Wedding Ideas, Tips, & Trends «

Bride kisses her Dad, who helped bring her wedding to life; photo courtesy of Dean Michaels Studios

Right now, according to TheWeddingReport.com, the national average wedding cost is $25,631, and our recent survey shows that we’re far, far away from the days when the bride’s parents footed most of the bill (and really far, far away from the days when the bride’s parents also made most of the wedding decisions.) Now, the bride and groom are covering a big majority of the wedding costs, but they’re welcoming financial contributions from others. And you’re going to be surprised by who these Others are.

In 2011, the bride and groom took on 83.2% of their wedding expenses (that’s up 1.9% from 2010,) and parents footed in 2011 51.5% of the bills. That too is up a bit from 2010…mostly because we’re seeing both the bride’s and groom’s parents kicking in some cash for the big day. The old ‘Who Pays for What?’ charts in old wedding etiquette books have gone out the window, with the bride and groom and all sets of parents (since you might have four sets if both bride’s and groom’s parents have divorced and remarried) deciding for themselves who is going to pay for which elements of the ceremony and reception. So you might have the groom’s parents hosting the morning-after breakfast instead of the rehearsal dinner. The bride’s parents might host the welcome cocktail party for out of town guests. And did you know that it used to be the groom’s family’s responsibility to pay for the bride’s bouquet? That’s rarely seen anymore. Plainly put, the bride and groom join their wallets with their parents’ wallets and custom-select who will pay for what.

Parents often say they enjoy getting to taste and purchase the wedding cake, when the wedding couple gives that priority to them (and of course, joins them for the tasting!)

Now what about the surprising Others who are also contributing? Our report reveals that Other Relatives are pitching in 14.6% of the wedding expenses! And that’s up from 12.8% in 2010, a 14.1% increase! Who are these relatives? We’re talking grandparents, godparents, siblings and other special relatives who want the couple to have their dream day, more than they want to give them a blender as a wedding gift. So you might see a set of grandparents paying for the photography package as their wedding gift to the bride and groom who can’t foot the pricy bill. Godparents might pay for the classic car as their wedding gift to the couple. Yes, it can be an exorbitant gift in many cases, but it can also be a smaller gift…like grandparents paying for the marriage license. They’re part of the team, picking up part of the bill, so they’re in the stats.

Who else is helping to bring the dream day to life? This one surprised me, and made me quite happy: our survey respondents said 6% of wedding cost contributors are Friends. That’s up — get this! — 25% from 2010. And again, it might be a lofty expense, or it might be something less expensive. “I knew my best friend was disappointed that her budget wouldn’t allow her to get her hair and makeup professionally done for her wedding day,” says one spectacular friend who also happened to be a bridesmaid. “So I joined up with the other bridesmaids to give her a combined birthday-bridal shower gift of a $400 gift card to her favorite bridal salon so that she could get her hair, makeup and nails done!” Those friends just paid for a part of the wedding budget and gave the bride an experience she deeply wanted, and will never forget.

We’re seeing more loved ones offering to help pay for dream weddings, and more groups enjoying customizing who will pay for what…and brides and grooms are — according to our report — keeping their costs on the moderate level. They’re not using the eight wallets in the mix to add exorbitant elements to their day. No one’s saying, “Grandma wants to pay for the entertainment? Well, then we will get that 12 piece orchestra!” No, they’re still operating on a careful and often conservative budget. Our surveys and Trend Talks reveal that couples want more romantic, simple and fun weddings, rather than formal, ornate ones. They’re spending less overall, often inviting fewer people, and including more unique options. They’re just adding more oomph to the wedding budget they do have access to, thanks to the generous loved ones all around them.

Who is helping to pay for your wedding, and how did you and they choose what they’d contribute to?

Your budget may be the dreaded B-word in your wedding plans. It tells you what you can and can’t do, it shifts, it slides, it scares you sometimes. But it’s essential.

