Wedding Ideas, Tips, Articles and Resources

IDEAS

In order to make your wedding more personal and memorable, we've come up with a few specific ideas to enhance your big day:

Original invitations, announcements, and thank you cards
If you're planning ahead and have enough time to play with, avoid the templates and be CREATIVE! That's right. Somewhere inside that intelligent brain of yours lies an original thought. Exercise your creative thinking and design your own invitation. With the technology now readily available to us, many of us can work wonders right on our desktop.
Please note that, ideally, wedding invitations should be sent out at least six weeks before your wedding day. If you're feeling creative, give yourself at least three months beforehand to create freely without too much pressure. Don't have the time? Find wedding invitations online... click here.
Your WedSite
Save postage costs for invitations & RSVPs. A site is also great for keeping out-of-town guests up to date. It's never been easier to publish a web site on the Internet at a minimal cost. Click here to design your own wedsite or have a designer make one for you.
Wedding e-newsletter
As an alternative or an addition to your 'Wed Site,' publish your own email newsletter. This is a great way to build the excitement, and to make sure that everybody involved is on the same page. For out of town guests, you can also include information on local hotels, restaurants, etc.
Video montages on DVD
Unlike anything you've seen before view samples [ChicagoWeddingServices.com or The Art of Memories website] that will speak for themselves. This is an excellent way to entertain your guests as well as a great way to remember your wedding day.
Personal hair & make-up artist
Take a minute to imagine how busy the actual day of your wedding will be... So many unexpected things arise because of the number of things planned and the number of people involved. If you can avoid it, don't waste time making a trip to the beauty salon and back. Ask your personal stylist to come to the house or the hotel to help you get ready. Not only will you still be readily accessible for any questions from your fellow organizers, but that bit of time you save will feel like a lot.
Prefer to experience the salon? Visit award-winning Lizette's in Tinley Park. Lizette has a number of wedding beauty packages to choose from.

Wedding CD favors
What can you give your family and friends that they will actually treasure long after your wedding day? We've stumbled upon a great idea that leaves lasting impressions on both our clients and their guests... customized CD favors. More info...

That CD was all the rave at our rehearsal dinner. It is great that those closest to us can have that unique memory of our day to enjoy forever.

Nancy & Ed Lukin

When our own staff members made CD favors for their weddings, they were such a hit that the guests still rave about them to this day.

Simultaneous tosses
Although many couples are now opting to skip these traditions, the garter removal/toss and the bouquet toss are still part of many receptions. So we've come up with a way to keep the tradition while avoiding the feeling that it's being forced... do the tosses at the same time.
This is simply a variation of the traditional procedure. If you're planning on the garter removal, take care of that first. Once that's done, have the emcee ask all the single ladies and gentlemen to come to the dance floor. The ladies should line up on one side of the floor while the guys get together on the opposite side. The bride and groom will stand in the middle of the floor holding each other's left (or right) hand with the bride facing the guys and the groom facing the girls. The DJ plays upbeat background music as the emcee gets everyone ready for the tosses. On the count of three, the bride and groom throw the garter and bouquet at the same time. Provided that the tosses are executed well and the garter/bouquet is not hanging from the chandelier, the lucky catches pose for a picture with the bride and groom.
We recommend this style for smaller weddings where there may not be too many single guests. The simultaneous tosses keeps the action lively and also saves time for more dancing!
Another variation on the bouquet toss
This is something you can also try if you don't have many single ladies attending the reception. Instead of doing the toss, the emcee invites all married couples onto the floor. While the DJ plays songs like Through The Years by Kenny Rogers and Endless Love by Diana Ross & Lionel Richie, the emcee asks couples to take their seats if they've been married for a certain numbers of years or less. Eventually, the floor has one couple left dancing. The bride then presents her bouquet to the longest married couple accompanied by a big round of applause.
Simultaneous parent dances
It is common for the bride to dance with her father then the groom to dance with his mother after the bride and groom share their first dance together. Depending on the length of the songs and how much they enjoy dancing, these dances can seem to drag. Whether a parent prefers not to be in the spotlight long or perhaps they don't have the dancing legs like they used to, you have other options... You can either ask the DJ to fade the song out earlier or you can dance both parent dances at the same time to a neutral song. One favorite song is What A Wonderful World by Louie Armstrong. There is also a recent version with Louie Armstrong and Kenny G. Whatever song you choose, this option can improve the flow of your reception program without taking away your gratitude to your parents.

Kissing alternative

Rather than the bride and groom kissing every time the crowd 'clinks' their glasses, ask that couples clink first, then stand up and demonstrate how they would like the bride and groom to kiss. Next, the newlyweds imitate the kiss. This variation prevents the 'clinking' from getting out of hand.
During dinner, any guests that would like you and your wife/husband to kiss, must first slow dance on the dance floor. (This is good for getting everyone in the mood for dancing after dinner) The emcee would have to explain this rule to your guests before dinner begins.
You can have a large woven basket placed on a table near you. guests would be asked to place a flower into the basket if they would like you to kiss. You would either have to ask them to bring flowers or you can provide them on the dinner tables.
Have one large candle and a set number of smaller candles placed along the head table. the large candle would be lit from the very beginning. Guests would be asked to come to the head table and light a smaller candle using the flame from the big candle. You would then kiss. (Careful with the type and number of candles used... we wouldn't want to accidentally cause a fire!) This idea is good for limiting your 'during dinner kisses' to the number of smaller candles you have set on the head table.

Color palette
Hopefully, some of the ideas above have inspired your creativity. Before you jump into artistic mode, however, let's cover one important element that will keep your creative ideas consistent and deliver more of an impact... your color palette.

Because the use of color can be a complicated topic on its own, we'll stick to listing a few useful tips:

Try choosing a palette that works with both your ceremony and reception venue colors.

If you stick to one particular color, mix different hues and tones of that color and match with a neutral color like platinum to add variety and balance.

Weave your color palette through all the different components of your wedding (i.e. use the same palette when designing your invitations, wed site, CD covers, gift baskets, etc.)

General Wedding & Reception Ideas