Its a beautiful and privileged thing to be asked to be in a wedding, and especially as a bridesmaid. One of the things you might be closely considering is how you will deal with your hair. There are a million hairstyles to choose from as a bridesmaid, and you certainly should spend some attention on this aspect of things. Lets take each of these aspects and look at their benefits and upsides.

Bridesmaid Hairstyles for Short Hair

Thinking about getting a style with short hair? Not a problem. Your probably thinking that the shorter the hair is, the simpler it is to work with it. That is definitely true. if you are wanting something that has little for you to worry about then you can go this route. Remember that just because you have short hair, it doesn’t mean you can’t do things like parts and even certain style of updos.

Bridesmaid Hairstyles for Medium Length Hair

Medium hair is usually the choice for many because you can do just about anything including large curls or small curls. If you plan on doing a hair style for a medium cut then you might ask what the other bridesmaids are doing so you can choose whether you want to do a similar style, or go completely different.

Bridesmaid Hairstyles for Long Hair

Yes, you can do just about anything with this style whether you have straight or curly hair. For those with straight hair you might think about going with a chignon or French knot which both look elegant. Remember also that the more hair you have, the more hairspray might be needed to hold things in place. You definitely don’t want to go overboard though because this can lead to tacky looking hair.

Whatever style you end up going with, just remember that looking your best isn’t just for you, its for the bride too.

For your most important day, you need an equally important location. Many are the places and many are the varied reasons why someone would chose a particular place. One in particular, the Gazebo, is a picture perfect spot used especially for a small, outdoor wedding, although is is not unheard of to use a smaller version of a gazebo inside a larger building. And when it comes to decorating said Gazebo, the possibilities are endless!

First, and this is more than likely something that you are already ruminating, think of what the wedding theme with be. Are you going with contemporary and modern, fun and sassy, beach and exotic, Asian-inspiration, or with classic and vintage? What types of wedding favors will match up with the style? There is so much to choose from that it may become difficult, but the best idea is certainly to be true to yourself and your unique style. Maybe that even means going with a goth wedding at a renaissance festival or with a whole Disney theme complete with your favorite characters. Whatever your decision, you’ve got one of the hardest parts down. Everything else will come when you focus on what would be appropriate for your theme, including the type of decorations that will adorn your Gazebo.

Another important must is to visit the site and take a lot of photographs of the locale so that you have many points of reference, whether your wedding is a D.I.Y. or a planner or florist needs to look at it.  It is also not unheard of for your florist to want to come see the site in person before talking over your wedding plans so that she or he has a good grasp of what they are going to be working with. You will probably need the dimensions of said Gazebo so it is a good idea to take along a tape measure and paper and pencil just to be on the safe side.  Make sure you get an idea also of any restrictions the property manager has, because it might be horrible having to sort out any problems on the actual day of the wedding.

Of course for any important occasion such as a wedding, it is very important to have a working budget already drawn up so you and your florist have an idea of what is available. You need to figure out not only how much it cost to rent your Gazebo, in case the location features it but there may be an extra fee for using it. Don’t be shy of double and triple checking that a certain Gazebo is available for you and only you on the day of your wedding, especially if it is at a community setting such as a park.

If there is an issue about not using nails and screws and there are none from a previous event, it may be helpful to review what other options you have. A decorative device you could of course use is ribbon to tie garlands and cloth like tulle and hold it in place or have it bunch in a certain way. Also there are hooks that can hang from the top or anywhere there is a place to hold them. You could get some that have a adhesive backing that is easy to remove. Another florist favorite is to use chenilles, or pipe cleaners, like a twist tie that you can curl at the ends and add flowers or beads. A good florist will usually have an idea about getting things to hang correctly.

