Manolo for the Brides

Some brides- and grooms-to-be, when confronted by the cost of the average wedding, begin to contemplate getting married at home… or at least in the home of a well-to-do relative with a house or property that makes a nice backdrop for wedding photographs. It’s what The Beard and I did, and we were able to save quite a bit of money by getting married on my grandmother’s water-front property in a very upscale area of Florida’s Atlantic coast. It worked for us, and beautifully so, though I’m quick to caution brides and grooms thinking of getting married at home that it’s not always the least expensive or even the less expensive option.

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Please forgive my terrible pun in this post’s title, but the temptation to make it was irresistible. You see, Andrea Parrish and Peter Geyer of Spokane, WA have decided to pay for their upcoming nuptials using naught but the proceeds collected from the recycling of aluminum cans. According to their web site, they’ve collected 25,781 cans thus far, and have inspired others to donate the proceeds from their recycling excursions to the tune of 56,571 cans. Parrish and Geyer have a ways to go, however, before they can finance their relatively inexpensive July wedding. They’re planning a modest affair costing around $4,000, which will require them to collect a total of 318,648 more cans.

While it is a pretty insane idea — though a wonderfully create one — I must say I do like it a lot better than the “pay for my wedding just because I asked you to” schemes or the “pay for my wedding” registries. Parrish and Geyer are putting some real effort into paying for a wedding in an offbeat way. And is having your living room stuffed with bags and bags of aluminum cans all that much worse than having it stuffed with wedding favor boxes, ribbons, silk flowers, and seating chart mock-ups? All right, maybe it’s a little worse, if only because donated cans might not be entirely clean.

Like the idea? If you’re in Spokane, you can drop off your cans for this quirky couple at the Instant Sign Factory or they’ll gladly pick them up from your place (if you have enough to make it worth it, I imagine). For those not in Spokane, Parrish and Geyer recommend that you recycle your own aluminum cans, buy yourself a coffee or beer, and if you’re so inclined, send the leftover cash to them.

(Photo via)

We tend to think of wedding planning in terms of “Dos” here at Manolo for the Brides, mainly because there are so many fun and practical and fascinating dos. Do buy the wedding dress you love, even if it goes against the body type rules. Do have the wedding ceremony you want, even if it means some of your relatives will look at you a little funny. And so on, and so forth. There are so many great wedding planning dos, especially when you’re open to alternative weddings or just weddings that differ somewhat from the norm. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t wedding planning don’ts that cross the boundaries between the traditional wedding and the wedding where the bride and groom are hanging by skin hooks. Here are some of my favorite wedding don’ts — please add yours in the comments!

Blowing Your Wedding Budget
This is the biggest and possibly the most common of all wedding planning oopses, if only because it’s so easy to commit. Between everything we hear about the soaring costs of the “average” wedding and all the beautiful wedding stuff out there, who wouldn’t start to think that $50,000 sounds like a plenty reasonable sum to spend on a party? But let’s get real, shall we? Some brides and grooms have that kind of money to spend, while others don’t. Be honest with yourself when creating a wedding budget, and put together a fabulous wedding that won’t bankrupt you.

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Hey there caption fans! It’s time once again to play Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness. You all know how this works. I pick a photo that I firmly believe is crying out for a caption, you provide said captions via the comments box, and next week I declare a winner whereupon we all celebrate with virtual wedding cake and cookies.

This week’s pic comes to you from the ‘Scarlet, she looks like a meringue’ file and it looks a bit like this:
Ready…set…snark!

For all the talk about how the wedding is the bride’s day to the exclusion of everyone else, the fact remains that a lot of different people have a big stake in the event. There are parents, siblings, friends, religious communities, vendors, and the list goes on. Most of all, there’s the person you’re marrying. He – or she – is kind of important.

Obviously, there are ways to minimize the amount of concern you absolutely have to pay to many of these people in planning your wedding. Don’t accept money from anyone you don’t want to have a say in how you spend it. Keep plans close to your chest when talking with disapproving sorts. Remind others that you’ve been supportive of their plans and expect them to show you the same courtesy.

