Navy With Green: Few things feel fresher than the combination of navy and green with accents of crisp white. This is an ideal color palette for a wedding with a nautical theme or one at a yacht club location. Play up the crispness of this color scheme with plenty of stripes. Your bridesmaids would be darling in knee length navy strapless dresses with white stripes. Choose a fabric like faille that holds its shape well. Pearl bridesmaid jewelry and bouquets of Kermit mums and green hydrangeas will complete the look perfectly. As for the bride, a pair of navy silk D’orsay pumps with a jeweled accent would be incredible peeking out from under a classic white bridal gown.

Navy With Pink: This is one of my all time favorite color palettes for a wedding, because it is the perfect blend of feminine and masculine, all mixed together with a preppy twist. Imagine the guys wearing navy blazers with khakis and pink and navy striped ties. Your bridesmaids can wear navy sleeveless dresses with a ruffle around the neck. For bouquets and centerpieces, use lots of pink blossoms, including peonies, sweet peas, French tulips, hydrangeas, and roses, and ranunculus. You can even tie the bouquets with a navy striped grosgrain ribbon for a festive touch. The two colors will also combine beautifully for custom letterpress wedding invitations: they can have a decorative motif in the pink and navy lettering. What a perfect way to introduce your signature wedding colors.

Navy With Yellow: When you add yellow to navy, the result is a very cheerful wedding color scheme. Lemon yellow works well with navy, as does yellow with a slight mustard tone to it. You can take this color palette in a slightly more offbeat direction by using flowers like craspedia (aka Billy balls) or even little crocheted flowers for the bouquets and boutonierres. Or if you prefer to create a simple carefree style, use lighter yellow blossoms such as daisies, mums, and spray roses. You can even wire real lemons into the centerpieces for a unique accent. Serve a light lemony cake decorated with yellow buttercream frosting and blue ribbons to complete your theme.

Navy With Tangerine: Tangerine is the official color of the year for 2012, so it would be a lot of fun to mix it with navy for your wedding colors. The orange hue adds a nice vivid counterpart to the more subdued navy, and together they look absolutely sophisticated and stylish. Bridesmaid dresses in the bright tangerine hue will be gorgeous for summer or early fall. Give them bridesmaid jewelry gifts like tin cup necklaces to wear with their dresses and bouquets of vivid dahlias to carry. A pretty way to bring your signature hues into your reception decor is to use navy chargers under white dinner plates and top with a napkin tied with a single large tangerine colored flower. Without a doubt, any of these navy color schemes will make for a terrific looking wedding.

Bridget Mora writes about wedding colors, themes, and decor for Silverland Jewelry. When you need pearl bridesmaid jewelry for your wedding, visit www.silverlandjewelry.com for the most beautiful selection.

Don’t leave anything until the last minute

Do all your planning in advance, and the night before just double check that everything is in place as this will let you get a good nights sleep and wake up feeling refreshed. IF there are jobs to be done in the morning, such as collecting flowers or paying the caterer, then delegate it to someone trustworthy so that all you need to worry about is getting dressed.

Morning ‘me’ time

Book a special treat the morning of the wedding, such as a pedicure or massage. If that doesn’t appeal then take an hour out of your schedule to do your favourite thing, such as relaxing in the bath, reading a magazine or taking a walk through the park.

Burn off that nervous energy

It sounds crazy, but try some vigorous exercise to shake off those twitches and settle those butterflies. Do a few jumping jacks or have a sing and a dance to your favourite song to help centre yourself and wriggle away the tension.

Breathe!

If you do yoga, then striking a few poses will really help to centre yourself. If you don’t know any, then just try some breathing exercises to calm those jitters and relax your mind. A few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth can work wonders and avoid nervousness escalating into sheer panic.

Forgive and forget

The last thing you want on your big day is for an old argument to sour the atmosphere or for a row to break out. No doubt through the course of your wedding planning, someone’s nose was put out of joint. It may have been due to inviting (or not inviting) someone in particular, or it might have been to do with your taste in music or venue. Whatever it was, let bygones be bygones and let it wash over you for today.

