Dessy Introduces Twist Dress for Bridesmaids
The convertible dress! Change the wrap to change the look. The Twist wrap dress is a chance to design your own dress! Available in cocktail length or full length, your bridesmaid dresses can match or each can create her own style. Your bridesmaids could even change their style part way through the day.
Constructed in luxurious, [...]
Wedding Reception Planning Tips
The wedding reception will take up the largest portion of your wedding budget if you’re like the average bride. It’s not difficult to see why when you consider that most of the things you’ll buy for the wedding will be used at the wedding reception rather than at the wedding ceremony. Think: reception table centerpieces, [...]
Wedding Saving Tips
With the average wedding in the U.S. costing about $19,000 for 200 guests, wedding saving tips are one of the topics TeamWED is asked to cover most often. You’ve probably heard that the average wedding costs $30,000, but the truth is that the oft-quoted figure includes everything from $50 weddings to $500,000 weddings and includes [...]
Planning A Theme Wedding
Brides and grooms who are planning a theme wedding shouldn’t be afraid to take it all the way. A theme that isn’t taken far enough can seem awkward because there are not enough elements of the theme in the wedding decor or wedding party accessories to indicate what the theme actually is. There’s nothing wrong [...]
Hiring a Wedding Planner vs. Wedding DIY
Recent bride Shelly W. wrote to share her best wedding planning tip: “Brides- and grooms-to-be with stressful jobs or a ton of responsibilities should consider hiring a wedding planner. It means dedicating a portion of your wedding budget to something other than wedding cake or your wedding gown, but the time and even money you [...]
Wedding Planning Timelines Are Important Even For Short Engagements
Your wedding planning timeline will change based on how long your engagement will be, but there are free wedding planning timelines and checklists online for engagements of all durations. There are, of course, some tasks that need to be completed before others on any wedding planning timeline, like choosing the wedding date and venue, while [...]
Ten to Twelve Months Before the Wedding
What should you be doing ten to twelve months before the wedding? Here’s a quick breakdown of the tasks and to-dos that brides and grooms must tackle in the early stages of planning a wedding: Choose the style and formality level of your wedding; Determine how many wedding attendants you’ll have and who they’ll be; [...]
Christmas Weddings: Themes That Sparkle
We here at TeamWED would like to wish all who celebrate it a very happy Christmas, and we thought what better time to talk about Christmas weddings than on Christmas day? Christmas weddings are unusual, but not unheard of. Often, brides and groom will plan a Christmas wedding that falls not on the holiday itself, [...]
Staying Organized When Planning a Wedding
Most wedding planning stress is caused by having to rush or forgetting important details. Being as organized as possible before you even start planning your wedding will help you meet deadlines and remember all the little things that make a wedding special. You don’t need a fancy wedding planner book or software – a binder [...]
Creating a Reception Seating Chart
Of all the wedding planning responsibilities shouldered by brides- and grooms-to-be, none is so universally feared as the creation of the reception seating chart. It’s a pain in the neck. I can be incredibly frustrating, especially nowadays when blended families are becoming the norm and so-and-so simply cannot be at the same table with so-and-so. [...]
Wedding Discounts: A Primer
Don’t automatically assume you have to pay full price for every service you’re reserving for your wedding. Many vendors will offer discounts on their wedding packages if you ask them outright, and others will create a lower-priced package just for you if you let them know you’d like certain services but don’t require others. [...]
Adults-Only Weddings: Good Etiquette or Not?
The only thing TeamWED loves more than answering reader questions is champagne, and we get a lot more emails from brides-to-be than we do bottles of free champagne. With that in mind, here’s a query from a reader with a big soon-to-be family and an upcoming wedding:
Whenever I dreamed of my wedding as a kid, [...]
Alternative Reception Venues
Unless you have your heart set on marrying in a church or other religious institution, consider choosing an alternative space that can accommodate both your wedding ceremony and wedding reception. Many beautiful and elegant spaces are not typically used for weddings, but can be rented out for events. Make a list of the of museums, [...]
