While planning any wedding can be a challenge, when the bride and groom come from two very different cultures and have different traditions that they want to honor the challenges can be even greater.

With the many wonderful traditions that may exist in both families, it is important that you try to honor both in one way or another. You will want to celebrate the wonderful traditions of both families, rather than putting the spotlight on just one of them.

One way to do this is to have one culture dominate the wedding ceremony while the other is honored during the reception. However, you could blend both cultures into both events if you so choose. This will have to be decided between the bride and groom. Their families may also help them in the planning process to come up with solutions that will work for everyone.

You can highlight the two cultures in everything from the décor to the food, as well as using specific traditions during the ceremony. Just be sure that one cultures traditions do not conflict with those of the other culture. You would never want to be inconsiderate to either culture.

Most importantly throughout the whole process of planning your wedding, just like with any wedding you should be open and honest with each other about your wishes and expectations.

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A big part of getting married and planning a wedding is the receiving of gifts. A bride and groom may receive gifts through wedding showers, teas, and other ways, even up until the day of their wedding or after returning home from their honeymoon. It is important to remember gifting etiquette when it comes to receiving gifts in celebration of your wedding union.

The following is a list of gift etiquette you should take into consideration as you receive gifts.

• Never mention gifts, not even a gift registry on an invitation to the wedding.
• Publicize your gifts registries through the local paper, on your wedding shower and tea invitations and through word of mouth.
• There is no polite way to ask for cash gifts, however this can be done by word of mouth.
• All gifts should be returned if the wedding is cancelled or your marriage annulled before living together as a married couple.
• It is customary to remit a thank you note for all gifts received.

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Planning a wedding can be a stressful time, however, as the bride you should try to do all that you can to keep from letting the stress overtake you and ruin your big day. Planning ahead is one the best ways to ensure that you do not come down with the last minute stress syndrome.

Properly planning ahead of time can help you to feel at ease as your wedding day approaches. This includes setting up a schedule or checklist of the items that you need to take care of and setting yourself deadlines in which to have these things accomplished.

You can also enlist the help of others; never try to do it all alone. Working together with family and friends cannot only reduce your stress but it can be fun too.

Think positive; do not assume that things are going to go wrong. Thinking positive thoughts will help you to have a better attitude about the results of your wedding planning efforts and help you to have a good time in the process.

Communicate, communicate, communicate, and never assume that your fiancé or others in your family know what you want or know your expectations. You need to make everything clear to everyone involved in the planning process to ensure that things turn out the way that you are visualizing them to be.

Doing these things can help you to make sure that your wedding planning results in the perfect wedding day that you have always dreamt of for many years.

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There are often many questions concerning proper wedding etiquette when planning a wedding and dealing with all that is involved in holding a wedding. The following are several of the top wedding etiquette dilemmas and simple easy ways which you can solve them, saving you much stress and headache.

A huge area of concern is who pays. The groom and his family typically pay for the following:

• Rehearsal Dinner
• Bride’s Bouquet
• Mother’s Corsages
• Boutonnieres for the groom, groomsmen, and ushers
• Marriage License
• Officiate Fee
• Groom’s Cake
• Gloves/Ties/Ascots for Attendants
• Father of Groom Formal Wear
• The Limousine Services
• Honeymoon Arrangements

On the other hand, the bride and or the bride’s family is responsible for the following:

• Wedding gown, headdress, and accessories
• Groom’s wedding band
• Wedding gift for the groom
• Bridesmaids gifts
• Bridesmaids bouquets
• Grandmother’s corsages
• Ceremony/Reception Flowers
• All rented items for wedding
• All rented items for the reception
• Invitations/ Announcements
• Musician/Soloists
• Janitor
• Reception Hall fees
• Caterer or other professional services
• Wedding programs
• Napkins and other printer materials
• Medical fees for bride
• Church or location fee
• Wedding Photography
• Videographer
• Orchestra/Band/DJ
• Wedding cake
• Wedding favors
• Rice bags
• Bridesmaids luncheon
• Father of the bride formal wear

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As long as there are weddings there will be wedding trends. The following are some popular wedding trends for this year.

• Eco-friendly or green weddings.  Going green is a hot trend this year for almost every area of life. This is spilling over into the wedding scene. Many couples are choosing organic fabrics and flowers as well as having their wedding guests donate to their favorite charities in lieu of a gift.
• Bold colors.  Bold colors are being seen in weddings more and more this season. Rather than pastels and whites, we are seeing reds, greens and yellows as well as gold and silver.
• Chocolate fountain.  A popular staple at parties, couples are bringing this to the wedding reception scene and using it not only as a means to feed their guests but as a centerpiece as well. Who doesn’t love chocolate?
• Sparkles.  Rhinestones and crystals added to the hair dresses and other pieces of the bridal attire is all the rage.
• Waistlines.  Wedding dresses with a distinct waistline are gaining in popularity after being off the scene for a few years. Many of these waistlines are embellished drawing the eye to this area even more.

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When beginning to plan you wedding all the details can be quite overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. Making some important decisions from day one can help things run smoothly and help you to remain stress free.

The following are some tips for making your wedding planning a success.

