Great Wedding Songs

If you are anything like me you could always use ideas for songs to play at your wedding. Since I haven’t been to too many weddings I don’t really know how the whole reception order goes and when you play certain songs that you pick ahead of time. So I have gathered a few songs from my collection and different web sites and certain times that you could play them throughout your big night! A few key moments that a lot of people like to pick which songs are played are the first dance, father/daughter dance, and mother/son dance. These are just a few of the key moments when couples like to give their DJ or band a list of songs to play during those particular times. For more songs and more key moments check out my website! So here are a few suggestions for each of the key moments I listed above:

The first dance (between the couple):

“You & Me” by Dave Matthews Band

“Only You Can Love Me This Way” by Keith Urban

“At Last” by Etta James

Father/daughter dance:

“The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra

“My Little Girl” by Tim McGraw

“Daddy’s Hands” by Holly Dunn

Mother/son dance:

“What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong

“My Wish” by Rascal Flatts

“A Mother’s Song” by T Carter Music

I know this doesn’t seem like very many songs to choose from or very many moments but that is why you should check out my web site. I have many more key moments and wonderful songs suggestions for each moment throughout the night! Just go to my website and check out my articles, while you’re there feel free to look around I have tons of wonderful information on there as well!

Fairytale Wedding Dress

The wedding dress is one of the biggest pre-wedding items that the bride looks forward to the most. When wedding dress shopping there is laughing, sighing, stress, and usually tears. However when there are tears it is usually because you know that you have found your dress, or because your mom is seeing you in a wedding dress for the first time and it is finally sinking in that her little girl is getting married. However I chose to write this particular blog not to tell you about wedding dress shopping but to tell you about some magical wedding dresses that I found. Growing up I loved to play house. I would get all dressed up and pretend like I was one of the princesses in a Disney movie getting ready to marry my prince. Now every little girls dream has come true and she can finally wear the Disney princess wedding dress she dreamed of wearing as a child. A famous, top of the line wedding dress designer, Alfred Angelo, has come out with a line titled “Fairy Tale Weddings by Alfred Angelo.”  Ariel’s dress is a mermaid style with sea-inspired details such as pearl and crystal beading. Princess Jasmine’s dress is a flowing gown with a jeweled halter neckline. Sleeping Beauty’s dress is a romantic single shoulder strap dress with layers of tulle for the bottom that are meant to resemble cascading briar rose petals. Princess Tiana’s dress is a one should taffeta ball gown that has ruched pick-ups that are meant to resemble a water lily. Cinderella’s dress, which is one of my favorites, is exactly how you would imagine it; it is a classic ball gown with glitter all over the tulle and a criss-cross bodice with a sweetheart neckline. Belle’s dress is just like the yellow one she wore in the end of the movie, only in white. It is a beautiful gown that has a detachable shrug, a draped net pick-up skirt and subtle hunts of gold metallic embroidery on the corset. Last but not least Snow White’s dress is my absolute favorite. It is a beautiful dress that was inspired by nature with apple blossoms all over the sweetheart neckline top and cascading over the bottom of the dress. Every girl should at least look at these dresses because even if they aren’t for you they might do for you what they did for me which if remind me of my childhood and how I imagined my wedding when I was younger.

Wedding Planner in a Box

I recently purchased something from one of my favorite wedding Web sites, The Knot, called Wedding Planner in a Box. I don’t plan on hiring a wedding planner because I am on a budget and want to save as much money as possible. In contrast to hiring a wedding planner, this wedding planner in a box was only $14.99 + tax & shipping and handling of course. Even after all of that though I still only paid $26.31, which I’m sure beats the price of a wedding planner anywhere! This is something that I would recommend any bride to buy that is planning her own wedding. It is so helpful and has so many different things in it that I’m sure you would never think about on your own. Here are just some of the things that come inside the wedding planner in a box:

- A wedding checklist for the months leading up the wedding as well as the day before and day of.

