Category: Wedding Decor

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Planning a Wedding? Keep Those Favor Ideas Coming

Wedding planning, especially when you really take charge of the endeavor, could really take its toll on you especially when you don’t have time as your ally. Sometimes, you find yourself running out of fresh ideas on wedding themes, flower arrangements, wedding favors and even reception venues. When this happens, pushing yourself hard and forcing your brain cells to work is actually a bad idea.

Wedding flowers

So, when you find yourself not being in the mood to think about favor ideas, what do you do? How do you ensure that you still get to prepare everything on time? Here are a few suggestions.

Take a Break

Just when you think it is impossible for you to take a break from all that’s related to planning, that’s exactly when you should do it. The human brain can only take so much. Your body, including your brain most especially, has constraints. It has its own mechanisms in telling you that it needs to recharge. You must listen to this.

When you think that you go on circles and cannot seem to move forward, then it doesn’t hurt to close your eyes for a while. Perhaps, you can even take a walk and keep your mind off the planning, especially on scouting for favor ideas. If you want, you can even watch a movie or read a book. These will help you regain some of your creative juices.

Refer to your Wedding Theme

When you feel like “thinking” again, then the first thing that you have to remember in deciding on favor ideas is your wedding theme. If you are into a garden wedding, for instance, then you can toy around flowers, flower-shaped candles and other cute garden items. You can always make use of the internet for things that would relate to your chosen wedding motif.

Wedding favors

Make a Survey

No, you don’t have to really create a questionnaire, subject it to sophisticated statistical treatment and standardize it before you can run it. You simply have to make use of your friends and other close acquaintances to help you come up with great favor ideas. You’d be surprised to know that they too have unique items on their list, in preparation perhaps for their own weddings.

Hire a Wedding Planner

Well, if all things fail, then you don’t really have to force yourself to produce those unique favor ideas. This is the time when you have to consider hiring “outside help.” After all, “you cannot see how thick the fog is when you’re inside it.” Wedding planners can surely help bring in fresh favor ideas.

Coming up with great favor ideas may look easy — but it may not always be so in reality. The human brain requires you to have a fresh, open and happy perspective for you to be truly proud of the wedding favor ideas that you have thought of. When the brain is stressed or anxious, creativity oftentimes eludes you.

It is therefore important that even while still planning your wedding, you’ve already learned to relax and not be too controlling about it. Once you’ve done this, handling the stress and anxiety during your actual wedding day would only seem like a mosquito bite.

However way you spell them: wedding favors or wedding favours, these little keepsakes would really mean much to your guests. Therefore, make sure that you have the freshest favor ideas. Visit Wedding-Favor.ca and be awed with some fabulous finds!

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Wedding Cakes: Tracing Their Rich History

The history of wedding cakes and the tradition attached to them are rich. Before wedding cakes came to be what they are now, they’ve passed a lot of stages, all of which are equally interesting and intriguing.

Wedding cake

During the Roman times, the concept of elaborate wedding cake decorations and icings was not yet a reality. For instance, the groom is supposed to eat part of the wedding loaf. He would then break the remaining portion and it must be broken over the bride’s head. This symbolizes the groom’s dominance over the bride. This tradition, however, has long been eradicated possibly because of its chauvinistic implications.

Also, in the olden times, small cakes (more like today’s cupcakes) are stacked to form the wedding cakes. The notion of a white wedding cake is also very popular and was connected to affluence. Because ingredients used to make up the white icing are hard to come by, only those who can afford to travel to other places just to get hold of these cake “materials” can come up with white wedding cakes.

Wedding cake

Interestingly, in the 17th century, the idea of sleeping on a piece of cake became very popular. They say that if you put a piece of the wedding cake underneath your pillow, you will dream about your future spouse. In the 18th century, this tradition on wedding cakes evolved into the brides passing tiny cake crumbs through their wedding rings. These crumbs are then placed underneath the pillows.

Later on, the traditional wedding cake slicing that we see today came about. The bride, with the help of the groom, creates two slices, and together, they eat that part of the cake. As this is the first task that that the couple does together, this act symbolizes their never-ending promise of supporting each other for the rest of their married life.

Then came the multi-layered and elaborately designed cakes of many colors that we see today. Wedding cakes are not only white in color; today, the couple can experiment with different colors, usually making it consistent with the theme and the motif of the wedding.

Still, another interesting fact about this tradition is that the couple tries to save the topmost tier of their wedding cakes. They preserve and freeze it for use during their first anniversary. But you don’t get to see this anymore today as the elaborate decorations make the cake more vulnerable.

What proved to be a traditional and simple creation of cakes — or loaves of bread as in the olden times — now became a design extravaganza. Numerous cake and pastry houses specialize on the design of wedding cakes. The internet even has a wide selection of wedding cakes.

In conclusion, just like the wedding ceremony itself, the history and tradition of wedding cakes have come a long way. Some practices have long been eradicated while others survived the test of time and modernity.

If you prefer a traditional wedding, then you’d surely insert some of the practices that survived in the ceremony and at the reception. Otherwise, you can skip these and just go directly to the sole purpose of the occasion. The most important thing however, is that you’ve respected the solemnity of the event and the importance of this sacrament.

BestForBride.com is all about weddings – from wedding favours to designer wedding dresses and wedding cakes. Visit us today.