Make time for yourselves

The bride and groom are, of course, the main attraction at the wedding, and chances are there will be a lot of people who want to talk to you. Relatives you have not seen for years, old school chums and business associates will be keen to spend time with you both, so make plans to meet up with your spouse from time to time to share a kiss or a drink together, otherwise you could get to the end of the day without having spoken to each other!

Marios Christofi is a well known Paphos wedding photographer located in Cyprus. He has attended many weddings and knows the secrets of a successful wedding.

Weddings are one of the most ancient rituals conducted across the vast expanse of human history. Thanks to geographic isolation and the spread of humanity, there are as many different ways to celebrating marriages as there are different cultures on the planet. If you are considering celebrating your wedding with a little cultural inspiration, why not read up on some of the most beautiful wedding traditions from around the world.

1. African Wedding Ceremonies

African weddings are one of the most variable as each tribe, nation, and country has their own traditions. However, some traditions are shared, such as “jumping the broom.” This hearkens back to the days of slavery, when getting married was prohibited. This is where couples will literally jump over a broom, often decorated with tassels and ribbons, to commemorate the union. In north African countries, which have a heavy Islamic/Muslim influence, many brides will decorate their feet and hands with intricate henna designs. Also, in many African tribes cowrie shells are valued, as they used to be the prime method of currency exchange. To commemorate this, brides and grooms may be decorated with cowrie shells. This shell is also a fertility image, which is meant to bestow fertility upon the newly married couple.

2. Indian Wedding

Weddings are huge in India – the parties often last for days before and after the actual wedding takes place. At pre-wedding ceremonies, there is a ceremony where members of each family exchange gifts with each other. The Mehendi Ceremony is traditionally held at the bride’s home, and this is where the intricate henna designs are placed on the bride’s hands and feet. The Var Mala Ceremony takes place on the wedding day, and this is when the bride and grooms place flower garlands around each other’s necks. These symbolize the beauty, freshness, and color that they bring into each other’s lives.

3. Japanese Wedding

Traditional Japanese wedding ceremonies are held in the Shinto tradition. The bride’s face and exposed body is painted with a white chalk to symbolize purity. A large white hood is also worn over and around her head. This is worn to symbolically hide feelings of jealousy against her mother-in-law. The couple officially becomes husband and wife after they take their first sip of sake together.

4. Cuban Wedding

Due to Cuba being under a Communist regime, weddings are not allowed to be religious events. There are still many ways that people celebrate, however, and much of it centers around the bride’s wedding dress. The rule for this is, the more extravagant the wedding dress, the better. Silk and satin layers of ruffles are common. At the wedding after-party, in order to help offset the costs of the wedding, there is a money dance where men who get to dance with the bride pin money to her dress.

One of the most universal traditions in the world, yet because of this fact, the diversity of weddings is wide and varied. Each culture with their own traditions make their special day extra special by paying tribute to traditional wedding ceremonies such as these.

Francine Lewis is a wedding planner and occasionally blogs for honeymoondestinations.org a site she frequently recommends to newly wed couples who are trying to plan their honeymoon. They have loads of useful guides to help plan a puerto rico honeymoon as well as articles detailing areas of interest at various destinations such as this one: A Peurto Rican Paradise: El Yunque Rain Forest

Nowadays, with the ever-increasing popularity of elaborate stag and hen nights before a wedding, many people choose to buy presents for the bride or groom-to-be to give them during these celebrations. However the kinds of wedding gifts that you would buy to give to the recipient during their stag or hen night will obviously be a great deal different from those that you will buy for the couple to be opened during the wedding reception. Stag and hen night wedding gifts range from one-off clothing items designed to worn on the night, to personalised bottles of drink with the recipients’ name on the label and various fairly risqué items. Many of these kinds of wedding gifts are aimed at amusement rather than serious use, in contrast to the sorts of gifts given to the bride and groom as a couple, during the actual wedding itself.

Often the actual wedding gifts are practical items that the couple will need to furnish their home, but these days, people sometimes choose to give more unique personal gifts – particularly if one or other of the couple getting married is a close friend or family member. Popular options amongst personalised wedding gifts are engraved hanging wedding slates with the names of the couple on them, personalised bottles of champagne and personalised vintage signs to hang on the wall. However it is also possible to buy practical gifts for the home that have a personalised edge, such as a doormat with the names of the couple on it.

