Outdoor Wedding Reception Food and Drinks | Money Saving Methods

Wedding Reception Food

For those who opt for an outdoor wedding reception, there are several ways food can be served. Following are some popular and money saving methods for serving food at an outdoor wedding reception:

• Barbecue. At a casual reception, it is common to serve barbecue items such as hamburgers, chicken, or ribs. To make your barbecue buffet-style, ask your guests to forego a wedding gift in exchange for bringing their own special dish to accompany the barbecue. Although, if you do this, be sure to confirm with your guests beforehand so that you don't have everyone bringing the same dish.

• Buffet. Ask your guests to bring a favored dish instead of a wedding gift. If cost is an issue, serve vegetable, cheese, fruit, and meat trays with dips and other snacks rather than hosting a huge meal.

Wedding Reception Drinks

The bar tab can often account for one of the largest wedding expenses. Following are tips on serving drinks at your reception without incurring a major expense:

• Semi-open bar. Offer several beverages for free, such as beer and all non-alcoholic drinks, but have guests pay a nominal fee for mixed drinks, such as a dollar per drink to cover some of the expense.

• Bring your own. Request that guests bring their own drinks to the outdoor reception in lieu of bringing a wedding gift.

Wedding Cakes | Current Trends For Wedding Cakes

Are you getting married and planning your wedding? One of the questions that you will want to ask yourself is about your wedding cake? There are so many options available from traditional wedding cakes, cupcakes or no cake at all. The trend in wedding cakes at the present time is the stacked like a pyramid cupcake wedding cake. How many delicious flavours, colours and combinations can you come up with or can your caterer? Why not have a whole range of flavours: Simple vanilla/yellow/white cake, but frosted with Nutella, Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese, Black Forest, Oreo cupcakes, Mocha Caramel, Black Sesame cupcakes, Ginger cupcakes with lime icing or Lemon cupcakes with lemon icing and filled with blackberry butter cream. These cupcakes will make a statement with your guests and they will have fun figuring out the varieties. Perhaps you want to package one or two of the varieties for guests to take home, I would recommend the Black Sesame or the Vanilla with a flavoured powdered sugar dusting- you do not want to pack up anything that will require refrigeration. Remember to keep the cupcake stack refrigerated and bring it out just before serving. This will ensure that the cupcakes are kept cold and are considered food safe for your guests to consume.

Unique Wedding Decoration Ideas | Use Wedding Lights as Part of Your Decor

Wedding light displays come in a variety of styles and colors. Some favorites include bells, doves and hearts. There are also roses and even cupid styles. Just plug them in and you've got a spectacular lighted wedding decoration.

Most wedding light displays are for indoor or outdoor use making them an easy way to decorate. Place one above the wedding party's table, over the entry way to the reception area or near the dance floor. Accent them with some string lights on white wire and you've got a truly beautiful wedding decoration.

As an added benefit, wedding light displays can also be used at Christmas or Valentine's Day. Once you see how beautiful these displays are, they will be the first decoration up next holiday season!

Battery operated mini wedding lights are a great accent anywhere you want to add sparkle. Intertwine them with some white garland around windows or table tops a shimmering effect. Here's an easy wedding decoration idea. Buy an 18 inch grapevine wreath, some small dried flowers (like baby's breath) and wide white ribbon. Secure the battery pack to the back and weave the lights around the wreath. Next attach bunches of the dried flowers over the lights and wreath. Wrap the ribbon around the top to hang and you have an elegant lighted wedding decoration.

Beautiful Wedding Crafts | Homemade Wedding Favors

There are several areas of the wedding where you can use your creativity and skill to handcraft things. Probably the most famous to handcraft are the favors. Wedding favors are little gifts for the guests. Giving them away is one way for you to thank your friends and loved ones for attending the most special day of your life. It is always worth planning in advance about the wedding favors to give out. Your budget, time, and number of guests are the major factors when it comes to your wedding favors. Depending on your available fund, you can buy or make your own souvenirs.

If you wish to handcraft your wedding favors, you have to start working way in advance especially if you are expecting hundreds of guests. A traditional wedding favor that you can easily make is a small favor box that is made up of sweets. Or you may fill it with chocolate or some rose petals. Sweets, petals, and even confetti are available in cheap prices if you cannot make them yourself. Another wedding favor that you can handcraft is a seed packet wedding favor. Seed packets are now in trend. These are very easy to make yourself and you can get as creative as you want on these favors. You can shop around for special paper that is perfect for this project, such as pressed flower paper or clear glassine envelopes.

