How To Choose Your Bridesmaid Dresses

Choosing your bridesmaids gowns may be challenging. You have a lot to consider when making your choice-the various shapes and sizes of your maids, their budgets, and of course, making sure the gowns you choose compliment yours! Here is a great video that provides a quick and easy guide to choosing the perfect one!

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Hi everyone!
I invite you to listen to our latest podcast-this one is musical! My husband Mike played the Bridal Chorus (otherwise known as “Here Comes the Bride”)on his guitar for us. Please feel free to drop a line and let us know what you think!

bridalchorus.mp3

If you’ve got a lot of out of town guests coming to your wedding, you’ll want to thank them for the effort they made to be there by providing gift baskets. These don’t have to be elaborate or expensive. I used pre-decorated hat boxes bought at the craft store, lined them with pretty tissue paper, and filled them with little goodies like candy bars, playing cards, bottled water, a map of the area, bags of microwave popcorn, and so on. I also added information about the wedding festivities and directions to all the venues. It was easy and didn’t cost much at all. The hotel where your guests will be staying will be happy to place them in their rooms so they will be waiting for them when they check in. Miss Bubblegum over at WeddingBee.com had some great ideas for her guest baskets:

The information packet was a lot harder to get than I thought it would be. We contacted the Old Orchard Beach Chamber of Commerce, and they said they wouldn’t send anything in bulk because it would cost them too much money. Hm, no fair. All the other bees got free area info. We even tried contacting the hotels where we have rooms blocked, but they said the Chamber of Commerce hadn’t even given them their shipment yet. Again, boo. So in the end, we ended up just downloading important information from their website and making copies. Our information packet included:
-A letter from us thanking our guests for coming.
-A schedule of events for the weekend.
-The phone numbers of taxi companies in the area.
-Our phone numbers.
-Directions.
-A fancy map.
-A list of area restaurants.
-A list of area activities.
-A crossword about us

Read the rest of this great post here. You can use just about anything for your gift offering-baskets, canvas tote bags, hat boxes, even small trunks. For a beach wedding, how about a plastic pail or even a small lobster trap? Or for a garden wedding try a terracotta pot. Use your imagination and have fun with it! Have some ideas of your own or questions about putting them together? Drop us a line!

Today is our first ever blog carnival! Check out these great posts by my fellow bloggers!

First up are some quick tips on buying wedding rings from Evan over at WeddingRingExperts.com:

http://weddingringexperts.com/2008/05/12/purchasing-wedding-rings.aspx

Next, here’s a great post by Sam over at SamCarrara.com about his 10th Wedding Anniversary and what he feels helped them reach 10 happy years!

http://www.samcarrara.com/marketing/10th-wedding-anniversary/

Here is an outstanding post by Amy from MyDailyDollars about how to have a frugal wedding:

http://mydailydollars.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/saying-no-to-wedding-extras/

Ever wonder what wedding planning is like in other countries? Check out this interesting post about planning a wedding in India!

http://karansguesthouse.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/marriages-may-be-made-in-heaven-but-are-solemnised-in-jaipur/

Get a giggle or two out of this post about the Worst Wedding Cake Toppers over at WomanTribune:

http://womantribune.com/worst-wedding-cake-toppers

Head on over to HomelifeWeekly and check out this great post about a wedding budget planner and spreadsheet-things every bride needs!

http://www.homelifeweekly.com/wedding/wedding-budget-planner-and-calculator-spread-sheet/

Looking for a great wedding photographer? Check out this great post from Scott at Blackburn Imagery:

http://blackburnimagery.com/wp/how-to-hire-a-wedding-photographer/

That’s it for this month’s blog carnival, but stay tuned for our next one in June!

Every bride wants to feel like a princess, but imagine actually becoming one? That is what happened to Marie Cavallier this past Saturday when she married Prince Joachim of Denmark, becoming Princess Marie. Cavallier wore an off-white bridal gown lined with ivory silk faille that was designed by David Arasa and Claudio Morelli from the fashion house Arasa Morelli. The Danish parliament last month decided to increase the prince’s yearly wage to 2.9 million kroner ($612,000) to help him support his new wife. Here are videos of the event!

