Why Are Wedding Dresses So Expensive?

A friend of mine shared this video with me on Facebook.  It's a great look at why they're so expensive and why you should shop around when you're looking to buy the dress.

http://mobile.slate.com/articles/video/slate_v/2012/04/why_are_wedding_dresses_so_expensive_.html

Have You Registered?

Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of getting married is registering for gifts.  After attending many weddings and showers and filling out my own registries, I have to say that there is no such thing as scanning too many items.  While, at times, it may feel like you're scanning nonstop, it leaves your guests open to many options for picking out gifts.

• The first suggestion I have is to scan often.  I would suggest scanning items right after your engagement and updating your list towards the 8-6 month mark before your wedding as you make purchases or find new things that you may need.  

• My second word of advice would be to scan everything you may think you need.  And I mean this down to the accessories to other items that you have registered for and have not yet received.  This makes it so guests can go in together on a set of gifts, or someone can buy something small if they can't afford something much larger.  Even if you don't receive the large item that the accessories go to, they can be exchanged for something you need. 

•  Another suggestion is to do all of your registering in one day (or two days back to back).  I suggest this because it will make your life infinitely easier while trying to remember what you've already registered for, what you still need, and where things might be cheaper.  The day will be long, but having it all done at once will feel great and can take a great deal of stress off of your shoulders. 

•  Also be sure to give your guests plenty of stores to be able to choose from.  I don't mean going on a spree to all of your favorite stores, but I mean a max of four and a minimum of two.   Prices and store availability will vary based upon where your guests live, so you want to give them as many options as possible.

I hope some of these tips will help you through your registry process!

Help! My Guest List is Too Long!

Is this something you find yourself saying when taking a look at the prices for the reception vs the people you want to invite to take part in your ceremony and reception?  This is a situation that I found myself in this past week as we worked to finalize the guest list (and make sure that we invited the people my parents knew needed to be invited as well).  While creating our guest list, we started with making a list of everyone we wanted to have at our wedding.  This list was huge!  We knew our limit was around 150 people, but this paper list ended up being around 200.  This was even before my parents' list was brought in.  Adding my parents' list brought the number to about 250, and we needed to start making some decisions.  We started with a high lighter, and went through and high lighted the names of family, very close friends, and people who had some part in the wedding day (my friends doing hair, my hairpiece, photographer, wedding party, officiant, etc).  With the absolute essential people taken care of, we moved onto the people who we would like to see come but may not since they're coming in from out of state.  This ended up being around 30 people; we will send them invites, but we're assuming they're not going to make it out (they are counted in our current count right now, so it won't be a big deal if they actually do come).  The final group of people that we colored were the people who would probably be there (those ones who weren't coming from out of state) for the whole night.  This left around 40 people who weren't high lighted, but we had a plan for a few of these.  After some discussion with my event planner at the hotel, I found out that I could have any number of people at the dance, after the dinner has been cleared.  While there are some wedding sites (The Knot being one of them) that say this is tacky, I don't think it actually matters that much.  It's a great way to save money, and if your wedding is at a time of day where some people might still be working (since we're having ours mid-afternoon on a Friday, this could very well be an issue for some people), it assures them that you still want them to be a part of your big day if you invite them to the party after the fact.  I'm also lucking out in this area because we will be having a hosted bar for an hour after the dinner service, so my guests won't miss out on too much (there will also be some extra cake, so they can probably get some of that, too!).

Guest Book Alternatives

After some lengthy discussions with my fiance, we had decided that we wanted to do something unique for our guest book.  Something that stood out.  After some looking, we knew we wanted to do something with wood, particularly a puzzle.

Picture from: http://www.etsy.com/listing/59278633/wedding-guest-book-puzzle-a-guest-book

  We did some investigating, and discovered that a wooden puzzle guest book doesn't quite fit within our allotted budget, so we needed to come up with something creative.  The alternative didn't come to me until last night while I was pricing out invitations with my mother.  Why not take the concept that we were planning on with the puzzle (people signing them and leaving words of wisdom) and change it into letters for our initials?  It's oodles cheaper, and I think it's even more unique.

Picture from: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&safe=off&q=wooden+letters&ix=sea&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1920&bih=955&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=4361804077919321589&sa=X&ei=p0VdT_mbKYmXtwe3zdGFDA&ved=0CJoBEPMCMAI

These letters, along with our unity painting, will decorate our home and will be able to be on display for everyone, not just tucked away into some box that we won't open until our children talk about getting married.

Deciding on Wedding Colors

One of the first things that brides often decide upon is the wedding colors.  Many couples will choose to go with their favorite colors, while others look to a color wheel (and color meanings) and plan very methodically.

