Being chosen as a maid of honour is a great privilege, but it also requires a large number of responsibilities in the wedding planning process. The maid of honour will likely be spending a great deal of time with the best man, since their duties are often the same and require them to work hand-in-hand in order for the wedding to be a success. Once you have dealt with the excitement of being part of the wedding party and of wearing a great dress, it’s time to start planning immediately. Here is a list of common duties the maid of honour must fulfill:

1. It is the maid of honour’s responsibility to shop with the bride and attend all dress fittings. The maid of honour may want to help the bridesmaids shop for their dresses as well.

2. The maid of honour will be required to help with wedding invitations, wedding favours, flower arrangements, centerpieces or anything else at the bride’s request.

3. A large part of the maid of honour’s duties requires her to throw the bridal shower and bachelorette parties. The maid of honour will be responsible for planning and hosting all of these parties. If the couple decides they want a stag and doe (as opposed to bachelor and bachelorette parties) the maid of honour and best man will work together to plan and host the event.

4. It’s the maid of honour’s duty to record the names of the guests at the bridal party as well as their gifts. It is also her job to send out thank you cards to all guests.

5. During the wedding ceremony, it’s the maid of honour’s responsibility to hold onto the groom’s ring (the best man is required to hold onto the bride’s ring).

6. It’s the maid of honour’s responsibility (as well as the best man’s) to sign the wedding license as a witness.

7. Finally, it is tradition for the maid of honour and best man to dance together at the reception.

If you are a first-time maid of honour and need help planning there are many people who would be eager to help out starting with the bride’s mom or the bridesmaids. There are also a number of Internet resources to assist you with bridal planning and ideas.

The maid of honour has many responsibilities, but it’s important to remember that the bride would not have chosen you if she didn’t think you were capable of fulfilling these obligations.

About the author:
Samantha Taylor spent several years working in the weddings industry as a wedding planner. When she isn’t being a mom of two wonderful children, she works as a freelance writer for http://www.yourwedding101.com – a site that offers information about everything wedding related – from hosting a wedding reception to wedding speeches and more.

Don’t forget to visit my main wedding website.

Engagement can be a hectic and overwhelming time for all parties involved. However, by setting a wedding budget and by creating a long-term money-management plan, you can ensure that you will start off on the right foot. Follow these steps for a good marriage preparation:

1. Prepare to merge finances
Discuss your spending and saving habits, your debts and assets and your respective salaries. Be sure that you have a realistic idea of how marriage will affect you both as a couple and as individuals.

2. Plan your wedding
Make a realistic assessment of how much you can spend. While the average wedding cost is $15,000 (£7500), with careful planning you may be able to go lower than that and create memories that will last forever.

3. Decide on whether to have a prenuptial agreement
Prenuptial agreements aren’t always necessary. However, if there is a considerable difference in your net assets, it would be foolish not to have one drafted by a lawyer and signed by the necessary parties.

4. Merge your money
In the eyes of the law (and creditors), a married couple is a single financial unit. This holds true, even for those couples who decide to open joint bank accounts.

5. Go over your taxes
A good accountant may help out in this area. Generally speaking, dual-income families get penalized by tax laws. Evaluate your tax situation and decide if it is worth it for both of you to work.

About the author:
Nathan Dawson writes for www.marriedfinances.com and http://www.successfulmarriageresource.com,great online sources for marriage and finance information.

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In ancient times, brides were thought to be particularly vulnerable to evil spirits, so in order to protect the bride, her friends were richly dressed in costumes similar to the bride’s and acted as decoys to confuse the evil spirits.

It was once common for the bride and groom, as well as their friends, to walk to the church on the morning of the wedding. Afraid that a spurned suitor would try to place a curse on the bride and groom, their friends would garb themselves similar to the bride and groom in order to trick the evil wishers.

Today, the function of the bridesmaid is to be a support to the bride as well as her confidant and friend.

Have you ever wondered about the purpose of groomsmen? Legend has it that this came about during ancient times when women were in short supply and a man had to literally kidnap his bride from her village, clan or tribe. The groom-to-be would bring along his ‘best men’ to help fight off angry family members or from competing suitors.

The best man of days-gone-by was responsible for more than the wedding ring. Since there remained a threat of the bride’s family attempting to forcibly gain her return, the best man stayed by the groom’s side throughout the marriage ceremony, protecting the bride and groom from any threats. He also served as a sentry outside the newlyweds’ home.

It is believed to bring good luck to the groom if the best man arranges for the groom to carry a good luck charm in his pocket on his wedding day. It is also considered good luck for the best man to pay the officiant’s fee in an odd sum.

Nowadays, the role of the groomsmen and best man has been confined to the honorary positions.

