Discovering the Perfect Honeymoon Package

The honeymoon package you choose should be something that will be exciting and romantic for both of you. Your options are nearly endless. There are packages at all inclusive resorts that even include the wedding for free. Many cruise lines offer a honeymoon package as well, often including everything from a bottle of champagne and flowers in your cabin to special pampering in the ship board spa treatment as a part of your honeymoon package.

Some of the top destinations for honeymoon packages include these very romantic ideas:

• Hawaii welcomes honeymooners with everything from active volcanoes to quiet walks on the beaches they created. There is no shortage of activities or romance and the weather is fantastic. The Hawaiian Islands are a perfect choice for exotic romance.


• Mexico offers some of the most diverse travel experiences on the planet. The people are wonderful, the food varied and superb, and the country's storied history has left significant architectural and cultural imprints throughout the land. As a result Mexico is one of the perfect honeymoon package getaways.


• Niagara Falls is always a popular destination for honeymooners because of it’s massive and beautiful waterfalls, but if you are looking to head north for your honeymoon don’t over look Banff in Alberta, Canada. There are few places this side of the Alps where the views of the mountains are so stunning and your chances to enjoy pristine wilderness plentiful.


• What’s more romantic for the adventurous couple than two weeks mountain biking and wind surfing the rugged and scenic Columbia River Gorge between Oregon and Washington? With a great choice of accommodations right on the water it’s possible to find a place to enjoy your honeymoon watching both the sun rise and set over the water – all in the same day!


• Aruba offers... more

Illuminating Your Fall Wedding

The fall is a wonderful time to hold a wedding. The craziness of summer is over and your family and friends begin to look towards opportunities to get together and enjoy the warmth of togetherness. More, the fall season brings with it lower prices on everything from hotel rooms to wedding photography even if only because fewer people are demanding those services. This means you might very well be able to get more for your money from an autumn wedding. The problem, however, has been that your choices in fall wedding décor and favors have been limited. Fortunately, I have found some Fall themed Garden Glass Gel Candles that represent a giant step in solving that problem and presenting you with an excellent opportunity to add style and elegance to your fall wedding.

Excellent Start to Great Fall Wedding Centerpieces

These tall, beautiful, and tastefully scented gel candles inside an elegant "glass" would make an excellent focal point for each table’s centerpiece at your fall wedding reception. Surround them with silver or crystal along side a roaring fire and you have the basis for an elegant event that subtly recognizes the season. Or surround them with a collection of dried leaves, baby pumpkins, gourds, and acorns etc. and you have a full on seasonally appropriate fall wedding display. These gel candles contain dried foliage and other autumn accents suspended in the warmly colored gel to tie the candle visually to the display on your tables. Add the fact that each of these “Fall in Love” Garden Glass Gel Candles has an approximate six hour burn time and you have a great choice for your table’s centerpieces.

Using these fall Garden Glass Gel Candles as a centerpiece sets the table for... more

Use Your Wedding to Build Your Marriage

During the months prior to your wedding day it's easy to forget that you are building more than a wedding - you are building your marriage. It sounds ominous, but it's really a great opportunity. During the period of time when you plan your wedding you can learn more about each other's strengths and weaknesses than you probably have had an opportunity to learn before. That knowledge, in turn, will provide you with a good start as you build your marriage.

The key, though, is to remember that your first job is to build your marriage - even above the wedding.

She Says

Far too often brides note that their groom isn't approaching the preparations for the wedding the same way that she does and forgets that there is a real difference in the way men and women approach the tasks of life. Instead they assume his apparent silence means he doesn't care about the wedding.

He Says

At the same time, when the groom sees his bride-to-be click into planning mode he finds that he is engaged to someone totally different from the woman he thought he knew. As a result he often withdraws or redirects his attention as he tries to regain his balance.

Unfortunately, this problem is... more

Free Bridal Shower Games

Turn your bridal shower from plain and ordinary into an extraordinary event by integrating free bridal shower games into your party. Games turn any shower into something more fun and enjoyable.

With these free bridal shower games you will find everyone at your party getting a little silly and crazy, but that’s the fun of it. Your friends will be talking about your bridal shower for weeks.

