So I figured I’d choose a simple design off the shelf from an invitation company, and the fancy paper and printing would be the focus. But when I started working with Pier Gustafson on the monogram, he sent me some samples that were printed on an inkjet printer at a very reasonable price and looked great. Better than great—they looked AMAZING.

from snippet & ink

I realized I could either put our resources toward engraving or letterpress and give up a unique look and feel, or I could put the money toward custom design and print them myself, relying on Pier’s guidance on ink and paper so they won’t look chintzy. Guess which I picked? Put it this way: I can’t wait for the invitation printing and cropping and assembling madness to begin…not. But it will be worth it in the end!

The best part about the visit (besides the invitation mockups that I am SO excited about) was seeing Pier’s studio! It was like something out of a Dickens novel. Every inch of wall was covered with drawings, doodles, inspiration, half-finished monograms, and snippets of image and text. He has collections of antique typewriters and binoculars and other old dusty things.Gathered together, these anachronistic devices were as beautiful to me as a bouquet of flowers. I love old things, imperfect things, and things that “go” (but don’t match), and Pier is a man after my own heart. Check it out (sorry they’re so blurry; I took them on my iPhone):

I was just washing up after supper and realized that almost everything I touched reminded me of someone special: the cookbook was given to me by my friend and mentor at my first job, the dishtowels were a housewarming gift from my wonderful future parents-in-law, the serving bowl a gift from my parents, another serving bowl was an engagement gift from very dear friends, the baking sheets were our first registry item gift from Dave’s twin and his wife, and the spoon rest was purchased on a trip to Spain with my best friend and cousin. I am a very lucky girl…

How it works:

You simply fill out a short form here with the names of the bride and groom, as well as the wedding location, date and time. Once you fill out the form, the program generates code that you can cut and paste to your wedding website or your Facebook page–or anywhere else you can think of.  After you post the widget to your site, your guests simply click on the “add to my calendar button” to automatically add your wedding date to their calendars.

Only thing is, I am not so technical and I couldn’t figure out how to add it to Facebook. And I can’t add it to our wedding website because WordPress won’t let you mess with the code…help? Anyone?

Anyway, it seems to be pretty comprehensive from your guests’ perspective. Here is a list of all the calendars the widget works with:

* 37signals Backpack
* Airset
* Apple iCal
* Contactizer
* Buni Meldware Communication Suite
* Facebook
* FirstClass
* Google Calendar
* Jalios JCMS
* Joint Contact
* Joyent Connector
* Kickstart
* Lotus Notes
* Microsoft Entourage
* Microsoft Exchange Server
* Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
* Novell GroupWise
* Nuvvo
* Rainlendar
* Sun Java Calendar Server
* Westlaw (TWEN)
* Windows Calendar
* Windows Live Calendar
* Wrike
* Microsoft Works Calendar
* WebTrain – Web Conferencing Meeting Reminders

Special thanks to Brenda of Brenda’s Wedding Blog who found it first.

I put a pic of me in the dressing room at Lord & Taylor to get an idea of how it looked straight on… The view off the back terrace was gorgeous. We had cocktails outside before moving inside for dinner. That’s my dad on my left.

Dave’s mom made an appointment with her hairdresser for me. I wanted the hairdresser to give me 40s glam hair, and I brought these photos with me to show her…how do you think she did?

It was an “Adirondack Autumn” theme. How gorgeous was the cake? Dave’s mom made the menus and she used two bottles of champagne as the guest book–people signed their names in metallic ink.

My mom, Dave’s mom and I made the centerpieces from flowers Dave’s mom had ordered online. The party was at Dave’s parents’ club…we ended up having gorgeous weather.

Dave’s twin gave a lovely speech (those are Dave’s parents toasting us). A representative from a local New York State winery came and explained the wine pairings.

All in all it was such a BLAST. I’m really fortunate in my future in-laws!

