Pashmina -- for the totally non-no-frills weddingThe sun peeks out for a brief blaze of glory just as the newly-shackled couple clambers into the limousine. Everyone heads toward the lakeside reception, and a breeze kicks up. The bridesmaids (More...) Something special for the honeymoon cruise...	Get your Bridal Discount here! Well, not really here... You have to place your order at the regular place (click on Order!! in the menu bar to your right. If your order comes to $300 or more and includes at least 3 identical pieces, we will automatically take a 10% discount off your order, and give you free DHL delivery, in addition to free tote bags, free earrings, and free mini-purses. Beautiful packing, ready for presentation to your bridesmaids. What color should I order? We would strongly recommend you not try to match your dress color exactly. For one thing, the shawl will obscure the lines of your gown, and make life miserable for your photographer. Also, it is hard to get an exact match of any color, and a slight difference will create eyestrain as your guests try to make sense of the inconsistency. Finally, we can't do bright white -- no one can, unless they bleach the heck out of the fiber, which has the same general effect on the fiber as chlorox would have on your hair. We recommend a modest contrast -- beige or cornflower against an ivory dress, for example. Size? Blend? For the petite, we recommend a medium shawl. The 70/30 pashmina-silk blend is most popular, except where price is no object. (But, when you consider how much your maid are spending on gowns they'll probably never wear again, maybe they deserve the ultraposh option?) When do I need to order? Unless you want special customization, ten days is usually sufficient. However, when the stakes are so high, we recommend ordering a month in advance. Then you'll have one less thing to worry about.
	Learn to dance! Back from Tahiti, your Mom greets you with a package. Special delivery... she had to sign for it. It's the wedding video. Everybody rushes for the screening room. Popcorn and sangria for all! Okay, here's the vows... not so bad... hers were touchant... and you remembered most of yours. And now, the spotlight dance... But oh no! Is that you trying to get away with your impression of the washing machine on rinse cycle? One of the best investments you can make is a crash course in ballroom and Latin dance. If you happen to live in the Bay Area, check out Barbara's Dancing Tonight in Davis, 12 miles west of Sacramento. (530) 756-8371. E-mail: bdt@dancingtonight.com.	En pointe! Okay, you're just a bit taller than him. No problem. Ordinarily, you like that edge. But why rub it in with 3"-pumps? Here's an idea: (More...) Insure your day! If you want to make sure it doesn't rain, you carry your umbrella, right? Okay, now focus on all the things that can go awry on your big day. Ring gets lost. Video guy forgets to recharge the camcorder battery. Mr. Right (More...) Say it with flowers. Quiz time! What flower means "I share your sentiments of loyal love"? Did you guess Peruvian Heliotrope? Gloxinia?? (More...)

Balanced Living: our new favorite magazine! Don't miss the Jan.-Feb. issue, with "My Big Fat Organic Wedding", an inspiring account of the editor's truly imaginative event (complete with Tartan and blessing stones) -- and we're in it!!! Our Ceremony Franklin and I crafted our wedding ceremony to embody our religious and cultural heritages, while at the same time reflecting our personal beliefs and values. Two of our close friends were invited to officiate along with a rabbi; and together, the five of us created a ceremony with reverence for our backgrounds and relevance in our daily lives. During the ceremony I pinned a swatch of my family's Scottish tartan to Franklin to signify his entry into my family. We also asked some of our friends to join us under the chuppah (marriage canopy) to offer their personal interpretation of one of the seven traditional Jewish ceremonial blessings. As our guests came in, each was invited to select a stone from a bowl before heading to his/her seat. During the ceremony each was asked to bless the stone with an intention for us and place it back in the bowl before leaving. These stones, now a part of our home, carry the energy of every guest at our wedding. Our Gifts to Women Attendants Our women attendants found themselves cozy in the crisp autumn air during our outdoor ceremony because we had given each of them a royal-purple wrap made of Pashmina wool, handmade to order in Nepal by Sunrise Pashmina, a very small fair-trade company that is owned and operated by its owner, Tsering Choekyap Sherpa in Nepal. The internet-sales portion of the company is based in Ithaca and provides exceptional, personal service. We even received a hand-written note from Tsering himself, offering us best wishes and blessings from his entire team of skilled workers. Sharing the elegant, quality Pashmina shawls was a rewarding experience from start to finish. Sunrise Pashmina has generously extended a 10 percent-off offer to all Balanced Living readers through February 28, 2007. To redeem, visit www.SunrisePashmina.com and enter code [ ? ]... Sorry, you'll have to read the article to get the code. Or better yet, subcribe to Balanced Living (If you miss the current issue, contact editor/publisher Maggie Busser at 216-226-6094 or Maggie@BalancedLivingMag.com).

