Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

Happy AND Healthy?

A health-conscious party can still be a lot of fun!

If you are organizing a pre-wedding  party for a bride who is either extremely health-consious, is dieting for her big day, or has eating restrictions due to an allergy or condition – you might consider catering your celebration to meet her needs so that she can enjoy herself.

Some of this is obvious: don’t throw a pig roast bachelor party for your friend if he’s a member of PETA or a vegetarian (or both). However, sometimes it’s not that clear. For most of us, fattening baked goods and fatty appetizers are so closely associated with parties that you wouldn’t even consider changing the menu for a friend. This won’t be appropriate for everyone, you will know if this is what your friend would prefer (and if you’re not sure, it is always wise to check). The last thing you want to do is offend the bride or groom.

Activities

Party activities should be exactly that: active. Include activities so that guests aren’t standing around eating the whole time and they are less likely to notice that the menu is a bit different. Make the stag party a hike instead of a pub crawl, if that’s what the guest of honor would prefer! Or, if the bride loves adventure – plan for a group of you to go skydiving.

Community Events

There are so many charity runs, walks, and cycling events out there you might consider honoring your guest of honor with an event that is appropriate to their achievements. Create a team and invite everyone to participate instead of the bridal shower, bachelor party, or bachelorette. Participants can donate money to the cause rather than purchasing a gift. Make t-shirts for everyone and have fun! Spread out a buffet at your house for after wards, or pack a picnic for everyone and meet at a nearby park. Family members who are unable to participate can cheer from the sidelines or might volunteer to help with the snacks after wards.

Fresh Ideas

If your party includes physical activity, make sure you provide lots of hydrating drinks. Water is always the best choice (but not that exciting). Glam it up by using fancy pitchers, like this one from thekitchenoutlet.com. You can make water more exciting by adding flavors.

Large fruit and vegetable platters are always a good idea. Salsas and hummus are healthier dip choices,  or look for healthy versions of your favorites such as this no mayo spinach dip posted at Recipezaar.com.

Get Crafty!

Add some activities to a bridal shower to make it more fun. If you give everyone something to do with their hands you’ll have less awkward small talk and more fun overall – particularly if your guest list is made up of a bunch of people who won’t know each other very well. These ideas could work at a bachelorette party too, depending on the tone of the event.

Ring Fling

Provide an assortment of materials and let guests craft their own engagement ring. Offer prizes for the most outrageous, most realistic, etc. Raid your craft supplies – if you’re not a big craft nerd like me, you can also go to a dollar store or craft store and pick up: metallic-colored pipe cleaners, large beads, ribbons, glitter glue, and whatever else you see that will work.

Check out this impressive looking ring from craftbits.com (visit the site for a tutorial).

Garter Fun

Everyone makes their own garter and then make all the guests wear it out on the stagette, if you like! Or everyone could make one and then the bride picks which one she will actually wear at the wedding.There’s a tutorial at applebride.com. Another option, buy simple and inexpensive garters for every guest and then ask them to decorate them instead. This is a quick and easy activity that could start off a fun evening. Garters should include the guests name or role in the wedding and the decorations will serve as an icebreaker when everyone is mingling at the party. It’s also a cheeky way to identify everyone in the group if you are heading downtown for the second half of the evening.

A plain white garter at koyalwholesale.com is only $2.99 (while on sale). Ideas for decorations: feathers, flowers, felt hearts (or other shapes), beads, gems, lace, ribbons, charms, etc. Also consider buying some fabric pens or self-applicating paint.

The garter pictured below is from mypromstyle.com.

Tampon Brides

Each guest makes a bride from a tampon for a fun craft activity that promotes lots of laughter and female bonding. Provide the following materials: tampons, glue gun, paint, pipe cleaners, yarn, embroidery thread, cardboard, glitter glue, beads, etc. This craft was inspired by the infamous Tampon Angel – I was pleasantly suprised to find a whole website dedicated to tampon crafts (tamponcrafts.com- their angel is pictured below).

For the bachelor or bachelorette with a sense of humor…

This party theme would work well for a stag or stagette, bridal shower, or even a surprise party at work for an engaged coworker.

Costume Party

Make your victim (oops, I mean the engaged person) wear this ball and chain for the duration of the event. You can get these at most costume stores – also available online for as little as $3.99.

buycostumes.com

Does He?

zazzle.com

Life Sentence

Or, make the bride to be wear this sexy convict costume. Bride-it-up with a veil and write ‘Sentenced to Life as a Mrs’ or something like that across her chest or back.

nightmarefactory.com

Decorations

Use black or silver construction paper to make chains for decoration (you can use black balloons as the balls). Hang them on the walls or from the ceiling or attach them around all of the table and chair legs.

birthdayinabox.com

Or, you can get fancy and order some pretty precut paper for your chains:

velvetstore.co.uk

Refreshments

Martini

The ‘Ball and Chain’ martini is made from berry flavored vodka, orange liqueur, lime juice, and fresh blueberries (recipe at foodnetwork.com)

Cake Decoration

Dessert is a piece of cake with this cake topper – just stick it on top of any store bought cake of your choice (ice cream cakes are always popular with the boys).

bachelorettesuperstore.com

Snacking

Black mini chocolate balls.

candywarehouse.com

Fun and Games

Write down a list of rules everyone has to follow – guests have to take a drink or lose a point every time they break the rules (things you’re “not allowed” to do once you’re married).

