FLOWERS!, flowers!

Tips for picking the right flowers for your wedding !

1. Pick flowers that are less likely to wilt and will withstand the conditions. (Mums are a great choice and they come in a variety of colours and will last for days)
2. In order to save money, use flowers that are in season, wanting glads in the spring when they come out in August is going to increase your cost.
3. Look around your own garden or your mom's to find flowers, if you're really on a budget think about it, it's free!
4. Plant easy harvesting flowers such as roses, glads, carnations a few years prior in order to have a bountiful harvest for your wedding!
5. Invest in bulbs, they are cheap, and kept indoors they can bloom just like they would outside! You can get special bulb vases that offer an elegant look to any event.
6. Opt for potted plants, again such as mums, or perhaps perennials, your guests will love them because when they plant them, they will bloom every season!
7. How about.......FEATHERS!!!! it's the new rage, tall vases with elegant white, cream or brown feathers, they come in so many colours and are more reliable than flowers.
8. Not loving the flower idea, how about just greens, leaves come in so many shades of green, red and blue, they can be manipulated and cost less then conventional flowers used at wedding such as roses!

Theme, Colour and Look- What to consider when making these decisions for your wedding

1.Season/ Time of year

Picking a theme or colours for your event might come from seasonal inspiration. There are the obvious colour schemes such as deep oranges, golds, bronzes and browns for fall or crisp and clean blues and greens for winter. The time of year specifically can also lend some ideas for colour themes such as Christmas or the holidays. A wedding near this times can adopt deep reds, silver, gold and forest greens. If your planning a wedding in the spring, colours inspired by Easter and new growth, such as pale greens, blues, pinks and yellows, less impactful shades. Summer is the most popular season to get married in, the colours available are countless. If you want a hot South American summer feel, hot pinks, bright oranges and deep purples can aid in obtaining this feeling. For regular summer colours, the range of pinks, lighter greens and purples are very popular, increasingly cream coloured bridesmaid dresses are being warn, black is also a wonderful alternative that can made suitable for any season depending on the fabric and style.

2. Favourite Color

It is your wedding and it should reflectwhat you llike and how you are. If your favourite colour is organge and your wedding is in January, then go for it as long as it maks your happy!

**Remember choosing colours that complement the season, especially for pictures, it will make everything coordinate much better! Making you have to work less to achieve a unifying theme with the decor.

Who is in your wedding party?

When making the decision of who is going to be in your wedding party, it's easy to get carried away. If you have a couple sisters or brothers and are really close to your cousins then your actually one of the lucky ones. Why are you so lucky? Well, when you leave people out of the party and have a large family it is easy to say that your going with a family oriented wedding party.

It is easy to hurt people's feelings by leaving them out of your wedding party. If you have a mix of friends and family, which friends are you going to choose? The hardest part in my opinion is when you live with roommates. Perhaps you only wanted to invite one of your roommates to be a bridesmaid or a groomsmen, but what do you say to the other two?

The bottom line is that it is your wedding !!!

Your wedding party should consist of people who have played a significant role in your or your partners life. Being family and or a friend isn't a good enough reason, so if a person doesn't get invited to join the wedding party, it's not because they are not loved, or loved less.

Why some people wont want to be in your wedding party?

Don't just think that a wedding is expensive for the bride and groom. Being a bridesmaid or a groomsmen is very expensive. On average just the bridesmaid dress will cost them $250.00! That isn't including hair, make-up, shoes, nails, bridal shower present, wedding present etc. Some people just don't have it within their personal budgets to be able to be apart of your event, so don't be offended if anyone turns you down for the brides bitch job, I mean bridesmaid position! ( Not all brides are bitches, they turn into them sometimes, but for real, there not always this way)

Make sure, or at least try, to have everyone is the wedding party get along! No one needs extra tension at such an event.

What if your bridesmaid has a boyfriend?

This doesn't mean you have to also invite him to be in your wedding party, especially if you don't really know him. If any of your bridesmaids feel uncomfortable walking down the aisle with another person, simply have all the members of the wedding party come down the aisle separately!

Stay tuned for........



What to consider when choosing members of your wedding party

Sit Down Dinner? Cocktail Reception?

If you even happen to decide to have a reception after your wedding size of guest list and budget should be taken into consideration.

Weddings are costly as previously discussed, if you fall into the virtually no budget category, it would be best to abstain from having a reception, it is one of the more costly parts of planning a wedding.

If not having a reception isn't an option I would suggest a small outdoor gathering with perhaps a wedding cake and a few other desserts, coffee and tea.

A cocktail reception is also another very popular option. This style of reception is being increasingly used by both couples with large budgets and very small ones. The cost is very minimal, but can be jazzed up according to the overall theme and style of your wedding. For higher end cocktail receptions, professional mixologists ( drink mixers who can do tricks) are added attractions. The use of elaborate ice bars, and bride and groom speciality drinks are also popular, many of them using dry ice which gives a smoking effect to the drink. Normally, food is served at the cocktail event, but very casually and on a much smaller scale.

Now the mother of all receptions, the sit down dinner. The average price spent on just food is about $10,000. At least 10% of your total budget should be spent on your food. In many cultures food served at a wedding is very very important. Not having enough food for your guests is a major embarrassment, so if you know you can't afford to feed 500 don't invite 500 people to your wedding. Normally, these sit down dinners are about 5 course meals, if you did want to cut back, decrease the amount of courses but increase the food on the plate for the 3 courses. Remember, one of the things people walk away with from your wedding is the quality of the food and the amount of food.

The sit down dinner and the midnight buffet?

In Portuguese and Italian cultures, at midnight it is custom that a sea food and dessert buffet is served to guests. This table is normally ordained with an Ice sculpture, but personally I find this very tacky ( the ice sculpture, not the midnight table). To get the midnight buffet table or not is really but to the budget. If you plan on getting an open bar, I highly suggest getting the midnight buffet, this will guarantee that your guests get food in their stomach instead of going crazy on the booze and it soaks up the alcohol so you wont have crazy drunk guests.

Dar's Blog: Engaged, now what?

Dar's Blog: Engaged, now what?