Inspired Favors

You have the groom, the dress, the location, and the flowers but how are you going to show appreciation to your wedding guests for attending the most memorable day of your life? The most popular way to show your guests thanks is a wedding favor waiting for them to take home after your reception.

Coming up with the perfect wedding favor for your guests can become a tedious task. You want, as any bride does, for your favor to be fabulous, memorable, and stand out from all the past wedding favors your guests may have received. Below are some wonderful tips to consider when choosing your perfect fabulous favors:

1. Consider your location
If you are having an outdoor reception you do not want to have chocolates melting as they sit in the heat. If you are having your wedding on the beach consider sending home seashell inspired favors such as a thank you message in a bottle.

2. Consider your couple history
Think about how you met. Did you meet at a football game? Let your family and friends enjoy your history as a couple along with you. Send them home with football inspired monogrammed favors.

3. Consider what you love
Are you both chocolate lovers? If so, consider setting up a candy bar at your reception complete with decorative boxes for your guests to take their candy selections home.

Some of my favorite sites to view creative wedding favors are:

www.favorideas.com

www.beau-coup.com

Photo from: favorideas.com

Wedding Invitations-When to mail them out

One of the first things I ask a bride when I sit down to discuss her wedding and all the beautiful ideas she has dancing in her head is "have you sent out your 'save a date' cards or thought about your invitations?" 'Save the Date' cards is an extremely wonderful way to announce your engagement to family and friends and to also have them start planning their accomodations for your wedding day.

Most of our brides send out these nifty 4x6 'Save the Date' cards but do not know exactly when not only these should be sent out but their invitations as well. So, I figured we would help you out:

'Save the Date' cards should be mailed 1 year prior to your wedding

Invitations should be ordered 4 months prior to your wedding

RSVP date on the invitations should be 2 weeks prior to the wedding

Invitations should be mailed out 4-6 weeks prior to wedding

However, if you have mostly out of town guests you should consider sending out the invitations 8-10 weeks prior to the wedding. By sending your invitations out sooner, your guests will have more time to find lodging accomodations.

Photo by: leahjeanphoto.com

If you are looking for amazing wedding invitations that will go above and beyond any expectations you have, please check out Pearl Beach Paperie at http://www.pearlbeachpaperie.com/. Darcy Sang, the owner of Pearl Beach Paperie, is one of my favorite vendors. She really has a passion for what she does and it shows in the products she displays.

How to Make Your Wedding Stand Out: Unique Wedding Locations

One way to set your wedding apart from any other wedding you have attended or will attend is to choose a unique wedding ceremony and/or reception site. By choosing an unique site, you are already incorporating those details that will leave your guests and you remembering your wedding for years to come.

Where to look for that perfect location:

1. Bed and Breakfasts

2. Your City's Historical Sites

3. Museums and Art Galleries

4. Parks

(Photo by: leahjeanphoto.com)

theknot.com's Real Wedding Awards

We recently entered theknot.com's Real Weddings Awards contest. We entered our two favorite weddings from the fall-Heather's and Mike's wedding and Tasha's and Jeremy's wedding.

We chose to enter these two weddings because they were absolutely breathtaking, from Tasha's romantic castle for her ceremony to Heather's amazing reception decor.. Not only were these weddings perfect in my mind, the couples are so sweet.

Please view our entries and vote at:

http://realweddingawards.theknot.com/photo/view/Tasha-and-Jeremy-2

and

http://realweddingawards.theknot.com/photo/view/Heather-and-Mike

They do not compete against each other so feel free to vote 5 stars on both entries! :)

(Photo by: leahjeanphoto.com)