Beach Wedding Favor Idea

UPDATE: I did a tutorial post on this here.

When I started planning our wedding, I wasn't sure what type of theme I wanted.

And then it hit me.

We are from New York and all our guests are from New York. We live in North Carolina now, relatively close to the beach. We knew we wanted to have our reception on the beach so our guests would be able to experience that. So, without over-thinking it, our theme chose us. We would have a beach theme.

We do have favors (if you missed them, check out the beach candy basket tutorial). But before we did, my friend Jordan sent me the idea below.

So cute, right?

You can pick up chocolate seashells on Amazon and the "sand" is actually light brown sugar. (You could use crushed graham crackers too.) Put the sugar in a bag, add the chocolate seashells, tie a bow, and you're done. Super quick and a very cute favor idea.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Would you be able to make this favor?

Whee

I remember a long time ago, probably when I was dating my first real boyfriend, people told me you could tell you were a couple when you started saying "we" all the time.

And high school advice from high school kids meant things like saying, "We are going to the party Friday night" as opposed to saying, "I'm going to the party and Mike is going to drive me if you want to come over first and he can drive you too."

Ever since then, that's how I looked at it.

Until very recently, when I started saying we. It wasn't in the "we are going out to dinner" way, but in the "we really like that restaurant" or "we really liked that comedian that didn't make it through on America's Got Talent."

I mean, how could you not love Al Harris, the guy who made jokes about stool softeners and prescription glasses?


But, we really did like him. A lot. We were crying laughing the whole time, and I even said, "We need this guy at our wedding ... unless he makes it to Vegas and then is able to charge a lot of money because he's famous because then he would be out of our budget."

When my mom came to visit, I said we loved him, and Pete suggested we get him for the wedding.

It's a mutual adoration. We love this guy and his bad jokes.

But this whole "we" thing, it goes further than that. I do it when Pete has no idea ... and when he will have no idea. I was by myself and just saw our friend who was by herself, and told her, "Tell your husband we say hi." We. On one hand, that sentence makes me sound like Sybil, and on the other hand, it's just me wishing well wishes from me and Pete, who is completely unaware that he is saying hi to anyone.

And somehow, that's okay. It's okay because we are a couple. And apparently, that's how it goes.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Do you say "we"?

Pin Of The Week: Wedding Organization

My friend Jordan sent me an amazing idea from Pinterest on how to organize supplies for wedding centerpieces. I thought it was brilliant, so I tried to pin it.

"You've already pinned this," Pinterest said.

Oh. Well then.

This week's Pin of the Week is fantastic.

It's pretty self-explanatory. Create your table setting, snap a photo, put all necessary supplies in a box, and affix it to the box.

Clearly, you won't be at your venue the morning of your wedding to set up the centerpieces, favors, welcome table, etc. You have other things to do (hair, make up, photos, etc.). This way, you can assign the decorating to someone (either a relative, your wedding planner, or someone at the venue) and know that everything is being set up exactly as the vision you have in your mind.

And then you have one less thing to worry about. You know when you walk into your venue, your centerpieces and table settings and favors will be exactly the way you want and you won't have a mini breakdown because you wanted the favors in the center of each plate and instead they are where the wine glass was meant to be placed.

Because yes, when you spend months planning a wedding, placement of a wine glass really does matter.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Have you seen anything worth pinning lately?

The Elopement Jar (& Kelly Clarkson's Elopement)

If you've never planned a wedding, you don't understand how incredibly, mind-numbingly stressful it is. And if you have planned a wedding, you've uttered words you never thought you'd say, "Maybe we should just elope."

No little girl dreams of putting on her best flip flops and walking down to the courthouse to elope. And yet, when you're sitting there with the stress of deciding exactly what color -- ivory, white, or offwhite -- for the chair covers, you yell, "I don't even care what the chairs are covered by. I actually don't even care if people sit in chairs. They can stand on their heads for all I care."

And then you utter the words every bride has said: We should just elope.

The groom, the guy who has to put up with every stress-related tantrum with a listening ear and a non-opinionated opinion, silently hopes that this is the time you actually go through with an elopement. There are very few men who really care about all the pomp of a wedding. He asked you to marry him and just wants to be married. You are the one who wants to plan the whole wedding. And since he loves you, he sits on by.

But if it was up to him, he'd put on a pair of flip flops and head to the courthouse.

About two weeks ago, we got to that point, the one where we threw up our hands and said we should just elope. It was a sentiment we had been saying frequently. And that's when I started the elopement jar.

We had gotten a jar from our friends who were moving and sat it on our coffee table to mind its own business.

"That's the elopement jar," I said. "If either of us say the word elope, we have to put a dollar in the jar and we'll use that towards our honeymoon."

