Trends & Traditions

New wedding themes will also emerge in 2010. Thanks in part to Vera Wang’s 2009 classical design of Ivanka Trump’s dress, I believe we will start to see fewer strapless gowns and more creative accents like feathers. "The stuffy by-the-rule-book wedding of years past has completely vanished. There is a woman in white, music, food, cake and vows - but every other aspect of the American wedding has been reconsidered," reports BRIDES Magazine New American Wedding Survey. Here are some additional statistics from the survey related to emerging wedding trends:
• Fewer than half of weddings take place in a house of worship.
• 20% of couples have a friend or relative deputized to perform the ceremony.
• 13% of receptions feature music via iPod.
• Couples going with live bands are hiring specialty bands such as salsa, R&B and Polka.
• Over 1/4 of couples plan their weddings around a theme.
• 97% of grooms get involved with the planning.
• Soul-food and Mexican are the new go-to wedding cuisines.

Despite the surge in new wedding trends, many old traditions will still live on throughout the next decade. BRIDES Magazine New American Wedding Survey also reported:
• 76% will have a large wedding with all the traditions.
• 87% of women will wear a long white dress.
• 93% will indulge in a cake-cutting ceremony.
• 75% of brides will toss the bouquet and just under that amount will share a father/daughter dance.

Rose Ice Cubes

For a truly romantic evening, whether it’s for Valentine’s Day or an anniversary, show your love with this wine bucket filled with roses encased in ice. They’ll melt any heart.

Is it edible?
Most roses are indeed edible. However, many growers use pesticides on the roses, so avoid putting these ice cubes in drinks unless you’re sure there were no chemicals used. Just use the ice to cool the wine or champagne bottle.

What you’ll need:
(per ice tray)
12 spray roses (the small ones)
12 twist ties
2 wooden skewers
1 ice tray
Floral tape

1. To keep the roses submerged in the ice trays, we have to build a framework that will weigh them down. Cut the spray roses, leaving about 2 inches of stem, and use twist ties to attach the stems to the skewers.

2. Place the roses, which are attached to the skewers, upside down in their individual ice compartments of the tray.

3. Tape down the skewers at the ends of the ice tray to keep everything from floating when you add water. Your ice tray should look like the one in the photo.

4. Add water to the ice tray and freeze overnight.

From www.jonathanfongstyle.com