This can be a tricky situation and should be handled with care. Children can easily feel threatened when joining a household with other kids they may not even know or know very well. They need to be assured of their place and importance in the new family.

It may be a good idea to ask favorite grandparents or even the exes to help with the announcement if the child or children are close to them and trusts them. The way you handle breaking this news will determine with what attitude children enter the new set-up and if they will be willing to cooperate.

Girls at wedding

Honesty goes a long way and you should build your new relationship on that. Children are very perceptive and will certainly know if you’re not being up front with them. So don’t beat about the bush.

This should still be a very joyous occasion to celebrate your love for each other. Including the children in the details will help them feel part of all the happenings and should smooth the way for you to really enjoy planning a second wedding. Stay tuned since this post will be the first of several on second wedding planning.

Whole family in wedding

Making Your Own Elegant Wedding Flowers

May 27, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

You don’t have to like flowers to appreciate them and every wedding needs flowers like flowers need rain. And yes it can be costly but can you imagine how boring a wedding would be without any floral arrangements or decorative accents at all? The good news is that you can save a lot on wedding flower costs by making your own elegant wedding flowers.

Pink roses bouquet

Not sure if this is such a good idea? Trust yourself. Everybody has some creativity in them and you don’t even need that in this instance. Paul Ajao is an expert florist and wrote a book called “Create Your Own Wedding Flowers”.

The book includes step-by-step instructions and pictures for making your own beautiful wedding flowers. Of course you can change the type of flowers used for a completely different look and you will save a lot of money when you buy the wedding flowers yourself.

It is quite easy to do and your mind will start flowing as soon as you get the hang of it. It becomes quite addictive actually and it gets even better when you realize how much you will be saving on wedding flower costs!

Diy bouquet steps

Diy cascading bouquet

Beside the bouquets in the pictures you will learn the following:

• How to make boutonnieres for the groom and groomsmen

• Six easy but elegant designs for centerpieces

• How to create bouquets for bridesmaids

• Instructions to create an arm bouquet of calla lilies

The book is very affordable and will save you a lot on wedding flower costs when you buy the wedding flowers yourself. And just think about the satisfaction when you can say that you will be making your own elegant wedding flowers which will make it truly unique. You can do it.

Secrets Of Planning For A Perfect Wedding

May 25, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

The wonderful, crazy and scary idea of planning a wedding can be the cause of a very nervous time if you don’t know what you’re doing. Every bride wants her wedding to be perfect but not everybody has the know-how to do it or the money to pay for an expensive wedding planner. There are many secrets to planning for a perfect wedding and who would be a better person to share such secrets than an International Wedding Planner?

Melinda Barton shares many of her experiences with you in her manual called “How To Have Your Fairytale Wedding On A Shoestring Budget.” Being in the wedding industry Melinda realized that many vendors exploit innocent and vulnerable brides with highly inflated prices to leave them deep in debt after a beautiful wedding. Not a good way to start married life!

Melinda shares not only her wedding planning secrets for her own wedding but also for many others she’s arranged internationally. Here are some of the items covered:

• Nine different ways to save on catering cost and serving better food at the same time!

• How to negotiate with different vendors

• Getting your special cake at a very reasonable price

• Tips to help get your dream dress at a great price

• The most inexpensive time of the year to have a wedding

• How to save when buying the engagement ring

Apart from all the tips and secrets she shares, Melinda also provides the link to download great information free of charge from her site.

There are many more secrets to planning a perfect wedding in Melinda’s manual that will certainly help you cut costs but will allow you to still have your dream wedding.

Unusual Cake Designs

May 22, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

Somehow a wedding is not quite complete without a wedding cake. Some people may argue that it adds to the cost especially in these trying  times.  The choice is yours alone as well as the decision if you want an unusual and unique wedding cake or something classic and traditional.

Finding unusual cake designs for your wedding cake can be time consuming but if you’re smart about it you can let the cake do double duty by using it as desert.

