Slashing Wedding Food Costs

With rising gas costs and other expenses through the roof, the following ideas are great to save money planning your wedding reception.

The cost for food and drinks for your wedding can easily climb to several thousand dollars, but it doesn't have to. Here are several tips that will save you money and still provide you with the classy wedding you've dreamed of:

1. The biggest cost saver, whether you are using a caterer or planning the food yourself, is to schedule the wedding and reception at a time of day when a full sit-down meal won't be expected by guests. An afternoon/evening cocktail or dessert reception can save you thousands of dollars when compared with an elaborate dinner.

2. Next, be smart when planning beverages for your reception. An open bar can break the bank. Consider a classy champagne punch or a wine instead (or even an alcohol-free punch). And remember that it is always less expensive to purchase and serve the drinks yourself than to pay a caterer or bartender to do so.

3. Second to alcohol, the biggest food and beverage expense is usually meat for the wedding reception or dinner. Keeping meat to a minimum is another easy way to trim your wedding food costs. Choosing a vegetarian entree, a dish whose main ingredient is not meat, or a less expensive cut of meat are all wise decisions that will positively impact your food budget.

4. Another easy place to save money is on the wedding cake. Bakers and caterers often charge anywhere from $2-6 per slice to make and/or serve the wedding cake. For about $1 per slice, you can purchase a nice cake at a bakery and have a friend cut and serve it at the reception.

5. If you are well-organized and have a good support system of friends and family willing to help, you may wish to consider planning and making your own food for your reception. You can save several thousand dollars by doing so. And it's not as difficult as you may think. Food for a dessert reception, for example, can be made ahead and served cold the day of the wedding with little effort on anyone's part. For many brides, the extra work is worth the savings if it means more money to spend on the honeymoon or being able to afford a designer wedding gown.

The food for your wedding is one of the easiest expenses to slash, while still allowing the smart bride and groom to host a very nice affair. Be creative, ask questions, don't be afraid to ask for cheaper menu items, and do as much yourselves as you can handle, and you will be able to trim hundreds (if not thousands) from your wedding food costs.

WedAlert tip: In certain locations some of the above suggestions are not feasible, but many catering halls/reception sites offer much cheaper price per plate (which include food and drinks) depending on the date and time of your reception. So while the reception hall may not permit you to bring in your own food, a Friday night or Sunday afternoon reception will be substantially less that a Saturday night.

Ideas On Presenting And Displaying Wedding Favours

Wedding favours can be just as much a part of the table decorations and
overall look of the wedding reception as flowers, table settings, and
linen. Traditionally, favour boxes and tulles are placed on the wedding
reception table at the guests’ seat or in their champagne glasses. If
you prefer to save space on the table, why not hang the wedding favours
from the guests’ chairs? Sheer organza bag wedding favours are idea for
this. This is a creative way to present your wedding favours and also
dress up the reception chairs.

Let your wedding favours also be functional. You can attach a favour
label to your favours with the guests’ names and their table numbers
and set them out on a table near the reception entrance to double as
escort cards. Give pretty hang bag boxes to the ladies and top hats to
the men filled with delicious sugared almond or chocolate dragees as
you welcome them to your evening reception.

A popular idea is to have breakaway centrepieces, where the centrepiece
is made up of several elements that come apart, each part able to be
taken home by guests as wedding favours. Breakaway centrepieces are
often an arrangement of cake box wedding favours. You could also have
wedding favours tree. This idea works really well with Christmas
weddings. If a Christmas tree is out of season, get a potted tree or
use vines to bring a Mediterranean touch to you wedding. Wedding guests
can untie wedding favours from the tree at the end of the evening for a
sweet memento.

You could pile wedding favours in baskets set by the door and give them
to your guests as the leave or give the flower girls something helpful
to do at the wedding reception. Ask them to walk around with baskets of
wedding favours and pass one out to each wedding guest. Make sure they
make it to each table and do not leave anyone out!

Most Beautiful Wedding Gown Trends of 2009

Finally! 2009’s gowns bring brides some real choices, after several years of strapless uniformity. (Thank you, Vera Wang!) If you’re the type of bride who wants a couture (or couture-inspired) gown to match the finer shades of your personality and wedding style, 2009 is the year with your name on it! Here are a few of the hottest trends going:

Crumb-Catcher Bodices.
This regal, old-world design twist came from that same lust for luxe that brought us Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, and its subsequent style explosion in the bridal world.

Greek Goddess Columns.
The ultimate look backward, the style takes us back to the lovely goddesses (and early supermodels) of Greece’s Golden Age. With plenty of glorious examples to be seen from bridal magazines to the red carpet, this style’s not going away soon. Happily, it lends itself to arm bling and the half up-half down style that’s still so alluring to brides. Also note: bridesmaids look amazing in goddess gowns when the bride’s wearing something more structured.

Asymmetrical / One-Shouldered Styles.
These gowns are sexy attention-getters. Another hot commodity on the red carpet, the asymmetrical top adds up to an exciting departure from same-old strapless, while exuding plenty of come-hither vibes.

