Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

Today we feature my favorite kind of wedding favors.

I feel very strongly that wedding favors need to be useful – they should be more than a useless knickknack. I love wedding favors that are edible or wedding favors that can be planted in your garden.

But most of all, I love wedding favors that serve double duty – they are perfect for the budget conscious bride. What do I mean by double duty? I mean favors that also serve as a place card or, when displayed on the table, become the centerpiece. Here are some of my favorites:

Picture Frame Favor – Place Card

This pink rhinestone frame from hotref.comis used as a place card for guest seating and also functions as a cute wedding favor that guests can take home.

Bamboo Wedding Favor – Centerpiece

Group these individual pots from natureperfect.comtogether on each table to make a unique centerpiece. Guests get to pick one and take it home afterwards!

Shot Glass Wedding Favor and Special Toast

Serve filled shot glasses, like these ones from favorfavor.com to the guests and ask them to participate in a special toast. Perfect fun for a destination wedding where you can use the local specialty (tequila, grappa, jagermeister…). Then they get to take the glass home as a wedding favor.

Custom Dice Wedding Favor and Reception Ice Breaker

A cute favor for the Las Vegas wedding or geeky couple who love to play yahtzee. Create custom yahtzee score paper and include a cup at each table so that your guests can have some fun getting to know each other while the wedding party is off getting photos taken. Provide prizes to the winner at each table or reward them by forcing them to sing a song or share a story about the happy couple!

Destination Weddings are becoming more popular every year. They are a great way to make your special event even more special. And, perhaps surprisingly, they are often less expensive than a traditional wedding in your hometown!

There are websites that will help you plan your destination wedding.

destinationweddings.com

This site boasts that 89,101 weddings have been created with its site. It allows you to create a free website for your wedding event. The site has exclusive offers for destination weddings all over the world (including cruise ships). It generates a ‘save the date’ announcement that you can send to your invited guests. Guests also make their travel arrangements through the same coordinator so that everyone can benefit from the same group rates and hotel/air packages. Guests can also purchase your wedding gift online from the honeymoon registry, which might include a day at the hotel spa or flowers for the honeymoon suite!

islandbrides.com

This site offers many of the same services but specializes in island weddings in the Caribbean (over 30 destinations).

luxedestinationweddings.com

This site advertises itself as specializing in “unique, luxury group destination weddings”. The website is impressive and worth a visit. It offers a wide variety of locations as well and allows you to customize your event with special features. This site also offers several honeymoons in its Luxe Honeymoon Collection.

After the event, photos and video of the wedding ceremony and reception can be viewed at the couple’s wedding website.

Destination Weddings: Trip Tips

1. Marriage Licenses and Laws

Laws governing marriage differ from country to country (and in some countries, the are different in each province or state). One example close to home: many people think they can just run off to Las Vegas and get married but that’s not quite true. It’s wise to get your marriage license beforehand – otherwise you might end up in a long line up. Also, the office isn’t open 24 hours so it’s not like you can suddenly decide to get hitched at 3am and then hurry over to a chapel. Getting married in Mexico? There is a 2-3 day waiting period and mandatory blood tests that cost $125 each.

2. Travel Arrangements

Don’t forget about your guests when making your travel arrangements. It’s much easier to get a group rate or package and then offer it to everyone so that your guests are all staying at the same location and you have some control over their arrival/departures. This will be easier if you find out approximately how many guests will be attending and what dates work for them first. Then you can make some plans and get back to them with an estimate of the cost before you ask them to commit.

3. Don’t Take It Personally

If you decide to have a destination wedding, be prepared that not everyone you invite will be able to attend. The positive side to this is that you extend an invitation to many people (which will make them happy) and that you will end up spending much less on the reception dinner, wedding favors, etc than you would if you had your wedding locally! The negative side is that some people you really care about may not be able to afford the travel expenses. Never, ever put pressure on them – this will only take away from the fun atmosphere at the event. This may be one of the biggest days in your life, but remember that your guests have lives of their own that they need to pay for.

Destination Weddings for Less

Expert Advice

Marcy Blum, famous event planner talks about Destination Weddings on howdini.com.

Are You Planning Your Own Event?

Here are some helpful tips if you want to plan your own wedding, from someone who has been through the experience!?

The Six R’s of Planning Your Own Wedding:

3 R’s

1. Realistic

By realistic, perhaps I mean pessimistic – but it’s actually for your own good. Don’t take any chances when planning this important day. Don’t leave things to luck. For example, don’t assume that someone will pick the best man up from the airport. Arrange it. Don’t assume that the caterer knows where the Main Hall you keep referring to is located – there might be several places called Main Hall in your city. Don’t hope it won’t rain, have a contingency plan in case it does.

Also, you need to be realistic about what you can ‘pull off’ all by yourself. If you’re not hiring a wedding planner, consider taking things down a notch or two. (You’ve heard the expression KISS before, haven’t you? Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Reduce the guest list size, try to hire caterers and rental companies that provide service staff and set up/tear down, or consider a destination wedding – many ‘destination’ hotels help out with services for weddings…

2. Research

There is a lot of information online and in wedding planning books. Also, make sure you research any vendors you want to use. Wedding Planners often have established relationships with vendors. Your vendor could suddenly go out of business or not show up – ask for customer references, check with the Better Business Bureau, look online to see what other people are saying about their experience.

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