Cheap Candy Wedding Favors | Traditional Candy Wedding Favor

You want to give candy wedding favors to thank guests for helping you make your day special, but you don't want to spend as much on the candy wedding favors as guests spend on the gifts they will give. You want a cheap price, but you don't want to appear too cheap.

Traditional Candy Wedding Favors

Cheap candy wedding favors can be traditional, even though you get lower prices. Jordan Almonds are a traditional wedding candy. The almonds, hidden in a candy shell, are meant to represent the sweetness and bitterness every marriage experiences. The sweet candy coating is supposed to be stronger than the bitterness of the nut inside, reminding that there should be more sweetness than bitterness in marriage. You may use all white Jordan Almonds, white with a pastel that matches your wedding color scheme, or a pastel mix.

Chocolate Candy Wedding Favors

Andes Crème De Menthe chocolate candies make a nice candy wedding favor for cheap prices. Bulk Foods offers these small rectangles in bright green paper. Place three mints in a small square of white tulle, and tie with a white ribbon for cheap candy wedding favors. You can get enough Andes Crème De Menthe chocolate candies for 150 guests for about $22, making your candy price per guest about $0.15. If you don't want to make bags, you can purchase discount organza bags online for $0.19 each.

Beach Wedding Decorations | a Romantic Wedding

A beach wedding may be the most romantic and unique style of celebrating and personalizing your wedding, which will be remembered throughout your life time. A beach wedding can simply be a traditional affair with a completely a nautical theme. Some of the planning for a beach wedding may be a little complicated than a traditional ceremony but worth doing it. A beach wedding decoration cannot use natural materials that are used in a normal wedding. For a beach wedding decoration, materials would be already present in the beach. Seashells, sea glass, and corals are some of them for implementing creative colors to the materials.

Sea shells, by far represent the most versatile decorating option, particularly for the design of the reception table's center pieces, linens, table top accents as well as other components that make a well decorated reception not only memorable but also visually appeal able and complimentary. Also, work with the florist to capture the look and feel of the theme. Large seashells may be suitable idea not only to decorate the tables, but also to serve the wonderful purpose of candy containers. Exotic pieces of seashell decoration serve dual purposes are both equally attractive and cost-effective. Tropical flowers like hibiscus, anthuriums, or plumerias are also used as decorations. Large glass bowls can be filled with colored sand and assorted seashells can be placed on the top to support the theme. Tint water blue and pour over pebbles or small rocks in a small bowl and fish shaped floating candles can be used to make the place a real hit.

Pink And Black Wedding Decoration | Trend Wedding Decoration

Put the gift table at the front on the entrance so people sign it on the way into the reception. The gift table had a white tablecloth with pink scattered rose petals around the edge and also put a couple of tea light candles on this as well. Behind the bridal table put a big white drop sheet as the background with fairy lights. Have chair covers that are white with a black bow on them. The table themselves have the white tablecloth, the standard cutlery, wine glasses & white linen napkins. Put the napkin in between the cutlery (where the plate would sit) and under that make up a pink laminated card that thanks your guests and also have a beautiful poem on it that the guests can take home.

Put a tall standing floor bunch on either side of the bridal table. Put 5 bunches of the standing floor balloons scattered in the corners of the room and also put a small floor bunch at either side of the bar area. Scatter pink rose petals around the front of the cake table and put a small bunch of your wedding flowers at the front of the table. Have a gift table where you put the wishing well on or the gifts and put the guest book there. Above the napkin and pink card put a silver heart chocolate next to the place cards. For the table centerpieces have a black candelabra with white candles and wrap some of your wedding flowers around the stem of the candelabra. At the bottom of the candelabra put a wreath of your wedding flowers again. Under the candelabra consider having white & silver disposable cameras.

Comfortable Wedding Shoes For Every Style On Your Big Day

This is a great season for comfortable stylish shoes. Pointy toes are less common, and rounded toes are back in style. White flats are certainly available from bridal shoe designers, but there are so many fun designs available this season from non-bridal designers, that you might wish to consider branching out from white. A sparkly pair of silver flats would look fabulous on the bride who is wearing a silver embellished gown and crystal bridal jewelry. If you just can't picture yourself walking down the aisle without some kind of high heeled shoe, take advantage of this season's platform trend. With a nod to the 1940s, the current crop of platforms are ladylike, not exaggerated, and have tall but sturdy heels. There are some gorgeous styles available in luxe wedding-worthy fabrics, such as satin platform heels with ankle straps and a twisted knot detail at the toe.

