By: Max Bellamy
The wedding cake design should not only reflect personal style, but also ideally be in sync with the menu and the décor of the wedding reception. The wedding cake should fit in the theme of the wedding reception.
Wedding cake designs can come in many forms, from the usual cream or white icings in conventional designs, to wholly non-traditional designs laced with vibrant artistry.
With the passing of time, wedding cake designs have evolved. Couples are now choosing cupcake trees with greater frequency, which was one of the foremost wedding cake ideas. Yet, some still have a preference for the conventional cakes for their wedding cakes.
The size and design of the wedding cake may depend on a number of things, like the size of the wedding budget or the availability of other desserts in the reception.
Today, one can find pastry chefs who offer infinite wedding cake ideas on icings, decorations, construction, and flavors.
A wedding cake’s design can be a reflection of personal taste. A couple with a passion for cars or motorcycles can have wedding cakes reflecting the same; a small motorcycle accompanying the miniature figures of the couple atop the cake, for example.
The flavor of the wedding cake is another important aspect. No flavor is off-limits for the modern wedding. One can have cheesecakes, mousse-filled cakes, pound cakes, vanilla, chocolate or sponge cake.
Today, one can find competent bakers with the ability to create the lacy look of the bride’s dress with frosting or the use of pearls. With frosting, these bakers can duplicate the look of any part of the reception’s décor. Also, couples can have their initials entwined in the cake with frosting.
In Bermuda, wedding cakes have a little green tree as a cake topping. Following the wedding, the newlyweds can plant the same tree in their garden, and symbolically watch it grow with time.
Then there are other options like adding edible fruits, chocolates or nuts around the cake. This will augment the designs on the guests’ plates. For that matter, one can also use edible roses, lavender or oregano as designs, or non-edible flowers as cake toppings.
By: Michele Neisler
Do you want to play wedding gift roulette, or would you rather lessen your chances of receiving a ceramic sombrero chip bowl or a clapper by taking the time to fill out a wedding gift registry?
A wedding gift registry is the perfect way to let all of your guests know just what you need to start your new life together. A gift registry is a service offered by stores to couples that allows them to compile a personalized gift registry wish list that will help well wishers in choosing the perfect present.
You may even be surprised to find out just how many stores offer a gift registry, both on-line and off. Be sure to fill out a gift registry for both to accommodate guests who prefer on-line shopping as well as guests who like to shop in person.
Gift Registry Made Simple
Whether you plan to use an on-line gift registry or a gift registry at a local store, the process is very much the same for both.
* Ask for a gift registry form at the store or click on the
gift registry link at a website in order to receive a
detailed list of gift ideas.
* Take time to browse through the suggested items to find a
brand that you would prefer for certain items, and check
out other gift registry items you hadn’t previously
considered, or may have overlooked for your gift registry
list.
* Place a check by the gift registry items that you’d most
like to receive, and if applicable, the number you need
such as eight place settings.
* When you have finished, either return your gift registry
list to the store’s customer service department, or submit
your on-line gift registry.
There is one sticky gift registry issue that many couples find difficulty handling. What to do when you’d rather receive money than fill out a gift registry?
Many couples would simply like to receive a monetary gift that will help them pay for a honeymoon trip or the down payment on a mortgage, and skip the gift registry all together. But can you just ask your guests to give you money without seeming rude? The answer is probably not. Why? Because your guests are just that; guests. While receiving gifts from a gift registry is nice, it shouldn’t be implied as a requirement for attending.
The best idea would be to provide a list of stores holding your gift registry list, while simultaneously having your closest friends and relatives ‘leak’ out the information that you could really use a monetary gift much more. This way, many guests will get the message, and you get to avoid the impression of being rude.
Gift Registry Tips
* Register with at least one national chain store’s gift
registry as a courtesy to your out-of-town quests.
* Be sure to choose items in all price ranges on your gift
registry.
* Include a list of stores that have your gift registry list
when you send out your shower and wedding invitations.
By: Nathalie Fiset
Your own wedding day is surely one that you would want to be remembered as the most memorable event. And if you want this day to shine into perfection, it is really not surprising if you would opt for the most expensive venue of the wedding rite or the biggest place for the reception area. It can be forgiving as well if you want to focus on all necessary intricacies and details, and make everything as gorgeous and impressive as they are. After all, who does not want a wedding day that can turn out to be the most talked about event of the year?