- Tips for how to get started planning the big day

- Questions for each vendor that you should ask them

- Make-up tips, as well as tips for your accessories and gown

And a ton of helpful suggestions regarding bridesmaid dresses, tuxedoes, photography, flowers, the menu, the reception site, and so much more! This might the best thing I have bought so far to help my with my wedding. Since I am the first person in my family to get married my mom and I have no idea where to start or what questions to ask vendors. With my planner in a box I can just take out the card that is labeled “photography” when I go to meet with the photographer and I at least won’t forget to ask the important questions! To check it out and buy one just click here!

How Do I Respond?

As every bride, and groom, will find out sooner or later is that as soon as you get engaged people you haven’t talked to in years will start congratulating you. That’s not a bad thing, until you start getting the uncomfortable questions and comments. You all know what I’m talking about, the questions that go a little something like this, “I’m invited right?” or “Am I invited?” Or you get the awkward comments such as “I’ll be looking for my invitation!” or “I can’t wait to see how beautiful your wedding is going to be.” The comments are the worst because you can’t tell if they are being nice or just trying to get an invite! Most brides never know what to say in response, I know personally I hate letting people down, it always makes me feel guilty even though I know I shouldn’t because it’s my day and I should be able to have the people there that I want and not have the people there that I don’t want. So I have come up with a few polite responses that I have been working on and actually using!

“We’re so excited about being engaged we haven’t even started thinking about all of the details yet!”

“We’re probably going to be footing the bill ourselves, so we’re focusing on having a really small and intimate wedding.”

“It’s so awesome you’re interested in our wedding! We haven’t even set a date yet though so we have to get all the details first!”

It’s always easy to put the blame on someone else so this excuse always works best with friends – “Sorry, it’s out of my hands. My parents are footing the bill, so Mom and Dad are in charge of the guest list.”

If you have any excises you have used please share below, it would help to have multiple ones I could use, as I’m sure all of you know!

Also check out this etiquette book that I found, it seems to have a lot of really helpful information in it!

Don't Wait Too Long!

Every bride as soon as she gets the ring on her finger has a million things running through her head. But there is always that one thing that the bride has dreamed about, no not the actual wedding but what she will wear on her big wedding day! Trying on different dresses can be the most fun, stressful, crazy, enjoyable times before the actual day of the wedding. It is also the one thing that you get to do all by yourself, without the groom that is. Trying on wedding dresses is a day to spend with you mom, sister, grandmother, aunt, or whomever you chose to go with you. There will most likely be tears shed and you might want to pull your hair out after the first 15 dresses or so. However once you find that one, the one that as soon as you put it on you just know it is the one, it will all be worth it and it will make you want your wedding day to be here that much sooner. Nevertheless this is something that you should not wait too long to start doing! Unless you plan on buying off the rack, which there is nothing wrong with especially since you can usually get a discount when you buy off the rack, you need to start shopping early! By early I mean at least 10 months in advance. You might think that this sounds a bit ridiculous and way to early but if you order your dress most people don’t know that it can take anywhere from 2-6 months for a wedding dress to come into a store. It all depends on if the maker has your size in one of their stores or has to have one made and shipped. So just remember that you'll want to leave plenty of time for shipping and for your fittings. The same goes for the bridesmaid dresses too!