In the longrun, though, you’re going to have to compromise with someone about something in the course of your plans, including your intended. How do you do it effectively? Read on for some tips.
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Who’s best placed to talk about wedding color trends for 2010? The wedding vendors who are already knee deep in outfitting the upcoming weddings of 2010, of course! Curious, I had a gander at My Personal Artist’s trend watch for the spring and summer of this year, and found both aqua blue and lime green on the list. My first thought was let’s put them together! Here’s the result:

Paired with brown detailing and tiny rhinestones, aqua and lime wedding invitations can be beachy but don’t have to be. This is a fun palette that maintains its elegance when you, say, leave the sea stars on the sand where they belong. (via)

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Embroidered and bedazzled bridal sneakers… with heels. Bridal Chucks. And then there’s wellies, Uggs, and cowboy boots. I don’t think anyone can deny that footwear for the bride is a divisive issue when you move away from satin slippers and ivory pumps. All you have to do is look at comments like “Bridal shoes with personality are one thing. Completely tacky bedazzled canvas bridal shoes are another. Yuck!”

Photographer Mark Wallace snapped this pic of bride and groom sneakers from Adidas somewhere in New York — no surprise there — and I’m wondering what the readership thinks.

My take: At least they’re not covered in hot glued lace and glitter, like some bridal sneakers I’ve seen. What should we call their companions, groomal sneakers? You could wear them for a long time, since Adidas sneakers tend to last. And if you’re the kind of gal or guy who has spent practically your whole life in a pair of three stripes, then why not? I don’t love ‘em, but I sure as hell don’t hate them as much as I hate most bridal sneakers.

What say you?

We’ve all seen the trash the dress photoshoots where the bride is rolling around in a marsh somewhere, thoroughly muddying her wedding gown and looking like a waterlogged fairy with naughty deeds on her mind. There’s one set where a stuntwoman bride lit her gown on fire while wearing it, post-wedding of course. Then there are the trash the dress sessions where the now married bride tromps through dust and grime, perhaps even letting a few brambles tear at the hem of her gown. I’m glad those brides were able to afford a second session with a photographer and, one hopes, got the photos they wanted.

But trashing the dress isn’t for everyone, and especially not those brides who feel a strong sentimental attachment to their wedding dresses. That said, these same brides might also feel the inclination to take their gowns out into nature without ripping it apart or staining it beyond recognition or wetting it through or burning it to a crisp. Can they trash the dress without actually, well, trashing the dress? After doing a quick survey of trash the dress photos, I think the answer is yes. Many of not most of the photos that purport to trash the dress really don’t do much in the way of wear and tear. Here are three ways brides who want to take interesting post-wedding photos and come away with an intact wedding dress.

Take a chair into nature. Just because you’re out in the fields doesn’t mean you have to subject your wedding dress to the ravages of mud and animal droppings. A stool is just as out of place in a forest as a wedding dress is, so you’re not taking anything away from the photo other than astronomical drycleaning bills after the fact.

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There’s no way around it other than keeping things unofficial… every state in the U.S. requires that couples obtain a marriage license before their wedding vows will mean anything in the government’s eyes. Frankly, applying for a marriage license is one of the more boring items on the wedding planning to-do list, but since it’s such a vital one I feel we must address it here for the sake of completeness. While I wish it were as engaging as sampling wedding cakes or shopping for a wedding dress, it just isn’t. On the the other hand, a quick trip to the county clerk’s office shouldn’t be stressful or too much of a pain in the butt if you go prepared.

Obviously every state will have its individual rules where applying for a marriage license is concerned, so I’m not going to try to cover every states’ particulars here. For that, you should call the clerk’s office since I’d say about 99% of the sources I’ve found for state-by-state marriage license info have been out of date or just plain incorrect. What follows here is a rough guideline for those who are just starting to think about applying for a marriage license.

Who, What, Where?
You and your spouse-to-be will proceed to the county clerk or clerk of the court office together, hopefully with all of the proper documentation. At the very least, you’ll need some form of ID, usually a driver’s license, birth certificate, military ID, or passport, though states’ requirements can vary. Non-citizens may have to present more than one form of ID. There’s going to be an application fee, and some county clerks still only accept cash and money orders or personal checks. Oh, and you’ll want to know three things: your social security number (which all adults really should have memorized), your wedding date, and where you’re planning to marry.

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