Get ready to be inspired -- 'Married Away' starts soon

This just in...The Style Network has announced the launch of a spectacular new show: 'Married Away' spotlights several destination weddings in Hawaii, Thailand and more exotic locales. We've all read the stats that destination weddings are up 400%, but when you take a stat and turn it into THIS, it's a must-see. The show launches on December 5th, on the Style Network of E! Entertainment Television.

It's less than a month until my brother's wedding, and I just went for a fitting on my bridesmaid's dress. For all of you brides and bridesmaids who are facing open-backed dresses and serious bra issues, check out the stick-on corset bras at www.carabella.com (it makes more sense as a visual than my description here). So with my stick-on bra ordered, final fitting is just a week away.

Joe and I visited the Short Hills Mall this weekend, where I bought a skirt for the rehearsal dinner, and in getting to the store, we had to go through the Perfume Gauntlet. At two different department stores. You know what I'm talking about...you're trying to get out of the store by walking through the cosmetics department, and perfume ninjas jump out at you from every angle, shoving scented paper strips into your hand and talking up their gift sets. ("You could use a leather pouch!") I particularly loved the perfume ninja who called her sample the 'Jean Paul GLOW-tier,' which still cracks me up. Perhaps the attacks are my fault for making eye contact and smiling, so the next time...big floppy hat and sunglasses. Or I'll enlist one of the designer-dressed eleven year-olds with their Coach handbags to walk with me...the perfume ninjas will definitely sniff out a better mark and leave me alone.

Funny sight from the Short Hills Mall -- there's something that looks like a massage chair but actually is a simulated horseback riding apparatus. I was checking it out, with Joe right behind me, and the marketing video came on. Let's just say it was inappropriate for family viewing. "We're outta here," I said as Joe and I departed, and my quick man came up with the greatest joke ever about how the video would sell better than the horseback riding machine. As an author, I'm an observer of human behavior and language...that mall is a treasure trove of writing material. And my Joe makes me laugh like no one else...