By Cori Russell
Brides.com
Much more than a sweet finale to the reception meal, wedding cakes are a major style statement. And trends in wedding cakes, like all other wedding details, evolve with the times. The wedding cake presents a perfect opportunity for creative brides to play with shape, color and embellishments. For those of you who need a little inspiration, consult this list of top trends for wedding cakes in 2009
Back to Buttercream
Buttercream was once the traditional frosting for wedding cakes, but sleek cakes came into favor, and rolled fondant became the frosting of choice. Not any more – thanks to advanced tools and techniques that allow buttercream to look as smooth as fondant, cakes iced in buttercream are again the norm. We love this trend, since buttercream frosting tastes better, has natural ingredients, and costs less than fondant. Now you can literally have your stylishly sleek cake – and eat it too.
Chocolate Face
Brides have bucked the traditional white wedding cake for the last few years, but today´s brides are no longer hiding decadent chocolate behind a shield of white frosting for appearances sake. Dark chocolate is now front and center on the face of the cake, as chocolate or mocha cakes are appropriately decked in chocolate mousse or whipped chocolate frosting. The result is a full blown chocolate dessert that tastes as good as it looks.
Blue Rules
Shades of blue dominate the 2009 wedding décor palette, and your wedding cake is a perfect canvas to incorporate this hot shade. Consider a cake saturated in turquoise, periwinkle, or even navy, and embellish it with complimenting colors like silver, white, grey, lavender, or yellow.
Square Mini Cakes
Cupcake towers in lieu of wedding cakes have been around for awhile, but brides are making cupcakes interesting again by playing with shape and size. Brides are stacking square shaped mini-cakes (slightly larger than cupcakes) adorned with flowers or dressed as presents for a completely different take on the cupcake frenzy.
Think Pink
Pink – the perpetual hot color for weddings – had begun to fall out of favor as brides experimented with more non-traditional hues like browns, grays, orange, and even black. But pink is back in a big way, and brides are incorporating the hue into their wedding cakes. Pink instantly freshens-up classic white: Tone down an all pink cake with white floral or lace details, or dress up a white cake with pink embellishments.
Scripted Text
Wedding cakes adorned with calligraphy-style motifs and writing is one of the year´s hottest trends. Create an antiqued look with black writing on a white or ivory cake, and get creative with the text. Some options? Write a favorite poem or verse, your wedding vows, or words representative of your wedding theme – such as names of flowers for a garden wedding or types of shells at a beach wedding.
Groom´s Cakes
The old Southern tradition of the groom´s cake is shedding its regional trappings and growing in popularity throughout the nation. And no, it doesn´t have to be the iconic red velvet armadillo from “Steel Magnolias.” Today´s grooms cakes, now just as elaborate as the wedding cake itself, often reflect the groom´s interest in a dramatic and whimsical expression; a deer grooms cake for an avid hunter, shaped like a race car for an diehard Nascar fan, or decked with his favorite sports team logo.
Cori Russell is editor for Elegala.com and Gala Weddings Magazine. Elegala.com is a complete Weddings, Wedding Planning resource with a national directory of wedding venues and services, how-to guides, photo galleries, checklists, and expert advice to walk brides through every step of the wedding planning process. View the complete sitemap to find everything you need to plan your wedding.
Visit Swanky Tables for some awesome jewelry inspired wedding cakes ideas.
Personalized Wedding Cake Toppers
Planning a dinner rehearsal for the happy couple? Having the right rehearsal dinner decorations plays a major role in the overall success of the event. The decorations set the ambiance and should be centered around the personal style of the bride and groom. Here is a collection of dinner rehearsal decorations that are both elegant and practical.
Rehearsal Dinner
by Lois Reyes
A rehearsal dinner is an informal dinner that takes place after a wedding rehearsal, usually a few days before the wedding, although it is commonly held the night before of the wedding ceremony. Wedding etiquette does not demand that you have a rehearsal dinner, although advises take such opportunity to thank the attendants for all their help planning the wedding.
While some couples prefer both the wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner take place two or three days before the wedding to relax on the wedding’s eve, the wedding day is such a busy day that it is more likely the bride and the groom will no eat until the reception, and not exactly immediately.
So eating with your loved ones the night before is more than advisable, necessary! Rehearsal dinners were traditionally paid by the groom’s parents, but this expense is becoming in a part of the wedding planning budget. In families who share strong bond one another, are the parents of both the groom and the bride who paid for the rehearsal dinner.
At the rehearsal dinner the couple will toast, thank the attendants and present small gratitude gifts to their groomsmen and bridesmaids. Sometimes the people invited to the rehearsal dinner have been helping the couple but have not socialized among them so taking this opportunity to play ice-breaking games will contribute with the success of your wedding day getting the friends of the groom and the bride meet in anticipation.
