Wedding Advice

I think this wedding type of wedding would be absolutely awesome. What better way to begin a new year than with a wedding? This type of wedding can be ultra formal or fun and funky. Regardless, New Year's Eve weddings should be dramatic and make a statement.

First, because New Year's is still in the holiday season finding venues that have some type of decoration should be relatively easy. The poinsettias are usually gone but the trees with the lights are usually still up. In fact, many venues will add extra lights for New Year's Eve as a way to bring more excitement to the venue and naturally create that party atmosphere. With a New Year's Eve wedding, I suggest making the reception the party of the year. Take great care to pick the right DJ or band. This will set the tone for the whole reception and let's face it, some people are better at getting the party going than others. In addition, using a lighting company to create custom lighting would make your event more unique while adding to the party!!

You could create a festive centerpiece from a New Years hat filled with colorful streamers and party horns. Confetti comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors so you could mix some New Year's inspired confetti along with some glow in the dark confetti then sprinkle it on the tables to add to the party atmosphere.

In my world, the colors for a New Year's Eve wedding are black, silver, and gold. I don't know why but those colors just scream New Year's Eve party to me!! In actuality, any bold a vibrant color like royal blue, hunter green, burgundy, or even a dark purple would make excellent choices.

For the budget conscious couple, New Year's Eve weddings could be an option. Because the New Year starts at midnight, you are going to be having a late wedding and reception. Most weddings would start around 8 pm or even a little later. This is outside the normal dinner hour so no one would think twice about an hors d'oevres reception. This is a great way to cut expenses as the cost of a formal dinner could be much more expensive.

The biggest down side to a New Year's Eve wedding is that people may not come because it's so late. People who are not accustomed to staying up until the wee hours of the morning may opt to stay home.

Fun New Year's Eve favors can be anything from mini cocktail glasses, fortune cookies, bottles of champagne to bottles that look like champagne but are really filled with bubbles. Really there are a lot of ideas when it comes to a New Year's Eve wedding but the important thing is to make it fun.

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Way back in the day, the fourth century to be exact, there was a man named Patrick who was kidnapped as a teenager and sold into slavery. During this experience, he worked as a shepherd and eventually found that God gave him peace during his captivity. After escaping, Patrick became a priest and began converting nonbelievers into Christians in Ireland. Because of his engaging personality, Patrick had great success converting people. It is aid that Patrick used the three leaf clover in some of his sermons to teach the people about the Holy Trinity. The premise of the sermon was to show the shamrock and explain how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could exist as three separate elements within the same entity. Because of his use of the shamrock, this the symbol most associated with Patrick.

It is important to also bring up that the Leprechaun is a mythical Irish fairy. The Irish both feared and revered the Leprechaun because he hid from humans but if you found one, he supposedly would bless the human with the gift of a pot of gold. Patrick used the mythology and adopted the leprechaun as a symbol of God- he too is hidden from view and will bestow riches among his followers.

In the 17th century, people began celebrating St. Patrick's Day which is supposedly the date of his death. Over the years, this day has caught on and it currently celebrated all over the world.

Each year, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated all over the world as people eat, drink, and wish each other the "luck of the Irish." What a great day to have a wedding!

Having a St. Patrick's Day wedding is easy. Start by creating invitations with using a splash of green accompanied by the image of the Celtic cross, Celtic love knot, or maybe the image of the Claddagh ring. Speaking of which, if you are having a St. Patrick's Day wedding, I have seen gorgeous wedding bands made from yellow gold with a claddagh white gold inset. If you are unfamiliar with a Claddagh ring it's a traditional Irish wedding ring with a pair of hands, embracing a heart with a crown above the heart. The symbolism of the ring is the crown standing for loyalty, the hands friendship, and the heart for love. Young, Irish girls used to receive these rings when they entered womanhood. If they wore the ring on their right hand with design facing inward toward the body meant they were available. When the woman entered into engagement, the ring was transferred to the left and turned outward signifying the serious relationship. Upon marriage the ring, would remain on the left hand but turned inside.

Obviously, the color of the day would include green. Alfred Angelo has a line of wedding gowns that include color into the design. Most of the styles in this collection incorporate the color by using a sash; however, one style (1516) makes a bold statement with the color inset into the back of the dress and in the train. This gives the bride the opportunity to showcase white while adding a splash of color to the gown. Also, I have seen some great pictures of the bride and groom in black and white with that splash of color in color. It's a very dramatic and beautiful type of picture.

