Congratulations! You're engaged! Now you need Low Budget Fairy Tale Weddings to help you plan your dream come true!

You've dreamed about your fairytale wedding and how to make your special day the biggest and best day of your life. Walking down the aisle in a gorgeous Cinderella wedding dress. All of your friends and family sharing in the excitement. You and your bridesmaids clutching elegant bouquets and your ring bearer with the satiny pillow.

Then you dream about your reception. Elegant wedding favors and place card holders adding to the splendor of the guests’ tables. The band or DJ announcing the wedding party. Your First Dance. Tossing the bouquet. Cutting the cake. All of the festivities of your friends and family gathered around.

But wait...that all costs a fortune, doesn't it?

No! It doesn't have to! If you start to plan early and use our planningsuggestions, you can have your fairytale wedding from start to finish - wedding dress and ceremony through reception - for a fraction of the cost - and make it your day to remember.

I realized from helping my daughter plan her fairytale wedding that an enchanting wedding can be successfully planned on a very small budget. She wore the gown she dreamed of, had four bridesmaids, a flower girl and ring bearer, live band, caterer, the whole nine yards. And still spent under $3,500 in total, start to finish.

Importantly, your guest list size must be manageable so you can stick to your budget and keep it low. It costs money to mail out hundreds of invitations, find a large enough venue and feed all those people.

But even with larger guest lists, you can still save a lot of money by looking for low budget bargains on table centerpieces, decorations, favors, wedding gowns, bouquets and all of the other things that will make up your perfect day. If you spend less in those other areas, you can put the savings toward a larger guest list and a professional invitation printer if you want.

My daughter's wedding had a guest list of nearly 150 people including the wedding party and band. But by planning early, keeping to her schedule and bargain hunting, her little girl fairytale dream wedding came true! And we didn't break the bank doing it.

Stick to a low budget, start early and use a little creativity and you'll have the money for your dream honeymoon or your first house instead of thousands of bills to start off your new life together.

Discover how our ebook, "15 Steps to Low-Budget Weddings" can help you plan a $20,000 wedding for a fraction of the cost! (Or put these money-saving techniques to use in your own wedding planner business to save your clients a ton of cash & headaches!)

Anniversary Wedding Favor Bookmarks

Anniversary wedding favors can add a personalized touch to your celebration, and adding bookmarks to your favor choices or even as your favors, will create a keepsake for both you and your guests for years to come.



Your wedding anniversary is a day to remember you joined your life together with the one you love. You deserve to celebrate your special day every year, and even more so if you're celebrating a significant landmark anniversary, such as your 10th, 25th or 50th anniversary.

10th Anniversary
Your 10th anniversary may be the first big landmark in your marriage and you may want to celebrate it with a dinner party or even a vow renewal ceremony and customized anniversary favors will really add a special touch to your celebration.

For instance, let your let your anniversary wedding favors reflect either traditional or contemporary 10th anniversary gifts by having graphics or photos on your bookmarks depicting diamonds, which are a contemporary 10th anniversary gift. These special bookmark favors will add a special touch to the decor of your party or celebration while providing a creative and useful keepsake that your guests can take home with them.

25th Anniversary
The Silver Anniversary is landmark event and most families all gather together to help you celebrate the the long and faithful years you have been together in marriage. By this time, most marriages have watched their children grow and grandchildren born, so there are plenty of people to share your big day.

For your favors, choose the easy correlation between silver and your anniversary wedding favors by adding silver to the tables and place settings and accent your table with personalized bookmark favors that can be used as place markers, while also offering a small token of your appreciation to each attending guest.

50th Anniversary
For the few couples fortunate enough to be celebrating their 50th anniversary, the surprise festivities are likely to be planned by your children. Whether they're being planned by the children or the celebrating couple, there are a wide array of 50th anniversary favor ideas to make the day truly special.

To personalize your anniversary wedding favors, you may want to gather some memorable photographs from your many years together and place a different image on each bookmark. Or simply use gold accents on the bookmarks, as gold is the traditional mark of a 50th anniversary celebration.

Whatever year you're celebrating for your anniversary, wedding anniversary favors should add to the décor and theme of the anniversary as well as provide small thank you gifts to each guest, honoring their presence in your lives. The best favors to choose are things that can be easily saved, such as personalized bookmarks, and will bring a smile to them whenever they use them.

