Wedding ideas

I came across some interesting and fun wedding ideas and thought I would share it here:

1) Manzanita Wishing Tree:
Instead of a traditional guestbook, display this wishing tree at your wedding reception and have your guests to write down lovely messages and wishes for the two of you. You can purchase a Manzanita Wishing Tree Kit at www.bloomsandbranches.com

Picture courtesy of www.bloomsandbranches.com

Add some crystal strands to the tree to make it look even more beautiful:

Picture courtesy of http://nggonzales.blogspot.com/

2) Wine cork place card holder!  You can buy these at: http://www.uncommongoods.com/

Picture courtesy of http://www.uncommongoods.com/

3) Personalized wedding dress hangers and cake toppers
You can purchase at Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlissfullyWired

3) Customized wedding signs
can be purchased at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/familyattic

4) Fingerprint tree guestbook
Another alternative way to a traditional guestbook, use a fingerprint tree guestbook. Let guests' thumbprints serve as leaves for the bare tree.
can be purchased at: http://www.zazzle.com/

Picture courtesy of http://www.zazzle.com/

50% off on your wedding cake!

Who doesn't want to save money when it comes to wedding planning?!  Recently I coordinated a wedding and I know my client paid a fraction of what others would pay for wedding cakes.  How?  I did a little research and found it-- Fake wedding cakes! (I know it doesn't sound too nice, but wait until you see below pictures of the cakes.  They look just as pretty and most of all, it looks so real that no one can tell it's fake) The owner of "Fake Wedding Cakes" stated the calculations out for us:

"Foam cakes can often cut your cake budget in half.  For example, consider a wedding reception 

for 150 people: 150 people x $3.50 per slice of decorated bakery cake  = $525.  A decorated 
fake cake of the same size starts as low as $110 and remains a beautiful centerpiece 
throughout the entire evening.  Sheet cakes start as low as 16.99/48 servings.   When ordering 
a foam cake, you serve sheet cakes to your guests, resulting in a significant savings to your 
cake budget.  
Fake cake 110.00 +  sheet cakes 50.97 = total 160.97.  Total savings 364.03."

You might ask, "how about when it comes to cake cutting?"  No problem, there is a slit in back of the cake where the couple can place a knife there.  "This will give you the 'look' of the bride and the groom cutting the cake while a piece of cake can be placed behind the fake cake so the bride and groom can still feed each other.  You can have your cake and eat it too!"  This whole process looks 100% real when it comes to photographing cake cutting ceremony.  

During my client's wedding, after the couple "cut the cake" (placed a knife in the foam cake slit), I moved the foam cake to a different room, so it looked like as if I brought the wedding cake to the kitchen to cut.  Meanwhile, the kitchen staffs are already cutting the sheet cakes =)

Furthermore, you can rent a wedding cake and return after the wedding! http://www.rentthecakeofyourdreams.com/index.html

Below pictures are taken from Ultimate Fake Cake site: http://www.ultimatefakecakes.com/

--Nellie

Happy Easter

When I think of Easter, I think of candy and eggs.  and eggs.. we can use eggs as escort cards for weddings! :) "The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life, just as new life emerges from an egg when the chick hatches out." This also symbolizes the start of a new life for the bride and groom.  Look at this picture of egg escort cards I found on Style Me Pretty.  How clever..

--Nellie

Place card holders and personalized labels

If you are looking to buy place card holders for your wedding dining tables, try Crate&Barrel.  They sell these beautiful silver memo clips 3 for $5.85, you can totally use them as place card holders.

I came across this site that does customized wedding labels, such as address labels, wedding favor bag labels, and water bottle labels.  How cute is it to order these water bottle labels and tape over the regular boring bottle labels? And you can even include a picture of the two of you.  If you need personalized labels for your wedding at low prices, check out http://www.myownlabels.com/wedding_labels

--Nellie

DIY wedding projects

If you are working on DIY wedding projects, definitely check out stores like Michaels, Party fair, Paper Presentation, Print Icon (they don't have a site, but it's next door to Paper Presentation on W18th st), and online store Etsy. Michaels and Party fair have more selections in their actual stores than online, so if you have these stores nearby, check them out!  Luckily for me, I can get to both Michaels and Party Fair easily =)

--Nellie

Customized fortune cookies

I remember watching the Bachelor show (Jake's season), and on one of  the episodes Jake took his date (Ally?) to a fortune cookie bakery and they made fortune cookies with their personalized love messages to each other.  I thought it's a wonderful idea to incorporate into a wedding.  This idea is imaginative, sweet, yet inexpensive!  How wonderful is it to include some love messages into these cookies for your guests?!

or even use this as a proposal idea

 You can get fortune cookies customized at local fortune cookie bakery or even online. E Fortune Cookie does personalized fortune cookies and ship them to you.  (note* I have never used this company, this is one of the customized fortune cookie companies I came across online.  You can certainly do more research on this company or other companies before ordering.  I just wanted to share this tip/idea with brides)

--Nellie

Origami cranes

A client of mine informed me that she wants to incorporate cranes into her wedding.  I thought it was an excellent idea, there are so many things you can do with paper cranes and it has a beautiful meaning.  

