When you make the decision to get married, it is a decision that is based on the foundation of your relationship together. You have already started the journey together, and those memories are just as important as your future together. A fantastic symbol of your life together are three stone engagement rings.

As they sound, three stone engagement rings are exactly that. It is a band that features three separate stones that are set in a row. Often three stone engagement rings may be called a trinity or trilogy ring in jewelry stores. Generally, these kinds of rings don’t feature side accent stones. The addition of accent stones would certainly add more pizazz to three stone engagement rings, which is maybe what some people desire when they are looking for a more elaborate ring.

When looking at three stone engagement rings there are a few things that you will want to look at to ensure that you get the most polished and lovely piece that you can. Typically, in three stone engagement rings, the three gemstones are close in size, but if you like, you can actually make the center stone just a bit larger than the others. However, take care to keep the stone size fairly close to each other so that you can retain the specific look of a three stone ring rather than a solitaire with accent stones surrounding it.

The shape of the stone is really are personal decision. Round diamonds are extremely popular in three stone engagement rings. This is partially because a round diamond is cut with many facets so that it is one of the more sparkly cuts that you can find. Also very popular in three stone engagement rings are princess or square cut stones. They look very sleek and clean when set together on a band. However, just because those are popular it does not mean you are limited to only these cust. You will also find emerald, oval or marquise stones in three stone engagement rings. However, if your lady has her heart set on a heart-shaped ring then you may not want to choose this type of ring because heart-shaped stones do not typically look good set closely together.

The other great thing about three stone engagement rings is that you have quite a bit of versatility as to what type of stone you want to use. Diamonds are usually used in wedding bands but three stone rings allow you are great choice to choose something different. Does you partner like colour?  If so, you may chose to have two of the surrounding stones as gemstones such as ruby or emerald. If your partner would like something totally unique how about a three stone ring that doesn’t have a diamond at all? Perhaps choose a three stone emerald cut emerald ring or a round cut sapphire ring. The main thing is to choose a ring that symbolises your journey together. The road you have travelled, your faith and committment to getting married and they life you will share together!

Bouquets play a very important part in your wedding day plans. Bouquets set your theme and color pallet for you, they also play a part in the décor and style for your wedding design.

Many types of bouquets are made from tissue paper, mulberry paper, or crepe paper. You can order individual paper flowers that you can find online already made. Bouquets can be found already put together for you. These flowers are eco friendly and come in many different types and colors.

The different types of paper flower bouquets that can be made or purchased are nosegay bouquets, round bouquets, cascading bouquets, presentation bouquets, hand tied bouquets, tussy mussy bouquets, and crescent bouquets that you can make out of the paper or you can order paper flower bouquets online.

To make paper flower bouquets you can find books, e- books, videos and news letters on many types of flowers that can be made and types of bouquets to make. Some take a little time and some are easy but well worth it.

Designers are using paper flowers for their models hair pieces and runways, it’s a Victorian trend that has came back and setting a new trend for today’s brides.

Making paper flower bouquets are eco friendly, fun to make and a great keepsake for everyone involved. Plus you can pick and choose your colors and types of flowers you want in your bouquets. This makes the flowers more personal for your special day.

Bouquets can also be used for your reception table centerpieces, or for the alter centerpiece. You can make paper flowers for your wedding design in anyway you desire. Just get your flower designs and colors and a few materials together and have fun with it.

Paper flower bouquets can have two sided colors on the flowers by either finding double sided paper or make your own. Find how to do books, or go on the internet.

Another great idea to personalize your paper flower bouquets is to add beads, lace, greenery, sparkles, ribbons, and a clear gloss to give the flowers a shine, plus it makes them a little more stiff to hold their shape just make sure it dries thoroughly before you handle your paper flowers.

Well I hope this gives you an inspiration and idea on how to personalize your special day with your paper flower bouquets for your wedding day. Enjoy.

