Archive for February, 2009

Thanks To Beach Wedding Favors And Accessories

Friday, February 13th, 2009

   My fiance and I considered having a destination wedding on a cruise ship, but then changed our minds and decided on a beach wedding and reception instead. A cruise ship wedding would be a great idea, but it could have gotten a little too expensive. With all the people on our guest list we’d probably have to rent the whole ship, because there wouldn’t be room for other passengers, and we couldn’t really take anyone off our list, they’re our families and friends. So we decided that a beach wedding would be the next best thing, and we’ll take the cruise for our honeymoon. Sounds like a plan to me.

   The first thing to do was find a beach area that would allow us to have a ceremony and beach party reception. My fiance took care of all that and I got to handle mailing out the invitations. I bought some very nice beach themed invitations and each day I’d fill out a few more until I got them all done. Everyone answered with a most definite yes. They all said they were really looking forward to coming to our wedding and beach party reception. Next I got online and started my search for all the beach wedding themed accessories and supplies I could find. I’m talking about beach cake toppers to beach wedding favors, and they had them all.

   They had the most adorable wedding cake toppers to choose from. They even had funny cake toppers, and I almost went with that, but then I spotted the perfect beach themed cake topper and decided that was the one. It was a porcelain bride and groom walking along the beach and it was so romantic. Our cake was pretty magnificent too. It was a beautiful beach themed cake with edible fondant pearls and seashells, and iced with buttercream frosting with three tiers of ruffled scallops and shells. I even found a cake serving set that was perfect for my theme. There was everything I needed to make our themed wedding a success.

  All my reception tables looked fantastic with their centerpieces, crystal glassware and the gorgeous place card holders that looked like little sailboats at each place setting. I also had wedding favors beach theme gifts that were these lovely little tealight candles, with a beach design on each and everyone. I liked them so much that I made sure I bought extra for myself. I may even go back online and pick up a few more items that I like. They do have some spectacular photo frames and candles that you can use for birthdays, wedding showers and even baby showers, which I hope to have real soon. My niece is having a birthday coming up soon, maybe I should clue my sister in law in on this place.

   I’m so glad everyone was having such a wonderful time. We did have a lot of fun dancing, swimming and just partying on the warm sands all afternoon. When it began to reach the sunset hour, we lit tiki torches all around. The torches made everything even more romantic. Some of my guests told me how fabulous everything was and thanked us for the lovely beach themed wedding favors we gave them as gifts of appreciation. We were having such a wonderful time on the beach with our friends, that I really hated to leave. But our honeymoon beckoned. Maybe we’ll do this again, someday. Maybe we could plan on having a beach party for our anniversary. That would be a great idea. And I know just where to go for our anniversary party supplies.

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Wedding Candles Can Add So Much To A Wedding And Reception

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

   I love candles and I have tons of them all around my house. All kinds of candles from votives to tapers.  I even have a couple of floating candles sitting in my bathroom. I think candles are so pretty and they come in such decorative styles and designs. At our wedding ceremony we had candles all around the altar including our unity candle, with a beautiful rose design on it. On each side of our unity candle were matching tapered rose candles. It was such a beautiful ceremony, with the drapes drawn and the room free of sunlight, it looked almost like a candle lighting service on Christmas eve.

   There were a lot of candles at our reception too. Each of our guests tables had little gel candles and our bridal reception table had gorgeous wedding reception candles on each side of our wedding cake. If it wouldn’t have looked tacky, I probably would have had candles on our cake too, like a birthday cake and had it lit up like a christmas tree. But, even I would have thought that to be a bit much.

   Speaking of our wedding cake, we had the most fantastic cake with a lucious chocolate filling, whipped buttercream frosting and decorative chocolate flowers all around the bottom layer and a gorgeous wedding cake topper with beautiful butterflies embroidered on a satin ribbon attached to a lovely heart. It was a picture in itself. In fact the whole reception made a great picture. All of the tables looked so elegant with all the crystal glassware and the colorful favor boxes that were put at each place setting. I also found some very cute novelty place card holders.

   There were a lot of adorable favor boxes to choose from and I put lovely little wedding cake candles as thank you gifts for each of our guests. I fell in love with these wedding favors as soon as I saw them. In fact I bought a couple extra for myself. You can never have too many candles in the house. Right? 

