Many brides in the United States think of white wedding dresses as “traditional,” but the white wedding dress is actually a fairly recent custom. When Queen Victoria was married in 1840, she chose a white wedding dress and immediately started a fashion. While most working-class brides continued to get married in a best dress, regardless of color, well-to-do brides in Britain and America followed the Queen and got married in white.

As other brides followed suit, people began to think of the white color as a symbol of purity, and within one short century the white wedding dress became a must.

But as times have continued to change, more and more brides are beginning to buck Victoria's example and let their true colors show.

Some brides brighten up the traditional white dress with deftly placed colored accents. These can serve to draw the eye to the bride’s best features, match color accents in the groom’s outfit, or just add a fun splash of color.

Modern brides looking for something a little bolder are making wedding dresses in champagne and gold increasingly popular. Either color is elegant enough for a formal wedding, and the brides look every bit as striking as their sisters in white.

Adding a little color to your wedding dress doesn’t just add flexibility to your choices – it can also be a beautiful way to honor your heritage.

Traditional African bridal wear comes in all kinds of colors. Some colors and patterns are used to honor the area the bride and groom come from, or some have personal or family significance to the bride and groom. A modern couple that chooses traditional brightly colored cloth to enhance standard Western wedding outfits can make for a stunning pair.

Indian saris are known around the world for their gorgeous colors. Depending on the region, a wedding sari might be done in red and white or in green, white, and yellow. Either will have beautiful accents in gold thread. Saris are wonderfully easy to adapt – you’ll look gorgeous whether you choose to wear a full traditional sari or to blend Indian and Western traditions.

Korean brides wear green overlays over their wedding dresses. The overlays may be embroidered with flowers – a nice way to set off the colors in your bouquet. Irish brides, in contrast, rarely wear green at weddings, as the usually lucky color is considered bad luck at weddings. A blue dress, however, is considered very good form at a traditional Irish wedding. Blue dresses used to be far more popular in all of the British Isles – the color was popularly supposed to guarantee a long marriage and a faithful husband. Israeli brides often wear blue or blue highlights for a different reason: the color symbolizes the bride’s spiritual powers.

If you like red, you’re in luck. It's considered good fortune for brides to wear the cheery color in China, traditional areas of Russia, and many other nations. Japanese wedding gowns are often lined in red, and as mentioned above, many Indian brides wear the color as well. There’s even a case to be made for calling a red gown an American tradition as well – some brides wore it during the Revolutionary war to show their desire for independence.

…And of course Goth brides have been decking themselves out in red for more than a decade. If you and your groom have a taste for lush, brooding elegance, a Goth wedding can satisfy your desire to dress in a traditional Western silhouette while opening up the possibility of a deep purple, gray, or black wedding dress.

Or maybe you don’t need to follow any tradition at all. As increasing numbers of modern couples plan and pay for their own weddings, guests have become accustomed to seeing very personal weddings that break new ground. Simply choosing the dress that makes your heart sing, regardless of color, is a great way to put your personal stamp on your wedding and know that you look your best.

Unia Griffin is a contributing writer for OneWed.com. She writes about choosing wedding dresses, bridal shoes and wedding shoes, keeping the wedding party sane, and other wedding planning issues on OneWed.

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Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_712233_34.html

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When it comes to your wedding reception, the venue is undeniably the most important piece of the planning puzzle. No other element can reflect a desired mood or style quite like the setting in which the event is held. The wedding venue should be the first major decision in your planning process. Once you have selected your site, you will find that everything else begins to fall into place.

Daunted by the task? Don't be. While you should approach venue selection with care, a little pre-planning will help narrow down the options. Before meeting with the first facility manager, consider three factors to determine the type of venue that is perfect for you.

1. Theme and Style of Event -

Different types of wedding venues set the stage for specific styles of wedding reception. Before deciding, determine the type of affair you would like to host.

Today’s wedding receptions are about personality and creativity. Consider your personal style. Do you want your wedding to be a reflection or a departure from that? Just because you tend to be more city-chic does not mean you can’t throw a country-style foot stomping hoe down of a wedding (it can be done in an equally fabulous manner).

Put some thought into this, and envision your perfect wedding reception. The theme and style you wish to reflect will help dictate the type of wedding venue you choose. Remember that options abound beyond hotel ballrooms, banquet halls and country clubs. Also consider mansions and historic sites, museums or parks. The sky is the limit!

