Choose Your Wedding Bouquet

Bouquets of flowers have always been one attraction at any wedding. Bouquets are already part of the wedding tradition on all races. A bouquet of flowers symbolizes a blossoming maiden and reflects her emotions.

Therefore, wedding bouquets should be carefully selected and planned the same way you plan for your wedding gown. Here are just a few tips in choosing your wedding bouquet:

1. It is recommended that you choose a flower that is on season to save money and time. This will not give you hard time trying to order the flower as well.

2. You can choose other alternatives like silk flowers especially if the flower you would like to use is not in season. Silk flowers are also suited in formal weddings; fresh picked flowers may not fit a very formal party.

3. Your bouquet should not drown you. Be sure that it will not cover your figure. If you are petite, the weight of the flower might be too heavy for your built and may affect your posture and how you carry your gown. Remember that your bouquet should not be too big so as not to cover your elegant gown and should be easy to carry.

4. The flowers you chose should last for the entire day. Make sure that your flowers still hold up even at the end of the day so that you will still look glamorous when taken pictures. Using a bouquet holder is suggested to keep the flowers fresh during the entire day. Also take the advice of your florist on which flowers easily wilt so that you can avoid choosing them.

5. Don't let your florist imagine the flower design you like. You may take a picture or a printed copy of the bouquet style you prefer. Also bring a sample fabric of the gowns so that the florist can choose the correct shade of flower that will match the color of the gowns. Some bouquets may be decorated with ribbons, lace and silk materials. You can advise the florist on what specific designs would you like to add for your flowers.

6. Why not choose a flower that has special meaning? That will not be difficult since most flowers have their meanings. Stephanotis stands for happiness in marriage, Rose means love and being true, and Tulips stand for perfect love and declaration of love.

7. One of the first things to consider when opting for a bouquet is the style. Choose the bouquet style that will suit you and your personality. Bouquets are more personal nowadays and reflect the brides' personalities. For Nosegays, where flowers are clustered in a round form, can vary in sophistication and will fit any personality. In Cascade bouquets, flowers are arranged in a descending form. These bouquets are voluptuous and can be the center of attention.

They are recommended for traditional weddings. There are flowers where stems are wrapped around in ribbons and they are called Hand-tied bouquets. These bouquets bring a casual aura and are recommended for garden weddings. There are also Contemporary bouquets where flowers are arranged in style but with no geometric form. These arrangements of flowers represent the individuality of a bride and are mostly used in sophisticated weddings.

8. The top wedding flowers are Rose, Lilly, Orchid, Hyacinth, Tulip, Stephanotis and Daisy. You may want to follow the trend and choose these flowers for your bouquet.

Wedding Etiquette: - Summarized

Unique Wedding Program Etiquette and Wedding Announcement Etiquette

Looking for solutions for your specialized wedding needs? Whether you are planning a traditional or contemporary wedding, we have unique wedding program etiquette and wedding announcement etiquette suggestions for you here!

Other Wedding Stationery Etiquette

So you have selected your wedding invitations, and you feel like you are done with the wedding stationery. Think again! There is also wedding program etiquette, wedding place card etiquette and wedding announcement etiquette to attend to. If you want your programs, place cards and announcements to all reflect the theme of your wedding and have a design and style to complement your wedding invitations, you should consider having them designed together.

Wedding Programs Etiquette

If you are having a ceremony that not all of your guests will be familiar with, such as a religious ceremony or a unique ceremony that incorporates cultural rites, you may want to consider putting together a wedding program. Even unique fairy-tale-type nuptials require some sort of wedding program so guests can follow along and know where they are in the time line of the entire ceremony.

Any program should include the processional, service components and explanations of any ceremonial elements that may be unfamiliar.

Wedding Place Card Etiquette

Seated dinners of more than 20 guests typically require place cards to help them find the right seats. Typically designed to match the rest of your wedding stationery, these place cards can be pre-printed or hand written. The most common way to introduce place cards to guests is by placing them on a table at the entrance. All names will be in alphabetical order with a table number so the guests can guide themselves to their tables in an organized fashion.

More upscale weddings often employ a host of ushers that guide guests to their tables according to a guest list and seating chart. Once there, the guests will find that their place cards are already in place.

Wedding Announcements Etiquette

As a good rule of thumb, wedding announcements, while not required, should be sent to acquaintances, friends and relatives who were not invited to the wedding, but may show an interest in your marriage. A good audience would be your co-workers or distant relatives. A common mistake is sending these announcements to guests who were invited to the wedding.

