The Wedding Planners

Friday, March 6, 2009

Calling All Princesses...

When I was growing up I was all about the princess thing. At Halloween, I never wanted to be something clever. I had to be a character who wore a pretty dress, preferably a long dress. And then of course there's the "romance writer" thing. That goes along with the princess fantasy perfectly.

Still, despite my childhood princess goals and the fact that I've been writing romance novels for years, I had never written a book with a princess heroine until now. Next month, The Cowboy and the Princess will make it to the shelves. I’m pretty psyched about it (more about the book in the weeks to come). And since I wanted to run a contest at my website that plays into the princess/cowboy theme, I hit the Internet.

All I can say is the princess fantasy has certainly picked up steam over the years. As the mother of two boys I missed out on this, but there are all kinds of princess gear a girl can buy to make that dream a reality (or as close to a reality as us non-royals can get). There are actually entire stores dedicated to selling princess gear as well as one called Tiara Town where you can get (among other things) replicas of various tiaras worn by Princess Diana, including the one she wore on her wedding day. Or, you can get scepters!

Would-be princesses (children and adults) can buy dresses.

Or jewelry, room décor, party favors, princess outfits for your dog and storage trunks and carousels to hold all those princess outfits.

I wonder if it's too late to act out that princess fantasy…

Maybe next Halloween. Or maybe I'll just write another princess book. Keep watching.

So…if you could be any fairy tale princess which one would it be?

Myrna
www.myrnamackenzie.com

Labels: book covers, contest, myrna, The Cowboy and the Princess, upcoming

Monday, February 16, 2009

And the Award Goes To....

Last week the RNA (the Romantic Novelists' Association) voted Richard Armitage the Sexiest Thing on Two Legs, and someone posted a video on YouTube of some of his most romantic moments:

Lots of touching scenes there. I'm not really familiar with this actor (although I'd love to see the entire shows some of those clips came from). Maybe I'm living in a cave or perhaps those of us who live in the U.S. don't get to see much of his work, but here's the article, complete with the top ten males on the list. Enjoy!
Romantic Novelists vote Richard Armitage Sexiest Thing On Two Legs

What a great list!

I hope that started your day off right. Have a great one!

Myrna Mackenzie

Labels: heroes, movies, myrna

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Well...February is the Month of Love and Romance

Valentine's Day is over, but we still have lots of February to go! I hope all of you had a wonderful day.

This week Linda Goodnight, Melissa James and I will be posting (and I'll be here on Monday),

Also, I know this has been mentioned here before, but it bears repeating. Harlequin is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year, and to thank readers for years of readership, Harlequin is giving away free books, 16 in all, that can be downloaded.

To find the free books, go to www.harlequincelebrates.com
The titles are available as a PDF and in all eBook formats. There is no drm (digital rights management)
The titles are also available as a Stanza App for the iPhone and iPod Touch
The titles can also be found at all the online retailers like Sony, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise.com, eReader.com, etc.
The 16 free books (one for every series) will be available throughout 2009.

Enjoy! And come back and visit us here at The Wedding Planners where we'll continue to talk books and love.

Labels: books, Harlequin, myrna

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

I wonder how many people get engaged in February

Every time I think that I'm going to move away from weddings (and talk more about love in general), something comes along that I want to share. I found this earlier and meant to post it, but I ended up posting something else instead. So here you are. It's a proposal and the title indicates that it's genuine, although I don't know if it really is, since it appears to be advertising a camera. Either way, it's clever and sweet and romantic, so of course I had to share:

I hope your February is starting out wonderfully!

Myrna

Labels: myrna, proposal, unique marriage proposals, video

Friday, January 23, 2009

Does that wedding ring come with guacamole?

I really didn't intend to post another wedding message right now. Certainly not another "unusual wedding" post. But then I saw this and I just had to share it. Just let me begin by saying that I am a frugal woman. I really am, so I am, of course, impressed at the cost of the dress in this video. Furthermore, I love unique and creative ideas. And yet...unusual wedding setting might be a bit too unique for even me. Or maybe not. If I was really strapped for cash, maybe I would do this. At least everyone seems to be having a good time. What do you think?

