Go Off-Peak
The traditional “wedding season” is May through October. So it stands to reason by choosing a date between November and April you’ll have a better chance of saving money on a wide range of services – photographers, hotel ballrooms, catering, etc.

Be a “Budget Bride”
With wedding dresses running on average $1,075 (Brides.com American Wedding Study 2009), look around for less expensive alternatives to the high-price bridal boutiques. You may find a big bargain at a bridal outlet store, sample sale, upscale consignment store or even online through PreOwnedWeddingDresses.

Or get a quote from AnyWeddingDress!
We take images of designer wedding dresses and hand make your wedding dress based on your measurements. The average cost for a wedding dress at AnyWeddingDress.ca is $400 CAD and this includes global shipping in two weeks or less.

Other options include renting a bridal gown or looking for a dress made out of less-expensive fabrics.

Barter and Advertise
Do you have items or skills you could offer one of your wedding vendors? In this economy, business owners are more open than ever to bartering for goods and services. Consider asking vendors if they would be willing to knock some money off the price tag in exchange for some tasteful advertising in your program or on-site at the ceremony or reception.

Markdown the Décor
Replace expensive floral arrangements with much less expensive candles, photos, or similar centerpieces for reception tables.

Cut Back on Booze
Alcohol is one of the priciest items for any wedding reception. Opt to serve beer and wine (no hard liquor) instead.

If you’re comfortable with the notion, consider a cash bar so that guests are paying for their libations instead of sticking you with the tab. Check with the reception site to see if you can bring in your own alcoholic beverages – doing so can save you a bundle.

Watch the Clock
According to TheKnot.com wedding reception-related charges count for an average 46 per cent of a brides’ total budget. One way to lower those costs is to change the time of your ceremony and reception to brunch or early afternoon so that you can serve appetizers or a less expensive meal rather than a full-course dinner.

Wonder if your guests will be put off? Not likely. According to the AP-Brides.com poll nearly 60 per cent of those polled would rather be served chicken breast than caviar and a solid 20 per cent prefer “pigs in a blanket.”

Let Them Eat (Cup)cake
According to the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE), cupcakes are one of the top wedding trends for this summer. Not only are they typically less expensive than a full-size wedding cake but you can get them made to order from grocery stores and warehouse clubs (such as Sam’s Club, BJs or Costco).

“DIY”
Make your own invitations, create your own bridesmaids’ bouquets, do your own hair and makeup, or ask a relative to play the piano or sing at your service. Look for resources and relationships you already have to trim expenses.

Pass On the Wedding Favors
Your wedding was gift enough for family and friends. Don’t spend more money on candies or candles for them to take home.

And if all else fails take the ultimate wedding cost-cutting plunge and elope.

Daylight Savings
Wedding consultants all agree: Reception halls charge the highest fees for 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Any other time is guaranteed to be a bargain. Consider a Sunday brunch or, if late-night drinking is important, then go for Friday evening.

Greens Are Good
And how many of the guests know what kind of flowers are in season at any given time of year? “Stay with what’s in season, use more greens and fewer blooms,” advises Carol Koch Waldmann, a wedding consultant in Natick, Mass. “No one will ever notice.” Roses are always available, but brides should steer clear of floral-intensive holidays such as Mother’s Day, when high demand will drive up costs. Another flower tip from Regina Tate of Regina’s in Nederland, Texas: Don’t feel the need to adorn the church with fresh flowers for the ceremony. “People expect churches to be less ornate, and they’ll spend a lot more time at the reception,” she says.

Save a Tree
Waldmann, who estimates that most brides end up overshooting their initial budget by about 15%, encourages her clients to think twice before spending hundreds of dollars on a seven-piece hand-engraved invite. The invitation liner is completely unnecessary, she says, as are separate enclosure cards. Keeping it to a single sheet, she notes, saves on the costs of both paper and postage.

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1. Tips on Cutting Wedding Costs
2. Brides Not Cutting Back On Wedding Dress Costs
3. Have A Charming And Cheap Wedding

One of the biggest decisions you will face as the big day approaches is choosing the perfect wedding dress. The process of shopping for a wedding dress can be a fabulous adventure, but it can also be stressful and overwhelming–particularly because a bride-to-be often starts shopping for her gown before many other details are determined. You might have had a clear mental picture of the perfect wedding dress ever since you were five years old. On the other hand, you may have no idea what you are going to wear or feel strange about the idea of wearing white. The important thing is to relax, and remember that there are as many different kinds of dresses out there as there are different kinds of brides.

Understanding the key elements of a dress and being able to differentiate what styles are flattering for different body shapes/types will point you in the . This knowledge will help you determine the most flattering wedding dresses for your body type and also give you the confidence to visit your local bridal boutique and speak intelligently to your sales person about what you are looking for. With easily accessible resources such as the Internet and wedding related books and magazines, you will quickly become an expert on wedding dresses & gowns and find yourself the dress of your dreams.

