Author: Deerfield GolfClub

Wedding trends have to start somewhere. For example, the age-old tradition of wearing a white wedding dress hasn’t been around forever. In fact, Queen Victoria began that trend in 1840, when she wore a lavish white wedding dress. If you are planning to make it official within the next year, know the very latest in wedding trends. Here are the highlights of 2015 wedding trends.

It’s The Year Of Plentiful Greens

This year will be all about sustainable living and going green — and that trend is going to stay strong during wedding ceremonies and receptions. “Herbs like rosemary and mint, lemon leaf, magnolia leaf, ivy, smilax and maidenhair fern are being strung together and used in surprising ways — as table runners or chair swags, to frame cocktail menus, to redefine tent ceilings or to give chandeliers a soft edge,” Bridal Guide writes. With that in mind, green venues and outdoor wedding places — such as country club weddings and golf course weddings — will be very popular this year. And brides and grooms won’t stop there. Green living will play a role in more than just the bouquet and venue. Modern wedding menus are also more likely to include fresh, locally farmed selections, a trend most commonly called, “farm-to-table dining.”

More Wedding Cakes Go Naked

The most recent wedding trends aren’t just about the various places to have a wedding reception. “Wedding cakes without any icing are becoming quite the trend for rustic, casual weddings,” according to Wedding Wire. And that’s not the only thing that’s changing, when it comes to wedding foods and drinks. More couples are keeping it strictly casual, with a brunch buffet or with a cake and punch wedding. A cake and punch wedding entails serving smaller portions, such as appetizers and petit fours, instead of a full-fledged meal. What are the trendiest wedding ideas of 2015? Go green with creative, herbal bouquets and decorations, and break out of the norm with a low-key meal, such as a brunch buffet or a cake and punch reception.

 

Though rates of marriage are apparently decreasing — only 51% of adults in 2010 were married compared with 72% in 1960 — an average of 7,000 couples marry in the United States every single day. Though marriage is still an important step for many couples, since the recession many are looking for ways to trim the budget for the total cost of the wedding. Here are four ways to do it.

1. Have a Morning Ceremony
One easy way to help cut costs on your big day is to have a morning ceremony rather than an evening or afternoon ceremony. One of the main reasons this works is all about the food. Rather than spending a pretty high price per guest for something like steak or lamb, a wedding brunch is significantly less expensive. Wedding brunches are usually made up of food like eggs, french toast, and pancakes which are all relatively inexpensive, so you could even offer an unlimited brunch for your guests.

2. Hire an Expert.
Another super simple way to cut costs for your wedding is to find and hire the right wedding professional or expert. This might seem to be counter productive — spending money to save money — but the right wedding planner will know where to cut costs and how to negotiate with services and vendors. Almost half of people find their wedding planners through recommendations, so ask family and friends if they know anyone.

3. Choose an All Inclusive Venue.
This is a big one. The best places to have a wedding reception and ceremony will have all inclusive packages for many of the elements of your day — from the ceremony space to the reception hall, to food and decor. Paying for all of these things separately can not only cause confusion when you have to cut checks to six different people, but it’s also generally less expensive.

4. Send Centerpieces Home. When you’re designing your decor and centerpieces, keep your guests in mind. People generally give gifts to thank their guests for coming to the wedding, and you can use your decor to serve that purpose. Try using fancy candles or small potted plants that can be sent home with your guests — after all, what else are you going to do with 150 votive candles and holders?

If you’re a part of the 25% of couples who pay for their entire weddings with no help from either family — or even if you aren’t — looking for ways to lower your wedding budget is probably a priority. Try having a morning ceremony and serving a wedding brunch, hiring a professional, using centerpieces and gifts, and choosing an all inclusive venue.

Planning a wedding can be a whirlwind of excitement — and stress. It’s something you only want to do once, and committing yourself to someone and joining your families is a pretty big deal. You probably want every detail to be perfect. You’re looking at dresses, colors, tasting food, looking for decor, the flowers, the rings, places for wedding receptions… it’s enough to make your head spin, but you don’t have to go it alone. There are plenty of resources for you to use to make sure that you find the best ballroom dancing lessons or the best deals on a photographer. Here are three places and people that you should consult with to make your wedding planning go as smoothly — and remain as stress-free — as possible.