Whether you’ve decided to go with a traditional wedding cake or if you want something completely different you will find some very unique wedding cake designs out there.

My suggestion would be to start gathering information and ideas as soon as you know you’re getting married. Print any pictures you like, print it or tear out of a magazine and start building a file for ideas. Once you’ve collected many pictures, pick the features you like best and draw a picture that incorporates all your favorite features and voila!, you’ve got a very unusual cake you designed yourself.

And yes, this is quite possible. You don’t have to have any special talents. The challenge and satisfaction of doing something like this yourself is priceless. And in the process you will learn another skill and feel very proud of yourself! And if you don’t like the first try, play some more and try again.

This is such a fun time of your life and you should enjoy every moment - even selecting the cake! Make it fun, browse a wedding cakes gallery and collect various unique and unusual cake designs or maybe traditional depending on your taste, but make sure you enjoy it!

Discounted Wedding Favors

May 20, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

There are a lot of expenses to take into account when planning a wedding and it all adds up pretty quickly. Your budget will determine if you will want to have little extras like wedding favors. Since we are all trying to find ways to keep cost down, finding elegant but discounted wedding favors can not only save you money but will also help you decide if you should have wedding favors at all.

Most brides-to-be (or not!) will know about “The Knot” – the one stop wedding shop! A great place you should bookmark since you will be visiting it very often. Well, The Knot is contributing to make your wedding day the day you have always dreamed it would be and they have a great sale running (only for a few days) on certain items. Many of the items can be used as inexpensive wedding favors (shall we call it “discounted wedding favors”?)

Here’s a list of what will be discounted for the next few days. Be sure to see if you can find some good deals:

• Personalized napkins

• Personalized matchbooks

• Disposable cameras

• Really unique place card holders

• Various personalized chocolates including Hershey’s kisses

• Personalized ribbon

• Favor bags

• Beach candles

• Mint tins

• Personalized water bottles

• Attendant’s gifts

• Bridal name change kit

• Crystal champagne flutes

• Cake knife and server sets

As you can see there is quite a selection of not only elegant but also discounted wedding favors available. Inexpensive wedding favors can certainly add a personal touch to any wedding. I cannot help you decide what to choose but I will keep digging to see if I can find more deals like this. And remember: Don’t Stress!

Unique Wedding Shower Ideas For Couples

May 11, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

Finding just the right wedding shower gift can be a challenge. The latest trend is having a shower for the couple. This means not just searching for bridal shower gifts but also for the groom or for the couple. Therefore I’ll share some unique wedding shower gift ideas for couples.

In the current economic climate many hardware stores constantly have specials going on. If you do your homework and pay attention to fliers in the mail or emails with promotions from such companies, you will know when to go shop. I know a hardware store may seem an unlikely place to shop for a wedding shower so I put some ideas together to get your list going.

Even if the couple will not be moving into their own home after getting married, they may still live in an apartment with a small garden or outdoor area and even if they don’t, the following unique wedding shower ideas will still work for couples:

1. A rolling cart can be a double duty gift since it can be used as a kitchen island which provides extra storage in a small kitchen, it can be used as a small bookshelf or display case in the living room, outside for entertaining or even in the garage for storing tools and/or garden equipment.
2. Any household needs some form of tools even if it’s just a screw driver and pliers. Therefore a steel toolbox can help provide storage and keep things in its place. And can also be used for keeping garden tools together.

3. Kitchen appliances are a must for any couple and you may consider buying a food processor, a coffeemaker or even a toaster at a good price from the hardware store.
4. If the couple loves to garden it may be a good idea to get them a set of gardening tools, a wheelbarrow or even some plants and shrubs to get the garden going.
5. Another inexpensive but very handy gift idea is to make a blackboard for messages. It can be easily done by priming and sanding a sheet of plywood in the desired size and then applying two to three coats of chalkboard paint.

Display this in a prominent place at the shower with dates and time of the rehearsal dinner and for the wedding as a reminder to guests. The couple can then use it as a message board in their home.