   We cut our cake and shared our slice and we were toasted by my brother, the best man, and his father who had a few nice words to say also. Then it was time for the traditional bride and groom dance. Our song was “ I Swear” by John Michael Montgomery and every time I hear that song, I have tears in my eyes, so as we were dancing our first dance as husband and wife, I was crying my eyes out and getting all red and puffy. But that has to be the most beautiful love song I’ve ever heard and I wanted it for our reception.

   Then it was everyone elses turn to dance, and they did, all night long. Even the little flower girl and ring boy did a little toe tappin, until they ended up asleep in their chairs and had to be taken home. Everyone had such a great time, me included, I was having so much fun I kinda hated leaving the reception. But our honeymoon awaited. Before I left though I made sure I told my maid of honor to make sure all the extra wedding candles were collected for me and that none were accidently thrown away. I wanted to keep as many as I could. My husband laughs at me all the time about my candle obsession, but if we should ever have a black out, he’ll be glad to know that we would have light for a least a week.

  

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There’s Lots Of Options For A Summer Wedding

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

   Getting married in the summer has become very popular and I think it’s mostly because there are so many options as to the type of wedding ceremony and reception you want to have. You can have a beautiful back yard ceremony, or maybe a lovely garden wedding with all the flowers in bloom for atmosphere, or maybe you’re the type of person that would prefer a gorgeous ocean side ceremony with a fantastic beach party reception to follow. That’s the one we chose. We had our marriage ceremony just before dusk and had lots of floating candles and tiki torches everywhere. It was so beautiful, it looked like we were getting married in a tropical paradise. To me, the beach is the perfect location for a lovely summer wedding.

   Even though our wedding ceremony was performed just before dark, it was still very warm outside. August is one of our hottest months of the summer season, so we kept our wedding party attire cool and comfortable. I wore a very nice white spaghetti strap dress made of a crepe material and the bridesmaids wore floral slip dresses. The groom, best man and groomsmen wore pants and shirts of light linen, so everyone was comfortable and cool during the ceremony. Our flower girl wore an adorable sun dress and the ring boy was dressed in short pants and a short sleeve linen shirt.  We all wore flip flops or sandals, as it would have been just a little difficult walking across the sand in formal footwear.

   We were married under a canopy of flowers with a lit tiki torch on each side, and with the sun setting on the horizon of the beautiful blue ocean it was one of the most romantic settings for summer weddings ever. We said our vows, which we each wrote to each other and about thirty seconds after the minister pronounced us man and wife, I heard my brother in law yell, “ now let the party begin”, and it did.

   What a party it was too. We had all kinds of seafoods, from lobster to shrimp, lots of salads, desserts and of course our fantastic towering wedding cake. I was able to find the perfect beach wedding cake topper along with all of the beach accessories and supplies I could ever hope for. I checked the internet and found all kinds of starfish, seashell, and other beach related accessories to go with our reception. There were even place card holders, floating candles, and wedding favors that were perfect for our beach themed reception. The wedding favor boxes were really exquisite and could be used later to keep little trinkets in, so it made a nice little keepsake. We had picnic tables all set up as reception tables with candles for lighting and lovely beach themed centerpieces.

   Some people took a dip in the ocean, others played volleyball until it got too dark, and we also had an old fashioned clambake right there on the shore. There were bonfires and singing, dancing and lots and lots of partying. We all had such a wonderful time. Everyone complimented me on all the arrangements I had planned and told me they really liked the summer wedding favors we chose for them as thank you gifts.

   When we left for our honeymoon the party was still going strong. I’m so glad I decided on a beach wedding, everyone had such a great time and it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies I’ve ever seen. Everything turned out perfect. Even the weather cooperated.

   Just to let you know, the honeymoon was pretty awesome too.

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They Were The Cutest Idea For Baby Shower Favors

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

   I recently went to a friends baby shower and I was really impressed with the way her sister handled it all. She had the most adorable baby shower decorations I’ve ever seen. The tables were all decorated with very lovely table cloths and we each received an adorable little baby corsage to wear at the party. There were baby items all around, such as a couple of big baby bottles, decorative baby balloons, and on the buffet she had a couple of plates of cookies that were shaped like babies, with pink icing for the girl cookies. She ordered a gorgeous baby shower cake that said “ I’ll be here soon”, with whipped pink frosting and a little baby sleeping on top in her pretty flowered sleepers with a pacifier and blanket. Everything looked so festive, and the centerpieces were little bouquets of baby lollipops in little decorative boxes. Everything was absolutely adorable.

