Win a $5 Jamba Juice giftcard!

We're having a contest! For every person you refer who joins my blog, I will enter your name once into a drawing for a $5 gift card to Jamba Juice. (Okay $5 isn't a lot, but you're signing people up to read and talk about weddings and you all wanna do that anyway.) Have your friends put your name into the comment thread and I'll enter you into the drawing again and again! So if 10 people join from your referral, you get entered 10 times. New comers can get referrals as well. Simply click to "join this site" and then refer more friends. This contest will close on Friday, Dec 9th at 10am and I'll post the winner by noon that day. Good luck! No purchase necessary. Inanimate objects and employees of inanimate objects not eligible to win. Void where prohibited.

Holiday Wedding Decorations

When having a holiday wedding, many people choose to use the current holiday's natural decorations. This can be fun. You can have a nice Christmas or Easter or Patriotic wedding. Things may be cheaper and more readily available. It helps encourage you to use things that are currently in season which also brings down cost.

However, don't feel pressured to decorate your wedding for the holiday. It's your wedding. You can have it be whatever color or theme or decorations you want. Keep yourself open to suggestions and opinions of others, especially anyone whose contributing financially, and then choose what helps keep the feel you're hoping for.

My own wedding was right on top of Valentine's Day, and I didn't want the place surrounded by little naked cupids, red and pink hearts and tacky Sweetheart phrases like, "Puppy Love" and "Tweet me". (Okay, people didn't tweet when I got married, but you get the point.) So I had bright yellow and white summer daisies in the middle of winter! And guess what? It was beautiful and I'm just as married as I would have been with the Valentine's decor if that really is your heart's desire.

Choosing a Date

Many things affect the date you choose for your wedding. For example: school, work, family, weather and recommends. One thing to keep in mind as well is - the day you choose is not just for that particular year. That date will be your anniversary annually forever. Just keep that in mind before scheduling your wedding on say, New Year's Day.

Now I know that you have to take so many things into account that sometimes you have to do it near a holiday. Trust me, my anniversary is February 15th. But if it can be avoided you'll be glad in the long run, if you give yourself a bit of distance. Remembering this will also save you money on your wedding and every year at your anniversary, as holidays tend to inflate prices.

Holiday Wedding Budget

Planning a wedding around the holidays can sure stretch that budget. The number one way to save on a wedding? Cut the guest list. This helps you save in many ways. For example:

1. You don't need as many invitations. (Although you can still order announcements and send them out after the wedding. You'll be surprised how many people will send a gift.)
2. You can use a smaller venue.
3. You don't need as much food, flatware, cake or favors.

Stay tuned for more ways to save on your big day.

Newly Engaged?

Haven't been able to tell your engagement story enough? Tell me! I love to hear them.

Are you engaged?

When I got engaged 10 years ago, my fiance followed my ecstatic "Yes!" with a decided, "But you can't tell anyone yet."

"Um, excuse me? What? I'm engaged!" I'd waited my whole life to make that declaration and now that it was true I couldn't tell anyone? Okay Ann calm down, he might have a valid reason. "Why?" I ask. My sweet and thoughtful fiance explained that he wanted our parents to be the first to know and he didn't want to tell them over the phone. He wouldn't be home from college until that weekend. (2 days away) Hence the need to wait to reveal the big news.

I agreed and faithfully promised to not tell anyone. The next morning I was at work in the Discover Card collections department. When we called a customer and didn't reach them there were a series of questions we were to ask when leaving a message, such as: when will they be back, and is there a better number for them? The last question I always asked after leaving a message was, "And who am I leaving a message with?"

Well on my first call of the day, I sat bouncing in my seat, near to exploding with my once in a lifetime news. I couldn't reach the customer and so began the process of leaving a message. I systematically worked my way through the required questions, left a message, and stated my standard follow up question which came out a bit different then expected.

"And who am I getting married to?"

I slapped my hand over my mouth as the heads of all of my cubicle coworkers popped up and the woman on the other end of the phone chuckled and said, "Newly engaged are you?"

"Yes." I sheepishly replied.

"There's nothing like it," she came back with.

And isn't she right? There's nothing like being engaged.