Wedding Planning

The Evolution of Wedding Favours

Giving away wedding favours was practiced by European nobility. The gifts consisted of sugared treats of five pieces of almonds or candies, packaged in artfully crafted boxes fashioned from ceramics, metal or crystal with inlaid semi-precious stones. The five almonds or candies were believed to bestow happiness, fertility, health, wealth, and longevity.

The little box or the European bonniere that held the good luck treats gave way to the present day wedding favours and these days, anything goes. These can be elegant, whimsical, and unique or personalized items. Popular choices are bottle stoppers, fridge magnets, picture frames, wine bottle stoppers and candles creatively dressed up to reflect the wedding theme and the season.

Wedding Favors

If you want something extra nice or non-traditional, give wedding favours that are uniquely you. You can give fortune cards if you are something of a mystic, tuck in a family recipes for beef stew into shiny little tin pans, if you and your mate love baking or cooking; or still give your guests a little of the Caribbean from your holiday - sand and shells in little crystal dome vases!

For elegance, luxurious crystal tokens are perfect. Crystal candle holders, flower pots, angels, and swans are top favorites. A touch of silver and gold adds to the elegance of your tokens and you do not have to spend much for these - silver ribbons, beads, and some little frills to go with the packaging.

Wedding Favors

Choosing Your Wedding Favours

With an array of wedding accoutrements from wedding gowns to tokens, it can be difficult to make a choice. Start out with what you really want and what you can afford. Wedding tokens are sold by sets with an added cost for packaging and shipping. You can avoid extra expenses and have more tokens to give away by:

* Doing your own ribbons from cloth stores nearby
* Shopping for discounted items from an online bridal shop
* Personally picking up the items if the shop is within your locality
* Packaging the items with your brand of personal flair
* Choosing a bridal shop that offers free shipping

Your wedding favours should always complement your d‚cor. An outdoor garden wedding will be complemented with small beribboned topiaries, or a beach wedding notches up its tropical look with fantastic conch shells packages for the wedding tokens.

Sticking to the wedding theme narrows down the field and makes the task of selecting items easier. Other factors should also be considered:

* Season of the wedding
* Wedding d‚cor
* Type of wedding (indoors or outdoors)
* Number of guests

Wedding Favors

Wedding favours say a lot about you as a couple and conveys your message to your guests. Personalized and elegant gifts are popular with couples who want guests to remember fondly their wedding day. You can have your names and the date of the wedding monogrammed on the items to help guests remember that the particular token came from you and they can recall what a beautiful wedding it was.

Let your wedding favours reflect your elegant, cool, or romantic side. Shop for your wedding cakes and find the bridal dress of your dreams from BestForBrides.com.

His and Hers Wedding Favors?

Traditionally, wedding favors are given to guests to thank them for sharing the happy event; as a rule, one token is given to a family or a couple and the same token is generally distributed to all guests Have you are wondered if it is possible to have different tokens for the men and the women? It’s possible. Nowhere is it written in stone that these giveaways should always follow tradition. If the guests are happy, there’s nothing wrong with your decision.

Wedding Favors

For a small wedding, you and your groom can decide on separate wedding favors for your intimate circle of friends. It really won’t make a dent on the budget. If you have invited 50 people then for sure you have double checked the number of males and females.

You can still get discounts by buying wedding favors in bulk for the two genders. Scented soap under $2.00 for the ladies and bottle stoppers for the gentlemen. This gesture doubles the fun for the guests. However, this is appropriate for a small party group of 20 when you are thinking of a simple wedding on a budget.

