Bridal Shower Tips

The maid of honor is usually in charge of planning the Bridal Shower.

If the Bride has not invited a person to the Wedding Ceremony, then do not ask them to come to the Bridal Shower.

Co-ed showers, which are usually thrown at night and are more similar to a traditional engagement party, are very common now– so if the Bride likes that idea ( and the Groom!)–the go for it!

Showers usually take place four to eight months before the wedding day in order to ensure the bride isn’t completely overwhelmed with scheduling right before the big day. If multiple showers are being thrown, the more time that’s given the better. You want the bride’s shower to be special, not another thing she has to stress over.

Formal invitations are expected for bridal showers. If you’re following a specific theme, make sure to either utilize it in the look of the invitation or mention it within. While the invites can include an insert mentioning the couple’s website and gift registry, it’s best not to include that information on the invitation itself.

Though many showers incorporate games and themes, neither of these are necessary. Just make sure that whatever is chosen works for the brides and keeps in mind that women of all ages will be attending.

Jenna Bush Wearing Oscar De La Renta Wedding Gown

While there is no media coverage supposedly at the wedding of Jenna Bush and Henry Hager in Texas today, designer Oscar de la Renta did confirm that he designed the wedding gown Jenna will be wearing. The very special wedding dress is said to be a structured organza gown with embroidery and a hint of matt beading.

Bush’s decision to wear Oscar de la Renta is certainly no surprise. The bride-to-be’s mother, First Lady Laura Bush, is a fan and has worn several of de la Renta’s designs to various public functions.

Jenna Bush will be getting married in an evening ceremony at her family’s Crawford, Texas, ranch.

And the Bridesmaids? Lela Rose, who designed both Jenna and Barbara Bush’s outfits for their father’s second term inauguration in January 2005, confirmed that she is designing 14 chiffon dresses for Bush’s wedding party in various shades; sister Barbara is technically the only bridesmaid. For Barbara, Rose designed a moonstone blue silk shimmer soft long gown with a fluttered open back. The dress is accented with a silver sash to complement those used for the house party’s dresses.

Jenna Bush is Getting Married Today

I’m sure you’ve heard the Big White House News by now that Jenna Bush is getting married today! Well, if you, like me, did not get an invitation, you can sill have some wedding fun, courtesy of The Associated Press. They have put together a wedding quiz in honor of Jenna’s Big Day. So get in the wedding spirit, and see how well you do!

1. How many bridesmaids will be in Jenna Bush’s wedding?

2. Where will Jenna Bush and Henry Hager be married?

3. Who was the last child of a president to get married while their father was still in office?

4. How many children of presidents have been married during their father’s presidency?

5. How many weddings of presidents’ children have been held while their father was in office?

6. Who was the only president to be married at the White House?

7. Who designed Jenna Bush’s dress?

8. How many children of presidents have chosen to be married at the White House?

9. Who is Jenna Bush’s maid of honor?

10. Who was the only child to get married in the Rose Garden while their father was president?

11. Whose wedding in 1966 featured a 300-pound cake?

12. Who was the only son of a president married at the White House?

And the answers…

1. 14. These women are not called bridesmaids, but members of the “house party.”

2. At President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.

3. Dorothy Bush, the daughter of former President George H.W. Bush. After divorcing her first husband, Dorothy was quietly married for the second time on June 26, 1992, at Camp David.

4. 21. Jenna Bush is the 22nd.

5. 22. Jenna Bush is 23. Elliot Roosevelt, son of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, married two times while his father was in office.

6. President Grover Cleveland. Presidents John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson also were married during their presidencies, but their wedding ceremonies were held elsewhere.

7. Oscar de la Renta.

8. Nine. The first was 17-year-old Maria Hester Monroe on March 9, 1820.

9. Her twin sister, Barbara Bush.

10. Tricia Nixon married Edward Cox in an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony in 1971 that boosted the popularity of her father, President Nixon.

11. Luci Baines Johnson, the youngest daughter of President Johnson, was married to Patrick Nugent at the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception in Washington, but had a reception at the White House that included a 300-pound cake decorated with swans.

12. John Adam II, son of John Quincy Adams. He was one of three brothers who were at one time engaged to the same young lady, Mary Hellen, their own first cousin.

