Archive for June, 2011

Tiny Touches: Floral Ice Cubes, Floral Ties

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Sometimes it’s the tiny touches that make a wedding beautiful – which is good news for those of us who can’t exactly fit the big luxuries into our budgets. What kind of tiny touches, you may be asking.

How about floral ice cubes? Which your wedding caterer may be able to provide. And aren’t that hard if you’re handling your own wedding catering. You can order edible flowers in bulk online, and floral ice cubes can make even simple things like water feel more luxurious.

Easy pretty touches for the DIY bride (or your caterer)

Or if flowers on ice aren’t your thing, consider spicing up your groom’s and groomsmen attire with floral ties for the guys. At one wedding, the groomsmen’s ties coordinated with the maid of honor’s dress, and the effect is really striking and fun.

Floral ties on the guys? Gorgeous!

Tiny touches can be anything, from mismatched, thrifted embroidered linens on your reception tables to something like puzzle place cards. What tiny touches will make your wedding extra beautiful?

Wedding Maps and Getting to the Church (or Whatever) On Time

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Even if you’ve planned everything perfectly down to the tiniest detail, your wedding day isn’t going to go smoothly if you can’t actually get to the ceremony or the reception. Some locales have more complicated layouts than others, construction and road closures can screw up the best laid plans, and some addresses are just plain difficult to find. You may be surprised at how difficult your venues are to find for your wedding guests – or even your limo driver! Knowing where you’re going and what’s local can make your wedding day that much less stressful for you and your guests.

How can they have closed every road leading to the chapel?!

Wedding Directions Aren’t Just for Guests
Maybe you’re getting married in your hometown, but lots of couples don’t. And to those brides and grooms I say do a few test runs so you know the lay of the land. Do you know how to get to your ceremony venue? Can you navigate from the ceremony space to the reception venue? Even in the event of a road closure? If you needed to send out your MOH for emergency, last minute supplies, could you tell her how to get to an ATM, a drug store, or a florist’s shop? Unless you just can’t get there prior to the big day – because you’re having a destination wedding, etc. – drive around the locale you’re getting married in until you no longer need a map.

Will Your Wedding Maps Be Accurate?
Speaking of maps, have you actually driven the routes you’re suggesting your wedding guests take from the ceremony to the reception? As mentioned above, if you can, get in the car and check the accuracy of your directions before printing them up and putting them in your wedding invitations. When that isn’t possible, is there someone local who can do it for you? Couples having destination weddings may be able to call their venues to confirm the accuracy of directions. Don’t assume that your limo driver will be 100% sure where your wedding venue is – your knowing how to get there may make all the difference!

Your Wedding Maps Are Here – Double Check Them
You’ve driven around the city or town where your wedding will be held. You’ve driven the routes that make up your wedding directions. And now your wedding maps have finally arrived! Time to assemble your wedding invitations? Not quite. First, you need to proof your wedding map one last time. Mistakes happen! For example, my wedding invitation proof were error-free, but my wedding invitations arrived in the mail with a really lame typo. Your wedding maps may contain some slight oops, and reputable companies will replace them for free as long as you catch the error.

What steps are you taking (or did you take) to ensure your wedding guests can find your ceremony and reception?

How Common Is the Bridesmaid Luncheon?

Monday, June 13th, 2011

A bridesmaid luncheon was not a possibility back when I was planning my own wedding, for one ‘maid was in Florida and the other in Nevada. Of course, considering that the bridesmaid luncheon is traditionally held to honor the contribution of one’s attendants, I would have been off the hook, anyhow. Not that one should base the decisions one makes when choosing bridesmaids on how much work one can squeeze out of them, but typically it’s considered polite for bridesmaids to express at the very least a passing interest in the wedding. But anyway.

The bridesmaid luncheon… I’m very curious to know how many of y’all have hosted one as a bride or will host one, and whether you’ve attended one as a bridesmaid.

All the ladies in the house say luuuuunch!

I have been a bridesmaid the average number of times, and I was honored each time a bride picked me when it came time to choose bridesmaids. So much so that I never noticed that none of them treated me to a fancy midday meal prior to the wedding! No, really. Up until a few years ago, I’d never even heard of a bridesmaid luncheon, and recent reading has led me to believe that the bridesmaid luncheon may be a regional tradition. Particularly the bridesmaid luncheon that involves a color palette, a theme, a venue other than one’s home or the local Mexican restaurant where they give out free sombreros, and more than one table’s worth of ‘maids.

P.S. – Worried about being a bridesmaid? Check out The Knot Bridesmaid Handbook: Help the Bride Shine Without Losing Your Mind for practical pointers!

Our Marriage is Now Street Legal

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

Alarm Clock Apron available from Zazzle

Wow.

Eighteen years.

Tomorrow marks the eighteenth anniversary of my marriage to Mr. Twistie.

Where the heck did all those years go? I don’t know. All I know is that I wouldn’t have spent them with anyone else on a bet.

