I love alternative wedding flowers, as evidenced by this post about paper bridal bouquets and this post about paper wedding flowers and this post about other alternative wedding flower options that links to even more. Flowers, I’ll admit, are beautiful but also sometimes a real pain in the rear when you’re trying to coordinate a wedding that will include traveling or extreme hot weather. DIY? Not always the best idea when it comes to real live blooms and their idiosyncrasies.

But of course, not everyone wants a bridal bouquet that very specifically is not trying to be real flowers. And some of those people don’t want to resort to tacky looking faux blossoms, either. So what’s the middle minded, possibly allergic bride-to-be who wants an alternative that’s not too alternative when it comes to her wedding flowers to do?

Here’s where I come back to paper. Specifically paper bridal bouquets and arrangements created by The Crimson Poppy. Inspired by her family’s genetic black thumb, the artisan behind the company went from 0 to expert in the paper flower realm, always striving for a realistic looking bloom that wouldn’t wilt or die. And judging by these examples, I’d say she succeeded admirably.

Pro 1: Flowers in any color you can imagine

Pro 2: Roll the cost of preservation into your bouquet

Pro 3: Nothing fussy about these flowers

Pro 4: Will survive transport and then some

Anyone out there going for wedding flower alternatives over real blossoms? What are you opting for and where are you buying it?

As technology gets better and better – hello, ereaders in color and always in focus cameras – more and more of our correspondence moves online. Seriously, when was the last time someone sent you an actual paper letter? (You lucky thing.) Lagging behind, however, are the online wedding invitation and the email wedding invitation, which my guess are still pretty much universally maligned. Evite for your baby’s first birthday party or your anniversary luncheon? No prob. Something like My Invitation Link? Not so much.

You are cordially and electronically invited.

Since I like to keep on top of how people directly involved in the world of wedding planning and those who are expecting wedding invitations are feeling about everything from favors to stationery, I thought it was high time for this wedding aficionada to check in with the next round of brides-to-be, grooms-to-be, and guests-to-be to weigh in on the subject of online wedding invitations and email wedding invitations. Still utterly déclassé? Or gaining ground in terms of acceptability as a paper wedding invitation alternative now that we’re all spending half our lives online anyway?

How would you react upon finding a link to an electronic wedding invitation in your inbox?

Captured by Daniel Usenki Photography

Fact: When it comes to personalizing a reception venue dance floor, options are limited. You can use lighting design to spruce up your party space. Or choose a reception venue with a dance floor that’s a cut above – something like a wood tile floor or light up dance floor. The only other option that comes to mind is the vinyl dance floor monogram, provided your wedding venue of choices allows such things.

But when you’re hauling in your own dance floor, anything goes. Er, within the limits of the local event rental companies’ inventories, I suppose. If I had my wedding to do all over again, I would spring for the dance floor – sandy soil underfoot didn’t exactly inspire booty shakin’ – and furthermore opt for a checkerboard like the one above. Probably wee like the one above, too, since I like the idea of everyone cramming their finely dressed selves onto a tiny checkerboard dance floor outside in the empty air as if that’s only place dancing is permitted. The contrast between the checkerboard floor and nature is fantastic.

Have you thought about your dance floor options? Or is that just too tiny a detail to matter in your wedding planning book?

Wedding guests, be good!

The Bride-to-Be Is the Point Person for Wedding Info
The bride-to-be is busy. Ever heard of wedding stress? Family is the number one reason for wedding stress, but simple busyness comes in at a close second. Sure, there’s plenty of downtime in the wedding planning process, but there is also plenty for the bride-to-be to do. Especially as the wedding date looms ever closer. Now there are those wedding guests who literally know no one other than the bride (old middle school chums, for instance) and so can’t exactly dial up the MOH out of the blue, but most other guests will know someone, like the MOB for instance, who can answer questions like “Will there be a vegetarian option at the reception” or “Would a summer suit be appropriate attire?”

There Is an Implied +1 or ‘and Guest’ On Your Wedding Invitation
This is one of those areas where weddings bring out the worst in people. It would never occur to me, were I invited to a conference or luncheon or going away party, to RSVP or worse yet, to just bring an “and guest” out of the blue. Then again, I take invitations at face value and there are apparently a whole lot of people who don’t. To avoid confusion, experts like myself recommend that everyone who is invited to a wedding be listed by name on the wedding invitation. That way, no one can claim ignorance.

