Preston Bailey is an internationally celebrated event designer and wedding planner with clients that include Donald Trump, Middle East Royalty and Oprah Winfrey. Watch as Preston gives us his specials tips on how to make your destination wedding fabulous!
From the DJ's down payment to the florist's fee, there are a lot of details to juggle in a wedding budget. Learn how to create a budget spreadsheet that organizes your finances in one place.
With a twinkle in her eye and sparkle on her finger, it’s no wonder the bride-to-be has a contagious glow. For the bevy of brides who got engaged during the holiday season, it’s time to begin the exciting, yet sometimes hectic task of planning their special day.
To better understand the preferences and attitudes of today’s brides and offer the most relevant wedding planning advice, the second annual “What’s on Bride’s Minds?” survey was conducted by Leflein Associates, Inc. for David’s Bridal, the nation’s leading bridal authority. Following are some up-to-the-minute planning tips to help each woman achieve her own wedding unique style, without breaking the bank:
Keep an Eye on the Bottom Line
First and foremost, establish a budget. Determine which aspects of the wedding are most important, and scale back on items that are not a top priority. Almost two-thirds of survey respondents said that the wedding dresses they found were too expensive. To keep finances in check without sacrificing quality or style, shop at a store that offers a wide selection of designer looks and matches your budget.
Online Oasis
The Internet is a wonderful planning tool and a great time-saver, so it’s no surprise that 53 percent of brides-to-be ranked wedding Web sites as a top resource for useful wedding planning advice, tips and ideas. Today’s brides shop for a variety of wedding products online; invitations were cited as the most popular item, followed by favors, bridal accessories and jewelry and bridal gowns. Among the top Web sites catering to brides, is davidsbridal.com, which offers more than 4,000 unique wedding related items and services. Check out the new db Online Collections featuring stylish bridal and bridesmaid dresses to suit any size, budget and timeline. Or, use the unique Dress Your Wedding tool to create your own virtual wedding party online.
Consult the Experts
When searching for that dream dress, take advantage of bridal consultants’ advice, as they provide great insight into the gowns’ quality, fit and construction. In fact, more than four out of five brides agreed that their consultant positively affected their shopping experience. In addition to these gown gurus, it’s a good idea to bring along a trusted friend or family member to provide honest feedback.
Time is On Your Side
Sixty-three percent of recently engaged women give themselves less than six months before their wedding to purchase their gown, while 38 percent wait until the final three months. If you are planning on getting married under a tight timetable, visit a bridal shop where you can try on the dress in your own size and take it home that day. David’s Bridal stocks a wide array of affordable bridal gowns ($299 - $1200), including designer collections from Oleg Cassini, Monique Luo and Galina, in sizes 0 to 26W, as well as select styles in petite sizes, so you can tell exactly how your dream dress looks and feels on you.
Obliging Bridesmaids
Searching for the perfect bridesmaid dress? The top issue brides found with dressing their bridal party was agreeing on one style to fit all different body types. Coordination remains in vogue, with almost three-quarters of respondents wanting their bridal party to wear the same color or color scheme, and thirty-four percent planning to have their bridesmaids wear the same dress in the same color. It’s a good idea to select a national retailer that carries a large assortment of bridesmaid styles, in a wide range of sizes and colors, for ease of shopping and to ensure everyone looks and feels their best.
Customization is Key
If you’re looking for ways to personalize your look without paying a hefty custom price tag, you’re not alone. Over 60 percent of brides said they would like to customize their gown to reflect their personality, but 40 percent felt it would be difficult to do so without costing a fortune. To solve this all-too-common dilemma, look for cost-effective solutions for personalizing your wedding dress. Try adding optional sleeves, a colorful sash that matches your wedding color scheme or a sparkling brooch. Don’t forget to ask your consultant about coordinating accessories, such as tiaras, veils, handbags, shoes and jewelry; you can never go wrong by selecting pieces that complement your dress and personal style.
Showcase Your Style
To create a seamless look, visit a one-stop-shop and choose a personalized color scheme that makes it easy to coordinate every aspect of the big day. From save-the-date cards and invitations to ceremony and reception items, right down to the icing on the cake, David’s Bridal offers an amazing assortment of options, available both in-store and online, to create a perfectly coordinated event.
