How to Plan Your Cheap Wedding!

To speak or not to speak?

Alright back to some helpful tidbits, my friends;) Today’s scenario involves looking at the wedding from the eyes of the wedding party, namely the best man and maid of honor. All of your normal duties to the bride and groom aside, the most fear-inducing responsibility has got to be the speech/toast at the reception. I mean, you are standing there with 50- 300+ guests staring at you and expecting a heartwarming, hilarious, generous but not too long-winded speech about the couple and what they mean to you. It’s a tall order for most and even a Toastmaster’s pro has got to shake a little in their boots at the pressure of getting the wording and delivery just right. I have a few basic tips for the congratulatory speech that should give anyone with the honor of being best man or maid of honor a basis from which to plan out an awesome speech! Check it out:

1. Take the time to introduce yourself! The wedding party and mutual friends may know you well, but Aunt Erma from Toledo and the groom’s Cousin Mary (twice removed), aren’t going to have a clue who you are, so be kind and remind everyone of how you know bride/groom and how you were bestowed the nobility of being the best man/maid of honor;) Also, introducing yourself helps you feel more comfortable with the crowd and can make the rest of the speech a lot easier to get through!

2. The body of the speech = the best time for laughs. Now’s the time to insert your jokes or funny stories about the couple (pre and post their relationship) and your friendship with them through it all.

3. Always end by saying something sincere! I know that it’s tempting to be the ‘funny guy or gal’ and throw in one too many one-liners or embarrassing personal memories about the bride or groom, but the best way to sum up a great speech is by reminding them (and the audience) how much you care about them and wish them the best of everything in future. It’s all about the ‘Awwww!’ factor, people…;)

Or…

If you really need a tried and true formula for success that’s easy and quick and will get the creative juices flowing, check out Dan Stevens website : Click Here! He’s been writing all types of wedding speeches professionally for years and can give you the right tools to fake it ‘til you make it! :)

A Fantastic Coupling

So the couple who met on the set of 'Fantastic Four' are officially Mr. and Mrs.? Congrats to Jessica Alba and Cash Warren! I don't think I'm the only one who was surprised that the wedding came before the soon-approaching birth of their daughter. I'm so happy they were able to cleverly fly under the radar of the prying media and have their wedding while everyone was still focused on the recent pop-punk union of Wentz and Simpson. You gotta appreciate a Hollywood couple who takes the time to have an intimate ceremony that focuses on their loving union rather than the guest list, decorations, and 4-8 level cake;) I can't wait for the upcoming details of their nuptials...maybe we'll get some tips on how to add Hollywood flare to weddings without breaking the bank!

An eyeliner match in heaven!

Well folks, the long awaited Wentz-Simpson union was made this Saturday and Papa Joe Simpson's house in Encino. *And the punk gods rejoiced* Apparently the couple was true to their seudo-goth roots and made sure to infuse their decorations and fashion with familiar traces of emo trends. For example, the bridesmaids and groomsmen donned black nail polish and the guests were told to wear dark colors. Their altar was adorned with a large Gothic-style cross and if business was as usual, there was as much guy-liner seen around as eyeliner;) Whether the wedding cast's bangs were required to cover 3/5 of their faces remains to be seen...
However, tradition couldn't be totally thrown to the wind (thankfully) and it's reported that the bride wore a Monique Lhuillier dress, while her bridesmaids wore Vera Wang. *happy sigh*

All jokes aside, they really are a cute couple and I wish them the best! Here's to them providing us with a future full of teen-angst ridden music, androgynous style trends, and wicked cute rock star babies!

Have your (wedding) cake and eat it too!

Now we come to a part of wedding preparation that makes a lot of brides wary… I’m talking about the pre-wedding diet. Most brides don’t want or need an extreme makeover before their wedding, but most can agree that shedding those last ten pounds before the wedding can make a huge difference in the final reveal of the dress as well as being a self-esteem boost in general...

E= Mariah Carey + Nick Cannon?

So Mariah Carey is Mrs. Nick Cannon? Did anyone see that one coming? Maybe, it’s because Mariah has been the poster child for the single, fabulous woman since her split from Tommy Mottola or maybe it’s because Nick’s fame is on a whole different planet of fame as hers so it’s rare that a thought would contain both their names in relation to each other for any reason, but I would’ve given the likelihood of those two hooking-up to be slim to the 12th of never. Perhaps I’m wrong though. I mean they have the whole ‘Demi and Ashton/opposites attract’ thing going, right?

Let’s look at what they have in common:

1. She sings; he tries to sing
2. He’s funny; she likes to laugh
3. He’s been in movies; she’s been in…Glitter…

Um, I got nothing guys.

Honestly though, I truly wish the extraordinary Mimi well in her marriage to Nick. And please, for the love of gossip, could we get some details on their tropical wedding?!! ‘Cause I don’t care how spur on the moment that wedding was, you know it was dazzling from the flowers to the china. Am I the only one who could totally see her in a white mini-dress and stilettos walking down the aisle? Only she could make that work;)

Shall We Plan?

Alright, things to come this month: cheap wedding decorations, favors, *invitations*, tips on shopping for The Dress, and maybe even some starter articles on planning the honeymoon;) Stay tuned...

Crazy in matrimony

Wow, so Jay-Z and Beyonce finally tied the knot! I've been rooting for these two over the years and I'm glad to see that they finally came to a place where they knew they couldn't live without each other in their lives. When their relationship first hit the press...

The simple plan

Hey guys! So, now you've planned the perfect wedding shower and it's come down to the actual nitty-gritty of wedding planning. The whole shebang, if you will. Things we'll have to cover in the next posts will be wedding invites, decorations, receptions, vows, mc speeches, and the honeymoon. I figured before I went into each category separately that I would start with the big picture in mind which is: saving money! After all, this is planyourcheap wedding.com, right?;)...

Boys just wanna have fuh-un too...

We all know how notorious bachelor parties can be. I mean, even my favorite actor was in a movie that was dedicated just to the glorification of a bachelor's last night of 'freedom' (Bachelor Party ala 1984, anyone?) But really, I don't think I'm alone when I say the great majority of us ladies are slightly skittish over the debauchery of the common bachelor party and the idea of our husband to be frolicking in the company of strippers and getting egged on by former college roommates and frat buddies...

All hail the bachelorette party!

Oh, the bachelorette party... a source of fun with a dash of embarrassment and ample memories for the bride to be and all in attendance. However, it's often the component on the road to the wedding that gets thrown together at the last minute and never really has a theme or solid plan on how it's executed. For example, the bachelorette parties I've been to usually involve dinner, bar-hopping, a re-telling of how the couple met and maybe a game of 'pin the penis of the Cosmo man of the month'...