Engagment party for Mimi and Mr. Mimi to Be....

Not much of a post today because I am getting prepared for our awesome engagement party that MIL to be is throwing us. It should be a lot of food, drink, and good times. See you one Monday!

"hello.... hellooo.. Is there anybody in there?" - Pink Floyd

I know you are out there! I hear some comments in my personal email about the page and how much you love something or hate something. Let me know! I am so curious about what everyone else is thinking about these latest "trends" in wedding planning. It is kind of a crazy industry. So don't be afraid of being the first to comment, just go for it! To get you started, here is something to get you all involved.

I am currently listening to my "engagement party" playlist and it is making me note my favorite songs that must be played at the wedding. Do any of you quiet stalkers out there have any favorites for the ceremony, father/dauther dance, bouquet dance, first dance, on and on..... I want to hear EVERYTHING. From every genre imaginable so don't be shy about your "guilty pleasure."

(image - xkcd: a webcoming of romance, sacarcasm, math and language.)

Let us eat cake...

I am a television addict, yes, but I usually steer away from reality t.v. Now that I am planning a wedding I have checked out every show I can find on planning weddings, crazy brides, and cakes. Yes, wedding cakes have their own spotlight in Ace of Cakes and Amazing Wedding Cakes. If you wonder how you could possibly get involved in watching people bake a cake just give me the benefit of the doubt this once and commit a half hour of your time to one of these shows. Maybe this great photograph from Kate Spade will motivate you to reclaim the remote control. Be prepared for some great ideas so have your planning notebook at hand.

Monday Organization....

Every Sunday evening and Monday I usually just spend the day catching up from what I missed the week before and setting an agenda for the coming week. Because I am doing that all day today I thought I would just share another great website I found called See Jane Work. It makes me want to recreate my entire back room into a super chic working woman office. Yes!

Don't you love these clothespins that have the days of the week on them so you can just take things one day at a time? Go check them out!

Save the best for last...

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. It took a little more time to get some of the details for her marriage to John F. Kennedy Jr. so I save the best for today since I am taking a two day blogging break over the weekend. I am taking you directly to the two sites I where I found the images and information just as any good journalist would.

• The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Cha Ching!!! This site is simply amazing. They gave me details down to the type of invitation the couple used to invite their 800+ guests. Make sure you check this place out and then you can tell people you took an interest in government and politics this year. All the wedding day details are quoted directly from this site.


• The fantabulous (my own word) photographs are all available for purchase at PrintsandPhotos.com! Yes. For all of you crazy, vintage-photography loving freaks out there, I have found the pot o' gold at this great site. I'll start with my favorite and then take you through the details of the day.

(Image - PrintsandPhotos.com)

"Jacqueline Lee Bouvier and John F. Kennedy were married on the morning of September 12, 1953, in the picturesque St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Newport, Rhode Island."

(image - PrintsandPhotos.com)

"The bride, given in marriage by her stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss, wore a dress of ivory tissue silk, with a portrait neckline, fitted bodice, and a bouffant skirt embellished with bands of more than fifty yards of flounces. Her rosepoint lace veil, worn first by her grandmother Lee, was draped from a tiara of lace and orange blossoms. Jacqueline wore a choker of pearls and a diamond bracelet that was a gift from the groom. The bride’s bouquet was of pink and white spray orchids and gardenias. "

"[The] attendants, dressed in pink taffeta, included her sister, Lee, then Mrs. Michael T. Canfield, as matron of honor: her stepsister Nina G. Auchincloss as maid of honor: a bevy of ten bridesmaids, among them the groom’s sister Jean and sister-in-law Ethel, and the bride’s former boarding school roommate, Nancy Tuckerman. Half sister Janet Auchincloss was flower girl and half brother James Auchincloss served as a page. "

Senator Kennedy’s best man was his brother Robert and among the ushers were brother Edward Kennedy, brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, cousin Joe Gargan, brother-in-law Michael Canfield, Lem Billings, Red Fay, Torbert MacDonald, Senate colleague George Smathers, and Charles Bartlett, who had introduced the couple."

"The ceremony was performed by Archbishop Cushing, a friend of the Kennedy Family, and he was assisted by four other priests, including the former president of Notre Dame and the head of the Christopher Society. Before the mass, a special blessing from Pope Pius XII was read. Tenor soloist Luigi Vena from Boston sang Gounod’s Ave Maria. "

"The reception was held on the huge terrace of the 300 acre Auchincloss oceanfront estate, Hammersmith Farm, for more than twelve hundred guests. The wedding cake, four feet tall, had been ordered by Joseph Kennedy. Meyer Davis and his orchestra played under a huge canopy."

