Wedding Organizers: 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

From Flower Girl Dresses to Farm Foods - Earth Friendly Wedding Shopping

If you are planning a wedding you may start to worry about the Earth friendliness of such events. After all, you have probably been using a lot of different papers that are not usually recycled (or made from recycled materials), and you are probably well aware of the many resources about to be consumed in everything from your bridal shower right through to the breakfast on the morning after the wedding celebration. A single reception can see a huge amount of food waste as well as the creation of full dumpsters of garbage. This is the less pleasant side of weddings and all of their associated activities, but even with tiny steps a couple can dramatically reduce the amount of waste produced by their special event.

As an example, if the couple makes a regular habit of recycling and practice energy conservation, they may find it more difficult to exercise the same control over the wedding events. But through research and effort they can make "greener" shopping choices as much as possible. For example, consider the different places that a bride can look for wedding gowns. If she has decided to purchase flower girl dresses online (which many brides will opt to do) she can begin reducing the effects of the wedding by choosing a company with some green policies.

For instance, concerned online retailers may provide a "green promise" that indicates how they use packing materials that are made from 100% recycled materials - including tissue paper and packing boxes. The same group also indicates that the fabric treatments or cleaners used on the garments they sell are also as Earth friendly as possible too. This green promise means the retailer operates daily with concern for the environment as part of business policy. However, consider that some estimates suggest nearly sixty percent of waste in landfills could be discarded clothing. What happens to the bridal attire, the ring bearer suit and the flower girl dress after the wedding? To reduce the chance of these treasures becoming mere trash, look for wedding attire that is multi-functional and can be passed to a new owner or even worn for other occasions.

Many brides and grooms are concerned about the environmental impact of their wedding and make every imaginable effort to find methods of reducing waste or reusing purchased items. Remember to seek vendors of flower girl dresses and wedding party attire with options for both simple and fancier garments. These dresses and suits will be versatile and can be worn again for other events. They might explain that a plainer dress made from cotton materials could be easily dyed and worn again, or the same site might give a helpful article or two about ways to recycle dresses through such activities as tea parties, dress up kits, plays, Halloween activities, and more.

Here are some more tips for planning an eco-friendly wedding:

1.) Plan for meals and desserts to be served on real dishes. Most caterers and hotel services will provide beautiful dishware that is always washed for re-use.
2.) Opt for paper products made from recycled fibers that can also be re-recycled. Think of this when ordering wedding invitations, thank-you notes, and programs.
3.) Consider having the ceremony at a park or wilderness preserve if you wish for a natural setting. This will contribute funds to help maintain a place of natural beauty and perhaps even inspire some guests to contribute.
4.) Request gift cards or donations to a favorite environmental organization as wedding gifts. Gift cards will not require elaborate packaging and most likely will not be discarded or wasted.
5.) Attempt to use locally grown food sources at your reception, less fossil fuels are consumed to bring the fare to your event.
6.) Look for locally grown wildflowers as well, for the same reason of reducing fossil fuels, and also to showcase the natural beauty of your own area. Consider decorating with potted plants and flowers when possible, they can be donated to the hosting place of worship or wedding attendants and guests after the ceremony.

Remember, too, that your best effort to conserve is a vast improvement over having never bothered to consider the environmental impact of your very special day. Living green is a learning process and a lifestyle choice, so practice makes perfect. And weddings are always a beautiful beginning for everything perfect.

Maid of Honor Wedding Toasts - Tips to the Perfect Speech

If you've attended a wedding recently you will notice that the most memorable maid of honor wedding toasts are generally those that find a balance between being funny and sincere. Personally, I think funny wedding toasts are the best kind as long as the joke is not offensive to the audience. Here are some helpful tips that you can consider if you're preparing a maid of honor speech.

The first thing that you may want to do is to use a little humor in your speech. By doing so, what I have noticed is that the audience has a tendency to pay more attention to you.

Another suggestion that I can offer you is don't try to be be funny during your entire speech. Rather you should try to use humor in periodically. By this I mean that you should start off with a good joke and then try to be honest and sincere - tell a nice story about how you and the bride met. You may even say something nice about both the bride and groom and make sure that it is heartfelt. It's ok if you shed some tears, you are human. Finally, you can conclude with another funny story so that the audience remembers you.

A third suggestion that I have is to try is to interact with the wedding party during your toast. If you have a member of the audience that you know you can plant a funny joke or prop with them to spice up your toast. I recently saw this done at a wedding and it was hilarious. This is a very good way to get the attention of the audience and keeping the conversation fun.

As with all maid of honor toasts, you should ensure that you make eye contact with everyone. It is also important that you memorize your toast so that you look and sound top notch.

