Its Truly Shameful

...that my brother returns from spending the past 15 months in Afghanistan only to live in the barracks that you'll see in the videos below.

One soldier's father was so up set he posted this video on YouTube.



After some quick video searches I've also found these, too.



And this one, too.


From what I can gather the Army is scrambling. SCRAMBLING.

I'm glad he's finally home and even happier he's out for good in a few months.

One Step Closer.....And Another Revelation

Who'd a thunk we'd spend just as much time deciding on the wording of the invitations as we would deciding on which invitations to use. At least we're 2 months ahead of the norm.

Breaking News-

The tabs report that the pair responsible for the Team Brefanie nomenclature have finally tied the knot! You can read about Branjelina
here but know that Coco's fab celeb tabloid, People.com, has reported that it didn't happen. Let us know if you find out the real scoop.

Revelation-

How wise it really to talk about cost?

Small World-

A HWOTH reader (and recent commenter) is not only getting married at The Carlyle on the Green during September '08 but her and her hubby-to-be are also going to Italy for their honeymoon. And they've selected Priscilla of Boston for the bridesmaids dresses! They were also up in the Berkshires this past new years! W.E.I.R.D. No, they don't live in Brooklyn.

Time

Whoa. Not once did I think that there would be a 20 day hiatus in posting wedding-related news to HWOTH. We've experienced some ups and downs this month and our time has been very limited of late. I guess life is supposed to do that, huh? RIPSTYW

Well let's see what I put out there...

* The picture related to this story caught my eye more than anything else. Agree/Disagree? Looks the entree to a joke. Lewd, I hope.

* Um, I love when Scots (or Brits) use the word dodgy. "I tried to ban loads of relatives from my own nuptials – and not just because they might look dodgy in the photographs." An interesting perspective to say the least. I dare you to make it a part of your everyday chatter.

*Its a shame that its taken this long for this to happen down unda, mate.

* Tiffany's quality on a Macy's budget - The rise and fall of Fortunoffs. Gulp! Eek! Uh, oh!

* According to WeddingChannel.com we still need to deal with wedding insurance, hotels, and a veil for Coco. Baby, what's up with center pieces??

* Romo? Jessica? Say What?!?!?

Los Mets

Congrats to Omar and the Mets (Omar. Omar. Omar...and the M-e-t-s.) for finally acquiring the best pitcher in baseball - Johan Santana. While I love watching farm hands make it up to the bigs, giving up just these four is definitely worth it.

Did anyone else hear me channeling Elton?!?

All I need now is for the Patriots to make history. Go P-A-T-S!

Hmmm....

What to report....what to report....

-Coco wants a wedding cake like THIS!! As if.
I get my piece first!

-Keeping with the theme; I wonder what we'll do about a cake?! Do we choose a sophisticated elegant look, or show our playfulness and select something more in line with the above?? I just want it to taste good. With buttercream. A hint of whiskey (the scotch kind). And chocolate. Mmmm. What IS fondant anyway?? Coco, anything here make you hungry??

-And here's our tribute to "The Biggest [Wedding] Loser"...who in their right mind would order a wedding dress 8 sizes smaller than her current size. I'm not too sure but the groom just happens to work at a health club - score. How far off is that wedding anway?

-Wedding Insurance; still didn't get it yet. Doh.

-BFAM (NC); this IS ALL YOU! ¿Dónde es el EL Producto??

A Tribute - Of Sorts

or...














It's taken me a while but as a tribute to Chadley (via "Where's Brad?"), seeing that I'm 110% sure that his lil niece would certainly approve, I've added Ava (via "Here's Ava!!"). Damn - this kid is cute!

In wedding news, Coco is now the official wedding coordinator. All inquiries and requests should be directed her way. Stay tuned for news on wedding veils, mens formal wear, the best 5" heels to wear down the aisle, and "Coco's Daily Countdown". Phew - I'm done with this. Almost.

In Honor Of All Hallow's Eve and All Things Black

As you probably know, Coco would do just about anything to get married in a black dress holding black flowers. Alas, her mother wouldn't hear of it.

So, in honor of her affinity for black gowns and fauna AND in honor of the Celts that begin celebrating Samhain and All Hallow's Eve (which eventually became Halloween), I've come upon a dark tale of a couple that has decided to marry on a blessed holiday while playing homage to the awesomeness that are the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the “Dungeons and Dragons” role-playing game. Can you say Elvira meets King Arthur's court?? Weird is an understatement.

