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Wedding Tip: Have Your Guests Upload Photos to One Place

GeekSugar — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:06:26 -0700

I used to think that having disposable cameras at each table at a wedding reception was such a fabulously brilliant idea.

But now the quality of the disposable film cameras is too shoddy for any possible framers, plus the kind of people who are going to take photos will have already brought their own cameras. To further drive a stake in the heart of this old trend, last year the majority of you voted that you no longer loved it.

That's not to say you don't want more photos taken than your pro photog will take - just make it easy on your guests to upload them all to one place! Call it the 2009 version of disposable cameras on tables. Instead of cameras on tables, you just place cards with a URL or email address for your guests, and leave it to them to upload after the event.

To see how to make this wedding idea come together, just read more.

First, decide which photo-sharing website you want to use. It may be easiest to use the site you're already using for photo sharing - MobileMe, Flickr, and Picasa provide you with an email address or URL to give out (see my instructions on how to do it in Picasa). But also consider newer site iRave - it also gives you both a URL or email address, and it has settings that let you approve photos before they're up, preventing any pic leaks of champagne-induced embarrassments. Make sure that whichever site you use has plenty of storage space for the photos.

Once you've settled on the service, you need the cards so people know where to send photos. This seller from Etsy makes a wedding photo-sharing kit for $25, but this is also a simple DIY.

Design and print out your message onto business card-size paper (or just cut printed sheets to that size), then place in a festive box or display on each table.

If you're really into the design of your invites, you can inquire with your invitation vendor about printing up these cards with your invite design.

Coming Up With a Wedding Budget, Part II

SavvySugar — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:30:08 -0700

Approaching wedding planning by handling one thing at a time is the best way to stay organized. After you've landed on a best estimate for your total budget, it's time to focus on the guest list. It may seem premature to start thinking about who will be receiving an invitation, but a relatively accurate head count is necessary before you venture out to check out venues.

After cost, the number of people you expect at your wedding is the second biggest actor in narrowing down venue choices. More importantly, the expected number of guests can dictate how you allocate your entire wedding budget. The money will be spent very differently if you're feeding 200 of your closest friends and family versus 80 of them, and don't forget about the cost of the actual invitations.

Get your family and his family to make preliminary guest lists while reassuring them the lists are not set in stone, and you and your fiance should create a list of your own. Any venues you visit will immediately ask how many guests you're expecting, so go in armed with the knowledge and get on your merry wedding planning way.

For more wedding tips, check out all of the Sugar Network’s wedding coverage here.

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Link Time!

CasaSugar — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:00:08 -0700

Check out Caroline Lubbers' dreamy home.- Design*Sponge
Let's talk greenwashing.- Daily Danny
Buy furniture for you and match it to Fido's.- Shelterrific
Explore some smart ideas for decorating a nursery.- Making it Lovely
Create an elegant, kid-friendly garden.- AT:SF
Would you welcome a tattooed table to your home? - PointClickHome
Make your own wedding invitations.- Craft

The How-To Lounge: Sending Wedding Invitations

DearSugar — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:00:00 -0700

Once the save the dates have been mailed, it's time to get your wedding invitations ordered. Even if you aren't having a fancy affair, your guests need to know the date, time, location, and formality of your big day. Of course there are no rules when it comes to your invite, but to see some of the traditions to consider, read more.

Wedding invitations are usually sent out at least six to eight weeks before the wedding date and even earlier for destination weddings.
The style of the invitation will set the tone of the overall theme of your wedding day, so choose your invites accordingly. While most wedding invitations are a bit fancier than the save the date cards, that's by no means a strict rule.
Most invitations are written in the third person. Dates, times, and streets are typically spelled out, and no punctuation is used to finish a statement.
When writing out the invitation, make sure to add all the names of the people hosting the wedding. For example, if the bride's family is hosting, the invitation should read, for example, "Mr. and Mrs. James Roberts request the honor of your presence." If the mother and father of the bride are divorced but both contributing, both names should be present. If both the bride's and groom's families are contributing, all names should be listed, and if the bride and groom are hosting their own wedding, their full names should be written out - e.g., "Katie Anne Smith and Jacob Allen Lee request the pleasure of your company at their marriage."
Inviting guests to bring a date is completely discretionary if they are not living together or married - many people firmly believe in the "no ring no bring" policy. The size of your venue and any monetary constraints will play a big role in making your decisions but tread lightly because you don't want anyone to have hurt feelings.
When addressing wedding envelopes, remember to use the proper title - Mr., Mrs., Miss, Dr., etc. Address the invite to married couples as Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, single couples with a guest as Mr. John Smith and Guest, and unmarried couples living together as Mr. John Smith and Mrs. Jane Johnson.
In addition to adding your stamped response card in with your wedding invitation, remember to include any driving directions or additional wedding day information in the envelope as well.