Examples: Catch other guests or the guest of honor flirting, checking out men/women, dancing with men/women, ignoring a phone call from significant other, etc. The goal here is for the party guests to lure the guest of honor into doing these things (and then catch him/her at it!).

Something to Take Home

Great party favors or a souvenir for the bride and groom.

cutebitz.com

Playlist

Songs to stick on the record player or request from the DJ…

Ball and Chain – Social Distortion

Ball and Chain – Sublime

Ball and Chain – XTC

Lucky Ball and Chain – They Might Be Giants

Related articles

• comgwats! Cake misspelling typo (funnytypos.com)
• Bridal Shower Themes (myweddingideas.net)
• Unique Bridal Shower Themes (myweddingideas.net)
• Amazing Theme Cakes (bizarrebytes.com)
• Best Candy Store Sites (verybestsites.com)
• Wedding Planning: Fun Wedding Reception Ideas (weddingservicesreceptions.suite101.com)

Here are some ideas for a party theme that would ultimately work best for a Jack and Jill party, but would also be fun at a stag or stagette.

Flip Flopping Around

Ask everyone to wear flip flops or sandals to the party – no warm feet allowed! Give the bride and groom flip flops when they arrive (they should wear them during the party).

maxcostumes.com

maxcostumes.com

Games

Balderdash!

Once the guests have had a chance to have a drink or two, hand out letter-sized foot prints and ask them to write down their definition of where the term cold feet came from. Post the feet on a wall and let the bride and groom to be pick which one they think is correct. Read out the funniest ones to the group and give a prize to the definition selected by the bride and groom.

Footprints

Or, ask guests to step in to some paint and leave their foot prints on a big sheet of paper. Ask the bride to identify her fiance’s feet and vice versa.

Aqua Twister

Line a kiddie pool with the game of twister (go shopping for a pool with the measurements of a twister game – the larger rectangular pools are usually a perfect fit). Fill with icy water. Bring on the good times!

Refreshments

Jiggly Feet

Use a recipe for jello shots (I found one at ifood.tv), garnish with jelly feet suckers (toefood.com). Make sure you serve the shots ice cold!

ifood.tv

toefood.com

Cold Feet Sundae

Top scoops of ice cream with chocolate feet, or give these away as party favors!

toefood.com

Prizes

Here are some ideas for prizes to hand out at your party:

Pedicure Gift Certificate

spafinder.com

Hot Foot Spa Kit

lushusa.com

Flaming Slippers to Warm Up Those Feet

alibaba.com

Candy

toefood.com

Other Takes on the Wedding Cake

Before I actually began planning my wedding I had all sorts of exciting ideas for wedding cakes (or substitutes thereof). However, when it came down to it I decided to go with a traditional tiered cake – a decision based on my plans to only get married once so I figured it would be my only chance to do it the traditional way. Should things not work out, here are some of the options I had considered and might go with the next time around (just kidding, honey!).

These  cake alternatives would also be wonderful for an engagement party, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, or stag/stagette.

For the Hostess With the Mostest

I love this idea – it’s cute, it’s fun and it’s made up of some of my favorite treats! The cake pictured below was crafted by Phil Delaplane, an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America (and, incidentally, also the groom!).

hostesscakes.com

This type of cake would also work well with a cartoonish or funny cake topper. Here are two that I think would work very well, both from weddingstar.com.

weddingstar.com

A Cheeky Topper

"The Love Pinch" weddingstar.com

The Cupcake Cake

This choice is actually becoming very popular. It’s great because it’s self-serve!

Some couples have both – a traditional cake as well as a tiered cupcake tower.

affordableutahweddings.com

Flowers are a great wedding cake topper for a cupcake wedding cake. I also like this option from topperswithglitz.com.

Modern Monogram from topperswithglitz.com

The cupcakes can also double as wedding favors as well if you supply something to take the cake home in, like this large gold frosted to go box – the perfect size for a single cupcake.

alloccasionsgiftware.com

And if you’re wondering where the saying that something “takes the cake” comes from, check out this explanation from phrases.org.uk:

As early as the 5th century BC the Greeks used ‘take the cake’ as symbolic of a prize for a victory. In 420 BC the Greek Aristophanes wrote ‘The Knights’, which was a criticism of the powerful Athenian politician Cleon:  ”If you surpass him in impudence the cake is ours.”

The same site also talks about the American tradition of:

…cake-walk strutting competitions [where] couples would be judged on their style in the ‘cake-walk’. The winners were said to have ‘taken the cake’, which was often the prize.