Wedding Details

[July09Bride 1]

I was wondering if I could get some advice from you guys. I don't know what to do for centerpieces! I've been looking online at pictures and I can't find any ideas that I just LOVE, so I have all these ideas in my head and nowhere to go with it. I want something kinda dynamic and interesting looking but not crazy and over the top. I don't want traditional floral centerpieces, infact I'd rather not mess with flowers at all. Something with candles and vases...? Any good ideas?

Okay... picture this.

Our colors are black & white awith a touch of dark pink (b/c of flowers).

So...

white table cloth

black napkin opened in center of table with some votives around the table

square 12" mirror set 45* off angle from the napkin

8" round bowl (about 4" high) filled with water

clear decorative "rocks" in the bottom

submersible pink light hidden in rocks

3 3" round floater candles

with dark pink rose petals sprinkled around the black napkin and a few petals in the water

Done and super simple... low and out of the way... adds a touch of color and a touch of light.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

A random comment - I got married at 11 am - mostly because I thought I'd puke if I had to wait all day due to nerves It was my wedding darnit and I was having it my way

Great reason eh? not the only reason, but a big part of it.

My advice overall is that everyone should have exactly what you and your SO like...screw what you think the family wants/ expects....do whatever makes you happy.

2 yrs later, I would probably do it differently anyway!

[Hugglebuggles 60]

I was wondering if I could get some advice from you guys. I don't know what to do for centerpieces! I've been looking online at pictures and I can't find any ideas that I just LOVE, so I have all these ideas in my head and nowhere to go with it. I want something kinda dynamic and interesting looking but not crazy and over the top. I don't want traditional floral centerpieces, infact I'd rather not mess with flowers at all. Something with candles and vases...? Any good ideas?

check out this website. you might find something u like. http://www.uprightdecor.com/ they are right across my work and we have used their centrepieces before and stole some of their ideas. lol. since we are an audio visual company we dont really do decor but we implemented some ideas to save money, we used L.E.D. lighting at the bottom of a vase (can be any color or even your own theme color). got a clear vase (square), and filled it with water and u can put pebbles in it if you'd like and we added curly twigs. (we also spray painted the twigs with silver paint) and its not so floral but still looks nice. we used it for Gala Events. it will look something like this with the water being lit up by the L.E.D. light.

oh yeah. im not sure if anyone has suggested this yet. but go to Michaels http://www.michaels.com/art/online/home

Thanks! That's actually a really cool idea. I'm trying to think of how you would put LED lights under there...

I thought about the lunch option but then I really thought about it... I HATE the mornings The thought of having to get up really early and get ready for the wedding seemed awful to me. I decided to have a wedding later in the afternoon (4:30 pm) So I could sleep in and relax most of the day,

You are going to sleep the night before your wedding???? Are you serious???? That would be a a first.

That's my intention... But you're right, It probably won't work out very well At least this way, if I fall asleep at 5am I might get a couple hours in.

Those are all very cute ideas, to remember a loved one. My father passed away 14 years ago, and I was thinking of ways to incorporate his memory into the wedding. I don't want it to be a big emotional event, rather just a simple gesture. I'm thinking placing a rose in one of the front seats would be a cute idea. I can't real wear anything of his (a big Toronto Blue Jays sweater may not fit the occasion) and playing a song in his honor would involve U2 of Bruce Springsteen... But nobody would get that except my mother and I. I was thinking about putting a picture of him somewhere, but I need to be careful... I don't want to give my mother ANOTHER reason to cry!

How about an emtpty seat with his Blue jays sweather draped over it or with a picture/ Hon - your mum will be thinking about him all day anyway.

Yes... You're probably right. That's a cute idea.

My dad's girlfriends daughter, when she got married, carried a picture of her father who passed away in her bouquet, so he would be with her when she got married.

That's a really nice idea too! You guys just made me cry a little In fairness to me, I cry over everything lately! I want all this stuff to be over so I can relax!

And JulyBride that sounds lovely!! I was thinking something similar but my fiance likes the idea of something tall... The Sheraton has bowls with mirrors underneath, and I was thinking about putting beads in the bottom, and then getting red rose floating candles to put in it, and then put candles around the display. I thought that would be nice and cost effective too! But its his wedding too right? I have to try to listen

I also decided to buy my own chair covers and sashes. I found some for a really reasonable price (comparable to renting), and I figured I could sell them after. My soon to be MIL said she'd buy the chair covers and keep them for her daughters wedding... one day. She's kinda jumping the gun considering she's single, but you can never be too prepared I suppose

[BermyCat 1]

Would tall pillar candles be tall enough for him? You could get white or ivory pillar candles of varying heights and maybe put them on a gold or silver charger with rose petals or coloured beds around the base of them.

Or, perhaps you could hot glue ribbon in your colours around the base of the candles like they quite often put around the base of each layer of a wedding cake.

