Wedding Information

Archive for March, 2010

When it comes to your wedding invitations, you probably know about how much of your wedding budget you have allowed for them. What if you could save some money without sacrificing style and quality?

Efforts to spend less on your wedding invitations do not have to be huge to be cost effective. In fact, sometimes just planning ahead can save you both dollars and stress.

Of course, the obvious step would be to trim down your guest list resulting in fewer invitations ordered and mailed. But that is not always practical when you have lots of family and friends with whom to celebrate your special day.

There are also many other suggestions for easing your wedding invitation budget:

1. Shop around to find that perfect style that fits your budget. The Internet provides an abundance of wedding invitation printers. It is so convenient to shop from your computer when it fits YOUR schedule.
2. Order early to prevent paying more for faster shipping methods. Having plenty of time to assemble and address your invitations will also eliminate last-minute pressure.
3. Be sure to order some extra invitations to allow for last-minute guests and to save a few as keepsakes. Itâ??s definitely cheaper to order more initially than to place an order later for only a few more. Typically, the more invitations you order, the lower the per-piece cost.
4. Select a simple wedding invitation style such as a single-panel card which tends to cost less, especially when ordered in quantity.
5. Consider a seal and send wedding invitation. This economical all-in-one design folds up and seals into its own self-mailing piece. Without the double mailing envelopes, this style tends to cost less per invitation and eliminates the extra cost of response cards with return envelopes. Instead, a response postcard is attached as part of the invitation. It is easily removed and mailed back by your guests. Another benefit to this style is the postage savings since your guests are mailing back a postcard.
6. Buy your thank you cards at the same time you order your wedding invitations to save on shipping costs. Most often you will find thank you cards are available to match your invitation style.
7. Choose black ink which is normally included in the invitation price. There is an additional per-item-ordered cost for colored inks. This means a separate ink charge for the invitations, response cards, reception cards, return address printing, etc., which can add up.
8. Pass on the option of having a colored lining on your inner envelopes which is an additional cost. It can be a nice touch but most guests will be paying more attention to the invitation itself.
9. Include your reception information right on your invitation to eliminate a separate reception card (having less weight in the envelope might even save you from affixing extra postage). If space allows, your dinner and reception details can be added on as extra lines aligned with the rest of your verse printing. Some invitation styles allow the option of a corner copy â?? 3-4 lines that appear in the bottom left or right corner usually in a smaller sized font. There may be a small extra charge for these lines. Corner copy is not recommended for narrow or tea length styles.
10. Be sure the size and shape of your wedding invitation will only need a regular first class stamp. Sometimes a note indicating that extra postage will be required is posted online for those unique designs. Another suggestion is to purchase a sample so you can check with the Post Office if you are unsure. Keep in mind the envelopes and any extra enclosures will add to the final mailing weight possibly increasing the required postage.

I hope you find some of these suggestions helpful if you are looking for ways to save a little money on your wedding invitations since every little bit helps. Everyone has their own idea of how their invitations will look and only you know what you are willing to compromise on in fulfilling your dream. Just remember that your invitations will provide your guests with their first glance of your wedding.

Sara Haese
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/10-ideas-for-saving-some-money-on-your-wedding-invitations-728960.html

I’m doing research for a course and I need to know where I find the perfect information on this. Please give me some links or forums,but I don’t want to have to pay to research it. Thanks.

You will never find "perfect" information, but here is a start

http://www.mpiweb.org/Archive/227/60.aspx

You could try dropping an e-mail to the MPI to see if t hey can share additional info with you.

Selecting the right wedding dress is one of the most important decisions you will make in planning your wedding. It can be more than a little daunting, as you know all eyes are going to be on you - and your dress - on the big day and you want to make sure that you are looking your best. It’s enough to drive some brides to despair. But with a little pre-planning it’s easy to get organized and on the right track to finding “the one”. Here are 6 top tips to help you find the perfect wedding dress for you:

1. Look for what you like - Some of us girls even have pictures of dresses saved from before we got our proposal! Looking in wedding magazines is always the useful first step to getting an idea of what you want - it’s fun too. Also use the internet as a resource. Keep these clippings and bookmark sites in your web browser. Top Tip: Use Google’s Image Search function to quickly browse through pictures of dresses (go to the Google homepage and click on the text that says ‘Images’ in the top left hand corner. Then search as normal for ‘wedding dresses’ - the results will be images instead of text).

2. Look early - This means looking at around 9 months ahead if possible. Say you have a proposal, set a date - ideally you can start looking then. If you are ordering a custom dress then this can take months to make and if you need alterations - as the majority of women do - this will also take time. A good seamstress is often booked up far in advance, so getting in early is essential.

