Short Hemlines
This season, just about every designer sent a short dress down the runway. If you've got great gams -- and want to show them off on your wedding day -- embrace the newest high-hemline styles.
My #1 wedding trend for 2008 is the green wedding. It was a wedding trend in 2007, but it's going to be even bigger in 2008. Many couples are realizing that if we don't take care of our planet, who will? Your big day is full of opportunities to make ethical informed decisions as well as many opportunities for waste. If you're an environmentalist, consider using organic flowers in your bouquet, recycled paper in your invitations, local and organic foods at your reception, and even biodegradable plates and forks. Each step can make a difference in this world!
You definitely can have fun with your tables when creating a dinner party for your reception. Lets start with everyone can use a little help setting the table. Ever wonder how those seemingly perfect brides or hostesses make it all come together, and everything just kind of works? Stop thinking you could never do that. Setting a great table is a cinch, and I've got just the tips and tricks to inspire you to pull off your own dinner party with ease.
Who doesn’t love crystal when it is done right, so get creative with it. Who says all glasses in a place setting have to be the same? Have fun mixing and matching tinted crystal with clear. Hunt for flea market finds, like vintage glasses, to add character your contemporary table. Or take glasses intended for one thing and repurpose them entirely
Allow your flowers to say it all! Whether it's a single bloom placed on each napkin or a big vase brimming with a seasonal bouquet, flowers are an instant and easy way to give flair to your table. You don't need to spend a fortune; inexpensive blooms such as daisies or dahlias will generate instant panache. Keep things monochromatic for maximum impact. Or get creative with one of my favorite tricks: Buy a floral foam sphere at a local craft store, soak it in water, and pin individual blooms over the entire surface. Then rest your flower ball in a martini glass for a cutting-edge display.
Think about using other everyday pieces in surprising ways. Enlist a small, bowl-shape vase for a job as a candleholder, and fill in the extra space with seashells or pinecones. Serving bowls make sensational centerpieces; fill these with fresh fruit, flowers, vibrantly colored vegetables, even pinecones. Have extra shot glasses? Use 'em as bud vases or votive glass holders!
Beautifully classic yet very modern! These crystal-studded martini glasses are simply stunning. Destined to add instant style to an engagement party, a bridal shower or at the wedding reception. 8 3/4" H, 6 oz., Pkg. ct. 2 glasses $49.98
These are a few of my new favorite favors for this year! Take a moment and visit Wedding Tulle to view all that we have to offer to the uncommon bride.
Organic Green 2 Piece Woven Favor Boxes
Miniature "Good Luck" Wooden Elephants
Because food is usually one of the largest costs associated with a wedding, and because catering costs are determined on a per-person basis, keeping your guest list small is a major money saver. Depending on what you serve, the per-person cost can range anywhere from $10 to $200; more in large cities for elaborate affairs. If you like, start by making as big a list as you can, I refer to this as the fantasy list. Then get ready to wield the pen as hatchet and whack that list into shape, cutting ruthlessly until you are within budget.
Also dependent on your guest list is your choice of wedding/reception venue. If you have your heart set on a small country inn but plan to invite 200 people, you can see the problem it presents. So figure out which is more important to you: more guests or a specific venue. If you choose more people, find a venue that will comfortably accommodate them. If venue is most important, find out how many folks your space will hold and invite accordingly.
If the issue at hand is the potentially hurt feelings of the uninvited, remember that remote cousins often feel as indifferent toward you as you do toward them, and may be happy not to come. The same goes for distant friends. A wedding is not an excuse to round up every lost intimate friend you have known since you were 10, focus on people who matter now.
As for friends-in-law you wish you'd never met, start with this crucial connubial ground rule: You two are separate people with different tastes. You don't have to like each other's friends, but hey, letting them share some champagne with you on your big day is not going to hurt anyone.
Take this task slow, take deep breathes and keep an open mind. In the end, you and your husband will look out during your reception and see what matters. Family and friends.
It is a dreadful task but it is one of those that must be mastered before the festivities can begin. It is very common for your sweetie to have a friend you can't stand. Or you have relatives your sweetie considers extraneous, and your mother is making it very clear she expects an old-fashioned wedding; that is, with all her friends on the list. Not to worry: Brides and grooms and their parents have been battling this one out forever, and no marriage has been forestalled by it yet
If you're running into conflicts, consider who's paying for it. Because the bride's parents traditionally paid for the wedding, they usually determined the number of guests and told the groom's parents how many people they were allowed to invite. Now that couples are as likely as not to be paying for their own weddings, at least in part, they often primarily decide how many people to invite and divide that number between their two families, or by three; the bride's parents, the groom's parents, and the couple. If you go traditional and the parents of the bride are footing the bill, then you should take their wishes into account and try to compromise. At a large wedding, a few extra people won't make a bit of difference. But if your goal is intimacy, stick to your guns no matter what unholy pressures your family unleash, especially if you're paying. More to come next week on guest lists!
Each day I am in my bridal boutique working with brides on fine tuning their wedding details, I am amazed at the lack of embracing color each bride faces. My father is an amazing artist and he taught me the importance of using color and how to balance the harmony within the hues. I encourage brides to search within themselves on what colors truly expressions their personality. When I give them this inner desire within me to bring out a color diva within themselves I often receive a blank confused look. History of weddings has demonstrated that you have two colors and very often the bride becomes so obsessed with having everything be these two colors that somewhere down the line of planning her wedding day she has lost the ability to have fun with color. I encourage you to embrace color combinations you have not seen before at a wedding. A good tool is going to a local paint store and look at paint chips. Often you will have samples of three to four colors that work very well together on one paint chip (Martha Stewart's paint chips demonstrate this the best). I love seeing purple, red and oranges together and you can simply pull this all together by working with your florist and wedding stylist. Think blues, purples and yellows or yellow, orange and fuchsia! Get inspired.
Recreate the scene at the Seine by hiring portrait artists to set up easels and paint portraits for your guests during the reception. All the while, have a few strolling musicians playing romantic tunes. For your first dance, why not chose Edith Piaf's bittersweet classic, "La Vie en Rose?" Or how about Gershwin's "An American in Paris?" If you're having a DJ, have him play Piaf, Jacques Brel, and all the great American jazz greats who made their name in France. Favors for all guests? I love the idea of giving away pocket-sized French cookbooks, mini bottles of French wine tagged with a personalized wedding label, or small vials of French perfume or cologne placed on each guests' plate.