This is just a few suggestions to get you going. It may be a good idea to walk around in the hardware store and open you mind to find unique wedding shower ideas for couples.

To Write Your Own Wedding Vows Or Not?

May 9, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

With all the hustle and bustle of planning a wedding, the wedding vows are often overlooked as not important or as something you will get to later – until it is almost too late! These vows will cement the foundation of your marriage to a certain extent and therefore you will want to take time to really say what’s on your heart. Problem is you may not be confident enough to write your own wedding vows. So should you then go with classic or traditional wedding vows instead?

The choice is entirely yours. If you feel you’re happy with what has been done in the past you can just use one of the generic vows. But if you and your partner decided that you really want something special, something that means a lot to you as a couple, then you’ll have to dig a bit deeper and do some soul searching to find the right words for writing your own wedding vows.

This idea might freak some people out though, since most people are not born writers (surprise!) Thanks to the Internet help is literally at hand and within a few minutes too.

Chris Simeral is an accomplished professional writer that has done scripts for radio and TV commercials and saw the need to help people write their wedding vows. In his book “The Ultimate Wedding Vow Kit” he shares many strategies which will help you write romantic and personal wedding vows.

He shares a lot of pointers and will even tell you how to get a wedding vow mini-kit for free. So maybe you want to go with classic or traditional wedding vows that won’t make you nervous or you can be bold (and romantic) enough to write your own wedding vows.

Do You Need Help Writing Great Speeches For A Wedding Ceremony?

May 4, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

It doesn’t matter if you are the bride, groom or anybody else who was asked to deliver a speech at a wedding ceremony, it can still be a daunting task. Fortunately you can get help from professionals for writing great wedding speeches.

Many people get the jitters just thinking about speaking in public and I was exactly the same way but from experience I can assure you that with the necessary preparation and practice you can deliver a killer speech and nobody would even know that you are not used to doing this all the time!

Don’t take my word for it though. I’ll just point you in the right direction and the rest is up to you. “All Types Of Wedding Speeches” were written to help any person in a wedding party to deliver a funny and memorable speech. We all know how stiff and uncomfortable the beginning of a wedding reception or ceremony can be and it may depend on the person delivering the speech to diffuse the situation.

This is where you come in. The book covers speeches for anybody from the bride, the groom, the best man, the maid of honor, father of the bride and many more. Truly everything you can hope for and more. This includes step-by-step instructions on how to construct a speech and formats to use that will make it a killer speech.

Not to worry anymore. Just buy the book (it is very affordable!) and get all the help you need for writing great wedding ceremony speeches.

All My Children Alternative Wedding Ideas

May 2, 2009 by Francina · Leave a Comment 

Second and even third marriages are nothing new and often people have children and even grandchildren from their previous marriages. Or maybe the couple had a child together before they decided to get married. Fact is many people would like to get alternative wedding ideas that include “all my children”.

Making children a part of the wedding can provide an unexpected and fun element that can contribute a lot towards making an otherwise stressful situation bearable. No matter how many times you practice the routine there is bound to be some surprises. As a matter of fact including children will almost guarantee this!

Following are a few alternative ideas on how to include “all my children” in your wedding:

1. Include them in the wedding preparation details like choosing colors and other details.
2. Ask for their advice on some of the many decisions that have to be made. This way they won’t feel left out.
3. If the children are older they can be part of the bridal party. How great will it be if you daughter can be a bridesmaid or your son a groomsman?
4. We recently saw the unity candle ceremony done by pouring two different colors sand into a tall glass container. This will be a good (and safe!) place to include the children.
5. Children can help handing out the programs as guests arrive at the church.
6. Teenage sons can be ushers in church.
7. Teenage daughters can help mom get dressed.
8. Bigger children can man the guest book station and make sure that every person signs it.

These are just a few “all my children” alternative wedding ideas and I’m sure
there are many more. It is after all your wedding and it is refreshing to
see things done a bit differently at times. This prevents a ceremony from
becoming boring.