Wedding Ideas That Make Planning Fun

As the holidays draw to a close, you may be saying goodbye to friends and family that you only see on major occasions. Your wedding day will be similar in that you'll be seeing perhaps those same people because it's a special occasion and some that you see even less frequently. And herein lies a dilemma.

In the days leading up to and even on your wedding day, you are going to be stretched thin. You'll have lots to do and everyone will want a little of your time.

It's all for the best - some of your guests will have travelled a long way and spent a lot of money to come and see you. They just want to talk to you, wish you well, thank you for the great reception, and so on.

And as the day and night speed by you'll struggle with getting around to everyone. And being the good person that you are, you'll even feel bad about it if you don't get to at least speak to all of your guests at some point.

In the movies, the happy couple is often seen dashing off from the reception to the airport to start some fantastic honeymoon. While there is no rule about what you have to do here, we have a different view.

Leaving right away not only adds stress to your day, it takes you away from a fantastic gathering with people you love that you worked hard to plan.

We're not alone in this thinking. So many people want to get the most out of their time with family and friends that a trend has develped in the form of a brunch on the day after the wedding - one more chance to visit with those family members and friends.

We love this idea but there still may be a problem with it - money.

By the time your wedding day arrives, you may be tapped out. And putting on a big brunch for lots of people can be expensive. If you can do it, great. If not, there are other ways.

We knew we would have this dilemma at our wedding. There were lots of family and friends that we didn't see often but there wasn't enough time between the wedding and reception to visit with them. But we didn't have the money for a big brunch either. So we got creative.

We had a summer wedding and there was a big theme park about an hour or so away. So we invited anyone that wanted to come to meet us there the next day.

We had a great time, rode roller coasters, and got lots more visiting time with our family and friends without spending more than the cost of admission. Lots of people came, not just to visit with us, but with each other as well. We weren't able to pay for everyone else, but we did get a group rate to lower costs.

You know your guests better than we do so only you will know what might work. But know that when it comes to that big day, you probably won't want to leave at the height of the party. And if you want to spend more time with your family and friends, it's okay to be informal, use your creativity, and everyone will have a great time.

January 4, 2006 - Honeymoons - Why, Where, and How to Find What You Want

Had enough of family, friends, planning, taking pictures, looking fabulous and all that other stuff? Good. Then it's time for your honeymoon.

We'll talk about this most fun part of your wedding for a few days. There's a lot to know - where to go, how to get there, how to know if the place and accommodations will be all right, and so on. And there are easy ways to figure this out. We'll get to all of them, but it will take a few days. For today, we'll talk about the big picture and we'll also ease your mind.

You're probably in one of three categories. You either:

• Are spending your budget on the ceremony and reception, with little left for the honeymoon.

• Are scrimping on your ceremony and reception so you can have a big honeymoon.

• Are having a great honeymoon no matter what.

The big picture applies to all of you, because the honeymoon destination itself is not the primary purpose of the honeymoon. The real purpose of the honeymoon, and the reason why you should go on one, no matter how short or close to home it may be is this:

Planning and having weddings, receptions, and the other associated events is stressful. It's good stress. But, the truth is, you'll have some money issues, some time issues, some setbacks, a busy schedule, and possibly little sleep for several days up to and including your wedding day. You and your fiancé probably will not have a lot of alone time together while all this is going on. Add to that the pressure you put on yourself to do things well, speak to as many people as you can, and look great - oh yeah, and make a major life change - and you'll need some space by the time things wind down.

So the conclusion here is, make some time for you and your new spouse to be alone together, with nothing to do but be together doing whatever it is that you like to do.

Now, we promised to ease your mind.

To go on a honeymoon, you do not have to go to the places the magazines show in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with the little huts that sit on stilts in the lagoon to have a perfect honeymoon. Those places may be nice. But they also may have bugs the size of small rodents running around your room, little crabs that crawl out of the sea and up the stilts, and absolutely nowhere nice to go once you do make your way out around the island.

You may be laughing but this stuff happens. We've been to all sorts of tropical islands and hotels, and the funny thing is, you never know what you're going to get - no matter how much you spend. Well, there are ways to find out, which we'll get to in the next couple of days. But for now, just know that if you focus solely on the destination, you set yourself up for disappointment. If you focus on going somewhere, with the purpose of being with your new spouse and focusing on your new relationship, having fun together no matter what, you'll have a great time.

