Your wedding invitations offer the first sneak peek into your wedding, and it is a reflection of your taste and personality. Hence, you should make sure you choose well.
Wedding invitations involve a lot of stationery, and this can quickly add up to quite an amount of money. There are DIY kits, which allow you to customize and create your own signature style invitations. However, you may not have the time to do it all. So, here are some tips to help you get the best for the money you spend, when choosing your wedding invitations.
Start early and find great deals
As with everything related to weddings, the sooner you start, the more chances you have at finding better offers. If you do not rush your wedding invitation supplier, you are more likely to get a good deal. Also, you will have time to search around and compare vendor prices, and choose the best on offer.
Opt for thermography, instead of engraving and embossing
Engraving and embossing are traditional styles of invitation printing. They are classic, but very pricey. If you cannot afford the huge price tag accompanying them, look at thermography instead. The print looks similar to embossing, but is much cheaper. The benefits do not end here. It can also be done much faster, and the look isn’t very different from the engraved one. Both feel the same to the touch, and the difference can be felt, only when you rub the front and back of the letters at the same time. Well, do you think your guests will bother to go into such details!
Check for package deals and buy in bulk
Most vendors can print all wedding stationery. This includes wedding invitations, rehearsal dinner invites, menu cards, place cards, programs and thank-you cards. Look at vendors who do this, and ask for a discount if you order all your printing from them. Since you will anyway be investing money for all this paper, you might as well do it at one place and get a better deal.
Pay attention to postage charges
Wedding invitations go through the mail, and this means you have to pay for postal stamps. The size of your invitation will determine the postage charges. So, do your research before you choose your invitations, and stick to an envelope size that will help you stay within budget.
Skimp on the extra bits
Each piece of paper that goes into your wedding invite comes at an additional cost. So, consider what is necessary and what isn’t. Avoid inset papers and extra decoration, and choose a simple, but elegant design that conveys all the necessary information. Draft your invite so it is comprehensive but uses less space. With a little planning, you can make your invitation an impressive bombshell of information, but within minimum space.
Check out this link on Best for bride for the various invitation options we have on offer. You can find plenty of inspiration, options for customizing your wedding invitations to match the wedding theme, and also contact us for placing your orders, here.
Claire from Wed in Central Park organizes weddings for couples getting married in New York City’s beautiful Central Park. She regularly hears from couples who are considering a destination wedding in this incredible city. Sometimes couples are weighing up the pros and cons of a wedding at home versus a destination wedding. Sometimes they are considering a couple of different locations for a destination wedding. There are many reasons why couples choose to have a destination wedding, here Claire’s top ten.
Simplifies the guest list – if you have a wedding at home this can often lead to feeling the obligation to invite everybody you know, and everybody your parents know! Many couples would prefer not to spend their entire wedding day doing the rounds, and chatting with distant relatives who they haven’t seen since childhood, isn’t it better to spend the most important day of your lives with the people most important to you? The more distant acquaintances are least likely to be able to make a destination wedding, so this keeps the guest list nice and short, and the couple is more easily forgiven for not inviting their mother’s hairdressers’ cousin.
Memories – of course the couple and their immediate family will remember their wedding as a very special day, but all those family weddings at home tend to merge into a memory of one big wedding for the guests – make your special day unique for your guests, too – and go somewhere different and do something different! A different location allows for more creativity with the venue, food, activities and attire, and your photos will really stand out. You could even add some local wedding traditions of the destination!
Costs – a destination wedding can turn out to be the economical option because it tends to keep the guest list smaller. If you just take your close family and friends with you, that can keep to budget down. In some cases the guests may pay for their own travel or hotel, which of course makes a huge difference to the budget. Many hotels and travel agents offer packages for special event groups.
Reduce needless anxiety – don’t waste time and effort visiting dozens of venues in your area, and worrying about who should sit with whom at the wedding breakfast or all the other details that the guests may not even notice! A destination wedding often involves fewer guests so should allow the couple to spend more time thinking about important things, like sharing their wedding day with their loved ones. In a lot of cases this means less worries about the weather being good, if you choose a location with sunnier or more predictable climes than your own.
Combination – going away for a wedding can combine a family reunion, sightseeing, family bonding, romantic travel a fun vacation with all the most important people in your life and your big event all in one, and this makes it something special for everyone involved. Kill two birds with one stone, and find a location that would provide something interesting for the couple and the guests, that way you will still be talking about the fun you had together at your Ruby wedding anniversary! It keeps the groom happy – it’s his day too, you know! And boys get excited about going to new places, and they can be involved in organizing the events the couples do with their guests, this is far more interesting for the guys than picking out colors or wedding favors.
Gets a professional involved – a destination wedding often involves hiring someone to help out with the organization side of things. This takes a lot of stress off the couple, and allows them time to relax and enjoy the scenery. The couple don’t have to search through the venues themselves, or meet with dozens of photographers, if you can find a wedding planner that listens and communicates well, and is on your wavelength, then they can take a lot of weight off your shoulders. They can use the tried and tested team of people they have used regularly, and the couple can be assured that all will run smoothly on their special day. In many cases a professional wedding planner will have preferential rates from their team, due to passing them such a lot of business, so can offer fairly competitive prices. Minimize possibilities of feuds – these days, the bride and groom are often from different towns, or even countries, and choosing one home town over another may cause difficulties within families. If the home town of one of the families is chosen over another, it could be seen as that family having the upper hand over the organization of the day. If the destination is somewhere different for both dies of the couple, this levels things, and will make that location a special place for the future.
