Protecting the Bridal Dress on the Big Day

You've been planning for the big day since your soon-to-be husband popped the question. You've booked your venue, you've picked out your bridal dress, you've selected a menu and you've gone over budgets and timelines. It's important to remember that a lot of time and care went into planning the wedding, so you want to follow a simple prescription to take care of the bridal dress, especially before the ceremony and reception. These tips apply to your bridesmaids and anyone else who is going to be coming in contact with you while you are wearing the dress before it's time to walk down the aisle.

Protect the bridal dress on the big day by:

• Eliminate any stain causing foods or drinks from areas where the bride and bridesmaids are getting ready and dressed for the wedding. A few drips of coffee can discolor a gown.
• Discuss with your florist whether or not your flowers can stain your bridal dress. There are many things your florist may be able to do, including the arrangement and setting of your bouquet; if the flowers have an area that is likely to stain the bridal dress.
• Be sure that there is an ironing board and spray bottle with some water close by to help with any small wrinkles.
• Transport the wedding dresses in garment bags, especially if you are carrying it on the day of the wedding to another location.
• Use stain-free deodorant and antiperspirant before getting dressed.
• Donning the dress is the last part of your preparations; your make up and hair should be completely done before you put the bridal dress on.
• Be sure to walk with the skirt lifted as necessary to keep the bottom of the dress from scraping the ground prior to the ceremony
• Beware all stain dangers when climbing into and out of a car and be sure the seats are clean and dry with no oil or other cleaners that you might have to sit in
• Avoid areas where birds may have defecated during an outdoor wedding
• Don't lean on anything or sit on anything, if you can avoid it, until after the ceremony.

Wedding Decorations on a Budget

We all know that weddings are expensive! If you're a bride on a budget, you might be interested in learning where to find inexpensive wedding decorations.

Did you know your local dollar store yields an amazing assortment of items that can be used to decorate your ceremony and reception area? Go ahead and take a look around, you might be pleasantly surprised at what you'll find. Behold some of the items found in the aisles of the dollar store:

• Candles
• Fabric
• Silk Flowers
• Baskets
• Plastic pearls and other jewels
• Table Cloths
• Potpourri
• Vases
• Picture frames
• Ribbon

The trick to using items from the dollar store is to class the items up with beautiful ribbons & embellishments. So only you will know where they came from, and only you will know how much money you saved!

Sending Those Wedding Invitations

Timing is everything and nowhere is that truer than when you are planning a wedding. Wedding invitations are critical to wedding planning not just for the bride and groom but also for the wedding guests. The wedding invitation itself serves a dual purpose. It's first purpose is to announce the wedding plans of the couple sending it out. The second purpose is to provide the guests with a wedding planning tool of their own.

Wedding invitations provide the date, time and location of the wedding. It will also alert the guest to the type of apparel that may expected from the formal to the informal. A wedding invitation to a beach wedding will indicate a different type of clothing than one might wear to a formal Catholic wedding ceremony in a grand old cathedral. Because the wedding invitation provides so much information and the couple needs the RSVPs returned from the guests to confirm how many are coming – you might say the wedding invitation is the lynch pin that makes the wedding possible.

With that in mind, you should send out the wedding invitations at least 6-8 weeks prior to the wedding. At least 3 weeks prior to the wedding contact the guests you have not received RSVPs from. Most vendors will require a final count approximately 2 weeks (and some sooner) prior to the wedding, so this gives you and your guests the perfect window to coordinate their schedules with your plans.

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