Everyone dreams of walking down the aisle with everything exactly the way as planned and dreamed of. As you visualize the same thing to your own wedding day, you give your all for everything that needs done to materialize what you have in mind. So, before anyone can stop you, you are on your way out shopping for the best wedding theme available and picking details that spell extravagance. This is not a problem since it is your own wedding anyway. And it doesn’t really matter if you prefer an extravagant wedding, particularly if money is never an issue. But what if it is? Surely, your partner may not approve of that particular desire you want out of the wedding.
Sometimes, there is really no need to be extravagant with weddings. To most people, the essence of getting married is the life after the wedding. Remember that this event is going to be the start of life changing event both for you and your other half. And building a quality marriage life starts at how the wedding is planned. If you are doing things your way, without considering what your partner thinks, you might be picking chances to end it all up ruined and not the way it should supposed to. Don’t forget that your wedding day is not only about the celebration of your oneness with your fiancé. It is going to be the only beginning of the real essence where marriage lies.
Knowing what is important for your wedding will pave a way towards a quality start of sharing a life with your partner. It is going to be an expectation that the union will end up into a happy marriage for a lifetime. Therefore, taking the right steps with him is considered vital in the whole planning of the event. Although you may be doing most of the basics and details, always remember that it is a good idea to let your partner put his own effort. For all you know, he might even inject ideas that will improve more the essentials of the upcoming biggest day for both of you even without making it elaborate and expensive.
Doing things together may even give benefits to the relationship as a couple. It may give you ideas how you both can take some specific things that need careful planning and solving. Consider it as training that you and partner can use to achieve a goal under specific timeline. This can even turn as the most exciting part, because of the rising excitement and thrill while the big day is fast approaching. So, if you can’t think that a big, extravagant wedding is not possible, why not make the planning stage as a fun but meaningful undertaking with your significant other?
Learning of the necessary things for the planning stage will not only allow success for the wedding but the life after. More than anything else, it is the most important thought that you should remember. Having a simple wedding celebration that yields happy marriage is incomparable. In a wedding day, it is the commitment and pledge that you both want to share a life with each other for the rest of your lives that counts. It doesn’t matter if the simple wedding does not make it the biggest event of the year. Nor it matters if you have not invited a big crowd to witness your wedding day. What is important is having a most committed wedding day, as it going to be a great start to fan the relationship towards lifelong success.
Author: Jaid Chambers
The wedding favors are the small emblems of gratitude that are extended by the newly wed locked couples to their special wedding guests for attending the party and sharing the special moments with them.
Naturally the favors have to be elegant enough to be an indicative of the cultivated tastes. There salient aspect is an elegant choice, which is must for the couples, throwing the party. The most demanding and elegant wedding favors are the magnetic plush bears - a very adorable item that the guests will gladly take home.
Other some of the inexpensive yet adorable elegant wedding favors are the lovebird tea infuser that comes with elegant tasseled organza, flower pen bouquets, porcelain purse mirror with a marabou decent draw stringed pouch, quilted purse boxes or decent silvery mint tin with French mint and etc.
Besides, there is another more impressive set of elegant wedding favors by the dint of which the couple can wow their beloved guests and caste a long lasting impression in their heart.
A couple of crystal pears given to each guest will be worth meaningful. The personalized crystal hearts made up of Turkish crystal, the diamond bling place cad holder set, a couple of silver plated ice cream spoons, silver plated heart shaped tea infuser or an elegant pen made up of pure silver with a trendy look, may all be mind blowing wedding favors that are guaranteed to bring gentle curves to every single face on the special day.
However, these gifts may prove to be somewhat more costly as compared to the other wedding favors with elegantly stylized designs but these favors will doubtlessly turn to be genuinely memorable gifts.
Wedding cracker is another most loveable gift with an idea - entirely different. The crackers are the decorative items that are used as the party favors, very commonly seen in the England but are quite uncommon in some other parts of the world.
The crackers are the elegant cylindrical cardboard boxes, consisting of small gift to match the occasion and the theme of the celebration. The wedding cracker favors generally contain candies but the gifts may be as per the choice and selection of the brides, for instance, may be some hand made collectible gifts.
This beautiful handcrafted elegant wedding favor goes in coordination with any theme of wedding celebration. The wedding gifts in the crackers are the most significant thing. If chocolate is the choice of the couple, then there are a lot of chocolate types such as milk chocolates, semi-sweet chocolates, bitter chocolates, famous Belgian chocolates and etc. with different designs of flowers, hearts, butterflies and so on.
The external decoration of a cracker is another salient point to be noticed. The look must be simple yet elegant so as to match the very occasion. The costs of these elegant wedding favors are really nominal and come within an affordable range. You can find an aesthetic array of elegant wedding favor with some unique themes and concepts.