Without any surprise a lot of brides and grooms would like to spend less money on the wedding. This is why couples will try their best to control the cost of various items in the wedding. When your unique wedding invitations are considered, you will also want to do so. It can be very easy for you to spend less on your wedding invitations if you can consider the idea of DIY.

DVD wedding invitations will certainly be one of your choices if you really want to save money. You may consider creating the DVD on your own and you can save a lot of money.

You can put a lot of information on a DVD. This is certainly an advantage. In fact, you can put more than just the details of your event onto the DVD. You can put other information such as points of interest around your wedding location. It is also very command for brides and grooms to put contact details on the DVD so that the guests can reply easily. The idea here is that you will be able to put virtual anything onto one single DVD!

There is no doubt that the above method is only one of the many options you can think of. To this end, you may want to go for the idea of a traditional printed wedding card. Many couples will consider the idea of printing the cards themselves so that they can save money.

Create and print your own wedding cards should never be a difficult task. The point here is that you can do it easily. First of all, you have to think about the style of your event. If you are going to host Chinese weddings, you may want to go for some Chinese style designs.

Then, you will try to download free wedding invitation templates from the internet. As discussed, it will be important to download invitation templates which will match the theme of your event! You may want to alter the design of the original template so as to create your unique wedding invitation design. Finally, you will have to print the cards out. This is certainly the most important step. Then you will send them out as soon as possible.

Great Ideas for Creative Wedding Favor Tags

It’s true that favor tags are one of the smallest details in the design of a wedding, yet it’s also true that they’re extremely important as they serve as a thank you card to guests for attending the wedding. Along with ribbons, favor tags also help favors to look complete and decorative. The style, colors, and shape of your favor tags should all tie in with the overall theme and design of your wedding.

Regular rectangular wedding favor tags are wonderful, but don’t feel limited to those alone. For example, a circular shape may be the perfect contrast to a triangular shaped wedding favor such as a clear candy-filled triangle container tied with ribbon. This way, you can keep the lines modern and the details understated if that’s the look of your wedding design, while still adding interest through contrasting shape.

A starfish or sand dollar wedding favor tag is the ideal accent for beach weddings. You can use heart shaped or heart themed wedding favor tags for any type of wedding. Double heart designs are a timeless way of signifying the wedding couple. You can customize a tag with the names of the bride and groom and the wedding date within two hearts blended together.

Small charms and craft items such as little white doves and silver-colored starfish can dress up wedding favor tags when they’re attached to favor containers with ribbon ties or bows. You can add cute messages such as “Rachel and David. Love Birds Forever” or “Love is a Beach. Thanks for sharing our wedding day with us. Chelsea and Matthew.” You could fill a clear, heart-shaped favor box with candy hearts. Add a heart-shaped wedding favor tag that reads something like “Ashley and Derek Sweethearts Forever.”

Flower shaped wedding favor tags can look light-hearted and cute with a photo of the bride and groom in the center. You could place a photo on one side of the flower tag and the names and date on the other. A photograph favor tag also makes a great keepsake for guests. Grosgrain or personalized ribbons used to attach the tags to the favor containers can add the finishing touch.

Wedding Seed Favors – Ideal for Outdoor Weddings

Especially suited to outdoor or “green” wedding themes, wedding seed favors are an alternative to the typical candy or mint favor. There are different types of seeds and presentations you can use to make a wedding seed favor look special enough for your special day.

Glassine or vellum envelopes used to hold seeds or bulbs give an elegant appearance that lets the natural beauty of wedding seed favors show through. Accent the envelopes with gauze ribbon to keep the airy look flowing. Don’t forget to add planting and growing instructions. For a more stylized look, you can place seeds in silver-colored round metal tins with clear sections on the lids. Narrow ribbon accents can add a splash of your wedding accent color next to the cool toned metal.

For a more flowery, garden party atmosphere, decorate the top of a square favor box with ribbon and a silk flower that matches real flowers in the garden or containers. You could add a whimsical touch by placing small craft store ladybugs, ants, bees, butterflies or caterpillars on the floral flower box top – perhaps under or on top of a silk leaf. Inside the box, place the wedding seed favors with planting and growing instructions.

