Your choices are unlimited when it comes to your wedding and reception. Each choice and decision you make speaks of your individual taste. Guests love to see those unique individual touches as they unfold throughout the wedding. They are what make each wedding and couple unique! Could you imagine if all weddings were a cookie cutter of the previous one….snore, snore, boring!

If you choose to ride to the ceremony in a limo with your bridal party, you are not limited to leaving the reception in the same limo you arrived in. Be creative and put your final signature on the big departure as husband and wife. This is the beginning of your new life together, so make a statement and make it yours! There are so many choices! Vintage car, hot air balloon, helicopter, horse and carriage, boat, trolley, sleigh in the winter, dog sled, snowmobile, golf cart, motorcycle, scooter, tractor, or even a 4-wheeler.

No matter what your choice, you can bet when you put your unique signature on your departure, you will leave a lasting impression that your guests will talk about. Have fun exploring all the possibilities!

The best time to begin picking the flowers that will become your bouquet is after you have chosen your dress. You want to make sure your bridal bouquet compliments and enhances your dress. This will be determined by the style, intricate details or lack of details and formality of your dress. Once that decision is made you can begin picking flowers for your bridal bouquet!

Like most of the components in your wedding, the way to get started is to look at pictures. You probably won’t know exactly what your style is or the exact flowers you want. But look, look on the web, look in bridal magazines and browse the wedding bouquet gallery we built just for you!

I found an article on wedding registry and I thought I would share it.

1. Give your guests plenty of options
Telling your guests what to buy and where to go isn’t much fun for them. But giving them a choice in stores and in products makes them a cheerful giver. Choose more items than necessary to provide more options and don’t limit your interests down to one store. Put a little bit of fun into the mix by signing up with very different types of stores like REI, The Home Depot or even a lingerie store.

2. Let your relatives be as kind or as cheap as they want to be.
It’s their choice. Some relatives may go all out to buy you something you really want. Others will think your value is limited in dollar amount. Some relatives simply cannot afford an expensive gift as much as they may love you. Taking into account everybody’s circumstances is important. So be sure and buy plenty of inexpensive gifts.

3. Plan for early shopping and late gifts.
It is customary to open registration, at least in one store, a short time after the engagement is finalized. This allows friends and family to purchase preliminary gifts for engagement showers and other pre-wedding events. Eventually you will open more registries with different stores and these ordinarily are good for one year after your wedding ceremony. This allows for late presents including as honeymoon registry gifts.

4. Don’t invite people to buy for you.
This seems like common knowledge, but a lot of people are in the habit of sending bridal registry information on wedding invitations, or on special cards printed up by bridal websites. This is not polite and encourages the idea of “soliciting gifts.” The polite way to announce a bridal registry system is through word of mouth.

Another acceptable way might be to include a subtle notation on the bridal shower invitations, since the future bride and groom do not send them personally. Another prolific way to spread the news is via a website. The important thing is, that newly weds do not directly ask for presents.

5. Say Thank You!
It’s only good manners to say thank you after receiving a gift. All the more so should newlyweds be appreciative when it’s precisely the gifts they wanted. So sending thank you notes is a very important practice-and yet one that can easily be forgotten in the midst of wedding nerves. Always remember your manners in this most elegant time period.

http://www.wedding-web-site.com/bridal_registration_etiquette.shtml

Check out this registry… www.simplicitybridalregistry.com

Okay, so I found my dress already and I absolutely love it! I took my girls with me to try on dresses and they each picked out a dress for me to try on. I ended up going with the one I picked out but it was a lot of fun. It’s a little difficult for me to plan because my location is ten hours away. I’m getting married on Lake Michigan and I live in Nashville, TN. I know I have almost a year to plan but I’m already starting to get stressed out about all the details. I am attending another bridal show this weekend to get some more ideas. The fact that I was able to be a part of my friend’s wedding this past weekend helped tremendously. Her wedding was very beautiful and it gave me some great ideas.

Although, I’m trying to get my fiance’ to get involved in all of the planning, I’m not having much luck. I know guys don’t care about all the girly stuff but I want him to be a part of the decision making. I’m glad I have friends who love this kind of stuff. I’m open to any suggestions on how to get him involved.