While silver and the crystal favors gives your wedding party a perfect finishing touch with glamour, the simple and skillfully crafted crackers filled with imported candies and chocolates, on the other hand, add some aesthetic flavor to the party - magnifying the elegance a few hundred times.
Author: Michael Pearce
I’m sure you have seen the Steve Martin film, “Father of the Bride” where his daughter’s wedding gets out of control, with Wedding Planners and Ice Sculptors etc.
It is not as ludicrous as it at first glance appears, as many weddings have spiralled out of control and there is a rule of thumb: “The More You Spend on a Wedding, the Tackier it gets”. Of course, this is not always the case, but there is a growing trend towards Budget Weddings, and rightly so.
Spending your life savings on your big day is not just crazy, it is insanely idiotic. Wouldn’t you rather have money to put down on a house and furnish it, or to pay for your honeymoon? In fact, the down payment for a house or mortgage is far more beneficial for your future happiness.
You can have elegant, beautiful weddings and receptions without having to go broke in the process. Today’s couples know that weddings on a budget just make more sense than spending like crazy. That and the days when the bride’s parents pay for everything is just about over. Nowadays couples are often spending their own money on the wedding as many of them live together long before the wedding day.
Budget weddings don’t have to mean that you have to give up on style or sentimentality. It means using your imagination, and using your own hands or the help of friends and family rather than paying through the nose for professionals. You can save some money without skimping on any of the good stuff. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing to make your day special. There are so many ideas that can make your wedding a great deal cheaper in the long run.
Some of these ideas include:
• Buying your dress secondhand
• Having friends and family make your food and cake for you in lieu of a wedding gift
• Using an MP3 player instead of hiring a DJ
• Having your reception at home with only close friends and family
• Not inviting the entire universe to your wedding.
There are just so many things that you can do to make your wedding days a bit cheaper that this article alone cannot cover them all. Brainstorm and use your imagination to find more ways to plan your budget wedding. You can have your wedding outdoors, in your garden, or ask a family member if they can host your reception. Have theme based weddings that can be easy to create etc. Theme weddings always take a lot of the cost out of throwing a big and expensive wedding and they are always a lot of fun for everyone that is involved.
In conclusion, there are many ways to plan a budget wedding. Careful thought and careful selection of services you purchase and guests you invite should be at the forefront of your mind. Trim the guest list to include only friends and family that are close to you. This is difficult to do but sometimes it is necessary if the cost per guest is going to break your budget. Think about it like this; you can simply cross off the names on the list of guests who might feel obligated to come to the wedding if they are invited, but would not be upset in the least if they are not asked to attend. Invite only the people who are important to you and your parents, rather than everyone you know. This is the most cost-saving thing you can do in planning your budget wedding.
Author: Emily Tanner
Wedding planning truly is an art and that’s why many brides pay someone to organise every last detail, right down to writing the wedding invitations! Some brides even take a year off work to plan their big day! This is pretty extreme and not really necessary, but some brides feel they need this time to alleviate some of the pressure and stress. In fact, wedding planning can be a most enjoyable experience if handled the correct way.
Firstly, you must appreciate that organising a wedding is hard work and needs to be carefully prepared. Buy yourself a book or folder - this will become your bible of all things weddingy for the next year or so. Keep all your ideas, magazine cuttings, deadlines, phone numbers and wedding invitation replies in this, your wedding planning folder.
Once a date has been agreed, you need to get a dress chosen and ordered. It is worth noting that some wedding dresses can take up to 15 months! Now you must make a list of all the things that have to be done for your wedding, for example:
Have wedding cake made and decorated
Send out wedding invitations
Book photographer
Book church
Decide on honeymoon
Order wedding favours
Choose flowers
Take out wedding insurance
Agree on groomsmen and bridesmaids
Decide which items are immediate [e.g. things that need to be prepared in advance, such as ordering the wedding invitations or booking the church]. Then, draw up a 12-month schedule and insert each job into a month. Of course, the more immediate actions will need to be addressed in the first few months, whereas ordering wedding favours may wait until later on.
It would be a good idea to make a copy for your fiance and for your bridal party. Involving others in your wedding planning will make them feel more included as well as taking pressure off yourself. For example, you may put your chief bridesmaid in charge of wedding invitations - ordering them, writing them and sending them out.
Next you should agree a budget. Very few brides actually stick to their budget but you should put some ideas down on paper and try to keep to your original quote as best you can. Include payment deadlines in your schedule so you know which payments are going out of your account each month. This way, you can spread your bills and not be hit all at once.