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Guest blog by Yolande Mamacos via StyleScoop.co.za
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For those of you ladies, plaining in a summer wedding, I’ve been looking at the international and local wedding trends, and found that creativity is the new word in weddings.

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Being different is key to this seasons’ trends. Here is some inspiration that I found.

Proposals and rings:

Using Youtube, Facebook, blogs and wedding web pages are hot for keeping your family, bridesmaids and friends updated on the planing. They are also a fun way to involve them with the wedding.

Passing down a family ring seems hot on the celebrity scene, Alicia Silverstone married Chris Jarecki, wearing a ring made from his great-great granmother’s ring. And, Jennifer Love Hewitt wore a 100 year old heirloom ring from fiance Ross McCall’s family.

Hair :

Brides go double take during the wedding, by doing a quick change of hair after the ceremony, or changing dresses up to 3 times, during the day.

Cakes :

Include summer fruits into your wedding cake. Add chocolate cherry ganache as a filling or raspberry puree.

Make sure the colour is deliciously summery, you can add sugar versions of your wedding day flowers to your’ cake, or have the baker add a few large graphic sugar peonies on each tier.

Consider a white cake stacked with subtle, soft hydrangeas, with just a hint of blue or green. If you prefer a more classic wedding cake, opt for adding some seasonal flavour to the cake by serving it with fruit flavoured ice cream or chocolate covered strawberry’s.

Dynamic Colors :

Sophisticated bright hues are popular choices. Pick two hues by using a colour wheel. The most complimentary colour can be found opposite each other on a colour wheel. Eg : purple and yellow.

Music :

The one thing that got my wedding going was making sure I had some upbeat lounge music playing when the guests arrived, this sets the mood, and relaxes everyone.

Theme :

Think or your favorite summer hangouts when planning your theme. Find inspiration in your or your grooms interests or hobby’s.

Invites :

Reverse the typical invitation colour scheme. Instead of printing Fuchsia on cream, print the cream on a fuchsia paper, or print your invite on fabric.

Centerpieces :

Try natural fruits as centerpieces instead of flowers. Get your florist to cut and hollow a watermelon as a centerpiece container. Or pick wooden vases or pedestals with grass or moss to add texture.

Wine Smoothies

They’re cold, frosty and pack less of an alcoholic punch, and they will cool down your guests. Make them with fruity wine (rose), blended with ice and fruits of your choice. Garnish them with a couple of berries or sliced fruits.

Favours :

Go Eco-friendly, by giving guests herbs in recyclable glass. Dress them up with a poem about love, and a fancy ribbon in your wedding colours.

Giving your guest disposable video cameras on there tables, will allow for them to play paparazzi and document some footage of the day.

* Photo by Robbie Owen-Wahl

n1302685366_30183654_7300.jpgWin this dress. The Bridal Shop KZN together with Toy Story are having a raffle to win this stunning wedding dress valued at R4 500. The tickets are R20 each and the draw is at the end of January. Tickets available in store ath the Bridal Shop KZN Windermere Centre.

Contact Lee-Anne - 082 4944 373 for further details

Firstly I’d like to congratulate Mizz Calla Lily, who was married yesterday!

And secondly, here are our first twelve teaser pro pics from our photographer’s blog. Aren’t they gorgeous???

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Wedding theme? Color scheme? Flowers? and Food?As a bride questions like this make your head tick, everything has to be perfect; everything has to ‘blend’ in. For the groom though, all the planning decisions are not really his idea of fun and the excitement of the wedding seems to fade away a little. Now don’t get all huffy puffy about it, he is still very excited about marrying you but as far as the planning goes he would rather leave that in your capable hands. 

Many brides do however want to get the groom involved in the planning, not only because it’s his day as well but because planning a wedding is a huge task for one person to tackle alone. The trick to getting your groom involved is to give him ‘tasks’ that will interest him. Ask him directly for his help with the wedding plans, let him know how important his input is to you, and that you can’t do without his help. Men like to be needed. 

