Wedding Woes that can Wait
Planning a wedding seems to happen all at once - all of the decisions feel equally important and relevant when you're first engaged and you're caught in a flurry of congratulations and furious planning.
Planning a wedding seems to happen all at once - all of the decisions feel equally important and relevant when you're first engaged and you're caught in a flurry of congratulations and furious planning.
Concerns for the Newly Engaged
A good friend and colleague of mine got engaged over the weekend, and was full of questions when she was back to work.
Preparing the Perfect Christmas Wedding Favors
While we’ll never recommend planning your wedding for Christmas morning, holding a wedding during the Christmas season is a great way to get your family together to celebrate both your marriage and the reason for the season.
Old and New: Vintage Wedding Accessory Set
Finding a vintage guest book or set of toasting glasses on your own is a mean feat.
Nerdy Wedding Details
Nerds, by definition, are lovers. Be it a mutual love of J.R.R. Tolkein, Star Wars Novelizations, linguistics, The Martian Chronicles, Legos, literature, or otherwise, nerdy love breeds some downright beautiful wedding details.
Complimenting a Bridal Toe Ring
A bridal toe ring is a fun and flirty piece of jewelry that you can wear on your wedding day that will add a subtle sparkle to your look.
The Practicality and Aesthetic of Wedding Favor Cards
If you’re making your own favors, be it jarring jams or packaging chocolates or crafting miniature birdhouses, you need a way to dress up your gifts for your guests.
Literary Wedding Inspiration
Theme weddings have a habit of borrowing from literature. While finding inspiration in great novels, plays, and poems can be a fun way to personalize your wedding day, it’s easy to go over the top. That’s why, if you don’t want a theme wedding, many people simply don’t bother. Here are some low-key ideas inspired by some of my favorite authors (without stepping into the bounds of “theme-y”:
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald was the author of the famous American novel The Great Gatsby, and his career was absolutely saturated with stories of high society in the 1920s. Though his stories were timely critical comments on excess and wealth, his worlds still serve as inspiration for weddings the world over.
Keep it Simple with:
Mint Juleps, Martinis, and Bubbly
and
Feathers, White Dinner Jackets, and Low Waists.
J. R. R. Tolkien
I’ve never met anyone who wouldn’t drop everything for the chance to live in J.R.R. Tolkien’s pastoral domicile: the humble Hobbit hole. The Shire, the mythical serene landscape within Tolkien’s Middle Earth, is perfect in every way. Weddings in the Shire employ the gratuitous use of flowers and the outdoors, plenty of ale, and a plethora of pastels.
Keep it Simple with:
Beer and Ale and More Beer
and
Bright Colors, Flowers, and Airy Fabrics.
Edgar Allen Poe
Poe was the author of such famous short horror stories as “The Black Cat” and “The Premature Burial” and poems such as “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee.” Chilling and weirdly romantic, his works have haunted our hearts and minds for decades. While few associate his stories with uplifting happy endings, fans of his enchanting language know exactly why he inspires light and dark weddings everywhere.
Keep it Simple with:
Wed Wine and Cognac, Red Wine
and
Lace, Red Roses, and Buttery Silk.
Setting Up Bridal Shower Decorations
Designing Cohesive and Cost-Effective Bridal Shower Decorations
Bridal Shower Decorations
Hosting a bridal shower can sometimes become as stressful and difficult as planning a wedding. There’s guest lists, catering, planning, and – of course – decorating. Bridal shower decorations don’t get nearly as much spotlight as wedding decorations, but the aesthetics and ambiance of a bridal shower can’t be overlooked or ignored. The trick to beautiful bridal shower decorations is simplicity and consistency. It doesn’t matter how much you spend or how much you saturate your venue in tissue paper – your bridal shower decorations should be cohesive and minimal. Paper bridal shower decorations are my personal favorite; they’re easy and they always look great. Think about paper bunting, confetti, and classy table numbers to tie your bridal shower decorations together.
There’s no need to go crazy buying any and all bridal shower decorations you can. Find a theme and stick to it, but don’t go overboard. For bridal shower decorations, it’s all about beauty in simplicity.
