Wedding Cakes

A wedding cake is the main focal point of the reception, after the bride of course . Wedding cakes are as individual as the bride and groom, ranging from simple homemade cakes to extravagant works of at costing thousands of dollars.

When creating a wedding budget, be sure allow for the expensive of a wedding cake. More complicated and intricate decorations tend to drive up the price of the cake. Once a budget is in place, look for wedding cakes that fit into that budget.

Many people feel that an expensive cake is a waste of money that could be spent elsewhere in the wedding. Others may just prefer a basic cake, or even an alternative to cake, such as cupcakes or individual desserts with special meaning to the wedding couple.

The most common wedding cake seen at weddings is done in a traditional style. This cake usually consists of several layers that are decorated according to the theme and colors of the wedding.

To save money on a wedding cake, chose a smaller size wedding cake for the cake table, with simple decorations. Have sheet cakes ready to be served to guests. They are cheaper and taste just as good!

Using real flowers to decorate a cake is a popular choice. It doesn’t take many flowers to decorate the top of a wedding cake. The bridal bouquet, or a bridesmaid bouquet, can be used as well. Real flowers, rather than icing decorations, are often a more cost-effective way to stay within the wedding cake budget.

Keep in mind that if you insist on going over your budget on an elaborate wedding cake, you will either have to cut costs elsewhere or be prepared to spend more overall.

Research several wedding cake designers, and don’t forget to ask friends and family for recommendations. You may be able to find someone with talent that isn’t necessarily professional. These wedding cake hobbiest often produce elegant wedding cakes at a much lower cost.

Before signing on the dotted line for your wedding cake, be sure to see samples of their work, and taste samples if possible. If you aren’t satisfied with the samples, you undoubtedly won’t be happy with the final product. Don’t feel obligated to order from them, just because they provided samples.

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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Heart Shaped Mint Tin Wedding Favors

Packed with love, these heart shaped boxes/mint tins can hold tiny treasures and heartfelt sentiments inside. Ready to be filled with Jordan almonds, mints or any number of surprises, these mint tins/heart shaped boxes can pull at the heartstrings when special touches such as sayings or messages are added. Each of the heart shaped boxes is approximately 2 inch diameter and comes in a silver matte finish with a clear acetate cover. The mint tins come packaged in boxes of 50, convenient for making party favors in large or smaller quantities. Almonds not Included.

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10 Wedding Party Gift Ideas

It is traditional for the bride to give the groom a gift on the wedding day.  Although the wedding rings that the couple exchanges can be considered gifts, many brides choose to honor their groom with an additional gift that suits his personality.

The gift of the bride and groom exchanging gifts is beginning to fade as many couples who spend a great deal of money on their wedding or honeymoon may decide that there is no need to exchange gifts in addition to the wedding and honeymoon.  If you do decide to honor your groom with a gift on your wedding day, it is more important to choose an item that he is sure to enjoy than it is to spend a great deal of money on the gift.

A photo album complete with a picture of you and the bridesmaid or the entire wedding party can be another unique gift idea for the bridesmaids.  You could purchase photo albums with the date of your wedding engraved on the front cover and start the photo album with a picture of you and the bridesmaid.  This is a wonderful gift idea because the bridesmaid can place her photos from the wedding day in the album and will always have a precious souvenir from your wedding day.

Gift certificates to a spa or a salon also make unique gift ideas for your bridesmaids.  Your bridesmaids most likely spent a great deal of time and energy in helping you to plan your wedding.  The week prior to your wedding was also probably especially hectic with a great deal of last minute details to attend to and errands to run.  While you will have your honeymoon to relax and renew your energy your bridesmaids do not have this luxury so by honoring them by presenting them with a gift certificate to a spa or salon you are giving them the gift or being pampered and the gift of relaxation.

A few more unique gift ideas for your bridesmaids’ gifts include handcrafted or homemade gifts.  For example you could put together a CD of some of your bridesmaids’ favorite songs.  You could make the CDs different for each bridesmaid and include a photo of the two of you on the cover and include a heartfelt poem on the inside of the CD cover.  You could also create a scrapbook for each of your bridesmaids.  You could either make the scrapbook a memory of your entire friendship together and include photos and other items from your various adventures throughout the years or if you plan ahead and take many photos documenting your wedding preparations, you could create scrapbooks as a remembrance of the wedding planning that you shared.

