There are enough choices that your groom can pick a different one for each guy to make it a bit more personal- and at $45 they come in at the perfect price point.  Even better they are made from reclaimed wood veneer so they are green to boot!

This week’s deal (for DC subscribers only) is a special offer on Eleni’s wedding favor cookies and I Do tins (a perfect shower gift)..if they taste half as good as they look your guests will love you forever! Click here to read all about it.. and if you’re not a subscriber, why not? You’re missing all sorts of tasty morsels both of the wedding and non wedding variety!

Most of the designs available are brown and blue, which is oh so of-the-moment but may not be your cup of tea. If so, there is one cream version available.. hopefully they will expand their color combos soon.

At $10.90 per set of ten they work out to be just over $1 a piece and even come with envelopes in either white, green or red.

Give it a try here!

Budget brides all over the US will rejoice when the Isaac Mizrahi Bridal collection hits target online May 1st!

More than just wedding dresses, the comprehensive collection includes 8 wedding gowns (available in Ivory and White), 10-12 styles of bridesmaids dresses with matching wraps and clutches, satin peep-toe pumps and other bridal shoes and even cummerbunds with matching ties for the groomsmen!

And the best part? The retail price of every item in the collection ranges from just $9.99 to $159.99!

It remains to be seen what the quality of the materials is like, but I was pleased to see that the only gown I found a picture of online (other than the taffeta number above) is this cowl neck made of silk charmeuse and not a synthetic substitute like sateen. And as far as the bridesmaids dresses go, they can’t really be of any WORSE quality than the current polyether standard, so they seem worth a look at the very least right?

You can view the latest collection online at http://www.melissasweet.com/dress_return.jsp?gid=20. All of the gowns are quite beautiful (not that I would expect anything less from her) but I particularly love “Aurora” which its just the right mix of vintage and modern for my tastes:

And for all you NYC brides, Priscilla of Boston (parent company of Melissa Sweet) is finally opening up a New York City location that will feature Melissa Sweet and Priscilla of Boston bridal and bridesmaids dresses and designer accessories. 

Dont forget there is also a Priscilla of Boston sample sale going on right now where you can score last season’s dresses at 50% off!

The gowns range in price from $1500 to $3000 and according to a Disney spokesperson “The price point is aimed at a generation of couples who are getting married older and paying for their own celebrations.”

Huh? Speaking as someone who was married at 32 and could be considered an “older” bride, I don’t think that the words “fairytale” “princess” or even “tiara” entered my mind when planning my wedding..but hey, maybe I’m the exception!

Here they are, maybe some of these pointers will keep some future bride from making any of the same mistakes I did!

1) Stand your ground

My hippie parents couldn’t for the life of them understand why I wanted to hire a videographer or even why I wanted such a “traditional” wedding to begin with. They enjoyed themselves at my wedding more than anyone and were the first in line to ask when the video was coming in! Throughout the whole planning process they pooh poohed many of my decisions, it was painful at first especially when you really want their support and instead they question every decision. Then I decided to look at from the perspective that part of getting married is separating from the nest (even if you haven’t lived in the nest for a while!). Not to get all psychological, but I think its kind of a natural and healthy process to learn to stand on your own that way - or at least that is a good way too look at it because it keeps you from getting down about it. And in the end they will probably have the best time of their lives!

2) If you’re having your wedding outdoors, make sure your reception decor that you chose for outside will also look good in your back up location if it rains.

Our back up ballroom was ALL white which thankfully looked great with our deco green and pink reception theme. Had I gone with hot pinks and oranges like we originally were going I think it would have looked out of place in the ballroom and I would have been even more upset about having to move the reception indoors due to weather.

3) Don’t take on any last minute coordinating tasks in the days leading up to your wedding.

The day of my rehearsal dinner my bridesmaids decided they wanted to get mani/pedis with me where I was going. I ended up coordinating 6 mani/pedi appointments for which I was the main contact. That day when people decided to cancel or were late I was getting calls from the salon every 10 minutes and it was a HUGE amount of stress I didn’t need. If you all want to do this together ask your BMs to make their own appointments and make sure you ask about the cancellation policy.

4) If you’re cycle is pretty regular and you can calculate it out a ways try NOT to book your wedding for when you will be PMSing or having your period.

Enough said.

5) SCHEDULE a nice quiet time with your Bridesmaids to give them your gifts - and don’t wait until your wedding day.

I thought I would give it to them the day of when we were getting dressed and “waiting” to have our pre-ceremony pictures taken. Well we were running late and I pretty much had to throw the gifts at them as I was leaving to go have our first glance pictures taken. It definitely took away from the moment.

6) Hire a coordinator if you can possibly afford it. This also gets filed under “don’t believe your catering manager when they tell you you don’t need to hire a coordinator because they will handle it.”

This one amazes me. I know our venue tells perspective brides that they will handle all the details. My catering manager didn’t even show up the day of my wedding! Not only that, but we had a whole contract with all the necessary details that the banquet manager had in his possession, but still managed to screwed up just about everything that was on it. If it hadn’t been for my coordinator, there would have been NO one there who could advocate for me and get things set up the way she knew they were supposed to be. She spent almost the whole day running around putting out fires the hotel started and I can’t even imagine what would have happened if she hadn’t been there!