Use the internet
More than 90% of brides use the internet to plan their weddings. Since almost every business has a website these days, using the internet is a good way to compare prices, pay for services, and book dates. Furthermore, chances are you can find some things for your wedding second hand (since who needs to keep 200 glass candlestick holders?). People use the internet to hand off goods that they used at their weddings like linens, napkin rings, centerpieces, and other accessories that they don’t need anymore after their big day is over. This is also a good way to cut costs, since you can probably find things much less expensively secondhand than buying or renting them outright.

Consult family and friends
Another good resource for planning your wedding is asking your family and friends. About half of people planning their wedding get recommendations for wedding professionals through their own family and friends. If you have a family member or friend who has gotten married recently, ask them who they went to for this or that service and ask how their experience was. If it was positive, you can typically trust that you’ll have a good experience as well. If you’re looking for places for wedding receptions outside for example, find people who have used outdoor wedding places and get their take on certain venues.

Ask for recommendations from your vendors
Wedding professionals likely know other people in the business, especially if they are from the same area. Many of them have worked the same weddings, so chances are if they don’t know people personally, they will have at least heard of them through word of mouth. Caterers probably know the best places to have a wedding reception in your area, since they attend so many different weddings.

Planning your wedding should be one of the most fun things you ever do. It should be about you and your future spouse, your families, and having a good time, so to help reduce your stress level, use the internet, your family and friends, and the help of your wedding professionals to find the perfect places for wedding receptions, ways to cut costs (to avoid the average $26,951 price tag of weddings), florists, bakers, and more. Good luck!

Every year brings millions of weddings in the United States. In 2012 alone, there were more than two million ceremonies, according to CNN.com. Couples spend thousands of dollars on the most beautiful wedding places, elegant centerpieces, fashion-forward attire, and a host of other wedding expenses. This year will be no different, and the latest wedding trends are showing that weddings are returning to a natural, rustic feel, laced with a touch of glam. Here are a few 2014 wedding trends you will want to add to your list of possible “to do’s.”

Woodland Wedding

Centerpieces are returning to nature. Brides are opting to have branches, contoured twigs, and rustic floral accents on tables, with a hint of silver or crystal to embellish. Some couples have created corked bottles with moss terrariums inside as wedding favors. You might see a bride wearing a veil connected to her hair by a part floral, part twig headband. This year’s veil orders are pointing toward floral patterns, and simple lace designs. Outdoor wedding locales and rustic spots to have a wedding reception, like a park or even a wooded backyard, are all part of the woodland theme.

Peonies Galore 

Instead of weaving together a match of wildflowers and traditional white ones, this year, brides have moved toward the many-petaled tree peony for decorations, and even for their bouquets. These flowers typically come in nine different structures, one of the largest being the crown form. They offer a full, round shape that adds an organic round shape to any table, and abundance to a bouquet. Tree peonies come in several different colors, the most popular being subtle shades of pink, peach and blush for weddings in 2014. Beautiful wedding places can reach a new level of class and charm with droves of peonies surrounding the venue.

Ixnay the Smartphone 

With weddings turning toward a natural theme, couples are going “unplugged.” That means no phones are allowed at the wedding, and some couples are confiscating phones at the entrance to prevent hundreds of hashtags, Instagram pictures, Tweets, and Facebook posts. This is an effort to keep guests engaged with the wedding, interacting with their guests, and savoring the evening’s program without worrying about who posted what, where. It might seem a bit extreme, but the idea is that there is no room for the internet in woodsy, outdoorsy, unique wedding places.

Other trends include using flower garlands for decorations, candles instead of bright lights for mood, and supremely romantic wedding places that offer a natural, serene setting for all guests.

As always, the whole day or evening is about you and your soon-to-be spouse, and creating the most memorable night of your life. All the toiling and decision-making over the most beautiful wedding places, the right dress, and the perfect colors will ultimately be worth the effort, and helps you set the tone for the rest of your lives together.

In 2012, the average cost of a wedding was just under $27,000 — unless you tied the knot somewhere in New York City, of course. If you did, you were looking at an average price tag of around $70,000, which isn’t particularly surprising. What might surprise you, though, is that the number of million-dollar wedding budgets more than doubled between 2011 and 2012.