Any item that relates to a specific hobby that the groom enjoys is a great idea for a wedding gift for the bride to give to the groom.  This is a popular choice because giving a gift that relates to one of his hobbies demonstrates that you understand his likes and that you want him to continue to engage in activities that he enjoys.

Another unique gift idea for a bride to give to her bridesmaids is a gift certificate to a local restaurant.  Assisting in your wedding preparations was probably extremely stressful and time consuming for the bridesmaids and they certainly deserve a night on the town and the opportunity to not have to cook for a night.  This simple gift lets your bridesmaids know that you appreciate their efforts and that you want to thank them for all that they have done to support you.

Unique gift ideas for the bridesmaids can also stem from the wedding theme.  For example if you are having a beach themed wedding you might want to give your bridesmaids a gift of a tote bag, a beach towel and a novel to enjoy on the beach.  This unique gift idea ensures that your bridesmaids will remember your wedding fondly the next time they are at the beach.

Although the tradition of the bride and groom exchanging gifts on their wedding day is beginning to fade, many couples still wish to honor this tradition.  Many couples spend so much money on their wedding and reception that they feel as though they cannot afford the additional expense of buying gifts for each other.  While it may be true that the couple cannot afford one more extravagant gift it is also true that a truly thoughtful gift for the groom does not have to be overly expensive.  If the couple is partaking in this tradition it is advisable that they exchange gifts that truly reflect the personality of their spouse.

Mini Butterfly Wedding Decorations

Having a spring wedding? Or maybe an “Alice in Wonderland” themed wedding?

The Butterfly Grove specializes in nylon butterfly decor for all your decorating needs. These beautiful butterflies are perfect for spring weddings – indoors or outdoors. The Butterfly Grove also offer nylon flowers, dragonflies, bees, and ladybugs, to complete the spring garden (or Alice in Wonderland) look.

The butterflies shown are 3″, however, butterflies are also available in 5″ and larger sizes.

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How to Hire a Wedding Planner

Planning a successful wedding requires careful planning and execution. A wedding planner can help the busy bride with essential details of the wedding planning process. A wedding, like any other project, requires careful planning where budgetary constraints have to be followed and deadlines must be met.

If you close your eyes and think of the many aspects and components of your wedding, you must see the opportunities for disasters are endless. You may not think of it that way, but planning a wedding is a complex job, and it can become quite stressful overwhelming and time consuming.

Today’s brides are busy with their job in their own professions and may not have the time or desire to take on the job of planning their wedding. The average timeframe between the engagement and the wedding is 12 to 16 months. Because of the duration of the wedding planning process, you may want to seriously consider hiring a professional wedding planner.

Wedding planners are experts at making your special day less stressful and more organized. Even though hiring a wedding planner can cost several thousands of dollars, but in return you can save considerable time, money and your peace of mind. Wedding planners should be prepared to help you with design, financial, legal, etiquette, and many more related issues. You need someone on your team that has the professional experience to hold it all together.

Because wedding planners are experienced professionals, they have experience with wedding vendors of all kind. Regardless of your budget and personal taste, they will be able to recommend reception venues, photographers, or any other related wedding service professional you might need. Simply put, they can assist and guide you in making informed decisions. More specifically, wedding planners will help you with the following tasks:

• Evaluate vendor contracts and recommend clarification before signing.
• Recommend potential caterers, florists, reception venues, wedding dress fittings, wedding officiants, etc.
• Organize and attend the wedding rehearsal dinner.
• Provide you support and solutions to unexpected occurrences.
• Finalize your wedding program.

Since a wedding planner can make or break your special day, selecting one could be one of the most important first steps you take toward planning your perfect wedding. Try to get recommendations from your friends and family and consult associations for wedding planners on how to hire a wedding planner.

You may not have the budget or desire to hire a wedding planner to plan your wedding from start to the wedding day. It is still recommended that you at least consult with a wedding planner on some of the most important elements of your wedding. Remember, your wedding is your special day and you want to feel like a guest at your own wedding. A wedding planner can help you succeed.

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.

