You often hear the phrase ‘modern wedding invitations’ but what really classifies them as modern. 

We all know modern is the opposite of traditional.  Traditional wedding invitations brings to mind a simple invitation card, classic black ink, a standard lettering style and two mailing envelopes.  Modern wedding invitations, on the other hand, let you be more creative and unique which seems to be quite appealing to today’s couples who tend to look for ways to truly personalize their weddings including their invites.

Here are some trends that you may feature on your modern wedding invitations depending on the design you choose and the options available:

·  Multiple Lettering Styles – A larger and sometimes fancier font style is used to emphasize the couple’s names on the invitation compared to the rest of the wording.

·  Contrasting Ink Colors – A second distinct ink color can be used to highlight certain details on your wedding invitation like your names.

·  Pockets – Becoming increasingly fashionable, this style has a pocket for holding the wedding invitation and possibly a separate pocket for any enclosure cards, depending on the specific design.

·  Self-mailing – These invitation styles no longer require a separate mailing envelope since they turn into their own self-mailer piece.  Some designs have an envelopment, which may be colored, that wraps around all the invitation pieces for easy mailing.  Another self-mailer design option are seal and send wedding invitations that actually fold and seal up into their own mailing piece.

·  Bright and Bold Colors – Today it is easier than ever to make a personal statement with your invitation colors either through your paper, design or ink choices.  Beautiful color combinations are also abundant with colors you may not have considered as matching but actually create a stunning contrast when paired together.

·  Distinctive Sizes & Shapes – You can easily select a wedding invitation design that has a unique shape such as being square or is an unusual size such as tea length.

·  Patterns – As part of the invitation design, patterns are becoming stylish including paisley and retro motifs.

·  Colored Papers or Envelopes - Make your wedding invitations eye-catching by choosing a design that has colored paper stock or colored envelopes.  Just be sure to choose an ink color that will look good on the colored paper.

·  Recycled Paper – For those striving to be more eco friendly, there are now many beautiful wedding invitation designs that are printed on recycled papers.

·  Embellishments – Ribbon has become quite popular as an added special touch to wedding invitations. 

Everyone’s idea of what modern wedding invitations are may vary but the above trends are definitely options that will make invites look more contemporary.  Your invitations will surely reflect your own unique personal style using any of these options.

The expectation from long ago is that the father of the bride is the host of his daughter’s wedding breakfast. In times past that meant paying for the reception too, though the costs are usually shared these days. In keeping with that custom, the bride’s father is usually expected to act as the host for the wedding reception.

Sometimes a professional wedding MC is engaged, especially for society weddings. At most weddings the father of the bride is expected to give an opening speech and propose the toast to the newly wed couple at the beginning of the wedding reception.

There are five key steps to a successful father of the bride speech.

At the outset it is usual to say a few welcoming words to set the scene and create a happy atmosphere for a great wedding reception. The main objective is to get the guests to relax. A good way to do this is to talk about the wedding ceremony, the beautiful bride, the venue for the reception or even the weather — things that all the guests have their own views about — and how much you are looking forward to meeting everyone and enjoying the reception.

Secondly, as the host, the father of the bride welcomes all of the guests. It is usual to introduce any special guests, especially the groom’s family and those who have made a special effort to get to the wedding. Missing guests are often acknowledged at this stage also, especially those with close links with the bride or groom who have been unable to get to the wedding. A loved grandparent or favorite uncle who has recently passed away is often remembered at this point.

A third key component of the speech is to build some anticipation about the schedule for the reception, such as the highlight of the best man’s speech and any entertainment planned for during the reception, and for after the reception. Your guests will appreciate knowing what lies ahead for the reception.

As a fourth step in their wedding speech, most proud fathers want to say a few heartfelt words in public about the bride, their daughter. This is often the most difficult part of the speech to prepare for many fathers. There is not just one way to express your love for your daughter. Telling funny stories about your daughter growing up and quoting poetry are popular approaches, among many others.

Finally, to focus the attention of the wedding guests firmly on the newlywed couple it is customary for the father of the bride to call for guests to join him in a toast to the bride and groom. Choosing the right words for the toast is important.

Every father of the bride will use his own personality, humor and feelings into their father of the bride speeches around this or a similar simple five step speech framework.

Because few fathers will have much prior experience speaking at their own daughter’s wedding, most will find a professional wedding speech guide can be very helpful. Speech outlines and example wedding speeches are available, along with checklists of things and people that really should be mentioned, and valuable suggestions, such as popular jokes, quotes and poems to choose from.

Your wedding ring is a symbol of your love and commitment, so you’ll want to keep safe for years to come. In order to keep your ring looking like new, you need to take special care of it when you wear it and clean it. If you take these steps now, you’ll be able to keep your ring in excellent condition.

You can start caring for your ring with your everyday habits. Always put on your ring after you’ve put on your clothes, your make-up, your hair care products and your perfume. The chemicals and oils in beauty products and perfumes can dull the luster of your stone and the surrounding metal.

If you have to wash dishes, fold clothes or work in the garden, make sure to store your ring in a safe place. Don’t take chances by doing these chores with your ring on. The soap or dirt can permanently damage your ring. Harsh chemicals from cleaning can discolor your ring and damage the metal surrounding it. You could snag your clothes by trying to fold them with your ring on. You can also risk losing your ring by doing these activities while wearing it.

