Wedding day transportation is one area which often gets the least attention during wedding planning. In the real world, more often the not, it is easy to go from place A to place B. That’s why we often don’t think about it or pay proper attention to proper wedding transportation. We forget that a wedding is a different function altogether where you need to apply some more thought. There will be times when you will have to be present in many places at the same time, at least it sure seems that way.

Make a rough root map of all the places including wedding ceremony and reception among others. Get some practical experience. Travel between these places and find out how long it took you to travel. Not all the guests are going to take the same route therefore it’s not possible to plan for everyone. They should however be encouraged to take the familiar route, so they can be guided properly. It’s also easier to help or rescue people if they are stuck somewhere.

Stylish Wedding Day Transportation

Since this is your special day, wouldn’t it be nice to enter the venue in style? While limousines are a popular choice, you will have to budget for this expense. Make sure to get a number of quotes, and just remember that the cheapest is not always the best. It’s also a good idea to check the car prior to the event to insure there are no surprises in store for you. Take into account every thing, right from driver’s tip to decoration, all the while remaining within your set budget.

If you are working within a smaller budget, you may wish to select a sedan, which is just right for the bride and groom. While choosing the car, keep in mind that wedding gowns typically need more space. Renting a classic car is another popular variation of wedding day transportation, and may be as fun as a friend`s classic muscle car or as stylish and romantic as a Rolls Royce.

A fancy car is of course just one option so let your imagination run wild. Why not enter the venue via trolley, or horse drown carriage? Those getting married in Europe may want to consider entering in a Gondola in Venice or a canal boat in Germany. If you are in Tuscany you may put the bicycles available there to some good use. Treat your wedding planning as the fun part. Wedding day transportation simply sounds dull, but it can be a fun way to show your own unique sense of style.

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Most couples prefer getting married near their home. With time, however, more and more people are deciding to organize their wedding function at locations outside their state or even country. The reasons are very obvious. If you are planning to have your honeymoon at a far away location, the couple may find it convenient to get married in that very place. The decision also appears very romantic and unique. If a U.S. couple decides to get married in Tuscany it may seem very exotic to people attending the marriage including the couple. There are numerous popular areas which may turn out to be excellent choices for you. That’s why you need some guidance while choosing your options.

The first obvious consideration is budget. The low cost choice may not be as easy and well defined as we may think. There are many resorts which offer discounts for all inclusive honeymoon packages. Many of which include the wedding ceremony along and reception in the package. Honeymoon registries are also very popular these days, and allow relatives and friends to provide wedding gifts in the form of visits to exotic places, exciting activities, a special dinner out, or even a contribution to your airfare. A honeymoon registry can go a long way to making your dream destination wedding one that you can afford.

There are unlimited options available for destination weddings. It’s very common (and popular) to hold your nuptuals and reception in Las Vegas. This is hardly surprising since the city provides all kinds of facilities as well as elegant events at classic venues. Tahiti is another good example of a romantic and exotic marriage location. Or why not Europe? For example, you can get married on a canal boat in Germany, or on the Eiffel Tower in France. Ireland also has lush countryside which is equally suitable for marriages.

While money remains an important factor the desired atmosphere is no less important. So spend some time researching the numerous options available and don’t forget to look into what a honeymoon registry can offer you.

Do you have an upcoming winter wedding?

Good news! Winter is an excellent choice for a wedding. After all…

1. A winter wedding gives you the best pick of honeymoon cruises and vacations.
2. Guests won’t be inundated with invitations like during the summer months.
3. You’ll find more venues for the ceremony and reception, all at lower prices than during the peak wedding season.

But what do you do about winter wedding favors?

Well does romance have to be spring flowers and a warm beach? Or can it be snuggling by the fire with a hot chocolate (or Baileys)? Or playing in the snow and not caring if your hair gets covered with it? There are many romantic winter themes that can be easily included in winter wedding favors.

Give your guests a memory of your special day that focuses on the winter season. While the bride and groom are the center of attention, they are not the only ones who cherish the wedding celebration. Dear friends, parents and close relatives will also cherish a memento of your winter wedding.

Personalized candle holders will remind everyone of that winter day you’ll remember for a lifetime. Or why not put out winter-themed wine bottle stoppers and watch how quickly they disappear from the tables.

