Archive for January, 2010

So he popped the question…now what?

If you’re among the nearly one million brides-to-be who received an engagement ring over the holidays, it’s time to ring in the new year by scratching the first few items off your wedding day “to do” countdown. Kick start your 2009 wedding plans now!

Here are the first three items that you must cross off your wedding planning checklist before you can accomplish anything else.

Step 1: Determine Your Budget

Your budget will determine the type of wedding you can have – from how many guests you invite, to where and when you host your wedding, right down to the specific blooms in your bouquet, so you need to start here. Sit down with everyone who is going to contribute to the wedding-day piggy bank and discuss how to logically divide the tab and arrive at a total number.

Step 2: Find a Site and Set Your Date

Remember – many reception sites book over a year in advance, so you really can’t decide on a wedding date until you have officially booked your venue with a signed contract. Find as many reception sites that meet your budget, capacity and overall style quotient as you can. Use our wedding reception site search to find venues in your area, and narrow down your list. Then schedule appointments to tour each wedding venue and meet with the manager.

Step 3: Start the Guest List

You don’t need to have the list finalized just yet, but you’ll need an estimate from both sides of the family (and yourselves) right away to avert countless planning headaches down the road.  Once you’ve talked with all financially contributing parties to determine your total wedding budget, you can estimate how many people you can afford to invite to the affair.

Now that you’ve tackled the first three steps, this complete weddings guide will walk you every step of the planning process, from setting the theme and style, to booking your vendors, to managing every detail.

Cori Russell
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/new-ring-for-new-years-kick-start-your-2009-wedding-plans-702580.html

Technorati Tags: Articlesbase, Blooms, Bouquet, Brides, Countdown, Engagement Ring, Headaches, New Year, One Million, Quotient, Reception Sites, Schedule Appointments, Three Steps, wedding budget, Wedding Day, Wedding Planning Checklist, Wedding Plans, Wedding Reception, Wedding Venue, Weddings

1.) It will probably save you money. Because of industry knowledge and experience wedding planners have a realistic idea of cost and can warn you if what you want is likely to be twice your budget. Many brides may make uninformed choices that end up being incredibly costly. Having a clear concept of costs from the beginning is crucial to staying within your budget. Additionally, a wedding planner can give you suggestions and recommendations for compromise that will help you keep costs at a minimum.

2.) Recommended Vendor List. Most wedding planners have a list of recommended vendors that they have established relationships with. These working relationships are based on trust and familiarity. Only worthy vendors are put on this list. In some cases these vendors may even offer you a discount or complimentary upgrade because you were sent to them by your planner.

3.) Neutral Party. Unlike any family member or friend a Wedding Planner can give be supportive without being emotionally involved. You are her client, she appreciates you, respects you but is not otherwise emotionally involved in your actual wedding. Having a calm, cool-headed planner can be incredibly valuable in case you’re swept away by the emotional roller coaster of planning your wedding.

4.) Minimizes your stress. Having a wedding planner is like having a wedding coach. She will instruct you, direct you, answer your questions and warn you of possible mishaps in advance. When the big day comes you’ll be relieved to know that everything had been taken care of in advance.

5.) The time you will save. Through a combination of consultation, a recommended vendor list and strategy using a professional wedding planner will save you tremendous amounts of time. You’ll save hours of time from not having to search on-line or at Bridal shows for the things you’ll need.

6.) It simplifies communication with the venue. If you have one point of contact for the actual day of the wedding it will make things much easier for you and the venue. A wedding planner will make sure that your timeline is working with the venues timeline, and that way you never have to be interrupted by questions during the reception.

7.) You will get to enjoy and remember your Wedding Day. It will probably be the busiest and most emotionally exciting day of your life. You will want to enjoy it and remember it. Leaving the little details and mishaps to someone else to resolve.

8.) You will look better. When you are stressed out and preoccupied it shows on your face. But you’ve seen to all the details in advance and know that someone else is handling any potential mishaps you will be able to relax. And being carefree will be evident in your face and expressions. After all you will be having hundreds of pictures taken and looking at them for years to come. You’ll want to look your absolute best.

Amber Cleveland
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/8-reasons-why-hiring-a-professional-wedding-planner-is-worth-the-investment-113690.html

Technorati Tags: Bridal Shows, Brides, Budget Planner, Choices, Compromise, Consultation, Emotional Roller Coaster, Familiarity, Family Member, Industry Knowledge, Mishaps, Neutral Party, Point Of Contact, Professional Wedding Planner, Realistic Idea, Vendor List, Venue, Wedding Coach, Wedding Planners, Working Relationships

Set and stick to a budget and time limit

Give yourself a realistic amount of time and money to find your wedding invitations.   While your invites should set the tone and style for your wedding, you’ll drive yourself crazy fussing over this task. Find what you like and can afford and then stop looking. 

