1. Have a mid afternoon session instead of an evening reception, can save you money on rental, and on food. You can offer appetizers and cake instead of a full meal.
2. Compare prices for different times of the year, and different locations. If you have your wedding during a vendor’s peak season, at a peak wedding time, you’ll pay a premium price for that time slot.
3. Crista Tharp of Tharp events shared this tip with me, make your wedding flowers do double duty. Use your wedding bouquets for table decorations at your reception.
4. Cut down on the favors, extravagant wedding favors can add up fast. Keep favors simple and low cost. A piece of chocolate or other small thank you token will be fine for your guests.

If you’re really on a tight budget you can get creative about your venues and your vendors to help you keep your expenses in check. Many vendors will work with you and give you ideas to help you keep your costs in your budget, if you work with them and be realistic about your expectations.

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Crista also shared some of her thoughts on what the wedding trends for 2010 would be. Since I’ve shared a couple other opinions on wedding trends for the new year, I thought I’d share Crista’s thoughts on the subject too.

One of the things Crista mentioned is that today’s brides are trending toward the individual, in other words they’re doing their own thing and not necessarily following the trend.

• Today’s brides are more gutsy creative and unique individuals.
• Brides aren’t sticking with the traditional, they’re not afraid to try different things to mix it up.
• The color palette is hot, with plenty of bright colors, mixtures of  bright oranges, pinks, and yellows.
• Another trend is patterns in linens, brides are discovering they don’t have to stick with solid colors for their tables, or napkins.

Brides are also looking for wedding decor that can do double duty with the economy still cutting many wedding budgets, that looks like a trend that will continue into 2010.

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The holidays are a great time to take a little break from your wedding planning if you can. It’s a great time to take a step back, to see where your at, and what you still need to do. After the first of the year you can hit things hard again when everyone is back into their normal routine, without all the extra distraction.

There are some things you can get done for your wedding during the holidays.

• Out of town members of your wedding party may be back in town to visit their families, so this is a great time to get their opinion, or get them measured for dresses or tuxes.
• Shop the clearance racks for holiday decorations that may work for your wedding, like white lights, or silver ribbon.
• You can also check out the holiday dress racks, you may find bridesmaids dresses that your maids can wear again.

Enjoy your holidays, then get back on track with your wedding plans in January.

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After the hussle and bustle of the holiday season is over things seem to settle down for the winter months, which gives brides the time they need to get their wedding planning a good start. You’ll have more time to sit down and plan out your wedding.

There are usually quite a few bridal shows during the winter months, take advantage of these to talk with possible vendors for your cake, flowers, photography, catering, and venue without driving all over town.

If you’re newly engaged this winter, take advantage of winters slower pace to get your wedding plans off to a good start. Then you can have most of your wedding planning complete before spring and summers busy schedules take up all your time.

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Crista also shared her version of the wedding timeline with me. She calls it the Bliss Method of wedding planning. It’s a 4 phased method (0r timeline) including all parts of the wedding process from planning to delegation and execution on the day of your wedding.

Crista said the phases in this timeline will work whether you’re putting a wedding together over a year, or in a month.

Here are the 4 phases of the Pure Bliss Wedding Planning Method:

1. Pure Bliss

You just got engaged and you’re telling everyone you know. You’re buying bridal magazines and you’re totally excited and ready to plan. What you should be planning during this phase is who is going to pay for what. You should also ge a rough count of how many guests you plan to invite to the wedding. You might also want to send out engagement announcements.

2. Overwhelming Bliss

During this phase you should book any time sensitive vendors for your wedding, such as your wedding venue, reception location, photographers, DJ, catering, linen rentals, or any other vendor you’ll need to have present on your wedding day. Negotiate your contracts so everything is finalized on your date and time with your vendors.

You should also narrow down your guest list so you can determine a close number for your guests, and take a look at your wedding budget.

Shop for your wedding gown and pick out bridesmaids dresses.

