Helpful Tips for Army Brides
Marrying an Army man can be very exciting. For women who were raised in a military family, many of the military wedding customs will be familiar, while for those brides from other backgrounds, the whole thing may feel very new. From timing to formality to customs, these are some helpful tips for Army brides.
Every bride needs to determine what style she would like her wedding to be, but for many army brides, there is one answer: formal. Mess dress uniform is the appropriate attire for a formal or very formal military wedding, and it is so dashing that many brides cannot resist planning a formal wedding so that her groom can wear it. If you prefer a slightly less formal wedding, Class-A or Service uniforms are the equivalent to civilian suit worn for a semi-formal ceremony. Don’t let your groom upstage you! A military bride should wear an elegant gown with special details such as crystal beadwork. A long veil and complementary crystal bridal jewelry will complete the elegant effect. For a semi-formal wedding, a lace gown with pearl and crystal bridal jewelry would be a lovely choice.
There is a tremendous amount of official protocol surrounding military titles. It is important to address wedding invitations correctly, using the exact title of the addressee. When in doubt, check with the base protocol officer on this or any other question of propriety. Never abbreviate titles; Cpt. would not be an acceptable shorthand for Captain, nor would Lt. be a proper alternative for a Lieutenant. The groom will have his military rank in front of his name instead of Mr. on the wedding invitations. Speaking of invitations, it is customary for the groom’s commanding officer and his spouse to be invited to the wedding. Other staff officers and their spouses may also be invited. If your wedding will be formal, include the notation “Mess dress uniform invited” on the invitations, instead of the civilian “Black tie”.
For many, the most iconic part of any Army wedding is the Arch of Sabers. This wonderful custom involves a double row of commissioned officers who form an arch under which the newlyweds walk. This is most often done right outside the church or chapel, as a weapon should never be unsheathed within a house of worship. If your wedding party will not contain a sufficient number of commissioned officers (usually six or eight men) to form the arch, you may invite wedding guests with the appropriate rank to participate or use an honor guard from the base. Be sure to get plenty of photographs of this special moment.
Filed under crystal bridal jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: Army brides, Army weddings, crystal bridal jewelry, military weddings | Comment (0)A Wonderful Wedding Whatever the Weather
Wedding day rain is the most common weather challenge faced by brides. You plan for every tiny detail of your wedding, right down to the custom bridesmaid jewelry for your attendants, but the one variable which is completely out of your control is the weather. Rather than let a rainy day give you the blues, it is important to put your inclement weather plan into effect. You do have a plan for rain on your wedding day, right? If your wedding is scheduled to take place outdoors, a solid “Plan B” is essential.
So what should you do if rain threatens? Step one is to round up an army of golf umbrellas and enlist the ushers to cover guests as they arrive. If your ceremony or reception is to take place outside, you must either have an indoor location as a back up or have a tent erected. When reserving a tent, be sure to also get a floor installed if it has been raining before the tent goes up. Otherwise, your guests will have dry heads, but muddy feet. The last thing you want is to have the bride in all her finery and the bridesmaids looking lovely in their gowns and pretty bridesmaid jewelry dragging their soggy hems through the wet grass.
Rain is the most typical wedding day weather problem, but there are other things to be considered. Winter brides may need to contend with snowstorms or sub-zero temperatures. You might not think that cold weather is a big deal, unless you have ever found your car battery dead on a freezing cold day – what if that was your wedding transportation? For wintery weather, your biggest ally is time. Rather than dressing at home and then heading to the church thirty minutes before the wedding, leave several hours early and dress at the ceremony venue if at all possible. That way you will definitely be there on time. If a snowstorm is in the forecast for your wedding day, make sure to arrange for four wheel drive transportation for all of the wedding party and your immediate families so that no one is left stranded. It would be a nice touch to reward your wedding guests for braving the wintery weather with a hot toddy awaiting them when they arrive at your wedding. It will quickly take the chill off and get everyone in a festive mood for your special day.
For most brides, rain on their wedding day turns out to be little more than a theoretical worry. But a little planning can go a long way towards ensuring that if Mother Nature does unleash her fury, you will be able to go on to have the wedding of your dreams.
Filed under Bridesmaid Jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: Bridesmaid Jewelry, rain on wedding day, wedding day rain, wedding weather | Comment (0)How to Style Neutral Bridesmaid Dresses
Shades of gray have been surprisingly popular for bridesmaids in the last few seasons. While colors like deep charcoal or slate gray do not exactly scream festive, they have become beloved for their sophistication and elegance. Take a charcoal dress from drab to fab by adding intense pops of color in the flowers and accessories. For a summer soiree, bright colors like canary yellow look marvelous as a contrast to a deep gray hue. Pin a yellow organza blossom to the waist of a long charcoal gray gown to give it a quirky style. Yellow blossoms such as orchids, billy balls, or classic roses will stand out beautifully against a neutral dress.