Seems like it's working. The jar ...

... has absolutely nothing inside.
Maybe that's because we're consciously not saying the word or maybe that's because things are starting to fall into place. Personally, I think it's the latter. There was so much chaos at the start of wedding planning. We didn't know what we were doing, we didn't know the area at all, and even though we were making decisions a year in advance, all the timelines seemed to be telling me I was behind schedule.
Yesterday was exactly ten months until the big day, and I think we're in a really good spot. We have a venue, the church, and our photographers. Our save the dates were mailed. I got a dress. Our favors are done. We're in good shape ... but for a while, we weren't.
And that's where Kelly Clarkson seems to be. My maid of honor emailed me this morning to say that the first winner of American Idol was scrapping her wedding plans and eloping. She told People magazine:

"We are so busy that we finally just came to terms the other night and were like, 'So, we change our minds and we want to elope.' We just got so overwhelmed by it – all the decisions."

I don't blame her. It is a lot of work and decisions. I want to call her and tell her that every bride gets overwhelmed and every bride says elopement.

But, for saying it, she does have to put a dollar in the jar.

And she might have to change her latest single. Her newest song is called Tie It Up, features a barn wedding as the backdrop, and has the chorus:

Let's set the date
Let's hire the band
Let's cut the cake
Tie up the cans

There's also the line:

Tie it up
Invite the town

In her case, she just wants her and her fiance, his kids, and the minister (which seems to cross off Blake Shelton as officiant from the list of Kelly Clarkson's wedding plans).

That's not for me, but if that's the way she wants to kick start her forever, then that's perfect. People lose site of the fact that a wedding reception is just a party you have to celebrate that you and your partner are now united and will spend the rest of eternity as one.

So whether the latter happens in a church, a courthouse, or a city block, all that matter is what happens after ... the love and the life part, not the party.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Be honest: Did you ever say you want to scrap you wedding plans and just elope?

Wedding Gift Idea: Good Voodoo Dolls From Waldo, Sluggo & ME

A Bride On A Budget received these dolls for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and options belong to ABOAB.

When we got engaged, we had an engagement party. My mom explained to our guests that their presence was their present ... but people still asked where we were registered.

We weren't yet. Even now, months later and with our wedding date a mere ten months away (from today actually. Wow, exactly ten months from today actually), we still haven't registered. I guess we should probably do that.

When people ask me where we're registered, I joke and say "Wells Fargo," which is actually very funny to me and possibly not funny at all to anyone else. Honestly, I think it probably causes people frustration because people want to get you something and they want to make sure that something is useful.

But me? I don't want useful. We already have pots and pans (and now, we actually have a really awesome K-Cup holder thanks to my brother and his girlfriend). I want unique. And I want to give gifts that are unique.

If you agree, look no further than the Good Voodoo Dolls we received for review from Waldo, Sluggo & Me.

There are four dolls in the bridal collection: groom, bridal, bridesmaid, and love (counterclockwise). You can choose either brown or blonde hair to match your bride, but the other dolls (which cost $22) aren't able to be customized in that sense.
The brand has dolls for everything from graduation to menopause. Not only are these cool for your friends, but they are for celebrities too. In fact, the new baby dolls have been sent by Hollywood Celebrity Swag Bags to celebrities like Kristin Bell and Jessica Simpson.

The dolls are the brainchild of Dolly (aka Mary Ellen aka the "me" in Waldo, Sluggo and me). She made the first bride doll for Beth (aka Waldo), the daughter of Dolly's college roommate, for her bridal shower. The doll was "such a huge hit" that the company was started, Dolly said.

What I absolutely love about the dolls is how "good" they actually are. They're made from recycled materials (which is great to me because I'm the person who cuts Post-it's in pieces to conserve). The dolls are sewn by a seamstress in the US (yay for domestic labor), they're actually embellished by the owners (and you ... which we'll get to in a minute), and then community workshops who provide work for special needs adults pack them (which made me think of Penn's charity from this season's Celebrity Apprentice. When I saw that his charity did that, I was crying and rooting for him. Such a great cause).

The dolls come with tags pinned to them with all good wishes, like "weak in the knees" (as opposed to a bad voodoo doll, which would say something like "broken knees"). If some of the tags are things you don't want to wish for someone, like maybe you feel uncomfortable with "lunchtime quicky," no worries. The tags are attached with a very small pin, so you can just remove them. Plus, the dolls are made in such a way that you will not see a pin hole if you do remove a tag.

The dolls also come with two blank tags and two extra pins so you are able to add your own wishes.