Free Bridal Shower Games:

Weigh the Handbag

Get a buzz going by having the bathroom scale sitting in the middle of the room when your bridal shower guests arrive but don’t answer any questions about it. Then after watching them sweat, announce that the scale is there so that everyone can weigh… their handbag. When everyone has had their turn, give a prize to the person with the heaviest handbag... more

Ideas for Unique Wedding Themes

The idea of using a wedding theme is increasingly in popularity today for many reasons. For many the reason is that the traditional wedding is simply pricing them out. For others it is the desire to be different, bigger, and grander than the nuptial event before it. Fortunately, today’s bride can have both or either because with a unique wedding theme the young couple can chose to include or omit each individual element of the wedding and since each celebration is different, who is to say that anything is missing as long as you have a bride and groom committing themselves to each other for a lifetime of love and support.

No longer does your wedding have to be basically the same as everyone else’s, you can make it as simple, elaborate, and / or unique as you’re your imagination will allow. With a wedding theme, each couple’s wedding is all their own as they take from these (and an infinite number of other) possible unique wedding themes and mold them to reflect themselves and their own community.

Marina Wedding Theme: Freshen up the typical beach themed wedding with one of the many possible variations that make another beach wedding turn into an event that won't be soon forgotten. A Marina themed wedding is one of many ways you can make a wedding by the sea fresh without abandoning the beach all together. Take advantage of the graceful elegance of sailboats gliding across the water in your decor and a harbor view location for your ceremony, reception, or both!

The Butterfly Wedding: Use butterflies in everything – Have your florist put ornamental butterflies in your flowers. Use cake jewelry to add butterflies to the cake, or have ... more

What Could Possibly Go Wrong on Your Wedding Day?

It's Friday! That means that some bride somewhere is pulling their hair out right now over what could possibly go wrong in their wedding tomorrow. And to make matters worse, their groom doesn't seem to care. Who's right? Who's wrong? What could go wrong on your wedding?

Let's start out with worse case scenario. If you are marrying Superman, it's entirely possible that Lex Luther will show up and spoil the day. But then again, unless your name is Lois Lane you are probably marrying a regular guy and regular guy's don't often have arch enemies. Come to think of it, even Lois Lane had to join the community on Wisteria Lane once she found out that Superman doesn't last forever...

I'm not sure she's doing much better there... but that's another story.

Sure, there are a lot of details that could go wrong. The restaurant hosting your rehearsal dinner could catch on fire. A freak tornado could touch down and only destroy the church you are scheduled to be married in tomorrow. You could get a zit on the end of your nose - just have someone paint some leaves on it and you could transform your wedding into a Pinocchio wedding, or maybe not.

But that's not what the nervous bride is really worried about. In fact, in most cases the fears and scenarios running through her head are not actual fears. They are symptoms... symptoms of a bad case of nerves.

The nerves, might be from caring about the details of your wedding celebration too much. In such cases, the remedy is simply to remember and accept that ultimately the event doesn't matter as long as you end up married to your best friend at the end of the day. The rest, really, is just window dressing. It's nice, but it's not really necessary. Keep things in perspective.

In most cases this is why the groom seems so maddeningly calm. All he cares about is coming out the other side married to his bride (and of course, the wedding night). The details are - well, just details.

Of course, there is another reason for a bride to have a bad case of nerves before the wedding... It's called cold feet. Whether it's because she's not sure she's made a good choice or because she too has a fear of commitment... that's for the bride and her counselor to decide. But that should have been decided long before the night before the wedding.

Wedding Scheduling Savings - Are They Worth It?

There are a lot of ways to save money on your wedding - including savings based on how you schedule your wedding. Some of them will save you a lot of money. But the question that must be asked of every opportunity is, "At what cost?" Like everything in life, there is no such thing as a freebie. There is a cost to any decision we make in the scheduling of a wedding the important thing is that we think it through before we make the choice so that we won't have the rude awakening of a ill informed decision.

One such option to save money - sometimes big money - presents itself when a bride chooses a wedding date other than on Saturday. The reason is simple. Saturday is the most popular day for weddings so wedding professionals are busiest on Saturdays. Choosing another wedding day often rewards you with lower prices.