If you’re planning your wedding around a busy time of the year, or if you have guests that will need to travel from out of town you may want to send out save the date cards.

3. Express Your Bliss

This is the time when you’re getting those last minute details taken care of. You’ll need to take care of things like:

• Ordering, addressing, and sending out your wedding invitations.
• Pick out and finalize the decorations for your wedding and reception area
• Pick tuxedos
• Decide on a unity candle and guestbook
• Plan or finalize the honeymoon details
• Purchase gifts for your wedding party
• Wedding favors
• Plan your wedding and reception agenda
• Finalize your wedding music or songs
• and more!

4. Countdown to Bliss

According to Crista, “Ain’t no one in bliss anymore.” In other words your down to crunch time, and you’re a little stressed because now everything has to come together. In the last couple days and hours before your wedding you’ll need to work out any last minute details. Answer last minute questions like who will be setting up the reception area, table decorations, putting out the wedding favors, transporting items to and from the church and reception area.

You’ll also need to have help cleaning up the church and reception area after the wedding. You’ll need people for parking, and coat check. Last minute details for your rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. All those little last minute details that you don’t think about until, well, the last minute.

Crista reminds brides to focus on the big picture, remember why you’re getting married, and that you’re marrying the love of your life. Then everything else will be put into perspective.

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Following is a look at the top 10 bridal trends for 2010 as determined by Get Married’s editorial and production teams as well as wedding leading industry experts:

1. Non-linear aisle: Brides are personalizing the procession by altering the traditional aisle with a circle or a triangular double aisle, enabling the couple to enter from multiple spots with a central meeting point. Stephanie Davis, Get Married magazine editor-in-chief and new bride, wedded lake-side on a circular dock from which she and her groom entered. “Our family no longer has two sides, so everyone sat together and, as an added bonus, there wasn’t a bad seat in the house!”
2. Comfort foods with a kick: Chef Wolfgang Puck believes that comfort foods have become more popular in the current economy. Think burgers, pizza, ribs, pot pie, and risotto—but comfort does not have to mean pedestrian. “Upgrade ingredients and prepare them with great expertise. Serve hors d’oeuvres like Kobe burgers, wild mushroom risotto, smoked salmon pizzas, slow-braised short ribs or a simple chicken pot pie with lobster,” advises Puck.
3. Gifting techie gadgetry: Registries and wedding gifts have increasingly become more high tech. Brides want electronic recipe finders, books and charging plates, and matching his-and-hers PDA cases—all examples of great gadgets for the couple as well as thank-you gifts for parents and the wedding party.
4. Texture-inspired invitations: Top bridal designer Monique Lhuillier shares inspirations and details from her various collections: “A lot of fabric details from the dresses translate into the invitations. We use techniques of embossing to mimic textures and incorporate the same colors from the gowns into the invitations.” Look for details you would see on the runway on your wedding invitations.
5. Old, new, borrowed and cobalt blue: From hints of blue in bridal fashion to saturated color throughout the wedding décor, “blues will be the most requested color in 2010,” according to Shane Murray of The Wedding Report. Bright cobalt blue is a hot hue for 2010, offering fresh, bold and atmospheric twist on the bluesy tradition.
6. Wear-again bridesmaid dresses: The urban legend of wearing a bridesmaids dress by choice after the wedding is a reality with the new silhouettes that mirror what is happening on the runway. Gorgeous and glamorous dresses with drop waists, bubble skirts and ruffles add an additional sense of style for bridesmaids to wear—and wear again.
7. Three-dimensional save-the-dates: Inform your friends and family of your wedding day with a twist. Three-dimensional elements on the save-the-dates, like a paper umbrella (signifying a destination wedding), adds character, humor and relevance.
8. Old Hollywood glam, for men!: A return to Cary Grant’s sense of style is making a comeback this year for grooms, looking charming and dapper in a white tuxedo with black-rimmed lapels. This cool old-school look brings back the sharp-looking vest and nostalgic pocket watch.
9. Blogger brides abound: Now more than ever, Get Married is seeing brides enjoy sharing snippets of surprises, ideas and images throughout their wedding planning experience. Personal blogs offer a space for brides to share, gather inspirations and explore. Check out Get Married’s robust and newly-skinned wedding blog.
10. Personalized plus: From the décor designs and inspirational invites to a great gifts and super-fab favors, Get Married is observing brides’ aspiration for distinctly personalized wedding details. Designing invitations, save-the-dates and thank-you cards and adding monograms to guest books, aisle runners and gifts (like cosmetic and travel bags) offers a hint of personal bridal style. An assortment of personalized décor, invitations, gifts and favors are available at the Get Married online shop.