The bride and groom doll are for Pete and I to keep, but I decided that I would give the Love doll to my friend who recently got married. My mom, who should totally be a hand model now that she has a bunch in her portfolio from this post and my favors post, was enlisted to write the tags. We sat and tried to figure out what wishes we wanted to offer my friend and her new groom.

I decided no fights because fights are terrible (although, now that I think about it, a fast recovery time is probably a more attainable wish, but the papers weren't that long) and BFF's because your spouse should be your best friend.

I pinned our wishes onto the voodoo doll ...

... and put him back in the box. That's actually how you're supposed to display him. I texted a photo of the doll to my bridesmaid Michelle to ask if she thought it was a good gift for my friend (since she knows her as well) and she immediately said that she wanted one. So maybe I'll have to send her the bridesmaid one for her birthday. It's perfect, actually, because I'm going to have my girls wear eggplant and the bridesmaid doll is purple. You do really have to know your audience for this one. Some people might be like my mom, who was just used to voodoo dolls you pin to hurt people so she couldn't wrap her mind around the concept of good voodoo. But if you have a friend who is more open-minded and enjoys something unique, this is for them.
BRIDAL BABBLE: Which is your favorite?

Wedding Workout

I'm typing this from the laundry room as I wait for sheets to dry.

If you remember, my mom was here for two weeks (and made our amazing wedding favors). I have to get the guest room ready because my brother and his girlfriend are coming for the last week of the month.

They need clean sheets and towels. So I put a load of laundry together and brought it to the laundry room in our complex. The laundry room is about 30 feet from our gym and the washer takes 30 minutes.

So I decided to stop just talking about going to the gym and I actually put on my cute gym clothes so I could work out while the washer was going.

Maybe it's the stripes, but I look like my hips are pretty disproportionate to the rest of my body. Honestly, that's not my trouble area. My trouble, actually, is that I was blessed with a large upper rib cage. I mean, it's not large in the grand scheme of things, but it's large for wedding dresses.

Wedding dresses, if you don't know, they make you feel fat.

In real life, I wear an extra small. That's the size I'm wearing in that photo above. When I buy pants, it's either a 0 or 2, depending on the cut. In dresses, since they're cut slimmer, I'm usually a 4.

So when I started trying on wedding dresses and was told to put on a 10 or 12, I was in shock. I didn't say anything to the consultants, but I laughed inside, thinking there would be a lot of clamping to be had.

Joke's on me because most of the dresses didn't need to be clamped. I felt fat. Really fat.

"You're body is made for wedding dresses," I was told more than once. "The hardest thing to fill out is a wedding dress, and you're doing that" I was told (which was a nice way of saying, "Your boobs actually fill the top.").

Thanks, I thought.

But I felt fat.

When I actually went to the store where I bought my dress, I was told that the store only carried European cut dresses, so they were actually smaller than most other stores.

The dress I fell in love with it was an 8. With a corset top. I didn't even want to try, but the consultant told me she would make it work. She laced the corset, then zipped it halfway. I walked to the mirror and decided this was the dress. But a European 8? That had no hope of zipping. It's basically the equivalent of a wedding dress size 6 -- two full sizes smaller than I had been fitting.

I took the dress off while the shop's owner called the designer to see if there was a 10 somewhere. I tried on a second dress that I wasn't a fan of and was told that the designer said that dress is nowhere to be found anywhere, that 8 is the only version, and he is not making it again.

The shop owner left and the consultant showed me that there was fabric up in the ribcage area. She said that a good seamstress would be able to let it out no problem and it would close.

"Or you could just lose ten pounds," the consultant said. "Just ten."

I'm used to being a 0 or 2. I've never lost just ten pounds in my life. Heck, I've never lost one pound voluntarily. 

I was debating over the dress and decided to try it on again. This time, the consultant was able to zip it all the way (after me holding my breath and taking off my bra).

"I knew it would zip," she told me. "I just couldn't try with the owner here."

I felt better. Sort of. It was still a project to fit into a size 8 ... even if it was a European size 8.

"You only have to lose ten pounds," the consultant reminded me. "Or, actually, maybe just 8. Or six."

"Sounds like I already lost four pounds off my goal," I told her.

But she's not coming on my wedding day. I won't have her magic fingers to zip me (and they are magic; she zipped another bride into a dress that she had no business fitting into). So I can either hope and pray that my mom can figure out how to squeeze me into that dress ... or I can lose six pounds.

So I came to the gym in my complex and worked out. I'm actually really, really sweating in that photo and my face is super red. I don't look as cute as the photo from when I was leaving the house.

