planning your dream wedding
What better way to celebrate and share your love with friends and family than a beautiful summer wedding. Ideas and tips I have collected here will help you plan a spectacular day, even if you’re actually getting married in late summer.
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Picking the most beautiful spring wedding colors will give a lasting impression to your guests on your wedding day. Spring colors are always fresh and pretty and can range anywhere from brights, all the way to lovely pastels that only hint at color.
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Nature is at the peak of its beauty in autumn, and selecting the right fall wedding flowers can make your special day all the more beautiful.
You may want to use dried or silk fall wedding flowers . But if that is not the case, you have to think what blooms are in season, as you plan the look of your bouquet, centerpieces, and other floral trinkets. If you want off season flowers, they will have to be flown in from other parts, and that can be expensive.
Availability does vary from region to region, but statice, sweet William, yarrow, amaryllis, chrysanthemum, fuchsia and zinnia are most easily bought in the autumn months. Classic favorites like roses, lilies, and orchids are readily obtainable all year round. You can consult your florist for additional information.
To most people, the conventional image of a bride is a pretty young girl in white, carrying a huge bouquet of roses. But if you have decided to marry in September, October or November, go for vibrant shades of sunny yellow, bronze, orange, pink, burgundy, rust, copper brown, royal purple, and maybe even green or tan. Autumnal verdure strikingly complements the crisp weather with their rich hues.
We have here some suggestions of autumn wedding flowers you can use to be a touch different. What you need to keep in mind is that flowers should go with the bridesmaid’s dresses.
If you want to go the refined way, you can pick Montrose, and arrange it like a comb (small tube-like florets over a slender stem). This comes in a range of shades from yellow-orange to brick red.
Daisies are common, but very pretty, and can be chosen in a variety of shades to set off the bride’s look.
Big, brilliant yellow flowers with dark centers are appropriate both for the general décor as well as for the fall wedding bouquets.
Traditionally, hypercium is also used for fall weddings, raisin brown being the color that most people choose. They also come in yellow, green, orange, red and pink.
You can decide on chocolate brown Leonidas, Terra Cotta in burnt orange, Star 2000 in coral orange, Black Magic in dark burgundy, the spotted Hocus Pocus, orange Mambo, Konfetti in shades of bright yellow and fiery red-orange, Red Berlin (in chilly red) and Saris in apricot orange.
However, the best option for you is the wonderful mini calla lily, which comes in an astounding range of shades. You will be spoilt for choices which to pick, but the most charming are the ones that come in burnt orange and flame hues.
Hydrangea is one of the finest fall flowers to choose. It is versatile enough to suit the ambiance of any place, from a classy ballroom to a rural barn. Your florist can tip it with aerosol to modify the shade to match your taste. Although it is so stunning, hydrangea comes much cheaper than callas.
Darker roses spell a fairytale romance. They also lend to the occasion the gravity and seriousness we normally connect to autumn. Roses close to coral in color define an ethereal grace and elegance.
Autumn is are the perfect time to try artistic, woodsy bouquets, including seed pods, hypercium berries, ryegrass and vines. Some of the most stylish bouquets and boutonnieres entwine copper wire with the fall wedding flowers to achieve a tremendous end product.
Many brides to be are looking for outdoor wedding ideas because they can be one with nature and they want to feel the sunlight surrounding them. Sunlight is known for stimulating happy feelings, perfect for the happiest day of a woman’s life.
Because this is one day in a woman’s world that is priceless. She looks beautiful, feels loved and has the one person that she wants to live the rest of her life with right by her side. Her wedding day should be perfect and exactly how she wants it to be.
photo credit: wili_hybrid
The first thing you need to decide on is where you are going to have your location wedding. Some options include a beach, a lakeside, on a mountaintop (well not that practical if you want to bring the grandparents), in a garden, in a castle or even in the backyard. Once you have this set, you can start preparing your wedding reception , keeping in mind the following tips.
Unfortunately on the day of our wedding we cannot call up the weather people and tell them that we are getting married and we need sun. If you decide to have your wedding outdoors, make sure that there is an indoor place where you can move to if there is bad weather coming in. Or at least have a tent area as a back up plan. You also want to prepare your guests. If it is going to be hot, make sure you give them doggie bags with sunscreen, paper fans and water to keep them refreshed. If it will be a bit chilly out, hand out blankets, hand warmers and anything else to keep the cold to a minimum.
Having an outdoor wedding is beautiful enough but you should add your own personality and style to your special occasion. First off the premises should be well maintained; the grass is mowed, there is no garbage, no glass or shells, fallen trees and leaves etc
If there aren’t any flowers, consider planting some for the occasion, even if it is winter. Have it done the day before (well, not in winter, put up some heaters then). You can also set the mood. If it is on a beach, hang up some lanterns and torches with Hawaiian style flowers. Have a Western theme wedding or whatever is typical for the both of you.
If it is hot outside, do not cater food that rots in the sun. If there are additional noises such as waves crashing, make sure there is a microphone so that your guests can hear what is going on. If there are bugs, have bug spray on hand and set out citronella candles. Also make sure that children are entertained and safe! Small details as these can make or break the fun.