Small snowflake card holders are also the perfect winter wedding favor. Or you can opt to delight the sense of taste while you please the eye by selecting chocolates wrapped in white or gold with a frosty design. Alternatively, a personalized coffee kit that displays your winter wedding favor theme adds a warm winter touch.

Winter wedding favors can be easily incorporated to match the rest of your wedding decor. You will enjoy the uniqueness that winter wedding favors provide, as will your guests. Shop MyWeddingFavors.com for winter wedding favors!

You have decided that a destination wedding is right for you, but if you want to leave the country to get married, there are a few things you should consider.

1. Find a reputable wedding consultant. You don’t want to handle this one yourself. Wedding consultants who have handled weddings abroad work closely with travel agents and can provide better deals for their clients and guests. If you know where you are going, check with the resort as many include an onsite wedding planner in the cost of your wedding package. Make sure to ask as many questions as you need to in order to pick the wedding consultant that is the right fit for you.

2. Plan ahead and save. Typically, the earlier you plan anything, the better the savings will be. It is important when plannning a wedding abroad, to get planning as soon as possible in order to manage all the particulars. While it is usually not feasible to visit the location to check on things, it is not a good idea to leave anything to chance and you should start planning at least a year in advance for a foreign wedding.

3. Who is coming? Destination weddings are usually much smaller venues considering that guests are required to incur the cost of the trip in order to attend. Understand that some guests may not be willing or able to attend for this reason.  Before spending money on a Costa Rica wedding, check to see how many people can afford to make it. Look for package deals that include airfare for your guests or all-inclusive resorts that provide activities, food and drinks for even more savings.

4. What are their wedding laws? Things typically do not operate the same way in tropical destinations. If the wedding takes place at a resort, you’ll have to schedule well in advance for the ceremony and make sure to investigate their policies regarding marriage licenses, the wedding officiate and any fees the locals charge. Your wedding consultant should be able to answer these questions for you.

5. Be open to change. You can picture in your mind the perfect winter getaway wedding but despite the romantic notions you conjure up, you may need to be a little more practical. Choosing a popular travel time means hordes of people populating the resorts and higher prices. Choosing an off-season time such as April will result in a less populated resort as well as less money from your bank account (as well as your guest’s). These changes won’t affect your nuptials but it will save your pocketbook.

Destination weddings can be quite exciting. Just be sure to know what you need to do beforehand so there are no surprises on your special day.

You’re  getting married and you want to share your special day with those people close to you. But if your friends and family are like most people, they are busy, and the last thing you want is to choose a wedding date and have those special people not show up. Save the date cards are an easy and inexpensive way you can avoid that.

What Are Save The Date Cards

Save-the-date cards are relatively new and are a nifty way to let others know that you are getting married and have chosen a date. It is best to get your wedding date on everyone’s calendar as soon as possible and save-the-date cards are a cost effective way to let people know about your wedding.

Types of Save the Date Cards

Cards and magnets are the most popular types of save the date cards on the market today. The wording tends to be the same regardless of the type you choose and typically consists of the bride and groom’s names and date of the wedding as well as its location. Magnetic save the date cards are popular because they can be kept on the refrigerator and therefore less likely to be lost or filed amongst other papers.

Sending Your Wedding Save the Date Cards

Many couples send out their save the date cards as soon as they have confirmed their wedding date, however they are typically mailed out three to five months before the wedding date. Weddings that will take place during popular travel times or special holidays should mail their cards as far in advance as possible so that their guests can plan travel and purchase flights early. And don`t forget to use a footnote to let your guests know that their wedding invitation and directions will follow.

It may seem like an extra, and frivolous expense, but save-the-date cards are an inexpensive way to get the word out to your family and friends of your upcoming nuptuals, and you can always do them yourself to avoid the added expense of paying someone else.

Let’s face it, a wedding is expensive, and there is no doubt that prices for everything will continue to rise. When it comes to wedding planning, your goal is to make your day memorable without depleting all of your life savings. While it is important to save money on your wedding, you do not want to do this at the expense of your special day. The following are 5 important wedding arrangements that you should consider hiring a professional for:

1. Wedding Cake. While it might seem like a great idea to ask your mother, or you may feel obligated to say yes to your favourite aunt who has offered to make your cake, unless she is a professional baker, choose someone who is. After all, the wedding cake will be the center of attention at the reception (second to you, of course). Not only must it look fabulous, but you want a cake that tastes heavenly as well. Professional wedding bakers use high quality ingredients and will provide a cake that will impress. Make sure that you taste test a number of baker`s products before committing to one baker for your special day.