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Well, I’m back. Phuket was amazing, Hong Kong was a blur, and not one day has gone by since the 31st of October that I haven’t thought about the wedding. They say that you barely remember your wedding day because it all goes by so quickly - well, that has pretty much been the case for every day lately, so I’d better get those wedding thoughts down while I remember them!

My first piece of advice as a wedding-day-graduate: Start earlier. I can’t believe, knowing as I do that things ALWAYS take longer than expected, that I thought it was ok to have my hair appointment at 9am. If I could do this over I would make it 7:30 or even 7am, because by the time midday rolled around everything was starting to feel a bit rushed. I’m sure we needed more time for the “getting ready” photos, but there wasn’t enough because I had to be at the chapel on time (and, after all that, apparently I was 15-20 minutes late anyway. Mr Honeysuckle was getting very fidgety inside, I hear. Oh well, I didn’t have a watch on, so I was blissfully clueless).

The biggest surprise of the day for me (and for Mr HS and Best Man HS, who apparently placed bets) is that I didn’t cry during the ceremony. Seriously, I haven’t a clue how I did it, and I don’t think I could do it again if you paid me. Now you have to understand that I am a cryer. I will cry for anything. I don’t only cry at sad moments (funerals, sad films, someone almost dying on a soap I don’t even watch) or emotional ones (weddings, babies etc), or even happy ones, but at any kind of stressful situation. I even cried when I resigned from my old job, and not because I was sad I was leaving (though, actually, I did cry on my last day too), but just at the idea that I had to tell my boss. So the fact that this day - and especially the ceremony - was an amalgamation of a stressful moment, an emotional moment and a happy moment, meant that I was pretty much 100% guaranteed to cry. The bookies would have stopped taking bets on me because it was that obvious that it would happen. Except I reckoned without one thing; at least, I think this is what it must have been:

I had never been so happy and so excited in my entire life.

It’s the only explanation. I mean, I’m crying right now just thinking about walking down that aisle. But in that moment, on the day, I was so unbelievably overwhelmed with happiness that it blocked out the crying mechanism. Like that pain gateway thing: find a stronger emotion and it’ll take over the crying one. I really need to go back there and bottle that feeling. I’d make millions.

I did have a brief almost-sob moment when I neared the top of the aisle. The walk down the aisle was unequivocally, single-handedly THE best moment of the day, if not my entire life. The lovely staff at The Moon & Sixpence closed the doors after my bridesmaids walked in, and were ready and waiting to open them the moment I said “go”. I heard my music start (Choosing the Father of the Bride theme was the best choice I could have made; seriously, it’s just made for walking down an aisle. Go Alan Silvestri!), I told the guys to open, I paused as I waited for the right moment in the music to start, and we walked. I don’t even remember how fast I walked, I barely even remember my Dad being on my arm, all I remember is a sea of faces smiling at me, and trying to take them all in, and then giving up halfway because there were just too damn many of them, and focusing on on Mr Honeysuckle. It’s not even a long aisle, but in that sea of faces I really had to concentrate on finding his face at the other end. I think that’s when I had to stifle the near-sob. After that, all I know is I had a huge silly grin plastered on my face pretty much the rest of the ceremony. I learned later that we had a near-catastrophe because our officiant conveniently forgot that we had changed bits of his regular ceremony and added in stuff of our own, and therefore he hadn’t brought the right pages to read from (I am not impressed with him, I can tell you) but in a stroke of luck Mr HS’s parents had brought the print-outs from the rehearsal we’d had three days before, and he used that. Surprisingly well, I might add, because I didn’t notice a thing, and nor did anyone else, but forgetting our special ceremony was a huge mistake, so I’m not at all pleased with him.

