There’s a new trend these days that’s taking the country by storm. Flash mobs came about when groups of people decided to “spontaneously” stop in a public place and put on a performance. It went over so well that many groups started doing it all over the country.

Recently there was the story of a couple that decided to plan a flash mob wedding ceremony at the Prudential Center in Boston. They and approximately 60 guests learned a quick routine, then went out and did the routine, which included the wedding ceremony. It only took a few minutes for them to get married, but it was done in front of hundreds of people, and of course it was videotaped and has gone viral.

All sorts of ceremonies related to weddings have gone viral due to flash mob scenes, from engagements to weddings to receptions. Below are some of the more popular flash mobs that have graced the internet that we hope you’ll enjoy.

Flash Mod Wedding Proposal:

Flash Mob Wedding:

Another Flash Mob Wedding:

Flash Mod Reception:

1st Wedding Dance Flash Mob:

The good thing is that people are still getting married. Actually, there is no bad thing, but things are changing somewhat from only 5 years ago. More couples are trending towards finding ways to bring down the costs of their weddings, to the extent that the industry is changing to try to keep up with the changes.

It’s probably a good thing that there are still some couples spending extravagantly for their weddings so that businesses counting on them won’t go broke, but for everyone else, shifting priorities have made it more difficult to keep up. Let’s take a look at what’s going on.

1. More couples are shopping for items on the internet. It’s too bad that the costs of having a brick and mortar store means that those costs are passed on to consumers. More couples are finding deals online, especially when it comes to travel and products, and will forgo the convenience of sitting with someone to select the perfect item to save some serious dollars on the back end.

2. More couples are shopping for wedding rings together and coming to more fiscally responsible choices. While the tradition used to be brides wanting to show as much bling as possible, these days they know that they’re going to start life together with their grooms at a financial disadvantage and are deciding that other things are more important.

3. More brides are shopping for less expensive gowns, which is leading more designers to create collections that are more affordable. Brides aren’t as concerned anymore with making sure their gowns are brand spanking new, figuring that probably no one will notice anyway. So shopping at discount stores or online discount wedding gown suppliers has become a great option. Wedding gown designers have taken heed and are creating collections where prices are barely skimming $1,000, which still gives brides many options for finding not only what they like but what they can afford.

4. More couples are cutting back on the extras that are more extravagant than necessary. Not as many limos, not as many decorations, yet still making sure that they keep some of the glamour and sense of style in both their weddings and receptions. There are plenty of TV shows now showing wedding couples how to save money by doing things for themselves, which helps add a personal style to their wedding day.

The wedding is over and now it’s time to figure out what to do with your wedding dress. You might need time to think about it, or you might want to keep it as a keepsake. Either way, you need to think about what to do with it to preserve it while you’re contemplating because just hanging it in the closet probably won’t do. Thus, here are 4 ways of storing your wedding dress.

1. Put it in a zippered plastic case. This is a very easy way of storing your wedding dress so you know what it is just by looking at it. These zippered cases come in multiple sizes and if your silhouette didn’t have a bustle sewn into it your dress should easily fold up to fit. There are some outlets where you can get the type of bag that allows you to suck as much air out as possible, which not only protects the dress better but makes the case smaller and thus easier to fit wherever you want to put it.

2. Put it in a suitcase. Since suitcases come in multiple sizes it should be easy enough to find a suitcase to fit your needs. Since it’s for storage you don’t have to spend an extravagant amount of money on it and you can lock it up if you want the feeling of more security.

3. Lock it up in a trunk. A trunk is a nice place to not only keep your wedding dress but your other wedding keepsakes as well. Like the first two items, trunks come in multiple sizes and with the wedding dress as the main occupant, it won’t be all that heavy if you need to move it around. You can also lock up your trunk.

4. Store it in a cardboard box. This is probably the most expedient thing to do but probably the worst choice of all the options. While cardboard boxes can serve a lot of functions they’re not all that secure, can be damaged very easily by the elements, are somewhat porous which means dust and scents can invade it, and boxes can degrade over time, sometimes quickly depending on the environment around where you’re storing the dress. Still, they’re easy to find and if you pop the dress in a plastic bag it’ll offer at least some bit of protection.