In other words, couples are getting more comfortable dropping serious cash to have the weddings of their dreams. But what they don’t realize is that you can plan a dream wedding — seriously, the one you’ve been fantasizing about since you were just a kid — and still manage to pull it off without going into crippling debt. How? It’s all about knowing the ins and outs of wedding planning on a budget. With that in mind, here are a few tips:

1. Book a destination wedding.
Nearly a quarter of all weddings are now destination weddings, meaning you hold the ceremony, the reception and the honeymoon all in the same place. This is about as close to a fantasy as you can get, and with the travel expenses, the final sticker price is going to be a bit inflated. But think about it: A thrifty wedding should also be a celebration, and what better way to simultaneously find wedding venues you’d love and find the ultimate dream vacation afterward?

2. Go with functionality over glamour.
OK, so destination weddings might still be a bit of a dream for plenty of couples who want to focus on bringing the family together somewhere at home. There’s nothing wrong with saving up more for your honeymoon by cutting costs for the ceremony and keeping wedding reception prices low, so think of using your iPod for the music and turning inexpensive store-bought flowers into marvelous bouquets to line the banquet hall or church

3. Look into amateur photographers.
Between coordinating seating arrangements and repeatedly contacting the hosting venue, planning a reception is dizzying enough. That’s why you can put out some feelers on Craigslist or another job board to find a young student photographer (or two) to tackle the frantic task of capturing your special day in photos and videos. Scope out their burgeoning portfolio and offer to pay them what’s fair, even if it’s less than what a “professional” what typically receive.

4. Spring for smaller cupcakes over a real cake.
Wedding reception prices can be steep enough between the banquet hall itself and the dinner, so why complicate things further by adding in a lavish dessert? Obviously, cutting the cake is a tradition and shouldn’t be excised altogether, but opt for a tiny cake for cutting, and delicious gourmet cupcakes for your guests to indulge in. You just might end up saving hundreds (or thousands) in appearances.

Of course, these are just a few suggestions. Most couples, when they’re truly worried about things like wedding reception prices and honeymoon budgets, are even more creative in their own planning. Your special day should be all about doing everything you want, the way you want it — period.

White dresses. Flowers. Church organs. Weddings tend to conjure up the same concrete mental images for everyone. But though it’s become the go-to symbol of the actual wedding ceremony, the first white dress wasn’t worn while exchanging vows until 1840 when Queen Victoria introduced the look to the Western world. Since then, brides everywhere won’t settle for anything else. This is all to say that wedding traditions can change over time, and they have. Each new year brings an entirely different set of trends to watch in the wedding world, and 2014 is now exception. Whether you’re looking at wedding planning on a budget or you’re splurging to include all the regal details you’ve ever dreamed of, keep these four hot wedding trends in mind before it’s time to make any final decorating or thematic decisions.

1. Art Deco & the Days of Old
   Blame it on last year’s The Great Gatasby remake. Blame it on technological addictions. Whatever the “real” reason, formalist weddings are boomeranging back into style, Bridal Guide reports. Expect an onslaught of Art Deco invites, flapper-inspired dresses, brass bands and lots of dancing in fancy, expensive tuxedos and ball gowns. On second thought, who needs a reason to celebrate the Jazz Age at all?
2. Hashtags & the Days of New
   OK, so this one might seem a little contradictory, but some couples simply aren’t into the whole nostalgia thing. And who says the Roaring Twenties can’t coexist with the Roaring 2010s? More and more couples are inventing their own hashtags for their guests to use during the ceremony and, more specifically, during the reception. Tagging photos, tweets and even videos with, say, #SteveMichelle2014 can be a great way to go share those special moments with a larger audience.
3. Flowers, Flower Garlands, Floral Patterns
   Nothing spells wedding quite like a banquet hall or church decorated to the ceiling with gorgeous lilacs, gardenias and daisies. In 2014, expect modern weddings to take the floral craze one step further. You’ll probably see more flower garlands than in recent years, and Bridal Guide is calling the tree peony the flower of the year with its numerous gorgeous petals. Factor in floral prints for dinner tables and you have just about all the foliage you need for your nuptials.
4. Shabby Chic Designs for Casual Elegance
   Wedding planning on a budget is tough, but finding cute decorations doesn’t have to be. Find as many authentic Mason jars as you can, then re-purpose them as table-centerpiece candle holders. Use glass gallon jugs as flower vases. Get creative with what you have around the kitchen and fashion your own invitations out of old newsprint — or something trendy like that. Luckily for you, budgeting and thrifting are very “in” these days, which makes for an easy-to-design wedding aesthetic.

