Language Art Custom Wall Art

This past weekend, I took a road trip to Cleveland to visit Bride #1, her husband and 18 month old son. She recently redid her kitchen, and hanging up over the wall to her deck was an anniversary gift from her in-laws that I fell in love with. They ordered custom wall art that spelled out their last name from a company in Indiana (our old stomping grounds!) called Language Art.

Each letter of their last name was a black and white 4x6 photograph, all mounted together and easy to hang. According to the website, “Finding art and beauty in objects that are otherwise ignored, Greg and Dilynn Puckett, the team behind Language Art, travel the country photographing letters in signs, shapes and architectural elements. The letters are professionally printed in a 4" x 6" format, framed and using their artistic ability are arranged to create a singular word or custom name. In black and white, the pieces are bold, yet the combinations evoke comforting feelings.”

I played around a bit on the site, and was facilitated about the puzzle you can create. Not only can you create custom words, but you get to choose the actual photographs used for each letter. Plus, the website tells you where each photograph was taken. So for a New York City couple, you can use all city pictures, for a couple that's a little more outdoorsy, you can use pictures that are a little more natural, etc. You also get to see what types of pictures/letters look good next to each other.

I am obsessed with this gift, and thinks it makes a fantastic wedding gift by using the couples married name. That said, I always say, “know your bride” and encourage you to really think if your bride will like this, as it really has to be her taste, because she can’t exactly return it to Bloomingdale’s. I’m thinking Bride & Groom #9 will love it, esp. since Bride #9 is a bit of an amateur photographer. I’ll keep you posted if I end up giving it to them and what their thoughts are. What do you think?

Happy Bridesmaiding!

Valentine's Day Sale

Valentine's Day has come and gone. Wheather you spent the day/night with your signigificant others, or your BFFs, one thing is for certain today. All of the heart shaped goodies in your local grocery stores, drug stores and card stores will go on sale. And while it's a good time to stock your office candy drawer with some on sale sweets- don't forget you should ABB, Always Be Bridesmaiding. This is also the perfect time to stock up on heart-shaped shower & bachelorette supplies. Oriental Trading is one of my favorite (and inexpsinve) places to get my materials. I perused their site for Valentine's Day goodies that could easily translate to Bachelorette parties.

Heart shaped rings that make great favors for the gals to wear out at night.)
Rose shaped soap set can be a prize for a winner of a shower game

Heart shaped cake mold is a great G-rated alternative for the bachelorette pary

Feather boas make excellent props for Karaoke Bachelorette parties

Lip decoration cake toppers add a little pizzaz to your cupcakes

Happy Bridesmaiding!

Response Card Poems

Growing up, my mother was always writing poems. My sister and I got poems in our birthday cards, we got poems with clues as to where our Chanukah gifts were hidden (and then it was a race to find them) and most importantly- she would write a poem when responding to a good friend’s bar or bat-mitvah on the response card. She was well-known for them and everyone couldn’t wait to get a Linda Glastein poem.

Naturally, I am mother’s daughter, and I equate response card poems with special/close friends. So when I started bridesmaiding and had to RSVP to their weddings, what else did I do, but write a poem? I’ve written many poem rehearsal dinner speeches as well, but those are usually longer and more detailed. I like to keep the response cards short and sweet, but they still stand out when being opened, and bring a smile to everyone’s faces. Below is what I wrote for Bride #2.

Stef & Adam started dating back at IU,
And now it's time for them to say "I do."

On 7-7-07 these two will tie the knot,
It means so much to me to stand nearby in a special spot.

So of course I will be there on this special day,
Can't wait to celebrate and dance the night away!

How do you like to respond to the weddings you go to? Do you do anything different that stands out? Happy Bridesmaiding!

P.S. When I’m in a bind, I rely on rhymezone.com to solve my rhyming needs!

A Picture (Frame) is Worth A Thousand Words

When I had to get a wedding gift for Bride #1, I was really torn. Many of my friends were giving money or a gift from the registry, but I felt like I wanted to do something a little more special. I love Bride #1 to death, but she can be quite particular and I didn’t want to get anything she didn’t pick out herself.

I then came up with the perfect combination of the two. I picked out an expensive 8x10 picture frame that she registered for. It wasn’t quite as much as I wanted to spend, so I also ordered a smaller version in the same pattern. While at the wedding, I made sure to take a great vertical picture of the bride & groom. (As you can guess, I am quite the amateur photographer at the weddings I go to, and feel the need to capture every minute.) As soon as I returned to New York after the wedding, I ordered an 8x10 of the newlyweds in black and white and a 4x6 of the bridesmaids to put in the smaller frame.

I’ve given and iteration of this gift to many of my brides since, but nothing beats the way Bride #1 received her gift. You see, the couple lived together in New York, but their wedding was in Cleveland. They left for Ohio about a week before the big day, so they gave me a spare key to their apartment, just in case they forgot anything they needed (which they did- Groom #1 forgot his iPod and seriously needed it for the honeymoon!). So, while they were baking in the sun in Hawaii, I had the pictures printed, I put them in the frames, wrapped them, and delivered them right on to their coffee table.

As soon as they walked in to their apartment for the first time as husband and wife, they were so surprised to see a gift waiting for them. They were even more shocked to see their own wedding pictures in the frames. They were absolutely thrilled! I told them that they could be placeholders for the professional prints; I just wanted them to have some wedding pictures up until they were able to order the real ones. But Bride #1 loved the gift so much, she left the picture I put in, and last summer when I was at her house in Cleveland (they’ve since moved back to the Midwest) almost 3 years after her wedding, the picture I took still resided in the frame. She said she likes it that way, because it was more meaningful, since I took the picture. Awww….

That set the bar pretty high for my future brides. And while I wasn't able to get in to anyone else's apartments, I did always make sure that the frame was waiting either in their mailbox or with their doorman when they got home from their honeymoons. They all loved coming home to such a special gift.

If you like this idea, but can’t find a frame on their registry, just pick out something classic they might like, and if you can get it engraved with their wedding date on it, even better!

Do you have a favorite “go-to” wedding gift you like to give?
Happy Bridesmaiding!

BRIDESMAIDS - the movie!

The trailer for this movie was just released today, and I can not wait for it to come out this Spring! I love Kristen Wiig on SNL (and just about everything else she's in), so can't wait to see her take the leading role here with tons of other comediennes- even though from the looks of it, she could use plenty of help from SuperBridesmaid!

Watch the trailer here and Happy Bridesmaiding!