Looking for ways to personalize your
wedding ceremony? Consider incorporating your own carefully chosen words into this momentous occasion, and build the foundation for a life-long relationship.
Writing your own vows is definitely an ambitious undertaking. Not only must you determine the perfect words to say, but those words must be rehearsed and recited in front of your closest family and friends on a day that will be one of the most important of your life. Follow these easy steps to pen and recite beautiful vows from the heart.
Step One - Before you put pen to paper, consider these factors:Get approval -
Talk to your officiant to make sure
personal vows are even allowed. Some religions object to non-secular expressions during the wedding ceremony. Even with the go-ahead, submit your personalized vows to your officiant for review before the big day; he or she may have specific objections or even helpful ideas.
Establish an estimated length -
Your audience will find it odd and even comical if one rambles for 5 minutes will the other says 10 words.
Be succinct -
Overly lengthy wedding vows may lose your audience and will only increase the potential for error. Review them in front of someone else. You can rehearse with each other, or if you'd rather keep them a surprise, read your vows to a trusted loved one.
Step Two - Decide What to Say:Consult your past -
Time for a trip down memory lane. Start jotting down the details of special firsts in your relationship-first meeting, first date, first kiss, first "I love you," etc. What qualities made you fall in love in the first place? Are there special milestones in your relationship that that have helped bring you here today?
Envision the Future -
What challenges and achievements to you foresee in the future, and how do you expect to meet those things together?
Complete Me -
Sure, it's a line from a movie-but there's a reason for its now cliché status. What characteristics does he/she bring out in you? How does he/she make you a better person?
Use the right words -
Compile your notes, memories and reflections, and begin turning words into sentences. Consult your thesaurus for the perfect expressions to reflect your thoughts. Some words to get you started: love, trust, support, strength, encourage, respect, cherish, admire, value, commit, pledge and promise.
This article offers even more advice on what to include in your wedding vows
Step 3 - Say it With Heart:Have a cheat sheet -
Even if you plan to memorize them, the nerves may kick in when the big moment arrives. To avoid a potentially awkward scene at the wedding ceremony - bring a cheat sheet just in case.
Although
save-the-dates are not absolutely necessary, these cards have increased in popularity with the rise of
destination weddings and modern guest lists spread throughout the country.
Since they are a relatively
modern concept, no real rules apply - a fact which sometimes causes confusion for brides when planning their
wedding stationery. I've sorted through the information that's out there to bring you the real ins and outs concerning save-the-dates…
Who Needs them?If your guest list includes a number of out-of-towners, or if your wedding takes place during a holiday or other peak time, you are a prime candidate for save-the-dates. Since invitations don't go out until 6-8 weeks before the big day, save-the-dates are the perfect way to give wedding guests a preliminary heads up so they can begin making travel arrangements.
These days, however, more and more brides send these cards regardless of the time and location of their wedding. Why? Save-the-dates provide a fun opportunity to get the word out and foreshadow the style of your big event.
Rules & EtiquetteAgain, few rules apply. The only information you must include is your names and wedding date, although I suggest including location information as well so wedding guests can begin their travel plans. Aim to send save-the-date cards soon after you secure your date and venue, or about 4-6 months prior to your wedding.
Remember, everyone who receives a save-the-date also receives an invitation, so have your guest list finalized prior to sending them. You can, however, always add guests later (there is no rule that says everyone must receive a save-the-date card). Although formal replies are not required, you can get preliminary attendance estimates through word-of-mouth.
Trends & IdeasThese cards will be the first impression of your
wedding festivities, so take advantage of this opportunity to build excitement amongst your wedding guests. If you already know the colors and/or theme of your wedding, now's your chance to provide a sneak peak. Or try including a favorite love poem or quote that symbolizes your relationship. Here are some of my favorite ideas and trends:
• Use vibrant colors that will "pop" as soon as guests open the envelope.
• Incorporate graphics that correspond with the season and/or location of your event. If you are planning a fall wedding, try including colorful leaves, or include seashells for a wedding on the water.
• If the timing is right, turn your save-the-date cards into holiday greetings. Incorporate your engagement photo or another photo taken shortly after the proposal.
• Who says they have to be printed stationery? Set yours apart by turning them into scrolls, pens, stickers, magnets or a creative calendar-marker. You are only limited by your imagination!
