Wedding Checklist

One of the first things you should do once you get engaged is to create a checklist of all the things that you think are necessary to create a smooth running wedding.

You will be quite surprised as you start writing out your checklist how it will grow and grow over the weeks and months as you move towards your wedding date. It will become important to receive input from your partner and other people will help you realize everything that is required.

Rather than trying to go into too much detail right from the start it is best to begin your checklist with the most important items and then go into more depth on your list as you think more and more about those items.

Start your list of the basic headings of: dress, flowers, reception and guests.

Then under each of these headings add more detail. For example, under the heading dress you would list your wedding dress, your bridesmaids' dresses and possibly even your mother and mother-in-law's dresses. This way it is easy to coordinate all of the dresses together.

Then you would start listing the various locations find your dresses. These may include wedding magazines, dressmakers, wedding shops.

Then you drill down even further in these lists and write down prices of the various solutions that you have found.

As you can see the list will grow bigger and bigger until you find every solution that suits your needs.

You can then create another list of items that have been solved and these can be checked off as they are implemented; for instance the second list might have the date where you will get your dress fitting, the name address and phone number of the dressmaker and other such details that you will need at hand at all times.

By staying well-organized at all times and keeping all these details in one place you will find that the time leading up to your wedding will be a lot less stressful and quite possibly less expensive.

A Wedding Organizer is a great way to keep all of your wedding information, colors, fabric swatches and pictures together with your time line and deadline dates.

To Do's Organizer

Very easy and chic for the bride that keeps it simple. Spiral bound notebook is divided into tabbed sections (notes, wardrobe, guests, ceremony, reception) and has only lined pages awaiting the pertinent wedding details. Spine and inside are black and white striped, cover says "to do's before the I do's" in white on black. Magnetic close side flap is tied with a 1" white grosgrain ribbon that says "I do! I do!". Zip pocket in back is perfect to hold swatches and receipts. Measures 7 5/8" x 9" x 1 1/4".

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Green Eco Weddings

Green Eco Weddings are becoming increasingly popular for environment savvy brides and grooms. One can even reduce, recycle and reuse a wedding! Here are some ideas:

Weddings typically involved a lot of cards, invitations and announcements to be mailed. Using recycled paper for these wedding stationery items is, of course, always a good idea. Zazzle.com offers a new line of high quality wedding invitations custom printed on recycled card stock. However, even using a postcard wedding invitation or a self mailing wedding announcement that does not require an envelope can also help cut down of paper usage.  Some unique wedding invitations and cards are made of papers that contain flower seeds which makes it fun to recycle! Wedding websites are a very popular and useful idea to have all of your information in one place. You can post locations, directions, hotels etc on the website forgoing the need to print them on paper.


The wedding apparel for the bride and groom can be a costly and wasteful part of the wedding. A great place to "reuse" and save money is with your wedding dress, bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. Consider wearing your grandmother's vintage wedding dress or purchase one from a resale shop. A vintage wedding dress can be very stylish these days, although it can always be altered into something more current. It is always sensible to purchase a dress and suit that can be worn again for special occasions. Avoid synthetic materials and look for organic fabrics.

A natural outdoor location for the wedding ceremony really sets the tone for a Green Eco Wedding. The Green Grass Wedding Collection from Lora Severson Photography offers unique custom Green Grass Save the Date Announcements, Wedding Invitations, Bridal Shower Invitations, Rehearsal Dinner Invitations, Thank You Notes, Postage Stamps and more. Barn and Farm weddings are becoming more popular as a location for an outdoor wedding. Often the ceremony is held in a meadow and the reception is held in the barn. The Country Wedding Collection of wedding invitations, announcements and cards gets everyone in the mood for a "down home" wedding!

To cut down on gas consumption, have your reception at the same location as your ceremony. It can be fun to decorate with natural local wildflowers, ivy, leaves and sticks from the area. Natural wildflowers can even make a beautiful bridal bouquet. However, if you need to, you can always substitute some organic flowers.

Instead of giving a wedding favor that is useless and will end up in a drawer or landfill, consider a Wedding Charity Favor Card and really make a different in someone's life. The Wedding Charity Favor Card states that In lieu of a traditional wedding favor, a donation has been made in your wedding guest's name to charity. Customize it with the specific name of your charity. 
For other green favor ideas including seed packets, soy candles, lavender wedding rice and more shop The Knot Wedding Shop's Eco-Weddings boutique for inspiration.

Natural Bamboo Eco-Friendly Coaster Favor

Bamboo is a symbol of luck and success due to its strength, resilience and ability grow quickly, which also makes it an eco-friendly favor. Each wedding favor includes four bamboo coasters packaged in a picture window gift box that features subtle bamboo design, a natural raffia tie, and a matching round "For You" tag.

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Free Wedding Vows

A well-versed and well rehearsed wedding vow, especially when it comes from the heart, sends a certain chill to everyone who hears it. Vows have been a long time tradition in wedding ceremonies. The promise of a lifetime commitment to each other despite of difficulties and differences guarantee that true love really exists. Isn't that a nice thought?