Read more about it here.

ps...how on earth does someone really name their child 'Faith Charity'?

pps...oh, and for the record, she's come so far as to 1) look at the Cowboys schedule to see what week they have a BYE and 2) actually know what a BYE is. Way to go, Coco!

The Carlyle Revisited...

This past Saturday we returned to The Carlyle to look at the Lenox Room set up for a ceremony - I'm so anal about size I need to see it set up - imagine that.

Unfortunately, the Lenox Room wasn't set up. Fortunately, the wedding scheduled was set up outside AND in the round. It looked great. Imagine a rose-petal-strewn path leading up to a beautifully decorated huppa (L'shana tova to all you Jews out there!!!) surrounded by an audience of white chairs and candles. It really looked great. The weather couldn't have been nicer; low 70s and breezy.

No matter the weather, we're still getting married in the Lenox Room. My fears of not having enough room for guests, chairs, and Coco's HUGE wedding party, etc. were calmed. The room is much longer and wider than I remember (75'l x 29'w).

We were fortunate enough to have one of The Carlyle's maitre d's on site (Gerald) as he walked us through this weddding's entire set up. The table linens, the flowers, the themed food stations, even baskets of WC essentials (ie. breath mints, Tide StainStick, dental floss, you name it!) I must admit - it all looked stunning. Very classy. I'm sure the bride & groom were happy. I'm sure we will be also.

I definitely walked away with some things to remember:

- Enough photography lighting (reflective devices might be nice if our fotog isn't bringing them. I wonder if The Carlyle will charge me extra for some tin foil??

- I've only been there 3 times and each time I'm thrown off as soon as I turn off the Bethpage Parkway. Too many damn roundabouts if you ask me. One or two signs, placed strategically, can only do wonders for guests.

- To me, this is the biggest one yet. I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures or not but The Carlyle has a beautiful circle cobble stone drive that welcomes guests to the clubhouse. I distinctly recall I speaking with The Carlyle representative, Cynthia Benard, about making sure Carlyle or NY state staff do not park in the spots that seem to be available due to sheer available space. I'd be livid if I pulled up an hour or two before my wedding and saw cars circled like wagons getting raided by injuns. The more I think about it the more I'm realizing I may not be able to control this - damn Friday afternoon golfers. It's killing me. Seriously.

Starting The Week Off Right - Sort Of...

Television
It looks like Coco will be a bit disappointed as one of her favorite shows is bound to have trouble on the set. It seems Chase has backed out of his upcoming nuptials to House kitten Allison Cameron. Booo. What a way to spoil a romantic proposal atop Le Tour Eiffel. Read about the details here. I wonder if it had to do with the lack of success on their movie "Flourish"??


Politics(???)
I haven't figure out yet if this quote is legit or not but it's fitting none-the-less ; rock on Jenna Bush:

"The president's friend and long time adviser Karl Rove has graciously consented to remain on board past his August resignation deadline to serve in the capacity of Chief Wedding Coordinator and strategist as a favor to the president," offered Dana Perino. "Negotiations are underway to have the president's personal pastor, reverend Luis Leon officiate the ceremony but there is a minor sticking point over a mandatory series of prenuptial birth control counseling sessions." - Gotta love Unconfirmed Sources.

Unfortunately for the blue team, popularity ratings for GWB are likely to soar (perhaps out of sight??). Can you say publicity?? I hear the White House wedding of Alice Roosevelt took up the entire front page of The Washington Post — every column — and a song about her was the No. 1 hit in the country, and they named a color (Alice Blue) after her. GASP. I wonder how The Post will counter??


Humor
Jimmy Fallon is officially off the market as he popped the question to long time GF Nancy Juvonen (who??). Ohhh, that's who. Am I the only one annoyed with Metromix's report?? - "It's the first engagement for the former "Saturday Night Live" star and Juvonen..". Presumption of 'multiple engagements' is not only uncalled for but eerily American, n'est pas?

Not So Humor
aka Buzzkill. And people say there's a god. As if.

Baby Related

Tough times call for tough measures - and by tough I mean "I've terrible about making regular posts"! It's time for a change people!

And with that I have two pieces of baby-related news:

1) One of my mates from UB (TK in the house!) has had his first baby. Tom and Summer have brought Siena Rose Kassmel into this world. (I'd post a pic but I don't have one - Sorry TK & Summer)

2) Coastie bro Seannie and his wife Jenoa have received a 99.99% confirmation that they are expecting a baby girl. And here I thought they'd be blessed with triplet boys - twins at the least...

