Grooms Stocking Stuffer Idea

If there is a man in your life that is expecting to be a groom in the relatively near future get him a stocking stuffer this Christmas that will help him approach his big day with the grace and class of a real gentleman.

Indeed, it has often been said that weddings are a woman's domain. Whether or not the saying is entirely true, it is true that men often feel overwhelmed and bewildered as they approach the wedding.

The answer, then, is obvious. Provide them with a guide that walks them through every aspect of the wedding and how a gentleman can best approach and respond to each detail - and the best one I've seen is called, "The Groom’s Guide: A Gentleman’s Indispensable Wedding Planner."

This leather bound book (don't let that scare you away, as of today the price is only $12) contains anecdotes and illustrations designed to help your future groom handle everything from gift giving to hiring professionals for the big day.

The Engagement Rush has Begun!

It happens every year. When the holiday season rolls around a fresh dance of engagements take place. But... Maybe it's just a matter of the ebb and flow of the tide but whatever the cause, I'm saw more couples announcing their engagement right after Thanksgiving (American) than normal.

Perhaps it is because the guys who popped the question knew that their ladies were expecting the proposal around Christmas or New Years so they decided to push it up to make it a surprise, but whatever the reason the engagement rush seems a bit earlier than normal this year.

That is great. It gives couples options they might not otherwise have:

• More time to plan that perfect wedding.
• An opportunity at a wedding date that falls before the normal busy season for the wedding industry - which could mean savings.
• An opportunity to land that wedding venue that would otherwise be booked for your date the day after New Years day.
• An opportunity to land those wedding professionals that would already be booked up.
• An opportunity to find a wedding cake that doesn't taste like sawdust covered in sweet lard.
• An opportunity to look at tools that can help you build, improve, or even protect your wedding day from disaster. Some of which really are essential tools for a smooth wedding.

One such tool I've found is a Wedding Day Dancing Instructional Video. It's an inexpensive tool that could help you and your future husband to feel comfortable out on the dance floor - all from the comfort and privacy of your own home (and on your own schedule too).

And don't forget, with Christmas coming up, tools like this wedding dancing instructional video make great stocking stuffers!

Use Crystal Wedding Cake Jewelry to Create Stunning Holiday Centerpieces

This might sound crazy at first, but if you've got a wedding coming up you can make both your holiday budget and your wedding budget stretch by combining them and ordering your wedding cake jewelry in time to incorporate its crystal beauty into a centerpiece for your Christmas party!

Imagine sprays of swarovski crystals emerging from a display of traditional Christmas greenery. Unless you use the same Christmas display for your wedding cake topper no one will ever recognize it.

Or imagine an elegant sphere of crystals and fine jewelry craftsmanship sitting on the mantle with candle light dancing off the crystals. It's an elegant way to highlight (or even announce) your upcoming nuptials.

Crystal wedding cake jewelry has the advantage of coming in a wide variety of styles - making it perfect for use in your holiday centerpieces. For example, rather than confining themselves to the top of the cake some styles of cake jewelry consist of crystal vines designed to climb the tiers of the cake. Another style that comes to mind consists of crystal flowers again designed to accent your cake, but would look gorgeous as accents in your holiday decorating.

Choose your style. Personalize it. Not only does it help to stretch your budget while adding elegance and beauty to your Christmas or Hanukkah celebration but unlike most wedding cake toppers, wedding cake jewelry will stay beautiful year after year - something you will be proud to feature in your decor as a reminder of the happiest day of your life.

Plan ahead. Using wedding cake jewelry is a gorgeous touch precisely because it is so exquisitly made - meaning that often wedding cake jewelry is made to order and may not be available immediately.

Wedding Planning and the Holiday Season: Tip Number Three

In wedding decorations, just like in anything else, first impressions are everything. But for the bride that finds herself trying to plan a wedding while the holiday season is upon us, this is a huge advantage. Why? Simply put, what other season of the year allows you the luxury of decorating your entryway without raising the eyebrows of everyone who passes?

Yet, a well designed wedding decor will take the entryway into consideration because the entryway sets the tone for the rest of your decor. If your guest's eyes settle on the standard industrial doorpost of most hotel ballrooms, then little you do inside will change your guests' first impression. On the other hand, if a tasteful arch or draping that matches your wedding theme is the first thing they see, then you have already made great strides toward achieving your goal.

So go ahead, dream. Play with your entryway decorations - once you have found something that will work for your wedding you can always add some greenery and / or some ornaments and lights to make it appropriate for the holiday season.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

PS Don’t forget the first two Holiday Wedding Planning Tips!
As a simple reminder, here they are in brief:
1. Use Wedding Favors as stocking stuffers and gifts for co-workers etc. - this gives you the opportunity to check them out before you invest the money you budgeted for your wedding favors!
2. Turn the fact that the holiday season makes regular use of table centerpieces for entertaining to your advantage - use the opportunity to play with your design ideas for your wedding centerpiece and it’s presentation (all the way down to the shape and size of the tables).

