Save Money on Next Year's Wedding Venue

Okay, so this year's wedding season is winding down. It's been a wonderful year - like every year I see many of the same venues over and over... and many new and stunning venues too! Truly, the standbys are fine if a bride has no other options, but the new and inventive are always more memorable.

But with the exception of the handful of fall and winter brides and grooms out there, it is time for most of us to begin thinking about next year... Besides, if you are in that spot where "the question" is soon to be, but not yet popped, then you have no choice but to look toward next season!

With the news about the economy some might be concerned about the cost of the wedding - much less the wedding venue.




No need! Seriously. Most people have access to some open space. It might be their own yard. It might be a relatives yard. Perhaps someone has a small vineyard you can use.

No matter how ugly it might appear right now a little elbow grease and some imagination can create a real extraordinary wedding venue.

I've seen an old dirty barn swept and turned into a silken cathedral with fabric hung from the lofts to the floor.

I've seen an old horse pasture cleaned up, fresh grass planted, white chairs and tables arranged, turned into a storybook setting wedding venue - even the flower girl was led out on a miniature pony!

Clean up a field overlooking a creek - or perhaps just a view of the valley!

Use a backdrop of a stand of tall trees.

Really it's not that hard:

• Find a space that will accommodate your celebration.
• Use imagination to see past the weeds and debris.
• Plant grass, or lay a stone surface.
• Trim bushes, plant accent plants.
• Build / buy arbor or gazebo if desired.
• Rent chairs, tents.
• Have your garden wedding celebration.

It's much cheaper than renting a wedding venue and if you do it on your own property you get to benefit for years to come!

How to Choose a Wedding Professional

One of the reasons I love being in the wedding industry is that you get the opportunity to see how creative people can be. Sometimes it's the bride's uncle George who used his glass blowing forge to create special stemware for the occasion. Sometimes it is a cousin who is a lighting design specialist and turns a otherwise drab venue into a visual adventure. Often it is the horticultural skills of the parents who have turned a pasture into the kind of picturesque dancing lawn reminiscent of Narnia and it's magical creatures.

Practicably, it is usually one of the wedding professionals who create something exceptional. This is not surprising, they are the one group of people associated with any given wedding who have the skill and experience to be able to create something memorable.

So why do you so often see weddings that look little different than the wedding prior to it? There are, of course, a number of reasons. The most common reason, however, is that the professional can only do what the couple is willing to pay them to do - and that is not just a matter of money!

If a bride, comes into a pastry chef's place of business with a picture of her friends wedding cake and says, "I want my cake to look just like that." The professional either has to turn down the job or create a duplicate of someone else's (often someone many times removed) creativity. If the pastry chef is good it will look beautiful, but it won't have that special something that helps set the event apart.

Unfortunately this happens a lot more often than one might imagine. Brides dream big, but when they get down to specifics they tend to choose what they know. This is understandable, but it is not the best way to approach a wedding professional.

The best way to approach any wedding professional is to first find one whose personal style matches the tastes of the bride and groom. We're talking the kind of person who the bride (and / or groom) can comfortably think, "It doesn't matter what they do, I know I'm gonna love it!"

This isn't easy, but planning the biggest party of your life is not supposed to be easy.

Then, having found the artisan whose work the bride can trust the process turns into an open negotiation. By this I mean, the bride casts her vision for the professional - for the purpose of illustration we will stay with the pastry chef - and then listens as the professional responds with how they might be able to make it work. And the dialog continues.

Of course, the ugly issue of money comes into play. That's another matter - a much misunderstood matter, but I'll write about that another time.

The point is, find a professional you can trust, tell them where you want to go with your design and then listen. The truth is, they know what is possible and not possible in their discipline. More, they know what will raise your costs a lot and what will give you the biggest impact for your dollar.

Just like Uncle George, the bride chose to let him make the stemware largely because she knew what he was capable of, and that is where the possibility of true creativity comes in.

Olympic Wedding Planning Tip

First things first... Congratulations Michael Phelps!

For those who have been so buried in wedding plans and buying autumn wedding favors to know what I am talking about, Michael Phelps is an Olympic swimmer who just this past weekend became the individual to win the most gold medals in one Olympic games. The old record holder was also a swimmer by the name of Mark Spitz.

Amazing. His hard work and dedication, combined with his talent has paid off. But...

There is no way he would have ever accomplished this feat without his support people. He is in the limelight, but all the people working quietly in the background are what enabled his work and talent to pay off.

If they weren't there, if he had been enough of a prima donna that his coaches, trainers, teammates, and family didn't want anything to do with him... He might not have even reached the Olympics, much less set the record for the most victories in a Olympiad.

