Blog / wedding planning tips

The Many Uses for Silk Rose Petals

Never was there a more diverse decor option than silk rose petals. Silk rose petals work for weddings, receptions, engagements, anniversaries, quinceaneras, showers, and so much more. 
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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. 
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Three Useful Registry Tips (Earned in a Frustrating Afternoon)

Building a wedding registry is supposed to be one of the “fun” parts of wedding planning, and why shouldn’t it be? 
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Select Your Dog Formal Wear Early

 Your dog is an important part of your life, and you want him to look his best at all of his formal events. This is a time for dog formal wear! 
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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.

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Using Your Proposal in Wedding Décor

Your proposal has likely already become a part of your relationship story. It’s an anecdote you tell to coworkers, at parties, or maybe even on Facebook. It doesn’t matter how extravagant or crazy your proposal was, they’re all memorable. How and when you decided to make it official will be a story you will be asked to repeat for your entire lives. Your kids will want to hear it just as much as you wanted to know the story of your parent’s courtship. So embrace it! Here are a few fun ideas to give a nod to your proposal story in your wedding décor:   Wedding Stationary
Photo shoots for your invitations and save-the-dates are a great time to express your individuality and the unique story of your relationship. Think about snapping photos at the location where you decided to tie the knot for your wedded paper good. If you got engaged at sunset at a local park (even if you were wearing your workout gear), pay homage to that site by staging photos at the exact location where it all went down (sweats optional). Illustrations are a less literal way to interpret your proposal story – subtle references (such as kissing fish stamps for an aquarium proposal or twin rocking chairs for a quiet promise at home) are a silent inside nod that you and your fiancé can share with guests.

Unique Centerpieces
There are many unique and fun centerpieces that have been constructed by couples to reference their unique proposal story. A new and popular choice seems to be table number reorganization – naming guests’ tables after locations (or items) that hold some significance to the relationship. You could also integrate items into the displays that play into your tale, such as monopoly piece confetti (if the proposal happened over a friendly – or heated – board game) or small appetizers that nod to the last meal you shared before becoming fiancé/fiancée.
If you plan to go this route, think about setting up a small display that explains the significance of the unique touches of personal décor. You probably don’t want to be fielding questions all night about the stack of American modernist anthologies under each vase of white roses.   Wedding Website
Every newly-engaged couple should have a wedding website, especially if you’re expecting any number of guests from out of town. A wedding website is a great home base to organize information about your wedding, and it’s easy to find a host for a free one. Many of the sites also come with this fun little tab for details about your relationship. If you haven’t committed the favorite stories of your relationship to paper, this is your chance. There are some details you might not remember in another thirty or forty years, and writing it down while it’s fresh will be something posterity will thank you for.
This is also an opportunity for distant relatives to catch up on the special stories of your relationship that may come up during wedding festivities. After all, you don’t want anyone to be confused about your use of a science fair volcano in place of a unity candle.

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Keeping your DIY Reception Decorations Professional-Looking

Working Out the Kinks in DIY Reception Decorations

DIY Reception Decorations

  When you're planning a DIY wedding, some of the more technical paper goods can be daunting. Menus, place cards, and even table numbers can easily look amateurish and cheap if you aren't careful where and how you print them. When you DIY reception decorations, it's important to find a kit or a guide to keep everything on track and stylish. You don't want your DIY reception decorations to be shadowed by cheap paper goods!   DIY reception decorations can be fun, but when it comes to paper goods, I recommend a kit. DIY reception decorations kits will keep everything uniform and cohesive - the biggest issue for any DIY bride. If you try to hand-write and hand-cut your DIY reception decorations, they might not look very professional. On the other hand, if you ask a print shop to design them for you, it isn't really DIY (and where's the fun in that?). Yes, your best option is a kit that provides you with the software you need to design DIY reception decorations that you can really be proud of. The kits will come with cutouts for your menus, place cards, and table numbers, but the design will be all on you. So have fun designing and printing your own DIY reception decorations!
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Stick to the Fun Parts of DIY Wedding Bunting

