The combination of sun and sand is always a perfect recipe for a honeymoon or bachelorette party, add beautiful, happy people, incredible music and delicious drinks and you have Brazil.  Here’s my favorite shopping advice for your tropical needs in Rio.  Advice on accommodations and food to follow.

Bum Bum

Looking for the tiny yellow polka dot bikini or the most divine cover ups you could imagine? Head over to Bum Bum (which means exactly what you think) for clothes or lack thereof for days at the beach.

With many locations in Rio and a few scattered throughout Brazil, there’s no excuse for not going.  Ipanema and Leblon both have stores with a wonderful selection.  As bikinis in Brazil notoriously cover less behind than in other countries, head here to fit in at Posto 9 at Ipanema beach.  Bikinis aside, the cover ups are truly goddess.  In Rio you need little more than a cover up to saunter around under the tropical sun and those at Bum Bum will make you feel like Tinker Bell fluttering through the streets.  They come in an array of styles and colors, making it easy to buy one for every day on your honeymoon or bachelorette party.

In Ipanema, head next door to Blue Man to get your man a sunga.

Bum Bum

Blue Man

Address: Rua Visconde de Pirajá 351,  Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro
Phone: 021/2247-4905
www.blueman.com.br

Once you’ve tired of soaking up the history, caught the Chinese fishing nets in action and stocked up on spices, head down the coast to Alleppey and hire yourself a boat for a few days.  One overnight is definitely enough, but if you truly love boats and want to see more scenery book longer.   You can book in advance which might mean paying more or you can roll the dice and negotiate with the many vendors in the canals.  Be sure to inspect your boat before finalizing the deal and confirm as many details as possible.  One recommended backwater tour operator is Moni Kuncheria with Cruisor.  A couple of tips: ask exactly how long you’ll be cruising for (including breaks), when you leave and come back, meals that are included and crew members and ask if there is anything not included.  Be very specific and don’t fall for any scams involving giant prawns!  Request a Kerala fish fry as well. 

After relaxing for a few days in the backwaters you have the options of visiting one of the many backwater villages, journeying to sun streaked beaches along the coast or if you’ve had enough heat, heading toward the interior to some of the cooler hill stations in the Western Ghats to visit tea and exotic spice plantations. 

When You Visit:

Kochi Accommodations
Walton’s Home Stay
1 / 39, Walton Hall, Princess Street, Kochi
The Fort House
2/6 A, Calvathi Road, Kochi, Ph: 2217103

Kochi Restaurants
Anchor House
Near where Cavalthy road bends at the northernmost point of Kochi into Bazar Road

Backwater Cruising
Cruisor -  Moni Kuncheria
Mobile  +91 98460 32606,
cruisor@rediffmail.com,
Near Finishing Point, Alleppey

India

India is known for its bold, vibrant colors and exotic feel.  Using beautiful handmade paper for your wedding invitations, out-of-town bags, name place cards, save-the-dates, thank-you cards etc. could be a fun way to add color and flavor to your wedding. 

While shopping in downtown Mumbai (Bombay) I came across Chimanlals.   It’s a beautiful shop filled with an array of items made by hand.  The work is exquisite and the custom wedding invitations are incredibly unique and detailed. 

Credit to Photos By Winnie

As someone who’s sensitive to blood sugar highs and lows I was really worried about forgetting to eat and crashing on my wedding day.  I think it’s a fairly common problem for the bride and groom to be so busy and excited that they don’t have time for eating and drinking.  I knew for me that would be a disaster so I asked one bridesmaid ahead of time if she would kindly make sure I eat and another aunt sweetly carried around a water bottle for me in the hot July Californian  sun.  Shortly after my wedding I discovered Marrylicious.  Had I known of them earlier I could have had them mail me a little kit and been worry free.

