When it comes to weddings, it is the always the women’s point of view that is scored and quartered. Haven’t anybody thought about asking men what they would like their brides to wear when it comes to wedding dresses?

What Men Would Like If They Had the Chance

When women shop for their wedding dresses, do they ask the opinion of their grooms? Most would rather surprise their men and anyway choosing the wedding gown is their right. Ask any woman if she would let her man decide what she should wear for the wedding rites and get a baleful glare in return. The wedding dress is the be all and end all and it should be as perfect as the stunning gown in their minds. Why let men ruin their fairytale?

But hear it from men. They love to ogle women in tight fitting pants and micro mini-skirts but when it comes to their women, they are stricter than the Benedictine monks are. So it’s not unusual if men would love to have their brides wear wedding dresses that:

* show curves but not much skin
* have moderately low necklines
* have no thigh high slits to distract other men
* are simple with less frills
* traditional in cut and design

But not all men have the same tastes and some men do have some weird ideas of women’s fashion especially wedding dresses. The avant-garde will approve a racy wedding gown or something out of the traditional culture.

Men’s Point of View

When it comes to women’s wardrobes men have a lot to say about the following:

* spandex under dresses
* pointy toed shoes
* leggings worn under dresses
* Uggs
* huge drugstore sunglasses
* short shirts worn over tight pants

What does your man hate about your style? You know by his pleadings not to wear those crazy fashions he cannot understand and those volcanic red lipsticks, Fidel Castro hats, pregnant look, crocs, and hottie shirts that drive him batty. As a compromise, hear what he has to say about your wedding dress but be prepared to argue.

Perhaps your man wants you all covered with a high necked gown and your slender arms sheathed in long white gloves when you want an off-the-shoulder creation. It would excite him to watch you do a special striptease for him during the first night you share as husband and wife – that is if you still have the energy for some blood racing and adrenalin pumping private show.

Maybe he loves your legs and would want the world to know what you got so he will ask you to wear a mini wedding dress even when you want a princess gown. Well, this will have you mourning over the fairy tale wedding dresses you have designed since you were a little girl, but your man has a point here, right?

Would You Agree to His Fantasies?

Crazy as it may seem, women do forego their dream wedding dresses when they like the idea of wearing something out of the ordinary that goes with the wedding theme. If you love him too much, then say goodbye to fairytale wedding dresses if he wants a beach party themed wedding.

When to Shop for a Wedding Dress

After your man pops the question, the first lap for your wedding preparation begins – budgeting. Everybody contributing to the wedding kitty should sit down work on the budget to prevent nasty surprises later on. At this point choosing a bridal boutique is not yet a priority; first, agree on the budget, and wedding date. The rest can be sorted out later, following a system to keep sane all throughout the wedding preparations.

When the budget is all laid out, start looking for a bridal dress. This is the second lap of your preparations and the first item to look for because a wedding dress has to be ordered six months before the wedding. Most brides choose a small bridal boutique because of the personalized service. This is understandable because during the preparations, brides are highly strung what with the whirl of activities and things to do to stage a perfect wedding.

A bridal boutique should have everything you might need – wedding invitations, crinolines, tiaras, jewelry, shoes, and the shop should offer alterations and gown cleaning if you have decided to rent a gown for yourself and your bridesmaids. The shop attendant in a small boutique also understands you don’t want to be a cookie cutter bride, so you should be in good hands.

Where to Shop

There are a number of shops catering to wedding gowns. They offer hundreds of designs from traditional to the unusual and top designer labels. There are big shops, small shops, online shops, and basement shops. You can even find some thrift shops that have wedding dresses in mint condition, which you can alter to make it truly yours.

If you have a bridal boutique in mind, check out if it has an online shop so you can leisurely view what they have for sale. Perhaps you can also catch discount offers and extra service without exorbitant fees. Check out other online bridal shops so you can compare products and rates for custom-made or rental gowns.

