Surprising Leap Day Advice for Brides

If you are just beginning the wedding planning process, as we discussed yesterday, February 29th is the perfect time to plan, to sketch out what her ideal wedding and wedding reception would look like.

But what about the bride who has been hard at her wedding planning for quite some time? What about the bride who already knows down to the specific elements of design how she wants her wedding day to look?

For those who fall into these categories, the best thing a bride (or couple) could do on Leap Day is to go do something physical to help burn off some steam and stress. Seriously.

• Go skiing - the snow is great this year pretty much all across the country.
• Go to an indoor pool and swim laps - then hang out in the sauna or hot tub.
• If the weather cooperates, go for a bike ride.
• Take a trip to the coast and walk on the beach.

The trick is to do pretty much anything physical - and make a point of not thinking about the wedding plans. The more an individual works their body, the more stress and tension will melt away and the more prepared they will be to take on the tasks ahead.

Besides, a day of physical activity will bring anyone that much closer to their weight loss goals so they will look like they hope to on their wedding day!

Making use of February 29th in this way will also benefit a couple in a manner that few people anticipate - especially if the couple spends the day in physical activity (such as skiing or beach combing) together. How? By taking a day away from the demands of life - such as wedding planning - and doing something together, as a couple!

That's right. You can build your marriage into something stronger than it might otherwise have been if you can set you wedding planning aside for one day and enjoy some strenuous activity together. Laugh. Run. Play. Build your marriage before the wedding.

You can worry about the toasting glasses on March 1st. Exciting Wedding Favors and Accessories will still be there for a couples at home shopping convenience. In the meantime, the best thing a bride who has been hard at work with her planning can do with the extra day that leap year provides it is to get out and do something physical that will leave them relaxed and refreshed.

Extra Time to Plan

I wish I could take credit for this boon to brides planning their wedding. I really do, but I can't. As much as I would have loved to have lobbied congress on behalf of brides everywhere, it wouldn't have done any good.

Still, every bride already engaged or at least already planning gets extra time to plan this year. I am talking, of course, of the extra day we get with leap year.

The question is how does a wise bride take full advantage of that day.

The answer depends on what she has been doing to this point:

If she has just begun the wedding planning process she should take the extra time as the ideal opportunity to sit and plan. Don't let the tyranny of the urgent get in your way. Instead:

• Go into seclusion
• Grab a favorite hot beverage
• Bring music that inspires creativity
• Bring sketch pad and pencil
• Sketch - don't worry about how good it looks - ideal wedding ceremony
• Sketch - don't worry about how good it looks - ideal wedding reception
• Relax
• Have fun with it.

The sketch is just for the bride. There is no need to show it to anyone else - it simply helps her decide what elements are really important to achieve the look she wants. Put another way, even if she doesn't like her drawings the exercise will help solidify the design concept in her mind. The end result, however, is that this exercise will help prevent her from spending money on decorations or design elements that don't help or even detract from the concept.

Tomorrow, The Surprising Tip for Brides Who Have Already Fully Planned Their Wedding

When to Start with Wedding Cake Design

Planning a wedding is not easy. There are so many elements to consider. Often, as a result wedding cake design is put off until the end.

Foolish.

True, the actual baking of the cake should not happen until the last few days prior to your wedding (watch out, I've heard reports of bakeries that bake wedding cakes months in advance and keep them in the freezer until they need them - yuck), but baking and the actual building of the cake is only one of the last steps of the wedding cake design process.

The real question is what kind of wedding cake do you want? Do you want it to be a visual centerpiece of your wedding reception design? If so you need to start early to incorporate your overall design.

Think through the details of the kind of design you would like:

• Is your reception a formal, elelgant event? Consider a tall, hexagonal, regal cake matching the design of your wedding dress, accented with your favorite flowers and crystal wedding cake jewelry.

• Is your reception more whimsical? Consider a square or rectangular cake stacked in an offset fashion and decorated with fondant to look like a stack of gifts with a large bow on top.


• For a Cinderella themed wedding consider a round or oval tiered cake with a crystal pumpkin cake top making it's way up toward the castle somewhat in the style of the cake pictured to the right.


• For an Asian themed wedding consider an ivory colored cake with delicate lotus flowers or cherry blossoms - or go more bold with reds and yellows.

The options are nearly infinite. The trick, however, is to find a pastry chef who can make the wedding cake that you envision. Some can. Some can't. Some won't. Take time early in your wedding planning process to decide on a design concept at least - then you can start the process of finding a bakery that can provide that centerpiece wedding cake that you want.

A Celebration of Romance

Happy Valentines Day!


Valentines Day, like your wedding, is a celebration of freedom. It is an opportunity to rejoice in the equality of individuals because in both we choose who we love and make a life with. We are not clubbed over the head - we choose. Both partners. Equally based on our own ideals and desires.

