Looks like somebody could use a cupcake

The trend of cupcakes in lieu of wedding cakes has far from died down, and lucky for DC-area brides, someone else has thrown their hat into the ring - everyone's talking about Georgetown Cupcake.

Sisters Sophie LaMontagne, 30, and Katherine Kallinis, 28 (pictured above) opened their small bakery on Valentine's Day and it's been cupcake-madness ever since. Read more about the food frenzy here.

Adorable! I can definitely picture them served on multiple tiers at the perfect preppy wedding or bridal shower. Need more convincing? Take a look at these. . .

you. . .

. . .know. . .

. . .you. . .

. . .want. . .
. . .one.

And now.


(Pictures 1 and 3-8 from New York Social Diary)

Darcy to the rescue!

Have you heard?? This week DIY Bride informs us that Darcy Miller from Martha Stewart Weddings and my favorite bridal blog, The Bride's Guide, is going on tour with Wendy Kromer of Wendy Kromer Confections. Next Thursday, you can find them in our neck of the woods at Macy's at Tyson's Corner.


Both ladies will be on hand to 'educate' brides with a little Wedding Planning 101, as well as to answer brides’ personal questions on all things wedding-related. A must-attend if you're an MS-junkie like me.

The details:

Thursday, March 6
6:30 – 8:30pm
Macy’s at Tyson’s Corner
8000 Tysons Corner Center
McClean, VA
RSVP: 703.893.4900 ext. 515

Well-Played

I guess i'm it - Janice over at The Bridal Wishlist just tagged me! I think it's kind of like getting one of those chain-letter forwards, but much less annoying.

"The rules? Copy this entire list of questions and change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then tag and pass it along to other blogging friends. Let’s see how well we can get to know one another!"

1. What is your occupation? Events are my life.

2. What color are your socks right now? Black. And actually, really warm.

3. What are you listening to right now? I'm at Starbucks (have you heard about my internet-access CRISIS!?) so I'm listening to moody bossa nova. Oh wait, no, it just switched to a trance-like remix of Gershwin's Summertime. Yeah, they haven't asked if any of this is ok with me.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Enormous chocolate-chip cookie with a soy-chai latte. They really have some nerve calling it a cookie actually, it's roughly the size of my 10-month old nephew. Oh and I'm not lactose-intolerant or anything, I just like the soy taste.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Oh no sir.

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Periwinkle?

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Husband. It went something like this:

"Me: The free wi-fi in Dupont isn't woooorrrrkiiiiing!!!
Him: I'm in a meeting right now. . .
Me: Helllllp Meeeee!"

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Well we've never met so I guess the jury's still out. . .kidding. Indeed I do!

9. Favorite drink? I'm assuming you want to hear about something of the alcoholic-persuasion. . .so many possibilities. . .probably Champagne. The good stuff.

10. What is your favorite sport to watch? Whatever the husband's watching. I just like to say "Who's winning the match?" from time to time. Oh and I love the NBA Skills competition.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Nevah.

12. Pets? Desparately seeking a beagle.

13. Favorite food? Mrs. D'Angelo's Cake.

14. Last movie you watched? Superbad, for the second time on DVD.

15. Favorite Day of the year? Groundhog Day.

16. What do you do to vent anger? Drink! I mean. . . .count to 10?

17. What was your favorite toy as a child? A pink gingham pillow named TeTe. I took it evvvvverywhere.

18. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Spring - I'm with Janice, I'm a much better dresser in the warm weather months.

19. Hugs or kisses? Snuggles.

20. What kind of pie? Apple.

21. Living arrangements? Home in DC.

22. When was the last time you cried? ATONEMENT

23. What is on the floor of your closet? Perfect timing we just moved in so right now it's spotless.

24. Favorite smell? Marc Jacobs perfume.

25. What inspires you? Couples in luuuuuv.

26. What are you afraid of? Baby corn. It looks so wrong.

27. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese. It's like candy.

28. Favorite car? Mini.

29. Favorite cat breed? There are different breeds?

30. Number of keys on your key ring? 3

31. How many years at your current job? Centuries.

32. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

33. How many states have you lived in? 2

34. How many countries have you been to? 14

That's it. So I am going to tag... Sarah at The District Domestic!

Wow - did you really read all of that? Well thanks for caring. As a reward, here's a picture of my (second) favorite guy. And yes, the chocolate chip cookie was seriously this big.

Wedding-Worthy

I loved watching all the gowns on the red carpet at this past Sunday's Oscar ceremony. Lots of great ideas for wedding-day style.