To incorporate an Irish wedding custom into the ceremony, consider handfasting. On his website, BellaOnline.com, Tony King describes the custom as: "the wrists of the couple are bound together with a ribbon or cord. Each partner holds the hands of the other---right hand to right hand, left hand to left---their wrists crossed. The ribbon is wound around the wrists over the top of one and under and around the other, thus creating the infinity symbol. It is said that this ritual is the origin of the term "tying the knot." The vows are spoken and the celebration commenced."

For the reception, use white table clothes with a smaller dark green cloth laid over the white. This has an elegant look while keeping the Irish theme. For the centerpieces, consider using small terracotta pots filled with gold chocolate coins and shamrock confetti. Use shamrock place cards that can double as favors or small brass bells with little shamrocks on top. The Irish have come up with interesting ways of wishing people well, be sure to scour the internet for some ideas on traditional Irish toasts. Some of my favorites include the saying above as well as: May your home always be too small to hold all your friends and may you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies and quick to make friends. And may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward. After finding your sayings, display each on in a frame and place a different frame on every table. As part of the toasts, have one member from each table read the saying in the frame.

If you really want to keep with the theme, your feast could include corned beef and cabbage but that just doesn't scream wedding to me. Anyway, my menu is anything that makes you happy. For drinks, you may want to forgo a traditional full bar in favor of some beer kegs which seem to fit the day a little better. It's been noted that the beer consumption in Ireland, is greater on St. Patrick's Day than on any other day of the year!

For the cakes, a few touches of greenery will go along way. Try to find a little leprechaun cake topper. After the meal, don't forget the Irish coffee. This is a great way to end the meal.

In years past, the Catholic Church allowed people to take a break from the Lenten fasting and party on this one day. This tradition continues still today. So when hosting an Irish St. Patrick's Day wedding create a party atmosphere. Were talking about lots of beer and fun festive Irish music. O.k. maybe the Irish music may be a stretch but you do want to get the party moving. Find an engaging DJ or band that has a great persona and can get any crowd moving.

Hopefully, through this you, too, will be inspired by the luck of the Irish.

Have you ever heard of a Thanksgiving Wedding? Probably not. Thanksgiving is not a day most people think of when they are planning their wedding. However, it's really a perfect day for a wedding.

Thanksgiving is the day we all openly give thanks. In fact, airports have deemed the Thanksgiving weekend as the busiest weekend. People usually have a long weekend and make it a point to get together with friends and family. So with that in mind, why not have a Thanksgiving wedding?

First, for any autumn wedding you have to think of colors. Depending on your geographic location, there may still be colored leaves on the trees which would accent any outdoor ceremony site beautifully. Traditional colors based on foliage would include yellows, oranges, reds, and browns. These are all warm colors and by using them your wedding will convey warmth and intimacy.

Your bridesmaids could be in canary yellow, gold, burnt orange, cranberry red, or brown with a soft pastel accent. Other autumn color combinations include burgundy red and Hunter green or wine and navy.

Now that you've picked your colors, let's consider the flowers. The really great thing about autumn weddings is the fact that you aren't just limited to floral bouquets. Popular accents include berries, dried wheat or rye grass, and even lotus pods or cinnamon sticks. Some popular autumn flowers include Sunflowers, Orange Gerbera, Apricot Lilies, and Rust/Burgundy hydrangea. In addition to traditional floral arrangements for both the ceremony and the reception site, you could decorate using grapevine wreaths and/or swags accented with your choice of flower or berry.

For the centerpieces, you could use any of the flowers or you could have a centerpiece with colored leaves. Another option is to have a centerpiece made from apples, small pumpkins, squashes, and pomegranates.

For the reception, ask your caterer to serve your wedding feast family style. This is where the meal is laid out much like you would at home. There would be a plate of turkey, bowls of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberries and other sides that you chose on each table. There is no need for anyone to get up like a buffet and it's not as formal as a plated meal. It does suggest family and closeness and it makes the Thanksgiving wedding more intimate.

There are all sorts of favors that you could chose to compliment your Thanksgiving wedding. I have seen gel candles fill with autumn colors, oak leaf cookie cutters, and merlot wine glass candles. The "perfect pear" favors are also popular and you can find them as candles, cookie cutters, paper weights, key chains, etc.

For your honeymoon you might want to consider upstate New York and the New England area. With so many trees in so many colors it a beautiful autumn destination; however, by Thanksgiving the leaves may already have passed and you could run into snow. Other popular honeymoon destinations include Scottsdale, Arizona; Asheville, North Carolina; and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

With all these ideas, why wouldn't you chose to have a Thanksgiving wedding?