Source:

www.gettingpersonal.co.uk/wedding-presents/wedding-gifts.htm

Writing personalised wedding vows might seem difficult, but it can be massively rewarding. Here a few simple steps to follow to take the pressure off and help you put down the words that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Make sure you’ve got permission. Is your partner OK with you writing your own vows? Will they be writing their own too? If so, do you plan on working on them together, or leaving it as a surprise for the big day? Is your venue aware that you will provide your vows?

It’s essential that you are all on the same page from the very beginning. For this reason, these are all questions that need to be answered before you get down to the business of putting pen, or keyboard, to paper.

Learn from the masters. Read as much of you can. Try and find other vows you like, love poetry or prose, or any other writing that inspires you. Feel free to borrow as much or as little you like, or just take inspiration from the tone and structure. It’s completely up to you.

Get over your writers’ block. Of course, this is easier said than done. The blank page might seem forbidding, but there’s several techniques you can use to get the words flowing.

First of all, just write whatever comes to mind. Don’t worry if it sounds cheesy or awkward – the important thing is to just get started. Think about your partner and how you met, the moment you knew you had fallen in love, your first kiss.

If that doesn’t work, try a tape recorder. Again, just talk freely until you hit on something that you feel you can work with. There’s no need to rush, so be patient and take your time.

Remember why you are doing this. There’s a reason that you’ve chosen to write your own vows, and that’s because the traditional ones just don’t resonate with you. Think about what makes you different, and what you want to celebrate with your words. This is your ceremony, so make it as personal and individual as you like.

Draft and redraft. Keep reading over what you’ve written, and revise it until you think you’ve got it just right. Then leave it for a couple of days and do the same again. And again. And again.

Practice, practice, practice. By rehearsing your vows out loud, you’ll begin to find a natural rhythm to your speech. Keep practising until you can say them without looking at the paper – this will take much less time than you may think. By doing this, you’ll feel much more confident when it comes to the big moment, meaning that you can concentrate on enjoying yourself rather than worrying about tripping over your words.

Gabriella Chilton works for DiamondGeezer.com, the UK’s leading online retailer of wedding rings and engagement rings.

Vintage Romantic:

Vintage inspired weddings are quite popular, with brides wearing vintage style bridal gowns and wedding jewelry, creating antique looking cakes, and even choosing sepia toned wedding photography. If this sounds like your idea of the perfect wedding, you will be pleased to learn that there are a couple of very easy DIY centerpieces that you can create to add that romantic old-fashioned flair to your reception tables. One of the easiest of all is to collect an assortment of antique teacups from vintage stores. Look for ones painted with beautiful roses for a nostalgic flair. Group several teacups in the middle of each table, perhaps stacking some up on old leather bound books or small boxes to create a couple of height levels. Place one large garden rose, peony, or gardenia in each cup, and you will have perfectly charming centerpieces for a vintage or garden theme wedding.

Dried Roses:

Another wonderful DIY centerpiece idea with a romantic flavor is made from dried spray roses. Start by buying a large quantity of pink spray roses and hanging them upside down to dry. Once they are completely dry, you can push them into floral oasis foam inserted into your favorite vessel. Cover the foam with moss, and you will have instant table decorations with a lovely style. I love how these look when made with square terra cotta pots, but you could use anything from vintage tea tins to baskets to cool old wooden boxes. After the wedding, the centerpieces will last for quite some time, so be sure that guests take them home.

Nature Inspired

If you love natural style wedding details like handcrafted wedding jewelry and a rustic wedding cake, it is quite easy to make pretty centerpieces yourself using natural elements. Gather dried grasses, pussy willows, and smooth rocks to create tall centerpieces in clear cylinders. Or you can “plant” pussy willow branches in birch bark vases with Spanish moss. Branches are always fun for DIY decorations because they offer a lot of flexibility. You could hang tiny lanterns from them, attach paper flowers to the branches, light them with white fairy lights, or even paint them gold. The ability to create something unique is one of the best part about making your own centerpieces.

Candles and More

There are numerous other ideas for very easy DIY centerpieces. If you like candle centerpieces, wrap pieces of lace around clear pillar candle holders. The light will look beautiful glowing softly through the lace. Or plant herbs in painted terra cotta pots and group on tables. Any of these crafts are simple enough for the novice, yet they will look wonderful at your wedding.