One final note. If your circumstance or job doesn't allow you to go immediately on a big vacation after you took time off for your wedding, no problem. But go soon after, even if you're just driving to a little getaway, even if only for a few days. You can make it work. And it's well worth it.

Tomorrow, let's talk about some of those tropical destinations and how to find the right place for you. See you then…

January 6, 2006 - Honeymoons - Why, Where, and How to Find What You Want

Some people can take lemons and turn them into lemonade. Some people can't. Either they don't like lemonade or they like diet lemonade and everyone knows you can't make that out of lemons. You have to have special machines and...what in the world are we rambling about? Just this...

If you aren't the kind of person that can rebound quickly from a bad situation, then what we're about to talk about is even more important for you. Yes, we're still talking about honeymoons. But most importantly, we're talking about RESEARCH. You see, we can make lemons into lemonade, too.

Some things just happen - rain, accidents, delays, whatever. But when the problem is a result of not planning, not researching, in other words, an avoidable issue, well...this is harder to handle. But don't worry, with what we're about to tell you and the internet, you can easily take care of that.

First, before you do anything, know this. No matter where you go on the planet, you can find great places to stay and visit and you can find dumps. Both places will have glossy brochures, great brand names, 3, 4, or 5 star ratings, and maybe locations in very close proximity to each other.

No matter who you are or where you live, there is some place that seems exotic to you. The same goes for us. We dream of Tahiti, Fiji, even Hawaii. If you live in those places though, you may dream of somewhere else, though we can't understand why. See? We suffer from this idealism, too. So we're all in the same boat. Luckily, there's hope for all of us.

We can't recommend this highly enough. Go to www.tripadvisor.com and start searching for information on a destination. You don't need a hotel name, just a city will do. The site will bring up links to anything you might be interested in regarding that location. But focus on the reviews and forums that are there.

Read lots, especially the negative ones. You'll pick up lots of tips about things you may not have thought of, but that may be important to you. You'll get a better feel for the hotel's location, too, as reviewer's talk about accessibility and what they did on their trip.

We don't need to say much about this because you'll understand completely as soon as you go there. So after you've checked it out, come back and we'll talk about putting it all together to make a decision. Until then, think happy thoughts about your wedding, dream of a great honeymoon, and enjoy this fun, exciting time of life.

January 9, 2006 - Honeymoons - Why, Where, and How to Find What You Want

If you read the last entry, then we hope you went to www.tripadvisor.com to get lots of reviews about honeymoon islands, cities, and hotels. We use them anytime we go to a place we've never been to before and they're always right on. They'll let you know if there are changes in ownership of a hotel that affect your experience or if there are hotels with one nice building and one musty, old one.

All the stuff that the hotel brochure or website never mentions that may affect your decision is in those reviews. So if you haven't done this, go there first. If you don't go there, just get reviews from somewhere. You'll be glad you did.

Honeymoons in tropical locations have a lot of the same considerations as destination weddings. We've written a lot about that subject already so we won't get into it here. But if you want the big picture of what to look for and how to have the most success go to our navbar item that says "Tropical Weddings" and work your way through the information and links it provides.

We want you to have a great time. And that means you should go exactly where you want to go. You should do just as much research about your destination, hotel, and so on as is necessary to take care of the things that matter to you.

In other words, you should check on the things that might keep you from having a good time. Since this is different for everybody, once you've taken care of that, it won't matter what happens, or what anyone else thinks or says.

All that matters is that the two of you get away together, have fun, and enjoy each other. No place can affect your good time if you won't allow it. If your goal is to be happy because you're together, then you'll have a great time there and in life as well. That reminds us of something. When you get back to everyday life, take your honeymoon with you. How do you do that?

We were just saying that as long as you're together, you can have a good time, right? Well, the same thing is true in your new married life together. From now on, you'll be together. And just like you're deciding not to let anything get in the way of having a good time on your honeymoon because you're together, don't let anything get in the way of having a great marriage because you're together. And in the end, no matter what else changes, that's all that matters.