Whether you are shopping in a big store or a small bridal boutique, you have to make an appointment. This prepares the sales staff for your request to look at dresses within a price range; this also eliminates wasted hours in showing you dresses you are not going to get anyway.

Make Your Shopping Fast and Fun

If there are something nice you like in an online bridal boutique, visit the shop to see more of their wedding dresses. Bring a bridal magazine and the shoes with the heel height you are going to wear with the bridal dress.

Don’t be surprised that if you are a size 10 the clerk will give you a size 12 gown. This is the usual route because the wedding is 6 months away. There will be numerous fittings and alterations during the period until you get the exact fit before your wedding day.

Now you know why a bridal boutique should be your first stop for your wedding shopping.

A bridal boutique should be your one-stop shop for your wedding gown, wedding favours, wedding invitations and other essentials for you wedding. At BestForBrides.com, you’ll find everything you need, including wedding cakes.

 

You’ve heard of predator lenders, how about a little shop of horrors of a bridal boutique? Not that it has vampires for sales clerks and black capes and sinister gowns, but it has caused unfortunate brides headaches and regrets, not to mention the money they plunked on lousy bridal gowns. Here’s how to avoid this shop of horrors.

Don’t Rush When You Shop

Excited brides fall into the trap of going to a bridal boutique because they have not done their homework. They also fail to scour the area for more choices or compare prices and bam! They get the dirty end of the stick. Once stuck, there is no way out because they fear the terrible repercussions this may have on the wedding schedule.

The common cause for the error is their blind focus on the budget, not knowing that there are choices out there and they forget that not all bridal shops are equal. So they are stuck with a bridal boutique peopled with snooty or clueless sales clerks.

The ideal bridal boutique would be one that cares about how you want to look on your wedding day and gives personalized and friendly service all the time and a wedding dress specialist will guide you through the process to help you avoid costly mistakes.

How to Choose Your Bridal Shop

A wedding dress has to be bought six months before the wedding. This is to give time for time for fittings and alterations. Six months before your wedding, you never know how much weight you can gain or lose. During this time, you have to keep in touch with the bridal boutique so go for one that gives personalized service and one that is within the locality.

What to watch out for:

* Salesclerks who hurry you to make a choice
* Limited samples
* No discounts for a number of purchases
* Outdated styles

If you are shopping online, do not trust what you see on the website. Visit the store. Some bridal shops are not so honest about their merchandise so you have to see the dress to believe it is for real and available or you’re prime target for rip-off.

Hey, it’s your money so you have all the right to go to another shop. You have to deposit 50% of the total cost of the bridal dress before you can get a hold of the real thing. So do your bridal boutique hunting on weekends to avoid crowds and to have more time to do the rounds.

Shop Smart

Brides have choices of shops where to get their wedding gowns. If they have the money for a high-end designer wedding dress or one within a budget, there are appropriate shops uptown in malls, bridal boutiques, department stores, and charity shops.

It is recommended to visit the familiar or big shops as these have been in the business for years; narrow down the field until you find one that carries all brands of designer dresses and accessories and other wedding needs for convenient wedding shopping.

A one-stop shop bridal boutique saves you the trouble of dealing with numerous merchants for your bridesmaid dresses, wedding cake and invitations, and honeymoon arrangements. When everything goes smoothly, you won’t have a bag of horror stories to tell about your wedding dress to your family and friends.

A bridal boutique should also have wedding invitations and wedding favours to make your wedding shopping convenient. At BestForBrides.com you can have wonderful choices anytime.

 

If you think that wedding dresses have always been unfailingly in the white color range and untouchable by anyone else except the groom, you have another think coming. In the olden days, the wedding dress was anything but these things! Read on and find out how lucky you are as a modern bride of the 21st century.

