Spoiler Alert: Almost Everyone on ‘Bridezillas: Where Are They Now’ Is Divorced

Posted on May 18, 2013 by meredith

While we were planning our wedding and for the couple years after when my livelihood depended on writing for brides, I watched a lot of wedding TV shows, including the weekly train wreck known as Bridezillas. These days, I’m more likely to flip to HGTV on a weekend morning to catch house-hunting shows. Today, though, when Love It or List It went to commercial, I changed to We TV (hey, I get to watch this stuff only when Paul’s sleeping—I’ve got to take advantage!). And while what I saw shouldn’t have surprised me, it made me sad. Continue reading →

10 Things the Best Wedding Ceremonies Have in Common

Posted on May 2, 2013 by meredith

I was fortunate enough to go to a fabulous wedding the other day (congrats and mazel, Lauren and Jon!), and even though the music was pumping, the setting was top-notch, and the food was flawless, it’s their ceremony’s that stuck with me. I realized as different as it was from every other of the 22 I’ve attended (yes, I counted), the most enjoyable ones shared some key characteristics. Continue reading →

The Boston Marathon Wedding That Bombs Couldn’t Stop

Posted on April 16, 2013 by meredith

Mere blocks away from the chaos and carnage that marred the annual Boston Marathon, a more serene scene was the background for a very special wedding for two runners. As Buzzfeed reports, a pair of athletes, who got engaged at the Chicago Marathon last October, planned their nuptials immediately to follow the Boston Marathon long before anyone had any inkling that a tragedy would take place there. Less than four hours after dual explosions rocked the Back Bay, Kelli Johnston and Robert Watling tied the knot in their running shoes in Boston Common. The couple thankfully had completed the race before the bombs detonated. Continue reading →

The 5 Wedding Questions I Get Asked All the Time

Posted on February 3, 2013 by meredith

Having worked for wedding magazines and websites and blogged about weddings, I’ve learned a few things along the way. My friends know this. My Twitter followers do, too. And because the world of weddings can be downright confusing, they often turn to me when they have a planning conundrum or an etiquette question. Some queries pop up more than others. So consider this the FAQs page on my site for brides and wedding guests. Continue reading →

Surprising Ways Hurricane Sandy Can Still Affect Your Wedding

Posted on November 6, 2012 by meredith

Hurricane Sandy had the power to knock out wedding venues’ electricity, and worse, flood them to the point of destruction. While losing your venue so soon before your wedding is horrific, it’s an obvious problem, one you’re hyper-aware you need to remedy. Other Sandy effects, like those that follow, aren’t as apparent–and you may not even know about them until it’s too late. Continue reading →

Wedding WTF: She Threw Herself a Blowout Bachelorette Party…and Says She’s Too Broke for Mine!

Posted on October 23, 2012 by meredith

An eye for an eye, a bachelorette party for a bachelorette party. My own celebration was pretty low-key, but goshdarn it, had we gone away, I’d sure as hell fly wherever a bridesmaid-turned-bride wanted me to travel to for hers. Of course, everyone’s on a different budget, but this particular bride doesn’t play by the rules in my opinion. You be the judge. Continue reading →

Get Ready to Be Jealous: Here’s What Brides and Bridesmaids in Sevilla, Spain, Wear

Posted on October 16, 2012 by meredith

To the left is what I thought I’d see on bridesmaids in the southern Spanish town of Sevilla because, well, I’m an idiot. I also assumed that brides would wear approximations of those flamenco dresses, only in white, of course. How wrong I was. And how envious I am of what these women look like on their wedding days. Continue reading →

Why the Bride Behind “Reasons Why You Cannot Be a Bridesmaid” Isn’t So Bad

Posted on October 6, 2012 by meredith

By now, you’ve probably read “Reasons Why You Cannot Be a Bridesmaid,” an e-mail from a bride to her potential bridesmaids that’s gone viral since it was posted on Gawker. Here’s a summary of every response I’ve seen to the bride who penned the message: “What a psycho bitch!” While I can’t defend the power-trippy, condescending tone of the note, this woman isn’t quite the nightmare people are painting her as. Here’s why: Continue reading →

The Meanest Things Brides Can Do to Each Other

Posted on July 19, 2012 by meredith

Brides have to stick together. After all, no one better understands why it’s of the utmost importance that you have Vanda orchids and not Dendrobium orchids in your centerpieces. So let’s not piss each other off, okay? See if you agree with me that these are the cruelest things women getting married can do to each other. Continue reading →

I Found the Coolest Wedding Venue in the World! But…

Posted on May 31, 2012 by meredith

Paul and I decided to do something special for Memorial Day Weekend this year because it was the first time since 2008 that we didn’t have a wedding that weekend–and in 2008, I had my bachelorette party around the holiday, so it really had been a long while since we were free. So we drove up to Albany to visit our friends and their baby Grady. Then, we headed up to Montreal. And guess what I found… Continue reading →