Flip through your favorite bridal magazines to get an idea of what kind of dress you want. With this idea in mind, you can save time searching for the gown that fits your specific criteria. We also recommend using Google Images, Youtube for videos and PreOwnedWeddingDresses.

Start searching for your gown early! If you need alternations, special modifications, or sizing, it can take several weeks up to a couple of months. The sooner you start shopping the better.

Establish (and adhere) to a realistic budget. Let’s face it—weddings are not cheap. If you are aware of how much you can realistically spend on your wedding dress, you won’t run the risk of falling madly in love with something you simply can’t afford.

Take only one or two people with you. It is less stressful having only a couple of close friends with you as you shop for a wedding dress, first and foremost, because you will then avoid being bombarded with a slew of differing opinions urging you and coaxing you. Your closest friends will be encouraging and enthusiastic as you locate and pinpoint your ideal wedding gown. Remember: This is your wedding and your gown, not your mother-in-law’s or your room-mate’s. It’s your day. The bride is boss.

Finding the perfect wedding dress can be a lot of fun: trying on all the different dresses, feeling like a princess and being treated like a Queen all day! It can also be a lot of stress, particularly if you’re finding it difficult to find that ‘perfect’ wedding dress.

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• Ask your family and friends for referrals. Do a search on the web and look in the yellow pages. Ask the fabric store clerks for suggestions. Some of the sales clerks sew for others.
• Write down some questions you want to ask on your initial contact by phone or email. You may find that all your questions will be answered on the sewing professionals website. So thoroughly check it out.
• Bring all your sketches and pictures to show the wedding dressmaker. Organize them and label them clearly with the changes you desire.
• Discuss her policies, look at contracts, ask about turn around times, forms of payment, fitting schedules.
• Take a look at her portfolio of pictures. She may also have cards and letters from past customers you can read. Ask to see an actual gown in progress or she may have a sample gown already made she uses to show her work.
• She may not be able to quote you a price that day. Most will need time to carefully give you a quote.
• Find out what the deposit is and when it is due.
• Ask how the custom process works, ask about the fittings and how they will be scheduled and when, ask when the gown will be finished. All of this should be on your work agreement once you choose someone.

If you find a wedding dress designer who meets your expectations then find out what the next steps would be to get into her schedule and get ready to create your own wedding dress the perfect wedding dress for you!

And we ask that you consider AnyWeddingDress as you wedding dress designer! Simply send us pictures of your dream wedding dress!

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WestJet Airlines and Air Canada joined several carriers in suspending flights to destinations in Mexico due to the flu scare.

“What’s most important to us is the safety and well-being of our guests so we have suspended flights until this situation is resolved,” said Robert Palmer, a spokesman for WestJet.

WestJet and WestJet Vacations will cease service to Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta as of Monday, said Palmer, adding the company is trying to reach customers in Mexico to have them reschedule return trips.

Air Transat, Nolitours and Transat Holidays also suspended all travel to Mexico, while Carnival Cruise Lines cancelled port stops

Laurie Keith, honeymoon and destination specialist with Romantic Planet Vacations Inc., says Lewis’s wedding is one of three she has booked in the Mayan Riviera for the next 10 days. Guests are scheduled to fly in from all over North America and Europe. Caterers have been booked, cakes ordered, and complex legal requirements have been met, she said. “It’s really hard to re-organize all of that to another destination,”Keith said.

Travel agencies continued to be inundated Tuesday with calls from travellers looking to cancel or reschedule vacations over concerns about swine flu after the Canadian government issued an advisory against all non-essential travel to Mexico and several airlines cancelled flights to the sunny destination.

“There’s a fear of the unknown and, until the World Health Organization can contain this virus, and verify the breadth of it, people will continue to fear travel to Mexico,” said Allison Wallace, spokeswoman for Flight Centre, a travel agent with 130 stores across Canada.

Travel clinics in Calgary reported heavy traffic Tuesday.

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Manage your guest list and seating arrangements, track vendor responsibilities, and plan your budget to the last penny. As you update your plans, you can even share your ideas and get feedback from those who are helping you plan for the wedding, even if they live far away!

With the My Style Wedding planning software, you can finally relax and enjoy the planning process because everything you’ll need will be right at your fingertips.

This software is compatible with Microsoft Vista.

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Offer valid Mar. 30th ~ Apr. 6th

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3. Top 5 Misconceptions About Planning A Green Wedding

1. A green wedding is harder to plan than a traditional wedding.

Couples who have planned green weddings big and small agree on this point: green weddings don’t take more time to plan, just a different way of thinking. For instance, you want to keep guest travel at a minimum to avoid all that transportation-related pollution, so you may choose the venue (and city) closest to most guests.

