Category Archives: Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites | Think Pink Wedding

We’re at the end of the week and we’re also nearing the end of the month. As most women are aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s very likely that most of us have been affected by breast cancer in our lives. Whether it’s our mothers, grandmothers, friends, or ourselves, we remember those who lost the battle and we honor others who’ve beat the odds to survival. All women are heroes in their own ways, but the ones who have been brushed with breast cancer deserve an extra medal of honor. Make sure to read the bottom of the page for information about sponsoring The Wedding Yentas in a Comment for the Cause campaign!

So, let’s take something dismal and associate it with joy: Here at The Wedding Yentas, we want to share with you products and services that are inspired by research to prevent and cure breast cancer and how you can incorporate them in your special, joyous day!

Bling Out Your Awareness:
Add a splash of pastel colors to your wedding day wardrobe with a piece of beautiful jewelry. We absolutely love the stretch set of ten bracelets by Jennifer Miller. This feminine and sassy accessory has been seen on some of the most supportive women on television, including The View and The Today Show. A charm ribbon delicately dangles from the chunks of beads as support and awareness for the cause, while still letting you shine and sparkle on your wedding day. So it’s pretty and girly and totally bride-appropriate, but what do we love most about it? 20% of the proceeds from this bracelet set will be donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

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Nail That Awareness!:
OPI is our favorite nail polish company due to their long lasting shine and colors across the spectrum. But for the fourth year in a row, OPI has another reason to be our favorite polish brand: they’re all about supporting breast cancer research and awareness! The new color is OPI’s Pink of Hearts Nail Lacquer, an exclusive hue with an ongoing mission to advocate for women’s health. OPI will donate $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure which is the best reason to paint on this light, shimmery shade that every woman would be proud to wear because it represents the power of caring, the power of women supporting each other, and the power of pink! You’ll feel great knowing your nails will sparkle and shine in your wedding photos while making their mark to fight breast cancer at the same time.

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Bridesmaids for the Cure:
You love your favorite ladies so much, you want them by your side on your wedding day. But, show your love for them by gifting them with these pieces of jewelry that are pretty in pink and support the cause to find a cure! The Hope Breast Cancer Awareness necklace is dainty and girly, showcasing a gold-dipped bird as a symbol hope and progress. Dogeared Jewels & Gifts always has the most adorable charm jewelry, but we like this one the best because of what it stands for. Most importantly, Dogeared commits to donating profits of this necklace to the Los Angeles Breast Center Alliance. There’s no doubt you’ll be shining on your special day as a bride, but let your bridesmaids sparkle as well! We’re always a fan of Kendra Scott Jewelry, but the Danielle Earrings in Pink Rose Quartz offers a soft, feminine style while paying tribute to vintage adornments with its roped gold trim. They’ll really stand out in pictures and helps tie in your wedding day look. Oh, and the fact that Kendra Scott will donate $5 to breast cancer awareness isn’t too shabby either!

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Slip On Your Awareness:
As you prep and primp on the morning of your big day, you won’t want to walk around the hotel room carpet with bare feet (c’mon, you know you’ve seen those Dateline specials about hotel rooms! Gah!) so slip on something that’s cute and helps fund breast cancer research. These adorable slippers come in either black or white and you can personalize them for your tootsies with your initial. A little pink ribbon adorns the initial and the slipper is adjustable so it fits any size. Wear these proudly and toss a set to each of your bridesmaids, too! Posing in your matching slippers will make adorable photos!

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Shlepping For A Cure:
Who knew a little shlepping could help raise awareness and donations for breast cancer prevention and research? On the big day, you’re going to be shlepping all your materials and accessories so you may as well do it with style and with your new mantra: “Keep calm and carry on” which is so appropriate for the wedding day! The famous and historical phrase from our chums across the pond inspires the chic and simple cotton canvas tote bag that’s also environmentally safe. Purchase in pink and — surprise! — 20% of the proceeds from the bag from Decorative Things will go to The Anne Moore Breast Cancer Fund at New York Weill Cornell Medical College. The bag makes a great gift to house bridesmaids’ belongings or tokens of appreciation, and can even help you shlep souvenirs home from your honeymoon!