So...

Take a ride in a horse drawn carriage: If your wedding is scheduled for a time when the weather will cooperate, there is little more romantic than a couple arriving or leaving for their honeymoon than doing so in a horse drawn carriage.

Make a grand entrance: Who can resist the romance of Cinderella's grand enterance at the head of the stairs with all eyes drawn to her beauty? No stairs? No problem. Arrange the seating to face a set of double doors behind where your groom will stand that can be pulled open simultaneously at the time for your appearance.

Give your Groom the tools he needs to be the gracious host at your wedding: Let's face it. Weddings as we know them are generally designed by women, for women. Then we wonder why he feels so out of place and doesn't know how to handle himself. Check out this leather bound "Groom's Guide". Written by a professional wedding journalist, this guide will help him be the 'Knight in Shinning Armor' that we all hope for in every detail of the wedding.

Traditions and Wedding Planning

Don't confuse wedding tradtions with wedding planning. Simply going out and collecting all the same items as everyone else has in their wedding is not the same as planning a wedding. It's following the crowd.

Sure, in many cases traditions are followed because they reflect the individual's heritage - either cultural or religious. That is fine. Not only is there nothing wrong with that, but embracing one's heritage is too be applauded.

However, most brides that ONLY follow tradition have not stopped to really consider what makes them unique - and everyone is special in some way.

The wedding planning process is the time that every couple has to take who they are and express it in a celebration of what they value. That includes their traditions, but it also includes the ways in which God has made each of them unique and special.

So instead of letting yourself fall into the trap of settling for a cookie cutter wedding, take a day, grab your favorite hot drink and a note pad, consider what makes you unique and what is important to you as a couple. After you do, take a few more minutes and sketch out a few ideas for how you can make your wedding personal.

By the way, it might help to scan our fun wedding ideas directory to help get the creative juices flowing.

Bridal Registry Etiquette

Having chosen bridal registry in a good selection of stores does not finish the project. As a matter of fact there is still much to do – like how to tastefully let friends and family know about the wedding gift registry. Indeed, most friends and family love to shower the young couple with gifts that will help them establish their new home. This is where good etiquette comes in, enabling the engaged couple to conduct themselves with style and honor.

• Do not include bridal registry information in the invitations.
• Make the wedding gift registry information one of two ways (or both): 1) Verbally let the couple’s parents and wedding attendants know so that guests have contacts who know of the registries. 2) Include a registry navigation button on the main page of your wedding website. This allows guests to look and pursue, or not… anonymously, until they choose to give a gift.
• Remember, gifts are not an obligation of the guests. Receiving a gift is a privilege. There is no true formula regarding how much they should spend on the gift. It is their decision based on their private situation.
• Never ask for cash. If the couple’s individual situation demands mostly cash gifts, allow the bridal party to disseminate the information.
• When two well established individuals marry who do not need the gifts to get a new household started provide guests with the option of giving to one of several charities in lieu of gifts. This is also useful for those who choose to announce, “No gifts please.”
• Always respond with a handwritten thank you note within two weeks of receiving the gift – two weeks after returning from the honeymoon is acceptable as no one expects a new couple to spend their honeymoon writing thank you notes.
• A wise couple will refrain from using any gift, whether from a bridal shower or simply an early wedding gift until after the wedding. Why? Because, if the wedding is called off for any reason – any reason at all – good etiquette demands that all gifts be returned.
  

While good etiquette sometimes seems inconvenient, it is not. Good behavior is a reward in itself. It enables people to get along better. At the same time it also tends to have tangible rewards in that, people tend to be more generous and more open and receptive toward people with good etiquette. But don’t do it for selfish reasons. Those tend to find their way to the surface. Instead do it because following bridal registry etiquette will enable the couple to treat their guests with the honor and respect they deserve.

P.S. Help the groom in your life to get through the wedding planning process with style and grace by picking up a copy of, “The Groom’s Guide: A Gentleman’s Indispensable Wedding Planner.”

Choosing Your Wedding Gift Registries

The wedding registry has become an important part of the wedding planning process. It is almost as important as the tasteful wedding favors you choose to express your love and gratitude to your guests for choosing to spend a day celebrating with you. But when do you do it? How do you go about choosing the stores? How many stores should you sign up with for your registry?

Generally it is advisable to begin working on the wedding registry early in the wedding planning process. Really, six months early is not too early as there are a lot of factors to consider.

Choosing the right stores and the right items can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. Plan on choosing between two and four stores to complete your registry needs. One should be an all-inclusive department store. A second option is often a homegoods store specialty store. Generally, it is wise to complete the selection of stores with a choice of stores that offer something more directly related to the specific interest and household needs of the groom. For example, does your fiancé have the tools he needs to engage in common household repairs?

