Christmas, to me, is one of the most romantic times of the year. Perhaps I watched “Miracle on 34th Street” too many times as a kid, but it seems like a season of dreams coming true and magic in the air. If the season is magical for you, perhaps you’ll want to plan a Christmas wedding. Whether your wedding will take place close to the holiday, or you just want to have a Christmas wedding theme, it is sure to be merry.
Christmas, to me, is one of the most romantic times of the year. Perhaps I watched “Miracle on 34th Street” too many times as a kid, but it seems like a season of dreams coming true and magic in the air. If the season is magical for you, perhaps you’ll want to plan a Christmas wedding. Whether your wedding will take place close to the holiday, or you just want to have a Christmas wedding theme, it is sure to be merry.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, your family is gathered around you, and the church is already decorated. Why not have a Christmas wedding? Here are ideas and tips to have a fantastic Christmas wedding with all the trimmings.

Wedding Colors:

Red and green are natural colors for a Christmas wedding – It is likely that your church or reception site will already be decorated in red and green for other events and holiday parties. But don’t feel limited to this palate. Other possibilities, which will work with existing decorations, include:

silver and white
silver and light blue
burgundy, forest green, and gold (as long as the existing decorations aren’t too primary)
gold and cream

Christmas Wedding Invitations:

You’ll want to reflect the season and your theme, but you won’t want it to look like a holiday card. The solution? Forgo a folded card, opting for the traditional thick white card, with a border and engraved or thermo-graphed text. You can highlight the Christmas wedding theme in the border with white snowflakes, an elegant holly trim, or a drawing of a poinsettia.

Since people make plans for the holidays early, and often have many parties and events to attend at this time of year, you’ll want to send your invitations a little bit early – about 12 weeks before the event. You might also consider “save the date” cards in addition to the invitations, which will ensure that those most important to you will be able to attend.

Wedding Cake:

Having each tier look like an individually wrapped package is a popular look that is perfect for a Christmas wedding. You might also do a take on a buche noel or yule log, with a tiered chocolate cake that has holly – either real or made of gum paste – cascading down the side. Use marzipan, an almond paste used in many holiday desserts, as a filling.

Bridesmaids Attire for a Christmas Wedding:

My favorite bridesmaid look for a Christmas wedding is long dresses with shrugs or capelets and a big faux-fur muff. But you can dress them in your wedding colors, give them long wraps or sparkly accessories, all of which will help evoke your theme.

And the Bride Wore:

A Christmas wedding dress needn’t be that different from any other kind. Wear the one that flatters you most, and top it off with a long red velvet cape. Or embrace the trend of color in wedding dresses by adding a beautiful red silk sash to the waist of your gown. You could also seek a dress with lots of sparkly beads and sequins to evoke the snowiness of the season. And of course, a faux-fur wrap and muff are always fun.

Flowers and Décor:

Since flowers can be more expensive at this time of year, think creatively. A mirrored platter with pillar candles and sprigs of holly is both elegant and romantic. Buy ornaments in bulk on-line, and create centerpieces of bowls or vases of ornaments. For a simple but elegant look, put pots of poinsettia with a ribbon trim in the center of each table. Fake snow used to be tacky, but there are now very good products available. Set candles or small flower arrangements in the middle of snow. And for my favorite touch, use fake snow instead of an aisle runner. Or, you can always hire a snow-making machine to really make your Christmas wedding a winter wonderland.
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If you’re over the age of 30 you may remember being one of the 750 million television viewers worldwide who watched the broadcast of Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding. From the cathedral to the carriage to the gown, the ceremony embodied the fairy-tale wedding ideal that many brides since have strived to emulate.

In the past twenty years, the extravagant “white wedding”—a term connoting the Western tradition of a white wedding dress, made popular in the Victorian era—has become the norm in America, says Beth Montemurro, associate professor of sociology at Penn State Abington. Until the 1980s, only the well-to-do engaged in lavish weddings, she explains. But thanks to the affluence of that decade and an increasingly celebrity-obsessed consumer culture, expensive weddings have become the standard.

“The lavish wedding has allowed people to have a little bit of celebrity for one day. The image of the indulgent wedding is so prevalent in the media, you feel like that’s what you’re supposed to do,” Montemurro says. Reality TV shows like VH1’s My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding or TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress send images of the pricey wedding into living rooms across America.