Wedding Favors

Practical Wedding Favors Under Two Dollars

A one-stop bridal shop offers a stunning array of wedding tokens. There are eye-popping selections available so it is easy for you to find one that suits your style. Prices for affordable items range from 75› to $20. For 20 guests, you will shell out $15 for 20 75› items. Here are some tokens you can be proud to give away:

* Calla Lily Candles with thank you tags
* Photo frame and place holder
* Love glass coasters
* Flower bookmarks
* Scented soap
* Cookie cutters
* Measuring spoons
* Key holders
* Measuring tape
* Bottle stopper

How to Present Your Wedding Favors

There are several ways to give your tokens to guests. For a small party you can give the tokens when a guest is ready to leave. Or for a bigger party, you can instruct the waiter to distribute these to departing guests. To make it easier for the waiter to do his job, have the presents wrapped with the telltale blue or pink satin ribbons.

If you are planning a formal dinner, the waiter should be able to follow the seating plan so the small packages can be set on the proper place. Or you can arrange the tokens in a basket and with your groom go around and distribute the gifts individually.

Wedding Favors

Perhaps you would like to be different. You can always have faux wishing well and let the guests tug the rope which is attached to a bucket filled with the tokens. Or you can set up a tree of thanks and hang the giveaways on the branches. Inform the guests in advance that you have separate tokens for the gentlemen and the ladies.

His and hers wedding favors are fun. If you want to do this, go ahead, your guests will love this nice idea.
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Fantastic Wedding Cakes

When guests troop to the reception hall, they expect to see a gorgeous wedding cake proudly ensconced where everybody can see it. They are also pleasantly surprised when it tastes as good as it looks. This should be your goal when you are looking for the wedding cake of your dreams.

Wedding Cakes

Wedding cakes come in wonderful designs and trimmings, and colors undreamed of. You no longer have to settle for a pristine white cake that looks so official with the traditional sugar flowers also in white or the usual hoi polloi of green, blue and pink.

Wedding cakes have fun colors ranging orange to lavender and an assortment of trimmings an inventive and creative baker can dish up. Lace, ribbons, fresh flowers and fruit, candies, grated coconut, and swarovski beads and edible fondant pearls are used for stunning decorative pieces that would send your great grandma to fits of envy.

Wedding Cakes

Fondant and marzipan icing revolutionized cake decorating and new baking technology allowed the successful baking of wedding cakes in unusual shapes - cubes, triangles, hearts, harem pillows, castles, and yes, shoes and bags or your caricatures for a touch of fun. Perhaps if you could afford it, you’ll have them all for their stunning looks alone.

How to Find the Right Mix of Looks and Flavour

Planning for a fantastic wedding cake starts month before the wedding because bakers are fully booked months ahead. Your plan should include the cake recipe. Here are some ideas for your cake:

* White cake recipes
* Chocolate cakes
* Cakes with fruits and nuts

Wedding Cakes

Wedding cakes may cost $1.50 a slice or $15.00. This is how bakers calculate the cost of the cake and price includes cost for frosting and flavour. For your chocolate or white cake, ask the baker how much he will charge for ganache or fruit fillings because bakers routinely charge more for specialized cakes that require special fillings and frosting. But if flavour is tops in your requirement, then shell out a little more.

For your cake icing, you can choose one to complement the cake’s recipe:

* Cream cheese icing
* Cocoa and butter sauce
* Traditional butter icing
* Meringue frosting
* Milk chocolate

Icing for wedding cakes can be made to look like swaths of silk, Venetian lace, and feathers. This will all depend on the skill and of the baker who will also present his portfolio of wonderful wedding cake designs.

Ideally, since it is your wedding, get your favorite cake recipe. The groom may also want his groom’s cake or may want a different flavoured cake. If this is so, request the baker to have a three tiered cake in different flavours.

Wedding Cakes

Before You Get a Baker

Before talking to a baker, prepare to give the following information:

* Date of wedding
* Wedding motif
* Venue of reception
* Number of guests
* Number of servings for the cake

Armed with this information find a baker who has the patience to understand the visions of wedding cakes cavorting in your head and who can duplicate the exquisite flavor of your mom’s butter rum cake. If you find this gem of a baker, sign that contract at once before he can say no.

