If there is one event in your life which deserves some extravaganza, it is your wedding. Every couple considers having a grand wedding with some pomp and show, so that it is special and remembered long after it is over.
Nevertheless, it is time we all thought seriously about the environmental impact that weddings have. After all, weddings are not your average eco-friendly events. Research by the Examiner reveals that the average wedding produces nearly 63 tons of CO2, causing significant environmental damage. Fortunately, there are certain measures that you can employ to have a green wedding, without compromising on having a fantastic day. Here are some suggestions for you to consider.
via Best for Bride
Cut down on paper
Weddings involve lots of paper, from save-the-date cards and Thank you cards to escort cards and programs. An average wedding invitation has anywhere between 3 and 8 pieces of paper. If you are truly concerned about how many trees go into creating this bulk of paper, consider going paperless. But, if you do not want to compromise on tradition by choosing the email route, keep your wedding stationery to a minimum. Or, you could also choose tree-free paper for all your needs and seed paper is one such trend that is growing in popularity.
Go with what is local and seasonal
Cut flowers used in wedding arrangements can have a huge environmental impact, as they are often shipped from far away countries and are grown in greenhouses using pesticides and fertilizers. Add a distinct touch to your floral arrangements by choosing local flower varieties and allow your florist to customize your bouquet with what is in season. This not only allows you to cut down on your wedding expenses, but also helps you score extra green points.
Minimize wastage by choosing reusable centerpieces and decor arrangements
Most of the elements used in wedding decor end up in the trash following the ceremony. Stretch your money further by reusing the decor elements at the ceremony site at the reception too, but only if you have the time to do so. A better idea is to employ reusable decor elements like bamboo, potted plants, fruits and organic elements like seashells in your decor that can be donated or gifted. You could consider small shoots of lucky bamboo as your wedding favors, or give away your centerpieces to your guests as they leave the ceremony to minimize wastage. Also choose containers that you can use in your new home.
Go green with your wedding dress
If you want your own special wedding dress for your big day, so be it. Otherwise, consider renting your wedding dress or restyling your mother’s wedding dress, and giving it a new lease of life. With rental services, like we have at Best for Bride, you can find a fabulous wedding dress for a fraction of the original cost, and not worry about maintaining or preserving it after your big day. Since this will be worn by another bride once again, the dress is put to maximum use—thus becoming a better environmental choice.
Which of these ideas would you like to consider for your wedding day? If you like the idea of renting a wedding dress, visit us at Best for Bride to find a fabulous choice. Visit our online link at Best for Bride for all the details about renting a wedding dress from us.
The wedding dress is usually one of the most important things that reminds a bride of her wedding day. Nonetheless, it is a dress that is seldom worn more than once. Unless you plan to have a vow renewal ceremony wearing your original wedding dress years later, or wish to hand it down as an heirloom for the future generations, it will usually just be boxed and sit in your closet in the years to come.
Although most brides aren’t too eager to sell off their wedding dresses soon after they are married, many decide to let it go after a while. When you think that you’ve spent a huge amount of money on it, it is pretty sensible to recoup some of that amount by selling it. This money could be used to celebrate a honeymoon, or it could go into the family’s financial budget, wedding day debt or a similar need. Then there are also those dresses that are sold for other reasons. It could be that the marriage didn’t work out and the bride decides to give up everything that reminds her of it. Or, it could be that the bride wasn’t sure she wanted to wear the dress she bought, and so decided to sell it and buy another.
White and weddings are synonymous—the bride in a white gown, white shoes, white cakes, white seating arrangements… This may work for many brides, but some genuinely love colour and feel stifled by the stark whiteness that dominates most weddings. Nevertheless, they do not want to play with too much colour, as it can quickly overpower the entire setting and make it just another party. Or, it may be that they do not want to disappoint their families and friends who expect them to stick to the standard white wedding style.
For those who think and dream about colours, here are some practical ideas to add vibrant pops of brilliant shades to your wedding. From bright bouquets to colourful dresses and vividly coloured wedding cakes, we have you covered in every way. So, read on and find out which of these ideas you will love to add to your wedding.
