It’s not yet March, but the March/April 2012 Bridal Guide is already arriving in mailboxes across the U.S. and women wanting a Twilight themed wedding will have a pleasant surprise waiting.  The latest issue of Bridal Guide features Twilight Bridal by Alfred Angelo.

The issue, which features Bella’s wedding dress on the cover also features the first two page advertisement (to our knowledge) for Twilight Bridal,which you can see below.  In addition to the lovely imagery of Edward and Bella on their wedding day, the ad lists all of the U.S. locations where the gown is available.

In addition to featuring the gown on the cover and providing details on where to find the lovely new gown, Bridal Guide is offering brides-to-be a chance to win Bella’s gown and a South Season island resort honeymoon.

Winners will receive a replica of Bella’s wedding gown as seen in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (or another style from the Alfred Angelo Bridal Collection).  Then they’ll experience a one-of-akind island getaway at South Seas — a resort village and wildlife sanctuary in Captiva, Florida.

The seven-night honeymoon package includes breakfast, one dinner at Harbourside Bar & Grill, a guided kayak tour, complimentary cruise from Captiva Cruises, a couples massage at Kay Casperson Lifestyle Spa and Boutique and more!

To enter visit bridalguide.com/twilight or pick up the latest issue of Bridal Guide for more details about the gown and the sweepstakes.

Thanks for Where’s Edward fan Christina for the heads up on this.

Last month we share the announcement of Volvo’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 Contest: Journey to the Wedding, and today the contest officially kicked off with the first challenge.  This post will act similar to last years Solving Volvo’s Lost In Forks Game post and will offer hints and walkthroughs of the game as each challenge is revealed.

Challenge 1: The Wedding Invitation

Though the first challenge kicked off on November 1, 2011, we actually had the solution to this challenge posted in September.  If you’re having trouble solving the first challenge do a search on our site for “Fandango” for a closer look at the actual wedding invitation. Check back on November 8 for the launch of challenge 2.

Note: We welcome your comments below, but for ongoing questions, discussions, or to share hints we highly recommend you visit us at Facebook.com/wheresedward.

Challenge 2: The Perfect Wedding Gift

Challenge 2 was scheduled to kick off on 11/8, however as of right now [the morning of 11/8] it appears that many folks are complaining that they can’t access the game yet.  The rules of the game state, the second Challenge will begin on November 8, 2011 at 12:00pm ET.  If you read the official rules you’ll discover that the second Challenge uses your reasoning, logic and critical thinking skills to scroll over a map of Seattle and use the clues provided to find the store that sells the perfect gift for Bella and Edward’s wedding.  We’ll post updates on the game once it’s revealed in about an hour.

Now that you know where you are going you’ll need to pick up the perfect wedding gift.  Drive your 325hp Volvo S60 T6 R-Design through the streets of Seattle to see if you can find the store that sells the perfet gift.

This is the message that greets you once you kick off the second challenge.  Unfortunately because of the nature of this challenge hints are hard to come by, however thanks to reader Savvi, we established the following and it definitely helps:

• The building you are looking for is purple
• The building you are looking for is Northeast of the location you start from if you think of North as the direction you are facing when the game starts.

Use the information above along with the indicator on the right and you should have no problem finding the perfect gift. Good luck!

Challenge 3:

Challenge 3 will kick off on November 15, 2011 at 12:00pm ET and while we don’t know exactly what to expect here is a preview of what is to come courtesy of the contest official rules:

Finalists will be required to go to the Contest Site and follow the directions provided to navigate the Volvo S60 through the maze in the shortest amount of time.  If any Finalist hits the walls of the maze more than five times, such Finalists will be required to restart the Third Challenge from the beginning.  Finalistis may participate in the Third Challenge as many times as they wish.  Only the shortest time in which each Finalist successfully navigates through the maze will be considered in the determination of the Grand Prize winner, regardles of the number of times a Finalist participates in the Third Challenge.  If any Finalist does not follow the directions provided, he/she will be disqualified and will not be eligible to win the Grand Prize.

When you kick off this challenge here is the message you receive, “You’re almost there. Using the best-in-class performance and T6 engine of the Volvo S60 R-Design make your way through this maze in the shortest amount of time and you could win the grand prize. Hurry!”

For those of you who have trouble with mazes, below is the path you need to take to reach the finish:

Again we are working with a challenge that doesn’t have a specific solution, so your best bet here is to work the turns. I personally found that making wider turns to clear some of the crazy curves helped me to keep my speed up.  Good luck and feel free to post your best time in the comments below or head over to the thread on our Facebook Page and leave your time.

Well the day is finally here.  The day that the Where Is Edward Cullen community has been waiting for over a year, Volvo has officially kicked off their contest for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.  The new contest is called “Journey to the Wedding” and while we’ve all been waiting for this day for weeks, it appears that this was just a sneak peek at what is to come.  The first challenge in the game will not be available from Volvo until November 1.

