Just dig into something delicious on Valentine's Day. When it comes to sweets it really shouldn't matter what day it is; Tuesday is fine by me. Cupcakes, bundt cake, layer cake, cookies, I'm all for the baked goods and maybe a little dark chocolate when it comes to satifying a my sweet tooth. Whether it be sharing love and your dessert plate with your beau or your friends. These are worth going in for a second helping.
Kiss My Bundt red velvet bundt cakes. You can pick them up in Los Angeles at the bakery or order the big 'ol bundt for $50 and Chrysta will ship it to you.
Love Rocks! Chocolate Bar NYC's gift box filled with a champagne truffle box, retro milk salty pretzel bar, artist dark chocolate bar, solid milk and dark chocolate foil hearts and an all natural sugar scrub. Tied with their signature orange bow and gold key. Eat it up! $26
From Foodzie come these Maitelates Alfajores which are rich, decadent shortbread cookies sandwiching a thick layer of homemade dulce de leche caramel - made with locally produced butter, eggs, and flour.
Each of these 12 cookies are then dipped and coated in intense, dark Taza chocolate, with cocoa beans sourced directly from farmers.
I could eat a million of these. $32 worth of serious YUM!
I recently took the plunge and I’m high on the excitement of it all. Just an update on the guy - my guy - he’s simply amazing. You know, when you read about it or see it in one of those movies, or some expert gives us advice about a relationship that just seems to good to be true? Well, I got it. All right, it’s sappy (insert barf bag here for all you naysayers), but I’m happy and I wish many of you the best of luck in finding the right man, too.
Onto the wedding planning - I knew that with my organizational skills I could do most of the research and leg work, but I’ll admit that wedding planning is not all cake and roses. After choosing the venue, flowers, dessert (we went with bundt cakes), photo locations, stationery (kind of tedious, but weddingpaperdivas.com was my answer) and much more we chose a wedding coordinator to make all the rest happen on the day of our big day. Phew!
The best part of planning was the dress and the food tasting. Gorgeous and yum.
I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress, nor did I want a white dress. I wanted a dress that didn’t scream wedding, but rather spoke of glamour... with a hint of Grace Kelly. And French designer Lloyd Klein was THE answer. He didn’t have me go through the racks; instead he sketched 33 possibilities and we chose a beautiful pale pink/peach, one shoulder draped gown. The House of Lloyd Klein has dressed some of Hollywood’s greatest and latest: Kate Beckinsale, Sarah Jessica Parker, Toni Collette, Renee Zellweger, Vanessa Williams, Becky Newton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eva Longoria, and Hayden Panetierre. And upon completion we realized I could wear this again - like on the red carpet - with, as he said, ”a little tweaking.”
And then the shoes and jewels. I certainly couldn't wear just any pair of heels with my couture gown, so I searched stores and sites for THE pair. I considered Manolo's, Choo's and Louboutin's, but then I met the dream pair. I shared the illustration and swatch of my dress with the lovely salesman at Neiman Marcus, and out of the back room he appeared with a pair of Rene Caovilla sparkly platform heels. And then in swooped several other salesmen with many an "oh my" and "where did they come from?" Sold. As for jewels, while I made several purchases from J. Crew, Banana Republic, and Nordstrom I returned it all for a vintage pair of Miriam Haskell earrings that my favorite fashion curator, Doris Raymond, chose for me from her shop The Way We Wore.
For dessert, we wanted several flavor choices. I’m a bit of a sweet freak. I fib; I am a full-throttle sweet fiend. I will gladly tell you where the best cupcakes can be found (and which flavors are better at each boutique) to the best chocolate chip cookies and ice cream sundae. (Side note: In LA, go to Milk on Beverly for the blondie ice cream sundae and cookies and to Café 101 for the brownie waffle.) And when you want the ultimate delicious success you go to Kiss My Bundt. We chose three flavors for everyone to be able to try: maple with maple glaze (tastes like the best damn pancake you’ve ever had and Owner Chrysta Wilson also makes a maple bacon version), red velvet with cream cheese frosting and marble cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. We rented a wooden multi-tier display and chose a white fabric with silver beading to wrap each tier.
When it came to photography, I have to pat myself on the back for hiring Michele M. Waite. Being a former magazine fashion director, I wanted to skip the stereotypical cheese of wedding photography. I kid you not when I write that I researched 36 different photographers in the LA area that ranged in price from $4,000 to over $8,000 - and nobody really moved me. One photo on our wedding coordinator’s blog, simplymodernweddings.com, lead me to Michele M. Waite (michelemwaite.com) and we flew her down from Bellingham, WA. She’s phenomenal, her site rocks, and in the end it didn’t cost any more than I would have paid locally.
Location, location, location. Photos should be more than just the church and family. We location scouted ahead of time and sent her photos - the public cove at Terranea Resort in Rancho Pales Verde that looks like the Mediterranean, the field next to the Wayfarers Chapel, the Santa Monica Pier for vibrant colors and our own front yard and its green high hedges. Here's the tip: get your location photos done before the wedding. You'll have more time, more options and then get to spend more time partying. And make sure you give the photographer the chance to capture the moment you first see each other - you won't regret it.