3. Set a budget - Why does there have to be a budget?! Well, it’s way too easy to go overboard with the dress - but it is unfair to spend a huge proportion of the budget on a dress if it means your guests have to eat bread rolls all night! It’s important to strike a balance and setting a budget in advance can help you focus. And remember you can find stunning gowns for a few hundred pounds if you know where to look (check out our site below for more on this). Also remember alterations could cost a few hundred pounds, although some boutiques will do the alterations in store for you, if you negotiate with them.

4. How to pay - Instead of using a cash deposit, use a credit card. Why? To protect your purchase in case something goes wrong. This happened to my sister-in-Law… the dress shop went out of business a few weeks before her wedding day. Thankfully it was covered by the credit card company.

5. Set deadlines - From the point you buy your dress you need to give the seamstress specific deadlines for delivering the required alterations. It’s probably a good idea to allow for a bit of leeway and set deadlines that have a 1 - 2 week contingency built in.

6. Take a friend - Or someone you trust. Someone who has a style you like - this may not be your mum and it may not be your best friend. As much as you may like the look of a dress, a good second opinion is an essential sanity check. Remember to keep things appropriate - a grand wedding probably calls for a classic wedding dress and not a short white number. A semi-formal ceremony means you can wear a coloured dress or even something more modern and funky.

Karen White
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/top-6-tips-for-finding-your-perfect-wedding-dress-670486.html

In this terrible time of financial uncertainty, wheather you are directly influenced by this crisis or are still intact, you should be more careful about your cash flow from now on.

Since young people still have to get married, you have to give a good thought about how to save money and have a budget but still perfect wedding.

Budget wedding starts from renting a wedding dress. Renting is less expensive than buying. Men have been renting tuxedos for years, why not wedding dress rental for women? This isn’t as far fetched as it may sound. In addition to buying a wedding dress, most brides have to contend with preserving and storing the wedding dress. With a wedding dress rental, all the bride has to do is choose the dress, wear it, and return in within the allotted time period. She doesn’t even have to worry about the dry cleaning.

With careful planning, costs can be kept under control and a stylish wedding achieved for a fraction of this figure. Here are some more tips.

1. Rings
Ask yourself if you really need to spend thousands on something some people lose or which wears out and becomes unusable.

2. Food
Think about making the food yourself, or at least the puddings and starters. Ask at local catering colleges if they provide a service; you might still get quality but at half the price. Alternatively, ask everyone to bring a dish!
The wedding cake neednÃ?â??t be expensive either. Think about making it yourself, or go for a simple sponge. A current trend is to serve small individual Ã?â??cup-cakesÃ?â??, which aren’t expensive but still look nice.

3. Photography
If you do go for a professional photographer, ensure youÃ?â??re certain of the number and type of prints you want and ask yourself how many you really need.
Alternatively, ask a friend who has an interest in photography, but make sure they have a good camera.

4. Honeymoon
Do you really need a villa in the Seychelles with every conceivable luxury? Honeymoons can add thousands to wedding costs. Think of hiring a romantic cottage somewhere in the UK instead. Or take advantage of low-cost flights to a European city and try to negotiate a good hotel deal (especially if you intend to go out of high season).
Alternatively, ask around among friends and family and see if anyone has a second home you could borrow, or at least rent cheaply, in the UK or abroad.

Bargain, bargain, bargain. You can negotiate for everything, from flowers to the band to the venue. Katie says she got a deal on her dress and the bridesmaid dresses by purchasing them from the same shop. Cut back on things that guests won’t notice. Carley suggests eliminating a couple of courses from the dinner, limiting the bar by featuring a special cocktail, or only buying flowers that are in season. Don’t lose sight of the purpose. The wedding is to celebrate your relationship, so focus on creating a memorable time as opposed to simply a lavish one.

Janey Yang
http://www.articlesbase.com/clothing-articles/budget-weddings-in-a-time-of-financial-uncertainty-714686.html

ok so i got engaged jan 31st and the wedding isn’t till aug 25 2012 so i know i have plenty of time but i am one that likes everything to be just about done way before hand. i am wondering where is a good place to get wedding ideas, any Wedding planning books recommended, colors for an august wedding, what types of gifts to give, food ideas. were not going to have much money because were paying for it ourselves and were a young couple with a 2 year old right now. that’s the other reason why im starting early please help, i am open for any ideas.

One of the best places to go is "The Knot" www.theknot.com, that is the site that my wife and I used, and it sorta helped putting things into perspective.

Starting early is an awesome idea by the way. It is so much easier to space things out over a large period of time.

In the meantime, here is what I would do…

Make a list of the things that ARE and ARE NOT important to you. Seriously, you can cut thousands of dollars from your wedding budget by eliminating things that are not essential to you.