About the author:
Tom Tsatsos

http://www.theamericanwedding.com

Circulated by Weddings Direct

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You are engaged and one of the most important days in your life is fast approaching. Your wedding day will be filled with happiness and emotion. Family and friends will be there; some you have not seen in many years. It will be a wonderful day for you to remember and share. There will be so many things going on of which most you will not even know about until you look at the wedding photographs.

Choosing a photographer may be a difficult and daunting task; and affording it may be even more cumbersome. You may be apt to ask a friend or relative to photograph it for you; this is surely to be a bad idea for many reasons. A professional wedding photographer knows how to capture all the moments of your wedding day with the best results by having years of experience and photography knowledge.

Finding a wedding photographer is not difficult because there are so many. There are many ways to go about finding one and many things you should know. The best way of course is to be referred from another wedding couple that recently had their wedding photographed by a specific photographer. Notice I said “photographer” not business or studio. Your decision should be based off of one photographer’s work; not the work of a group or large wedding photography studio with multiple photographers. Always check who will be photographing your wedding.

There are many other ways to find wedding photographers including the phone book, newspapers, billboards, and of course the internet. Over 70% of all brides and grooms search for wedding professionals online. There are a few things you should know about searching on the internet.

Take your time – The first photographers you will find are mostly because of large advertising budgets. This is not a bad thing but you should see all options available to you.

Be specific – When using a search engine search for your “county” and “professional wedding photographer”. Your search may look like this: Massachusetts “professional wedding photographer”. (Use everything that is italicized.) The part in quotes will eliminate all general photographers and just focus on wedding ones. You could even add your city/town for just local results. (Add the town after the county; do not put in the quoted part.) I recommend using Google (www.google.com).

Ok, so know you know how to find a wedding photographer. Now which one to choose? There are three primary factors that come into play when choosing a photographer; style, price, and personality. Style and price can usually be found on their website so we will start there.

Style – There are many styles such as traditional, photojournalism, candid, formal, etc. Some photographers offer only one style, but the best photographers can offer all of the styles and would normally incorporate them all into your wedding day coverage. It all depends on what you want. When viewing a photographer’s portfolio, remember these are their best shots. Always ask to see a full wedding.

Price – You can spend from £500 to £10,000 on a wedding photographer. The norm is to spend about 10% of your entire wedding budget on the photographer. Most photographers have packages that will include everything from the coverage to the album and final prints. Some photographers have complete al la carte pricing; if you are on a small budget this is the best way to go. You will be able select just what you want. There are two things you need, the coverage and the ability to purchase the negatives or high resolution digital images. Watch out with the coverage; many photographers will charge an hourly fee beyond their normal time offered. When you receive your negatives or digitals images you can print what you want when you want wherever you like. Of course as a professional I recommend using a professional photography lab for your prints but you could certainly use Wal-Mart and save a bundle. Just keep in mind that the quality would be slightly lower. As for your wedding album buy it yourself and put it together yourself. The cost of buying an album from the photographer is usually double the actual cost. Then of course doing it this way you can get it when you want and when you have the money. Visit www.albumsinc.com to view many albums and you can purchase them right online.

Considering style and price select three top choices and schedule a meeting with them. There should be no cost for this. Before you meet with them you should pretty much want to hire them from what you learned about their style and price.

Personality – You want to meet with them to see how they present themselves and if your personalities match. You want someone that is personable and nice so that they will get along well with you, your family, and friends. Never make the decision at the meeting always go home and think about it and wait until you have met with all three. The best in the business will let their work, pricing, and personality do all the talking. The meeting should be a casual conversation to get to know each other and discuss your wedding day in general. There is no need to go into great detail now. Some photographer will try to “sell” you their services; never get sold on something. Remember you already decided you like the work and price before you got there so what are they trying to sell? Just meet with them to get to know them.

Once you make your decision contact the photographer and let them know. Also, be sure to contact the other two and thank them for their time but you have decided to use another photographer. They should be considerate and not try to continue selling you their services; if they do you made a good choice to go with the other photographer. With the photographer you chose go over the details on the phone and have them right up a wedding contract for you to review and sign. Do not pay a deposit until you have read and signed the contract (the photographer should sign the contract also). Read the contract thoroughly; everything you are supposed to receive should be written down and have the price and payment schedule. Always make note of their cancellation policy.

Congratulations you found a photographer and have one scheduled. You should now schedule to meet with them about a month before your wedding date to go over the details again.

Have a great wedding day!
About the author:

Dain H. Binder
DHB Photography
http://www.dhbphotography.com

Don’t forget to visit my main wedding photography website

The first thing that needs to be considered when planning the ultimate wedding is how much time you will give yourself for the planning. In essence; this means what day that you will set the date of the wedding.

