Real Life Wedding Planning

Not interested in having flowers as centerpieces at your wedding reception?  Many couples today are decorating with their tabletops with containers of candy, perfect if you or your groom are known for having a sweet tooth and want to keep a casual feeling at your reception.

Here are some ideas for your candy centerpieces:

• Select candy in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes.  At her recent wedding, Khloe Kardashian used gummy bears, ring pops, candy necklaces, M&M’s and Hershey’s chocolate bars.
• Use clear glass containers that show off the contents.
• For visual interest, vary the width and height of the containers.
• Besides traditional glass jars and bowls, try filling old-fashion milkshake and soda glasses, martini glasses, and water goblets.
• Provide small scoops so people don’t have to use their hands.

If you want candy but not as centerpieces, have a candy buffet.  Set a table full of jars or bowls of candy and provide small cellophane bags for guests to fill with the candies of their choice.

American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi planned her own wedding when she married Mike McCuddy in small (36 guests – no celebrities) intimate ceremony near her home in Prospect Harbor, Maine on July 5, 2009.  Photographs and a description of the event are featured in the July 20, 2009 issue of In Touch Weekly magazine.

Here are some ideas you can steal from Kara:

Something Borrowed and Recycled!

• Kara’s matron-of-honor wore the dress that Kara wore as a bridesmaid at her wedding

• Kara wore her late mother’s wedding dress at the pre-wedding reception (her wedding dress was a mermaid-style, strapless gown by Vera Wang)

• She wore her grandmother’s pearl earrings and bracelet

The Ceremony

• The 30-minute ceremony was held in a church across the street from her home

• The couple used traditional vows rather than writing their own

• They included moments of remembrance for her late mother and his late sister

The Receptions

• The pre-wedding and post-wedding receptions took place in her backyard

• Pre-wedding reception food included crepes, quiches, pastries and muffins

• Post-wedding reception food included Maine lobster and salmon – food was organic

• Music was handled by a DJ and featured karaoke

• Colors were cream, white and natural beige

• Desserts were red velvet cake and whoopie pies

• Favors were personally inscribed iPods loaded with music selected by her business partner (instead of  iPods, select music and create personalized CDs to use as favors)

If you are having a small, intimate wedding, you, like Kara, may be able to handle the details yourself.  Be organized and keep things simple, but beautiful.

Planning to have a wedding with a casual style?  Then you might want to have a Western themed wedding.  This theme is perfect if you are holding your wedding in a chapel, church, home, garden, park, community center, farmhouse, ranch or country inn.  But even if your wedding is in a big city hotel, you can carry out the theme with your choice of decorations and food.

Here are some ideas:

Decor-

• Use patchwork quilts, Navajo blankets, or red and white gingham as tablecloths.

• Use bandannas as napkins.

• Centerpieces can be arrangements of flowers in baskets, mason jars, vases of flowers inside cowboy boots, or small blooming cactus plants that can be used as favors.

• Flowers should look like they were hand-picked from a garden.  Choose wildflowers, daisies, sunflowers, zinnias, roses, and lilacs.

• Use bales of hay for decoration around the room or for seating.

• Keep drinks cold in buckets and washtubs filled with ice.

• Light the area with kerosene lamps or, for safety reasons,  battery-operated lamps that resemble vintage kerosene lamps.

• Hang a metal triangle and ring it when it’s time to cut the cake.

Cake and Desserts-

• You can simply top your cake with a cowgirl and cowboy.  Or work with your cake designer to create something unique such as the look of a hand-tooled leather belt wrapped around each tier or get cakes shaped like cowboy hats or boots.

• Apple pie or cobbler.

• Homemade (or homemade-like) ice cream.

Food-

• Buffalo wings with ranch dressing

• Barbecue  ribs and chicken

• Grilled steak

• Baked potatoes

• Corn on the cob

Favors-

• Bandannas personalized with your name and wedding date

• Program fans that look like Western “Most Wanted” posters

• Cowboy hats

Wedding attire-

• You can wear a vintage or vintage style wedding dress in antique white with lace but it isn’t necessary.  In fact, actress Sandra Bullock wore a designer (Angel Sanchez) white lace wedding dress and veil to her Western wedding to Jesse James in 2005.  She added white cowboy boots to give her look a Western flair.  If you love denim, there are stores online that sell blue denim wedding dresses.

• Your bridesmaids can wear square dance dresses or dress like Western saloon girls.  If you prefer something more traditional, find vintage-style dresses that are similar to your own.

• The groom and groomsmen can wear black suits, vests, white shirts with bolo ties (decorative strings with a clasps of silver), and cowboy hats.

