Your 15 Minutes of Bridal Fame - TV Shows looking for REAL brides!

With all the reality shows on TV these days, has the thought ever crossed your mind to actually sign up for one of those shows? I personally like watching the heart felt stories but, you know the bridezilla stories are talked about the most. I saw a posting for an open casting call for a new show and figured I would look into all the shows that are casting - so here are the shows I found - if you have ever signed up (or been on one of these shows) I would really love to see comments on how your experience was!

Do you or someone you know think you have what it takes to be on America's top-rated wedding show?
Are your wedding preparations getting out of control?
Are you struggling with the cooperation of your wedding party, fiancé or in-laws?
Are you doing everything in your power to make sure your wedding day is perfect?
Are you ready to share your story with other women who’ve been or will be in your shoes?
If so, then you are just what we’re looking for!

**BRIDES WILL BE GENEROUSLY COMPENSATED**

To be considered for an episode of Bridezillas please email the below information tocastingbridezillas@gmail.com and someone in the casting department will be in touch to take you through the casting process:

• BRIDE’S FULL NAME
• AGE
• CITY & STATE
• CONTACT #
• EMAIL
• WEDDING DATE
• WEDDING BUDGET
• GROOMS FULL NAME
• TELL US WHAT KIND OF BRIDEZILLA YOU’D BE.
• DESCRIBE TO US YOUR MOST RECENT BRIDEZILLA MOMENT
• WHO IS GIVING YOU THE MOST STRESS & WHY?
• GIVE US YOUR TOP 3 CONCERNS FOR YOUR WEDDING.

*IMPORTANT* DON’T FORGET TO EMAIL US A FEW PHOTOS OF THE ENGAGED COUPLE!!

For any other questions or to apply online, e-mail the Bridezillas Casting Department at castingbridezillas@gmail.com or call 310-717-8666.

Do You Have The Ultimate Wedding Disaster Story?

Did you suffer a wedding disaster that put a damper on your big day? Does your wedding video play like a blooper reel? Do you wish you could do it all over again and have the wedding you originally dreamed of?

WE tv WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU!

WE tv is casting dynamic Los Angeles-area couples who deserve the ultimate DO OVER…a dream wedding celebration planned by acclaimed wedding designer. What happened to ruin your big day? Did your ex show up and object in the middle of your ceremony? Did a storm knock out your power or prevent most of your guests from attending? Were you forced to elope instead of having the great white wedding you dreamed of? If you live in LA and have your disaster caught on tape, you could get a second chance to have your dream wedding!

Contact us today with your story!
212-377-4167
IshTVCasting@gmail.com 
Download Application Here!

WE tv's hit series My Fair Wedding is casting for Los Angeles brides only! We need brides who are getting married in LA up to November 2011. Sorry no exceptions.

Please send us your information! Casting email is MFW4casting@pilgrimfilms.tv

Include in your email the following:

• NAME
• ADDRESS
• PHONE NUMBER
• WEDDING DATE / LOCATION
• GUEST COUNT
• BRIEF BIO
• CURRENT PHOTO OF BRIDE/GROOM

Please also include a brief description and/or photos of any existing wedding plans (i.e., Dress, Venue, Decor, Etc.).

E-mail applications to: MFW4casting@pilgrimfilms.tv

Are you engaged or married? If so, you can join us on Rich Bride Poor Bride. We’re lookin g for outspoken, dynamic couples that are open to share their wedding planning experience with us. Simply fill out the questionnaire here.

SAY YES TO THE DRESS: BRIDESMAIDS 
Are you a bride or bridesmaid and want to be on TV? Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaidsis casting! To apply, go to www.bridalsbylori.com or send an e-mail tobelles@northsouth.tv. Tell us a little about yourself and why you would like us to film this particular bridesmaids group shopping for dresses.

Are you a plus-size Bride who is ready to find the wedding dress of your dreams? If so, the hit TLC show Say Yes To The Dress: Big Bliss, wants to hear from you! Big Bliss is filmed at Kleinfeld Bridal, the world's premiere bridal salon - located in NYC. The show follows the journey of plus-size brides as they shop to fulfill their dream dress fantasy for their very special day. If interested, fill out our application, and we'll be contacting you to possibly a film your Say Yes moment! 
Apply online at: www.kleinfeldbridal.com/tlc/index.cfm

We are currently looking for brides getting married in 2012 in the NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY area and the greater PHOENIX/SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA area.Interested in competing for a honeymoon on Four Weddings -- and getting married in 2012? If that's you, please email with details about the date of you big day plans, including the date and the location.
AZ: Email 4WeddingsPhoenix@semisweetproductions.com
NY/NJ: Email 4WeddingsNY@semisweetproductions.com

SAY YES TO THE DRESS 
Are you a bride getting married in this or next year in search of your perfect wedding dress? Find out how to apply for the show.