We were curious about how today’s brides and grooms are keeping track of their budgets, so we launched a Trend Talk survey on the methods that are most popular for keeping those numbers organized. The first response that hit me like a brick is that 16.7% of respondents said they weren’t managing their budget with any kind of tool at all. They are, I imagine, just blasting through their planning stages, whipping out credit cards, and not worrying about the totals. If they’re trust fund babies, I can see that. Celebrities with all-sponsored weddings? I can see that, too. Maxing out their cards? Perhaps.

So for the 83.3% who are masters of the B-word, you’d think that everyone’s using those free budget tracker tools on wedding websites, right? Nope. Website budget tools came in at 45.2% — less than half of all bridal couples are setting up their budgets on their favorite bridal site’s free tracker tool systems. That has to be because everyone’s going mobile, right? No, my guess was wrong. Only 13.7% are tracking their budgets using a mobile budget app. The big one is Computer Spreadsheet at 57.5%. Couples are either setting up their own spreadsheets, personalizing them by their own categories and breakdowns, which could mean that some couples have unique details in mind. They might want to keep track of thirty different things within the category of Decor that a bridal site or app might have only one spot for.

For instance, if Decor is a high priority for my wedding, and I know I want lots of different things, I might set up my budget spreadsheet to give me space to record the following:

____ Table linens

____ Table runners

____ Centerpiece bowls

____ Centerpiece florals

____ Charger plates

____ Candles

____ Lighting effects (room, ambient)

____ Lighting effects (gobos with our logo)

____ Lighting effects (outdoor)

____ Tent draping

____ Tent lighting

____ Fireworks

And the computer spreadsheet adds up all of those columns for me. When I can get my outdoor lighting effects for free, I get to enter $0 there, hit a button, and the spreadsheet tells me where I stand with my numbers.

The auto-math is a big draw for the organized couple, since it’s so important to have real numbers. And who has time to add up columns, carry the 2, double-check it…

Well, apparently, lots of people. 26% of our survey-takers said they’re going old-school with their budget tracking, using a printed budget worksheet. We heard lots of ‘I’m writing it in my own notebook,’ and ‘I’m using an old-fashioned bookkeeping pad.’ A respondent said, “I’m writing numbers on paper, erasing and crossing-out as necessary.” That’s when it hit me…when an auto-tracker gets a change to a number, it deletes the old number. Which means you have no record of it. So in addition to, ‘that’s just how I do it’ as a reason for going old-school with paper and pencil, there may be a keepsake element in being able to see that $200 projected expense for lighting crossed out and replaced with a $0 in red pen.

There’s also the fun of seeing this chart in your own handwriting, and being able to make notes on the sides of the pages in that notebook. Those are also priceless ‘artifacts’ of the hand-written budget. Years from now, you may find this notebook filled with your budget details and see your big, red pen mark of ‘We got it for free! Woo hooo!’ Or ‘(Husband’s) sister is making these for us!’ The hand-printed budget chart lets you personalize, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a scrapbooking artistry to this, too…cute little stickers and borders added, with the printed chart put in the wedding binder as a whole. Down the road, you get a memory-soaked keepsake of your wedding plans, not a black-and-white printout from the tool you used on the bridal site (if you remembered to print it out! Some of these can disappear after a few years!)

And then there’s this: if you’ve ever lost an important file to a computer crash, you know the terror of logging in and seeing a blank spreadsheet. The budget could be gone. Now, this is not to say that bridal websites’ budget tools are notorious for crashing; it could be your computer that has the bug. What I’m saying is that some people just know they’re paranoid about important files on computers, even with backup, and would rather skip the whole anxiety and just put it all in writing. On paper.

So what’s your method of keeping track of your budget? Do you use a site’s planning tracker? Your Microsoft One Note’s Wedding Template? Your own spreadsheet? A pretty little notepad from Barnes and Noble? We’d love to hear what works for you, and if you want to tell us why you don’t use a certain method, we welcome your story as well!