DIY Guestbook

When looking for ideas for my wedding I really like interesting and unique things that you wouldn't see everyday or at the usual wedding you would attend. A couple years ago I was looking at the website that I stumbled upon that I really love and has a lot of uncommon things on it. It had what almost looked like a mailbox and it came with a box with 200 tiny sheets of paper. It was called something along the lines of “A Special Occasion Box.” Instead of the traditional guest book where guests just sign their names and where they are from the guests write little notes on these tiny pieces of paper and shove them in an empty hole. The happy couple could then display the “mailbox” in their home and look at the little tiny slips of paper of well wishes from their friends and family whenever they wanted. Of course when I went back to look for the item it had been discontinued. So I have been trying to think of other unique options that could substitute for this item that I fell in love with. The closest thing that I have come up with is I could possibly try to recreate this item. Cutting out the tiny pieces of paper would be no problem; it would just be trying to recreate the mailbox that would be the difficult thing since it was made out of cardboard. So since I love the scrapbook I thought that I could possibly incorporate a traditional guestbook with the one I fell in love with through a scrapbook. I could design it and fill it with pictures of my fiancé and I, and leave room from pictures from our wedding and the reception with cutouts of blank pictures with quotes like “The Guest With the Best Dance Move Will Go Here.” Then along with the pictures I will leave places on each page for guests to tuck the tiny pieces of paper with their well wishes. It is a great way to incorporate both ideas and still kind of get the unique “mailbox” feeling I was going for. It is a great DIY idea that I really look forward to doing myself with my fiancé’s help! The only problem is scrap booking can be a little costly but with sales and cutting coupons I am hoping to not run up to big of a tab, the only problem is scrap booking is one of my weaknesses. If you have any unique guestbook ideas please share them below!

Emergency Kit

Something that every bride needs to have on her big day is an emergency kit. For me the day is just too perfect, I am getting ready to marry the love of my life, something I have been waiting to do for eight years. Which means something is bound to go wrong, the day can't be this perfect. I mean it could but just in case something does happen it is always best to have an emergency kit! Many things can go in this and it’s always best to let someone else carry it because your probably going to be too excited and end up forgetting it all together or missing something important. This might be something that your mom can take to the church or venue for your wedding ahead of time just to be prepared. Some things you’re not going to want to forget to put in your emergency kit include:

- A hairbrush or comb

- Small bottle of hairspray

- Emory board

- Extra Panty Hose (if you’re going to be wearing some)

- All of your makeup (just in case)

- Mints

- Deodorant/perfume

- Tide to go pen/White Chalk (or something in case someone spills)

- Bobby Pins and Hair Ties

- Clear Nail Polish / Nail Polish you and your Bridesmaids are wearing as well

- Extra Earring Backs

- Iron

- Lint Brush

- Sewing Kit

- Tylenol/Ibuprofen

- Band-Aids

- Lotion

- Mouthwash/Toothbrush

- Tissues

- Tampons or Pads

- $20 Cash (you never knew when you might need it)

- Driver’s License

- Phone with Important Phone Numbers (Caterer, Wedding Party, etc.)

- Snacks (need to keep refreshed and hydrated)

- And most importantly all Important Documents (Marriage License)

These are just a few items that I have been told I can’t forget because you would always rather be safe then sorry!! If you have any more ideas please share them with us!

Also if you don't have time to make one yourself there are a ton on sites such as Amazon that range from pretty cheap to rather expensive depending on what all you want it to include. This is the most reasonably priced one that I have found that includes a lot of the things every bride needs!

DIY Theme Wedding

When you think of a theme wedding most girls thing of centering their wedding around things such as the couple’s favorite musical groups, a movie the couple loves to watch, or creating a wedding that was like the couple’s first date or where the groom proposed. However the type of theme wedding that I am talking about it probably more so what the groom would think of. I am talking about a sports themed wedding. It is something that I have been seeing more often, maybe because since I got engaged I look for these things now, but regardless it’s happening all around us. The couple usually has a favorite team or it is even the place where the groom proposed at, maybe on the jumbotron in front of everybody. And it is something that is easy to do and maybe might even save you some money. There are tons of things you can do to incorporate your favorite team into your wedding, aside from the obvious. Obvious things being that you can coordinate your wedding colors to match those of your favorite team or your groom’s cake can be decorated or shaped to match those of your favorite team and the sport that they play in. Other ideas that you can incorporate your favorite team in is that you can make your save the date or wedding invitations in the shape of a game day ticket and put all your information on there like a game would have, with your picture at the top where that of a player or the stadium would normally be. Also after you have gotten married and are walking down the aisle for the first time as husband and wife you can play your team’s fight song or whatever song that the team may have (or you can play it at another time that you might prefer better). At the reception your table numbers could be sections like in a stadium or something else like player’s names. Your wedding favors can become almost anything you want, be creative as possible it will make your wedding very memorable. You can have set around that you got from the stadium. My fiancé’s favorite team is the New York Yankees, when you go to a baseball fields some fields have fan photo takers that walk around, you can have the same thing at your wedding as a favor. You could have your photographer take the pictures and put a border around each photo about being a big fan of the New York Yankees and being a part of your wedding. Or you can have a photo booth and have borders put around photos when they print out. Theme weddings can be as fun, creative, and as memorable as you want them to be you just have to be creative and go all out!