The bride will love her bridal shower as long as she’s surrounded by the women who love her, but that doesn’t mean you should skip the bridal shower decorations! Photos from this event will be stacked next to the ones from the wedding itself – let your bridal shower decorations speak to the quality of the event!
Beer and You: A Classy Affair
There are some who believe that a bride has no place slinging beers at her wedding. The picture of a sparkling bride in white handling a bottle of PBR just doesn’t sit well with some critics. Beer can have a place within a wedding – it just has to be handled classily and correctly. Should you be knocking back Buds from the bottle for six straight hours during your reception? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make beer classy.
Try adding…
Beer Samplers
The simple allure of a stacked and colorful beer sampler has always caught my attention at high-class breweries. A group of six 8-ounce glasses of assorted microbrews (sometimes mixed with fresh fruit!) is a delicacy that many restaurants implore within their catering services – just ask! This is a more stylish way to imbibe without the threat of ugly half-finished bottles cluttering your tables. And for beer snobs like myself, a sampler per table gives me the opportunity to show my friends and relatives a world outside of Miller Light. You can finish the one you love and ignore the rest – much like a husband.
Local Brews
By offering up a beer- only hosted bar, you set yourself up to save a lot of money, but not all couples are gung-ho about the idea. Full bars are expensive, but a beer-specific bar doesn’t have to be bland and insipid. Try experimenting with hosting local and seasonal brews – without the bottle, if you please. Spring for the right glasses. You aren’t shackled to champagne, so try to experiment with something new, full, and exciting if you’re going for beer.
Favors
A fun addition to your brewed wedding could be a little something delicious for your guests to take home with them – a fermented favor, if you will. If you plan on offering seasonal and/or local brews during your reception, offer bottled versions for later consumption as guests exit. Good beers tend to be bottled in attractive receptacles, and it’s likely that the addition of a bottle at every place setting – or at a display as guests exit – will add to rather than detract from your décor. For younger guests, offer fancy bottled soda as an “I’m Sorry You’re Not 21” consolation favor.
The Shapes and Sizes of Stylish Wedding Favor Boxes
My Favorite Stylish Wedding Favor Boxes
Stylish Wedding Favor Boxes
Making your own favors is a fun but laborious experience that often involves a lot more work than you think it will. Even if you’re just combining store bought goodies or putting together a candy bar, you soon realize that you have nothing to present to your guests at their place settings. Instead of dumping the goodies into a pile on their chargers, I recommend a good solid set of stylish wedding favor boxes. Instead of regular folded containers or simple paper bags, stylish wedding favor boxes offer a variety of choices for your favor storing needs. My favorite stylish wedding favor boxes have a window cut right into the top or side so that guests can take a peek at the goodness to come. Of that category, the stylish wedding favor boxes with heart-shaped windows are my favorite.
If straight-up boxes aren’t your thing (or you don’t think your favor will fit into a cube), consider stylish wedding favor boxes that come in a tent shape. These stylish wedding favor boxes are good for lollypops, other strangely-shaped favors, or even just more of the same! It isn’t hard to find stylish wedding favor boxes that fit your style and your purposes.
Bridal Shower Bingo: A Rowdy Afternoon of Frolic
Fun Times with Bridal Shower Bingo
Bridal Shower Bingo
Bridal shower games are probably my favorite part of the wedding marathon that brides subject themselves to in the months leading up to their big day. They’re inexpensive, fun, and provide a great bonding opportunity for the women closest to you. You don’t really know your Great Aunt Sally until you’ve seen her viciously plotting against your Maid of Honor in a lively round of bridal shower bingo. Bridal shower bingo really brings out the competitive side in many women you wouldn’t expect it from – even a poised afternoon tea can get a little rowdy with the addition of a few cutesy prizes.
The competition inspired by bridal shower bingo isn’t negative, however: quite the contrary. Bridal shower bingo is fun, and it breathes life into an ordinary celebratory bridal get-together. The multiple winners and excitable participants keep any hard feelings at bay (unlike strategic and cutthroat gaming scenarios like family “Risk” or “Monopoly” night).
Finding great bridal shower bingo games isn’t too difficult, but you might want to skip trying to make them yourself. A few hours struggling with clip art and Microsoft word functions will leave you frustrated (and sporting an inferior product). Bridal shower bingo is just what your shower needs for an unforgettable afternoon.