Take a little time this weekend to browse your local bookstore or browse online for books that will inspire you for your wedding day!  Then, sit down with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and get ready to get lost in these wonderful books!

Wedding Etiquette is of the utmost importance in planning a wedding.  Having the right etiquette, mannerisms and attitude will guarantee that your guests, vendors, family and friends will enjoy the experience just as much as you do during the planning process and ceremony itself.  Your wedding day and process is no time for Bridezilla to come out and I find this book by Peggy Post to be very simple in stating some of the do’s and don’ts of traditional wedding etiquette.

This book is wonderful as it brings together old traditions and also gives you the perspective of new twists on old traditions.  If you are a bride that is receptive to being non-traditional and having a little fun, this book of wedding etiquette is for you!

Mindy Weiss is an industry leader and she co-wrote this wonderful book that has all the knowledge that you need for planning a wedding.  It is so knowledgeable for the simple reason that it was written about wedding facts and acts from hundreds of wedding experiences.  Forget about buying a separate planning book of lists and such, this book has all of that and more with irreplaceable knowledge for your wedding.  As a planner, I highly recommend this book.

This will have to be one of the best coffee table books that you can have during your wedding planning process and would still be beautiful to keep to display after.  This book is filled, cover to cover, with gorgeous photos of celebrity weddings as well as ideas for decor, ceremony sites and receptions.

Preston Bailey is world renown for his decadent and lavish event designs.  His most recent celebrity wedding was Ivanka Trump and I’m sure that no expense was spared!  While the weddings featured in his book cater to the 1 percentile of our nation, they are grounds for great inspiration for your wedding, be ready to indulge yourself!

Last but not least, we certainly can’t leave out Colin Cowie.  This book is just as its title says, chic.  Enter the world of celebrated TV personality Colin Cowie and take a look inside the life of weddings from his perspective.  This book is full of color, full of life, and full of ideas and trends that you might want to emulate for your wedding celebration.

Have a wonderful weekend, may it be filled with enjoyment, relaxation and good reads!

]]> http://www.charmedeventsplanning.com/absolutelycharmed/bridal-book-club-good-reads/1272/feed/ 0 http://www.charmedeventsplanning.com/absolutelycharmed/fashion-wedding-photography-defined/1151/ http://www.charmedeventsplanning.com/absolutelycharmed/fashion-wedding-photography-defined/1151/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:01:51 +0000 charmed http://www.charmedeventsplanning.com/absolutelycharmed/?p=1151 When you begin to plan a wedding, there are so many choices to make and so many vendors to see.  One of the most important vendor choices that you will make (besides who your florist will be), is who your photographer will be.  After viewing all the online portfolios and blogs, I’m sure your head is swimming with all the possibilities of what could be, and at that point you must ask yourself this: How do I want to be portrayed on my special day and how do I want my story to unfold?  Our friends at Lin and Jirsa Photography have a great article in the Educational Section of their website that explains the five different styles and formats of wedding photography today.  Because I am an avid devotee of fashion, I would like to focus on Fashion Wedding Photography.

“Fashion photography is a genre of photography that is focused around displaying clothing and other fashion items for commercial purposes. This style of photography is popular in large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles. However, there are several unique photography techniques that are employed in fashion photography which we borrow in our wedding photography style. These techniques include the usage of unique off camera lighting, fashion-esque poses and expressions, along with dramatic backgrounds.” – Lin and Jirsa Photography

I truly LOVE this style of photography.  Blame it on the stack of fashion magazines that I have in every corner of my home, but there is something wonderful and magical about being captured in a fashion moment for your big day –it really is enchanting.  One of the photographers that I adore, Jennifer Skog, is an expert at Fashion Wedding Photography and I think from the images below, you will see why.  She is coming out with a new photography service that she has coined “Couture Life” that is purely Fashion photography bliss!  We’ll update you all when that particular service is unveiled.  For now, feast your eyes on some serious Fashion Wedding Photography!

This is so beautifully sweet isn’t it?

Love this!  Can’t you feel the energy from this photograph?  Bring it on!

I absolutely adore Jennifer Skog’s work!  I might have to book myself a “Couture Life” shoot just for fun!

All Photos belong to Jennifer Skog

Meeting with Laura and Amy was such a pleasure, both of them were so sweet and so excited to share with us the vision for the company and of course, the beautiful jewelry and diamonds that is Adorn Brides.  We had such a good time swooning and gushing over the necklaces, bracelets, earrings and new exclusive collection by Adorn Brides; Laura even let me try on one of their most coveted diamond bracelets, the Chadwick Bracelet and I was absolutely in love, I didn’t want to take it off!  Read our interview below to find out more from the lovely ladies of Adorn Brides and the gorgeous pieces the offer, they revealed lots of upcoming news exclusively to us and we are very honored to be the first to know and share it with you.