We have a WINNER for our Meant To Bee Giveaway!

Thank you all for entering our October giveaway: Meant To Bee! We hit up random.org to choose a winner this morning lucky number #51 came up as the winner!

Stay tuned...because in just a few days we will be announcing our November giveaway - and you won't want to miss it! Kristie, we will be contacting you soon to get your mailing information...Congratulations! :)

***Kristie was the 2nd winner because the first winner never contacted us. Remember guys - you have 3 days to contact me once I send you an email that you won.***

Tis the season...to BAKE!

Do you ever get that feeling that when the weather starts getting cooler you need to turn on your oven and get baking? Maybe it has something to do with all the holidays that come up between October and December. Baking just seems to be on my mind a lot lately. Seeing pictures like this does not help this baking bug I have:

Williams and Sonoma

Looks yummy huh? I think seeing all the goodies and gadgets in the stores, now that they all have Christmas displays up months in advance, has something to do with my current baking obsession. I keep seeing all these new baking gadgets too and I REALLY want to try them! Those little mini pies above were made using the Breville Pie Maker, available exclusively through Williams Sonoma for $99.95 (ouch). But, I also saw a mini pie maker from Sunbeam - I think it made 5 mini pies for $29.99 at Target. I can't seem to find that one online though! And there are some books filled with mini pie recipes:

Amazon

If mini pies aren't your thing, you can find a little gadget for every type of dessert! There are so many I would love to try but, finding storage space for all these gadgets could prove to be a problem...not to mention all the calories from these goodies...but they are mini right??

Sunbeam Mini Donut Maker

Tasty Treats - Donut Hole & Cake Pop Maker

Babycakes also makes all kinds of plug and bake dessert gadgets. They have the Cake Pop Maker - you can bake 12 cake pops in just minutes, then add sticks and get creative with the icing and decorations:

Cake Pops - 24.99

Another recent obsession: pie pops. Love them. And guess what? There's a gadget for that!

6 Pie Pops for 24.99 (or a red one is available for 29.99)

And this one has to be my favorite: Whoopie Pie maker. I do like these little guys! Babycakes also includes ALL the things you need to make these little heavenly cakes:

Whoopie Pie Maker $29.99 - includes all accessories! 

Are you in the mood to bake yet? Have you ever used any of these gadgets? I would really love some comments on this one! I have the mini cupcake maker and it's just ok. They are quick and fun to make and I am seriously considering purchasing these guys to add to the fun of my holiday baking!

Buzz on over and enter our Meant To Bee Giveaway!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to remind any new visitors that this is the LAST WEEK to enter our October Giveaway! A winner will be chosen on October 23rd! We put together a wonderful selection of items for a wedding, shower or party theme "Meant To Bee". You can enter by clicking here! But, even if that isn't your theme there are still LOTS of other things worth winning! We made it pretty simple to enter this giveaway: Follow us (that's usually a given). By following our blog you will know if you won the giveaway but, you will also get to enter our other giveaways (we usually host 1 giveaway a month), find inspiration, have a place to find other fabulous giveaways and so much more. We have also requested that you "like" two of our generous vendors:

SweetenYourDay: I purchased a dozen handmade bees from her for a party I was having. I absolutely fell in love with them when I got them! Jennifer makes the cutest cupcake toppers, cake toppers and more. All of her items are handmade and edible! This girl has some SERIOUS talent! I contacted her and told her I would be doing a giveaway on the blog and she generously offered to giveaway 1 dozen bees to the winner! She really sweetened my day! :) I know she can make anything you can think of - just ask her for a special request! She made these mini story books - if your guy (or girl) loves to read, or you met in a library these would make a cute little reminder:

Or maybe you are two peas in a pod?

Our next vendor that you were asked to "like" was Bee Creative.  Karen, the crafter extraordinaire, is a personal friend of mine. She is always going out of her way to help her friends with their parties and she puts together amazing banners, invitations and more! I had asked her if she would make a custom "Mr & Mrs" banner for the winner of my giveaway and she was up to the task! She loves creating different things and the winner will get to choose their paper and ribbon colors! She will come up with something that totally matches your wedding or party theme! 