  We all had a lot of fun playing the games she had lined up for us.  We played baby bingo, pin the pacifier on the baby, and she also had three baby dolls for us all to take a turn at the diaper changing race, with cloth diapers, not the disposables.  Sounds easy doesn’t it? But it wasn’t, we had to diaper these babies blind folded. That was a lot of laughs. Especially for those of us that have never changed a baby or used cloth diapers before. There were lots of games, great food and refreshments and just a whole lot of fun for all of us. She even had little prizes to hand out to the winners of the games.

   The mother to be really got a lot of nice things for her baby. Lots of diapers and wipes, of course, baby bottles and other essentials.  Anyone that has ever had a baby knows you can never have enough of these.  But she also got some pretty expensive presents, like the beautiful baby crib her sister and mother bought for her. It was one of those Jenny Lind cribs and it was really beautiful. There was also a changing table, a rocking chair and a very cute mobile for the crib. She also got some funny little gifts like novelty pacifiers with funny sayings on them, and adorable little tee shirts with hysterical logos.  All in all, she made out pretty good in the baby gift department.

   I was just amazed at all the baby shower ideas she had for this party. She really did a fantastic job planning this whole thing. From the decorations to the party favors, everything was perfect. Speaking of party favors, we all really enjoyed receiving the lovely little baby shower favors she had picked out for all of us. They all came packaged in festive little favor boxes, with pretty pink ribbon and bows. They looked so nice on all the reception tables, and really added to the ambiance of the baby shower.

   We all had such a wonderful time at the baby shower, and her sister did a fantastic job in planning this event. Everyone could tell that she went to a lot of trouble to make her sisters baby shower the success it was.  She even made finger sandwiches, a ham ball and crackers, a vegetable tray and all kinds of snacks to munch on, plus a very tasty punch for refreshments. She did a wonderful job decorating and preparing all the reception tables and coming up with such fun games for all of us to play. This was an evening well spent. I’d have her plan a party for me anytime. 

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It Was A Lovely Idea For Bridesmaid Gifts

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

   My best friend was getting married and of course since she is my best friend, I was asked to be the maid of honor. I was so thrilled.  I’ve never been in a wedding before, so this was rather exciting for me.  The best part of all was the fact that they had planned on a destination wedding.  We were all going to Las Vegas for the ceremony and reception. They had arranged to have the reception in one of the major hotels down there, and we were all to spend the night and come home in the morning. This was really special, my first time being a maid of honor in a wedding and my first trip to Vegas, all in one night.

   They were just having a few friends and their parents and family at the wedding. She had two bridesmaids and he had to groomsmen, and then there was me and the best man. Her little neice was the flower girl and her nephew was the ring boy, and that’s all that was in the wedding party. She asked for my help in getting things all together for the big day. We checked out everything from decorations at the hotel, to bridesmaid gifts for the girls. She found quite a selection of wedding and reception supplies and accessories to choose from.  There were really adorable little gifts for flower girls and ring boys too. She picked out these lovely mini wedding picture frames as wedding favors for everyone and special gifts for the parents of the bride and groom. They picked the groomsmen gifts out together, because she wanted to make sure she was getting something her fiance agreed with for his guys. They got very nice glass mugs with the word groomsmen engraved on them, and a very nice gift for the best man. 

   When it came to choosing her gifts for bridesmaids, she wanted my advice. We went through so many items and she wanted to get almost every one of them. I have to admit it was a tough decision to pick just one, they were all beautiful.  But we had to make a decision and she went with the very lovely jewelry boxes they had. They weren’t really expensive, but they definitely didn’t look like cheap bridesmaids gifts either. They were exquisite looking. When it came to picking out a gift for the maid of honor (me), of course she didn’t need my help, she said she had already taken care of that. She bought me a lovely necklace with to my maid of honor printed on it.

   We had all her accessories and supplies all ready to go and one week later, we were all on a plane heading for Las Vegas. I think I was just as excited as she was. My first time on a plane, my first trip to Vegas and my first time standing up in a wedding.

    The hotel was fabulous and the wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was all I could do to keep myself from crying. They were married in a little chapel under a canopy of flowers, and this wasn’t one of those get hitched quick chapel, it was a really nice little church.  After the ceremony we all went to the hotel for the reception.  We had a fantastic time and I think when I get married I may just plan a destination wedding too. It would be nice having a small wedding and going off somewhere special. I know I had a great time in Vegas. After the reception we all hit the slot machines, roulette wheels and everything we could. Why not?  What’s a trip to Vegas without a little blackjack?

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