But... the cost of these savings based on when you schedule your wedding can be staggering. There is a reason, after all, that Saturday's became the preferred choice to schedule a wedding in our culture so we discard that option at our own peril if we don't think through the decision first.

• The cost in Guests: Imagine a couple who saves huge money on their facility rental by choosing a date other than Saturday. They send out their invitations and receive their RSVP's. Only a couple of potential guests indicate that they might have been able to come if the ceremony had been on Saturday. But what about the other's who simply RSVP'd in the negative?
• The Cost in Family Relations: Think about the extended family - people who genuinely want to come to your wedding, but through whatever circumstances don't have vacation time to spare. If you wedding was on Saturday they could have jumped in the car Friday night and driven hard to make it to your wedding and done the same on Sunday and not had to miss work. This is a recipe for family tension and resentment. Is that how you want to join each other's families?
• The Cost in Wedding Professionals: Many of the best wedding professionals are those individuals who do it as a side business just because they love weddings and they love their discipline. For them it is a labor of love, so they limit their business so they can focus on what they love without having to divide their attention with things like payroll etc. The trade off is that these men and women often have day jobs so not only might they not be able to offer you a lower price... they might have to charge you a higher price to compensate for the income lost from their day job! Yikes.

These are just a few of the costs associated with trying to save money by your wedding scheduling choices where is pertains to the days of the week. No doubt there are many more deeply hidden costs than we could cover in this space.

It is important, though, to recognize that there are some ways to save money on your wedding simply by your scheduling choices that not only don't have the same costs, but will benefit your guests at the same time.

• Check your community's calendar before you choose a date: Steer clear of dates that coincide with community parades, events, or conventions that are coming to town that might make traffic difficult and hotel rooms nearly impossible to get.
• Consider the weather patterns in your area: Avoid time periods when extreme weather is likely for the area where your wedding is to be held or you could end up paying for some elements of your wedding even when a storm has made it impossible to hold the wedding.
• Choose a date that falls outside the traditional peak season for weddings: Needless to say, your wedding professionals aren't going to be particularly inclined to give you a price break when they are already swamped, but approach them for a date when they are likely to be sitting on their hands and they might. You never know. Of course, even with this you have to be careful - peak season is peak season for a reason and whatever that reason is in your area, it could affect you.

The point is that while you can save big money on your wedding by how you schedule your wedding, to get a wedding that is a real bargain you have to think beyond the dollar signs.

How to Make Your Budget Work for Your Wedding

This is going to sound obvious. I know that. Yet I can't tell you how often I see brides trying to stretch an already thin wedding budget to the point of breaking.

The answer is simple: Prioritize.

By prioritizing you can set a budget that puts the emphasis on the elements of the wedding that are important to you. It might mean that you get that grand, dramatic ceremony that you have always dreamed of with spotlights illuminating you as you enter the otherwise darkened room. In exchange you sacrifice the catered dinner in a local hotel ballroom in favor of a simple, yet elegant garden tea reception. Or maybe you forgo the professional photographer and get friends with digital camera's to record your day. Maybe it's the cake that's not important to you...

It's all a matter of how to create a wedding day that you will look back at with fondness when all is taken into consideration. Decide what's important to you. Do those things, and leave the rest alone. It's not worth the stress of trying to create something from a budget that approaches nothing.

Remember, weddings don't have to be expensive to be memorable but they do have to be personal. If your wedding budget is too thin, don't try make it stretch so you end up with a bunch of shoddy elements scattered about your wedding. Get married in a local farmer's cherry or pear orchard in the spring while the trees are in full blossom and skip most (or all) of the rest of the flowers. Skip the three tiered cake that tastes like sawdust covered in sweet lard if you can't afford a quality cake and serve some pre-cut deserts instead.

Take some time to study each of the disciplines involved in the wedding industry and learn what you are really buying from them (hint: It is rarely what it appears at first glance) and then decide what you can do without to make your budget provide you with the best nuptial celebration your budget can afford.

