• The best man’s favorite duty: plan a bachelor party, determining a location, comprising a guest list, and providing entertainment.
• Reminds and sets dates for the groomsmen to get fitted for tuxedos.
• Arranges tuxedo pickups and returns on the set dates.
• Hold the official marriage license and serve as a witness to the signing, if applicable.
• Offer to help the groom with other important tasks, such as writing a toast to the bride.
• Offer to help with honeymoon travel arrangements.
• Ensure the groom and groomsmen are dressed accordingly and that everyone looks their best.
• Ensure that all ushers are ready for the wedding.
• Hold the bride’s wedding ring.
• Helps lead the groomsmen to make sure that they are where they need to be to keep the wedding plans on track.
• The best man should always arrive at the reception first to greet the happy new couple.
• Make the first toast/speech to the new couple.
• When asked, he should act as the host at the reception and help where needed.
• Return any tuxedos that need to go back to the shop.
• Offer to help the wedding planner and bride and groom’s families with any remaining duties.
• Help with transportation for out-of-town guests to the airport.
• Help deliver gifts from the reception to the newly-married couple’s home if asked.

Most importantly, the best man must be there for the groom as a friend and confidant. The biggest responsibility is the keep the groom calm and relaxed.

You will need to specify a dress code for your guests. Of course, this depends on the style of wedding and the venue. Below are some examples and tips:

• White Tie: Women should wear long, formal evening gowns. Long gloves are optional. Men should wear black tailcoat with black pants, white collar shirt, white pique, vest, white bow tie, white or gray gloves, black leather shoes, and black gloves.
• Black Tie: Women should wear long formal gown or shorter cocktail dress. Men should opt for a black tuxedo with black bow tie.
• Black Tie Optional: Women should wear a long formal gown or a shorter cocktail dress. Men should wear a suit—the is color optional, but darker colors always look chic.
• Semiformal: Men should wear a short cocktail dress or sleek skirt and top. You can get more creative and fun here, ladies! Men should wear a suit of their choice—bow tie is not necessary, but do choose a traditional tie.
• Casual: Women should wear a dress of their liking or a skirt and top. Something flirty and fun would be ideal. Men can wear a suit with no tie, or even opt for khakis and nice crisp white shirt.

So, it is time to choose the all-important bridesmaid dresses for your wedding. This can really take some time and thought. As the bride, you are responsible for keeping your friends and family happy with your choice. There are many, many things to consider. Below are 10 tips to keep in mind to help you along the way.

1. The budget is very important. In most weddings, the bridesmaids do in fact pay for their own dress. Therefore you MUST consider the financial situations of your bridesmaids. Don’t choose something super expensive. There are so many beautiful dresses for less than $200 (even Vera Wang dresses!)… try and stay in that price range.
2. The dress should be comfortable. Put yourself in their shoes. Who wants to spend several hours in a dress that is binding or hard to sit or dance in?
3.  The weather or time of year should also be considered when choosing gowns for your bridesmaids. Warmer weather calls for lighter or neutral colors, while colder weather months call darker colors.
4. Considering the tip above, tt is a good idea to consider the color preference of your bridesmaids. Choose dresses in colors they like. You could even give them color options that you like and let them decide as a group what is best for them.
5. Consider your bridesmaids individual personalities. These days, the dresses doe not have to be exactly the same. Once you have chosen the color, give the bridesmaids some options to choose from in different styles. They will appreciate the gesture and feel more comfortable with themselves.
6. Always choose gowns that will flatter any figure or body type. It is inevitable that there will be an array of sizes in your wedding party. Get these sizes and base your decision from there. If the bridesmaid feels like she looks good, she is more likely to enjoy the wedding. (Tip: Empire waist dresses work for everyone.)
7. The fabric of the gown is also important when picking bridesmaid dress. For example, for Summer and Spring weddings, you can go for a lighter fabric like chiffon. Winter and Fall wedding will need to be a thicker fabric like satin or or taffeta.
8. The age of the bridesmaids is an important factor for choosing bridesmaid dress. If your bridesmaids range widely in age, picking the design of the dress can be tricky. You don’t want something too revealing if you have junior bridesmaids: same goes for much older bridesmaids who may not feel comfortable in a sexy dress.
9. Select a bridesmaid dress that can worn again for another occasion or event. Since the bridesmaids are likely to be shelling out the money for the dresses, try and choose some that is not so “bridal”—like a cocktail-type dress.
10. Be careful if you are considering ordering bridesmaids dresses online. Most of these dresses are not returnable. So, if the photo does not stand up to the real thing, you and your bridesmaids will be upset. Browsing your local shops is the best way to go.