What does this have to do with wedding planning?

Everything!

The wedding is, for most people, the biggest party they will ever throw. There is no way they should be trying to do it alone. But far too often brides shoot themselves in the foot by treating their support people poorly. Don't do it.

There is no need. Just like the winner of the gold medal, the bride in the wedding is the center of attention. She doesn't need to remind anyone of that fact or treat anyone poorly - all that does is drive people away and diminish the celebration of the new marriage.

More Strange Beauty Tips

Well, "tomorrow" became Friday - and late on Friday at that. Those things happen. It wish they wouldn't, but they do.

Anyway, I promised you more last cheap beauty tips that a bride can make use of when things happen while she is getting ready for the big day and doesn't have time or doesn't want to spend all day running to the store for this or that.

• Straight Eyelashes? Find some waterproof mascara. Use your blow dryer to heat your eyelash curler. The heat will help your eyelashes to bend more easily and the waterproof mascara will hold the curl better than regular mascara.
• Crumbling Eyeliner? It can be incredibly frustrating when last minute wedding preparations are creating a general harried feeling all around a bride and her eyeliner pencil starts to fall apart. But don't worry. Simply have someone put it in the freezer for a quarter hour or so and go on with the rest of your preparations. When it comes out it should work just fine.
• Blotchy skin? A stressed bride is often horrified to wake up on the morning of the big day with blotchy irritated skin. Fortunately, the solution is as close as your kitchen cupboards. Get a tea bag of green tea, steep it for a couple minutes, let it cool for a couple minutes, then dab it all around the irritated areas. The antioxidants in the green tea work to reduce the inflammation.
• Unsightly Veins? Believe it or not, Preparation H will help. The reason is simple. It is a vasoconstrictor, if the veins shrink enough, no one will see them.
• Broken Blister? A dab of Listerine will cleanse the wound enough that you should be able to go about your business throughout the course of the wedding celebration.
• No Shaving Cream? It's not uncommon for a bride to get to the church only to be horrified to realize that she needs to touch up her shaving job (or do it all) but didn't bring shaving cream. In that case, she can substitute hair conditioner. It will provide the lubrication she needs and makes her skin feel silky smooth.
• Splinter? A splinter can be annoying and in a stressful situation like a wedding that little tiny piece of wood can be the figurative "straw that broke the camel's back". The solution? Just drop a dab of Elmer's glue on the splinter, let it dry then peel it off. In most circumstances it will take the splinter with it.

Ideally, no last minute disasters happen. But we don't live in an ideal world. It is wise for a bride to be prepared with a wedding day survival kit, but even with one tips like these can rescue a day from life's little annoyances and help a woman to present herself as the beautiful bride she always dreamed of being.

Strange Beauty Tips

Well, the wedding season is winding down. It's not over. Not by a long shot, but it is slowing down enough that I have a few minutes to sit down at the computer finally and update my blog.

So, thinking about what would be useful to most brides at this point - true, there are always brides at every stage of wedding planning because weddings happen all year around, and even if they didn't the globe has a northern and southern hemisphere meaning that when summer is winding down here, winter is on it's way there - still, recognizing that most of my readers are from the northern hemisphere and that the peak of wedding season is spring and summer, most active brides that are not already married soon will be. So... what would be most useful?

Probably some solutions to the kind of problems that come up at the last minute! Things like, what do you do when you wake up on your wedding day and find that the tanning spray your aunt Marge swore by left your skin streaky? Suddenly stuffed up and don't have decongestants? What do you do if you realize your arm pits look too dry and flaky for that sleeveless dress?

• Last minute Zits? No bride wants to walk down the aisle with a pimple on the end of her nose. Put just enough toothpaste on it to cover the pimple, let it absorb the oil for fifteen minutes so the pimple won't continue to build throughout your big day and then wash off.
• Eyebrows uncooperative? Mist a new toothbrush with hairspray and comb your eyebrows into place.
• Dull eyelashes? A touch of petroleum jelly combed into the eyelashes is an old trick that can take a bride's lashes from dull to sexy in a moment for virtually no cost!
• Congested without chemical decongestants? Try eating something spicy! A good, spicy, salsa or strong mint will often do the trick.
• Flaky Pits? Don't sweat that sleeveless wedding gown. Exfoliate your pits with a gentle face scrub.
• Streaking Tan? No need to worry. Simply powder a loofah with baking powder and buff the streaks away.

There are so many more tricks. Maybe tomorrow I'll add a few more that I've gathered over the years. Of course, in the meantime don't hesitate to go to www.ExcitingWeddingFavors.com for more fun and useful ideas.

