In this time where everyone (or just Fox News) is telling old people to buy gold, and telling everyone else to sell their gold, gold has become passe.  Which is a real shame because gold is a fabulous statement.  Gold is classic, like Coco Channel, if you pick the right pieces it will look amazing forever.  Anyone who doesn’t like gold just has never owned the right piece of gold.

But let’s face it when it comes to dining you just can’t afford the gold or sterling silverware that used to be customary in yesteryear, and it is so pricey you feel bad even putting it on a registry.  But with many of the beautiful china styles, with amazing colors and warm hues out there you really do need a classy set of gold settings.

The solution: Seletti Midas Cutlery.

Normally available on Yoox.com or Bloomsburystore.com, it is all sold out right now because it is fabulous, but don’t despair  because The Conran Shop Online has a full 24 piece set for $225.00.

This is gold plated steel cutlery with a matte finish.  Allowing it to blend with modern and classic china sets.  I think it would even look particularly stunning with mixed plates or plain white casual china, as well.  And it comes nicely packed in a china box, small enough to actually fit in all those places you would want to store your china.  I am really quite smitten with this set of silverware, actually less smitten more absolutely covetous.  So get it while it isn’t sold out.  And if you are looking for a nice wedding present for those brides out there who aren’t registering (ahem bad idea) I think this would make a really nice present that any modern couple would find quite pleasing.

*Sigh* If only I had seen this BEFORE Christmas.

Welcome back from the Holiday everyone (except you Greek Orthodox who will be celebrating soon).  I am making it my New Year Resolution to improve the blog with more articles and maybe even some guest entries, so feel free to send me any ideas or suggestions.

This Wednesday I am dealing with a post-wedding issue.  My Mother loves the pictures taken at my wedding- thanks Dominique Attaway you are fantastic- but asked me about getting one turned into an oil portrait.  I really hadn’t known about this service until I ran across OilPortraits.com.  But apparently, even Hubby and I can be turned into masterpieces of art and you can too!

Pricing goes by the number of subjects and they will paint people or pets.  I think their black and whites are extremely good looking. And they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so they seem like the right company for my business, I don’t like to take risks when it comes to me on display.   So anyone looking for this service should check them out.  And they were on OneKingsLane.com with a discounted price about a month ago, so you may watch and see if they ever pop back up.

I should have news soon, as in tomorrow, on the job front yay!  But all this has been such an ordeal.  So here is to more fun and pretty things!

I love to check out engagement rings.  I check out my friends’ rings, that girl on the metro next to me, that woman shopping in Neiman Marcus with the to die for bag, all of them.  And there are some really pretty rings out there.  For me though there are only two kinds: simple and elegant or detailed and antique looking in design.  I have a beautiful Tacori ring that is really detailed and very classic and I love it.  But I caught sight of these rings and decided in a different life if I were going to go with simple and elegant the rings from Everlon are what I would choose.  They don’t have their own website, but are available from many retailers, including JR Dunn who has a very handy online website here.

I have always really liked the look of knots.  That nautical knot jewelry is just so neat looking.  I am fascinated by braids essentially hair knots of different varieties.  Knots of all kinds just are really beautiful to me (unless I have to get them out of course).  These knots are so simple looking but just the smooth medal against a beautiful diamond just really highlights both elements.  So guys if you have a gal that is the simple, but elegant type I think this will be a real winner. They are very reasonable for engagement rings- a 14kt white gold with 3/4 carat diamond is $2990.00.  So long as your gal doesn’t want something huge 3/4 carat is a really nice size. (Another view)

AND as a deal sweetener  There will be ample ideas for engagement gifts as they have matching earrings, bracelets and necklaces.  Some of my favorites are below.

I love this diamond necklace- it would look beautiful alone or with just plain brilliant (round) diamond earrings, which many girls own.  It could be worn on a chain or with a nice omega, which is a thicker gold necklace that has a bolder look.  I really like reversible omegas one side being white gold one side being yellow gold so it is really versatile.

Both of these earrings are really nice for a girl who doesn’t have diamond earrings.  They are so simple they would match nicely with other diamond jewelry that she may acquire over the years. I personally don’t like drop earrings as much as ones that are closer to the ear so I prefer the bottom pair, but both really are nice.

I have wanted a white gold diamond bracelet now for a while, but I will be waiting as they are a pretty penny and my dear Hubby just bought me a stunning engagement ring and wedding band that is just as beautiful and detailed.  There was one bracelet I saw in a cute little jewelry store that I love in St. Micheals that was similar to this one that I just loved.  So maybe ten or twenty years from now this beauty will come my way.

