Annual Honeymoon

Vacation is over - time to get back to the business of wedding planning. It can be fun, but everybody needs a little change of pace once in a while. For us, we like to think of it as an annual honeymoon.

New England is great. What a great place for a honeymoon. I'll write more about specific honeymoon ideas for a New England trip soon but for anyone who is not from New England and either wants something different than a flight to the sun and sand or just can't afford to go that far - Wow, there is so much to see and do in New England. There is so much character, so much to experience, so many opportunities for romance, a honeymooning couple should have no problem finding something to fit right into.

Like I said, I'll write more tomorrow but in the meantime you can gets some good honeymoon ideas by checking this article out.

How to Store the Top of Your Wedding Cake

Quite often young couples ask how to save the top layer of their wedding cake. It is a tradition to save the top tier of the wedding cake to eat on their first year anniversary. It can be fun to revive the memories of the big day one year later. It is a romantic way for a young couple to celebrate their first year together.

So how do you save the top layer of the wedding cake so that it will last until your first anniversary? First, you are not really trying to save the top layer of the cake instead you are trying to save the top tier of the cake. A standard wedding cake with three cakes stacked one on top of the others is a three tiered cake. The layers are in each individual cake. With that clarification, there are two good answers to the question:

The first answer is, don't do it. Do not bother saving the top layer of your wedding cake. Instead order your wedding cake with enough servings to feed your guests and then plan on returning to the bakery to order a six or eight inch cake in the same flavor and filling as your wedding cake – you could even have them place some (or all) of the same decorations on your anniversary cake (you could even break out your cake topper and your special cake knife & serving set for a fun presentation of your anniversary cake) so it will look like the top tier of your wedding cake.

The advantages of this approach are multiple but we will deal with the three most significant:

• First, you will be eating fresh cake on your anniversary rather than frozen cake that has been thawed and fresh always tastes better than frozen.
• Second, this approach will save you money on your wedding cake. By not saving the top layer of your wedding cake for your first year anniversary you will not have to order as much cake and since most bakeries charge based on the number of servings that can save you a significant amount of money in a time when money is tight.
• Third, you save freezer space.

For those who would really like to save the top tier of their wedding cake this is how...

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Wedding Reception Focus

Someone asked why such a focus on wedding receptions instead of talking about the ceremony as well. The reason is simple. Every tradition tends to have very specific requirements for the formal portion of a wedding. Unless you are one that has cast off most traditions (no one manages to shed them all) and are planning to get married dressed as Princess Leah or a pair of Elves for the most part the ceremony itself is pretty well prescribed either by traditions or religious significance.

It is not our place to be suggesting anyone cast off their traditions as that would indicate casting off the things that define their lives.

The reception, however, has many less prescriptions. Indeed, most traditions in North America allow great flexibility in the celebration. It's your opportunity on your wedding day to make your celebration personal.

The problem is, that the prescribed nature of the ceremony makes it easy to fall into the trap of trying to gather the items you need for your wedding reception without taking a moment to plan it - and that is the recipe for either a ho hum wedding reception or a lot of wasted money.

If, on the other hand, you take a few minutes to plan your beach wedding, winter wedding, or any wedding decor in between you can often plan your purchases so that your celebration will reflect your personality and stretch your budget.

That is why we focus primarily (not totally, see my article on adding Grand Entrances for one example of a focus on the ceremony) on wedding receptions when we talk about wedding planning.

After Your Wedding Reception

Some newly married couples choose to stick around after the wedding reception and revel in the opportunity to have all of their dearest friends and relatives at their side. And why not? For most of us, it is a rare day when our closest friends and family are at our side rather than scattered all over the universe. But, without paying for more hours for the entire reception facilities to extend your wedding dance what options do you have for an intimate celebration after the wedding reception?