I’ve seen many brides continue to look for invitations – after deciding on the ‘perfect’ ones – and continue to push their budget only to have to make a compromise on another element such as cake, flowers or DJ.  This can often make a bride feel let down.  Although she picked out what she thought was perfect wedding invitations, in the end, it wasn’t worth all the money.

Pick a budget number and a time frame, do your research, pick your invitations and move on to the next item on your list. You could search for invitations forever and keep finding something.  But finding the perfect invitation in the right time for the right money will make you feel great about your big day. 

Make the internet work for you

Shopping for wedding invitations can be a huge and daunting task.  There are thousands of styles, millions of hues and colors and an unlimited combination of papers and fonts.  Today, with just a few clicks, you can compare many, many options. 

The internet has also brought with it discounted rates that standard stores can’t offer.  Overhead costs are not a part of your price when you shop on the internet.  You’re not paying for rent on a store space, a sales person or a big neon sign.  Not only is it easier to compare many, many types of wedding invitations on the internet, but it is almost always less expensive, too.

So, relax.  Have a look around the web, see what is out there, compare, contrast and make your informed decision with ease. 

Consider wedding kits and save big bucks

Saving money doesn’t have to mean settling for a boring style or second-rate invitations.  Wedding kits and do-it-yourself wedding invitations are big on savings and loaded with style.  If you have a reliable printer, you can save printing costs and spend that money somewhere else.  If you or anyone in your bridal party has beautiful handwriting, you might even consider hand-writing your invitations.  You’re also able to personalize every invitation (if you wish) and make each one special for each guest. 

I’ve seen many brides take this route and end up with beautiful, personalized invitations.  I’ve also seen bridal parties get together for ‘invitation’ parties and craft invitations with embellishments, additions and many personalized touches.  This could also be a great chance to get together with your bridal party, share ideas and talk about some other details and tasks you need to accomplish as you big day nears.

Skip the RSVP card and send them to your websit 

Saving every little bit helps.  Many brides today set up wedding websites where their guests can RSVP instead of mailing a separate card thus saving on the card, printing and postage.  If you’re inviting lots of guests, you should consider directing your guests to RSVP on your website.  This is also a great place to put travel information, directions, wedding day and weekend schedule, hotel accommodations and local events and interests for your out of town guests.  Some of these site and easily done by you and hosted for as little as $10 per month.  Well worth it if you have many out of town guests and lots of information to share.  One important note:  your wedding website can do lots of things, but you should always put a proper wedding invitation in the mail or hand deliver.  E-invitations are not acceptable for this occasion. 

Amy Carter
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/wedding-invitation-tips-for-todays-thrifty-bride-746484.html

Technorati Tags: Brides, Budget Number, Cake Flowers, Daunting Task, Hues, Internet Work, Invitation Tips, Invitations Wedding, Neon Sign, Overhead Costs, Right Money, Right Time, Sales Person, Saving Money, Store Space, Time And Money, Time Limit, Wedding Invitation, wedding invitations, Wedding Kits

Digital offset printing is a combination of both worlds as it offers you smaller minimum orders at competitive prices. Like traditional offset, it uses revolving roller plates and a water and ink delivery system. The difference though is in the use of computer to plate technology that cuts down on plating cost and related set-up fees.

With the streamlined printing process, these printers can simply pass on their savings to you giving your cheaper prints with faster turn around time. Printing offset is now more accessible to small businesses for their advertising campaigns, big businesses with their small printing project, and for organizations and personal use.

1. This way, you can take advantage of the high quality of printing offset for your personal printing needs without filling up your entire closet. You can design invitation cards for weddings, sweet sixteen parties, and charity events. You can even have your own postcard and stationery printed for a signature style.

You can even take advantage of the online design tool that allows you to choose from a variety of templates a design that best exemplifies your personality. These designs are print ready so all you have to do is input your personal information. You can also add your logo or signature, and add your own image.

There are different minimum orders for each print product, but you can adjust your specification to make it fit even more readily to your given budget.

2. Business can use this to come up with a wider variety of marketing materials and still stay within budget. They can have large banners printed individually from large format printing companies and have a few hundred posters printed offset. They can give away a few brochures and a few thousand flyers.