Pre-seeded shapes are super popular for wedding seed favors. You can find cards that include the seed embedded shapes to use as favor tags or tie a stack of the seeded flowers with pretty ribbon. This idea works great as a personalized wedding seed favor by using personalized ribbon and a personalized tag that reads something like “Our Love Grows Stronger Every Day. Rachel and James. June 5, 2012.”

Mini flower pots, garden tools, watering cans and more are available through wedding favor supply websites and craft shops. These containers and accents are perfect accompaniments for wedding seed favors of all types. Mix and match your favorite looks and you’ll find it’s easy to come up with unique seed favors!

How to Dress Up Wedding Favor Bags

Decorate Cute Mini Suitcase Favors for Destination Weddings

Clear miniature plastic suitcases, tote bags and backpacks are cute as favor holders at destination weddings. They can be filled with candy or handy travel items such as lip balm and mini puzzles. You could attach a card shaped like a luggage tag to the little suitcase wedding favor bags with a message such as “We’re Glad You Could Be with Us in Mexico, Erin and Jeff.”

Add Ribbon Bows to Clear Plastic Geometric Favor Packages

Structured types of clear plastic favor packages such as triangles, cones or pillow shapes can make a great alternative to more traditional wedding favor containers. These are nice because the contents you add lets these structured clear wedding favor bags match your wedding colors. Elegant ribbon bows on one end can look stunning.

Either wrapped or unwrapped candy, mints, or Jordan almonds can be placed inside the structured clear containers. The pillow shaped clear plastic containers are ideal to fill with pillow mints in assorted pastels plus white. You could wrap personalized ribbon around the middle of the package and then tie a small bow in the centre.

Use Mini Beach Bag Favors to Set the Tone for Beach Weddings

Beach weddings call for a casual tone, and mini beach bag favor bags in a material such as burlap can look perfect. You can order personalized stickers that look like towels, so these would be ideal to use for the favor tags or tucked inside the bags.

Blue organza or sheer bags could be used as wedding favor bags for beach weddings if they’re filled with informal items such as beach-themed stickers, a roll of Life Savers and a bubble solution with a wand for blowing bubbles. You can get the bubble bottle and Life Savers and even the stickers personalized.

Personalize Plain Favor Bags for Custom Style

Fold top wedding favor bags can be easily dressed up with ribbon streamers or a bow made from personalized ribbons. Just hole-punch the center top portion of the bag and insert the ribbon through. Personalized stickers with the wedding couple’s names and date could also be added to the bags.

If you’ve been knee-deep in wedding planning, chances are you’ve heard of the “candy buffet” or “candy bar” wherein a table-long array of the sweetest and colorful candy is displayed for your guests to dig in.  The Wedding Candy Buffet made its debut to wedding guests all over the nation within the past few years and there are no signs of the wedding candy bar concept slowing down.  Wedding candy buffets are genius, really, and super simple.  The following are a few wedding candy buffet ideas.

First, decide on the type of candy you’d like to display in your wedding candy bar buffet.  You might be surprised to find this task to be quite harder than you think.  There is quite literally hundreds of various types of candy in all of shapes and colors.  Reach back into time and choose some candy with nostalgic value, then add some of your current favorites.  Imagine sweet chocolates, chewy gummy bears, brightly colored gum balls, Jordan almonds, and even childhood lollipops gracing your wedding candy buffet!  But don’t go overboard, limit your choices to only about 10 of your favorite candy.

Next select the containers in which you will exhibit your sweet treats.  Clear glass jars are the vessels of choice.  Create a standout showcase with a mixture of narrow and wide glass jars to tall and short glass containers.  Indicate each jar’s contents with a decorative tent card displayed in front of the container.  Alternatively, handwrite the name of the candy onto a beautiful sticker and affix to the front of the glass jar.  Place a candy scoop in front or inside the candy jar for your guests to easily grab their desired amount.

