Gala, Inc.

Last week, SoireeInternNicole and I had the opportunity to visit Gala, Inc.! This event decor company specializes in providing rentals and props to spice up the mood at your event. With their in-house floral designer, I loosely compare them to being the Preston Bailey of DC. Here are some examples of their work from their website:Here are some photos from our visit to their showroom in Rockville, MD:They'll set out a naked table in their Design Center and let you select linens, china, glassware, chairs, and everything else to try out different tablescapes. There are walls of rental items to pull out and play with:
And a multimedia display area to check out local bands:
Every wedding invitation book you could ever want:
Their 'back of the house' is where they make the magic happen. It operates fully as a prop shop where they can paint tables & chairs or build new pieces. Gala will even make you a custom piece if they don't carry it in their stock. The possibilities are endless!
There is an entire wall of ribbon. This must be what heaven is like:There was row after row of lounge furniture, picnic tables, urns, huge lampshades for ceiling suspension, lighting, and anything else you could imagine: A quick example of the extent of pieces they have. They must have at least 50 different styles of floral pedestals:I really enjoyed our visit to Gala, Inc. and recommend you stop by too! We'd be happy to set up an appointment for you in their Design Center if you'd like to play with a tabletop design or select furniture items for your lounge. You may also visit them on your own...Kristi Pichler is the gal to ask for. Their website has more contact info.

Real Simple + Crate & Barrel

Behold! The union of two of my favorite resources!

Real Simple Magazine is launching a wedding version of their magazine on January 28th (sweet!) and is selling advance copies at Crate & Barrel stores starting January 10th. I love Real Simple and am really looking forward to seeing what they have in the wedding issue. Check out there website for more information.

If you live in the Chicago or NYC areas, the magazine is also hosting parties at select Crate & Barrel locations. Check here for more info and to RSVP.

Independent Filmmaking

This readable, likeable handbook was my bible back in the 70s when its combination of practical sense and friendly encouragement meant that it served both as craft manual and comfort read.

Its user's-view of various Super 8 cameras, wind-up 16mm Bolexes and optical printing techniques may have little-to-no application in this digital age but the laid-back, know-your-tools-and-do-some-stuff aesthetic seems as relevant to me now as it ever was.

(UPDATE: There's been, so I'm told, something of a recent upsurge of interest in Super 8 as a production medium for its purely aesthetic qualities, and Lipton's book - along with its companion piece The Super 8 Book - continues to be recommended as a user's vade mecum.)

More so, if anything. I'm in the midst of a screener-viewing frenzy as this year's BAFTA voting deadline approaches, and there's a low-budget Irish musical shot on the streets of Dublin with a handheld DV camera that's outclassing all the Hollywood blockbusters for heart and originality. It's called Once. I heard somewhere that the budget was £150,000, or it might even have been Euros. Which, in mogul-speak, is "chump change".

Lenny Lipton, of course, was also the co-author of PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON.

Holiday Card Swap

A few weeks ago, I came across the Brooklyn Bride Blog and signed up for their adorable Holiday Card Swap! Brooklyn Bride collected addresses and divided up the list so we'd all get the same number of cards back that we sent out. Here's some photos of the ones we sent:

This one utilized ribbon from the awesome ribbon outlet we recently visited:
These two incorporated felt ribbon from Queen & Co.: "The best gifts are tied with heartstrings"
Everyone should have a snowflake punch:This is what SoireeInternNicole's desk looked like for a few days:
Here's the beautiful card I received from Brooklyn Bride:
And of course DIY Bride's card is crafty to the max with a sparkly doggie and embossed letters:Talida Bakes sent this beautiful card along with a peppermint brownie. I remembered to take a photo only AFTER I ate the brownie. Oops. Yum!
I had so much fun participating in this year's holiday card swap! Perhaps there'll be a Valentine's Day swap? And an Easter swap? And an Independence Day swap? Count me in!

Washingtonian Magazine!

We're so excited to announce that Soiree has been included in the Washingtonian magazine 2008 Wedding Guide! Their website still features last year's list but you can find it here. The wedding guide is a comprehensive listing of the top vendors in the DC area and is a great place to start if you're recently engaged or trying to find quality wedding vendors.
I found mine at Barnes & Noble but you should be able to find it at any grocery store or bookstore. Pick up your copy today!

The Second-Marriage Wedding Present on the Other Side of the World

One of my closest friends lives in New Orleans. We've managed to get together no more than half a dozen times in the thirty years since we met, but that's how some friendships can be. First we kept in touch with long letters, the occasional phone call, and the the annual exchange of bizarre Christmas gifts between our families. Well, I say bizarre. But I imagine they'd think the voodoo kit they sent us to be unremarkable, while finding our Chorley Cakes quite exotic.

Later on we switched to email. The distance was no less and the messages tended to be shorter, but now our news flew back and forth in something like real time.

