Simple Stunning Weddings: Designing and Creating Your Perfect Celebration

The three biggest trends in weddings are simplicity, personalization, and colour! Wedding designer and expert Karen Bussen focuses on these elements as she shows couples how to design their own weddings without going crazy or broke. Simple Stunning Weddings is the first wedding design book to focus on the WHERE of the event. Location is the first and most important decision; everything else flows from it. Bussen then shows how to create unifying themes with colour, flowers, and personal touches; how to talk to vendors; how to decide where to spend the wedding budget; how to adapt the design for every budget – for example, by changing tablecloths from silk to cotton; striking flower arrangements that use only one or two flower types, which

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Popular Winter Wedding Shower Gifts

The winter wedding has become more popular as time goes on. It used to be that the majority of couples married in the summer. But today’s couples marry year-round – with many choosing to marry during the winter. The winter is a magical and very romantic time. Couples often choose to marry in the winter as it holds many holidays and celebrations ideal for gathering families. You can easily have the family gather to celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza or New Year’s Eve and also celebrate the couple’s wedding.

There are some wedding shower gifts that are simply more popular in the winter than others. It is ideal to give one of these to the wedding couple as it will always remind them of their wedding season and day. Every year as the time of their wedding approaches, they will use your wedding shower gift and smile as these happy memories come back. Your thoughtful gift can play a special part in evoking those touching memories – and even creating new ones!

Keep in mind that the very best wedding shower gift is one that the couple will enjoy and use. Don’t give kitchen gadgets to the couple that loves to only eat out at restaurants. Don’t give fitness equipment to the couch potato couple. You get the idea. A wedding shower gift should celebrate the couple as they are – and especially give them something that they can enjoy together or do as an entire family or with other company over.

Winter sport lessons are one of the best winter wedding shower gift ideas for today’s couple. Many couples are trying to stay active, and your gift can help them do this. There are many winter sports. Try looking at skiing, ice skating or even long distance hiking. Snowboarding may appeal to especially active couples. Match the sport to the couple’s personality and tastes.

Cooking gadgets are a perfect winter time gift. The classic crock-pot has been making a big comeback in recent year – this gift is a fun one for new couples. There are so many delicious meals you can make with your crock-pot, knowing that your meal will be ready when you come home at the end of the day. A waffle maker is another sweet idea offering an indulgent treat. A fancy espresso maker or very good coffee maker is another great idea. Cooking gadgets are terrific for so many couples, especially those on the go. Couples with children will also appreciate cooking gadgets as they will help them make delicious meals.

Holiday decorations are another excellent choice. Many religions have winter holidays and most couples will want to decorate their homes to celebrate the holidays. Starting a home together means sharing your traditions with each other. New holiday decorations is a wonderful way to enjoy these holidays every day during the season. Remember to keep the couple’s tastes and personalities in mind when choosing holiday decorations. This is especially a season when families create happy memories with each other – and your decorations will help them do so!

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Your Backyard Can Be a Wedding Venue!

For those with backyards, they can make that space an excellent venue for their special day. And a backyard wedding can vary in size and complexity – a lot depends, of course, on just how large your backyard is. There’s another advantage to using your own property for a wedding – you can have a large amount of hard earned money. But there are a lot of factors you have to weigh in when you hold a wedding in your backyard, and this article will help you understand all the things you’ll need to have on hand when you have a backyard wedding.

1. Think Of How Much Room You Have

Consider space, because this is all important in a backyard wedding, especially if your space isn’t all that large. Allocate a certain amount of space per guest, and calculate how many guests can fit into your yard, then edit your guest list accordingly. Factor in waiters and other staff members as well.

2. Don’t Let It Rain On Your Wedding

Special arrangements need to be made in case of an unexpected change in the weather, as in an unexpected rain fall. Remember that if you set up some sort of marquee, the sort that you choose will depend on the amount of yard you need covered.