 

Both the groom and bride exchange wedding vows. Commonly, the vows would include a pledge of unselfishness, faithfulness, and unconditional love. If you are in the dark on what to write in your wedding vows, don't be! You can find one of a kind wedding vow just by a click of your mouse. Surfing the internet for wedding vows proved to be a good source of ideas and tips that you can readily use on your wedding day. You may need to pay for the service on some sites, but you can scout one for free too.

 

Free wedding vows do away with the traditional and scripted promise one hears over and over again in common wedding ceremonies. The good thing about free wedding vows on the net, aside from the fact that they are free, they give you the freedom and flexibility to write what you want to say from your heart. You can modify the free sample vows or if you find the writing incredibly heart-warming, you can go ahead and use it without revisions.

 

There are different vows you can choose from. Like everything, vows can be customized according to the circumstances that you are in. There can be vows specially written for second marriage couples, couples with children, religious variations or wedding anniversaries. Using poetry as part of a vow is a common practice too. Those of Gibran, Keats and Browning are popular choices. You can browse on some internet sites that can even offer a free worksheet format and questionnaires that you need to fill out for you to easily modify your chosen wedding vow.  These will serve as your guideline so that you can re-evaluate what you want to say.

 

Before that big day, preparing your wedding vows is very crucial. Writing your vows together is a very special activity that is highly recommended.

 

When writing a wedding vow together, set a specific time and place where the two of you can have some privacy. You can jot down your promises on a separate sheet of paper and agree to compare what you've written after an hour or so. First, write a letter professing your love for your partner. Do not hesitate to elaborate what you are feeling. Be creative and be sure to take note of your favorite and memorable times together, either good or bad. Some suggestions are the first time that you met, the moment  when finally said yes or when a trying situation happened but still your love for each others endure. Grab sweet lines from songs, books or scriptures that translate your love for your partner. After writing down your letter, get back together and read each others writings. Reading the letters can be truly heart-warming. Prepare to share a laugh or even occasional crying. Share your thoughts on the best part of the letter and from there start your outline for your vows.

 

The secret of a good wedding vow is making it a personal commitment to your other half and make sure that the message you convey are made clear and simple. Nothing beats anything that genuinely comes from the heart.

Click Here for The Ultimate Wedding Vow Toolkit.
All The Tools You Need To Write Vows That Are A Romantic Masterpiece.

Arrive in Style to Your Wedding

It is your wedding and you have the freedom to do what you like on your special day so consider arriving in style on something other than the norm.


How about a helicopter or a horse and cart!


Be a little bit daring and make a grand appearance and you don't have to stick by the traditional rules of the bride and groom arriving separately either.


If you've gone to the expense of hiring a limousine then enjoy it together and arrive at your wedding drinking champagne while you experience every moment of the day with one another.


Don't be burdened by old rules that say you can't do this or that -- do what you like and love every moment of it.


It should be a day of total fun and relaxation from the time that you wake up in the morning to the time that you leave the reception to enjoy your honeymoon together and onwards for the rest of your life.


Consider any forms of transport that you or your partner might be passionate about and see if there is anyone who might be able to help out on your wedding day.


There are many people with hot rods, Ferraris and various other types of vehicles who would charge a fee to drive you to your wedding in their vehicle.


Naturally the two of you won't be able to go if your choice is a Ferrari unless you can find somebody who will give you the keys to the car for the day.


There are unique vehicle rental companies also where you can choose a special vehicle for your transport but there is often quite a substantial fee involved and it might even be cheaper turning up in a helicopter however you need to take into consideration getting your hair and dress blown around when getting out of the helicopter.


There always many things to think about and doing so well before the wedding is always the best policy.

Custom Engagement Announcements

He asked...and you said 'Yes!' Now it's time to announce it to friends and family. Lora Severson Photography offers unique custom Engagement Announcements. Choose from Photo Cards, Greeting Cards, Postcards or flat card stock to announce your recent engagement. Custom them with a photograph, your names or text.

 

 

Beach Weddings

Dependent upon the weather, a beach wedding can be a unique and memorable occasion that has flair and casualness yet retains the romantic aspect of the freedom of being able to get away to the beach and do as you please.

It is also an opportunity to have a wedding that people will remember without the expense that is associated with booking a reception venue and the other expenses that go hand in hand with more formal weddings.

You will need to choose a location where you will be able to have your wedding ceremony without the intrusion of outsiders who could affect your plans and there are other factors that you need to consider including who your guests will be and how they will cope with the conditions as some elderly guests might find it a little bit difficult on the beach.

There are of course always solutions to these problems and most of them are relatively cheap.

If you are living in an area where there are beautiful beaches within a reasonable distance from yourself, your friends and your family then it is well worth considering a beach wedding because the beach in itself will add beauty to the occasion.

If you cannot rely 100% on the weather then you will need to look at alternative venues should the weather make it unsuitable for you to have your beach wedding.

You will also need to consider the tide times and whether or not there will be sufficient room on the beach for the wedding party to perform the ceremony suitably.