The Color

In the olden days, bridal gowns were not the customary white of today. In fact, had you lived in medieval times, you could wear any color you fancy. You can wear funereal black, chirpy yellow, girlish pink, garish purple, and all the colors of the rainbow splashed on your wedding dress for all anybody cared! In other words, you can have fun and fantasy with your colorful wedding dress.

If you yearn for those olden times, you can blame Queen Victoria for setting the white wedding dress trend. On the 10th day of February 1840 when dear old Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe (an incestuous marriage by our standards since he was her first cousin), she wore a pale white off-shoulder gown with orange blossoms trimmings. And from then on, plebeians and royals alike have fallen all over their feet to copy her! The color of the wedding dresses, not the orange blossoms, of course, unless you want to appear like a wood nymph come down from the forest to marry in the lowlands.

Still, white is not such a bad color considering that in the olden days, grooms expected their brides to pile on the fur, silk velvet and other accoutrements of wealth! You might be allowed to wear any color but along with that privilege was the burden of fabrics and funfare to wedding dresses. Now you know why bridal portraits of old often showed the bride in a less-than-happy facial expression – it must be from her smell under all that weight.

The Horror

You should be thanking your lucky stars you were not a medieval bride. In the olden days, you would be witness to wedding dresses ripped right out of the brides’ bodies for good luck.

After the couple recited their vows, they were to immediately consummate the marriage. They would go into an available room where they can seal the deal on their marriage and open the door on a new chapter of their lives. Unfortunately, guests will grab the bride’s clothes to get pieces of her clothes while she is on her way to conception, er, consummation. Simply put, you will appear bedraggled before the roll and you will lose your modesty before your virginity!

Que horror, right? Fortunately, you can just throw your bouquet and your groom can throw your garter to lucky guests as good luck tokens. Now, you can have your modesty intact. Well, except if you go for one of those bridal dresses with plunging necklines and it decides to do a wardrobe malfunction on you.

Indeed, compared with the color-happy and weight-happy wedding dresses ripped to shreds by guests, you would gladly take bouquet throwing, garter pulling, rice pelting, money pinning, and all the hassles of wedding planning any time of day. Or at least, you would except that those luxurious furs, smooth silks and decadent velvets sure could be your next best friend after the diamond on your engagement ring!

If you are looking for the best bridal boutique in town, look no further than BestForBride.com! There you will find wedding favors and wedding dresses that will suit every modern bride.

 

Wedding favours are those little things that your guests will take home as tokens of your appreciation for their presence during your special day. You can give anything and everything that catches your fancy – ornamental plastic globes with fake snow, whimsical candles, practical wine bottle stoppers, and even cute fridge magnets. Still, the question remains: Do you really have to provide for wedding favors?

Of course, you have to!

If you want a traditional wedding like those of your family and friends, then it follows that you will also provide for the traditional touches of wedding favours. Of course, this is neither a case of the blind following the blind nor of copying everything hook, line and sinker. You have many bridal boutiques to choose from when deciding on your personalized favors, if you must know.

If, however, you are not inclined to traditional weddings, then you can consider the following as valid reasons for giving the go-signal for wedding favours:

- Your guests went to great lengths to attend your wedding ceremony and to participate in your reception festivities. You see them all dressed up in their finery, you knew they traveled from out of state, you received gifts from them and you celebrated the day with them. The least you can do is provide for small tokens of appreciation for all the time and effort they poured into making your wedding meaningful.

- You will be putting a sweet end to your wedding festivities especially when you provide for edible wedding favours like almonds and candies. Your guests will simply love having something to eat while on the way home, kind of like the dessert after the main course.

- You can tie up the theme of the wedding with the appropriate favors. You can look at them as the icing on the cake.

Generally speaking, your favors are your call. Not all of your guests will love your choice of favors but at least, you provided for a good way to say “Thank you for coming to our wedding”. It is a matter of social graces, one that will hold you in good stead with your guests.

No, you don’t have to!

