A Muse Gets Married, Ch. 5: Save-the-Dates

A Muse Gets Married, Ch. 5: Save-the-Dates

Sending save-the-date notes can be a strain on a wedding timeline, but there are ways to make sure your guests receive the correct information while not going completely bonkers. Angie provides insight into how she approached this for her wedding.

Life of a Muse: We Love Google. A lot.

Life of a Muse: We Love Google. A lot.

While editing some vows recently, I found myself Googling "traits of a Golden Retriever" and I couldn't help but wonder, what are some of the more odd research topics all the Muses had looked up in the past year. So I asked.

2017 Wedding Trend Alert: The Wedding Letter

2017 Wedding Trend Alert: The Wedding Letter

Yep, we are talking old-fashioned missives — no postage required!

Think of wedding letters as the ultimate love letter. Something you write for your sweetheart, and just your sweetheart, on your wedding day. These wedding letters often encompass what DIY vows historically have, but are read privately before or after the ceremony.

Lifting the Veil: The History Behind One of Our Oldest Wedding Traditions

Lifting the Veil: The History Behind One of Our Oldest Wedding Traditions

Wearing a veil to your wedding is a tradition with roots so deep that it predates white wedding gowns. And like many other wedding traditions, this one exists because of the patriarchy. We’re all surprised, I’m sure. That said, I still wore a veil to my wedding. I’ll get to my own reasoning why, but first, let’s ask a much bigger “why:” why do we wear veils at all?

How to elope: four steps to making it happen without hurting everyone’s feelings

How to elope: four steps to making it happen without hurting everyone’s feelings

My older brother and his wife considered eloping. They talked to their families and friends about it, and everyone had pretty much the same reaction: we’d all understand and support them, and we’d all have our feelings hurt. They weighed the pros and cons, and wound up

The great compromise: wedding planning

The great compromise: wedding planning

Every once in a great while, I hear about engaged couples who have the exact same vision for their wedding. For them, planning just means getting all the vendors booked (no small task in itself). And then there’s the rest of us.Wedding planning, in my experience, is a giant series of compromises.

DIY Edition: How To Actually Enjoy Your Destination Wedding

DIY Edition: How To Actually Enjoy Your Destination Wedding

Destination weddings aren’t for everyone. The sun, the umbrellas in the cocktails, not to mention hanging out with your friends and family nonstop for a few days — ugh, sounds terrible! Ok I’m (mostly) kidding. But seriously, if you dream about picking the right texture of frosting for your caramel frappuccino chocolate cake and are excited by the challenge of finding a third gluten-free, vegan appetizer

Jewelry Bender: Engagement Rings for Men?

Jewelry Bender: Engagement Rings for Men?

In today's edition of “the patriarchy hurts us all,” let's look at how one-sided wedding jewelry has been since the middle ages. Did you know men didn't even regularly wear wedding bands until the 20th century?

But now in century 21, thanks to the rising spread of equality and the slowly-being-chipped-away wall of traditional gender roles, we've arrived at a really simple, really basic concept about wedding and engagement rings: if you want to wear them, you should, and if you don't want to, you shouldn't. Moment of silence for how long it took us to reach this conclusion.

Things I Didn't Expect to Happen After I Got Married

Things I Didn't Expect to Happen After I Got Married

I was really sure that being married would feel the same as not being married. But in reality, I can't believe how different my relationship is. It shouldn't be, logically speaking. We'd dated for five years before tying the knot. We'd lived together for two of them. We'd had our dog for a year. After we got married, we came home to the same apartment and the life we'd already built. It was all very familiar. But it was different. It was better. Here’s a few more things that happened after I got married that I truly didn’t expect.

Ring Lingo: Everything You Need to Know About Engagement Rings and Wedding Bands

Ring Lingo: Everything You Need to Know About Engagement Rings and Wedding Bands

Before we get into the history of the rings, let’s just say this upfront: getting married doesn’t actually require fancy jewelry. If you want rings, great. If you want bracelets, great. If you want nothing, great. If you want to celebrate your commitment to each other by going skydiving and then signing some papers at the end, GREAT (ps: if you did this, can we watch your wedding video? That sounds amazing). But for everyone curious about the difference between a wedding band and an engagement ring, this post is for you.

How to Choose Your Groomsmen (Without Ruining Any Friendships)

How to Choose Your Groomsmen (Without Ruining Any Friendships)

Picking bridesmaids was the easiest part of my wedding planning process. I'm an introvert, and at the time of my wedding, I had exactly three close friends plus a soon-to-be sister-in-law (there really should be a shorter term for that relation). Boom. Done. My husband, on the other hand, will someday write a book called, “Why Aren't There More People At This Party: How to survive in a world where you can only invite a thousand people to everything.”

The Art of Staying Calm: 4 Tips for Less Stressful Wedding Planning

The Art of Staying Calm: 4 Tips for Less Stressful Wedding Planning

I met a newly engaged friend for drinks recently, and the first words out of his mouth were, “Last summer I texted a bride two days before her wedding to tell her I couldn’t make it. I have just learned how much that probably cost her.” A ton of people get engaged between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, so if you’re one of them, let us be the first to welcome you into the wide world of Things You’re About to Learn About Weddings.

5 Tips for Writing Your Own Kick-Ass Wedding Vows

5 Tips for Writing Your Own Kick-Ass Wedding Vows

I really didn't want to write my own wedding vows. Our enormous wedding already had about fifty things that were stressing me out (giant guest list, two days of activities to plan, and the sheer number of tablecloths we were going to need to name a few), and I just didn't see “put all your thoughts about why you want to love this one person forever into a two-minute speech” as an enjoyable addition to my to-do list.