Last, but not least is a stunning ring for the right hand it has both white gold and yellow gold.  I really like this idea because I have a really nice watch that is two tone, and some really nice gold jewelry in yellow gold so it kind of brings it all together in a matchey matchey way.

So if fancy and detailed isn’t your thing check out Everlon.  I was really impressed with the style and design of their products.  It has a real wow factor to it, without all the bells and whistles of some rings.

I have always been one of those lucky women who can wear a hat, almost any hat really.  And there is something grand about a hat.  It hearkens back to an era of civility.  It dares to go where few women these days tread.  But with the recent resurgence of the head band with large fascinators I dare to say hats will be coming back.

Recently my Mother traveled through Ireland and she found Kathleen McAuliffe a woman who makes extraordinary hats.  When she saw these hats she immediately thought of my friend who is going to have the most beautiful wedding this summer and who has really fun style.  So I wanted to pass along the fun for any bride or wedding party that dares to be a little more eclectic in a really beautiful classy way.  They are pricey, but absolutely beautiful and really top quality, as they are hand made and have been featured worldwide.  Below are some of my favorites:

Perfect for accompanying a cute simple bridesmaid dress.

Black used to be a no-no at weddings, but nowadays anything goes, and ooh wouldn’t this go so well at a formal outdoor wedding?  I can just see it looking so beautiful and demur for a wedding set on a beautiful stone patio.

For the bride who doesn’t want a gigantic bird, but a gorgeous loopdy loop instead.  This would be to die for with a simple form fitting dress.

Now this to me is a show stopper, and it would photograph so well.

The perfect Mother of the Bride hat.  It won’t be prettier than the bride, but it will grab the appropriate amount of attention the Mother of the Bride deserves, plus I think it has a bit of authority to it.

Now if you go to a wedding and someone is wearing this, you just know you are going to have a good time.  It is called Kate and it is just longing to come home and reside with this Kate.

This hat is just so cute.  And wearable to so many things.  And wouldn’t it just pair so well with a formal tux?

Now Ms. McAuliffe makes more casual hate too, and while I love her show stoppers above, her casual hats are really exquisite and much more affordable.  This one below looks like the perfect honeymoon getaway hat to me.

Of course you don’t need a wedding to own one of these, they would be perfect for a derby, a cocktail party or for a really cute night out.  I am so glad my Mother found this place, and it is such good timing because I am telling you- hats will be back.

So this was supposed to publish last Wednesday but for some reason it didn’t sorry for the delay!

Planning a wedding is hectic.  There is no getting around that.   It seems like every weekend is just filled with making sure this thing happens.  So being able to plan on the go is pretty handy.

I am not huge on the iphone apps.  I tend to download them, then not use them or forget about them.  BUT I do approve Wedding Wire’s iphone app.  Had it been out while I was planning our wedding I would have used it.  Luckily for us there weren’t many vendors to manage, but knowing what a good friend went through dealing with so many vendors I know you can use some major help and advice.  We also had the benefit of the Greenbrier sending us a sample budget through excel that we could edit and use, and I know that is not the norm.

Wedding Wire itself not only has vendor ratings, but many useful planning tools like managing budgets, timelines, guests and vendors.  We used it for our very complicated seating chart.  I think a detailed and easy to use budget application itself is really nice and beats creating your own on excel.

Their iphone app let’s you follow your checklist and complete items on the go- for those who don’t have an account the checklists are very detailed and divided into categories, so it is well organized and easy to use.  You can also manage your budget and check out vendors through the i phone application so if you are meeting with vendors or making last minute decisions all the major information you need is right there.

And if you have a high tech Husband this will help him stay involved and on track because he can follow everything on his iphone or computer.   Wedding Wire is so useful, if I was doing it all over again I would have used it from the very beginning to manage more of our wedding.  After checking out a few of the other wedding planning sites, this one is by far the best and now it is even better.

Sometimes people find my ideas a little shocking.  Especially my hair expressions.  Take for example my large hair swoop at a cocktail party a few years ago, my 1930’s finger curls at a fraternity dance, or my latest the large Marie Antoinette wedding do:

Eventually my hair finds its way onto the fashion scene.  This Spring a good year after I picked my wedding hair the latest runway trend was big updos.  This trend was started with the Amy Whinehouse beehive, the Sarah Palin bump then it grew into haute coiffure articles in magazines.  Now there isn’t a runway without a big coiffure.  (See Marc Jacobs below one example of many)

We can’t help our love affair with big hair.  Throughout the ages big hair has been with us, from the Japanese buns, to powdered wigs, the big 1800’s bun, the beehive, to the modern Farrah Fawcett do and the 80’s curl.  Why this love affair?  Because it is flattering.  Big hair draws attention up the body, it offsets a big look below.  It always makes one look skinnier.  So my advice for the wedding day: go big, oh yes, go for the big hair.  As is always said in the south, “the bigger the hair the closer to God.”