But I guess it doesn't matter what I look like at the gym. What matter is what I look like 10 months from now. I'm either gonna look like a sausage squeezed into a dress or I'm gonna look like a woman who looked straight into a challenge and said, "I got this" and actually went to the gym on a regular basis and made sure her dress didn't have to be altered.

This is just the first day, but I'm proud of myself. Now let's just hope day two comes.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Do you have a wedding workout plan?

Save The Date (And how we told my family)

I was having a really hard time picking a venue. We are from New York, so I wanted a New York wedding in North Carolina ... which is pretty impossible. Up North, it's all about ballrooms and down South, it's all about backyards.

We looked at 50 venues online and 15 in real life, and I couldn't find exactly what I wanted.

In theory, I'm convinced that this is the universe's way of telling me that I should open a venue down here in North Carolina. But, realistically, it was life's way of telling me that no matter what I pick, it will be perfect because the venue is just a place to hold a party that celebrates that Pete and I love each other so much that we're going to fuse into one and love each other for the rest of our lives.

So I finally picked a venue -- and a date.

When we finally picked a date, I didn't just want to call my family and tell them. Maybe it's narcissistic and self-indulgent, but I wanted to tell my family in a cutesy way. I wanted it to be something more memorable than a text.

I wanted it to be on the My Edible Choc-board from My Cup of Cake.

It's super cute. It comes with a chocolate chalkboard, a wooden stylus, and a bag of sugar that looks, well, like something you probably shouldn't be carrying around if you have any chance of getting pulled over by the cops.

Using it is a lot easier than I thought. You take the stylus and write on the chocolate. I actually had to do it twice because I was too gentle the first time and the grooves weren't deep enough to pick up the letters.

You can actually see some smears because I originally wiped the chocolate with a wet towel. Yeah, don't do that. Stick to dry. Trust me.

Spread the powdered sugar over the bar.

Spread it with your fingers (to make sure it gets in the grooves).

Wipe with a dry towel.

And tada ... like magic your words appear (or okay,  not at all like magic).

I put the chocolate board back in the box it came in to present it.

If you can't find this, don't worry. You can make a version easy. Buy a Hershey's bar and use a toothpick to write on the backside of it. That side is a flat surface. Then, you can just put it on a cute plate to present it.

And how did we, you ask? Pete and I drove to New York to surprise our families for Father's Day. We were with his family the day before and then with mine on the day of. We (including my parents, both my brothers and their girlfriends, my grandma) had a barbecue and then decided to sit around the fire pit to have dessert. When everyone was setting up the chairs around the fire, I ran inside and created the choco-board.

I walked outside with plates and hid this under it.

"Pete and I brought something special for dessert," I announced, then handed the chocolate to Pete who handed it to my mom.

Now, let me tell you. My mom isn't one for subtlety. So she sat there looking at the chocolate for a lot longer than I anticipated. And that's when it happened, that awkward moment when you think maybe a text would have been better after all.

And then it hit her.

"Oh!" she said. "You picked a date? Finally!" And she passed the chocolate around the circle so everyone could see.

She actually still has the chocolate board on a shelf in the kitchen. She hasn't eaten it yet (and something tells me she isn't planning on it). It was a super cute way for me to tell my family that we had a date picked ... and a way for me to tell you guys too. Yup, we have finally picked a date. The countdown is officially on.

BRIDAL BABBLE: How did you tell your family that you picked a date?

Bridezillas Beware ...

I saw this photo and it made me laugh so hard.

I'm trying really, really hard not to be a bridezilla. I'm trying to be relaxed and calm, pick my battles and not fight over everything. You have to fight for some stuff (if you really, really want cupcakes at your wedding instead of a cake because you are a baker and your dream is to be on Cupcake Wars and you and your fiance met at a cupcake shop ... then fight for them, even if your future mother-in-law is forcing cake) but you don't have to fight over everything (if you really, really don't want to invite you Aunt Edna because she will bring your Uncle Carl who made that weird comment that time at dinner when you were 12 and you haven't talked to him in twenty years but you will feel totally okay just inviting Aunt Edna and you don't care if Uncle Carl's name isn't on the invitation even though it will start a family feud ... too bad, you have to invite them both).

Here's the thing: If you fight over everything and aren't flexible at all, people will start to get frustrated with you. They will stop offering to help you because at some point, you become someone who doesn't want help and only wants minions. And your mom, your groom, your best friends, they aren't minions. They are people who are spending a ton of money to help you achieve the wedding you've been dreaming about since you were a little girl.

So what happens is you create a crack in these foundations, one that grows and grows and turns into resentment. Then you "ask for help" (at least, that's how you see it ... they see it as you demanding something else), and these people lash out because they are tired of being treated as second-class in your planning. And then you lash out because you're the bride and what you say goes.