Wedding announcements should be sent within a few weeks after the wedding. In a perfect world, they'll all be sent within the first few days following.

The wording and design of the announcement will be similar to what you used on the invitation. If you chose a more traditional invitation where the parents did the "inviting" then that's the way it should be on the announcement. However, more modern couples choose to have the invitation-and announcement-come from them rather than their parents.

Thank You Cards Etiquette

Thank you cards are perhaps the most forgotten part of the wedding. Couples concentrate so heavily on the ceremony and reception and all of their collective elements that they forget post-wedding courtesy.

Many couples choose to have their thank you cards printed to match the rest of their wedding stationery. While not required as a matter of etiquette, this is often a good idea.

Everyone who attended the wedding should get a thank you card-whether they brought you a gift or not. If they did bring a gift, it's okay to mention the gift specifically in the thank-you card. If they didn't bring a gift, then thank them for attending.

Couples or families who received one invitation should get one thank you card rather than sending one thank you card per individual.

Whether you are ordering announcements, thank you cards, programs, invitations or other stationery, it is a good idea to order everything together in order to save money and assure the designs are consistent.

Wedding Etiquette For Brides

Whether we admit it or don't Wedding Etiquette is still an important issue to many of us. Don't you hear yourself complaining for some weddings that you have attended? Maybe you have heard some friends who have attended a wedding ceremony and learning after the rites that he or she was not invited for the wedding reception.

Although it is acceptable and is within the Wedding Etiquette standard to invite some guests only at the wedding reception and some only at the wedding reception, the guests should be informed of this fact before hand. These instances want us to shout: Learn some manners!

For brides out there who are getting married next year, it will be for your own good if you would buy Emily Post's book on Wedding Etiquette. It will teach you the Wedding Etiquette basics and Wedding Etiquette blunders. Knowing what violates and follows Wedding Etiquette will help you go through your big day, hassle and stress free.

Basic Wedding Etiquette for Brides

- On what to wear.

Modern Wedding Etiquette allows brides to wear any design that she want in any color. Brides are not anymore limited to wearing ultra white wedding dress with sleeves. They may wear a tube, halter or spaghetti strapped wedding dress in cream beige or pastel colors.

But for the sake of Wedding Etiquette, she should also consider her cultural background and her church's dress requirement. If your church requires you to wear a shawl over a tube wedding dress, then you must do so.

If the minister or priest thinks that your red wedding dress is inappropriate for the church and ask you to replace your $10,000 designer wedding dress for a white wedding dress, then you should take it off and buy a white ready-to-wear wedding gown at Macy's.

- On who to invite.

It is a basic Wedding Etiquette for a bride to talk to her groom on who and who are not to invite. Remember that the is the two of you who will get married, not only you. It will be a violation of Wedding Etiquette if you will invite persons your groom do not want to get invited or do not want to see, such as your old flame or his old boss that he had an argument even though you are in speaking terms with his old boss. It is not just about Wedding Etiquette, it is in fact about the issue of respect.

If it is your second marriage, you should not invite your ex-spouse or your ex-parents-in-law. Even if you are in good terms with your ex, Wedding Etiquette dictates that you should not invite them. This is to avoid unnecessary confrontations or wedding drama. Your guest will also feel uncomfortable around your ex.

But there is an exception to this Wedding Etiquette. If your children to your ex-spouse has requested for the presence of their father, then you should talk about it with your groom. If he agrees, then invite your ex to your wedding. But there is an alternative to this, however.

You can invite your guest for a dinner at your home after your wedding or honeymoon. This private dinner is more quiet and will save you the trouble of explaining to your father and mother and other close guests why your ex-husband is in your wedding.

- On gift giving and registry.

It is a big Wedding Etiquette no-no to ask for cash gifts from your guests. Although it is a reality that newlyweds need cash as a startup money since they need to rent a bigger place or buy new appliances that the two of them needs, you don't want to look like a greedy bride for asking for some cash.

Let them decide what to give. If they have decided to give you cash, then say your thanks. But don't ever ask them to fund a mortgage or fund a charity that you will establish as a wedding gift.

Registry card is acceptable although modern Wedding Etiquette objects to insertion of the registry card in the invitation. Wedding Etiquette specialists say that brides should put up an online registry card and inform your guests through your invitation that you have an online registry and they may want to look it up in case they would decide to buy you gifts from your registry.

