More NY Gift Favorites!

I just love Sukie, they are one of my favorite paper/stationery design companies. I met one of the designers Darrell and he was so nice! Their line of new Travel Journals is fantastic, really fun illustrated covers with little storage pockets for memorabilia collected from your travels. The new Rescued Paper Note Books are full of discarded papers from India, such a great and green concept. The pages are from end of print runs, advertising and bound simply without processing. All such great little gifts!
{images scanned from the Sukie Spring/Summer 2008 pamphlet}



Suck UK always has such fun product ideas, these Wooden Postcards are an easy and primitive way to spread the love.
{images from Suck UK}





I love the fresh colors of the new dinnerware by Jonathan Adler, I especially adore the eye-shaped chargers. How great would a table look set with these? The porcelain hands on lucite blocks are also fantastic, anything on a lucite block gets me excited! Not only are they beautiful little table sculptures, but I think they would be great ring holders!
{images from Thoughtful Day}

Mizzonk

Mizzonk had one of my favorite booths this year at the NY Gift show. This husband and wife design duo from Canada had really thoughtful and considered work. They were the recipients of this years award of excellence in the Accent on Design area of the gift show. Some of my favorite pieces were out of their art collection: Inspiration Series. Simple shapes partially cut from paper then hand folded in a specific direction to create a sense of movement, shadow and light. I also loved the Yes or No Tic Tac Toe, the beautifully crafted X's and O's placed in a nice big chunk of walnut or cedar would be a great gift, especially for a hard to gift Dad!

{images from Mizzonk}

My Best Friend's Wedding

{photos from Erik Ekroth}

In October of 2006 I went to my best friend Regan and her husband Matteo's wedding out in Pocantico Hills, NY. The ceremony took place in a beautiful little chapel called the Union Church of Pocantino Hills. Sitting in the chapel, you felt a part of art history as we were surrounded by stained glass windows by Chagal and Mattise. The ceremony was followed by a beautiful reception at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. The setting, decor and food was perfect. Below is a brief Q & A with Regan.

I remember the food being amazing, what all did we have at your reception?
Cocktail Reception:
The signature cocktail was called "Apple Pie," made from fresh pressed Hudson Valley apples, Heart of the Hudson Vodka (also distilled from local apples), and spices, served on the rocks with a slice of fresh apple.
Passed Hors d'oeuvres:
Arancini with Pickled Vegetables
Braised Berkshire Pork Croquettes
Tomato Burgers
Shots of Seasonal Soup
Herbed Goat Cheese in Parmesan Tuile
Dinner:
Maine Crab Salad with Garden Green Gazpacho and Cucumbers
Wine: Paul Blanck Riesling Rosenbourg Alsace, France 2005
Poached Cod with Pistou of Fall Vegetables
Wine: Larochette Manciat Macon-Morizottes, Burgundy 2005
Stone Barns Lamb with Quinoa, Corn and Zucchini
Wine: Herencia Remondo "La Montessa", Rioja, Spain 2003
Concord Grape Soup with Yogurt Sorbet
"Woodland" Wedding Cake (white cake with chocolate mousse and almond mousseline)
Petits Fours and Coffee

Was all of the food served at your wedding from the farm?
The restaurant sources as much as they can from the farm. For our wedding, all the produce and the lamb was from the farm.

Any recommendations for brides?
Have the kind of wedding you want. Don't feel pressured to live out your mother's or anyone else's fantasy for your wedding day--it's your day, which means it should be based on YOUR fantasy. And MOST IMPORTANT--Hire a good photographer. After the wedding, the photos are really all you have to remember the day.
Put a lot of personal touches in your wedding. They're fun to do and your guests really do notice. I lined all my envelopes with beautiful papers, put together my own sacks of pears as favors, decorated the escort cards and table numbers, and collected acorns to strew across the tables myself.

What was your favorite part of the day?
The outdoor cocktail reception (whew, I finally get to enjoy all this!)
The Ceremony (much more profound than I'd imagined)
Walking into the Reception and seeing that everything was there, all set up, and even better than I'd imagined. (I didn't have to worry about a thing!)

Who made your gown?
My gown was a strapless mermaid by Ulla-Maija with a V neckline. It was ivory silk satin, covered with silk chiffon rosettes with embroidery and beading. The style is called "Frances" from their Court collection.