1. Create and stick to a budget.  Even if you think you have plenty of funds to plan your wedding, you’ll be surprised how quickly the expenses add up. To keep from having remorse afterwards it is important to plan from the beginning setting a budget for every part of your wedding plans, which will help you as you go along and keep you from feeling guilty after the fact.
2. Start early.  Even if your wedding is 18 months away, you’ll want to start some of the wedding planning process immediately. There are many things that must wait until the week of the wedding, but many things can also be done along the way to create a much less stressful wedding week and more importantly wedding day.
3. Create your guest list.  Decide early who you will invite to your wedding and stick to it. Creating the list early and sticking to your decision to invite a certain number of guests will help with all aspects of planning. You will not end up with too few seats, or not enough food, you will know all along the amount that is needed and be able to plan accordingly.
4. Book your location.  Popular wedding locations can book months, even years in advance. Therefore, as soon as you decide on a date you should book your location. Most times, this will require a deposit, in some cases, this will be refundable or you will receive part of it back if you leave the location the way you found it. It is worth it to pay the deposit and secure your perfect location for your big day.
5. Plan your honeymoon.  Planning the honeymoon will help you to be prepared and give you something to look forward to in celebration of your union. You will also be able to set aside the funds needed to ensure that you can pay for it. You will not want to underestimate costs in any way. You do not want to miss the time of your life.

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You have probably dreamed of your wedding day for years before it actually occurred. However, the truth is the day itself will be gone in a flash. In fact, you will not believe how quickly the day comes and goes leaving your wondering where the time went. You will also never imagine how quickly the day goes and how much you have to be done in that short amount of time. There are however, a few things you can do to save some much needed time on your wedding day.

Rise and shine on your wedding day. Yes, it’s true, getting up early can gain you the extra time you need. This may mean turning in early the night before rather than celebrating late into the night the last few hours of your single life. However, it’s worth it to make your day all that it can be right?

Schedule your pictures early and maybe even before the ceremony. This not only saves times, but in most cases the photographer will charge a lesser fee for allowing him to come in early to take photos. You will not have to do all the photos but even just getting some of them out of the way can gain you some time.

Have your ceremony and reception at the same location. Having two locations miles apart can quickly eat up time. Having them together can make the day much less stressful and will help it to flow more quickly.

Skip the receiving line. Sure, it might be the traditional way of thanking guests for coming but there are other ways to do this as well that do not eat up as much of your precious time. You could have a toast during the reception or you could just mingle and enjoy yourselves.

These are just a few ways to save time on your wedding day. Do not stress too much over doing things quickly, however keep in mind ways that you can save time and relieve you of some of the stress of getting it all done.

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Many brides today just assume that they need to hire a wedding planner, when in fact this may not be the case.  Many times, you can do just as good a job planning the wedding yourself or obtaining help from family and friends and planning it together. 

So, how do you decide whether you should do it yourself or hire a professional? First we should define what a wedding planner or coordinator does. A wedding planner is a professional who has the know how and expertise as well as creative ideas to help organize your wedding. They would also most likely have great contacts for all parts of your wedding including location, decorations, flowers, cake and more. 

Some things to consider in an attempt to decide whether you will hire a wedding planner or not include:

• Your budget.
• All the details you will need to plan.
• How much responsibility you want to assume yourself.
• Where and when your wedding will take place.
• How much time you have to plan it.

After considering all these things, you should be able to determine whether or not you really need the expertise of a wedding planner, or if you are willing to assume the duties yourself and have the time to devote to this.  On the other hand you may decide that you can afford to hire someone who can take over these responsibilities freeing you up to do other things, or helping you to plan your wedding in a short amount of time. In the end, only you can decide what is right for you.

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Making the decision to do the entire wedding planning yourself can be exciting, but it can also be stressful. To ensure that you do not take on more than you can handle consider a few things.

First, you will want to consider your wishes and the wishes of your fiancé. This will require sitting down together and talking things out. Getting an idea of how they envision your wedding day will help you to avoid misunderstandings or disappointments in the planning process.

Second, decide on a budget. You do not want to get into planning and decide that you are out of cash and you still have not hired a photographer or ordered the wedding favors. Knowing ahead of time how much you can spend or want to spend on each area will help the planning process to go much more smoothly.

Third, let others help you. Yes, you want to plan it yourself and make it your own, but that does not mean your mother cannot line up the caterer or pick out the table clothes. Just let whomever it is know what your wishes are and then allow them to do you a favor or two. It will save you some time and truly help your planning process to move along.

Finally, enjoy yourself. Do not let the little things stress you out, just allow things to flow and enjoy the process. Every wedding that has ever occurred has had a few snags; so do not expect yours to be any different. The little difficulties you might run into can make some great stories to tell in the future.

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With all that you have to purchase and provide during a wedding, it can be difficult to get everything that you need on a tight budget. One of these items that can be made a little less expensive by doing it yourself is the wedding favors. This will allow your favors to be both unique and personal, while saving you money.

Here are a few tips to creating your own wedding favors. First, you will need to start thinking of this important detail early on. Most weddings can take a while to plan and you do not want to put off the wedding favors to the last minute, especially if you plan to make them yourself.

Next you need to think about you want to make, and then shop around so that you can find the best prices. Many times, you can get great deals after the holidays, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day.

Think about how many items you will need and do not choose something that will be overwhelming to you. You’ll want to choose something you can do easily and will not become a burdensome task.

Take into consideration some of the following things when planning what you will make: what you enjoy doing, your wedding’s theme and colors, the time of the year, the mood you would like to set at your wedding, the message you want to convey to your guests, and you can even incorporate something unique about yourself and the groom to make the gift even more special to your guests.

Whatever you decide your guests will be sure to love your item because you put so much thought and effort into it. Remember, the guests are there because they love you and are wishing you well, not for the favor so do not stress over it too much.

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