The cost of the average American wedding climbed from $15,208 in 1990 to $27,852 in 2006, according to a Conde Nast Bridal Media research survey. However, as Montemurro points out, today’s slowing economy and rising prices have left many couples and their parents feeling squeezed. Those who opt to pay for their dream wedding by credit card may find themselves dealing with steep debts even before the honeymoon tans have faded. So should we expect a return to a more demure event like those of generations past? Probably not, says Montemurro.

“If anything people are getting more extravagant,” she notes. “If tight finances cause people to sacrifice in other parts of their lives, they start to feel like their wedding is the one day they shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything. They feel it’s a once in a lifetime event and they should indulge,” she adds.

However, with 13 percent of men and 14 percent of women marrying more than once, weddings are increasingly not a once in a lifetime event. Now couples often pay for a formal ceremony the first, second and third time they’re married.

“People like to legitimize the relationship, whether it’s the first marriage or the third,” she explains. “Instead of getting remarried quietly, as was the norm fifty years ago, people want to show a new marriage is worth spending money on.” Delayed marriages have also perpetuated the trend of pricy nuptials. Typically, later on in life, people make more money and can spend more on their wedding, remarks Montemurro.

The recent trend of “destination weddings” has raised the bar for indulgence even higher. In a destination wedding, guests travel to the ceremony location for a long weekend, extending the marriage celebration—and the cash needed to fund it. In the past ten years, destination weddings have increased to 16 percent of all nuptials with the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii being the most popular locales.

In addition, multiple ceremonies have become a growing trend. Minorities now comprise 34 percent of the total U.S. population, with Hispanics and Asians being the fastest-growing groups. Notes Montemurro, many Asian couples pay for a traditional Chinese or Japanese ceremony and a big white wedding as well. Sometimes multicultural couples will scrap their traditional wedding altogether and choose to have only a Western-style ceremony.

Montemurro’s book Something Old, Something Bold: Bridal Showers and Bachelorette Parties explores how pre-wedding events and rituals have also changed with society. Many women now have multiple bridal showers, which costs more money for the bride and her guests, says Montemurro. The term “bachelorette party” wasn’t used until the 1980s, she notes. “It’s the female answer to the male bachelor party, a symbolic acknowledgment that women give up the single life when they get married too.”

“For the bachelorette party to become standard, society needed to accept that many women had a sex life prior to marriage,” Montemurro points out. “They had to accept that women too are committing to monogamy with marriage. When we have gender equality, we have to acknowledge that both parties are gaining something and losing something.”

In a backlash against the opulent wedding, some couples are choosing alternative nuptials. Environmental consciousness has created a recent trend of “green weddings,” which focus on reducing the wedding’s impact on the environment.

But while wedding styles come and go with changing societal norms, some things endure, says Montemurro. “The things that will stay the same are the things that have been there for the past 100 years: the white dress, the wedding cake and the celebration following the wedding,” she predicts. “We find symbolism in these things, and I don’t see them going anywhere.”

Becky Davis and Graham Wilson celebrated a perfect South Carolina wedding day!
They had an ADORABLE color scheme, with many odes to South Carolina.

Thanks to Amy DiLoretti at A Flawless Event the whole day went just perfectly!!

And take a look at this cake by Kimberly Radwick at Sweet Caroline’s Cakes, SO CUTE!!

Take a minute to check out some of Jessica McGowan and Jean Shifrin’s wonderful images!

Photography By: The Decisive Moment

Ceremony Location: The Chapel at Decatur FUMC

Reception Location: The Solarium at Oakhurst

Coordinator: A Flawless Event

Florist: Viridis Designs

Cake: Sweet Caroline’s Cakes

Save money and avoid the hassles of the peak travel season

With the global economy in crisis and both travelers and airlines feeling the pinch, it may not seem like 2008 will be the cheeriest of Christmas Wedding seasons. Airlines have cut flights, raised fares and added a surge of surcharges for everything from checked bags to phone bookings. Meanwhile, many brides and grooms are postponing or canceling their honeymoon plans to save money.