If you are a bride that is going to marry but you are unsure of having a rehearsal dinner planned, ask you future mother-in-law, as this responsibility belongs to her. I she is not considering to celebrate it, discuss with her and your own mother the idea of having one and let them decide if you can count with their help, otherwise go ahead yourself.
Attending a rehearsal dinner requires sending out invitations, but these can be simple formats that are sent a few days before the wedding invitation. With the Internet and many couples wanting to have out-of town guests, sometimes is better send rehearsal dinner invitations by email, unless you are following a more traditional format in every stage of your wedding planning.
Rehearsal dinner is a custom originated in the United States, country at which it is fully integrated into the matrimony traditions, although it is also commonly observed in Canada. Because of the informal nature of this dinner, you do not need to celebrate this event at a luxury venue or restaurant and the food in the menu does not need to be so elaborated.
Rehearsal dinners are commonly held at the groom or bride’s home unless the numbers of guests require taking the dinner outdoors or at a specific place with enough room for all. Some couples prefer to have a rehearsal dinner at an early our so everyone can enjoy with yard activities within the house and without formalities that the wedding etiquette will demand to all of them during the wedding day.
Lois Reyes is an expert wedding planner as well as a staff writer at Wedding Printer. The Wedding Printer offers quality wedding stationary and information on Wedding Etiquette.
By Delilah Hatch
A unique wedding theme, like a butterfly wedding, can be a lot of fun if you do it correctly. If overdone a theme like this can become almost tacky. But if done with a touch of elegance and subtlety, the butterfly wedding can be one that you and your guests will remember forever.
Here are a few tips and a few points to think about when considering this wedding theme.
The butterfly wedding absolutely can be done with elegance. How to stay away from straying to the tacky side? Keep everything low key. Just because it is a butterfly wedding does not mean that every detail about the wedding must be butterfly oriented. The key is to choose a few elements that are related to your favorite kind of butterfly, and simply match the colors and flowers to this theme. Maybe add a tasteful wedding favor with a butterfly theme, or simply have butterfly wedding invitations and programs.
Choosing the butterfly as your wedding theme creates a great opportunity for gorgeous wedding colors. There are many species of butterfly. Pick one that appeals most to you and run with it. Most butterflies have rich and luscious colors which are great for pairing with any wedding color scheme. The black found in most butterfly species’ wings will be represented in the groom and groomsmen tuxedos. The rest of the colors can be made up in flower arrangements or the bridesmaid’s dresses.
Another great way to pick your flower arrangements for a butterfly wedding is to choose arrangements of flowers that your butterflies are most attracted to. This could be anything from wild flowers indigenous to the area you live in, to flowers of certain colors.
Looking for a great location for your butterfly wedding? Why not go for the obvious and opt for holding your ceremony at a butterfly garden? That would certainly match the theme! Not to mention no need to provide your flower arrangements since you will be in a garden. All you’ll need is your bridal bouquet, corsages for the bridesmaids, and boutonnieres for the groomsmen.
If you do not have a butterfly garden within reasonable distance, you can always go for the butterfly release. There are many online stores specializing in this service just for wedding ceremonies.
Whether you choose the butterfly garden, or the butterfly release, don’t overlook the great photo opportunities you will have with the butterfly wedding theme. Your wedding photographs are some of the most special photos will will ever cherish. Can you picture you wedding pictures complete with butterflies resting on your gorgeous wedding dress? That is almost fairytale!
However you choose to execute this unique wedding theme always remember to keep it simple and elegant and you cannot go wrong.
Delilah Hatch is a stay at home mom and creator and editor to an arts and crafts/ party invitations website http://www.do-it-yourself-invitations.com, as well as her newly created baby crafts website http://www.make-your-own-baby-stuff.com
by Cori Russell
It may be the “bride’s day,” but remember that you can’t get there alone. A wedding planner can be your advocate and your voice, especially when you’re not around. The key to a successful working relationship begins with finding the right person to join forces with as an invincible team. Once you’ve decided that you’d like to hand over some wedding tasks to a seasoned pro, you’ll need to schedule some phone or face-to-face consultations with a few in your area. These meetings should leave you with a clear idea of which planner best suits your needs and personality, so it’s best to come prepared with the right questions. Here’s what you need to know to find the perfect match.
1. The Know How - Does the wedding planner offer all the services you need? Come prepared with a list of things you’d like help with, and review your list together. To give you an idea, this printable wedding planner can walk you through each wedding task that you can potentially hand over to a professional.
2. Money Talks - Does the planner’s service fees work within your budget, and is the planner able to commit to your total wedding budget while planning your event?
3. The Right Connections - Does the planner have a network of reliable professionals and can s/he refer you to those that match your style and budget?