Brides Decide? - Decide What??

Using Google's Reader I clearly get a picture of what's going on in the world specific to news I am dying to read about.

Get a load of this juicy, and I suspect controversial, tidbit; David Liu, the money-making genius behind TheKnot.com, is taking bridal decision making skills to a new level. BridesDecide wants brides (& bridegrooms, I suspect) to get more involved in the 2008 presidential election.

They provide some pretty interesting features like side-by-side comparisons by issue (abortion, health care, education, etc.), a voter registration link and various polls about *important* issues.

They've gone so far as to dig up the particulars of each candidate's nuptials complete with real wedding photos. (Oooh.) As expected, former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani's wedding profile is a bit lacking. I'm not sure their programmers knew how to take into account the whole second-cousin thing. Here is NNDB's run-down on him. Please note "Mistress" classifier. Ouch. (disclaimer: I helped elect him into office)

Since I'm knee-deep in guest list F-U-N, I'd love to see what the guests lists look like and what their lifetime political contributions tally up to.

Come to think of it, I'd like to see BridesDecide include *potential* candidates, too; Al Gore, Fred Thompson, Newt Gingrich, Bloomberg, Chuck Nader... Why not, right?!

The US divorce rate (1st marriage is 41%, 2nd marriage is 60%, 3rd marriage is 73%) keeps flashing into my mind - The cynic in me hopes this doesn't somehow project to voter turnout.

Goes Together Better Than (crunchy) Peanut Butter & (anything-but-grape) Jelly

See if you can follow along...


1) Beckie Newton portrays a fab Amanda Tanen on "Ugly Betty". Check out this spotlight next to Damn-I'm-too-cute-Kelly Ripa.

2) I'm sure Beckie has been called 'Becks' at some point in her beautiful 29 year old existence.

3) The real Becks has finally made it across the pond to magical land called LA. I think it was worth the $250m.

4) David (we're close like that) is married to Posh Spice (aka Victoria Beckham) who just happens to blog about the trials and tribulations of learning to call 'sneakers' sneakers and not trainers. Read about it here. This normal girl from London (who just happened to travel to elementary school in a Bentley) chronicled her recent move stateside in NBC's "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America". Sadly, it was streamlined down to one episode instead of six. Bad NBC.

...coming full circle......

5) Posh, achem, Victoria, is reportedly set for a guest appearance this fall on - you guessed it - "Ugly Betty". The scene, a wedding scene, duh, pits the new Becks vs. Mrs. Becks. (Wo)mano e (Wo)mano. One can only guess who will seem fatter than the other. Check it out here.


For more Brit-inspired laughs, check out the Beckhams and Borat having a meeting of the minds.

Brief Hiatus

Gone camping....

Non-Wedding Babble - Harry Who??

Ever notice the similarities??




Harry Potter: Harry Potter (orphan living with uncle and aunt)
Star Wars: Luke Skywalker (orphan living with uncle and aunt)

Harry Potter: Bearded rescuer Hagrid
Star Wars: Bearded rescuer Obe-Wan

Harry Potter: Magic
Star Wars: The Force

Harry Potter: Wizard
Star Wars: Jedi

Harry Potter: wand
Star Wars: light sabre

Harry Potter: adventures with friends Ron Weasley & Hermione Granger
Star Wars: adventures with friends Han Solo & Princess Leia

Harry Potter: Lord Voldemort
Star Wars: Darth Vader

Harry Potter: Lord Voldemort killed Harry's father
Star Wars: Darth Vader killed Luke's father.

Harry Potter: movie score composed by John Williams
Star Wars: movie score composed by John Williams


Downright uncanny, isn't it. Way to go J(o)K(e) Rowling. Here's even more.

Wedding Questions Of The Day

Q - I wonder how I should wear my hair that day?

The Bride conglomerate at Conde Nast doesn't seem to have much.


Q - If I had to rename this blog what should I call it?

A Chaordic Affair to Formember.


Q - What should the wedding cake taste like?

Buttercream. Chocolate. Rocky Road ice cream. Fondant. Vanilla-almond.


Q - How can we reduce the green footprint of the wedding?

Adopt an animal through the World Wildlife Fund.

Purchase carbon credits for the travel related to our affair.

