Wedding Tips’ July 2008 Blog Carnival

Welcome to the July 31, 2008 edition of our wedding blog carnival!

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Ring Of Truth (Limerick) posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.

TherapyDoc presents What’s Wrong with Being Angry? posted at Everyone Needs Therapy, saying, “If you’re getting married, you better know something about arguing.”

Sam Carrara presents 10th Wedding Anniversary posted at Sam Carrara’s Marketing Education.

garry presents Chose Barbados For Your Dream Wedding Location! posted at Travelers stories.

Sally Thompson presents Wedding Planning on the Web: 100 Tools and Resources for Brides to Be posted at Nerds Do It Better.

TherapyDoc presents The Art of Validation posted at Everyone Needs Therapy, saying, “If you’re getting married, you may as well learn this.”

Bridal Fashion

Mike Remer presents A Great Weight Reducing Secret | My Path To Fitness Blog posted at My Path To Fitness Blog.

Andrea Pace presents Top 5 Bridal Shoe Bargains From Touch Ups posted at Your Feet Make You Unique, saying, “Bridal Shoes For Women Who Wear Shoes In Sizes 10 and Up.”

Courtney presents
A new view posted at Simply Pretty LIttle Things, saying, “Some food for thought about choosing your dress. Also beautiful and very inspiring gowns. Inspiring enough to plan your entire wedding around.”

Honeymoons. Wedding Favors

Lisa Gerstenberger presents Creative Wedding Favors! posted at SunriseGlassArt, saying, “I’m currently working on coasters as wedding favors and pendants as favors for the bridal party. These make colorful and useful gifts!”

Wedding Cakes

Woman Tribune presents The Worst Wedding Cake Toppers posted at Woman Tribune.

dmh presents Wedding Tips: Buy A Small Cake posted at Daily Money Hack.

Wedding Jewelry

WRE presents Purchasing Wedding Rings posted at Wedding Ring Experts.

Wedding Planning

Allie presents Allie’s Answers » Blog Archive » Tip of the Day - Eco-Friendly Weddings: Invitations posted at Allie’s Answers, saying, “Part one in a 5 part series on planning an eco-friendly wedding.”

Lokendra Rathore presents Marriages May Be Made In Heaven But Are Solemnised In Jaipur posted at Karan’s Guest House.

Amy Hobbs presents Saying ?No? to Wedding Extras posted at My Daily Dollars, saying, “Advice on how to stick to your wedding budget”

Scott Blackburn presents How to Hire a Wedding Photographer posted at Blackburn Imagery, saying, “I just thought I would share one photographer’s experience in selecting a photographer for his wedding. Tips to ensure you get what you want out of a photography for your big day. Thanks, scott”

Home Life Weekly presents Wedding Budget Planner and Calculator Spread Sheet posted at Home Life Weekly, saying, “If you are planning a wedding on a budget? Then this printable wedding budget spread sheet will help you keep a close eye on the costs”

Toni presents What would you change about your wedding? posted at So You’re Getting Married, saying, “Learning from those who’ve gone through the big day!”

Donna Freedman presents My daughter got married without going broke posted at Smart Spending, saying, “Not everyone has $30k to spend…”

Sarah Fuller presents Giving back on your special day posted at Alive with Anticipation.

freefrombroke presents Why You Should Hire A Wedding DJ And Not A Band posted at Wedding DJ Advice, saying, “Some reasons why you are better off hiring a wedding DJ rather than a band.”

Kandice Brooks presents The Details Matter posted at Eventfully Yours, saying, “Eventfully Yours features planning tips for all types of events and is the official blog of Signature Soirees Event Consultants”

marryology.com presents Wedding Flowers, Silk Or Fresh? posted at Amazing Wedding Planning Tips - Marryology.com Wedding Blog.

Wedding Receptions

MyMaria presents Budget Wedding Gifts posted at Financial Tips, saying, “As frugality becomes more mainstream, finding budget wedding gifts is important for many attending weddings this Spring.”