3. Theming Your Wedding Will Greatly Enhance It

A theme for your celebration is an excellent idea. Depending on the amount of funds you have on hand you can make your special day truly exceptional. And you can do it rather inexpensively – you’d be surprised at what you can accomplish with some paint, art materials and crepe-paper. Imagination is the key, obviously, and the magic and romance that surround any wedding will supply the rest. Involve the family – make refining the theme for your wedding a fun project for everyone – you’ll see that with everyone contributing ideas, you’ll have a crystallized them in no time at all.

4. Cover All The Minor Points To Make Your Event A Success

There’s a lot that goes into making a wedding a successful event, but the nice thing is that people are all willing to help you, so make sure you take advantage of that, and let people handle lesser details while you concentrate on more important ones. One of the most important of all details that need to be arranged is sufficient parking. The easiest way to arrange this is to hire the lot of a nearby community center or church – or almost anywhere with sufficient parking for your purposes. And of course you’ll have to arrange some transport that will bring people to your residence, but that will hardly be a problem. Make sure that you have a backup power supply to cover any failure of electricity. And, elementary though it may sound, ensure that you have enough toilets – you usually need at least four for every hundred people.

5. Improvements To The Yard Will Be Investments For The Future

There are a lot of things you can do to ensure that your backyard is the best place for your wedding, and the nicest part about all this is that you can continue to use these improvements (once you’re married). This is a distinct advantage to being married on your own property. So this is the time to level out the lawn, to fill in those places where water collects each year, to ensure that the patio is polished to look like new. You can even put in some lovely benches and plant a new rock garden – each thing that will do will accentuate both your wedding and the beginnings of your married life. Imagine, after your wedding, having a beautiful, level lawn that is perfectly mowed, with a lovely rock-garden and some beautiful flowering plants. Imagine a beautifully polished patio, with perhaps an interesting swing, and some truly ornamental benches scattered here and there that allow you to enjoy the quiet beauty of your lawn and garden.

6. Work On Improving The Garden

One thing that can truly contribute to the ambiance of your wedding is to have wonderful plants in full bloom around the yard – they can be planted as part of a permanent garden, just ensure that you choose plants that will bloom at the time of your wedding, and they will add so much joy and beauty to the event. And don’t forget to get some best selling cedar porch swings for an aesthetic touch.

7. Music And Lights Set The Mood For Romance

Lighting at a wedding can make such a difference to everything. Not only should you have aesthetics in mind, but also ensure that the house and grounds are adequately lit. Bright lights on the borders of the grounds will ensure that moths don’t enter the grounds themselves. Then some soft yellow lamps around the grounds should add an aura of romance. Put in solar lamps around the walks, to ensure that no area of the grounds is in total darkness. Add to that just the right musical score and you have a wedding that contains all the magic of romance and timeless harmony.

8. Save On Glassware

Buying things like glassware for your wedding from a good discount store can save you a lot of money, but it might even save you more than you realize, if you donate the purchased items to a recognized charity. That counts as a tax-deductible amount, which means you’ll get it back.

9. Cooling Systems Are Important

Remember, if you plan a summer wedding that hot and sweaty people can get irritable, and that’s hardly the tone you want to set for your wedding. So invest in some efficient cooling – there are a lot of good systems available these days.

10. Make Your Wedding Memorable

It’s important to create a video or to take plenty of photographs of your special day. Because you’re having your wedding in your own backyard, each photograph will call up memories of your special day, and each picture will help you remember things that made your day special, moments that made you smile, or even cry, and the people who shared this wonderful day with you. This is something you don’t want to lose, so make sure you hire a professional to record all this for you – you should ideally call in both a photographer and a videographer, to give you a complete record.

About The Man Who Wrote This…

Jay Chua is the publisher of PorchSwingSets.com. He is also a laid-back resident of Vancouver, Canada, and with his wife Deisy, takes a great interest in following trends in gardening and wedding arrangement. He owns a wonderful hatteras hammocks garden swing at his backyard, and enjoyed writing & reviewing hammocks & swings such as the polyester rope hammock.

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