When I was young, I never considered a December wedding. I always thought of December as a month set aside for Christmas. In my world, Christmas just wasn't synonymous with weddings. Then as I grew up, I found the value of a Christmas wedding!!

Christmas is a time for families. It's a time when people tend to naturally set aside their differences and focus on giving and getting together with friends and family. It's this spirit that makes December the perfect month for getting married.

First, the obvious thing is that if you are more budget minded, a December wedding is a great option because many venues will already be decorated. It's not uncommon for Churches, hotels, and restaurants to be decked out with lights, evergreens, and other traditional Christmas décor. That's a great start because it provides the couple with the opportunity to allocate decorating funds into another avenue. The down side is that every December wedding has the same décor.

Having a December wedding provides the couple with choices that no other month can have. For example, with regards to the centerpieces, how about using three different sized boxes wrapped like presents? Bright foil wrap will make your centerpiece truly stand out. You could also consider a small sled filled with candy or even a small tree with lights.

Another down side to Christmas weddings are found with respect to wedding colors, most December weddings tend to go with some combination of cranberry red, emerald green, and white. This doesn't mean that you couldn't think outside the color palette. First, find out what colors are going to be used in the décor. If its mostly evergreen trees, then you have more options than if there are a lot of red poinsettias. Regardless, a cool-ice blue makes a bold dramatic statement against the darker colors. Other colors to consider would be a rich burgundy, a cool sea-green, or a light lilac; however, the lilac may clash with a lot of poinsettias. Silver or gold would also make good accent colors because a little of these can go along way.

With respect to food, the choices are limitless. Because many parts of the county are cold and snowy, adding foods that are associated with comfort and warmth will set your wedding aside from the warm days of summer and provide instant intimacy. Adding a soup course or even a soup bar creates a special seasonal uniqueness. For a signature drink, you could easily consider a hot buttered rum or Irish cream.

Thinking of favors? Creating a personalized Christmas ornament for your guests will be a gift that they can treasure for a life time. Each year, they will display your ornament and they will remember your wedding as special and unique.

I think the thought of a beach wedding is serene and peaceful. It has a quality seems to bring nature into the ceremony. If you are wondering could you still incorporate that theme even if you don't live next to the beach? The answer is --YES!! With a little creativity you can create any type of theme you want.

There are many ways to have a beach themed wedding. The colors can be anything under the sun-If you wanted a beach sunset look, go with bright colors like fuchsia, yellow, and bright purples as these are some of the colors that you would find on any beach as the sun sets. Or for a peaceful feel, light blue, sea-foam green, tan, and ivory can do that trick. Truly, any color would work so you really aren't limited to colors.

If you don't live next to a beach you can easily create a beach themed wedding. You would first have to decide on the motif that suits your style. You could have the sea-shell look, the sand castle look, or just another lazy day at the beach. I have seen place card holders that had all three motifs and each of them was really unique but I would go with one aspect of the beach and stick with it.

If you cruise the internet, you can easily find items that will compliment each style. Start with the invitations. I've seen some really nice ones that have sea-shells on them. This makes a great start for the theme. During the ceremony, you may decide to incorporate a unity candle that has the image of sea shells on it. Also, a pen-set, guest book, serving set, and the bridal champagne flutes all adorned with the sea-shell motif would help create the theme. On the tables you could use sea-shell place card holders and for centerpieces use small buckets that are turned over with some sand and a few real shells spilling out. For favors, I have seen beautiful picture frames with shells on them or even small sea-shell candles.

I think sand castles can be beautiful works of art. If you are actually having a beach wedding and using the sand castle motif, I would see about acquiring an artist to build a sand castle for your wedding. It would be a great way to tie in the sand castle them. Even if you can't have an actual castle, you can still have the motif. Finding sand castle invitations aren't the most common but they do exist and some of them are sweet and cute while others look more sophisticated and elegant. Then think of all the ways, you can incorporate the sand castle. There are elegant sand castle cake toppers which are unique and add ambiance or you could have your cake crafted to look like a sand castle. For the table centerpieces, there are light up sand castles or ones that don't like up. Creating an ice sculpture into a sand castle is another way of establishing the theme.

For that lazy day at the beach look, I have seen some whimsical invitations that are fun and could help establish the theme. For a truly festive look, try blowing up beach balls and then hang them from the ceiling. You could also get some big beach umbrellas and set them out. For the table centerpieces, use small Adirondack beach chairs with bright flip-flop candles for favors.

Having a beach wedding can be fun even if you don't live by the beach!