Net-a-porter.com, a well known online luxury e-tailer, opened a wedding boutique not too long ago. You can’t find a more perfect time to splurge on a special piece other than for your wedding! Here’s some of of my favorites:

Gowns:

Dresses for a casual wedding, bridal shower, or rehearsal dinner:

Hair accessories:

Other accessories:

Shoes of various heights:

Bags:

Jewelry:

[all images from net-a-porter.com]

Don’t forget to check out etsy for your wedding needs, especially if you want something unique, handmade, customized, and/or affordable! Lots of talented vendors are willing and ready to work with brides. Here are some lovely examples of what’s available!

cake toppers:

[seller and photo credit: rainsend at etsy.com]

necklace and hair piece:

[seller and photo credit: missbettylou at etsy.com]

invitations:

[seller and photo credit: lockette at etsy.com]

wedding bands:

[seller and photo credit: orienjewel at etsy.com]

decor items such as these poms:

[seller and photo credit: orangekisses at etsy.com]

Crate & Barrel was one of the few places we registered for gifts. Here are several of my top picks if you need some ideas on what to register for.

Electric hot water kettle – We use this thing multiple times a day. Soo much better than a tea kettle. No more running to turn off the stove once the kettle starts whistling! It has an auto shut-off and boils water rapidly. We use it for french-press coffee, tea, cooking, etc,.

Griddler/panini maker – I love this. You can make warm and gooey paninis with perfect grill marks or switch out the plates for the flat plates to use as a griddler for pancakes, eggs, etc,. Easy to clean and use. I’ve been making paninis to bring for lunch at work.

Picnic table in a bag – We finally broke this out on a recent, unusually warm Valentines Day in San Francisco at our neighborhood park. We picnic often (when the weather is nice), and a table makes it so much more convenient. We got the previous version in the red bag, but this one looks identical to the one we have. It’s simple to set up and I love the practical carry-on bag that holds it all together.

Wine saver – Makes our wine last so much longer! Both T and I are not big drinkers, so it’s rare for us to be able to finish an entire bottle by ourselves. So handy! And again, so easy to use (notice how I like to keep things simple?). It comes with two bottle tops so you can “save” a red and a white at the same time.

Salad spinner – The small size is perfect for the two of us. It’s efficient and practical, especially for those who aspire to eat more vegetables. The spinner part recently broke on mine (T went a little overboard with it), but Crate & Barrel said they would replace it for me even though it’s past the 90 day policy.

Smartstick Hand Blender – I really wanted to like this, but ended up returning it. I mainly got it for the whisk attachment for baking purposes, but the whisk really sucked. It made the ingredients fly all over the place. According to the reviews, it’s supposedly really good for immersion blending for soups and stuff and useless for the whisk attachment, but I wanted an electric mixer so back it went.

[all photos by crateandbarrel.com]

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Aerialist Press is a letterpress company based in Berkeley, CA.

Contact: Alexandra
alexandra@theaerialistpress.com
(916) 628-1794

2703 7th Street, Suite #127
Berkeley, California 94710

Some samples of their work:

[photo credit: aerialistpress.com]

For those of you doing your own makeup or wanting to have your makeup artist use your own makeup, Lorac has been having a great sale on various items that would pull off a pretty bridal look.

For example, they have some eyeshadows in natural shades that would look great for a wedding. At only $4.99, you can’t go wrong. I have a few of these and found them to be long lasting (over primer), smooth, and very blendable:

They also have palettes with well edited shades. I have both of these and love them (Snake Charmer for $10.99 and Showstopper for $17.50, both originally $35.00!):

[images from lorac.com]

Go get ‘em while they are still available! As an added bonus, you can easily use them for after the wedding!

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All desserts, miniatures, cakes are custom designed for any special occasion. Contact Amber at www.wix.com/kumquat360/kumquat360 for your cake or dessert needs!

(photo credit: all photos by Basile Kuo)

Chez, my lovely makeup artist had recommended that I pick up a tube of Trish McEvoy’s Curling Mascara after I told her that eye makeup tended to smudge on me. This is a tubular mascara which coats each lash and won’t come off until you gently wash it off. It lasted all day and night for me, which was my main concern, but I didn’t find that it necessarily “curled” my lashes any more than usual. Pricey at $28.00, but worth it if you need your makeup to hold up for a long time.

I didn’t want to be sucking it in all day and have always been curious about Spanx’ Higher Power given people’s raves about Spanx in general, so I decided to go with these for my wedding, or at least, check them out. For some reason, all of the stores seemed to be out of stock of the Higher Power in beige in my size! Luckily, Nordstrom pulled through, one with of their helpful sales associates giving me a call as soon as they got them back in stock. Turns out there had been a problem with the stock shipment during those couple of weeks.

Back to the product. The Higher Power was great! When I first pulled them on at Nordstrom (they have sample sizes for customers to try on), my doubtful self immediately thought, “Oh no, these aren’t going to work, I don’t really feel anything, it can’t possibly hold everything in!” But then I looked in the mirror and did my obligatory turn to the side, and voila! Everything looked smooth and flat, just the way it should be. I took several deep breaths, purposely trying to make my belly protrude, but the Higher Power still held me in.

It was comfortable wearing these on the day of my wedding. I thought I might get a little warm, but I didn’t at all (although perhaps this was because of the cool Bay Area climate I was in). I would highly recommend the Higher Power!

I’ll be adding reviews of various wedding-related products – anything from beauty products to apparel and accessories. Hope this will help you readers!

One of my favorite parts of the wedding was my mini dessert spread. I have a huge sweet tooth (just ask T) and was initially going for a candy buffet, but decided to turn it into a dessert buffet for various reasons (no need to rent more plates as napkins were used, not everyone likes cake/cupcakes, etc.). We had cream puffs, red velvet and vanilla cupcakes, mini caramel apples, peanut butter brownie pops, lemon meringue tartlets, as well as my yummy vanilla/chocolate ganache/strawberry wedding cake (which we simply used for cutting).

Luckily for me, my friend’s sister, Amber, is a pastry chef who agreed to take this project on. For those of you on a budget wanting to do something similar, check out your local bakery or supermarket. For example, I recently bought a platter of mini desserts at Whole Foods at $1/piece. Not bad, especially for Whole Foods!

Here’s how it turned out:

(photo credit: Basile Kuo and friend)