Wedding Themes

Your wedding should be one of the most memorable days of your life. You will still remember a cookie cutter wedding, but personalizing the details of your wedding according to your personality (and your soon-to-be spouse’s) will turn that boring wedding into an event you’ll remember forever!

Now more than ever, couples can spice up their wedding in ways that make their day unique to them alone, and unlike days gone by, no one will bat an eye. Traditional wedding protocol is still popular, but that doesn’t mean you need to follow it to the letter.

Before you start calling reception halls and caterers, sit down with your partner and discuss what the two of you want for your wedding. Write down your ideas for the perfect wedding. Keep these ideas in your wedding organizer for reference later.

Theme weddings are very popular. These can be very subdued events, or crazy and outrageous. Remember, this is your wedding, your special day. Don’t be inhibited by what you think others will think. As long as you and your partner are having fun, then your theme wedding is a success!

If you want to have a theme wedding that is fairly elaborate, then be sure to allow yourself plenty of time for planning. It may take some time to find the right place to hold a pirate themed wedding, or a caterer that can make an elegant castle cake to go with your fairytale theme. Remember to give your guests plenty of time to find costumes, if you choose to extend the theme to them as well.

You may think a wedding planner is a useless expense. However, having someone else to take care of all the minute details of a theme wedding (or any wedding for that matter) might be just the thing you need to take the stress off your shoulders. A planner that specializes in theme weddings will know shortcuts and vendors that will make your wedding a fantastic success.

Be sure to interview several wedding planners before making the final decision to hire one or not. Prices for their services will vary depending on how elaborate and large you want your wedding to be, and how involved you want the planner to be. When balancing the cost of a wedding planner against your budget, keep in mind that using a wedding planner will allow you to continue your busy daily schedule knowing that every detail of your wedding is being handled. That alone could make a good wedding planner well worth their price.

Destination Wedding Planner

Trotting the globe with a wedding dress in tow is no small feat. This planner takes the mystery out of staging the perfect destination wedding by outlining all of the essential information that couples need to know.

Professional Destination Wedding Planner Alison Hotchkiss gives expert advice on everything from choosing the location and setting a budget to managing the production from afar and preparing guests for the big event. Helpful worksheets and checklists make organization a breeze, and roomy pockets are included for stowing documents or odds and ends.

Whether the location is the bride’s old hometown, a tropical island, or anywhere in between, adventurous couples can be sure they’ll get hitched without a hitch!

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Beach Weddings

Beach weddings are very popular due to their casual and very romantic feel. Whether you choose a local beach or one in Fiji, beach weddings are memorable and unique. As a destination wedding, they are also an great way to combine your honeymoon with your wedding, and to give your friends and family a chance to get away on their own mini-vacations.

Receptions for beach weddings are usually held right on the beach or at a nearby hotel. This usually means fewer expenses for the reception. However, keep in mind that you may have to budget extra for air travel and hotel rooms for guests, especially if your chosen beach is in another country.

When choosing a beach to hold your ceremony and/or reception, keep in mind that most beaches are not private. You will want to make sure that your ceremony isn’t interrupted by beach-goers. You may want to contact a local tourist authority or state park office to find the best locations, and to find out what regulations there are. Also keep in mind any elderly or disabled guests that may need extra help in getting to the ceremony site. Wheelchairs and walkers don’t move smoothly through sand.

Fortunately, there are many ways to solve these problems, and most are not that expensive. Carpets can be laid on the sand to make the area more accessible. You may want to plan for extra ushers to help people move to the ceremony site. If possible, plan your wedding for the off season to avoid beaches crowded with tourists.

Of course, an off season beach wedding can run into weather problems. Many beaches are sunny one minute and cold and windy the next. Plan ahead for these changes by looking for beaches sheltered from the wind, using tents in case of rain, or having just a quick ceremony on the beach and the reception inside, preferrably in a place right on the beach, to keep the romanitc flair going.

Also be sure to check out the local tide tables, and know where the tides comes up to on the beach. Last thing you want during your ceremony is for the ocean to over your feet! If the beach is big enough, you may want to have your wedding a little further back to avoid this issue all together.

Beach weddings, like all other weddings, take careful planning and preparation, but the payoff is huge. Considering hiring a wedding planner to take care of the details, allowing you to just soak up the romantic sun on your wedding day!

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