Labels: myrna, unique weddings, video, wedding dresses

Monday, January 5, 2009

Starting the Year Off...Romantically

For some reason, movies and the beginning of a new year are inextricably linked in my mind. Whether it's because I finally have a chance to slow down and see a movie or two after all the frenzy of the Christmas season has passed or because it's a time of year when we all tend to reflect on what we want for the coming year and I, being a romantic, always want romance, I'm not sure. But, I love to catch a romantic movie or two to start the year off right.

So, in the spirit of ushering in a romantic new year, here's a montage I discovered.

Enjoy and have a wonderful beginning to your new year!

Labels: movies, music, myrna, romance

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Winner of the Countdown to Christmas Contest

I just wanted to announce that Brandy is the winner of the third Countdown to Christmas Contest I've been running (a book and a grab bag), so Brandy, congratulations! Email me at myrnamackenzie@yahoo.com with the title of the book you'd like and an address I can send your prize to.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments!
Myrna

Labels: contest, myrna

Friday, December 12, 2008

Since we started this blog, I've spent a lot of time taking note of unconventional ways people have chosen to get married (really, I'm amazed at how creative some people can be).

But as the mother of runners I was especially interested in a story about 47 couples who either got married or renewed their vows at the Las Vegas Half Marathon last weekend.

This has apparently been a tradition for several years with the number of couples growing. The runners start off and at the five-mile mark they stop at a drive through wedding chapel for a brief ceremony. This year the pastor ran the race, too. She stopped to don her robes and performed the group wedding ceremony at a pulpit set up outside the chapel.

Some of those getting married were runners who wanted their wedding to reflect their passion for the sport and some saw it as an interesting way to elope. One of my favorite stories from this event was the marriage of Adrian Broca, the fastest blind runner in the country who married his fiancé, Brenda Arechiga, who, in addition to running part of the race and getting married was also in charge of coordinating all the Elvis runners in the race (yes, it's Vegas and lots of people arrive in the costume of The King). The women in their wedding party dressed as showgirls in pink tutus and feathers (and yes, I wish I had a photo of that).

So, just when you think you've seen every innovative way to get married, you discover that you haven't. I do think the congratulatory hugs and kisses might have been interesting, however. I've hugged my sons after they've run many a race. You have to love someone a lot to do that (and wear clothing that you don't mind getting a little…soggy).

Still, this sounded like fun!

Also, before I close this piece, I do have two more small announcements to make. The first is that I just found out that my Wedding Planners book, The Heir's Convenient Wife, is a finalist in the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards! It's a nice way to end my week.

In addition, I'd like to let everyone know that I still have one more Countdown to Christmas Contest going on over at my website (as well as a new quarterly contest), but if you comment on this blog between now and December 17th, I'll automatically enter you in both contests.

Labels: myrna, unique weddings

Sunday, May 11, 2008

What's Coming Up and...Something Old

This week we'll have a wedding planner who makes dreams come true for couples in Hawaii, Dell, the hero of THE HEIR'S CONVENIENT WIFE, will make an appearance and...well, anything can happen. Come visit.

I've been thinking about the "Something old, something new..." poem that we all grew up with and wondered how many people actually received "something old" at their wedding.

If so, what was it? It seemed to me that embroidered handkerchiefs were popular at one time, but...does anyone carry a handkerchief anymore? (And maybe that was something borrowed, anyway).

A necklace? A bracelet? I think in the past, more wedding gowns were passed down mother to daughter than there are today.

The "something old" was supposed to have been from a happily married woman (passing on her wedding luck to the new bride, I think).

Give me some ideas. I'm curious.

Labels: myrna, traditions

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Coming Up Next Week…and The Five-Minute Wedding

We have some great things coming up this week. Regina the

photographer is planning to stop by, we'll have a visit from a real wedding photographer who has traveled all around the world and more (and don't forget to post comments to enter the contest--see May 3rd post).

But, in the meantime, and since weddings wouldn't be weddings without a little romance and fun, I thought I'd ask everyone to participate in a "five minute wedding" plan.

Remember when we were young, and girls would make those little folded-paper fortune tellers that you put on your fingers that asked such mature questions such as "who does Cindy like?" Other questions were "what's your favorite color, favorite song, favorite…I can't even remember all of them.

It was silly stuff, but it's Sunday, the flowers are blooming and I'm in that kind of "let's do something fun" mood. So…my challenge to you is this: come up with the basics for your "no restrictions" pretend wedding in 5 minutes (and just for the heck of it, let's assume we're all unmarried and whatever age we choose to be. Some of us—and I'm not saying who—are also going to pretend that our scale always reads 122 pounds).