Another excellent neutral color for bridesmaid dresses is navy blue. It is an ideal choice for a wedding with a classic sensibility, and will definitely be easy to wear again down the road. To give this classic color a festive appeal, start with elegant pearl bridesmaid jewelry sets. Then bring in pops of color to liven up the navy dresses. Red, lime green, and pink are the best choices for accent shades. A red belt and red espadrilles would be darling for a nautical wedding. Lime green with navy looks fresh and summery. It could be added in the form of a patterned sash to strapless navy faille dresses, or you could add bold lime green crystal bridesmaid jewelry sets to flowy navy chiffon dresses for a funky summer look.
Champagne is another timeless neutral for bridesmaid dresses. Play up the richness of the color with deep chocolate accents. Start with a simple champagne satin dress with a column silhouette and use it as the base to create something really spectacular. For a winter wedding, how about adding a brown fur stole tied with a wide satin bow to each gown? Layer on custom sets of bridesmaid jewelry in bronze colored crystals, and chocolate velvet evening shoes for a truly spectacular style. If your wedding is in the summer months, use a lighter metallic such as bronze to bring out the rich tones of the champagne dresses. Wrap a wide obi style sash around the waists of the dresses and pin gorgeous vintage brooches to them. Your bridesmaids will feel like movie stars instead of mere wedding attendants!
A final neutral shade to think about is ivory. In the wake of the Pippa Middleton’s bridesmaid dress at the royal wedding, we are sure to see more brides going with ivory dresses for their attendants. Keep the look very light and ethereal by styling ivory gowns with bouquets in the palest shades of pink and peach. Champagne colored silk sandals will look less bridal than matching ivory shoes. Simple pearl and crystal bridesmaid jewelry will be the perfect understated finishing touch. Now you know – a neutral color can make a very grand statement.
Filed under Bridesmaid Jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: bridesmaid jewelry sets, neutral bridesmaid dress | Comment (0)Fun Summer Wedding Idea: Ice Cream Sundae Bar
Summer weddings are always a great time. People are in the mood to relax and enjoy a great party, and seeing a beautiful wedding just adds to the enjoyment. Make your party even more delightful for your guests by including a special surprise treat at the reception. A very fun summer wedding idea is to have an ice cream sundae bar.
An ice cream sundae bar is easy to set up, and such a great idea that you will wonder why more couples don’t do it. It can be a fairly simple DIY affair, or you can hire someone to staff the bar. If you really want to get fancy, bring in specialty gelato flavors as a wonderful treat. Trust me, it won’t just be your flower girls in their cute dresses and girls jewelry who swarm the ice cream sundae station; you will find plenty of adults going back for seconds!
Most ice cream sundaes are really about the toppings, so you don’t necessarily need to have a huge variety of ice cream flavors on hand. You would do just fine to have only chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and coffee ice cream at the station. The flavors could either be presented in large bowls with scoops, or you might find it neater to have pre-scooped dishes set out from which guests can choose. Just be sure that you keep the ice cream nice and cold so that it does not get soupy before everyone gets a chance to get their dessert.
The toppings are where you should really go overboard and wow your guests. Certainly you will need the basics like hot fudge, whipped cream, and cherries. From there, indulge your own sweet tooth fantasies! Chunks of Oreos and chocolate chip cookies make tasty toppings, as do chunks of brownies. There are many delicious candies which are just perfect for including in your sundae bar, such as M&Ms (maybe in your wedding colors), sprinkles (or “jimmies”, depending on where you live), Reeses Pieces, Heath bar crumbles, and peanut butter cup pieces. Your ice cream sundae bar will be a feast for the eyes as well as the palette – your guests will be sure to love it!
Filed under Wedding Jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: girls jewelry, ice cream sundae bar, wedding dessert, wedding reception ideas | Comment (0)Bi-Lingual Marriage Ceremonies
Cross-cultural weddings have become increasingly common in our interconnected world. They can be a marvelous way to introduce the customs and culture of your partner’s heritage to your family, and vice versa. At the same time, it can be confusing to plan a service in two languages, especially when it comes to ensuring that all of your wedding guests can follow along. These are some tips on how to plan a beautiful bi-lingual marriage ceremony.
The first decision to make is in which language the marriage ceremony will be primarily conducted. A practical way to make the choice is based on what language the majority of the guests will understand. So if the bride speaks French, and the groom comes from a Spanish speaking family, think about which family will have more people attending the wedding. If it is pretty equal, opt for either the language that the bride and groom mostly use for conversation.