The funny things is, I don’t even really remember meeting Mr. Twistie. I remember the day, and I remember that I did meet him. But the actual meeting… not so much. I know he was one of about a dozen people I was introduced to at the archery booth at Renaissance Faire that hot August afternoon, but the people? I didn’t pay that much attention. I was there to see a high school buddy, and I didn’t really figure on meeting these people again except, perhaps, in the course of Faire revelry.

Little did I know that these people would become some of the most important people in my life for decades to come. Little did I know that as I hung out trading Monty Python quotes with Michelle that the drunk leaning against a post was developing a little crush on me. If someone had told me that day that there leaned the man I would one day marry… I would never have stopped laughing.

Sometimes you just don’t have a clue.

After all, eighteen years ago tomorrow, I woke early, ate a good breakfast, put on my wedding gown and put together a last-nanosecond headpiece, got my picture taken a whole lot, and said ‘I do’ with joy, pride, and confidence. I spent the rest of the day laughing and dancing and talking with my friends.

The high school friend wasn’t there. She’d drifted out of my life several years earlier. I still miss her now and again, but our lives happened to diverge about the time I really noticed that guy who had been just another Faire drunk a few years earlier.

Michelle, I have no idea where you are now or what you’re up to, but I just want to thank you. Neither of us had any idea that day back in 1980 that you introduced me to the love of my life. You did.

Since the day we married, we’ve been tested in all sorts of ways, but our marriage remains strong. I know in my heart of hearts that if the clock suddenly turned back eighteen years and I woke up tomorrow to find it was my wedding day again, I would speak those same vows with every bit as much joy, pride, and confidence as I said them then.

Mr. Twistie, my beloved, thank you for all these years. Here’s to the next eighteen… and beyond.

LOVE/HATE: The If It’s Tasty Then You Shoulda Put a Ring On It Edition

Friday, June 10th, 2011

And finally, on this, the last day of Wedding Photography Week, a very special multi-image edition of LOVE/HATE. Tell me, what do you think of wedding ring photography that features not fingers, but food…

By Todd Pellowe Weddings

By Choco Studio

By True Love Photo

By Luster Studios

By Cheyenne Shultz Photography

By Erin Langford Photography

By Ryan Brenizer

Love it? Hate it? Think it’s slightly ridiculous but overall okay because, hey, no one’s getting hurt? (That’s my take.)

Wedding Ring Photos – Tips from the Pros

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Ah, the classic wedding ring photo...

Oh my, Wedding Photography Week II is winding down. And that means getting down to the nitty gritty – wedding ring photography. Love it or hate it, it’s one of those things I suggest letting your wedding photographer take since it’s a five second process and you may end up liking them. That said, I found a great set of wedding ring photography tips in a wedding photography guide for brides and grooms written by wedding photographer Glen Johnson. Here’s a taste:

This is one of the most difficult shots to get for a wedding photographer. Most couples are not aware of the fact that they are blocking it either with their hand positions or with their bodies. To turn this moment into a great photo opportunity, all you need to remember is that as you are putting the ring on, position your fingers on the top and bottom instead of on the sides of the ring.

One more tip is to avoid extending your free hand out to grab your partner’s wrist so that you can push that ring on there better. If you feel it is necessary to do this, try putting your hand UNDER your partner’s hand and grabbing on from below. This approach prevents your wrist from blocking the shot. Practice this couple of times, and you will see that it is possible to put the rings on while keeping your ring visible from your guests’ view, and photo capture.

Do you plan on taking wedding ring photos? Would you be terribly disappointed if your ‘slipping the ring on his/her finger’ shots didn’t come out?

So What to Actually Do About Those Wedding Photography Jitters

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Pssst… it’s still Wedding Photography Week!

So let’s say, apropos of yesterday’s post about wedding photos making you nervous, you’re feeling a bit or maybe a lot squeamish about having a wedding photographer all up in your business during your ceremony and reception. Now besides the fact that you can specifically ask your wedding photographer not to be so in your face – which many aren’t to begin with – you can also take some of the pressure to look good off your mind by making wedding photography FUN.

Would you rather write a thousand vows than take one wedding photo?

How? By thinking up some fun action shots and other poses that you can suggest to your photographer or ask her or him to do.

If you read that and thought to yourself “I’m not that creative,” say hello to my best friend, the Internet. And if searching through thousands of wedding photos for some creative inspiration doesn’t sound like fun – !!! – then I let me recommend David Pearce’s Wedding Photography: A Guide to Posing. It’s a wee book meant primarily for wedding photographers, but it can be a great inspirational guide for couples, too. It has 525 full color images of brides and grooms being photographed in various ways to give you all kinds of cool and doable ideas about body positioning, location, lighting, and more.

Should you try to be in complete control of your wedding photos from the processional to the last dance? No way – you’re hiring a professional wedding photographer for a reason, so let them do what they do best. But by learning a bit about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to wedding photos, you’ll be more confident about being the star of your wedding album, and you’ll be much better able to communicate the kinds of wedding photos that you want to your photographer so you can relax and have fun with it.

Confidence? Knowing what you want? Fun? Sounds like you just conquered those wedding photo nerves!