Investors are taught early on not to put all their eggs in one basket. Using the same advises into context, you can diversify your marketing mix. Having a variety of marketing materials allows you to reach a wider group of people with indiscriminate marketing such as flyers, and advertise in-depth to a target group with brochures.

3. Big corporations with heavy duty machines can outsource their smaller printing projects to these printing services. A few hundred business cards or postcard can be printed conveniently and at lower costs. High volume printing projects on the other hand can benefit from wholesale discount printing offset offers.

4. Advocacy groups who are also very dependent on prints to spread their campaign can put digital offset technology to good use. And as more and more printing services become available online, different chapters of the same group can consolidate their budget and have more posters or brochures printed and mailed to their locality.

This way, they can take advantage of the whole sale discounts from printing company, maintain a consistency in their message, and have the convenience of the printer delivering their prints to each chapter.

With the digital offset printing, you can have high quality prints at the cost you can afford.

Terry De Guia
http://www.articlesbase.com/printing-articles/offset-printing-possibilities-for-your-everyday-printing-needs-331540.html

Technorati Tags: Advertising Campaigns, Charity Events, Computer To Plate, Design Tool, Digital Offset Printing, Eggs In One Basket, Ink Delivery, Invitation Cards, Large Format Printing, Marketing Materials, Marketing Mix, Personal Printing, Plate Technology, Printing Companies, Printing Process, Printing Project, Signature Style, Sweet Sixteen, Time Printing, Turn Around Time

Who needs that white vanilla wedding cake with sugary frosting? Do you want a wedding cake that looks good but tastes like cardboard, or one that looks good enough to eat – and is? And would you put that hard plastic bride and groom wedding cake topper in your curio cabinet?

Fruit cake, cheesecake, ice cream cakes, even chocolate with chocolate-dipped fruit – your choices in wedding cakes are much wider than they were when your mother got married. You deserve a wedding you like, and a perfect wedding cake for it.

Here are some ideas for you:

A multi-flavored wedding cake thrills everyone. Uncle Jack won’t eat vanilla, but your husband’s best friend is allergic to chocolate. And you have one guest who is allergic to wheat products, another who is lactose-intolerant. So get a cake with multiple layers of different cakes: cheesecake on the bottom for Mr. Wheat, chocolate for Uncle Jack, and a fluffy fat-free angel food cake on the top for you. Your baker can help.

How about a filling for the wedding cake? To dress up an otherwise-bland cake or just one layer, fill it with chocolate, strawberry, or preserves. Or frost it with hard chocolate instead of traditional frosting.

Why are wedding cakes always round? A current cake trend is one that looks like a stack of presents, decorated with ribbons and bows. You can have anything you want; if you’re both Nascar fans, maybe a car shape, or a cake in the shape of a rose or a castle. And don’t limit yourself to one shape; you can make layers heart-shaped and have a square base, or use geometric shapes.

Match your wedding cake to your wedding colors. White cakes can be boring. Consider edible flowers for decoration as well; these real flowers add color and a real touch of class and beauty, but are totally nontoxic.

Have a gorgeous wedding dress? Dress the cake up to match. Especially if you have a very unique design, you can ask your bakery to match some of the decorations on the cake to your dress.

Look at real china, glass, or objets d’art to top your cake, instead of the plastic figures. Lladro figurines are a wonderful keepsake and look great with traditional and semi traditional cakes. Or you can go with a glass pumpkin coach for the fairytale wedding theme, or something you both love.

If you just can’t agree, have a groom’s cake as well. Men tend to go for richer, heavier flavors. One great wedding had a traditional tall white wedding cake next to a chocolate fountain, and then a groom’s cake, devil’s food chocolate (how appropriate) piled high with chocolate-dipped strawberries, with undipped strawberries around it for decoration and to dip into the fountain. Don’t be afraid of being different.

Wedding cake ideas and other catering issues are always changing. Our Wedding Planning Toolkit can help you make everything about your wedding memorable, and avoid the traps and pitfalls that many couples fall into. Check it out… it will likely turn out to be the most cost-effective tool in your wedding planning budget.

Lesley-ann Graham
http://www.articlesbase.com/marriage-articles/how-to-get-the-right-wedding-cake-for-you-21104.html

Technorati Tags: Angel Food Cake, Car Shape, Chocolate Dipped Fruit, Chocolate Strawberry, Cream Cakes, Curio Cabinet, Edible Flowers, Free Angel, Geometric Shapes, Gorgeous Wedding, Groom Wedding, Nascar Fans, Real Flowers, Ribbons And Bows, Ribbons Bows, Vanilla Frosting, Wedding Cake Topper, Wedding Cakes, Wedding Colors, Wheat Products