Frame Your Awareness:
Let’s face it: After your wedding is over, your mothers are going to be the first in line for photo memories from your special day. They’ll want to display their new married children in a special part of the house or carry around albums and frames to share with their friends at mahjong and bunco. So, present your mothers with a delicately beautiful picture frame made by the timeless Lenox. The floral motif borders the frame and the signature pink mat suggests breast cancer awareness. Best part? 10% of proceeds go right into BreastCancer.org.

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Soak Up The Awareness:
Craving some Israeli TLC without the expensive plane ticket? Enjoy the health benefits of 100% natural Dead Sea salts from the comforts of your home with Ahava’s Hope Blossoms Mineral Bath Salts. We also like the idea of soaking in the salts because AHAVA will make a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation in support of their mission to help fund research and promote education and early detection. Way to go Ahava! Oh and “ahava” means “love” in Hebrew, so we ahava the fact that Ahava is paying tribute to Israel through the Dead Sea compounds and breast cancer awareness this season. Word on the street is that actress Natalie Portman, who’s a member of the tribe, loves Ahava products, so there’s another reason to douse yourself in a little piece of Israel.

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Fight Breast Cancer With Your Wedding Dress:
Another way you can do some BC philanthropy is to donate your wedding dress to Brides Against Breast Cancer. If you’re not sure what you’re going to do with your dress after your big day, don’t let it take up room in your closet. Give another lucky bride a chance to wear your dress and you can feel good knowing your donation goes toward helping others who are suffering from breast cancer. If you want to donate your gown, you ship it to a center and then they tour the gowns in different cities where people buy them. Meanwhile, proceeds go to helping those afflicted with breast cancer still see dreams come true thanks to your dream-come-true dress.

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The Favor of Awareness:
Donate to a breast cancer charity of your choice and let your guests know that you’ve contributed in their name. If you’re not into buying tchotchke favors for your friends and family to take with them from your wedding and shove it in the junk drawer of the kitchen when they get home, then you can feel good about donating some moolah on their behalf. Choose your breast cancer charity and the organization willl help you from there. Specifically, the Yentas like Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Save the Ta Tas Foundation, and Avon’s Breast Cancer Crusade.

Ladies, please remember to take care of yourself. If breast cancer runs in your family or you’re in your 40s, it’s time to start getting annual mammograms and rule out any cause for concern! Prevention is so simple and could save your life. A few seconds of pancake-flattening discomfort is worth the peace of mind that you’re doing the right thing for your body!

The Wedding Yentas wants to help, too! Leave a comment below to honor your breast cancer hero by sharing their first name or their relationship to you so you can pay tribute to them. For every comment received today, Friday, through Sunday at 11:59 p.m., The Wedding Yentas will donate $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. We hope to be donating many, many dollars, so make us put our money where our rack, er, mouth is, as we make the breast of our efforts!

Herzog Wine Cellars: Winner Announced!

There’s one Yentas reader who has something to toast l’chaim to today! She is the winner of a super generous gift worth $200 from our friends and sponsor, Herzog Wine Cellars. Our winner will enjoy a basket that will allow her to indulge in a bottle of one of Herzog’s best, chocolatey treats, bath and beauty products, and gorgeous wine glasses to perfect her sips. The winner was chosen at random by Random.org and we are very happy for her!

And this winner is ANNIE L!

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Annie, we hope you enjoy your prize! Thank you for reading The Wedding Yentas! Also, thank you to all of our readers for supporting us! If you entered to win, please continue to come back and try again at another fabulous giveaway. We love pampering our readers, so keep those entries coming!

Also, if you haven’t already, please “like” The Wedding Yentas on Facebook! Feel free to interact with us on Facebook or comment here on the main site. We enjoy taking your questions and we always appreciate your feedback.

Have a great week and again, mazel tov, Annie!

Friday Favorites | Cheers to Herzog Wine

We’re wrapping up another Yentastic week with an awesome Friday Favorites giveaway!! We are so proud to feature our fabulous friends, Herzog Wine Cellars, and gush about their deeeeeeeeelicious kosher wines that can be part of your wedding day beverage selection!

Whether you’re looking for wine to play a part in your ceremony rituals or to play a part in your party atmosphere, you’ll play by the kosher rules without sacrificing any taste whatsoever thanks to the talented and wise winemakers at Herzog.