On the other hand, you can also choose not to provide your guests with favors. You might even say that you did your guests the favor when you invited them to your wedding – free food, the chance to party, overflowing drinks, festive ambience and a roomful of single men and women are enough favors.

There is also the matter of wedding favours getting left behind by the guests. You spent a ton on them and a ton is also left over from the wedding reception. In the end, you are left with small things that you just wasted money on because your guests could not have cared less.

Besides, $500 can be spent on other wedding expenses! You can buy fancier gifts for the wedding party; you can have your groom’s tuxedo custom made instead of just rented; you can extend your honeymoon. There are simply plenty of other options to be had from the $500.

With the pros and cons of wedding favours laid out this way, you should be able to make a decision. However, you should keep in mind that while favors are not mandatory, you can generously thank your guests with them. The key is in making them attractive and useful, even edible – chocolates and candies, charitable donations, and mini-wine holders, to name a few. Your guests will recognize just how sweet a couple you are.

BestForBride.com is the best bridal boutique for your wedding invitations and wedding favors, among other wedding needs. Visit them today!

 

 

Wedding invitations are not just pieces of colored and embellished parchment that you send out to inform family and friends you are getting hitched. (Hopefully, for life) These speak of your personality, your preferences, and your position that affects your wedding – casual or formal, outdoors or indoors, child-friendly or adults only, all-out or budget, to name just a few. More importantly, these can result in trouble of all kinds on your wedding day when not done right the first time.

Misspelled Names and Titles

Beyond social embarrassment, you will be offending your invited guests when you misspell their names and titles on their wedding invitations. To put it bluntly, you will be inviting trouble of the social faux pas kind that cannot be easily forgiven and forgotten.

To avoid this mortifying oversight, you can do research on the correct spellings of your guests’ names even if it means actually calling them up to clarify the matter. Your guests will appreciate the time and effort you exerted towards getting their names right. After all, this is not a case of a rose by any other name will smell just as sweet!

Mentioning Desired Wedding Gifts

You will run into trouble with your family and friends on this issue, not to mention running headlong into the tacky circle. Whatever you decide to print on your wedding invitations, never ever mention the desired gifts you wish to have on your wedding day even if it is a worthy donation to the homeless shelter, the cancer institute, the environmental organization and education charities of your choice.

When your wedding invitations explicitly encourage guests to bring your desired gifts, you implicitly imply that you have a “No Gift, No Entry” policy. It kind of smacks of “No ID, NO Entry”, don’t you think?

Just invite your guests to your wedding and let them decide what to bring you. Of course, you can always drop hints with your doting parents!

Map Mistakes

For destination weddings, and even for weddings where family and friends from out of state are invited, your inclusion of the wrong map cards or exclusion of travel directions will cause trouble for you and your guests. Imagine having your guest of honor arrive well after the reception simply because you gave him the wrong directions!

To avoid this oversight, always make sure that

1) you have members of the bridal party whom your invited guests can call in case they get lost;
2) you have actually traveled the suggested route in anticipation of road delays and remedies for when these happens like roadside mechanics; and
3) you have maps inserted inside the wedding invitations showing recognizable landmarks instead of aerial Google maps.

Money Trouble

There are many instances where your invitations will get you into money trouble but these two are the most notable:

1) not mentioning that the wedding reception is an “Adults Only” affair; parents are free to assume that they can bring their children thus driving your catering costs higher, among other things; and
2) not including an RSVP card, which can lead to wedding crashers brought by invited guests. There are presumptuous people in this world, if you need reminding.

In conclusion, wedding invitations are one of the first things you have to consider when planning your wedding. In fact, they are the first things to be planned since you have to send them out at least eight weeks before the wedding!

But before you get carried away with the excitement and anticipation, remember to avoid the abovementioned mistakes. After all, first impressions do last!

At BestForBride.com, you can find the perfect wedding favor of your dreams plus a wide selection of wedding dresses and wedding invitations. Visit them now and start your journey towards the perfect wedding!