If you follow these simple outdoor wedding ideas , they will help you make it the greatest day of your life!
As you’re considering some wedding reception ideas remember that you and your guest want to have some fun. The celebration is usually following the ceremony itself and with a short interlude, more often than not carries on into the evening or night time. Sometimes, for those really enjoying themselves, even to the next morning. There are many types of receptions, some formal, some more relaxed.
These days you can hold your reception at almost any venue you choose. You may opt for the local village hall, with its informal comfort and familiarity or a stately home or castle, for its elegance, romance and luxury. Your decision will be governed mainly by your personal choice and available budget which will have been taken into account at the time of planning the wedding as a whole.
Once you have decided where you would like to hold your reception, it is necessary to check out what accessories such as crockery and table clothes the venue will be using. Let’s face it; you don’t want the setting to be absolutely idyllic but the accessories to be of a lesser quality. Make sure you have a thorough look at the venue and take in all the little details, even if you have to visit more than once before committing yourself.
The layout of the room is very important. It’s a good idea for the head table to be horse-shoe shaped. This way the guests will be able to approach the bride and groom to pass on their congratulations without totally blocking the head table from the view of others. Round tables are a good option for the remainder of the guests enabling them all to see each other and engage in conversation. The tables can be decorated in many ways; color coordinated candles, flowers or themed centerpieces, either professionally put together or made at home.
Food and drink is a main feature of the wedding reception and can come in the form of a full sit down meal, a buffet, or as an alternative maybe you could offer an hors d’oeuvres or desert only style selection of food to choose from. You can have champagne, (which is usually served during the toasting of the happy couple) or a good quality wine on the table. A non alcoholic alternative should be made available for those poor unfortunates who are carrying out the driving duties for the day. The wedding cake is usually the central attraction of the food, and this can be made of chocolate, cheesecake, sponge and traditional fruit or a mixture of all of these in separate tiers.
Of course, there is always the option of having a themed wedding reception. The theme is likely to be something that both the bride and groom hold a common interest in. For example maybe you are both into country and western. You could hold your reception in a barn house to give a rustic feel and have delicious food served from a barbecue. Give your guests the chance to really let their hair down, square dancing to a fiddler or country music band.
If the 70’s were your favorite era, find a location with a glitter ball, decorate your tables with lava lamps and consider a chocolate fondue as the centerpiece for your tables.
Perhaps you would like to go for music from the 80’s theme for your wedding reception and get them all dancing to Prince, Duran Duran, and Madonna. You can award prizes for the best dancers, be it boogying or moon walking.
When considering some of these wedding reception ideas, make sure to be able to take a quick look back over your shoulder and see your guests all thoroughly enjoying themselves as you and your groom slip quietly off to start your honeymoon.
You may have lots of wedding centerpiece ideas and such details play an important role in the wedding plan. You have listened and chosen to ignore all the jibes of "don’t do it!" from your single friends and decided that your wedding is going to be a day to remember, a day when absolutely everything has to be just perfect.
So, how do you choose the wonderful decor to adorn your wedding table? The venue holding your reception is likely to be decorated in neutral shades allowing you to compliment these with the colors you have chosen for your bridal wear and the clothes of your entourage. Once you have established your color scheme, you can then take time to make a decision about what form you would like the centerpiece to take.
Most wedding center pieces involve the romance of flowers and candles and a breathtaking idea, especially for a summer wedding, is quite simply a flower pot blooming with colorful flowers. This can be used indoors or outdoors and is suitable for an afternoon or evening reception. All you need to do here is select your favorite flowers and chosen shades.
Candles are ever popular, and can be placed in candelabra or goblets to give a simple but elegant look to your table. Or maybe you would prefer a large clear bowl of floating scented heart shaped candles, sprinkled with rose petals or gold leaf. These are excellent as not only do they make an effective centerpiece, but they are so simple to put together.
Flowers of the season can be added to the bowl, which should be placed on a color co-ordinated table runner, allowing the hues of the flowers to catch the light of the candles whilst the perfume wafts gently through. Small flower pots containing votive candles can be placed around the large bowl to nicely finish off the overall display. If flowers are not really your thing, you could use the same idea of a large bowl, but place colored stones in the bottom before setting the floating candles on the water surface.
If you consider yourself to be trendy and in touch with what’s hot in styles of the moment, you need look no further than this seasons clear wax candles. They may sound a little plain at first but when you see the beautiful colors drenched through the transparent form of the candle, the pretty scalloped shaped edgings and the heartening smell of orange citrus and grapefruit, you will agree, they lighten up any decorating theme.
If you are planning your wedding on a strict budget and do not want to incur the cost of a professionally made centerpiece, you could have a go at making your own. You never know, you may discover you have a creative flair which you were unaware of! The main thing here is to know how much time is required before the wedding to put your centerpiece together, allowing for the fact that if you use flowers, you want them to last the day out, at least, and not be drooping onto the table half way through the speeches.
Most of the wedding centerpiece ideas described above are practical in that you will be able to use the basis of the centerpiece over and over again for other special occasions or just around your home. This will serve as a reminder for years to come of just how perfect your wedding day turned out to be.