Engaged? Start Getting in Shape Now

FitSugar — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Congratulations if you've recently gotten engaged. You have so many things to think about like the bridesmaid dresses, invitations, flowers, your rings, and the honeymoon. The most important thing though is to take care of yourself, making exercise a part of your regular routine. Not only will it help you look your best, but it's great to get in the habit of living a healthy lifestyle before your wedding, so you'll have a long life to share with your partner.

Here are some things to start thinking about:

If losing weight is your goal, meet with a dietitian. They can help you come up with a safe and healthy eating plan that will be nutritious and low in calories.
In order to lose weight, you'll also want to up your cardio. Join a gym and use the cardio machines, or take advantage of the warmer weather and walk, jog, hike, or ride your bike. To see results, you want to do at least 30 minutes of heart-pumping cardio at least three times a week.

What else can you do? Find out after you read more.

If toning up is your goal, hire a personal trainer to show you exercises that will target specific areas (like the backs of your arms).
Can't afford a personal trainer? Do toning and strengthening exercises on your own. This Starter Arms video is a great routine that's sure to work every muscle in your upper body.
If you're really serious about getting in shape and don't have much time before the big day, you may want to take the bridal boot camp approach. Go on a retreat, do an online program, or get some wedding workout DVDs.
Exercise with your partner. Not only will it keep you both healthy, but it's another way you can spend time together.

The great thing about all of these ideas is that not only will exercising regularly and eating more healthy help you get in shape for the big day, but you'll have less stress and more energy to plan the wedding - a pleasant side effect of working out.

For more wedding tips, check out all of the Sugar Network’s wedding coverage here.

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Come Party With Me: Wedding - Invite

partysugar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:28:33 -0700

A couple of weeks ago I planned an engagement party for my friend Elena, and this week, the saga continues with her wedding. During the process, I'll feature my tips and ideas on how to host a fabulous wedding, so interpret them to your own liking. Elena and her fiancé are hosting a destination wedding in Lake Tahoe. Both the ceremony and reception will take place at a friend's house that overlooks the lake. The wedding isn't until October '09, so we have plenty of time to make and send the invitations. Elena's colors are orange and fuchsia with wood and khaki accents. To see how I made these earthy, elegant invites, read more.

You will need the following supplies to make similar invites:

Three envelopes of the same size
cardstock in two different colors
decorative paper
colored printer paper
glue stick
scissors - regular and scalloped edged
ribbon
branch-shaped hole punch
computer and printer

To assemble the invite:

Create a new document in Microsoft Word. Write out the details of the wedding. The wording on an invite is very important. Since Elena and Sean are hosting the wedding themselves, their parents' names are not included in the text. I used Edwardian Script ITC in size 16 to write the following message:

Elena Rebecca Osterreicher
And
Sean Gary Trapp
Invite you to join them at a ceremony that celebrates love and joy.
The exchange of their wedding vows.

Saturday, the 11^th of October, 2009
At 4:00 in the afternoon.

The Carousel Estate
West Shore, Lake Tahoe, California

Dinner and dancing to follow.

Print out on plain paper and check for grammar and spelling mistakes. Make sure the bride approves of the text. Print out on the colored paper and set aside.

Since the wedding is a destination wedding, the invite includes information on where to stay and a schedule of possible activities to attend during the big weekend. A map explaining the exact location of the wedding is also important. Write the details out as clearly as possible. Here's what mine say:

Places to Sleep

The Sunnyside Resort
(530) 583-7200
http://www.sunnysideresort.com

Plumpjack Inn
530-583-1576
http://www.plumpjacksquawvalleyinn.com

Granlibakken Resort
877-552-6301
http://www.granlibakken.com/

Please join us at one or all of these events!

Arrival Dinner
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Moody’s Bistro and Lounge
8:00 p.m.

Boating Barbeque
Friday, October 10, 2008
Disembarks at 11a.m.
From the West Shore dock

Rehearsal Dinner
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Carousel Estate
7:00 p.m.

Day-After Brunch
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Plumpjack Inn
10:30 a.m.

I will attend: __ Arrival Dinner __ Boating Barbeque
__ Rehearsal Dinner __ Day After Brunch
__ Wedding Ceremony
Carnivore or Vegetarian?

