Wedding Trends That Take The Cake

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Ivanka Trump wed Jared Kushner, publisher of the New York Observer, in a ceremony at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on Sunday, October 25, 2009. Ivanka walked down the aisle in a Vera Wang gown inspired by Grace Kelly. At the reception, more than 500 guests, including Regis Philbin, helped the bride and groom celebrate.

The My So-Called Life star, Claire Danes, married Hugh Dancy early September in France. Claire, 30, and Hugh, 34, were married in a low-key ceremony with just their families and a few close friends, a source told Life & Style magazine. The Romeo and Juliet star met Hugh while the pair were shooting the film Evening two years ago and only announced their engagement in February.

The showbiz-savvy couple, Jaime Pressly and Simran Singh (she’s an Emmy winner and and he’s an entertainment lawyer) swapped vows in Malibu September 26, 2009. Guests including Pressly’s 2-year-old son Dezi James attended the 6 p.m. ceremony on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The bride wore a dress by British designer Jenny Packham. The ceremony was held at the Dick Clark estate, the site of Adam Sandler’s wedding in 2003. Last November Pressly, 32, split with longtime fiancé Eric Cubiche, the father of her son.

The popular first-season American Idol contestant, Justin Guarini, wed his biggest fan, Reina Capodici, on September 26, 2009 near the couple’s home in Pennsylvania. According to People, Guarini, 30, the runner-up to Kelly Clarkson in the first season of American Idol, and his new bride, 27, attended high school together but only started dating after reconnecting in the past few years. The intimate wedding was presided over by a female minister from the Universalist Church. The couple said vows that they wrote.

Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks married actor Geoffrey Arend at Il Buco restaurant in New York on October 11, 2009. They were engaged earlier this year after being introduced by Mad Men costar Vincent Kartheiser. The bride wore a Carolina Herrera ivory gown.

The Nine Inch Nails star, Trent Reznor, broke Goth hearts everywhere when he married, Mariqueen Maandig, the former West Indian Girl singer on October 17, 2009. The couple, who officially announced their engagement on Nine Inch Nails website back in May, have not made a statement yet. Trent’s bandmate, Danny Lohner, though, made it public by tweeting: “Goths the world over will mourn this day–off to a wedding. ” He later posted a photo of the newlyweds dancing with the caption, “CONGRATS my nagguh!”

Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss married Saturday Night Live funnyman Fred Armisen. Engaged since January, the two were wed on October 25, 2009 in front of friends and family at The Foundry in Long Island City, New York. Whoopi Goldberg first broke news of their nuptials on The View Monday morning.

To find items for your celebrity-style wedding, visit Best Little Wedding Shop!

Lisa Bakewell

You’ve taken a huge step and popped the question. You’re going to get married! But, while your bride-to-be may be handling a lot of the details with (major or minor) input from you, you still have a big decision to make. Who’s going to be in your wedding party? And harder still, who are you going to choose to act as your Best Man?

In order to help you make an informed decision, we’ve broken down the responsibilities that you’ll need your Best Man to handle, and we’ve given you some ideas on who you might want to choose.

Your Best Man will have a variety of very important responsibilities. You’ll want to choose the person for the job according to who is most likely to be able to complete the required tasks successfully. After all, you want to pick someone who will help the wedding run smoothly, not the person who is the most fun to be with. A Best Man’s responsibilities might include:

• Making sure you arrive at the church on time.
• Keeping track of the wedding rings–and the ring bearer, if you have one.
• Acting as a formal witness to the signing of your marriage license.
• Giving a speech at the wedding reception. (Keep in mind here, that you’ll want someone who’s not afraid to speak in public.)
• Helping to choose the men’s formal wear for the wedding.
• Organizing the Bachelor Party (Keep in mind that you’ll want someone who can plan a fun party, but one that won’t get too out of hand.)
• Assisting with your honeymoon plans.
• Helping to keep you organized.

As a final note on the responsibilities of your Best Man, you’ll want to choose someone who can actually afford to take on the responsibility. Unless, of course, you are footing the bill…

So…who do you choose?

First of all, your Best Man needs to be responsible to complete all of the above tasks and more, but he also needs to be trustworthy. After all, you’re only planning on having one wedding day, right? And you want it to go off without a hitch.

