I have been contemplating wedding gifts for our friends and family that are participating or helping with our wedding and I came to a realization: wedding savings can mean savings for others.

I’ve always been a “useful” gift giver; however, I didn’t think twice about what I wanted to buy my bridesmaids.  They have to get fancy for my wedding, so why don’t I purchase things that will go towards that: jewelry and shoes?  I will need their help with the shoes, but the jewelry I can get on my own.

I also have some close friends that will be acting as our ushers.  I’ve been thinking about what they might need.  So far, I like the idea of gift cards, particularly gift cards for gasoline.  The ushers have to drive the wedding, why not take the expense out of it.

I understand the concept that a gift should be something for someone to enjoy, and that practical gifts do not really fit into that genre.  But, do my bridesmaids need a tote with their initials on it?  Or, do our ushers need an engraved flask?  Probably not…

Happy April Fool’s Day!

Whether you know or not, or whether you are prepared, the bridal party may play a practical joke on your wedding day.  The groom is typically the recipient of any wedding day jokes, but both the bride and groom should be prepared.  Here are some standard pranks:

Jacket Swap:  The groom goes to put on his jacket, and realizes it’s too small.

Secret Messages:  “Friends” may put “help me” or “kick me” messages on the bottom of your shoes or on the back of your jacket.

Long lost child:  When and if the marriage officiant asks “does anyone object to this marriage”, someone may send a mystery child down the aisle yelling “Daddy, Daddy!”

Key return:  The best man might ask all of the ladies who had keys to the grooms house to go and return their keys now that he is married.

Squeaky toy in bed:  It’s your wedding night, just think about it…

Obviously this doesn’t include all pranks, but keep on the look out- some people like to be the center of attention.   Good luck today, and on your wedding day!

I’ve been looking for ways to make our wedding really fun.  One inexpensive option is wedding games.  Here are some game ideas which I am excited to try out:

Treasure hunt/Musical Chairs:

Get together a group of people, and chairs for everyone except one person and put all the chairs on the dance floor.  Each participant is given a card with an item to find in the reception hall (a piece of fruit from the buffet, your grandma’s shoe, a groomsman’s boutonniere, etc).  While participants search for their items, have competition music playing.  The last person back, who doesn’t have a chair, will have to do chores for the bride and groom for a year.

Kiss for a Dare:

Instead of guests clinking their glasses or ringing a bell to make the bride and groom kiss, put dares or tasks on each of the tables.   If the table would like to see you kiss, they will have to do what is on the card.  Please customize cards for every table, so that the kids table has to do the funky chicken and not take shots of vodka.

Garter Relay:

Make two teams of male participants.  Teams will flip a coin to see who goes first.  Each team will line up across from a chair.  Participants will pick a number between 1-10 to see who sits in the chair first.  Each subsequent participant must race to the chair and put a garter on the person sitting in the chair, once they do they will switch places.  The garter-wearer will run back to the front of the line, remove the garter and hand it to the next participant.  The team with the fastest time wins.

Maybe there was once a time when you thought that the life you are living was already perfect. Perfect in a sense that if it ever gets interrupted by an outside force your life would be ruined. But then, the thing you are most afraid of happened to be the best thing that ever happened in your life. The perfect world that you knew was nothing compared to what love can provide you.

Our wedding song for the week is a beautiful romantic song which tells about the bride’s experience when she met her groom-to-be. When he entered her life, her eyes saw the beauty that was hidden from her which she never thought existed.

“Until You Found Me” is a wedding song tailor fit to the bride who commissioned a brilliant song writer who composed this wedding song for her. Below is a video of the song complete with lyrics. If you are interested to also have your own wedding song customized for you, you can contact the guys from JGMastersMultiply.com.

I hope this wedding blog inspired you to make your own wedding truly memorable. Wait for more wedding blogs on how to have an inexpensive wedding and how to have wedding savings coming your way next week. This is Chelsea wishing you have the dream wedding you really want..

Hello to all my beloved readers. This is your Wedding Diva, Richard with another fascinating wedding blog about wedding customs and traditions from around the world. And today I will feature wedding customs and traditions from Korea.