So, a very special "thank you" to both of these ladies! Like I said at the beginning, though, you do not need to be having this specific theme to enter this giveaway! There are other items that you will absolutely LOVE! You will love the Printing Press software. I have used this DIY invitation software for many years. In fact, I purchased this software to do ALL the invitations for my wedding: bridal shower, bachelorette party and the day after wedding brunch! It also makes creating envelopes a breeze. You can use the preloaded images or cut and paste any of your own. It has a very easy to use interface and I know the winner will come up with all kinds of things to use this software for. I am also including two packages of Avery labels that I use - ALL the time! I have uploaded a couple templates (here and here) that you can use for the round labels and you can download all of these items (free of course!) and edit them for your own personal use. I promise to create more - and I will take special requests - just shoot me an email! :)


Ok...that's it for the recap...now hurry up! Go enter the giveaway and good luck to everyone! 

Candy Buffet Bar

I am a huge fan of candy bar stations at weddings or any party. They are always a crowd pleaser - seriously, who doesn't love candy? When I was doing my vendor reviews for the Bee theme party I talked about Candy Pros. Well, I got an email the other day from them and they saw my review and they generously offered my readers a 5% discount off their already low prices so, I wanted to make sure every one knew about this! The code to enter at checkout is: "meanttobee". Pretty appropriate since it ties into our Meant To Bee Giveaway  going on now! Have you entered? I hope so! There are some pretty awesome goodies up for grabs but, back to the sweet stuff! So, over at Candy Pros you can shop by color - which makes finding exactly what you need pretty easy!

For wedding candy bars you will find items such as popular Jelly Belly beans - these are great items for candy bars because A. Jelly Belly has the best beans B. Jelly Belly offers the most amazing colors and C. Every one loves Jelly Belly because of their awesome flavors. One of the most popular Jelly Belly wedding items is called the Champagne Bubble - its a small white jelly candy with little white balls all over - we have all seen them, they look like this:

Every website I compared to Candy Pros did not even come close to their price! For a 5lb package the cost is $27.96. I did this on similar popular candies like the popular Whirly Pop lollipops:

Candy Pros sells them individually for about $1.12 per pop - this is a great price! Even our local Smart and Final (a warehouse discount store) can't even sell them for that price and if you are looking for individual colors at those discount warehouse type stores? Forget about it! Usually, you are going to find only the rainbow colored pops. 


You will also find all the popular candy like the Nostalgia Candy, Movie Theater Candy, Kosher Candy and even Gluten Free Candy! 


Some of my favorites for decorations are the super larger Shimmer Gumballs and if you are thinking about maybe offering something like an ice cream bar - guess what?? Candy Pros even offers specialized theme toppings! Super awesome! I could go on and on talking about sweets but, I am sure you get the picture - awesome prices, excellent customer service, fast shipping and good packaging - hands down a super win in my book! And, again...don't forget our special discount code "meanttobee" that will give you an additional 5% off!


Thanks Candy Pros! I am a super fan now! :)

DIY Push Cakes

My friend tried her hand at making those popular push cakes last night. Do you remember ever eating the Nestle Push-Up ice creams? Well, they are still around but, now they have gone a step up! So, instead of ice cream you use plastic tubes and fill them with cake, frosting, sprinkles, then more cake, more frosting and more sprinkles. By the time you are done you have a tube filled with goodness. Can't go wrong there! 

Where you can go wrong is trying to find the most important part: the tubes. My friend decided at the last minute to make these so she found the tubes at a local cake supply store. Mistake number 1. She paid $1.25 per tube and that just didn't seem like an economical treat for a party/shower or wedding - especially if you need to make like 50 of them! So, I did a little research and I found them priced pretty much the same on all sites (around $60 for 100 pops):

• http://www.lagunawholesale.com - $61.12
• http://pushpopcontainers.com  - $73.55
• http://www.bakedeco.com - $67.21

Now, the question is: what do I use to fill them? Well, pretty much anything! I have heard of people doing it the easy way: buying the premade mini brownies at the grocery store, baking a cake and then crumbling the cake inside or my friend ended up using a mini muffin pan and baking her cake in that. The result was a perfect looking push cake! 

You can also use this "Handmade with love!" sticker I created:

Click here to download this file! It was made for MS Publisher and prints nicely on Avery 8293

Did you know that a package of Avery 8293 labels is part of our October "Meant To Bee" Giveaway? You could win this prize package - enter here!

DIY Hurricane Centerpieces

I was SUPER excited when I found this DIY project!! I actually want to go try this out (maybe a nice little Saturday project?). The colors were what initially caught my eye and then after reading, I learned they were split peas - interesting...right?? I like the look! 