2. Geographic Location -

Where do you want to get married? In your hometown? In your fiance's home town? In the town where you currently live? How about a Caribbean island? With today’s jet-set couples, the possibilities really are endless. Don’t be afraid to consider something different or unexpected. Perhaps the style or theme of your wedding will dictate the location�a tiki-style hut by the beach, a rustic farmhouse in the country, a posh ballroom overlooking a metropolitan cityscape. You get the idea�

3. Size -

OK�so you have decided to get married in an historic mansion near your hometown. Great�you’re almost there! But before you get in your car and start touring wedding venues, there is one final criteria to consider - capacity. No matter how beautiful a place may be, if you anticipate a guest list of 300, cramming them into a facility that seats 150 will quickly turn an elegant affair into a mob of angry guests. Most reception sites make setting capacity information readily available. If not, give a quick call to the general phone number and find out. Make sure to differentiate the capacities for the type of wedding reception you envision (seated dinner, buffet, cocktail reception etc.) There may also be different capacities based on the setting with or without a dance floor.

4. Now Find Your Site! -

Find as many venues that meet these initial criteria as you can. Use this handy online Wedding Venues search to find reception sites and services in your area that meet your needs, and narrow down your list. Then schedule appointments to tour each venue and meet with the manager. After that�it's decision making time!

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Author: Shari Hearn

If you and your significant other are the type who find weddings boring and stuffy you may want to consider having a themed wedding. They can be very casual and light-hearted, and you will certainly be giving your guests something to remember.

A couple of things to keep in mind when considering a themed wedding: choose a theme which speaks to who you two are as a couple; make the theme easily accessible to others, don’t choose something so obscure that others might have trouble dressing for the occasion.

What are 7 top themes you might consider for your wedding?

1) Hawaiian or Beach Theme.

The good thing about a Hawaiian or beach-theme wedding is the amount of decorations you can find. You can make your own paper leis or paper palm trees, or find Hawaiian-themed items anywhere. Be sure to check the local thrift stores for anything tropical – dishware, shirts, dresses, etc. Just make sure all the decorations, as well as the attire, scream "BEACH." And, you can cut down on the cost of champagne and serve Mai Tai’s or other tropical drinks.

You might think a Hawaiian or beach-theme wedding is just perfect for a summer wedding. Well, you’re right. But, a beach-theme wedding can also be fun during the wintertime as well, and give people a fun respite from cold, dreary weather. Just remember if you’re having a beach-theme wedding during the winter to hold it indoors. Those slinky Hawaiian dresses and breezy Hawaiian shirts can get a little cold in the snow.

2) Country Western Wedding Theme

Plan a shotgun wedding with a country western wedding theme. Western outfits are fairly easy to create or assemble, and a western cookout will surely keep your wedding reception costs down. You can either hire a company to have a western-style barbecue, or just use your own grill.

Western decorations are very easy to make or buy. Again, thrift stores can be perfect places to find boot-shaped vases, cowboy hats and shirts, or other western items for decorations. For music you can play country-western CDs or hire a country trio or band.

3) Wine Wedding Theme

For those of you into wine, a wine-themed wedding can be a great idea. You can hire a sommelier to put together a flight of wine for a reception tasting, or choose wines that mean something to the both of you. Perhaps the first bottle you ordered at a restaurant. Or a champagne dated the year you met.

Decorations can include grapevines, wine bottles, or posters of wine regions. For wedding favors you can give your guests a bottle of wine with a personalized label of the bride and groom.

4) Butterfly Wedding Theme

Butterfly releases after the wedding ceremony are becoming quite popular with couples. If a butterfly release will be part of your wedding, you can make butterflies part of your theme with butterfly decorations.

5) Sports Wedding Theme

No matter what type of sports the bride and groom are into, you can turn it into a wedding theme. You could have a theme of a certain sport, such as golf or baseball, and decorate with items from those sports, with wedding favors reflecting the sport given to guests. Or, you could celebrate a certain team.

If you wanted to go totally casual the bride and groom can dress in attire from the sport, such as basketball jerseys, with all the guests dressing in costume as well. As for the bouquet that the bride throws? Maybe instead of a bouquet she’ll throw a football or toss a baseball.

6) Las Vegas Wedding Theme

Hire a few poker, roulette and craps tables and a few Vegas-style dealers and you have yourself a Las Vegas-themed wedding. Throw in an Elvis impersonator and you have yourself a wild Vegas-themed wedding. In most large cities there are companies which rent out tables and dealers, as well as any number of Elvis impersonators to choose from.

For wedding favors consider a pack of cards with the bride and groom’s picture.