Print out on plain paper and check for errors. When satisfied with the wording, print out on the colored paper. Set aside.
Carefully, remove the upper half of two of the envelopes to make a sleeve.

Seal the third envelope and cover with the decorative paper. Line the inside of the side panels with the decorative paper and set aside. Turn over the sealed and covered envelope and glue the top flaps of the two other envelopes to the back. You are creating a three-piece folding panel.
Cut the cardstock down to 1/4 of an inch smaller than the folded-closed invite. You need three pieces. One for the center and two for the sides. To add depth I used pink cardstock for the outer panels and orange for the main center panel.

With the scalloped scissors, cut the text pages out. These should be roughly 1/4 of an inch smaller than the colored-cardstock pieces.
Mount the text on to the colored cardstock with the glue. Set aside to dry.

With the branch-shaped hole punch, punch out a bunch of branches on the remaining colored cardstock. Open the hole puncher and empty the cut-out branches onto your work space.

Glue to the text/cardstock in an attractive pattern. I put them on the edges of each part of the invite.
Glue the center text cardstock to the middle panel of the invite. Slide the map and schedule cardstock into the side sleeves. Fold to close.
Glue a few more branches to the front, if desired. Tie closed with the ribbon, forming a pretty bow. Set aside.

Line the inside of another envelope with decorative paper. Slide the folded invite inside and send addressed in your best handwriting.

For more fabulous wedding ideas check out IDoSugar!

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Mommy Dearest: Sick Baby Etiquette

babysugar — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:00:00 -0700

Mommy Dearest,

Isn't the number one rule of play dates not to bring your sick child to another family's house? I recently hosted a play group and invited six other mothers and their babies over to play and have lunch. I was happy to have them all accept the invitation, except one. A 6-month-old little girl came over coughing, sneezing, and crying her little red eyes out. Everyone could tell how miserable she was, including her mother. She told us, "I'm sorry she's sick. I just had to get out of the house!" We tried to keep our children as far from her daughter as possible, but it didn't make any of us at ease with the situation. I wanted to ask her to leave, but was afraid she would be offended and not return to future gatherings. What should I have done, if anything?

- Sick About Sickness

To see the response from Mommy Dearest, read more.

Sick About Sickness,

It sounds like your friend should have gotten out of the house and gone to the pediatrician. The child doesn't benefit at such a soiree since she was unofficially quarantined from the healthy children. She would have been better served at her own home with some rest and recovery time. However, if someone arrives with an ill child in tow, you might try a little honesty with a soft edge: "Maybe today isn't such a great day to play. It's pretty obvious that she's not feeling well. We'd be happy to have you over for another play group when she's up to par." If that doesn't work, you could ask her to keep her child in another area so that the other children are less exposed.

- Mommy Dearest

Submit a question for this feature at the Mommy Dearest Group on TeamSugar.
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You Asked: She Invited Her Family to My Wedding!

DearSugar — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:00:00 -0700

Dear Sugar,

My fiancé and I are pulling together our wedding on our own with no help from a wedding planner and minimal financial help from our families. We are trying to keep our guest list reasonable so that we can stick to our budget. This has proven to be difficult since we both have large extended families, so we've had to pick and choose who we're inviting. So imagine my surprise when my fiancé's brother's wife called me to insist that her parents (who I've never met) be invited to the wedding to care for her 2-year-old child. It would be one thing if she was a direct family member, but they are a few degrees removed. To add insult to injury, my fiancé's brother's wife is already bringing a nanny, which makes her request even more outlandish.

When she first asked me about this, she did ask, however as I told her about our budgeting concerns, she became increasingly adamant, and ending up basically instructing me to invite them. Since we are paying for 90 percent of this wedding, I feel like I should be able to just say no, but I don't want to start off my marriage on the wrong foot, this is part of his family after all. I'm really told but most of all astounded by her query. Do you have any advice?
- Broke Bride Brooke

To see DearSugar's answer read more.

Dear Broke Bride Brooke,

First and foremost, I must commend you and your fiancé for planning and hosting your wedding alone, I know that's not an easy task. Since you're sticking to a pretty tight budget here, I completely understand how you'd feel taken aback by this woman's request. Like you, I'd think having a nanny there to help care for her child would be more than enough, so something tells me there's more to her wanting her parents there. The etiquette for inviting quests is all very circumstantial, but at the end of the day, it's your wedding, not hers, so the choice is ultimately up to you and your fiancé.