Planning a wedding is a time-consuming, detail-oriented and labor-intensive task. It is no wonder that many brides burn out from exhaustion even while they are just half-way through wedding planning. Once you begin the planning process, you will quickly find yourself running through pages of lists, spreadsheets and sticky notes, that it will soon be almost impractical to keep up with all the paper clutter that builds up.
Fortunately, in this day and age of technology, there are many solutions to streamline our work and make life a lot easier. Here is why you should consider taking the digital route for your wedding planning.
It saves you time, energy and resources
By compiling all your information into digital apps, you can access it anytime and anywhere
It is the practical approach to collate all the ideas and inspiration that you come across
Sorting, organizing and eliminating are all much easier when aided by technology
Lost paper documents, receipts and communication will be a thing of the past once you handle all correspondence digitally
You will have all your information in one place, making it easy to handle, transport and check at any time you desire
Digital apps are the best tools for a bride who isn’t naturally organized, as there is a naturally organized format to it, thus making things much easier for you
Now, here is the biggest bonus of planning your wedding with the aid of technology: it leaves you plenty of much-deserved time to spend with your partner, rather than poring over and sorting through acres of paper clutter. Isn’t that an important facet of your engagement? Choose the digital route and time will cease being a luxury that you cannot afford.
Here is our pick of the best apps that will assist you with your wedding planning, and make everything you dreaded a lot easier and organized. These carefully chosen list is your best bet at easing your wedding planning, especially if you are doing it all by yourself.
The to-do list with a personality, CARROT is a fun way of keeping track and making sure that every list to handle is completed on time. Not all of us are naturally inclined to stick to the tasks we assign ourselves. This is where CARROT is a wonderful task master, as it motivates us to finish off our tasks by rewarding us for each completed task. The catch here, is that there are consequences to face, if we delay or postpone things on the list.
To start using it, you simply download the app on your iPhone or android. Create your list containing all the tasks to be handled, and set your time to complete each task. As you complete each task, you simply take it off the list. As you do this CARROT will award you a certain number of points. You can add anything and everything on to your list at any point of time, and get on with finishing it one after the other. Now, if you fail to complete a task on time, CARROT will not only remind you of what is due, it will also penalize you for being lazy. I suggest that you take a quick look at this video to get an idea of how this app can help you plan your simple and complex tasks through this simple digital to-do list maker.
When you digitize all the data you want for your wedding, it is essential that to keep it organized and stored in one location. Leaving all your wedding planning information floating around isn’t really a good idea, as it is no different from letting papers from your wedding folder fly around. This is where the digital app Evernote can be very useful.
Evernote was created with the idea to capture “experiences” digitally. Remember that you will have to handle different types of digital media when planning a wedding. You will be using pictures for inspiration, drawing up documents, making lists, creating notes and looking at samples. Rather than saving each of these in different folders on your computer and then shoveling through the lot when the need arises, it is practical and easy to save them all in a single location using Evernote. Since this is a cloud based system, you can access your stored information from anywhere. You also have the advantage of syncing it to all your digital devices, so that the information is accessible from any place and at any time, irrespective of the device on which it is recorded. Take a look at this video to find out how you can make use of it.
This wedding application is pre-loaded with almost 49 wedding planning tasks, that will help you jump start your wedding planning process. The included tasks are placed in chronological sequence, so you have a general idea of what task should ideally follow another. This will allow you to set up your planning time-line easily, and make sure that you do what you should, on time.
Although there is an original task list, it can be completely customized to suit your specific needs. So, you can erase any of the points that you do not want to adhere to, and also add specific tasks that are unique to your wedding. So, if you are on the lookout for a single app to help you remember all your wedding planning tasks, and remind you of when to do each of them, the Hitched wedding planner is what you should turn to. There is also a budget tracker that will help you form a general idea of how to divide your budget and how much money should go into what aspect. If you have no idea of where to begin with your budget planning, you can just type in the total amount and it will give you suggestions or estimates of what should go where. This will help you plan the rest.
