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If you’re a Massachusetts bride, or you’re planning a trip to the Beantown area, be sure to stop by Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum for its new exhibit, Wedding Bliss, The Marriage of Art and Ceremony. The exhibit explores the customs, beliefs and emotions involved in weddings and features the work of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Jacob Lawrence. To boot, there will be historic and couture gowns, ceremonial items and rare jewelry.

The exhibit kicks off tomorrow with a day of celebrating all things nuptial, which includes a showing of the film Monsoon Wedding, a demonstration from sculptor Brian White, and an inside peek at pros decorating wedding cakes…oh yeah, you get to taste them too. Wedding Bliss runs through September 14; adult admission is $15 for non-members.

Bride with Fan, 1911, Marc Chagall, oil on canvas, 18 x 15 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection, 2002 (2002.456.8) © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP.

Happy Earth Day! It’s appropriately beautiful weather here in New York today—makes me love the planet even more—so I was inspired to give you a few more eco-friendly wedding hints.

One of my favorite jewelry designers to work with, Tina Tang, created this tote, made of 100% organic cotton. Use it to haul around your wedding planning gear, as a reusable shopping bag, or give it to your ’maids as a gift. (It would be perfect paired with Tina’s “ReLeaf” necklace we feature in our May/June issue.) Make a purchase on the website today, and the company will plant a tree.

It’s no wonder that destination weddings are so popular. Couples are pretty keen on the idea of flying off to a tropical paradise to wed—and bringing their nearest and dearest with them (or not)! Fortunately, I was able to do some hands-on research on destination nuptials in beautiful Puerto Rico. Yes, my job is tough, but I gotta do what I gotta do to give you the inside scoop.

Puerto Rico is a pretty easy place to travel since US citizens don’t need passports, and there are direct flights from all over the East Coast. But what struck me most about PR are all the breathtaking places you can have your ceremony, like these:

Rio Mar Beach Resort has the best beach set-up I saw. Marrying on the sand is more complicated in highly populated areas of PR because the beaches are public, and a permit is necessary. I would recommend this resort for a laid-back couple that wants something casual and is okay with being around swimsuit-clad vacationers while they’re in their finery.

It never fails. Every time we wrap an issue here at BG, some amazing product, service or idea that would have been perfect to include in a story crops up. The same goes for our May/June 08 issue, which is on newsstands now—it contains an eco-friendly wedding planning guide full of fun green tips.

But since more designers and retailers are going green by the second, I didn’t get to mention these guys:

Dawes Design’s engagement and wedding rings are made to stack (so you can keep adding on special anniversaries—I love any excuse to add more bling!) and the designs are so gorgeous I had a hard time deciding which ones to display here. DD only uses recycled gold and conflict-free gems and uses eco-friendly production techniques. To me, it’s a win, win, win situation.

My favorite section of the magazine to edit here at Bridal Guide is “Wedding Album,” the recurring section where we feature real people’s beautiful weddings. I just love getting a sneak peek into couple’s big days—and letting you readers crib ideas for their flowers, décor and more.

For the same reasons, I am loving the new book Style Your Dream Wedding by Susie Coelho. First, open it up and pull out a quiz booklet that helps you figure out the perfect style for your fete. Then, flip through gorgeous photos from real weddings in each style. Plus, need-to-know info on everything from cakes to dresses to stationery is covered.

So check it out. You’ll find pretty couple shots like this one of a bride and groom in the country…

I’ve barely even touched the PlayStation since my husband and I moved in together, so I was a bit skeptical when the folks at PS told me their two new games—Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz and SingStar 90’s—would be great for bachelorette parties. But I decided to try them out anyway.

Buzz! is a quiz show game that covers anything under the sun, from famous people to history to sports. The questions are less Jeopardy and more Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, but that just encourages more competition for being the first to buzz your buzzer (a special gameshow-like buzzer controller comes with the game). The graphics and characters are a bit cheesy I admit, but it’s great fun.

I love a great cause. So when I heard about a New York bakery that’s making cookies and cupcakes for weddings—all while providing economically disadvantaged teen girls with the skills they’ll need to become successful entrepreneurs—I had to spread the news. The Lower Eastside Girls Club, a nonprofit that runs several community-based programs in Lower Manhattan, owns the Sweet Things Bake Shop, where your purchases will benefit inner-city girls of all ages. Its Cookie Academy offers an 8-week course that teaches high school girls the basics of baking and running a small business. Many of these young women have actually gone on to receive culinary degrees from the city’s prestigious Institute of Culinary Education.

Here’s the honest truth: There will be days during this whole wedding-planning process when you’ll need to find ways to regain your sanity. So before you become a dreaded Bridezilla, read on.

Delegate! You can’t do it alone, so get your groom and your bridesmaids on board to help you make calls, run errands, whatever! To make assigning duties a cinch, check out the handy notebooks from Whomi’s To Do Collection. The What to Do Pad ($15) will keep your lists contained in a single book and organized by color and task. Choose between Shop/Call/Do and Buy/Contact/Do. (The company also has a clever Me/You/You Too Pad—especially great for the future hubby.) Just write up your to-dos, rip out the appropriate pages to pass along to your helpers and then move on to the next task at hand.

Ever been completely wowed by a cookie—even before you’ve taken a bite? Well, I just have to rave about the g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s hand-painted sugar cookies from The Whimsical Whisk, an Indianapolis-based patisserie helmed by pastry chef Clare Welage. They come in a wide variety of, yes, whimsical shapes (the vibrant floral-print purses, shoes and gowns are bridal-shower perfect!), and the detail in the 3-D designs (think sugar pearls and iridescent touches) make them almost too pretty to eat. But believe me, you’ll want to. These confections are made with real butter, cane sugar, flour and whole eggs (yet no trans fats)—so they taste as divine as they look. The cookies are available in vanilla, lemon cream, coconut or almond, and there’s a two-dozen minimum for orders; wedding designs start at $3.75 each.

We all know it’s the little things that make a big—and lasting—impression. That’s why taking the time to personalize as many elements of your big day as you can is such a fantastic idea. To help inspire you, I’ve rounded up a few great customizable products that you can use to make some of your wedding details that much more special.

OK, let’s start with your stationery—specifically, the envelopes. Love and Wedding Hearts stamps are great, but adding your own image to the postage is even better. Think of the possibilities. You could use a great vacation shot of you and your beloved or your “official” engagement photo. PictureItPostage lets you upload your favorite pic, logo or illustration, and then use its software program to choose between a portrait or landscape format and add your names or wedding date. The stamps are printed on sheets of 10 and cost $17.95 for an order of 20 (discounts are offered on bulk orders). Just remember: On May 12, the U.S. Postal Service will bump the first-class postage rate to $0.42. You’ll be able to order the new stamps from PictureItPostage—at the current price—starting March 31 up until the new rate takes effect. Afterward, the price will be $18.95 for 20 custom stamps.