Wedding Dresses: The Medieval Theme

What could be more romantic than a medieval themed wedding? But to have this type of wedding you need to look for wedding dresses with a medieval theme. After all, would your favorite movie work for you if the actors were in clothing that didn't fit the theme of the movie? The same is true with planning a medieval themed wedding. You will end up undermining your own medieval themed wedding if you don't take the effort to find a wedding dress that will support your wedding theme.

Fortunately, finding this type of wedding gown is normally fairly simple since most bridal shops now carry medieval themed wedding gowns. But even if no shop in your area carries a gown that fits your theme there are more options for finding your wedding dress than we can discuss here.

Wedding dresses with a medieval theme have become so popular today, that there are designers who devote their efforts to creating masterpieces in this specific fashion. Dresses from popular designers are often available to view on the Internet. Why not take some time and browse around for that perfect dress to set off your medieval theme.

The generally accepted medieval style of wedding dress is slim fitting – flaring out to fullness at the hem. A girdle or corset is generally worn above the hips and laced in front. The sleeves are generally tight to the wrist with a shorter open sleeve cascading to hem level.

These wedding dresses with a medieval theme usually have... more

Get Your Groom Involved

Virtually every bride in North America has the same problem. Their groom seems reluctant to get involved in the process of planning the wedding. There are many theories about why grooms tend to shy away from the wedding planning arena, and no doubt many of them have merit. But the real question at hand is what do we do about it? Is it possible to get your groom active in the wedding planning process?

Actually, the answer is yes - and in many cases it's an easy fix. Often not only can you get them involved in your wedding plans but you can get them to gladly take over many of the tasks that take up so much of your time. We're talking about things like taking charge of the responsibility to communicate all the important details about your wedding to your wedding guests as your plans evolve. Likewise, youmight be surprise how much they'll be willing to take over responsibilities like haring your love story through pictures, music, and video. Things like managing your RSVP's.

Seriously.

By investing in a wedding website you can give him something to do that he will enjoy doing in the wedding planning process because it caters to his strengths and interests. After all, boys do tend to love their toys – and the more high tech the better in most cases.

But how can a wedding website help the planning process? And ultimately, what jobs from your massive list might you be able to shed?

Instant Communication with Your Guests

Without a wedding website a major change in your plans after you invitation went out means a second mailing. That can cost a lot of money. A website devoted to your wedding plans can save you time and hassle because it provides a centralized place that anyone with access to the Internet can go to find your wedding information. That means that you can be rid of the worries about making sure that your cousin John or Aunt Debbie has the date and time of your wedding. This is because once they have the web address and password for your wedding website they can check on the latest changes whenever they want to so now, instead of a second formal mailing a simple email reminder to check the website for the latest information is all that is needed.

Instant Access to Your Planner

Imagine being able to access your wedding planner anytime of the day and anywhere you can get an Internet connection. Wouldn't that be useful?

• Wouldn't it be helpful to be able to pull up a list of the people that have RSVP'd when you are at your caterer office?
• Wouldn't it be nice to pull up a copy of your facility agreement's list of do's and don'ts while you are at your florist?
• Wouldn't... more

Stop Planning Your Wedding! (Until You've Read This)

This is one of those things that sounds like something you can skip over in the wedding planning process... but if you do you'll kick yourself later. So do yourself a favor and slow down long enough to read this carefully and act on it. It will really save you a lot of time in the long run.

Planning a wedding is a big job... No, it's a HUGE job that in many cases is comparable to staging a theatrical show. And more, it's a job most of us only do once or twice in a lifetime which means that unless you are hiring a wedding planner - someone with experience pulling all the threads together - you are going to have to be more organized than ever before.

So however you like to organize your self; whether you are using a part of a drawer in a filing cabinet, an expandable file, or computer software to organize all your wedding plans - know this: Your wedding organizational system will only work for you as long as you actually use one!

It's not enough to choose a system to organize your wedding plans. If all of the quotes and magazine clippings you get end up in piles spread out all over your home your organizational system won't help you a bit.

So, if you haven't chosen a organizational system for your wedding plans, stop what you are doing and chose one now. You can always change systems later if you find something that works better - and I will give you some ideas for things that have worked for other people soon... It will save you a ton of time down the road.

