Thursday, August 2, 2007

Make Your Wedding Memorable

It’s a blur of white lace, pink taffeta, and a bunch of hot men in tuxedos. Something to keep in mind while planning a wedding is that all weddings are pretty much the same, unless one is memorably different of course. Sounds simple enough, but how does one create a wedding that significantly differs from the standard blushing bride, white dress, classy bridesmaids, perfect setting, to be followed by a bunch of food, heavy drinking, and a gift of about $100 per person? What’s the trick to turning the tradition of marriage into something that varies enough from tradition to make it new, different, exciting, and memorable?

Details are important, but they’re not always the answer. If you bedazzle everything with pink Swarovski crystals, no one will care that you spent thousands on your decorations when they try to remember your wedding three months later. If you tie a gold bow around every chair, waiter, fork, and hors d'oeuvres at the reception, people might chuckle and appreciate the theme but few will truly remember the elegance that you tried so hard to create when they think of drunk Uncle Bob with a gold bow around his head. Rent designer chandeliers and they’ll stare in awe for 10 seconds before they dance, get drunk, and forget the elegance that’s hanging above. Bottom line is that it’s become commonplace to impress your wedding guests with a pricey, entertaining, and elaborate reception. In order to make a memory, you need to send them home with a little bit of a reminder of how sophisticated and marvelous your wedding really was.

So here you are, the blushing bride, in dire need of some wedding favour ideas. You’ve booked the photographer, you’ve purchased and altered the perfect dress, and everything is in place with the budget. Your main concern right now might be going overboard and wasting too much money on something small that people might just throw away. The trick is knowing your guests and hoping that they know you too; chose something personal and meaningful to you and your guests and the chances of those tiny $2 treasures getting tossed in the trash will hopefully be slim to none.

When giving away favours at your wedding, you’re automatically going to lean towards the item that is cute, pretty, and goes with the theme of everything you’ve already paid for. It’s a fun and unique idea to lean towards the “functional” aspect of the item rather than the visual. Does it do something? Do you need batteries for it? Is someone going to put it in their purse, take it home, and have a place for it on their shelf? Maybe it’s a paperweight and can be used in an office. Maybe it’s a decorative soap in a functional color that would match almost any bathroom.

If it’s a disposable camera or a picture frame, then the guest is almost guaranteed to keep it with them. The disposable camera idea benefits the guests and the married couple because each guest will be certain to have a camera’s worth of pictures to look back on in an album for years to come, and negatives can be mailed to the bride and groom in order to reproduce candid shots taken at their own party.

The most important tip on getting it right with the wedding favours is choosing a favour that truly shows your appreciation of having each person as your guest. Give them the outstanding wedding that they were expecting, and send them home with a special little token of your gratitude and they will surely remember your soiree for years to come.

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