White and weddings are synonymous—the bride in a white gown, white shoes, white cakes, white seating arrangements… This may work for many brides, but some genuinely love colour and feel stifled by the stark whiteness that dominates most weddings. Nevertheless, they do not want to play with too much colour, as it can quickly overpower the entire setting and make it just another party. Or, it may be that they do not want to disappoint their families and friends who expect them to stick to the standard white wedding style.
For those who think and dream about colours, here are some practical ideas to add vibrant pops of brilliant shades to your wedding. From bright bouquets to colourful dresses and vividly coloured wedding cakes, we have you covered in every way. So, read on and find out which of these ideas you will love to add to your wedding.
Your wedding plans depend on the amount of money you are ready to spend. With thousands of big and small details to look at, it is often difficult to determine what deserves more attention than the other.
If you are like most couples, your wedding may be the first occasion when you plan a party, so huge. So, it certainly isn’t easy. If you enlist the help of a wedding planner, you will receive very useful guidance on this front. This is because they are professionals, who have practice planning on a budget. Additionally, when working with a wedding planner, you don’t end up with nasty shockers like mentioned on this APW article, where something turns out to be twice the price you anticipated. One or two such instances, and all your budgeting goes for a toss. Nonetheless, wedding planners come at an added price, and not every couple can afford them.
In such a scenario, the easiest way is to prioritize what is most important to you, and plan your budget around it. Pick three priorities, allocate funds to these first, and then decide how to distribute the rest of your budget.
Take a look at this list, and choose the three most important things you want for your wedding from it. Once you do, you can divvy up your budget to accommodate the remaining details.
Dream venue and décor
Are you open to looking at various venue options, or do you have your heart set on a single location? All-inclusive wedding packages cover everything at a reasonable price, but do you want everything customized with the added price tag? Are you particular on a specific color palette, seating arrangement, or centerpiece design? If so, set aside a chunk of your budget for all this.
Menu and bar
Must you have a classic five-course plated meal, or will a buffet do? Do you want an open bar, or serve custom drinks only? Do you want your wedding to be remembered for the food and drinks you served, or is it just one of the other things at your wedding? Hiring local vendors and customizing your menu around seasonal dishes can reduce your food bill, if serving gourmet fare isn’t very important, to you.
Entertainment and photography
Wedding entertainment, in many cases, is what makes a reception a hit or miss. Here, you have to weigh the price of a live band against a DJ, consider the cost of games and hiring special entertainers for children. Similarly, do you want a particular professional photographer to cover your wedding, even if it means he charges twice as much as the others in the area?
Flowers, centerpieces, wedding cakes and favors
If you are prepared to try out various floral combinations, you may get a better deal. Similarly, how important is having exquisite centerpieces? As for favors, do you want to gift expensive one-of-a-kind favors, or is it enough to choose a keepsake, without a hefty price attached to it? In the cake department, how important is customizing it with very specific details? Or can you work with the best packages on offer?
Dresses for the couple
The wedding dress is expensive. Do you want to buy it brand new, or is it better to rent your dress, or even use mom’s dress, and save the rest of the money for something more important to you? The same goes for the groom too. If you plan on keeping the dress, figure in the cost of professionally preserving it as well.
You may not give much thought to the centerpieces for your wedding reception tables, but they are more important than you think. Your wedding guests will spend a lot of time at their tables, as they have their dinner and chat with each other. So, these centerpieces will be in constant focus. Their arrangement will reflect the tone of the wedding and set the ambiance.
While some venues offer a few custom centerpiece options to choose from, you can also opt for your own design and find one that is suitable for the theme of your party. Let us look at the different factors you should pay attention to when designing your centerpieces, so you can maximize their effect.
Height of the display
This is an important criterion to pay attention to when choosing your centerpiece designs. A centerpiece that is too tall will obscure the view of the guests who sit across each other, and it will be difficult for them to communicate. So, your centerpiece should be low. You can still create an impact by designing the centerpieces to be unique and with interesting design elements. The only time you can go with higher centerpieces is when the design is elongated but not broad. This way, it will not obstruct the view, and will allow guests to talk to each other comfortably.
Width or size
The centerpiece should be compact and not spread out. It should be proportional to the size of the table, and the arrangement should be neat and attractive. Depending on whether the tables are round or long, choose a centerpiece that has the right proportions. A single centerpiece or a cohesive group that occupies a circle in the center is ideal for round tables. Well-spaced tall arrangements on a table runner through the center will be good for long tables.
Choosing the design elements
Flowers and candles are the popular choices for centerpieces. Apart from these, you can also use balloons, crystals, gemstones, jars, pebbles, shells, fruits or anything else that you can think of. The elements you choose should blend well with the theme. A clear vase with shells at the base and floating candles on top for a beach wedding would be appropriate. You can also make use of seasonal flowers and fruits to add color to the centerpieces, and also get them at a lesser price. Ensure you keep the color palette consistent and don’t go overboard with details. It is always the simpler designs that create more impact.
Choose variations for more visual interest
It isn’t necessary that all your tables are decked up the same way. In fact, it is more attractive if each table was personalized differently. Keep the colors consistent and the designs similar, but make slight variations in the arrangement. This will be more interesting. You could alternate two color combinations for each table, or even change the heights and designs of the centerpieces from one table to another. When you alternate styles, the only thing to remember is all the pieces should be tied together with a few unifying factors and not look too distinct.
You invest a significant amount of money, time and effort in choosing your bridal bouquet. So, don’t you think it is sad that the blooms that played a huge part in transforming you into a bride, can wilt and be lost forever, after the day?
Fortunately, there are ways in which you can prevent this, and in fact save your wedding bouquet as a keepsake for the years to come. Here are the different ways you can do this.
Silica-drying
You can have this done by a professional, or try your hand at it yourself. The technique involves brushing powdered silica gel all over your bouquet (sparing no inch of it), and placing it in an airtight container. The gaps in the container should then be filled with silica gel. It is then left to dry for a week to ten days. Once dried, the color is fixed using a fixing spray, and the bouquet can then be displayed in a glass box or flower vase in your home.
Freeze-drying
This is an expensive method, and one that has to be done by a professional. It can take up to three months to complete. The flowers are treated with starch and then freezer dried in the original bouquet style itself. The benefits of this method are that the bouquet looks pretty similar to how it did originally, but it is perhaps the most expensive of all the other methods.
Preserve it after drying
All you have to do is to hang the flowers upside down in a safe area till they are fully dry. Although the flowers will lose the original look, it will still be a memorable keepsake of your milestone event.
Press and frame
Here, you basically remove the flowers from the bouquet and either save all, or a few. You can flatten the blooms by placing them beneath a heavy book or something similar. If you are good with your hands, you can then arrange them in a frame. The alternative is to have them professionally pressed and framed. Either way, you can transform your wedding flowers into a work of art that can be displayed in your new home.
Apart from these traditional bouquet preservation options, I found many more fantastic ideas at Pinterest. Let us take a look at some of the most brilliant ones.
Create a Christmas ornament
This idea by Wedding Party is ideal for those of you who are short on space and time. Just grab a few flowers from your bouquet, dry them and pack them into a transparent bauble. Close it off with the cork of a wine bottle used at your wedding, and add your wedding date to the glass ornament. You now have an ornament which you can fondly bring out and display on your Christmas tree every year.
Use it in a paperweight
The Flower Preservation Workshop company suggests having your wedding flowers converted into a beautiful paperweight. Take a look at how the end result looks, and I am certain you will fall in love with it. Brilliant!