If you decide to use flower garlands or swags, there are different holders that florist use, with new ones being invented all the time. The ever popular oasis in a cage that can be hooked to others or stand alone is very common. Or she/he might use a oasis strung in a net that is a recent addition to the available tools.  If the Gazebo is made out of metal or a flat smooth surface like glass, there are cages that hold oasis that have a suction cup that can attach powerfully to the Gazebo with a good amount of weight. For a smaller and more delicate arrangement you can attach button oasis that come with their own adhesive backing.

There are so many options; it’s just a matter of being informed and having a little creativity to make your wedding day the most memorable for you and your guests under your beautifully decorated Gazebo.

What better way to celebrate your nuptials than by sharing your blessings with those who need it? These are the exact sentiments the modern bride who uses her wedding as a way to give to a special charity or organization. It would seem more modern couples opt to contribute, rather than merely consume, when it comes to their wedding.

One of the most common ways to contribute to a charity through your wedding is to make a donation instead of give favors to each guest. This idea is becoming so popular that organizations, such as the American Diabetes Association or the American Cancer Society, will send you cards to set at place settings to explain the wedding donation to your guests. If you love animals, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will also send you place cards explaining your donation. The number of charities that will provide you with tasteful ways to inform your guests of your donation are growing by the day! You should know that it’s not necessary to disclose just how much you’ve donated in each guest’s name- that can be a personal decision between you and the groom. A word of warning when it comes to making donations to charities and organizations that are special to you: out of consideration for your guests, you should avoid making contributions in their names because they may not want their name to be associated with the organization the donation was made to.

American Cancer Society Wedding Scrolls

Many couples own more stemware, glassware and cutlery than they know what to do with, so asking guests to make charitable donations to a specific organization in lieu of favors is an option some couples find very appealing. For that reason, couples may decide to register with charity clearinghouse, such as Just Give, instead of with Crate and Barrel or a store of the likes.

There are even more ways to give through your wedding:

• Purchase products tied to charities, like LiveStrong wristbands to give as favors to your guests
• Ask your caterer to donate the leftover food from your reception to a homeless shelter or food bank
• Suggest that your bridesmaids donate their dresses to organizations that give dresses to underprivileged teens for their proms. Send your bridesmaids to Donate my Dress to find out how they can help!
• Send the flowers from your big day to a nursing home or hospital. If you want to go even further in your giving, deliver the flower yourself and visit with the patients. Either way, you’re sure to brighten the day of someone who is sick or elderly.

As long as your donation is given from the heart and thoughtfully, your guests will appreciate and admire your decision!

Once you’ve decided on the shape, number of layers, flavors and colors of your wedding cake, you can’t forget to decide on the finishing touch: a cake topper. With all the different styles of cake toppers available, picking a cake topper can be a fun, rewarding task for every bride!

Traditionally, a wedding cake topper is a small model that sits atop the cake and symbolizes the bride and the groom. Some brides opt for the cake topper used to embellish their parents’ or grandparents’ wedding cakes as their wedding cake topper, which is a great way to incorporate family history and sentimentality into this aspect of your wedding.

Something old & borrowed.

If you’re leaning towards the classic model of the bride and groom as your wedding topper, your decision isn’t made yet. Another option you have is that this style of wedding cake topper can be made of porcelain, like companies such as Lenox and Lladro offer. Or, there are glass figurines available, also.

Lladro

Or your traditional style cake topper can be comical- many brides see their cake topper as a small, but noticeable, way to insert a little comedy into their wedding day festivities. 

Gone Fishin

For all of us Etsy fans, The Small Object sells adorable wedding toppers that can even be customized to the physical appearance of the bride and groom- great idea, huh? We should have thought of that, but since we didn’t, The Small Object has precious handmade wedding toppers.

Precious, we know!

Another option you have is the classic monogram cake topper. Monogram cake toppers come in all sorts of varieties, there’s monogram toppers with crystals, single letter monogram toppers, three letter monogram toppers, modern monogram toppers and the list goes on and on. The biggest perk of a monogram topper is that it’s completely customized to you and your wedding! If you’re thinking about a monogrammed cake topper, Toppers with Glitz has lots of basic information about these cake toppers on their Web site- not to mention, incredible toppers for sale!

