Starting the Countdown - Setting the Date

He finally worked up the nerve to “pop the question”, and to his relief and joy you said yes. Once you are engaged you get a few months to relaxe and enjoy this new kind of relationship with each other. Unfortunately, everyone is asking you those famous “when is the wedding?” and “have you set a wedding date?” questions. Eventually, you are going to have to start thinking about well when do you want to set your wedding date?

For some it is really simple, others they have no clue whatsoever. There are so many options, I mean there is 365 days out of the year, so how do you know what date is good for you? You don’t have to get married on Saturday’s like a lot of couples. There are the other six days of the week to. So where do you begin when it comes time to figure out a wedding date?

Here are a few things that might be able to help you narrow down your choices:

Venues you can’t do without

It doesn’t matter how supple you are, you and your fiancé are not going to agree on everything. It might be the church, or place you want to hold your ceremony at. Maybe you disagree on where you should hold the reception. Also, you will probably bicker on who’s coming and who isn’t coming.

Fortunately, once you decide on a church, reception hall, or venue for the ceremony, you will quickly find out that most of the dates are filled. You need to call at least a year or two in advance to get the place you want and find what dates are available. Well, at least that saves the arguing.

The perfect environment

Maybe the place of the ceremony isn’t what is really important to you. Probably, especially for brides, you just see how the perfect wedding would play out for you. That could involve snow falling softly, or the sun hitting the both of you perfectly sending you into a radiance of love. Maybe you see yourself outside on a warm beach, or inside with lots of hot food at the reception. If this sounds like you then just play off of what your dream wedding would be like. If you want snow then think about setting a wedding date in the winter. If you would like to be on a beach you probably want to set your wedding date for the summer season.

Real Life dates

Your own life might actually set the criteria for choosing a wedding date. If you are a teacher or have a set vacation time, then you are probably going to have to set a date around when you aren’t working.

So good luck choosing your wedding date, hopefully these tips will make it a little bit easier.

To Wear or Not To Wear - A White Wedding

As a little girl… or even now… I am sure that you have laid about dreaming of marrying Prince Charming, looking gorgeous in your wedding dress. Of course, what color is the wedding dress every time you do this? I am guessing that more often than not it happens to be white and not red like some santa suits. Millions of women and little girls dream of getting married in a fairytale white wedding dress. But wait. Where did a white dress come from and why is it so popular?

Believe it or not white wasn’t always the traditional color for getting married in. Honestly, the tradition of a white wedding dress hasn’t even been around for ages and ages. A white wedding dress is something that every girl is instinctively born with today. You can’t get married in anything but white. Well, while this may be true for some and not so for others, white is worn to symbolize the virtue of the women and to just carry on the tradition.

Not surprisingly, the white wedding dress came from a place full of legends, and where tradition is important. So, low and behold, the white wedding dress was started in the English Monarchy. Queen Victoria was the first “celebrity” that was looked up too, who wore a white wedding gown. Because of her, the popularity of white dresses has become a true tradition among women around the world.

The marriage of Albert of Saxe and Queen Victoria in 1840, was not surprising. The gown she wore though caused quite a stir. It was considered flamboyant and did not start the white wedding gown tradition instantly. Many of the upper class women though, saw this as a unique fashion statement and had no issues in copying the Queen by marrying in white dresses.

A white wedding dress though was worn to show wealth. Virtue was not in the meaning at all. If you could get married in a elegant white gown then you had to have money. White was not easy to clean, so a white wedding dress was something that you most definitely weren’t going to wear again. Spending money on a white gown was something that only the wealthy could do.

Only the wealthy and vain women insisted on being married in white. Most women still married in dresses of different colors and styles after Queen Victoria’s fashion statement. During the Edwardian times however, the white wedding dress gained popularity once more when Coco Chanel unleashed its brand new design….. a knee-length wedding gown, with a huge train in none other than white.

During the world wars though, most women couldn’t afford to wear white. Most just wore whatever they had when they were married. Only the rich kept wearing white wedding dresses. After the 1950’s though many Hollywood stars and royalty still wore white at their weddings. This sealed the deal and tradition of being married in white.