Admit it – unless you’re the bride or the groom or someone really close to the bride or groom, listening to wedding speeches can be kind of tedious. Not everyone knows how to give a great wedding speech, and not all wedding receptions time the service of the apps or cake to coincide with the speechifying. There’s not much any of us can do about it, which is why I’m loving Wedding Speech Bingo, a free download from One Fab Day. There are eight different Wedding Speech Bingo cards using the same basic phrases in different combinations, which means couples can print a card per table or give everyone at each table their own card. Want to be extra sweet? Have prizes at the ready for the winners!

Some couples take wedding cake smooshing for granted, and what’s worse, take it for granted that their better halves share their opinions on wedding cake smashing. A little icing up your nose won’t hurt anyone, of course, but it sure can do a number on the bride’s makeup job, indelibly dye a white wedding dress, or cause the groom to lose the security deposit on his rental. Every tried to get icing out of an updo?

And even though some brides and grooms don’t care about their clothes of makeup or hair, those same people may simply not want a handful of wedding cake smashed into their faces. Not at a wedding, not ever.

Look like fun? Maybe, maybe not. If they’re both into it, then dandy. I went looking for opinions about wedding cake smashing on message boards and elsewhere, and reactions to it ran the gamut from childish to hilarious. One reaction I found compared wedding cake smooshing to a slap in the face! I wouldn’t go that far, but I will admit that I asked The Beard NOT to smash and did not smash cake on his face. My stylist was in attendance, and I think he would have felt compelled to redo my makeup. Plus, getting dirty just isn’t my thing.

So personally, I won’t advocate for or against wedding cake smashing, but I will recommend that all brides and grooms – even those who consider themselves very easygoing – bring up the subject in advance of the reception so they and their new spouse will be on the same page when it comes time to cut the cake.

Photo by David Christensen

What could be sweeter than gathering together with your family and friends on a beautiful day to pledge your undying love to your favorite person in the whole wide world? How about doing all of that… with ice cream?

(via Solar Photographers)

Some brides and grooms luck out – they’re just leaving for the reception with their attendants when that old familiar tune starts playing in the distance, getting louder and louder until that gorgeous ice cream truck is close enough to flag down.

(via Green Wedding Shoes)

Some brides and grooms luck out – they’re just leaving for the reception with their attendants when that old familiar tune starts playing in the distance, getting louder and louder until that gorgeous ice cream truck is close enough to flag down.

(via Gold Coast Ice Cream Truck Co.)

But if it’s not summertime or ice cream trucks don’t regularly visit your wedding ceremony or reception areas, there’s always ice cream truck rental from places like Gold Coast Ice Cream Truck Co. of NYC and Long Island. Have them park outside your wedding reception venue and take the idea of the sundae bar to a whole new level!

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

In the past, we’ve seen custom movie posters for weddings featuring brides and grooms and rock ‘n’ roll poster wedding invitations. Now, from Marit Hanson Weddings, I want to show you all some totally sweet save-the-dates modeled after promotional materials. I love them – great for the sports lovers or the show lovers, no?

Here’s a save-the-date that your guests will want to frame – or at least stick to the wall with that blue gummy stuff. It includes space for a photo and all your wedding day details. Do your guests really want a poster-sized save-the-date? Who knows, but think about how cute it would look in your house once you’re wed.

If a poster seems like a little much but you want the same look, how about a promotional postcard save-the-date? You can let your personalities take center stage and feel just a little famous with these much more manageable pieces of pre-wedding stationery.

Of course, not everyone who really wants to go to your nuptials can make the cut! Be sure that your wedding is invite-only with these awesome save-the-date tickets that will keep the riffraff out of your reception.

P.S. – Happy birthday to me! It’s the first anniversary of my 30th birthday!

P.P.S. – Angela of Your Fairy Tale Wedding wrote to tell me about her CHRISTMAS WEDDING DRESS GIVEAWAY. In her own words: “I will be giving away a free wedding dress for Christmas! Any Bride who purchases her dress between October 1st and December 24th will automatically be entered into a drawing to get their dress for FREE! If you name is drawn your money will be refunded and you will get your dress, shipping and all n…o charge. I am going to be asking one of my past brides to be in charge of drawing so if you are a past bride and you are interested in taking on this responsibility please let me know!”

Can I be sad that no one used royalty-free video clips, rock & roll, explosion sounds, movie clip, and pictures of unicorns to make me a congratulatory video card when I got married? Because I am. I truly, truly am.

How awesome are these pencil and magnet save-the-dates? Real bride and groom Amber and Jeff designed their own monogrammed magnets and had custom pencils engraved with their important info. Everything was prettily boxed and looked super professional, but it was DIY all the way for Amber, who said on Once Wed that her “craftiest pre-wedding endeavor involved cutting a heart out of construction paper”.

For real, I love stuff like this. Is anyone out there reading this thinking of a similarly original save-the-date? Or for those resigned to something simple, what kind would you be sending out of money, time, or skills were no object? I might have snagged this idea if I’d seen it before sending out my own save-the-dates, which were your standard postcard save-the-dates. They didn’t even have our pictures on them, boo!