DIY Wedding Bunting: Style and Convenience

DIY Wedding Bunting

For your wedding, DIY wedding bunting kits offer a fun way to decorate your space with some personal and stylish flair. DIY wedding bunting offers all of the fun of DIY without the special skill set that only serious crafters come pre-equipped with. Few of us even know what bunting is, let alone how to measure and purchase the proper amount of materials for the job. No, a DIY wedding bunting kit gives us all of the fun parts of crafting (bonding with your bridesmaids over mimosas) and none of the frustrated hours at the craft store. DIY wedding bunting is a fun mini project that will really add a bit of professional style to you wedding - but I do recommend a kit... for your sanity. So where can you situate some DIY wedding bunting in your ceremony or reception space? While it does fit in almost anywhere, there are a few places where DIY wedding bunting really shines. Think about including some over your otherwise bare ceremony arch. DIY bunting is an inexpensive alternative to flowers and adds a colorful (and understated) touch to your photos. The dessert table is another place where DIY wedding bunting works well. It makes the table look like a part of the decor, and it doesn't look weird if that's the only place you feature DIY wedding bunting. It really is that versatile!
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Wedding Planning as a Student

There are many reasons to be planning a wedding while in school: timing, finances, or even, you know, because you want to. So whether you're finishing up your master's, bachelor's, doctorate, or otherwise, here are a few tips to keep wedding planning running smoothly all the way through graduation:

Begin planning NOW
While most engagements last about a year, time will go a little faster for a student. Students often lack consistency in their schedules (with major changes happening sometimes four to six times within the course of a year), and many of us have jobs in addition to a full time class load. My biggest tip is this: get as much planning out of the way as you can right at the beginning of your engagement. The earlier you do the big stuff (guest lists, venue deposits, etc) the less daunting other wedding planning tasks will seem as your semester trudges forward. The biggest benefit here is peace of mind. When things get really hectic later on you can always think "Well, at least we have a caterer." Do the fun stuff over break, and the little stuff after class
Fun decisions are things like finding a dress. Trying to fit that in the middle of October will leave you not enjoying it as much as you should. Your mind will be clouded with thoughts of midterms and lesson planning and thesis writing. Weddings should be fun, and if you rush through the fun decisions, you'll regret it later. School should be your number one priority, but that doesn't mean that your wedding can't be as exciting and amazing as anyone else's. The little things - putting together programs or stamping save-the-dates - are great little tasks to occupy your time after class. They can sometimes be therapeutic, and it's nice to think about marrying the person you love after an especially long day.   Use your resources
A university is an amazingly diverse place, and it's an opportunity to explore subjects and activities that people outside of college don't have access to. Why not take a glass crafting class and make some handmade toasting glasses? Post flyers in the art department and find students to make your invites or even craft personalized stamps? Hire that startup rockabilly/bluegrass fusion band to play your processional? Colleges are a place of inspiration, and using the resources you have around you is what takes something that sounds like a burden and makes it a fabulous and unique addition to your day.

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Invitation Tips, Dos, and Dont's

One of the first things a couple does when they’re starting to plan a wedding is to compile a (very) tentative guest list. You should do this before you scout potential venues, before you look at bakeries and caterers… everything. How many people you invite to your wedding will limit or expand what your options are for every other detail of your big day. You may think that you’ve only got a 30 person guest list, but your social circle grows when you actually sit down and draw out the people you want at your wedding. Here’s a quick guide to some basic dos and don’ts for your guest list, and a few tips to keep everything from spiraling out of control:   Draw up some guest tiers
You shouldn’t send tiered invitations (B-listing) or hold a tiered reception (where certain guests are only invited to certain parts of the reception), but you should tier your first draft of your guest list. Who must be invited, and who can’t be invited without inviting three other people? Immediate family (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles) may be one tier while cousins and great aunts and uncles are another. Instead of cutting individuals (which can cause some family tension), try to cut your guest list off at a tier. Maybe you invite family but not friends – it all depends on what your guest max is. Invite all significant others
If one of your adult guests is in a relationship, you should invite the significant other. While some people may say that it’s okay to not invite someone who is only a “casual” boyfriend (or you should only invite couples together if they’re married), you begin to tread in dangerous waters when you start making those decisions and distinctions yourself. Your definition of a “serious” relationship may be different from someone else’s, and you don’t want to split up a couple who identifies as a unit in social situations. They may be offended, and you could end up with a “regretfully declines” from someone you really wanted there. Decide about +1s now
If you allow your single friends to bring guests, prepare for your guest list to grow significantly. You may alter who gets a +1 depending on various factors, such as how far your guest is traveling or if they’re attending with their families, but whatever you do, decide now what your plan is before you deliver any numbers to vendors or venues. You don’t want to quote 100 people to your venue when adding +1s would bump your guest list to 150.   Be clear on your invites
The best way to guarantee a final guest list even close to the original number you intended is to be clear in your invitations. If you aren’t inviting children to your wedding, only write the names of the adults invited on the invite, and be sure to add “(2) seats reserved in your honor” to the RSVP. If someone RSVPs with more names than you intended, make a quick phone call to your guests to clarify who the invitation was for. Most people will understand, though you should be prepared for a few “regretfully declines” when you aren’t willing to invite everyone.
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Why Unity Sand?