And because bookmarks are inexpensive to create, they also make an elegant choice of favors for simple and elaborate celebrations alike.

Goth Wedding Theme Ideas

Planning a Goth wedding on a low budget is just as much fun as planning any other themed wedding. So if you are Goth or simply love the Gothic theme, we have some suggestions and ideas for planning the perfect Goth wedding that will have you feeling like a dark princess on your special day.



The Goth bride wedding dress can be a corset style in black or a richly deep scarlet red. In fact, with the right makeup and accessories, you can even wear a stunning corset white wedding dress with a Goth theme.

Think Renaissance, Medieval or Draconian and you're there. There are all kinds of Gothic clothing designers that would be able to help the bride find a stunning Gothic style wedding dress. And if you have enough money in your wedding budget or you have a friend or family member that is a very good seamstress, you can even have a dress custom made for your Goth wedding.

If you're looking for beautifully handcrafted "Vampire" style dresses, which fit so very well into the dark side of the Goth culture, visit Vampire Empire's Gothic Bridal Gowns site for stunning creations in blacks, rich blood reds, royal purples and a classic black and white design.

Your bridesmaids should be outfitted in a similar style to the bride also and there are a number of creative ways to make sure your attendants look stunning by choosing the right styles and colors that will complement the bride's dress and add rich dark colors that coordinate with the theme.


Your wedding invitations can take on a hauntingly romantic theme with black roses or dark blood red roses with black accents on a white card.

Create ceremony programs along the same theme and design with embellishments and graphics depicting black vines with rich red flowers.


Selecting the flowers for this style of wedding can be one of the most fun parts of the bridal planning. Deep dark colored roses, calla lilies, orchids are all great selections. Choose the darkest red roses and contrast them with white calla lillies and black and red tulle accents.

You can choose dark reds and purples for your flower colors and use beautiful ribbons to tie together the flowers and even find ribbon to compliment the dresses of the bridal party.


Goth wedding cakes are actually very stunning. A white fondant cake will allow for the striking contrast of the black and blood red accents whether you choose flowers or other embellishments for the design of the cake.

To keep the richness of the theme running through the cake, choose a red velvet cake or dark chocolate cake. This will give the cake a luxurious and stunning deep red color to contrast with the white fondant icing.

The location for your Gothic wedding should be very special. Whether or not you choose to get married in a church under some denomination is completely up to you. Beach weddings, heading to Las Vegas or a beautiful Gothic location would all be fabulous choices. It is really all up to you. Use your imagination and you are sure to come up with the perfect destination.

After all the festivities are over for your Goth wedding you will want to be planning your honeymoon. You could tour haunted houses, visit Gothic castles or even visit ancient European cities. The possibilities are really quite endless.



You can choose to plan your wedding yourself or work with a wedding planner. Either way this is just the start to all of the wonderful things that will go into planning your Goth wedding. From the invitations to the dress to the honeymoon you will be able to plan a day that you will remember forever.

For more Goth themed wedding ideas visit Gothik Designs-Celtic, Medieval & Fantasy inspired bridal gowns, corsets, tiaras & more.

Goth wedding favors take on a dark yet richly romantic theme and Goth design bookmarks will seamlessly complement even the darkest or most romantic wedding theme you can imagine.

Dark roses are a favorite and whether you're choosing black roses or deep scarlet or blood red roses, our Gothic design bookmarks will accent your guests tables or your ceremony programs perfectly.

And to top it off, your wedding favor bookmarks can be designed with a background of rose petals or even single stem roses or rosebuds.

If you're having a winter Goth wedding, gray roses or a hauntingly snowy forest will create bookmarks your guests will talk about for years to come.

So whether you simply love the darker side and you're planning a full on Goth wedding or you're just adding a touch of the Medieval to your plans, our Goth design bookmarks will make a romantic addition to any of your other favor choices or even as stand-alone favors in themselves.