Photo courtesy of Best Wedding Hairstyles

Several years ago, when brides and grooms first started scaling back on their wedding plans to make a moderate budget work, they threw a number of wedding experiences out the window. Guided by budget wedding planners and message boards, many brides decided that a good way to save a few hundred bucks was to do their own hair, makeup and nails. But today, brides are choosing to throw something else out the window and give themselves that celebrity VIP experience of getting their hair, makeup and nails professionally done — with great artistry — because that’s part of their wedding dream.

Simply put, brides WANT to be transformed by beauty professionals, sipping champagne in a salon that’s reserved just for their bridal group, and walking out of there with an intricate up-do of loose, wavy Old Hollywood-style curls. Brides WANT the special makeup that’s formualated to make them look amazing in-person and in HD film. And they want their bridesmaids and moms to have the same thing.

So they’re back to booking wedding day beauty styling. The Wedding Report‘s recent Online Wedding Market report shows a very interesting statistic on this. For pro mani/pedis, brides across the country spent $5 million in 2009, then the number dipped to $3.1 million in 2010, and in 2011, mani/pedi’s came back up to $5 million. So basically, 2010 saw half the bridal mani/pedi choice, and then millions of brides said, “I want the VIP treatment, so I’m booking my wedding day mani/pedi.” And interestingly, they booked those mani/pedi’s online. Why online? More salons have streamlined their appointment-making methods, making it easier for customers to just go to their site, click on ‘Make an Appointment’ and grab their time slot. It’s all about convenience and efficiency, businesses’ wise decision to stay accessible even in the middle of the night when a busy bride might decide to tick a few things off the To-Do list. Salons have automated their appointment methods, and will text you reminders of your appointment.

For wedding day hair, brides are booking their trial runs, their wedding day styling, and their highlighting, haircut and other appointments during the year prior to the wedding. In 2009, $10.5 million was spent on online booking of hair styling. In 2010, the year of the Beauty Dip, the number went down to $7.5 million, and in 2011 the number bounced back up to $8.9 million spent on online bookings of bridal hair service. For makeup styling, the stats went from $5.5 million down to $3.3 million, and is on the rise at $4.7 million in 2011.

Across the board, brides are spending more for their easily-booked online appointments for wedding day beauty.

In addition to the ease of online booking through salons’ smart automated tools, here are some other reasons that brides might be booking their beauty and spa treatments online:

1. Groupons and Living Social special deals for 75% off might be easier applied through online-made appointments

2. The bride and the other ladies might live far away from the location of the wedding, so they can’t just walk into a salon and book it for the wedding day.

3. Some salons and spas offering special bridal packages might offer a special discount when you book online, and some of these might be paired with additional treatment deals such as getting a 5th facial free when you book four at their salon.

4. If the entire group of ladies will have their hair and makeup done, the bride might use the salon’s easy-to-fillin Wedding Party appointment worksheet, rather than calling a busy salon and trying to spell out all of their bridesmaids’ names and beauty treatments to a receptionist.

5. Brides might see special bridal deals announced on the salon’s Facebook page, or Twitter feed, pointing them right to the salon’s website for online info and appointment booking.

6. Brides might have memberships at their salon, including Rewards Points. Each time they get a regular mani/pedi, they get points. Perhaps booking all of their ladies’ wedding day appointments can get them mega-points to keep them in highlights and pedis for many months after the wedding.

7. Booking online provides a paper trail. Any time you’re making bridal arrangements, you have to make sure you’re keeping receipts and confirmations, and getting an auto-email confirmation of your bridal appointments gives you leverage to rescue your wedding morning beauty treatment plans. This only happens if you book online, though. You wouldn’t have much luck saying, “But I called the salon five months ago and made these appointments!” A receptionist may have penciled you in on the wrong date, and you’re out of luck. So for some brides, booking online gives them a peace of mind and protection of their investment.

If you book your beauty treatments online, share with us your reasons for doing so, and any advice you have for our brides and bridal parties!

