Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

Ginger & Nick Hearn of Enfield were married in December on a televised ceremony for the Style Network’s reality show, “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?” "Weddings are stressful enough as it is, but imagine having your wedding televised".

That’s what happened when local residents Nick & Ginger Hearn got married on Saturday, Dec. 20, before cameras for the Style Network’s reality show, “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?”

The couple were planning a high-end wedding when Ginger’s neurological condition, known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, began to worsen and the medical bills started piling up. Full Story

WeddingManor.com and Scoops-Scoops.com donated all the scoops and tong for Ginger's candy buffet. She picked the 3 oz. stainless steel scoops and designer tongs to fit her colors and theme "Blue Ice". We were so happy to be a part of Nick & Ginger's wedding and Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

View more wedding pictures of Nick & Ginger at Michelle Wade Photography. We like to thank Michelle for the photos she provided to us as well.

Green Up Your Wedding

Did you know that an Ann Arbor couple 'greened' up their marriage and you simply could do it too?

The trend toward green weddings certainly isn't new, but experts say it has evolved to allow husbands and wifes to incorporate their unique personal preferences and still afford their special day.

Most people are interested in a green wedding and once they hear about what it entails, they end up going a different route. Our bride and groom "heroes" Engel and Dyer considered they wouldn't be able to keep everything perfectly green, but were going to try their hardest. And the most essential element was to make the day educative as well as fun for guests.

The couple also focused on little details they said make a big difference.

• The bride wore an heirloom - a vintage green dress that had been her great-grandmother's in the 1930's.
• Her ring was made with recycled gold and had a beryl stone instead of a diamond.
• Her makeup was certified organic.
• Guests were given local lavender buds - rather than sachets of rice - to throw in celebration.
• Tables were covered with local wildflowers and locally sourced foods.
• Leftovers and unused food were recycled (by sending to local farms) or reused.
• They found a generator which was solar powered and able to generate enough power to run the lights and the audio system they needed for the band.
  

For all their efforts, they still made some choices they knew weren't the most eco-friendly options.

While they served Michigan white wine beverages and a Michigan sparkling cider, they couldn't find a red from the state they liked. So they decided to have a red from the U.S. for that option. And they could've gone with Internet invites rather than printing and mailing invitations, but the bride said she felt paper invitations were important - on recycled paper, of course.

So you? What can You do to 'green up' your marriage day? While green weddings are becoming more famous, planning and pulling off the event is not as easy as one might think.

Sorting through claims of environmentally friendliness when shopping in today's marketplace is a big enough challenge for standard purchases, let alone for such an emotionally charged and personal event as a wedding.

The best way to reduce the impact of an event is to execute a life cycle analysis on different elements of the marriage. For instance, where is that food coming from, how much energy is expended to produce it, how does it get to your plate and where do the leftovers go?

While meat typically takes more energy to produce than fruits and vegetables, considering how far some vegetables and fruit need to travel might let them have a larger carbon footprint.

The best way to cut back on an event's carbon footprint is to cut back on the number of guests invited. Fewer guests mean fewer meals, fewer needs for centerpieces and other decor and fewer miles traveled to reach the ceremony.

About the writer - Lucy E. Thomason writes articles for the event planning courses blog, her personal hobby web log focused on recommendations to help people figure out how to organize a green event to spend less energy and reduce carbon footprints.

Relationship Advice For Honeymooners

Most newlyweds these days go on their honeymoon in order to celebrate the beginning of their new family. It is a wondrous occasion and this simple relationship advice will help you celebrate and remember it. Keep in mind this is too important a beginning to be like any other vacation you'll ever have.

Remember, your honeymoon needs to stand out in your lives as a spiritual event unlike a typical vacation. Do you want to come home from your honeymoon to talk about how drunk you got? Or do you want to remember how much you lost at the gaming tables? Or would you rather remember your honeymoon as the time you connected deeper and more meaningfully than you ever had? Use it as the foundational event from which the depth of your relationship will grow and inspire.

Rather than just indulging in the physical aspects so commonly associated with honeymoons, embrace your new spouse from your heart. Practice soul enhancing techniques of lovemaking that you will feel at your very core. Hold each other, look into each others eyes, look into each others souls and internally promise you will be there for them and your future family without judgment or reservation. Enjoy your honeymoon in the highest way and feel the shower of love that blesses you, your future family and your happy marriage.

By Paul Friedman. To read more or download an E-Book, Lessons for a Happy Marriage.

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Using Silk Flowers to Simplify Your Wedding and Your Budget

There are lots of ways to keep your sanity while planning a wedding. A great way to simplify the process and be easy on your budget is to use silk flowers instead of fresh cut flowers for your wedding day. Once upon a time, silk flower arrangements were associated with gaudy home décor and bad taste. Not anymore. Today, silk flowers can be so realistic looking that it is hard to tell they aren’t the real thing.

Flowers are at the very center of your wedding theme. They’re on the tables, in your hand, around the room. They define the color scheme, style, elegance and even the formality of your wedding. Fresh flowers, on the other hand, are expensive, a hassle to deliver and setup, subject to availability based on the season and they die. Using silk flower arrangements can address all of your wedding flower needs.