Marrylicious creates beautiful, gourmet bridal survival kits that are perfect for your wedding day.  They feature local Seattle foods and beverages and come in elegant boxes with decadent ribbons.  Each package also includes tissues, mints, a sewing kit, stain removers and dental products!  I’ve heard of maids of honor and MOB ordering them to be delivered to the ceremony location or to the place for getting ready.  Brides occasionally order them for themselves and their posse as well.  They do overnight shipping and even 1-3 day global shipping. 

Credit to Photos By Winnie

For more information on their Tulip, Rose and Orchid packages click here.

The situation reminded me of a wedding I attended a few months ago where all of the out-of-town guests were asking us for directions and recommendations for where to go afterwards.  If they knew to download GoTime.com, where the happy hours never end, the after party wouldn’t either.  Check it out!

Most people have a general idea about the type of jewelry they want to wear for their special day, but they can’t always find it in a store. It might be helpful to look for a  professional jeweler who specializes in custom design jewelry.

A custom design jeweler is going to be able to handcraft the styles that their customers design, and they will also have access to every material imaginable. This means that if a bride and groom are planning their wedding day and have very specific or special ideas about their wedding bands or engagement jewelry, they will be able to have it made to order.

While choosing a custom design allows the couple to have truly unique wedding bands, it is always important to remember that the quality of the materials (especially costlier items like diamonds and gem stones) should be certified.

Where can you find ideas for custom design jewelry? Many people first look to style icons and celebrities.  Elizabeth Taylor has inspired women around the world with her seemingly endless collection of diamond and precious jewelry, of which many pieces were custom designed just for her.

Looking through the hottest styles worn by celebrities might also inspire a future bride in designing her own wedding jewelry as well. Recently chandelier earrings or vintage cut diamond rings have been trendy after appearing on many red carpet events. Taking cues from the structure, stones and metals of popular celebrity jewelry is often a great way to create a remarkable piece of custom design jewelry. This is particularly true where engagement and wedding bands, or bridal jewelry is concerned since these often become heirloom pieces.

AvantBride readers can use the coupon code: AVANTBRIDEBLOG for $10 off your next jewelry purchase at Abazias Diamonds.

There’s already a lot of research out there on the best types of pots to choose whether you get nonstick, hard anodized, 18/10 stainless steel, copper core etc, etc.  Having seen my mom use the same Revere stainless steel cookware set for over 30 years from her wedding, I opted out of any of the fancy technologies for 18/10 stainless steel.  The current Revere didn’t seem as durable to me as the set my mom has so I went for All-Clad, hoping that it will last as long as I can cook.  However, not everyone likes the weight of the All-Clad (or the price) so for this blog I decided to compare prices for a Calphalon Tri-ply 18/10 stainless steel set from Macy’s.

This 13 piece set, featured on the right, cost $399.99.  To demonstrate how much you can save in getting a set rather than keeping or purchasing individual pots I actually priced out each pot to find out if there is actually a savings in purchasing the set.  The table below shows the prices.

The total cost, if purchased individually, is $648.94. As the 13 piece set is priced at $399.99, the savings is $248.95 which is more significant than I thought it would be.

In addition, Macy’s often runs bonus and double bonus sales for purchasing cookware sets.  Currently for Calphalon they are offering a 6 piece utensil set with crock and a 5 quart dutch oven set.  They say the added value is $299.99 for a total savings of $548.94.

It seems this is produced just for the double bonus.

The double bonus seems to be a great added value but when you look closely bonuses are not really that great.  In this case, it’s likely that you already have a utensil set, or in the least wouldn’t want a $49.99 utensil set.  The dutch oven is actually not one that Calphalon even sells on its own.  I couldn’t find it in any catalogue which means that it is probably a cheaper knockoff of its nicer Dutch ovens and produced especially for this “double bonus” – meaning that it’s not really a $250.00 value.  If you could manage to swap out these bonuses for other Calphalon products of similar prices at Macy’s you’d be much better off.

My recommendation would be to find the set that you like and to get real bonuses added in and not these fake ones.  See my blog here on the topic.  As I explained in this earlier blog, if you choose a set smaller than what you actually need and augment it with pots as these double bonuses instead of their selections you’ll be much better off.