Wedding White: Untangling the Issue of Color

When we think of a wedding gown in the western world we naturally tend to think of the white wedding dress. Truthfully it can be stunning seeing a gorgeous woman make her appearance in an elegant white wedding gown.

However, with so many other choices available the question is naturally raised, "Why is white the predominate color among wedding dresses. Should it be?"

Really there are three legs upon which the tradition of the white wedding gown rests within the western culture; tradition, symbolism, and beauty. A wise bride will take a few minutes to analyze each of these foundational concepts in an effort to determine what is best for her:

• 
  Tradition: It astonishes most to learn that the tradition that dictates that brides be adorned in a white wedding gown is not very old at all. In fact, most agree, that the tradition only goes back as far as Queen Victoria in 1840 who wore white as a show of her wealth since pure white fabric was expensive to make and obviously impractical to keep clean. Naturally, over the years as more and more families could afford the opulence of such an extravagant dress (This was most clearly seen in the 1950's as the post World War II economic boom hit and Hollywood began to produce glamorous stars) the practice was set.
• 
  Symbolism: In western civilization the white wedding dress has come in the past several decades to be representative of purity as opposed to reflecting wealth as in Queen Victoria's case. Usually the symbolism refers to the bride herself, but sometimes the connotation is broadened to embrace the spotlessness of the matrimony or the marriage vows.
• 
  Beauty: Truly, a white wedding gown that seems to glisten with radiance can be dazzling. Likewise, there is something stylish and proper about white - I suspect it goes back to how tricky it is to keep clean - either a pure white dress or simply a white shirt. At least it speaks subconsciously to us of class, for a man or woman of upbringing would have the etiquette and education necessary to keep white formal wear looking fine throughout the gala where those not trained in the finer things of life would not. At least that is what some part of our brain or upbringing wants to believe.

But what if a specific bride does not wear white well? Of course, that is a personal question. Just the same, the problem is legitimate. Is it necessary to spend the biggest day of one's existence wearing something that does not flatter one's appearance? We have all seen brides in white who appeared washed out and even harsh merely because of the white dress as compared to her already pale complexion. If it were me, I would not hesitate to ditch the white wedding dress in favor of another color that better enhanced the beauty of the bride.

Is the Pillared Wedding Cake Construction For You?

Pillared wedding cakes are among the most popular of wedding cake construction style. Indeed, this style can be used to create a stunning centerpiece for a wedding reception. The question, though, is whether or not pillared wedding cake construction styles are appropriate for any particular wedding.

To answer this question, it is useful to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the pillared wedding cake style.

Pros

• Added height provides drama - the wedding cake is normally the centerpiece of the design scheme for the wedding reception. A pillared wedding cake construction adds anywhere from a few inches to more than a foot of height to a wedding cake helping it to become the focal point of the wedding reception it is designed to be.


• Particularly useful to make a small wedding cake look bigger – a wedding cake that serves a hundred people or less might not look all that impressive without the added height of a pillared construction.


• Allows more decorations on each tier of the cake – For a bride that wants more surface space for decorations (regardless of whether it is elegant crystal wedding cake jewelry, a series of themed cake toppers, fresh flowers, fruit, or some creation she wants to commission the pastry chef to sculpt) the pillared wedding cake construction is worth considering because it allows space to add decorations on each pillared tier of the cake.

Cons

• Extra surface area means added decorating cost to the wedding cake – Extra decorations means extra labor. Extra flowers or fruit can be expensive and a bride will still have to pay the pastry chef to arrange the flowers or fruit on the cake. Note: Since a pastry chef’s reputation is dependant on the appearance of the wedding cake, do not count on them allowing the florist or the bride’s aunt Jane to add to the cake later – of course, once the pastry chef has gone the cake is yours to do with as you choose… as is the risk.


• Less stable – If there are going to be young children or animals at the wedding, or if the cake will need to be placed in a high traffic area, or if there is a relative famous for drinking way too much, way to early, then a pillared wedding cake construction might not be the right choice. The added height of the pillars makes the cake more liable to collapse and while that might win some money on America’s Funniest Home Videos, most would prefer to avoid it at their wedding.


• Not Normally for Do-It-Yourselfers - Stacking a pillared wedding cake is not terribly difficult, if you know what you are doing. But the placement of each pillar is critical and, depending on the size of the cake, can be unforgiving. If a pillar is placed in the cake that later needs to be changed a hole is punched that will have to be patched and may create instability in the cake. It will, at least, make the decorating process more difficult because a patch is never as smooth as the original icing.

Is a pillared wedding cake construction for your wedding? That is for you to decide. The upside in drama is huge but the risk is large as well. It all depends on the couple’s comfort level with the risk and style choices.