Subued Color Plays.
Color’s no longer the domain of a bold -- or even distracting -- burst of contrast in the train or cuffed bodice of an otherwise stark-white gown. Instead, next year's color inspiration flows from Vera Wang’s gowns in warm toasts and charcoals, St. Pucchi’s fabulous champagne and platinum combos, or gowns that ripple with multicolored gardens of embroidery (Claire Pettibone).

The Mini.
No longer the oddball in an otherwise full-length portfolio, minis have become serious business, with layers and ruches and ruffles aplenty. Increasing number of brides find them a brilliant choice for tent weddings on the shore or in the vineyard. And let’s not forget those brides who want a gorgeous but mobile second gown to get down and boogie the night away.

Honeymoon - A Maui Destination Wedding

I would like to discuss some of the advantages of a Maui destination wedding. These advantages include greater freedom, flexibility and financial control.

Planning a wedding in your home town will most likely mean that many family members and friends are going to want to help you plan it, unlike planning a Maui wedding. Chances are they might have some strong opinions, too. And, can you say "no" to your finance's mother who insists on paying for a cigar bar at your reception, while you happen to loathe cigars?

Planning for a wedding afar, especially to a premium destination such as Maui, changes all that. You can blithely say, "Oh, my wedding planner already booked us a smoke-free venue," or... you might not even invite anyone except your fiancé - something you can get away with in Hawaii, but not at the country club at home. The Beaverton relatives despise the Campanos' family - no problem. They can work it out while watching your wedding on Maui on streaming video at home and you won't have to witness the drama.

On the other hand, if you love the idea of having Mom, mother-in-law-to-be and six bridesmaids planning the whole affair, invite them and they can help out strewing petals and making shell centerpieces. Along this same vein, say you have long fantasized a bridal processional preceded by six Tahitian drummers in flowered loin cloths on a dream Maui beach. If you wanted to do this at home, and could even find the Tahitian drummers, what would Aunt Mildred say? In Pittsburgh, probably a lot. On Maui, she would just shrug and say "well, I guess 'when in Rome...'" She might actually love it, especially after a mai tai or two.

Because it is much easier to control the guest list in a destination wedding, it is easier to control the spending. You won't be expected to invite everyone you know or your sister knows, and even if you do, they won't all come. Because of the distance involved, people have to make a real effort and commitment to come to your Maui destination wedding, and only the ones who really want to be there will come. And, that's good. You probably won't get cousin Ed's former dorm mates, who are only looking for free drinks and cut bridesmaids. Another financial bonus is numerous, beautiful free Maui wedding sites.

So, in conclusion, a destination wedding in Maui or other lovely exotic locales will allow you more fun and freedom to plan the wedding of your dreams. You will likely save money, which you can use to hire a helicopter to escape to a different Hawaiian island, fleeing friends and family who do follow you after the wedding. And, they will be find, swimming, surfing, para gliding and trying to find the phone numbers of those Polynesian drummers.

How to be Creative on Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations are one of the few pieces of mail that people enjoy receiving. It’s fun to open up that envelope knowing there’s a custom invitation inside. But amidst all of today’s junk mail, how can you make your envelope stand out to get your guests’ attention?

There are actually several ways you can make your mailing envelope as unique as your wedding invitation.

• Shape - With so many wedding invitation designs available today, you could easily select a uniquely shaped style such as square or tea length. The mailing envelope will then reflect that same distinctive size to fit the invitation.
  
  
• Style - Another option is to select a Seal and Send wedding invitation style. This all-in-one invitation is designed to be folded into a self-mailing piece eliminating the need for a mailing envelope. The response card is attached to the invitation so it can be easily detached by your wedding guest along the perforation. This also eliminates the response card return mailing envelope and saves on your postage cost as it only requires a postcard stamp.
  
  
• Color - How about using color for emphasis? Some wedding invitations now come with colored mailing envelopes. In particular, self-mailer invitations often include a colored envelopment. The envelopment holds your invitation card and has a built-in pocket for keeping any extra enclosures. It is then folded up wrapping around all your invitation pieces to become your mailing envelope.
  
  
• Decorative Seals - Adding a seal to your wedding invitation envelope could be that extra touch you’ve been looking for. Even though your envelope is sealed, you can choose to place a special seal on the back so it gives the illusion that the seal is actually holding the flap down. There are many seal design choices, from monograms to first names to specific themes. Their appearance can be clear, white, silver, gold, embossed, etc.
  
  
• Custom Wedding Stamps - There are now websites that offer you the option of creating your own personalized postage stamps using an uploaded photo or choosing from ready-to-use wedding designs. This is a great way to dress up your wedding invitation envelopes to reflect your personal style.

You want to be sure your wedding invitation gets the attention of your guests as soon as it arrives in their mail and that it doesn’t get lost in their sea of junk mail and bills. Using any of the above suggestions will surely accomplish this and will start building their excitement even before they see your actual invitation.