~ Catherine

[minnew 4]

So I am a bit FED UP!! Maybe I should be posting this in the Vent thread! Oh well!

I get the guest list in my inbox this morning from my future MIL and there are 26 people that my fiance has told her over and over again he did not want invited!! Just when he thinks she might understand and agree on not inviting them, here we are AGAIN!! I took me three times asking her to get a guest list from her. The third time I was so aggravated because I was asking her how many people and how many invites? How many of those do you think will actually come? I needed to start thinking about how many invitations to buy! Then she says oh well maybe we just won't invite my fiance (Brad). This wedding will be 15 hrs away for everyone involved. They are courtesy invites and my fiance did not want them invited!! She promises that these people will not attend! How can you promise something like that? We will be up the creek without a paddle because our room only holds 80! We will be lucky if we have 60 attend! Close family and friends, not people that my fiance has never met before, or who last saw him when he was in a diaper, ie. her cousins and aunts and uncles! I will admit I do have a few "courtesy" invites as well for myself and my family, but for people that I KNOW.

Grrr...its not even about the courtesy invites or the fact he has no clue who these people are....but that she is not listening to him or to me! I don't want to hear the well I am paying for half ####### because if thats how you really feel then this wedding is about YOU instead of about Brad and I. I am about to say go have your own wedding, it will be a pretty lonely one. But I won't! I just need to call my fiance!

[coldwatersurf 5]

Oh minnew... its funny i had this argument with my dad! lol. I was closer to certain family members he doesnt talk to and he was closer to family members I didnt really associate with. basically what i've done is i told him for any additional guests that arrive, he would have to cover the cost for them. Since my husband and I paid about 60% of the cost - and we did that b/c we wanted 60% of the say. lol. I just told my dad what the rules were @ the venue and if there were any last minute problem that I will not be the contact person and he has to resolve them whether that would be cost problems or crowd control. however, we had our reception at a restaurant so it was ok and we would just pay for the additional seats. I told everyone that the wedding ceremony was closed and invite only. I had 30 people on my list for out of towners and i had 60 people on my list for locals. I ended up with 50 ppl @ the reception. chances are, the out of towners may not make it and will send you a present or something. these were ppl that my husband last saw when he was a baby. My MIL said just to send them an invite and 80% chance are they arent coming.. 1. they are too far away. 2. they are not really close but my MIL wanted to let everyone in their family tree know that we got married.

I was wondering if I could get some advice from you guys. I don't know what to do for centerpieces! I've been looking online at pictures and I can't find any ideas that I just LOVE, so I have all these ideas in my head and nowhere to go with it. I want something kinda dynamic and interesting looking but not crazy and over the top. I don't want traditional floral centerpieces, infact I'd rather not mess with flowers at all. Something with candles and vases...? Any good ideas?

check out this website. you might find something u like. http://www.uprightdecor.com/ they are right across my work and we have used their centrepieces before and stole some of their ideas. lol. since we are an audio visual company we dont really do decor but we implemented some ideas to save money, we used L.E.D. lighting at the bottom of a vase (can be any color or even your own theme color). got a clear vase (square), and filled it with water and u can put pebbles in it if you'd like and we added curly twigs. (we also spray painted the twigs with silver paint) and its not so floral but still looks nice. we used it for Gala Events. it will look something like this with the water being lit up by the L.E.D. light.

oh yeah. im not sure if anyone has suggested this yet. but go to Michaels http://www.michaels.com/art/online/home

Thanks! That's actually a really cool idea. I'm trying to think of how you would put LED lights under there...

Huggles.. where are you located? i can search for a manufacturer or a retailer that can provide it or even an alternative lighting.

Edited April 24, 2009 by borderdriver

[JillA 2]

OK I need advice from my fellow wedding planning friends. Lately now, I've been thinking of scrapping the whole having bridesmaids thing. My sister just had me as her MOH and her husband had a best man, that was it. I might do the same, I know it's not "traditional" but anyway! Here is why. So all of my closest friends are in Canada, and I'm already expecting of them to spend lots of $$ on travel and hotel for at least 2 nights for them and their partners. I feel bad as it is having the wedding here and making everyone travel. So, if I ask them to be my bridesmaids, on top of that I'm asking them to spend $$ on a dress, shoes, etc!! I just don't feel right doing that, plus I don't feel comfortable picking out a dress and making them wear it.... I'm not into the matchy matchy thing but I also can't tell them just wear whatever you want, that'd be wierd.... I can't afford to pay for 4 dresses either, so I'm stuck. I just think it's wrong for me to expect my friends to spend $$ on travel, hotel, dress, etc. It's too much. Maybe if I don't have any bridesmaids that will avoid the whole problem, what do you all think?

