Wedding Help

While many brides planning their wedding just choose flowers and colors that they like and different effects that can be done on a budget, many other brides look at the recent trends from celebrity weddings. Celebrities pay for experts and wedding planners who will transform their wedding into just what they’ve dreamed, and they pay enough to make sure that they are keeping up with the most current trends. So if you are wanting a trendy wedding, but still keep your budget in check, then check out some of the details that have been prevalent in the most recent celebrity weddings for some ideas. The Today show posted an article a few weeks ago about some great celebrity wedding trends we’ll be seeing in the near future. It got me to thinking about how easy it would be to copy those looks for cheap. So, here are some of the top celebrity trends for weddings, and how you can easily copy them for a fraction of the cost.

Landscape Wedding Centerpieces

There have been many different styles for wedding centerpieces in celebrity weddings. At one point the trend was large centerpieces that were only one color, and more recently wedding centerpieces turned into lots of little centerpieces on one table for a more interesting look. But now, according to Today, landscape centerpieces are a great new trend for your wedding centerpieces. What does this mean? Look for some beautiful potted plants or flowers with moss. Today even suggests these helpful components for creating a landscape wedding centerpiece, pretty bowls, moss, mushrooms, or any other large potted plants or flowers. You can visit your local florist for some potted flowers and replant them into decorative bowls that won’t cost near the amount of buying flower arrangements from your florist. Plus, you can use them later on.

Shorter Wedding Veils

In celebrity weddings, don’t expect to see too many long and flowing wedding veils. Many celebrity brides are going for the shorter wedding veils that look a little retro for their wedding ceremonies. A short wedding veil adds an excellent romantic and dramatic appearance to your wedding day look, so it’s something to consider. I purchased my wedding veil from a lady who could make some beautiful veils herself. I only paid about $10 for my veil, and it’s pretty easy to go this route. If you are handy with a needle, then there are several bridal books in craft stores that will show you how to create a wedding veil, and tulle is only about a dollar a yard.

Groom’s Wedding Cake

Now, according to the article written by Today, groom’s cakes are really only a Southern tradition. Living here in the south, I had always assumed that every wedding had a groom’s cake. But I just never thought about it before. Groom’s cakes are great way for the groom to personalize the wedding a little bit. At my sister’s wedding, her groom’s cake had a fire truck on top since she was marrying a fire fighter. The cake should pick up on some special thing about the groom such as a favorite sport or team, home town, occupation, or even a nickname. Since a groom’s cake is less traditional than the white wedding cake, it doesn’t have to be done up as fancy, so you can buy a regular sheet cake and have it decorated to your specifications.

Wedding Favors of the World

Wedding favors are a great way to thank your guests for coming out to support you. Many celebrities are making their wedding favors support some kind of international theme, such as chopsticks, colorful bangles tied with a ribbon, or even a blend of your favorite spice from a particular region. You can find many wedding favors on the Internet with an international theme that really don’t cost very much. Another solution, visit a nearby oriental market and pick up different packs of beautifully decorated chopsticks, and then separate them and tie a set together with a nice ribbon and a note.

With the bleak outlook on our economy and the nervousness that consumers feel, the bridal industry has taken a bit hit. Many experts predict that the average spending for an American wedding will be down this year as brides are looking for ways to save money on their big day. It never hurts to look for deals, as nothing in your wedding will have the price tags for your guests to see. But a little bit of planning ahead and research can help give you the trendy wedding you’ve been wanting at a price that won’t take your breath away.

Tags: celebrity weddings, trendy wedding ideas, Wedding Planning

It seems like one of the little things that can sneak up on you while you’re planning your wedding is working out the details with your wedding transportation, I know I didn’t finalize mine until about a week before our wedding. And this doesn’t only apply to elderly family members or people who may need special assistance in getting to your wedding. Typically the parents of the bride and groom help with getting people to the ceremony, hotel and reception without trouble, with the maid of honor and best man on the job as well. But the are of wedding transportation that I’m talking about now has to do with transporting the bride and groom to and from the wedding and reception, and the many different ways that you can handle the situation. So here are some great places to get started for the storybook or romantic wedding transportation that can help transform your wedding day into your dream come true.

Renting a Limo for the Whole Day

There is something about riding in a limo that shouts what a special occasion this is. You can rent a limo for the entire day, though that can get a little pricey. If you hire a hairdresser to come to your house and do everyone’s hair, then you can have a nice brunch with the ladies and all get ready together. Then, once everyone is ready to go, climb into the limo for the ride to the church. Then, once your wedding ceremony is over you can either have the limo for the bride and groom only, or include the bridal party for a fun ride over to your reception. Then once your reception is over, you can ride away in the beautiful limo, back to your car.

