by Elizabeth

I’m eagerly awaiting their launch, because what I love most about their current landing page is their clean design.  It’s rare to find a wedding hub that doesn’t look cluttered, but they’ve set the tone for this.  Like other wedding hubs, their site will offer a vendor network and wedding resources, but what really sets them apart is the ability for brides and grooms to set up microsites for their weddings.  Couples will be able to create and customize sites with sleek and sophisticated designs -- much like marriage.com itself.  They’ll be able to select cool URLs for their sites such as http://www.marriage.com/jackandjill and include blogs, photos, and of course, logistical information. 

The Marriage.com team is currently allowing brides to signup for their beta launch on their homepage.  In addition, brides who sign up today will be eligible for free cosmetic surgery via a contest the team is holding.

We’re excited to welcome them to the online wedding community!

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

by Ashley, edited by Elizabeth

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You have so MUCH cool information on your site for Nashville brides (I'm envious :) ). Tell us about your path to starting Ashley’s Bride Guide (ABG). Do you work on it full time?

Yes.  ABG is a full time endeavor. When I started my site in 2007, I was working as a marketing manager for a healthcare company. But my plan all along was to focus on ABG and future projects full time. In 2007, after a year of planning and research, I launched the site and a few months later, I left my company to manage ABG full time.

How did you decide to start ABG?

In 2005, I got engaged and started planning my Nashville wedding.  At that time, there was only one online resource for wedding planning and it didn’t speak directly to the Nashville market.  I knew that Nashville brides deserved a resource that was online, local and dedicated to helping them plan their wedding.  I created ABG in 2007 to fill that void.

As some of our brides start to think about their spring weddings in Nashville, where are some of your favorite hidden gem Nashville Wedding locations?

• Country Music Hall of Fame: I like the Country Music Hall of Fame because it is a Nashville landmark and is great for brides seeking a quintessential Nashville wedding. It’s Rotunda (round room) is exquisite and an ideal venue for a sophisticated bride.  Brides should be aware of the sound system and limitations as far as music/djs. (Photo 1 - McLellan Style)
• CJ’s: Everyone in Nashville loves CJs off the Square.  The garden venue is picturesque, intimate and romantic.  The owner/staff are devoted, knowledgeable and offer a high level of customer service.  It is the ultimate venue for brides looking for high-touch, impeccable service and a wonderful wedding atmosphere.  CJ’s brides become fast friends with the staff, as I have.   Brides should know that since it’s a garden venue, it’s best/prettiest during warm months.  The venue is for intimate events as space is limited. (Photos 2/3)
• Cedarwood, Front Porch Farms, and Southall Eden Farm: For a rustic Nashville weddings, Nashville brides have many great options.  Each of these venues offers something unique but all are rustic and cozy. (Photos 4/5, 6/7, 8/9, respectively)
• Shelby Street Bridge: For edgy, modern weddings, I like the Shelby Street Bridge.  It overlooks our lovely city and is great for pictures.  It does have many requirements so brides should not consider this venue without a great wedding planner.  It does require restroom facility rental, a permit. (Photo 10)  Events @ 1418 is another modern facility.  It has exposed brick and a rooftop space.  The venue also houses a bake shop and a catering service so they can handle everything – from cake to rental items.

Ashley is the founder and owner of Ashley’s Bride Guide, a one-stop web resource for Nashville Brides planning their weddings.

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a shopping site for wedding apparel, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

As you know, I have a penchant for websites that have easy-to-use interfaces.  Good design and simplicity are added bonuses.  So I was excited to get a sneak preview of the newly launched The Inspired List, created by Allison O'Grady and Ian Silber.

I love the clean design!  Although there are a number of wedding vendor aggregators on the web, The Inspired List stands rises from the rest with its intuitive usability -- the layout is very user-friendly.  You can search and add vendors you like to your list of favorites, making it easy to go back to pull up this information again.  In particular, I love the price filter on their search, because you can immediately get a sense of who is in your budget without having to take the time to email vendors.  Everything on this site just makes sense, and I wish that I’d had this for my wedding.

And vendors, it’s free to get listed if you fit the categories on their site.

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I love letterpress wedding invitations!  But, I know nothing about how they’re made or what styles are trending up.  So, to get the scoop on letterpress invitations, I recently caught up with Julie Chiu and Mario Ortiz, co-founders and owners of Subtle Glances, a letterpress company based in San Francisco.

What are your favorite letterpress wedding invitations that you've done?  Any particular themes that seem to be in trend this year?

It's hard to pick a favorite because they're all so unique and really speak to the personalities of our clients. As the Gen X & Y era are getting married, travel is deeply embedded into their list of things they love, so we've consistently seen a lot of travel themed invitation requests. Another trend we've seen is that people are taking a nod to their venues in their invitation designs. Our clients really want to give their guests a taste of what their day will be like by giving them a glimpse of their venue, whether it be the Carmel Hills, a lush winery, or a historic hotel.

What is the process for creating letterpress wedding invitations?  How long does it take?  Can you print any design or any characters?

The invitation process begins with the design. Once a design is approved, we make photopolymer plates which are essentially mirrored images of your design. Each color must be pressed and registered on a separate run, so a plate is made for each color on the design. Traditionally plates are made of metal or copper, but we use photopolymer because it's much more eco-friendly and can be recycled. All colors are mixed using Pantone formulas and soy based inks. All of our invitations are printed on 100% cotton and tree free paper. We typically allot 10-15 business days for the printing process. Almost any design can be letterpressed, but it is typically best to send a PDF to your printer to ensure that your desired design is feasible.