[minnew 4]

OK I need advice from my fellow wedding planning friends. Lately now, I've been thinking of scrapping the whole having bridesmaids thing. My sister just had me as her MOH and her husband had a best man, that was it. I might do the same, I know it's not "traditional" but anyway! Here is why. So all of my closest friends are in Canada, and I'm already expecting of them to spend lots of $$ on travel and hotel for at least 2 nights for them and their partners. I feel bad as it is having the wedding here and making everyone travel. So, if I ask them to be my bridesmaids, on top of that I'm asking them to spend $$ on a dress, shoes, etc!! I just don't feel right doing that, plus I don't feel comfortable picking out a dress and making them wear it.... I'm not into the matchy matchy thing but I also can't tell them just wear whatever you want, that'd be wierd.... I can't afford to pay for 4 dresses either, so I'm stuck. I just think it's wrong for me to expect my friends to spend $$ on travel, hotel, dress, etc. It's too much. Maybe if I don't have any bridesmaids that will avoid the whole problem, what do you all think?

I originally had 4 people to be my bridesmaids, including my sister. The three friends declined saying that they could not afford to. They asked me for financial assistance in order to come. I told them I cannot pay for airfare or reimburse them for gas and hotel if they were to drive, but I said I would pay for their dresses, shoes and makeup. So I am down to one, my sister and another girl whom I had not originally asked. Funny thing is she probably knows more about our relationship than the other 3 I had asked previously, because they all lived in Canada when i was in the US going to school and met my fiance. Fiance was originally going to have 4 as well, but due to financial reason he is also down to 2, his father as his best man and his best friend from HS whom I have met twice.

As long as they are comfortable in what they wear and you pick out the colour it will all be fine. The only tricky part with this now is that I have to ask both my bridesmaids to wear bolero jackets because of a huge tattoo on her back and down her right bicep and tricep.

[MapleLeafBaby 1]

WE JUST SET OUT WEDDING DAY!!!

I'm sure on VJ it's common to plan the months before for the quickie.... lol!

We are marrying on the beach in OCNJ, so we have picked June 11th. If it rains... then we will have to bump it to June 18th. We will spend 2 days on the beach then 2 days in NYC, sitting in Central Park and people watching (HAHA, we love puttering around the big City looking for trouble )

So excited!!!!

I mean, nothing compared to the invites and stuff you guys are planning... which sounds like so much fun! it's just gonna be us two, my beach, white dress.... and gthat's it... Kinda like how Cindy Crawford and Randy Gerber married... I always loved that...

We will save the obnoxious Greek reception for the end of the summer...happy happy joy joy...I can't wait to see my MIL who will sit and whisper to others that the 'big boobied girl' married her son for money... HAHAHA! Don't ask.... lets just say, she makes for great entertainment.... OMG, I'm gonna start a MIL thread... It'll be a hoot!!!!! I've got stories that'll entertain for hours!

[coldwatersurf 5]

Jill - we paid for half of the hotel fees for our guests (basically we paid for 1 night). we had to pay for everything first to book the rooms and they had to cover the deposit when they arrived.I had 1 MOH and 1 bridesamaid. My hubby had the same. 1 groomsman and 1 best man. We had 4 more BM and GM each but we had to cut back on the cost. Granted my bridesmaid werent so cooperative and had to cancel on the trip. that pissed me off after planning the transportation and where they would stay. I was going to have them stay @ close family's house so everything was close to me on the day of.

We had them wear somewhat of a matching outfit. anything that had our theme color. Like so:

it was a laid back wedding... after a while.. from all the frustration, i had to let go of the formalities of the traditional wedding.

[JillA 2]

WE JUST SET OUT WEDDING DAY!!!

I'm sure on VJ it's common to plan the months before for the quickie.... lol!

We are marrying on the beach in OCNJ, so we have picked June 11th. If it rains... then we will have to bump it to June 18th. We will spend 2 days on the beach then 2 days in NYC, sitting in Central Park and people watching (HAHA, we love puttering around the big City looking for trouble )

So excited!!!!

I mean, nothing compared to the invites and stuff you guys are planning... which sounds like so much fun! it's just gonna be us two, my beach, white dress.... and gthat's it... Kinda like how Cindy Crawford and Randy Gerber married... I always loved that...

We will save the obnoxious Greek reception for the end of the summer...happy happy joy joy...I can't wait to see my MIL who will sit and whisper to others that the 'big boobied girl' married her son for money... HAHAHA! Don't ask.... lets just say, she makes for great entertainment.... OMG, I'm gonna start a MIL thread... It'll be a hoot!!!!! I've got stories that'll entertain for hours!

Awwww fun! Yours sounds just as wonderful as everyone elses! I think marrying on the beach will be so amazing! NYC is a good idea too, we go to NYC sometimes just for the day as it's a 1 hour train ride! I love NYC

Thanks Minnew and Border, I like those ideas.... I love the purple dresses, so pretty! The theme colour idea is a good one....