Fun Wedding Planning Organizational System

This really is an incredibly useful tool. By using this one single tool you will find your self more prepared to plan each step of your wedding as the time comes.

What is this tool?

Scrap booking!

You read that right. Create a scrapbook of wedding ideas from pictures that you find... wherever you find them.

You see, every bride needs a way of organizing her wedding planning materials and if you are already one that likes to scrap book then this option is a natural - assuming you take the time to actually do it.

If you attend a wedding and see something you like, take a snapshot of it, then print the picture out when you get home and put it in your wedding planning scrapbook. If you see a picture of a wedding cake or dress in a magazine, get a copy and put it in your scrapbook. If you find a picture of a bouquet on the Internet print it out and put it in your scrapbook. That way when you get to time to plan any particular aspect of your wedding you aren't wasting time looking for that picture of... and your wedding professional will actually be able to see exactly what you have in mind. It saves a lot of time and difficulty. And it's fun too!

Now you have an excuse to play! Have fun.

Barefoot Sandals: Bridal Comfort

Nothing's more comfortable than bare feet - which is why Barefoot Sandals created with genuine Swarovski Crystals and pearls are the bridal footwear accessory to help you shine on your wedding day. Whether you're having a wedding on the beach, in a garden setting, or in a traditional church setting there's going to come a time when you are going to want to loose those high heels in favor of something more comfortable.

Your wedding reception is your chance to celebrate. But that's not all. It's also your opportunity to see friends and family that you probably haven't seen for quite a while... which means that you'll be on your feet most of the day - so make sure you can do it with bridal footwear that provides the comfort and style of Barefoot Sandals.

What are Barefoot Sandals?

Not to be mistaken for bridal flip flops, Barefoot Sandals are a kind of bridal footwear that amounts jewelry for your feet. With the result being that you have the beauty of elegant sandals and the freedom of being barefoot. This is because... more

How to Ruin Your Own Wedding

You put so much work into your wedding celebration. You want everything to be perfect. It's only natural. It is, after all, your wedding day. It's the one day of your life that you have looked forward to for most of your life. And your wedding celebration is the one day that you anticipate looking back on with fondness for the rest of your life.

So why would you want to do anything to ruin it?

You don't... but many brides do the one thing that could ruin their wedding festivities - and sometimes it does.

What is this one thing that they do to ruin their wedding celebration? Do they rip their thousand dollar wedding gown just before walking down the aisle? Do they stumble and fall into their wedding cake? Do they absentmindedly turn the heat up too much in the church or auditorium where the vows will be exchanged and cause all the flowers to wilt before the ceremony? No, the phenomenon we are talking about is much more insidious... more

How to Choose your Wedding Cake Topper

There was a time, not too many years ago, when having a wedding cake without a wedding cake topper was unthinkable. Back then toppers ranged from quaint to cute and beyond to wild. Most wedding cake toppers in that era were made of plastic, though they certainly weren’t limited to plastic. In fact, artisans from a wide variety of backgrounds often made cake toppers to order, often coming up with stunning works of art to crown the artistic masterpiece that is your wedding cake.

Nevertheless, most wedding cake toppers were plastic so over time it was not uncommon to find a wedding cake without a special topper. Why? There are probably quite a few correct answers but ultimately, I would like to suggest, it came down to a matter of tastefulness.

The lack of quality was, no doubt, one reason. The ebb and flow of trends within society is clearly another.

Because of this, brides often chose a simpler topper. Often it was fresh flowers. Sometimes the bride chose to skip the cake topper all together and thereby let the cake stand alone.

Great New Options in Wedding Cake Toppers

Today, wedding cake toppers are coming back, and with a vengeance. But today's toppers are far superior to... more

Finding Wedding Cake Design Ideas

Every bride wants the perfect wedding cake design. But how without a background in design and at least a general familiarity with the baking business how do you know what is possible and what is not? Indeed, there are probably more wedding cake designs than wedding themes. So if you've been wondering how to find ideas for my wedding cake design, here are some tips for you.

"How do I get ideas for my wedding cake design" is one of the most asked questions, the answer is that there really are several outlets for wedding cake design ideas.