Wedding Etiquette Advice For Guests

Many times, people who are invited to weddings end up complaining about the bridegroom and the bride, the outcome of the wedding, the food, the ambiance and all other odds. However, people tend to forget that even they have to follow certain codes of conduct while attending a wedding.

Some of the wedding decorum which ought to be followed by guests attending the ceremony is as discussed below. These would help you brush up your manners so that you can socialize and grace the occasion in a better way.

Immediate response to the invitation is vital.

It is the duty of the guests to inform the bride or the groom about their presence in the wedding as soon as they receive the invite. This would help the couple in getting rid of a whole deal of tension. Some people are too ignorant to respond to the situation while some turn up without notice while some call up just a couple of days prior to the wedding to inform that they would not be able to make it to the wedding.

Wedding Etiquette suggestion 1 says that this is totally unfair. Couples are no more asking their fathers to bear the brunt of the wedding. Instead, they are funding their wedding themselves.

So, it is the duty of the guest to give correct information regarding their presence on the wedding of the couple so that their money does not get wasted. Couples need to be clear of the exact number of people who would be attending the wedding, so that they can fit all the expenses within their budget in the best way possible and also save money wherever possible.

And in case the couple or the bride or the groom have individually added you in the in list for a sit down dinner, they will have to pay for you even if you fail to make it to the wedding.

The above wedding etiquette ought to be followed if you don’t want to be referred to as an uncultured brute. Thus it is very important to acknowledge the invitation from a couple at least two weeks prior to the wedding.

Make sure you dress suitably!

Even though being fashionable is a good thing, this suggestion calls for you to dress according to the type and location of the wedding. This suggestion comes coon after the suggestion asking you to respond to the invitation because, once you decide to attend a wedding, the next thought in your mind would be deciding what you would wear for the occasion.

This Wedding Etiquette helps you in not looking like an impostor in your best friend’s wedding where everyone else has dressed accordingly.

This suggestion on Wedding Etiquette calls for you to wear the most apt dress for the wedding you are going to attend. Women can go with a pretty cocktail dress or a nice Sunday dress for an informal wedding while men can wear their suit. However, the tie can be forgone. The top button can be left open and the sleeves can be rolled up for a more casual look. Just make sure you steer clear of jeans and tank-tops.

Greeting the newlyweds:

The newlyweds will really look forward to your greetings as they would like you to feel happy for them. This is a very kind and pleasant attitude. Just make sure you send a best wishes note to the bride and/or a congratulations note to the bridegroom.

The Basics of Wedding Etiquette

Wedding Etiquettes are not over and done. They are as significant and crucial as they always have been. Though people consider that rules are meant to be broken, certain rules cannot be bent after a certain extent and Wedding Etiquettes belong to this kind. Every one of us will still agree that Wedding Etiquettes are still being followed in some way or the other.

The history of Wedding Etiquettes dates back to the Victorian era which takes us back to the early nineteenth century, the 1800s to be precise. The Victorians were sharp, decorous and knowledgeable which made them do everything in the most orderly and the most appropriate manner possible. They valued social behavior and manners and thus had a proper Etiquette for doing things including marriages. It should be noted that a number of books on Wedding Etiquette were published during this period.

Every country, every culture and every creed in the world follows its own set of Wedding Etiquettes. Some of them might be common while many of them might be different and distinctive to a particular culture.

The fundamental Wedding Etiquettes that we are altering and employing as per our requirements and wishes, basically belongs to the Victorians. All the primary Wedding Etiquettes used by the westerners have been inherited from the Victorians.

A great deal about Wedding Etiquette has been emphasized in the book on Wedding Etiquette by the renowned Miss Manners, Emily Post. Discussed below are few very important primary aspects of Wedding Etiquettes relating to conceiving an invitation, distribution of invitation to family and friends, etiquette to be followed while acknowledging the invite, in attending the ceremony, protocol for guests and the gifting manners.

1. The Bridegroom And The Bride

Decision has to be made regarding the degree of formality of the marriage ceremony. In case a formal ceremony is planned, the invite being sent must be formally addressed. If it’s just going to be close family and friends, an informal invite would do.

Invites should be sent at least four to six weeks prior to the wedding and in case of a destination wedding, a save a date card has to be sent to all the guests seven to nine months preceding the date of the wedding giving them ample time to prepare themselves for the ceremony monetarily as well as bodily.

A bride has to stick to the dress code of the church in case the wedding is set to take place at the church. Otherwise, she is free to choose the design and color of her wedding gown. ? The groom may sport a black tie or a suit. In case of a beach wedding, beige pants can also be worn.