That will not end well. It will end with a lot of other 'zillas -- momzilla, maid of honorzilla, wedding plannerzilla -- or, my favorite, a groomster.

There are slight exceptions to this, but for the most part, it is a bridezilla who spawns these other intolerable creatures. Don't be a bridezilla. Don't create a groomster.

Every time you want to fight, sit down and ask yourself, "How important is this to me?" If it is in the top five things you absolutely need at your wedding, fight for it. If it's not, let it go.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What is worth fighting for?

DIY Tutorial: Beach Candy Buckets For A Beach Wedding

A Bride On A Budget received these items for this review. No other compensation was received. All thoughts, opinions, and photos are ours.

My mom was here for two weeks to help plan for the wedding. During the day, we would go to hotels to try to book rooms (unsuccessful) and dress shopping (successful).

At night, we (and by we, I mean she) would make favors. One hundred and fifty beautiful favors.

Pete and I offered to help, but she just sat and made them all herself. My contribution was that I picked out the idea and picked up the supplies. Pete helped by getting her a desk lamp when the light bulb in our living room blew.

I was on the Oriental Trading website, which has a ton of items for weddings. You can pick up everything from aisle runners to bubbles to ring bearer pillows. You can pick up items individually and put together your own projects, or you can browse the site and check out project ideas.

I got lost on the site for hours before deciding that the Beach Candy Buckets Project was the best idea for our favors. I knew exactly what I needed to order because it's actually listed on the site itself. No guessing needed.

Beach Candy Buckets Wedding Favor

What You'll Need*:

• Natural Starfish assortment
• Purple ribbon assortment
• Silvertone pails with handles
• Tux and gown wedding buttermints
• Purple beverage napkins (or you could use a purple tissue paper, but I wanted something a little heavier)
• Scissors
• Mini Glue Dots
• XL Glue Dots

*Our colors are eggplant, lilac, and silver, but you can choose any colors you prefer.

What You'll Do:

To start, you need to unravel the ribbon. Now, here's where I messed up. I saw there were 10 pieces of ribbon in each package. I assumed each ribbon was short. It wasn't until just now, when I was checking to link the ribbon in the post, that I realized the ribbon is two yards. Some of the ribbon cannot be used for this project (the second and fourth from the top are tulle-like ribbons that are too see through to work). But, with eight types of ribbon that will work perfectly, I overestimated the amount that we needed.

Wrap the ribbon around the bucket, being sure to overlap to make two top points.

Pull a mini Glue Dot from its backing.

And affix it directly onto the bucket before pulling the clear plastic away.

We had a few Glue Dot causalities when we tried pulling the dot directly from the backing to place it on the bucket. This method is fool proof.

Start at the Glue Dot, and wrap the ribbon around the bucket.

Take an XL Glue Dot and cut it in half.

Crisscross the ribbon on the front of the bucket.

And stick the half of an XL Glue Dot in the middle.

Fold a piece of ribbon, about an inch or so wide, on top of itself.

Cut at the fold.

Then cut a second, matching piece.

Affix these below the ribbon, using the Glue Dot to hold them on.

Affix a starfish -- carefully -- on top of the Glue Dot.

Use different ribbon and different sized starfish so the buckets aren't all exactly the same.

And you're done ... almost. You can't give people empty buckets.

That's why I picked out the tux and dress buttermints. Personally, I love buttermints. And these ones are so festive. Two pluses. What you also need to keep in mind, though, is that you can only place wrapped candy inside these buckets, per the advice on Oriental Trading's site. So, although it might be cute to fill them with personalized M&M's, resist the temptation. It's also why you need some sort of "barrier" between the candy and the bucket itself.

Place three candies inside a purple napkin.

And stuffed it inside the bucket.

Tada! Now your beach candy buckets are done.

My mom made 150 of these and put them in a box. We put a bucket down and added three candies. That was enough leverage to make sure the starfish weren't touching.

The starfish are real ... making them really fragile. If we tried piling one bucket on top of the other, the starfish would most likely break (and since there was about one per bag that came broken, we couldn't take the risk of more breaking). This way, they are all safe.

What we'll do is keep them in the box until the wedding day. Then, I'll ask two very trusted, detail oriented, and careful individuals, to take them from the box, remove the buttermints, add them to a napkin, and restuff the buckets.

The grand total for the supplies (including the Glue Dots but not including the scissors or the Chinese food I bought my mom as a thank you) was $221 for 150. That makes it about $1.50 per favor. Oriental Trading has discount codes and free shipping all the time, so you could actually bring your cost down as well. That's actually half of the favor budget that I allotted (I said the goal was to keep them under $3 a favor). Since we (cough cough, my mom) did the labor ourselves, it definitely kept the cost down. If you look online for a similar favor, it'll cost at least $3.50 to $4 a bucket, so this was a huge savings.