You’ll find more details and images for Get Married’s top 10 bridal trends of 2010—and additional trendy wedding ideas for the coming year in the second issue of Get Married magazine available January 2010 on newsstands, online, by subscription and as a free first issue.

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If you’re trying to put a wedding together on a budget here are a couple questions Crista recommends you ask yourself:

1. What is the most important thing about your wedding? Are you looking for a certain atmosphere? Is it all about the food? Do you want everyone to remember your spectacular dress? What part of your wedding is the priority for you?
2. Visualize a couple at your wedding. What do you see them to saying about your wedding? Do you picture them saying how much fun they had partying at your reception? Do you see them talking about how happy you looked as a couple? Or maybe you see them talking about how beautiful your decorations were.

These questions will give you your priority, what you want to focus on when you’re planning your wedding. You’ll know what areas to focus your budget on.

Crista also had a few other money saving wedding tips:

• Have your flowers and decorations do double duty in your wedding and again at your reception.
• Some other ways to save money on your decorations are to use in season flowers, fruit or natural fauna. All are lower cost than out of season flowers.
• Don’t be afraid to look at dates other than Saturday afternoon or evening, sometimes you have more options and a lower cost if you can book your wedding for a Friday evening or a Sunday afternoon. You might have more vendors and venues available, and many may be willing to give you a discount for booking dates they might not otherwise fill.

For more wedding tips and ideas check out the Tharp Events website and blog.

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Since it’s the end of the month I thought I’d put together a roundup of some of my favorite wedding ideas from some of the other wedding and party blogs I read on a regular basis for your reading enjoyment. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

• I love this vintage inspired peaches and gray wedding board at Adventures In Wedding Planning.
• Get a jump start on your fall wedding for next year with this Beautiful Fall Inspired (real) Wedding at Brenda’s Wedding Blog.
• Here’s a beautiful wedding at the Island Hotel on Newport Beach, from Joyful Weddings and Events. This looks like a beautiful venue, and I’m totally in love with the flowers and the decor.

Have you spotted a beautiful wedding, or some great wedding ideas you’d like to share here, please leave a comment and share!

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You can buy a nice card stock to print them on, then use a scrapbook cutter to cut your edges evenly. You can even double or triple layer your place cards to frame them, or give them a more polished look.

Scrapbook embellishments, or die cut shapes can also be added to your place cards fairly easily, or when you’re printing them add a printed border, or decoration with the name.

To print your names with a printer set them up in word, using the make labels function. Pick out a label setting that is the size you’d like to make your place cards then put in your names and print them out on your card stock.

You can then tie them to something, put them on a little stand, add them to your party favor, or a small frame to display them on your table.

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1. Your budget is a big part of your wedding style. You can’t go for over the top glamorous and luxury if you have a tight budget, you have to be realistic.
2. Your venue or wedding location is a very important part of your wedding style. If you have an elegant or formal setting you should go for a more formal wedding style. If you’re getting married in the back yard you may want to create a cozy casual style.
3. Your personal style is another big factor in determining your wedding style. If you’re a casual easygoing person, you may want to keep your wedding along those same lines.

When you get married you want to let your personal style show through into your wedding. Work out a style based on the points above and let it flow through the rest of your wedding plans.

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