About 93% of all brides today use the internet to help when they’re wedding planning on a budget. Keep an eye out for more lists like this in the future to help you stay on top of the trends in the future, too.

Are you trying to figure out how to plan your wedding, and just can’t seem to get a handle on things? Whether it’s the people, the venues or the overall cost, there are many factors that go into wedding planning that can be downright maddening — but most people would say that the prices are right up there. In 2012, the average cost for a wedding reception was $13,106! For most people living on a middle class budget, that is a lot of money. The good news for you and your significant other is that there are ways to save money, as well as your sanity.

• Don’t Please Your Parents – Instead of trying to figure out how to plan the perfect wedding for someone else, focus on the wedding that is perfect for you. Figuring out how to plan your wedding shouldn’t be a race to see how many heads you can make nod in approval. Instead, it should be a time where you make sure that you are the ones who are happy. It’s your day, after all, so instead of trying to impress the relatives with the highest chocolate fountain, a 10-piece orchestra or a dress that doesn’t suit your style, you’ll be better off in the end if you do what you and your partner want.
• Invite Those Closest to You – The more people you invite, the more expensive it’s going to be. Believe it or not, the number of couples with a wedding budget of $1 million or more doubled between 2011 and 2012! The last thing you should do is worry about looking at wedding reception venues that could hold every person you’ve met over the last 10 years. If you just want to have a small wedding for your family, there’s nothing wrong with that. You could also opt to have a small ceremony and intimate reception, but plan a bigger potluck-style celebration, to which you’ll invite lots of folks, down the road.
• Keep the Food Simple – Another thing that can get mighty complicated at wedding receptions is the food. In the end, all anyone really needs is one or two protein options, and a vegetarian meal. Many couples spring for elaborate buffets or high-end hors d’oeuvres, thinking this will appeal to their guests, but those who are there to celebrate your wedding really aren’t looking to be wined and dined. Opting for one or two drink options, instead of an open bar, could also lighten the financial load.

There are thousands of experts all claiming to know how to plan your wedding perfectly, and while they may know the business of fashionable and trendy weddings, they don’t know the needs of you and your significant other. At the end of the day, it’s a wedding for you two. Doing it for anyone else will only lead you to a more costly and stressful wedding.

 

Not all elegant wedding receptions have to cost a small fortune. Whether you’re torn between venues for your wedding reception, or you can’t decide on decorations, there are many great ideas out there that will not only make your wedding day unique, but affordable as well.

Almost all future brides use the internet to help plan their wedding day and to search for ways to bring down the cost. If you’re looking to have a beautiful wedding on a tight budget, now’s the time to listen up!

• Book a Sunday Wedding

  Many reception halls offer discounts on Sunday afternoon weddings.  This provides a unique experience for your guests and will save you money!

• Plan It Yourself

  Wedding planners may be convenient, but they rarely will forge a path towards inexpensive elegant wedding receptions. In fact, hiring a wedding planner could cost as much as a DJ or a caterer, which is the last thing you need if you’re working on a tight budget. Perhaps one of the best tips for planning a wedding reception is to simply do all of the legwork on your own. You may have to put in a bit more time, but the budget will be yours to set.

• Remember What It’s All About

  The type of elegant wedding receptions that some people end up with are not necessarily what you and your fiance may have in mind. Affordable wedding receptions are beautiful and special. All that matters at the end of the day is that you and your future spouse are happy and surrounded by people that love you. Going out of your way to impress other people could leave you more stressed out and disappointed than simply doing what you think is best.

Elegant wedding receptions don’t necessarily need to look like a state dinner at the White House. Today’s couples prefer weddings that are fun, meaningful and comfortable.  No matter what you plan, you’ll be happy as long as you don’t force anything, or spend outside of your means. It’s your day!