What Jean Paul Gaultier’s Amy Winehouse Collection Means for Bridal Wedding Veil Style

Jean Paul Gaultier unleashed a sartorial tsunami last week when he released his Spring 2012 couture collection, a very literal interpretation of the personal style of Amy Winehouse, the troubled, soulful singer who died last June. In addition to clothes that channeled the singer’s eclectic vintage style, the models wore Winehouse’s signature cat eyes, beehive hairstyle, and beauty spot. Gaultier called the collection an overdue tribute to a fashion icon. Many fashion commentators, as well as the singer’s family and friends, called it exploitative.

Whether the clothing and styling were a tribute or a rip-off, Gaultier did show us a whole lot of original with a fashion accessory that ran through the collection: the dramatic veil.

The designer’s veils, mostly shown in black, evoked the dark drama of Winehouse’s final troubled years and the iconic video for her track, “Back to Black,” but they were original. Their boldness and the novel techniques used to finish them will likely inspire wedding veil designers for many years.

The veils were draped simply — no gathers or poufs. They were long, some chapel length, and they sported dramatic details.

Here are some of the details that we will likely see cross over into mainstream bridal fashions in the coming seasons:

• Widely-spaced pin tucks creating substantial graphic edges,
• Edges finished in wide swaths of bias-cut fabric,
• Overlays of large baroque patterns, and
• Large head pieces on top of the veils.

And specific details aside, Gaultier’s veils have renewed brides’ license to bring on the drama.

Huppahs.com Wins WeddingWire’s 2012 Bride’s Choice Award!

Thank You to all Huppahs.com clients who voted to award us WeddingWire’s 2012 Bride’s Choice Award! We appreciate the time you took to vote and all your wonderful comments.

We are honored by every client who chooses Huppahs.com to provide the huppah for their wedding, and we will continue to work hard in 2012 to make every client’s huppah a source of joy!

The WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards ™ recognizes the top local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network that demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the organization, the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ are awarded solely based on the reviews from over 1.2 million newlyweds.

Awards are determined by a combination of four factors: Overall rating (quality), total number of reviews (quantity), review performace from 2011 (recency), and consistency of reviews from year to year (consistency). This year’s recipients represent the top 5% of WeddingWire’s vendor community, across all service categories and all regions throughout the US and Canada.

Tangerine and Pink Wedding Decor – Gorgeous!

Does Tangerine Tango, Pantone’s 2012 color of the year, work for weddings, I asked in a post a couple of days ago. Photographer JeanneMarie, of Hawaii-based JeanneMariePics, answered the question by sharing some gorgeous photos of a tangerine and pink wedding she shot earlier this year on the beach in Kailua.

JeanneMarie’s pic of the bridal bouquet at right gives you an idea of how the colors play out. To see more photographs from this wedding, and to see especially how these colors play out against a blue sea and green lawn, visit JeanneMarie’s blog >.

Thanks for sharing JeanneMarie!

Winter Wedding Hors d’Oeuvres Recipe: Latkes for a Crowd

Latkes are great dish to serve for a winter wedding, not just weddings at Hanukkah, because they are so satisfying on a cold day. You can serve them as an appetizer or with the entree as a tasty, creative alternative to baked potato or rice.

One year I had the pleasure of making latkes for a large group of American military service members. It was during Hanukkah in one of the four years I lived in Kuwait. This was between the Gulf Wars. My husband was the U.S. Defense Department’s designated lay leader for the Jewish service people who cycled through the country, which means that I was responsible for making holiday meals and parties for the Jewish service people in my home. It was a great time, we met a lot of really great people, and I hope they’re all now safe at home enjoying the country they’ve served.

On this particular Hanukkah evening, I was rushing to get ready for a crowd of service people who were coming for a party. I was in the middle of preparing the latke batter when they called on their way over to say that instead of the seven people that were expected, they were 16 people. I would need more latkes.

I started throwing all kinds of things into the bowl to bulk up the latke mix: more potatoes, more onions, more eggs, a couple boxes of dried latke mix that family had sent from the States, ricotta cheese, sour cream, and I’m not sure what else, maybe even some cream cheese. Of course, they were amazing, but because I didn’t keep track of exactly what went in them, I would never know how to reproduce them.