Time consuming? Maybe. But worth it? Absolutely.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Do you think these beach candy buckets are something you could put together?

(PS ... If you're coming to my wedding, please try to forget what these look like so you can be surprised on the day of)

The Prize I "Won"

I got a call today from a weird number I didn't recognize. I usually don't answer those at all, but I went to the chamber yesterday and left my number for hotels to call me so I could block rooms for the wedding.

I answered.

"Is this Lisa?" the voice asked.

"Yes, it is, hi," I said.

And then he went into a long speech about how I won a prize with a $700 value, which was an all-inclusive trip to numerous destinations (which he didn't name) unless I didn't like flying, in which I then won a domestic non-all-inclusive trip that I could get to in only one to two tanks of gas and all I had to do was sit through one ninety minute presentation this Saturday to claim my prize.

Pause to end his run on sentence.

"Are you excited?" he asked.

"Well, no," I said. "See, this prize doesn't sound familiar and your name doesn't sound familiar and I don't remember signing up for any sort of prize that is similar to this."

"Oh you did," he assured me. "You signed up at the door of a bridal expo you attended on July 30. I'm just getting to pick the winners now. So are you excited?"

"No," I said. "See, I was at the airport on July 30. I wasn't at an expo."

Truth be told, I haven't been to an expo since March.

"Someone must have signed up with your information," he said, his enthusiasm never wavering. "But that's okay because you won."

"Listen," I said, "I didn't sign up. No one I know would have gone to an expo as me without telling me. So, I'm going to pass. Thanks."

"Are you sure?" he said, launching into another run on sentence about how this prize was so great.

"Yes," I said. "I'm sure."

I bring this up because this is not the first time my information has been sold (there is a particular and very popular dress company that has assured me it does, in fact, sell your information to partners it thinks you would be interested in -- but never asked what my interests are. Since a cruise is a honeymoon idea, the store sold my info to a cruise line, unaware of the fact that my greatest fear is boats and open water). And there's a good chance that your information will be sold along the way as well. I just want you to be aware of this and be ready to hang up the phone in case you win a "prize."

Really, this prize is a scam. You often have to pay something (initial travel costs, for sure) and you have to sit through a presentation (a time share, kitchen equipment, etc.). Your fiance must attend with you. And then you get a gift at the end (a trip that you still have to pay a part of, rings, or kitchenware is the most common "prizes"). Everyone "wins" this raffle -- which is often entered because you put your name on a form when you walked into a bridal expo. This scam has been around for a long time, so be ready for the call.

BRIDAL BABBLE: How do you usually get a spammer off the phone?

Review: Brix Chocolate For Wine

A Bride On A Budget received these products for this review. All thoughts belong to ABOAB.

I never understood wine and cheese events. Don't get me wrong, I love cheese (so much that my cholesterol took a beating for a while). And cheese pairs well with a bunch of other food items. Cheese and apples? Yes. Cheese and marinara sauce? Of course. Cheese on my tuna salad sandwich? Okay ... I'll be honest: I've thought about it.

But wine and cheese? I don't get it. Maybe a nice red with a lasagna, but just bottles of wine and blocks of cheddar? It never made sense to me.

Now wine and chocolate ... that's a perfect pairing.

Agree? Then you need to check out Brix Chocolate.

We were sent three variants of Brix Chocolates for Wine.

Brix comes in three very different package configurations. You can purchase 8oz. bars, individually wrapped bites, or the 3oz. bars with hang tags (for wine bottles).

Or on champagne bottles ... because we happened to have a bottle of champagne (and I wanted to see if it would fit). It's a little snugger than it would be on the neck of a wine bottle, but it did still fit.

That's actually a great gift idea for anyone who recently got engaged. Our friends gave us a bottle of wine when we got engaged, and I would have loved if there was a small brick of chocolate hanging from the neck. The bars come in a solid rectangle, which you are encouraged to break into bite-sized pieces to enjoy with your wine. You can actually purchase gift sets that come with two bricks of Brix chocolate, plus a wooden cutting board and knife.

Personally, though, I'm a bigger fan of the Brix Bites, especially for wedding functions. These quarter-ounce bars can be purchased in a box and are individually wrapped. What's great is that each wrapper gives you a suggested wine pairing, so when you select one, you can know exactly what wine to enjoy it with.

The chocolate comes in four variants: milk (46% cacao), smooth dark (54%), medium dark (60%), and extra dark (70%). The sweeter the wine, the sweeter the chocolate it pairs with. A rose or dessert wine pairs best with the milk chocolate while a dry wine, like a Chianti or Malbec, would pair with the extra dark.