Wedding programs are a necessity for a bi-lingual ceremony. They should contain the order of the service in both languages to help guests follow along with what is happening. This will be especially useful for those guests who will not understand much of what is being said, as it will prevent them from getting bored or feeling excluded. Another option is to project a written translation onto the wall behind the altar for key parts of the service like the readings and vows.
One part of a wedding ceremony that everyone really wants to hear is when the bride and groom exchange their vows. The best solution may be to have the bride and groom recite their vows in both languages. The bi-lingual vows could be repeated in their entirety first in one language, and then in the other. If the vows are short and standard, it might work just as well to have each line repeated after the officiant in both languages. When done well, a bi-lingual marriage ceremony will be a very memorable experience that all of your guests will enjoy tremendously.
Filed under Wedding Jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: bilingual wedding, multi-cultural wedding, wedding ceremony, Wedding Jewelry, Wedding Planning | Comment (0)Tips on Wedding Color Selection
These tips on wedding color selection will get you off to a great start…
The first thing to keep in mind is that people get tired of seeing the same old, same old. A great way to avoid this potential pitfall is to choose wedding colors which are unexpected. So perhaps instead of decorating a fall wedding entirely in the standard autumn leaf colors like orange, yellow, and red, you could decide to have an aubergine and sage green color palette. It would be just as appropriate for the season, but your wedding won’t look like every other fall wedding. The same idea can be used as a springboard to break away from the most predictable wedding color schemes.
Another excellent tip when selecting your wedding colors is to avoid palettes which are visually jarring. Very high contrast combinations like black and white can be hard to live with, and may not look the best in the wedding pictures. It is perfectly fine to choose a high contrast duo as your main design focus, just add in a third accent shade which falls somewhere in the middle. For instance, a black and white palette could be softened with the occasional hint of blush pink for a vintage romantic feeling, or accents in apple green for a fresh modern style.
Overly vibrant color palettes should also be approached with caution. While it is great to have festive and upbeat hues for the wedding flowers and decorations, too much of a good thing can be overwhelming. Always build in some visual places for the eye to rest. If your color scheme is hot pink, mango, and lime, temper it with plenty of crisp white. A yellow color scheme can be toned down with touches of gray or soft creamy shades.
Something else to keep in mind when choosing the colors for your wedding is that they should reflect who you are more than what the latest trends happen to be. Every couple of years, a color becomes so popular for weddings that it gets done to death, and it ends up feeling very unoriginal. The Tiffany blue wedding trend is a case in point. You are far better off designing a wedding color palette which is meaningful to you personally than slavishly following what you see in the bridal magazines. If you love the romantic vintage look of lace and pretty pearl bridal jewelry, choose a soft combination of apricot, cream, and dove gray.
Filed under pearl bridal jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: pearl bridal jewelry, wedding color palette, wedding colors | Comment (0)Holding the Wedding Ceremony and Reception In One Venue
When you are deciding where to host your wedding, you may find that it is most convenient to have the entire event take place in one location. For some couples, having the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception all in one spot is the simplest and easiest option. This is a look at how you can combine the three distinct phases of a wedding in one venue, while ensuring that each part feels distinct and special.
A lot depends on the layout of your venue. The most challenging situation to sort out is when you have one big room to use for the ceremony, cocktails, and reception. The one thing you should try to avoid is having guests see the reception space before the ceremony. It will definitely take away from the big reveal of your gorgeous centerpieces and other reception decorations. The best scenario is one where the space is divided up so that the ceremony area is closest to the door through which guests will enter. From there, they should move to the cocktail hour area, with the reception section being the furthest back.
If the lay out of your wedding site will require guests to pass the reception area on the way to the ceremony, create a hallway out of draperies to hide the dinner area from view. It is also a nice way to delineate the spaces for the three phases of your wedding. Be sure to think about how you can preserve an entranceway so that the newlyweds will have their grand entrance to the reception. It is a special moment when the bride and groom march into the wedding dinner together, especially if she has changed into a party dress with fabulous crystal chandelier earrings.
Perhaps the most ideal set up is one where an outdoor space will be available. It can work to have the ceremony in one room, then invite the guests out to a beautiful veranda for cocktails. While they are on the veranda, the ceremony room can then be turned over for the dinner. Last but not least, consider a wedding location that has enough outdoor space to host all three parts of the event outside. You could say your vows in an area with a beautiful view, move to a patio for cocktails, and then into a tent for the dinner part of the wedding. While having your entire wedding in one venue can take a bit of creative planning, it can also be a very convenient way to keep the fun of the day going without interruption.
Filed under crystal bridal jewelry, Wedding Planning | Tags: crystal earrings, Wedding Planning, wedding venue | Comment (0)