Using Unity Sand

Unity Sand

When you order a unity sand kit, you usually need to purchase the unity sand separately. This is so you have the option to stick with neutral sand colors (browns, tans), or venture out a bit and find fun colors that suit you best (usually ones which match your wedding color scheme!). Your unity sand will be sitting as a focal point of your joined home, so make sure to take your decision seriously! If you're thinking about heading to the beach to scoop up some unity sand for your ceremony, remember the symbolism of the day. The point of the ceremony is to mix two different shades together to create something that can not be separated. If your unity sand is all the same color, the symbolism might not work the same way. Your unity sand choices can be expanded depending on what sort of family you're joining together. Couples who are blending their households together and already have children should consider incorporating other colors and including their offspring in the ceremony too. No matter how many members you're blending into one household, the many colors and styles of unity sand will help symbolize the joining of a family.
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Handling Common Bridesmaid Issues

Hopefully you picked your bridesmaids because they are close to you and you want to share your big day with them, and they with you. There are sometimes familial political rulings that occur without your consent, but there's nothing you can do now but make the best of it. Here are a few pointers when you're faced with a few common bridesmaid headaches in the months before you say "I do":   She asks to be a bridesmaid This happens at most weddings, but you really don't have to cave to anyone, no matter what. Like building a guest list, you should be surrounding yourself with the bridesmaids that you choose, not the ones chosen for you. If someone tries to force a new bridal party member on you, be kind but firm. "I'm sorry, but we've already chosen our bridesmaids, but I can't wait to see you and your husband at the wedding!"
Don't try to lessen the sting of rejection by offering her a side job. No one wants to set up place cards or man the dessert table as some kind of a consolation prize - that's more like work. She drops out of the wedding If your maid drops out of the wedding unexpectedly, you should be more concerned as to why than the uneven sides in wedding photos. Is it a money issue? Does your maid know that she doesn't have to throw you parties and showers? The most a bridesmaid is required to do is buy the dress and show up on the wedding day. If the dress is an issue, would you be willing to pick up the tab? Let them wear dresses they already own? If your bridesmaid really isn't sure that she can stand up for you without a major inconvenience on her part, be gracious and tell her that you hope she can still make it as a guest. No big deal.
Don't replace her. Not only will that potentially ruin your friendship, it will hurt the bridesmaid you use to take her place. She'll feel B-listed, no matter what she says. She's good enough to stand in pictures to even out sides but not to be a chosen the first time around? Nuh-uh.   She gets a tattoo So your bridesmaid has a forearm-sized tall ship on her back and you have backless bridesmaid gowns. What should you do? Nothing. There is no way to approach this issue without hurting your maid's feelings. She has made a permanent change to her body, and by making an issue of it, you are telling her that her new appearance is ugly and you don't want it in your pictures. Your maids can't put their lives on standby during the time leading up to your big day, so no matter what happens to her before the big day (including belly-swelling pregnancies!), she's as is, baby.
Don't tell her to cover up, even if she got the ink after she accepted the position. Your bridesmaids aren't just props in pictures, they're your friends. Smile as her new purple butterfly chest piece clashes with her orange dress; her permanent fashion choice doesn't reflect in any way on you.
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