Weddings take a lot of planning ahead and wedding stationery is on top of the list of things to do well in advance. Give your guests plenty of notice of your wedding day, they need to keep that day clear.

Understanding how important your wedding invitations and accessories are is crucial. The invitation is the first contact you have with your guests letting them know of your big day. From your invitation, your guests will be able to establish the style and theme of your wedding. Wedding stationery is high on the list of wedding etiquette.

Personalized Stationery

It’s only natural that you want your wedding to be unique. By using custom stationery you can make it very unique to you. Custom stationery is quite flexible too as you can choose the type-face, the color and size of the text and use your own words.

Customizing your wedding stationery is easy to fit in with any wedding theme. There are so many styles to choose from: contemporary floral religious classic embossed layered are just a few to pick from.

Selecting A Wedding Theme

Remember, wedding stationery sets the tone and theme of your wedding. Therefore as an example, if you are getting married outdoors in a garden, then you could choose to have floral stationery.

To help blend the theme of your wedding into your wedding stationery, you can use accessories such as hearts, ribbons, rings and which doves for example. These will also blend in with your bridesmaid dresses.

Wedding Stationery

Do you know how many items of stationery there are? Without a doubt your invitations are the most important, but you can accompany the invitations with other stationery items such as:-

Wedding Invitations

Programs

Announcements

Engagement Announcements & Invitations

Save-the-Date Cards

Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

Bridal Shower Invitations

Wedding Accessories (menu cards, thank you notes etc..)

Planning Ahead

Your wedding invitation is the first official message about your wedding and your guests need to know about their invite in plenty of time. Here is a checklist to help you plan ahead and be organized:-

1. Double-check that the wording in your invitation is correct. Ask a friend or family member to also look through the invitation for you;

2. Professional wedding planners say to order your wedding invitations approximately 3-6 months before the wedding. You could order these as soon as your date, time and venue have been confirmed.

3. To calculate the number of invitations to order remember to count one invitation per single guest, couple and family;

4. Once you have the number of invitations to order, you should then add on a further 25. This is to equate for keepsake invitations and for any last minute guests. The same goes for ordering extra envelopes – you may make an address mistake;

5. Expert planners agree that the wedding invitations need to be mailed out no later than six-weeks before the wedding date. It’s imperative to allow the guests plenty of time to respond;

6. In order to determine the postage for your invitations, take one complete invitation to the PO to get it weighed and priced accordingly.

Summary

Don’t underestimate the importance of your wedding stationery. It sets the tone and style of your wedding and portrays the image you want to set. Wedding stationery should tie in with the overall theme of your wedding. Don’t forget to plan ahead.

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It suits a girl to be as honest and forthright in her profile as possible. Make sure you post an attractive, current picture and are up-front about any dealbreakers or special preferences. But remember, your profile is the only chance you’ll have to make a first impression on the person who may be your future partner – you don’t want to waste those precious few moments with a list of demands. Think things through when writing your profile, and don’t be afraid to post the wacky details making you much more desirable and interesting to a potential partner.

It may sound like common sense, but don’t forget about your personal safety just because you’re sitting behind your keyboard in your pajamas while surfing your favorite Internet dating site. Don’t give potential dates your home address, and meet in a public place. If you are planning to meet your online date, make sure somebody else knows about your plans. And remember – if you feel uncomfortable in a dating situation; feel free to cut off contact. It’s both your prerogative and obligation to keep safety in mind at all times.

But what does Internet dating mean for a woman, anyway? How can you up your chances of finding the partner you’ve been looking for? The answers are simple – with a bit of work and a lot of luck, you can do it with the click of a mouse. You won’t need a book or an expensive counselor to tell you how to find a date online if you follow these sensible tips. online dating can be a fun new avenue for a woman on the prowl.

online dating can be a fun new avenue for a woman on the prowl. But what does Internet dating mean for a woman, anyway? How can you up your chances of finding the partner you’ve been looking for? The answers are simple – with a bit of work and a lot of luck, you can do it with the click of a mouse. You won’t need a book or an expensive counselor to tell you how to find a date online if you follow these sensible tips.

It suits a girl to be as honest and forthright in her profile as possible. Make sure you post an attractive, current picture and are up-front about any dealbreakers or special preferences. But remember, your profile is the only chance you’ll have to make a first impression on the person who may be your future partner – you don’t want to waste those precious few moments with a list of demands. Think things through when writing your profile, and don’t be afraid to post the wacky details making you much more desirable and interesting to a potential partner.

Shared interests, hobbies and goals go a long way – both online and in the eventual in-person meeting. Just because you’ve decided to search for love online doesn’t mean you should lower your exacting standards for what you want in a man. The great news about online dating services is they allow you to select for qualities and characteristics you find valuable, while allowing you to search based on more superficial qualities. If you’ve been dreaming of someone tall, dark and handsome who lives within 20 miles of your doorstep, you’re in luck. It’s a good idea to go for a man whose profile you connect with on a more personal level.

Tags: wedding speech, wedding centerpieces, wedding planning

Eight crucial steps you must add to your wedding shower checklist:

Who should host the shower?

Traditionally the maid of honour tends to plan the shower party. But today, anything goes and it is perfectly acceptable for both family and friends to work together to organize, host and share the cost of the wedding shower.

Do you know when the party should be held?

The bride and family members will already be busy preparing for the actual wedding. Therefore, it’s best to have it quite far in advance of the wedding, usually about six weeks beforehand.

Not many wedding showers are a surprise these days. You should inform the bride in advance of the date the party is being held. Why not have it on a Saturday day-time as a lunch in a restaurant or a garden tea-party on the lawn.

