DIY Bride™

Well, my friends, I’ve been sitting on a bit of great news. I’ve been holding out. Keeping secrets. Working in the hush-hush and on the QT (or on the DL for all you whipper snappers).

Now that all the contract stuff is squared away, I can divulge the source of my excitement: I signed a book deal!

The DIY Bride: Fun, Stylish, and Hip Projects For The Bride-To-Be is due to be released in Spring, 2008, through The Taunton Press.

I am SO EXCITED about this opportunity and can’t wait to share all the fun and fabulous ideas I’ve cooked up for this book.

Keep your eye on the site for updates about the progress, release dates, and other fun stuff about the book.

Cheers,

Khris
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There’s a new magazine on the stands for crafters called Adorn. Why am I the seemingly the last to know about it?

I picked up the premiere issue recently and, well, it was love at first sight. Geared towards a young, hip crowd, the crafts are diverse and colorful. Instructions for featured projects are well-written and easy to follow. While there weren’t any wedding-specific crafts in this issue, I hope future issues (hint, hint Adorn) will feature some crafty wedding lovelies.

So, check it out and be sure to support this fledgling magazine just for us.
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Your dilemma: You have a long list of beloved friends and family whom you want to invite to your wedding but your limited budget and limited space prevent you from inviting everyone you’d love to share your day with.

The solution: Webcast your wedding.

A new phenonmena in the wedding industry is the advent of the wedding webcast; an online broadcast of wedding. Couples may elect to have their weddings shown online – in real time – so that guests who are unable to attend in person can share the experience. It’s a neat idea, especially since the same footage can be burned to DVD. You can get multiple products from a single service, making the price ($300 – $700) more justifiable if you’re going to have a videographer anyway. The best part, however, is that your far away loved ones don’t have to miss a minute of your beautiful ceremony.

Where to get the service:

• Webcast My Wedding
• YourWebcast.Com
• Vowcast
• Live Internet Weddings

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Attention brides who’ve ordered gowns from a Maryland couple selling gowns via the internet. The Maryland Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division has reached a settlement with Melody and James Row, the owners of a wedding gown business conducted under many names including:

• Bridal Elegance
• Elegant Creations
• The Bridal Suit
• Heavenly Accent

The Rows have agreed to stop their business practices after complaints that paying customers complained never received their dresses.

The settlement requires the Rows to pay restitution to consumers who paid for products they never received.

If you’ve ordered and have not received your gown from the above company, do contact the Maryland Consumer Protection Division by calling 410-528-8662 or by going to http:⁄⁄www.oag.state.md.us⁄Consumer⁄complaint.htm.

(Please be aware that there may be other reputable companies with the same – or similar – business names in other parts of the country.)
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Fab member, Ella, sent me this great link to a site where you enter your zip code and it’ll spit back what the “average” wedding cost in your area is. It even gives a breakdown of those costs.
I’m just a tad skeptical about how accurate/realistic/valid this service is. Why?

“On average, couples will spend $87,682.14 for their wedding in {my town}. This does not include cost for a honeymoon, engagement ring, bridal consultant or wedding planner. Add that in and cost could reach $116,258.00. ”

Riiiiight.

Now, granted, my town is one of the more spendy in the area. But over $100,000 for a wedding? I seriously doubt that’s even close to the average.

I plugged in the neighbouring town’s zip code and got a dramatically different result:

“On average, couples will spend $45,495.45 for their wedding in {neighbouring town}. This does not include cost for a honeymoon, engagement ring, bridal consultant or wedding planner. Add that in and cost could reach $60,322.00.” So, if I schlepp the less-than-10 miles to the next town, I can slash my wedding costs in half!

From my experience with working with local brides, I know that the average is closer to the $30,000 (or less) mark. And that’s here, in the Silicon Valley, where the cost of living is quite high.
Unfortunately, the wedding cost website doesn’t disclose its methodology. I’m very curious how they determine what the average is in each area. I suspect they’re using a percentage of the median household incomes and are not basing their results on what couples are actually spending on wedding items.

So, the cost website is fun to play around with but, as far as reliable information about local costs goes, I wouldn’t take it too seriously.

How does the site’s results compare with actual wedding costs in your area?
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