Congratulations, you’re getting married! The first thing most excited brides do is tell their parents. If telling yours revealed they don’t approve of your upcoming marriage, your joy has probably turned to shock, anger, or sadness. Here’s how to cope.

The first thing to do is to think about why your parents don’t approve. Do they feel you are too young? Do they not like your fiance? As difficult as it may be to do, you really need to look inward and think about their protests. Are you still in school? If so they may be afraid you won’t finish if you get married. You need to address their fears and reassure them. Speak honestly and without making accusations or getting emotional. If you scream and cry you’ll just reinforce their belief that you are too immature to get married.

If their disapproval is due to your choice of fiance, again you must consider the reasons they don’t like him. Is he a great deal older than you? Has he been disrespectful to them, or to you in their presence? Does he have a substance abuse issue, a criminal record, or does he refuse to get a job? These are all good reasons for a parent to disapprove. Parents want what’s best for their children and sometimes see red flags that their children don’t. If your parents don’t like your fiance for any of these reasons, please think long and hard about things and try to see them from their point of view. You may end up thanking them!

On the other hand, if your parents disapprove because of your fiances race, ethnicity or religion, you don’t have to understand at all. Regrettably, some people are bigoted and there isn’t much you can do to change that. Sometimes grandchildren do the trick, but usually once a racist always a racist. All you can do is ignore their hate and live your own life. It can be very painful, but just keep reminding yourself that you don’t have the problem, they do. Hopefully between your friends and your fiance’s side of the family, you’ll have plenty of people to share your joy with. Surround yourself with these happy, positive folks and enjoy your wedding planning!

Shopping for wedding bands will be one of the most enjoyable wedding planning chores you’ll have. If you’re not sure what you want, check out this great video from The Knot which reports on the hottest trends in rings. If you’ve already picked your rings, tell us about them! I’ll go first. I have an eternity band with princess cut diamonds that matches my 3 stone princess cut engagement ring. I love it!

The Wedding Tips blog is proud to announce several new features-read on for more information!

Wedding of The Week- Introducing Wedding of the Week! We’re inviting all of our newlywed readers to share their special day with us. Just send a photo and a paragraph describing your wedding day. One lucky reader a week will be chosen to have their wedding featured on the blog!

Dream Wedding Wednesday- For our engaged readers, imagine money is no obstacle and tell us what your dream wedding would be like. Each Wednesday we’ll chose 2 dream weddings to feature!

Wacky Wedding Friday- Tell us your wackiest or most embarrassing wedding or wedding planning moment. Got a horror story? Let’s hear it! Every Friday we’ll feature a new batch of stories!

To submit a story to any of these features, simply send an email to me at NYCWriter@verizon.net. For Wedding of the Week, be sure to send a photo along with your wedding story! We will try and feature as many reader stories as we can. Be sure to put the name of the feature you’re submitting to in your subject line.

Don’t forget our twice monthly podcast either! In each one we offer tips, advice, and answers to reader questions. If you have a wedding related question please feel free to submit it to the address above. Feel free to add a pseudonym if you don’t want your real name mentioned in the podcast. We are ready and ready to answer even your toughest wedding planning questions and offer advice on those wedding dilemmas.

As always, we welcome feedback from our readers. Feel free to tell us what you like, and what you don’t, and what you’d like to see more of! In the coming months we’ll be expanding into a whole channel of blogs covering everything wedding, from engagement rings to honeymoons and everything in between. There will even be a blog just for grooms-after all it is his special day too! So please stay tuned and keep reading! Can’t wait to hear from you!

The Wedding Tips blog-tips, advice and fun for new brides and brides to be!

Here’s a great video showcasing some gorgeous gowns, hairdos, shoes and more. Take a look and get some inspiration and great ideas for your wedding look!

Here is our latest podcast! Please have a listen and let us know what you think. We have some great new wedding tips, announcements of new features, and celebrity wedding talk!

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