When it comes to stationery, I was exhausted and overwhelmed after spending only ten minutes looking through the shelves of binders filled with Kate Spade and Crane Company invitations at my local paper shop. An hour-and-a-half later, I was cranky, bored and hadn’t found the right combination. We stopped at several more stationery shops for the next two days, coming up with plans to either print our own to save money or succumb to the overpriced packages even when it didn’t fit our look. AND then, after a few hours on the Internet, I found my solution at weddingpaperdivas.com. I could choose from an endless array of styles, choose specialty colors, fonts, and even change, for example, a reception card into a card about our website. Additionally, they constantly had sales, so we saved on printing out our menus and thank you cards as well. They were always on top of the printing process, with calls and emails to ensure we liked our choices.
Another quick tip: don't hesitate to consider renting additional, color-specific linens to substitute for the ones you are given automatically by the venue. We chose a silver-gray color to enhance the color scheme we chose for our wedding, including peach, pink, yellow and silver.
What to know as you plan your wedding:
Couple’s Website:
Set up a website for you and your fiancé with all the info about the ceremony, reception, directions and more. TheKnot.com is an ideal source for creating a wedding site since it’s all there for you - just simply choose the template, add a few photos and add the info.
Registry:
This is a place where you can subtly add in your registry information. If you create your own website or use another site to help, DO NOT place your registry info on the home page—tacky. And do not put your registry info with the invitation. Listen, everyone knows to give a wedding gift, and when he or she gets around to shopping for it, they’ll ask you, a close friend or find on your site where you’re registered.
NOTE to those invited: Unless you are a close friend search their registry first. The couple chose those items for a reason - they want those items! If the registry is dwindling and all that's left is a bunch of pot holders and spatulas then give them a call, email or talk to one of their close friends and find a different gift to give, like membership to a wine or cake-of-the-month club, multiple yoga classes, a Kindle downloaded with several bestsellers, camping gear for the couple who loves the great outdoors or kick-ass seats to a concert. And don’t dismiss the power of a slim wallet filled with gift cards to Amazon.com, The Home Depot, TJ Maxx and Starbucks or simply an exquisite orchid with an Amex gift card.
Important note to gift giver and gift receiver: To the Invited: Take care of the gift giving within three months. The longer you wait, the more awkward it will be the next time you see the newlyweds. To the Newlyweds: take care of those thank you notes within a month of the honeymoon. Believe me, people talk. My mother and her friends routinely check in with each other to ask if thank you notes were received.
As for Daysun and me, we already have everything we need for our home so when people inquired we suggested a gift towards our honeymoon to Fiji & Australia. Upon returning from our amazing honeymoon, we shared an album of photos on Facebook and wrote thank you cards to each friend and family member with notes on what their gift allowed us to explore and enjoy like a picnic on a deserted sandbar or snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. (Thanks again friends and family!)
Wedding Coordinator:
Whether you have the money to hire someone from the start to alleviate the stress or just need a little extra help, a wedding coordinator can be absolutely invaluable. We hired Christina Wright from Simply Modern Weddings when we saw her in action at another wedding. We chose to have her take care of the actual big day and finalize contracts once we made choices. She rocked. I’m so organized and she matched me perfectly. She coordinated the whole day with a seamless timeline and the day was flawless, fun and stress free. I didn’t have to think about a thing, just show up and smile. And get married!
Cocktails before the reception:
No girl wants to wear out early standing in heels before she even gets a chance to dance. We had our reception at the Loews Santa Monica specifically because of their view of the beach, ocean and Santa Monica Pier, which is brightly lit at night. We loved the terrace at Loews, so we rented sleek white leather lounge furniture to add on to the terrace, along with cocktail tables.
Bridesmaids/Groomsmen:
It is not a requirement or the essential building blocks to a successful wedding to have a wedding party. 90% of your female friends would rejoice if you chose to skip having a wedding party. Truthfully, it just depletes our bank account to buy a bridesmaids dress of someone else’s choosing, pay for a bridal shower, bachelorette party, multiple gifts and travel.
If you choose bridesmaids, cut down on the number of ladies you choose and please don’t try to turn them into replicas of each other. Choose a dress that comes in various styles so your friends can choose a style that best fits their body type, like halter for busty girls or an A-line bottom half for pear shapes. Stick with just the dress that coordinates them all and make a suggestion for the color of heels, not the actual shoes, to pair with the dress. DO NOT make them all wear the same heels and jewelry. These are your friends, not paper doll cutouts; they are there to share your celebration, not report for boot camp.
Ceremony:
It used to be that you had your dad, your brother, or some other male family member walk you down the aisle to give you to your new husband. Consider breaking the old stereotypes. If you’re close with your mom, have her walk you down, OR have both parents escort you, OR shine all on your own down the aisle and have your husband-to-be come meet you halfway and walk the rest together.
Toasts:
Sure there’s the customary toasts from a guy and girl in your wedding party, but if you buck the trend (like we did) you can ask your charming, creative, clever friends to come up with an inventive ”toast” at your wedding. We had our two dear friends; Jordan Feldman and Tracy Metro add some hilarity at our wedding. Tracy bounced from roasting us to intimate notes and quotes, and Jordan wrote new lyrics to REO Speedwagon’s, "Keep on Loving You", singing his heart out, letting us know we needed to take him with us on our honeymoon. He offered to be our personal valet and "personality prostitute".
Wardrobe Change:
A wedding dress can be a bit cumbersome when you really want to hit that dance floor. So there's nothing wrong with a girl making a wardrobe change once the important photos have been taken.