Bridget Mora loves helping brides with all of the special details that make a wedding unique. Silverland Jewelry is the best place to shop for unique wedding jewelry for the bride and her bridal party.

A wedding is one thing that costs a fortune but nowadays people are looking to get married on a budget. So, to help those out who are planning a wedding, here are my top ways to save money doing so:

Jewellery

Ok so every bride to be is looking for an item of jewellery that shows off their dress and makes them look amazing, but often great bridal pearl jewellery can cost a fortune. When looking for jewellery for the wedding day many only consider specialist bridal shops but it is possible to buy pearl jewellery at a much more affordable price. Expand your searches and look beyond wedding retailers.

Room Décor

You may intend to hire someone to decorate your room or you may give instructions to the venue owners on how to decorate your room but why not do it yourself? Ok, so I don’t mean running around on the morning of your wedding day laying out table centrepieces, I mean looking into supplying the décor yourself and not relying on the overpriced service of an event organiser. You can put your table centrepieces together ahead of the big day and get a friend or the venue owners to put them out for you on your big day. This way you can buy in bulk and shop around for the best prices available.

Invitations and Thank You Cards

Wedding invitations cost a fortune and getting a specialist card maker to make them for you can cost even more. But have you ever considered making them yourself or getting a creative member of the family to make them for you? You can get some really beautiful wedding invitation materials from online and in store craft shops. Buy some sample pieces and try a few different designs out yourself before buying materials in bulk.

Photography

Hiring a professional wedding photographer is an expensive addition to your already great list of expenses. There are many great junior photographers out there that will halve the cost of your wedding day album. Ask your local university if they know of any photography students and there’s no doubt that they’ll do a fantastic job and what’s more is that they’ll probably be grateful for the experience.

Getting married on a budget is easier than you may think! Stop stressing and save money.

One of the biggest causes of stress in someone’s life is the day they get married. There is so much planning that goes into the big day, that both the bride and groom to be wonder what could possibly go wrong. Manchester is one of the most beautiful places to get married in, so here are a few tips to ensure your day goes as well as it can possibly be.

1. Stay calm. The easiest way to become Bridezilla is to have a fit over every little thing that goes wrong. It’s your maid of honor that is supposed to deal with these things, so do yourself a favor and shut your cell phone off, throw away the pager, and just go with the way the day pans out. Make yourself flexible and have a few plans made as a course of action in case last minute issues arise.

2. Designate specific tasks to people who are guaranteed to do the job right. That way, if anything goes wrong with these tasks, it will be up to that person to make sure everything goes smoothly, and it’s less for you to handle. Important things like answering your phone and making critical last minute decisions are for the wedding party to handle, but don’t assume they are mind readers. You need to tell them what they are in charge of.

3. Trust your future groom. A lot of the times when something goes wrong, people will flock to the Groom rather than the Bride, knowing she is already stressed enough. Trust that he can handle anything that goes wrong, and will do so gracefully and quietly so that it looks like everything went perfect for you on your big day. No one will be any bit the wiser!

4. In preparing for the big day make sure you have a handful of venues chosen as ‘just in case’ places. This avoids disappointment if for any reason the venue is fully booked for your chosen wedding day. Whilst it might be easy to become fixated on the perfect wedding venue, chances are that due to the sheer number of fantastic wedding venues in Manchester you won’t be disappointed at an alternative choice.

There are many tips that you could be given, but the most important thing to do is relax. As much as you want everything to be perfect on your big day, chances are not everything will run absolutely smoothly. Not for lack of planning, just because nothing in life is ever perfect! Take a deep breath and enjoy the event!

Jonathan is a freelance writer dedicated to providing useful tips for a variety of different topics.

Sweet peas: Oh my, these flowers are charming! They are ruffly, sweetly scented, and have an old-fashioned appeal. Sweet peas come in lovely colors for bouquets such as pinks, purples, fuchsia, peach, and ivory. All of the various colors combine beautifully for single variety mixed color bouquets. A sweet pea bouquet would be just the thing with a soft lace bridal gown and romantic wedding jewelry for a garden ceremony. Martha Stewart has quite a few beautiful examples of sweet pea floral arrangements on her website for inspiration.