Picture from: http://www.rewaj.com/fashion/understand-colors-with-color-wheel.html

For some brides, this may look intimidating, but I think I have a solution for you on how to pick colors that you love and still be happy with them.  Picking the colors that my fiance and I would use was easy for us.  We both share a similar favorite color that we knew we wanted included in the colors.  The slightly more difficult part was deciding on how to pick companion colors (and I knew, unfortunately, that pink was out, so this took a little research on my half).  Since I was planning on picking up bridesmaid dresses from David's Bridal, I started doing some looking on their website for the colors they had available.

Picture is cropped from: http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Strapless-Ruched-Satin-Ball-Gown-F13974_Bridal-Party-Bridesmaids-Long-Bridesmaid-Dresses

While their 44 color selection was a little intimidating, I used a bit of my graphic designer background to pair colors together.  We knew we wanted Clover included, but other than that, we were open to suggestions.  I "print-screened" the image and went to work in Photoshop.  Using the eyedropper, I selected the color I wanted to use and created a large square on another page to give myself enough space to see what other colors would match.  Picking red was an easy decision, but it came down to what shade we wanted to use so that it wouldn't look like Christmas (our wedding is in September, and that would have been a bad idea).  I finally decided on Apple, but then we needed a new color.  Pink was still out, so I started looking towards the blues.  It came down to two:  Marine and Horizon.  This final decision wasn't made until I went to see my bridesmaids at David's Bridal.  I knew that one of the bridesmaids was for sure wearing blue, so I made certain to see her in both colors.  The decision was made on Marine, since the color provided some nice muting to the other colors that we liked and it looked the best with the skin tone of my maid of honor.
I don't necessarily recommend this method for most couples (this took a lot of trust on behalf of my fiance), it was effective and worked.
If you find that you can't include your favorites in the main palette, don't forget that you can include them in the  bouquets and as accent colors.  That is ultimately what we had decided on the Clover color.  The Apple and Marine worked very well together, and we wanted only light touches of Clover.  This allowed us to be able to wear accents of the Clover (I'll have a Clover belt and shoes, and he'll have a Clover vest) without overwhelming everyone with the color.

Photography

When picking a photographer, there are plenty of things that you should look for.  The first thing that many brides look for is price.  I would say that this shouldn't be the first thing you want to look at because there are plenty of times that you're getting only what you pay for (this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we'll go over that later).  Another thing that brides look for is the package details.  This is important, because this details what you're paying for.  There is also the possibility that your photographer won't include a copy of your pictures on a DVD in the lowest package (this isn't common, but it can happen) without paying a fee first.  You will definitely want to find out how many photographers you're going to have on your wedding day.  Multiple photographers means different angles at the ceremony, pictures of the bride AND the groom getting ready (this is especially nice if you're getting ready in separate locations--for a wedding at a hotel, I recommend the groom and groomsmen getting ready in a room at the hotel so that the photographer(s) have an easier time getting pictures of both of you), and two people putting their creative spins on your pictures.
What I'm doing for my wedding is using an amateur photographer.  While there are people who will say that this is a risk, there are plenty of benefits for myself and my photographer.  The benefits to me include  my own creative direction will be taken into account, I'm saving TONS of money, and I know the photographer personally (and we both know what kind of photography the other does).  For the photographer, the biggest benefits are exposure and a direct payment.  This photographer also did my engagement photos, so I know what kind of pictures he takes.

Photo by Alexander King

Perhaps the biggest piece of advice I hope you take away from this is that you need to weigh the risks, decide what you would like to do and how much you would like to spend.  While it is easy to just have someone take pictures with your own digital camera, invest in some sort of photographer, be it professional or amateur.  You don't want to regret the pictures that you have when you look back years later.

Don't forget to change your name!

A Facebook friend of mine put out a nice reminder of all the places you'll want to change your name to avoid issues after you get married!  Here's the link she posted to:

Picture from: http://print-some-sugar.geeksugar.com/New-Brides-Guide-Changing-Her-Name-1793260

They're little things that you might not have thought of before the wedding.

The other thing to be sure of is to get your marriage license more than five days before the wedding.  In Minnesota, you have a five day waiting period before you can retrieve your license (they might even mail it to you, so it could take even longer than that).  Hennepin County lets  you pick it up right away, but you can't use it for five days.  Dakota County lets you do it online, which is nice, but you'll still have the waiting period.  The nice thing is, in Minnesota, that you aren't bound to applying for your license by where you live or where you will be getting married.  If you're taking a honeymoon right after the wedding, you'll have to apply for the name change months before you get married so that it has time to be changed before you leave.  You don't want to be detained by customs on your way to your romantic getaway...that would be embarrassing.