For the bride who likes very delicate footwear, a pair of kitten heel shoes might be the answer. The heels are thin, but also low, which makes them more comfortable. Be sure that the shoes have a strap, rather than an open back mule style, which is too easy to step out of when backing up. Many of the kitten heel shoes are made in strappy sandal designs which are very feminine and pretty. Classic white or ivory would certainly work, but you may also want to think about a soft color or metallic. Ballet pink, silver, or bronze would all be gorgeous choices with a bridal gown, and will be more useful after the wedding. This same shoe in metallic or black works great for bridesmaids.

Wedding Unity Candle Lighting Ceremony | Unique Wedding Candle

The Unity Candle lighting ceremony is symbolically a ritual that signifies the union of two people and their families in a Christian wedding ceremony in Toronto. Some couples opt to light the unity candle while a song is being sung while others prefer it when the minister is giving a candle lighting narrative. When performing the Unity Candle ceremony in Toronto, there are no standard criteria or a specific place to perform the ceremony. The performance normally occurs after the rings have been exchanged and before the couple is pronounced as man and wife. This ceremony can be customized and the personal details are at the couple's discretion.

As a couple plans for the ceremony, they start by setting up the unity candle area. It is advisable to light the wicks then extinguish them since pre-burned wicks light easily in comparison to new ones. It is however optional who gets to light the tapers. For example, both the groom and brides' mothers can each light one candle. Before the ceremony, the groom lights a taper and the bride lights hers when she is escorted in. In a case where the couple brings children into the new marriage, it is optional for the children to light the tapers. The couple lights the large center candle. Couples may choose to leave their tapers on or blow them out. Some couples feel that extinguishing the candles displays their commitment to one another. Others feel that when they leave the candles lit, they retain and realize their individuality that exists in their marriage.

Unique Wedding Card | Wedding Card Invitation

The wedding invitation is the major wedding card that you need to prepare. It is the medium that will bring the message that you are getting married and the details of the momentous occasion. Even if you have already told your friends and relatives, over the phone or otherwise, that you are getting married, it is still expected of you to send out the invitations for that very special affair. In preparing that wedding card, there are a lot of questions that would come up to mind. What is the color that you should use? How should it look like? How can you make it memorable and worth keeping even by your guests?

In making your unique wedding card, you need not do the card yourself. You can conceptualize and make a sample then have the rest of the lot done by professional card makers. That way, you can save time and energy. You can also be guaranteed that your unique design will be executed professionally and certain standards will be followed as it is done by special card-making equipment. One way to give a unique look is by using nature's own resources. You can take advantage of dried flowers, dried leaves, twigs and shells as embellishments. These are cheap and you have a lot of options. You can either press them on the card or insert them or you can also use them to seal the envelope. Using them will not only create a special touch but will also provide the texture that is lacking in traditional cards.

Inexpensive Wedding Favors | Beautiful Wedding Candle

The favorites are homemade wedding favors which can reduce the cost drastically. The most common inexpensive wedding favor is preparing a small gift of almonds. This can be beautifully wrapped in an elegant fabric. Another inexpensive way is to prepare flower seed packets in transparent covers with small cards attached with ribbons. Candles used as wedding favors is another cheap way of saying thank you. These can be decorated candles tied with an attractive ribbon. Homemade bookmarks are another possibility of inexpensive wedding favors. These custom designed bookmarks can be attached with personal messages. Simple place cards, place card holders and frames made at home with cheap material are cheap wedding favors too.

Inexpensive personalized wedding favors also include personalized candies, mints, candles, napkins, playing cards and flower cards. Coffee wedding favors and tea wedding favors with custom designed labels are other inexpensive wedding favors. Monogrammed and foil wrapped chocolates, medium sized seashells with candies, small wedding mint tins, miniature frames, heart-shaped soaps, petite handbags and sugar stars can be added to the list of inexpensive wedding favors.

Trend Wedding Accessories | Black and White Wedding Decoration Ideas

A black and white wedding theme is a sophisticated and elegant theme for a wedding. This colour scheme always looks striking and is relatively simple to achieve. When putting together your wedding theme consider wedding invitations, flowers, reception and table decorations, place cards, wedding favors and bomboniere as well as the bridal party outfits. Carry your chosen colour theme through all aspects of your wedding to coordinate your day.

Wedding Reception and Table Decorations
There are so many options when it comes to decorating your wedding reception venue and tables. Think decorative candle holders, handing paper lanterns, table runners, place cards and table scatters. All of these are easy to obtain in a variety of colours including black and white. Tea light candles in paper bags of your chosen colour scheme will always create a romantic candelit atmosphere, whether outdoors or indoors. There are so many varieties of white flowers and you can either present in black boxes or glass vases tied with black ribbons. Another option is to choose white flowers and offset with black wedding favours or place cards.