Wedding Ideas That Make Planning Fun

Welcome to the Wedding Ideas and Details Blog grand opening!

One of the main themes of our site is that wedding planning should be as fun as the big day itself! There is enough stress involved in life as it is and it has no place in this little corner of the world where you plan one of the happiest moments in life - your wedding. So it follows that this blog is and will always be a fun, positive, and happy place where you can find ideas for wedding favors, wedding decorations, do-it-yourself wedding ideas, as well as money and time saving tips.

We'll also include a little encouragement along the way. And if you don't see what you need, there are archive links and different category links to help you dig around. So stop by anytime or subscribe to our blog or RSS feed (they'll update automatically when there's something new).

November 27, 2005 - Christmas and Winter wedding favors and decoration ideas

Can you believe it? Thanksgiving is over already? We've decided that the only way to hold on to a diet during the holidays is to skip them. Yes, by working or whatever. So, if you HAD to work, you can console yourself by knowing that you didn't gain five pounds in two days like everyone else. If you didn't have to work and gained five pounds anyway - oh well, New Year's resolutions are just around the corner. Our personal feeling on the subject is that the holidays are a little bit stressful for most people anyway, so don't beat yourself up over a little bit of good food. Just be thankful for the opportunity to be with friends and family this year and diet later. That leads us to the next big holiday...

Christmas is just around the corner. So, we'll talk a lot during the next few weeks about wedding favors, decorations, and even wedding cake ideas for the holidays and on into winter. Now, those of you with excellent self control will be able to wait for Christmas to dive into more turkey, stuffing, cookies, cakes, and candy. But since most of us can't wait, we'll start with an excellent idea for a wedding favor or for any holiday party. Here's a hint.: When you were a kid, did your grandmother make any treats during the holidays that had a fun shape? You guessed it. Cookie cutter wedding favors are perfect in themselves for this time of year, but they can also be part of a greater plan for your wedding decorations in general, or for any holiday gathering for that matter.

• To use cookie cutter wedding favors alone, simply pick a great shape (snowflakes for you northerners perhaps, or palm trees for the snowbirds) and decorate with ribbon, favor tags, or nothing at all.

• You can hang them from a Christmas tree as ornaments that guests can pick for themselves. Tin cookie cutters will reflect the lights of the tree nicely.

• Cookie cutters in cello bags tied with ribbon look great, and you can personalize the bags with do it yourself or personalized labels for an extra nice touch.

• For all those great memories at Grandma's house, make cookies with your cookie cutter favors to eat at the party or to send home with your guests.

• If you're great in the kitchen, you can give out cookie cutter favors that have fudge or chocolate in them, perhaps with a little icing decoration on the candy as well.

We'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas wedding decoration and winter wedding favor ideas.

November 28, 2005 - Wedding Ideas that Work With Holiday Parties

Well, the Thanksgiving leftovers aren't looking so good anymore. So...since we talked about cookies yesterday - and we've got to pace ourselves here or we're going to need a whole new elastic waistband wardrobe - we'll go in a different direction today.

One thing you can do at your upcoming work and family holiday parties to get your mind off the food is to come up with a project. And this little project does have something to do with wedding ideas, so we'll start with that part first. One of the more classy wedding ideas that has taken root is the use of unique wedding guest books. Traditional guest books are still alive and well and even used along with these new wedding guest book alternatives. You'll see how these new wedding guest book ideas can fit into the holidays in just a minute.

The three most popular new guest book ideas are:

• Wedding guest book platters
  
• Inspirational or signature guest book frames
  
• Polaroid guest books
  

All of these guest books work great with any wedding ceremony or reception, serve as a truly displayable memento for years to come, and can be used for other special occasions....like those holiday parties.

So, keep your mind off all that belly bulging food by taking charge of this little project - putting together a Polaroid guest book, signature frame, or platter for a gift to your family or office.

For the Polaroid guest book, you can be in charge of the camera (digital or Polaroid), and show your guests the picture that will go into a designated page. Then get them to write a little note to the receiver(s) for that page. This is great for large families that want a gift for their parents or grandparents. It's also a great gift for the boss or to display at the office.

The signature frame has a similar use, but with one picture (of the entire family or office) and room for short sayings or signatures. As a gift for the grandparents, have all the little kids make a hand print on the matte and have older grandchildren sign it.

