Category: Expert Advice

Besides your location, the food and drink for your wedding bash will probably consume the largest portion of your wedding budget. Catering costs are usually presented as “per-person” charges, sometimes abbreviated in wedding brochures as “pp” after the amount. But be aware—the per-person charge often doesn’t include everything: Tax and gratuities (sometimes called “service charge”) might be extra, and there may also be separate per-person charges for the meal, drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and even setup.

Make sure your guests know that the wedding is actually on the sand, so they can dress appropriately. This can be communicated with the invitation (included with the map/directions), on your wedding website and through word-of-mouth.

11 Locations Where You Can Tie The Knot On The Sand!
by Jolene Rae Harrington, Director of Creative Content
As a born-and-raised California girl, I knew one thing for sure—when I got married, it would be on the beach. Not next to the beach, not overlooking the beach or on an ocean view terrace, but actually on the sand.

We don’t have to tell you that planning a wedding is never simple. There are so many grey areas to navigate: Ecru or bright white wedding dress? Buttercream or fondant on the cake? DJ or live band for entertainment? We could go on…

With soaring fuel and food costs, reining in your wedding budget is becoming increasingly important. In today’s Los Angeles Times, there’s a great article featuring ways to cure your own case of wedding sticker shock (check out the quotes from our own creative wedding diva, Jolene Rae Harrington!). Read on for some expert wedding tips.

Sorry, folks, but even in this virtual/digital world dominated by the iPhone, your wedding guests still expect to receive something in the mail before they plunk down cash for the Tiffany place setting you’ve registered for. Should be no big deal, right?

As a bride, the motto “Be Prepared” takes on a whole different meaning than it had when your Scout leader coached you on the finer points of selling Girl Scout Cookies. But thank goodness, right? Turns out those who want to help you be a prepared bride have much better fashion sense, too. Look at Russell + Hazel’s new wedding organizer, for example. In addition to the several great binder styles to choose from, there’s also a whole slew of planning templates to get you started.

Honeymoons are a great excuse to visit a foreign country, but savvy Here Comes The Guide brides know they’ve gotta do a little homework on their destination’s customs and etiquette before they travel. Because we live to make your wedding planning as pain-free as possible, we were pleased to discover a helpful website that explains proper travel etiquette for exotic destinations all over the world.

Looking for your perfect wedding location is exciting. We get that. And now that you’ve narrowed down your choices to a select few, you so want to get down to the nuts and bolts of making your decision.

If you’re like me, you have a shoe addiction. Come on, admitting it is half the battle. It’s mostly under control and it doesn’t really get in the way of my daily routine, so I’m proud to say I haven’t started a 12-step program yet. But when it comes to a big event—like a wedding or reception—I can’t resist getting new shoes and I admit to needing a little input from the experts to find the perfect pair.

You would think the right way to hold a wedding bouquet would be obvious. “Uh, in two hands?” But no, it isn’t. I’ve endured countless clueless TV weddings, where the bride botched the bouquet thing. One of the more memorable flubs was the wedding of Karen Darling on ABC’s Dirty, Sexy, Money. This was like her 5th time down the aisle or something Elizabeth-Taylorish. This chick is super high-society (think Ivanka Trump), with the crème de la crème of wedding vendors in attendance (who should have done something with her hair!), along with a host of paparazzi.

Everyone’s talking about InStyle Weddings’ recent report of celebrity-driven wedding trends…but I have my own opinion!