DIY Dessert Table

Some people have a far less dressed up wedding receptions. Which is perfectly fine because this idea is something that I am considering for my wedding. It’s an idea that can be dressed up or dressed down depending on your particular wedding style. My idea is to have a candy dessert table at my wedding. It’s something that guests can enjoy all throughout the night, especially long after the dinner food has been served and taken away. Since I plan on getting married in January I thought that I could get some really great Christmas candy for a discounted price since it will be after the holidays. I can place out different flavored candy canes (I actually saw Jolly Rancher candy canes this year, I had never seen those before!), peppermints, Christmas kisses, and tons of other great holiday candies that would match my colors of purple with red and silver accents. This isn’t just a great idea for January though it would be a great accent for any month! If you were getting married in February great candy hearts and homemade valentines would be a great accent. In April a great accent would be the candy eggs and chocolate Easter bunnies, and let’s face it if you’re getting married in October everyone loves Candy Corn and fun size Halloween candy bars. If you want to have a little bit more of a fancy wedding your cake can sit as the centerpiece of the candy table or you can even have a separate table for both! If you are going to opt for no cake though and just a candy table a nice accent might be to have a couple cupcake towers decorated to match your candy table for those guests who have an extra sweet tooth. The cupcakes don't need to be anything fancy though, buy your favorite box cake mix from the store and round up your groom, or your bridesmaids, and have fun decorating them yourselves!

Make Sure You Think About

There are many things that can go forgotten when planning a wedding. Whenever I know I have something important to do I always make a checklist. I know in a previous post I gave you guys a link to a bunch of helpful wedding checklists. But the list I am going to give you today is a little bit different. The wedding checklist on the site that I gave you was more detailed and instructional about things you should do in certain time frames before you wedding. This list is just something that I have compiled to help me remember little things that I don’t want to forget. Here’s what I have so far:

The Beginning Stages

Wedding Date and Time

Budget (Money)

Type of Ceremony (Indoor, Outdoor, Religious)

Printed Items

Save the Dates

Invitations

Guest Book

Marriage License

At the Wedding

Rings

Flower Girl Basket

Unity Candle

Emergency Kit

The Reception

Venue (Ceremony & Reception)

Guest List

Seating

Place Cards

Alcohol & Bar

Table Decorations

Present Table

Food

Wedding Cake (how to cut it)

Groom’s Cake

Wedding Favors for Guests

Music 

Vendors

Rings

Photography

Flowers

Musician/DJ

Transportation

Wedding Officiant

Bride

Wedding Dress

Wedding Accessories (Shoes, Jewelry, etc.)

Hair

Make-Up

People In the Wedding

The Wedding Party

Bridesmaid Dresses and Accessories

Flower Girl Dress

Tuxedos

Mother of the Bride/Groom Dress

Rehearsal Dinner

Gifts for the wedding party

After the Wedding

Honeymoon

Thank you cards

I am sure that I will come up with things to add to this list since I am still in my planning process. But this has helped me to think about the things that I need to start planning for. If you have any suggestions of things that I left off please let us all know that way we don’t forget them either!