Absolutely Charmed (AC):  How was Adorn Brides started?

Adorn Brides (AB): We started a couple of years ago with the concept that no bride should have to settle for wearing fake jewelry on their wedding day.  There are a lot of nice costume jewelry out there, but not a lot of options otherwise.  Either you will be spending tens of thousands of dollars on purchasing something real or you would settle with buying some costume jewelry, and we really felt that there was a need for a middle ground to be met to give people the opportunity to wear diamonds on their real red carpet day for a really affordable price.  Often times, you can rent our pieces for the same prices that you would pay for buying some costume jewelry pieces.

AC: For those Brides that would like to have the privilege of wearing real jewelry on their special day, how would they go about renting from Adorn Brides?

AB: There are a couple of ways to do so.  If the Bride so happens to be in New York, they are most welcome to come by our style studio, sit down with our stylists and have the opportunity to try some of the pieces on.  To be able to actually try the jewelry on is nice because they will be able to see exactly how big the pieces are compared to their face, sometimes they will even get their hair done the way that it will be for their wedding day, and that helps too.  For the rest of the country, it’s just as easy as going to our website www.adornbrides.com and looking through the pieces that we offer.  It’s very similiar to any e-commerce experience in that if they see anything that they like, they can stick it in their shopping bag and at the end of shopping, there will be a prompt on screen to ask you for your date and we will see if it’s available for rent.  All of our jewelry are shipped overnight, so if your event is on a Saturday, we will overnight it on Thursday for you to receive on Friday.  We include all the return labels and boxes to make the entire experience one easy process.  We also just launched an exclusive partnership The Knot and a select portion of our collection is available at their wedding shop.

AC: That’s very exciting!  Also seen on the web lately is a partnership with Kleinfeld (Luxury Bridal Salon in Manhattan), tell us a little about that.

AB: Yes!  We have an online affiliation with them and I believe that we are the only company that they have done that with so far, so we are very excited about that.  They saw that what we had to offer really matched the style and taste of their clientele.  Kleinfeld is all about a luxurious experience and for many brides, they may not be able to afford all the jewelry pieces and gowns, but this is a way of bringing the Kleinfeld luxurious experience to any Bride.

AC: Since you guys are the experts on Jewelry, can you give us some advice on how to pick the right jewelry to go with each dress?

AB-Laura: Absolutely!  The most important thing to pay attention to is the neckline of the dress, both the shape of the neckline as well as how much detailing is at the very top of the neckline.  If you have a neckline that has a lot of pearls and jewels, you may get away with not wearing a necklace but don’t let that stop you from wearing one.  I think that’s a mistake that a lot of brides make when considering jewelry, but if you have a dress that is strapless that is ornate, there is a lot of empty space from that point to your chin that should be filled.  Lots of dressmakers want it to be all about the dress, which it will be because it’s your wedding dress, but it really comes down to picking the right pieces that will properly accent the dress to make it stand out even more.

AB-Amy: A lot of brides come in thinking that they don’t need a necklace and start out just trying out the bracelets and earrings, but often times when we bring out a matching necklace and have them try it on with everything else, they just fall in love with it and have to have it.

AC – Yeah, I think that it’s also that some may not know exactly how to pick out jewelry or what matches with what, or when does it get to be too much?

AB-Laura: Yes,  to be honest, the most important thing is that the Bride has to feel comfortable and feel like themselves, not like some image or ad in a magazine.  If you’re a person that wears big earrings, wear big earrings!  Who cares if other people think it’s too much, if that’s what you feel good in , then you should do it.

AB-Amy: Yes, and not everyone is a pearl bride.  Many gals these days are wearing very simple strapless gowns with different embroidery and details so it’s really just up to each girl to pick what she likes most.

AC:  Any thoughts of what jewelry is suitable for the different necklines that are out there?

AB-Laura: The most flexible neckline in a dress would be the sweetheart neckline.  With strapless gowns, you really have to be careful of the length of the necklace, and particularly with our services at Adorn Brides, if you are to order online, it’s important to pay attention to the lengths specified in each piece’s description to make sure that it can be the perfect accent that pulls your entire look together.

AB-Amy: You can never underplay the sparkles that real jewels bring to your photographs and the experience of the day.  No matter how great the crystals may be in costume jewelry, I’m sorry, they just don’t compare to and photograph as well as the real sparkle that come with  real diamonds.