This site may have to be booked online! Photo courtesy of Caneel Bay, www.rosewoodhotels.com

The location of your wedding opens up so many opportunities for bringing your wedding vision to life. A magical garden setting, a modern church with wooden beams and light streaming through skylights and windows, a regal ballroom with a grand staircase and sparkling chandeliers…the options are so varied, and brides today are lucky to have so many romantic and impressive wedding locations to choose from.

Of course, you’ll tour your sites — or take a virtual tour for a destination wedding spot you can’t easily reach — but what’s going on with online booking? In The Wedding Report’s new Online Wedding Market Report, we’re seeing that many brides and grooms are booking their locations online, either traditionally or using mobile devices. For the ceremony location, online booking is up 25.9% over 2011, and for the reception location, online booking and paying is up 40.2% over last year. Since mobile devices make it so easy and secure to click and book, check this out: mobile device-booking of ceremony sites is up 131.9% and reception spots are mobile-booked 138.5% more than last year.

That’s a lot of click-and-buy going on out there, which got me wondering why the trend in online and mobile booking for locations is so hot. Isn’t anyone sitting down and writing a check after their tours of the locations? Some couples are, but it seems like more couples are choosing to buy online, even after they’ve walked through the ballrooms, gardens, bridal suites, outdoor terraces, churches, synagogues and Gatsby-like estate houses. Here are some reasons why booking online might be your choice:

1. It’s how your site does bookings now. With technology so evolved, and busy wedding sites streamlining their processes to allow for less time in the office and more time making their brides’ and grooms’ wedding dreams come true, it might be the site’s preference to have you buy online and get right into their one, perfected system. Your event gets auto-filed into every spreadsheet they have, an interactive folder is automatically made for you, and your plans are super-organized and even copied to you. You may be able to log into their password-protected planning page for your wedding to drop in menu and decor ideas and follow their planning timeline and worksheets. Simply put, your site might not do the ‘writing a check’ thing anymore.

2. Couples are spending more time investigating their sites. In addition to the in-person tour, there’s a big collection of information to go through, including a lengthy contract that contains all the terms for what’s going to be provided on the day, what happens if you need to move your date, cancel, postpone or change your guest count, and more. Wedding couples are wisely bringing these info packets home, fine-tooth-combing each site’s contract and menus lists, emailing questions to the site manager, and investing more time in smart shopping. They’re also likely contacting referral couples and friends they know who got married there. So that leaves them sitting together at 10pm surrounded by pretty brochures and packets from the loveliest ceremony and reception locations, until they’re ready to book the sites they decide on. We’re all so busy now…much of wedding planning is taking place in the late-night hours, or on weekend days when you have time to concentrate on wedding plans but the sites are busy with the weddings taking place there at the moment.

3. Couples are more interested than even in protecting their charges. They’re using credit cards with great customer protection, including recalling payments made to unprofessional vendors and double-booked sites. They’d rather book online through a secure connection, maybe through their PayPal if they’d rather not run up their credit cards. And perhaps they participate in a system that gives them rewards for clicking through a particular site to reach their wedding URLs, giving them a 1% cashback perk.

4. Couples may be planning from a distance. If they live far away from the hometown where the wedding will take place, booking online is their only option.

5. They just want to book those sites quickly, get it done, before dates in popular months book up.

Why do you think the practice of booking ceremony and reception locations online and with mobile devices is on an upswing? If you book wedding plans online, or with your smartphone, what’s driving you to do so? We’d love to know how you plan to book, or have booked, your locations!

As I’m looking at The Wedding Report’s super-new, fact-filled Online Wedding Market Report, it’s amazing to see what more wedding couples are buying online, and which items they prefer to shop for in-person.

With invitations, the ability to touch samples, and see those shimmering borders, flip open envelopes to reveal stylish liners, and check out the bling of buckle ties is very important to wedding couples, so while they’re likely doing research online — checking out tons of samples from upscale custom designers and from legendary online companies — they are often likely to want to touch, feel, turn, and buy invitations in-person. There’s just something so fun about sitting down with an invitation designer, or wedding coordinator, and having those huge invitation sample books placed in front of you. It’s a sensory explosion of colors, textures, ribbons, earthy recycled card stocks, glistening vellums…and I could go on and on.

