For Sara Bauleke, owner of event-planning firm Bella Notte, the training for becoming a wedding planner started early. Her mother is a minister, so she grew up with weddings all around her. “My mom would always come home and give me a rundown on how the wedding went,” Sara says. “It’s great now because some of my cautionary tales are from her—like the time the groomsmen drank a little too much before an outdoor ceremony and ended up fainting from the combination of alcohol and heat.”

Twenty years later, while Sara was finishing up her master’s degree in public policy at Georgetown University, she decided she didn’t really want to head down that career path anymore. To fill the time before settling on something new, she helped a few friends plan their weddings. She was immediately hooked. Sara formed Bella Notte in 2004 and has planned almost 100 weddings, with guests including secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, FBI director Robert Mueller, and former senator Bob Dole. Her work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings.

Sara is coming in to answer your wedding questions in a live chat on Thursday. Submit questions now, and Sara will answer them on Thursday from 11 AM to noon.

A roundup of wedding bloggers who are now newlyweds! [via It's a Jaime Thing...]

Forty years later, a lost wedding ring makes its way back home.

Eyeliner 101. [via The Wedding Chicks]

Daily Candy does weddings. [via Weddingbee]

To submit a bridal event, email lshallcross@washingtonian.com.

Sandals Grande Ochos Rios in Jamaica.

I’m a bit impatient in this whole wedding planning process because there are certain things about our celebration that I just can’t wait to figure out. One of the items on the top of that list was our honeymoon. For years I’d pictured Andrew and me relaxing at a beach resort, sipping some sort of frozen beverage that I’d sworn off in the previous months so I would fit into my wedding dress. So after figuring out the wedding basics such as the date, the venue, and the church, I started doing my research about the perfect honeymoon destination.

Andrew and I are getting married in July, which is not necessarily the most pleasant time to travel someplace tropical. Humidity and 100-degree weather don’t exactly equal a romantic getaway. So I spent a ridiculous number of hours scouring the Internet, wedding magazines, wedding message boards, and virtually everywhere I could think of to find a tropical location that wouldn’t fry us in our first married days. I did find out that Bermuda is not too terrible in the summer, but I also discovered that there’s not a single all-inclusive resort there. 

Wedding bells for Meredith and McDreamy?

Need bridesmaid gifts for your DC ladies? We love this cherry blossom necklace. [via Bridalwave]

Creating a registry is easy, right? [via DC Nearlyweds]

Seven tips for toasting you won't want to miss.

To submit a bridal event, email lshallcross@washingtonian.com.

Image courtesy of Carine's Bridal Atelier.

Thursday, October 23, through Saturday, October 25: Angel Sanchez Trunk Show
Carine’s Bridal Atelier in Georgetown (1726 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-965-4696) is hosting a trunk show featuring Venezuelan designer Angel Sanchez. Known for gowns that are both classic and modern, Sanchez is offering a small selection of dresses from his recently debuted fall 2009 line as well as the complete spring 2009 collection. Brides who purchase a dress during the weekend will receive 10 percent off. By appointment only; appointments last one hour.

Friday, October 24, through Saturday, October 25: Oscar de la Renta Trunk Show
If the name Oscar de la Renta isn’t enough to get you excited (gasp!), perhaps 10 percent off one of the leading fashion designer’s gowns will do the trick. This trunk show, hosted by Hitched (1523 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-333-6162), will include de la Renta’s entire spring 2009 bridal collection and pieces from previous lines. The show is by appointment only, and we recommend that  you RSVP soon—the one-hour slots are filling up fast.

Want to save $9,500 on your wedding? Here's how.

From the diary of a father of the bride.

Have rehearsal dinners become second weddings? [via Always a Blogsmaid]

Who needs flowers when you can have feathers? [via Weddingbee]

To submit a bridal event, email lshallcross@washingtonian.com.

On Sundays in fall, a lot of people think football (my fiancé included). But now I think weddings. So one Sunday afternoon last month, my mom and I decided to meet at Tysons for a day of wedding research. Our primary goal was to check out invitations at the Crane & Company store, but once we got there we of course got distracted and wandered around the mall. We ended up in the DeBeers store, where I proceeded to try on almost every wedding band they had (for fun, of course—just to get some ideas).

When we did manage to make it to the Crane store, we met with a sales associate, Marisa, who also happened to be engaged. We started by looking through three large sample books.