Invitations: lettering on the invitation was not raised. It was printed in black ink on a cream colored paper.

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Dudley Auchincloss

request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of

Mrs. Auchincloss' daughter

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier

to

The Honorable John Fitzgerald Kennedy

United States Senate

on Saturday, the twelfth of September

at eleven o'clock

Saint Mary's Church

Spring Street

Newport, Rhode Island

The invitation in the holdings of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum is framed. The frame is nine inches high and seven inches wide. Presumably the invitation was originally approximately six inches in height and approximately four inches in length. (5.75" X 3.75" of the invitation is visible).

Princess Diana Spencer's Wedding....

The Bridal Party - AP Photo


The Ceremony - AP Photo


The Recessional - AP Photo

Bride and Groom - AP Photo


The "getaway" carriage - AP Photo


These beautiful images of Princess Diana Spencer, Princess of Whales marrying Prince Charles of Whales still take my breathe away. According to good ol' wikipedia, "Prince Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981, she accepted, and when he asked her father for her hand, he consented. After the British and Canadian privy councils gave their approval for the union (which was required as the couple was expected to produce an heir to those countries' thrones), the Queen in Council gave the legally required assent, and, 29 July, Charles and Diana were married at St. Paul's Cathedral before 3,500 invited guests and an estimated woldwide television audience of 750 million people." I remember getting to stay up past my bed time to watch this royal wedding. At the time it really was a fairytale. Even though Prince Albert and Princess Diana had a troubled marriage that eventually ended, they had two beautiful sons who have turned into some smart looking, charming young men. This wedding was something very few people had ever witnessed.

What is it with all this "it must be white!" business?

Queen Victoria who ascended to the throne at 18 on May 24, 1819, is famous for starting the trend of a white wedding gown. Born Alexandrina Victoria on May 24, 1819 she bucked tradition of royalty wearing silver for their nuptials. She married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg on February 10, 1840 carrying orange blossoms and wearing them in her hair.

(image-posted by "AGBF" at pricescope.com)

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

You marry her off! ReelClassics.com gives the touching story of Maria Von Trapp in the classic movie adaptation of the musical The Sound Of Music.

"Surrounded by hundreds of well-wishers as well as the children, Maria processes down the aisle of the cathedral at Mondsee in a simple, elegant Dorothy Jeakins gown with the Nonnberg Abbey nuns (never mind the geography) looking on approvingly. One of the most memorable in film history after Wagner, Irwin Kostal's adaptation of Richard Rodgers' wedding processional for Maria, overscored with strains of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?," earned Kostal an Academy Award for Best Music Scoring and sets the perfect tone for this, one of the most tastefully lavish wedding scenes ever filmed."

A Real Princess Bride...

When Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier the press called it the "wedding of the century." I could devote a whole month to the civil and church services the couple had, but right now we are only concerned with the bride.

According to marriageabout.com, Grace's wedding gown was designed by Helen Rose and was a gift from MGM studios. It was a high-necked, long-sleeved gown with a fitted torso and billowing skirt made of twenty-five yards of silk taffeta, one hundred yards of silk net, peau de soie, tulle and 125-year-old Brussels rose point lace. She wore a Juliet cap that was decorated with seed pearls, orange blossoms, and a veil of 90 yards of tulle. The chief hairstylist at MGM Studios, Sydney Guilaroff, styled Grace's hair for her wedding. Grace carried a small Bible and a bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley. Her matron of Honor was Grace's sister, Peggy. All 6 bridesmaids wore yellow, organdy dresses. The six junior attendants (4 girls and 2 boys) were all dressed in white.

Famous brides in history...

I knew from the get go that I wanted an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception, preferably at a location that both can take place. However, I did not know if I wanted to have it a beautiful downtown hotel, historical monument, estate, winery, etc. After much research I found that the place to start finding inspiration is to figure out what kind of bride I was hoping to be. So I am trying to answer the question "What Bride am I?" Give me history, books, and the internet and I think I will find the answer. Hope you enjoy this month as I will help discover my "Inner Bride," and yours, beginning with some of the most famous brides in history.