Last but not least, the signature platter is probably a better fit for family occasions than office events, but still can be displayed for a long time to come.

Many of these items have a metal tag or inscription where you can put a couple of lines of personalized text as well.

This is a great way for you to:

• Make the rounds and visit with everyone,
  
• Avoid too much eating or worse yet, drinking all night… and most importantly,
  
• Give your time for a gift that has much more meaning than a pair of socks or another meaningless office gift.
  
• Not to mention the fact that you'll look like a creative genius.
  

Tomorrow, more winter wedding ideas, like how to create warmth on a cold winter night.

November 29, 2005 - Winter Wedding Favors and Decorations that Create Warmth…

Or at least the illusion thereof...Of course, you could always give fireplace logs for wedding favors or tubes of Ben Gay - those would create warmth - however, if we gave those kinds of suggestions we wouldn't be in business very long. But we digress. The scenario is this:

You're having a wedding reception or some other event in the dead of winter. It's cold outside and windy - the kind of wind that howls and sings and makes your eyes water instantly. Your guests just finished scraping ice off of their windshields, falling down on the ice with their hands in their pockets because they forgot their gloves. So they really hit hard. And now, with snow and ice all over their humiliated faces, they walk through the door thinking, "This had better be good."

Okay, no pressure, but you've got to make these people forget the last fifteen minutes and fast. Is this where we tell you to buy some widget as a wedding favor that will make these problems disappear? Absolutely not. It's much more involved and more fun than that. You see, the chief problem here is not that your guests lack some item or thing that will make them forget about winter.

The problem is much bigger and yet, in a sort of paradox, easier than that. The reason the problem is bigger is because a widget is not going to do it - you've got to change their whole mood, attitude, perception….Ahhh! That's also why it's going to be easy! You can change someone's perception without saying a word to them - you just have to change the environment a little.

You already have one advantage. Heat. You're having your wedding reception or event in a place that has heat. If you aren't, we're not sure we can help you. But on the upside, you'll save a lot of money on everything because you won't have as many guests. Now, there's a lot more to it than that and we're going to cover exactly that tomorrow. But here's a hint. If you were building a house, you would need some plans, a blueprint, a vision. This is where we'll pick up tomorrow and as the next few days go on, we'll get real practical about the nuts and bolts of how this is done. So have no fear, we know the obstacles and we're about to start moving them out of the way. Stay tuned…

November 30, 2005 - Winter Wedding Favors and Decorations That Create Warmth

Yesterday, we talked about some obstacles that go along with having a winter wedding reception or holiday event. Now we're going to turn all that around. Our mission at the end of yesterday was to change the perception of winter that your guests may have and get them in the festive mood that will have them thanking you and remembering your event for a long time to come.

Practically speaking, there are ways to decorate, things to do, food and drinks to serve that will accomplish this mission and we'll get there soon. But first, we have to know where we're going with this idea. Remember how we described all the awful things about winter that may have been troubling your guests as they made their way to your winter wedding reception or holiday party?

Well, there are lots of incredible things about winter that bring out the best memories and involve friends, family, and great times. These are the things that we want to quickly bring to the mind of your guests as they spend the evening with you. So, before thinking about how you'll decorate, what you'll serve, and all that other stuff, let's find your perfect vision of winter and then those other decisions will take care of themselves.

Think of what a perfect winter day looks like, smells like, sounds like, feels like, and even tastes like. Then you'll be able to come up with the wedding favor or decoration ideas that will put your guests in that same mood. Things like:

• The sight of snow falling gently on a quiet landscape, Christmas decorations, softly lit trees, bright colored paper and ribbon, soft, flickering light from little votive candles on the mantle.

• The feeling of cold air that is brisk but invigorating, a warm fire, slippers, a down comforter, that warm feeling you get when you take a sip of coffee or hot chocolate on a cold day.

• The smell or taste of great coffee, roasted almonds, pumpkin pie, cinnamon rolls, hot soup, or whatever great dish your grandmother made.

• The sounds of family and friends playing cards together, laughing, watching football, children and their parents laughing together as they play in the snow or sled down a hill, a fireplace crackling and roaring, a snowmobile in the distance.

Now that you've got the idea, keep going. Write down what you come up with just like we did here in terms of the five senses. Tomorrow, we're going to take those abstract concepts and turn them into real wedding ideas that you can use…and your guests will love.