7) Pirate Wedding Theme

Decorate your reception hall to look like an old saloon or the deck of a ship. Peg legs, hooks for hands and eye patches make nice touches to your pirate wedding costumes. You might consider using a treasure chest to store your wedding gifts.

As you can see, when it comes to wedding themes, the possibilities are only limited by your own imagination.

About the Author:

Shari Hearn is a writer and website creator. Go to her websites and learn more about planning a wedding and Celtic engagement rings.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/7-top-wedding-themes-138756.html

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Author: George Meszaros

Since mediaeval times, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo Norman women’s attire included veils. The tradition of wearing a veil was part of most married women. Historically unmarried girls wore no veils. The veil had a practical purpose for it had covered the woman’s hair, their neck and the chins. Veils had served a functional purpose, protecting women’s skin from wind and sun damage. By the 15th century, hoods become prevalent, and veils became less widespread.

Historically, brides wore their hair flowing down their back on their wedding day to symbolize their virginity, now the white veil is often said to symbolize purity.

The bridal veil may have a place in mythology. Ishtar, ancient Goddess of Love, came from the depths to me her betrothed; the vapors of the earth and sea covering her “like a veil”. According to folklore, the tradition of the veil changed to include a blusher after Jacob was tricked into marrying his beloved Rachel's sister, Leah, who was distinguished under the full veiling. It seems there is much to be said for scrutinizing the bride before it is too late!

The development of the wide loom and silk tulle in the 19th century gave women a sheer covering that enhanced their attractiveness. The wedding veil signifies modesty, privacy, youth and virginity. That way of thinking still has significance on bridal etiquette, as only a first-time bride wears a veil.

Remember, your bridal veil supposed to complement your bridal gown. The most popular colors are white, diamond white, and ivory. Diamond white is an excellent choice if your bridal gown has a sheen. The lifting of the veil at the end of the ceremony symbolizes male dominance. If the bride takes the initiative in lifting it, thereby presenting herself to him, she is showing more independence.

White bridal veils symbolize the bride’s purity and modesty. Moreover, veils are used to add to the final touches of a wedding dress and to frame the bride’s face.

About the Author:

Wedding Favors Wedding reception favors personalized, wedding candles, favor bags.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marriage-articles/a-brief-history-of-the-bridal-veil-14395.html

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There are few other life events so steeped in tradition as weddings. Do you know the origins of our present day customs? Why do we follow them? Well that one is easy you do it because your mom did and her mom and so on back countless generations. Here is some of the history behind many of our modern day wedding traditions.

Bridesmaid Dresses are often identical in style and color. Why? In ancient times the brides friends and female relatives would dress exactly like the bride in an effort to fool evil spirits bent on spoiling her happiness.
The Post Vow Kiss The Ancient Romans sealed every legal contract with a kiss. Thus the marriage was not legal until the bride and groom kissed. This is why the wedding official says, “You may now kiss the bride.”
The White Wedding Gown brides have always worn white, Right? No white wedding dresses did not become common in the west until Queen Victoria wore one at her wedding. Before that bright colors were the norm.

The Receiving Line originated in ancient times when it was believed that good luck came to anyone who touched the bride and groom on their wedding day. Giving Away the Bride Long ago an unmarried girl or woman was considered her father’s property, so at the wedding he would walk her down the aisle of the church, and “give her away” thereby transferring ownership to the husband.

Why Does the Groom Carry the Bride Across the Threshold? There is more than one bit of lore about this practice. One is that when a girl could be kidnapped and forced to marry against her will, the groom would have to carry her by force into her new home.

Another is that ancient Romans considered it bad luck for a bride to trip when crossing the threshold of her new home. So the groom would carry her in.

Tying the Knot In Celtic, Egyptian and Hindu cultures, the hands of the bride and groom were tied together to symbolize their new bond and commitment to the marriage.

June Weddings Roman mythology held Juno as the god of home ,childbirth and marriage, this is thought to be where the popularity of June weddings originated.

Best Man Back when a man would steal his bride, he would often have to fight her male relatives to keep her. He depended on his best man (friend) for help in fighting them and to get him and his bride safely to the church.

A Locked Church Door In Irish tradition, once the bride and groom were safely inside the church, guests would lock the church door to prevent the groom from running if he changed his mind.

Honeymoon This is another practices with different legends about its origin. One is that if a man kidnapped a girl and could keep her hidden from her family, for a month (moon) she was his to marry. Another is that parents would keep the couple supplied with mead a drink made from fermented honey for a moon, there would be a male offspring within a year.

