Sometimes we all need to blow off some steam while planning a wedding. That’s when it’s fun to head over to Youtube and see what you find when you plug the word ‘wedding’ into the search engine.

Here are a couple of the highlights I’ve found recently.

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I’ve always said there’s one thing weddings and funerals have in common: both are usually being planned by someone who has no experience in doing so at a time when it’s easy to be emotionally manipulated. That means it’s easy for vendors to sell you things you don’t need, don’t want, and can’t reasonably fit into your budget. It’s easy for the unscrupulous to convince you that an etiquette violation is precisely what etiquette requires. It’s easy to make decisions that later make you ask yourself what precisely was in your morning coffee on the day you chose to blow half your budget on pyrotechnics when you don’t really care about fireworks.

Well, you’re in luck. You have me to cut through the sales talk and sentimentality and give you the skinny on what is actually needed, what’s a fun optional extra you might want to consider, and what’s outright wrong on toast with a cherry on top.

So let’s talk stationery.

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I know — because some of you have come right out and said it — that there are brides out there who simply do not feel compelled to dress their ‘maids in matching frocks. In fact, many could not care less what the attendants they have chosen wear to the wedding! It is an unusual choice, but by no means an outlandish one.

What immediately comes to mind when I think of mismatched bridesmaids is a gaggle of gals wearing a selection of pastels with matching sashes…or perhaps matching pastels with a selection of mismatched sashes. But that’s not the only way to grant your bridesmaids their autonomy! Here are five ways you can avoid seeing triple, quadruple, or whatever:

Tropical:

Photo by Minarae

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