Bridal Bouquets – How to Make Your Own

If you are on a tight budget for your wedding, or if you just like working with flowers, you might try making your own bridal bouquet.  You may run into some problems that can be avoided by paying attention to our checklist for making a bridal bouquet.

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The Best Wedding Toast Ever

From the bride:

This is my Man of Honor’s speech from my wedding on April 28, 2007 in Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Florida.
In this magical moment, I seriously felt like my heart was going to explode!

Wedding Planning Checklist

One of the first things you should do once you decide you are getting married is to create a wedding planning checklist of all the things that you think are necessary to create a smooth running event where all your needs will be met.

You will be quite surprised as you start writing out your checklist how it will grow and grow over the weeks and months as you move towards your wedding and getting additional input from your partner and other people will help you realize everything that is required.

Rather than trying to go into too much detail right from the start it is best to begin your checklist with the most important items and then go into more depth on your list as you think more and more about those items.

So you would start your list of the basic headings of: dress, flowers, reception, guests.

Then under each of these headings you would go into more detail so that under a heading such as dress you would list your wedding dress, your bridesmaid’s dresses and possibly even your mother and mother-in-law’s dresses as they will be in the wedding photos and will need to coordinate their clothes with yours for the best photo results.

Then you would start listing the various different places you need to investigate to get your dress sorted and that might include getting wedding magazines, contacting dressmaker’s, going to wedding dress shops and trying on the various dresses and so on.

Then you drill down even further in these lists and write down prices of the various solutions that you have found.

As you can see the list will grow bigger and bigger until you find every solution that suits your needs.

You can then create another list of items that have been solved and these can be checked off as they are implemented; for instance the second list might have the date where you will get your dress fitting, the name address and phone number of the dressmaker and other such details that you will need at hand at all times.

By staying well-organized at all times and keeping all these details in one place you will find that the time leading up to your wedding will be a lot less stressful and quite possibly less expensive.

Gazebo Wedding Decorations

You’ve chosen the setting for your wedding ceremony – a beautiful gazebo with a lovely pond behind it. The decision you need to make now is whether to use the wedding gazebo as is, or enhance the setting with some nice decorations. If you are at a loss as to how to decorate this structure, here are some great tips for gazebo wedding decorations.

It will be easier to decide on decorations if you have your color palette and theme (if any) picked out before you begin. Keep color swatches with you when you shop for your gazebo decorations, so you can easily match or blend colors. You may also want to tuck a small inspiration photo album in your purse. You can then pull these pictures out in the stores to help you find just the right gazebo wedding decorations.

You may also want to ask the wedding gazebo owner about the types and colors of any flowers and plants that are planted close to the structure, and if these flowers will be blooming at the time of your wedding. If so, think about utilizing these built-in wedding decorations – perhaps choose the same flowers and complimentary colors for your wedding decorations. You could save a lot of money on flower arrangements by incorporating existing live plants!

A very classic and traditional way to decorate a gazebo for a wedding is to use tulle. This can be an inexpensive decorating tool, that will add a touch of romance and fantasy if hung right. Shop around for just the right color and try to buy entire bolts of tulle on sale. If you purchase too much for the gazebo, you can always use the leftover tulle to decorate tables, aisles, and other wedding receptions elements.

You don’t have to wrap tulle around the wedding gazebo. A prettier use might be to attach it to the inside top of the gazebo and let it hang down – like a romantic canopy over the bridal couple. You can also swag the tulle around the banister of the gazebo. Get creative in attaching the tulle – use flowers to hide the attachment areas.

Instead of tulle, you may want to use flowers and flower garlands. You can usually purchase these at craft stores, or in bulk online from stores like Oriental Trading Co. You could also use fresh flowers – though creating the garlands would be expensive and time-consuming. Flower petal strewn around the steps and floor of the gazebo add a nice romantic touch.

If the gazebo owner does not want you to use glue, nails, or staples to attach your decorations, you will probably need to buy some ribbon to tie the flowers and garlands in place. You could also use tulle cut into strips, either alone or mixed with ribbon, to use as ties. Ribbons come in such a variety of colors and styles that you are sure to find the right look.

Another idea for gazebo wedding decoration is to use strand of lights. You can wrap the lights around the pillar of the gazebo, or intertwine the lights with the flower or tulle garlands. Of course, the lights will only provide a romantic, fairy-tale effect if you can see them, so this idea would probably work better for evening or night weddings.

When you decorate the gazebo, consider extending the decorations out to where your guests will be sitting. Use the same tulle, ribbon, or flowers to decorate chairs and aisles. Make your guests feel they are part of the wedding ceremony, rather than just spectators looking at a stage.

Be creative when choosing your gazebo wedding decorations. You are really only limited by any restrictions the owners of the gazebo have. There are an infinite number of ways to decorate your chosen gazebo – tulle, ribbon, flowers, lights, crystals – even hanging butterflies – be creative in your wedding decoration ideas and your ceremony is sure to be one you and your guests will remember for a lifetime!

Red Floral Wedding Invitation Kit by Anna Griffin

This is a box of 50 beautiful wedding invitations from The Wedding Studio by Anna Griffin. The invitations consists of thick ecru backing with a rose print. The top layer is a translucent vellum with your special wording. Both layers are held together with a sheer white bow. This invitation has a traditional botanical feel. Each box has 50 invitations with envelopes and 50 response cards with envelopes. You can easily print your own invitations with these cards following the simple included instructions.

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