Of course, starting off your marriage on the right foot is important, as is not burning any bridges, but it's even more important to not go into debt all because of one night - remember, it's about the marriage, not the wedding. So with that said, I'd talk it over with your fiancé, tell him how you feel and if you both see eye to eye, I advise you to say no to her. Now if your fiancé feels that it's important to have them there, unfortunately you're going to have to extend the invite - while this is your special day, it's his, too. I think we can agree that this was a pretty presumptuous request, but you should not, by any means, feel badly for saying no if that's the decision you make. I hope I was of some help, and good luck.

To see all of our wedding coverage, check out IDoSugar.com.

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Come Party With Me: Engagement Party - Invites

partysugar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:28:31 -0700

My best friend from college just got engaged! It's a very busy and exciting time in her life, so I offered to plan her engagement party. Since many of you are brides-to-be or know someone who was recently engaged, I'll be sharing my party ideas with you. Use them to create your own fabulous engagement party.

Traditionally an engagement party is hosted by someone other than the bride, but if you want to have your own party, go ahead. Be sure to have the party well before the wedding. Remember that all of the people you invite to your engagement party should also be invited to your wedding. Once you have a guest list, send invites announcing the engagement and the party.

If you have an idea of the wedding's theme and colors, incorporate them into the engagement party invite. That's what I did here when I made Elena's invite. To see what I did, read more.

To make an invite similar to the one seen here you will need the following supplies:

cardstock
decorative paper
colored ribbon
scissors
glue
computer and printer

To assemble the invite:

Start by creating a new document in Microsoft Word. Write out the details of the engagement and the party. For mine I used the font Lucida Calligraphy in Size 12 to write the following message:

Sean and Elena
are happy to announce
that they’re tying the knot!

To celebrate their engagement, please join me in
toasting the happy couple.

Saturday, April 5, 2008
Champagne and Nibbles
6:00 in the evening

PartySugar’s House
San Francisco, CA

please rsvp
415.555.5555

Center to the right side of the page. Print out on plain white paper and check for spelling or grammar errors. Once happy with the text and design, print out on the cardstock.

Cut the cardstock down to size and fold the page in half so that the text side is covered.

Glue the outside of the invite to the decorative paper and cut down to size.

Cut two long pieces of ribbon. Tie together to form a knot. Place on the front of the invite. Wrap around to the inside of invite and tie closed, forming another knot. Repeat with the other ribbon.

Slide into an envelope and send.

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Create Your Own Wedding Website!

GeekSugar — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:30:59 -0700

Wedding season has just kicked off on the Sugar Network, and since you've already shared the good news (and being the geek that I am), first things first - showing you how to get your very own wedding website up and running! Years ago, having your own wedding website meant paying a hefty fee to a computer nerd to build it for you. Nowadays, you can create your own beautiful site with user-friendly software - usually for free!

To see all my tips and tricks to help you get started in your website designing adventures, read more.

Decide what you want to share and where you will share it.
The first thing you have to do is decide how much information you want to share and put up on the website. If you want to announce your engagement to all your friends and family at the same time consider putting up a simple page with the picture of the two of you and a cute note about your engagement. I love when couples purchase a domain name that combines both their names, ie, GiseleandTom.com or AngelinaandBrad.com (note, yes, I made those up). You can purchase a domain name from Go Daddy for less than $10. Go Daddy will actually host a very simple site for you that can be configured like setting up a blog. Or you can purchase a domain name from Yahoo!, and use their Site Builder to create your own site - they have stylin' templates and it's super easy to use. And if you want to host the site somewhere else, you can just have the domain name forwarded. Keep in mind you may want to have your site password protected, to keep it safe from prying eyes.

How detailed do you want it to be?
When you begin creating the site, take some time to consider how much detail you want. There are some couples that start with a wedding website and later extend it to include photos of their children, vacations, funny videos, and life accomplishments. Others create a website just for their wedding, but make it incredibly detailed, detailing not only the engagement, but an online invitation and RSVP form, links to online registries, the story of how the couple met.

Design it yourself or get help?
If you're not a computer programmer or HTML savvy, I suggest going the easier route (after all, you have enough to worry about, don't you!) and picking an easy package from ewedding.com (this one is my favorite) or MyWedding. If you have money in your budget you can also consider hiring a designer to make the website look exactly like your invitation or wedding theme.

Make sure you tell everyone about your site!
Once you have put the site together, make sure to send out an email or handmade snail-mail announcement to let your friends and family know about the site.

For those of you who have already created your own site, please let us know what you used!