Wedding
Flowers
Some of the more well-liked flowers being used in bouquets
and boutonnieres are Orchards, Calla Lilies and of course
the classic rose. The trend is using boldly coloured flowers,
hand tired with large ribbons. Flowers are being used with
lots of foliage, faux pearls, crystals, feathers, and beading
in bouquets to add a lot of interest to the flower bouquets.
For destination weddings, many Brides are
choosing to carry one or three long stem exotic flowers
like the Bird of Paradise flower. Remember flowers always
look best if they are used in odd numbers.
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Wedding Colours
The most current colour combinations being used in weddings
today are brown tones with light pink or light blue. These
colours are very beautiful together being a little bold,
yet still very elegant. Browns are also being used with
creams and tones of green and copper. You will find these
colours are available throughout wedding
vender's products including decorating and wedding
attire.
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Wedding
Gowns
Many of the trendy wedding gowns are strapless
with tie backs and have less embellishment on them. This
is a very elegant look. Wedding gowns are
also available in cream, and very pale pink and blue to
compliment the men's brown tuxedos. Some wedding
gowns have eye-catching crystal beading draped over the
back. Sometimes beading can be added to gowns to enhance
it after it has been bought.
An unique alternative to having something blue, is to have
the inside of your wedding gown monogrammed with your name
at the bottom, near the hem. Then if the gown is passed
down through the generations, the other Brides' names can
be added. Of course this would only be practical if the
gowns style and fabrics allows it to be done properly and
so it doesn't show from the outside. We suggest that you
always use professionals when doing anything to alter your
wedding gown.
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Women's
Attire
Long sleek and simple gowns remain to be the most popular
for the bridesmaids' gowns. Many of the fabrics include
dupioni silk, silk chiffon and satin, velvet and crepe.
The women's attire has always been colourful offering many
choices, but the latest trends in colour for women's gowns
are rich jewel tones. Purples, deep reds, greens, and coppers
are all popular, but light pink, blue, yellow and taupe
are still a common choice usually complimented with brown
tones as their wedding colours. Many of the jewel tones
also compliment brown. As with the bridal gowns, many of
the Bridesmaids dresses are strapless and very formal. Wraps
are often used to give a little arm cover for the women.
Some brides like to move away from the current trends and
choose have bolder taste, for them there is a vast variety
of gowns with elaborate details. Bright coloured dresses
with everything from fur to feather embellishments are available.
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Jewellery
Sparkling crystals are everywhere, especially with bridal
jewellery and there is something for everyone's taste in
jewellery. The crystals come in clear or coloured to complement
your wedding colours. Often crystals are
used in the women's hair and crystal jewellery completes
the look. Some tiaras can be made into jewellery to wear
after the wedding. How special is that?
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Make
up and Hair
Make up continues to be applied naturally with a lot of
earth tones.
Hair Extensions are become more popular and are easier to
use, be sure to ensure that they blend perfectly with your
natural hair colour. These are great for those people that
don't want to have to grow their hair for months before
the wedding day. They also allow for a
lot of style flexibility.
Brides are choosing to use a lot of crystals in their hair
to match their jewellery Many Brides Maids are also using
dazzling crystals in the hair to add sparkle. Crystals hair
pieces come in the form of tiaras, hair pins and even jewellery
pieces can be used in the hair.
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Men's
Attire
As mentioned above, brown is one of the most newly used
colours in weddings and tuxedos are no
exception. Tuxedos are available in many shades of brown,
but deep chocolate brown seems to be the most popular choice.
Of course, the classic black tux will never go out of date
and many couples are still choosing it.
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Wedding
Transportation
If you want to ride in a old classic car for your wedding
some limousine companies have beautiful antique cars for
rent. Many couples are also choosing to rent large SUV's
or buses for the entire wedding party and
family to ride together on the wedding
day. This way the party isn't interrupted and everyone stays
together.