As you can tell, there are countless options (even more than we’ve mentioned here) for your wedding cake topper. Whatever style of wedding cake topper you decide on, you can be sure that as long as it’s what you want, it will literally top off your cake perfectly!

What better way to ask your potential wedding guests to save the date and not book another event for your wedding date than to send them something pretty for their refrigerator to remind them of your upcoming nuptial date? That’s what lots of brides are thinking as more and more of us send save-the-date magnets to our potential guests!

If you’re unfamiliar with save the dates (or STDs), here’s the low-down: they’re most important for destination and holiday weddings (when you’re inviting a lot of out-of-towners,) but lots of brides use them just because they like them. Who can blame them? Save the dates (especially magnets) are a darn cute idea! Most save the dates are sent out anytime between six months to a year prior to your wedding and give guests sufficient time to make travel arrangements. You should know that it’s only proper to send everyone who receives a save-the-date a formal invitation when the time comes. That said, you’ll want to be certain you’re sure about your guest list before sending out save-the-dates.

Save the dates are simple enough to do- all that you have to include is the couple’s names, the wedding date and the location. Including additional information, like the out-of-town hotel information or the nearest airports, is completely optional. For the saavy bride, it’s smart to include your wedding Web site on the save-the-date to get the address out there for guests to stay updated with wedding information and travel arrangements. 

So now that you’re sold on the save-the-date idea, here’s the best news. Magnet Street Weddings has a holiday promotion running and everything (yes, everything) on their site is 15% off with this promotional code,  WBCS15. Just enter the code when you check out by January 4, 2009 and be confident that all your guests will be at your wedding because they’ll have saved-the-date! Good looking out, bride-to-be! 

Wedding cakes come in all shapes and sizes- including “cakes” of individual cup cakes.

Many brides are opting for cupcakes, in lieu of the traditional wedding cake, because a cupcake cake is something  strikingly different, they’re generally less expensive and less messy. Not only are cupcake cakes original, they’re also a yummy conversation piece. Cupcake cakes also allow you to avoid the hefty fee some venues charge to cut and serve the wedding cake. How sweet  

Think about using a variety of different flavors of cupcakes. With a wide variety of cupcake flavors in your “cake,” every guest is sure to find a flavor they love!

For the traditional bride who loves the idea of the cupcake cakes, but loves a traditional cake with a topper too, you can buy mini bride and groom toppers for your cupcakes. How’s that for the best of both worlds?

Plum Party Toppers

If you like the idea of a cupcake cake, but want to keep things formal, then fancy liners may be the way to go! You can find them in every design imaginable and they’re relatively inexpensive, too! 

Paper Orchid Liners

You can always dress your cupCAKEs up or down, depending on your wedding style, but there’s undeniably a whimsical punch that cupCAKEs hold over the traditional wedding cake!

On your wedding day, you may want to give your photographer a list of “must have” photographs that are essential “Kodak moments” in your mind. 

By Stephen & Jennifer Bebb

Before you print off an endless list, don’t forget to leave the photographer some room for creative license. You probably hired your photographer for his skill and creativity, so don’t take that away from him/her- you’ll end up with some unexpectedly perfect photos! You may even ask your photographer for his/her shot list, as many professionals build their own through the years.

As a rule of thumb for how many shots to include on your list, you should count on about three to five minutes per picture. Feel free to include both posed shots and candid shots on your list. Shots with friends will be harder to predict, so sit down before hand to select groups you want pictures with to add to the shot list (maybe with the friends who set you up with your FH.) If you want specific children in your shots at the reception, you may note to the photographer to try and get those shots early, as children tend to wilt and need to go home fairly early. 