January 13, 2006 - Beach Weddings During Winter

All that talk about honeymoons got us thinking about beach weddings. From January to May, beach accommodations in the Caribbean and Florida can be cost prohibitive. And they're not exactly affordable in the off season either.

In fact, the only time they're really even reasonable is during hurricane season. And even if there is no hurricane, chances are high, very high, that you'll have some kind of thunderstorm and barely tolerable humidity during each and every day during that time of year. We live in this part of the world and speak from experience.

So what do you do? Pay obscenely high rates for average accommodations during the winter season or gamble and hope for good weather in the off season? Yes.

That's a strange answer - we did it on purpose because, like everything, it depends. Consider the following tips as you think about where and when you'd like to go.

If you're bent on having an outdoor wedding at the beach, put the odds in your favor. If you're going to pay the big money, make sure you're in the right place.

For Hawaii, any time of year is good. Make sure you're on the sunny side of the islands (south or west). Prices are a little cheaper in the fall after kids go to school to mid December when the whales return. There's also a period in late spring (end of April) when deals can be found.

The Caribbean is good from late November to May provided hurricanes haven't recently been through.

Florida is good during the same time period. However, for the warmest weather, get a map and find Lake Okeechobee. Draw a line from east to west that goes along the northern edge of this lake. Consider this a sort of boundary with the warmest weather south of it and colder above. The weather is still good during winter north of that line but can be a little chillier. However, there are lots of bargains to be found there, too. And that's where we'll pick up later...

January 17, 2006 - Beach Weddings in Florida

We're almost done with the updates to our store pages. If you've been there, you know that some items do not show up correctly in the shopping cart and they also are not orderable from the "more info" pages. Not to worry. This will all be fixed by the end of the day on Tuesday, January 17, 2006. We'll be announcing a sale as well to celebrate the addition of a bunch of new wedding favors for 2006 so watch for that.

We left off talking about bargain winter beach destinations in Florida - specifically north of a line drawn from east to west across the northern edge of Lake Okeechobee (that's the big lake on the map). The weather is a little chillier up there but there is a little known fact about northern Florida...

That is this - the nicest beaches and beach towns in Florida, and perhaps in the continental U.S. and Caribbean are in northern Florida. You don't believe us but read on and imagine this...

The beaches are wide expanses of fine white powder sand with clear blue water and gentle surf. Everywhere you look, there are buildings in light pastel and soft white colors, with tin roofs, wooden balconies, architecture that keeps you oohing and aahing all day. The beach and the bays are separated by narrow strips of land that has - get this - lakes! So you can go from beach to lake to bay in minutes.

Friendly people are everywhere, on bikes, pulling wagons of laughing children, walking and enjoying the sun.

There are open air restaurants with soft, never crass, music playing. There's golf, biking, fishing, playgrounds, kayaking on the bay, nature walk trails, beautiful parks.

It is everything the Caribbean promises but almost never delivers because it just doesn't offer a consistent environment outside the artificial world of the big resorts. As we often recommend, if you go there, find a great hotel with lots to do, and don't leave until it's time to go to the airport for your return trip.

All of this is in a very unique corner of the world along a road called "30-A" in the Florida Panhandle. We just got back from this little paradise and have nothing but good to say about it. After going to beach towns and hotels across the country that just don't deliver (Hawaii is excluded - we think that place is worth every dime), we wonder why we ever go anywhere else.

Unless you live in the south, you may have no idea about this incredible area. But we'll introduce it a little for a few days. Because there are bargains there at different times of the year and it offers so much for your money, it's worth a serious look as a place for a beach wedding or honeymoon. For a taste of what's to come, check out the link below. It will take you to the Seaside, Florida website. If you ever saw the movie, "The Truman Show", you've already seen it. It is probably responsible for many of the other wonderful resort towns that have sprung up along this picture perfect beach area known to many as simply, "30-A". We visited their wedding planners earlier today and will share a little about that with you tomorrow and later in a series of pages on our site that will feature Florida wedding locations that you may not know about.

January 19, 2006 - Beach Weddings in a Picture Perfect Town

Soft light slips through a small skylight in your room, gently easing you into the morning. In the distance, gently rolling surf beckons you to listen to the sounds of the sea - sea gulls calling, children laughing, breezes coming from somewhere and going nowhere in particular.