2. Wedding Flowers. Even though you may have a green thumb, it just might not be green enough for your wedding day. There is a lot more to it than just buying the flowers. Until they are ready to be displayed on reception tables, in your bouquet, and for boutonnieres and corsages, your wedding flowers will need to be maintained in temperature-controlled storage. Unless you can live with droopy flowers losing petals all over the guest tables, hire a professional equipped with the proper storage facilities to provide you with the perfect wedding flowers for your special day.

3. Wedding Coordinator. You don’t need more headaches than you will already have with the wedding preparations. A wedding coordinator keeps everyone in their place and makes sure that each segment of the wedding festivities goes off without a hitch. They are used to working under pressure and have a contingency plan for everything from a ripped dress to an AWOL member of the wedding party. You are making the important decisions for the day. Let someone else execute them.

4. Reception Food. While it is not necessary to hire a full catering service, there are advantages to consider. Number one is service and food quality. It is also less of a headache considering that a catering company is paid to provide the food, serve your guests, and for the necessary cleanup after wards.

5. Wedding Photographer. Providing wedding cameras on each table can provide a wonderful and intimate addition to your wedding photo memories, but nothing will compare to the skill in capturing those special moments like a professional photographer. No one will know who you are in the photos if all the heads are cut off.

While there will be some additional cost involved, there are some wedding arrangements that are worth the extra expense.

Your wedding day is the beginning of your life together and from that point on, you will be sharing your hopes and dreams, failures and disappointments, with the one you love. Pre-wedding counseling is an important step that helps you recognize and deal with small issues so that they don’t become big problems.

You meet that special person that fills your heart and your head, and so the fairytale begins. For several months (or even years) you both seem to be living in a cloud of bliss. You both have never been more in love, and eventually there is talk of an engagement and a wedding. Unfortunately, when you are so caught up in a fairytale romance, life issues don’t usually get discussed. Many enamored couples tend not to put much effort into discussions regarding religion, children, personal values, sex and money. The next thing you know, you have been married for months or even years and you wake up one day wondering who this person is that you married.

Pre-wedding counseling is designed to aid in open honest discussion around such topics and thereby providing a firm foundation onto which you can build your relationship and marriage. Counselors understand that love overshadows everything else early in your relationship and it is their job to make you aware of common issues prior entering into a lifelong commitment.

Choosing A Counselor

Counseling is usually done by a minister or priest since most people marry in a church, and it is often policy for the couple to first engage in counseling before they are allowed to walk down the aisle. If you opt for a non-traditional wedding, you may want to consult a a licensed family therapist who is experienced in pre-marital counseling.

The Counseling Sessions

Counseling sessions vary and may range from one or two visits to an entire course. It is up to the counselor and the couple to decide what is appropriate. The couple and the counselor meet to discuss issues that are important to a marriage and it is necessary for couples to sort out their individual thoughts on these and other issues to ensure that they are compatible at deeper relationship levels.

The Outcome

The goal of pre-marital counseling is to build a firm foundation on which to build a solid and long lasting marriage. The time to discuss whether or not to have children is not after three years of marriage, and discussions about finances can’t wait until the money’s all gone.

It is not the intention of your pre-marital counselor to cause relationship disturbances or to break couples up, rather it is their intention to help you to see the big picture of your life as a family unit. Consider it another important part of wedding planning and use the advice to help make a strong foundation for your future together.

Your wedding cake is the centerpiece of your reception, and as such, should be a reflection of your personal style as well as your overall theme for the day. Whether your style is modern, classic, traditional or contemporary, a professional wedding baker can design the perfect cake for your special day. Since the wedding cake is a big expense, take your time in selecting the right baker to meet your needs.

1. Choosing a baker. The good news is, the “interview” process involves sampling piece after piece of wedding cake since you want to ensure that your cake will taste just as good as it looks. The last thing you want to do is leave it up to chance.

2. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions.  What ingredients will he use; marzipan, fondant or ganache?  Whatever you want to know, don’t be afraid to voice it. Its better to ask questions up front rather than be surprised later. The baker should also be able to ask you a few questions to better understand your vision and therefore come up with suggestions for you from the information that you provide.

3. How much? You need to get this question out of the way early in order to set a budget. As you can imagine, a cake for a service of 200 with a few embellishments can become quite expensive. If money is an issue, you might wish to scale down your cake and purchase a couple of sheet cakes with the same icing with which to serve your guests.

