Something Old, Something New- How You Can Plan A Wedding too!

2008-12-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Green Weddings, It's a new trend that's growing and growing!

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ZoK8tDiQM&feature=related

FLOWERS!, flowers!

2008-11-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

Tips for picking the right flowers for your wedding !

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)
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.
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!
Plant easy harvesting flowers such as roses, glads, carnations a few years prior in order to have a bountiful harvest for your wedding!
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.
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!
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.
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

2008-11-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned for........

What to consider when choosing members of your wedding party

Sit Down Dinner? Cocktail Reception?

2008-11-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

Dar's Blog: Engaged, now what?

The Guest List

2008-10-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Deciding who you want to attend your wedding is a not so easy task, it might not seem that way at first, but if you have a tight budget, you better make sure every person on that list matters. I have heard it all before, Joe worked with my dad for 20 years, 15 years ago, he saw you grow up and then fell off the face of the earth, and now your dad wants him at the wedding? I don't think so. The following are some steps to ensure that your guest list is refined and is in the budget.

Both the bride and the groom should go into a separate room and write down the first 50 people that they would want at there wedding. Then compare lists and see if any names match, or don't match. This is an easy way to ensure that the people close to the two get priority.
Do not invite anyone who you haven't had a conversation with in the last 5 years ( and 5 years is pushing it, I'm being nice)
Do not invite anyone that after 30 seconds of thinking about it you can't remember their last name or first name, "You know, Jim's daughter, the red head?" NO!
Do not invite people who you aren't directly friends with or related to in order to make other friends or parents/family happy, It's your day, not theirs!
If you only want Bill and Lucy to come, and they happen to live with their in-laws, specify on the invitation who is coming ie, Mr. and Mrs, Bob and Lucy Smith..... putting and family on any one's invitation is setting yourself up for unwanted guests.
Do not feel obligated to invite co-workers unless you have built a tight knit friendship with them (that includes your boss)
Please do not invite an insane amount of people (300-500+) because you think the more people the more money stuffed envelopes there will be, it really doesn't work that way ( Someone I know got married and had fun opening cards without a penny in them)
Just because your sister wants a table of all her friends to attend, it doesn't have to happen
Do not plan your list without considering whether or not you want children to attend your wedding, some of your guests may see it as a negative thing. Children and young and fun, I personally believe they should be invited also!
DO NOT invite past crushes, ex-girlfriends/boyfriends/husbands/wives, and that goes for the ex's of guests unless you ask them! People who make the bride or groom uneasy or uncomfortable.

Picking a location

2008-10-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Now that a rough date has been set, one can start looking for a potential location to hold the ceremony/ reception, or both.

What you should know before looking at locations:
1) What season the wedding is going to take place ( booking a wedding in the summer months is much more costly when dealing with venues than if you were to book in any other season)

2) Know what you want in terms of the location being indoors or outdoors , or even a mixture of both

3) Know approximately how many people you will be inviting to the wedding (looking at a venue that only holds 100 when you know your guest list is going to be 250 is a waste of time)

4) Keep in mind your guests if they will be travelling from your first location to your reception location, some have come from far away already and gas is expensive.

5) Have an idea what your expecting from the locations. Do you prefer that they carry linens? Have an in-house lighting department, etc....

6) Tell yourself not to be fooled by moulding and marble floors, the venue is trying to pay a mortgage too, so if it sounds like it might be out of your budget, find somewhere else.

Engaged, now what?

2008-10-21T22:27:00.000-07:00

Getting engaged is a very exciting occurrence in anybodies life, especially if you sit on the female side of things. (Just to clarify,I am not engaged) After you have called every relative alive, including aunt Maria in Europe, and have busted out the ring to show your friends on numerous occasions, the bottom line is you have a wedding to plan now.

A wedding these days can get into ridiculous numbers. The average cost of a wedding in Canada is about $25,000, which is no cup of tea unless you got that kind of money laying around.

Lets face it, most of the people getting married, have hardly had enough time to accumulate that kind of dough and pay off all their debt from their education, car, mortgage and credit cards, let alone have enough to put on a wedding.

The key to being your own responsible wedding planner, is to be realistic. Many people (brides to be) don't think realistically when it comes to their wedding, it is no doubt a very special day, but when that day is over, there are going to be bills to pay from food to the florist.

Unless your loaded with cash, don't think that your going to put on some Hollywood production, with horses, 3 DJ's , cigar rollers and a magic show, it's not a circus, in the end its the official bond between two people who love each other.

From Politics to Weddings?

2008-10-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

I am totally aware that I am not staying on track. From writing about the Canadian election to witting about weddings, well who says you can only have one passion?