Ask most people what they remember about a wedding that they have attended and nine times out of ten, the answer will be the food. The difference, they would tell you, between a good wedding and a bad wedding is the food. Frozen pizza and a bowl full of chips is great for a sleep over but for a wedding reception, even a small one, fresh vegetables, appetizers, and a good hot meal is almost a must. Here are a few ideas for that tight wedding budget.

Try a wedding reception buffet with a couple of meat choices and tons of hot vegetables to save a little bit of dough. Even offering just one baked meat such as chicken is fine as long as there are plenty of side choices to go with it. Chicken is inexpensive and can be doubled as two selections since it can be prepared so many ways. Chicken can be fried, baked, broiled, or even served in a casserole and still be considered a main course.

After a year of planning details, hiring caterers and interviewing bands, disc jockeys, and surveying wedding halls and churches, you are going to be either completely exhausted or totally focused. In either case, the last day of your wait, which is the day before your wedding, you have 24 hours to wrap up the details and take care of a few commitments. However, the biggest challenge you now face is getting some rest, you are going to need it.

The last day before your wedding is usually reserved for beauty treatments such as hair and make-up prep, nails and for final rehearsals. With any luck, you have worn and broken in those shoes you are going to be standing in for eight to ten hours tomorrow. If not, today is your last chance to get them worn so you know what to expect from them. You have a long day tomorrow, which means you have a lot to do today.

Don’t Forget to Breathe The big day is coming faster than you can prepare for it and you are so stressed out you could light a match…just by looking at it. Pre-wedding stress can be a royal pain in the wallet as well as the heart and there is no worry worse than one that involves money. You have planned a wonderful wedding and reception but more things have seemingly gone wrong than right. You have heard that wedding planning is supposed to be fun but by now, that is just a vague rumor and you know the truth. If this sounds familiar and you are still planning your wedding…, STOP! Do not forget to breathe.

Choosing Your State of Mind Wedding stress is natural and is sometimes hard to deal with. It is also fun and a wonderful experience. Which one of these you get the most out of is completely up to you. If you are in a frenzied, ready to pull your hair out and then start on someone else, very stressed out mode and you are just weeks from the big day it is time for a breather because this kind of state is the last frame of mind that you want to be in going into your wedding day. It is okay to let someone else take the reins for a little bit while you gain your composure. Pass smaller but important tasks, like choosing wedding favors, especially unique wedding favors, on to someone you trust. You do not have to do everything yourself.

You are planning a wedding and you need some ideas that will make it special and unique but you do not know where to look. Well, if you are looking for ways to make your wedding unique, it will not be unique. In order for you to do something special you only have to look at your heart and what it tells you. Find your inspiration from within and if that does not work, try these ideas on for size and maybe you will be inspired. It is the little things that will make your wedding experience different because it is the little things that people notice the most. A good for instance would be to add little tags everywhere your guest will look that have poems or declarations of love. Even love song titles will stick in your guest’s minds and remind them of how special this occasion really is.

Chances are that if you are having a big wedding you are going to have a very diverse age group representing several generations of your families. This means that no matter what type of music you chose, someone is going to be left out or possibly even insulted should you have an acid rock or rap wedding. It is not like picking out the wedding favors where is does not matter to any age group whether they receive golf wedding favors or beach wedding favors. There is an old saying you can’t please all the people all the time and that holds particularly true when picking out the music for your wedding. There are things you can do, however, to minimize the damage. Here are a few ideas that might make your musical montage more palatable for everyone.

I know a couple that has been married for fifty years. When they first tied the knot, they must have tied it well and double knotted it because they are more in love now than they ever were. I just had to ask what their secret is since I have been married twice myself and I’m hoping this one will last forever. What I learned is actually no secret at all. In fact, it is common knowledge that most of us tend to forget or take for granted from time to time.

John and Mary were poor when they married back in the fifties. He worked his heart out in the automobile industry and she waited tables deep into the night shift. They saved their money diligently and started a family. They encountered many difficulties over the years but the one thing they held true to was their love for each other. John told me that the secret to his marital longevity was simple. Whenever he tried to imagine what his life would be like if his Mary were suddenly gone it would scare him so bad that he knew he could not bear it. Mary told me just about the same thing. She looks at their friends who are married and thanks God every day that her John is not like the other husbands who stay out late at night and put their marriages second.

Dedicated to my brother and his wife, who are no longer with us now.

There is a long moment in time as a you, the groom, waits at the alter. This moment seems to be suspended in time. It floats there before him, making him dizzy with anticipation. He is so much in love and on this day, the day they will promise to be together forever, he has only caught glimpses of her. Then suddenly, the moment is broken as she appears at the back of the chapel, holding her proud and beaming father’s arm. She begins to glide over the flower petals toward him and he catches his breathe, he has to because the angelic way she appears in her wedding dress has taken his breathe away.

Your near future Father-in-law gives you a last look that says you had better not hurt his daughter but you do not notice, because you are still enraptured by her beauty, her confidence, her elegant radiance. Suddenly, those decisions that seemed so important just a few weeks before, like whether to get wedding favors or unique wedding favors, are meaningless. They are so far away from you now, like a distant memory, wisping away in a breeze, that you barely remember them.

Imagine that you were going to get married. What would be, in your mind, the perfect place for such an occasion to take place? For many people asked this very question, the first thing that pops in their mind is a church. Occasionally some people answer with a location that is considered to be romantic, yet some think it is unorthodox. The location in which they think of is a beach. Think about it, how many times can you say that you have attended a wedding on a beach? Not very often is it?

The location of a beach causes other questions to arise as well. It often leaves people wondering to themselves what some ideas for beach wedding favors are, as well as if they should also invest in some summer wedding favors to go along with the theme. Both themes pretty much coincide together because when one thinks of a beach, they generally think of the summertime as well. The trick is to find things which actually fit with the surroundings.

The average time of day for most weddings is one o’clock in the afternoon. There is nothing wrong with getting married at one o’clock in the afternoon, if you are an average kind of couple. However, if you are not average, you may want to consider saying your nuptials at a more romantic time of day. Another very popular time to sanctify your faith in one another is at sunset. Pulling in a close third is a fresh and renewing sunrise. To start the day rejoicing in the one you love is always a great idea.

Sunsets are wondrous affairs when shared with the one you love. As you look forward to a lifetime of sunsets together, why not kick your marriage off right and begin with a romantic sunset wedding. This can be particularly gratifying if you are on a beach, by a lake, or even in the mountains.

Remember your college days? The good times which you shared with your friends during those long lost yester-years still replay frequently through your head. Remember all of your friends? How they aspired more then anything to have the picture perfect family and a career to die for after graduation. Those were the days weren’t they?

How many friends of yours actually planned out their weddings while in school? Surely there was talk amongst the female student body of what flowers they would want, or even what type of bridal shower and bridal shower favors they would want. After all college days meant that you had little to worry about except your next exam, so surely there was spare time for you and your friends to talk amongst yourselves and even discuss your futures. It is common knowledge that a woman’s favorite flower is often incorporated in some way into her wedding shower favors, so sometimes it pays to listen and pay attention to your classmates daydreams.