Wedding Traditions

Eva Campbell presents Picture it. Sicily 1928… posted at And another thing….

Toni presents Something old, something new… posted at So You’re Getting Married.

Wedding Trends

NAOMI presents >Diary From England: BRITAIN’S OLDEST NEWLYWEDS TIE THE KNOT posted at Diary From England.

Dezzi Rae presents Handmade Wedding Invitations posted at The Cheap Chic Couple, saying, “If you’re having a green wedding, are on a budget or simply want wedding invitations that are truly unique, consider handmade wedding invites! All you need is the paper that you would normally throw out, dried flowers and leaves and some “sweat equity”!”

That concludes this edition. I invite you to submit your blog article to out next edition!

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Hi everyome!

I am currently out of the country on vacation. Posts will resume on July 25th. Thank you for your patience and have a great week!

Here for your enjoyment are some wacky wedding outtakes and bloopers!!

On any given weekend, there is sure to be a wedding show going on in some part of the country. Wedding shows are popular and easy ways for brides and vendors to connect-however they do have a downside. Here’s what you need to know if you plan to attend one in your area.

Don’t bring a crowd. It’s tempting to invite your entire bridal party to go with you, but don’t. Bring one or two trusted friends, no more. The problem with inviting a crowd is you have to listen to all those opinions, making it hard for you to form one of your own!

Do be wary of registering.The first thing you’ll be asked to do when you arrive is register. They tell you this is so you can win door prizes, and some shows do give out some nice prizes and vendor discounts, but you should still be wary of filling out the registration form they’ll hand you. Why? They will ask for your phone number, postal address, and email address. Hand them over and I promise you you’ll be bombarded with calls, emails and catalogs/flyers/postcards from all kinds of vendors. I have been married a little over a year and I still get wedding catalogs in the mail and emails from DJ’s hawking their services! I recommend putting down a fake postal address and phone number, and if you must give an email address, make it a fake one or use a “throw away one” from Yahoo or Hotmail if you have one. You won’t be sorry.

Do bring a tote bag and a notepad. The tote bag is to hold the literature you’ll get from vendors, and trust me, you’ll probably get tons. The notepad comes in handy if you want to take notes on ideas you’ve seen or vendors you’ve spoken to.

Do wear comfy shoes. You’ll be doing a lot of walking and standing!

Do be brief when talking to vendors. This is not the time to interview or book any vendors! Save that for a less hectic time. Look through their samples, ask a few quick questions, and if you’re interested take a business card and any other literature they offer and move on.

Do enjoy yourself! You’re only a bride once (hopefully!) so enjoy every wedding planning experience!

Here is part two of the video from Brides Magazine UK featuring highlights from the Designer Wedding Show. Lots of great ideas, new trends, and more! What were your favorites?

Here is a great video by Brides Magazine’s UK edition featuring highlights from the Designer Wedding Show. Lots of great ideas, new trends, and more!

Every bride wants their day to be perfect, and for many it is. But for some, issues arise. Sometimes they concern a vendor, a bridesmaid, and sometimes even the groom! But the most common wedding day crises involve guests. Here’s how to deal with some of the most common issues:

Uninvited Guests: Your reception looks gorgeous and you can’t wait to be introduced as husband and wife, Then you get the news. Uncle George and his girlfriend brought 3 friends with them-people you don’t even know! What to do? First off, don’t try and handle it yourself. Send a trusted family member, friend, or bridal party member to do it. If there are simply no seats or meals available for the extra guests, say so. Don’t allow them to take seats from invited guests. However, if there is room for them, sit them in a corner and forget about it. Yes, they are most likely only there for the free food and drinks,, but it’s not worth getting upset about.

