Wedding Invitations

The purpose of this category is for brides to have an opportunity to win 50% off their wedding invitations by telling her story of how her fiancé proposed. Just give us your story here on our wedding invitation blog and we will randomly pick a winner the 1st of every month. If you have already purchased your invitations and you end up being the winner, we will refund you 50%. Winners will be posted here on the blog and be notified by email. Since we are just getting started with this and it will take awhile to get the word out about this, our first winner will be announced September first.

Just tell us your story by leaving a comment. Anyone, feel free to make comments on any of the stories. It would be great to get a dialog going here. Just click on the title above and you will be able to leave a comment or your story.

So in the past we’ve discussed the wedding etiquette of breaking off an engagement or canceling a wedding from the bride and grooms standpoint. Today however we are discussing the wedding etiquette of how to respond to a cancelled wedding as a guest. 

Hopefully you’ve received the news of the cancelled wedding with enough time to cancel any reservations you may have.  Hopefully you were notified period. I always hear of horror stories where people weren’t notified at all.

How you respond to the cancellation notification will depend on how you received it.  For example, if it’s the bride herself notifying you via phone, chances are she doesn’t really want to go into the “why” details with every single person she calls. She’s already going to be emotional so it’s best to simply be a listening ear and avoid asking questions that will wind her up. If she wants to talk about that’s fine, just be careful not to add to the negativity of the situation (ie. gossip, bad mouth, or complain). Also just as important, be sure to thank her for letting you know.

If you received the message via a letter in the mail, be sure to respond so they know you got the message, otherwise they’ll be fretting over it. Last thing they want is unhappy quests who showed up. In this case simply write a card back, thanking them and sending your best wishes. Same rules apply as the phone call, don’t say anything negative.

Being late as a wedding guest is one thing but being late as the bride, groom or a wedding part member….Yikes. With all the chaos it happens quite often. At least if you’re a late guest, it won’t hold up the wedding. However, it will hold up the wedding if you’re part of the wedding, thus affecting everyone.

There’s almost always that one person who forgets something and has to run back to get it. I once knew of a bride who was so stressed and nervous, she actually forgot her wedding dress. Someone ran back to the house to retrieve it (which took an hour each direction). The guests were getting very restless and irritated. Some even left for various reasons. They either had somewhere else to be or the kids were getting hungry, cranky and wild.    

The tips for being on time for the bride, groom and wedding party are very much the same as for guests. Here they are:
• First and foremost, plan ahead.
• Make a checklist of every item needed and everything you need to do. Follow that list as if your life depended on it. Do not rely on memory.
• Have everything ready to go for the next day. Have clothes laid out, make up and hair stuff in one spot, etc.
• Leave early.
• Check the weather forecast the day before to plan ahead for weather that could slow you down.  
• Check the traffic report before leaving and take the path of least resistance.
• Know where you’re going ahead of time. 

Thank you for joining us in our wedding etiquette blog this week. Have a great weekend.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared some funny wedding etiquette related stories with you. So to enlighten your day, here we go…

The following story is based on an actual event. Names have been modified to protect the identity and privacy of the true people. A friend of a friend of a friend shared this story with me. After weeks of fretting over the hair style, the bride (let’s call her Sue) decided to get a last minute haircut the day before the wedding. Being a little stressed out, she was very snappy with the stylist who she’d been going to for years. Sue was always a little bit on the demanding snarky and snobby side to begin with, but this day I guess she set the stylist over the edge. You see, the bride wasn’t facing a mirror so she couldn’t see what was going on and was so busy barking, she didn’t notice how close he was cutting to her head. When he was done with her hair, it was incredibly short to the point it almost looked like a man’s haircut. She couldn’t even style it and there was no time to let it grow out a bit. She had to wear a wig at her wedding.

Now we don’t know if he did it intentionally or unintentionally, but many people who know her made the famous comment, “what comes around goes around”. So a moral that can be taken from this story is, be nice to everyone, especially your hairstylist.  

History is full of traditions and superstition that we often wonder “where did that come from?” and “why on earth do we believe in it now?”