That said, look at the examples above. It is a top trend to buy invitations online, along with coordinated print items from the top invitation sites’ collections. Invitation and response card-buying online is up 76.1%! After all, you can have a print proof sent to you, which allows you that same touch-factor test you’d get at an in-person meeting.

So that’s invitations. What about all the other print items for your wedding? While many wedding couples are buying their entire ‘invitation suites’ [all of their print items] at that one time, many are splitting the task up into in-person and online shopping sprees.

The Wedding Report’s online shopping survey shows us just which ones you might think about buying online. Get ready for some fascinating trends:

* Ceremony program purchases: up 68.5% over last year

* Guest books: up 68.5% over last year

* Reception Menus: up 105.4% over last year

* Table name and place cards: up 47.7%

* Thank-you cards: up 58.9%

Looking at these items, you might classify them as the print items that don’t need that Wow Factor that invitations deliver. They’re important. They’re pretty. But you’re not losing sleep over whether the font on your menu cards is perfect enough. For these items, you’re probably perfectly happy browsing online, customizing, clicking and buying. And given the many opportunities to buy these items online, on sale, your online shopping spree could be your smart budget strategy.

I’ve left Save the Date Cards for last. This is a special category, since it comes so early in your planning process, and is one of the first, most exciting tasks you’ll tackle. This is most likely going to be the first print item you design together, so there’s a big interest in how you’ll design it. Will you pick out an existing design online and just fill in your details? Or will you create a custom design, wrap it with rustic twine? Will you choose Save the Date magnets? Or have a professional design it from scratch for you?

The survey says that online buying for Save the Dates is up 45.9% over last year, which could mean that brides and grooms have been online buying for the past few years. And now, with so many new Save the Date card designs out there, so many Etsy designers and easy online customizing tools, plus dozens of new collections each season, couples are likely going online to enjoy this fun new world that’s expanded for Save the Dates.

They might do their Save the Dates online, and save the experience of in-person buying for their invitations. What do you think? Which print items did/would you design and buy online, and which did/will you save for the in-person touch-test? Can all of your print items be designed and bought online without feeling like you missed out? How are you shopping for your invitations and print items?

This moment brought to you by mobile spending? Photo: CaneelBay.com

The Wedding Report’s new Online Wedding Market survey results are out, and everyone’s buzzing about the biggest surprises in the results. While it’s not a secret that brides and grooms are using technology to make their wedding planning faster and easier, we’re seeing more couples booking and paying online with their mobile devices.

Clearly, we’re all planning on the move, and getting it done via mobile technology. So for this first post in my series on the online shopping report, I’m focusing purely on booking and paying with a mobile device….

According to TheWeddingReport.com, mobile spending was up a whopping 44% over 2010, with the following products and services as just some of the biggest gainers on wedding couples’ radar:

* Flower Petals: up 1025.6%

* Wedding Planner Full Service: up 605.9%

* Day-Of Wedding Coordinator: up 405.6%

* Non-Limo Transportation: up 374.5%

* Reception Menu Cards: up 620.8%

* Live Band: up 336.6%

These are just some of the items and services today’s couple feels confident booking with a mobile device…and we’re not forgetting that the parents and bridal party members around the bride and groom are also going mobile with their purchases. Sometimes in a big way. The Rehearsal Dinners booked via mobile devices, according to the survey, is up 598% over last year as one of the biggest mobile wedding planning strategies in parents’ hands.

In case you’re wondering, some of the categories that dipped this year in mobile buying include wedding dress accessories (down 18.4%, likely because brides want to see, feel and try them on,) the wedding dress (down 32.4%, for the same reason,) and the photographer (down 1.7%, likely because your photographer will be present and among your guests on the big day, which means you have to interview to get his or her vibe.)