Wedding cakes and wedding favours should be as delectable as the bridal dress. You can have your cake and eat it too from BestForBrides.com.

Tip No. 1

Budget is not an issue when you start searching for a bridal shop. These shops carry a line of designer wedding gowns priced accordingly from the most expensive to the very affordable for the budget conscious bride.

Tip No. 2

Customer service should be an issue in your choice of a bridal shop. Friendly customer service makes you comfortable in picking out the wedding dress and other formal gowns for the wedding entourage. The sales people should be patient and accommodating and not bulldozer you towards expensive gowns or to their outdated selections.

Tip No. 3

Smaller shops are friendlier than those shops offering high volume merchandise. The sales people are aware that you are looking for the wedding gown of you dreams and will offer you a wide selection plus gown alteration for a fee.

Tip No. 4

A bridal shop should carry a line of wedding services. Skip the search for wedding shoes and accessories, discounted wedding invitations, wedding cakes and favors, and honeymoon destinations. It is practical to get the services from the same shop where you are getting your wedding gown because you can get more discounts. You also do not have to deal with a number of shops, which can be confusing and time consuming.

Tip No. 5

The bridal shop should have a stock for the plus sized and the petite. The salesperson should be knowledgeable about body shapes and types of fabrics that would enhance your body shape.

The Best Surprises Come in Small Packages

It is a toss-up between big bridal shops and the small bridal boutique. Small bridal shops win hands down if you want personalized service. You can find this out by visiting the local bridal store in your locality or by the prompt response to your queries from online shops.

When the salespeople don’t rush you to make a purchase, you have found the shop that wants you to help fulfill your wedding fantasies. It does not matter if you buying an expensive gown or renting an affordable bridal dress, so you are better off here. With small shops, you are in the company of sales people who are after your complete satisfaction.

Surprisingly small stores carry the latest in designer gowns and offer an assortment too. These shops provide gown and accessories rentals if you decide to rent the whole kit and caboodle for you, your bridesmaids, and your mother and your mother-in-law to be. It would be fun swooping down to the shop with your family and friends for your first look-see.

Choosing your wedding gown should not be confusing if you stick to the wedding theme and your budget. With the information, the bridal shop of your choice will steer you to the appropriate gowns if you let them know what you want.

If you cannot explain the details or describe the bridal dress, it would help to have a picture of the gown, probably a cut-out from a bridal magazine, with you. The bridal shop will offer similar gowns or may have the very one thing you are looking for. Now you are ready to shop for your bridal dress.

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The Daring Darling Bride

Yes. More brides are thrashing their wedding dresses for non-traditional and action packed wedding photography. Imagine being underwater in a forest stream with your groom. The photographer, also underwater, catches the moment - billowing white silky sheath of your bridal dress silhouettes your body in the mysterious depths, highlighted by a beam of sunlight above. Mind blowing, isn’t it?

Wedding Dresses

The photograph is taken from below the couple to show the upward movement towards the sunlight; the underwater scene gives a very other-worldly and artistic effect perfect for wedding photo album your children will enjoy in the future. But are you ready for the adventure that might ruin, stain, and tear your bridal dress?

If the idea is appealing than the usual ritual of group pictures, then go for it. By agreeing to your groom’s proposal for exotic photography, you are ready for anything that might happen to your wedding dress because there is no guarantee that your bridal dress will remain in pristine condition after a romp on the sand or running in the railway station. Anyway, the photographs will more than justify the trashing of the wedding gown.

Wedding Dresses

These tips can provide more ideas an exciting and fun photography session:

* Select from the rural, urban, or water themes for your trash the dress sessions.

* Look around the neighborhood; the park or an old junkyard can provide the stage without having to get out of town for a special shot after the wedding.

Wedding Dresses

* A haunting photo session in an abandoned house may not appeal to others but it jacks up the photojournalistic appeal of the pictures.