Lastly, choose a generously-sized yet portable container that your guests can use to load up with their goodies and take home.  Gourmet food paper bags personalized with your names and wedding date is the perfect idea.  Or transform Chinese takeout boxes into a great container for your memorable wedding candy buffet.  Glassine envelopes can be spruced up with personalized labels resulting in creative candy buffet packaging. 

By offering an “all-you-can-eat, make-your-own” experience, you’ll invite your guests to create their own wedding favors that they’ll be sure to enjoy!  The wedding candy buffet is the perfect accent to your wedding that will make a sweet and lasting impression! (AJG001)

If you know how to apply simple secrets to get affordable wedding favors, you will enjoy it and be gentle on the wedding budget. If originality and resourcefulness are some of your stronger traits, you can easily make some striking yet elegant, affordable wedding favors yourself. People tend to attach great admiration to the effort that is put into hand made favors, as it tends to portray the value and gratitude you have for their attendance.

If you mention affordable wedding favors people tend to think that you are referring to some sort of cheap novelty just to keep the etiquette watchers at bay. This happens to be a complete mistaken belief! The difference between cheap and affordable are established by the quality, time, thought and effort one put in the choice or manufacturing of the wedding favors.

Apart from the originality hand made favors portray, you will be able to save a reasonable amount of money as well. A modern, stylish example of an affordable wedding favor is a compact disc loaded with the wedding couple’s favorite songs, presented in a cover with an interesting collection of pictures of the couple with the wedding date and their names included.

Regrettably, we all are not equal when it relates to creative skills in order to make hand made favors for your wedding. Fortunately, there are many ways to kill this uncreative cat preventing you from finding affordable wedding favors.

A highly appreciated wedding favor will always be candy. Apart from the various sorts of candy you can choose from, is it economical and all ages find pleasure in it, no matter how big or small. Chocolates are popular wedding favors and available in any shape of flavor you can think of. Though all may love chocolate favors, an economic alternative will be peppermints wrapped up in fancy bundles according to your wedding theme.

When you like to follow tradition, sugar-coated almonds are another good alternative. Unlike back when your mother got married, you can choose from a wide range of pastel colors plus gold, silver or even bronze colored almonds.

Before you decide on what affordable wedding favors to use, make a point to remember that wedding favors are a mere token of your special day and that memorable weddings consist out of much more than the favors you present and how it is presented. Don’t forget to give some thought as to how guests will receive the actual fabors.

The Wedding Editor

Guide to prenuptual agreements

A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into prior to marriage or civil union by the people intending to marry. The content of a prenuptial agreement can vary widely, but commonly includes provisions for division of property and spousal support in the event of divorce or breakup of marriage.

prenuptial agreements set out before marriage how the wealth and assets of both parties will be split in the event that the relationship goes down the toilet.

Many countries, including Canada (Quebec), France, Italy, and Germany, have matrimonial regimes, in addition to, or some cases, in lieu of prenuptial agreements.

As of 2007, England and Wales do not enforce prenuptial agreements, but agreements may be upheld at the judge’s discretion. These countries also do not have a provision for marital regimes.  But this is all changing.  There has been a “sea change”

The Crossley case  in the UK now highlights the fact that premarital agreements are being recognised in the English courts and, if properly constituted, are difficult to wriggle out of.  In the past prenups were perhaps entered into in the hope, rather than belief, that they would be binding. Now they offer real protection.

Courts “are looking closely at prenuptial agreements and want good reasons — such as children or significant changes in a person’s circumstances — to depart from them”.

So who should go for a prenup? They are suitable for a wide range of people, including:-

• second-time rounders, in their forties and fifties, who want to provide fully for children of the first marriage and protect their own assets (sometimes against gold-digging former husbands when they meet someone wealthy)
• professionals, young City entrepreneurs in their twenties making money through work, skill and some luck 
• business men and women used to binding agreements in their working lives
• international clients used to prenups in their home jurisdiction
• gay and lesbian clients who may have cohabited for years and now enter civil partnerships
• and those not necessarily “mega-wealthy” who favours “self-determination” and taking control of how financial issues might be resolved on divorce.