In the tradition of last year’s post “Solving Volvo’s Lost In Forks Game“, I will be doing my best to reveal what hints and advice I can during each phase of the game.  Keep your eyes on the website as well as the Where Is Edward Cullen Facebook Page for regular updates and discussions about Journey to the Wedding.

The Journey So Far

If you’re part of Volvo’s mailing list from last year, you should have received an exclusive invite to the game that looks like the one below.

As you can see, this year’s contest offers up two opportunities to win.  The first is the “What Would You Wear” contest where Twilight fans can upload a photo or drawing of their dream outfit that they would wear if they were invited to Edward and Bella’s wedding.  Submissions are then voted on by the community, and the person with the most votes can win two tickets to the premier of the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.  This part of the contest is the only part that actually starts today and will run now until October 23.

The second part of the contest is the part we have all been looking forward to.  Called Journey to the Wedding, this new game is broken up into three challenges and like past contests is judged by how quickly you complete the challenges.  Complete all three challenges in the least amount of time and you have the chance to win a trip for two to Rio de Janeiro, just like Edward and Bella. Plus, you could take home the actual 325hp Volvo S60 T6 R-Design from “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1.”

Journey to the Wedding Website

Once you reach the Journey to the Wedding website you are greeted with a mashup of clips from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 featuring many of the film’s characters receiving their invites to the wedding, clips from the wedding itself, and some clips from the honeymoon.

As the movie plays out the challenge unfolds:

The Wedding of the Century is almost here.  Are you ready?  Make your way to the wedding of Edward and Bella and you could win a trip for two to Rio de Janeiro just like Edward and Bella. Are you Ready?

Just over two weeks until Journey to the Wedding starts, and just like the video asks; Are you ready?  Visit Facebook.com/VolvocarsUS to sign up for either challenge.

1. The Joy Formidable – End Tapes
2. Angus & Julia Stone – Love Will Take You
3. Bruno Mars – It Will Rain
4. Sleeping At Last – Turning Page
5. The Features – From Now On
6. Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
7. Theophilus London – Neighbors
8. The Belle Brigade – I Didn’t Mean It
9. Noisettes – Sister Rosetta (2011 Version)
10. Cider Sky – Northern Lights
11. Iron & Wine – Flightless Bird, American Mouth (Wedding Version)
12. Imperial Mammoth – Requiem On Water
13. Aqualung & Lucy Schwartz – Cold
14. Mia Maestro – Llovera
15. Carter Burwell – Love Death Birth

The first thing I noticed was missing from this soundtrack was the inclusion of Muse.  A staple of the Twilight Saga soundtracks, Muse has contributed a song to each of the previous soundtracks.

Something Old

Though Muse did not return to contribute a fourth song to the franchise, an old favorite from the Twilight Soundtrack returns for a remixed Wedding Version.  Iron & Wine’s Flightless Bird, American Mouth.

Something New

As mentioned above the soundtrack brings a slew of new music from up and coming artists like The Joy Formidable, Sleeping At Last, Christina Perri and a number of other acts.

Something Borrowed

The ninth track on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 Soundtrack is by The Noisettes, however this isn’t the first time their song Sister Rosetta has appeared on a soundtrack.  In 2008 the song was featured on the soundtrack for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Part 2.  The new version for 2011 is sure to be remixed and remastered for Breaking Dawn, but if you want to get a feel for the song you can check out the video for the original below.

Overall the soundtrack looks to be another promising addition to the franchise, and with only two movies and soundtracks left I really hope they don’t let me down

Advance tickets will be available starting Saturday, October 1.  Did you receive your invite to the big event?

Breaking Dawn is what I had expected Twilight to be from the beginning. I think I’ve written before about how much of a total and utter shock it was for me to fall in love with this series. Part of the reason for that is that I have an intense dislike for genres like the vampire genre. The reason I tend to dislike these types of novels is because they are all about the paranormal element – vampires and werewolves and witches, oh my!

Twilight was always different. Through Bella, you are introduced to this incredible world in an almost nonchalant fashion. Bella sees these fantastic abilities and accepts them as part of who Edward is. Instead of a story about a vampire we are left with the story of this boy and this girl, fighting for the simple right to be together. In other words, because Bella is able to interact with all the Cullens (and later the werewolves) as easily and naturally as she would if they were all human, we forget to concentrate on the fantastic element and are able to just enjoy the story.

Breaking Dawn takes the entire rest of the series and flips it on its axis. Instead of being in the human world – the world we’re used to- we are plunged into a world that doesn’t exist. Yes, it’s what we’ve wanted for Bella, but it’s a case of be careful what you wish for for some.Breaking Dawn is ALL about the paranormal element.

One of the hardest moments in my life came when I packed up one of my best friends, hugged her and sent her on her way to New Mexico. Most of me was happy for her – it’s what she desperately needed to get back on track with her life, but also I was heartbroken. I knew I was losing a part of her, and that I would never get that back. We would never be as close as we were in that moment. That’s how I feel about Bella’s transformation. Gone is the girl we could all identify with and in her place was a pristine, perfect creature – just like our Edward. It was the right thing for her, finally being Edward’s equal, but she was no longer our equal and I think some of us felt a little…left behind.