When considering who to choose as your Best Man, you may have both a brother and a best friend that you can trust with all of the responsibilities. In this case, experts say that you should always choose your brother, provided you have a good relationship with that individual. After all, blood is thicker than water and friends come and go.

In some cases, a groom-to-be may not have a brother, but has a close relationship with a sister. In this case, it’s perfectly fine to have your sister stand up in the wedding for you. Just keep in mind attire and bachelor party duties. You may want to have a best friend plan your party and you’ll want to check with your sister to see if she’s rather wear a tux or a dress that compliments the groomsmen’s tuxedos.

If you don’t have any siblings, the job of  Best Man generally would fall to a friend. A long-time best friend would be a good choice. This person knows you well and can be invaluable in helping with plans for the bachelor party and wedding day particulars.

Another option might be to make your fiancée’s brother the best man. This will definitely help you score points with her family, though it may not bode well with your friends. In this case, though, it’s up to you to make that choice.

Once you’ve chosen your Best Man–and your groomsmen–you’ll want to formally ask them to be a part of your big day. Doing this in person is best, and you may want to ask everyone over a meal or a beer at your favorite pub. After all, it should be a celebration!

Plan your announcement well in advance, so that you can give your Best Man and your groomsmen as much time as possible to plan for your wedding. They’ll want to put your wedding date on their calendars, plus you’ll want to give them as much time as possible to plan for your wedding financially.

Once you’ve chosen your Best Man and groomsmen, you’ll want to start thinking about a thank-you gift you’d like to give to them for their extra efforts on and before your wedding day. Since you’ll be buying each member of your wedding party a gift, which is traditionally distributed at the rehearsal dinner, it makes sense to buy each person the same gift. Try to come up with something more creative than a tie or a pocketknife, though. Think about what your friends have in common and give them something relevant to everyone that’s cool and a little bit unexpected–but don’t go overboard on the price! For some great gift ideas, visit Best Little Wedding Shop.

Lisa Bakewell

As wedding costs skyrocket–about $27,000 today–wedding insurance (though another added expense) is almost a necessity. Not only will wedding insurance allow you recoup out-of-pocket expenses in the event of an unforeseen disaster–causing you to postpone or cancel you wedding–it will also give you peace of mind.

Wedding insurance is an insurance policy that protects you from financial loss due to wedding cancellation, postponement or other circumstances beyond your control–such as vendor loss.

Not all wedding insurance policies provide the same coverage, so check with each of the companies you’re considering for specific details of their policies. Make sure that their coverage fits your needs.

Typical wedding insurance coverage might include:

In case of rain or other bad weather, a wedding insurance policy should cover the cost of rescheduling.

If you, your groom or another essential part of your wedding party becomes ill or injured (and causes the wedding to be postponed), the expenses incurred should be covered. Also, an airline flight of a key person in the wedding is cancelled, insurance may cover the costs of rescheduling the wedding. as well.

If your wedding officiant doesn’t show up, you may be able to recoup some of your costs.

If your photographer, florist, caterer, limo driver or other vendor is a no-show, you’ll recover some of your costs–and possibly the costs of rescheduling your wedding. Also, if one of your vendors goes out of business before your wedding, you may be covered for non-refundable deposits.

If your ceremony and/or reception site doesn’t have their own insurance, your wedding insurance policy can cover damages due to fire, electrical or mechanical problems. Also, if they go out of business, insurance may cover the cost of rescheduling your wedding.

Suplemental Wedding Insurance is just that…supplemental. It can be purchased in addition to your regular wedding insurance policy for more specific coverage.  Supplemental insurance can cover:

If you or your groom are in the military or on active reserves, you may want to be insured in case either of you are called to duty suddenl, and the wedding is postponed.

If you have a problem getting your wedding photos from the photographer, or the pictures are of poor quality, supplemental wedding insurance could cover the cost of recreating key wedding moments, including cutting the cake, recreating your floral arrangements and having key people present for photo re-shoots.

Supplemental insurance can cover loss and damage of gowns and tuxedos. It could also include reimbursing you if the store goes out of business.

If your homeowners or renters insurance doesn’t cover loss or theft of wedding gifts, you may want to protect yourself with supplemental insurance.

Most sites carry liability insurance, but if you’re having your wedding at home or the location isn’t covered, you’ll want to be protected in case a guest gets hurt or hurts someone else.

