Think back to when you were in high school and you would cut out pages of magazines and glue them all together in a collage on poster boards in your room or in your locker. Now forget about your favorite pop group and think about your dream wedding instead. There you have it, wedding inspiration boards!

Wedding inspiration boards are pretty much just an idea haven. You will use pictures that help reflect your wedding vision. Use different examples that highlight both your tone whether it be traditional or contemporary and also your color palette. These come in quite handy when you are trying to clearly convey to your vendors, family, and friends what your ideas are and how you see everything working together.

Creating an inspiration board can be as simple or complex as you like. You can go completely old school and just search for the images you want and copy and paste them into something like paint or photoshop. A great way to start one out is to find one thing you are certain you love and build around it. Or you can visit different sites that offer tools just for inspiration boards. Check out Snipi.com and stylemepretty.corn for tips on how to create beautiful images.

Make several different ones and continue to update them all the time. Add and remove items as your plans start to really set in. Inspiration boards are just one more tool that will help you stay organized. The finalized board should exhibit a clear idea to you and all involved in your wedding planning. And let’s face it these are just a lot of fun to make!

A bouquet is defined as a bunch or grouping of flowers. But today’s brides are showing us, you do not have to use flowers. "Bouquets" are popping up as bunches of many different pretty things.

Tissue or paper flowers are becoming a popular alternative. Think about the possibilities (especially if you are a crafty bride) you can have your wedding bouquet in any color or design imaginable. In this case you won’t fret about the cost of out of season flowers, you can make them yourself. There are a lot of websites that have tutorials on how to craft these up yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Chances are you know someone who has the kind of patience and meticulous personality best suited for this task, as they can be just as fragile as real blooms, some maybe even more so.

Cute as a button doesn’t even begin to describe one of the newest trends, button bouquets! These just ooze with individuality! You can find these made by layering different sizes and shapes of buttons on bendable wire, or stitched on to flower shaped pieces of felt. These are certainly a crafters dream bouquet. Make sure you do your bicep work-outs before hand though, depending on the size and design of your bouquet, you could be dealing with a bit of weight to carry.

Are you having a winter wedding? Try out a Christmas ornament bouquet full of different size ball ornaments in metallics, soft pastels or even ones with glitter. The possibilities of different sizes, shapes, and colors seem to go on and on. Be careful to do it yourself on this project; broken glass does not lead to a holly jolly time.

These ideas are all terrific options for the couple or bridal party with allergies. Not to mention the fact that you won’t have to pay to have your flowers preserved.

For wedding receptions that serve alcohol, deciding what and how much can be a confusing and frustrating decision. So we’ve decided to address some of the different options offered to you.

Cash Bar

While most times considered a faux pas, cash bars are a more popular option in recent years. A lot of couples consider a cash bar because it tends to help cutting down the price tag of the reception. But, most people find it offensive to have to pay for their drinks at your wedding. The only other perk to this option is that if you do not have free alcohol flowing all night it’s much more likely that your guests will not over-indulge and possibly cause a scene. You know your guests best, so only you can make the call on whether or not you will ruffle a lot of feathers with this choice.

Open Bar

Open bars are normally stocked with the works: mixers, beer, wine, hard alcohol, just like a normal bar. Which means, yes they are more expensive, though they are the most common choice. Keep in mind you have a few options. If you have a large amount of heavy drinkers on the guest list, you may end up with a larger bill than you had budgeted for. A possible option would be controlling the open bar by cost. Tell your bar host that once the tab reaches (your budget here) to shut it down or turn it into a cash bar.

Limited Bar

This is where you offer a small variety of drinks. For instance you could just offer beer and wine. Typically you choose just one red wine and one white wine. For beer, choose a domestic, a light, and a popular import. Keep in mind it’s more common to have a red wine with a heavier meal so you may need to purchase more of it. Then not only limit what drinks are available but limit the amount of time they are available for. Or try serving drinks only from seven to nine.

To help save money on your alcohol costs try looking into discounts, some places will give you a pretty substantial one if you buy a large quantity. Don’t forget to ask if they will allow you to return unopened containers of alcohol. Determining how much alcohol you will need to purchase is not always the easiest task either. Check with your caterers/bartender for tips.

Cheers!

Quite often people choose to have a reading or two at their wedding. Typical choices are a favorite excerpt from a book, a poem, a family prayer, etc.

Readings are typically done by guests of honor such as the Maid of honor, Best man or a parent. What you choose to have read will help set the mood and express to not only your soon to be spouse how you feel but, to the entire assembly of loved ones. If you happen to find quite a few that you would like to share but, just don’t want to make people sit through a very long ceremony, consider having some of the readings printed up. The guests may then read them to themselves and take them home if they want.

It can be a difficult task trying to decide exactly what you want said. What will tie into the mood that you have worked so diligently to portray? It’s easy to get frustrated and go with what everyone always chooses and be typical or worse yet redundant.

We have assembled a few favorites below. Hopefully you will enjoy them as well. If it’s not quite what you are looking for, maybe they will inspire you to write your own. Or if you are just not the writing type, you can go searching for something similar, or completely opposite! Look for poems, sonnets, excerpts from novels or even the lyrics to a song. Just keep yourself and your mind open and willing to become inspired.

Traditional:
Wedding Prayer by Robert Lewis Stevenson
How Do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
To a Stranger by Walt Whitman

A little less traditional:
An Excerpt From Tuesdays With Morrie By Mitch Albom
The Master Speed by Robert Frost
I Wanna Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler

Longer readings:
The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Tin Wedding Whistle by Ogden Nash

Lastly, a nice idea may be to use a prayer or blessing that comes from your heritage or religion. Below is a beautiful example of a short and sweet reading.

An Irish Wedding Blessing:
May your mornings bring joy and your evenings bring peace.
May your troubles grow few as your blessings increase.
May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past