Category Archives: Featured

WIN A KETUBAH!! The Couples

And here they are! The couples who need your votes in order to win a prize of $300 toward a ketubah of their choice from MP Artworks!

Here’s what they need you to do between now and February 29, 2012 through 11:59 p.m. PST:

The couple with the most amount of votes by February 29th at 11:59 p.m. PST will win the prize!

The winning couple will be announced on March 1! Super exciting, right?

Good luck, lovebirds. Oo la la!

Alison and Jordan: December 30, 2012

Jessica and Joe: TBD 2013

Kelley and Ben: April 29, 2012

Jennifer and Eric: October 21, 2012

Rachel and Mike: December 8, 2012

Rebecca and Daniel: July 1, 2012

Jessica & Harrison: November 17, 2012

Shayna & Jesse: November 3, 2012

Karen and Perry: March 2012

Jamie and Patrick: October 27, 2012

Camille & AJ: May 27, 2012

Hilla and Dror: September 3, 2012

Shari & Evan: November 17, 2012

Dreaming of a Desert Wedding

A wedding in the desert is just as sweet as dessert. You have the beautiful sunset that looks like the yummiest crème brûlée hovering over your ceremony. You have the calm, warm air that is just as comforting as a date with a molten lava cake straight out of the oven. You have the unique and natural landscape that resembles a familiar yet exciting pie — prickly pear perhaps? A desert wedding is real sweet for all your senses, and one of the most romantic desert locales is Sedona.

Sedona is magical. The people are just… good. The wedding industry there is talented. If you’re living in Arizona or you’re looking for a unique destination that doesn’t run the cliche gamut of tropical beaches, you should consider the romance of a desert-ination wedding.

And, if you need some brain food for a delicious desert wedding, check out the elite Sedona Bridal Fair that happens next weekend! Swing by Poco Diablo Resort between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 18 to get to know some of the finest Sedona wedding professionals, including our very own Sedona Yenta, Amy Mills of Bliss Extraordinary Floral. Be an over achiever and pre-register for the Fair. Sedona wants to get to know ya.

Bliss Extraordinary Floral is in charge of designing the entry decor and overall theme of the Fair. Inspired by a true desert color palette, this year’s theme will be turquoise, orange and white, with a twist on traditional South Asian style. Design geeks, unite!

Massive floral arrangements of orange and white will be sitting on highboy tables, covered with incredible linens from Wildflower Linens, huge white Indian parasols hanging from the ceiling and silver accents throughout. Inside the ballroom, the booth for Bliss Extraordinary Floral will be designed as “Vintage Desert Chic,” with a mix of succulents, cactus, tropical floral, and English heirloom silver.

It’s always so exciting when partners of The Wedding Yentas are involved in fabulous wedding-industry events. Have fun, Bliss, and enjoy meeting wonderful new brides! May you have many chuppahs to decorate!

And if you can’t make the Sedona Bridal Fair, feast your eyes on these florals by Bliss Extraordinary Floral. They really are, well, extraordinary.

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Don’t forget to take a minute to enter you or your loved one into the ketubah giveaway on The Wedding Yentas with Ketubah Studio by MP Artworks! Photo submissions are being accepted right now through February 16th! Details here!

WIN A KETUBAH!

All month long, you will have your chance to enter to win a ketubah from the lovely folks at MP Artworks! February is the month of loooooove and since a ketubah is the Jewish marriage contract that’s signed on the day of your wedding, it seems perfect to offer you this amazing prize with chances to enter and vote for a winner through the end of the month!

So, here’s how it works:

From now until Thursday, February 16th at 11:59 p.m. PST, you can submit a photo of a deserving couple. This can be you and your partner, your friends, your son and his fiance — anyone who is engaged and needs a ketubah! Include the couple’s names, their wedding date, and e-mail your photo to alison@theweddingyentas.com by the deadline to be included in the contest. Eligibility allows for only one photo submission per couple.

Voting takes place from Friday, February 17th through Wednesday, February 29th. Any other year, and we would have one less day to vote in February. Take advantage of this extra day! Voting works by leaving a comment on the TBA page with all of the photos of the candidates. The comment should include the name of the couple that the voter would like to win and a reason why. “I vote for Isaac and Rebecca because they are a generous and patient couple!” For extra votes, you can “like” the MP Artworks Facebook page and leave a comment on the wall and “like” The Wedding Yentas Facebook page and leave a comment on the wall. Each comment is equal to one entry for a total of three (two Facebooks and the main page). The photo/couple with the most amount of total votes wins the ketubah prize!

The winner will be announced on Thursday, March 1st!

The winning couple receives $300 to MP Artworks! In most cases, depending on the ketubah the couple selects, this may mean a free ketubah and personalization!

Good luck!!

Breakdown:

  • February 1 through February 16: Submit photos to alison@theweddingyentas.com
  • February 17 through February 29: Voting begins and continues
  • March 1: Winner announced

Fine print: Your wedding must be no sooner than four weeks from Thursday, March 1st to guarantee on-time arrival of your ketubah if you win the giveaway from The Wedding Yentas and MP Artworks. One submission per couple maximum.

A Groom with Sass Steps on the Glass

Crunch.
Smash.
Stomp.
Boom.
Bang.
Crash.
Crush.