Low Centerpieces Keep Conversation Flowing
When you’re planning out your wedding reception tables, consider topping them with low centerpieces instead of tall vases of flowers. Low centerpieces let guests at reception tables both circular and square see and talk to one another without having to lean around a bouquet or candle display. Low centerpieces are also tres chic and very [...]
Pets In A Wedding? What Would Miss Manners Say?
A bride with a big place in her heart for her pooch sent in this letter asking about including pets in a wedding:
I really, really, really, reeeeaally want to include my dog in my wedding. I know, it’s kind of tacky and weird. But he was my best bud for a long time before I [...]
Sweetheart Tables: Yes or No?
When you’re planning your wedding reception seating chart, you have a decision to make that goes beyond whether Aunt Mallory will sit next to Cousin Tedd. Yes, you (and presumably the individual you’re planning to marry) must decide whether you will sit at a head table along with your wedding attendants or at a sweetheart [...]
Unique Wedding Receptions Are DIY-Friendly
In a lot of ways, wedding receptions are just parties. Take away the wedding ceremony and the big white wedding dress, and what you’re left with is food, music, dancing, cake, and hopefully a good time. So how can the bride and groom ensure their wedding reception isn’t just another formal party? It’s the little [...]
Inexpensive Destination Wedding Gowns
Brides planning destination weddings have it easy when it comes to buying their wedding dresses. Why’s that? Destination wedding gowns tend to be lighter and less elaborate than traditional wedding dresses, if only because destination weddings usually take place in warm locales like Mexico and the Bahamas. Lighter dresses means less dress, which means less [...]
Summer Weddings Mean Beating the Heat
Summer weddings… outdoor summer weddings… what’s not to love? How about the sun relentlessly beating down? Or the humidity that turns everything from the wedding cake to the bride into a sopping mess? And the bugs aren’t that great, either. Okay, maybe there are some downsides to summer weddings that take place in one’s yard [...]
Wedding Planners? Do You Need One?
We here at TeamWED get plenty of mail from recent brides stating unequivocally that they couldn’t have done it without their wedding planner. Some of us used a wedding planner and some of us didn’t, and we all had great weddings so we won’t say that all brides need a wedding planner. But hiring a [...]
Wedding Receptions and the Non-Drinker
Wedding receptions don’t have to be booze fueled…at least not for everyone at the wedding! Some people like to tie one on and some don’t.
Be considerate of those wedding guests who don’t want to or cannot partake of alcoholic beverages by having plenty of delicious and fun non-alcoholic beverages at your wedding reception. Shouldn’t your [...]
Outdoor Weddings Are Simplicity Itself
Planning a simple, outdoor wedding shouldn’t be stressful. The venue? Any open-air setting will do, like a public park or beach (which may require a permit), a friend or relative’s yard or garden, your own house, an arboretum, or the grounds of a museum. Guests? Invite as many as your venue can handle or as [...]
Wedding DIY Isn’t Always Worth It
Before you decide to DIY everything from the wedding favors to the wedding cake, TeamWED suggests you stop and consider whether the money you save will be worth the time you spend. If you save any money at all, that is. Wedding DIY projects can be pretty tricky for newbies. Go ahead and DIY if [...]
Second Weddings Don’t Have to Be Muted
Second weddings… the TeamWED gals decided to have a little brainstorming session about second weddings, also known as encore weddings, and these are some of the words that popped into our heads:
Bridal suit
Small wedding
No gifts please
Eloping
Family wedding
Older brides
Simple ceremony
Casual reception
And so on and so forth. Basically the second wedding we envisioned in our heads was [...]
Coping With Wedding Stress: Ignore It!
Sometimes the easiest way to cope with wedding stress is to pretend you don’t have any! Brides are told over and over again not to deny their feelings, but sometimes planning a wedding can be too much to handle. So if you’re drowning in wedding stress, try traveling in time (at least mentally) back to [...]