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Wedding
Food
Having a chocolate fountain at your wedding
is becoming common practice. They are a great way to add
interest to your food table. The wedding guests absolutely
love these as the smell of chocolate
fills the room. They come in several flavours of chocolate
including milk, dark and white chocolate. The number of
fountains and their size depends on the number of wedding
guests your are expecting and when you are planning on serving
the fountains. One note, chocolate fountains can be a little
messy and do need some supervision. So if you hire a company
that rents fountains, ask if they also offer their catering
services while it's being served. It will ensure that it
is used right (no little fingers in it), that it doesn't
run out of the food that is being dipped and everything
stays fairly clean, we all know how messy dripping chocolate
can be. Chocolate fountains can be served with everything
from fruit, marshmallows, rice crispy squares to cookies.
You may wish to have it set up and running for your wedding
reception dinner's dessert, as an appetizer before the main
meal, at night during your buffet at the dance, or served
while your wedding guests wait for the
wedding party to arrive to the wedding
reception.
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Wedding
Cakes
Wedding cakes have come a long way and
the varies of cake and filing flavours will thrill any palate.
The options in cake decorating and cake toppers have also
expanded including personalized Bride and Groom cake toppers
that are made to look like the couple getting married.
Many couples are choosing to replace their wedding cake
with mini wedding cakes or cupcakes. The trend today for
set up of wedding cakes is to place the wedding cake table
in front of the head table and decorated to complement the
head table decor.
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Wedding
Photography and Video
Wedding photography has come a long way
with technology. With digital photography photographers
are able to do so much more with your wedding pictures.
Wedding photos have become great pieces
of art for you to admire and treasure for the years to come.
One of the most popular things available is the coffee table
book. It is a wonderful way of keeping a record of your
wonder day. Your houseguests can browse through it when
they visit you in your new home.
Couples choosing to have their photos taken before the ceremony
is another new trend in wedding photography. Yes, you won't
first see each other at the wedding ceremony, but there
are great benefits and it can be very romantic to first
meet on your wedding day in a beautiful photo setting like
a park. One of the first benefits is your appearance will
be much fresher for the photos. Normally if there are tears
flowing at the wedding ceremony, it's hard to take the time
to refresh makeup before pictures. Also, if it's a hot day
and people are perspiring during the ceremony, it will affect
how they look in your pictures. Another big benefit is you
are able to go directly to the wedding reception after the
ceremony without making all your wedding guests wait while
you travel to the location for the photo shoot and have
all the photos taken.
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Entertainment
for Your Guests
Slide shows are a great way to make your wedding special and
tell the life story of the bride and groom. What better way
to celebrate the union of your lives together than celebrate
the steps in life that brought you to your wedding day. With
today's technology this this very easily achieved. You can
either have a pre-recorded script or have someone follow along
with a script and microphone You can either have it playing
as your wedding guests arrived to the reception to entertain
them while they wait for your to finish with your photo shot
or have it played as part of your speeches.
Another growing trend in weddings is to hire cultural dancers
or musicians to perform at your wedding reception. This could
be Irish dances to African drummers. Most cultures have distinctive
music and/or dance. This is a wonderful way to bring your
heritage into your wedding day to celebrate and show your
family your pride in your culture.
Another fun trend is performing a dance
routine yourself for your guests. Many couples are going to
the lengths of learning a dance routine to perform for their
first dance. Some couples incorporate their best man and maid
of honour also. This can be a great way to breath life into
the party and shock your guests. The room will literally come
to life as you dazzle your guests through dance.
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Wedding
Guests Favours
One of the greatest wedding favours that is catching on
is charitable donations. Make A Wish Foundation,
and many other charities offer wedding favour donations
on behave of the wedding guests. Each wedding guest receives
a card at the wedding reception to let
them know about the donation and how it will help others.
Sometimes the charities include thank you cards as well.
You may just want to give a total sum to an organization
that has meaning or has helped your family in the past.
If this is the case, you can make up your own cards to place
on your guests tables and maybe even have your Master of
Ceremony announce the donation so everyone understands what
you have done.