While finding the love of her life is up to the bride, following these simple steps will help ease the wedding-planning process and make it more enjoyable. So when the big day finally arrives, her only responsibility will be to enjoy herself as she dances the night away.
To find the David's Bridal store near you, call (877) 693-BRIDE or visit www.davidsbridal.com.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
VideoJug: How To Choose A Traditional Wedding Dress
Choosing a wedding dress is a huge decision for brides to be, so we've put together a guide to help you pick a traditional wedding dress.
Acclaimed dance instructor Teresa Mason teaches everything the bride and groom will need to know to dance with style and grace at their wedding. This easy-to-follow program highlights the basic steps needed to make the wedding couple totally confident for their "First Dance." Features five of the most popular dances, including waltz, tango, fox-trot, rumba and cha-cha. The program also includes for the dance with the Father of the Bride, as well as other dance tips for members of the wedding party.
Available at Amazon.com.
Inside the studios of top cake designers NYC studio specializing in wedding cakes.
Couples wishing to make public declarations of life-long devotion to one another can now do so without the added anxiety so common in planning marriages today; if they choose a Caribbean beach wedding in Barbados. Launched in September 2007, Asuwish offers holiday and lifestyle concierge services with a focus on fulfilling every destination wedding desire to create an unforgettable, carefree experience in a romantic island setting.
The company's mission is to chart a new course in customer service and lead the industry towards a dynamic model of limitless and immaculate service. This ideology has shaped operations and a Barbados wedding and honeymoon with Asuwish promises a worry-free experience. From a warm welcome at the island airport to the farewell, and every minute aspect in between including transportation, accommodations, wedding and reception plans, as well as the honeymoon, is anticipated and efficiently dealt with in order to create a rare and remarkable wedding day.The Asuwish team of professionals has collectively planned over 500 weddings and events (including vow renewals) for local and international clients over the past 20 years. Asuwish is a trusted source that takes pride in making the impossible possible with dedicated, impeccable and extraordinary service. Offering unlimited consultation with the bride and groom, Asuwish promises to take care of the details of the ceremony so the couple can attend to the real reason for their commitment. A full-service Barbados wedding is sure to etch the experience on the minds of the couple and everyone attending.
"We excel at taking care of those tedious but absolutely necessary details that tend to rattle the calm of the bride and groom and distract them from the true meaning of marriage," says Derrick Springer, co-founder of Asuwish. "It's our passion to serve and our goal to create a wedding experience where the couple and their guests wish the day will never end."
About Asuwish:
Asuwish is a full-service Barbados holiday and lifestyle concierge service provider for visitors and Barbados residents. With a collective experience of over 20 years in Barbados hotel and tourism, their mission is to chart a new course in customer service and lead the industry towards a dynamic model of limitless and immaculate service. The management team includes Mary Brewster, Director of Sales and Customer Service, and Deborah Catlyn, Operations Manager.
Source: PRWeb
VideoJug: Wedding Invitation Basics
Wedding invitation expert Amy Suddleson gives you an overview of wedding invitaitons.
Susan Breslow is an expert on destination weddings and the author of "Destination Weddings for Dummies". This week she shares inside tips from her years of experience on having a destination wedding in Las Vegas -- high rollin' style!
Emma Stacey from Moyses Flowers, known for its organic arrangements, takes us through some of the bouquets Moyses offers, including table centres and hand-held flowers.
Learn how to create a classic bridal updo for that perfect look on your wedding.
Brides will give you even more fresh and unique ideas on how to plan the wedding of your dreams. You'll find more dazzling dresses for every bride's budget and style, new creative tips for planning the perfect reception, the latest ideas for a romantic honeymoon, plus lots of other essential info! It's a must-have guide for the newly engaged!
Get your subscription at Amazon.com.
A short informative video on the DOs and DONTs of purchasing a wedding dress.
Technology transforms every aspect of modern life these days, even the biggest day of most people’s lives – their wedding day. From wedding planning Web sites to digital photo slideshows presented at receptions and rehearsal dinners, technology is helping couples plan their weddings in ways that are much easier and save more time than ever before. Technology also helps engage the couple’s loved ones in, and preserve their memories of, their special day.
Here are four of the hottest technology trends that are revolutionizing the way Americans plan their weddings.
