Fashion Week: Lovely Gary Graham spring 10 "wedding" dress

Some of my favorite wedding dresses are ones designed from entirely un-bridal inspirations. Most of the brides we feature in Seattle Bride's real weddings stories wear traditional wedding dresses, but we've also shown women wearing beautiful dresses found at Marios or Nordstrom, and one memorable dress worn by a PNB ballerina was culled at BCBG for a song.

So I loved spying this Gary Graham dress (above) from the Spring 2010 collections yesterday. His collection was partially inspired by both Nancy Spungen and Lillian Gish, according to Style.com. With this dress, a 1930's Gish (and maybe a little 90s-era Courtney Love, who always aspired to be Spungen), is evident.

Graham's whole collection, pieces of which are sold here in Seattle at Alhambra and Les Amis, is lovely and there are beautiful options for bridesmaid dresses—that can actually be worn again, thank you very much—as well.


Photos: Alex Antich / Courtesy of Gary Graham

Maybe Anna's Starbucks arrived cold today?

The best caption from Fashion Week so far. (Is she being rewarded or punished?!?!)

Photo: Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times

Uncharted Territories: Panama, Costa Rica—and Victoria!

Now that what must have been my busiest, most adventurous summer yet is drawing to a close, I have time to blog (and just in time for Fashion Week) and post a couple of magazine articles I wrote that were recently published.

My story about an incredible "Journey Between Two Seas" from Costa Rica to Panama appears in the September issue of Virtuoso. As with any trip, most of the journey is not included in the article—there are dozens of stories that came from this trip, from exploring old ruins to meeting remote tribes to zip-lining through the rainforest canopy—but I hope you enjoy my take on 10 days in the jungle and on the ocean in 1,800 words.
Me, ziplining over the jungle; Photo by Kerrick James

In the same issue, a smaller article I wrote about eating my way through Victoria, B.C., one of my favorite nearby Northwest getaways, is featured on page 36. Victoria is a laid-back, lovely city with a fussier reputation than it deserves. Thanks in part to the inventive Island Chef's Collaborative, many, many bistros and restaurants here are just first-rate, offering organic, island-only—or primarily island—cuisine. Feel free to get in touch if you ever need suggestions about where to eat or stay (or bike!) in Victoria; I'm always happy to pass on my recommendations!
Cycling the coastline near Victoria. And, no, I don't always wear some kind of helmet when I travel

Behind the Scenes at Seattle Bride

I'm in love with this video shot by Edit 1 Media at Seattle Bride magazine's recent photo shoot for our flowers feature. What really floors me is that this is the state of wedding video these days! Many thanks to Edit 1 for this beautiful video and giving our readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at a flowers/fashion shoot.

Edit 1 Media founders Laura and Chris Randall are also one of our upcoming "Ask the Experts" on SeattleBrideMag.com, so be sure to keep your eyes out for their Q&A-style interview, where they answer everything you need to know about wedding videography.

Seattle Bride on Evening magazine!

Photograph by Elke Van de Velde
The upcoming Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Seattle Bride is coming down the home stretch, giving me little time for anything else. So it was great to take a break last night and watch a terrific segment on Evening Magazine about one of our upcoming fashion spreads shot by one of my favorite photographers, Elke Van de Velde.

It's always fun to see how TV shows edit long conversations down to soundbites—I ordinarily wouldn't mention Depression-era, budgeting and Luly Yang dresses in the same breath—but I'm loving how they put together all these thoughts into three fabulous minutes. Check it out and let me know what you think, and be sure to pick up a copy of the issue when it hits newsstands in early July!

The Cookbook Chronicles

As always happens when exciting things are happening in my busy life, I've been super lazy-bones about documenting the developments on this blog. Well, thank goodness for Lorna Yee, my new partner in our newest venture: Eat, Drink, and Be Married, a cookbook for newlyweds, due out from Sasquatch Books in March, 2010. Lorna, the chef for Cache Seattle and a food writer for Seattle magazine, started a blog called The Cookbook Chronicles (which I've contributed to twice but ideally I will do so more often) that documents her recipe crafting—she's the super-star chef—while I'm writing text and sidebars that will inspire newlyweds to learn to love cooking together.

Lorna's recipes are fantastic and I have no doubt couples are going to go crazy over this book. On my end, I'm gathering love-and-food stories from different people in the food world—chefs, sommeliers, farmers, vintners—whomever!—who have romantic, funny or wise stories to share about their experiences with food and their spouse. So far the response has been fantastic and we've even gotten a little bit of pre-press in the Seattle P-I, Devouring Seattle and Seattle Magazine.

So unless I fall off the wagon again and stop blogging (was that an apt metaphor? probably not...), expect regular updates about Eat, Drink, and Be Married, as well as links to Lorna's goings-on on The Cookbook Chronicles. In the meantime, be sure to check Seattle Bride magazine's blog for updates.

Day TWO of Battle of the Betrothed

Today Seattle Bride and The Healthy Bride are kicking off the second day of Battle of the Betrothed down at Westlake Center and the competition is fierce! All eight of our hilarious, adorable, charming and all-around fantastic couples are pulling out all the stops to come up with the most creative solutions to the challenges before them.



Yesterday, couples competed in a toilet-paper-dress-making competition to win a Sally Crew wedding dress from La Belle Elaine's (with our fabulous assistant editor Michelle LaFrance—see above—standing in as a model for one couple), an amazing invite-crafting contest to win an invitation package from All About Weddings, a bouquet and boutonniere making contest for a free floral package from Midnight Blossom Floral Design, and then raced around the city—using only human power and public transportation—to top wedding-picture-locations to land a free photography package from Laura Totten Photography.

But it is today's competitions that are not to be missed! The contestants battle it out in a cake decorating contest, hair and makeup contest and a dance challenge, as well as the announcement of the top THREE couples who will compete next Saturday for the ultimate prize: A fantastic honeymoon package!

We've got great music from Event Success (recommended!), a warm tent and lots of seating down in Westlake Center. I hope you come down, say hello and check out the fun.