So if prenups are such a good insurance policy, why not make them legally binding? 

With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, Hollywood stars are not inclined to risk it all on what might be a very short and misguided marriage followed by a very expensive divorce.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes signed a £22 million prenuptial agreement before they married. The decision for a ‘prenup’ was hardly a surprise as Cruise’s failure to sign a similar deal with ex-wife Nicole Kidman was cited as the main reason behind a very messy and protracted divorce.

Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas; Liz Taylor and Larry Fortensky, Jane Fonda and Ted Turner are just a few of the A-list couples who have demanded prenuptial contracts.

So before you get married get up to date legal advice from a specialist family lawyer.  Get it all sorted and nailed down before last minute stress sets in. 

Most foreign couples getting married in France need to have a civil ceremony in their home country first and then their religious ceremony in France as the legal requirements for a civil wedding in France are exhaustive - 6 months (not 40 days as it was before thank you Sarkosy) residency requirement with proof of address and they now check it too.  Most guests at a french destination wedding do not even know that the ceremony is not a civil ceremony.  Sorting out a  pre-nup agreement before you leave home does not detract from a fairytale wedding in France.  If you are not mega wealthy you way want to consider a french wedding package at a romantic castle that will not break the bank.

father of the bride speeches

When it comes time to let go of your little girl by giving her away at the altar, there is no doubt that it is a pivotal time for the whole family. It is also the day when father of the bride speeches will come into play as the wedding reception proceeds.

Father of the bride speeches can be a very difficult task to try and approach. Often, emotions are very strong and it is hard to even consider giving a wedding speech in front of a large group of people, especially if you are not accustomed to speaking in public.

Some simple advice about starting to write father of the bride speeches is to start keeping a notepad handy. This will help to facilitate getting your various emotions onto paper so that you can begin to sort through them. Take moments to observe your daughter whenever possible and make a note of what you see and how you feel.

The notes can be something as simple and ordinary as washing the dishes or playing with her siblings. In fact, it is often the everyday actions and the feelings surrounding them that can be the most poignant part of father of the bride speeches. Simply recounting the pride and happiness you felt in watching your daughter perform everyday routines can be very touching.

The reason it is important to jot down these notes is that when it is time to sit down and write the speech, sometimes your mind will draw a blank. Having even a few pages of notes will be helpful at this point and if it is a theme wedding, this can also help to direct your thoughts as you prepare your wedding speech as the father of the bride.

When it is time to sit down and compose father of the bride speeches, there are some fundamental things that are almost always good to include. First off, adding a little something about your daughter as she was when she was young always adds a bit of charm and depth to the speech. This also gives people a glimpse of the bride as a youngster. This could be a short story about her if it’s fitting. Just remember that your purpose is to uplift and not to embarrass her on this special day.

Another idea, if there is not a story that you want to share in the wedding speech, is to include what she excelled in at school, her favorite teacher, class, sport and why, or even things from her first time in the work force. These little insights from her youth can be a nice way to point out some of her unique characteristics and also to help her new in-laws learn more about her.

Another component of many father of the bride speeches, is to talk a little bit about how their daughter was before meeting her groom. For example, was she more shy, not as confident, not as well-grounded, or given to a lot of ups and downs? You can then contrast that with how she has been since their relationship progressed more seriously. When this has been perfected and written with kindness, it can be the part of the wedding speech that gives people the most insight about the couple.

These suggestions are the basis for putting together thoughtful father of the bride speeches. Overall, the wedding speech from the father of the bride should be between 800 and 1,000 words and should take less than ten minutes to deliver. Anything longer than that may put people to sleep! Be sure to practice your speech out loud as often as possible before the big day.