A wed 2.0 service:

• makes it easy for non-technical brides and grooms to develop, share and access content
• gets newbies up and running with a minimal learning curve
• provides an organized, easy to use, intuitive experience
• works great on all types of platforms from desktops to cell phones
• encourages collaboration, information sharing and social networking
• responds to trends quickly and nimbly
• is free or low-cost

Now, let’s talk about the types of services I will be gleefully bashing, the ones that make me fly into a rage…

A non-wed 2.0 service

• gets away with charging more than it should by using the word “wedding”
• makes my iPhone crash, isn’t compatible with macs or different types browsers
• takes forever to load a page
• forces me to click through page after page searching for what I want
• exists as a static website where users passively consume information
• adds new features slowly
• reacts to change instead of creating it

Thoughts? What am I forgetting?

Connected Bride on Youtube

• I use Google Reader to get my daily wedding and technology blog fix. Want a digest of the best blog posts of the day? I’ve made my starred and shared stories publicly available.
• There’s a Connected Bride Channel on Youtube that has lots of videos of everything from Royal Weddings, to DIY projects, to hair and makeup how-tos.
• You can see all my favorite wedding-y websites on delicious; if you use delicious, please friend me or start tagging your bookmarks for:connectedbride and they’ll automatically be added to my bookmarks.
• You can also see the news stories I’ve “dug” on Digg.
• Last but not least, I tweet as scandaliz.

Coming soon: Facebook, MySpace, my wedding budget tools, planning notebook, and checklist, all public and shared for the good of all bridekind!

Exhibit A: a reasonably-priced but phenomenally talented photographer with a BFA from one of the best art schools in the country. I swear he’s the second coming of Richard Avedon.

Exhibit B: A genteel townhouse in the heart of downtown Boston with a killer view of the skyline. Site fee? $1000. This in a zipcode where most hotels have a 35k food and beverage minimum (for privacy and safety’s sake, I don’t want to share the location yet since I’ve disclosed the wedding date). And we found it with a Google Search after our first choice fell through and we had to go looking for a backup.

Want to get married at the Gamble Mansion? It will cost you.

I could go on and on, but the point is, you absolutely DO NOT have to settle for less just because you’re on a budget. Define your vision and go for it. Get creative. Put in the time and effort until you find “the one”. You’ll get discouraged at times, but keep going. It’s worth it. Kinda like dating! Aren’t you glad you don’t have to do that any more?

Although as trends go, I gotta say…um, I know it sounds crazy patently obvious, but technology’s here to stay. The Knot isn’t going too far out on a limb here. I think it’s more a question of how brides and grooms will use technology in their planning. Will they keep the actual event traditional, but facilitate the planning by purchasing some of the great software out there? Or will they use the free tools from sites like Martha Stewart and The Knot?

The only wedding planning software available for the Mac. Are you listening, Steve Jobs?!?!?

What about taking it to the next level by posting photos on Facebook and asking their friends to vote on everything from wedding-day ensembles to centerpiece options? Photo-booth kiosks where guests’ photos are downloaded onto a hard drive instead of printed out? And I’ve even heard talk of emailed invitations and online RSVPs (greener options, yes, but I’m not quite there yet). Stay tuned…

one of my favorite sources of wedding inspiration: snippet & ink

And the blogs! There are blogs where crafty brides show off their fabulous DIY projects. There are blogs by gorgeous punk rock brides , geeky brides, and preppy brides. There are even sites for brides who are fed up with the Wedding Industrial Complex and want to bring weddings back down to earth. I haven’t been able to find a lot about internet junkie brides,  though. I did find one iPhone-toting wedding photographer.

In my “real” life as an academic technology project manager, I also read lots of blogs: blogs about web 2.0, blogs about social networking for education and business, and blogs about productivity in a world where we’re often overwhelmed trying to keep up with the next big thing. But I seldom see technology-oriented blogs devote much space to weddings (it makes sense, I suppose; most tech blogs just cover the tools and leave it up to the reader to see how he or she can apply them).

So there you have it folks: Connected Bride is where my “connected” self meets my “bride” self. Enjoy!