I have been gathering research on beautiful Wedding Cakes for our new Simplicity Brides Squidoo Lens! Here are some helpful things to know about choosing your cake icing.

Buttercream: This is a favorite of many brides. Its great flavor comes from the creamy mixture of butter, sugar, and egg whites. Different fruits and liqueurs can be added to buttercream to add extra panache. Buttercream can be used for frosting as well as filling. This frosting is best suited for indoor weddings. Buttercream breaks down and melts in heat and humidity.

Fondant: Rolled: Is either made by the cake artist or is ready made. The icing is dough like and is rolled with a smooth clay like appearance and is chewy to taste. The great asset to fondant is that it can be used successfully for outdoor weddings, because it can stand up to the heat.

Sugar Paste or Gum Paste: A stiffest type of fondant, it is a sweet sugar dough that is moldable. It is used to make those beautiful flowers and fruit that adorn cakes. A wonderful benefit of using sugar paste is that you will be able to save some of those beautiful flower creations from your cake and put them in a glass keepsake case you can enjoy for a lifetime.

Chocopan: This frosting is chocolate! It comes in milk, dark and white! This is another good choice for outdoor weddings.

Ganache: This rich, yummy frosting is created by combining chocolate with heavy cream. Be sure not to use this frosting at an outdoor wedding - it will not stand up to heat.

Royal Icing: Can be used for an indoor or outdoor wedding. Royal icing is a combination of sugar and egg whites. This is often used for lace and latticework.

I know there’s probably only two people I haven’t told but I’ve been engaged for two weeks now! I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. Although it’s a bit early, I have already started planning quite a bit. We won’t be getting married for a year but there is so much to do. I have to admit I’m enjoying every minute of it! I can’t wait to try on dresses; I have already found one that I think might be “the one”. I have signed up on about three websites to use all the neat tools available…you never know what to sign up for because of all the scams out there.

I am defenitely going to register with Simplicity Brides for my china. I’m going to my first bridal show as an actual bride next weekend and I’m sooo excited! I’ll get to see all the vendors and get information and ideas. The best thing that I have found with going to bridal shows with other people is that they give away a lot of free stuff. I will try and keep everybody updated as much as possible and if anybody has any tips on planning a wedding, PLEASE, share them with me.

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Pink Apron Preview, hosted by Simplicity Brides, received a warm thank you from an attendee recently; I just wanted to share…

From: marshell sartor [mailto:bubblesthe1unv@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 4:36 PM
To: Info
Subject: his and hers aprons

Hello,

My name is Marshell Sartor.  I wanted to send this email to thank simplicity gourmet for the inviting me to the show and for the vacation package and also the free his and her aprons.  So here it goes: Thank you very much!

from Marshell

Okay, so I have to apologize for being a horrible blogger lately. I’ve just been so busy planning my July 3rd wedding…yep - July 3rd - that’s 4 days away!! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time! Since it’s been so hard for me to blog, and I knew I needed to sit down and write out all my last minute thoughts and plans for my wedding day, I thought I would turn it into a blog and kill two birds with one stone.

Well, I just had my bachelorette party last night and I think my Bridesmaids are more stressed out than I am! They think I’m being too laid back about everything. I disagree. I know all I need to get married is the Preacher (got that taken care of a few days ago… phew!), the groom, and me! Oh, and the paperwork so it’s all legal and official (I still need to get that license!)

My list of things to do:

1.)   Start looking for a wedding day hairstyle
(one of my BMs freaked out that I hadn’t even looked around yet…she said she looked for 3 days before she found the perfect one :))

2.)   Find a linen rental company (okay…so, this one I am a little nervous about…can they rent out this close to the event day? Well, there’s always Party Galaxy, right? ;))

3.)   Find shoes
(can‚t I wear flip flops? lol)

4.)   Bridal Party jewelry and mine too
(I’ll be taking care of that today before I go to evening service!)

5.)   Delegate the cleaning up and rental return jobs
(Here’s where I hit up the people that keep asking for something to do to help!)

