 A shot from last year's Be Well Boot Camp of a Hatha yoga class taught by Mariel Freeman, co-owner of DIG YOGA. Last year, our buds over at Be Well Philly threw the first ever Be Well Boot Camp, and it was awesome. (Seriously—check out the photos and recap here.) This year, they’re doing it again, and it’s coming up on Saturday, June 8th.
The Be Well Boot Camp is basically an awesome (yes, yes, we already said that) day-long health-and-fitness event that takes place at Drexel. There are fitness classes to try out from local gyms, studios and personal trainers; health, wellness (topics like sleep and sex), and weight loss seminars and panels; cooking demos—all that kind of cool stuff. And at a time in your life when you are probably even more focused on health and wellness—and, yes, especially fitness and weight loss—this event kinda has “Come here, brides!” written all over it.
Here, my colleague breaks down this year’s lineup, which looks so cool. (Oh, and here’s a little preview Q&A sesh with Dr. Reina Marino, an integrative-lifestyle-medicine expert, who will be on hand at the event to chat about how to boost your sex drive naturally, like with food and exercise. Ahem, soon-to-be newlyweds.)
Here’s the official schedule, and here’s where to buy tickets. Questions? Leave ‘em in the comments, and we’ll be sure to tell you what’s what. See you there!
Read more about bridal health and fitness here.
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 Look 1 from Vera Wang's all-red Spring 2013 bridal collection. When Jessica Biel got married to Justin Timberlake wearing a pink Giambattista Valli gown it seemed to solidify a growing trend—at least among celebrities—in the number of brides who were opting for color over a traditional white wedding gown. (Why, just yesterday we told you about Shenae Grimes getting married in black tulle!) Now, apparently, there are numbers to back this up concerning non-celebrity brides.
A recent study found that 27 percent of younger brides—girls between the ages of 18 and 24—would not wear white on their wedding day. That’s a pretty big percentage! (Only 15 percent of brides between the ages of 35 and 44 would do the colorful thing, though.) Apparently, one bride in 10 would wear a red dress, a la Vera Wang’s Spring 2013 bridal collection, and one in 20 would do the pink thing, a la Jessica Biel (and Reese Witherspoon, and Gwen Stafani, etc., etc.).
Numbers aside, just anecdotally color does seem to be more prevalent in bridal these days—both in designers who are regularly including color in their seasonal collections, and in brides who are actually opting to wear these styles. Heck, the gorgeous Philly bride whose wedding on the Moshulu we posted about last week did the blush thing, too!
Would you wear a color on your wedding day, instead of white? If so, what color would you go for?
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 Laura Novak and Beka Rendell of PhotoPOP. Beka Rendell, one half of Philly’s Styled Creative (you’ve seen their photo-propping work in our pages before!) and Laura Novak, former wedding photographer and current owner of Little Nest Portraits in Wayne and Glen Mills, have recently teamed up to form a new business that we’re pretty pumped about: PhotoPOP!
PhotoPOP is an event photo booth service that basically takes care of the pictures and the background and props all in one easy little package. Oh, though it’s not actually a booth: Book them, and you’ll get an actual photographer who will come and set up a little area at your wedding reception complete with a backdrop—one that you either choose from PhotoPOP’s inventory (they currently have six different designs in stock and will continue to add more), or one that they’ll custom source or design for you—and oodles of fun props for your guests to play with. Here are the options:
- Book a Level One PhotoPOP and you’ll get a photog for three hours, an in-stock backdrop and props, and a gallery of images that you can share and post. (You’ll get an email with various choices in it, plus a list of suggestions from the ladies as to what combos they think look best!) This option is $950.
- Book a Level Two PhotoPOP and you’ll get a photog for four hours, the gallery of images to share and post, and a personal consultation during which you can design your ultimate little mini-set for your wedding’s photo “booth.” This option is $1,300.
All of the photographers are part of Laura’s staff, and when it’s all said and done, no matter what level you choose, you’ll receive a disc full of your hi-res images. Prices start a $25 for a la carte prints.
So fun! Are you considering some sort of photo booth station at your wedding?
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 Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie, flashing her new engagement ring. Some fun bits of celeb wedding news from the weekend! We’ve got one engagement and one marriage.
Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie got engaged to political guy and boyfriend of four years Michael Feldman over the weekend, and then announced it on Monday morning’s show after her colleagues failed to notice her new bling (pictured to the right, as snapped by Al Roker). And, despite Mr. Roker’s jokes, she says they will not be getting married on TV.
And then, I remember back when Vera Wang did her entire Fall 2012 bridal collection in nude and black—she says she was inspired by lingerie—PW’s fab stylist, Lauren Kozaciewicz, and I were talking about how pretty we thought the dresses were, but wondered how many brides would actually wear one for their wedding dress. Well, today we have our answer: 90210‘s Shenae Grimes! The actress married her British model boyfriend over the weekend wearing a black tulle number from that very collection. The only other celeb to famously wear a black wedding dress that comes to mind is Sarah Jessica Parker—and she holds to this day that she regrets it. Hopefully Ms. Grimes doesn’t feel the same way in a few years.