Okay, here goes. This is FANTASY WEDDING – PART 1. Join in by leaving a comment answering the following questions:
1. What color are your bridesmaids wearing?
2. Where is the wedding being held?
3. Where will the honeymoon be?
4. You can have any singer or band play at your wedding. Who will that be?
5. And the biggie…assume that you could have a stand-in celebrity groom for a day (you get your true love back at the end of the day). Who would be your stand-in celebrity groom?

And yes! This is sooo very juvenile! (I'm not even going to wonder what that says about me).

I'll hop right in there and start. In my fantasy wedding:
1. Bridesmaids are in candy apple red with black piping
2. The wedding is in Bar Harbor, Maine standing on the rocks by the shore
3. The honeymoon will be in England (Lyme Regis)
4. The singer? Bruce Springsteen
5. The Celebrity Groom – Oh, it's still Pierce Brosnan – I'm still a Pierce kind of girl

Labels: Bridesmaids, contest, fantasy wedding, groom, guest blogging, music, myrna, regina

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Excerpt for THE HEIR'S CONVENIENT WIFE by Myrna Mackenzie

Book 2 in The Wedding Planners Series
Regina's Story

The minute Dell walked through the door of the mansion, he knew something was different. His wife, Regina, was perched in the hallway on a Victorian settee that had been in his family for generations and was just as uncomfortable as it looked. That in itself set off warning bells. Regina was never waiting for him when he got home. She rose to meet him now.

He looked into her concerned brown eyes. She was holding a sheath of papers.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"We need to talk." Her soft voice came out unevenly. "Have you seen this?"

He hadn't. The publication masqueraded as an event guide for the city of Boston, but the real draw was the bits of gossip sprinkled throughout its pages.

Dell lifted a brow. "Not my usual cup of tea."

She blushed slightly, and Dell realized that he'd rarely seen her blush. But then, he didn't really know Regina well. Their brief, necessary marriage had been entered into in haste, and they'd spent very little time together. But the delicate pink that tinted Regina's cheeks and dipped into the shadows at the vee of her white blouse definitely made him aware of her in ways he hadn't been when he entered that room. That was a surprise…and clearly bad timing.

Regina nodded, and for a moment Dell wondered if she'd read his mind. "No, I suppose a man like you wouldn't read this," she said, "but I've verified the facts."

She turned away, but she held her head high, her straight brown hair brushing her shoulders. Regina was a woman with generous curves, but she seemed thinner than he remembered her being when she'd entered his world just over a year ago. Was it any wonder? She’d been through a lot these past few months.

Dell rubbed a hand over his jaw. If Regina had suffered unhappiness, the blame was partly because of events he had unintentionally set in motion. "So tell me the facts." His voice came out too rough, and she turned to face him again.

"You were well on your way to marrying Elise Allenby when we—"

"When we wed," he offered.

"Yes, but you did that to help me. You were supposed to marry Elise. I didn't know. If I had, I wouldn't have—at least I hope I wouldn't have said yes."

Labels: myrna, regina, The Heir's Convenient Wife

Friday, April 11, 2008

Most Romantic Songs

When my husband and I got married, we were really concerned about the music at the reception and we wanted a band that could play a variety of types of music so that there was something for everyone.

But of course we're talking weddings and romance here, so if you could only choose 3 songs that fell into the category of "most romantic" which ones would they be? (And yes, I know this is a tough one. Narrowing it down to 3 is really difficult).

I'll start (even though I know that five minutes after I post this I'm going to think of at least one song that should have made it to the list). I took a minute to consult with my heroine Regina on this, because after all, she's one very romantic woman. Here are our choices:

1. I've Had the Time of My Life, theme song from Dirty Dancing by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

2. When a Man Loves a Woman (either Percy Sledge or Michael Bolton version)

3. (And just to hit something more contemporary) You're Beautiful by James Blunt

Okay, your turn. What 3 songs would you choose?

Labels: music, myrna, receptions, regina, romance

Monday, April 7, 2008

The Subject was Flowers...

It’s spring, I’ve seen crocuses blooming, we’ve been talking about weddings, so flowers have been on my mind a lot lately. In particular, I’ve been thinking about wedding bouquets, remembering some of my favorites.