1.  The color of the year; turquoise.  Why did the person who said this come up with it?  Because that person noticed more women are asking for either a dark blue or a dark green highlight over the past few years, and the next best thing to mix both of these colors together is turquoise.  The idea is highlights and not necessarily as a total dress color; white will still wear supreme.

2.  The number of weddings will increase.  Supposedly there was a drop in the number of weddings this year because of the economy, but with the turnaround in the economy that’s being expected by economists, that should mean more weddings.

3.  People will spend more on weddings this year, an increase of between 10 and 15%.  Since that figure dropped in 2009 from 2008, that’s a prediction that seems to make some sense if the economy does improve.  However, I don’t think it’s going to go as high as some people believe unless the economy really jumps forward.

4.  More couples will travel to Mexico for their honeymoons than they did in 2009.  This one is almost a no-brainer as Mexico took some major hits in 2009 for tourism overall.  There was both the swine flu worries and all the news about drug wars along the borders, both of which were overblown just a bit too much.

5.  Wedding dress designers will continue making some styles more affordable for the masses.  That prediction has already come true, as the 2010 spring fashions, which were exhibited in autumn 2009, already pointed that out.  Vera Wang, Reem Acra, and other designers are hedging their bets with designs that will be sold at discount retailers as opposed to top fashion boutiques, which means they must have proven to be great sellers in 2009.  Some of the prices might go up, but overall there will still be a lot of affordable designer wedding gowns for the masses.

See more:
10 Spring 2010 Bridal Fashion Trends
Hot Off the Runway – Gowns for 2010 Brides

Photo credit: www.bride.net

Most of us have heard of couples getting married while on some exotic vacation, or maybe eloping, and deciding to have a second wedding when they get back home. There’s a growing move these days for some couples to have two weddings, but for a much different reason than the above.

As the economy has changed, many people are finding it hard to travel as much as in the past. This means that when invited to a wedding that’s out of town, they might have to make a decision as to whether or not they can afford to go. The complication is that the bride and groom might not be from the same hometown, possibly having their families and friends living across the country from each other. It could even be them living across the country from each other.

Photo credit: www.djonesphoto.typepad.com

What they’re doing is having two weddings, one in each person’s hometown, and absorbing the travel cost themselves instead of having everyone else do it. Sure, some friends and family might want to be at both weddings, but that’s on them. The rest of the wedding is planned for the friends and family in the community.

This does have some complications to it, naturally. For one, both the bride and groom might not have as much input into what happens at one or the other wedding. For instance, if the bride and groom now live in the same town, but the groom’s family lives elsewhere, most of the planning will have to be done long distance, and someone else will have to be relied upon to handle many of the details.

Also, having one wedding can be costly, thus having two might seem extraordinary. For families with means this isn’t a complication. For everyone else, that might be hard to swallow. What usually happens is that the bride’s wedding is the more expensive and formal affair, while the groom’s wedding is a bit more open and free form, not as expensive, and probably not held in a large wedding hall. As a matter of fact, many times the bride won’t travel with her wedding gown for the second wedding, preferring to wear a nice dress instead.

It’s a unique way to honor both families and to allow more people to take part in a couple’s special days.

See more:
For some couples, two wedding ceremonies are better than one
One marriage, two weddings
They’ll Never Know: Eight Hidden Ways to Cut Wedding Costs

Photo credit: www.weddingflowersvictoria.com

There’s nothing wrong with receptions overall. However, unless people change up the food drastically, most of them are pretty much the same. These days, there are more wedding planners helping couples set up themed weddings.

Basically, a themed wedding is one that looks at either a period in time or an event of some kind and decorates everything around that theme. For instance, many weddings that take place near holidays might adopt the colors associated with that holiday. Red, white and blue might be theme colors for weddings around the Fourth of July, while orange and black might be used as a theme for weddings near Halloween.

But there are other themes that young people seem to like. These days, a couple is apt to have a horror theme, complete with zombies and vampires, including wedding cakes designed with horror colors and images and a wedding cake topper of the same ilk. There has also been resurgence in science fiction themed receptions, especially Star Trek and Star Wars themes.

One online company based out of Washington state, called Forever Wed, helps couples determine what kind of theme they’d like, and will ship out everything that will be needed to decorate towards that theme. They also have ready made themes such as the 1920′s, Cinderella, Fairy Tale, Irish, Japanese, Romeo and Juliet, and Under The Sea.

What will it take if you decided to do a theme on your own? Truthfully, if you’re going this route it’s probably best to hire a wedding planner to help out. There will be the need for at least a little bit of research. Just because you want zombies doesn’t mean everyone has the same image of what a zombie is. Some people might equate the Mexican images for the Day of the Dead with zombies from many movies, and they’re not quite the same, nor is the significance the same.

