I love to go sight-seeing through the Etsy shops and today, in the special wedding section, I found customized Wedding Cake Toppers for only $250. A $100 deposit is all it takes to begin work on a handmade cake topper that bears a striking resemblance to bride and groom.

Toppers are sculpted from dollmaking clay which is layered over a stronger armature for durability. They measure about 5-6 inches in height. You can personalize your topper even further by adding touches like a likeness of your pet. How cool is this? I cannot imagine a cooler, more unique keepsake for the bride and groom. 

You can find the toppers at the PatysClay Shop at Etsy.com. 

Image Credit: PatysClay shop at Etsy.com

Though this is a question that you might be able to ask your spouse when things are solid, I would not recommend raising this discussion during times that are even the least bit rocky. These words could easily be interpreted as the most loaded of questions.

Image: stock.xchng

But provided things are good, talking to your lover well after the shiny gleam of wedding day madness has worn away and you two are settled into married life about how you got here and what marriage means to you can make for a fun opportunity to get to know a little more about your “other half”.

For me, marriage is about friendship. We’re more than just a couple, we are best friends in the entire world and actually really love spending time together. Marriage was (and still is) a natural progression of this closeness and desire to be connected with each other.

But marriage to me is also about protecting each other and making sure no matter what we are both equals protected should we ever decide this isn’t working anymore. I have no disillusions about the statistics stacked against everlasting marriage - especially given how young we made it official. And for right now, we both make similar salaries and contribute equally to paying for our lifestyle and saving for our future. I don’t think I would have felt comfortable combining all our assets and finances without a marriage license legally binding us together.

Heart and head leading the way, that’s why I got married.

Do you know the origin of mandatory blood tests before getting your marriage license?

I had no idea, until I read in The Globe and Mail today that the primary reason was syphilis. My first thought was “that seems reasonable”, but then I thought back and tried to remember if Paul and I had one before we got married. I couldn’t recall, so I asked him - apparently, we didn’t.

“Now, very few states still require a blood test,” she writes. “This testing has been phased out because syphilis was considered virtually eradicated.” It was also thought to be a burden on taxpayers because the screening targeted people in generally monogamous relationships, a low-risk group.

Image: stock.xchng

I can’t imagine finding out your partner has a sexually transmitted disease while you are in the final stages of marriage preparation is a fun experience for anyone. Though I wonder what percentage of the time that actually came up when the tests were mandatory.

In any case, sharing medical history, issues and important information before you get married still seems to be a good idea. You are signing up to be with someone for the rest of your life - you should know what you’re getting, right?

When I mentioned making your own bouquets, corsages, and floral arrangements for weddings and special events, Lynn of Celebrate Green, shares with us the lovely story of how she made the bouquet for her son and daughter-in-law’s wedding.  Such a lovely memory!

Image: sxc.hu

This post [Flowers for Weddings and Special Times] brought back memories. When our younger son got married, his wife was so busy she had no time to prepare for the wedding, so Chip took over. When we arrived, he had a two-page spread from a Martha Stewart wedding magazine ready for me. It outlined how to make a bouquet. He’d bought all the necessities except the flowers which we bought together. In general Chip has about as much interest in this stuff as he does in jumping out of a plane, which is to say, none. But he was determined to make everything beautiful for Sam and despite the fact that I had never done a bouquet before, it came out beautifully. Looked like it had cost a fortune! Thanks for the reminder.

Have you created floral arrangements for special times?  Share the memories with us.

I’d like to share another guest post from my bridal blog.   I wrote this list when I was planning my own wedding a couple of years ago and feel it’s still completely applicable today!

1. Because you want to create a unique wedding.
2. It’s a great way to save money.
3. You want to be more involved in your wedding (and not just turn it over to a planner or someone else).
4. Because you love to make things.
5. You & your fiance want to express your own distinct style.
6. You don’t want to do the big, white, poofy princess wedding gown.
7. You do want the big, white, poofy, princess wedding gown - but you want to make it yourself!
8. It’s an easier way to create an eco-sensitive (or insert your special desires here) wedding by being creative.
   
9. Your fiance is not a standard suit or tux kind of guy (or gal).
   
10. And just because it’s a great way to create a memorable wedding!

image: Stock.xchg

I’ve been having these bizarre recurring dreams about having to plan my wedding again — which MUST have something to do with having watched, for the billionth time, Charlotte get married in her $14,000 Vera Wang wedding dress on Sex and the City.

But I’ve been married for 22 years and I’ve never had this dream. Although, the fact that I was late to this nocturnal ceremony does reflect what actually happened in real life.

Maybe experts would say it has something to do with feelings of wanting start over — in order to fix past mistakes — that I’m looking for a fresh start. Or, maybe I’m feeling unsettled and weddings symbolize some kind of constancy.

I’m thinking that it’s pretty literal…I would love to plan my wedding again. The first time around was no picnic:

My father didn’t show up because he was divorcing from my mother, my sister didn’t show up because she wasn’t speaking to my mother, one of my brother’s didn’t show up because my mother wasn’t speaking to him. And my mother was so busy transitioning into divorced mom that she forgot to be bride mom.

It was an absolute mess.

That’s not to say that we didn’t have a lovely time; my husband and I looked adorable, we were just starting our careers and we were in love.

But I had no help and I didn’t know what I was doing…I was lucky to have been paying a morsel of attention to Martha Stewart and Emily Post. Who knew the etiquette of dealing with divorced parents?

There was no internet…there was nothing like The Knot or Manhattan Bride or the tons of wedding blogs out there.

We had no money, but mostly, we had no style or taste.

If it were up to me, I’d re-plan the whole thing and do my hair and make up correctly. I hope have this dream again tonight.