Provide a more easily accessible location – if the bride and groom are from different home towns, and perhaps live and work in a third town, the majority of guests will have to travel to attend the wedding anyway. Not all towns have great hotels and places for people to stay, and often guests find they have to travel to the reception, and then further travel to their hotel, if you choose to have a destination wedding, you instantly have more places to choose from, and you can choose somewhere with lots of appropriate available accommodation that is easy to get to and from the reception. In many cases it might be that it is easier to choose a destination that could serve as a midpoint, and reduce traveling for many of your guests.
Everyone really gets to know each other – this is a great way for the bride and groom’s separate families to spend intimate time together and really bond and become part of each others families. In many weddings in this modern age, the couples’ parents don’t always know each other so well, and this could be a great opportunity for getting to know each others whole families. Because weddings away from home tend to take a few days rather than a few hours the whole party can spend a lot more time enjoying the event.
Smells create very vivid memories. So, spend time in choosing your wedding perfume, as the fragrance will linger with the memories of your wedding day, and you want it to be memorable, pleasant and perfect.
Here are some helpful hints to help you choose the right fragrance for your big day.
Tried and tested scent or brand new fragrance?
Although this is a personal choice, it would be great to mark this new beginning in your life with a new fragrance. But, if you will only feel comfortable in the perfume you’ve worn forever, or you think some things are best left unchanged, stick with your existing perfume. After all, it is all about you feeling comfortable on this day.
Things to remember when choosing a new fragrance
For those of your brides, who would like to find a brand new perfume for their big day, here are some tips to help you choose.
Consider the scent of your bouquet
If your wedding bouquet is formed of natural flowers, they will have a strong scent already. Remember that your perfume should complement this smell, or it may become overwhelming to those who come near you. If the bouquet has strong scented flowers like roses, it is better that you forego wearing perfume for the wedding, and use it only for the reception.
Light floral scents are the best
Floral scents are pleasant and light fragrances will more likely go well with the fragrances of your makeup. Rather than choose a blend of smells, go with one single tone which is warm and soothing. When choosing your wedding perfume, also consider the various other scents that will be there at your reception, like scented candles, flowers and fruits. Make sure that your choice goes well with them.
Take time to decide which one
When you go perfume shopping, do it in the afternoon, when you sense of smell works best. Try on the ones that you really liked, by spraying them at different locations, and give it time to settle in. The smell changes on your skin, so you should wait a bit before deciding if it is the one. You shouldn’t try more than three scents at a time, as it can cause sensory overload. If you were unable to find one on this trip, plan another trip on a different day to try on more scents.
Pay attention to the season when you are getting married
This article on the Hitched UK website recommends floral fragrances for summer weddings and warm scents with ingredients like chocolate and amber for winter weddings. You can also find some really good perfume recommendations for your big day here, so check it out
Another good idea to match your perfume to your bridegroom’s, so that they work in tandem and not against each other.
Every bride dreams of a fantastic wedding day. And, it goes without saying that she sees herself as a ravishing beauty in a stunning wedding gown in her dreams.
However, buying that perfect wedding gown may sometimes not be easy. As we all know, bridal gowns are expensive, and not everyone can afford the wedding dress of their dreams. So, what do you do in such a case? Do you settle for a cheap dress that fits your budget? Not necessarily. If you really want to wear a certain wedding gown, but can’t buy it, consider renting it for your big day. This way, you can wear your chosen wedding gown for a fraction of the price you would have to pay if you were to buy it. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to pass it on as a family heirloom, but you can at least be wed looking as grand as you always wanted to.
It is not just brides who can’t afford an expensive wedding gown that rent it. The article Weddings and the Sharing Economy on the Huffington Post suggests that more brides today are comfortable with wearing a used dress on their wedding day. These include women who are environmentally conscious and want to minimize their environmental footprint by wearing a pre-loved dress. Another category are those who do not consider it worthwhile investing in a dress that they will wear just once in their lifetime.
For all these women, here are some tips to remember when you have to rent your wedding gown.
Rent from a reliable bridal store
Remember it is your wedding day, and you want your wedding dress to arrive on time. TO avoid any risks in receiving it, make sure you choose a reliable bridal shop. Go with references from friends and associates. Also check out the online reviews and feedback about the service that these shops provide, before you sign the contract.
Start shopping early
The one possible problem with renting a wedding dress is finding the one you want in your size. It is a good idea to start early and check out the different stores that offer the designer collection you desire, on rent.
Check for an all-inclusive package
Slight alterations such as taking in, bustle and adjusting hemline are usually included in the rental service at good bridal shops. Before you set your heart on a dress, talk to the bridal consultant and confirm whether this will be included in the rental charges.
Plan to rent matching accessories too
Since you will not be owning your wedding dress, it doesn’t make sense to invest a huge amount of money in bridal accessories that match this dress. In most cases, the shop will also rent matching accessories, and you can make use of this service at a much cheaper price than if you were to buy them.
Discuss the terms and conditions of the contract before signing it
Check out the clauses on the number of days you can keep the dress, whether it has to be cleaned before being returned and the damage charges you will have to meet. If in doubt, ask the shop and sign the contract only if you are comfortable with all their terms and conditions. Ask when you can pick up the dress, and whether there are any late charges. Once you sign your contract, don’t forget to follow up with the boutique before the wedding, so that your dress is prepared and ready on time.
Best for Bride allows brides to rent or buy their wedding dresses. For more details visit our online web store link or call your nearest boutique.
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