There will be the need to determine just how far you’re willing to go. For instance, will the bride and groom dress up as characters, or will just one or the other, or maybe just the wedding party, or maybe no one at all. There was one image I remember viewing where the bride wore a beautiful wedding gown, but the groom and everyone else was dressed up like Klingons. In another, the bride and groom wore wetsuits, as the theme was about being under water snorkeling.

Whatever you decide, make sure that you feel it’s appropriate for all your guests, and plan your invitations accordingly. You might not want kids at your zombie wedding, and you might have to temper some of what you want for other members of the family. Whatever you do, though, have fun with it.

See more:
Black and White Wedding Theme
Themed Reception Ideas
Wedding Reception Tips
Ideas for A Winter Weather Theme

Photo Credit: www.newviewphoto.net

This is the second half of my conversation with a wedding photographer. Click here to read Part One The Lament of A Wedding Photographer.

1.  Digital photography made things easier for you.  Did it make your costs go down?

A.  I don’t have to pay for film anymore, so that’s a good thing.  But those costs shifted to the printing side.  I used to take film in to the print guys, and then wait for a week until they called me to pick up the prints.  Then I’d go through them all to see what bombed and remove those pictures.

Now I have to spend a lot of time looking at the pictures up front, and if they need altering I have to do that, which takes a lot more time.  Then I take the digital copies to the print guys, who charge more because laser printers cost more than developing film used to cost, as well as the paper being more expensive.  All of that, and the couple might not like most of the pictures and then won’t order them all, and I lose out there because of all the time I put into it.

2.  So, costs went down in one way, but put more work on you in another?

A.  Yup.  It takes time away from the other work I do, because at a typical wedding I can easily take a thousand pictures or more.  That’s more than I would take with film, since I can erase my SD card and use it again, and I can buy a bunch of them, and it gives me more opportunities to get some special shots that couples and guests might like.  I load the pictures on the internet and then direct their friends and families to the page.  But I need to make sure only the good pictures end up there; my reputation is always at stake.

3.  Sounds like a tough way to make a living.

A.  It’s not so bad when you consider the alternatives.  I get to work for myself, which is great.  Most of the people are great, and I get a lot of work from working weddings without having to advertise.  I could work every weekend if I wanted to.  So, I’m in control of at least a big portion of my income.  And people will always get married, so I won’t have to worry about business drying up unless people stop liking me.  I did have more people asking for deals this year because of the economy, but I held firm on my price.  And I still did as many weddings as I wanted to.  Everyone can’t say that.  It can be a lot of fun, and it can be challenging.  But I can’t think of anything else I’d like to be doing other than this.

See more:
How to Choose A Wedding Photographer
10 Biggest Mistakes When Hiring A Wedding Photographer
Fixing Common Photography Problems

Photo Credit: www.digitalpicturezone.com

I recently had the opportunity to talk off the record with a wedding photographer about his profession.  Below is a portion of the conversation. Click here to read Part Two The Lament of A Wedding Photographer.

1.  How long have you been doing weddings?

A.  I’ve been doing weddings since 1991, a couple of years after I started getting into photography.  I was asked by a friend to do his wedding, and things just took off from there.

2.  Do you do a lot of weddings?

A.  I probably do 20 or so weddings a year.  I could do more, but I have other projects to work on, and weddings aren’t as easy as people think they are to do.

3.  Why not?

A.  There’s a lot of work doing weddings.  It pretty much consumes your entire day.  While everyone else does their thing then moves on, photographers sometimes start the morning usually with the bride, and can sometimes end the day late in the evening after the cutting of the cake, if you can get away then.  That’s a long day.

4.  I never thought about that before.  You get paid well though, right?

A.  People don’t think the work we do is all that valuable all the time.  Like I said, I could be with someone more than 10 hours in a day, yet they all want me to give them a deal.  This isn’t a hobby; it’s my profession.  You should see how much my equipment costs.  I have one lens that cost me almost $5,000.

Anyway, it’s a long day, and I have to get lots of different shots throughout the day.  That, plus lighting is always problematic.  And sometimes the preachers put restrictions on where you can be and when you can be there, including sometimes saying we can’t use flash during the ceremony.  Luckily I have this great lens, but before then I was stuck.  And couples want perfect pictures every time.

5.  Sounds like you don’t really like doing weddings.

A.  Actually, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.  When people are great to work with it’s a great day.  When they’re not, it can be the worst of times.  I tend to get along well with people, so I don’t have all that many bad days.  It’s still not easy, though.  I’m really glad digital photography came along, though.  I can take so many more pictures than before and weed out the bad ones without costing me a lot of money.  And I usually get a free meal and some cake; hard to beat that.