Who to invite

Relatives and close friends including neighbours and work colleagues. It is wise to keep the numbers low as large parties tend to split-off into smaller groups.

You want everyone to interact with each other and be a manageable size for everybody to play the hilarious shower games and not feel left out. Taking all this into consideration, a comfortable shower should involve about 10-20 people.

What’s your theme?

As with the actual wedding, it is wise to choose a theme before sending out the invitations. The theme can then be used throughout the shower and incorporated in with the invitations, decorations, favors and refreshments.

A kitchen theme is always a good one as there are so many kitchen items and accessories to buy. Having said that there are dozens to pick and choose from.

The host knows the bride well and will surely fit a theme around either what the bride and groom need, or their lifestyle. For example if the happy couple are both into health and fitness, then a fitness theme could be an option.

Food favors games & thank you notes

Food: It depends on the theme and location for which type of food to prepare. For example, if you are holding a ‘wine tasting theme’, then a finger buffet with crackers, nuts and other nibbles goes down well with wine.

Favors: Some people choose not to give shower favors. It really depends on where you live and if it is a tradition in your area or not. If you do, you don’t have to go overboard with favors if you want to keep the expense down.

Games: Everyone should be included in the shower games. Shower party games are a great ice-breaker for people to get to know each other. Games can include bridal shower bingo as this is always a big hit as is ‘what’s in the bag (memory game).

Thank You Cards: Normally a simple ‘thank-you’ was enough, but today, with showers being larger and guests busier, a personal note is the only way to make sure that sincere appreciation is expressed.

Let’s recap

A lot of planning and organising is involved in preparing for a bridal shower party. However, it is always worth it for your guests to have a great fun time and the bride and groom receive lovely practical gifts for their hobby or their home.

Tags: wedding poetry, wedding toasts, american wedding

Wedding Decorations Should Complement the Bride and Groom

As you plan your wedding, you will soon begin to focus on the wedding decorations for both the wedding ceremony and the reception location. Ideally, the beauty and joy found in the bride and groom makes these two people the “centerpiece” of both events. While you want the decorations to enhance the overall appearance of both facilities, you do not want to plan decorations that will compete with the preexisting dcor that is found at the reception site or church.

Where to Begin When Planning Wedding Decorations for Your Reception

The best way to decide upon your wedding decorations is to visualize where each item will go and how it will look once it is in place. This requires that the individual responsible for decorating for your wedding be extremely familiar with the reception location and the ideas you have about your perfect wedding reception.

As you first enter the reception site, take a good look around the foyer. By actually visiting the physical location of your reception, walking all around the building and even taking photographs of any structural irregularities or other types of dcor that you want to showcase or remove during your event will be preparing the ground work for your decorations.

Keep alert to different things that you notice or that stand out to you as you walk around the room. Once you have a good feel for your reception location, it is time to begin planning the decorations that will enhance the overall effect of your wedding reception.

Important Touches That Mean So Much When You Are Planning Your Wedding Decorations

If your ceilings are tall, consider using clear wedding balloons as your centerpieces. These tall balloons are tied with narrow strips of tulle and held to the table with tiny party balloon weights. The wedding balloons are generally clear with ornate white writing upon them which is subtle and elegant as a wedding centerpiece without blocking the talking that often takes place across the tables.

If balloons are not your idea of wedding decorations, you can use fresh flowers or small green plants as centerpieces. Having a florist create tiny bouquets is an easy but often expensive way to create your reception wedding decorations. If floral bouquets are not your idea of wedding decorations, you could consider using square mirror tiles with reflective candles. This beautiful wedding decoration not only illuminates the entire facility, it creates a romantic ambiance within the entire reception facility during the extent of your wedding reception.

As you finalize your wedding decorations for the reception facility and the wedding chapel, keep in mind that the beauty is found in the love that is shared between the bride and groom not in the decorations that are placed around the area.

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Wedding Gifts: The Registry Controversy

Wedding gifts are an exciting part of any wedding, especially for the young bridal couple that is leaving the homes of their parents to build their own household. Traditional wedding gifts have always included items for the household or money to help the young couple begin their lives together.

Should You Register Or Should You Not?

The wedding gift registry has become somewhat of a double edge sword. Depending upon the area in which you live or your financial status, there are many different opinions regarding the necessity and use of a wedding gift registry.

In traditional wedding circles, it is considered poor manners to use a wedding gift registry or even suggest that you have registered for different gift ideas. The belief is that the wedding gift is not an expected item for the bride and groom but rather a generous offering by the guests. In addition, the fact that the bride and groom would try to direct or choose the wedding gift for the bride and groom prior to the wedding is also considered tasteless and selfish.

Etiquette Does Not Always Control the Behavior of Society

While traditional wedding gift etiquette does not accept the use of a wedding registry, the majority of brides and grooms use them daily to highlight the gifts of their choice. The wedding gift registry is designed to allow the bride and groom to shop in various stores or online to create wedding gift wish lists so that the wedding guests will be able to find “just the right gift”. Bridal magazines and wedding planning books write articles and chapters that focus on how to use a gift registry to the benefit of the wedding couple.

While many different traditionalist view the wedding registry as a tacky method created to force the wedding guest to not only bring a gift but to buy only the wedding gifts for which the bridal couple has registered. The traditionalist argument is that the wedding gift is just that, a gift, not a requirement for attendance.

However, the popularity of the gift registry has virtually eradicated a large majority of traditionalists and created a whole new perspective on the gift registry. If you are a bridal pair that is planning to utilize the wedding gift registry, remember to have a wide variety of price ranged items listed on your registry. Providing a number of different items and price ranges will allow everyone to be able to purchase a gift that is within their budget.

Tags: wedding poetry, wedding photos, wedding toasts