The wedding reception offers all of your guests a chance to unwind and catch up with each other, especially if it’s been a long time since everyone has seen each other. It’s also as much of a reflection on the wedding party as the actual wedding,

Even so, there’s no reason to do what everyone else does when it comes to your reception. After all, having a flair of something different helps it stand out in the memories of your guests and helps to make your wedding day just that much more special. So, here are 4 new ideas for spicing things up for your reception.

1. Do something different with a dessert table. Sure, there’s cake on the way, but having a dessert table can really make things special. I hear someone saying “dessert tables aren’t new”, and they’re not. However, the idea is to change up what’s on the dessert table so that it’s not what someone else might add. For instance, have you ever thought about an ice cream sundae table? What about a doughnuts table? An interesting idea would be a “throwback” candy bar dessert table, with the types of things you remember from childhood.

2. Hang things from the ceiling. Most receptions you go to have things on the walls and of course the centerpiece. Why not think about hanging some things from the ceiling? Nothing overly fancy, but flowers or plants, streamers, even tied up pictures in frames would be something different. As long as it’s not something heavy almost anything can be used to change things up.

3. Change up the wedding favors. You’ve seen the candy favors and you’ve seen the centerpieces. Every once in awhile someone will give you a CD of wedding music. What about something a little different, such as glassware with your wedding dates on them? A wild idea would be to give everyone t-shirts with your name and wedding date on them. True, some of these things could end up getting a bit pricey, but they’d certainly be different.

4. Change up the food. Sure, we’ve talked about food at one’s wedding before, but there are still many other ideas one can find when it comes to wedding food. Why not have barbecued food, or go with Chinese or Mexican? Family specialties could always add a nice twist if a family member wanted to do something like that as their wedding gift, and it would be something that not everyone else could have at their weddings.

The Magic Room by Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, is a book that details the story of a wedding gown boutique in Fowler, MI, that’s been helping brides find the wedding dress of their dreams since 1934. It’s a different kind of book in that it doesn’t only talk about the store, but about the women who go there and what buying wedding dresses has meant to them throughout the years. Our bet is that many women that buy from Bridepower have had similar feelings.

One of the questions Zaslow gets answered in the book is why women are willing to spend so much money in getting a wedding gown that they may only wear once in their lives, even to the point of possibly never having a daughter they can pass their dresses on to. The response is that wedding dresses offer “The power of memory, and of hope. When a bride steps into the Magic Room, she thinks of all the moments that led her there. And she hopes for everything that’s to come.”

The main room of Becker’s Bridal Shop is called the “magic room”, the room where all dreams come together, where all brides that enter become one with each other and those that have come before them. It’s actually the final room where brides that have made their selection of the gown they want go to see how it looks on them, the centerpiece of a much larger space where the bride gets personal time with her choice.

The room is bathed in a soft light with lots of mirrors, and offers the choice of more than 2,500 wedding gowns that potential brides can shift through, way more than the population of the city, which is around 1,100. And it’s estimated that more than 100,000 brides have crossed their doors throughout history.

The reason this book would be a great read for all brides is that it has a way of capturing the feeling that many brides have as they sift through many choices of wedding gowns, trying to find the one that they hope will capture all their dreams and aspirations of what getting married is all about. It’s more a book of a sisterhood than a profile of a store in Michigan. It’ll touch your heart with a sense of camaraderie; go ahead, give it a shot.

There’s nothing saying that women have to get married in white wedding gowns. Over the past 10 years more brides are deciding on other colors for their wedding gowns, which, though they might not know it, is a throwback to past generations where not all that many women got married in white. That’s because white used to signify wealth, and there weren’t all that many wealthy people, so brides got married in many other colors.

Enter pink. Pink is a favorite color overall by many women, and thus there’s a large consumer market for pink wedding dresses. Many of the top wedding gown designers will add at least one pink wedding dress to their ensemble whenever they have wedding shows or wedding gown collections, and they always seem to be a hit. Even that Hello Kitty wedding dress above has become a major sensation in Japan; sorry ladies, but it’s not being sold in the U.S. just yet.