Cash gifts should not be asked for, by the couple. Online wedding registry must be mentioned in the invitation. The registry card must not be enclosed with the invitation.

The mother or the step-mother, who ever is dearer to the bride must be seated in the first pew. If both of them are equally chummy, the mother should be made to sit in the first pew.

2. If You Are The Guest

Acknowledgment of receipt of invitation should be given as soon as possible within a couple of weeks before the wedding. It should also be made known to the couple if you would be attending the wedding or not, so that the couple can calculate the number of persons whose presence would be there for the luncheon or dinner, as the case may be.

In case of a formal invite, it is implied that the guests have to be dressed formally. In such a case, evening gowns should not be worn by women.

Guests are not indebted to get a gift as per the registry and they are not compelled to send gifts if they cannot be present for the wedding.

Lastly, in case they are planning to send gifts to the couple, it has to be sent to their new address within one year of the wedding.

Wedding Etiquette : What Not To Wear!

- Anything too revealing and sexy.

- A dark colored outfit for a morning wedding.

- White should be dissuaded. Especially, a white colored outfit without any prints. This is because, it would steal the limelight away from the bride.

- Jeans

- Tattered and tainted dress must not be worn.

- Too small or too big dresses are also out of question.
- If the wedding is a religious one, sleeveless and strapless dresses are to be avoided. Bare shoulders have to be covered.

Suitable Etiquette For Wedding Guests

-Punctuality is vital. It is necessary to be present in the venue of the wedding at least fifteen minutes before the start of the ceremonies so that there is enough time to find a seat and settle down.

- Purity of the wedding has to be preserved. Guests should avoid clicking pictures. They should rather let the photographers do their task properly.

- Gifts need not be brought to the venue of the wedding. They can rather be delivered to the house of the couple anytime within one year from the date of wedding.

- In case of failure to make it to the wedding, the gift becomes an essential.

- Bringing uninvited guest is considered discourteous. Bringing is permitted only if it has been mentioned in the invite.

- Getting drunk at a wedding reception is disrespectful and offensive.

- Unwanted mingling with people you hardly know should also be avoided.

Wedding Etiquette: Outfits For Wedding

There is a unique style that can be followed for every other wedding you attend depending on the location, the time and the season. If the wedding invitation is addressed formally, it implies that the guests are required to dress formally for the occasion. On the other hand, a casual invite suggests that the guests can dress casually for the wedding.

For selecting what to wear, the wedding location can be of great help. For a beach wedding or a wedding in a lawn, steer clear of high heels as they tend to sink in the sand and the grass respectively. For an outdoor wedding, very light dresses have to be shunned as they tend to get caught with the wind. A subtle dress can be worn for a wedding at a warm and humid location. However, if the wedding is to take place at a club or a five-star restaurant, you can prefer being wearing a tailored suit or any other dressy outfit.

# Outfits For The Sunshine Wedding

For the 40+ women

1. A nice fitted skirt with a sweater and sling back shoes.
2. A suit in a subtle color which is not too formal.
3. A dress with a nice floral pattern.
4. A striking hat which would go well with the outfit and would compliment it.

For the 40+ men

1. A linen or seersucker suit in a light color is the most apt outfit for a summer wedding.
2. For winter weddings, go for darker shades and warmer fabrics. Woolen suits, charcoal pants, ties and a sweater beneath the blazer are a nice option.
3. A blazer together with a dress shirt, pants and a tie is another elegant option.
4. If the wedding is before 6pm, a tuxedo can be adorned.
5. For a wedding which is formal, a dark colored suit is the best bet.


# OUTFITS FOR THE EVENING WEDDING

For the 40+ women

1. Dressing for an evening wedding should be similar to the way we dress for a theatre ordinner.
2. An elegant and not so revealing cocktail number in black is an excellent option.
3. A dressy cocktail suit is also a safe bet.
4. Sequins and beads are to be avoided if the wedding is a formal one.
5. Darker colors would help present your self in a more sophisticated way.

For the 40+ men

1. For a semi-formal or casual wedding, slacks coupled with blazer and a matching tie can be sported.
2. Suits in dark colors are always accepted and most preferred.

# FOR THE FORMAL WEDDING

For the 40+ women

1. A gorgeous cocktail dress touching the floor.

For the 40+ men

1. The dress should be really formal.
2. Tuxedo is the best option for such an occasion.