Archive for Planning

A beautiful wedding cake is often one of the focal points for guests at a wedding. Very few people leave the reception before having the opportunity to see and sample the cake. After all, the cake cutting at a wedding has been a very important tradition that has endured through the years.

Traditionally speaking, wedding cakes were made up of three tiers and royal icing was used to cover the entire cake. They also were made of vanilla pound cake. Wedding cakes today can be as creative and as imaginative (not to mention as wild!) as the couple wishes them to be! There are a multitude of designs, flavors and decorations to choose from. You can customize the cake to suit whatever theme you would like.

Here are some important factors to take into consideration when choosing the cake for your upcoming wedding:

Size of the Cake

The size you choose has to do with how many guests you expect will be attending. If you plan to send cake to those who are not able to attend, bear this in mind. If you are uncertain about the size of cake you need in relation to the number of guests, then speak to a local baker for suggestions.

Wedding cakes are generally several tiers but you can use your individuality to choose the shape and size that is best for your wedding.

Cake Design

Flip through wedding magazines to get ideas, and go online and visit any number of websites to see photos of wedding cakes. Another option is to visit bakers and confectioners in your area and go through their books to see samples. If you do not find exactly what you want, you might want to combine something you saw in a magazine with something that caught your eye somewhere else. Or you might even want to design your very own cake!

Cake Flavor

You want your cake to look good but also to taste good, too! Search around for a baker who uses only top quality ingredients. You can go with the regular vanilla or chocolate flavor or you might decide upon a cheesecake. Other delicious options include sponge cake, fruit cake or a cake with a mousse filling. If you like more than one flavor you can have different tiers of the cake made with different flavors to delight the taste buds.

For more information on wedding cakes visit http://topweddingsites.com/articles/cakes.html.

When it comes to deciding upon the wedding favors that are most appropriate for your wedding, bear in mind both the mood of your wedding as well as the style. Are you having a formal wedding or will it be more casual and relaxed? Is there a theme to your wedding or not?

A theme can be an excellent starting point for your favors. If it is a beach theme, then wedding favors that celebrate that theme would be fitting, such as a small token of appreciation wrapped inside of a small seashell. Let your surroundings and the ambiance of the setting for your wedding determine what type of wedding favors would be best for your guests.

The average couple spends two to three percent of their wedding budget on wedding favors. It is important to know what type of budget you have to work with and from there come up with an approximation of how many guests will be attending the reception. Once you know these things you can then figure out how much money you can afford to spend on wedding favors.

Another important consideration is the colors for your wedding. A color scheme is an important aspect of most weddings. If your color scheme is pink, you might choose to decorate your reception in a variety of shades of pink, everything from light pink to darker shades of pink. You can use the color pink for your flowers and for your decorations and to beautify the tables at your reception as well as the entryway. Even the bathrooms can get a boost from the color pink. On the other hand you might decide to stick with only one shade of pink if you are a more traditional and classic type of couple.

The options for wedding favors are many. Explore your options. It is always nice to personalize each wedding favor with a tag that gives the name of the couple and the date of the wedding. Some suggestions for wedding favor themes include home décor, nautical, western, holiday, bath and body, food and garden.

The prospect of your wedding is looming, and you couldn’t be happier! It is important to remember that you must adopt a certain type of schedule in order to make sure that everything that needs to get done for the wedding does indeed get done in a timely fashion. Being on time with all of your preparations is essential to the outcome of the upcoming nuptials.

Your wedding invitations should be ordered once you have all of the relevant information about your wedding decided. This includes your guest list, the place and the time for the ceremony. Place your invitation order at least three to four months in advance. This is especially important to do if your invitations will be custom made or handmade. Keep in mind that errors do occur. If you order them far enough in advance, then in the event that the unfortunate happens, corrections can be made.

Bear in mind, as well, that once the invitations have been proofed and then printed you need time to address them and to mail them. Some people also may be using the services of a calligrapher. This time has to be allotted for as well.

It is best to send invitations an average of six to eight weeks prior to the wedding date. This is the ideal situation. You can adjust the schedule accordingly for your unique set of circumstances. If you will be sending invitations to guests who are out of town, then make sure you send them eight weeks in advance. The further away they are, the more time you should give the guests to make the necessary travel arrangements.

