Tag Archives: weddings

The Suckiest Time in Your Life to Go to Weddings

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breast-pumpI thought I had been mercifully spared. My pregnancy and my son Jeremy’s first three-and-a-half months of life corresponded with the longest stretch of time I had gone without attending a single wedding since I turned 25. The thought of squishing my bump into a reception-worthy dress and bopping around the dance floor like an awkward manatee was almost as nauseating as the morning sickness. So when the first invite arrived for an event that would take place in my postpartum life, I was thankful for my extended reprieve and excited to get back into the swing of wedding-hopping. But I neglected one key detail. Continue reading →

6 Ways You’re Leading on Uninvited Wedding Guests

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And a 7th: Don't text a picture of your engagement ring to people who neither are invited to your wedding nor ask to see it. It says, "I don't like you, but I want you to know that I have a diamond."

People understand when you can’t invite them to your wedding. With the exception of a house and your children’s college education, your reception is the single most expensive thing you’ll ever fund. But just as there’s a code to which your acquaintances stick (or should stick) regarding what they can and can’t say to you, the bride who’s not inviting them, there are some unspoken rules to which you should adhere–like avoiding these things. Continue reading →

Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In

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Sorry for the Mafioso title; Paul and I recently started watching The Sopranos for the first time…the day BEFORE James Gandolfini died.

It’s a symptom of your early 30s (in my part of the country anyway): The wedding invitations gradually stop showing and baby shower invitations start picking up. In fact, this year, Paul and I were invited to only two weddings. On May 19th, my friend Jenn married her longtime love, Karina, and then, for the first time in nine years, Paul and I didn’t have a single engaged friend. Continue reading →

Spoiler Alert: Almost Everyone on ā€˜Bridezillas: Where Are They Nowā€™ Is Divorced

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cake with beheaded groom topperWhile 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, Iā€™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 Paulā€™s sleepingā€”Iā€™ve got to take advantage!). And while what I saw shouldnā€™t have surprised me, it made me sad. Continue reading →

10 Things the Best Wedding Ceremonies Have in Common

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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

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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

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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 →

The One Thing I’d Never Fault a Bride for

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There are a lot of things wedding guests have every right to expect from the couple hosting the reception. That they’ll be fed enough that they don’t have to leave mid-wedding in a hunger-fueled frenzy to hit up a Burger King. That the conditions will be comfortable, as in an A/C is on if it’s 85 degrees out, the heat’s on if it’s 45, and if it’s outdoors, the venue isn’t infested with mosquitoes. That every effort will be made to show them a good time–so there’s music for listening and, with any luck, for dancing too. But there’s at least one expectation that I don’t have. Continue reading →

The Best Way to Guarantee Wedding Guests Show on Time…and One of the Meanest Things You Can Do to Them

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I love wedding ceremonies, but I wouldn’t have faulted any of our guests if they chose to skip witnessing our vows. Despite brides’ best efforts, ceremonies can be boring. (Besides, I’ve missed the temple portion of bar/bat mitzvahs–listening to someone in the middle of puberty sing in Hebrew at 10 AM on a Saturday can be downright painful.) But other couples want full attendance for the ceremony so badly, they may use this trick I just heard about to get them there. Continue reading →