Bond Fire on the Beach

If you are having a beach wedding and live in an area where you are allowed to have a bond fire on the beach, this can be a wonderful way for close friends to wind down and enjoy each other's company. Just invite your guests to bring a change of more casual clothes to change into after the formal aspect of your wedding reception is done so they can feel comfortable as your (potentially more intimate) group moves on to the next phase of your wedding celebration - your beach bond fire.

Intimate Coffee House After Reception

If you have the resources and the contacts there is nothing like a late night with your dearest friends hanging out in a coffee house. There are several ways to do this. The obvious option is to find a coffee shop that you can rent out for a couple hours after they would normally close for the night. Unfortunately, that might not be a realistic option depending on your budget.

However, what if I told you that you could achieve a similar after wedding reception get together all while ending up with ... continue reading, "After Your Wedding Reception"

Setting Your Wedding Date

The process of setting the wedding date is not a difficult one, but it is filled with hazards. Much like a golf game, your task is to find a way to drive down the center of the fairway, avoiding as many of the sand traps, roughs, and water hazards as possible. But, also like the game of golf, finding yourself in the long grass of setting your wedding date is not the end of the world. It will just slow you down.

Choosing the date of your wedding can be accomplished in primarily three possible ways:
The first, though not recommended, is to just choose a date that sounds good to you. This is somewhat akin to walking up to the tee on a golf course, putting on a blindfold and swinging in the general direction of the hole. In theory, the duffer might even get a hole in one, but most likely they will end up in trouble.

The second approach to setting your wedding date is to plan based on...

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How Your Venue Affects Your Wedding Color Choices

In a perfect world the task of choosing wedding colors would be as simple as choosing your favorite combination and leaving it at that. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. Neither do we live in a vacuum. And the practice of choosing our favorite combination forgets that our wedding colors have to work in our wedding venue… as many brides have discovered after it was too late to do anything to remedy the situation.

Let me illustrate with the story of some friends of ours who were looking to redecorate the interior of their house (stick with me; this is incredibly relevant to your choice of wedding colors). They started off where everyone says you should start, by dreaming about what they wanted. After much discussion the settled on a color scheme, but there was just something that still did not feel quite right so they found a local company that provided free access to a design consultant.

The meeting with the design consultant was a real eye opener. The colors they had chosen went beautifully together – but not in their house! If they were building a new house or renewing absolutely everything in the house the combination could be stunning – but those colors would not work with the red oak flooring of their house, or the tile work, or....

Likewise, you can choose an incredible combination for your wedding colors but if you haven’t taken into consideration the colors already present in your wedding venue then you run the risk of creating a look that you would not wish on your worst enemy’s wedding, much less your wedding day.

Remedy for This Wedding Color Dilemma

As illustrated above, the process of choosing your wedding colors begins with... continue reading, "How Your Venue Affects Your Wedding Color Choices"

Trends in Wedding Planning

Two thousand six and two thousand seven's big wedding trends were built around monograms. During these last two years monograms were found just about everywhere - incorporated into the design of the wedding cake or as cake tops. Monograms were found stuffed in floral bouquets and on walls. Frankly, it is a beautiful look. I am certainly not tired of it.

Interestingly, I have read some big names in the wedding industry saying that the monogram trend in wedding design is only beginning. Maybe they are right. Like I said, it can be a beautiful touch especially when it is done with crystal wedding cake jewelry - a form of cake toppers that make a great keepsake for after the wedding when placed in a shadow box.

Perhaps, building on the monogram wedding theme trend in wedding planning, is the move towards using silhouettes in decorating. To envision what I mean, imagine a white wedding cake at a spring wedding cake accented with small pastel flowers and the silhouettes of butterflies landing and taking off. Or imagine a tropical colored cake with the silhouettes of orchids.

Of course, using silhouettes in your wedding decor is not limited to your wedding cake. Imagine a centerpiece of a candle in a holder which features the silhouette of a boy and a girl kissing. Imagine commissioning a focal point from a local wood worker or metal artisan for your wedding reception celebration that features a silhouette of whatever you have built your theme around such as doves, hearts, the Chinese double happiness symbol, bicycles, or even castles.