Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

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.

Weddings are a great time to let your creativity show. What better way to celebrate creativity than to highlight the creative process? With an art-themed wedding, you can choose from endless options inspired by artists you love, favorite works of art, or even the creative process itself. Here are a few ideas:

Venues

Museums are becoming a more popular place to get married or to have your reception, and many more museums are opening their doors for such events. In addition to offering you a unique space in which to get married, museums also come with their own decorations. You’ll spend far less on flowers and other decorations! If a museum is too formal for you, or you can’t find one in your area that will host a wedding, other venues to consider include art galleries and studios. A real artist’s studio — either for painting, sculpting, or mixed media — is a unique venue that will make your wedding memorable for you and your guests.

The Dress

You don’t need an artist to create a masterpiece for you. Here’s where you can look to paintings and design for inspiration. Do you admire the gown in a certain painting? Have a reproduction created and where it as your wedding gown! You may find that there are less traditional options depicted in many paintings  — so  most gowns won’t be flowing, white ball gowns. You can also look for inspiration in your favorite styles of art, like this art deco-inspired gown from designer Jenny Packham.

You may have trouble finding off-the-rack options that suit your art-inspired theme. However, many options are available to have a dress custom-designed to your specifications. Depending on how intricate the design, you may even be able to have the dress made for less than it would cost you to buy it off the rack.

The Cake

The cake is another place where you can have some fun looking for inspiration. There are many beautiful paintings of floral and landscape scenery, which are ideal for traditional wedding cake styles. Think of Impressionist style painters such as Monet or Renoir.

The two cakes above were inspired by paintings by Van Gogh. If you want to try something a little edgier, look to pop artists such as Mondrian, Warhol, or Lichtenstein. Work with a clear picture and be specific about what you want with the baker. If possible, ask to have a small version of your cake – or even one tier – created as a sample so you can be sure of the final product and to make sure the baker properly understands your vision.

Favors

There are many great favors that can go well with an art-themed wedding. A very simple idea would be to print out pictures of your favorite paintings to make into magnets or bookmarks. You could also choose works of art that celebrate love, such as “The Kiss” by Klimt (pictured).

Frames perched on miniature easels would also make a cute favor that can double as a name card. Just insert the card with your guest’s name inside the frame, and later, the frame can be used for a favorite picture.

You could also promote the idea of creating art by offering nice pens, pencils, or brushes as favors. Tie two together with a nice string or ribbon, and attach a card with your wedding date or a suitable quote.

Activities

Besides the traditional dancing and toasting, your guests can enjoy a number of fun and unique activities at an art-themed wedding. If you choose to have your reception at a museum, there will likely be galleries that your guests can peruse and enjoy. The museum may even make a special exhibit available just for your guests. If you choose a natural history or science museum, there will likely be hands-on activities that can be fun for guests – especially kids – and get them more engaged.

No matter your venue, you could also consider hiring a caricature artist to create fun pictures of your guests, or you could set up small stations with easels and brushes for your guests to create their own work. Sketch pads and pencils at the tables could also give your guests an opportunity to create. Your guests could also be encouraged to create a picture especially for the couple, which could become a lovely memento later.

What other creative ideas do you have for an art-themed wedding? What have you seen at other weddings to inspire you?

Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she’s written on online MIS program along with a piece on online gemology programs. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, playing piano, and working with origami.

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Today we start a new continuing feature here at weddingsetups.com: a look at wedding traditions from around the world. You can use these articles to honor your family’s heritage during your wedding ceremony, wherever it takes place. Or, you can celebrate the bride or groom’s culture during a pre-wedding party (an article with ideas for these parties will follow).

German Wedding Traditions

Festive Felony

In the smaller villages, the bride may be ‘kidnapped’. The groom looks for her in the local pubs, often picking up the tab for all of the customers or inviting them along in the search.

Housewrecker

There is a house party before the wedding that ends with all of the dishes getting smashed for good luck. The “lucky” bride and groom have to clean up the mess.

German Wedding Food

The bride and groom snack on bread when they first arrive at their home after the wedding, to symbolize that they will never go hungry.

Wedding Cake

The traditional wedding cake is Baumkuchen, which is often made in stacked rings but can also come in the shape of a rectangular cake or small squares. The one below is from konditorei-werner.de, warning: if you visit this site it will make you want to fly to Germany for some dessert!

German Wedding Attire

Tasty Accessories

Traditionally, the bride carries bread and salt to symbolize a good harvest and the groom carries grain, which is a symbol for good luck and health. This is also an aspect of traditional Polish Weddings, to read all about them please visit polishwedding.blogspot.com – a very useful and informative source. Photo: Polishwedding.blogspot.com.

Yes, but how far can you throw it?

In Germany the bride passes her veil on to the next woman to be married, rather than throwing the bouquet.

German Wedding Decorations

Sharing a Cup

Another tradition is for the bride and groom to drink from a special cup that lets them both drink at the same time. This is based on the “Legend of the Maiden Bridal Cup” and you can buy one of the beautiful cups at mayhemltd.com.This cup would also make a thoughful gift to the bride from the groom. The cup, and it’s beautiful story could also be used to propose!

Flower Horse Power

In Germany, real flowers are used to decorate the cars, rather than the ribbons, bows, and plastic flowers often used in North America.

Important German Words

Wedding: Hochzeit

Bride: Braut

Groom: Brautigam

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