Taking a break

Starting today, I am officially on vacation until August 1. I may periodically update this blog during this time or I may not. In the meantime, I leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"Love is as much of an object as an obsession, everybody wants it, everybody seeks it, but few ever achieve it, those who do, will cherish it, be lost in it, and among all, will never...never forget it." - Curtis Judalet

Happy Summer all!

like weddings for watermelons

Today, a friend forwarded a blog post to me about the innovation of the square watermelon. Apparently, some Japanese farmers have forced their watermelons to grow in a square container, so they take up less space in the supermarkets and in consumer's refrigerators. Anyhow, after reading the article, I could not stop thinking about how weddings are like watermelons. Regardless of how you slice 'em, they're still round. Few people allow themselves to be limited by the size and shape of weddings and plan a wedding that's innovative and "square". And even fewer wedding guests are willing to accept or enjoy a celebration that's outside of the norm. Most people are willing to say "this is the way it is supposed to be, cut the cake and toss the garter already," but it doesn't always have to be that way. We can train our minds to think differently. Which brings me to the story of the couple that hired me, because I was unlike other planners they interviewed. They hired me because I was willing to let them run rampant with their ideas even though they messed with the order of the universe, and since I'm a person who's all about order, they messed with my mind. But I survived and it was a wonderful wedding.

I guess the moral of this post is: even though the watermelon is square, it's just as juicy and as enjoyable as its round counterparts.

What I'm loving today

My niece is getting married and I'm working on a present that won't be on her registry. My niece also reads my blog, so Kelly, this is your spoiler alert. Stop now or ruin the surprise.

My niece is a great cook, as I learned when she hosted Thanksgiving last year. She's fast, innovative, and really, really good. A gene she undoubtly inherited from my sister, her mom. A gene that somehow missed me.

Anyhow, I've been busy creating a cookbook for her over at Tastebook, the site that allows you to create your own cookbook, design the cover, add personal photos, and more. What's cool about it is that I can import recipes from epicurious.com or I can upload my own family recipes handed down from generation to generation. My niece is also a healthy cook, so I have to do a mix of both, because there's nothing healthy about our family recipes, but they're sure tasty. And you never know when you'll need to pull out that "so good make you want to smack your mama recipe."

What Dr. Phil said...

So, I was checking out the pictures from Bishop T.D. Jake's youngest daughter's wedding over on Essence.com. First of all, why didn't they call me? I have big ideas. I can do fairytale. Not my favorite theme, but I'm an out-of-the-box thinker. I could have made it happen. But I digress... so there I was click, click, clicking through the images and reading the blurbs...click, click, click some more. Oh, Dr. Phil. I wonder what advice he had for the newlyweds:

"Never assume that both of you want the same things in the same way at the same time, like when you’re going to have kids, your careers, and money."

Hmm...I may have to borrow that one.

Going "green" no longer your choice

A local venue (which shall remain nameless), recently sent out an email to all of it's regular vendors and prospective clients. They're going "green" or attempting to become LEED-certified, therefore all vendors (particularly caterers) and clients must now comply with their "green" standards. Hear that? yeah, crickets. So I called with the question on everyone's minds: "What does that mean?"

"Zero-waste catering. Minimize water use. Bio-fuel delivery trucks. Organic, locally grown food..."

"Wait, wait, what does it mean for me, the wedding planner? for my clients - the bride and groom?"

"Well, right now we're limiting our preferred caterers list to those with environmentally friendly practices, and we would hope our clients would rethink their choices."

Now that's an interesting word choice: "re-think."

Make a Wish(pot)!

Recently, I was asked to be a wedding expert on Wishpot. I jumped all over it, because it's a lot like my "What I'm loving today" section, but on steriods. Of course, once I had my profile up and running I started to regret it, because it means it's another site for me to update. However, Wishpot makes it so easy for me to add items (and to shop) that I think it's worth doing. I'll still be posting my "What I'm loving today" items, but if you can't wait to find out what I'm loving today, you can check out my "Fab Finds" in the Wishpot widget in my sidebar.

What am I doing?

Lately, everytime I log into Twitter they're at full capacity, so I'm unable to send any Tweets. Well, since I'm now in full withdrawal mode, I've decided to update my past couple of days here:

78 hours ago...
carrying five cases of water up three flights of stairs then down three flights of stairs, then up three flights of stairs again (long story, don't ask).

76 hours ago...
making sixteen welcome bags (plus two extras).

72 hours ago...
re-making sixteen welcome bags plus two extras (another long story, don't ask).

70 hours ago...
delivering sixteen welcome bags (plus two extras).

69 hours ago...
feeling the consequences of lifting five cases of water up and down several flights of stairs (I can barely lift my arms).

45 hours ago...
sinus problems. no appetite. can barely breathe. chills. every muscle is sore. T-minus 24 hours and counting for the last wedding of our season.

36 hours ago...
counting my blessings (specifically, a spa gift-certificate from a past client)

35.50 hours ago...
begging the spa to let me use it NOW!

32.50 hours ago...
aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

25 hours ago...
four groomsmen missing from rehearsal, but I'm too relaxed to worry. Tomorrow will be just fine.

18 hours ago...
grateful for a terrific team of helpers, and the weather (no 4:00 p.m. thunderstorms today).

16 hours ago...
last bride before my summer break is down the aisle, and I can lift my arms above my head again.

3 hours ago...
quoting my assistant: "It was good, wasn't it?"

3 minutes ago...
it sure was!

Congratulations Helene and Jayson!
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(yep, I'm a bad photographer. It's been confirmed).

Victoria's other Secret

Bridesmaid's dresses. I'm too sexy for your bridal party.

On when to drink Champagne

"I drink it when I am happy.
and when I am sad.
Sometimes I drink it when I am alone.
When I have company, I consider
it obligatory.
I trifle with it if I am hungry,
and drink it when I am.
Otherwise I never touch it - unless
I am thirsty."

Madame Lilly Bollinger (attrib.)

What I'm loving today

I should title this post what I'm REALLY loving today.

Eye-Fi!


Part of the reason I never have any photos is because I never remember to download them, so I can't take new ones without sacrifcing a picture or two (of course, with my photography skills that may be a good thing). Anyway, some innovative entreprenuer developed a solution to my problem. It's called Eye-Fi and here's the description from the Photojojo web site:

"Eye-fi is a magical orange SD memory card that will not only store 2GB worth of pictures, it'll upload them to your computer and to Flickr, Facebook, Picasa and more. Even geo-tag them so you can see exactly where in the world you took the photo wirelessly, invisibly, automatically! [It looks like] a normal 2GB memory card and works with nearly any camera that takes SD memory."
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Now, you can send ceremony photos instantly to distant family and friends.