* The wharf is another spot for a perfect sunset photo op.

* An empty university grounds where the couple have studied can also be a meaningful backdrop. If it won’t be against school policy, get permission to have your pictures along the hallway, where there is a heavy traffic of students.

Wedding Dresses

* A night shoot at the beach under a canopy of stars adds romance to the pictures.

Here are tips to help you along while trashing your bridal gown:

* Before the shoot, check your make-up.

* Don’t worry about your hair.

* Don’t be conscious of the photographer.

* Just do what you are supposed do and love every minute of it.

Trash the bridal dress photo sessions are not about literally trashing the wedding gown but a new way of photographing the bride and groom wearing their wedding finery in non-traditional and unusual settings -but the pictures always capture the radiance of love surrounding them, which makes the pictures truly appealing.

Wedding Dresses

This is what counts in the new wedding photos. As for your bridal dress, you can donate it to charity or send it to the cleaners. You will not need it anymore once you have the dress forever preserved in amazing wedding pictures.

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If you want wedding favors that all of your guests will appreciate and partake of, the edible varieties are your top choices. After all, not everybody can appreciate the subtleties of scented candles, the cuteness of miniature watering cans, the usefulness of glass coasters and fridge magnets, and the playfulness of light-up rings, among other things. But with food, you can satisfy your guests’ love for candy, wine, coffee, cookies, cupcakes and other delicacies.

Wedding Favors

For the Sweet Tooth

You can set up a penny candy cart where your guests can stock up on childhood candy favorites - button candy, jelly drops, gum drops, mints, and mini chocolate bars, to name a few - in personalized takeout boxes. Not only will you satisfy the sweet tooth, you will also be taking a trip down memory lane with these simple but delectable wedding favors.

Or you can provide a jar of organic honey for your guests, wrap it in a length of ribbon, and pin a tag with sweet messages of your choice. You will be providing sales to the local bee farm while providing sweet wedding favors of the health-friendly kind to your family and friends.

Or you can hand out your favorite cookies packaged in cute little boxes wrapped in ribbon. You need not bake it yourself since you can ask the local bakery to make it in batches for you. However, if it is a long-cherished family recipe, you can always ask the help of your siblings and parents.

Wedding Favors

Or you can always hand out mini cupcakes that are a reflection of your wedding cake. This way, your guests can have mini-cakes to show at home if they want. Or they can eat it right there! How is that for wedding cakes doing double duty as wedding favors?

For the Oenophiles

To the uninitiated, that is wine lovers for you. You can package mini wine bottles with the same wine you used during the reception, use a personalized wine bottle stopper, and attach a ribbon to them with your own message of thanks.

Admittedly, this can be on the expensive side but your guests will admire and appreciate the thoughtfulness behind the gifts. It is small compensation for the trouble they, too, took to attend your wedding.

For the Coffee Lovers

These are wedding favors that almost every adult will love. Do not settle for the instant variety of coffee but instead go for the gourmet touch. After all, it is not as if you will be spending for a coffee chain; just enough for a cup or two of coffee will do nicely!

Wedding Favors

You can buy gourmet chocolate-covered coffee beans online, package them into personalized tins or bags, and wrap with a ribbon. You will be giving your guests a welcome boost at the end of or in the morning after the festivities.

There are other edible wedding favors that you can provide your guests. The first thing to do is to determine what you like, what your guests might like, the time you can devote on making or buying them, and the amount you can afford to pay for them. In the end, it is your wedding and your favors are just small tokens of appreciation that guests will take no matter the cost.

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You are planning your first wedding. There are plenty of things to attend to - dresses, rings, invitations, venue, music, food and drinks, schedules, and engagement problems - that leave you feeling like a cold is coming on. Cold feet, that is. However, do not be discouraged by the hoopla. Take comfort in the knowledge that your perfect wedding favors will be the talk of your guests when they exit your reception.

