Budget Weddings in a Time of Financial Uncertainty

In this terrible time of financial uncertainty, wheather you are directly influenced by this crisis or are still intact, you should be more careful about your cash flow from now on.

Since young people still have to get married, you have to give a good thought about how to save money and have a budget but still perfect wedding.

It starts from renting a wedding dress. Apparel cost is huge in a wedding. Renting is less expensive than buying. Men have been renting tuxedos for years, why not wedding dress rental for women? This isn't as far fetched as it may sound. In addition to buying a wedding dress, most brides have to contend with preserving and storing the wedding dress. With a wedding dress rental, all the bride has to do is choose the dress, wear it, and return in within the allotted time period. She doesn't even have to worry about the dry cleaning.

With careful planning, costs can be kept under control and a stylish wedding achieved for a fraction of this figure. Here are some more tips.

1. Rings
Ask yourself if you really need to spend thousands on something some people lose or which wears out and becomes unusable.

2. Food
Think about making the food yourself, or at least the puddings and starters. Ask at local catering colleges if they provide a service; you might still get quality but at half the price. Alternatively, ask everyone to bring a dish!
The wedding cake needn’t be expensive either. Think about making it yourself, or go for a simple sponge. A current trend is to serve small individual ‘cup-cakes’, which aren't expensive but still look nice.

3. Photography
If you do go for a professional photographer, ensure youÂ’re certain of the number and type of prints you want and ask yourself how many you really need.
Alternatively, ask a friend who has an interest in photography, but make sure they have a good camera.

4. Honeymoon
Do you really need a villa in the Seychelles with every conceivable luxury? Honeymoons can add thousands to wedding costs. Think of hiring a romantic cottage somewhere in the UK instead. Or take advantage of low-cost flights to a European city and try to negotiate a good hotel deal (especially if you intend to go out of high season).
Alternatively, ask around among friends and family and see if anyone has a second home you could borrow, or at least rent cheaply, in the UK or abroad.

Bargain, bargain, bargain. You can negotiate for everything, from flowers to the band to the venue. Katie says she got a deal on her dress and the bridesmaid dresses by purchasing them from the same shop. Cut back on things that guests won't notice. Carley suggests eliminating a couple of courses from the dinner, limiting the bar by featuring a special cocktail, or only buying flowers that are in season. Don't lose sight of the purpose. The wedding is to celebrate your relationship, so focus on creating a memorable time as opposed to simply a lavish one.

Interesting Wedding Trends Your May Not Familiar With

Wedding trends for 2008 promise to bring more vitality and excitement to your big day! These will be fun weddings that you will really enjoy attending! Wedding trends for 2008 include different and more unusual wedding themes, wedding gifts, and honeymoon locations.

Photo Invitations
Forget the traditional heavy stock invitations with engraved ink to graciously invite your guests to your wedding day festivities. Many brides today are choosing to go a different, more personal route: photo invitations! Once people see the book, it takes their breath away and they always ask, ‘can I take the book home and pour over it?’ We let anyone borrow the book to look through. People are usually pleased with the quick turn-around time and the quality and uniqueness of the invites.

Wedding Color and Flower Trends
Color trends for weddings are continually changing. Each spring designers preview what color or colors they think will be the hot trend for the following year. The wedding color trend for 2008 will bring a fashionable new color scheme and a monochromatic color palate to brides to select from.

Keep in mind that if you draw your color inspiration from nature, and the season you are marrying in, your wedding will be beautiful. Colors drawn from nature are always fashionable, yet timeless. Ultimately, the color you select for your wedding should be something you are comfortable with. Select colors you will be able to enjoy in your photographs for years to come.

Elegance through color and texture bring attention to the bride and to the event itself. Casual weddings, formal weddings and everything in between are now enveloped with colorful flowers and apparel accessories. Even the coffee mug and wine bottle are decorated with beautiful colors.

Brides are choosing different flowers for their bridesmaids. Traditionally, bridesmaids have a smaller version of the bride’s bouquet. In recent years, brides are choosing to make bridesmaid bouquets smaller than "normal" and are putting their money into their own bouquet. With silk flowers this is an easy task as different flowers can be made in similar shades of the primary bridal color.

Different Wedding Themes for Your Wedding Design is avalable, and you can pick the one that most suitable for you.