However, many other styles are, including this beautiful wedding gown from Vera Wang’s 2012 “White” collection; why it’s called white I don’t know. This stunning satin patterned pink dress definitely stands out from the crowd with its bunched waist and slight flare from the hips.

In general pink, for wedding purposes, stands for romance and sweetness, and one couldn’t deny that seems to be evidenced by these couple of pink wedding dresses. While most brides wearing pink probably wouldn’t have a pink rose bouquet, which signifies happiness, white would work well, as it signifies beauty innocence and charm. Such a wonderful combination to be sure.

Pink offers a wonderful choice for a wedding gown, especially in today’s age. It doesn’t need a lot of bling to bring it all together, and let’s face it, if it’s good enough for Reese Witherspoon, it’s a nice choice for everyone.

Recently Priscilla of Boston closed their doors for good. Days after closing, their store in Minnesota came under fire when some of their soon-to-be former employees were seen spray painting dresses and throwing them in dumpsters. Their statement was that the dresses were old and they didn’t feel they were worth selling, but some of the people who saw them said the dresses seemed to be in great condition, including one Vera Wang dress that goes for around $6,000.

Of course without being there it’s hard to determine what the real truth is, but it prompted us to think about other things that could be done with used wedding dresses, whether it’s corporations or individuals that have decided they won’t want or need their wedding dresses anymore. Here are some ideas better than spray painting them:

1. Donate them to a good cause. There are lots of good causes out there; military brides, brides without money, the Salvation Army, an auction for charity, etc. Everyone’s looking for quality items that could help them raise money, and most of the time all it takes is looking in the newspaper to see what’s going on around your own town where someone’s trying to raise funds.

2. Sell it at a consignment shop. Maybe you can get some money from your dress by going to a consignment shop and sharing in the profit from selling it. Consignment shops can be dicey because if an item doesn’t sell you don’t get anything for it, plus the owners of these shops get to set the price. Still, if it sells you could do well.

3. Sell it yourself. You could advertise in the newspaper or on a site like Craigslist and get to keep all the profits. Of course, this will involve your feeling comfortable enough for people to come to your home since it might be unrealistic carting a wedding dress all around town for people to see it.

4. Contact a wedding outlet store to see if they’d be interested. If you have a designer gown that looks pretty good, it’s possible that an outlet store would be interested and offer you a fair price, knowing that the resell value for such a gown would be high once they cleaned it up a bit.

Aren’t these options much better than spray painting?

As we come to the end of another year, we decided to take this time to offer 10 special holiday wishes to all the couples that got married this year and to all the couples that will be getting married next year.

1. We wish peace and mental comfort for everyone that will be or just got married. Many couples are passionate in the wrong way and thus aren’t as peace with each other. If you need help with this, there’s no shame in seeking independent outside assistance.
2. We wish prosperity and financial comfort for all couples. The biggest arguments between couples across the board is over money, and even couples that have money tend to have disagreements on how money should be spent. Budgeting can help alleviate many of these issues, but make sure you plan for your future as well as your present.
3. We wish family security for all couples. There are things none of us can control, but one thing we can control is how we interact with all of our family members. Let’s hope that you had full support of all family members when you got married, or will get married, and that they will be there to support you through your first year of marriage.
4. We wish for your own family to begin when you want it to begin, and that every child that comes is healthy and happy. Even if children are already a part of the family, their happiness needs to be tended to as much as your happiness, as children are the second biggest argument couples deal with.
5. We wish for faith in your marriage in the coming year. Faith is different than religion in the sense that faith is belief in something in a strong way, regardless of religion or not. We want you to have faith that you’ve done the right thing in marrying the person you’ve married, or will marry, and have faith that it will work out. Statistics might not share this faith, but believing can do a long way towards solving most problems that might come your way.
6. We wish for great conversations between the husband and wife, or bride and groom to be. Couples that can talk with each other fairly are the ones that survive the longest.
7. We wish for great judgment before you’ve gotten married. Before couples get married, both the bride and groom must recognize that they can never change anyone that doesn’t want to change themselves. If you’ve done your internal work correctly you know you’re marrying someone who’s already got all that you want in them.
8. We wish for sobriety and non-addictive personalities for all couples in the new year. When things get tough, sometimes people start to partake of substances and drink that enhances the wrong mood and thus starts a family towards deterioration. Nothing wrong with doing what you normally do on a casual basis but if you notice that stress brings more of it, please seek assistance to show you better ways to a peaceful mind.
9. We wish you great perspective in the new year. Perspective means that you’ll view everything that comes your way in a manner that will be beneficial to both of you instead of one or the other. Sometimes it’s hard to give up selfish things that you’ve always had for the greater good of others, which includes yourself. Don’t totally take your wishes out of the picture, but be ready to modify them if needed.
10. We wish you the greatest success in every endeavor you decide to take on in the new year. That just might be the day you get married and become one, in which case we hope it’s the happiest day in your life. Whatever it is, be happy and healthy, and believe that it will all work well.