Any advice for people planning a wedding from a distance? You were living in San Francisco at the time.
Have your wedding reception at a place that is equipped to handle what you want to pull off. Since the food was most important to me, I had the reception at a wonderful, beautiful restaurant that already had great place settings, chairs, cloths, etc. and would be ready with a well-trained staff to handle getting the food out to our guests. No catering set-ups or hot boxes, or part-time service staff for me! I think trying to engineer a wedding on a beach, or a cliff, or someplace that just isn't already fitted for a gathering is just an invitation for stress. If I had had to order and pick out glasses, plates, silver, chairs, tables, linens, alcohol, etc from different vendors, then worry about everyone showing up, etc. I would have had a breakdown. It's unnecessary stress!

And yet again...

I swear, every time I go to the J.Crew site to look at their bridesmaid's dresses, they have a brand new cute style. I absolutely love the trim details on this dress!

{images from J.Crew}

Paperiaarre

I think these little matchbook size booklets would be such sweet little favors for any event. I love the simple little reminders of everyday things that we often overlook. The size, combined with the stitching detail is just precious.

Available at Paperiaarre's Etsy shop.

{images from Paperiaarre}

The Bride Made Me Buy This - article from the NYTimes

These brilliant women decided to wear their ugliest bridesmaid's dresses and battle out their resentment through a football game.
{photo by Jeffrey Boodman}


This particular bridal party was made up of anyone that showed up in an old bridesmaid's dress, what a fun loving, good humored bride!


This last one is my favorite, a total classic.

While browsing through NYTimes.com, I came across this really funny article about bridesmaid's dresses. I happened to miss it when it came out, around the same time as the release of 27 Dresses, but nonetheless still a funny read and look through some really tacky bridesmaid's dresses and creative ways to have fun with them after a wedding.

{images from the New York Times}

Alex Woo

Last weekend I met jewelry designer Alex Woo at The Wedding Party event and she was so delightful to speak with. I think any of her designs would be a great gift for a bridal party. I especially love the Narissa Collection, the delicate and weightless look of the reefs are really beautiful and perfect for a beach wedding.

{images from Alex Woo}

Chapeau de Gateau

Speaking of Mokuba, I came across these lovely cake toppers by Alison Dawson, founder of Chapeau de Gateau in Canada. She handcrafts these beautiful detailed cake replicas made from Mokuba ribbons. Not only can you adorn your cake with ribbon she can make you one from ribbon to last a lifetime.

{images from Chapeau de Gateau}

Mokuba

Last week I took a day off from work to go ribbon shopping. My first stop was Mokuba New York, I was blown away by the amazing selection of thousands of ribbons, yes, thousands. I highly recommend going there, it was supposed to be the first stop of many ribbon stores, but leaving there I felt completely inspired and didn't feel the need to continue shopping. There was a wholesale only sign on the door, but I went in and the staff was extremely helpful and let me shop. Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos, but above are some scans of the ribbons I picked up. If you have a tax i.d. # you can get 30% off your purchases, which really helps. Some of the ribbons were a bit pricey but considering all of the ribbons are original designs and made in Japan with some of the finest materials, it's justified. I wouldn't be surprised if your wedding dress has trim from Mokuba, I saw a famous wedding gown designer shopping around while I was there.

I am thinking about wrapping the second to last ribbon around the base of each tier on our wedding cake as well as the cake topper...

Mokuba New York
55 West 39th Street
New York, NY 10018
#212-869-8900

{top image from Mokuba New York}
(bottom image from Thoughtful Day}

The Wedding Party

This past Saturday, I went to the Martha Stewart Weddings / The Wedding Library event with fellow bloggers Vané of Brooklyn Bride and Anne of Perfect Bound. It was so much fun to attend with other passionate brides! The event was really insightful with notable speakers Preston Bailey, Darcy Miller of MS Weddings (who is as cute as a button!), Reem Acra, and Mark Ingram, all of whom gave great advice from the many years of experience they've had in the wedding industry.

There were so many amazing vendors, all of which were delightfully wonderful and nice to speak with. Some of the highlights for me were Hatch Creative Studio, their floral installations are always a work of art, the table setting collaboration with Ceci New York and Stone Kelly was gorgeous, Alex Woo had a beautiful selection of jewelry (everything handmade in NYC), Jenny Ebert Photography, Ron-Ben Israel Cakes (had a wonderful little set up of cake tastings, yum!), and the ladies from Bubble and Lo who did a little makeup session on moi, with fake eyelashes! Overall, it was a fantastic event, I highly recommend any bride to be to attend these, you can't go wrong if MS Weddings is putting it on.

Thanks Vane and Anne for such a wonderful day!

(top two rows)
Hatch Creative Studio
(bottom row)
Ceci New York and Stone Kelly

{images from Thoughtful Day}