The same goes for playing sports or swimming. Any time your hands are involved in rough activities, such as tossing a ball, paddling water or even swinging a golf club, you are risking damaging or losing your ring. Make it a habit to carry a small soft bag with you where you can store your ring when you need to remove it.

By avoiding wearing your ring during these times, you’ll go a long way to preserving the look of your ring. Besides following these rules for wearing, you can also keep your ring looking great by cleaning it on a regular basis. Every few years, you should take it to a jeweler to have it professionally cleaned. In between these professional cleanings, you can clean it yourself with a few simple solutions.

Commercial jewelry cleaner can be used to keep your ring bright and sparkling. Follow the manufacturer’s directions for best results. After you use any one of these cleaning solutions, you need to rinse your ring off with clean water. Then pat the ring dry with a lint free cloth.

You will also want to have your setting checked by a qualified jeweler on a regular basis. Jewelers often recommend an inspection every six months or so.  If you don’t have your ring checked on a regular basis, the stones could loosen from the setting over time, and you could actually lose the stones from the ring. It’s possible to not realize the stones are missing until it’s too late.

Considering that this is the most sentimentally significant piece of jewelry that you’ll ever own, it’s worth a bit of special time and attention.

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The wedding cake is something that may take some deciding to choose. Many brides and grooms believe that this aspect of a wedding reception needs to be chosen carefully in order to achieve the right kind of classiness. Mostly couples love using real wedding cake flowers to decorate their cake. On the other hand, fake wedding cake flowers can also be used as wedding cake flowers for certain reason such as allergies, sanitation and the likes. 

Wedding Cake Flowers, Made With Fresh Flowers

Wedding cake flowers can really be made with fresh live flowers with the right way of cleaning and meticulous attention to its storage. Wedding cake makers will readily agree to the use fresh flowers for the wedding cake as long as the flowers are available. Fresh wedding cake flowers will look doubly nice on the cake as well as coordinate well with the reception flower arrangements and may be even with the wedding flower bouquet of the bride.

Some great suggestions for wedding cake flowersare chrysanthemums, lily of the valley, gerberas, roses and tulips. The chrysanthemums, roses and gerbera can individually be used to mark the separation between each tier of the wedding cake. An example of this would be red roses in between each layer of cake for a three tier cake. The wedding cake flowers can also be used not as a separator for each tier but also as a decoration for the cake. Lilies of the valley do well as a focal point for each tier of the cake. The flower can be placed on the topmost tier of a three or more layer cake and then subsequent flowers can be attached to each other with a fondant vine design. The colors of the wedding cake flowers should coordinate with the motif of the wedding as well as complement the colors used in the wedding cake.

Fresh wedding cake flowerssuch as gerberas or hyacinths can also be individually attached to the cake sides in a polka dot pattern. It is usually the smaller varieties of flowers that suit this kind of wedding cake flower arrangement. Bunches of small flowers such as hyacinths, cornflowers and smaller varieties of mums can also be placed in strategic places of the wedding cake. Using different colors that complement each other or colors that are similar to each other will help to bring out the best of a plain off white wedding cake.

Wedding cake flowers are not limited to those suggested above. The wedding cake can also be decorated by many other type of flowers. It is best to take one’s time in choosing whichever flower is to be used as wedding cake flowers to avoid continually changing one’s mind even when the cake decision is already finished.

Without a doubt, wedding occasions require a great deal of planning and forethought before they can become successfully executed. There is a need to keep track of the places one visits, the vendors that are interviewed as well as keeping track of various offers made. You also need to sign a contract. All this will require keeping a good planning book in which to file information and which should act as a guide in the organization of the wedding that one desires. For the best in weddings, one may need to be informed about good wedding planners and the name of the Bravo wedding organizer should easily come to mind.

A Front Runner in Reliable Wedding Planners

The Bravo wedding planner and organizer is certainly the front runner when it comes to picking a reliable name in wedding planning and organizing. This is a three-ring binder that is able to save on flyaway papers, and it also has place to store business cards. The timeline sheets are appealing and brides-to-be find it especially helpful. The Bravo wedding planner also has place for listing questions that need to be asked off vendors and because these are so helpful, they pay back the cost of the planner several times.

The Bravo wedding planner contains, among other things, a detailed time schedules as well as checklists that include ticking boxes against individual events such as announcing engagements, printing and mailing engagement announcements. Other important events one can tick when completed include selecting a wedding date and time, deciding on ceremony and making an appointment with the clergy to reserve the location where the ceremony is to take place and also conduct rehearsals, if required.

The cover of the Bravo wedding planner is especially striking and it informs the user that there is everything included within pertaining to a wedding such as calendars, time schedules, contracts as well as lists that can be used for delegating duties. It is touted to be a professional and step-by-step system that enables the user to keep track of every detail related to making the wedding occasion a resounding success.

On the back cover of the Bravo wedding planner, is detailed all of the features that this wonderful book contains and one can easily find that all aspects related to the wedding are covered and use the table of contents to located particular features. One can easily purchase the Bravo wedding planner at online stores or at a local bookstore where this wonderful aid to wedding planning, is sure to be in stock.