An eco-limo; a Prius limousine. Yes, that's correct. A car that I could shoehorn into my own trunk and use as an emergency escape pod is now the Eco Limo calling card.

Use ecofetti - now that's a splash of colour if I do say so myself.

The Magic Of Potter

Somehow these soon-to-be newlyweds are preoccupied with JK Rowlings writings a bit too much, no?

Readers, can I get a show of hands how many are planning on procuring the final book this Saturday at 12 midnight?? I know Coco plans on lining up outside our local Barnes & Noble in full regalia. That means dressing up like my FAVORITE character - Hermione Granger aka Emma-can-you-believe-I-am-only-17?!-Watson. Grrrrrr.

(ps...Jenoa, sorry you may have been duped into reading this post just because the title mentions a 'Potter'. There are others in this world you know!!)

Hot Off The (Very Slow) Press - Engagement Party Pix!!

It took me a while to compile them since there were a little over 500 to choose from, but these 423 made the cut. Enjoy! Thanks again, Alan and Susan. The party was great! Sorry again to those that couldn't attend as you were missed - and don't worry - we believed every excuse you gave us. See you in September??

(To view them just click on the link/picture below. Special thanks to Gil, Yehuda & Liron as they manned (and womanned) the cameras. If you'd like to see more of Gil's work check out his website Embedded In Brooklyn. )

For those that may be visiting for the first time; stick around and read about what we've been planning. This 'thing' is called a blog.

Brian & Stef's Engagement Party (Team Brefanie Rules!)

A Blessed ( & Logical!!) Union

I wonder if Dave from Renegade (our kick ass wedding band!) knows about this yet??! Is it me or should all things "music" have a mySpace page??? It seems that a "wedding" search returns the following:

*The Real Wedding Crashers (NBC spoof reality show)

*A Santa Cruz Wedding Photographer

*Various HYSTERICAL clips of Wedding Crashers the movie; "Listen, do you smell something?", "Motorboating-son-of-a-bitch" , "She has man-hands" and "Balloons are my enemy's friend"

*A wedding 'group'

* An actual wedding; they really do happen!

*A "DIY Wedding Video and Dress Guide". Props for creativity. That color would look great with my blue eyes. Word.

*UK indie-rock collective The Wedding Present. Of course.

*A tragedy entitled "My Big Fat Italian Wedding (Please note that I am refraining from using the derogatory euphemism "dago" that I sometimes like to use along with "mick".)

*Another wedding videographer whose handle just happens to be `6'8 "Black Male`. Scary.

*A classic spin on commitment.

*An advertisement for dental work.

Just Something To Talk About...

So, what is a French cake anyway, Mr. Eva Longoria?? Is it one made of champagne? Escargot? French bread? French fries? [Coco wishes!!] I'm not sure either but you can read about it here.

Maybe they'll both enter that ridiculous wedding cake eating contest that WE, as in Women's Entertainment Network, is having as part of that ridiculous show Bridezillas. Read for yourself.

And in glad-I'm-not-in-their-shoes wedding news, the sale of a $17M (not a typo and all in cash) has forced the former Sky Studios to tell brides-and-grooms-to-be that are already in contract, that they have to find someplace else to get ma-weed. Turns out it's now a primary residence with size limitations of only 75 people. Read about how sucky it is here. And here's the actual letter to the brides. D. A. M. N.

(I'd be lying if I told you I didn't have my own fears about the Carlyle undertaking major renovations with the US Open coming to town in 2009. Rest assured - I was assured.)

Inspiration? Eh - I Don't Really Think Its Necessary

I've seen a few articles online and in print about the proliferation of people "publicizing" their journey from engagement to wedding. Call it a crime of passion....a crime of love....or just a crime in need of attention. We are indeed guilty of such a crime.

So, too, are the newly married Tuff's. They have a nice website (not really a blog, Aunt T, but here is a nice piece on the differences in each) with a clever and catchy URL (www.doublemintwedding.com). As you can imagine they are both one half of a pair of identical twins. (Redundant? Yes, but I like it that way!)

They, too, list information on the bridal parties, resources for out-of-town guests and history on couple. It's cute. Perhaps this will be impetus enough to incorporate some more pictures and stories? I'll leave the stories up to Coco since she remembers (and hears!) everything. Everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

Coco, tell some stories or post a picture or two or seven. Do something. Please. Thankyouverymuch.