Wording SamplesThe content of your save-the-dates should be short, sweet, and to the point - providing a basic who, what, where and when. There is no standard wording; they may be as formal or as whimsical as you'd like. In any case, make sure to include "Formal invitation to follow" somewhere on the card.
Here is the basic layout for the save-the-date cards:
Save the Date: [bride & groom's name] are getting married on [wedding date] in [city, state]
Here are some wording samples you might want to consider:
• Traditional:
Please save the date:
May 12, 2010 for the wedding of
Bob & Mary in Charleston, South Carolina
• Fun & Cutesy:
We're Tying The Knot!
John popped the question, and Katie said yes.
Please join us on October 17, 2011
Orange County, California
• For a destination wedding:
Please join us in paradise on June 17, 2012
when Lisa & Jay say "I Do"
in Maui, Hawaii
Even
low budget weddings can take a huge bite out of savings and often end in huge debt obligations.
Planning a wedding yourself not only saves money but, gives that personal touch that provides lasting family memories.
Personal touches like creating your own
wedding favors and planning your own reception can be particularly satisfying.
You will take great pride in your accomplishments when planning a low budget wedding. Not only in your creations but in the huge savings you will boast about.
A low budget wedding will have much the same wedding costs as the higher counterparts, but you can save money in each area to stay within your budget.
The only way to avoid the costs is simply not to have a formal wedding. If you're footing the bill yourself and just can't see yourself starting your married life with a financial burden, you could always opt for a courthouse ceremony and intimate dinner.
A formal ceremony can then be planned well in advance. A re-taking of wedding vows is common practice today, and it's a very romantic anniversary date! Consider this if your funds are extremely limited and you will be financing most of the wedding budget.
However, if it breaks your heart to forego the formal ceremony, and you have limited funds, save as much money as possible using low budget wedding ideas. Here's a real wedding budget saver that can reduce the cost of the wedding reception greatly.
The Wedding ReceptionThe reception alone will bust your wedding budget if you're not careful. Of course, the most obvious way to save money on the reception is to keep it small.
Where you host this grand occasion could make or break you.
Your low budget wedding remedy? Find a reception location that's free or low cost.
A free location may include, your home, or a friend or family member's home. A low cost option might include the Church reception hall, the local fire department's reception room, and club hall rentals. Most will have a kitchen area for preparing and serving food.
Sometimes you will even find a local restaurant that specializes in low budget wedding receptions. These will likely offer a package for the reception which may include dinner and limited beverage with the rental of restaurant space or banquet rooms. Check hotels in your area for banquet rooms as well. Some may rent the banquet room alone and/or offer reception packages as an option.
Leave no stone unturned in your search! You may happen upon a gem of a deal that will save you a lot of money. Ask around. Get recommendations from friends and family. Do a local search on the internet. We have several plantations in our area who offer wedding reception packages. These are elegant locations and are usually competitively priced; including options for the low budget wedding.
Make a list or chart to record all your findings. Record not only price but services available, and packages available. Then you can compare where you will get the most for your money.
For instance, you may be able to rent a space for a really cheap rate and hire outside catering for the dinner. But, if you find a location that costs more but will offer you a package that includes the catering, it may be the better deal in the long run.
The one big exception to this scenario is if you opt for a potluck reception. Many guests may be pleased, if not relieved, to be given the choice to bring a reception dish in place of a wedding gift. You will find that low budget reception packages usually come with a low budget menu as well.
If you choose this option, you will save greatly on catering expenses. I am certain your guests will be more pleased with the menu selections. This would be your best low budget wedding option and will save the most money.
To have a free bar, or cash bar? Such a difficult question to answer. Of course, it would be fantastic to offer a free bar to all your guests, all day, but with limited funds, it’s not a realistic option for most people.
- Booze Budget Cost Saving Tip:
The ideal in this instance is to use a venue where you can bring your own booze. I was lucky enough to be able to do this at our wedding and managed to pop across to France and buy 180 bottles of wine and 240 beers, plus Pimms and cassis for under 1500$. We had stacks left and our guests were restricted to beer, wine or soft drinks, but no one seemed to mind.
Another option is to come to an arrangement with the hotel regarding corkage. A friend got married in a hotel, which charged 20$per bottle of wine. She arranged a flat fee of 1500 for all of her beer and wine opening. Although it seems like a lot, it meant that she could afford to supply beer and wine for her guests.
With most bridal dresses starting around 1300 and running into thousands of dollars, this is a huge expense.