[Hugglebuggles 60]

OK I need advice from my fellow wedding planning friends. Lately now, I've been thinking of scrapping the whole having bridesmaids thing. My sister just had me as her MOH and her husband had a best man, that was it. I might do the same, I know it's not "traditional" but anyway! Here is why. So all of my closest friends are in Canada, and I'm already expecting of them to spend lots of $$ on travel and hotel for at least 2 nights for them and their partners. I feel bad as it is having the wedding here and making everyone travel. So, if I ask them to be my bridesmaids, on top of that I'm asking them to spend $$ on a dress, shoes, etc!! I just don't feel right doing that, plus I don't feel comfortable picking out a dress and making them wear it.... I'm not into the matchy matchy thing but I also can't tell them just wear whatever you want, that'd be wierd.... I can't afford to pay for 4 dresses either, so I'm stuck. I just think it's wrong for me to expect my friends to spend $$ on travel, hotel, dress, etc. It's too much. Maybe if I don't have any bridesmaids that will avoid the whole problem, what do you all think?

That is a tough situation, I agree. I have 3 bridesmaids, one is my little sister who gets free travel because she is only 15 and my parents are paying her way anyways, so that's not much of an issue. Another one is my fiance's sister who lives in the area so she doesn't need to travel anywhere. My MOH is my best friend since the 9th grade. For her, I'm providing her a place to stay and i'm buying her shoes and accessories... she is buying her plane ticket and the dress. But we came to that agreement together after talking about what she could afford and what she would be willing to do. I felt bad asking her as well, but she's been great about it and she's willing to spend the money to be with me on my special day. I don't think there is anything wrong with having no bridesmaids. A good alternative may be to just have 1 as a MOH, and 1 groomsman. I was at a wedding like that once and I thought it looked really nice.

Poprocks- AWW thats so exciting!! and you're getting married on my graduation day!

Borderdriver- I live in Southern Ontario

[BermyCat 1]

OK I need advice from my fellow wedding planning friends. Lately now, I've been thinking of scrapping the whole having bridesmaids thing. My sister just had me as her MOH and her husband had a best man, that was it. I might do the same, I know it's not "traditional" but anyway! Here is why. So all of my closest friends are in Canada, and I'm already expecting of them to spend lots of $$ on travel and hotel for at least 2 nights for them and their partners. I feel bad as it is having the wedding here and making everyone travel. So, if I ask them to be my bridesmaids, on top of that I'm asking them to spend $$ on a dress, shoes, etc!! I just don't feel right doing that, plus I don't feel comfortable picking out a dress and making them wear it.... I'm not into the matchy matchy thing but I also can't tell them just wear whatever you want, that'd be wierd.... I can't afford to pay for 4 dresses either, so I'm stuck. I just think it's wrong for me to expect my friends to spend $$ on travel, hotel, dress, etc. It's too much. Maybe if I don't have any bridesmaids that will avoid the whole problem, what do you all think?

I would ask your friends. Just tell them what you estimate the costs will be and that you won't be upset if they decline. They'll say yes if they can afford it and no if they can't. Either way, they'll know how important they are to you.

As for picking dresses, you'll find that most designers use similar fabrics and colours across several of their dresses. Since you're not matchy-matchy, you can just pick the colour and a designer that you like and get each woman to select what best suits their body type and her price range. Tell them if you'd prefer long or tea-length styles. I did this for my first wedding and it worked out really well. I sent my friends to Fairweather and told them to pick whatever they wanted in my colours, except for one dress that I thought was really tacky. They got different but coordinating dresses and they looked really nice together. If you pick a reasonable colour, they can even wear the dress again.

To save a little more money, you can have them wear whatever black dress shoes they already have. Alternately, I've seen discontinued styles of dyeable shoe on sale for $30 and less.

~ Catherine

[JillA 2]

I think asking them straightup is the best bet. I mean I don't want to not ask them at all and they think I didn't want to have them, I'm sure they'll understand and appreciate where I'm coming from. After all, I'm only worried about their best interests and all that. I really like the idea of picking a colour/style and just letting them go from there. That would be really nice I think.

Thank you guys!!

[Hugglebuggles 60]

That's what I'm doing Jill. I gave them a color and approximate length (anything not floor length!) and told them they can pick any style they would like. All the girls have very different body shapes and different personal styles so it seemed like the logical solution. Besides, I think it looks cool with all the bridesmaids look a little different! That and I honestly don't care that much...

Just don't do what I did and ask your MOH when you're driving a car... I almost got killed when she attacked me and I involuntarily swerved into oncoming traffic

Oh and borderdriver! I'm from Southern Ontario but the wedding is in Denver, CO... I wasn't thinking!

Edited April 24, 2009 by Hugglebuggles