My huge grin stuck with me the entire time; I’m pretty sure we even did some funny “turning around and winking at the audience” type stuff. I know they laughed when I took the bitter wine in our Chocolate & Wine Ceremony, and I overplayed my shudder of disgust on purpose for them. In a stroke of genius I had left tissues on the front seats for the family, and when I was supposed to be crying but grinning like a mad thing instead, I could hear my sister, mother and best friend all sniffling behind me. Mr HS did his vows first, and when I turned around to hand my bouquet to Best Friend HS so that I could take the cue cards (and by cue cards I mean the entire vows typed out on a little piece of cardboard), she was wiping her eyes and mouthed “Seriously??” at me, which I took to mean “Seriously, could your vows BE any more awesome and meaningful? Look, they made me cry.” :-)

I really want to wait for the pro photos to arrive so that I can do a whole series of posts on the rundown of the day (hint, hint, Tanja, if you’re reading this :-P), but I just have to say that the wonderfulness, the happiness and the excitement of everyone there made my own so much more special. I loved how all my details came together, and even the one or two things that weren’t as I expected honestly didn’t matter. I was so happy it was unbelievable. I keep looking at my wedding band in disbelief, because I am just so bowled over by the emotion that went along with getting it onto my finger, and I’m just so lucky and thrilled and amazed to be MRS Honeysuckle. I’ll leave you with one of my favourite photos, taken by Best Friend HS. It’s our entrance into the reception (heralded by the RKO theme - at least, I think that’s what it is. It’s in the middle of “Rose Tint my World” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and we stopped and kissed in the middle of the dance floor.

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I love what my veil is doing, I love the positioning of the bouquet, I love how happy I look, and I love how everyone in the background is smiling (if this is too small to see, take my word for it; they are). The man in the white shirt right behind my veil is my friend Stan from Classic Film Society. He is 73 years old, but this doesn’t matter because we both love classic musicals, Bette Davis and Oscar trivia. He told me as he was leaving that he hadn’t been to a wedding in forty years, and that mine was one of the best he’d ever been to. I cried. THEN I cried.

If you’re getting married in March or April 2009 enter our “Win a Photographer” competition and you could win a professional photographer for your wedding.

We know how expensive weddings get, that’s why wedding photographer, Yvette de Beer from Innovate Photo is giving away her wedding photographer services to one lucky Brides Buzzing couple.

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To enter, please send an email to winphoto(at)bridesbuzzing.com with the following information:

- Brides Name
- Grooms Name
- Date of your wedding
- Your chosen venue
- Estimated starting time of ceremony
- Contact details (Telephone, Cellphone, Email Address, Physical & Postal Address)

Please note that incomplete or incorrectly submitted entries will be disqualified and only one entry per person/ couple. Multiple entries will be deleted and possibly disqualified if you are spamming.

This competition is open to all brides in South Africa, however because Yvette is based in Cape Town if you win and are based somewhere else in SA, you must be prepared to pay for her travel and accommodation costs for her as well as her assistant.

The competition closes on Thursday the 15th January 2009 at 5pm sharp. Winners will be notified before Friday the 30th January 2009, which will give you plenty of time to book another photographer should your name not be chosen.

After the closing date of the competition, Yvette will contact five finalists, who will be chosen by our judges, and the final decision will be based on ensuring that the winners do no already have a photographer booked.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY. The prize is not transferable for cash and does not include the actual photos. All images will be supplied in high resolution on compact disk, which you can then have processed at your own cost. The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

As many of you planning brides know, the expenses of a wedding keep racking up. Simple invitations cost a small fortune and they end up getting thrown away. So, why waste?

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Digital invites are not only eco-friendly, but are also more practical and you don’t have to pay crazy amounts to send out your invites. You also don’t have to worry about postage costs, whether or not your invites will get there on time or RSVP’s from your guests.

Furthermore Digital Invites can be used to send to 5 or 500 guests, and at the end of the day, it will cost you the same. No sneaky costs creeping into your budget.
My company, dotcommedia specialises in Digital Design and I have just introduced Digital Wedding Invitations as part of my services.

Based on your wedding theme and colours, I can create beautiful, digital invites that are displayed as a full screen PDF File, which you can mail out to all your guests. Your guests will be able to view them and print them out if they wish (saving you money).

Furthermore all PDF invites come with an Online RSVP System, where your guests can, just by clicking a button, send you an email with their confirmation. The subject will already be embedded into the subject body, so all they need to do is type in their number and send off.

If you’re interested give me a call on 084 383 4800 or drop me a mail: dimi(at)dotcommedia.co.za.