The one I loved best as a bridesmaid (pictured here with the green floral dress) was a simple bouquet of yellow roses and baby’s breath. Gorgeous. I wish I could have kept it forever. Yellow roses are a favorite of mine.

And here are the bouquets from my wedding (the one with daisies was my bridal bouquet—I’m not sure why I was carrying daisies) and the lavender ones were the ones my bridesmaids carried. I think they consisted of amaryllis, purple freesia and baby’s breath, but I’m not much of an expert on flower names, so I could be wrong about that. Regardless, these bouquets were very special to me, not only because they were from my wedding, but because they we

re made by a florist I had frequented all the years I was growing up. When I was in high school, the girls used to give each other birthday posters and corsages when they turned 16, and even though we only had enough money to buy carnations, this florist, knowing we were broke would add something special (an unusual ribbon, a figurine, some sparkles). Having this caring man make the bouquets for my wedding meant a great deal to me.

So, what types of flowers have figured large in your life? What are your favorites? If you had to put together a bridal bouquet what flowers would you include? Tulips? Roses? Orchids? What colors?

Have you ever caught a bridal bouquet? Or avoided catching one? Had a floral disaster (like the wedding I attended where the arrangements at the church caught fire from the candles embedded in them)? Share your stories. And if you have no stories to share, keep watching the ground. The flowers are going to be blooming very soon.

Labels: flowers, myrna

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

On the Way to a Wedding Dress

There have been so many exciting things going on here, but this is the first time I’m posting, so I’m pretty revved up. It’s got me thinking about how things often look when you begin something. I don’t know about you but I start out having this pretty solid idea of just how things are going to be, but (you can see this coming, can’t you?) I tend to be wrong. A lot. I take a turn I didn’t expect to take and I end up somewhere I never thought I’d be. Which, since we’re all about weddings here, brings me to remembering an unexpected turn I took once, the turn that took me to THE DRESS. Specifically, my wedding dress.

I had been dating my husband-to-be forever (and I’m not saying how long forever actually was, but trust me, it was forever). But despite the length of time I hadn’t even thought about what happens when a person gets engaged, the whole wedding planning scenario. Now I was. I had to, because we were old enough that we felt we should pay for and plan our wedding ourselves. I was totally clueless, but I knew one thing. I had to have a really great dress. It was going to be the dress that would make everyone in the room go temporarily blind and actually believe that I looked like Scarlett Johannson (or the equivalent beauty of the time). In other words, I had to have a total, magical miracle of a dress that was capable of mind control. I was only going to do this once and I was going to do it right.

The hunt began. I bought bridal magazines (of course) and flipped through them until they were ragged. I discussed THE MAGIC DRESS with my friends and my family as if it were a living being. And then reality hit. I could have the dress I wanted, but my future husband and I might have to give up eating for the next fifty years and we would have to live in his parents' basement for the rest of our lives. It was a pretty nice basement but…

In the end I gave up the magazine versions of perfection, but I still got the dress I wanted. It might not have had any super magical properties and it might not have been the dress that would have been right for others, but it was exactly the right dress for me, because it came to me through an act of generosity from someone close to me. One of my best friend's mothers owned a shop that rented wedding dresses. She cruised all the designer shows, studied styles, bought the best stuff she could afford and then rented out the gowns. These were dresses I could never afford and, frankly, I probably couldn’t have afforded to rent one, either. They were one of a kind (meaning you had to actually fit into the dress—no alterations). But, being a friend, she pretty much let me borrow one of these sparklers for the cost of wear and tear and cleaning it. For a woman like me who wanted to be a princess for a day and couldn’t afford it, it was a small miracle.

Looking back, I've forgotten who designed the gown. Does it matter? What matters is that this was the perfect gift from a generous lady who knew how much a dress means to every bride-to-be. Thank you, Mrs. B. You made me and a whole lot of other brides who stumbled into your pretty little shop happy.

And just so all of you reading this can see what I've been talking about, I've included a shot of the dress. All right, yes, it is out of date (we won't say what year this was, discuss why there's a shadow behind my head or…please don't make me explain my hair!) but for a day this dress was all mine, and I loved it.

I hope this brings back memories of your own wedding dresses (or dreams of the ones you hope to wear)!

Myrna Mackenzie

Labels: myrna, wedding dresses