4. Prime Negotiator - Will the planner be able to help you save on any aspects of your wedding – either by negotiating the best prices, scoring vendor discounts or obtaining added extras?
5. Etiquette Guru – Is the wedding planner knowledgeable on etiquette matters, and can s/he steer you in the right direction?
6. Trend Savvy - Is the planner in-the-know on the latest wedding trends and styles?
7. Straight Troubleshooter - Can the planner coordinate all logistics with vendors and the wedding party to ensure everything runs smoothly? With a professional on hand – you should be able to enjoy your day like a guest and leave the details to them.
8. Personality Plus - In the end, it’s all about a positive relationship and trust. Do you like this person? Try to get a sense for how well you think you’ll work together.
9. Always the Professional – Ask to see the planner’s business license, professional organization membership or any indication that s/he is a certified business professional and not just moonlighting as a wedding planner.
10. Seal of Approval - Ask to see reference letters. Be wary if s/he cannot provide any.
Still have questions about wedding planners? This complete guide has everything you need to know about hiring and working with a wedding planner.
Cori Russell is editor for Elegala.com and Gala Weddings Magazine. Elegala.com is a complete Weddings and Wedding Planning resource with a national directory of wedding venues and services, how-to guides, photo galleries, checklists, and expert advice to walk brides through every step of the wedding planning process.
Your Wedding Planner Tools
By Erica Brooks
We all know that weddings have a stigma to be expensive. Even if you plan to keep your wedding simple, there are just some things about a wedding that make them more costly than you had planned. So, in order to truly not spend too much money you should plan for the top ways to cut costs from the beginning. The following are some of the top ways to save on wedding costs. Try these things to help cut the costs of your wedding:
Choose an alternate wedding time. You can save on the cost of your wedding by not choosing to have it at the most popular times. Popular times usually include seven in the evening and two in the afternoon. Opt for a less popular time such as a Sunday brunch.
Avoid peak season. Just as with times, dates are known to be popular or peak dates as well. The top season for weddings is May through October, therefore choosing to have your wedding in the less popular months of January, February, March, April, November or December can save big money with photographers, caterers, florists and more.
Consider having your wedding at home. It is becoming quite common to have a wedding at home. You can add inexpensive yet elegant decorations to your backyard or inside of your home that will express your personal style. If you home is not large enough to accommodate all of your guests consider having your wedding at a friend or relatives home.
Free yourself from fancy. Don’t assume that just because it is a wedding that it means that you have to be fancy. Maybe you’re not even a fancy person yourself, save yourself some trouble and dress down. Wedding gowns are expensive and can eat up a large portion of your budget quickly. Therefore dressing down your wedding can help you cut wedding costs.
Provide your own music. Ask a family member who is musically savvy to man the music, setting up your own speakers and loading up your Ipod with your favorite songs. Hook it up to the speakers and enjoy your favorite tunes, for much less money than a DJ or band.
These various ideas should help you to eliminate some of the top costs in your wedding, allowing you to have a memorable and amazing wedding without all the costs. Who says a wedding has to be pricey to be perfect?
Save on Wedding Costs Using This Simple Favor Idea
Our photo coaster place card wedding favors are a great way to save on your wedding costs. These elegant favors are multi-purpose. You can use them as a wedding place card holder and then allow your guests to take them home as a wedding favor. They are practical and can be used as a coaster, picture frame or both.
Having a Asian themed wedding? Below is a stunning collection of romantic and elegant Asian theme favors that are both practical and eco friendly. From coasters and frames to candles and fans these lovely Asian theme favors are keepsakes that can be used by your wedding guests for years to come, making your special day even more unforgettable.
From garden and beach weddings to traditional and ethnic weddings our unique frame place card holder favors will make a lasting impression on your wedding guests. Our frame place card holder favors come in styles and theme that are perfect for spring and summer weddings as well as rehearsal dinners and bridal showers. They are multi purpose serving as a place card holder, a favor and a frame and/or coaster which saves you money by not having to purchase each item seperately.
Having a wedding at a beach or destination wedding at a Carribean island? Our charming collection of beach bridal favors and beach theme accessories are sure to add a touch of elegance to your special day. These beach bridal favors and wedding accessories are a great way to complete your theme. Each favor is practical also and can be used for years to come by your wedding guests. Candles, frames, bookmarks, coasters, luggage tags and more.
From wine accessories and home decor to office essentials and travel gear we have personalized wedding party gifts your bridesmaids and groomsman can enjoy. Our collection of personalized wedding party gifts are a great way to thank those who played such an important role in your special day. The personalization and the fact that they are practical gifts that can be used daily makes it a even more special gift that they will cherish for years.
For more personalized wedding party gifts ideas visit Stress Away Bridal Shop.
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