I’ve been to South Korea once to visit a friend based in that country. It was a wonderful experience to see that country and I enjoyed my stay there very much. The best thing about Korea, for me, is its food and customs and traditions. My friend told me a lot of things about their wedding traditions.

According to my Korean friend, joining of a man and a woman through marriage actually represents joining of two families rather than the union of two individuals. Koreans have high respect for their lineage. In fact, family names are limited and there are only about 300 surnames in Korea. Korean families maintain careful records of their ancestry which are very important in school entrance, job applications and marriage. And if I remember it correctly, women don’t change their surnames after marriage.

Matchmakers also became a part of most of the weddings in Korea, at one time. Families would bring their children to the matchmaker with their resumes, and would request them to find a match for their beloved children that is compatible in terms of status and earning potential. Today, matchmakers are extinct like dinosaurs and some wedding arrangement are made through large online dating services like Duo.

Before weddings take place, a bride must go through a traditional pre-wedding introduction ceremony where she is accepted into the groom’s family. In the olden days the groom embarks on a journey to the house of his future bride’s abode on a white pony and presents to her family a pair of geese. Ducks and geese are known to mate for life, thus these fowls represents faithfulness. These days live geese have been replaced by wooden ones. Cranes are usually incorporated in the brides sash since they represent long life.

If tradition and customs are going to be followed, the bride would wear two dresses which are said to be from the noble class. They are the light green wonsam and an elaborate hwarrot or flower robe. Underneath, the bride wears a traditional robe. The bride also wears a black gem-studded cap on her head and she also wears white cotton socks with embroidered boat-shaped shoes made of silk. Her make-up is simple with three red nickel-sized circles to ward off evil spirits. The groom wears the dress of nobility as well, a jacket (chigori) and trousers (paji), and an overcoat (turumagi). It is made of dark green damask with embroidered auspicious symbols in gold and he also wears a tall black cap headdress made of silk (moja).

Wait for the second part of these wedding blog next week. Also wait for more wedding blogs about wedding savings and how to have inexpensive weddings next week. Again, this is your Wedding Diva wishing you all a great weekend. Enjoy planning your fabulous wedding. Toodles

More Wedding Traditions Information:

For today’s wedding blog, I am going to feature a video spoofing a Lebanese pre-wedding tradition. This is about two young lovers falling madly in love with each other, but their love for each other faces an obstacle and that obstacle is their own wedding customs and tradition. The satire of their customs and tradition is really funny, but in reality it’s quite sad for Lebanese lovers being separated and marrying someone they don’t love just because it’s the will of their parents or they need to follow their customs and tradition.

Well, at least for those families that still strictly follow their tradition. Below is the video, just click it and enjoy. Don’t forget to check our daily blog posts and learn a few tricks to have wedding savings, get knowledge on how to have an inexpensive wedding, learn about different wedding customs and traditions from around the world, and a lot more features about weddings. This is Chelsea reminding you to plan your wedding well.

Last year we have featured Pachelbel’s Canon or Canon in D major with a mixture of Celtic tradition. The classical composition beautifully merges with the Celtic tradition, thus, creating a breathtaking wedding music that anyone can use on their wedding day.

Today, we will feature another wedding music that you’d probably want to include in your wedding song lists once you hear it. The wedding music for this week is a fusion of traditional English folk song and traditional Celtic melody which will make a great wedding music background at the reception.

Greensleeves is a traditional English folk song which is known to exist since the late 16th century. There is a belief that Lady Greene Sleeves (the original title) was composed by King Henry VIII for his beheaded queen of consort, Anne Boleyn. But this popular belief has no available evidence that will prove it was King Henry VIII himself was indeed the composer of this English traditional folk song.

Below is a video of the song. This particular rendition is available at TCarterMusic.com. May, you enjoy listening to this groundbreaking musical achievement. And wait for more wedding blog posts where you can learn different wedding savings technique for you to enjoy an inexpensive wedding. Until next time, enjoy planning dream your wedding.