Have you ever thought about getting married on a cruise vacation? These days, one can decide to get married pretty much anywhere, and something that’s been growing in popularity is the concept of getting married during a cruise. There are many options that are afforded couples that decide to do something like this; let’s take a look at some of them.

1. You can choose to either get married on the ship or one of the ports of call during the trip. Most cruise ships not only have multiple rooms of various sizes for a reception that they will let you use for a minimal addition to the cost of your cruise ticket, but every port that cruise ships go to offers some kind of wedding package that also won’t cost much money. That could mean you can have an exotic wedding ceremony for your closest family and friends, or just for the bride and groom.

2. Ships captains are allowed to perform weddings, and some of them won’t even charge extra.

3. Since the food is free on a cruise anyway, sometimes all you have to pay is a minimal setup fee to have someone put food in a special room. You have a larger menu to choose from when it comes to selecting the food, and on some cruise ships they will even cater to every person’s individual needs almost as if you are at a restaurant instead of a reception hall.

4. If you have a lot of people going along on your cruise vacation, almost every cruise line offers some kind of discount based on the numbers. Some cruise lines are known to reduce the normal rate as low as 65%. Savings like that could make a cruise wedding look very attractive to a lot of people.

5. Your wedding day seems to go on forever and ever. If you selected a week long cruise vacation, you can get married on day two of the trip and it will feel as though your wedding is going on for week because all your friends and family are there with you. That makes it a wonderful experience for all.

The one thing you will need to verify if you decide to get married at one of the ports of call is that the wedding certificate you receive there is considered valid in the state you live in. Most of them are, but it’s always better to be sure just in case.

Last year around this same time we had a post here called Christmas Weddings. That post talked about how to have one and how to decorate for one. This time around, we want to talk about whether you should have one or not with a short list of pros and cons of a Christmas wedding.

Pros

• It’s probably going to be easy to get a lot of people together if you have the wedding in your hometown. Since it’s the one time of year when most people will go back to where they came from, if they still have family there, it may be easier to get people to come.
• It makes it easier for some people to figure out what kind of gifts to give you, especially if you’re registered somewhere.
• You won’t have to worry as much about decorations since holiday decorations should already be up.
• Some religious leaders won’t mind adding your ceremony to the traditional holiday service as a slight deviation from protocol.

Cons

• While some religious leaders won’t mind, many others will, and if they do, then it’ll be almost impossible to have your wedding before Christmas or on Christmas Day.
• Because of holiday parties and events, booking a place to have the reception might be hard unless you booked it way in advance.
• Some out of town visitors might not want to leave their families to go to a wedding on Christmas Day.
• If you’re not in your hometown, or it’s not the hometown of both the bride and groom, it’ll be hard getting the visitors from one side or the other to change their normal holiday plans for your wedding.
• It might be harder still to get other people to work for you on Christmas Day, as they also might want to spend time with their families.

Overall, it’s not a question of whether one can or cannot have a wedding on Christmas; it’s whether or not it’s worth the aggravation to try. If it’s a small ceremony and you don’t mind a Justice of the Peace, then it’s probably fine. If you’re looking for something more lavish, it might not come together as you’re hoping it might. Still, it’s up to each couple to try to do what they feel they’d like.