Wedding Favors

What Are They and Why Should You Give Them?

Wedding favors are tokens of appreciation that you provide your guests. These express your appreciation for their attendance of your most special day, especially when they got all dressed up and coiffed, bought you thoughtful wedding gifts, and shared your happiness.

Of course, these tokens also express the hope that your magnificent wedding will be remembered by your guests. Besides, it is good to have something to have and to hold, literally, from your wedding day. When your silver wedding anniversary approaches, you might even want to replicate your first wedding favors for nostalgic purposes!

Wedding Favors

How Do You Go About Them and How Much Do You Need to Spend?

There are many online shops and brick-and-mortar stores you can source for your wedding favors. The basic guidelines for these are usually:

* Pick favors that match your wedding colors. You can take a swatch of fabric to the manufacturers of your favors to be sure about the hues you want.

* Double-duty favors are better. You can put nametags on your favors for each guest - place these on their table assignments or have the receptionist give them upon their entrance to the reception venue with their table assignments.

* Provide one favor for each couple and one favor for singles. This way, you save on the cost of the favors and you ensure that every one has something to bring home from your wedding.

Wedding Favors

Depending on your budget and preference, you can spend as little as C$1 to C$20 per guest. You can opt for do-it-yourself favors or store-bought favors depending on your priorities. However, there some tips you can keep in mind:

* Buy in bulk to save on cost
* Edible favors and goodie bags save time and energy from packing them up

Regardless of how much your wedding favors cost, you should package them with care and thoughtfulness.

When Do You Give Them?

Your favors can be provided to your wedding guests in a variety of ways:

* Place your favors in the tables preferably at each guest’s table napkin.

* Set up a table for your favors, place a card that says “Please take one and take me home” or simply “Thank you”, and have one person man the table to make sure every guest gets one.

* Instruct the waiters to hand out the favors between courses.

* Instruct the doorman, the coat attendant, or your bridal party to provide each guest with a favor when they leave the reception.

Wedding Favors

Of course, you can always hand out the favors as a couple but that is time-consuming and could possibly take you away from other activities. Just be sure you are up to the task.

Ultimately, your attention to details in small things like your wedding favors can make your wedding memorable for you and your guests. Take the time to achieve near perfection and you will be rewarded with a glitch-free wedding from start to end.

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Everybody likes to receive wedding favors from the couple, whether it is of the edible kind, the practical type, or the displayable variety. For your wedding, you are thinking along this line and looking at catalogs for wedding favors like cute wine bottle stoppers, quirky scented candles, sweet mints and candies, delectable cookies and cupcakes, sweet picture frames and fridge magnets.

Wedding Favors

However, you can make your wedding more memorable by giving donations to charitable causes of your choice. You can always provide for the abovementioned wedding favors if you have the budget for them and you want concrete objects to have and to hold; your guests will surely love your thoughtfulness.

Do Your Research

Before you make charitable donations to the organization of your choice, be sure to do your research. Organizations have different approaches to accepting donations and spending contributions, which you need to be aware of before you sign that check. You can check the Internet first.

You have to make sure that your choice of organization issues an official receipt for your donation, which could be used for tax deduction purposes. Otherwise, you need to start looking somewhere else lest you run into trouble with the law. With the problems you face in your wedding preparations, you definitely do not want trouble in your wedding favors where there is none expected.

Wedding Favors

Donation Ideas

First, determine who and what you would like to help. This way, you can narrow down your wedding favors cum donations to these choices:

* Environmental Causes

Visit the website of your favorite environmental group and make a donation through your credit card, which should take you very little time. You can check out National Arbor Day Foundation, Save the Elephants, Greenpeace or any local environmental group you want. For example, National Arbor will plant trees in the name of your guests.

Wedding Favors

For presentation, you can place a table card with an image of a tree, the guest’s name and your favorite tree quote. Your guests will be thrilled to know that a tree is planted in their honor!