It’s OK that I don’t remember, because I want to give you a non-dairy latke that you can serve with any wedding meal, including meals that include meat. And I want to give you a version that is easy to prepare and can be made a day or two before the wedding. The recipe below is adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd: Recipes with a Vegetarian Emphasis for 24 or More, a book that I relied on heavily when serving large crowds in Kuwait. I raised the flavor profile a bit to create a more refined, wedding-worthy dish by adding sautéed leeks and a non-dairy sour cream with chives to serve on the side. Yum.

Recipe: Latkes for a Crowd (Parve)

Serves 24 (2 latkes per person)

Latke Ingredients

• 4 ½ lbs. potatoes
• 4 lbs. onions
• 2 cups chopped leeks
• 24 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp. salt
• 1 ½ cups bread crumbs or matza meal
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

“Sour Cream” with Chives Ingredients

• 2 pints (4 cups) non-dairy sour cream
• ¼ cup chopped fresh chives

Latke Instructions

1. Chop the leeks and sautée over medium heat for 3 minutes until just translucent. Remove them from the heat and put them aside.
2. Grate the potatoes coarsely with a food processor or hand-held grater.
3. Put the potatoes into a colander and squeeze them to eliminate excess water.
4. Preheat the oven to 350º.
5. Grate the onions and drain them in a colander. Squeeze out the excess water.
6. In a large bowl, beat the eggs.
7. Add the potatoes, onions, leeks, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs or matzo meal. Mix well.
8. Pour ¼ cup of oil into the bottom of four half-size insert pans (12½” x 10¼” x 2″) and place them in the hot oven for 5 minutes.
9. Pour the batter into the hot pans. Spread the oil smoothly across the top of the batter with a spatula.
10. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, or until crusty and golden.
11. While still hot, cut each pan into 12 latke squares.

“Sour Cream” with Chives Instructions

Make the sour cream the same day you intend to serve it. In a medium bowl mix the chopped chives into the non-dairy sour cream.

To Serve

• If your serve the latkes pre-plated, put two latkes on each plate and two tablespoons of “sour cream” next to the latkes.
• If you are using a buffet, serve the “sour cream” in a bowl next to the latkes.

Make Ahead Options

You can make the latkes a day before the wedding. Cover them with foil and keep refrigerated. Reheat in 350º oven for 10-12 minutes.

Pantone Announces 2012 Color of the Year: Tangerine Tango – Does It Work for Weddings?

The world’s color king maker, Pantone, just announced the Color of the Year for 2012: Tangerine Tango, a vibrant reddish orange.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

We’re sure to see Tangerine Tango appliances, clothing, accessories, and ads. Given Pantone’s close association with one of the country’s leading retailers of wedding clothing and accessories, The Dessy Group, we’re almost certainly headed for Tangerine Tango bridesmaids’ dresses.

Question: How do you think Tangerine Tango works as a wedding color?

Wedding Music Budget Advice: A Little Live Music Makes a Big Impact

Are you weighing the pros and cons of live music versus a DJ for your wedding? Are you considering a custom iPod music mix for the cocktail hour or dance party, like I wrote about in my previous post? Recorded music can really stretch your music budget, but few details elevate the atmosphere of an event more than live music, so if you don’t have live music for the dinner reception and dancing, try to find room in the budget to add an element of live music during the ceremony, and the cocktail hour, too, if you can swing it.

If you’re planning a Jewish wedding with a bride’s reception or you’re planning to sign the ketubah in front of all your guests, consider having live music during those events also. For my own wedding, we hired musicians to play klezmer music while escorting the groom from the ketubah signing to the bride’s reception for the veiling. It was a lot of fun and really ramped up the party’s energy as we prepared for the ceremony under the huppah.

You could go with a small trio or quartet, but even a single instrument playing during your procession can heighten the emotional intensity of the moment, taking your breath away and tugging at your guests’ tears.

Find musicians on wedding planning websites, the music departments of a local college, or through friends’ recommendations.

The musical world offers so many instruments, you are sure to find one that matches and enhances the feel of your wedding. Here are some options:

• Cello
• Harp
• Flute
• Guitar
• Piano

Am I missing your favorite?

Super Small Wedding Music Budget? Consider the iPod Option

Do you have a nano-size wedding music budget? Consider using your iPod to crank out the tunes. I recently talked to Patrick, owner of the Washington, DC-area Ipod Mix, which creates custom music mixes for weddings and other events. Patrick has been an event DJ for twenty years, and he now also offers iPod mixes through his internet-based service. The cost savings over live music or a DJ are amazing: as little as $100 gets you music for your cocktail reception and dinner/dance reception.