Source: “All the President’s Children” by Doug Wead.

My Big Redneck Wedding

Now I have seen it all. I wrote a post the other day where I talked about a few of the wedding shows that are on television but this one takes the cake (no pun intended). CMT has a wedding show called My Big Redneck Wedding and the host is none other than Tom Arnold - Roseanne Barr’s ex-husband. If you can’t tell from the title of the show what types of weddings these are, who the host is ought to tip you off.

Late this afternoon I was relaxing a while after having painted my bathroom most of the day when I turned on this wedding show and was absolutely mortified by what I saw.

The bride-to-be was decorating her archway with beer cans. When she realized that she wasn’t going to have enough beer cans to finish it, her fiance sat down and drank a bunch of beers (and yes, we heard the burps, too) so that she could fill the empty holes in th archway. To match the beer laden archway, the couple chose to have their bridal floral arrangements placed in beer cans. The groom then walked outside of the floral shop and urinated his fiancee’s name on the blacktop right in public. It was disgusting. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

Then the bride’s wedding dress was delivered via FedEx. Who in the world orders a wedding dress online? She needed a size 28 dress and the dress came in a size 8. Her fiance was trying to get her stuffed in a dress that was many sizes too small.

On the wedding day the bride awoke and realized that she couldn’t find something very important - her teeth. Thank God the teeth were found before she walked down the aisle. Then to end their reception the couple rode together on a mechanical bull.

This show is one that I will not watch again.

Plus Size Wedding Gowns

It used to be that when you walked into a bridal boutique all you would see were racks and racks of size 8 or smaller dresses. Times are changing and finally a plus size woman can find something to try on at some of your larger wedding dress boutiques. The fashion and wedding industry still has a long way to go to accommodating plus size women but things are getting better. While some stores, such as David’s Bridals, are carrying samples of plus size gowns a lot of your bridal boutiques are still only carrying sample sizes, which are usually a size 8.

How humiliating it can be for someone who is a size 20 or 22 to not have any larger sample to try than a size 8?

Just because a lot of women are plus size it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to be treated special when they walk into a boutique to find a wedding dress. Approximately 30% of the U.S. is obese and 70% of women are size 12 and over so the bridal industry has had to start creating larger sizes to keep up with the demand.

Some other places plus size women can get their wedding gowns besides David’s Bridals is Lane Bryant, Plus Size Bridal and House of Brides.

Going Out of the Ordinary

For those of you that want to break traditions for weddings, there are definitely ways that you can do it. Sure, a lot of people work towards the day when they can wear the white dress, have the flower girls, the bridesmaids and grooms men all lined up. However, if that isn’t in your book of dreams, there are other options.

I saw a great wedding concept the other day from someone who got married a couple of years ago. I don’t know if she got fed up with who were trying to be in the wedding, because they were all heckling over the places, how it should take place, what should happen and how it should happen or if she just thinks way outside of the box. But she made the rule that she did not want any humans to be in her wedding.

So, her wedding contribution wasn’t just the dress that she had. It was also the flower girls, which happened to be her dog and her husband’s dog. Yes, a little strange, but flawless. She actually got both of them flower dresses to walk down the aisle with. This was combined with an invention that she made, called Pawsitively Purrfect. You attach it to the dog with a little cart and as they walk down the aisle, it distributes the wedding pedals. You can look it up online, she has a website for it.

That, of course, was combined with a very different set of spiritual concepts for the wedding and a new set of rules for what they decided to do for the entire ceremony.

So, in case you don’t actually want to have the traditional wedding, now you have an excuse while you are planning to go as far out there with untraditional things as you desire…and to enjoy it in the process.

Happy planning!

Shades of Green: Your Reception Dinner

One place couples spend an extraordinary amount of money is on their reception dinner. From flower arrangements to gourmet catering, your bill can easily run $300 a plate. The cost of organic, hormone-free, free range and local foods can raise your costs substantially … but what if you take out the meat?

It isn’t rare for meats, seafood and poultry to make up most of the cost of the basic reception dinner (minus the champagne and cake). You may find you’re able to save on your overall dinner expenses by taking meats out of the picture entirely, giving you enough wiggle room to afford higher quality fruits, grains and vegetables.