Going green also means trying to follow the principles of reducing, re-using and recycling as much as possible. Shopping for wedding bands made of recycled gold or invitations made of recycled paper is not hard. The market for green products and services is pretty extensive and growing rapidly, so don’t be afraid of green stress.

2. Green weddings are more expensive.

Yes, some things, like organic food, are more expensive. You may pay a mark-up of 10 to 30 percent or more for green because the green market is still in its infancy. But prices should come down as suppliers step up to meet the growing demand and more competition ensues.

And you can green your wedding at any budget because…

There are ways to get around some of the expenses. If you plan your wedding in a natural venue like a garden or park, you can save on flowers. If you go local and seasonal for elements like flowers or food, you not only save on all those transportation-related carbon emissions but also on the price mark-up for anything shipped from somewhere else (sometimes from another continent!)

And remember, green weddings by definition stand against waste and excess. This translates into savings.

3. Couples have to sacrifice elegance or personal style.

Green and stylish are not mutually exclusive. A green venue can be an elegant mansion with an organic kitchen and solar power. Buying a vintage or second-hand dress, or borrowing it, is green because it saves on resources, but this doesn’t mean the dress can’t be couture or from a well-known designer like Vera Wang. Going green just means opting for the environmental-friendly alternatives, not looking like oatmeal!

4. Green wedding force brides to break with tradition.

Perhaps you’ve read the bit about not tossing rice at weddings because it’s bad for the birds. (”Baloney,” the conservation director for the National Audubon Society told me, saying birds eat rice all the time and nothing happens to them.)

Or perhaps you have seen a wrinkly hemp gown and said: “Not for me, thank you, I want silk.” Unfortunately, there’s some misinformation about what it takes to go green. All you need to do is stop and think: “Is there an environmentally friendly alternative to this ring? To this dress? To this menu? You may still send out those paper invitations (etiquette experts frown on sending emails,) but you may also want to have a wedding website for all other communication, thus saving on paper altogether. What can be more tree-free?

For some couples the goal is to go all green, from ring to honeymoon, but most couples I know incorporated the green elements that best suited their tastes and needs. If you still want to wear brand new white gown, go for it. This is your wedding, your memories. But if I may, why don’t you donate it after the wedding to a nonprofit organization that can sell it and raise money for a worthy cause? Or put it on Craigslist, so that another bride can buy second-hand.

5. Green weddings really won’t make a difference.

Wrong. More than two million marriages take place in the United States each year. Even if some of those are not celebrated with a wedding party, you still have thousands upon thousands of weddings each year and a multi-billion wedding industry that caters to them. In cutting out waste, in supporting green products and services, in setting an example for guests and in their ability to build momentum for a whole industry to shift to greener practices, couples who go green can have a significant cumulative impact on the environment. How significant will depend on how well today’s pioneers inspire others to follow suit.

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Pay attention to the invitation. If it indicates anything like formal dress or black tie, then you know you need to dress to the nines for this event. This means a tuxedo or for men and full-length dresses or ball gowns for women.

Take your cue from the venue of the reception. If the reception is going to be outside, you can usually get away with more casual clothing than if the reception will be in a formal ballroom.

Refrain from going too casual, unless the invitation specifically requests jeans and t-shirts. You’re still attending a wedding, after all. Even the more laid-back outdoor venues require a degree of decorum. Business casual dress, such as khakis and polo shirts, are about as casual as you should go.

Avoid colors that are too loud and patterns that are too wild. Either one of these things will make you stand out in a bad way.

Keep the weather in mind. You should choose clothing that’s appropriate to the season in order to be as comfortable as possible. Be sure to also check the weather report the day of the wedding, so you’ll know if you should wear a coat or bring an umbrella.

Find out what other guests will be wearing. If you can match your style of dress to that of other people who will be attending the reception, you will rarely go wrong.

Ask the bride or groom what you should wear. This method is fool proof. It should also be used as a last resort, unless you’re very close with either member of the happy couple. However, if the invitation doesn’t give you any clues and the other guests aren’t talking to you, then this is your best option.

Please leave a comment if you have any additional tips!

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2. Different Rules for Different Cultures
3. Tips on Cutting Wedding Costs

• Shorten the guest list. This will cut down on the catering — probably one of the biggest expenses — as well as the cost of invitations and decor.
• Only spend money that’s in the bank, and avoid relying on future gifts and income.
• Budget realistically to avoid surprises.
• Hire a wedding planner. Consider the value of a wedding planner’s connections and knowledge. Most offer consultation services as well as planning and day-of support.
• Prioritize. Be it the flowers, the dress, the band or the location, manipulate your budget to incorporate the most important aspect.
• Do it yourself. Take on whatever it is you do best, baking, handwriting invitations, creating personalized favours — not only will the wedding day be more personal, but it will cut down on expenses in the long run.
• Create a website. Mailing invitations is still ideal but cutting down on the various inserts such as maps and even RSVP cards as well as offering additional information on a website is a great cost-saver.
• Plan your honeymoon for later. By breaking up the largest expenses into smaller manageable pieces, the overall cost will seem less overwhelming.