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Spend For Those Designer Wedding Dresses And Look Fabulous On Your Big Day

When it comes to planning your wedding day, the most important item in your list is probably your wedding gown. Wedding favours and wedding cakes come in secondary to your wedding gown. However, if you are operating on a tight budget, you usually go for ready-made gowns or those displayed in some least costly but reputable bridal shops. After all, this is perhaps the most important day of your life and you don’t want to be walking down the aisle with a dress that you cannot count on to last for at least the entire duration of the ceremony.

On another note, if you come from the high end of the society, then you can afford to buy those designer wedding dresses. You don’t have to be the presidential daughter, a Hollywood star or a politician’s family member for you to take advantage of the best minds in the wedding couture world. You simply either have to have a very rich fiancé or a very fat savings (read: budget for your wedding day).Or you have very generous friends who have whole-heartedly contributed to your designer wedding gown!

Bridal gown

Here are the big names that you can choose from:

Monique Lhuillier

This US-based Filipina comes from a family who owns one of the giant chain of pawnshops in the Philippines. Being part of a high profile clan, Monique had the chance and access to the best fashion schools in the world. Thus, her flair for fashion (exhibited at age 14) was reinforced by her degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM).

Monique’s line of designer wedding dresses caught the eye of the public when she designed her own the dresses of her own wedding entourage. This led her to take care of the gowns of Christine Baumgartner (in her wedding to Kevin Costner) and Britney Spears (in her wedding to Kevin Federline).

This multi-awarded designer is known for pretty dresses that introduce a “fluid look.”

Vera Wang

Raised by an affluent American family of Chinese descent, Vera was once a figure skater taking part in various national competitions. When she failed to make it to the US team for the Olympics, she turned her back on sports and welcomed the fashion industry.

Her corporate experience included being Vogue’s editor for 16 years and rubbing elbows with Ralph Lauren. It was in 1990 that she opened her own shop in New York, displaying her trademark designer wedding dresses. Her work has the reputation of “a modern, sophisticated approach to classic style.”

Among her celebrity clients are Jessica Simpson, Victoria Beckham, Mariah Carey and Sharon Stone, among others.

Michelle Roth

This designer was born to fashion, as her parents own a famous Australian bridal label, Henri Josef. Thus, Michelle has fashion and creativity on her blood. She started her own collection of designer wedding dresses in 1990, working with her brother.

Her works have been featured in numerous talk shows including, among others, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Martha Stewart Living and Entertainment Tonight.

Designer wedding dresses could really get expensive. However, if you can afford it, why not get one? Again, it’s the most important day of your life and pictures of you will be immortalized in a number of photo albums. It’s just proper to look fabulous on the start of “the rest of your life.”

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Bridesmaid Duties From Past To Present: It’s More Than Just Bridesmaid Dresses

Did you know that the whole wedding ceremony has a long and rich history? Yes, from the groomsmen to the bridesmaids, a lot has been written about the how they entire wedding entourage came to be.

Today, it is but proper for the bridesmaids to wear the best and the most interesting bridesmaid dresses. In the past, bridesmaid dresses are limited to mimicking the bridal gown? Let’s see why.

The Early Roman World

During this period, bridesmaids formed some kind of a protective shield or an infantry in order to protect the bride as she travels from her place to the village of the groom. Protection was needed as there’s always a possibility of thugs hurting the bride or suitors stealing her away. You can see here that even at such an early civilization, violence has always been one of the by-products of unrequited love.

In the Western World

The tradition begins with complying with the wedding ceremony requirement of having ten witnesses. The aim of this requisite is to outsmart evil souls and spirits who are believed to be in attendance during the ceremony. Thus, it is but proper that bridesmaid dresses are identical to that of the bride (the attire of men ushers must also be identical of the groom’s) so the so-called evil spirits would have a hard time identifying which of the ladies and gentlemen present are being wed.

If you take a look at wedding photographs of Victorian marriages, you’d really have a hard time identifying which of the couples got married simply because of the sameness of the clothes that the entourage is wearing.

In Today’s World

These days, the need for a female troop to protect a bride is no longer imminent. This clearly eliminates the fact that bridesmaid dresses need to be identical with the bride’s. However, bridesmaid dresses should still be in harmony with the theme of the wedding ceremony.

Wedding decor

And although bridesmaids are no longer required to help fend off curses and hexes and evil spirits altogether, they still maintain a vital role in the entire wedding ceremony.

For example, they need to provide key support to the bride. This may be in terms of shopping for the perfect wedding gown or scouting for the most reasonably-priced hotel for the couple’s out-of-town guests. In addition, bridesmaids would also prove to be such a great help in looking for least costly but memorable wedding favors.

Wedding favor

Of course, their responsibility to the couple — especially to the bride — is not only confined in the wedding ceremony itself. There is still bridal a shower to host and organize.

Being a bridesmaid is truly demanding — in a positive way. If you are one, make sure you prepare yourself to get busy months or even years before the special date. You need to spare some time in taking care of wedding preparations. And the payoff for all of these hardwork and sweat? A gorgeous gown that you can wear down the aisle!

You see, the function of bridesmaids hasn’t really changed that much over the years. It has never really made a 360-degree turn, it simply has modernized and has adapted to modern times. Because the fact is, wearing those bridesmaid dresses (identical to the bride’s or otherwise) gives bridesmaids one role: supporting the bride.