This is the second half of my conversation with a wedding photographer:

1. Digital photography made things easier for you. Did it make your costs go down?

A. I don’t have to pay for film anymore, so that’s a good thing. But those costs shifted to the printing side. I used to take film in to the print guys, and then wait for a week until they called me to pick up the prints. Then I’d go through them all to see what bombed and remove those pictures.

Now I have to spend a lot of time looking at the pictures up front, and if they need altering I have to do that, which takes a lot more time. Then I take the digital copies to the print guys, who charge more because laser printers cost more than developing film used to cost, as well as the paper being more expensive. All of that, and the couple might not like most of the pictures and then won’t order them all, and I lose out there because of all the time I put into it.

2. So, costs went down in one way, but put more work on you in another?

A. Yup. It takes time away from the other work I do, because at a typical wedding I can easily take a thousand pictures or more. That’s more than I would take with film, since I can erase my SD card and use it again, and I can buy a bunch of them, and it gives me more opportunities to get some special shots that couples and guests might like. I load the pictures on the internet and then direct their friends and families to the page. But I need to make sure only the good pictures end up there; my reputation is always at stake.

3. Sounds like a tough way to make a living.

A. It’s not so bad when you consider the alternatives. I get to work for myself, which is great. Most of the people are great, and I get a lot of work from working weddings without having to advertise. I could work every weekend if I wanted to. So, I’m in control of at least a big portion of my income. And people will always get married, so I won’t have to worry about business drying up unless people stop liking me. I did have more people asking for deals this year because of the economy, but I held firm on my price. And I still did as many weddings as I wanted to. Everyone can’t say that. It can be a lot of fun, and it can be challenging. But I can’t think of anything else I’d like to be doing other than this.

See more:
Wedding Photography Survival Tips: The Preparation
Important Things To Consider When Choosing a Wedding Photographer
Wedding Photos: Do’s and Dont’s

Photo Credit: www.megahowto.com

I live in the Northeast, so I’m not sure everyone across the country suffers from the same thing.  We go to weddings to share in the joy of our friends getting married, and then we head over to the reception hoping for a good meal.  Yet, when it’s time for the meal, we find that it’s the same, tired food that we always get at a wedding.

Don’t get me wrong.  Some of it can be quite tasty.  But how many times do we need to see ziti, baked chicken, polish sausage with peppers and roast beef sitting in its own liquid (oh yeah, au jus) before we stop looking forward to going to receptions?  No, cake just isn’t enough to get over the horror of facing the same food time and time again.

Well, ziti gives us an idea for the possibility of something different for wedding food.  Why not go all out and go Italian across the board?

The reason people have ziti and the rest at wedding is that it’s relatively inexpensive food that can feed a lot of people.  But it’s boring and staid; probably, if you’re in other areas of the country and this isn’t your typical wedding fare, you’re probably in agreement with me that you keep being subjected to the same food.

An Italian meal wedding would change things up some.  Let’s start with the pasta.  I hate ziti because it’s almost always too mushy.  It might be because it’s been sitting in that pan for a day or two.  Instead of going that route, why not be more creative?  There are two different ways you could present the food.

One, you could hire a few people who set up their little stoves.  Then you allow your guests to go up and request the items they want to mix together, and the cooks heat everything up while your guests stand there waiting for it.  The food would be inexpensive, but paying for the cooks might cost you.  Still, the food would be fresh, and it would add something different to your wedding.

Two, you could still set it all up on a long table, where guests would come by and put their own meals together.  It’s easy to have someone continually replace up to three different pasta types, such as spaghetti, macaroni, and bow ties.  Then you can have three or four sauces already mixed together and being kept heated in some fashion, such as tomato sauce, alfredo, bolognaise, and whatever your fourth sauce might be.  Add a couple of different cheeses, spices, and small vegetables, and every person has something a bit different.  You can also have big bowls or crockpots of meatballs, maybe two styles of meatballs.

The thing about having this kind of wedding is that there are all types of choices of pasta, so you could go crazy with it, and it still doesn’t cost all that much.  As long as the pasta doesn’t get too old, and it won’t initially, your guests will enjoy it.  Even if it’s a sit down meal, the same type of thing could occur, as you give your guests a checklist at every table of what they’d like, and it could easily be put together and brought to them.  You can even still have ziti on the list if you’d like, but you can also add other meats such as chicken or pork, even shrimp if you’re in the spending mood.

There’s more in the second half of this article, so check it out.

See more:
Wedding Reception Food Ideas
Wedding Food Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive
Eat, Dring & Be Marry!