Renting a Limo for One Trip

This is what I decided to do for our wedding transportation. I arrived at the church early and had someone there to fix the hair and make-up for all of the bridesmaids. Once the wedding ceremony was over, a stretch hummer pulled up into the parking lot of the church, and took us along with the entire bridal party and their spouses over to the reception hall. It was a great and joyful time for all of us to spend together. Plus it made for some great pictures.

Other Wedding Transportation Options

While most couples tend to choose limousines for their wedding transportation, there are others still who dream of a more ’storybook’ way to do their wedding transportation. For example, my sister and her husband left their wedding reception in a beautiful horse drawn carriage. A good friend of mine in college left her wedding reception in an old restored vintage car that they had borrowed/rented. It was a truly classy way to ride. If you’re having a beach wedding, then an exciting method of transportation could be leaving on a boat. So put some time into it and find the best method of wedding transportation for your pocketbook as well as for the itinerary that you have planned.

There are many different ways that the bride and groom can handle their wedding transportation. Some ‘experts’ advise that the limo after the wedding should only hold the bride and groom so that they can enjoy their first minutes of married life together, and others advise that the parents should join them in the limo as well. It seems few others advise that the entire bridal party ride with you in the limo, but I wouldn’t have done ours any other way. I enjoyed getting to spend time with our bridal party in the exciting moments after our wedding.

Tags: wedding limo, wedding transporation

I’ve been watching The Ultimate Gift lately. It’s a heart touching movie that features a little girl named Emily who loves butterflies. She believes that butterflies are painted by the hand of God with every color, and that heaven is filled with butterflies. It’s a very sweet movie, and it kind of got me thinking and doing a little bit of research on butterfly weddings as well. Lots of little girls love butterflies, and it never really changes once they get older. But butterflies are an excellent theme for spring weddings, especially if you love butterflies. So, I’ve been doing a little bit of research on butterfly weddings, and I’ve found some really great ideas for brides planning a wedding with a butterfly wedding theme. Here are some great places to start.

Butterfly Wedding Invitations

Your wedding invitations are a great place to start. After all, your wedding invitations are the first glimpse into your wedding colors and theme that you are allowing your guests to see. So look for some wedding invitations that feature butterflies. If you can’t find any, you could buy some plain wedding invitations and emboss or stamp some butterflies on the invitation and/or the envelope.

Butterflies in the Wedding Flowers

A great way to incorporate a butterfly wedding theme into your wedding flowers is to insert some butterfly picks into the bouquet. For groomsmen or ushers, a single flower with a fancy butterfly pin is a great look. A quick searche on the Internet will result in all the tools you’ll need to accomplish the look you’re going for.

A Butterfly Wedding Dress and Jewelry

If you’re looking around in wedding dress shops for a butterfly wedding dress, then you’re not going to have much luck. Instead, start looking around for applique butterflies, or lace butterflies that you can have attached to your wedding dress. You add more butterfly accents through bridal tiaras or hairpins that feature butterflies.

Butterfly Wedding Decorations

There are many different ways that you could decorate your wedding and reception to fit in with your butterfly wedding theme. You could place small potted plants at the center of each table with butterfly picks inserted into the plants, or have a large bowl with submerged wild flowers and floating butterfly candles. You can also find some cute butterfly name card holders to place at each seat to help add to the charm of the butterflies. If you are using pillars, wrap them in ribbon or tulle and attach butterfly appliques. You could also designate each table to a different kind of butterfly, which will help with your table names as well.

Butterfly Wedding Favors

You can find lots of great butterfly wedding favors on the Internet, or find some that you can make yourself. Chocolates in the shape of butterflies are a great idea, and can be easily created with a candy mold. Another great idea is to decorate small envelopes with a butterfly stencil, and insert some packages of wildflower seeds that will attract butterflies.

A Butterfly Release?

Many brides who are wanting to have a butterfly themed wedding also tend to look into having a butterfly release at the end of the ceremony, and there is a lot of controversy surrounding it. This is because the butterflies are migratory and that once the butterflies are released, they may become confused as to where they are supposed to go, and end up dying once winter comes along. Also, many couples find that many of the butterflies arrive dead, or half dead. It just isn’t worth doing to these beautiful creatures when there are lots of other ways you can decorate your wedding with butterflies.

Butterflies are a pretty popular wedding theme, so if you are thinking of having a butterfly wedding you should be able to find lots of different decorations and ideas for decorating your wedding with big beautiful butterflies.

