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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Just Wonderin': WEDDING DAY, HALLOWEEN!
Has anyone been married on Halloween? Is there a known urban legend or anything at all that says getting married on a Halloween is pure bad luck?
Wouldn't it be nice to be married and your guests are in their favorite Halloween costumes? And then there will be lots of cool games to think of! It'll be the fun and unique.
You can even set a Halloween themed wedding and make a spooktacular title :) Your cake could be shaped like Jack-o-lantern.
You can choose spooky Halloween themes or just a mild touch of Halloween. For centerpieces, you can buy cheap pumpkins from farmers who wouldn't need them anymore. Use white and orange flowers too! As for the flower girl dresses, you can choose black as the color and orange for the bride's maids.
And make the coolest Halloween wedding invitations too! :)
Having a Halloween themed wedding isn't making a joke out of the sacred celebration but instead, making it fun and memorable. What's important is both sides agree upon the theme and are all for it.
Plan a great wedding for yourselves and not for others!
What if your future husband is the one feeling the jitters? It's not rare. It happens just that most men would not talk about it but if you know the person well, you'll see it.
You would want your future spouse to walk down the aisle with confidence (and with clarity that you're the one). So it would be a good idea to check your future spouse's feelings.
Actually, what I discussed on the previous post on Cold Feet, applies to him as well.
What makes it harder is that men tend to keep to themselves when in terms of their true feelings so it's up to you to "read" him.
Are you really having one?--- pre wedding jitters as some call it. If you feel it's really cold feet, stop whatever you're doing (wedding preps and all that) and relax. Take a deep breath and assess your feelings. You know this feeling could make or break your marriage so it's important that you give meaning to your feelings.
Are these feelings related to something you've recently discovered about your future husband that's making you queasy? (or some other serious problems arising before the wedding?)
Are these feelings related to that looming dread you feel about the entire wedding? This could not be a good sign, right? Decide and choose. Don't be afraid to call the wedding off or don't be afraid to hurt your fiancee's feelings because if you push through with it (with unsure feelings) at some point you'll hurt both of you more.
But~ these feelings are not all negative...not at all!
If you're feeling tired, restless but still excited.. you're a certified jittery bride-to-be :) Relax and step back from your wedding planning. Don't expect things to go smoothly and perfectly on your big day. If it does, that would be a boring wedding story to tell, wouldn't it?
Just feel the moment, savor the last days of being single and of course sleep well a day before the wedding. Look radiant! :)
Cold Feet:
Meaning
To 'get cold feet' is to become disheartened or timid, losing one's previous enthusiasm or courage. (credits: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cold-feet.html)
My friend's wedding is next week and she thinks she needs to give her little entourage trinkets for the wedding. I suggested books about the wedding that talks about their roles. Also make goodie bags for them and include in it cute wedding coloring pictures.
I'm really excited with the wedding and I'm going to post pictures :)
Planning your wedding and thinking of a great way to spice up your big day? Well, Jill and Kevin might have the greatest idea you might have :) Here's a video of a unique and creative wedding they had:
Cool right? The entire entourage has been invited at the Today's show to do a repeat performance since this video went viral over the Internet. This is one of the videos that never fails to put a smile on my face and I totally understand why it's getting a lot of attention :)
Their wedding was fun, creative, simple yet so full of love. Look at how the entourage's dresses are simple even the bride's wedding gown is simple but I bet this is one wedding that's hard to forget! It just shows that you don't need to break the bank to have an unforgettable wedding.
It would have been super nice though if flower girls on flower girl dresses where dancing with the entourage :)
What's important on your wedding? Photos or Videos
When I was still preparing for my wedding, I too was caught by this question. I was on a shoe string budget so I had to be wise with my decisions. My husband and I carefully weighed our options and came up with these:
* Photos will last a long time and can be preserved well * When friends and family come for a visit they would not ask for your wedding's video but my wedding album. * Photos can be edited *cough* photoshopped so I'd look thinner(remember I was 9 months pregnant!) * We both appreciate quality photos and we are both NOT camera shy * Don't you just love the drama of pre nuptial photo shoot (some call it engagement photo session) * You can even do the trash the dress session with your photographer (of course with this one you don' t use the REAL wedding dress but cheaper and rented ones) * We were offered unlimited shots for our wedding plus other freebies like coffe table book, guestbook, etc. * Photos show minute details of the event such as wedding flowers, wedding dress, wedding ring, flower girl's dress and so much more. *Photos will freeze precious moments and add dramatic effects to it.
I now professional photography and videography costs a lot so you can just choose one and get a cheaper version of the other. What I did was, I asked a friend to handle our video camera and had it edited by another friend who knows how to edit videos. And hired professional photographers instead :)
In times like these, we need to think twice or thrice before spending money. SO I hope you'll be wise in planning for your wedding!
The type of flowers the bride clutches during the wedding ceremony signify her emotions towards the marriage(Mine's orange tulips and star gazers, what's yours? And do you know that you can now preserve your bouquet?).
In olden times, the bridal bouquet has herbs and spices instead of lowers. It was believed that these strongly aromatic plants will ward off evil spirits intent on possessing the bride(and make your groom sneeze..kidding!).
At present there are a lot of designs of bouquet the bride may decide to clutch throughout the ceremony. Some bouquets are cascading(which I think is becoming out of date), others are pomander balls, some wrapped in delicate fabric. The designs are endless.
Some brides decide to carry a bouquet of other significant thing for her, such as rice stalks or small branches of a special plant. Here is more information on the Flowers Symbolism.