Pete enjoyed the extra dark most, which makes sense because he is drawn more to Chiantis when we go to dinner. He said the chocolate "wasn't overly dry or bitter." He's right. Don't be deterred from the dark chocolate, just based on the percentages. High-percentages of cacao generally don't lend much sweetness to chocolate. I tend to stay away from high-percentage darks because of the bitter taste. With this, you wouldn't know. A milk chocolate die hard could be converted.

My mom and I favored the smooth dark, which pairs best with a Riesling.

I asked my mom what she thought and she said, "The smooth dark had a creaminess and sweetest that I like in my milk chocolate but a little bit of the bitterness that I enjoy in my dark chocolate, which is like the perfect bitterness for me because I don't like when it's too bitter because then it starts to taste not sweet to me" (insert a breath here) "I never tasted anything like that. It's just really smooth. It's the perfect name for it. It just seemed like a smooth dark. I liked it. Did you like that smooth chocolate?"

After transcribing her quote word for word, I said, "Yup. That one was my favorite."

"It was good, right?" she said, before later adding, "I would pair that with anything."

Which makes it great, even for the non-wine drinkers in your life.

The bites are a perfect size too, with an indentation to snap the bite in half if you choose. They come with 24 assorted pieces per box (unless you purchase a display box, which has 64 pieces). I broke each piece in half and was actually satisfied with just one of the two halves (Okay, full disclosure: I actually did snap them in half ... and then ate one half from each variant, so I did have two full pieces total in one sitting. But I needed to try them all to compare).

These are packaged absolutely perfectly for a wedding candy buffet or if you set up a wine bar instead of a lounge. Set up high-tops where your guests can come and enjoy wine and set up glass bowls of the Brix Bites in the table's center. Or have bowls on the bar where they can grab a piece when they get their wine (personally, I like the table idea better because you don't want to clutter the bar, but it's really up to you).

A lounge is definitely more of a Southern wedding thing (I've been to countless weddings in New York and never saw a lounge before; at almost every venue we saw in North Carolina, we were shown where we could set up a lounge). So, if you're not having a lounge, you can definitely bring these out right before the cake (or after, depending on what your think your guests would prefer). Just allot an assorted bowl per table and ask the wait staff to bring them out with fresh wine glasses.

If you're like me, you can put these out at your rehearsal dinner. That's what is going to work best for us. Ideally, I'm going to create a mini candy bar with some local cakes and have Brix chocolates in front of the wine bottles. At least, that's the idea I'm kicking around right now. We actually have about 10 months until the rehearsal dinner, so I might reorganize the dessert table in my mind before then. 

We really loved the solid brick, but for a wedding, that wouldn't be the most sensible. You would need to leave out a cutting board and knife, and it just seems like a bit of hassle. I guess you could have someone from the venue's waitstaff do that, or even ask the bartender, but it just wouldn't be as practical as the individually wrapped chocolates. For home, it's great, but for a wedding, your better bet is the bites.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What's a better pairing: wine and cheese or wine and chocolate?

Say Yes To The Dress (At least, I keep hoping to say it)

Pete was sitting in bed, listening to music on his laptop. I went in, laid next to him, and basically collapsed on his lap.

"This is hard," I complained. "I'm getting burnt out."

"Did you think it was going to be easy?" he said.

"Not easy, but, like, the situation is just so incredibly frustrating that it's, well, it's not fun anymore."

"You've been saying this every single time," he reminded me.

And he's right. Every step of the way has been such an arduous task, so why I thought wedding dress shopping would be any different is a mystery to me.

I started out all excited, ready to play dress up.

And now, four stores and a couple dozen dresses later, I'm starting to look unhappy.

What's working out in my favor (or not, depending on how you look at it) is, as one consultant after another told me: I have a body for wedding dresses. One consultant told me that means I can fill out the top of a wedding dress, which is usually something brides-to-be can't do.

I was shocked because my whole life, I've been pretty flat chested. But I'm "fat for me" right now, and I've gained it all in my chest. So luckily, every dress I've tried on, from a size 4 to a 12, have actually fit pretty accurately. I'll know where the waist will hit, where the hem will fall, exactly how the train will look when I walk down the aisle. Every dress looks gorgeous but no dress is the dress. Nothing has made me cry. Nothing has made me think, "I don't care what the price tag is, I need this."

It's frustrating.

I've been to so many stores and tried on so many wedding dresses that at this point, I've gone from saying, "I want a dress with a big bottom and no straps" to "I'm looking for a ball gown with a tiered bottom or an A-line with a ruffled skirt, no pickups, with a sweetheart neck. I really prefer beaded tops, but I would do lace. I like organza and hate tulle and English netting."