So we were able to cheer him through his midlife career change and share the joy of his daughter's Bat Mitzvah. We could sympathise during the bruising divorce in which he discovered all the disadvantages of having married a lawyer.

And when someone new came into his life and he hesitated because his faith in happy endings had been shaken, there was someone standing outside the situation who could urge him to stop hesitating and go for it.

Then came the problem. The Second-Marriage Wedding Present on the Other Side of the World.

It's not something you can really mark with a tin of Kendal Mint Cake but in all honesty, what can you do? Pedal bins and bedlinen are poor candidates for sending by air mail, and I don't think there's anywhere that you can use Debenhams vouchers in Louisiana. And, besides... they'd got that stuff already.

It took three weeks of racking my brains. I think the lowest point came when I wondered how much it would cost to name an asteroid after the happy couple.

Then I got it. A proper, practical, traditional wedding present. A useful object for a happy home.

A bread knife.

I know, you're thinking, That's it? A bread knife? Three weeks of sustained mental effort and that's what he came up with? But hear me out and remember, the chances are you'll face this problem yourself someday. And on that day, you may well thank me.

Firstly, not just a bread knife, but a bread knife. Balanced in the hand, fine tempered steel, shockingly expensive... not just some tat off the local market but something akin to a sword forged by a fallen samurai master tempted out of retirement to make the most exceptional weapon of his career.

A good one, in other words. It slid neatly into a poster tube for mailing purposes, and with it went the following note of explanation.

Dear friends,

OK, so you've looked at this and it seems like an odd choice for a wedding gift. But at least hear out my logic...

1. When kids marry they need absolutely everything useful, from eggcups up.
2. But when grownups marry and merge households they end up with TWO of everything useful.
3. So people buy them ornamental stuff, which they have to hide and then remember to get out and put on display when the donor comes to visit.
4. Unless the gift was money or booze, which both disappear in due course.
5. But only parents and elders can do the money thing.
6. And booze doesn't airmail well.
7. But everybody needs a bread knife. Even vegetarians and vegans.
8. A good bread knife is significantly better at its job than an ordinary bread knife.
9. Everybody buying for themselves buys an ordinary bread knife.
10. Even if you end up with more than one good bread knife, a busy kitchen can easily make use of two.
11. If you wind up with more than two, just keep it in the packaging and the next time a wedding amongst friends or family comes up...
12. Well, when kids marry they need everything useful.

But please bear in mind that if one of you uses it to kill the other, then that would be a VERY BAD END to this story.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Just wanted to pop in to say hi to all and hope you guys are having a fab christmas! I am having a great day at home with my family, mam is dancing like a lunatic to random christmas tunes, my neice doesn't know where to look there is so much stuff around, dad is cooking up a storm in the kitchen and me bro and sis are chillin out counting down the minutes to gobble gobble fest!

To this day I am not really sure how many peeps check into my blog to have a browse as comments are always scarce ( or if its of any interest to anyone) but I know from the stats that there are a few readers and I have not met or chatted with many of you, but I do hope that you get some enjoyment out of it and that I know I do, I will be bloggin on in 08, with many new stock on plan for my etsy store! So to all those that just stop by for a nose, stop by some day and say hi! its lovely to meet other bloggers, and to be honest its always a highlight to log on and find a new comment from someone sharing there thoughts, it makes my day! So see you in 08, and HAVE A LOVELY CHRISTMAS , HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY.
XXX
BONZIE

The Christmas of Bones

And Season's Greetings to all.

Soiree Classroom: How to give a wedding toast

Have you ever been asked to be a maid of honor? Or perhaps a best man? If so, you know how daunting the task of writing a toast can be. It's very important to write it in advance, though....I can't tell you how many best men decide to 'wing it' then stumble through and end up with something very generic ("I love you both. Congratulations!").

Oftentimes at weddings, these toasters will tell me (doe-eyed) that they haven't written anything and don't know what to say. Of course we do our best to help in any situation, so I usually rip off a page from my workbook, grab a pen from my pocket, and walk them through it. Here's the advice I dish out to nervous toasters:

1. If there is no wedding planner, introduce yourself to the DJ or bandleader and find out where he wants you to stand. Check with the photographer, too. Remember step 1 from the cake cutting lesson? Think about the background that will be in all your photos. If there is a planner, they should tell you these things.

Lori's grandfather didn't think about the DJ when he cut the challah:2. Think ahead and bring your champagne glass. Set it down nearby if you have too many things to hold.

My brother somehow managed this:3. Hold the microphone UP TO YOUR FACE. One of my biggest pet peeves is when toasters hold the microphone near their waist and expect it to pick up their voice.

My dear grandad wasn't aware of #3:Jessica's mom did a great job at #3:
4. Introduce yourself. A simple "Good evening. My name is John....Ben and Stephanie asked me to be their best man today and I am honored to be here."