- Bridalwear Cost Saving Tip:
You can still look fabulous for a fraction of the price and feel that you’re minimising the eco-footprint of your wedding by buying a ‘pre-loved’ wedding dress.
Many charity shops have specialist ‘bridalwear’ departments where you can purchase new and designer dresses that have been worn once. You can try the dresses on before buying and you’ll get a warm glow from doing something for ‘Charidee’.
If you’re a little braver, you can venture online, where there are some fantastic bargains to be had in the ‘pre-loved’ lines. Take a look at some of the ‘For Sale’ forums of the popular wedding websites and you’ll see bridal dresses, veils, tiaras and those Jimmy Choo shoes that you know you want for a fraction of the cost.
Many couples feel that photography is a major part of the day and are prepared to pay upwards of 4000$ for a beautifully presented wedding album. Photographers have confirmed that it isn’t the actual photography, which is the major part of this expense, but printing and preparation of the formal wedding albums.
- Wedding Photography Cost Savings Tip:
Many photographers are prepared to attend your wedding day and then provide you with a DVD of your photos for around 1000. With the DVD, you can then use some of the fantastic online services to prepare your own ‘Photo Book’ - costing much less. Or, as many guests will no doubt have digital cameras with them, combine place cards with little notes asking them to share their wedding photos on your online directory.
Another excellent tip for having a photo keepsake of your wedding is to use several Instant Photo Guest Books, which combine Polaroid Instant Photos and hand-written sentiments from your guests. These photo guest books are ready to enjoy the "instant" your wedding is over -- and creating them adds great fun to the wedding reception!
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With the
average wedding now costing 20000, many couples are now looking for ways to have a ‘
celebrity’ stylish wedding, without the celebrity price tag. The first tip is simple – ask for a discount.
The worst that can happen is that they say ‘No’. You might be a bit embarrassed, but what have you lost? We’ve pulled together 5 other top tips to help you create your
dream wedding on a shoestring budget.
- Choosing The Wedding Venue
Your venue is probably going to be the single biggest
wedding expense that you’ll have to pay, with many of the more popular venues charging 2000 upwards. But you don’t need to spend this sort of money to have a fabulous venue.
- Wedding Venue Cost Saving Tip:
Many village halls, golf and rugby clubs have suitable rooms available for a fraction of the price. The trick is to see past the existing décor and imagine it sprinkled with hundreds of fairy lights or candles – think of Ross’s wedding on the hit show Friends that Rachel ruined!
If you’ve found the wedding venue of your dreams, but it looks as if it will be out of your budget, don’t despair. Many venues offer significant discounts for mid-week or ‘out of season’ weddings which can run into thousands of pounds.
Deciding what kind of menu you want to offer for your wedding can be difficult enough without having to see the price tag that goes along with it!
- Food Budget Cost Saving Tip:
There are lots of ways to cut back on your food budget, and still have a memorable day. Selecting a venue where you can bring in your own caterers is often a much better value than using the existing
venue catering. You can even go as far as preparing all the food yourself, though be careful of taking too much.
If you don’t have a choice about which caterer you use, there are still ways that you can trim your spending costs. Try replacing the starter course with canapés, instead of having both. Or, replace dessert with your wedding cake – so often wedding cake gets forgotten about because guests have already had so much to eat.
A new idea that brides are buzzing about is the wedding ‘cheese’ cake. Literally, it is three slabs of cheese turned into a wedding cake for that special ‘cutting of the cake’ photograph and ceremony. Why not combine the two instead of having a separate cheese and cake course? Or serve this with crackers, chutney and pate for your evening guests?
This is a no-brainer. Retail stores will discount up to 70% of the original price of the mother of the
bride dress, depending on how desperately they want to clear the racks of the current season's clothing to make way for the new season.
Spring/summer lines start showing up on the racks from January through April, while fall/winter dresses are introduced between June and September. Therefore, you will get bargains around these times as well for the last season's mother of the bride apparel.
The mother of the bride should start shopping for her mother of the bride outfit as soon as she knows the colors of the wedding. All too often she takes care of all the details that go into the wedding, while forgetting her own needs.
She should spend this time with the bride going over styles, fabrics, accents, accessories, etc. Late shopping only brings on more stress and possibly more money spent on things that were purchased in haste and then returned with "buyer's remorse".
Quite a few
bridal shops do not take back returns or offer refunds once the mother of the bride walks out of the store with her dress.