Drunken Guests: This is a tricky situation. If one of your guests becomes drunk and disruptive, you can quietly have them removed, but if they are not being disruptive, the situation isn’t as simple. For everyone’s safety, have the bar close at least a half hour before your reception ends and arrange for coffee to be served. This gives everyone time to sober up. Have some trusted family members or friends keep an eye out and call cabs for anyone who’s not safe to drive.

Disruptive Guests: If you know Cousin Greg and Cousin Todd don’t get along, or if your divorced parents have a frosty relationship, make sure they are seated far apart from one another. Ask a couple of trusted friends or family members to act as bouncers-they can step in if they or any guests get into any kind of confrontation and hopefully restore peace easily.

If any of your guests decide to act poorly, don’t be afraid to ask them to leave, and if any embarrassing situations arise, don’t let them get to you-trust me, the only ones that will look bad are the troublemakers!

Here is a great video with lots of gorgeous ideas for your wedding flowers!

Church officials in England are investigating a couple’s complaint that a Vicar ruined their wedding by throwing their 2 year old son out of the church. The toddler was repeating his father’s name over and over. A relative who protested the ejection was also asked to leave. Here is what the bride had to say:

‘The ceremony was ruined for me with all the stress and because my son, Cameron, was not there. It was supposed to be my special day, but everyone was talking about what had happened. I wish we had gone to a register office. It’s not unexpected for a child to talk during a wedding - that’s what two-year-olds do. No one else minded, but the vicar stopped everything and said he couldn’t carry on. Then a relative stood up to say the boy was doing no harm and she was asked to leave, too.’

Was the Vicar within his rights to do what he did? We’ve all been in situations where we wish a noisy child would be dealt with, but in this case, since no one minded but the Vicar, was it appropriate? At my wedding the 2 year old son of my husband’s cousin babbled in baby talk during our ceremony but it didn’t bother us. This story brings the age old debate of whether babies and small children belong at weddings or not. Personally, as long as they aren’t screaming and crying to the point where they are drowning out the ceremony, I don’t see any problem with it. I think it depends on the bridal couple, and on the temperament of the child or children in question. Some are more able to handle a long ceremony, strangers, and crowds better than others. In this case, seeing that the bride and groom were the child’s parents and that neither they nor the guests were bothered by his baby talk, the Vicar should have simply ignored it and kept on with the ceremony. Perhaps he has a low tolerance for children or was having a bad day? It’ll be interesting to see how the investigation ends up. What are your thoughts? Was the Vicar right or wrong, and why?

A holiday wedding sounds like a great idea. The long weekend will make it easy for your guests to attend, and some holidays, such as Christmas, add a unique beauty to that special day. A Christmas wedding is also easy to find décor for! However, there are some drawbacks to holiday weddings that should be considered:

Price: You may find vendor prices go up when a holiday date is chosen. If you expect a vendor to give up his holiday expect to pay dearly for it.

Scheduling: This is an especially common problem for Christmas weddings. Venues are already booked up at that time of year for Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve bashes. It may be quite difficult to find an available venue and it most certainly won’t be your first or second choice.

Weather: Again, this is especially a problem for Christmas weddings, but can be a factor at other times of the year too-for example you may not want to schedule a Labor Day wedding in a coastal location prone to hurricanes! (Of course any wedding planned in an outdoor location should have a bad weather plan-just in case!)

Traffic: A 4th of July wedding on the beach may sound like a lot of fun, but consider that your guests and vendors will be fighting thousands of holiday beachgoers to get there!

Finally, consider your guests. At first glance having your wedding on a long weekend may seem perfect-it allows your out of town guests to enjoy your day without having to rush back in order not to miss work. However, think about the flipside. They may not want to give up a precious 3 day weekend to travel back and forth-for some it may be one of the few days off they get all year! It’s a good idea to get a feel for how your guests would feel about a three day wedding weekend before setting your date in stone. If they are all for it, go ahead and have fun!

Holiday weddings can be fun and memorable-they just take a little extra thought and planning first!