10 Creative Wedding Sites–Beverly Harris of Beverly Harris Wedding and Events
When discussing wedding sites with your fiance’, consider the approximate number of guests, activities (dancing, eating–buffet, finger food or sit-down meal?), budget limitations and proximity to your home. Below are 10 creative wedding sites that you may not have thought about.

Yacht or Yacht Club
Art Studio or Gallery

Things are always going to be forgotten when preparing for your wedding, especially if you are a DIY bride and are doing your own floral arrangements.  One of the smartest things you can do is take an hour before that final push to get everything place and pack a bridal emergency kit.   Or if you are the Maid of Honor, what better way to help your friend by getting a check list together and making sure that everything she will need in those last hours before the ceremony is packed and already at the church or hall waiting for her.

Here are some things you should consider having available on your wedding day in case of an emergency.

Grooming: hand lotion, wet wipes, tissues, cotton balls, cotton swabs, make up, makeup remover, nail polish in shade worn, nail polish remover, nail file, tweezers, small grooming scissors, small hand towel, lint brush, curing iron/hot rollers, hair dryer, brush, comb, hair spray, hair gel, bobbin pins, hair elastics, barrettes, headband or clips for pulling hair back while applying make up, tooth brush, tooth paste, floss, mouth wash, baby powder, deodorant, perfume

Attire: garter, clear nail polish for runs in panty hose, extra earring backs, extra buttons, flat shoes for the reception, iron, extra panty hose, safety pins, sewing kit with thread that matches the bride’s and bridesmaid dresses, masking tape or sewing tape for last minute ripped hems, small scissors for thread, club soda or other stain removal solutions

Health/Medical: antacid, antihistamine, cold remedy, prescription medications, aspirin, pain relievers, bandages, upset stomach remedy, feminine hygiene products

Miscellaneous:  extra copies of directions to reception, breath mints, cell phone and home phone numbers of all wedding participants, contact information for all vendors, snacks, cooler with juice/sodas/bottled water, champagne and glasses, small flashlight, folding utility knife, duct tape.

Feel free to add your own unique items to the list!

Every wedding day is special, but a lot of couples chose their date because it has a special meaning just for them.  Valentine’s Day is always a favorite choice especially if it falls on a Saturday.  Who wouldn’t want to get married on Valentine’s Day, I know that if it had fallen on a Saturday the year I got married, I would have had a Valentine’s Day wedding as it is my favorite holiday.  October 18th is another fun day, as it is known as The Sweetest Day.  A number of couples chose to marry on a anniversary of a family member’s long marriage.  Others pick the anniversary of they day they met, a first kiss or any other anniversary that has a special meaning for them. Or they chose a fun or unique date, like this coming Saturday 09/10/11.

If you have decided to pick a fun or unique date for your wedding, be prepared to start planning even earlier than for the average wedding.  Statistics show that these dates are booked sometimes years in advance, especially if you are planning a destination wedding.

Let’s start out by defining a destination wedding.  Typically this term means you go away somewhere to get married.  So a destination wedding could be to Las Vegas, Hawaii, Tahiti, Bermuda, Costa Rica or even stay closer to home.  With so many hotels, resorts and even historical sites offering wedding options these days, the choices are almost unlimited.

I was catching up on my reading and I have several destination wedding magazines included in that pile….I found some great tips posted from a book called Magnificent Weddings by Design, written by a wedding planner named Sasha Souza.  Sasha is known as the celeb wedding planner.  Here are the tips that she shares:

A fabulous wedding is all about the details is her mantra!

1) If your wedding is outside the country, be prepared to declare and pay customs on anything you bring with you, from gifts to decor.  She references a couple she knows who tried to sneak items for welcome bags and had to pay 40% duty and penalty fees!  OUCH!  And, I have to say, this is not something I would have thought about!

2) Research your wedding vendors before you hire them, and get everything they promise in WRITING.  If possible, bring your three most important vendors with you: photographer, videographer and florist.  In other words, PROTECT YOURSELF.

3) The color of the decor should be opposing to the location.  So don’t do blue if you are in a beach location.  Instead use pinks, corals and green to pop against the blue backgrounds.  Your decor will STAND OUT this way.  In the picture to the right, you will see that I used light colored roses for this outdoor destination wedding and they really stand out from the surrounding green grass.

4) Hire local resources for what they do best and treat your guests to the experience of the destination.  Serve fresh conch in Turks and Caicos, or use tequila for a toast instead of champagne if you are in Mexico.

Rebecca Kinnear authored the above tips out of the book.  If you are considering a destination wedding, I suggest you pick up one of the Destination Weddings Magazines for lots of great ideas.

Watch this five minute segment from Channel 10 in Philadelphia about ways to save money on your wedding.  There are some fantastic ideas, including, of course, the Do It Yourself Wedding Flower Guide.

 http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/shows/10-show/Fab_Weddings_on_a_Budget_Philadelphia-123579169.html

When it comes to your flowers, make sure and pick flowers that will hold up in the heat.  Depending upon your location this may be a BIG issue or a non issue.  But here where I live, any temperature above 85 degrees is tricky for flowers!  Your more popular flowers like hydrangea and peony are especially intolerant of heat!    Your less expensive flowers such as mums, carnations and alstromeria hold up just fine in the heat.  If I have used stephanotis in the bouquets or arrangments, I will often dip them in parafin wax to help them withstand the heat.

HINT:  Tropical flowers such as orchids, antheriums, ginger and proteas also hold up well outside in hot temperatures.  Make sure your flowers have a water source if they are going to be outside.