No one will remember a simple bun, or a normal french twist with a few curls.  If you have long hair you must go big.  Here are some inspirations for you:

If you need more convincing go to the Atelier Aimee website, or watch some of the Spring 2009 runway shows.  But big hair is timeless it is a classic.  If you pull pictures of old coiffures you fall in love with the classic beauty of the pile of hair on top the head.  It is a long devoted love affair.

This Wednesday I wanted to detail my experience with having my wedding at the Greenbrier because it really was great.

We started out looking at the Greenbrier because that is where Hubby wanted to get hitched.  We also comparison shopped in the DC area.   What we found out is that it would cost us about the same maybe less to have a fantastic wedding at such a grand resort as it would in DC.

Room rental was $500.  Some room rentals in DC went up to $10,000 just for room rental.  We had to guarantee a minimum number of rooms occupied the nights of our event, but for the night of our wedding it was 1/3 of our guests and less than that the night before, and they discounted the room rate significantly.

We also negotiated that people could rent multiple rooms cabins for the same price per night as a room so if it was a 4 bedroom cabin they would pay discounted room rate x4.

The Greenbrier coordinates with Gillespie Flowers (they have the Florist shop inside the Greenbrier), Scott Logsdon with East Coast music and helped coordinate with the Pastor, Brent Sturm, who is the Pastor at the Methodist Church in the area.  The event coordinators really served as event planners making sure that everyone knew what was happening, when and where in regard to everything happening at the Greenbrier.

They really went above and beyond in terms of the service they offered.  I really wanted a Smith Island Cake as my wedding cake, not only had they never made one before they didn’t even know what it is.  Never the less, I sent a sample cake to them and their pastry chef recreated a huge wedding cake that tasted amazing, just like a Smith Island Cake should, after trying to recreate the frosting and not getting it just right they ordered icing from the Sweet Shoppe, a company I recommended because icing is a big deal to me.  I don’t like fatty tasting buttercreams, hate fondant… very picky.  They really worked with me on this, and I can safely say to any other brides that if you request it they will try their best to do it.

Hubby’s family really likes Virginia wine, they being very proud Virginians, and I am in full support.  They requested we have Jefferson wines from Monticello at the rehearsal dinner when there weren’t any wines we particularly liked ont he banquet list.  The Greenbrier worked with them, et voila.

When we were having a sample dinner at Sam Snead’s we fell in love with the white chocolate mints served there and requested these be put on each table for guests, done.  (Although I wish they would have boxed up the extras to go home with me, mmm, I love those chocolates, they are the ones that look a bit like a brussel sprout for anyone interested)

We wanted a DVD stand to play pictures, done.

We wanted chocolates in certain guest rooms when they arrived with a note, done.  They put free boxes of chocolates in all our important guests rooms (Mother of Bride, Fatheror Bride, Grooms parents, Grandparents of Groom, etc)

I even needed a new fragrance and bought the last bottle of a scent they had in the cosmetic store and the lady gave me the almost full sample bottle as they would be no longer carrying it, as well.

I had bought the plates, vases and votives for part of our flowers and brought them in from outside, that wasn’t a problem.

Just to illustrate how smoothly things went when we pulled up with a huge car load of stuff and the wedding planners came rushing out and boxes went here and there and everything ended up in the right place, the vases to the florist, the toasting flutes and cake cutter stored, presents for our guests to their rooms, guest book to a spot where people would sign it.

The food at the rehearsal dinner at Sam Snead’s steak house was great.  We had steak, vegetarian, sea bass or chicken with a salad and family style mashed potatoes and asparagus.  It was all very good.

At the wedding we started with a salad with Virginia country ham, goat cheese and mandarins which was a combination of salty, citrusy and rich fullness with crisp greens.  We next had a leek soup that was by far the best course.  It had a light green froth on top.  It was smooth and rich, not too salty and very creamy.  I ate every bit of it.  I really appreciated the sit down meal because I can see how Brides might not get enough to eat without it being part of the agenda.  The main course was a skin on breast of chicken with a nice, not heavy, brown sauce with mushroom beggars purse and green beans.  The food turned out so well.  It was a menu most people could agree with since it was chicken (and a few vegetarian entrees), but it was done in a really nice way.