The following is a partial list of meal suggestions from Hudson Valley Weddings:

Sides, Hors d’oeuvres, Buffet Foods

artichokes filled with fennel and yellow and red tomatoes
baba ghanouj
black bean spread
empanadas
falafel
finger sandwiches
fluted tomato and basil tarts
fruit trays
grilled Portabello mushroom sandwiches
guacamole
hummus
mushroom and leek empanadas
potatoes (baked, mashed, fried)
rice pilaf
roasted vegetables
samosas
sesame noodles
stir-fried Sugar Snap peas with shiitake mushrooms
stuffed grape leaves
stuffed mushrooms

Entrees

fusili primavera in marinara sauce
garden lasagna
marinated vegetables
mini-quiches
morel-stuffed enchiladas
mushrooms with asparagus and a melange of sweet bell peppers and herbs potato pancakes
pasta with creamy or tomato based primavera
penne with marinara
spicy ratatouille served over rice
stuffed cabbage
stuffed peppers
stuffed squash
vegetable stir-fry
vegetable skewers with garlic and rosemary
wild mushroom ragout with fettucine

Wedding Shows on Television

If you love weddings and everything about them, all you have to do to get your fill is turn on the television and pick your choice of shows! I never knew until recently how many wedding related television series were available. I love to watch some of these. I am not someone who would make a good wedding planner but I like to see the different ideas and themes that the couples and planners come up with together.

Here are a few of the wedding shows that I found on television that you can tune into when you have the time!

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway? is on the Style channel and it is an hour-long show that details the bride and groom’s wedding preparations with the help of their wedding planner. The show features their wedding planners and what it is like to have their job. I surely wouldn’t want it!

Bridezillas

Bridezillas is on the WE Network and this show features the worst brides-to-be that there possibly can be. I hope that these brides on this show are terribly embarrassed when they watch the episode they appear on because they are just plain nuts in my opinion.

Most of the brides on this show are bridezillas times two and if I was in their wedding party or part of their wedding, I would drop out. They don’t deserve to have a nice wedding day with the way they act.

Bulging Brides

Bulging Brides is another WE Network show. Bulging Brides features women who are too big for their wedding dresses and they only have six weeks to get into them. Most of the women buy their dresses too small thinking that they will have plenty of time to lose the weight and/or inches needed to make them fit properly.

The show features a nutritionist and a trainer who gets the brides to alter their diets and to pick up their exercise level so that they can fit into their dress on their big day.

Shades of Green: RSVPs

Years ago, I remember a bridal consultant telling us potential new brides to save money in various ways. One was to Not include stamps on RSVP cards (as most people don’t bother to send them back, regardless). This represents one small way you can lessen the environmental impact of your wedding … without really diminshing its quality.

Traditional wedding invitations have (1) an outer envelope, (2) an invitation card, (3) a reception card, and (4) a response card. These four parts could easily, and without much of an impact, have only three … maybe two.

Instead of including a response card, couples have a few options to consider. You can request on the reception card, or invitation, that people RSVP by phone. You can also enlist a friend or relative to start calling your guests on your behalf. For that matter, you can do it all online. Joyce posted earlier about keeping traditional invitations but using recycled products, as well.

Big days often come with big celebrations, but they can trip up couples who are environmentally minded. Cutting down on paper waste is one small way of making a difference without making a huge impact on your festivities.

Couple Showers instead of Bridal Showers

Many couples are having couple showers instead of traditional bridal showers. The focus is on the union of the couple and spending time together with friends and family prior to the wedding. This is a great way to celebrate the upcoming wedding and involve both the bride and groom.

Variety of Gifts

When you are attending a couple shower, consider doing two small gifts or one gift that can be used by the couple together. For example, you could get the bride and groom a new television set or car stereo for their couple shower gift. If your budget is smaller, perhaps a nice gift basket for a romantic picnic or night at home movie basket with popcorn and a rental movie gift card would be nice.

Another option is to get the bride something small and the groom something small. This would still fit your budget but allow each one to have their own separate present at the couple shower.

Fun Games

There are many fun couple shower games that you can play for this type of event. The key is to have games that both male and female guests can play together. You could do sherades with a focus on the wedding theme. A wedding trivia game would also be fun to play.

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