Once you have a wedding date in mind, you will be shopping a lot! So, you will need many shopping lists to cover all the big and small things you need for your wedding. One of our favorite shopping lists for wedding planning is Awesome Note. Although this app has various other features as well, it’s practical and fun shopping lists are the best feature.
One important feature that sets the shopping lists on Awesome Note apart is that you can tag the items on your lists. So, you needn’t go into each list and update it every time. You can simply tag an item, say roses to rehearsal dinner and lilies to wedding, and it is automatically sorted into the list where it belongs. You can also add multiple tags to a single item, and search out all the items that have been tagged to a particular shopping destination, when you finally go shopping. It also allows you to attach photos or notes to each item, so you can remember what you intended while adding this item to the list. This will also allow you to share clear information and instructions if you are delegating the shopping to someone else. You can download this app from the iTunes store by clicking hereand start using it right away.
A wedding website is an essential for every couple planning their wedding. It will allow you to share important wedding-related information with the guests, add their registry details, answer questions about the wedding, receive RSVP’s digitally and also share photos and fun messages that add to the excitement of the upcoming wedding day.
While you can register for a website on any domain, it always helps to have one specifically suited for weddings. The Appy Couple is an interactive wedding app and website, that is easy to set up and use. It gives you the choice to select from two practical layout options and hundreds of design choices for your website. You simply have to download it to your mobile or desktop and follow the seven steps in the guided creation feature, to create your wedding website and app. Since you will just have to drag and drop widgets to get your website ready, it is very easy to create and doesn’t call for any technical skills. The chat feature allows your guests to get in touch with you, should they require any immediate information. It makes RSVPs easy for both the guests and the couple who receive them. With simple and easy navigation, even a guest who isn’t familiar with computers can easily locate any information they require.
Check out this short video that will run you through the various features and steps involved in using Appy couple.
We are talking of big money where weddings are concerned. The expenses will have to be broken up into several parts, accounts kept and updated at every stage, and balances tallied and carried forward for the rest of the planning. It can be quite a task, especially if you aren’t an expert at numbers and accounts.
Wedding budget is one app that can help you stay on top of all your expenses for the big day. Not only do you get to divide up the entire budget into separate sections and keep track of the expenses you incur in each area, it also helps you view every detail at one glance. You can simultaneously list what you have budgeted for a particular aspect, and how much you actually spent on it. This will give you a clear idea of whether you have any funds remaining after spending on the intended aspect, or if you ended up overspending on it. You will also benefit from the added feature of saving the date on which payments are due, so you are notified of it on time and arrange for funds accordingly. You can download it for your handheld devices here.
The best way to remember a wedding in the years that come, is through the pictures captured on the day. It will not just be your photographer who will be shooting away on your wedding day. Your guests will also be clicking their cameras at every possible instant, taking selfies, pictures of the two of you and of everything that they find interesting. Make sharing and downloading your photographs easy using the WedPics app. By visiting their website, you can create your own wedding account. Then, invite all your friends and family to join your wedding, and all the pics they take on the day will be saved to the same location. This will make viewing, downloading and sharing much easier. The added benefit is that the pictures can be seen only by those on your list, unless they use a hashtag when saving it. This free app is available for both iPhones and android systems. The app allows you to organize and segregate your photos into different albums according to your preferences. So, you can have separate albums for your bachelorette party, bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception and honeymoon, and still compile them together in a single location. Find out all that you need to know about using WedPics at your wedding, by visiting their website here.
Now that you know all that you should to plan your stunning wedding digitally, it is time to get started. Visit our online store at Best for Bride for everything you need for your wedding. From wedding dresses to bridesmaids outfits, accessories, décor choices, photography options, wedding cake, party favors and even wedding emergency kits and petal wishes, we have every aspect of your wedding covered. Make your pick from our dream wedding collections from leading design houses, rent your wedding dress and accessories or have your signature bridal gown custom-made by our in-house designers. Join us at Best For Bride and make every one of your wedding day dreams a reality.
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