Just to add, I didn't want to give away my bridal bouquet during the bouquet toss so what I did was I created a mock bridal bouquet (smaller than my original bouquet) and used it for the bridal toss. Oh, and my bridal toss was not the usual gathering all single ladies and standing at the bride's back thingy---I created a fun game for the single ladies and whoever won got the mock bouquet and paired with the winning single guy. Fun fun fun!
The Veil and the Bridesmaids
The purpose of the bride wearing a veil dates back to when people believed evil spirits were around to try and ruin the wedding ceremony. The bride wore a veil to cover her face so evil spirits would not know she was the bride. Likewise, bridesmaid were made part of the ceremony to surround the bride, so evil spirits would be confused about who the actual bride was, and leave. Many couples today still honor these customs, but use the veil to hide the bride's face until it is first revealed to her groom. The bridesmaids are chosen to help the bride celebrate her happy day. This is also true for the ushers to celebrate with the groom.
(long veils or short veils? It doesn't matter as long as it's your preference)
Bridesmaid Dress Color
The bride can choose what color that the bridesmaids will wear. The color usually coordinates with the other themes of the wedding, such as similar to the color of the flowers chosen. The bride should also think what color flatters the bridesmaids. These days, it is customary for the bride to decide what color and fabric the bridesmaids will wear, and the bridesmaid will then choose the most flattering style for herself. Some brides choose the other way around, they choose what style the bridesmaids will wear, and the bridesmaids wear different colors of the same style dress. More on American Color Symbolism.
Rings
Rings, because of its circular shape, symbolize eternity, endlessness… thus a never-ending marriage.Rings can be made of gold, platinum and other metals. Some are encrusted with jewels to signify the value of a couple’s love.Some couples have their names or messages engraved on the rings before the wedding.During the wedding ceremony, the Ring Boy (also often called theRing Bearer) takes the rings up on a pillow so the bride and room can exchange rings.
I know some rich couple who had two sets of wedding rings. The first one were made of silver and a replica of their white gold and main wedding ring. Their reason? If in case the rings got lost during the ceremony, at least it wasn't the real ring. And they actually wear the fake ones everyday so the real ones won't get tainted and scratched.
I was civilly married for 4 years before I was finally able to walk down the aisle. My husband's parents and mine were pressuring us to have our union blessed by a priest because I was pregnant of our first child at that time. We personally wanted to have the wedding after my pregnancy so that I have time to *cough* beautify myself. But no, the pressure was on. The grandparents didn't want their first grandaughter born without a blessing from God (it's quite obvious that both of our parents are devout Catholics). My husband and I gave in since they meant no harm and we also think it'll be for everyone's peace of mind. (except that until this very day, I can't look at my wedding pics without squintting...I look like a hippo on my wedding gown!!!) Eventhough I was carrying a heavy "load" in my womb, I did all the dirty work on our wedding preparations. I hope somehow I could give you ideas as I share my thoughts on wedding preparations. (I love weddings!!!!)
First, set your budget so you will know where and how to work on it. What I did, I outlined the basic needs for my wedding and prioritized them. Whatever excess budget I had, I then gladly spend on "unnecessary" things but made my wedding memorable (like butterfly release, bubbles, treats for the flower girls and so much more).
Second, never ever scrimp on food. It's the last thing(and probably the only thing) your guests will remember. You don't want to be remembered as the couple who had the bad wine or sour tasting spaghetti.
Third, choose a theme or at least follow a pattern. This way you get to focus on a single idea and you'll know what to work on. Chinese wedding perhaps? or Hollywood wedding? or maybe Hawaiian wedding? With a theme to work on, it gets easy on the budget too :)
Fourth, choose colors that are bright and happy. It affects the mood of your guests and thus the entire ambience of your wedding place. I choose pretty shades of yellow, pinkand blue as my wedding colors and had my bridesmaids (with matching colors on my flower girls) wear gowns of each color. I loved the effect on our wedding pictures! I also personally chose my flowers. It was of course all vibrant in colors matching the yellow, pinkand blue my bridesmaids and flowergirls wore. In my country, it's not a common practice that the entourage spend for their own gowns so husband and I looked for really affordable ones but made sure that my entourage will still be able to use it even after our wedding. If you're looking for one, try browsing through our flower girl collection. Fifth, DIY as much as you can. I have plenty of time in my hands so I did our save the date, email invitations, our monogram, graphics for our giveaways, thank you notes, and would you believe it our wedding cord ;)
Lastly, make your day your own. It will never be perfect--expect as much but you can at least say at the end of the day that you did all you can to make it one. I wanted my wedding to be a gathering of both sides of family and friends. I wanted both sides to meet and know each other, mingle and be actually friends which I think did happen. As expected it was full of bloopers and everyone had so much fun. I even had a 'prank' for my husband that everyone had a good laugh.
I hope somehow you learned a thing or two. Happy wedding preps!
Wedding idea: If you foresee having a lot of children in the wedding party and want your adult guests to mingle more, why not get some trusted and (willing) people to play and coordinate the children's activities?
You can have a small area cordoned off especially for your special little guests. Arrange to have cushions or comfortable seating ready. Prepare some games or activities, such as wedding coloring materials to keep them occupied. Your wedding sitters can coordinate the kids' activities so that the children will enjoy themselves, as their parents celebrate your happy day with you.
Children often get bored as weddings lengthen on. Having wedding sitters around to help makes partying up to the end of your reception easier (and more fun) for the kids, their parents and you.
One very cheap and practical wedding idea is to print out wedding coloring pages for your little guests! This way you get to divert their attention and at least pacify them for a while and at the same time giving the parents a chance to mingle with other guests and truly enjoy the event.
To spice it up a bit, you can even make it as a coloring contest and announce the winner during or after the reception.
Unique and affordable ideas can make your dream day perfect!