I really love the idea of using these types of vases for your centerpieces but, the other part of this idea that caught my eye was how easy these would be to reuse in your everyday life. Not only do I try to find items that are inexpensive (but look expensive) to share but, my other goal is to share items that you can use for more than just the BIG DAY! It's always super exciting to find DIY projects that fit my criteria!  


So, how to make these super cute hurricane centerpieces? Let's get right into it:

SUPPLIES:

3 vases: There are plenty of places to find these clear glass vases in different shapes and sizes. I would try Dollar Tree, the .99 cent store or thrift shops but, you can also go hunting at garage sales or try the clearance aisle at Michael's. If you have to pay full price, remember to always look for a coupon in the newspaper or online! 3 candlesticks: To keep costs down head out to your local Dollar Tree, 0.99 Cent Store or a thrift shop. Again, check the stores above for these items but, you might also find some at Goodwill or resell shops - also garage sales! As a last resort, hit up stores like TJ Maxx or Ross. It might add to the cost a little bit if you have to shop at a major store. E6000 glue: You can find this glue at Michael's or your local craft store. Make sure you check your Sunday paper or online for a printable coupon to use. Michael's is famous for always having a 40% off coupon. I have never used the E6000 glue but, I have read it dries clear and that is the kind of glue you want to use. When I checked into doing this myself I also found someone who made something similar and they used the Gorilla Glue (I talked about that glue here) and the last item you will need is: Toothpicks
   

DIRECTIONS

First, wash and dry the vases and candlesticks.

Then, I apply the E6000 glue onto the rim of the candlesticks with a toothpick.

Next, put the vases on top of the candlesticks and apply some pressure. Let them set for a little bit (you could place something heavy on top to set - like a book)

The person who made these hurricane vases used split peas to fill the bottoms but, your options are endless! You can use pebbles, marbles, glass pieces (so many colors to choose from) or even flower petals. You can match your wedding theme and then after use different filler items for different holidays or special occasions! I see these hurricane vases at Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma all the time...but, thanks to some crafty people we can make these ourselves! LOVE.

This DIY project has been shared and altered by many. I would like to thank Chelsea for the images used in this post and her tutorial. She originally found it and adapted it from my blessed life, who originally found it from here. 

Our Meant To Bee Giveaway is still going on! 

Click here to enter now!

Meant To Bee - Giveaway

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! WE WILL BE ANNOUNCING THE WINNER SOON!

Meant To Bee - The Giveaway!

I am so excited about this month's giveaway! After sharing all the goodies for the Meant To Bee theme with you, our October giveaway will help you create your own bee party - in style! This is a treasure trove for the DIY bride!


Here's what a lucky winner is going to get:

To help with creating favor tags, thank you labels, address labels and whatever other projects you can come up with! You will get 1 package of each of these popular Avery brand labels for all your DIY projects:

1 Dozen Small Bees from Etsy seller SweetenYourDay

100 Lollipop Sticks from Wiltons

From Bee Creative you will get a banner that spells out "Mr & Mrs" - 

you choose the color &  ribbon color

PRINTINGPRESS 6.0 SOFTWARE - The best software for printing invitations and announcements at home! This is the personal edition for Windows

From Etsy seller MCreations4U - Meant To Bee Cake Pop Holder - Holds 24 Cake Pops

I think this has got to BEE one of our best giveaways yet!

HOW TO ENTER

MANDATORY:

• Get ONE entry for: Following my blog PUBLICLY (which means I can see you are following). Leave a comment to let me know you follow.

Visit the following vendors on Facebook and "Like" their page. 

You MUST leave a message on their wall:

• Get ONE entry for: Visiting SweetenYourDay on Facebook and  "LIKE" them
• Get ONE entry for: Visiting Bee Creative on Facebook and "LIKE" them

LEAVE A MESSAGE ON THIS POST LETTING ME KNOW YOU HAVE DONE EACH ITEM

(that means you will post 3x to complete your entry)

This giveaway will end on: October 23, 2011 at 8pm PST and the winner will be posted and contacted shortly there after! If we do not hear from the winner within 3 days, another winner will be chosen. PLEASE, make sure you leave me a way to contact you!!

What you win: A "Meant To Bee" Prize Package:

• 2 packages of Avery Labels
• 1 dozen small bees handmade by SweetenYourDay
• 1 package of 6" Lollipop sticks from Wilton
• 1 Handmade "Mr & Mrs" banner from Bee Creative
• 1 PrintingPress Software package from Mountain Cow (personal edition for Windows)
• 1 Cake Pop Stand made by Etsy seller MCreations4U 

Value of giveaway: $165.00

Shipping Charges: Included

This giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS only!

Good luck to everyone!