Save Your Budget: While some fresh flowers are more expensive than others, fresh flowers in general are particularly costly for something that is going to be thrown out in about two weeks. In fact, your floral budget is likely to be one of the most substantial portions of the total cost of your wedding. Even a simple floral design can cost $35-$50 per arrangement. At that rate, you can ring up quite a bill. Silk flower arrangements are a very economical alternative. By using silk flowers, you can get beautiful arrangements at a very affordable price that will last well beyond your wedding day. They will also save costs after your wedding is over because you won’t have to invest in preserving your bouquet. Using silk flower bouquets last forever without any additional investment.

Simplify Your Wedding Day Schedule: Because fresh flowers have to be kept cool and specially stored tol keep them fresh and beautiful, timing the assembly and delivery of your arrangements can be complicated. To ensure your arrangements and bouquets are as beautiful as possible, flowers must be shipped, assembled and delivered as late as possible. If you’ve chosen to save money by setting up your own reception, your wedding day can get pretty hectic in a hurry. Silk flower arrangements are a more convenient option. Because silk flowers are eternally beautiful, they can be assembled, stored, and placed when it’s most convenient for you. Using silk flowers can even make it possible for you to do your flowers yourself if you’re planning a wedding on a budget.

Get the Flowers You Really Want: Few fresh flower varieties are available year round. Most bloom seasonally and may not be available during the season in which you’ve chosen to have your wedding. If you absolutely have your heart set on a flower that’s out of season, you’ll pay dearly to have them flown in from wherever they are in season. For example, orchids are a beautiful, elegant and very popular flower. But they’re only available at certain times of the year in certain parts of the world. Sometimes, the flower you want just isn’t available.However, if you choose silk flowers, your favorite flower is always in season. You can always find a silk version of your favorite flower which means you can have the look you want in any time of year. If you’ve always dreamed of having a hydrangea bouquet, you can have it even in December without incurring extra cost.

Don't Forget To Have Fun: Weddings are meant to be joyful, memorable times. Yet so many weddings are characterized by stress, frenzy and financial burden. Silk flower arrangements are just one option for creating the wedding you want without taking on huge debt and ruining your special day. Most of all, it’s important to enjoy your wedding day. Don’t get caught up in the details of what goes right or wrong: how your hair looks, how the cake tastes, whether your bridesmaid is wearing the appropriate shoes. If you’re married at the end of the day, your wedding was a success.

About the Author: Leigh LaCava, publisher of FreshSilkFlowers.com loves the long lasting beauty of silk flowers and plants and has many arrangements throughout her home. Leigh lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband Jeff and their 13-year-old daughter, Ava.

Wedding Day "Emergency Kit"

Brides are so busy thinking and planning the details of their wedding day, they are bound to forget something along the way. As members of the wedding party and most likely the bride and grooms close friends or family, you naturally want to help. One item that every bride needs for her "perfect" wedding day is a leather manicure set or small leather travel bag that has everyday items that are a wedding day necessity.

Those items include but are not limited to: super glue, nail file, nail clippers, needle and thread, safety pins, bottle of aspirin or any other medications, notepad and pen, scissors, band aids or a bottle of nu-skin for minor scrapes and cuts, sun block, bobby pins, hair spray, Tums or any heartburn medicine, tide on the go, bottle of Purell, baby wipes, Kleenex, mouth wash or floss, even toothpaste and a tooth brush are all often wedding day necessities that most brides and attendants don't think about. Also any make up items, deodorant, shoe shine kit or lint brushes. Best of all these items also come in handy for the groom or anyone else in the wedding party, which makes it the gift that keeps on giving.

All of these items, except the shoe shine kit, fit into a stylish yet compact leather bag or kit that can be personalized with names and dates or initials for a memorable keepsake the bride is sure to find very useful and cherish forever. These unique and thoughtful personalized wedding gifts are available at Wealthwood Gifts Inc. where you can find a safe and easy shopping experience plus you are guaranteed satisfaction or your money back!

Submitted by: Angelique Ellerman, with Wealthwood Gifts Inc.

So You Want A Photo on Your Invitations?

While some of us can afford to hire a professional photographer, some of us are forced or tempted to save money by asking a friend or family member to do our photography for us. To help these people get better pictures, here are a few of the suggestions to catch a variety of good looking poses for your invitations.

For those taking outdoor shots, take your pictures in the late afternoon while the sunlight is getting softer but not gone yet. Whether indoors or outdoors, avoid patterned clothing; stick with simple solids. For action shots, try getting on a bike together (tandem or her on the handlebars) or in a canoe. Play chess together (but don't fight over who gets to look like they're winning!) or visit a park and swing together. Dance together--get a shot of her in the middle of a twirl or a dip. For more subdued shots, lie down in the grass and prop yourselves up on elbows, deep in conversation, or capture the elegance of feeding her grapes, or clink glasses of wine (and make sure the ring shows), or for a winter shot, sit in front of a fireplace holding steaming mugs of hot chocolate.

For photos of just the two of you without props, try laughing together, capture a stolen kiss with eyes closed blissfully--on the cheek, the forehead, or the traditional, sit side by side with her head resting on his shoulder or with her hugging one knee, capture a piggy-back ride, or focus on her ring against his shoulder as she holds him. For scenery, try an amusement park, or a reading window, or standing on a bridge pondering the water running beneath, or go for the elegance of silhouettes against a gorgeous sunset.

These are just a few suggestions to get the imagination started. Any of these would make a wonderful addition to your wedding invitations. You'll find a longer list of suggestions on my website, and I welcome more suggestions in my guestbook. Posted by: Melanie, MP Creations Custom Invitations