The best strategy for finalizing the bridesmaid’s dress is to narrow the field down to a handful you like and then ask for your friend’s opinions. You can take a vote  or just take their feedback into consideration. It isn’t a bad idea to find a place where one of your bridesmaids can try on the gown. Because we all know that a dress can look entirely different in person than in the pages of a magazine or on a hanger. Colors usually  in ads look well. Make sure to get swatches of the fabric you choose to share with florists, because what is teal to one person is sea foam green to another.

Plants are great centerpieces! Plants rental companies are a good place to discover a variety of choices. Purchasing flowers at a nursery and placing them in baskets is another idea. The potting soil may be covered up with moss and a ribbon and there you have it a lovely centerpiece. The possibilities for centerpieces are endless. Use our imagination and ask friends for ideas also. It’s the unique little touches that guests remember the most when the wedding is over.

Erica Koesler offers the finest high-end bridal accents and accessories. At this sample sale, find fantastic markdowns on bridal veils, tiaras, combs, jewelry, and hats. Shop vintage inspired pieces with a modern twist for 60-90% off showroom retail prices. This event is a “don’t miss” for the classic bride-to-be!

Event begins:  Saturday July 25th

From: 8am-12pm

Location: 12142 Sherman Way
(at Laurel Canyon)
North Hollywood, CA 91605

With the wedding season in full speed it only makes sense to have another wedding dress sample sale. Monique Lhuillier is having her semi-annual sample sale.  In an earlier post I mentioned this is how I obtained my wedding dress…it turned out wonderful. At this One Day Only sale, find garments for 40-90% off the original prices. Don’t miss out on getting your favorite designer looks for less.

No appointments are taken; first come first serve. All sales are final, no alteration services provided, and merchandise is “as is” This event starts Sunday July 19th from 10-4:30pm.

I came across African-American brides.com last week which spoke about wedding vendors how to know if the person your choosing is doing their line of work as a working professional or as a hobbyists it’s a good thing to check out because your end result could vary drastically if the person doesn’t know what they are doing. Click here to read the article written by Lisa at African-Americanbrides.com.

As some of you may or may not know I had my wedding in Maui, Hawaii. It was a lovely wedding yet, hotter than anticipated. A tip I wish someone would have given me when planing a destination wedding would be to do  extensive research for a wedding planner and look for reviews or testimonials from past brides. The glue that will hold the wedding and your sanity together will be this person since they probably will be  in the location of your wedding.

Make sure you have a good connection with the planner because you will be in constant contact with them to the point of annoyance when your wedding date becomes closer. Like I’ve said in the past check out the knot.

If your a fashionista like myself the shoes you wear on your wedding day is just as important as the wedding dress itself. However, most ladies forget by the end of your big day your feet will be throbbing from all of the walking, dancing, and going around greeting friends and family. Have a cute pair of back up flats to wear on your big day.

It doesn’t have to be expensive just something you feel good in. On my big day I wore as I called them my  “Cinderella” heels then for the reception I changed in to satin fuchsia flats I was so happy to take off my shoes by the time the reception came around. Besides most wedding dresses are long and even with your train up no one will see your  flats. Your feet will be thankful.

As I’ve mentioned before a great way to get your cut costs on wedding is to do the task yourself. For the “save the date” you can take a high quality picture of you and your soon to be hubby and have text printed on it places such as: CVS, Sams club, Costco all do this and can really bring your cost down. Or you could buy high quality paper and print the save the date on it and glue the paper into an star-shaped envelope from envelopments.com. This is what I did for my save the dates I can’t say how much I love papersource.com they are located in select areas and have a great do it yourself section. Also I was at office max the other day to buy regular printer paper and noticed they now have a good selection of pre-made wedding invites you just have to print your name, location, and time on them.

There is always a difference between the ring of your dreams and the actual ring you receive when you are proposed to…well maybe sometimes. The best way to suggest to your man of the ring of you liking is to look at as many rings as possible and go with a friend to try on rings in different price ranges and at different stores. You can e-mail him your list of rings or make sure he consults a good friend (preferably the one you went ring shopping with) or your sister. I came across jewelryvortex.com and decided to give a few options on different engagement rings in a variety of price ranges. Also ladies make sure you let your men know what the 4 C’s of diamonds are Cut, Clarity, Caret, and Color. Some may say it’s best to have your man buy the engagement ring set so they have the wedding band and the actual engagement ring others say you should just get the one ring. It’s really depends on the cost if it’s an issue the good side to buying the engagement ring set is that you know for sure the band will match the engagement ring exactly. I found a wonderful 1.30  Princess diamond center square top 18 karet ring that retails for $2,649.95. Another ring that less than the first yet still fabulous is the Three princess diamond with side diamond 14K white gold ring that retails for $1469.95. I didn’t want to leave out the women who love gold rings so I found a 14K Two Tone Striped Diamond Wedding Set for $419.95.

When I first started planning my own wedding I decided very early on that I would make my fiance would make our personalized aisle runner. Its not very hard to make all you need is a printer and some  fabric paint. Remember when ever you buy anything crafty you should buy it from Michaels.com because just about every Sunday they have coupons in the paper. The site I went to that shows step by step directions how to make the “do it yourself” aisle runner is roadtotheaisle.blogspot.com. Oh another thing I purchased my aisle runner from Joann.com on sale for $11.99 but that was a year ago. Make sure you know the length of the aisle you will be walking down because you don’t want your aisle runner to be to short. I’ve included a picture of the aisle runner my husband made for our wedding. The picture on the left is a close up and on the right is the runner in it’s entirety. I used pink and black  because it was our wedding colors.