If you're in the Washington DC area, be sure to mark your calendar for the I'm Getting Hitched event with wedding expert Anne Chertoff (and all around super-nice gal) and some of the best wedding vendors in the DC area.  Here's the official skinny:

I’m Getting Hitched!

Now that you’ve said “I will", come meet, mingle and hear wedding expert Anne Chertoff and the best of DC’s wedding vendors give you inside tips and advice on getting organized and planning to say “I do”!

Get inspired with event décor, sample cocktails and decadent sweets, win fabulous raffle prizes and take home a wonderful assortment of goodies too!

Featuring: Hitched Salon, Design Cuisine, Ritzy Bee Events, Kate Headley Photography, Humanstory Films, K. Rose Cakes, Laura Hooper Calligraphy and more!

When: Thursday, March 19, 2009 from 6 pm – 8 pm


Where: Hitched Salon, located in Georgetown at 1523 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007

Register: The event is complimentary and you must register to attend. Space is very limited and open to brides + 1 guest only.

Please RSVP early to: fromiwilltoido{at}gmail.com with your first and last name, wedding date, email, phone, mailing address and guest’s name

Questions: Please email info{at}ritzybee.com

Map and logo designed by Laura Hooper Calligraphy

A reader asks:
Do I need to include postage on my RSVP envelopes?

In a word, yes. Not only is pre-stamping the RSVP envelope good manners, it helps streamline the response process for your guests and helps ensure that you'll get more replies back.  Even the most well-intentioned guests get sidetracked when they have to hunt down a stamp.  Your card may be toted around in a purse for a week while "buy stamps" gets bumped slowly down to the bottom of the to-do list.  Make it easy for your guests to reply to you and decrease your RSVP followup calls by including a stamp on the reply envelope.

Want to save a bit on postage?  If your wedding is a less formal affair (i.e. not black tie), consider creating your RSVP card as a postcard and ditch the accompanying envelope.



rsvp card via Wedding Paper Divas

Liene's Note: We originally posted this on January 5, but we are reposting today since Valentine's day is this Saturday. If you haven't yet purchased your raffle ticket for your chance to win $5000 worth of wedding photography, be sure to do so ASAP. This would also make a great gift for a friend who is recently engaged!

Are you or someone you know getting married? You're in luck! emilie inc photography is offering a raffle where the winner will win $5000 worth of wedding photography coverage (including a disc of the digital negatives and Emilie's travel expenses) for any time between now and 2012.

Raffle tickets are $50 each and proceeds benefit Pink Initiative, a non-profit organization comprised of wedding industry professionals and private donors dedicated to funding awareness, outreach, education and research for breast cancer.  Here is some more info:


Even if you already have a photographer, this prize would make a great gift to your best friend or someone else you know who is planning on tying the knot in the next three years.

Anyone is eligible to enter, and you have until Valentine's Day to do so.  To enter, visit the official raffle page at the emilie inc blog.

Good luck and let us know if you win!

When you purchase your wedding gown, keep in mind that alterations can cost quite a bit, sometimes up to half as much as the dress itself.  Part of the alteration process will include creating a bustle style and sewing the loops and hooks or ties that will create it (the bustle is generally not included in the original dress off the rack).

Here are some tips for making the bustling process on your wedding day a bit smoother:

Color Code It
Before your wedding day, buy a variety of different colored ribbons and cut two small pieces of each.  Tie one green ribbon on one bustle loop and the other green ribbon to it's corresponding loop. Continue this for the other loops with the red, blue, pink, yellow, etc ribbons.  Then, when it's time to bustle your dress, your bridesmaids will know exactly which loops go together by simply matching the colors.  Since the bustle loops are on the inside of the dress, the ribbons won't be visible.

Pin it Up
Blame it on Murphy and his pesky law, but no matter how well your seamstress or tailor sews your bustle loops, at least one of them will break at some point during your wedding.  The weight of your dress fabric will be heavy, so we recommend diaper pins instead of regular safety pins when fixing a broken bustle tie.  These are made of a heavier metal that will support the weight of almost any gown and you can find them at Target or Babies R Us.

What style bustle are you having on your wedding dress?



photo by Stuart Thurlkill, Eyes 2 See

One tradition I'd like to see make a graceful exit from weddings (along with the bouquet toss) is the receiving line.

This tradition takes up a lot of time at the wedding and usually delays dinner, leaving your guests hungry and a little grouchy.  While the intent of the receiving line is to ensure you spend time with each guest, the time is not quality and guests tend to leave feeling like just a number as they are herded through the line of hellos and hugs.