6.)   Music
(I need to make sure my fiancé has that under control. But I might want to look into some things…like our first dance song, father/daughter song, wedding march…things like that)  

7.)   Wedding Dress
(just kidding!! I do think it’s funny that I went to a prom store 3 weeks ago, picked out a beautiful white dress and was done with it, and one of my Bridesmaid’s is having her dress custom made, lol!)

8.)   Oh yea…the Wedding license
(almost forgot ;))

Well, I hope I haven’t stressed out any other Brides that are reading this. Remember…It’s more than a day, It’s a lifetime. I’m really more excited about our future together; the wedding is just going to be a fun party to celebrate the start of it

So, I’m on vacation this week with some girlfriends from college. I have to say – I’m staying at quite an amazing resort. As I type this, I’m sitting on my screened in private balcony sipping a colorful, fruity drink (complete with a aqua polka dot umbrella) overlooking the seashell filled, white sand, private beach watching my friends toast their skin on their pink beach towels. Behind me, inside, the two bedroom, two bathroom villa is decorated in plush oversized furniture in soft yellows, blues, greens, and corals and adorned in white bead-board furniture and cabinets with soft caramel granite – defiantly something that looks like it jumped off the page of a much coveted Pottery Barn catalog. It’s all just so luxuriously relaxing - why can’t my apartment look like this!!!

 I can’t help but wonder about where I’ll go next year, then the next, and better yet, where I’ll end up for my honeymoon. Your honeymoon is the most special vacation that you will ever take – how do you possibly begin to narrow down what’s the perfect place for you and your FH? When we picked The Pink Shell, we were taking a big risk because we’d never been here or to Fort Myers Island at all. Many times, pictures on the internet are a total scam and just don’t give you an accurate depiction on what you will really be walking into. I didn’t want to just give away my pain-stakingly saved money to take this much needed vacation; I would have been so unraveled if I had walked into a dive rather than a dream. How much more so will I be if that were to happen on the most exceptional trip of my life?

While the internet can leave you completely disenchanted, it can also help you plan your trip with ease and simplicity. There are so many resources for brides now on the internet to help you narrow down where you want to go. What helped us most on this trip was reading the reviews for this hotel on www.tripadvisor.com. It helped us narrow down where we wanted to go and where to stay based on several criteria. We wanted something warm but in the US, a quiet spot  without  a lot of tourism, something clean and modern, friendly, helpful  staff (always ask the locals where to go and where to eat!), but that was affordable. There were several locations in this area that were suggested: Fort Myers Island, Naples, and Sanibel Island. We narrowed it down to the Pink Shell on Fort Myers Island simply because everything that I just mentioned we wanted was what they offered. Now, the real test, was the resort really everything they advertised it to be? Trip advisor gives you actual reviews from guests that have stayed here and all the stories were the same – A++ service and accommodations all the way. The only negative was that the spa was a bit outdated but, you know, we weren’t looking for that and it wasn’t important to us at all.

So, in short, brides, perfect honeymoons don’t just happen – they take a lot of thought, effort, and planning.  Make sure that for your special trip, know exactly what you are looking for, pay attention to details, do your research, don’t depend on just the pictures on the internet, and read lots of reviews to see what people are saying about their stays. Happy Honeymooning! ~ Miss K

Juicing can have powerful healing benefits and rejuvenating properties that can give you a skin care makeover for your wedding day.  As women we want to know simple things we can do to promote good health and beauty…especially on our wedding day when we want to look our absolute best and of course our honeymoon. Evidence has shown that juicing helps the organs and the body cleanse itself, which results in a softer and healthier looking complexion. We also know that berries are one of the best natural sources of antioxidents for our skin. These are a few juicing ideas.

If you have a lot of breakouts, you may want to cleanse your blood. For this, you’ll need:

3 sweet apples
8 strawberries

To enhance your complexion, you’ll want to use:

8 strawberries
2 bunches of grapes

And, to improve your skin overall try mixing:

6 carrots
½ green bell pepper

For all these juicing options simply wash and cut fruits and veggies so they’ll fit into the top of your juicer. Remove any moldy and bruised portions. Here’s to a more beautiful you!

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