There are tons of reputable and traditional
bridal boutiques out there that have an online store on the immense "world wide web" nowadays. The costs of running and up keeping a brick-and-mortar store are escalating and definitely cut into profits.
Any savvy shop owner knows full well that they will have to own a "web store" to fully maximize their sales and therefore, profits. Check their Better Business Bureau record or see if the site has a BBB online reliability logo, if you are still not comfortable shopping online. Once you start using your fingers to do the shopping, you will never stop!
The "youthful" mother of the bride can opt for a
bridesmaid dress which are normally priced less expensively than a
mother of the bride gown. Seek the tailoring expertise of a bridal dress seamstress to add on beads, sequins, and other exotic trimmings to create a uniquely appealing look.
- Search for ' Discount' Dresses Online:
The
mother of bride can open up more options for herself if she is computer literate and able to do a search using the keywords "discount" or "cheap". Example, search for discount mother of the bride dresses.
These words can conjure up an image of herself in a cheesy, polyester dress but you will be surprised what will show up online that are not quite cheesy despite being made of polyester. By the way, there are 40 blends of polyester and almost all synthetic fabrics for special occasion wear are made of some type of polyester.
- Shop Regular Evening Wear:
Add on a shawl or jacket or buy fabric to make a unique, one-of-a-kind jacket to cover the shoulders and arms for modesty or for providing warmth.
- Wear a Teal Length or Cocktail Dress:
These are priced less than the floor-length gowns and are more versatile, as you can surely wear them again at another special occasion.
Weddings performed during and immediately following the medieval era were often more than just a union between two people. They could be a union between two families, two businesses or even two countries.
Many weddings were more a matter of politics than love, particularly among the nobility and the higher social classes.
Brides were therefore expected to dress in a manner that cast their families in the most favorable light, for they were not representing only themselves during the ceremony.
Brides of an elevated social standing often wore rich colors and expensive fabrics. It was common to see such brides wearing bold colors and layers of furs, velvet and silk. Brides of a lower social standing often copied the elegant styles of wealthier brides as best they could.
Over the centuries, brides continued to dress in a manner befitting their social status—always in the height of fashion, with the richest, boldest materials money could buy. The poorest of brides wore their best church dress on their
wedding day. The amount of material a
wedding dress contained also was a reflection of the bride's social standing and indicated the extent of the family's wealth to wedding guests.
Today, there are wedding dresses available in all price ranges, and Western traditions have loosened up to include a rainbow of colors and variety of lengths, which are now considered acceptable. Women may purchase ready-made gowns, wear a family heirloom, or they may choose to have a dressmaker create one for her. In addition, today many bridal salons have samples of wedding gowns in their stores where the bride selects a certain style and orders one to be made to fit.
Wedding dresses have traditionally been based on the popular styles of the day. For example, in the 1920s, wedding dresses were typically short in the front with a longer train in the back and were worn with cloche-style wedding veils. This tendency to follow current fashions continued until the late 1940s, when it became popular to revert to long, full-skirted designs reminiscent of the Victorian era.
Although there has always been a style that dominates the bridal market for a time, and then shifts with the changes in fashion, a growing number of modern brides are not choosing to follow these trends. This is due in large part to non-traditional and non-first-time weddings, and women who are marrying later in life.
Today, Western wedding dresses are usually white, though "wedding white" includes creamy shades such as eggshell, ecru and ivory. Philippa of England was actually the first documented princess in history to wear a white wedding gown during a royal wedding ceremony: she wore a tunic with a cloak in white silk bordered with grey squirrel and ermine).
White did not become a popular option until 1840, after the marriage of Queen Victoria to Albert of Saxe-Coburg. Victoria had worn a white gown for the event so as to incorporate some lace she owned. The official wedding portrait photograph was widely published, and many other brides opted for a similar dress in honor of the Queen's choice.
The tradition continues today in the form of a white wedding, though prior to the Victorian era, a bride was married in any color except black (the color of mourning) or red (which was connected with prostitutes). However, in Finland during the 19th century, it was popular for brides to wear dark colors, especially black.
Later, many people assumed that the color white was intended to symbolize virginity, though this had not been the original intention. (It was the color blue that was connected to purity.) The white gown is in fact a symbolic Christening gown.
The are a variation of the white surplice worn in the Western Catholic tradition by members of the clergy, church choirs and servers and the gowns worn by girls making their first communion and at their confirmation and also by women making religious vows. Today, the white dress is normally understood merely as the most traditional and popular choice for weddings.