“For music and songs, we leave it completely up to the client to tell us what their style and tastes are, then we customize their mix to fit this,” Patrick says. “We try to make each mix as different as possible so it has a unique feel for their wedding day.”

But he brings his DJ experience to the custom mixes, adding what Patrick calls “dance floor packers”. “You want people to enjoy themselves and have fun, and these types of songs help people loosen up.” Still, it’s all based on the clients’ tastes. Ipod Mix has done mixes with all country music, rock oriented mixes, and mixes with a more vintage feel.

For amplification, you can connect your iPod or other MP3 player to your venue’s in-house amplification system, which sometimes requires a rental fee, or equipment rented from an entertainment company. Fees vary, but you can expect sound equipment rental to run in the neighborhood of $200. If you are renting your tables, chairs, or a tent, Patrick recommends asking the same vendor about including sound equipment in a package deal.

For couples considering the iPod option, Patrick recommends two points to consider. First, there’s no getting around the fact that the atmosphere will not be the same as at as when you have a live DJ. I would recommend thinking about the crowd you’re inviting and the space you’ll be in and considering whether they’ll help make up the energy that a DJ would otherwise bring to the cocktail hour or dance floor.

Second, and what Patrick says is “the absolute biggest thing to keep in mind”, is that not everyone at your wedding will share your musical tastes. Speaking from his twenty years of DJ experience, Patrick says, “If you limit too much the type of mix we create for you, most likely you will find people are not going to have a good time. The best, most successful and entertaining weddings are ones where all the musical styles are included, so everyone will be dancing and enjoying themselves all night long.”

Ipod Mix’s website and Facebook page.

20% Off Huppah Rentals at Huppahs.com When You Reserve in November

Photo location: Woodend Nature Sanctuary, Chevy Chase, Maryland

During November only, receive a 20% discount on all huppah rentals at Huppahs.com. Just reserve your huppah by November 30. Take advantage of the lull before the engagement season storm to lock in your huppah and enjoy this limited time discount.

With 20% off, you can rent a huppah for as low as $195 plus shipping or delivery.

Rentals are available nationwide. Choose from a variety of styles.

Check availability today at http://www.huppahs.com/rent-huppah-availability/.

Photos From My Parents’ Now Vintage Wedding

When my parents got married, they didn’t know that 55 years later their wedding style could be referred to as “vintage”. But check out the details in these photos; they make great inspiration for today’s 1950′s vintage-inclined bride. That’s my mom in the wedding dress, and Dad is the handsome fellow standing over her left shoulder. I put a framed copy of this photograph on a table at the entrance to my own wedding.

My mom wears a dress influenced by Grace Kelly’s gown, with a nipped in waistline and bodice with a lace overlay, details that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge adopted more recently when she married Prince William. I’ve always loved the tea length skirt. Mom carries a bouquet of daisies. Forty years later, these daisies inspired the theme of a surprise anniversary party my brothers and sisters and I threw for my parents.

The maid of honor, my mom’s sister and my Aunt Mary, wears the same silhouette as the bride, but fashioned from silk satin in the perfect shade of blue. The skirt has an overlay of what looks like fine tulle. Check out Aunt Mary’s pillbox hat with tulle veil–caught here by a light breeze–and the dyed-to-match satin pumps.

The moms of the bride and groom are perfectly coordinated to the rest of the party but show their personal style. I’m loving their hats, gloves, and corsages. That’s Grandma Gethard on the far right and Grammy Bywater on the left. (By the way, that’s not Grandpa Bywater standing next to her. When everyone got to the park to take pictures, they realized that Grandpa Wally had been left behind at the ceremony. No one remembers whose fault that was; at least it doesn’t seem to bother anyone any more. It’s not even clear that anyone got particularly worked up about it at the time. Standing in for Grandpa Wally on the far right is Cousin Raymond.)

I don’t know most of the women in this photo, but I wish I did. They look strong, even formidable, and they seem to get along well. They know how to wear hats. And gloves. And pearls. I’ve often studied this photo trying to work out the shapes of the hats on the gaggle of women in the background. You can’t see them totally, but we’re clearly talking textured tulles and pastels. Two of the women are my Grandpa Wally’s sisters: Nelli Forcino on the right, and Aunt Minnie, in the purple print dress on the right, who I knew from many childhood trips to Groton, Massachusetts. I don’t know the young woman in the foreground, but I’m sure that in the movie version of my parents’ wedding she would be played by Winona Ryder. Well, a young Winona Ryder. Time does fly.