I said that at one store when she asked what I was looking for and the reply was, "Well you just outruled the entire store."

I didn't even tell her that I was also vetoing anything with a basque waist.

It's not that I'm being overly picky (although with a wedding dress, it's definitely okay to be). It's that I've tried on more dresses than I can remember and I'm learning exactly what I want. The trouble is, I just can't find it.

So when a consultant asks me what my budget is, I say I don't have one. And it's true. At no point in this process have I even looked at the price tag on a dress before deciding to try it on. I don't want to limit myself. And so far, nothing has come close to the enormous budget I'm giving myself. I mean, it's so high that it's the entire budget of some weddings. Would I spend that? Oh, gosh, I hope not. But I've been allowing myself to mentally spend that so that I don't limit the wedding dresses I try on.

It's just mentally draining, to be honest. Please tell me I'm not the only one who went through this.

BRIDAL BABBLE: Is it just me or did you have a tough time finding a wedding dress as well?

Review: Wedding Items At CafePress

A Bride On A Budget received a gift card to CafePress for items for this review. All thoughts and options belong to ABOAB.

I was looking at CafePress the other day thinking, "Extra invitations would be good to have on hand, just in case."

I didn't have a just in case reason, but I like to be prepared.

And CafePress has a ton of invitations. You can buy flat, folded, personalized, or blank. It's $1.50 per invitation, which is so much lower than the average price of $5 per wedding invitation. Plus, you can personalize these for free, which is great.


I picked these super cute cartoon-y cards. I got a pack of 10, which was great to have on hand just in case. The cards are flat and blank on the back, so I can add any text I want. They also simply say, "I Do" on them, so I can use them for extra invitations, save the dates, or thank yous.

If you know exactly what you would like invitations for -- maybe bridal shower invitations or to ask your friends to be in your bridal party -- you could search the site by specific occasion and see what is available to you.

Those aren't the only wedding items CafePress has to offer. I was sent a gift card by CafePress and was able to chose anything I wanted. And quickly, I fell in love with an array of products.

Luckily for me, the items at CafePress are really reasonable, so I was able to pick up everything I wanted. 

I absolutely fell in love with the Just Married luggage tag and matching handle wrap. You can personalize it with your wedding date and pick it in pink or blue. I actually purchased blue for Pete and pink for me. They're so cute and so perfect for our honeymoon.

You definitely need a luggage tag when you travel, so that is useful. But if you haven't ever had a handle wrap in your life, you need one. Now. The wrap goes around the handle of your back, separating it from the other plain black bags on the baggage carousel.

I used to have blue luggage handle wraps and used them (as did my family) when we went to Japan. They were a huge help when we went to pick up our bags. Those are long gone and I was hoping to replace them. This is perfect. It's also a perfect bridal shower gift idea too.

Another bridal shower gift idea is this super cute And They Lived Happily Ever After pillow. I love this. Absolutely love it. It is white with black writing, with a pop of color with the piping around the edge. You can get it in blue, green, brown, or more. Our bedroom set is light blue, so this is perfect. We have it sitting at the end of our bed with our other throw pillows.

It's stuffed really well so it is super comfortable if you wanted to sleep on it, but I love it for just decor. The white is really white, so I didn't want to lay on it and sweat and ruin it.

There are a lot of items that are just for fun as well, like the button above. I got Pete the 3.5-inch round, "Buy Me A Beer My Wedding Is Near" button. It'll be great for him to wear during his bachelor party (although, if I know Pete, he'll be wearing it for a few weeks after. I mean, free beer?).

There's a similar one that says, "Buy me a shot, I'm tying the knot." I actually thought it was super cute, but my friend Michelle told me it's a bad idea. She said that too many people would follow through and actually buy Pete a shot ... and he would be really, really drunk (something I don't want to happen). Even with the fun and novelty items, you have to be conscious of what you want.

What if you can't find your saying? You can actually personalize your own products. Add your own photos and text. Love it.

Pete and I are the groom and bride, so of course, I was picking out items for us. And then I thought I should maybe be a little considerate and pick out something for someone else.

So I thought of my grandma.

I looked around for items she might like and I found this super cute Grandma of the Bride water bottle. My grandma hates using plastic bottles, so she carries around a glass one. That feels so unsafe to me, in case it accidentally falls to the ground. This one is stainless steal, which is a lot safer.

She does have until next summer before we are getting married, though, so she has to wait until then for her new bottle.

BRIDAL BABBLE: What wedding items do you love that CafePress sells?