• Ask guests to dress casually in Western wear.

The Summer 2009 issue of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons magazine has a two page spread showing decorations and acessories you can use at your Western wedding.  There are also many wedding vendors who sell Western and Cowboy related wedding accessories and favors on the Internet.

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, costars of the movie Step Up, got married Saturday, July 11, at Church Estate Vineyards in Malibu, the same venue both Fergie and Josh Duhamel and Natasha Bedingfield and Matt Robinson used for their weddings this year.

Here are the ideas from people.com’s report that you’ll want to steal:

• A short, 15 minute outdoor ceremony

• A fairy theme carried out by two flower girls who wore wings

• Bridesmaids wore long, flowing,  pink, halter-neck dresses.  The halter neckline varied a little among the women.

• Jenna wore a Reem Acra strapless wedding gown with a sweetheart neckline

• Flowers at the ceremony were were white and pink roses

• The sit-down reception took place in a tent

• The cake was shaped like a castle with fairies.  Flavors included red velvet, chocolate and white.

• The favors were crystals, which kept to the fairy theme

Trying to decide on a color theme for your wedding?  Think about using black and white, it’s classic, elegant and can also be a little bit edgy.   Both Fergie and Josh Duhamel and former reality show bachelorette, Jen Schefft, used these colors for their weddings this year.

Here are some ways you can use black and white in your wedding:

Reception Decor-

• Centerpieces of white roses, calla lilies, carnations, or white dendrobium orchids.  Use black vases to keep with the theme.

• Black flowers, whether tulips, roses, or calla lilies, will give the wedding a real edgy look.

• Black and white checkered dance floor (which you can get from a party rental company).

• Black linens, both tablecloths and napkins, with white china, white linens and black china, or mix it up with white tablecloths, black napkins and black china.

• White chairs or chair covers with black sashes.

• You can also incorporate an accent color of pink, lavender, or, for a very dramatic look, red, in your centerpieces or chair sashes.

Cake and Desserts-

• Wedding cake iced in white, piped with black scrolls, lace-like designs or banded with black ribbons.

• Large strawberries decorated to look like they are wearing a black tuxedos.

Favors-

• Black and white favor bags, you can even find ones that look like mini bride’s dresses and tuxedos.

Wedding attire-

• Jen Schefft wore a white Carolina Herrera wedding dress with a black bow and black peep-toe pumps.

• The train of Fergie’s white mermaid wedding dress was held with vintage black and white crystal floral brooches.

• Bridesmaids can wear black dresses with white sashes and carry white bouquets.

I found a set of interchangeable black and white simulated pearl earrings from the Jacqueline Kennedy jewelry collection at www.QVC.com.  Wear the pearl color that will stand out the most with your hair color or have some fun and wear one of each color!

Are you planning to have sparklers at your wedding?  They are often handed out as favors for guests to hold to form a sparkling tunnel for the bride and groom to pass through.  There are also large, 36″ ones that can be put into the ground to light a walkway and small ones that can be used to top the cake.

You and your guests need to exercise safety precautions when using sparklers.  Here are a few of them:

• Decide if you will allow children attending to have sparklers.  If you do, make sure they are closely supervised
• Make sure people hold sparklers away from their face, body, and clothes and away from other people
• Keep sparklers away from any highly flamable materials or substances

Carefully follow instructions given to you by the maufacturer.

Confirm that the city and county in which you are holding your wedding allows the use of sparklers.  And, confirm that your venue allows their use.  Many venues ban any kind of open flame in and around their facilities so ask before making any big plans.

Are you borrowing or renting folding chairs for your outdoor wedding?  Make sure you get either plastic or wooden ones, metal chairs will get extremely hot in the sun and you don’t want to risk burning your guests.

Some other outdoor wedding tips that might help your guests be more comfortable if it is warm:

• Schedule your wedding early in the day to avoid the afternoon heat.

• Provide shade with a tent, patio umbrellas, beach umbrellas or parasols.

• Give fans away as wedding favors.  You can order paper fans with your monogram or wedding program printed on them when you order your invitations.

• Rent outdoor fans and put them on a low setting to keep the noise level down.

• Provide water or lemonade when guests arrive.  Stay away from alcoholic drinks that cause dehydration.

Make sure you also have an air conditioned place where guests can retreat if the heat becomes too much for them.

Have you chosen your wedding favors?  Remember that favors are not a necessity, they’re just nice to give.

If you really want to give something special, in lieu of favors donate the amount you would have spent on them to the charity of your choice.  With the downturn in the economy, chairitable organizations have been hurting for donations and would welcome your generosity.  If you like, you can let your guests know what you have done and encourage them to donate also.