How did you start Subtle Glances and how long have you been doing letterpress invitations?

Subtle Glances was always a dream for the both of us for years. It really was just an opportune moment when the two of us met and eventually realized that we shared the same dreams and passions. Julie had been designing invitations for 3 years prior to our start and was always fascinated by letterpress printing. It just happened that Mario owned a letterpress and was also working on invitations for years prior. We've been in business together for 2 years now and the rest is history!

Check out more of Subtle Glances’ beautiful letterpress work and their 5 star reviews on Yelp.

Disclosure: Shiny Orb, a search site for wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

By Shanna, edited by Jennifer

Winter weddings in the Bay Area are challenging because winter here is not white fluffy snow but soggy wet rain.  Our hidden gems that are both elegant and dry would include the following:

• Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos: Testarossa has a cozy location for a smaller event, and is very unique in its design.  The long entryway corridor is a beautiful location to stage an indoor ceremony.  With its curved stonework walls reminiscent of a fairytale castle, you won't see anything like it anywhere else in the bay.
• Thomas Fogarty Winery: With sweeping views of the entire Bay Area and a covered ceremony/reception area, Thomas Fogarty Winery is ideal for winter weddings.  The rain coming through the Bay Area in the winter often leaves the air clear, allowing guests breathtaking vistas from San Francisco to Mt. Hamilton.  And on non-rainy winter days, the low clouds coming over from the ocean give the location and ethereal feel.
• Silver Creek in San Jose: Silver Creek boasts beautiful views of the green hillsides, which in California in the winter time are especially vibrant, as well as perfectly manicured lawns and breathtaking landscaping.  The ballroom allows views of the outdoors from all angles for a indoor event that can still connect to the beauties of the outdoors.  The interior of the facility is grandiose and elegant, including a sweeping double staircase.
• Coyote Creek Country Club in San Jose: Coyote Creek is perfect for the more casual reception or even the rehearsal dinner.  Although their ceremony sites are outdoors, the Country Club would be perfect for the winter bride who prefers a church ceremony and a reception with views.
• We and Our Neighborhood Clubhouse in San Jose: The Clubhouse is an intimate, casual, craftsman style venue -- and a San Jose historical landmark --  perfect indoor venue for a bride on a budget that wants the freedom to pick her own caterers and make the venue her own.

Photo credit: Image of Thomas Fogarty Winery by naotakem

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a shopping site for wedding apparel, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

By Elizabeth

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How did you come up with the idea for SnapKnot? 

I’m recently married and a casualty of the challenging wedding planning process (well, not really a casualty, but you know what I mean :) ). In particular my wife Eunice and I learned that finding a photographer was very difficult, stressful, and time-consuming. We were fortunate to end up with Jim Kennedy, a very talented and well-known photographer in Orange County. We consider ourselves lucky.

(Reid's co-founder) Mike was looking for his next career move and I was looking to get involved in something new as well, so after a series of brainstorming sessions we came up with the idea for SnapKnot, inspired in large part by my negative experience. We thought there was a better way for couples to find wedding photographers.

When did you launch SnapKnot?

SnapKnot was officially launched in the middle of February 2010, however we started building our social media network around the 1st of this year.  We will have 1,000 wedding photographers listed on SnapKnot within the next few weeks, and our overall traffic has been steadily growing since launch.

There are a some fantastic portfolios on SnapKnot.  Reid shared some of his favorites with us (see above).

Photo credits: Douglas Levy, Scott McNamara, Kristen Weaver, Studio-EMP

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb, a search site for bridesmaids dresses, receives no form of compensation from this vendor.

by Amy

Amy got married in late 2009 and was a runner up in Dancing with the Brides. She offers these tips on choosing wedding vendors and getting registered.

Editor's disclosure: Shiny Orb is an Amazon Associate.

Wedding vendors:

When you first get engaged, you are beyond excited and giddy. But once that excitement comes down a notch, you are instantly overwhelmed with the number of things that must get done before the big day. Without a wedding planner, one of the toughest things in the planning process is picking your vendors because good vendors can make your day absolutely wonderful while bad vendors can ruin a wedding. Sometimes, you may hear about vendors by word of mouth from trusted friends or family members. That makes things easy. But if you don't have that option, you can always use the internet to help you make your decisions.

For us, we were getting married on Long Island and as it turns out, there's a fantastic wedding board out there called LIWeddings.com where brides can give other brides advice and recommendations. We used this site heavily to get an initial list of vendors to visit and consider. Then we visited and talked to those selected vendors and made our decisions that way. Another site that is helpful is WeddingBee - there you'll also find reviews and advice from other brides.

Wedding registries:
 
Wedding registries are a really fun part of the wedding process. This is the time for you and your fiance(e) to start imagining what your new home will be like and what you'd like to have in it. We started with one registry at Bed Bath and Beyond because we were mostly looking for kitchen items and BBB had fairly reasonable prices and a very wide assortment of options for each item. They also have a great return policy in case a certain item ended up not fitting into our new home. The key to putting together a good registry is to add items with a wide range of prices and to add a lot of items. That way, your guests can have more options. For us, we thought we had added a ton of things but in the end, as the registry started getting filled, we realized that our friends and families wanted us to put more items on it. We started to go beyond the typical kitchen items to other items that we would like and ended up signing up for a registry with Amazon.com. They often have free shipping for items over $25, which is an added bonus for our guests.

Editor's note: It is also common practice for many stores to offer you a 10% discount on items that remain unpurchased from wedding registry.  So, don't be shy in adding more items!