One Wed wants to help support this turnabout with an exciting contest they have going on until July 15th.  The instructions to enter are as follows:

Tell One Wed in 200 words or less how you would (or will) POP your Platinum Proposal, and you could win his and hers platinum wedding bands from jewelry designer Kirk Kara. Send your platinum proposal story to savvyscoop@onewed.com before midnight on July 15th. And don’t forget, you must register on One Wed.com first, and provide your One Wed username along with your Platinum Proposal story!

Once you get a chance to look over these rings, let me know which style fits you the best!

Source: One Wed

OneWed, the largest database for wedding vendors, is embarking on a new mission to help every bride and groom plan their honeymoon as stress-free as possible!  Partnering with iExplore, the Number 1 ranked website for adventure and experiential travel, OneWed users will be able to work alongside travel specialists in creating their dream honeymoon or destination wedding!

Pick from numerous countries and activities such as Maldives, Puerto Rico or Italy, sailing, safari’s or white water rafting!  Check out this new  interactive site and discover all you can experience on your upcoming honeymoon!

Even the Weather Channel is participating by assisting with weather predictions for honeymoons and destination weddings that brides can check directly from OneWed!

Where are you planning on going for your Honeymoon?

Source: OneWed.com

You spend a year planning each detail down to the color of your nail polish when you get your manicure before the big day.  No matter how many lists you make, you will always have factors of your big day that you can not control.  If you hire a wedding planner to help coordinate the big day, 9 times out of 10 they will come prepared with a 911 kit filled with solutions to most any last minute mishap!

If you are planning on creating your own 911 kit I suggest taking a look into ordering Mojuba for yourself and your groom. Thinking of every event that could go wrong at your own wedding will only stress you out and overload you with worries and “what ifs”, Mojuba: love, life and the unexpected has put together an all-in-one saving grace on your wedding day.

The Bride Mojuba is a darling purse that expands with all of the essentials you could imagine!  Tissues, fashion tape and cushions for your dancing feet are only a few of the many items in your Mojuba that will make you feel pampered and prepared for your day!  Use the camera to document the memories that happen when the photographer may not be looking!

The Groom Mojuba shares the same essentials as the Bride Mojuba but 100% geared towards men.  The shaving kit, deodorant and mints will help you look your best, but the poker sized Mojuba playing cards will guarantee you are ready for the long day ahead of you! (Don’t worry guys you will even find medication for your nervous stomach before you walk down the aisle!)

These are easy all-in-one packs that will ensure a stress-free wedding planning process!  Not only are they full of must-haves on your big day, but they are delivered in two very stylish bags!  Consider these both great gifts for the bride and groom at a bridal shower or engagement gift to help reassure every unplanned event is taken care of!

Did you come prepared with a 911 kit on your big day?

Source: Mojuba: love, life and the unexpected

If you have not gotten a chance to check out Michele Esposito’s fabulous line of sterling silver charms that mark the date of your special day, now is your chance!  Not Just Any Old Day features a calender charm that marks your most important date with a Swarovski crystal.  Add this charm to a bracelet, chain or key chain creating your own style and memorabilia to keep.  These charms are not only great gifts but are aimed at creating a forever heirloom that you can pass down to generations.

One thing I love about these charms is you can customize them to either grooms/dads or brides/mothers.  The money clip would be a perfect wedding day gift to your groom (ensuring he will never forget your anniversary!)  It is a subtle and creative way to carry around memories of your special day!

I think a great gift idea would be this calender charm put on cuff links, the groom or groomsmen can wear for the wedding and keep thereafter.  (We will have to talk with Michele and see what the future holds for the charms.)

One of their newest items is this beautiful silver cake server with the calender charm marking the date on the handle.  This is a great keepsake gift that the couple can not only use to cut the cake at their wedding, but will cherish for years after.

Would you give these charms as a gift?  What other items would you like to see the charm on?

Source: Not Just Any Old Day

Another week has gone by and I am once again catching up on the 1000s of great posts I have saved in my  Google Reader.  Check out these inspirational articles and send me an email if you have a great post you want me to check out as I am always looking for new blogs to follow.

**Melissa Smitten featured a Los Angeles Times article talking about how more wedding recently are being held at the courthouse vs. elaborate affairs.

** Delicious details from a lavish wedding on Pearls Events Blog!!

** Prima Donna Bride gives us DIY instructions for creating our own fabric covered vases.  They would definitely add to a swanky wedding decor!

** I am in awe at the turnaround Syzygy Event Productions did in creating an unbelievable reception hall for The Unbride.  A few draperies, lighting and furniture transformed the area into chic and luxurious!

** When shopping in New York you can’t miss the famous Kleinfield Bridal, according to Junebug Weddings.  I will have to make this a stop on my next trip to the city—not only for the beautiful gowns but for the experience described, sounds like one of a kind!

** The Man Registry never ceases to entertain me with their targeted gifts and ideas for the ideal groom!  Check out their “man’s ring” for the beer lover—how creative!

There are so many more great posts out there, I guess we will have to wait until next week to read them.  Email me if you have any inspirational post for me to add to the must read list!