After a few moments spent on your porch with some coffee and anticipation of a great day, you slip on some shoes, pull up your hair, and stroll down to a picture perfect town square complete with a center lawn, white buildings, and tin roofs to find the perfect bagel or muffin.

Even though you've only been there for a day, people greet you warmly, as if they've known you forever. You run into a person or two from your group of family or friends and make plans for a relaxing day at the beach as you stare at it from the town square.

While you and your family are free to relax, the wedding planners at Seaside are scurrying about behind the scenes, coordinating the perfect wedding for you in the perfect setting.

Yesterday, we promised to tell you more about Seaside and we just did. We were just there a few days ago and stopped in to see their wedding planners to see how they do things. We were amazed because we expected expensive pricing but did not find it - especially for the value that is there.

If you don't like friendly people, a relaxed atmosphere, a small town atmosphere, picture perfect architecture and cottages, and the beach, then Seaside is not for you. But we're willing to bet that a few minutes strolling around this great town will have you kicking off your shoes, grinning from ear to ear, being kind to strangers, and most of all, not wanting to leave.

Check the website at the end of this blog if you don't believe us, but this town was made for the express purpose of throwing you back in time to a place where the pace is slower, stress is lower, and time together can be savored.

If you decide to have your wedding there, all your guests can stay in cottages in the town if they'd like. There are endless styles that sleep anywhere from a few to a lot of people. That way, guests can share costs but still have enough privacy to enjoy a few days together.

For your events, everything is possible. You can have your rehearsal dinner or bride's luncheon in one of the cottages. If the groomsmen want to have an outing, everything from boating to fishing to golf and more is right nearby. You can have as few as 10 guests or as many as you like. The wedding planners there have thoughtfully put together detailed packages that cover every detail and specify every cost very simply.

Their pricing rivals that of any decent hotel for reception expenses. We have three close relatives planning weddings right now and have found that the costs they are paying for hotel receptions are actually more expensive than some of the packages that Seaside offers. If you want to compare costs to those of an all inclusive hotel in the Caribbean, consider this. The extra money you'll pay in airfare to any island will probably exceed the difference in cost between the two.

Gourmet food, white linens, and white padded chairs are all part of this very classy set of packages offered at Seaside. We could go on for pages, and we'll do that soon on a section devoted to this one of a kind village by the sea. But for now, check out the website, take a trip there, whatever it takes. If you're considering a beach wedding, at least consider this gem before you decide.

January 21, 2006 - Beach Weddings in a Picture Perfect Town

Seaside is surrounded by perfect beach towns, each with its own flavor. We'll cover more of them over the next few entries because this is really a one of a kind area.

All of these towns spill out of the east side of Destin, Florida. It has its own "resort town", known to most as the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. We stayed here on our last visit because we have small children and this place is a big playground for families.

Another perfect place for weddings, there is plenty of room for groups from small to large because, like Seaside, this place has a unique setting of its own, but on a much larger and more diverse scale. As you'll see on the website, this resort straddles 2400 acres from the beach on the south side to the bay on the north side. In between are 30 distinct "neighborhoods", 72 stocked ponds, four golf courses with great views, 15 tennis courts, playgrounds, marina-side shopping and restaurant district, and a full service marina. When you stay, the resort gives each guest a card that's good for four free hours of bike rental, one free hour of canoeing or kayaking, and free cane fishing poles.

There's a tram that takes guests around the resort for free. You can literally park your car, never leave the resort, and go from beach to bay, tennis to golf, fishing to kayaking, nature walking to shopping, and everything in between. There are plenty of places to stay no matter how large your group is. They can stay in hotels, villas, cottages, condos, or large homes on locations by the beach, bay, lakes, fairways, shops, or quiet streets.

There are just as many settings for your wedding ceremony and reception. The wide beach is powder, white sand set against emerald green semi clear water with gentle surf.

And if you do leave the resort, to the west are open air, upscale shopping plazas. To the east are towns like Seaside, Watercolor, Grayton Beach, and many more that look like they belong in a dream. And we'll show you why in our next entry.

January 26, 2006 - Customized Wedding Favors and More

What do custom designs and low cost have in common? You're about to find out as we bring personalization and wedding items to a new level. Many wedding accessories lend themselves to very simple inscriptions of names, wedding dates, and so on. This is perfect for wedding cake serving sets, frames, and so on.