For example, my wife and I saved A LOAD of money on our wedding because we decided not to get married in a church, and just used on venue for the ceremony and reception. By the way, our ceremony was beautiful and nobody had anything but positive things to say about it. (It’s also super convenient). We also eliminated the wedding party, as the occasion was about us not our friends and family. So seriously, go take a look at the checklist they have on TheKnot.com, and just start taking out anything that isn’t essential.

Once you have a list of the things that are essential, start looking for things that you can do yourself. (there are lots of DIY Wedding sites with advice and ideas) Again, we saved a ton of money doing our own save the dates and invitations. And since we started so far in advance, we had plenty of time to find to get the most out of our money. Seriously, we paid next to nothing on our save the dates and they’re seriously the coolest ones anybody has ever seen.

In the end, we ended up saving so much money by skipping stuff we didn’t need, that we were able to bring hire a company to bring a Photobooth to our wedding (which was pretty much the hit of the night!)

So you’re totally on the right track. The more time you have, the more fun the whole thing ends up being, and the less stressful it is. I’m a guy, and I had a BLAST working on planning our wedding. Having so much time on our hands, and our desire to do as much as possible ourselves made the planning process a joint effort.

Honestly, nearly a year later there isn’t a single thing I would change about our wedding. It was perfect, as it was the perfect representation of us.

Also, congratuations!

Im getting married in a year, and I need help on creating my wedding planner. My fiance works in CT and I need to get the wedding prepared before anything. PLEASE HELP ME IM BLANKED OUT!!!!
I appreciate all who answer this question, really. Thank you so much. XOXOXOXO
http://theknot.com/
I suggest using the Knot. Check out their Wedding checklist and budget calculator, on the left under "planning tools."

Best of all, it is free.

Wedding planners of today rule over weddings. They are to be commended on jobs well done. Many wedding planners work well with the bride and work hard to see that the end result for the bride and groom are what they want. However there are few ladies out there that are more on a strict budget. These ladies have worked hard and find joy in planning their wedding and make their own decorations for the tables. Many take pride in making the decorations and shopping for their shower and wedding.

There are many aspects of the wedding to take into consideration, one being the shower. Although the matron of honor usually plans this, the bride still has some things to say. A shower for the bride to be is just the gateway of planning for the wedding.

While planning for the wedding is hard, the shower can be much easier on the bride and matron of honor. At the shower the bride and matron of honor either make or buy items to give to the people who attend. If the wedding is being planned and items are being made by the matron and bride, then buying items for the shower is the better choice.

There are items that you buy for the shower, like bath fizzes or bath caviars. These items still look like they are hand made. They are all wrapped and given a bow with a color of choice. For all the ladies that attend the shower. The bath fizz is similar to aromatherapies they have for baths. The bath caviar is similar to bath salts. Both of these bath items are perfect gift for the ladies.

In choosing either bath fizzes or bath caviars, leaves precious time for the bride and matron of honor to work together on the wedding. These shower gifts are small but yet they are a reminder of a shower and a beautiful wedding.

Michele Rogers
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/gift-basket-gifts-for-wedding-showers-115808.html

We have just passed the 3rd of the top three most popular days to get engaged, Valentines Day and with that, the wedding season officially kicks off. Brides everywhere are working on creating that special day that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Here are some interesting facts:

â?¢ The average U.S. Bride will spend $27,134 on her wedding. That does not include the engagement ring or honeymoon.

â?¢ 85% of Brides will plan some or all of their wedding on the Internet

â?¢ The average age of todayâ??s Bride is 27

â?¢ 80% of U.S. Brides are getting married for the first time

Of the 2.5 million weddings (Which makes the Wedding Industry an almost $68 Billion Dollar industry in the U.S. alone), the average Bride is faced with making large dollar decisions and purchases which she has never made before. In fact she is usually spending someone elseâ??s (Her Mom & Dadâ??s, fiancéâ??s, or other close relativeâ??s) money. This can unnerve most of us. (can you think back to the time when you had to buy a dress that cost around $2-4,000 that you would only wear one day, or when you spent a similar amount of money on photography for just you or your family?)

Here are some tips and pointers to help out that Bride and keep her â??Wedding Planning Stressâ? to a minimum:

1. Decide what is important and what is not up front. By doing this, you will not waste time on the trivial and spend you efforts where they are most needed.

2. Communicate up front with your fiancé and those closest to you that you are facing one of the 5 most stressful events in your life and if you snap at them, or have a breakdown, itâ??s the stress, not them.

3. Set down and understand up front what your wedding budget is. This step will help you to Budget the important to the top of the list as well as help you to not create further stress in anyone who is helping fund your wedding.

4. Plan for â??time-outsâ? during the engagement. Have a couple of week ends off or plan a quick get away where you decompress. Plan on not planning for a period of two or more days. This will help to relaxing your â??wedding planningâ? muscles and get you to be able to focus better.