Wedding Planning and the Holiday Season: Tip Number Two

The holiday season – that decorative centerpiece of the year between Thanksgiving and New Years – is unique to every other time of the year in that there is no other time of the year when there is as much entertaining taking place. This presents a huge opportunity for the savvy bride. This is because the holiday season gives the bride-to-be an opportunity to play with her plans for her wedding reception tables.

Hosting a party this Christmas season? Use the opportunity to create as many different centerpieces as you like and see how you like them. Once you’ve had an opportunity to evaluate them, depending on your design, it is usually not difficult to add a couple of Christmas related touches and in doing so create some fun and interesting centerpieces for your Holiday party.

Your options for your centerpiece designs are nearly as endless as your imagination. Whether you want to place a gel candle on a Styrofoam block for height and disguise the block with greenery. Or you might want to use the water and fire theme floating candles in crystal bowls of water. Or a floral arrangement in square or triangular vases lined with sliced citrus. Or a topiary, or decorative bottles – really, anything that is visually interesting, allows for sight lines across the table, and complements your wedding theme.

Of course, don’t forget to consider the setting for your centerpiece. By this we mean the placement of your display. How is the rest of the table dressed? Does the shape and size of the table draw your eye to your centerpiece? Is the overall effect satisfying?

Of course, that is the benefit of using your holiday entertaining to figure out your wedding reception table centerpiece designs – you have an opportunity to try all these things out in a live setting without having to wait until your wedding when it is too late to do anything about it to see if your centerpiece design works.

Wedding Planning and the Holiday Season: Tip Number One

The holiday season is a crazy time of year when brides often feel the need to set aside their wedding planning efforts. Between the family get-togethers of Thanksgiving, the company holiday parties, Hanukah, Christmas, and every other holiday between Halloween and New Years life often seems too crazy to find an opportunity to plan a wedding.

The reality, however, is that the holiday season presents a great opportunity to work magic with your wedding preparations. What’s more, the opportunity that it presents is not one that is readily found in any other time of the year.

Wedding Favors Make Great Stocking Stuffers!

Thinking about using sun catchers for your wedding favors but not sure if you will like them when the whole lot arrives? Order one and then after you have had a chance to inspect it slip it into your sister’s stocking on Christmas Eve. Who wouldn’t love to find a set of etched glass coasters in their stocking on Christmas morning? Or bath powder sachets? Considering using Barefoot Sandals as a Bridesmaids gift? Order a pair to give to your sister for Christmas. After all, what woman wouldn’t love a pair of Barefoot Sandals to help them feel attractive on the beach?

Use the holiday season to check out a variety of items you are considering using as wedding favors at your reception. This approach allows a bride to make her budget stretch by accomplishing both a part of your Christmas shopping and checking out wedding favors at the same time.

What’s more, nearly everybody has a long list of people that they need to recognize with a gift of some sort. And everyone has a shopping list that includes bosses, coworkers, Aunts and Uncles and other extended family and associates that don’t require much more than a gesture. Consider these examples:

• Check out the collection of beach favors for a boss that loves to run off to Hawaii every winter.
• Search through the collection of candle favors for a candle that you might be able to use in your wedding reception to give to your Aunt that you see once or twice a year – but loves candles.
• Choose one of each kind of bookmark favors that fits your wedding theme for the readers on your list.
• Choose from the decorative bottle stoppers for a relative who spends lots of time in the kitchen.
• Choose cruise ship luggage tags for someone who loves to sail.

You get the idea. By shopping for your stocking stuffers and your individual tokens of affection for your holiday gift giving you can give yourself the opportunity to decide just which wedding favors are right for your wedding while taking care of your holiday needs at the same time.

By the way, don't miss this opportunity to help your husband to be by slipping, A Groom's Guide: Turning Grooms into Gentlemen into his stocking. He will thank you for it.

Geeky Weddings LMAO

Geeky Weddings (PICS) - Looking for some crazy ideas? Looking for a reason to keep your wedding reigned in? For many this will do it. Obviously, others will be excited.

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New England Honeymoon Opportunities

New England is not the first place to come to mind for most people when they consider their honeymoon destinations. That is too bad because a trip to New England can make a wonderful honeymoon destination that is unique enough to provide years of special memories of discoveries made with your new husband or wife.

For example, a new couple could start their New England honeymoon trip with a room or suite near the famed Boston Commons. As well as placing themselves near America’s first public park, this location will put them in close proximity the theater district, Beacon Hill, and at the head of the Freedom Trail which provides enough sites for at least several days of exploration. As a result, honeymooners can have breakfast in bed or a local coffee shop, then stroll the commons and explore Beacon Hill followed by a memorable lunch at the original Cheer’s (the one the TV show was based on). Follow lunch with an exploration of the city and the ...

Continue Reading, "New England Honeymoon Opportunities"

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.