But there are some things that you'd love to have adorned with your own custom design. We know. We talk to you every day. Some things we can customize and some we can't without getting cost prohibitive. That's about to improve.

We've recruited the help of an extremely affordable graphics design firm that we know and trust to offer true custom design and personalization for some of our existing products and many new ones as well. Imagine favor boxes, favor tins, favor tags, and other containers with EXACTLY what you want on them, not just choosing from options. We'll ultimately have custom save the date cards, save the date magnets, bridal shower invitations, and even customized, downloadable bridal shower games.

We're in the final stages of hammering out the details of the order process so you'll have an easy time of ordering what you want, talking to the designers for your customization, proofing, and getting the finished product. Look for a gradual but steady rollout of different options starting this as early as this weekend. If there's something you'd like to customize and you don't see it on the site yet, let us know and we'll try to make it available to you sooner.

Keep checking here for updates or just subscribe to our RSS feed via your yahoo, msn, or google home pages (just follow the easy instructions by clicking on one of the logos under the navbar). Then you'll be automatically updated as soon as our site updates.

That's all for today. Keep having fun planning. It's all worth it. There's nothing as great as marrying the one you love.

January 30, 2006 - Beach Weddings in a Picture Perfect Town Continued

Okay, the reason we haven't been back in a few days to talk about the next great beach wedding town is that lots of new stuff has been going on. We've added a bunch of new wedding favors. They're awesome.

We try not to sell anything that doesn't have a little "wow" factor. It's a waste of everybody's time. After all, we're here to help you have a unique, fun, entertaining wedding and have fun while you're planning it.

So check out the "new items" page in the store for the latest in cool wedding favors. There are some great things out there now for beach weddings. We won't tell you about it. You'll see it when you get there.

Also, we just started adding combo kits for bridal shower planning that include bridal shower invitations, thank you cards (for the bride to send - so they match everything else), favor tags/labels, ribbon, and even favors. The idea is to provide the things you'll need all at once for less than you could get them separately. And with options for customization of text, font, and motif that carry across the whole package of items. Just another way we're trying to help you save time, money, and stress.

Last but not least - on the way are brands/motifs that you create with our graphic designer EXACTLY how you want them to look. Then, you can take the design files and use them how you wish on napkins, labels, stencils, projectors, favors, place cards, save the date cards, save the date magnets. You'll be able to do all this yourself, or we can do it for you, or a combination of both. There's one more use for these designs that we won't unveil until it's time - but very, very soon. We will promise you this. It will be inexpensive, useful, elegant, awesome, and you'll love it. Look for it in a week or so - we're keeping it a secret from the competition until then.

Okay, back to Florida beach destination wedding locations. You heard about Seaside already. Just a stone's throw from the western edge of Seaside - literally - is the picture perfect town of Watercolor.

Different in style than Seaside, but just as nice or nicer, Watercolor is another dream town of soft pastels, tin roofs, lampshades for street lights (no kidding), and walkability. In other words, it's made in such a way that you'll want to get out and walk around the town. Of course, it straddles the beach and a lake, offers everything from spa services to golf, canoeing to fishing, picnics in parks to upscale dining, and everything in between. If you absolutely can't stand its elegance and luxury, you can stroll to the east and find Seaside, or stroll to the west to the lovely town of Grayton Beach.

Where Seaside is done in whites, bricks, and is more "urban", Watercolor is done in colors, grassy areas, and is more spread out. We can't imagine a bad spot in either place to have a beach wedding or reception. Our guess is that Watercolor might be a little bit pricier. Just a quick glance at the rate schedule suggests that fall/winter is the cheaper season, though not by much.

If you do nothing else, take a look at the vacation accommodations section. It has great pictures and virtual tours that will give you a great feel for the way the town looks. We'll let Watercolor speak for itself from here. Check out the website at the link at the bottom of this entry for that and we'll talk to you soon about more from the wonderful world of weddings. Tip for the day: No matter what anyone else says or does, your wedding will be great, your marriage will succeed, and you'll love it if you decide to each and every day, no matter what. Have fun in the meantime and we'll be back soon.