• There are an abundance of wedding cake galleries on the Internet. Do a search for "wedding cake pictures" or "wedding cake designs" then take some time to browse and picture each design as a part of your celebration. Then if you find one that really strikes your fancy, you can print out a picture and file it to show your pastry chef when it comes time to find a bakery to create you masterpiece. Note: Doing the same search with your city and state included might find you a skilled wedding cake provider that you are unfamiliar with.


• Another option is a wedding planner; they will often have pictures of wedding cakes that you can adapt to meet your needs.


• Go to weddings, when you can get an invitation an look at the wedding cake - this will give you the opportunity to to taste it as well which could lead you to - and / or away from certain bakeries as well as giving you design ideas.


• Ask to look at your friends and family's wedding photographs. It's a rare individual that won't jump at the chance to show them off and the picture of the cake they commissioned might inspire you.


• If you are talented at design, you could even sit down and draft your own design for a wedding cake that reflects your wedding only.

Most bakeries have a book that contains a picture gallery of wedding cakes but save your visit to any pastry chef (regardless of whether they are in a formal bakery or are employed by the hotel that is hosting your reception). Why? Because A good pastry chef will be able to help you adapt an idea to fit your budget, but he or she can only do that if you have a design idea in the first place.

Wedding cakes come in all colors and shapes and can be adapted to what you want. From a cake that looks like a stack of wedding presents, to a stack of crowns, to a tower of pastry, pillars, and flowers complete with butterflies - your options are endless. Don’t wear yourself out worrying about how to get an idea for you wedding cake design there are plenty of sources out there.

How to Save Money on Your Wedding Dress

If you're on a tight budget the cost of a special order wedding dress can be a little bit hard to swallow. But what can you do? Yes, you will only wear the dress once, but it is your wedding - quite possibly the most important day of the year. You want a wedding dress that looks fabulous.

So what do you do? Is there any way you can find an incredible wedding dress without breaking the bank? Actually, yes. There are several options. Yes, each option is filled with it's own challenges but if you approach the opportunity with your eyes wide open you should be able to find a gown that you will be proud to wear on your big day.

1. Charity sales and / or auctions: Just as charities have turned to accepting donated cars and selling them to raise funds, some also do the same with wedding dresses. As a result you have the opportunity to buy dresses that are usually either new or worn once for a fraction of their original price. Think about it. Some bride goes out and buys a gown that costs two thousand dollars or more and then the wedding gets called off. What is she going to do with it? She donates it to a charity that accepts bridal gowns who sells it to you for a few hundred dollars. You get a gorgeous wedding gown, she gets a tax write off, and the charity makes money it needs to keep it's doors open another day.
2. EBay and similar sites: Just before I started writing this I checked EBay's listings and there were more than sixteen thousand listings for wedding dresses posted. Sure, EBay's listings are not perfect, so there's probably a couple hundred or so other items scattered about amidst the bridal gowns, but that still leaves a lot of gowns - gowns that could be perfect for someones wedding.
3. Sample sales: Bridal shops need a way to clear out their stock of each year's wedding dresses and sample sales are the industry standard (though not a hard and fast rule). To find a sample sale in your area simply look in the yellow pages of your local telephone directory under bridal shops and call each one on the list to find out both IF and WHEN they are having a sample sale. This option can require some patience and a lot of planning ahead, but it's possible to walk away with a great gown at a price you'll be proud of.

Remember, the most expensive wedding dresses are usually the least ornate. The reason for this is the fact that it takes more craftsmanship and better quality material that is totally smooth than it does to do more ornate designs. As a matter of fact, dress makers use the bead work, lace work, and embroidery to cover the flaws in less than perfect materials.

Finally, don't forget that while a wedding dress can always be taken in it is very difficult to let a wedding dress out - and the higher the quality, generally the more impossible it is to let the dress out. So the moral to the story is to use care when you buy your dress. You won't be saving any money if you buy a dress that's too small for you to fit into.

Destination Weddings

Betsy and David were excited to be getting married. What they weren't excited about was the hastle of pulling together all of the details involved in pulling off a wedding. This left them with three options.

• Grin and bear it.
• Hire a wedding planner to take care of everything.
• A Destination Wedding.