Like any other venue good planning and preparation will make all the difference on the day and even though a beach wedding is a very casual affair there is still certain planning that needs to go into ensuring that there won't be any problems with that particular setup.

Married on the Beach Cake Topper

This cake topper is a great tie-in for your beach themed wedding with a bride and groom standing next to a romantic "Just Married" heart drawn in the sand. Each resin piece measures 7" tall. We are not able to provide custom paint colors. Also available with an African American couple.

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Affordable Wedding Dresses

It's possible to spend an incredible amount of money on a wedding dress when in reality the final outcome will be determined more on whether the dress fits you properly and enhances your looks and figure.

Cheap wedding dresses that are good fitting and well styled can look a lot better than expensive wedding dresses that are inappropriate for your particular physique.

Do a lot of shopping around for deciding on your final wedding dress because you will be surprised at the amount of money you can save by making the right decisions and also you might find that you will get a dress that you feel a lot more comfortable from some of the shops that offer ready-made wedding dresses rather than getting one specifically made for you.

If your finances are particularly tight, then you might even need to consider secondhand wedding dresses. While you might not like to think about this at the time, the fact of the matter is that most of these have only ever been worn once. So, you are effectively getting a new dress for a price that is considerably less than the first person paid for it.

Many people have had the pleasure of wearing designer wedding dresses that might have only required a little bit of adjustment here or there for a fraction of the cost price that they would have to pay to get one made specifically for them.

And the best part of all is that nobody ever needs to know or will know how much or where you got your dress.

It's not about the cost of the dress but rather how it looks on you and how you feel in it on your special day.

After the wedding, you can sell it on again to defray costs if you like too.

Bridal Party Suits and Dresses

Once you have decided upon your own wedding dress and a suit that your partner will be wearing then it is time to look at the dresses of your bridesmaids if you intend having bridesmaids in your wedding plans.



The bridesmaid's dresses should compliment yours, but they should also be chosen with the bridesmaids input to ensure that they also feel good on the day and look their best by wearing a dress that compliments their personalities and their colors.



By getting your bridesmaids involved in choosing the dresses, they will feel a lot more comfortable with the final decision and they will also be doing their part to help you with the planning and decision making and that can help to relieve some of your stress.



Try to get a flow with all aspects of the wedding so that even the flowers that you choose for yourself, and those that your bridesmaids will have and any other members of the bridal party will be the same as or complimentary to the floral arrangements that are used to decorate the reception or any other aspect of the wedding day.



By coordinating all these various aspects you will get a very professional look to the wedding and this will enhance the photos and show that a lot of care and decision-making has gone into making your wedding such a special day.



Suits for the best man and any other men in the bridal party should also be chosen at the time that the groomsman decides upon the style of his suit, once again creating a coordinated and professional look to the whole of the bridal party.



These should all be fitted before the wedding and booked well in advance to ensure that there are no problems with a shortage of suits on the big day.



One aspect that many people overlook, that can have quite a big impact particularly in the wedding photographs, is to get everybody to wear the same type and style of shoes. These can be hired along with the suits to save.

Choosing Wedding Colors

It is important to choose your wedding colors at the beginning of your wedding planning process as this will affect all aspects of the wedding from your dress and flowers to minor details such as the colors of your invitation cards and so on.



First, start with a base color that you like and then work it's complimentary colors. Don't worry about being trendy. If you don't like the "trendy" colors, you will always look back at your wedding with regrets about your color choice. Pick something that years down the road when looking over your wedding album will make you feel good. Consult a color wheel if necessary to find coordinating colors. With that in mind, you should be relatively safe in creating a harmonious and visually pleasing wedding ceremony.



With theme weddings a lot of the colors will be determined by the theme and to some people this can actually make it a lot easier with choices.



It is often a good idea to have a discussion with your photographer before finalizing your colors as these can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of your wedding photos.



A good photographer will be able to look at the venue, your own skin colors and that of your partner, your choices of clothing and flowers and any other factors that you have listed on your wedding checklist and give you a good idea of whether there will be anything that will have a detrimental effect on the photographs.



It is times like these that the advice of professionals is most welcome and can have a huge impact on so many other factors.



It is well worth investing the extra money if at all possible to get professional advice in these matters before you start spending the money on purchasing dresses flowers and so on.



If you were to hire a wedding planner they would coordinate all these various different aspects of the wedding and ensure that they will all tie in with one another for a harmonious event.



Don't fret if you can't afford this type of advice however, there are several online sites, like American Bridal where you can find Wedding Favors, Unique Bridal Shower Favors and Wedding Party Gifts.

Pantone Wedding™ Color Fan Guide

Forget hardware store paint chips, this the essential wedding tool if you're serious about color. The Pantone Wedding™ guide is chromatically arranged by color family, numerically referenced and named to assist quick color decisions. Ideal for shopping for dresses and decorations, and coordinating colors with your wedding vendors, such as florists, caterers and stationers. The guide is designed for portable use and includes 194 colors and is available exclusively from Dessy Group.

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