These are the sounds everyone wants to hear when the groom steps on the glass at his Jewish wedding. What a yummy and satisfying sound and it elicits such a hearty “mazel tov!” from all those in attendance. And bookended by kisses? Yeah, what’s not to love about the breaking of the glass?!

The question is: Can breaking the glass become any more exciting than it already is? The answer is YES. Yes, it can.

Thanks to Mazel Tov Stone, the groom has a ceremony memento that provides a sturdy and volume-increasing surface for the glass to break on with a rapid and swift stomp of the foot. Want even more bang for your buck? The pro tip: Use the heel of the foot for maximum crunch.

A Mazel Tov Stone does more than its job under the chuppah during the ceremony. It also serves as a beautiful keepsake of your wedding because it’s personalized with your information. You have a ketubah as a special symbol of your wedding day, right? A Mazel Tov Stone is another artifact from the happiest day of your life that can live in your home for all the years after.

A few weeks ago, I got to hang out with Robb and Lisa — the genius husband-and-wife team behind Mazel Tov Stone — at Bridal Premiere in California.

It’s always so fun to see friends of The Wedding Yentas in person. To all the rest of the fabulous friends in The Wedding Yentas Vendor Directory, let’s plan a big, flashy party so we can all get together and gush about our favorite thing: Jewish weddings!

Anyway, Mazel Tov Stone set up a picture-perfect booth to complement their beautiful stones and offered real demos of glass-breaking galore. They were also offering a bridal show special on their pricing. Teeeeeeechnically, it was an offer for people who were there that day and that day only. But, because you’re a reader of The Wedding Yentas, mention the bridal show special and you might luck out in the savings department. Wink, wink.

It was so fun to watch all kinds of grooms take a shot at breaking the glass. Even when it’s not a real wedding, there’s something so contagiously happy about it!

Spotlight On: Old new borrowed redo

They say that it’s good luck for a bride to follow the old adage, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” You know this one: you go around collecting something to represent each adjective and you wear/carry/hold it on your wedding day and then poof! You’ll live happily ever after. Or, unless you’re me and you plan and plan and plan to do this for tradition’s sake and it’s not until you’re on your way to the venue the afternoon you’re to become a Mrs. you realize you FORGOT to do it. The wedding was great anyway and the marriage has been pretty sweet. I’m not too worried. Still, bummer.

But I digress.

What happens after the wedding day? Well, there’s a new catchy phrase that can also make your dreams come true: Old, new, borrowed, redo. Yes. Redo. That’s the key.

I’ve recently discovered this phrase; this “old, new, borrowed, redo” thanks to a set of three sisters who’ve begun a business that does the last verb: redo! A set of twins, Lindsey and Jennifer, and their older sister, Staci, are the masterminds behind a service that, in a nutshell, takes a special piece of clothing that may not have a purpose anymore and turns it into a memento that carries the original memories in a new form. Hence, the redo.

Bridesmaid Dress Redone to be Bed Decor Pillows & Lingerie

Bridesmaid Dress Redone to Become Throw Pillow and Picture Frames

The three sisters from San Diego successfully have been the fairy godmothers to ladies in need of cleaning out their closets and aren’t sure what to do with a dress they paid money for at one point. A bridesmaid dress that, c’mon, is not wearable again (but cost you $300 anyway, thankyouverymuch) can have a new life as a set of throw pillos. The fabric may not have worked on your skin tone, but oo la la, what a way to dress up the guest room bed! Or, the all-taffeta-and-lace wedding dress from 1986 that has only been sitting in a box, yellowing away in all its puffy-sleeved, turtleneck glory that could otherwise become, believe it or not, a cute and sexy lingerie set. Yes, these things are possible because Old new borrowed redo is a creative venture that reimagines these wearables.

The girls redo more than just bridesmaid and wedding dresses. They’ve recreated keepsakes out of flower girl dresses, prom dresses, mother of the bride dresses — anything that had a life as something worn can become a baby’s receiving blanket, pillows, and even a picture frame!

Oh, and guess what: the girls also do t-shirt quilts. This is a popular way to hold onto some of your memories via t-shirts that you can’t wear anymore. Whether you have a collection of old high school sports t-shirts or sorority t-shirts from every single event that ever happened ever (you know what I’m talking about), it might break your heart to throw them away or recycle them to the house rags bin, so relive the county win or craaaaazy date dash from junior year in the form of a warm and cozy quilt.

I have so many pieces in my closet (coral-pink taffeta prom dress from 2001 included!) that I can’t bring myself to just toss. But, there’s absolutely no reason to hold on to them just because I’m a sentimental fool (read: hoarder). This makes me a very qualified recipient of something old turned something Old new borrowed redo.

Formalwear Redone To Be Receiving Blankets for Baby

Here’s how it works:
You contact the sisters at Old new borrowed redo.

You ship them your piece.

You sign a form that basically says, “yes, have at it!”

You wait four to six weeks while the gals busily redo.

You receive a shipped all-new keepsake item.

Stalk them on Facebook so you can see the latest and greatest creations, giving new life to someone’s something old. It’s fun to see what they come up with and think, “Wait, THAT was WHAT?!” Very cool.

It’s always exciting to discover a new service in the wedding industry that can make the post-wedding blues turn into something exciting, so it’s an honor to share it with all you fellow Yentas!

Wedding Dress Redone to Become Lace Bed Decor