Thanks to Petitshoo for the photo.

How to Register for Pots

Tip #1 Register for many single pots rather than a set

Oftentimes when you go to Macy’s or other stores they’ll tell you to register for individual pots and then exchange them after the wedding for a packaged set.  The reason for doing this is so that guests can purchase something at a reasonable price rather than paying $500-$1,000 for one gift.  When registering for pots I recommend choosing them for the price range rather than for what you’d actually need.

Tip #2 Think about the pots you have used

There’s no doubt about it, purchasing a set over individual pots saves money.  However, some of the larger sets might not be adding much value and may be unnecessarily cluttering your kitchen.  Here are the pots I use 95% of the time:

• 6 quart stock pot – soups, boiling water for pasta, cooking for company
• 2 quart sauce pan – sauces and veggies
• 3.5 quart sauce pan – for when my 2 quart is in use and sauces
• non-stick fry pan - everything

And the pots I use 5% of the time but can’t live without:

• 12-16 quart stock pot with steamer options – pasta for the masses, lobster and crab, corn-on-the-cob, it’s my “party pot”
• 3 quart cassoulette- coq au vin, I love its multi-use stovetop and oven, great for entertaining

Once it’s time to return the individual pots for your set, do your research on what you’d like to get in return.  The sets are often great deals, but sometimes they sneak pots that aren’t very valuable into the larger sets.  A good example of this is the omelette pan.  They’ll throw in a six and an eight inch omelette pan and charge $200 more than a set without those pans, when the added value is only $50.  Not only that, but I wouldn’t use those two particular pans when I prefer my all-purpose nonstick 10″ fry pan.

Tip #3 Pick a slow day to complete your registry

If you go on a Saturday morning there won’t  be enough associates working to help carry the items from your car, you’ll have to wait and they won’t have the time to make sure you get what you need.   If you instead go on a Tuesday morning, you’ll have the store to yourself and the sales associate will be more entertained and interested in helping you complete your registry to your advantage. (see the next tip!)

Tip #4 Swap out lame bonuses for real value

Often All-Clad or Calphalon will have the double bonuses if you spend enough money on their cookware.  One bonus might be a nice steamer and the other could be an apron and spatula.  Ask the sales associate if it’s possible to switch out the one you don’t want for something else that’s more useful to you.  At Macy’s I purchased a smaller All-Clad set and augmented it with a large 12 quart stock pan and steamer and a smaller sauce pan as their summer double bonus ~ free!  Originally they’d been offering a panini grill pan but as cool as that sounded I thought the sauce pan would get more use in the end.

Tip #5 Get 20% off for completing at one time instead of 10%

Macy’s typically gives you 10% off wedding registry completion purchases if you come to the store within 90 days of your wedding.  Try to get 20% off – it’s possible!  This past weekend, for example, they had a semi-annual home sale where they gave 20% off “when you complete your gift registry any day of our home sale”.   In the fine print they say it lasts from July 23 – August 16^th,2009 (for Seattle stores).  Chances are if you ask nicely when the last home sale was or when the next one is and are they running their 20% special, you’ll be able to get it.

As with all other aspects of wedding planning it’s easy to spend money on wine.  My advice is to pick your budget and stick with it.  Purchasing wine in bulk will also bring the cost down.  Find out in advance if your reception space or caterer has a corkage fee.  If you can negotiate with them to allow you to choose and purchase the wine, you’ll be ahead of the game.  One final tip: When it comes to wine tasting, you like what you like, don’t worry about the “tasting notes” or what you should like.  Here are my recommendations:

L’Ecole No 41 is on Highway12 west of Walla Walla in the town of Lowden.  It’s hard to miss the former schoolhouse with its distinctive architecture.  I’d been curious about the label for a while (a watercolor by a Ryan, grade 3 I discovered), and decided to check them out.  The 2007 Columbia Valley Semillon is dry and refreshing and would be a perfect wine for your cocktail hour with cheeses and seafood.  At $15 a bottle it’s a great value.  You’re sure to find a deal on wine.com and other places if you shop around.  L’Ecole No 41 has a giant tasting list and a wide range of wines.  Surprisingly, I didn’t like any of the others as much as the Semillon, with the exception of the 2006 Pepper Bridge Vineyard Apogee, but at $49 a bottle it’s hardly a steal.