5. Tell everyone how you know the bride and/or groom. "Ben and I attended middle school together. Mrs. Harrison's 7th grade history class was probably the most boring class I ever took, but I always looked forward to it since Ben sat next to me. He's been my best friend ever since and has been the closest thing to a brother I've ever had."

6. Explain how you met their spouse. "When Ben told me he met this really fantastic girl, of course I was skeptical. I didn't think anyone was good enough for my Ben. However, a few weeks later I had the chance to meet Stephanie and I could truly see why Ben was so excited."

7. Describe why they are better as a couple then they are as single people. "Ben is the kind of guy that is always trying new things and pushing the envelope. Stephanie is a perfect complement...always smart and practical about things. They bring out the best in each other and really do make a perfect couple. I'm so happy they found one other -- it was meant to be.

8. If you have a humorous story, make sure you give enough background but keep it concise so it's funny without being too long. AVOID jokes about past girlfriends, drunken nights, or anything related to the bachelor party.

9. Speak directly to the bride and groom. "Ben and Stephanie, you both have been great friends to me and have set a wonderful example for me and my wife, Judy. I wish you all the happiness in the world together."

10. "Cheers"

If you're too lazy to write your own toast, you can pay The Perfect Toast $155 to write it for you!

Special thanks to Rodney Bailey, Linda Wallace, Roman Grinev, & Marilynn Spindler of Sandi Foraci Photography for the photos in this post.

All Your Past Are Belong to eBay (2)

I undertook to say something about this, so I suppose I'd better...

It's the Adventures of Robin Hood annual, published by Adprint in 1961 and based on the Richard Greene TV series. It was a typical children's annual of its era; a yearly one-off publication for the Christmas market, in large format with shiny board covers, containing a mixture of text and picture stories.

The cover and interior art were by Ron Embleton, one of that great and often unrecognised generation of postwar illustrators whose distinctive, painted style gave a unique character to British children's fiction of the day. Embleton, who died in 1988, was one of the best of them; his work ranged from The Trigan Empire to Penthouse's Wicked Wanda, and it's his art that can be seen under the end credits of every episode of the original Captain Scarlet TV series.


The story's a short one. Last year I was searching online for a signed Ray Harryhausen print for a friend's birthday. A damn-near fatal move. Hours were lost as I kept forgetting my original purpose and losing myself in the catalogue listings of dealers like The Book Palace, sellers of all things concerning comics, graphic novels and the related arts.

And what did I find on sale there but the original Ron Embleton painting for the cover of my Adventures of Robin Hood Annual, number five.

Now, I don't believe in the business of people buying themselves some piece of goods and then informing a partner "That's my Christmas present from you." If ever there was an ultimate corruption of the Christmas spirit, there it is. So instead I did the proper, traditional thing, and begged and pestered for it.

I don't know where the piece has been hiding for the past forty-seven years, but here's where it lives now, above my study stairs, providing occasional inspiration and frequent escape:


And yes, I located the Harryhausen print as well, so that year everyone was happy.

God bless us, every one.

Tony Tenser

I'm late catching up with the news, but British film producer and distributor Tony Tenser died on December 5th.

I interviewed Tenser onstage twice at Manchester's Festival of Fantastic Films, and considered it a privilege to be given the opportunity.

Some obits that I've seen are characterising him as a producer of nudie exploitation pix with a couple of redeeming titles to his credit. But to my mind the producer of Repulsion, Cul de Sac, The Sorcerers, and Witchfinder General has nothing to apologise for.

Here's a thought for you; our contemporary art of the most lasting value is made when low culture reaches up. Never when high culture condescends to reach down.

My favourite story from those interviews came from the set of Repulsion. Polanski was shooting the scene in which Catherine Deneuve is menaced by disembodied arms that erupt from the walls of a narrow corridor. He'd stipulated a certain number of extras to provide the arms, and had been supplied with less. Tenser asked him to justify the number he'd asked for, and Polanski walked off the set.

A runner was sent after him with the message:

"If Mr Polanski does not return and shoot the scene with the available extras, Mr Tenser will be obliged to bring in his associate Mr Harrison Marks to complete the film."

and Polanski was back on the runner's heels.

That's how Tenser told it. And if anyone was there and knows different, I don't want to hear.

25% Off at Jamali Garden

Jamali Garden is one of those hidden gems that has so many amazing decor options for weddings! They have a store in NYC but I've ordered vases, stones, ribbon, sticks, and just about anything else you can imagine through their fantastic online store. Here are some of our picks:

Pretty planters:Square pillar candes:Glass Cloches:Clear lustre glass marbles:Hermes vase:Floating glitter candles:Large black polished stones:Iridescent hanging votives:Votives in any color:Candy buffet vases:Antiqued hanging votives:Light pink sea glass:Glass footed hurricane vases:Right now, save 25% on ribbon, garland, ornaments, and other items as part of their Holiday Sale!