I’m sure at some point in our life most of us have all heard “it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding”.  Now days most people take the expression light heartedly, but there are still a few people who believe in it so strongly, that they’ll even attach a made up story with it to scare us into thinking we must follow it or all will be doomed.

Rumor has it that this came from a historical tradition that believed the wedding ceremony marked a new beginning. It was where old left off and new began. To combine (overlap) the two would be certain bad luck. I can see where that line of thinking would come from. That’s actually a good to live by. Too often we drag our past into the present which holds us back from succeeding in certain areas of our lives.

If the groom saw the bride just prior to the wedding she would not be considered new or pure, even if nothing happened between the two. But not only was it bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, it was just as bad for the bride to see her reflection in the mirror as people felt she would leave a part of herself behind in it. 

Remember your good wedding etiquette if you run into someone who believes in this.

I found some very interesting tidbits of information I thought you may enjoy. So for today I’m going to deviate from the theme of specific country traditions, like I’ve been talking about the past week and a half or so. 

I found out that historically veils were originally made of a thicker fabric rather than our thin see-through fabrics we use now. There were two reasons for this. First of all, it’s simply easier for us to make see-through fabric these days than it was way back when.  The second reason is so that the brides face could not be seen. Sometimes there was the fear the bride would be kidnapped by a secret admirer (or not so secret) who did not want her to marry this other guy.  In many situations like those, there would also be other women in wedding dresses and veils so the potential kidnapper would not know who the bride truly was.   

There was however a disadvantage to a thick veil.  Once in a while the groom would accidentally marry the wrong bride and wouldn’t know it until he lifted the veil. How disappointing would that be?! This was of course a nasty trick on the part of disapproving or conspiring beings.  Not a good way to start a marriage I say.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned for some more tidbits in the wedding etiquette blog.

To buy or not to buy?.. That is the question.
For some people there’s no question at all. For others, it can be a dilemma, especially when getting caught up in the excitement of it all.

When it comes to your wedding dress you have four main options, each having their own advantages and disadvantages.
#1 Buy
#2 Borrow
#3 Rent
#4 Make it

Here are some things to consider when making this decision:

Advantages of Buying
- Keepsake
- If it gets damaged you don’t have to return it with embarrassment

Disadvantages of Buying:
- Paying a lot of money for something you’re only going to wear once. Well ok maybe
  twice. Once for the photo shoot and once for the wedding.
- Having to specially pack it and store it (do you have room to store it?)
 
Advantages of Borrowing:
- Save money ($ better spent on the honeymoon perhaps)
- Don’t need to store it

Disadvantages of Borrowing:
- If it gets damaged or stained, it may cause some problems with the lender.

Advantages of Renting:
- Save money
- Don’t need to store it

Disadvantages of Renting:
- You don’t have that keepsake
- If it gets damaged or stained you may have to pay fees

Advantages of Making it:
-It fits and looks just the way you dreamed (hopefully)

Disadvantages of Making it:
-Very time consuming and can be just as costly as buying one

I hope this helps with your decision. Stay tuned for some more information in this weeks Wedding Etiquette section.

As a wedding party planning bachelor and bachelorette activities, dress the bride or groom in a way that distinguishes her or him from the rest of the wedding party and other guests. Something as simple as a headband with white fabric attached to represent a wedding veil for the bride, or a “groom” sign hung around the neck of the groom, will make her or him feel embarrassed and the center of attention. (Even a baseball cap emblazoned with “bride” or “groom” will do!)

A scavenger hunt is a great activity. Have the bride or groom pose for pictures with members of the opposite sex that you encounter throughout the evening. The bride or groom can be required to collect naughty things from these folks such as an article of clothing, a kiss on the cheek, or an autograph.

Bring an instant camera with you on your night out to record the highlights of your evening. Later on, write captions on the pictures to chronicle the activities, and put them in a small album for the bride or groom as a momento.

A disposable camera will also do; just be sure to take it to a one-hour photo processing service so you’ll get your pictures back quickly.