Their winemaking origins can be traced back to Philip Herzog, who made wine in Slovakia more than 100 years ago. As history goes, Herzog family descendants made it to America through New York and then to California. The Herzog family makes wine under two separate labels: Baron Herzog and Herzog Wine Cellars. The family was renting winemaking space for 23 years in various locations and finally built its own state-of-the-art winery just south of Santa Barbara. In their Oxnard winery, under the supervision of head winemaker Joe Hurliman, Herzog Wine Cellars has created a home that boasts high-end modern winemaking while saluting a six-century-old tradition.

For your Jewish wedding, it’s very possible you may need a kosher wine, but it’s also likely you don’t quite know the nitty-gritty on what makes wine kosher to begin with. Here’s the breakdown: Because wine is used to welcome Shabbat, kosher wine must be handled only by Sabbath-observant Jews. Also, kosher winemakers can not use products that might fall outside the rules and regulations of kosher laws. Otherwise, that’s it! The techniques for making kosher wine and non-kosher wine are the same.

When it comes to selecting a kosher wine for your wedding, we always suggest choosing a favorite white wine. That way, if anything spills, your wedding dress stays white! If you’re wearing a red wedding dress, well, then, bottoms up on your Merlot. One of our favorite whites is the 2007 Special Reserve Russian River Chardonnay. It received 90 points from Wine Enthusiast and has a cool, smooth delivery with hints of lime and tropical fruit. You’ll want your groom to continue lifting your veil for more sips than usual throughout the ceremony!

We encourage you to check out Herzog’s online store and discover your new favorite bottle for your wedding and all your milestone celebrations beyond the big day. If you happen to be in the Southern California area, you must definitely check out Herzog’s tasting room for their generous pours and educational samples. The modern, spacious area has a knowledgeable staff waiting to fill your glass with wine and information. The boutique that surrounds the tasting room showers you in all kinds of gifts from chocolates to bottle stoppers so that you can complete your total wine experience in the highest regard.

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After visiting Herzog ourselves, there are plenty of reasons to fall in love with them. But what’s one more? Herzog Wine Cellars has generously offered a gorgeous wine-themed gift basket for visitors of The Wedding Yentas! If you are currently reading this article, THAT MEANS YOU! This gift basket, valued at $200, contains the finest and most delicious goodies! In addition to the bottle of Bartenura Prosecco Sparkling Italian Wine and complementing designer wine glasses, you can enjoy luxurious bath and beauty products by Tokyomilk and Chateau Lorraine, a calming candle, a wine tote, a crystal bottle topper, and chocolatey goodness. Enjoy the contents of the basket with your b’shert or pop open the bottle for a girl’s night before the big day. Either way, you will be in Wine Lover Utopia.

Enter to win the gift basket here! So many wonderful occasions have been in the lovely company of a celebratory sip of wine. Leave a comment below and tell us a special memory you’ve had with a favorite glass — or bottle! — of wine. Enter by Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. The winner, who must be over the age of 21 years old, will be announced Monday! Entrants and winner do not have to be Jewish or currently planning a wedding. Good luck and happy sipping!

Friday Favorites | Fall For The Crock

It’s Friday: Yay! It’s Fall: Yay! Fall weather is starting to sweep the country and women everywhere are starting to keep their scarves and Uggs on bottom shelves. But on Friday, we gab about something we love, which you should also keep on the bottom shelf this season.

Not all fall season items worth getting excited about are clothes. So, while this isn’t something you wear, it is something you should register for. Brides, pick up the scanner gun at your favorite kitchen-ware store and cross your fingers that you unwrap one of these beauties for a wedding present.

Every Fall, we fall in love…with our Crock-Pots! While this more-than-helpful kitchen accessory is multi-seasonal, the idea of home-cooked soup, fall-apart brisket, and apple cider with mulling spices is so pleasing to the nose and heart. It makes us all warm and fuzzy inside.