Astilbe: Astilbe is an interesting flower with a soft feathery appearance. Available in dusty soft shades of pink, ivory, lavender, and peach, astilbe is a marvelous addition to a hand-picked wildflower or garden bouquet. It gives a feathery softness without the flashy drama of real feathers. For a very different look, consider using masses of astilbe by itself to create dreamy soft bouquets and romantic centerpieces. It would look very pretty in simple Mason jar arrangements clustered with other jars filled with wildflowers in complementary colors.

Poppies: Given the popularity of round flowers like ranunculus and anemones, it is surprising that poppies are not more frequently used for centerpieces and bouquets. They come in fabulously vibrant hues, including bright red, orange, yellow, coral, and peach. Poppies are incredible for loosely arranged mixed floral centerpieces with other round blossoms like cabbage roses and ranunculus. They also work nicely on their own gathered casually in tall vases. For something really fun, you can “plant” poppies in several hues in a bed of wheatgrass. It will look like they are growing right on your dinner tables. Simply delightful!

Magnolias: These large fragrant flowers would be incredible for a Southern wedding. The oversized white blossoms are surrounded by shiny deep green leaves for a great contrast. A few magnolias tied with a beautiful silk ribbon would be a charming bouquet for a spring bride. Picture it carried by a bride wearing a classic bridal gown with a full layered organza skirt and timeless pearl wedding jewelry. Or choose a smallish blossom to wear in your hair with your veil. Magnolias can be used to create exquisite centerpieces as well. One idea is to float single large blooms in bowls of water, perhaps surrounded by floating votive candles. Or create heavenly floral arrangements with magnolias, hydrangeas, roses, and peonies. You can even use magnolia leaves to create garlands, swags, and wreaths to infuse your wedding celebration with more of that wonderful classic Southern charm.

There is really something to be said for incorporating some of the less widely used flower varieties into your wedding bouquets and centerpieces. They are every bit as beautiful as the more common wedding flowers, yet they will look more fresh and unique. Whether you feature an offbeat flower or use them to add character to the more traditional wedding blossoms, the effect is sure to be spectacular.

Bridget Mora loves beautiful wedding flowers, bridal gowns, and luxurious wedding stationery. She writes about all these things and more for Silverland Jewelry. Find unique jewelry for your wedding in Silverland Jewelry’s exclusive collections.

• Las Vegas: Getting married in Vegas baby! There is a part of everyone that wants to jet off and marry in Vegas but for some people that is just not viable whether it be down to cost or the fact they do not want to miss out on having their friends and family there. However, with a Las Vegas theme you can bring the glamour of The Strip to your reception! Ideas for this theme can include: having a mobile casino at the reception, have an Elvis impersonator as the entertainment, have fancy cocktails being served at the bar and over the top decorations to make it look the part! The tables could be named after the most famous hotels in Vegas plus have mini chips scattered across the tables instead of table confetti.

  

• Football: Football stadiums are becoming a more popular venue for weddings in recent times. For some people, a football stadium may hold special memories or want to be married at the home of their favourite team. If you do choose a football theme there is plenty of scope! For example, you could have the teams colours as your colour scheme, for example red for Man United or blue for Chelsea and the tables could be named after the most famous players. A football ground is also a great venue for photos – for example the male members of wedding party sat in the dug out and all the guests sat in the stands cheering on the bride and groom!
• Seaside: The seaside can also hold some cherished memories for lots of couples and for summer weddings it really is a fabulous and in-season theme. Personalised favours could include small sticks of rock with the couples names and date of the wedding through the middle. Things like shells, pebbles and sand can be used to good effect in terms of tables decorations.
• Winter wonderland: If your wedding is planned during the winter months or close to Christmas, then why not go the whole hog and turn it into a winter wonderland! Fur shrugs for the bride and bridesmaids would look very fitting whole inside the venue twinkling fairy lights and fake snow decorations will look very atmospheric.

There are so many other wedding themes to consider and still to be thought of! When deciding on which theme to go for, pick something that is personal to you and your spouse-to-be. If you have already chosen the venue, then ensure that the theme is practicable for the venue. If not, then maybe choose somewhere that will complement the theme you have in mind.

-Katie Cruickshank is writing on behalf of MGN Events, a leading event management company that can cater to any wedding theme!