The chose the destination wedding and it turned out to be the perfect choice - for them. They got married on a perfectly manicured lawn ringed with volcanic rocks, palm trees, and orchids against a back drop of the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. It was almost like a fantasy.

But that's not the real reason it worked out for them: The real reason it worked out for them is that with a destination wedding couples tend to be more focused on the big picture as opposed to the details. In a wedding in an exotic or far away locale you have to let someone else take care of the details. Indeed many exotic locations may have only two florists, one caterer, and three photographers. With a destination wedding you have to let go of these details and accept things as they are. This allows couples to view the event as a fun-filled get-away - where they're getting with only a few guests to help them celebrate this most beautiful time of their lives.

As a matter of fact, destination weddings often turn into a combination wedding, honeymoon and a family reunion vacation all wrapped up in one.

There are several downsides to destination weddings to consider before you make your decision:

• Your guest list is severely limited.
• You have to be able to relinquish control over the details of your wedding and be happy with whatever the planner / hosting company provides you with.
• Cost. While a destination wedding sounds great, the reality is that the expense makes it impractical for most people. At the very least you will have to give your guests ample warning so they can budget and schedule a the trip. But in many cases the bride and groom end up footing much or all of the cost for all of their guest's travel expenses. Ouch!

For these reasons, weddings in exotic locations tend to be more popular with older couples who can handle the financial burden and are less interested in the guest list and wedding details than they are with making memories with their loved ones. In Betsy and David's case, this option worked because they are not detail oriented people and a destination wedding by the sea with their family and closest friends was the best memory for their wedding day that they could imagine.

How Do We Create A "Green" Wedding?

With all of the talk today of global warming and environmental impact the question looms: "How do we create a 'green' wedding? How do we put together a ceremony and celebration that will linger in our memories but leave little to no impact on the environment?

The answer, whether we like it or not, is simplicity. Create a simple wedding with your own personal touch to make your wedding memorable rather than trying to out stage last year's big wedding productions. - and besides for potential protection to the environment, a simple 'green' wedding can save you lots of money! The reason for this, as you will see, is that a green wedding is concerned with what's good for the community and environment rather than with keeping up with the Jones' - whoever they are.

There is no way to cover every possible situation but consider these three possible scenario's set in the urban, suburban, and rural settings as inspiration for your green wedding:

Urban Setting for Your Green Wedding:

Plan a period themed wedding from your own city's history. For example, 19th century wedding theme. Design your dress based around the theme - not a problem, wedding dresses are special order anyway - and remember, you don't have to choose to emulate the rich of that period, just something representative or suggestive of the period. Choose a local hall with lots of windows within walking distance of your borough or neighborhood to ... more

Wedding Bubbles?

Every year the debate about whether to use wedding bubbles starts all over again. There are many opinions and a few concerns. The problem, however, is not that the issue regarding wedding bubbles is so complex that it can't be entirely solved, but that every year a new batch of participants enter the fray - people who have never needed to consider the issue.

Really, once you pass the age of eight or so most of us don't blow bubbles unless we are trying to occupy young children and then in an informal setting. But with the realization that throwing rice was hurting local birds and confetti was posing a clean up and potential safety hazard, suddenly those childhood bubbles turned into "wedding bubbles".

Indeed, wedding bubbles are growing in popularity as they replace rice, birdseed, confetti, and who knows what else from times gone by for use when the bride and groom are departing on their honeymoon and ultimately their new life together. The reason is simple, wedding bubble favors don’t require sweeping the sidewalk afterwards to prevent the slips and falls that rice and birdseed require.

Likewise, the use of wedding bubble favors is fun for everyone. Who doesn’t enjoy the momentary reminder of their carefree youth? Watching the bubbles dance on the breeze is fun.
As an added benefit, wedding bubbles are an easy and inexpensive way to add special flair to your pictures of your honeymoon departure! Why? Because, while they are translucent they still have enough substance to catch and bend the light waves around them which can add a real flair to your departure pictures.

Answering Objections to Wedding Bubbles

The most common complaint about using bubbles in a wedding celebration is the concern that the bubbles might stain the formal wear of people celebrating the wedding. This is a legitimate concern, but when that happens it’s usually because someone tried to ... more