Baby your baby ...in pashmina!

Non-no-frills, cont'd.
reach into their elegant faux-brocade purses for those definitely-not-faux 70% pashmina/30% silk shawls... cloud white, identical to the bride's -- except for the Florata embroidery on hers. The guys in their snappy tuxes shrug, and unfurl their matching pashmina mufflers. Now who's cool?

Sunrise knows how much your buddies deserve this extravagant party favor... and how much you're going to need yours on that air-conditioned flight to Tahiti, where, believe it or not, the zephyrs wafting in off the lagoon can get a bit chilly in the mai-tai evenings. And how god-awful expensive this whole thing is. Stretch limousine. Parchment invitations. Flowers. Flowers, holy kamoly!! That's why Sunrise Pashmina offers a so-called Bridal Discount:

10% off our regular prices and free shipping for orders over $300 which include at least three identical shawls. Free earrings and mini-purses with each shawl. Note: Although this offer was inspired by the special needs of bridal parties, it is definitely available to the non-betrothed.

Personal Wedding Websites - Click here!

Shoe pointers, cont'd.
ballet slippers! And, while we're at it, here's a tip for the guy whose idea of dressing up is trading in his Birkenstocks for Nike Air Jordans: take a few hours to break in those new Oxfords before you go squeaking down the aisle. And bring a couple of jumbo Band Aids to patch up your blistered Achilles' tendon.

Frugal Bride has everything for the bride... frugal or profligate. We even found a blurb about us on the Babbling Bride forum: Pashminas www.sunrise-pashmina.com (10/10) Early October temperatures are unpredictable and our day turned out to be very cold. I am so thankful I ordered pashminas. I found this company on the internet and had absolutely no problems. Very nice people to deal with with. (Click here if you want to go read it for yourself.)

Insurance, cont'd.
elopes with your maid of honor. Well, if you want to make darn sure that any cloud that shows up on your special day has a substantial silver lining, there's only one solution: wedding insurance. Here's one outfit that even covers you if your relatives are flying in from China and get hung up at the airport because someone on the flight had a little cough that sounded like SARS: WedSafe. Check the fine print though... they're probably not going to cover for feckless fianc� syndrome.

We ran across this on Laura Fisher's blog: December 23, 2003 mercurial dispatch I had given up hope. The note on the UPS tracking site said ADDITIONAL IMPORT DOCUMENTS REQUIRED, dated 2 days ago. My pashmina was stuck in Hong Kong and was going to be there a while, as far as the website was willing to tell me. Knowing that Mercury is retrograde right now, I figured there was no way it was going to get to me before the wedding. But a ring of the bell this morning ("you go - you've got a robe on!") and a big brown truck pulling away from the curb dispatched my disappointment to the hinterlands. Oh, it's just so lovely - ruby red, just like I asked for (custom dyed, dontcha know) and gorgeous silver floral embroidery around the edges. And soft, so so soft. It's going to look beautiful with my dress. And besides all that, how cool is it to get a shipment from Kathmandu, Nepal?! In any case, I highly recommend Sunrise Pashmina if you find yourself in the market for a shawl. Custom made, very reasonably priced and sans UPS blunders, the shipping would have been very quick. Even with them, it was only three weeks from the time I placed my order to when I had it cozily wrapped around my shoulders. Yum.

Yapping flowers, cont'd.
Damask Rose??? Nope, nope, and triple nope. It's the humble daisy! According to an article in Contemporary Bride, people used to attribute conventional meanings to specific flowers. There were even whole books published on the topic, including The Language of Poetry and Flowers. Here's a little primer:

• Four-Leaf Clover: "Be mine!"
• Gloxinia: "Love at first sight"
• Jonquil: "Desire for return of affection"
• Primrose: "I can't live without you"
• Violet: "Faithfulness"
• Ivy: "Marriage"

Hmmm... what about Black-eyed Susan? Curiously, Contemporary Bride isn't saying. Probably something like "This is an offer you don't want to refuse..."

Penelope Wainman's Virgin Goddess pashmina