Buying with a mobile device, of course, has to be done with safety in mind, but it’s interesting to see what brides and grooms will book via their mobile technology. So let’s have a little fun with the survey results:

What do you think brides and grooms spend more on with their mobile devices?

* Gifts for their attendants or gifts for their parents? (Answer: gifts for their parents! At more than 3 times the spending amount!)

* Thank-you cards or save-the-date cards? (Answer: Save the date cards, up 200% over last year!)

* Bride’s hair, makeup or mani/pedi? (Answer: mobile spending is almost double for the bride’s glam hair!)

So you get the picture…a growing number of brides and grooms are choosing to book and pay via mobile devices vs. booking online the traditional way. So what are you likely to book with your mobile gadgets? Share your plans here, and I’d especially love to hear what brides will book with their mobiles and what grooms will book via a mobile device.

Next time: Which online sources are brides and grooms using to find their vendors? (This one’s going to surprise you!)

Photo courtesy of Caneel Bay, a Rosewood Resort, www.caneelbay.com

We’ve been talking about post-wedding regrets, about the different decisions that brides would have made that can now help you have an even better wedding celebration. Our Trend Talk survey delivered a flood of eye-opening woulda-coulda-shouldas, and this one jumped out at me:

“I would have designated a person to coordinate the ceremony.”

Ah, the centerpiece of the day, the entire reason for the day, wound up lacking in personalization, sentimentality, decor, and flow. The glamour of the reception’s elements captivated the bride and groom, and they didn’t put as much thought to the loveliness of their ceremony.

After booking the ceremony site and reception site, many couples dive right into the ‘pretty stuff:’ the centerpieces, the cake, the table linens, the lighting, shopping for the gown.

This isn’t to say that couples don’t care about their ceremonies: they truly do. They just figure that once they go through the ‘menu’ at their house of worship, choosing songs and readings, that’s that. But there’s so much more to embrace and enjoy in planning the ceremony. Such as:

* Which kinds of musicians might you have playing as the guests arrive? Harpist? Cellist? Guitar player?

* How can you incorporate your culture into your ceremony? Songs sung in your culture’s native language? Cultural musical performances to open your ceremony, as the feature song, for the recessional?

* Which unique readings can you incorporate into your ceremony? Any classic or contemporary poets’ works? How about song lyrics? Scripture readings that are outside the ‘usuals?’

* How can you transform your ceremony setting into a magical one? Even on a budget, you can get a gorgeous aisle runner in a bright and vibrant color and pattern, and not walk down your aisle on that enlarged paper towel roll that brides of decades past tripped over. Can you incorporate lighting effects, such as uplights or lights in the trees? What about gorgeous, cascading tree florals and crystals? If you’ll have a chuppah, do you want it flower-covered, or do you prefer a fashion-forward all-fabric design with elegant drapes and folds, with an aisle runner leading up to it and glamorous candle pedestals lining your path?

Decorating your ceremony site can be just as mesmerizing as decorating your reception, and done on a budget. Many recent brides say they regret stopping at just the altar florals and pew decor for the first two rows. There was so much more they could have done creatively! They had ideas for the reception that they couldn’t use, so those would have been wonderful for the ceremony…had they thought of it.

Decor aside, it’s the words you speak during your ceremony, the rituals, the readings, the symbolism, the exchange of rings, the kiss to seal it all that give you enormous opportunities to build your dreams. So to avoid post-wedding regrets, be sure you’re not rushing through your ceremony plans like you’re ordering from a takeout menu (1 from column A, 1 from column B.) Stretch those creative wings!