Creative Ideas for Bookmarks

Here are some creative ideas for bookmarks and how to easily blend them into any theme for weddings, vow renewals, bridal showers and other wedding-related events. Just by using some photos or special themes and colors, your bookmarks can be transformed into something more than just marking a place in a book or hanging as a refrigerator magnet. Your personalized bookmarks will become keepsake momentos that your friends and loved ones will keep safe for years to come because they'll know you put a little of yourself into each one.


Each of these creative ideas for bookmarks will give you some ways to think about how you can use your bookmarks or how to design them to fit whatever event you want to use them for, whether from the beginning announcing your engagement through to celebrating a renewed vows event after a few years of marriage.

Whether you choose to use them as stand-alone favors or complementing another type of favor like mints or candies, these ideas for bookmarks as favors or announcements are sure to help you decide how and where you want your bookmark favors to blend into your theme.

Ideas for using personalized laminated bookmarks for weddings & vow renewals...
We know that personalized bookmarks can be a unique easy way to say thank you to your guests for sharing your special day with you. Some of the ways that you can use your bookmarks as wedding favors are:

• Insert them into your ceremony programs. Your guests can admire them while following the program along with your ceremony
• Use them as reception table accents. You can set one at each table place setting for your guests so they have them as they arrive at the reception.
• Attach the bookmark to another favor such as an organza bag with a candle inside or a small token box of mints to dress up the mints.
• For a vow renewal, add a photo of your wedding portrait to the bookmark to celebrate the years you've been together.

Ideas for using personalized bookmarks for bridal showers...
Show your shower guests how much you appreciate their gifts and sharing in the fun party that your bridesmaids have given you by including a personalized laminated bookmark in with any other favors or even as a stand-alone favor:

• Choose a custom bookmark design with a photo of a wedding dress or veil
• Design the bookmark with an engagement photo
• Clip a bookmark to the favor bag that you give to your guests.
• Attach a bookmark to custom wrapped candy bar

Ideas for using personalized bookmarks as wedding announcements...
Every couple has friends or relatives that due to distance or illness were not able to be present at the wedding ceremony and reception. Let them know they were missed and thought of by sending them a special personalized bookmark announcing your wedding day.

You can include it in with an announcement card or send them a ceremony program with the bookmark favor inside. Your absent friends and relatives will feel honored that although they were not able to be present in person, you still care enough to send them special favors anyway.

Ideas for using personalized bookmarks as wedding announcements...
Wedding annoucements are perfect for couples who have chosen to elope or simply choose to have a romantic destination ceremony without any guests. In this setting, personalized bookmarks are a lovely way to let your friends and loved ones learn of the happy news that you've married.

You can include a custom laminated bookmark with an announcement card or simply send them the bookmark as a stand-alone announcement. Either way, your friends will appreciate that you thought to include them as recipients of a thoughtful little gift.

Ideas for using personalized bookmarks as engagement announcements...
Engagments are where it all starts, well after the proposal anyway, and people love announcing their intent to marry at some date in the future. So here are some ideas for bookmarks to use to announce your engagement.

• As with a wedding announcement, you can add your bookmark to an engagement announcement card or hand out or mail your engagement announcement bookmarks by themselves.
• Put your engagement photo on the bookmarks along with a special saying and your official wedding date
• If you're planning an engagement party so that the respective parents and families of the bride and groom can meet, customized bookmarks are an excellent little favor for each of the guests to take home with them.

These are just some creative ideas for bookmarks that will help start the ball rolling and hopefully spark other ideas along the way into how bookmark favors can be easily mixed with other favors or used alone as favors or even announcements of upcoming events.

Whatever the occasion, your family and friends will love being included in receiving your little gift that says a lot.

A Spin on Traditional Wedding Favors

Chances are, if you've been to any weddings, you've received traditional wedding favors. Some of these favors include shot glasses, chocolates, candles, ornaments, coasters, keychains, picture frames, magnets, etc. These favors are a simple way to thank your guests for sharing your special day with you.

However, after the costs of the wedding, the reception and the honeymoon have been tallied, it can be difficult to find extra funds for traditional wedding favors. Sometimes couples worry that if they don't give expensive wedding favors, their guests will feel cheated; but this simply isn't true. Wedding favors are like the cherry on the top of an ice cream sundae.

If you get one, great, but if not, you still like the sundae. People will still like you and enjoy your wedding even if you don't give them pricey favors at the reception.