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2. Top 5 Misconceptions About Planning A Green Wedding
3. Wedding Favours, Table Decorations, Place Card Holders

Try these quick-and-cheap ideas on for style:

• Create your own custom invitations, response cards, programs, and menus with readily available software and high-quality paper stock
• Put Mom or the maid of honor to work hand-addressing the invitations instead of hiring a calligrapher–or do it yourself if you have lovely penmanship
• Make CDs of your favorite tunes and ask a friend to play them for the cocktail hour instead of hiring the band for the full reception
• Hit the local market for Fresh Flowers, and a thrift store for oversized vases, then throw a flower-arranging brunch on rehearsal day
• Ask a pastry-savvy friend to bake the wedding cake or a tray of her signature berry tarts as your wedding gift
• Create simple but elegant centerpieces out of small vases, tiered tea lights, floating blooms, potted herbs, or fresh fruit

No time or resources for all these projects? Try incorporating just one or two. Even simply assembling your own favors–over an evening bottle of wine, perhaps–can save a small fortune.

For some couples, even more rewarding than a trimmer budget can be the stamp of their personalized style on all the features of the big day. So even if your cash flow is fairly flexible, consider looking for areas to DIY for the pure sake of creating lasting memories and individual touches. It’s a good way to add a fun few hours of craft time to balance out all the number-crunching, not to mention a means for squeezing friends into your crazy schedule.

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• Bring pre-printed mailing labels. Vendors you are interested in will constantly be asking you for information or have a giveaway that you can enter (free tuxes, free limousine rides), and you are going to get really sick of scribbling out your personal information over and over. It’s much easier to bring a mailing label and smack it on the vendors’ informational cards. Be sure to include your name, your fiancé’s name, your address, phone number, e-mail and, if you know it, the date you plan on getting married.

• Ask vendors to give you a quote. Vendors can give quotes for their services on the spot, says Evanowski. That way you can compare rates between similar vendors, like florists or photographers, and see how they fit in your wedding budget.

• Register when you walk in. If you’re not sure you can hit every booth but know what areas you’re interested in when you enter the expo, you can fill out a card indicating what specific areas you’re interested in (reception halls, photographers, flowers), and the applicable vendors will mail you information about their companies.

• Talk directly to the vendors you’re interested in. You can have your mom or friends help you screen venweddors, but if they tell you someone seems interesting, make sure you talk to them yourself, says Sandra Smith, owner of Directional Strategies Travel, who will be at the show both days. “This may be the one chance you have to talk with them in person,” she says. “You may see material that may look pretty and glitzy, but you have to meet with them to see if they are someone you feel like you can work with. You don’t get that if someone else is picking up things for you.”

• Ask the practical questions. Mary Stevens, owner of Life Cycles (which helps couples personalize their wedding ceremonies) and a vendor at the show on Saturday, says couples should ask vendors for their availability, their fees and what services will be included.

• Always negotiate. “I would never accept anybody’s price upfront,” says Evanowski. “In life, you can always negotiate, especially for services. Say ‘Listen, this is my budget. It’s at $2,000, and this is what I would like to spend.’ ” Also, be on the lookout for discounts offered exclusively at the show.

• Think about what you’ll need locally. Even if your wedding is out of town or a destination wedding, it may be easier to bring some essential pieces of your wedding from metro Detroit. Evanowski highlights these: wedding dress, bridal party attire, shoes and bridal accessories, travel agent consultation and lingerie for the honeymoon.

• Bring a notebook, or at least a pen. With so many vendors at the show, it can make it hard to remember your impressions of each one once you get home. Smith and Evanowski suggest jotting down your thoughts about the vendors and their rates while you’re still at the expo. If you don’t have a notebook, at least write a note to yourself on the back of a business card about what you like and didn’t like and whether you’d like to follow up.

• Bring a camera. If you see something you like or a vendor you like, photograph that person or the booth. That way, you’ll have a visual reminder of who you spoke with and what the business offers. Don’t forget to take some pictures with your friends, too. When things get hectic and stressful, you can look back and remember that some parts of wedding planning are fun!

• Sort through it all as soon as you get home. It may be tempting to shove your bag of bridal brochures in the closet after hours at the expo, but go through everything you’ve collected as soon as you get home. That way, you can prioritize vendors and services when they’re fresh — plus you can make your wedding file really grow.

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