If you are planning an outdoor event, there are some items you need to think about, in general.  For Example, if you are going to use candles, make sure they are enclosed in glass of some sort (hurricane shades, vases) and use candles that are half as tall as the glass they will be enclosed in.  If you have any kind of breeze and the candles are taller, you may be fighting to keep them lit all night!

Keeping your food fresh is another very important aspect of an outdoor event.  Warm food can go cold faster when outdoors and cold food can get hot faster when outdoors.  When cold food gets hot, sometimes it will spoil.  Be very careful with mayonnaise based foods like potato salad, because if the mayonnaise gets hot it will spoil the dish and maybe even make your guests ill.  You definitely don’t want that to happen!  If you are using a caterer, they will know what to do; but if you are doing the food yourself, be very careful!

Are you putting up a dance floor outdoors.  Where?  If you order a dance floor to be placed on a lawn or in a garden area, be aware of drainage issues from sprinklers.

HINT:  Turn the sprinklers off a couple of days in advance!  A wooden dance floor needs a level and firm surface, make sure and ask your supplier if a sub-floor is necessary.

Consider providing shade for your guests if they will be sitting in the sun.  Tables with market umbrellas work well.  A tent, even if it is just the canopy is great for shading, but changes the atmosphere.  All things to think about!

Take this gorgeous bouquet that I created for a bride recently.  You can almost feel it just by looking at the picture.  There is a lot going on within this bouquet.  Included in this bouquet are ivory roses, antique hydrangea, Picasso mini callas, green celosia, green hypericum berries, green cymbidium orchids and egonis (dark purple feathery greenery).  This bouquet took quite a bit of time to make.  I’m sure I spend an hour on it, at least!  The diameter of this bouquet was about 14 inches.

To the right  is one of the centerpieces that went with the bridal bouquet above.  This was a FUN wedding for me and my staff to work on because the bride chose unusual flowers and designs.  She wanted every table to be slightly different.  We accomplished this by choosing a family of vases; in other words, the vases came in difference shapes and sizes within the same color and composition.  So this allowed us to mix and match to come up with different centerpieces for each table.  In this example, I took 3 square vases all the same size and pushed two of them next to each other with the third, sitting on top of the first two.  This picture is a side view.  The flowers included antique hydrangea, purple majestic millet, Picasso mini callas, upright green amaranthus, egonis foliage, poppy pods and kale.  Some of the other centerpieces contained baby purple artichokes, large green artichokes, green celosia, green cymbidium orchids, allium, kale, green roses, chestnut and orange freesia.  The primary colors for this wedding were fig and chartreuse.  But this bride picked a third color, orange, as her POP color.  I’m telling you this really works

Keep in mind that the bridal stores are typically one season ahead of the current time.  So if it is March, Spring time when you are planning your wedding, you may be looking at Fall/Winter colors at the dress stores.  There is an assumption in this business that you will be planning at least six months in advance.

Do you have a theme?  Themes can be picked on colors, hobbies, sports, favorite pastimes, ethnic backgrounds, the schools you went to, etc., etc.  Samples themes include golf, wine/winery, Seasons such as Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter, travel, a specific Country, gardening, fishing, baseball, football, music, hearts…..let your imagination soar and make sure you are both on the same page!

USING FRUITED FLAIR

I have used fruits and vegetables in my centerpieces for years.  I love incorporating artichokes, lemons, limes, grapes, eggplant or oranges.  It adds so much fun to a centerpiece because it is unexpected and therefore causes the brain to react with curiosity and appreciation.  I always say, your centerpieces create the ambiance at your reception where you spend the bulk of your time, so be creative and spend the bulk of your flower budget on the centerpieces!  Besides incorporating fruits and vegetables into the centerpieces, you can also use them outside/around the centerpieces.  I have hallowed out an opening in apples and citrus fruits to hold a votive candle, which again is a fun and unexpected element to your centerpieces.  The most popular use of fruit in centerpieces is probably using them to fill a vase with the flowers sitting on top of the vase.

PETAL POWER

The use of rose petals has been around for years for the flower girl, but lately rose petals are being incorporated in many other ways.  Rose petals are being formed into a heart shape and identify where the bride and groom will stand for the ceremony.  Rose petals are scattered around centerpieces and candles on the guest tables and even in the restrooms on vanities.  I often will scatter rose petals along the front of a head table and mingle votives candles among the petals.  Rose petals can be used to fill a vase and add more color to the centerpiece.

Okay, so are you envisioning hemp dresses and bare feet?  NOT!  Organic or locally grown flowers or plants, recyclable invitations, email invitations and reusable dishes are just some of the ways you can go green.

While some people will go to extremes like renting a wedding gown or buying a used wedding gown, only using a facility that has been built with recycled materials or going without flowers because they view them as waste, it really doesn’t have to be that way.  Technology is helping a lot.  You can now send out EVITES (electronic invitations).  That eliminates the paper invitation, the response card, the envelope, the postage and the gas the U.S. Mail Service uses to deliver the mail.  WOW, that alone is a HUGE help towards going green!   If you really want the more formal, mailed invitation, you can ask for recycles paper and soy ink to be used.  Ask your caterer to use organic or locally grown food and you’ve just added more points to your green score.  Don’t use paper plates, paper napkins or plastic utensils and you’ve scored big again.  Basically, keep things simple.

With a little bit of forethought, it really isn’t that tough to be ECO-CHIC!