These invites start at around R600.00. If you would like to include additional pages for maps, accommodation or other info, I can add additional pages at an agreed, additional charge.  We can even link your invite to a Facebook event at your request.

To check out a working version of this invite, click here.

These invites can also be done for engagements, batchelorettes or bulls parties.  Please note that the price above is a special rate for brides only.  Corporate invites can be done as well, but please contact me for a price.

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* Price does not include distribution

Always tired, always tired…but I am trying to blog at least something every day until The Wedding. Even if it’s just a Photo of the Day. Tonight Mr Honeysuckle and I went to go and sign our ante-nuptial contract at my friend Monica’s office. Monica is - most usefully - a lawyer who can DO that, so she offered to do it for us as our wedding present. I believe our response was “hell, yes!” We really didn’t feel like paying for a piece of paper that will most likely never be used, but that we need to get because it’s the responsible thing to do.

To be honest, both Mr HS and I had kind of forgotten about the idea of a pre-nuptial agreement in the mad wedding organisation rush (which, by the way, is still freaking me out because it’s not nearly as rushed as I thought it would be. Am I missing something??), until Best Man Honeysuckle casually asked if we were getting married in community of property or not. A brief stress-out ensued, followed by me calling my trusty lawyer friend, who sorted everything out beautifully and stress-less-ly.

I know every engaged couple thinks this, but since it’s highly unlikely we will ever need the pre-nup in the case of divorce, we wanted it more to cover our assets in case of death or debt or insolvency. The last thing we want, if something should happen to one of us, is for all our accounts to be frozen while the red tape of death is dealt with; we also didn’t want one of us to be in terrible debt and have the bank/debt-collectory people (see how clueless I am?) to be able to access the other partner’s funds and assets. So this little piece of paper will probably never see the light of day (we can but hope, even though I’m always Cynic McCynicson), but it’s a necessary, yet boring, part of the wedding planning process.

At least the evening wasn’t entirely wasted. We went across the road to a steakhouse we hadn’t tried before (the law offices being miiiiles from our house) and I had the yummiest fillet with mushroom sauce, followed by hot cherries jubilee. Mmmm.

You know the pre-nup part is boring when food is the most exciting part of your evening.

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A wedding invitation is the first clue guests will get about your wedding style and theme. It helps get them excited for the big event, and even gives guests clues about what to wear! Don’t skimp on these as this will give the impression that guests are going to a cheap wedding before they have even got there.For those of you tying the knot in 2008-2009, here’s information you won’t want to miss about invitations. First and foremost, the biggest trend is:Customization Being unique is chic. Regardless of what current fashion might be, your invitation design ultimately rests on what is meaningful and special to you and your fiancé. So if you select colors or a style that isn’t “in” but has significance to both of you; go with it – it’s your wedding.Winter Weddings This winter, onyx black is back as the color of chic sophistication, and when used with silver and snow white, it speaks volumes. Forest green and plum are also gorgeous in winter, perhaps paired with a jeweled brad or silky tassel for added glamour. Spring Weddings For a spring wedding in 2008, an invitation’s color scheme can echo the colors of the blooming gardens with sky blue, leaf green and magnolia pink. Summer Weddings Summer brings hotter weather and high-voltage tints will be everywhere -especially apple green, aqua blue, bright yellow and sunset orange.

Fall Weddings

As autumn arrives the palette will mellow to saturated shades of rusted orange, deep scarlet and chocolate brown. Softer shades reflect the tones of the harvest season. Embellish your invitations with a translucent sash and tuck in a skeleton leaf for a distinctive look.

Trendsetting Stripes

Pinstripes are a hot look now, whether they’re vertical, horizontal, multicolored, or in shades of your signature hue.

Bejeweled

Embellishing your invitation with small rhinestones, tiny pearl-toned beads, or miniature Swarovski crystals makes a low-key invitation style fashionable. A refined invitation sporting clean type and subtle colors that gets glam with a rhinestone buckle.

Going Bold

Though the use of color has been a wedding trend for years, white is making a comeback in an unexpected way. We’re seeing bright color card stock with sleek white type.

