We recently stopped by Palermo's Bakery, one of New Jersey's top bakeries, to get the inside scoop on the latest wedding cake trends—and the secrets bakers use to make sure your cake stays standing throughout the night. 

Palermo's Bakery has been in business for nearly 25 years, growing from a small retail shop to one of the area's largest wedding cake bakeries. Many of the major catering halls in northern New Jersey work exclusively with Palermo's to provide cakes in their catering packages.

We sat down with Joanne Bruno, Chief Baking Officer at Palermo's. Check out what's "in" now for wedding cakes, and then get the inside scoop on how a wedding cake is actually constructed—and why it can cost as much as $18 per slice!

—Kristen O'Gorman Klein

Take it from me: You’ll make a lot of lists during your engagement. Guests, vendors, tips all get their own page or pages in your planning notebook. But one of the most fun is creating your registry. Presents! (Tip: Take your sister or your mom; they are way more into it than your guy will be. I can’t tell you the amount of Kardashian-style fights and groom eye rolling I witnessed on my Bloomingdale’s adventures.) It’s also nice to take out some planning stress on the price gun. Hey, it’s point and shoot. And while you may not need more dishes, sheets or for-his-eyes-only underthings (please! No more iPhone photos), one thing you’ll certainly want to put on your list is a piece or two of the newest collection of luggage from Hartmann. Made from seriously indestructible materials, the hard cases are so tough, they come with a whopping 10-year warranty. They also have TSA-approved lockage systems and cool packing compartments. And the cases spin on a dime. The only caveat is that if you are planning a safari spectacular (a la moi) or chartering a boat (a la moi for my last vacation) for your trip of a lifetime, the hard case is not suggested. The luggage hits stores in February. Go to hartmann.com for more info. And for my ultimate packing tips, go here. 

About a year ago today (Wednesday, November 16 to be exact), Kate Middleton and her prince made their formal engagement announcement at St. James' Palace. BG brides across the world, including our editors, became enamored with the couple, and couldn't help but wonder: What must Kate be thinking (and feeling) at that exact moment?

Now's your chance to play pretend! We heard about "Engagement," an interactive art exhibit at Stephen Friedman Gallery, created by Artist Jennifer Rubbell, via Cup of Jo. It features a life-sized wax sculpture of Wills standing in the same exact pose he struck for the cameras at the formal announcement.

Delighted visitors can mount the pedestal, slide their arms through Will's, and try on a replica of Lady Di's iconic sapphire ring. 

In honor of the Breaking Dawn film release this week, we have a very special treat for our BG brides, brought to you by the lovely Sonia Collett from wantthatwedding over in the UK!

She spent months putting together the magical photo shoot below, shot by the talented Chanelle at Segerius-Bruce Photography.

"I wanted to create something extra special, that beautiful something that brides-to-be would love and feel inspired by (even if they weren’t a Twilight fan)," said Sonia.

Mission accomplished:

Planning a Twilight-inspired wedding? We just found your perfect invitations: Hallmark released a replica of Bella and Edward's classic invitation, available for personalization on hallmark.com!

Once you've customized your invite, Hallmark will have it professionally printed on premium white paper with black lettering. You can even have Hallmark address, stamp, and send the invitations directly to the recipients. Or, you can print the invites yourself for as low as $1.29. 

“The Edward and Bella wedding invitation gives super-fans a unique opportunity to create a memorable keepsake from the movie for themselves and their fellow ‘Twi-Hard’ friends or even actually use it for their wedding day,” said Christine Taylor, Hallmark Licensing. “We also saw it as a fun way to invite friends to a viewing party for the Nov. 18th movie release.”

What we love: Fellow Twihards will instantly recognize it as the Breaking Dawn invitation. But your less in-the-know guests will just see it as a nice, classic invitation. 

Also: Hallmark has released 20 Twilight-themed greeting cards for birthdays and other special occasions, plus a Christmas tree ornament, stickers, magnets, bookmarks, and more. Who's ready for Breaking Dawn?!