The Incredible Bride

Do not even go there…let me explain.

In my opinion you should not verbally tell anyone, wedding or not, what they should wear unless what they are wearing is directly offensive to others or is generally disruptive to society and all mankind (I’m sure you’ve all seen this before on MANY occasions). In saying all of that, there are many ways to tell your guests how you want them to dress for your ceremony and/or reception without having to say a word. What is it?? –> It is all communicated through your wedding invitation! Let me break it down by example for a formal wedding.

1. The look of the wedding invitation says a lot. If the invitation is stylish, fancy / fancifully chic, is on fine stationery, has luxurious embellishments and/or just overall looks formal then the event is a formal one. If the invitation has a picture of beach chairs with the sea in the back, in cartoon art, then we know the event is an informal beach wedding affair.

2. Pay attention to the times shown on the invitation. If the reception begins at 6pm then that means it is around dinnertime so dressing for dinner, after a wedding, is appropriate. If the reception starts at 1pm then it’s a brunch reception and casual formal would work best here.

3. When you see that the font on the invitation is printed or written in script and formal wording is being used to describe the event then it is obvious that the event is a formal one. There are other fonts that can be used to describe a formal wedding, but script is mostly used.

4. Handwritten invitations is a strong indication that said event is a formal one.

5. Last, but not least and this is a good one. All wedding invitations tell you where to go for the ceremony and for the reception. One should know how to dress for church so we will not worry about that, but if the consummation of marriage is to celebrated with family and friends, at let’s say the upscale (and chic I may add) Ritz Carlton in Manhattan, NYC, then guests should know to dress fabulously. If it’s going to be held at your neighborhood backyard BBQ then by all means, jean shorts and tank tops for everyone! …seriously, I hope not.

In conclusion, Brides should not have to ruin their wedding invitations with fashion advice and as to what colors guests should wear or what they are expected to wear because the invitation, alone, will do it for them.

If push comes to shove and you KNOW there are some over the top uncles and cousins and what nots who will inadvertently try to sabotage you on your wedding day then send the MOB (short for Mother of the Bride for you bridal novices) after them to make sure they dress to par. *Tanya chuckles in a low tone at this moment* YES!! I’M KIDDING ABOUT THIS - HAVE A LAUGH! Don’t do that because we all know that MOB’s cluded in this post were borrowed and I added the links to their sites. This means to visit these sites if you haven’t already.

A lot of Brides stumble upon this one sweet detail…what to get her Groom as a wedding day gift. Most men love gadgets and especially if said gadgets have cool features. I’m not one to give power tools as wedding gifts so I came up with this one idea of many I have in my head.

Since my husband is a “Citizen Man”, I decided to go ahead and post this as a cool Grooms gift. There are many Citizen watches to choose from, but I really like this one. This watch is a Citizen Calibre 8700, model# BL8040-50E, all parts are stainless-steel, has a black dial (face), has 36 diamonds around dial (bling bling) and its price retails at $675. Here are its features:

1. a retrograde perpetual calendar
Comment: This means that he can switch through calendar days back and forward continuously (there is no beginning or end of days).

2. set the alarm
Comment: There are other Citizens that have two alarms, but this one only has one.

3. check out the non-reflective crystal
Comment: This is referring the face covering of this watch. The covering is made out of a non-glare crystal.

4. shows month, day, date
Comment: This watch displays the current date in month and day in dial style.

5. has 12/24 hour time
Comment: This is self-explanatory.

6. is all Stainless-Steel
Comment: There are other Citizens that come in Gold, Titanium and Two-Tone metals. The bands come in different styles as well like in a dress bracelet, dress strap, sport bracelet, sport strap and dive. There are also different dial colors to choose from like blue, white, black, champagne and gray.

7. is water resistant to 333 ft. (100m)
Comment: You can take this watch under the sea downward to 333 ft. or 100 meters. There are other Citizens that can go downward up to 666 ft. or 200 meeters. I don’t recommend doing this though. Ha! So wearing this in the shower or accidentally dropping this watch in a pail of water is not a problem at all.

8. has a fold over clasp hidden double push button
Comment: This is another self-explanatory one, but I will say this, there are other Citizens that have a safety clapse as well so that’s something to think about.

9. it never needs a battery
Comment: Solar powered…go green with Citizen!

Grooms Gift: Tip of the Day!

Always get the Groom something you’ll think he’ll really like and something he can definitely use. If you have to buy a tool to give him some satisfaction then that will work too!

I took a wedding reception picture (that I found somewhere on the web) from my “memory key of goodies” — that’s what I like to call it and uploaded it to The Color Hunter. It brought back the color and codes of all of the colors used in that picture. Below is the picture that was used and here are the colors broken down in color and in code.

This is a really neat way to experiment with color and to find the right colors for your wedding day. I notice that Brides choose up to three colors for their weddings which is fine, but with more chosen colors, the possibilities / ideas are endless.

There are other websites like this one to help you on your journey, but I think that The Color Hunter website is a very good resource when working with color. Hey, I use it all of the time.

Wedding Colors: Tip of the Day!

Do not be afraid to experiment with colors. Colors create beauty, style and brings life to everything.

Q. Hey, Tanya! I saw that you used the words “WEDDING INCREDIQUETTE” in one of your past posts, what does it mean??? - Diane (Newport News, VA)

A. What’s the word? Wedding Incrediquette!

Wedding Increiquette has the same definition as Wedding Etiquette with my personal touch added to it. It means following the criteria that makes the outcome of your wedding planning…chic, classic, creative, colorful, captivating and fashionable . Basically, if your wedding is not done up stylishly then you have not followed wedding incrediquette.

More to come about Wedding Incrediquette in the future.

Wedding Etiquette: Wedding Tip of the Day!

Don’t believe the hype. Wedding etiquette is important when planning a wedding and it SHOULD be referred to all of the time. There are three types of wedding etiquette: basic wedding etiquette, cultural wedding etiquette and wedding incrediquette = fashion, style and grace.