Personalized favours are also becoming very popular and
the amount of choices is on the rise. Edible photo favours
can be made out of cookies and chocolate in all sorts of
shapes including boxes with a photo of the Bride and Groom
on them. The options in personalized labels are also endless,
but chocolate bars and small wine bottles continue to be
some of the most popular choices. Calling cards are another
interesting favour that we are seeing in recent months.
Brides and Grooms can giving personalized calling cards
which they choose the number of minutes on the cards they
would like to give their wedding guests as a thank you.
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Invitations
and Stationery
Technology is starting to take the place of paper stationery.
Email Invitations are an option for couples, especially
if most of their family and friends are online. Beautifully
graphic email invitations are available and they can save
you a lot of money and time. The wedding guests can then
easily and quickly reply to the Bride and Groom online.
There's no fear of the wedding guests loosing their wedding
invitation in the mountain of papers that always seem to
pile up. Usually the companies that offer this product also
offer printed invitations as well for those wedding
guests that do not have email.
Personalized Stationery is also very popular. The Bride
and Groom are able to customize the invitations by choosing
the paper type, colour, embellishes and of course the print
style and colour. There are so many choices of striking
papers and embellishments available for weddings, surely
something for everyone and every wedding.
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Wedding
Decorations
Wedding decorations can be absolutely breath
taking for your wedding guests when they
walk into your
place of ceremony and reception. Lighting is one of the
most important aspects of decorating and should be used
in many ways. Chair covers are available in many different
colours and fabrics to match your wedding
colours perfectly and are a great way to dress up a room.
Centerpieces are also one of the more important items and
also one of the easiest to be creative with. You will see
a lot of large coloured feathers being used in centerpieces
and different size diamond shaped crystals to be used for
extra sparkle on the tables. The large crystal diamonds
are suppose to be used as a symbol of luck.
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Wedding
Planning Extras
Wedding Insurance is available for the
"just incase circumstances". The insurance will
cover you incase of cancellation or if a vender doesn't
provide their services. These companies usually also offer
insurance for the place of reception which is usually required
in Ontario.
Personalized Bobble Heads of the Bride and Groom are a fun
way of topping your cake. These are special order and they
need a photo of the couple.
Ice sculptures are also very popular at weddings.
They can be made in many different shapes and can be used
for different things.
Wedding websites are becoming
a must for couples. There are so many things that can be
done through a website including guests replies, the couple
can post special thanks to family and friends that are helping
with their wedding, guests can sign the
online guest book, maps to the wedding
ceremony and reception can be posted for guests to review
and print off before the wedding, written
introductions with pictures of the wedding
party can be posted, and my favourite, posting engagement,
bridal shower and wedding photos on the
website for guests to view and enjoy. Wedding
websites don't have to cost a lot. Most people have free
web space available through their internet provider and
don't even know it. There are many templates available online
and you may even know someone that has website building
experience that can do it for you as a wedding
gift.
Wedding Web Cams can broadcast your wedding
around the world. This is an option for couples that are
getting married a long distance from where their family
and friends live so everyone can share and experience their
special day.
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Wedding
Ceremonies
Many couples today are preferring to write their own wedding
vows, or at least part of them. If this is something you
are interested in, talk it over with your officiant.
Butterfly releasing is a very romantic occurrence. Butterflies
are usually released right after the wedding
ceremony. The couple or wedding party releases
the butterflies outside the place of ceremony. When handling
butterflies there are important instructions that need to
be followed, so make sure the directions are clear to everyone
involved.
Destination weddings are also become more
accepted. The Bride and Groom usually invite a small number
of people to go on vacation with them, where they are married
and usually continue their honeymoon. Some will have a wedding
reception upon their return to include more of their family
and friends. Some local photographers will even go to your
destination wedding.
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Wedding
Reception
Many wedding reception venues are offering
packages to choose from. Each package includes a different
level of their products and services. Often everything is
included right down to the taxes and tips, making it easier
to budget your wedding reception. Always
be sure that all the details are clear and in a contract.
Making It Social - One of the newest
trends is to set up a conversational area for the wedding
guests. Many couples rent modern or leather furniture and
set it up in an area away from the main wedding reception.
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