4. Do they have a design book? You may not be the creative type, or may not have any idea of the styles of cakes available to can choose from. Your wedding colors may in fact be the only thing you know at that point. A good baker has a book of past and signature creations for you to browse through to aid in the selection process. He may have suggestions for the design but don’t accept them out of hand unless you really agree.

5. Do they deliver? You know about Murphy’s Law, right? It is for this very reason that it is worth the cost to have the baker deliver and set up the cake at the reception. That way if anything goes wrong on their part, you can get a refund.
Whether you are budgeting for a simple three-tier yellow cake with butter cream icing or an elaborate five-tier cake with decorative sugar flowers, you want the cake for your wedding to meet all of your expectations and then some.

You have invited your guests to witness a testament of love for each other, and the wedding program tells the story of your nuptuals, so why not write that story yourself? Well-made wedding programs don’t require a professional. You can do them yourself. The following 5 steps will illustrate just how easy it is to create professional looking wedding programs for your special day.

1. Choose a color. You may choose your wedding colors as the colors for the program, or any other colour combination. Two contrasting colors or shades of one color make the words pop off the page. You can purchase the paper at your local stationery store, so go have a look at what they offer and see what inspires you.

2. Create a sample program. Create your cover design, choose your lettering, and write up a sample program on plain paper. Proofread the spelling of names and ensure that all fonts and centering are correct before printing the final copy on your program paper.

3. Include all relevant information. Since you are doing the programs yourself, you are creating a beautiful wedding keepsake booklet for your guests. The wedding program lists the couple’s names, the date, time of the nuptials and location on the front. Inside, you have a chance to show your appreciation for everyone that helped. Of course you will have the order of the ceremony including names of those participating and the names of the songs being played or sung. If this is a multicultural wedding or different rituals are taking place from the traditional, you may wish to include a bit of history about the traditions for guests to read. Don’t forget to note the details of the reception as well, including the location and time, and if you want to whet their appetite, why not provide the menu for the evening, as well as the name of caterers and bakers.

4. Have a wedding program party. Gather friends and family together to help put the programs together. You can start a line where each station adds another page to the programs. Alternatively, for a small fee you can take them to a print and copy store and have them bind them together for you to hand out to your guests. Furthermore, if you are not the handy type, you can purchase reasonably priced  online and save yourself the hassle.

5. Present your programs to your guests. How you choose to deliver the completed programs is up to you. An usher or two can hand them out or you can place them in decorated baskets and allow your guests to help themselves.
With little time and effort you can provide those who are sharing in your special day with something to treasure; a keepsake program hand created by you.

When it comes to the music selection everyone’s attention is on the reception, but don’t forget about the ceremony.  After all, the ceremony is what you are going to remember forever.

Traditional Music or a Modern Twist?

When the doors open to the church, everyone stands, and it is tradition to play the wedding march during the bride’s walk down the isle, but there is nothing wrong with breaking with tradition. Let your imagination guide you. Instead of the usual pomp and circumstance, why not play your favorite dating song for your guests to hear? Perhaps an instrumental version for a romantic touch. Songs that are important to you can be easily incorporated into the ceremony. Remember, this is your day and the goal is to make it special to you. Your chosen song may not mean anything to your guests, but it will remind the guy at the altar of the way he felt when he first met that beautiful woman walking towards him.

Recorded or Live?

Decide on the song (or songs) you want to incorporate into the ceremony. Will you have live music or use a recording? Live music can be a little tricky since a solo piece requires a strong unwavering voice in order to pull it off. If you know someone who is capable, and willing to sing at your wedding, go for it. If not, you can either hire a singer for the event, or you may wish to hire a musician for instrumental background music.

Other Ceremony Music

Have as many songs as you deem necessary in your wedding ceremony. Maybe you have a first date song, or a first dance song? A proposal song, or first kiss song? You can strategically place any number of songs throughout the ceremony. If you are using live music you may wish to use the same singer or change up with each song. Mixing instrumental music with singing will add just the right variety, and all your musical friends can have a chance to brighten the day with song.

A wedding song tells a story. It can be a traditional message of love, or a more personal one chronicling your relationship and love of one another. By including a variety of songs and delivery methods, you can provide a story that is both meaningful to you as a couple, as well as entertaining for your guests.