The Incredible Bride

I went scouring my FAVORITE girly site over at iVillage (be careful) and made way over to their wedding section to find a couple (out of like 20 shown) wedding favors that can be DIY-ed. Although I am not one for DIY-ing anything when it comes to fashion, style and beauty (except for putting on my own makeup because I am not Kimora Lee Simmons…yet), but I think I could do a good job of putting these favors, below, together nicely. And please help me in thanking the Wedding Gods that these favors are NOT knick-knacky and I despise knick-knack type favors with a passion.

Anybody can put these together I guess or you can get someone with some skill to put it together for you inexpensively. After that, you can take that extra money you saved and apply it elsewhere in your wedding budget. Sweet! Speaking of the devil…here are some images of sweet favors that I got from iVillage.

Here are some tips from iVillage regarding putting chocolate bar favors together. 1. You can use your candy store’s Hershey Chocolate Bar, remove their wrapper and add your own with scrapbook paper. I know that all craft stores sell them and they usually come in 12x or lower sized sheets. You can also make your own wrappers and I’ll suggest a site that is owned by a friend of mine…the Wrapper’s Corner. 2. As for the lovely embellishments, you can go to a party store and order ribbon with your name and date on it and the bells can easily be picked up at a craft store as well. 3. Getting your wrapper to stick and seal is easy. You can use a tube of scrapbooking adhesive. 4. You can get your paper cut at a Kinko’s or Staples or office supply store OR you can just do it yourself with an inexpensive paper cutter and you can find this at any craft store located right next to the adhesive section. It’s this nice????

These are just too cute and some might say a waste of a nice embellishments, but hey, it’s for your wedding day so the more fine embellishments the better. Here are some tips for these candy ball favors that iVillage suggests mixed in with my own. 1. Recommended candy to use and you cannot go wrong with are the Jumbo Mint balls because they won’t melt and they just big enough to make this type of favorite look its best. 2. As for the paper on this favor, a nice quality tissue paper works here by layering maybe two sheets to every favor. 3. Ribbon can be found a craft store if you want to cheap out a bit, but the best ribbon can be found at a good papery store and you can order in special ribbon from there too. I’d also like to recommend buying from Martha Stewart as well, under her Crafting Essentials section. 4. Stickers are easy. You can order these from Ebay, DIY them or you can just buy standard, monogrammed sticker sets from a papery store, your local Kinkos or Staples. 5. Do NOT forget to cut the ends of your ribbon to add some style.

These favors work in any budget! Do you want to know what’s tackier than having knick-knacky favors for your guests?? …NOT having any favors for your guests at all and that’s sad.

I searched the web and found a very cool wedding broom called “The Nigerian Wedding Broom“. They look different from your average wedding broom and look so much better than corn and wheat brooms. The site where I found them, The Wedding Broom Company, say on their site that these brooms are imported from Africa and can be customized to fit the theming / color of your wedding.

Now traditionally these brooms are used in African/African-American weddings where couples who are just married take the time to “jump the broom” WHICH (I’m getting to the point :p) symbolizes “devotion by which our ancestors recreated a solemn rite under adverse conditions. It is an act of remembrance so couples never forget the struggles of past that have made us the strong people we are today.” that meaning explained fully on The Wedding Broom Company’s homepage. I’ve heard of other reasons as to why jumping the broom is a tradition like “jumping into another life” or moving into a life together, but I’ll leave it at this.

I’ve seen lots of traditional and symbolic products/items used in many weddings minus the tradition and symbolism which I think is cool. In this case, these brooms can be used to decorate aisles or maybe even start up a “broom wedding theme”. Some couples can jump the broom for reasons of their own and then keep the broom as a token of their joy or as a memoir of their wedding day. Decorate your ceremony doors with two of these brooms for a fall wedding??? The possibilities are endless here, be creative.

In closing, The Wedding Broom Company isn’t paying me to say this (oh how I wish), but I will say it: They have the nicest looking wedding brooms I’ve seen on the entire web. Seriously. They don’t look cheap or overly decorated with dollar store embellishments. I like how the Nigerian broom’s look soft, easy to work with and tasteful. The cost is inexpensive and start at $55. Think about it!!!!

I need to start keeping up with my emails…two days ago I got an email from Kleinfeld and it said this:

“Subject: MTV wants to film your wedding!

MTV’s award winning documentary series, ‘True Life’ wants to be part of your wedding day! An on-location film crew will follow this couple through their wedding planning process and all the way down the aisle. Do you have a unique love story? Are you between the ages of 18-25? Do you plan on getting married in May, June or July? If so, tell us about you and your plans for the big day. Email married2@mtvn.com “

Since I am not between the ages of 21 and 25, already married and such a nice person, I decided that I should post this in my blog too. I hope all of the wedding bloggers has this information in their wedding blogs. I hope MTV finds a good couple this time around *looks up into the sky*…oops!

Anybody remember Nicole Kidman in this Chanel ad from way back when? I do! I like how classy and chic they made this ad. A necklace worn in the back? Who would have thought? I love the idea…and why not accessorize like this with a low-cut back wedding dress?? I can’t see why not.

I was trying to locate a Bride, on the net, who has done this, but I don’t think one has ever. If someone can find any Bride who did this and can point me to that website I’ll give that person a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com. The Bride has to be a real Bride and also HAS to be a MODERN Bride. You better work Nicole!!!!!!

Here is a low cut back wedding dress by Angel Sanchez and another by Kris Cole that I absolutely love…