I am here again with another sweet and romantic wedding song you can play on your wedding day. Today’s wedding song is entitled, “With These, I Do Wed” by singer/songwriter Danielle Ibsen.

Danielle Ibsen’s “With These, I Do Wed” was in the Top 5 Music Contest on the Country and Pop Sages on FameCast.com. If you are looking for a perfect wedding song on your wedding, listen to this by clicking the video below. This wedding song, I believe, can already be downloaded from iTunes. So if you like it you can just download it from there.

I hope you like our wedding song feature for this week. Wait for another beautiful song next week and some more of our wedding blogs about wedding savings and how to have an inexpensive wedding. Enjoy planning your wedding.

One of my favorite features here is the wedding customs and traditions from around the world. And your Wedding Diva brings you the first wedding customs and traditions from around the world feature for this year. The country I am about to feature is not new to us. In fact, this country has a long standing history with the US. The country I am talking about is, Vietnam.

In the olden days, the bride and the groom were chosen by a matchmaker that the family hired. The bride and the groom were chosen for each other to keep the upper society intermixed and keep the poor out of the rich people’s family line. These days, couples are allowed to choose who they want to marry, but they will still need to ask approval from both their families. A wedding planner is going to have a hard time in Vietnam since wedding preparations are decided upon by the entire family – on both sides – which sometimes makes wedding planning such a Herculean task.

The traditional Vietnamese wedding has six stages and they are as follows:

Nap Thai – This is a brief but formal meeting between the families of the couple. The groom’s family visits the bride’s family to ask for the marriage to be accepted. As a symbol of the groom’s sincerity, he must present betel leaves and betel nuts – which represent a bond of marriage which cannot be broken – to the bride during this initial meeting.

Van Danh – At this point, the couple hasn’t received the blessing of the bride’s parents yet. This is the time for both families to know each other more intimately.

Nap Cat – This is the time where the groom’s family presents the wedding plans to the bride’s family. This is also the time where the bride’s parents decides if they will accept the plans presented and if they will give their daughter’s hand in marriage.

Thinh Ky – This is the time where the bride’s family makes a formal announcement to the groom’s family if they are going to give their daughter’s hand in marriage — or if they will refuse the proposal.

Nap Te – If all things go well and the bride’s family accepts the proposal, this is the time where the bride’s family announces the necessary things for the bride to have at the wedding. This is also the time for them to appoint a date and time when the groom’s family may bring them gifts.

Than Nghenh – Here, the wedding rituals are performed before the ancestral altars. Traditionally, this ritual is held at the groom’s house. They ask the tutelary god of marriage, the old man in the moon, to bless and protect the couple. Three little cups are filled with rice wine and the elder who leads the ceremony bows before the altar and takes a sip form one of the cups. Then he passes it on to the couple where they would do the same. The groom will then take a piece of ginger and rubs it in salt. The couple will then eat a piece of the ginger to signify their long and lasting love. After this, the couple are now ready to exchange wedding rings. This is the time the couple officially become husband and wife.

Breaking any of these stages was believed to be disastrous for the families in the olden days. In modern times, only 3 out of the six stages are deemed necessary. These include Nap Thai, Van Danh, and Than Nghenh.

So there you go, the wedding customs and traditions in Vietnam. Next week, tune in for more wedding blogs about wedding savings and how to have an inexpensive wedding. We have lots of things in store for you this year. Just keep visiting our site and enjoy planning your wedding. Toodles.

More Wedding Tradition Information:

To all brides and grooms out there, do you agree with me when I say that hearing the wedding march is the most romantic thing ever while seeing the beautiful bride walk toward the altar?

Today’s wedding blog is about the wedding march. Allow me to let you hear a very romantic rendition of the Bridal Chorus from “Lohengrin” by Wagner. This is a beautiful rendition by Miranda Wong and its sheet music and studio recording MP3 is available at PopCafeMusic.com

Just click the video and listen to a very romantic wedding march. You might want to play this rendition instead of the old usual one. Listen to this wedding march and enjoy planning your own beautiful wedding.