Alice Garik Weddings

Check with your photographer on a couple things before creating your shot list. Make sure he’ll work off a shot list and ask him what information about the shots he wants from you. That way, you don’t do any extra work and your list is tailored to your own photographer.

Morning weddings can be just as fun as evening weddings- and the food can be just as delicious. 

A crepe bar is a fantastic way to bring the yummy factor to a brunch reception. Or how about a waffle bar? Both sound fabulous!

If you and your honey want stations at your reception, create an omelette station. Or perhaps a french toast station? Guests will love creating their own brunch! If a carving station is more what you had in mind, a spiral sliced honey ham is a perfect fit for a brunch reception.

Even if you’re reception is before noon, you can still serve alcohol- if you wish. One popular, budget-friendly alcoholic drink to serve with brunch is the mimosa (orange juice and champagne.)

Only on your wedding day can you have your cake before lunch time (Exciting, huh?!) Carrot and lemon cake make fabulous morning wedding cakes! If you’re looking for a creative alternative to a wedding cake for your morning reception, have a giant cinnamon roll created that you can cut for pictures and then serve to your guests. 

The bright side of hosting a morning reception is that you have more time to celebrate with your family and friends and you can get an early start on your honeymoon by leaving the same day (oh, also- morning receptions are generally less expensive than receptions at other times of the day.)

Asking your bridesmaids to be in your wedding should be a special moment for both of you, so brides should take care to make sure that moment is unforgettable. While traditional etiquette would require you ask your bridesmaids in person, with friends commonly being separated by thousands of miles today, it’s become more acceptable for brides to ask from a distance. 

Whether you use an idea you find somewhere, or come up with your own, your bridesmaids won’t ever forget the effort and care you took to include them in your wedding. And you won’t regret it!

One creative option is to have small, individual cakes or cookies made specially for each of your bridesmaids. You can even personalize each cake with their initials. While the cake may be too yummy for your bridesmaid to preserve, she won’t forget how special this sweet treat made her feel!

A very personal option (although this one requires a bit of creativity) is to pen a poem about your friendship with the bridesmaid and end it by asking her to be your bridesmaid. If you have a creative streak (or know someone who does) and have a small bridal party, this idea will touch your bridesmaid’s hearts like nothing else could. 

A small photo album (or digital photo frame) with a blank last page/slide with your wedding date is a way to ask your bridesmaids that they can keep on display forever. After the wedding, they can fill in the last page with a picture of themselves with the bride at the wedding.

You can have a mini bouquet, similar to what you’re planning on using at your wedding, delivered to your bridesmaids with a note asking them to carry a similar arrangement as a bridesmaid at your wedding. We all know that flowers (and chocolate, too) are a sure way to a woman’s heart, so you can bet that a mini bouquet will be a hit with all your bridesmaids!

The help of these closest friends you ask to be your bridesmaids will be priceless to you throughout the wedding planning process, so take plenty of care to select the perfect, memorable way to ask these special ladies.

Have you been eyeing the perfect piece of jewelry to complement that gorgeous wedding gown, but can’t find room in the budget to purchase the sparkling piece of jewelry?

At Adorn Brides, you can rent fine wedding/special occasion jewelry for a fraction of the retail price. Not only is all their jewelry stunning, ordering is simple. Whether you envision diamonds, pearls or precious metals as the perfect accessory for your gown, Adorn Brides and other jewelry rental services probably have exactly what you’re looking for. Most jewelry rental services have a wide selection of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and even jewelry sets to choose from.

You can lease jewelry for your wedding with ease and confidence. The jewelry you select is inspected and cleaned prior to shipment and will arrive two days prior to your wedding day.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t afford these dazzling diamonds- rental fees start as low as $200 for a jewelry set at AdornBrides

AdornBrides makes looking picture perfect on your wedding day so very simple (not that you already don’t make looking beautiful seem easy!) The best part is, no one will ever guess your remarkable wedding day jewelry is “something borrowed.”