Wedding Wednesdays

I know the wedding of the year is over, but it's still Wednesday.

AND I have a friend who's newly engaged, so I'll try to keep these up every so often.

I just came across this website from a colleague in the photo industry, it's such a smart idea that my friend Celeste and I were like "we wish we came up with this!"

It's a wedding resource collective, where you can find a photographer, hair/make up person, or invitations!

Check the site out if you are planning a wedding!

(The above photo is my friend Pete giving his best man speech into a fork).


XOXO Agmac

"THE" Wedding

So I realize I overuse "best ever" when referring to parties and such. Thus I will refrain from calling Lo and Alex's wedding the "best wedding ever," but it came pretty damn close.

First of all, Lauren looked amazing. Secondly, I was her MOH, so nuff said.

But what impressed me the most about the wedding, was how Lo managed to make it so unique to her and Alex, without spending an arm and a leg.


I'm not going to admit how much they spent, because I really have no idea, but I do know that Lauren did a lot of things on her own or DIY with the help of some friends.

Here are some great things she did to cut down on costs and personalize her wedding:

- Centerpieces--her and her mother-in-law rounded up some nice vintage looking vases and bought flowers that were in season the night before the wedding. This saves on costs and allows you full contrcol over the tables.

- Favors--Lo ordered pretty votives with a design that matched her invitations, matchbooks with the wedding date, and bought tea lights--put all three together with cellophane and ribbon (as we did in her living room) and viola!


- Make-up--She did all of the bridesmaids' make up and her own! Now, this is strictly for professional make-up hobbyists like Lo (http://lflynn.mymarkstore.com/), but she was cool under pressure and made us all look good.

- DJs--Have your fun and boisterous friends sound off on the mic and give them a few playlists. This way you get to hear your favorite music AND you give the showboats something fun to do ;-)

- Decorations--Lo's friends Jaime and Deirdre did a great job decorating the church railing AND the reception hall. It's great to ask good friends of yours who aren't in the bridal party to do some pre game stuff for you--they get recognition and love from you in return.

- Food--Do it up buffet style with recyclable plates (I recommend bamboo) and forget about pesky waitstaff spilling thigns all over your guests.

Lauren didn't skimp on the fun stuff, which was the booze, the clothes and the food. It was a beautiful and amazing wedding!

XOXO
agmac

Wedding Wednesday

So my bff's wedding plans are well on the way, she's super ahead of the game!


But in talking weddings with other people, I realized that there are a plethora of gift registries that defy the ordinary. I was intrigued by this, because a lot of people nowadays live together for a long time before they get married. So at this point, they've already accumulated a lot of STUFF.

So what do you get the couple that has everything? Or more importantly, if you are the couple who has a small NY apartment with a lot of stuff in it, what do you ask for?


Here are some ideas...

• The Honeymoon Registry! You can pick a destination and people will donate different fun activities you can do there. See a sample one for Hawaii here. The reason this is good is because you can end up going to a really bomb ass location, without having to pay with your home savings!
  

• The Donation Registry. Let's say you are super rich or a super rich relative is bank rolling the whole ceremony. The philanthropic thing to do would be to ask guests to donate to one or two of your favorite charities in lieu of a gift.

• Adventures. One of my favorites, and an oldie but goody, you can request certain activities like cooking classes or wine tours, and your friends get them for you! There is no official registry on the excitations site, but I'm thinking of writing them an email ;-) But there is another site for the true adventure seekers that you CAN register for.
  

• One Big Ass Registry. Have too many favorite stores? This site allows you to pick from multiple places to make one master registry. Great for out-of-towners who like to physically go and buy the gift.

And finally, here's a great little piece about the etiquette of registries, both for the happy couple and for the happy guests.

Now, if you are a tad creative there are lots of things you can get a couple that are not part of their registry: depending on what city they live in, you can get art lovers museum passes, you can have a star constellation or zoo animal named after/sponsored by them (I did that once!), you can get them fun dance or season tickets to a playhouse or favorite sports team, or you can commission an artist to do a portrait of their pets!!

Buy on.
agmac

**Wedding Wednesdays**

Well, in case you didn't hear me announce it at the rooftops, my best friend is getting married!!

And I'm the maid of honor, which means I get to put all my agmacs party tips to good use.

The wedding is in October so every Wednesday I'm going to dedicate a post to cool wedding tips, fun ideas, ways to do weddings, bachelorette parties, etc. on the cheap.

Today's post is just a starting point. I haven't been to too many weddings but the ones I have been to have been very very special. Below are some of my favorite little things from them:

• The coolest gifts to guests--a mix cd of the couples favorite songs, design of the mix matched the invitations and the colors of the wedding. A beautiful sentiment and way better than candied almonds.

• Rooftop photographer--so in addition to a professional photographer, my friend had a photographer on the roof for some candids, and all out goofy pictures that were then sent to the guests in thank you notes.
  

• Similar to the above, I just heard about a couple who tried to do everything on the cheap but splurged on a photo booth. People LOVE pictures of themselves and photo booths are so old school and fun.

• Vodka on each table--an homage to his heritage and where the couple spent a year of their life, my cousin put a bottle of honey vodka on each table for toasting. Such a great addition to the party.

• Personalized table numbers--instead of the regular, boring numbers indicating table numbers, one couple used photographs they'd taken, framed simply in some plastic stand alone frames. For example, table one was a picture of the Highway 1 sign. It was a great, personalized touch.

• And Duh, a conga line!
  

That's it for the first installment!

I hope you enjoy Wedding Wednesdays.

xoxo