But choosing the companies that you want to enroll as part of your wedding registry is not just about choosing types. Rather there are a number of factors to consider:

• What stores carry merchandise that you actually like?
• What stores carry a wide range of price points to accommodate the needs of your guest list.
• How is the store’s wedding registry is actually administered?
• Is the staff knowledgeable and able to offer guidance to either you or your guests?
• How easily can you modify your selections?
• How long does it take for a purchased item to be reflected on the registry?
• Does the store offer any incentives that allow you to purchase remaining items at a discount in return for sending your guest to their store as opposed to the competition?
• Consider whether your bridal registry be available online? This is becoming increasingly important - especially if you use a wedding website to communicate with your guests (If you don't have one, get one. It makes everything much easier and helps you to involve your groom in the wedding process).
• Are your store’s locations convenient for your guests?
• Will your gift registry kept active for at least a year after your wedding? This may seem like overkill, but history has shown that though activity certainly slows after the wedding, it doesn't always stop - for a wide variety of reasons.

Enjoy the process. This is meant to be a fun part. Use it to dream about how you would like your house and yard to look like when you get everything put together. But be wise about it. Choose your stores as carefully as you choose the items on the registry. You want the process to be painless for all involved. Fortunately, with online wedding registry access so readily available from everyone from Macys to Walmart to Lowes it is easy to find a vendor to match your tastes and styles all while considering the budgetary constraints of your guests.

Ordering Wedding Invitations

When an engaged couple orders their wedding invitations the obvious and most important question is how many invitations should they buy. The answer might seem clear – order as many invitations as names on their guest list - but it is not quite as apparent as it seems. There are several factors that any couple considering ordering wedding invitations should think through:

• Printers often have a minimum order requirement or order in predetermined multiples of twenty five or fifty. Thus, a wedding party that is only planning on sending out eighty five wedding invitations might be required to order a hundred.
• Guest lists have a sneaky way of growing at the last minute and couples who discover that they have run out of invitations could find themselves in an embarrassing situation when they discover an important individual they accidently omitted when they created their guest list.
• Most wedding parties have someone they want to send an invitation to that they know will not be able to attend regardless of whether that individual is in the military and serving overseas or incapacitated by medical limitations.
• A couple that uses unusual invitations like the beach themed invitation in a bottle should plan to have a few extra's for keepsakes, not just for them, but for younger family members such as nephews and nieces.

Ultimately, it is better to have a few wedding invitations left over to keep for use in a scrapbook than to run out prematurely.

Avoid Adding Stress to Your Wedding Planning

The strain of planning the biggest celebration of one's life is stress enough. There is no need to add stress to the wedding planning process. Yet that is exactly what numerous brides do every year.

How?

They order their wedding dress one or two sizes too small in the expectation that they will loose weight in time for the wedding.

Unfortunately, it rarely works.

Why?

First, the stress of wedding planning. We all know that during times of stress many people do not tend to be successful loosing weight and some even gain weight.

Second, the parties. The engagement period is like the time between Thanksgiving and New Years. Especially the final four months are a time of concentrated celebration. And celebration means sweets and rich foods. And that is not even taking into account the fact that the bride will need to do some cake tasting along the way when she chooses her wedding cake!

Third, the discipline. Most of us have been at our present weight for a while. If a bride has not been able to loose weight before the wedding when their schedule was not nearly as demanding then it is not reasonable to believe that she will be able to be disciplined when her schedule is crazy is and she does not have the time to cook properly and workout regularly.

Finally, the risk. What happens when that custom made dress comes back and it does not fit? A wedding dress can usually be taken in, but rarely can it be taken out. If a bride assumes that she can loose weight and fails she might be scrambling in the final days before the wedding to find a dress that does fit - even if it is not the dress of her dreams.

All is Not Lost

So what should a bride do that has already ordered a dress on the assumption that she will loose weight?

• Don't give up. Weight loss can be achieved during the wedding planning process. It is just harder.
• Look into a weight loss plan that is specifically geared for the needs of women. Let's face it. Men and women have different bodies (thankfully!) so their weight loss needs are significantly different.
• Control the stress through good planning. That is to say, a bride should take the time to sit down and figure out exact what look she is trying to achieve and what she will need to accomplish that look. This approach will avoid the mistake of racing around wasting time gathering elements that a bride thinks she needs, but really just gets in the way of her goals. As they say, sometimes less is more.

The wedding planning period of a bride's life should be a wonderful experience. But with so much to do the best plan is to take time to plan and decide what is really most important to the couple regardless of whether we are talking about reception decor or the bride's weight loss.