Clothes and decorations
Going back to clothes and decorations, one of the most popular themes includes the use of embellishments such as embroidery and lace. The more intricate and delicate the décor, the better it is. However, these decorations are not only limited to the bride’s and bridesmaids' wedding dresses but can also be applied to table cloths, runners, and even to invitations and other decorations used in the wedding. Along these lines, dresses used for weddings tend towards having sleeves. This is because sleeves can be made from lace and other similar materials.

What’s new about Entertainment

What about entertainment? This is the trend for this year as well. Usually, the cocktail hour is spent for photography sessions and guests milling around. Now, it is made more enjoyable by having live music and other forms of entertainment. Some of the more interesting forms of entertainment that have been used for this purpose are flamenco dancers and other traditional or exotic performances, impersonators, fortune tellers, and even fire eaters.
A note before we end, these are only trends. It does not mean that you have to follow what other people are doing. If you have your own ideas in mind, then put them into reality by all means!

Choose The Right Theme for Your Wedding Design

Wedding theme is the core factor to a succesful wedding. Choose it right, you are half success. The whole wedding is a big issue, lots of work to do. But the most central one, is the theme, you need to decide the theme first of all.

Do you want to add a little creative design elements to your special wedding day. Your wedding day is absolutely your own day; it's up to you to decide how to make it unforgettable. Your wedding theme reflects your attitude towards the event. If it's your first wedding, then lots of color and decoration shall be in order. However, subsequent weddings are usually quieter affairs, with somewhat low-key and subdued themes. Using the appropriate theme for your wedding will not only reflect your good taste, but also liven up the event for your guests, and put them in the right sort of mood.

Numerous kinds of theme for you:

Butterfly theme:
If you are a bride, you can release butterflies instead of rice. If you are a groom, then too you can fill your hall with thousands of colorful butterflies. They will add color and charm to the ceremony. The same effect can be produced with birds, too. Create the ambience of a passionate summer evening or treat your guests to an untimely blissful spring. You will also need an romantic wedding dresss for add more flavor.

The oriental theme:
Use an oriental theme to contrast with the crowd of occidental guests. You may want to adopt some Asian wedding rituals to reproduce the essence of the mysterious far east. You can create a small tropical forest, with pictures and plants. Add an uncanny and adventurous color to the atmosphere through the use of tribal attires and statuettes of wild animals. Prepare fashion belts such as fashion leather belts decorated wich china cross-stitch, that would be catch more attention.

Color theme:

This may be the one of the Interesting Wedding Trends Your May Not Familiar With. You could want to accentuate a particular color by using it in flowers, fruits, dresses, lights and even foods. Try to find out what color your future partner likes best.

English garden theme:
Marry in the lap of nature, or better still, bring the elements of the nature within your four walls. If you are fond of the ocean, decorate the hall with nautical elements like starfish, pearls, or an image of the setting sun against a backdrop of sea. Use a matching color tinged with blue, the color of the sea.

Romantic Candlelight
Tell them he/she lights up your life. Light up the candles....lots of them. Create an ambience of romance.

Say It With Flowers
Your love in full bloom, reflected in your choice of buds. Select a flower and work with that. How about combining different flowers in a similar colour. A client once chose 3 different flowers - Tulips, Iris & Matthiola as her wedding flowers because the first letters of the flowers spelt out her husband Tim’s name.
Flowers can be used to decorate the church, the reception area, the home and even the food display. The same flower(s) can be used in the bouquets and the car decoration. As a thank you to your guests for attending your wedding, how about presenting them with a stalk of your favourite flower.

eart-To-Heart
You can have a heart theme for your wedding. Decorate everything with hearts, whether in different colours or in a single colour. Big hearts, small hearts. You may even wish to have little hearts sewn onto your wedding gown. A good designer will be able to incorporate any theme into your wedding dress.
Now, guess the shape of the wedding cake.

A well-planned theme wedding also gives you the pleasure of knowing your guests will attend a memorable wedding, where everything has been well thought out & executed for their maximum enjoyment. Your "es-theme" will rise knowing your guests will leave your wedding with sweet memories of how personal & different your wedding was. A theme wedding also offers a good reflection of you & your partners personalities as you incorporate your likes & hobbies into the scheme of themes.... and what better time to do this than at the start of your lives together.