Shot glass wedding favors are one of the more popular types of traditional favors. It is common for the happy couple to commemorate the special day with shot glasses that have their name and wedding date etched into the glass.

While shot glass wedding favors are a fun option, they can be rather costly depending on the number of guests. Instead of giving out wedding favor shot glasses, consider giving a bookmark with a photo of a shot glass, the date and the couple's name on the bookmark for more inexpensive wedding favors.

The bookmark wedding favors could also say something like, "Here's to the future". Your guests will love your creativity, and every time they read a book, they will be reminded of how fantastic your wedding was.

If shot glasses aren't your style, the bookmark could have a picture of the newlyweds and the date of the wedding. These inexpensive bookmark wedding favors have endless possibilities, and they can easily be tailored to your individual style and liking.

To make your guests feel really special, consider giving an elegant "favor kit" - a bookmark that corresponds to the season of your wedding with a box that contains one or two chocolates.

Or you could give them personalized fortune cookies that have a special message from the bride and groom, as well as a bookmark.

Instead of more expensive traditional wedding favors, consider asking someone to make homemade cookies, and each guest could receive a cookie and a bookmark that says, "Made with love."

Depending on the overall cost, you could really surprise your guests and give them chocolate, a cookie and a personalized bookmark.




Remember, even though you may not be giving out traditional wedding favors, your guests don't ever have to know that you were trying to save money.

Bookmark wedding favors are a simple way to still be able to give your guests something to commemorate your special day without breaking the bank.

And they are so unique, that no one will realize that you were cutting costs by giving out less expensive wedding favors.

Just remember that whatever you decide, your guests will feel honored that you were thinking of them.

Themed Bookmarks by Season to Coordinate with Your Wedding

We can help you with themed bookmarks to coordindate with your wedding or wedding-themed event no matter what time of year you're planning.

Winter Themed Weddings
Winter wedding themes can be exquisite and magical if you're planning a winter wedding between the months of December and January. You can create a winter wedding wonderland with some imagination and help from Mother Nature herself to make your wedding every bit the fairy tale wedding dream come true.

For this season, choose themed bookmarks with backgrounds of snow and ice covered trees and foliage or decorated chapels. Go for the "ice" effect and design winter themed bookmarks to coordinate with your bridal bouquet. For example, if you're going for a white and silver "ice" theme, you can choose silk white roses or tulips with faux dew drops on them and have some of them painted in silver. You can offset the bouquet with holly and red berries.

And if you're planning your event near the Christmas holiday season with festive Christmas decorations, coordinate your wedding bookmarks to your theme by designing bookmarks with decorative Christmas ornaments.

Spring Themed Weddings
Spring wedding themes are among the most popular for brides since there is something so romantic about the season. For spring themed bookmarks, you can design your bookmarks with beautiful spring flowers such as tulips, lilacs, and orchids, any of which bring with them a simple elegance and beauty that can add to your wedding favor bookmarks.

Summer Themed Weddings
With so many different summer wedding themes to plan around for the season, having their wedding in the summer is something that many brides dream about for years, ergo, the June Bride.

The floral scheme is really one of the biggest parts of your summer wedding decorations. The wonderful thing about summer wedding flowers is that there are many different blooms that are in season. Naturally some of the most common and most popular wedding flowers used in the summertime are roses.

With so many beautiful choices, designing your themed bookmarks based on a summer event gives you a wide range of options in colors and flower selections. Calla lilies are one choice that many brides use in their bridal bouquets, and the flowers can be used to create elegant wedding bookmark favors as well.


Fall Themed Weddings
When brides are planning around fall wedding themes, beginning in September through the end of December, Nature is probably at its best for beautiful colors in golds, greens and shades of bronze for the fall season and winter whites and silvers for the winter season. This is a beautiful time of year to let Nature add her vivid colors to your fall season bookmarks.

If your event is being planned near Halloween and you're incorporating some festive decorations, you can design colorful and fun bookmarks to give your guests with graphics of pumpkins and gourds. Or you can design your bookmark favors with Nature's beautiful fall foliage colors in rich reds, greens and golds.

By using your imagination and a little creativity, personalized themed bookmarks for wedding favors are such an elegant touch to your entire day and your guests will appreciate the thought and care you put into finding the perfectly coordinated favors for your event.