Planning and Research Goes Online
Brides once turned to monthly or seasonal wedding magazines for advice and ideas. Now, modern brides go online for their wedding planning purposes. Popular sites have made it easy for brides to track the latest trends, look at thousands of gown options, and organize themselves for their big day. Where once a bride might tote around clips torn from magazines, fabric swatches, and contracts in a wedding planning binder, now most of those things are found and stored digitally through a wedding planning Web site.
Projectors for Rehearsal Dinners and Receptions
Every couple wants to make their wedding as personal as possible, and leave guests with the feeling that, “Oh, that was so Todd and Rebecca!” Where once brides and grooms may have decorated a reception or rehearsal dinner with photos of themselves arranged around the room, now a multimedia presentation is all the rage. Video and still images, typically set to music, features the couple throughout their lives, apart and together, and are replacing traditional photo albums and can create an exciting personal touch to any wedding celebration.
Web sites like www.projector123.com rent state-of-the-art high definition projectors for as little as $99 for a weekend. Couples order a projector online, have it shipped to them or their reception site for next day arrival, and then connect the projector to a device like a laptop to project their photo montage presentation for the enjoyment of their guests.
“Jason and I really wanted to have a photo slideshow at our rehearsal dinner, but the restaurant wanted us to pay $500 on top of our reservation fee for all the equipment! So we went online to Projector123, and were able to order our own equipment and have it shipped directly to the restaurant,” says Christine Goldenberg of Los Angeles, California, a bride-to-be. “Finding areas to cut costs for a wedding can be challenging, and by ordering the projector online we were able to save a significant amount of money.”
Personal Wedding Web sites
Personal wedding Web sites are popping up everywhere; for a small fee, couples design their very own Web site in advance of their wedding day where they post pictures of themselves, detail the specifics of their wedding day, feature bios of the bridal party, reveal their honeymoon destination and provide gift registry information all in one convenient location online.
“Most people have access to the Internet, so you now have the ability to use technology to make your wedding day as special and memorable as possible,” says Jay Joyer of Irvine, California, a recent newlywed. “We had a small wedding, but wanted all our friends and family to feel part of our big day so we set up a wedding Web site where our guests could sign our online guestbook, read the story of our proposal, or make hotel reservations through the Accommodations section of our site. Everyone said it made making plans or staying up to date on our wedding so easy.”
As most guests now have access to the Internet, a personal wedding Web site is the ultimate convenience for guests to stay in touch with the couple and their latest wedding planning developments.
Online Ordering of Wedding Photos
No more waiting months for wedding albums. Many wedding photographers and videographers now take digital pictures or film and post their proofs online. This streamlines the developing and choosing processes and entire albums can be viewed by couples and their guests no matter where their location.
Courtesy of ARAcontent
With so much happening on your wedding day, the details may blur past you. But don't worry - your wedding video will serve as a handy reminder, as long as you choose the right videographer.
Relax. You don't have to mortgage your future to have the wedding of your dreams. According to mother-daughter wedding consultants Jan Wilson and Beth Wilson Hickman, the secret is in the planning. Here they tell you everything you need to know to plan a wedding that is both beautiful and affordable. Inside you'll find a wealth of creative ideas and invaluable advice from couples who have saved a fortune on their weddings. Jan and Beth guide you through every step of the process—right up to the day of the ceremony—and show you how to:
Available at Amazon.com.
In this clip from Get Married on Lifetime, Preston Bailey, David Tutera, Jeffrey Blooms, and more give you great suggestions and ideas for your wedding bouquet.
With so many nerve-wracking details to tend to, planning the perfect wedding can seem an impossible task. Now The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner guides you step-by-step through the countless stages of planning your big day. Packed with easy-to-follow checklists and worksheets, and the hip, insightful wisdom that has made theknot.com an indispensable resource for millions of couples worldwide, The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner provides:
A one-year calendar with monthly and weekly to-do lists leading up to the moment of marriage.
Worksheets to help you:
Checklists to keep track of finances, contracts, and post-marriage legalities .
Money-saving tips and answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
Available at Amazon.com.
Watch this couple go from a waltz to a break dance. The music is Johann Strauss/Blue Danube (An der schönen blauen Donau) and Afrika Bambaataa/Looking for the Perfect Beat.
Diamonds are forever, but how do you know that you're getting the most bling for your buck? We'll show you how to choose the right diamond and close a good deal for it.