As far as coordination of the ceremony, the survey respondent above makes a great point. Having a wedding coordinator on-hand to help you plan it, instruct everyone at the rehearsal and be on-site at the ceremony itself is quite the regret-buster. In the planning, your ideas come to life with your planner’s help. Perhaps she knows just the perfect cellist for you. That’s time saved. He can prevent that time-killing chaos at the rehearsal when the bridal party is flirting with each other, getting everyone to focus and learn the steps. On the day, your coordinator makes sure everything’s set up, overseeing the preparations while you’re at the salon getting your mani/pedi, making sure the site turns the air conditioning on hours before your ceremony on a super-hot day.

Focusing on your ceremony is definitely a task to raise on your priority list, so that you don’t have post-wedding regrets.

Share your ceremony planning and coordinator stories with us here! What else should brides and grooms think about when planning the true centerpiece of their day?

Would you prefer an extra half-hour at your cocktail party, or your reception? Photo courtesy of Sharon Toris

An extra half hour here, an extra hour there. Better time-management can make a difference in the quality of your wedding day. Our recent Trend Talk survey delivered a very smart warning that you can use now to plan the itinerary of your ceremony, cocktail party and reception hours.

“I wanted the party to last longer, so I added an extra half-hour to the reception. But I should have added it to the cocktail hour instead, because prople ended up leaving [the reception] earlier than I thought. And even though all of the photos were done before the cocktail hour, I still feel as if I missed it!”

Adding an extra half hour to the cocktail party is extremely smart, because it gives the bride and groom more time to circulate, greet guests and eat! If there are photos to be taken after the ceremony and into the cocktail party time, everyone in the bridal party gets antsy, since they’re missing the food and cocktails they see other guests walking around enjoying. They may be hungry, or thirsty, and you may be as well. If you keep your cocktail party at an hour, you may only get 20 minutes of it after photos are done, and if kids are fussy, it can take longer to fire off those shots.

Another reason your cocktail party could use that extra half-hour is that there is a fabulous menu to enjoy! You’ve planned a spectacular collection of stations and gourmet dishes, and you’ll want to have the chance to enjoy it all. Guests will come up to you during the cocktail hour to tell you that you look beautiful, and quick-acting servers could whisk your plate away! (I actually had to pull my rice ball plate back from a server three times during a colleague’s wedding!) Not having the extra time could mean you and your bridal party will have to rush to, and through, the cocktail party stations, gulping down appetizers, and standing in long lines for the sushi bar. What fun is that?

More time in the cocktail party means you’ll also have a few minutes to go to the bridal party lounge and fix your hair and makeup before the reception’s entrance and big dances begin.

An extra half-hour tacked onto the reception may work for you, to keep the dancing going, and keep the energy up, but don’t forget that there’s always an after-party that your group can plan. If everyone wants to keep the party going, you could always head to the hotel bar.

One of the comments that came up most frequently in our survey is that venue staff started cleaning up before the end time of the reception, and guests started to feel the pressure to pack up and get out before the clock struck end-of-wedding. That’s something to keep in mind as you envision the entirety of your reception.

Where would you tack on that extra half-hour? Would it mean more to you to have a full hour for yourselves at the cocktail party (with that half-hour as cushion for your photos and primping,) or would you prefer that half-hour of extra dancing and dessert time at your reception? Share your votes here…

More time = more wedding detail shots; Photo courtesy of Renaissance Hotel

No matter how perfect the wedding day, most brides say they would do something differently. Our Trend Talk survey respondents delivered a long list of Do-Overs they’d tackle if they could turn back the clock, and in this new series, I’ll share the most eye-opening, the ones you can definitely learn from and perhaps save your wedding day.

Photography jumps out as the area where many of our respondents would have made some different choices. “Paying for a little more time from our photographer” is the big one here. Some of our brides were a little bit disappointed that their photographers didn’t have time to take more photos of the details of the wedding, such as table settings and decor. (“All of the vintage tablecloths, vintage bottles, glassware and copper that we’d collected.”) These brides say the group shots their photographers did have time to pose and snap turned out to be a bit stereotypical, and they would have liked forever-photos of the creative elements of their day.