Beach Wedding Theme Favors

Weddings on the beach can be fun to plan and beach wedding theme favors come in a variety of enjoyable selections from starfish shaped place card holders to festive matchbooks with decorative ocean scenes imprinted on them.

Beach themed weddings are the latest in trends toward romantic and fun destination weddings and with thousands of coastal beaches to choose from, anyone who just loves to be near the oceans will have no problem planning an inexpensive get away for an intimate yet entertaining event.

And if you happen to have family close to a shore area, what better way to have a fantastic oceanside ceremony with all of your family and close friends to enjoy in the festivities.

Simple or Elaborate - You Choose Your Style
There are a variety of ways to plan your beach wedding too. You can have a formal wedding theme simply by adding rich colors and elaborate decor to the chairs, tables and tents that will be arranged on the sandy floor. Top that off with everyone in the wedding party in formal wedding tuxes and gowns and you'll have a colorful and expensive looking wedding by the sea.

Or lean toward the informal and go barefoot with a simple sundress-style wedding dress with your attendants also in sundress style attire and your groom and groomsmen in simple suits instead of tuxedos. Dress down the decor a little and you have a festive and fun loving atmosphere at ocean's side.

And your beach wedding theme favors can be elaborate or simple too, and still stay within your budget.

Beach Wedding Theme Favors
The favors you choose for your beach wedding theme are also fun and decorative while at the same time being practical, useful and inexpensive.

For your guests seaside tables, add the ocean's wonder with beautiful starfish and seashell shaped place card holders. Your guests can use these simple little favors long after your ceremony for holding notes on their desk or even recipe cards while cooking, all the time remembering what fun they had at your wedding.

If your event was held close to a lighthouse, add a touch of elegance to your decorations by placing a cute little lighthouse favor at each place setting. Or give each of your guests a seashell bottle opener as a token of your appreciation that they attended your wedding.

Each of these beach wedding theme favors can also be complemented by and elegantly accented by beach themed wedding favor bookmarks. Simple place a bookmark favor next to any one of these simple beach wedding theme favors for an exquisite wedding favor kit that your guests will enjoy for years to come.

How to Assemble Wedding Invitations in Five Easy Steps

Our video below shows you how to assemble wedding invitations in the proper fashion so they present well to your invited guests. Whether you're using more traditional and formal styles of wedding invitations or just a simple flat or folded style with one or two enclosures, there are a couple of things to get together first before we show you how to assemble wedding invitations for mailing:

Watch our video demonstration!

The Inner Envelope
On the inner envelope, write the invited guest's name only and nothing else. The inner envelope is optional; it's just a more formal way to mail out your invitations but it's certainly not necessary.

If you buy a kit to do your invitations yourself, chances are the kit will only come with one envelope to mail the invitations out in, but not a second/inner envelope.

The Response or RSVP Card
These envelopes should be preaddressed and stamped for your guest so all they have to do is mail it back to you without having to pay for postage.

Make sure you have all of the pieces of your invitation ensemble together:

• Outer envelope (if you're using one)
• Inner envelope (this is the envelope that everything else goes into)
• Response Card and matching envelope (Make sure the envelope is preaddressed and stamped)
• Reception Card (if you're using one)
• Tissue paper (if you're adding just a touch of tradition to your ensemble)

How to assemble wedding invitations in proper order:

1. Place the invitation face up with the tissue paper over the printed area
2. Place the Reception card on top with other enclosure cards (Response card, direction card, etc.) on top of the Reception card.
3. Gather the stack together and place all into the inner envelope with the printed sides facing you> and the folded edges of the cards go into the envelope first.
4. If you're only using one envelope, place the above into that envelope in the same order as in steps 2-3.
5. If you're using the outer envelope, the inner envelope is then put into the outer envelope, with the handwritten guest's name facing you so that when they open the outer envelope, this is the first thing they'll see.

Now your wedding invitations are ready to mail!

Follow our Tips for Mailing Wedding Invitations to ensure your guests' invitations look as elegant when they receive them as they did when you left them at the Post Office.