9 Creative Ways to Save Money on Wedding Stationary

These 9 ways to save money on wedding stationary will help you trim your wedding budget without anyone being the wiser. Remember your invitations set the tone for your wedding, they need to be just right, so read and find out how to save money on wedding stationary without jeopardizing impressions.

1. When you keep things simple it tends to be more impact and cost effective. Try if you can to use normal shaped invitations. Using large or oddly shaped invites adds a lot more in postage costs.

2. With regards to font and ink, simple is always better and cheaper. You obviously pay more the more embellished the cards are. Colored ink is more expensive than just plain black ink.

3. When it comes to paper, it goes without saying that the thicker the paper the more costly it will be. This is also true for the actual color of the paper as well. White is the cheapest and a great save money on wedding stationary tip is that wood pulp paper is much cheaper than linen or cotton.

4. We are all trying to save our planet, why not go green and rather send your save the date request via email.

5. You don't need to hire a professional calligrapher to address your wedding invitation envelopes. Why not do it yourself, or better yet ask a friend you can write beautifully to help you address your invites.

6. Save money with your menus. Do you really need printed menus on every guest table? If you feel you do need them, then rather do it yourself on a computer.

7. While ordering your invites, don't forget to order thank you notes too. You could get bulk discount.

8. Rather use response postcards, this could help you save on both your printing as well as postage costs.

9. Lastly, why not be creative or ask an artistic friend to use the brilliant wedding software that is available and design and print your own wedding stationary. It will definitely be unique.

Wedding Dresses - The Hottest Spring Trends

Each year brings new ideas and inspiration for wedding dresses. While many of the popular styles continue to carry over from 2009, the Spring 2010 dress trends have taken on a new twist in bridal fashion.

Ruffles - Layers and layers of romantic and flirty ruffled skirts are very popular this season. By combining them with fitted bodices the look is romantic and modern. Vera Wang never fails to impress us with her ability to create unique and feminine gowns.

Fresh - For the bride that simply can't see herself wearing a traditional strapless A-line gown, there are many fresh and unique gowns available to complement her unique sense of style. Details include heavily encrusted embroidered elements, feather details, and bows tied and placed in different ways.

Illusion Necklines - As a fresh alternative to the strapless gown, many designers are incorporating illusion necklines into their collections this season. Also gaining popularity is the asymmetrical (one shoulder) neckline detail.

Touches of Metallic - Brides who love the "bling" factor, will have many options as designers are adding touches of metallic in gold and silver. In addition to the metallic threads, the details include encrusting with crystals, beads and pearls. Metallic touches infuse opulence and elegance into wedding dresses.

Short - Gaining popularity are short wedding dresses. They can be reminiscent of the 40's and 50's or very fun and modern with the option of having a detachable train.

Lace - Lace continues to be popular as designers are now using this beautiful treatment in new and fresh ways. Designers are creating perfect combinations of style and coverage. Many of the gowns appear to be see through but are backed with nude linings which gives additional depth to the lace.

Wedding Hair Styles

When a girl or woman is going to get married this upcoming bride want to take her time in researching all the different kind of Wedding hair styles. During the day of you wedding being at the best is not enough no on this day you want to look very very special. A bride has certain expectations of this special day, from the day of being a little girl there are these dreams of how your wedding day will turn out to be. Not only for herself but of course for her upcoming husband and not to forget for the whole world that is going to see her that special day, she wants to be extra ordinary beautiful. Having the right coiffure is most important part of her total package.

Wedding hair styles are taking a big hype these days because just like good looks in general also the looks on your wedding day are of great importance for most of the upcoming brides. There are many different bridal hairstyles even many countries employed their own kind of bridal style. For example in Japan the brides use to wear their bridal hair in a way of raising up their hair in a special manner. In Islamic countries the brides have the most beautiful coiffures during the ceremony hidden behind veils so at that moment nobody can see the beauty of this all, this will be kept a secret and will be preserved for the husband to enjoy when he will see his new wife for the first time.

Many barbers in the Western World have themselves get specialized in the different wedding hair styles. Many of these barbers only practice these special hairstyles because of the complexity of it. You can imagine that only the fact of keeping the coiffure in the same condition the whole day is kind of a challenge and needs a lot of expertise from a barber. Not all barbers are qualified to know what the best manners would be to achieve this. Therefore and because of the long duration of building the kind of hair style needed for the wedding day the cost of such a style are very expensive.

Whether raised up hair or maybe making a topknot that will be the choice of the upcoming bride to been made. The barber will be the man or woman to make all of it as a great performance. This task is a huge responsibility for the barber because you cannot take the risk of ruing what the day of the bride that normally only happens ones in her lifetime. For a bride the Wedding hair styles are very important because of course it supposed to be the most beautiful day in her life.