5. Use the internet as much as you can to save travel time, communication time as well as finding the best vendors possible. Emails spend less time than phone calls and are not as urgent.

Keep your eye on the prize-you are marrying the person you love and want to spend the rest of your life together. The most important thing is having the two of you show up and say â??I Doâ?. Everything else is icing on the cake!

Rick Brewer
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/the-2007-wedding-season-has-officially-begun-112271.html

I’m 2 weeks away and I really need some confirmation I’m not forgetting anything… please take the time to read!

BIG THINGS
Ceremony and Reception Venue
Officiant and Wedding Coordinator
Decorator
Caterer and Cake Lady
Florist
DJ and MC (includes lighting) for ceremony and reception
Photographer
Hair Stylist
Dresses and Tuxes
Rings and Bridal Party Gifts
Marriage License
Centerpieces and Bouquets
Honeymoon

LITTLE THINGS
Cake topper
Cake cutting kit
Shoes
Makeup
Table Markers
Name Cards
Programs
Guestbook
Favours
Thank You Cards
Gratuities Envelopes

I feel like I’m forgetting to do something now that I’m not spending every moment of spare time planning and organizing and such… it could just be the normal paranoia that I’m missing something because I’ve devoted so much time to it, but I could really use the reassurance…

Just in case I’ve covered other things and forgotten to list them I’ll add "Extra Details" as needed

THANK YOU!!
I forgot - I’m not wearing a tiara, veil, etc. and I have all other accessories picked out and purchased
You’re list looks quite thourough. I would recommend so you don’t forget anything to get an inexpensive organizer that will keep things in order for you. That way you make sure people get paid when they are due and you don’t forget to get something done because you have so much on your plate.

http://www.amazingweddingplanning.com/special/ddglobal/

A good friend of mine used this planner and her wedding was beautiful. She is a pediatrician with her own practice, so she didn’t have much time to plan but wanted to make sure nothing was left out. So she did a lot of research online and kept it all organized with this planner. Good luck! I hope your day is a dream come true!

Weddings these days can really cost a fortune, so you might immediately think of all possible ideas on how to save money on your wedding. Fortunately, there are many ways on how to trim down some of your wedding expenditures. One great idea is to think about cheap wedding favors. However, this doesn’t mean you will be giving out unappealing favors at your wedding, making your special day less memorable. Rather with a bit of creativity, you can definitely have great wedding favors that doesn’t cost you a fortune.

You might not mind of what style of wedding you are having, the important thing is you have the wedding favors for all your guests. Since rarely does someone show up without a gift for the newlyweds, it is in good taste to show your taste by having wedding favors. If you have a large number of guests in your guests list, your wedding favor expenditure can be easily out of control. As a result, many brides and grooms make use of the advantages that are in cheap wedding favors.

It is very important to determine the budget before you start to organize your wedding. Within the planning process of determining your budget, you will wish to decide how much money you are willing to spend on each detail of your wedding celebration. So after you have decided, then you will know whether you want to continue with relatively cheap wedding favors or really cheap wedding favors.

The presentation of wedding favors is also one of the most important thing you need to consider. If your creative enough to make the cheap favors look great, nobody will notice that they were not bought expensively. For instance, tiny candies, mints and chocolates can make affordable edible favors, you can make them look great by placing in small fancy favor boxes. You can find a bunch of small cheap wedding favor fold up boxes, put a few tiny treats in them and with just a bit of touch, you have created fancy and elegant wedding memorabilia at a fraction of cost.

Another great affordable option to keep in mind in having cheap wedding favors is to avoid wedding favors that have a wedding subject to them. For instance, purchasing a small box shaped like a wedding cake will be more expensive than other really adorable cute boxes. Aside from these boxes filled with tiny treats, you may also consider cheap favors like candles and soap. These days, many people are crazy on candles, and therefore, candles are perfect for favors thinking how cheap they can be. You you want, and you have plenty of time left, you can make your own candle or soap favors. There are many craft store that offer DIY soap kits, candle kits and others. You can work with yourself alone, or you can bring together a manpower to have a fun bonding while making homemade wedding favors.

Cheap wedding favors are indeed a great help to save money on your wedding. And if you are really on a tight budget, you can always cut cost on some details of your wedding. Why not give inexpensive bridesmaids gifts to your female attendants, instead of giving luxurious wedding gifts that they will most likely display during special events only? You can do the same idea also when it comes to groomsmen gifts. To have a cheap wedding ideas doesn’t mean compromising what you really have desired for your wedding day. Rather, it’s just a matter of giving extra effort to make the ”cheap idea” look fantastic to make your special day worth to be remembered.

Janet R.
http://www.articlesbase.com/marriage-articles/saving-money-with-cheap-wedding-favors-672352.html