Once upon a time, if you mentioned an eco-friendly wedding, people tended to think of something like this:

You know, obviously hand-hewn, crunchy granola, unfashionable, and probably reeking of patchouli.

In short, even a lot of people who admired the commitment these couples made to living lightly on Mother Earth wouldn’t be caught dead in a ditch looking – or smelling – like them.

But times have changed. You don’t have to be a card-carrying hippie to care about the environment anymore. and you don’t have to completely reject both tradition and fashion to follow your convictions.
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2012 is just around the corner, and that means that the experts are lining up to tell us what’s hot and what’s not for the coming year. I’ve browsed a few of these lists. Some of them contradict one another, but after looking over dozens of guesses, I’m seeing some pretty clear clues to what’s coming in the next few months. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Dessert tables are expected to continue to be a big deal in weddings. Variety is the spice of life, and a wonderful way to end a reception meal.

A further wrinkle on this trend that’s on the rise for parties that last late into the night is a second spread of snacks offered to guests on their way out. Doughnuts, cookies, sliders, coffee and cocoa… this is the chance to offer up a tasty final gift to your guests.
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Have you ever wondered how to figure out how many people that cake you just made will serve at a wedding? Turns out the good folks at Wilton have a handy guide to help you out.

Oh, and if your cake isn’t going to be either round or square, don’t panic! They include equally handy guides for tiers shaped like hearts, flowers, ovals, and paisley, too.

If you’re the one baking your own cake (or you’re giving the job to someone close to you who is a great baker but hasn’t done this level of work before), you can also find great tips on the site for how to construct, decorate, display, and even transport this all-important confectionary creation to your reception site.

There is a section of recipes, but I have to say they didn’t impress me much. Frankly, I would look elsewhere.

But if you need to find a speciality pan, pastry bags and decorating tips, or display items to get you going, Wilton is a great place to start.

You’ve spent the last year arguing with vendors, wrangling wayward bridesmaids, stretching an inadequate budget, tying tiny ribbons on things it’s entirely possible nobody but you will notice, and generally hovering on the precipice of your nineteenth nervous breakdown. Now it’s time to party!

But after all of this effort, you really don’t want to spend your wedding night getting plastered. Well, maybe you do, but if that’s the case, just move along, nothing to see here. If, on the other hand, you have concerns about overdoing the festivities and don’t like that idea, just follow me after the cut for some sage advice on how to have a great time but still keep your head at your wedding.
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Omigosh omigosh omigosh, how amazing and inspirational is this travel inspired dessert buffet created bySweets Indeed and featured on the Amy Atlas Events blog? I think it has everything in the whole world that I like, from a casual, almost-but-not-quite rustic design to its incredible whimsy and prettiness. Oh, and sugarsugarsugar*, but that goes without saying.

On the Amy Atlas Events blog, Amy herself shares a few tips and tricks that will help the DIYers out there create an incredible dessert buffet. Speaking as someone who recently discovered that she likes designing the look and feel of events, I’d wager that something like a candy buffet or dessert buffet would be a relatively simple project. Much less stressful than, say, baking a wedding cake or sewing a wedding dress.

*my drug of choice

If there’s one wedding reality show I find myself really enjoying of late, it’s Four Weddings on TLC. For those unfamiliar, four brides getting married in the same area around the same time attend one anothers’ weddings and score them on the gown, the venue, the food, and the overall experience. The bride whose wedding gets the highest aggregate score wins a fabulous honeymoon to a surprise location, and the other three, well, they get to be on TV and attend three weddings without having to come up with a gift and being utterly free to snark or gush about whatever they please for the nation at large.

The two episodes I watched last night were particularly interesting to me, in that they included some really brilliant and some really, really questionable ideas. Take a look after the cut to see what I’m talking about.
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My mother always said orange was her favorite neutral. If there’s one thing I learned at her knee, it was that her eye for color was impeccable. These days, orange is my favorite neutral, too.

Oh I know it’s a bright, aggressive color. I know a little can go a long way. I also know it goes with and brings out the best in a wide variety of colors. I also know it’s a wonderful color for a happy celebration like a wedding.

Not convinced? Take a look under the cut at the cheery gallery of orange wedding details I’ve put together. Please note that there is not a single one that looks like Halloween.

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