White and Black Theme Wedding Ideas

A white and black theme wedding is such a striking and classy color combination, even if you're not planning the utmost formal of wedding celebrations. There is just something so very elegant in the contrast between the whitest of whites and the blackest of blacks.





The Attire of the Wedding Party
Envision the bride in her beautiful white dress with the groom in his black tux along side and you've got the timeless traditional wedding scene.

Today however, the bride can actually buy a stunning white wedding dress with just a hint of deep black accents while the groom also wears a sharp white tuxedo.

The attendants can offset this theme by having the bridesmaids in black dresses with white accents and the groomsmen in black tuxedos with white shirts and ties.



White and Black Wedding Invitations & Ceremony Programs



There are a lot of stylish selections for white and black theme wedding invitations, from decorative designs to simple black writing on a white invitation or layer the look for a more striking contrast by having a black background and black writing on a white foreground. Top it off with white and black intertwined ribbons.

Black and white piano keys with some red rose petals are also beautiful styles for wedding invitations that keep to the white and black theme of your wedding.



White and Black Theme Flowers and Decoration Ideas

All white bouquets are a favorite selection with brides and with the contrast of black on white - or white on black, you can have an absolutely stunning bouquet. Simply add one or two black roses to the white flowers then them together with black and white intertwined ribbon.

For table decorations, the creations are only limited by your imagination. You can buy simple white vases with black accents or vice versa. Then wrap white roses with some black tulle before placing them into the vase.

Table linens and utensils can be mixed and matched between white and black also. If you're having white table covers, consider a black place mat and utensils to offset the white on the table.

Add some black and white balloons and streamers around the reception venue and you'll have created a timeless classic of simple yet rich ambiance for your dream come true wedding.




White and Black Theme Wedding Favors
Express your love and devotion to each other and to your guests with a keepsake that will forever remind them of the special day they shared with you, and how clever and striking the entire black and white theme of your wedding was.

OUr selections of wedding bookmark favor designs are able to be customized with your verse and names or you can send us a picture or background to use instead.

However you choose to personalize your own favors, our white and black theme designs will be an elegant yet inexpensive addition to your guests' favors, table settings or even added to your ceremony programs as your guests arrive for your ceremony.

Our bookmarks are also an excellent choice for engagement parties, bridal showers and couples who are renewing their vows.

Ideas for a Tasteful Coffee Tea Wedding Theme

Coffee wedding themes or coffee tea wedding themes are an ideal concept if you and your spouse are especially avid coffee and tea drinkers and love tasting new and different flavors, whether they're flavored coffees or teas, or flavored additives like syrups, sweeteners or creamers.

You may incorporate a little of both into a wedding theme that is as tasteful and luxurious as the drinks themselves.



To do this, you may want to look at particular locations, color schemes, floral arrangements, attire for your attendants, a selection of themed favors and even the menu and your wedding cake for the reception.

Ideal Locations for a Coffee Tea Wedding Theme
Look for quaint manors, villas or tea rooms that are reminiscent of Victorian England or depending on the size of your guest list, time of year or geographic location, you might consider an outdoor reception at a local park where you can decorate pavilions or tents to create your theme.

Coffee and Tea Color Schemes
While there may be a variety of color schemes to work with, limited only by your imagination, shades of browns and greens will make beautiful wedding colors that compliment each other, and you can softly contrast those colors with a luxurious cream tone. And dusty rose and honey colors bring to mind the shades of a jasmine and Earl Grey teas.

Using Coffee and Tea Colors for the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen
Today not all of your bridesmaids need to wear the same color and with the wide variety of green, brown, honey and orange hues, the possibilities are endless as to how to work your colors.

In fact, even the bride's wedding dress can have an accent color to the white or ivory, which works beautifully with the colors of a coffee tea wedding theme.

For example, dress the bridesmaids in soft shades of green or honey while the groomsmen wear tuxedos or suits in a coffee brown shade.


Add a little "cream" to the coffee and tea colors by accenting the bridesmaids dresses with sashes in a cream, ivory or antique white color. The groomsmen can contrast their brown attire with vests and ties in colors matching the bridesmaids dresses.

You've now created a colorful wedding party with softly contrasted shades of greens, browns and creams.

Coffee Tea Wedding Themed Flowers
Use the same colors throughout your bouquets, centerpieces, pew bows and any other floral arrangements you'll have for your ceremony and reception.