As a tribute to my Grandmother I requested that for the wedding Somewhere over the rainbow play at some point during the ceremony, but I found as I would go throughout the Greenbrier that weekend the house band would play it when I would come by.  That was such a nice touch.  Something that the staff did without me knowing that really made me feel like my Grandmother was there and having a good time.

I cannot recommend a place for a wedding or even a vacation more highly than the Greenbrier.  They have amazing class, style, staff and food.  If I called for curlers and a curling iron it would come within a few minutes, if I forgot toiletries they do their best to get me everything I need.

The free afternoon tea with petit fours in their beautiful rhododendron cups is so much fun and a nice time to sit and talk in the afternoon.  The whole place is just relaxing.

So many people commented that I was the calmest bride they have ever seen and in large part it was because the Greenbrier did everything they possibly could to make sure everything ran smoothly.  Because of that I spent my days enjoying the guests who were there with us, not fretting about anything.  So thank you to all at the Greenbrier, you will always be my favorite home away from home.

(Will post some pictures soon as there are a lot and I must cull)

So I am covetting this set of china that I saw at Bloomingdales.

It is the Flora pattern by Villeroy and Bach.  My favorite are the pink plates below.

The major problem though is that they do not match with the decor of my current house.  (Well the blue would, but I love the pink)  Well Hubby would also  claim that the other problem is that I just got new china and I have rather recent new casual dinnerware and I just put in all the cabinets we can and it now just fits all my current china, as well, details, details.  But if these match your house please register for them or buy them and take good care of them and then pass them on to me, ok? (Ahem, I know of a few certain brides who NEED to register, at least for china)

What makes them so appealing is that they look very similar to the rhododendron china that is used at the Greenbrier which is just stunning china.  They have stood the test of time there looking so classic.  The rhododendron china was used at my wedding, and is used during regular tea and dinner service their and just looks amazing.  They would be perfect for my Aunt who has beautiful pinks and greens in her home and her dining room.

They are on sale, as well.  So girls that need china and have a beautiful classic apartment or house, really think about these, yes they are bold colors, but Dorthy Draper never feared color and look how great her creations turned out.

Any bride can tell you that decent dress shops are few and far between, but helping a good friend find her dress I happened upon not just a decent dress shop, but a wonderful dress shop.

Bridals by Elana- located at  556-D Ritchie Highway (Route 2 South), Severna Park, MD 21146.

Bridals by Elana carries a really diverse selection of designers and they handmake dresses, as well.  To see pictures of some styles they carry check out their website.  (As on many wedding dress sites, they will direct you to the collections of the designers they carry.) Their prices start at below $1,000 and go up depending on the level of detail requested.  But they have beautiful dresses at all price levels- I have first hand experience we saw multiple gowns priced at around $850 that were just stunning.

What impressed me most though was their level of customer service.  They were a full service bridal shop- meaning they help you in and out of the dress, they will pin the bustles, they will make veils and matching accessories; yet, they were not pushy or giving you a hard sell.  Instead they sell dresses based on their great selection, eye for beautiful designs and customer service.

The showroom was large and comfortable, it’s in Severna Park which is only about 30-40 minutes from the DC area without rush hour traffic of course.  Appointments are necessary, but they are usually not booked until about a week before appointment times.  I really truly recommend this store for a good bridal experience where you don’t feel belittled or pressured.

I wanted to feature my wedding photographer this Wedding Wednesday.  Her name is Dominique Attaway.  She did a fantastic job at our wedding and my portrait.  She has a real eye for light and is very down to earth. Although she resides in Charlottesville she is willing to travel and does weddings in the DC/NOVA area and in other areas.  She travelled a good two hours to make it to our wedding.

You can find her blog here.  She really worked with us so well and quickly could get really good photographs of hubby, friends, family and I.  I was delighted to see pictures of people laughing and smiling at our wedding.  You scrolled through the pictures and could just see the joy.  Her rates are very reasonable and I really think she has a way of matching your photographs towards your wedding.  We had a very formal wedding and the pictures really matched the theme well.  But if you look at her more casual weddings they also look so appropriate.  I have worked with a couple professional photgraphers and found that she photographed me better than many people could, so I was really happy.  She also has a list of other photographers she recommends in other areas.  Her portraits and photos of children and families are also great so if you can get down to Charlottesville, or need a great wedding photographer at a good price definitely investigate her site and blog.

I am not featuring any of her work here, as her sites really showcase it best.