{At this point, Laura lets me try on the Chadwick Bracelet/Cuff and I almost die from how gorgeous it is!  It retails for $21,000 and retails for $490, what a great deal!}

AB-Laura: A lot of brides come in thinking they they are not looking for bracelets, but think about all the photographs that you’re going to be taking that day, whether it’s a couple shot or shots of you holding your bouquet, there will be many times that your wrists will be shown.  I think a lot of people forget about that and don’t take that into consideration.

AB-Amy: And yes, a lot of our pieces are very ornate and a little over the top and it wouldn’t be something that you would wear on any day.  But this isn’t just any day, it’s THE day, your wedding so to especially adorn yourself that day is nice.

AC:  How much do your jewelry pieces typically rent for?

AB-Laura: It really depends on what you’re looking for.  We have pieces that rent for a little as $100, so it really is all about what jewelry you fit in your price range.

AC:  How often do you get new inventory in for Adorn Brides?

AB-Laura: We update pieces here and there all the time, but I would say that for significant pieces, we update our inventory about twice a year.  Our newly updated pieces are pieces that I’ve made for the collection and are custom.  Not everything we have here is custom, but most of our pieces are.  We are actually moving in the direction in creating custom pieces and it’s another element that really makes what we offer here special.

AC:  Wow, I think that’s special.  I think most people know that you have lots of gorgeous diamonds, but not many know that you actually custom created some of the pieces that Adorn Brides offers.  Do you have a name for the collection that you designed for Adorn Brides that separates the custom pieces from the rest?

AB-Laura: Not yet.  Right now, the custom pieces that I created are indicated as Adorn Bride Exclusives, but that’s a good idea, we should!

This is the Exclusives Line by Adorn Brides designed by Laura Carrington.  They are looking for a name for this line, I think the “Carrington” line (to be named after the designer) has a nice ring to it, don’t you?

More details from their Exclusives line

AC:  Is there a particular line that you find lots of Brides are attracted to?  Traditionally brides wore a lot of pearls, do you see that brides still opt to wear pearls or are more brides going for the bling?

AB-Laura: I would say the mixture of brides who choose pearls v. diamonds is about 50/50.

AB-Amy: Pearls are such a classic bridal look.  Take this Hartley Earring (rents for only $120!)  for example, it’s a very classic style and very popular piece among brides.

AC:  So, let’s take this Hartley Earring as an example.  This piece is obviously in very high demand.  Do you have only one of each style?

AB- Laura: We have multiples of some pieces.  There are a couple of pieces that are one of a kind, but the majority of our popular pieces we have multiples of.

AC:  So aside from weddings, is it possible to also rent jewelry pieces for Special Occasions?

AB-Laura: Oh Absolutely!

AB-Amy: We are actually getting ready to launch our Adorn Occasions business October 1, you’re the first ones besides us to know that!  We will  be renting out  another line, a society line, for special occasions.  We will have lots of the same pieces to rent as Adorn Brides, but there will also be some pieces exclusive to the society line that are more fitting for social occasions, more contemporary pieces.

AB-Laura: There will be a lot more colored stones , lots of yellow and golds.

AC:  I really love that and I’m very excited about that!  I also love the colored stones..

AB-Laura: Yes, we actually have quite a few colored stones for our Bridal Collection, like sapphires, some yellow diamond pieces…I’m a big fan of the canary diamond!  We’re definately working on more designs with colored stones.

AC:  We’re very excited about your upcoming new brand, Adorn Occassions..are there any other upcoming things that we can be looking forward to?

AB-Laura: Yes, again our soft launch for Adorn Occasions is coming up on October 1.  We are very excited about that because it really makes sense.  If you are someone that is going out all the time, you want to be able to wear something new and different all the time and it doesn’t make sense to spend thousands of dollars to purchase all of them.  To be able to have a jewelry box that you can pick from is a fun, new jewelry service that we will offer and we are very excited about that; it’s all about bringing the celebrity experience to the regular person.

*A huge thanks to both Laura and Amy of Adorn Brides for giving us such a great interview and for letting us have the first exclusive of their upcoming Adorn Occasions line!  Also, big thanks to Nancy for helping to make this interview possible.

Amy and Laura of Adorn Brides showing us their jewelry in their Studio

From Left to Right:  Amy of Adorn Brides, Laura of Adorn Brides and Frances (that’s me!) of Absolutely Charmed

{Photo Credits:  Image 1:  via Adorn Brides, all other images courtesy of Ivy Finkelstein}