7) If you have a lot of OOT guests, consider inviting them to the rehearsal dinner if you can afford it.

We invited all of our OOT guests to our rehearsal dinner (which we called “welcome” dinner) and it was one of the best decisions we made. It allowed our guests to get to know each other before the wedding and have more fun that night and also allowed us to spend time greeting guests the night before so we could also relax and have more fun the night of the wedding.

The devil is in the details..

In this case I was the devil! I really obsessed about every little detail from programs, to favors, to guest book, invitations etc. Though my friends and family thought I was nuts during the planning stages, the day of everyone commented on how all the little details were beautiful and special. It made everything worth it! Even if no one else understands why you are obsessing, just don’t talk about it with them and do it for yourself. Even if no one had noticed I would have known and it made it more enjoyable for me and I felt like I brought our personalities and style into the wedding which is priceless. When the videographer and photographer both told me I should do this professionally, it made all the long nights of designing, printing, cropping and tying bows totally worth it!

9) Have back up plans for unknown factors:

We hired someone to DJ our cocktail hour. I had a suspicion that they didn’t quite get what type of music I was looking for so I brought a mix CD I had of things I liked. We ended up using my CD, I don’t think I need to say more.

10) Hire the best photographer you can afford even if it means skimping on albums or prints.

When all is said and done, photo and video are all you will have to remember your day. The images themselves are what’s important. You can always have an album made later, but you can’t get a fabulous photographer to reshoot your wedding!

11) If you care about your guest book, make sure you have someone who takes this responsibility seriously and is not shy to be in charge.

We did a Polaroid guest book and I asked a close friend of mine to be in charge of it. The guest book was one of my favorite things from the wedding, the polaroids made everyone look glamorous and it was so much fun to look through the next morning. I heard from guests later that my friend Ben was really persistent about gently reminding the guests to sign the book. I’m so glad he did!

12) Look over your contracts very carefully.

For some reason in my contract It said 3 boutonnieres for Groomsmen and we needed 4. I totally missed it, fortunately my florist was still there setting up and was able to improvise, but again, I got lucky.

13) Make sure you can walk backwards AND forward in your dress

Sounds silly, but we did a choreographed foxtrot for our first dance and while I had no problem with the forward steps I couldn’t step backwards without stepping on my train!

14) Have extra cash on hand for tipping

Even beyond what you think you’ll need. We hired a 4 piece band but they sent 5 members. Also the catering manager procured us chair covers on a Sunday for free with no advanced notice so we wanted to give him extra. You never know what will happen the night of your wedding so having a little extra cash on hand for service that is superior is a good idea.

15) Find an officiant that you LOVE and who shares your values.

This is something so often overlooked but really, the ceremony is what its all about. I was guilty of this as our officiant was one of the last vendors we hired. Once we found him and “clicked” with him so perfectly, we both realized how priceless that is and couldn’t believe we didn’t place more empahsis on it to begin with. When everyone’s hearts have been opened by a moving, touching ceremony you FEEL it for the rest of the night and it sets the stage for a warm, celebratory experience.

Thats my advice for what its worth. And if you’re planning a wedding and haven’t read Sulla’s tips yet (which are far superior to mine), do yourself a favor and read them!

Fortunately, free and fabulous fonts are in no scarce supply on the web. Here are some of my favorites for wedding invitations, programs, favor tags, seating cards etc.

The ES series of fonts is a large free collection of fairly traditional script fonts, any of which would be appropriate for DIY programs or invitations.

Here are some of the ones I like best from the collection, but there are many more available at http://freefonts.fateback.com/es_typography/

The ES Caps font makes a great traditional monogram as shown above.

To see some of the ES fonts in action, visit the ES Page on Fontplay.com where they have several examples of the ES fonts as used in images such as this example of the Centurion font as used on an image from Printshop:

Another great wedding font is Nuptial BT which is not free, but luckily the knock off “Marriage Script” is:

I used Nuptial for the inside of my programs and my menus:

You can download Marriage Script free from EKNP.com.

So far we’ve focused on fairly traditional script fonts, but there are also wonderful informal handwritten fonts that I think are perfect for more casual affairs. Here are some of my personal favorites:

I used the font Monika for the Couple’s names in these little birdie favor tags I designed for a country themed wedding:

All three of these fonts can be downloaded from one of my favorite font sources Urban Fonts:

Monika,  Lainie Day and  More Enchanted Prairie Dog

How to Install on a PC computer

Fonts generally come in zip files. Download the zip file to your computer and unzip the folder. Do not directly unzip the contents (which is usually a TTF file and another text read me document) into your Windows/Fonts folder.  Unzip it somewhere into your documents and then navigate to that location. Click once on your font and then copy or move the font into your C:/Windows/Fonts folder. Your computer should pop up a dialogue box showing that its installing the font. It will say installing one of one and the font name.

Thats it! Now open any program that uses fonts such as MS Word and you’ll see your new font in the list.

Also see this previous post on fonts and dingbats for more DIY wedding design ideas!

POB also makes Melissa Sweet, one of my fave gown designers.  I’m not sure if this sample sale applies to MS too because the website information is a bit vague.. it just has a list of dates and stores. If you’re still looking for “the one” it might be worth calling to ask for more info!