Best-actress winner Marion Cotillard in Jean-Paul Gaultier
(Photo be Steve Granitz)

Cameron Diaz in Christian Dior
(Photo by Steve Granitz)

Renee Zellwegger in Carolina Herrera
(PA Photos)

Keri Russell in Nina Ricci
(Photo by Sara De Boer)

(Disclaimer: You're sick about hearing my lack of internet-access complaints, I know. But I'm just going to keep them coming. What other reason would cause me to post inspirations from Sunday's Oscar Ceremony on WEDNESDAY!?!? Anywho. Monday - full-time access, 24/7. It can't come soon enough).

Personal Shopper

I am sucker for all things JCrew, including their chic and simpe bridal party attire. Just to reel me in even further, they're now introducing their very own wedding specialists.

The only real complaint about buying a wedding gown or bridesmaid dress from JCrew that I've ever heard is that you don't get the customer service that you generally would in a bridal salon. They're getting there. . .now when you shop JCrew for any all of your wedding needs, you can be set up with a wedding specialist who will be available to you throughout the entire process. Your specialist can handle everything from suggesting options for you and your party, to keeping you organized and calling in advance of your ceremony to confirm that you and your party have your dresses, suits, shoes and accessories. . .everything you'll need.

Lightning Strikes

As you can see, Saturday turned to Sunday as I forgot about a little thing called internet access. . .something lacking at the moment at our new place. Oops. Thank goodness for Starbucks!

The Express and Washingtonian highlight some great local lingerie finds this week, perfect if you've got a bridal shower or bachelorette party lined up. . .or if you're shopping for your own honeymoon. Here are some selections from my favorite local shop, Coup de Foudre.

Jonquil's chiffon chemise, $56 and $27

$108 and $70

$56 and $27

Runaway Blogger?

Sit tight everyone while bon mariage! takes a mini-break for the rest of the week. I'm in the midst of moving (our first foray into home-ownership!) and the next few days have to be be pack, pack, pack and paint, paint paint. Be sure to check back for a new post on Saturday and try not to miss me too much.

Get Engaged!

Do politics and weddings ever collide? Well according to the knot, the nest and wedding channel they certainly do, and they want you to know all about it. Their newest collaboration: BridesDecide.com, a website that aims to motivate young engaged women and newlyweds to be educated about and to participate in the political process. Just in time for this election year, BridesDecide showcases the candidates' opinions on many of the topics that are important to young women.

Of course, coming from this group, they had to give you a little taste of something fun and wedding-related, right? Boy did they - check out the (current and former) candidates' wedding pictures!

The Bride Hillary Rodham, 27
The Groom, Bill Clinton, 29
Wedding Date October 11, 1975
The Location Fayetteville, Arkansas
Number of Guests 15
Interesting Bill proposed over and over again before Hillary said yes

The Bride Janet McCain, 18
The Groom Michael Dale Huckabee, 18
Wedding Date May 25, 1974
The Location Hope, Arkansas
Number of Guests 75
It's ok to ask for an upgrade Huckabee was still saving up for the ring
when he proposed, so he used a pull-tab from a soda can the night they got engaged

The Bride Elizabeth Jane Harper, 28
The Groom Dennis John Kucinich, 59
Wedding Date August 21, 2005
The Location Cleveland, Ohio
Number of Guests 350
Dry Times Dennis and Elizabeth planned an alcohol-free, vegan reception
but a friend loaded up his truck with beer, wine, liquor, and plastic cups,
and began serving all the guests.

The Bride Elizabeth Anania, 28
The Groom John Edwards, 24
Wedding Date July 30, 1977
The Location Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Number of Guests About 180
Don't let it happen to you Elizabeth bought her dress at the last minute,
after the gown she had originally ordered arrived four sizes too large.

Dialogue

Dans le dialogue « la parole de l’interlocuteur est, de toute évidence, l’extériorisation de l’autre : ce dernier veut que soit compris non les sons qui sortent de sa bouche mais lui-même ». (1)

L’intérêt dans ce cadre d’une démarche conjugale est par la relation de permettre de prendre conscience qu’au-delà de soi-même l’autre existe, est irréductiblement autre et par mon désir m’appelle à être moi-même et pour l’autre. En ce sens, le désir est fondement de mon décentrement.

On retrouve d’ailleurs plus loin chez Hans Urs von Balthasar, une idée qui vient élargir ce concept : « Les amants, du fait qu’entre eux règne l’être englobant, ne se ferment jamais l’un pour l’autre mais dans leur fécondité (quel qu’en soit le résultat) s’ouvrent au mystère fondamental de l’être. La fécondité liée à la seule nature (la procréation d’un enfant par exemple) demeure un symbole, important il est vrai, mais tout de même limité de cette fécondité de l’amour. Il reste qu’à celui-ci doit correspondre à l’intérieur de l’identité divine quelque chose qui demeure inexprimable au niveau de l’archétype. » (2)

(1) Hans Urs von Balthasar, Epilogue, ibid, p. 37

(2) ibid. p. 40

Be Mine

Happy Valentine's Day!
From me to you. But not, you know literally. And in honor of cupid, I've put together all sorts of cutesy, chocolate, red, pretty-pink and hearts-filled details fit for a Valentine's Day wedding.