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You know, it’s probably not a good sign if the groom hypothetically throws out there, “So hey, like, if we didn’t actually end up getting married, you’d give me back the ring, right?” Like, that’s not something that I feel should probably come up during a strong and happy engagement. The bride gave him a sure, but whether it was to punish him for simply asking that question or not, that’s not what ended up happening in this messy little situation.
NFL star Mario Williams is suing his ex-fiance because, contrary to her (I’m guessing) shrugged-shouldered response to his hypothetically staged question, she both called off the wedding—and made off with the engagement ring. The engagement ring that cost him $750,000.
No matter what she supposedly “agreed” to, I generally think that whoever calls off the wedding needs to give the other person the ring. Unless it’s a peacefully reached, truly mutual decision—then the couple can amicably reach that decision together. Watch the video below for the deets on this mess.
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And other topics covered in a recent Q&A.
 Vera Wang New York mag recently sat down with Vera Wang after she debuted her Spring 2014 Bridal Collection (eee!) to chat about a few things, including her advice for the “modern” bride, her recent affinity for non-white bridal gowns (remember her all-red spring 2013 collection), how you should consider your wedding’s location when choosing your wedding gown, and then, my two fave parts: how you should still look like yourself on your wedding day, and that she’s never heard of this “trash the dress” thing.
Looking like yourself is one of my broken-record things about a bride on her wedding day—I think it’s one of the reasons I like brides with their hair down so much. You shouldn’t look like some other person on your wedding day—you should look like you, just a little amped. Vera says “Don’t disguise yourself,” and I say holla that.
And while part of me is a little disappointed that she’s not familiar with the trash-the-dress trend—because I feel like she’d not be a fan and I would have enjoyed whatever little snippet she had to offer (I’m not such a fan, either)—I also kind of enjoy it, because it’s just kind of a dismissal of the whole thing.
Read the whole thing here. RELATED: Photos: Vera Wang’s Spring 2013 Bridal Collection
RELATED: An Interview With Monique Lhuillier About Her Spring 2014 Bridal Collection
Image: Miro Vrlik Photography / Shutterstock.com
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 Keira Knightly It was just recently that right here on this blog we were talking about Keira Knightely had said she did not want a big wedding—and how I said that that was all well and good, but that we just still needed to see the dress. Well, both of those things have come true!
Ms. Knightley married her beau James Righton over the weekend in the South of France. There were 11 people there—and here’s the dress! Many have pointed out that it actually appears to be a Rodarte dress she wore back in 2008, and judging by the pictures, I’d have to agree. And that makes sense, kinda, with the whole feel of her wedding: town hall, ballet flats, flowers in her hair. Why not wear the dress she’s already got if it fits the scene and vibe of the day just about perfectly?
What about you, think it’s the same one?
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Say wha?
Starting in the summer of 2011, Kjerstin Gruys stopped looking in the mirror—ever—for an entire year. Her new book about the experiment, Mirror Mirror Off the Wall, is out now.
Ballsy, yes, but here’s the thing: This time period included her wedding day! Her wedding day. She talks about that in the video below—there’s video of her wedding day, actually—and while I totally get that, as she says, no one who was there that day was going to let her walk down the aisle with broccoli in her teeth, there was no way for them to know if she looked the way she had always envisioned looking on her wedding day. I get that that is a rather large part of the point of her whole experiment, but still. Whew. Props to her for sticking to it! It’s pretty awesome. I don’t think I could do it. Those wedding photos last forever, man. Watch it here:
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 Lady Gaga Well, I don’t know where I’ve been, but every time I’ve heard something about Lady Gaga’s supposed wedding supposedly coming up, I always assumed it was supposedly with some phantom boyfriend who no one actually knew for sure existed. I mean, girlfriend wears enough big, white, crazy dresses to stoke wedding rumors without her actually dating anyone.
So you can imagine my surprise when her actual real-life boyfriend actually piped up this time to address the wedding rumors—and not only was he an actual living, breathing, human being, it’s someone I know! I mean, I couldn’t have told you his name, but I recognize him as the pretty guy on that show Chicago Fire, which I have never actually seen save for glimpses when I walk through a room in which my mother is happily watching it on the DVR.
So, long story short? They’re not engaged. No wedding is currently coming up. That they’ll cop to, anyhow. But you know how these celebs are. Next thing you know, I’ll be showing her dress.
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Image: s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
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 The Alice flower girl dress from BHLDN's new line. Squeal!
If you’ve ever wished, while trying to narrow down which BHLDN wedding dress you’ll walk down the aisle in—or simply while drooling over the new items they recently put on sale—that the Philly-based bridal sister brand of Anthro would just add some darling flower girl dresses to its line of dresses for you and your ‘maids already, then you will be happy to hear that at long last, they heard you!
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