Or “artsy shots,” like the bride and groom standing by a hand-crafted wedding pole wedding sign with their names on them, in the woods at the wedding venue and other pretty shots that you often see featured in wedding magazines and on wedding blogs. A photographer on a limited timeframe simply doesn’t have the time to capture those fun details and scene-setters. There are also moments from the end of the reception, when the bride and groom are dancing or hopping on-stage to sing with the band, that the pro photographer didn’t get because time was up and he left.

One of my favorite tips from the responses is this: “If you start with a vendor’s basic package, it’s easier to upgrade later when you have a better idea about your budget. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to downgrade once you’ve signed a contract.”

Take some time to think about what your photographer’s work will give you…yes, it’s expensive, but shifting things in your budget to put a little extra to more time with your photographer will give you a better range of people, place, and detail in your pro photos.

Next time: where to tack on an extra half-hour.

Brides know that a great DIY project has to be made with quality supplies. Those little crystal ‘pops’ on the favors or place cards have to be lovely, in the perfect shade of blue, orange, green or pristine clear. The paper stock used for wedding programs has to have that elegant textural appeal. They don’t want their projects to look cheap; they want to use the same high-quality supplies that pros use.

The results of our Trend Talk survey surprised me a little bit. I would have sworn that 99.9% of brides would shop in-person for their craft supplies, to put them to the real-life looks and touch-factor tests…as opposed to seeing a kit online and buying by photo and reviews alone. I’m not too far off the mark, with 81.9% of respondents saying they’ll shop at craft stores, 48.3% saying fabric stores and 37.1% saying office supply stores. These are the places where you get to put your senses to work on products, touching the fabrics, seeing the real colors, taking a whiff of those little candles.

59.5% said they’d order from online suppliers, with 44.8% reporting they’ll buy from wedding websites, and 37.1% from Etsy. That’s buying without touch-testing, which many brides and their bridal parties are willing to do for several reasons:

* Sale prices are pretty darn good.

* Brides hear from other brides who have shopped these sites, and they’ve seen really pretty results. Or, brides may have shopped from wedding websites before, when they were bridesmaids. They know when a site offers fantastic designs, delivers quickly and is great about returns.

* It’s just so easy to get the shopping done, especially when inspiration strikes late at night…or when they’re oh-so-carefully wedding-planning during work hours. “I had so many projects backing up on me that I just wanted to get something in the done column!” says one bride who reports a big sigh of relief when she ordered her Save-the-Date magnets online, and bundled in her invitations, program and place card papers, and address labels to reach the free shipping mark.

* Online shops have a huge variety of products, more than craft or other stores may have room for in their aisles.

If you’re searching for where you’ll buy your DIY supplies, you might be interested in the response of one of our respondents, who said she planned to shop at local small businesses, and shop from friends who owned their own businesses. That’s the do-good mindset at work, giving business to local small shops and supporting loved ones’ businesses. Something to think about (of course, remembering that a friend has to be truly talented at his or her craft to make this choice worth it!)

Where else are brides finding their DIY supplies? I’m hearing that garage sales are hot tickets right now. After all, some people go crazy at the craft store buying tons of jewelry-making supplies, or bead kits, or craft papers for scrapbooking…then find they don’t really have a passion for the art. Or, they’ve inherited vintage beads from their grandmother’s estate, preferring that someone who can use them (especially for a wedding!) have them, rather than keeping them boxed up in a damp basement.

Where are you going to shop or search for your DIY supplies? Share your suggestions with us!

Wedding Ideas, Tips, & Trends

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How Are You Keeping Track of your Budget?

Wedding Shopping Online: Beauty and Spa are Back!

Wedding Shopping Online: Wedding Locations

Wedding Shopping Online: Invitations and Print Items

Wedding Shopping Online: The Top Mobile Purchases

Post-Wedding Regrets: What Brides Would Do-Over, part 3

Post-Wedding Regrets: What Brides Would Do-Over, part 2

Post-Wedding Regrets: What Brides Would Do-Over, part 1

Where Do Brides Shop for DIY Supplies?