"Cranes which mate for life and symbolize peace and longevity in Asian cultures are becoming a fun trend couples are incorporating, according to Modern Bride. 'According to Japanese lore, a bride who folds 1,000 paper cranes before her wedding will have a prosperous marriage.'"

I came up with a lot of ideas, and thought that I would post the ideas here to share with everyone.  Cranes can be served as seating cards, cake toppers, or just as a decorative item hanging down from the ceiling (you can use tape to attach the cranes to the ceiling).  Here are some pictures I came across online that might be inspirational for brides.

Paper cranes act as place cards:

 picture on bottom right are place cards--just attach a little tag to paper cranes with guests names.

 

Cranes act as decorative item hanging down:

How to make cranes||cranes as cake topper:

Pictures taken from various sites:

http://blog.paper-source.com/ 

http://www.dynamiteweddings.com/

http://omiyageblogs.blogspot.com/

http://en.wordpress.com/tag/origami/

http://fareastboutique.com/origami-cranes/

http://www.getmarried.com/

http://diyweddingprojects.com/
http://www.theknot.com/

 --Nellie

The One! (dress)

Hello brides:

If you are like me, you'd love a romantic, feminine, floaty and floor-length dress for your wedding.  Look no more, try Aire Barcelona.  Their wedding dresses are stunning!  When I first came across their wedding dresses online, it was INSTANT LOVE.   

Interesting Fact:  This Spain based company is fairly new in the bridal industry (started in 2004).  Therefore, their dresses are affordable (some at $1K).  However, a lot of U.S. retailers don't offer their dresses (yet), definitely ask your local bridal shops to see if they carry this brand.

Here are some of their dazzling dresses:

 

and my favorite :)

photos taken from http://www.airebarcelona.com

As an Aire Barcelona fan, I hope they'll expand their U.S. market, so more brides in the U.S. get to wear their gorgeous (and surprisingly affordable) gowns!

--Nellie

Something as little as wedding favors

Let's talk about wedding favors.  First of all, for those who are not sure what wedding favors are, "wedding favors are small gift given as a gesture of appreciation to guests from the bride and groom during a wedding ceremony or a wedding reception."

Last year, I went to a distant cousin's wedding (5th cousin to be exact! Her great grandfather's father and my great grandfather's father were brothers) and I got something cute as wedding favors.  They were little wedding favor bags with Chinese word "double happiness" on it and inside were green tea favored gummy candies!  Today, on the day off from my main job, working on my side job (hehe), I've done a little research on wedding favors.  After going through a lot of pictures of different kind of wedding favors (CD's, soaps, chocolates, sugared almonds),  I found my favorite wedding favors-- "Cherry Blossom Elegance" Mini-Pillar Candle.  Aren't they beautiful and romantic?!  You can buy them at myweddingfavors and they are quite cheap too.

  

Also, my favorite.  flip-flop photo frame with flower
Isn't it a great idea for your guests to leave your party with cute flip-flops and a photo of the both of you inside!

--Nellie

Tips for the brides

a] Mail invitations out 6-8 weeks before the ceremony.  Save-the-Date cards should be mailed out earlier, 8-10 weeks before the wedding.

b]  Usually invitations are ordered at least 6 months before your wedding to allow time for printing, delivery, proofreading, addressing envelopes, mailing, and the RSVP process.  However, wedding programs can be mailed out closer to the wedding date.
   
c] RSVPs: you should ask for responses 3-4 wks before the wedding.  This way you will have enough time to plan your reception seating.

d] If you are planning your honeymoon in another country, make sure your passports are up-to-date.

e] When you are checking out different venues, bring a camera and take pictures of venues because by the time you finished looking at the 8th venue, you might have forgotten how the 2nd venue looks like.

f] In Christian ceremony, usually the bride's family and friends will be seated on the left side of the church as you face the altar.  The bride also stands on the left side facing the altar.  The right side is reserved for the groom's side of the family and friends.  On the other hand, in a Jewish wedding, the bride's guests sit on the right, which is the same side she will be standing on as she faces the rabbi.

g] For your reception and dinner, check in with your caterer, baker, rental company, beverage supplier, etc., one wk before the wedding to make sure everything is under control.  and another follow up call the day before the wedding.  (If you have a DOC, this part will be done by your DOC's)

h] For your wedding dinner, save the faster songs for later and play slower songs at the beginning.

i] You can incorporate a special theme to your dinner menu to reflect who you are as a couple.  For example, if both or one of you are from the Southern part of the country and you want a southern-style wedding, you can feature bbq or fried chicken, corn bread, biscuits, etc.

j] Alcoholic beverage. It's better to order too much than to run out because un-opened bottles may be returnable, check your caterer or liquor store.

k]  Count the number of underage kids who are attending your wedding. Talk to your venue, they might be able to lower alcohol charge for those who are underage.

l]  Money saving tip:  Get married on a Sunday night.  People will limit their alcohol consumption because they have work the next day.

--Nellie