Save the Date - Theme Wedding

In my past blog post, which you can read here, I gave you some ideas for Save the Dates if you are going to be having a destination wedding. Now I am going to give you more ideas only for theme weddings! Whether you’re a music lover, you want a modern wedding, a traditional wedding or you love unique ideas there is always a DIY idea that you can use for your save the dates. Save the Date magnets are very popular right now, I have been seeing them a lot. They are convenient and a great way to remind your guests every single day of when your wedding is. It’s something that they will see every time they open their refrigerator. Another idea is to send out a postcard to all of your future guests. It’s something that is very DIY and very affordable. You can buy blank postcards in almost any store that has a craft section. After that you just put them right in your printer, design them, and print them out just as you would anything else. You can put an engagement picture on one side of you and your fiancé along with all of the information and add a personal note on the back with the address of whom it is going to. Or for only the cost of blank CDs and supplies you want to use (or only for the supplies you want to use) for the very tech savvy you can make a save the date video. If you search for one on YouTube you can find some very interesting and unique ones. These are some of my favorites and in no particular order. This one! 

As well as this one and  this one too! They are all really great, unique, and different. It’s something that is becoming very popular with the common use of the Internet and computer nowadays and you are guaranteed to have a unique one because no two people think a like and its guaranteed to reflect you and your fiancé’s unique personalities. It’s also has the potential to be completely free as long as you send the video over the Internet. The only thing that it will cost you is a lot of time and patience!

Save the Date - Destination Wedding

Sending out your save-the-dates is almost as exciting as preparing them and it’s the first time your potential future guests get a little insight into your big day! You can show them anything you want on your save the dates that’s the fun part about doing them yourself. A few things that you might want to show are a new engagement picture of you and your fiancé, possible wedding colors, or even possible wedding themes. Some possible ideas are if you’re going to have a destination wedding you could send out a save the date that resembles a boarding pass, like the one seen here below:

If you Google “boarding pass save the dates” you can get a lot more ideas and they are great because you can buy card-stock paper in bulk online or at your local hobby store. Where I’m from we have two hobby stores that sell it, one is Michael’s and the other is Hobby Lobby, although I am sure that you could buy it at places like Wal-Mart or Target as well. Once you buy the card-stock thought you can design this in a design program if you have one, something like Adobe. Or I am sure that you could even make one as simple as the one below in Microsoft Word.  

Another cute idea for a destination wedding is a little bit simpler but it might cost you a little bit more. Instead of a boarding pass you could send out a luggage tag. It’s something that everyone who gets one could use again and again as long as they travel! All you would have to buy would be a clear luggage tag, or a colored one if it fits into your wedding theme or if you like it, as well as some card-stock. I found one below on Google.

 As long as you have a printer and ink either one of these ideas would be a great DIY that would save some cash and be super cute! 

Must Do!

Even before I got engaged one of the first place I heard about was The Knot. It's an amazing wedding Web site that you can sign up for at anytime and in my opinion every bride should do it! It has awesome ways for them to be able to help you find what you're looking for. Some things like entering where your wedding will be held at (location wise) to help you find vendors and venues around your area. Another cool thing you can do is you can label yourself. I know that sounds really odd but by label yourself some examples of that could be as "almost engaged," "engaged," or "after the wedding." By putting these labels on your account the site helps you find things that might help you with your planning or you might even find a great wedding dress that you fall in love with! Or if you're not yet engaged it might help you find the perfect ring that you have dreamed about your whole life. Then you can slyly put the picture somewhere your boyfriend will just happen to see it (only do this though if you have talked about marriage, if you haven't it might freak him out a little bit!). I signed up for the Web site before I officially got engaged because I knew I was going to marry my fiancé. When I first signed up I got a lot of e-mails about weddings rings and the types of designs that are popular right now. Now that I have changed my status to engaged I now get the fun e-mails! And by fun e-mails I mean e-mails that suggest honeymoon locations or even some e-mails with deals on honeymoons if we book now, which we're not interested in doing this early of course. But it still is nice to get ideas on all sorts of fun things early because it gives me a chance to see things I really like and want. 