Protect yourself against honeymoon cancellation due to illness, bad weather or other unfortunate circumstances.

Wedding insurance does not cover loss because of cold feet or for circumstances that were already present before the policy was purchased.

Wedding Insurance policies are relatively inexpensive. A basic policy might cost between $125-$500.

When you’re shopping around for your wedding insurance policy, make sure:

• The insurance company has a license;
• To ask how much they reimburse for different types of loss;
• They offer supplemental coverage; and
• Find out what kinds of supplemental coverage that they offer.

Check each of your contracts. If they don’t include coverage to protect you and your groom against loss and wedding postponement, you should consider purchasing wedding insurance, supplemental wedding insurance and, possibly, liability insurance. The key, though, is to tailor your insurance to your own particular needs.

For other wedding planning ideas, check out these planning resources at Best Little Wedding Shop.

Lisa Bakewell

You’ve just become engaged, and you’re super-excited to get started planning your big day! What girl isn’t, right? The problem is that you still have to stay focused on your full-time job too. After all, you’ll need a steady paycheck long after your wedding day.

To help you stay on track–and keep your boss happy–we’ve put together a list of tips that will help balance your day-to-day job with the job you really want to do: Plan your wedding!

Make some time. Once the wedding date is set, request days off prior to the wedding and after the wedding as vacation days. If you wait too long, a co-worker may have already requested the time off. Also, keep in mind that you’ll need time to go in for dress fittings, meet caterers, etc., so make sure you have enough personal time saved up.

Make plans while you lunch. Use your lunch break as a time to review appointments, update your calendar, make lists and call and/or meet with your vendors and service providers. If your company offers flextime, consider working through lunch and leaving an hour early each day.

Share the duties. Wedding planning doesn’t have to be a one-woman job. Split the duties with your groom-to-be, wedding party and family, so that you’re not too overwhelmed. Also consider arranging a weekly meeting or conference call to keep everyone on track.

Write everything down. There are so many details involved in planning your wedding. Don’t try to keep everything in your head. Create a wedding notebook (with a calendar and budget) to keep yourself feeling in control of the situation. You’ll want to keep records of phone conversations, pricing, dates, etc.

Set communication rules. To keep business-hour wedding discussions to a minimum, ask everyone to communicate with you by email. If someone does need to talk with you on the phone, have him or her call in the evening or on the weekend. If you are forced to receive a fax at work, make sure that you’re standing at the machine to retrieve it.

Hire a professional. You may want to consider working with a wedding planner to remove a lot of wedding planning pressure from your own shoulders. You can hire a professional planner to handle every detail of your big day, or you can ask him or her to assist you only with specific details.

Limit wedding conversations. While you’re at work, keep the wedding talk to a minimum. Co-workers will already think that you’re doing the bulk of your wedding planning at work, so don’t give them any extra ammunition.

It is inevitable that you’ll get sidetracked with wedding plans at work (it would be almost impossible not to) but keep it to a minimum. If you do need to use a few minutes here and there, give yourself a time limit–say 5-10 minutes per task. That way you won’t get carried away and lose track of time, AND you’ll be able to keep the job that you need to help pay for your big day!

Want to track some of the wedding planning details yourself? Check out EZ Wedding Planner!

Lisa Bakewell

Traditionally, the most popular day for a wedding is Saturday, which makes for tough competition when it comes to securing venues and services for your big day. To avoid hearing “that date has already been booked,” why not plan an “off-day” wedding instead? Not only will you have a better chance of having your wedding on the date of your choice, it also makes economic sense because:

Keep in mind, too, that restaurants are usually thrilled to have rehearsal dinners booked on Thursdays or other evenings during the week. These are, typically, their slower business days, so you’ll find that the staff will be more attentive to your party’s needs, and the atmosphere will be more relaxed.

Another reason for the growing popularity of off-day weddings is that benefits you, your family, and your friends.

By now, you may be thinking that an off-day wedding sounds like a terrific idea for you and your soon-to-be-spouse. If this is the case, you’ll not only save money, you’ll be able to enjoy more time with your loved ones and you’ll most likely hear “Yes” from vendors and service providers instead of “We’re already booked.” Here are a few things to keep in mind, though:

If all of this advice sounds good to you…go ahead and buck the traditional Saturday wedding!

Lisa Bakewell