Take it from The Yentas, this consumer report could not be more favorable! There’s nothing we love more than tossing ingredients into the pot, plugging in, and flipping the switch. Hours later, you have a delicious meal with deliciously little work behind it. Also, we love the Crock-Pot because you can cook additional side dishes on the stove top or in the oven without losing space, as the Crock-Pot only requires a square foot of your counter top. The Crock-Pot brand of slow cookers have been around forever. Our moms and grandmas have proudly owned these, so we know we can trust the reputation that precedes them.

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So now that you know The Yentas endorse the Crock-Pot as a Friday Favorites worthy gush-fest, you should definitely make sure you’ve added it to your registry. Check out the Crock-Pot retailers so you can work with the store of your choice. Or, if you’re remodeling your kitchen, eating your meals out, or your cupboards are too full at the moment, you can make sure the Crock-Pot is listed in your account with Deposit a Gift, a cash gift registry, so that you can claim your Crock-Pot prize when you are ready! After all, Deposit a Gift puts fun and flexibility into your registry experience.

‘Tis the season for pumpkiny goodness! We want to share with you one of our favorite Fall recipes that you can make in the Crock-Pot. As if bread pudding wasn’t sweet enough, we then discover pumpkin bread pudding…and it’s taste bud heaven. So today, we urge you to hook up with a Crock-Pot and experience dessert utopia with the following recipe from our friends at Megan’s Cooking.

Crockpot Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
2 eggs
2/3 brown sugar
2 cups milk
1/2 heavy cream
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
16 ounce can pumpkin
8 slices Nature’s Pride white bread, cut into quarters

Directions:
Mix eggs and sugar together. Mix in milk and cream. Add pumpkin and spice.

Layer 8 pieces of bread in bottom of Crock-Pot. Layer 1/3 of pumpkin mixture on top of bread. Make to more layers using all the bread and all the pumpkin mixture. If all the bread is not covered, give it a little stir, coating all the bread.

Cook on high, covered for 3 1/2 hours or till pumpkin mixture is set. Let cool. Serve warm or cold.

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Enjoy the tastes of the season and should you become addicted to recipes in your Crock-Pot, rest easy knowing you have a support group in The Wedding Yentas!

Friday Favorites | Pop Judaica to a Tee

We are absolutely in love with funny t-shirts that can make a statement and indulge your identity. For this reason, we can’t stop laughing our tushies off over one of our favorite Jewish-themed sites that has everything, PopJudaica. The online store, which features funny Jewish t-shirts and apparel for men and women, is powered by ModernTribe, so it’s no surprise we love this site.

It’s the kind of store that is addicting to browse because we want to see “what’s next! what’s next!’ — every item is funnier than the next, playing up total shtick!

For example, give your groom a little sass on your wedding night or honeymoon with these briefs that say “Kish mir in tuchis” which, as you know, is telling any lucky viewer to kiss ya where the sun don’t shine (unless you’re frequenting a particular beach… power to ya! We don’t judge!).

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And if you’re working out before the wedding, or at least want to look cute at the gym while you pretend to work out before stuffing your face with bagels, you can strut your stuff in these adorable “tush” sweatpants. With the popularity of butt shorts adorned with the name of your college on the rear, this is a graduated version that plays to your inner Yiddish culture.

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Are you known in your group of friends for being a foodie? Do your taste buds enjoy the finest of Jewish cuisine? Wear your talent proudly with these fantastic shirts that pay homage to the bagel, pickle and blintz. Let’s face it, our people have a tendency to eat and eat well. Share the wealth and let the world know that they’re missing out on some pretty yummy delicacies.

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If you or friends of yours are happily engaged or married to someone thanks to the joys of online dating, you can make sure that the offspring brag about their parents’ perfect shidduch. Our friends at JDate® have brought so many couples together, and while this adorable shirt isn’t a JDate-made product, it certainly proves the point that Internet love can create Internet babies. Plus, The Wedding Yentas love JDate® and remind you to submit your success stories and check out articles by the Yentas on JMag, the online magazine by JDate®.

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And yes, even the family pup can flaunt his Jewish tail with accessories that would make any Jewish dog mother proud. If your pooch is a chosen one, make sure you spoil it rotten with its very own tallit and kipah and if Roverstein is nearing his Bark Mitzvah, this ensemble makes a great gift… may he wear it in good health.

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Happy Friday, friends! Come back next week for more fabulous posts and stay tuned for exciting news!