What to Put on Her (Your) Finger

When you’re getting an engagement ring there are many different types of precious metals to choose from for this wonderful occasion. Most engagement rings are offered in platinum, yellow gold or white gold, rose gold, palladium, titanium, and silver. When my fiancé and I were picking out my engagement ring we had to think about a lot of things. Most girls already have some idea of what they want, and if they tell you they don’t then I would suspect them a telling a little white lie! When we were looking at rings I knew right off the bat that I didn’t want yellow gold. I seriously thought about rose gold because I thought that it was so unique and something different that you don’t see very often. Besides those two, the only other metals that I really knew about were silver, white gold and platinum. I knew that I didn’t want silver because let’s face it most girls want something a little nicer. White gold is the metal I had for the two other rings that I owned, my class ring and a ring my fiancé had previously bought me a couple years ago. I could never wear the rings for very long though because I would develop some sort of dry skin rash underneath the ring on my finger. So we decided to eliminate white gold because the people we talked to at the jewelry store thought that I was most likely allergic to something in the white gold. So since I eliminated white gold and silver are only other option was platinum. Not that I minded that at all, especially since hundreds of years ago platinum was declared to be the only metal fit for royalty (and all girls are princess’ don’t know you)! This item is something that if you want to save a lot of money on and still have the ring look gorgeous you can but we decided to let this be our one splurge since I plan on wearing this ring for the rest of my life, or at least until our 25th wedding anniversary! But most likely longer because I love my ring so much!  If you want to check out more specific information about metals check out these websites that I found:

 Pros and Cons for Choosing the Right Metal     
                         and/or
Engagement Ring Metal Glossary

The Important 4 C's

I possibly could have started my blog with this blog post but it's better late then never! These next few blogs are for all the guys who need a little help (or for the girls who are helping their guys pick our their rings and want some more information!). By now we all know what I'm talking about and that is the engagement ring. There are many factors to consider when picking out the perfect ring for the woman in your life. However, the first thing to think about (besides how much you want to spend) is the diamond that you are going to place in the ring. One of the most important things that anyone ever taught me (and by anyone I mean my mother) was when picking out a diamond you must consider the 4 C's. The 4 C's are Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat.

The Cut can be a variety of shapes. The most popular ones are pictured below.

My engagement ring center stone is a Round cut along with most of my side diamonds. The Round cut is also known as the Brillant cut and is the most popular. The cut of the diamond doesn't just refer to it's shape, it mainly refers to how the diamond is actually cut. To learn more information about Cuts you can look here.

The Color and Clarity of the diamond is just as important as the Cut. The Color and Clarity are going to be key factors in telling you how much the diamond is going to cost you. Colors range from D-Z with D being colorless and Z being a light yellow color. Bad news for your pockets guys most girls want a colorless diamond. However a flawless diamond is very rare and very hard to find. Therefore the Clarity of the diamond you most likely want to buy is going to be in the middle of the chart. To learn more about both Color and Clarity check here. 

The C for Carat strictly refers to how big of a diamond you are going to buy. Whether it be big or small, however this most likely goes without saying but the bigger the diamond the rarer and more expensive it will be. Make sure you check out the sites I gave you to learn more about diamonds! Next time we'll be talking about the kind of metal that beautiful diamond will be sitting in.

$5 and under Favors

I recently stumbled upon an article on Brides.com titled "Favors for $5 (or Less)" It gave me a lot of great ideas because a lot of things are either completely or at least partly DIY, which is exactly what we're looking for! Some of the ideas the article gives could even be made cheaper if you are really looking to save some money without anyone noticing. For instance the first picture shown is a decorated canister of popcorn, which is a great idea because I don't know too many people who don't like popcorn and it would be something easy you could either pop yourself or buy fairly cheap. The canister would be really fun and easy to decorate as well for fairly cheap. This is a great idea, however if you wanted to take it a little bit further and save a little bit more money instead of buying canisters you could use old-fashioned popcorn bags. To help the popcorn stay fresh you could put a plastic bag inside of the paper bag, maybe finding a plastic bag that matches the one of your wedding colors might even add a little flair to it. The paper bag could potentially even be a better idea because you and your groom or bridesmaids could make a whole night out of decorating the paper bags that would hold the popcorn, which would save you even more money, which we all know I'm game for! Make sure you check out the other great ideas the article has as well, there really are some awesome ideas (Numbers 3, 8, 11, and 13 are my personal favorites!)