* Disaster Causes

You can donate to organizations helping to assist victims of disaster rebuild their lives. Check out the Twin Towers Fund, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and any local organization helping your neighbors.

Furthermore, you can save on the cost of your wedding since you determine how much you donate. You can present this donation through cards with messages of thanks from the organization and from you.

* Cancer Research and Patients

You might have a family member battling the Big C. Your donation to cancer research will warm his heart and those of your guests, too. You can check out the hospitals that have cancer wards and ask around for the patients who need help the most. You can also directly donate to cancer research institutes.

Wedding Favors

The documentary requirements to make the contribution legal will be more complicated but it is worth the trouble. Check out the Make a Wish Foundation, The American Cancer Society and your local hospital.

These donation ideas are just a few but when you put your mind to it, you can find other causes to support. How about feeding the hungry? Or clothing the poor?

Whatever you decide on for your wedding favors, always remember that it is your thought that counts. If you decide to give both donations and concrete favors, then everybody gets to be happy on your most special day.

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When you were young and blessedly far from being wedded, you laughed at the videos of wedding cakes melting, falling down, trampled upon by nature, thrown by guests, and just simply ruined. Now that you are planning your own wedding, you definitely do not want these disasters to happen at your special day, not when your wedding cake is the main highlight of your reception. Not to mention, you spent a good deal of the food budget on it!

Wedding Cakes

The best way to avoid wedding cakes disasters is to hire professional bakers with the right equipment to safeguard your wedding cake. You can choose from among a wide array of cake designs and flavors and they can answer your questions about your cake.

Wedding Cakes

The Natural Cakes

We are not talking about wedding cakes made of organic ingredients and fresh flowers. We are talking about cakes ruined by Mother Nature’s creatures like insects, birds, cats, dogs, and other undesirable natural elements.

You have insects landing on your cake and adding in a natural color; you have birds pooping on your cake and adding in a natural flavor; you have pets that literally put their stamp of approval; you have leaves adding crunch; you have wind that thinks your cake is its birthday cake. The list goes on and on.

Wedding Cakes

You can avoid these wedding cakes disasters by:

* Renting or investing in a screened tent for your wedding cake
* Erecting a fence to surround the cake with an umbrella poised above it
* Instructing someone to stand guard over the cake to shoo away undesirables
* Conducting your reception inside even when you have an outdoor wedding.

The Falling Cakes

This is one disaster you laughed at the hardest since this is the most obvious. For your wedding day, this is no laughing matter and one that you can avoid by following a few common sense tips:

* Make sure your wedding cake is placed away from high traffic areas like the dance floor and the entrance and exits.

* Ensure that it is far from the loudspeakers as the inevitable shaking is bad for your cake’s stability especially when it is of the three-tiered variety.

* Check the stability of the cake table especially when you have multiple wedding cakes; remember that it will be on display for hours and wobbly tables are disasters waiting to happen.

Wedding Cakes

The Melting Cakes

Sure, you want a melt-in-your mouth cake that will be the rave of your guests. What you do not want is literally melting cakes with icing flowing down like gooey make-up on a very hot summer’s day, colors running into each other like a painter’s canvass gone bad, and flowery designs turning into Goth symbols.

This disaster usually happens on a spring or summer wedding when the heat and humidity can wreak havoc on your wedding cake. You can avoid this by:

* Ensuring your baker stores the cake in a carefully-controlled environment during the decorating stage and the transport to the reception venue
* Covering the cake with a tent if you are having an outdoor reception
* Keeping the cake away from heat sources and windows if you are having an indoor reception.

Wedding Cakes

If you want to be surer, then you can always have cupcakes as your wedding cakes. It is practical and it is becoming more fashionable.

With expert advice on your dream bridal dress, wedding favours and wedding cakes, you will never have disasters on your hands on your wedding day. Visit BestforBride.com and get this expert advice today!