#1- Oh, hello, My name is Ashton, just Ashton, no last name needed.  I’ve planned all my parents cocktail parties since I was a little boy, and I’d be fabulous on television, because I’m the only person on the planet with taste and style.

#2- Hi I’m Sue, Sue Cluliss, I just got married, I planned our wedding for 20 people and everyone said it was the best wedding they’d ever been too, really and truly… so now I have business cards, I know I’ll be great.

#3- Hello, I’m Brandon, and well, I’ve never actually planned anything but I can be really mean and scream a lot- is that good? Oh, and I did intern on the publishing side of Louisville Brides a few years ago.

#4- Hi, I’m Polly Pluperfect- Well, I majored in interior design in college and then went to Hotel and Restaurant School for four years, after that I took a two year floral course in Switzerland and then got my Masters in psychology, I’ve had my own business planning weddings for twenty five years now, and I just  love what I do.

Huge hub bub, and major commotion transpires, lots of grumbling through the casting staff and the producers are screaming- who the hell  let her in here? How did she get this far? (Polly is unceremoniously escorted out of the studio) “Geez,” the director says, “are you trying to make the worst television show ever?  Make sure no one like that gets in here again- got it?”…

For Fashion’s Night Out tonight, my oh-so-clever friends at Be&D have created this terribly fashionable life-size circus where you can pose with all your favorite fashion icons while  carrying one of their incredible handbags-(of which I own far too many)  Saks Fifth Avenue, 8 pm

Wedhead has a few favorite things to share:

My very favorite new spot as venue for a small rehearsal dinner or a civilized bachelor party bacchanalia is Hotel Griffou.  It’s very hip, but somehow not horribly pretentious.  Our friend Anne Thornton has the world’s most interesting job combo- pastry chef and event manager, so the desserts are heavenly and the parties run well.  The food is good (it’s not “ooh” and “ahh” deserving but it works) and the set up, the design- a maze of cozy rooms including a clubby wine room with a long banquet table, feels celebratory even if you don’t:

And, today I was walking down Madison Avenue and the Men’s Dolce and Gabbana store stopped me dead in my tracks- the fall tuxedos and dinner jackets are so lush (the over-the-top quilting especially) and so spectacular for a groom, groomsmen or guest who not only has some presence but is gorgeous enough to pull it off.  Unfortunately, being a nascent blogger, I was cameraless (won’t happen again), so these images come from the web:

On the complete other end of the wedding spectrum, I attended a low key and no muss, no fuss wedding in Vermont in August.  As you must realize by now, I’m egalitarian on the subject, if it’s wedding-related, I’m into it,  and this for all sorts of reasons, was just wonderful- starting with my very favorite bride and groom’s entrance of all time:

The bride as she alights from the bicycle she arrived on with her father

The groom starts the ceremony by playing the accordion

I just love the idea of everyone getting together before the wedding and I know it can sometimes be so darn expensive, but I’ve got to say that I really do think that if you invite guests from far away to your wedding, you do need to invite them to some sort of night before festivities.  One way to do this if you really want a smaller dinner is to invite everyone else to a welcome cocktail party before the dinner OR (and this works even better) to host  a dessert party after the dinner where bride, groom and everyone who was at the rehearsal dinner joins up with the other guests (I personally know that Marcy was so insulted she was invited to a wedding in California without being invited to any event the night before that she declined the wedding invite).

Some Tips

Assign someone to M.C. the dinner-you know how cute  and clever all those drunk groomsman think they are after a few shots.  The anecdotes about the grooms former girlfriends or strange hobbies are less likely to surface if the mc informs everyone before what they can say and how long they have.  Now, of course it helps if the M.C. is witty and charming (and Marcy always thinks it’s a good job for someone who is feeling a little left out).

Rehearsal dinners are great ice-breakers for the wedding and they are even more fun if you create a theme or even just a dress code for them that is lighthearted.  I’m all about whimsy and my experience as a guest has been that we do all get into it IF everyone is in it together.  I’ve been asked to wear some yellow to  an “Evening in Provence” rehearsal dinner (and it was a beautious photo op), here is an Indian rehearsal dinner done by Marcy and team (the groom was Indian, the bride American) where the guests were sent the URLs where they could buy saris or churtas and were offered to take their pick of bracelets when they arrived.

The pristine white loft was fitted with an elaborate Indian patterned floral DJ booth by Preston Bailey Designs and danced to tunes spun by the amazing DJ Rehka who rocked the party with Bangara hip-hop.

Pay attention to the seating- whether you want to mix it up so that people are forced to make new friends (put all the table numbers in a fish bowl and ask everyone to pick) or use place cards and make certain that everyone is seated next to different people than they will be seated next to at the wedding. This also can be a way for the bride and groom to honor their parents by sitting with them the “night before” and get out of sitting with them at the wedding.

Lastly, if the pre-wedding dinner guest list is small, you might decide to treat yourselves and your guests to some extravagances you might not consider for a large wedding- at a rehearsal dinner in Nantucket the groom served some of  his precious red wine in Jeroboams and the guests lingered  in a beautiful tent on the water.

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