If you have 150 guests and allot 30 seconds with each guest to hug and say hello, you're looking at an hour and fifteen minutes just to get everyone through the receiving line!  That time is much better spent mingling with guests during the cocktail hour, where they can catch up with friends and family while sipping champagne and munching on canapes.  This setting also makes your conversations with them more relaxed and much more real than the formalities a receiving line allows. 

If you're sporting some new sparkle on your left hand, and are considering having an engagement party to celebrate, here are some points of etiquette to keep in mind. I've included both traditional etiquette rules as well as some modern updates that would still be acceptable and in good taste:

Traditional: The bride's immediate family hosts the engagement party as a way to celebrate and share the couple's good news with friends and family. If the groom's family lives out of state or far away, it is not inappropriate to have a second engagement party hosted by his family.
Modern:  An engagement party may be hosted by anyone, but the role should not be offered to anyone in the bridal party unless they specifically request to host.  The reason for this is that your bridesmaids and groomsmen have several other obligations during the planning process that they need to focus their energy and finances on.

Traditional: The host foots the bill, even if the party takes place in a restaurant.
Modern: This stays the same.  Guests should never pay for their own meal or for any part of the party.  If it gets to be pricey, the person hosting your engagement party may also opt to host just a happy hour or an afternoon champagne and hors d'oeuvres mixer.

Traditional: Guests are not expected to bring gifts to an engagement party.  If they do, the bride and groom should open them later in private and not in front of guests as you would at a bridal shower.
Modern: If you're a guest, a small token gift is not inappropriate, such as a favorite wedding planning book. While you're still not obligated to bring a gift at all, I would recommend a card of congrats at the very minimum.

Traditional: Toasts are given, beginning with the father of the bride. After him, the groom toasts his bride and her family and then opens up the floor to any other friends or family who want to share a few words.
Modern: If the party is being hosted by someone other than the bride's immediate family, they should be third in line to toast, but they are not obligated to say anything.

Traditional: No one should be invited to the engagement party who will not also be invited to the wedding. 
Modern: This rule stays the same, even for the most modern of couples and even if you are planning a destination wedding. Being rude is never in style.

Did you have or are you having an engagement party?

If you're a wedding planner, wedding professional, or an entrepreneur, I wanted to let you know about a new series that is beginning on The Smart Planner. There will be a new, ongoing series on Wednesdays focused on work/life/family harmony and balance.

I have specifically chosen women (and some men) who inspire me to not just be a better business person, but a better person overall, and who wouldn't be caught dead playing the mom card or using their children as an excuse for poor business strategy. This topic is the number one request I receive, so I am excited that so many people are on board to share their stories.

It begins today with the incredibly talented Terrica from Fabuluxe. You can check it out over at The Smart Planner.

Keri and Jenni, the brilliant masterminds behind Twirl Boutique, have brought all the fabulousness of being a bridesmaid online with their new blog, Twirl Talk.

If you're not familiar with Twirl, it is a shop dedicated solely to bridesmaids.  While other wedding professionals work with bridesmaids, at the end of the day, their contracted clients are the bride and groom.  At Twirl, on the other hand, Keri and Jenni work with bridesmaids day in and day out and are hands down THE experts when it comes to that all important role. (It doesn't hurt that they've been bridesmaids over 16 times combined!)  Their blog is still in its beginning phases, but if you want to learn how to be the best bridesmaid ever, then be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on all of their great insight and advice.

You can check out the Twirl Talk blog here and also follow Keri on Twitter here.

Sometimes in the fun that goes along with choosing the perfect table linen or just the right shade of pink, many couples will overlook some very important logistical details in the wedding planning process. Some wedding details require a critical eye and analyzing everything that needs to happen in order for the wedding to go off without a hitch.

For example, I was once at a wedding as a guest and as my friend and I arrived, we had trouble finding the location. The turnoff was at a mile marker off of a curvy highway and did not have an option for a left-turn. After we were able to turn around, several miles later, the road that turned off from the highway quickly switched from a smooth, paved road to a rocky and very narrow dirt road that continued for about a mile and half before reaching the venue. Fortunately, the trusty Toyota I had at the time was able to make it, but had it rained in any of the days leading up to the wedding, my little car would not have fared so well. Had we known about this road ahead of time, we would have been able to opt for my friend's SUV instead.

Upon arriving, we learned that several of the other guests had run into the same issue and the hassle and confusion had left a sour taste in their mouth.  Although the wedding was beautiful and the food delicious, an indelible first impression had already been made. 

If there is anything about your wedding that would help your guests properly plan ahead of time, include those details on your wedding website, or on a separate card in your invitation. In this case, a little note about the road conditions would have been perfect on the map and directions card. In fact, just including a map and directions card would have been a good start.  Details like this are not areas to cut corners in. 

Have you ever been to a wedding where important details that affected guests were overlooked?