But for honeymooners still planning to spend Christmas weekend in Paris, the news isn’t all bad. There are still deals to be found, provided you shop carefully and plan ahead. Check out our 10 tips for holiday travel and find some joy this holiday season.

Avoid peak travel dates

At Thanksgiving, Wednesday is the critical outbound “avoid” day as a rule. Traveling on Thanksgiving day proper is often a breeze and more affordable; there are often cut-rate airfare deals on Thanksgiving day.

On the return, Friday morning isn’t bad at all, with each successive day getting a little busier, more difficult and more expensive through Sunday evening. The bottom line: If you are looking for a deal, you won’t find one on the peak travel days. Travel off-peak whenever possible.

Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Thursdays this year, which means that the same advice for Thanksgiving will apply to both of these holidays — fly on the holiday itself if possible, and avoid Sunday evening at the end of the long weekend.

Book early

Chistmas brides…Haven’t booked your honeymoon travel yet? It’s time to stop waiting and start booking. Fares are only rising as Thanksgiving approaches, so those who hold out in hopes of a late-breaking sale are likely to get left out in the cold or pay a very steep price for their procrastination. The same goes for the Christmas holiday; book sooner rather than later, particularly if you require very specific travel dates or times. With the current state of the airline industry, it is never too early to book your holiday travel flights.

While many of the best deals are probably already gone, keep an eye on our Holiday Deals section for any last-minute bargains. Be prepared to be flexible with dates and flight times.

Shop around

Whether you’re using booking sites like Travelocity, bid or auction sites such as Priceline, a comparison shopping has never been easier than it is right now. During peak travel season, casting the net as wide as possible will help you understand all of your options.

For many travelers, price isn’t the only or even the most important factor, especially during the holidays. Thoughtful, deliberate use of the “search adjacent days or airports” features found on many Web sites may also surrender greatly improved fares and travel times.

Know your airports

Checking alternate airports is a pretty standard tactic, but at this time of year it can really make a difference. At no time can the alternate airport gambit pay off better than during the holiday crush. You can score on almost every front — parking, rental cars, traffic to and from, nearby hotels — and save both time and money.

When you get a wedding invitation do you ever think about how many decisions it took to make that card?

We went Kate’s Paperie to better understand all of the layers to the process.

Krecke said the first decision that buyers must made is the format.

“The first is a standard. It’s the most traditional,” she explained. “It’s either a perfect square or a rectangle. The second is script, and it’s long, oblong rectangle. The next option is the fold over, which is one simple fold with the invitation comprised on the inside.”

There’s also a barn-door fold, which is two pieces that fold into the middle, or a tri-fold, which has different information on each flap.

From choosing the card to knowing the proper etiquette for addressing envelopes, there’s a lot that goes into sending an invitation. In Part I of a two-part series, Jill Scott unveils all you need to know about invitations, especially when it comes to weddings.

Then, buyers must select a printing method. Engraved is the most traditional. With this style, the text is etched onto a copperplate, which is pressed into the invitation creating a raised effect. There is also letterpress option, which is similar technique, but instead leaves an indentation in the paper.

Krecke said both of these options tend to be pricey.

“If you are on a budget, but still want an elegant feel, we suggest you go with thermography,” she said. “It’s a fairly simple process. Your letters are put down on paper, treated with a resin, and they are heated. Once they are heated, the letters rise up. So you are giving the same effect of engraving, but for a lesser price.”

There’s also offsetting or flat printing, which offers the same look as a home printer.

Krecke said the next decision is picking the paper.

“There’s cotton, your common, creamy card stock, which is extra thick,” said Krecke. “There’s wood, which tends to be a little lower grade and isn’t that popular, and then there’s linen, which has a beautiful creamy texture, but you have to be careful, because it can go from fragile to extremely durable, so definitely ask your invitation expert about it.”

Font is one of the most important things when choosing an invitation, because it really sets the tone for your wedding. If you’re having an elegant evening affair, you may want to go with a script font. If it’s a daytime or more casual affair, you may want a block typeface.

Either way, you need to check for its readability. Instead of picking off a list, Krecke advises that buyers go through the book and see how it looks on an actual invitation.

Finally, Krecke said to make sure the color reads well on the cardstock.