Tradition or Not?

I've been hearing a lot of brides talking about how they are not following wedding traditions and are going to throw traditions right out the window. Phrases like "screw traditions" have been said within my circle. But should we worry about following traditions or not?

Well, I have always applauded any bride for originality. I look for trend setters and seek out those who are willing to put new spins on old things. But that's just it, new spins on old things. New spins are what make you say , "oh wow, that was really clever!" But totally disregarding traditions, I'm not so sure about. Of course it depends on what your doing. For example. We decided not to have a traditional wedding party. However when it came down to the ceremony, we did have both of our mothers acting as our witnesses or the traditional best man and maid of honor. When it came down to the reception, no we did not introduce a wedding party because we didn't have one, but we introduced our families. They were the most important people in our lives and helped get us to this point. We also decided to have our brothers and sisters sitting with us at a traditional head table. The point is, no we did not follow tradition, instead we interpreted tradition to be something more meaningful to us and I think our guests were able to relate to that.

You have to remember that while your wedding is for you and your groom, you have invited a lot of people to this party. They are looking forward to celebrating with you. Traditionally speaking they will be giving gifts and you want them to enjoy themselves too. Keep your guests in mind as you are going to be the hostess for the evening and a celebration as grand as your wedding should be enjoyable for everyone attending.

What are your thoughts?

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Gorgeous Bracelet

I was browsing some of my favorite wedding sites today and I found this listing for MEG Jewelry on theknot.com. The Patricia Bracelet is stunning. Where do I start! The way the light catches this is stunning. The Champagne ribbon tie is timeless and sophisticated. It is available with other ribbon colors. Wouldn't it be sharp with a Robbin's egg blue ribbon. That could be your something blue! http://weddings.theknot.com/Bridal-Accessories/49858/detailview.aspx?id=49858&type=21&Accessory+Designers=MEG+Jewelry&TM=21

http://www.bella-jewels.com/

Wedding Professionals request

I am looking to partner up with other wedding professionals to provide my brides with a preferred professionals list. I do already have a few of the slots filled but I'm always open to suggestions. If you are in the Chicagoland area please respond to this post or email me and we can find out if a partnership would work us both.

Thanks!

One Year Anniversary

Our one year anniversary just passed and we did the standard, out for dinner sort of thing. It was really nice. We have been together for 9 years total so to tell you the truth I really didn't want a big dramatic production of a day. I can understand if you do, but I think life gets so busy, it was nice for us just to have a quiet evening together. Once we got home we opened the fantastic bottle of wine we got on our honeymoon (yes it traveled home with us in our suitcase) and sliced up the cake from our wedding. (to my surprise the cake was still really good. I thought for sure it would have freezer burn)

I guess I didn't expect to feel the giddy pleasure of reminiscing about our wedding day, which was a nice and unexpected feeling. We talked about how I woke up so early because I couldn't sleep and I sent him a text at like 6:oo AM. He of course had no trouble sleeping at all. And it just went on like that all day for us with little bits that we would remember together. You put so much time and effort into one day. It should be something that you remember forever.

The other thing we did once we got home, which also was initiated by my husband, was a reflection on our relationship. We asked ourselves the questions of where we are, what do we need to work on, what did we want to do in the beginning that maybe we have forgotten about. Truthfully, I was shocked that this was his idea, but i guess if there are things that maybe need to be addressed in a relationship now is the time to speak up and he benefits from it. All in all it was a really great conversation that got us talking about all kinds of things that we don't because life gets so busy from day to day.

The last thing we did was read the special messages we received at our receptions. We decided to do an alternative guest book. Since we were married in the fall, i found a beautiful ceramic pumpkin cookie jar and asked my guest to write us a message that we would read each year at our anniversary date.

I want to know what you have done to make your anniversaries special. What traditions do you have?

Programs

We offer programs to coordinate with the overall feeling and theme of your wedding. We specialize in bringing your vision across multiple media in your wedding. That means your initiations, programs, place cards, favors and just about anything printable will all have the same overall theme and feeling.

This particular program was printed on shimmery pearl cover stock and paper. The bow was a copper metallic. Copper played a very big part in this wedding an is used in all of print and not print elements of the wedding. It also has a printed graphic on the front that was also used on the invitations. The graphic on the invitations were hand embossed and finished with copper crystals.

Cutting the Cake

Cutting the cake is small but meaningful detail for the evening, it makes for really sweet picture opportunities, but when is the right time to do it? Now, tradition says that it should be done at the end of the reception. Then the cake is packaged up and sent home with guests as a favor. Old superstitions suggests that if single women sleep with the the cake under their pillow, their own wedding will soon follow. Boy am I glad things have changed over years! That was a new one to me when i looked it up. However I can't tell you the last wedding I have been too where they actually cut it at the end of the night. It's kind of a waste. You (the bride) have hopefully been enjoying her night and dancing and mingling with guests are now tired and not likely to be as fresh faced as you were in the beginning of the reception. Not to mention many of the guest have gone home.

We think the perfect time to cut the cake is right after introductions. Your wedding party gets introduced and then when you and your husband are introduced, you walk straight to the cake and have your moment. All eyes are still on the two of you, everyone is clapping and congratulating you. Nobody is distracted with dinner, and you have your perfect photo moment. Not to mention, I had a friend who decided to to this towards the end of the dinner service and there were actually service carts and dirty dishes in the pictures. Nothing better then metal trays and plates in your wedding photos, right. What do you think?