Some suggestions are white calla lilies with the green stem and creamy white flowers. Simply tie the together with satin brown ribbon or tulle, and you have an elegant themed bridal bouquet.

The bridesmaids' bouquets and the floral pieces throughout the rest of ceremony and reception locations can be a blend of colors to contrast the bride. Think of autumn flowers with rich golden, brown and deeper green shades offset with a compliment of babies breath or creamy colored ribbons and your tables will be elegantly decorated.

Coffee and Tea Themed Favors
As you know, the reception is where most of the cost comes into play with a wedding budget, so keeping your expenses low with tea and coffee wedding favors can be tricky, depending on the size of your guest list.

One affordable option would be to have coffee and tea scented candles wrapped in tulle with a Thank You tag attached. You could buy coffee singles in bags just like tea bags, then put a mixture of each into an organza bag.

Other suggestions are small bags of coffee beans and assorted tea bags wrapped in a bag or tied together with colorful ribbons.

And finally, whether you decide on candles or coffee and tea bags, you can add a beautiful tea or coffee wedding favor bookmark to each guest's favor selection which will also add a little bit of extra color to each table setting.

Decorating for a Coffee Tea Wedding
Keeping with the green and brown shades, you can use similar floral arrangements for chair bows and use contrasting colors for the tablecloths and placemats. For instance, if you use light green or honey colored table coverings, contrast them with brown placemats.

Use colorful place cards in alternating shapes of tea cups and coffee mugs to add more accents to the table settings as well.

If you're having your ceremony and reception in the same location, and you're permitted to decorate the interior of the venue, you can use ribbon streamers in honey and dusty rose shades, and have jasmine flower floral arrangements in the ceremony space.

For an evening event, use coffee and tea scented votive candles that will provide a soft creamy glow and add to the essence of the coffee tea theme of your wedding.

Accenting the Coffee Tea Wedding Menu with Luscious Coffee and Tea Flavors
If most of your guests are non-drinkers, you could have a coffee and tea bar instead of an alcoholic bar. Add a variety of tea and coffee flavors or flavoring syrups with some Kahlúa and Irish Crème to add to your selections and you're providing a unique feature to your reception that should certainly be less expensive than serving everyone beer and mixed drinks.

Be sure to stock the bar with sodas and water too for those guests who do not drink coffee or tea, especially for your younger guests if you're allowing children.

To keep your budget even lower yet still provide an elegant and tasty menu, consider having an early afternoon reception and serve snacks that go well with coffees and teas - biscotti, biscuits and small sandwiches.

For your wedding cake, you can have a marble flavored cake topped with soft browns and greens with deep chocolate brown accents or a buttercream frosted cake, which is a soft cream color, accented with some of the darker colors for a themed contrast.

Look around and use your creativity and you'll come up with excellent ways to express yourself and your love of coffee and teas in a luxurious and tasteful coffee tea wedding that your guests will always remember.

Wedding Theme Ideas

From wedding invitations to wedding favors, use our wedding theme ideas to make your fairtytale wedding dream come alive!

Your wedding theme can be centered around favorite colors or flowers or favorite places or even historical eras that you want to re-enact. Or maybe you're a part of an particularly creative subculture like punk or Goth. Your wedding theme is a part of you and how you convey yourself or what you've always dreamt your wedding day to be.

Any of the wedding theme ideas you're considering will include every element of your wedding for example your settings, your invitations, the decorations, ceremony programs, and your wedding favors. So regardless of where you choose to have your ceremony and reception, all other aspects of your wedding should blend effortlessly and flawlessly to create the of your dream come true.

Ideas for Themed Wedding Invitations
Your theme could be a particular color of paper or even the kind of paper the invitation is printed on. The wording and even the font selection will be particular to the wedding theme as well.

Ideas for Table Decorations
If you're having table place cards or table numbers, the place cards can clearly be a part of the wedding favors and the table numbers can be the special table centerpiece that some lucky guests will win during the reception and take home. There are hundreds of ideas on what place cards and table numbers can be, whether fashioned in a unique pattern or created in your color scheme.