As a courtesy, you might want to send invitations to your out of town or out of state guests as early as possible. Send them a “Save the Date” card, and include information regarding flights, accommodations and car rentals.

All of your wedding invitations should be sent from the address where the bride currently resides. This is the case even for the personal friends of the groom who are strangers to the bride.

An engagement ring is a symbol of the promise to marry. It is also a symbol of the commitment to join as one in a lifelong relationship as husband and wife. While an engagement ring is not an absolute necessity in order to be married, in our culture it is extremely commonplace.

In western society an engagement ring is offered to a woman when a man proposes marriage to her. If she accepts, the ring is then placed on the second last finger of her left hand. This is her “ring finger”.

The tradition of the engagement ring dates back many years. It once was believed that the fourth finger of the left hand contained the vena amoris (or vein of love) and that this vein connected directly to the heart. This tradition has endured, and that is why today both engagement rings and wedding rings are placed on this most special of fingers. Husband and wife were then thought to be “joined at the heart.”

The tradition of diamond engagement rings began with the Italians. In Italy it was once believed that diamonds were derived from the “flames of love” and therefore clearly represented the bonds of everlasting love.

The first people to make use of rings for a romantic purpose were the French. In the sixteenth century Frenchmen presented the women they loved with what was known as gimmal rings. Gimmal rings were intertwined but were designed with a tiny slit in the gold. The purpose of the slit was that once a man proposed marriage and a woman accepted, each wore one of the rings during the period of engagement. On the wedding day during the ceremony, the groom would remove his ring and give it to the bride who would then wear the two rings together as one.

Diamonds are the most popular stone for an engagement ring. Their popularity began in the early 20^th century. It was once believed that the price for an engagement ring equated to two month’s of salary for the hopeful groom-to-be.

Those who cannot afford this should not let it distress them as there are plenty of simple styles of engagement rings today that are beautiful but have a more reasonable price tag. Some people decide to forego diamonds and choose another type of stone all together. Men who know their beloveds well will know how to choose a ring that she will adore.

Who says you need to have lots of money to have a beautiful wedding ceremony? If you are planning a church wedding but do not have the budget that you wish you had, read on for some suggestions for how to make the wedding as elegant as can be:

1. Stand in the church and look towards the front. Where is your attention focused on? Now think like your guests. The altar is where the guests will be concentrating because this is where the vows will be exchanged. It is essential that your hard-earned money be well spent. The flowers and decorations you choose to adorn the altar should be given top priority.

2. Hurricane lamps are a lovely choice for a fall or winter wedding. There are plenty of styles from which to choose and these lamps are relatively inexpensive. Choose glass hurricane lamps or brass lamps and decorate them in whatever way is most befitting for the ceremony!

3. Use tall candelabras at the church ceremony. Accent them with plenty of greenery. If you shop around, you will find lots of options when it comes to styles and designs. Your white candles will look very elegant and stunning in the candelabras, as they will lend themselves to making the church look more wondrous.

4. Some brides like to decorate every pew in the church. If you can find decorations that are within your budget to does this, then go ahead. If not, then here is a suggestion – consider decorating every second or third pew. Be as creative as you like. Standard options include bows, ribbons and greenery (and the hurricane lamps mentioned in number two).

5. Decide where your money would be most wisely spent. This often depends on the size of the church and how many guests you are expecting. You might want to forego decorating the pews and instead have flowers or candelabras at the entrance to the church and on the altar.

6. Before you buy decorations find out if the church has decorations that you can borrow for your wedding ceremony.

7. Real flowers are lovely but expensive. Therefore, you should keep flowers to a minimum. If you use real flowers, then have someone transport the flowers from the ceremony to the reception. Another option is to buy real looking artificial flowers.

When it comes to choosing flowers for your wedding, you can choose to take the fresh live flowers route or the artificial route. Both are equally good options. If you need to be as cost effective as possible, then only you can decide if fresh flowers are within your wedding budget.