Tags: butterfly wedding, butterfly wedding themes, butterfly weddings

If you haven’t felt it already, the stress on your wedding day will be unlike any other stress you’ve ever felt before. All the work and time that you’ve put into planning your wedding is all coming together on your wedding day. And yes, it is a very exciting time, but if you’re not careful you could let the stress put a damper on your wedding day - and that is something you definitely don’t want. So I can’t stress just how important it is to keep your head and be able to manage your stress. The first thing you’ll want to do is (if you don’t know already), learn to delegate some of the work to close family and friends that you can depend on. This really will help you alot, and will give you some time to relax on your wedding day as well. The other thing you need to do is create a wedding day checklist so that you can be sure you’re not forgetting anything. I’m a big fan of lists. A wedding day checklist made in advance can help you relax on your wedding day knowing that everything is taken care of, or will be taken care of. Here are some important things to remember on your wedding day checklist so there are no surprises later.

Wedding Day Decorating

Due to my circumstances, I was unable to decorate my ceremony location and reception hall until the day of the wedding. But luckily, I had many family members come up early that morning ready to help make everything perfect. My wedding day checklist had to include everything that I wanted as decorations to be out, such as the pew bows, flower arrangements, prayer bench and aisle runners. So my list consisted of making sure that everything was where it needed to be for my family to decorate. Same with the reception hall. So if you have to decorate your wedding locations the morning of, it’s best to have all the decorations you need on your wedding day checklist so you can make sure you have everything you need in the right place.

Wedding Day Vendors

Another thing you’ll need to have on your wedding day checklist is the vendors that will be dropping off things for your wedding, and when they are scheduled to arrive. It’s best to have their phone numbers with you in case they get lost, or are running late.

Wedding Day Payments

Typically, your wedding day is when you’ll need to hand out payments and offerings for many of the vendors and other people playing a role in your wedding. Your wedding day checklist needs to say who should be getting a check, and how much.

Wedding Day Necessities

Most importantly, your wedding day checklist needs to include a list of necessities for your wedding day. Have a bag packed and ready with everything you will need to get ready for the wedding such as : your dress, hose, special underwear, shoes, bridal tiara, jewelry, and anything else that could apply. Also, your wedding day checklist needs to include what you will need for your honeymoon. You should have already packed for your honeymoon before, but make sure you remember your suitcase, boarding passes, and any other documents you’ll need for the trip.

When making your wedding day checklist, just remember to do the best you can. The more time and thought you put into it will help ensure the least amount of surprises you’ll have to deal with on your wedding day. Typically, there is always something small or trivial that you will forget - but with careful planning and delegating of responsibilites, you’ll be able to keep the damage to a minimum.

Tags: wedding day checklist, Wedding Day Tips, Wedding Planning

Planning a wedding by yourself can be difficult. If you have friends or family helping you out, then you are truly blessed, but typically even with help planning a wedding can be difficult. I had some help from family and friends, but a majority of the wedding planning details were left to me. Wedding planning is an exciting time of your life, but it can also be pretty stressful as well. In previous articles, I’ve advised many brides to buy themselves a huge binder or other organization helper to keep track of all of their wedding vendor information, quotes and pictures for the wedding. But personally, I think it needs to go a little farther than that. I think that by creating a personal wedding planning list that you can really help maximize your time, and make sure that everything gets done. Here are some great ways to create and use a wedding planning list to aid in your wedding planning.

Using a Generic Wedding Planning List

When I first started my wedding planning, this is what I used. I went on the Internet and found a free wedding checklist that went month to month on what tasks I needed to have completed in this time frame. This wedding planning list was helpful, but it wasn’t tailored to fit what I needed to have done in my wedding planning, so I could only use it so much. My only advice here, is that if you use a generic wedding planning list, be sure that most of the tasks listed in the list are items that you need to worry about…otherwise you could be forgetting something important.

Creating Your Own Wedding Planning List

While this option can be a bit more tedious, you can be sure that your wedding planning list has everything that applies to you. You can even use one of the generic lists as your guide and set aside what you need to do month by month. But when you create a wedding planning list yourself, you know what needs to be done and when, and every item on your list is something that applies to your wedding.

Using a Combination Wedding Planning List

As I mentioned above, I started out using a generic wedding planning list, and then quickly found out that it wasn’t going to fit what I wanted to have done for my wedding. So I ended up printing off the generic wedding list and crossing off the items that didn’t apply to me. Then, I added to that wedding planning list the items that weren’t on the original wedding planning list. It saved me a lot of time creating a whole new list, and everything applied to my wedding. Plus, there is some level of satisfaction in being able to cross items off of your list.

I’ve found that creating lists in my day to day life really helps me to stay on task and complete what needs to be done each day. The same applied to me with my wedding planning. I can’t imagine a time in someone’s life when they have more things to do and remember than when they are planning a wedding. My piece of advice for staying organized? Definitely create your own wedding planning list….it will keep you from going crazy and forgetting things later on.

Tags: planning a wedding, Wedding Planning, wedding planning list