There are hundreds of other wedding customs many of them unique to a particular religious or ethnic heritage. So if you want something different at your wedding seek out the traditions of your heritage

About The Author:

Mary Jane Holmes can help you. Find out how thousands of people have been helped with the advice and information. Visit this link for details: Concervative Bridal Gowns

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Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_21503_41.html

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At the moment everyone is watching what they spend. One of the areas that most brides will look at saving money is the reception decorations. We’re bombarded with pictures in the bridal magazines of glamorous weddings that cost the earth. But you can still create an elegant atmosphere in your reception venue without spending very much money. Here are 5 places in the UK that you can get cheap wedding reception decorations.

Supermarket

This may come as a suprise to many people. No longer is it just bread and jam that you find on the aisles in Asda and Tesco. The big stores have large homeware departments where you can get all sorts of items for less. There are things like vases, tealight holders and candles available. With a little bit of imagination, you could make some very tasteful reception table centerpieces from these items. But don’t take too long to make up your mind. Once they’ve sold out of a particular item, they may not get any more in stock.

Hobbycraft

This craft superstore will be able to supply you artificial flowers, ribbons, place name cards and confetti to decorate your reception tables. They have enormous stores that carry a lot of stock and are generally located on the outskirts of towns. You can see if there is a store near you by going to hobbycraft.co.uk.

Confetti

Confetti are the big name in retailing when it come to supplying wedding accessories and decorations. You can get just about anything including decorated balloons,wedding favors and gifts for the bridesmaids. You can shop online at confetti.co.uk or you can visit one of their bricks and mortar stores around the UK.

Ebay

If you think that the stuff for sale of Ebay is just a load of old junk, think again. There are lots of great wedding items for sale, much of it at bargain prices. There are plenty of small one-person businesses that operate with Ebay as their shopfront. If you’ve seen a picture of a wedding where you liked the decoratins, chances are somebody is selling something similar on Ebay. Maybe you want some red rose petals, or ostrich feathers or silk tropical flowers. You don't have to look any further than Ebay.

Ikea

Ikea is another store where you can get lots of cheap items to decorate your wedding reception. Go down to the Marketplace section and you will find artificial flowers, candles and votives. If you need vases for your flower arrangements, you can get them for as little as a pound. Worried that you'll have 12 vases at the end of your wedding? At that price you can afford to give the whole arrangement away as presents to your guests.
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Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_643511_41.html

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Author: TM Lung

You will want to make your wedding really special. In fact, you need to make everything in your wedding perfect and unique to this end. Your wedding reception has to be perfect. You would also like to make your wedding favor perfect. However, some people will allow the wedding invitation to be less perfect for some reasons.

There is no doubt the the cost of the wedding invitation will not be very high when it is compared to the price of your wedding dress or wedding reception catering. Consequently, some couples will tend to forget this important item. When they think that the invitations are too expensive, they may go for some cheaper options. They would rather make their wedding dress perfect rather than making the invitation special. It is very true that couples will just sacrifice the wedding invitation when budget is not allowed. Taking a case in Hong Kong for example, a single pre-wedding photos will probably cost a couple about USD45. Yet they will still purchase a hundred photos. They will do it even if it is out of the budget. However, the couples will never do that when it comes to the wedding invitations.

You may wonder when couples will sacrifice the wedding invitation when budget is not allowed. It is true that the wedding cards will set the tone of the wedding. However, a lot of couples will just think that the guests will just throw away the card after the wedding. As a result, they will think that it will be a waste of money to create a unique and special wedding invitation. If this is totally true, an email wedding invitation will be the perfect solution. Yet most couples will still print their own wedding invitations.

In fact, one of the reasons for this phenomenon is that some couples will think that they can design the wedding invitation themselves. Yes it is true that you can create some graphics on your own with your personal computer home.

It is very true that it will be perfect for the couples to design the wedding invitation. However, it seems that they miss the whole point of wedding invitation design when they are trying to creating some computer files. We have to understand that wedding invitation is not only about graphic design. In fact, it is more than a printable computer files.

One thing we need to understand is that a wedding invitation needs not to be a printed card. You can actually make it a sculpture with three dimensional quality. In this case it will not be only a computer file.

If you are trying to create your own wedding card, you should never just create a computer file. You need to create it with your hand. You may need to learn from Japanese Origami and try to create the wedding invitations yourself. You may even use the same method to create the envelop. Only be this way it is meaningful to create your own wedding invitation.

About the Author:
TM Lung designs Personalized Chinese Wedding Invitations. He has sites on Wedding Vendors and Wedding and Marriage.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marriage-articles/a-dilemma-about-wedding-invitations-521328.html

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