Continuing on into the town of Walla Walla be sure to check out Forgeron Cellars where Maria-Eve Gilla creates masterpieces.  Any bottle you find there is sure to be a hit on your big day. It’s difficult to choose a favorite but for price and uniqueness, I recommend the Walldeaux Smithie.  Forgeron calls it “bold and juicy with firm structure.”  It’s a fun, original and fantastic wine sure to delight. At $16 a bottle it’s easily half the price they could charge.  Forgeron’s 2006 Chardonnay ($25), 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon ($30), and 2001 or 2005 Zinfandel ($30-$40) are all excellent.

For romance and really good wine tasting, but not necessarily wine purchasing on a wedding budget be sure to visit scenic Pepper Bridge Winery.  As an estate winery, it sets out to make ultra-premium wines.  At $55-$110 a bottle it might be best to get one for yourselves to toast with on your first anniversary.  The wines are swanky, plumy, smooth and sophisticated.  The mineral of the estate stamps its mark and the winemaker has highly entertaining descriptions of his wines including “pencil lead” and “pain grille” which makes for a fun wild goose hunt, attempting to track them down on your palate.  If you do splurge, I loved the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon $55.

Taking a break from the wineries, be sure to check out Walla Walla.  It has a classic main street, (which happened to win the 2001 Great American Main Street Award, lest you think I’m exaggerating.)  For old school breakfast, follow the Sunday church-goers to Popular Donuts (706 W Alder St) and enjoy a light and fluffy donut with a coffee for prices you haven’t seen since you were too short to see over the counter.  Top off the evening with an ice cream shake from the stuck-in-time Ice-Burg (616 W Birch St), just steer clear of the food.  As for dinner, I can’t vouch for Brasserie Four (4 E. Main Street) but it definitely had vibes.

Other Budget Options

Heading north of downtown Walla Walla you’ll find the Airport Wineries.  It’s just as it sounds, a bunch of wineries by the airport.  It’s a really unique setting that I loved seeing, especially the old military barracks.  There you’ll find small wineries just starting out among more well-known names like Dunham Cellars.  Be sure to stop by the incubator on Piper Ave.  It’s a complex funded in part by the state to help fledgling winemakers.  There are five buildings with five different wineries that have 6 years to “make it” before moving on to create a winery elsewhere.

On your way out of Walla Walla, if you still haven’t found that budget wine you were looking for stop by Columbia-Crest (Hwy 221, Columbia Crest Drive, Paterson, WA).  Their Grand Estates ($10-$12)  line is always dependable as is their Two Vines($6-$8).  I particularly recommend the Merlot.  If you purchase the wines you like there, they’ll arrange to have them shipped free of charge to their local office in Woodinville closer to the time of your wedding.

Here’s a toast to a fun trip and tasty wine!

Like the napkin ring idea I wrote about earlier, if you commit to potted plant centerpieces, make sure you have ample help on hand the day of for assembly.

Finding the Supplies:

The pots are probably hard to find inexpensively online due to high shipping costs, but please leave a comment if you find some! Your best bet is to find a good deal locally well in advance of the wedding.  It’s one of those things to be on the lookout for.  The flowers you should place an order for in advance as well.  The MOG here placed an order with a local nursery and had them delivered the day before.  It’s probably possible to work out something similar with a Loews or Home Depot as well.  The filler is possible to buy online and cheaply.  I like Save-On-Crafts.  You have many of options here, (I suggest moss, or shredded wood.)

Getting the Look:

Assembly is very simple.  Throw the flower, plastic pot and all into the center of your ceramic pot and gently distribute some of your filler.  It’s really simple and the beauty is in the variation so you don’t have to be perfect.  Voila!  A natural and fun centerpiece.