(From top to bottom)
First Row:
1. Image from Brides.com.
2. Valentine's Day Cookies by Eleni's New York.
3. Image by Trever Boye
4. Image from Martha Stewart Weddings.
Second Row:
1. Cake by Cake Man Raven
2. Image from Martha Stewart Weddings
3. Image by Liz Banfield
4. Image by Charles Schiller
Third Row:
1. Image from Martha Stewart Weddings
2. Image from InStyle Weddings
3. Image by Kim Hawthorn
4. Image by Stacey Kane.

Portrait of a honeymoon

I think most people will agree that the honeymoon is one of the best parts of your wedding. Let's face it, after all your hard work, it's the payoff (aside from the happy, life-long marriage of course). You and your love get to take off on a trip by yourselves and just bask in the glow of being married.

How do you decide where to go? Many factors (probably most importantly budget) can dictate your choice. For my husband and I, our criteria were:

1. Europe (for the historical tourism).
2. Somewhere we'd never been before.
3. Somewhere we could get some beach time.
4. A place where we had some knowledge of the language.

For our honeymoon, that spelled a trip Portugal. We rented a car and traveled from Sintra, to the Algarve and Lisbon. It. Was. Awesome. The best trip of my life so far, and at least once a week for the last 17 months I've turned to Jim and said "Let's go back. Seriously, like, right now". Sigh. Hopefully we will someday.


Our first night in Sintra, the "medieval city". I just loved our hotel, the Palacio Seteais. We arrived earlier in the day and had to wait a few hours to check-in, so we headed to the hotel restaurant and ordered a typical Portuguese meal for lunch, bacalhau (dried salt cod) and vinho verde (literally 'green' wine, made from very immature grapes). Yum. Now Jim might tell you that at this point I was falling asleep and ever so-slightly sulky, but he's totally lying. Well, exaggerating, anyway. In my defense I was exhausted, jet-lagged and somewhere on our flight I managed to come down with a pretty nasty cold. Illness aside, the best part of day one was when we finally made it to our hotel room and realized we'd been given the honeymoon suite, where they'd left us champagne, strawberries and doces de ovos (egg yolk sweets).


Things were looking up the next day as we had an early breakfast on our balcony. Sintra is situated in the misty hills and the views were amazing. I remember while we were eating the wind picked up a bit and revealed a huge castle that had been obscured by the clouds. . .right in front of us. Beautiful!


Then came more sniffles. Followed by sneezing, coughing and hacking. In which Jim proves his ability to really speak Portuguese. If you can walk into a pharmacy in a foreign country and say "Do you have nasal decongestant?" in another language, then I'm calling you fluent. No arguments.

We took a day trip to Fatima to see the shrine and basilica.



Next stop: The Algarve. This (with some cropping) was the view from our balcony at our hotel, the Almansor. Three days and three nights of sun and crashing waves. This picture has been my computer background for said 17 months. Not exactly helping me get over the experience.


In the evenings the Almansor had dance performances.


Newly tanned, we drove back to Lisbon for some sightseeing and our last night in Portugal.


Padrao dos Descobrimentos (Monument to the Discoveries).

The view from our final hotel, the Dom Pedro Palace. We were pretty beat after the long week and had to get up really early to catch our flight home. So truthfully our time here was was spent looking out this very window, exclaiming over the really cool bathroom, ordering room service and sleeping.

I have to admit, at the time we were under the impression that by heading to Portugal, we were going on the most unique honeymoon ever, but we weren't quite that slick. While we were in line for the rental car I struck up a conversation with an American couple behind us. Not only were they also newly-weds, but we'd gotten married on the same day, in DC, and our new husbands had the same occupation. So much for blazing a trail!

Sniffling aside, I loved every second.

Best Dressed

I went shopping for bridesmaid dresses with this gal on Saturday and we found some really adorable options. We've narrowed it down to two or three and I'm excited for her to make the final decision! Since I have bridemaid dresses on the brain, it's only fitting that US just posted the results from their best and worst bridesmaid dress contest. Hopefully Bridal Party will have their local version up soon! Want to see the best of the worst? Check it out here. Here are my favorites. . .

McPhever!

People.com has pictures up of American Idol's Katherine McPhee and her February 2 wedding to Nick Cokas. She really looks gorgeous! I love the side-ways up do, the simple veil and the classic dress with modern lines.