Ideas for Ceremony and Reception Décor
Whether your ceremony is being held in a church or chapel, outdoors or on a beach, your pews or seats may have pew ribbons or bows, or any number of special decorations fastened to the seating to line the aisle that you'll be walking down.

For an outdoor or beach ceremony, a decorated wedding arbor or arch or a gazebo is a charming accent; imagine repeating your vows under an arbor or in a gazebo that's been elegantly embellished with flowers, greeneries and tulle in your wedding theme colors.

Ideas for Your Food Menu
Your selections of foods should reflect your theme as well. For example, if you're planning a beach or Hawaiian theme, you may want to go casual and have a pig roast or barbecue. An afternoon garden wedding may include small sandwiches and pastries. An early evening event may include hors d'oeuvres and wine.

Ideas for Wedding Favors
Your choice of wedding favors will be among the things that will certainly be an expression of your wedding theme. Favors can be easy and low priced and you can personalize them with your names and wedding date. Whatever choices you make, be sure you're selecting favors your guests will want to take home and keep, not something that will get thrown away at the end of the night.

Here are some unique wedding theme ideas to consider planning your day around:

• White & Black Theme Wedding


• Seasonal Wedding Theme Ideas
  Winter
  Spring
  Summer
  Fall


• Coffee and Tea Weddings


• Renaissance, Medieval and Gothic Weddings


• Fairy Tale Castle Wedding
  Plan your Dream Wedding at the most romantic site in the Thousand Islands...Boldt Castle


• Beach Theme Weddings

Outdoor Locations for Weddings

When you think about outdoor locations for weddings, there are a couple of added details that you need to keep in mind simply because of unpredictability of Mother Nature. Your affair can either be the fairytale story of your life or it can transform into a total disaster depending on how well you've prepared. The following tips can be useful when it comes to outdoor locations for weddings and how to plan them.



The Location of the Wedding
Unless you're looking into outdoor areas where there is nearly a 100% guarantee that you are going to have magnificent, sunny and dry weather conditions on the day of your wedding, outdoor locations for weddings should try to have an alternate site nearby where you can effortlessly transfer the ceremony and festivities inside. It would be extremely disheartening to make extensive plans for a luxurious wedding and have it destroyed by rain or even hail.

To allow for the unpredictable, outdoor wedding venue choices should probably include protected eating areas for keeping even the lightest spray from damaging the buffet or cake tables. Secured areas for the DJ and dance floor are also suitable ideas so your DJ keeps the party going even in a downpour.

You also may want to try and set the wedding date for a time that's not bug-friendly, otherwise you, your wedding party and all your guests may get a little bit up later in the evening. You could also use Tiki torches or table lamps with citronella candles and have them lit after the sun goes down. This will add a romantic touch while at the same time keeping the little flying pests at bay.

Notifying Guests of the Outdoor Locations for Weddings


You want to make clear either on the invitation or the RSVP that you are planning your wedding and reception to be outdoors and what the proper attire of the event needs to be.

If you're planning your celebration for a hot summer day, you don't want your guests being uncomfortable because they wore clothing more suitable for sitting inside an air-conditioned building.

This is especially most important for guests coming in from out of town who may not be that familiar with the weather in your area.

The Wedding Party
Bridesmaids' dresses and men's tuxes or suits need to be suitable for the season and temperature as well since you want them to be as comfortable as possible also. For instance, don't select bridal gowns with longer sleeves if it's going to be hot and humid. You may want to keep the bridesmaids in shorter length dresses or dresses that don't necessitate they wear pantyhose if they're not going to be comfortable.

For the groomsmen and ushers, you may allow the suit jackets to be optional, suggesting they only wear the vests. They'll appear just as classy and elegant yet without that hot and suffocating feeling of being stuck in a long-sleeved suit jacket for what could be hours.

The Caterer or Menu
If you're going to contract the services of a caterer, make sure you inform them you're looking into outdoor locations for weddings. They could give you guidance for the suitable menu options for an outdoor function. Also, ask for their views on menus and locations as they may be able to give you suggestions of other outdoor events they've catered that were successful in spite of the weather.

For the bar, if you're having one, be sure to keep lots of water and other non-alcoholic cold drinks on hand to keep your guests refreshed and hydrated, especially if your wedding is going to be in the summer.