Additionally, the vampire world is difficult for some to actually deal with. Case and point – the impromptu vampire cesarean that Rob is so looking forward to (oh, Rob).  I find most of the Breaking Dawn naysayers find that scene difficult to cope with. But to do that scene any other way would have been a cop-out. Stephenie created this little vampire world and was bound by the parameters she set down: vampire skin is impenetrable by normal means. Yes, it’s gross but in the world Stephenie created, there was no other way to get the baby out.

I don’t find this any different than the real world. How often we gloss over things that, in reality, are difficult and gross and painful. Birth in the human world is filled with blood. A needle entering the spine. A vag full of stitches. Pooping, peeing, bleeding and screaming in front of a room full of strangers who will not hesitate to stick their hands up your most intimate orifices. Surely Edward having to bite through Bella’s uterus with his teeth isn’t so monumentally more disturbing than any of the things a normal mother has to endure.

And let us not ignore the white elephant, or rather pale vampire-human hybrid baby, in the room.

I really understand the Renesmee factor and the bad fanfiction comparison. If you’re at all familiar with any fanfic world you’ve seen a thousand stories where the characters get married, pregnant and have babies, usually twins (one boy and one girl, natch) and everything is super duper amazing.

I think that dismissing Nessie as nothing more than a girlish notion of happily ever after is a huge injustice to the character and Stephenie’s world. Rather, I think Nessie is a culmination of the theme of fate throughout the book. From the moment Bella steps foot in Forks, fate is pushing her towards where she needs to be – part of the vampire world. Nessie accomplished what James, Victoria, The Volturi and an army of newborns could not – she pushed Bella into the arms of immortality.Yes, Bella gets to be a mother, and she gets forever with her beautiful, adoring, passionate husband – but both of these things came with a huge price. Bella spends the first three books paying for one and the fourth book paying for the other, so to speak.

Not only that but we had to expect that Bella’s entrance into the world of myths had to have some sort of conflict. We all knew she would eventually be a vampire, but then what? Without conflict there would be no fourth book at all (hush, naysayers, you know you wouldn’t have been satisfied if the series ended at Eclipse). You knew in New Moon that eventually the Volturi were going to crash the party. Why NOT because of a vampire baby?

If you really can’t deal with any of this, I have a hard time thinking Breaking Dawn could be a total wash for any Twilight fan. I recommend concentrating on the really good things.

Bella and Edward’s wedding – specifically the kiss at the end that Alice has to drag Bella away from. The rightness of the whole event. From Edward’s breathtaking smile at the alter, his lingering jealousy of Mike (I LOVE that entire arc in the series), to the wonderful image of Renee in Phil’s arms, holding hands with Charlie – I just love it.

Isle Esme – I know we looked away for the good parts, but Edward sweeping Bella into his arms and carrying her off to make sweet looooove to her? Come on, you know you loved it. Also, “hearing” Edward say “Sex” is ALMOST deliciously risque.

Jacob’s book – The hilarious titles, getting to know Seth and Leah, Lizzie (Because “Hey you with the stolen car!” always makes me laugh) Jacob vs Rosalie.

Bella as a vampire – making Edward say ow, their real honeymoon, Emmett’s sex jokes, Bella beating Emmett at arm wrestling.

That’s just way too many good moments to be a total waste, isn’t it?

Stephenie with her favorite couple on the set of Twilight.

Congratulations to our wonderful Stephenie Meyer for her Galaxy British Book Award. She’s beat out the likes of J.K. Rowling and Eoin Colfer, among others, and was voted a favorite by both WHSmith’s customers and the Academy of the British Book Industry,winning the WHSmith Children’s Book of the Year Award.

Stephenie called winning “amazing and phenomenal”, but we all know those words apply to her. It’s always nice to see the creator of the likes of Edward Cullen get the accolades she deserves. Congratulations Stephenie!
If you’re interested in more:

Nibbies Homepage

Little, Brown Book Group Release

The titles which are slotted for releases as early as August, according to a press release from the publisher, are as follows:

• Breaking Dawn Special Edition
• The Twilight Journals
• New Moon: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion
• New Moon Collector’s Edition

The special edition of Breaking Dawn will hit stores on August 4 and will include a DVD of the Breaking Dawn concert series and interviews with Stephenie Meyer.  The hardcover will also include a poster and reproduction of handwritten lyrics for “My Never,” by the band Blue October.

The Twilight Journals are due out October 13 and will be packaged in a tin and include decorative quotes from each of the novels.  Each journal features the cover artwork for each of the four Twilight novels.

New Moon: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion and New Moon Collector’s Edition are both due out October 6.

Little, Brown also has plans for New Moon trade and mass-market paperback tie-ins that are due to be released in September and November.