If you decide to go with fresh flowers for the big day, then here are a few suggestions for choosing them:

-Do not go overboard with trying to match your flowers with your decorations, tablecloths for the reception or the dresses for the maid of honor and the bridesmaids. Staying within the correct color scheme, such as pink or lavend,er is one thing, but too much color coordination is almost impossible to do if you want to stay sane!

-Consider your budget and your style when you speak to your florist of choice. Most people understand the money crunch, and therefore the florist will do his or her best to find lovely flowers that suit both of these needs.

-Approximately half of the cost to make flower arrangements, bouquets and centerpieces is labor. The fancier and more elaborate ones you choose, the more you will pay. Instead opt for more basic and looser kinds of arrangements that will be more budget friendly.

-The “market buy” option is a good one to consider, if you do not mind buying your flowers at the last minute. How this works is that a florist will go to the “market” the day before your wedding is to take place and purchase the flowers you want. The good thing is that the flowers will be on special, and therefore you will receive a nice discount. This gives you money to put toward other aspects of your special day!

-If you do not want to go with the market buy option, then place the order for your flower arrangements but do not finalize the order until approximately three months before the wedding. The reason for this? Sometimes mitigating circumstances necessitate changes in plans. You do not want to spend your money and then have it go to waste. As well, you do not want to end up with flowers that are all wrong for your wedding.

Happy flower shopping!!

Traditionally speaking, the purpose of a wedding engagement is to give the happy couple the opportunity to get to know each other as well as they possibly can. There is no diehard rule on how long an engagement is supposed to be as society has dramatically changed over the years.

A wedding engagement allows the family members on both sides to become well acquainted. This is important because they will soon become in-laws. Some people refer to this as “house blending”. Many talks need to occur between the engaged couple and the two families that make the period of engagement crucial.

The engagement period can be a stressful time, but the benefit of this is that it tests the strength of the bond that exists between the couple. How do they handle the difficulties and stressors that come their way? Each person gets a glimpse into how the other copes with pressure. It is essential to pay close attention, as this could play a much larger role once you cross the line from being engaged to being married.

How Much Time does it take to Plan a Wedding?

Another purpose of an engagement is that a wedding is not something that can be thrown together in an instant. Instead it takes planning. This also can be a source of stress, as family members from both sides are likely to want to be a part of the planning stage.

As a rule of thumb, wedding engagements should last long enough that your loved ones and close friends have ample time to get to know the person with whom you have chosen to spend your life. This should be the case for the bride and the groom. You are merging two families as your union is a uniting of his family and her family.

Engagements should never be shorter than three months but should not be stretched out for years and years. Look closely at your own circumstances and make the decision that is right for the two of you.

A wedding planner is an individual who acts as a consultant of sorts when it comes to planning a wedding. A wedding planner works closely with the caterers and vendors that have been hired for the wedding. She looks after many of the details from the smallest to the largest.

A wedding planner can help a nervous and uncertain bride-to-be choose the right wedding dress and the right hairstyle for her wedding. She also can help her to contact the appropriate people in order to buy flowers and the cake.

Do you have to hire a wedding planner? Absolutely not. It is not a prerequisite of getting married. Does hiring a wedding planner make for a more organized schedule of events and less headaches for the bride and groom? Most certainly!

A wedding planner is an expert in the field of wedding preparation. Whether it is a question of where to hold the reception or whether to serve a sit down meal or a buffet, the wedding planner will have these areas covered so the couple can concentrate on exchanging their vows.

The wedding planner is not wrapped up emotionally in a wedding, as is everyone else concerned. Weddings bring together families, and this can make for plenty of emotional intimacy, as well as lessen the potential for conflicts. A wedding planner can encourage the happy aspects of the day and downplay the less stellar aspects.

Not all wedding planners are alike. Different wedding planners have their own strengths and their own style of doing business. For example, a wedding planner or coordinator often handles the booking of professionals for the wedding, such as florists, caterers, musicians and the like. She is also very well versed in the areas of style, etiquette and decorating.

Some of her other tasks may include (but are not limited to):

-choosing wedding colors and/or a wedding theme

-choosing music

-choosing the invitation style

-selecting decorations for the wedding reception