Vintage Patterns

Move over motifs…allover patterns are gaining popularity. Your
invitation designer could create a pattern based on your gown, for instance — a ring of rosettes, a square of lace appliqué, or a beaded vine.  There are so many divine vintage and damask patterns available.

Modern Monograms

A monogram is basically a pair of initials usually written in a fancy script/font style. The monogram can be placed on the outside of the inner envelopes, on the invitations themselves, and on other parts of the wedding stationery. Monograms are a good choice because they provide personalization to the invitations and add a touch of elegance. 

Designer Envelopes

Saving the suspense is so over: Why not introduce your wedding motif on your invitation envelopes? Have your address personalized by your stationer this is so better received than ugly hand writing J And makes the invitation so professional.  You may not know it, but your invitations do more than just invite your guests. They also herald your event’s style and/or theme. The invitations lay the foundation for your wedding’s theme whether it be informal, traditional, seasonal, or a destination. Your invitations excite your guests about your affair so choose carefully!Ultimately, whatever design you choose for your invitations, it should reflect the mood, style, or theme of your wedding. Most importantly, you and your fiancé should love it!

u9221ca4tach2cajv856cca6gskzbca24wskecaavibuzca4d68dpca2lddylcajlem5rca0y1x3fcaxtscgucaodrz0rcamtkc1ccakojrjmca0xu040cawn98zscarlue75caxvw21wcak4vf4dcahwtkp4.jpgAre you a Bridezilla????

Finally a quiz that rates you the bride on your steam levels!!!

As a stationist, you gotta love the “bridezillas” as us wedding folk love to call brides that are a little stressful, all the time :).

 Take the quiz - and please comment truthfully if you are a bride as to what u scored.

Bridezilla (a portmanteau of bride and Godzilla) is a generic term used to describe a difficult, unpleasant, perfectionist bride who leaves aggravated family, friends and bridal vendors in her wake. A bridezilla is obsessed with her wedding as her perfect day and will disregard the feelings of the family, bridesmaids and even her groom in her quest for the perfect wedding.

Answer these quick questions to find out if you have what it takes to be a Bridezilla! Tally up the points next to your answers and find out if you should be fitted for combat boots or Manolos! 1. Someone objects to your marriage right before the “I dos”. You:  a. Leap from the pulpit, rush down the aisle and tackle the offender (3). b. Stomp your foot and yell “Shut the h— up!” (2). c. Cry (1).  2. You have 5 pounds left to lose before the big day. You: a. Ambush the hottest diet guru and fly them to your home for a little one-on-one (3). b. Cut down on carbs (1). c. Try a liquid fast (2).3. The bridal salon calls you: a. By your first name (1). b. “That girl with the issues” (2). c. The Terminator (3).4. Your gown is: a. Your mothers (1). b. French couture (2). c. Stolen from a Renaissance museum in Italy (3).5. Officiating at your ceremony is: a. Your local clergyman (1). b. The Mayor of the city (2). c. The Pope (3).6. Your guest list includes: a. Your friends and family (1). b. Your entire sorority, your mothers bridge club AND your spinning class. (3) c. 150 “close” friends (2).7. You are spending the day before your wedding: a. Incarcerated for disorderly conduct at the hair salon (3). b. Torturing your wedding planner (2). c. At a spa relaxing. (1)8. The day of the ceremony, your wedding ring: a. Is on a pillow ready for presentation (1). b. At the jewelers, being exchanged for another carat (3). c. Already on your hand because it was “lonely”. (2)Your score:
19-24 - Congratulations! You’re a Bridezilla! You’ve aced Bridezilla bootcamp, and are now the most accomplished player on the team!  13-18 - Well you’ve almost got a spot on team Bridezilla… but not quite. You’re sort of like the water girl - you’re supporting the team and you’re learning a lot.  

8-12 - You’re just an average bride. Drop and give us twenty.

So although most girls don’t intend to be demanding and hurtful at times There are 1000 decisions to make and once you make those there another 100 for each! That’s a lot of decisions people. Trust me. So the next time you see a Bridezilla headed your way just smile and move to the side. She is on a mission people and the steamtrain known as “wedding” stops for no woman, man or child.

 Let us know what you scored:)



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