The Couple Must Provide Free Booze/Cake/Hors d’œuvres/Etc.
What the couple is responsible for is serving some form of refreshments at the reception. Things the couple is not responsible for include helping you get your crunk on, making sure what is served is your favorite ever food, or having so much on hand to eat that wedding guests actually have to remove their pants after dinner. The wedding reception meal is one brunch or lunch or dinner out of a guest’s life, yet some guests get really cranky about it. And they shouldn’t. It would be entirely impossible for brides and grooms to take every single dietary particularity into account when planning the reception menu. Don’t like it? Don’t eat it, and don’t complain.

You Should Bring a Gift to the Wedding
Gifts for the bride and groom are an expected courtesy, and one made extra simply by the existence of online wedding registries that let you choose presents in your pajamas and have them sent along to the happy couple’s home. These days, no one other than the UPS man has to lug wedding gifts around. While I do see wedding gift tables set up at most receptions, bringing a gift to the wedding means that someone will be responsible for bringing said gift home from the wedding. And don’t brides and grooms and their families have enough to do post-reception without adding lugging gifts to the mix? Even if you don’t buy off the wedding registry – and you don’t have to – have your wedding gift sent along to the happy couple in advance of the big day.

What are your wedding guest pet peeves?

In Nevada, where The Beard grew up, they called them cootie catchers. In New York, they were fortune tellers. In either case, these simple, folded paper sheets make easy DIY wedding programs – or seating cards or recyclable wedding favors or reception menus, for that matter. I’ve even read about some couples putting them at reception tables to help break the ice.

But I still think simple paper fortune tellers make the best wedding programs, especially when done a bit cleverly, since they give wedding guests something not only to read, but also to do. (Even if it is just flipping paper.) Which really comes in handy during that inevitable pre-ceremony delay! Here are some from around the net:

Cute cut-outs on this one - simple paper can get pretty fancy!

Beautiful fortune teller wedding programs spotted on Delightfully Engaged

No time to DIY? Get custom cootie catchers from katskrafts on Etsy

For the DIY set, Ruffled has a fortune teller wedding program template that brides and grooms can download and customize with everything from details about the couple and ceremony to actual fortunes or other conversation starts, though I think it would be sweet to see hand-drawn wedding program cootie catchers. Er, for those who either are having smaller weddings or feel inclined to practice their pretty script on 150 of the things, that is.

What’s this? Today’s post is written not by me, Christa aka Never teh Bride, but by Bentley Meeker, America’s premier lighting designer. I thought Mr. Meeker might have something to say on the subject of lighting design for weddings, as he has worked for over two decades in the event industry, creating extraordinary environments for the weddings of notable celebrities like Robert DeNiro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Chelsea Clinton. The images in Mr. Meeker’s post come from his book, Light X Design, which features a kaleidoscope of amazing lighting design for weddings and other events.

Wedding lighting design for ceremonies

Lighting is THE single most important visual element in your wedding. More so than flowers, decor, or even architecture and space. Yet, with all of its critical nature, so many brides, and even wedding planners, don’t consider lighting or budget for it at all. If so, it is often looked at as an addendum to the wedding decor budget.

With lighting setting the mood, it should be considered first and foremost once a space is chosen. Here’s why: One can transform any space with light, but one can only augment with flowers or decor.

On the practical side, there are three things that need to be managed when executing a lighting design for weddings:

• The room needs to look beautiful
• The guests have to feel good
• Lastly, the guests, especially the bride, have to FEEL good

Lighting design for receptions, too

So in support of that, here are five things to look for when lighting a wedding:

1. Symmetry - Light everything evenly so that the room looks symmetrical.

2. Intensity - Dim the lights a little less than you think you should. Your eye adjusts to the lower light and it creates so much more atmosphere than you’d ever imagine. Which brings me to my next point:

3. Levels - Dim absolutely everything. Having the ability to dim the lights when the grandparents go home and set the mood for the kids is a pretty important thing to be able to do.

4. Color - Soft beautiful flattering colors (pinks, ambers, honeys and apricots) should be used wherever people are. While we love blue and green to look at, and we often want to go bolder with color, those colors make our skin tones sallow and pasty.

5. Angles - Be super sensitive to light in peoples’ eyes by angling things as vertically as possible. If your grandmother has a light shining in her eyes all night, chances are she’ll go home before the cake cutting.

There is also a 6th consideration, namely your lighting designer. Since lighting is often mysterious and unknown, and the bride and her family are often unable to see the full picture prior to their walking in, (decor, catering, etc. will not yet have been set up) it is very important that your lighting designer really get you and who you are. That’s personality driven and I think it should be considered right alongside talents and portfolios as a critical criteria.

~Bentley Meeker

Are you a wedding vendor who has some insight to share with brides-to-be and grooms-to-be? Send me an email to talk about the possibility of guest posting right here!