This may sound like a trivial matter, but it really is important because it will let you know what the time limit is for making your preparations.

Some weddings can take up to 3-4 months to prepare for and plan. This is pretty typical; depending on how big you are planning for your wedding to be and how fancy etc.

If you are not giving yourself more than a month, then planning is naturally different. Because of the differences in the time that you are giving yourself to planning the wedding, it is best to give the best planning methods and you may use them or not use them as they apply to your case.

One of the most important factors that go with planning a wedding is determining who you will be delegating specific duties to. For example, if you are terrible at choosing flowers, who will you assign to do it for you?

It is always best to try to give different duties to others so that you will not be overwhelmed by them yourself. Let’s take a look at some of the various duties that you can hand out:

· Catering: Who do you believe would be the best person to handle all of the arrangements for the food and drink at your wedding?
· Invitations and seating arrangements: This person will be addressing and mailing out invitations and making sure that people are seated in a fashion that will ensure everyone’s mutual comfort and enjoyment
· Decorations for wedding and reception includes center pieces
· Rehearsal dinners etc.
· Music and/or DJ
· Brides maid and groomsmen gifts and favors
· Gowns, and tuxedos
· Bridal showers/bachelor parties etc.

All of these things are usual must haves when it comes to a wedding, unless of course, you opt not to have bridesmaids or groomsmen in the wedding. All of these things can be murder to try to do on your own as well.

That is why you have to get in touch with people who are capable of taking over some of the menial jobs for you. All of these things seem small at first, but they can quickly add up to quite a bit of money when they are all combined together.

After you have delegated the responsibilities, you should next set a specific time period to have all of the tasks completed. Creating a to-do list and time sheet is a great way to do this. That way, when all of the tasks are finished you can easily check them off.

You should set up specific times and days to discuss the progress of things as well, just in case things are not going so well. In doing this you will be able to help make sure that all things are running smoothly.

You might be wondering what happens when you have done all of this and are ready to get started. First of all, you have to be willing to follow the general wishes of the couple to be wed; that is unless you are the couple and are planning your own wedding.

When planning a wedding on a budget you have to lower your requirements just a bit. For example, you can’t try to have to filet mignon if you are throwing the wedding on a fish stick budget. I have broken down the various aspects of the wedding planning to the last details so that you will get a better idea of what I mean.

Ideally, you would want to have at least a year to plan the wedding, but that is not always possible or desired. For the purposes of this guide, I have set up a 12 month wedding timeline that will certainly make it a little bit easier to host your wedding.

12 months before your Wedding day:

· Announce the engagement
· Set your wedding date
· Create a budget
· Hire a Wedding Coordinator (optional)
· Create your guest list
· Start brainstorming ideas and themes
· Reserve your Ceremony spot
· Book an Officiate
· Make reservations for your Reception area
· Book a Photographer and Videographer
· Book Caterer, Florist and Music (Band, DJ, etc.)
· Look for a Wedding gown and Tux, allowing time for alterations and fittings
· Register for gifts
· Select and call the bridesmaids and groomsmen.
· Agree on a date to order bridesmaids’ dresses and groomsmen’s tuxes
· Choose a destination for your Honeymoon
· Apply for passports, if required

6 months before your Wedding day:

· Finalize your guest list
· Decide on the timeline and details of Ceremony and Reception
· Order/make invitations, and thank you notes
· Make airline and hotel reservations for the Honeymoon
· Choose a caterer, a florist and place an order for the wedding cake.
· Book Transportation (Limo, Antique Car, Etc.) for wedding day
· Shop for any Party rentals

3-4 months before your Wedding day:

· Mail out/hand deliver invitations
· Confirm wedding details and contracts with all wedding vendors
· Choose gifts for your attendants
· Set a date and time for the rehearsal dinner
· Help make travel arrangements for any out-of-town guests
· Make final alterations and fittings for the Wedding Gown and Tux
· Set time with your Photographer for the Bridal Portrait or Engagement shoot

1 month before your Wedding day:

· Apply for the marriage license
· Buy your wedding bands
· Finalize music list and no-play list with band or DJ
· Attend showers
· Make insurance arrangements

1-2 weeks before your Wedding day:

· Schedule the rehearsal a day or two before your wedding day
· Make an appointment with a Beauty Salon for day of wedding
· Send a wedding announcement to the local newspapers (optional)
· Make necessary arrangements for name & address change, if any.
· Discuss final details with the reception Site and the Caterer
· Pack for honeymoon
· Write out all checks needed for wedding day
· Send reminders to the rehearsal dinner attendees about the location & time
· Discuss final details of the ceremony and reception with family and bridal party

Wedding day or day before:

· Visit your Beauty Salon for manicure and pedicure
· Host the rehearsal and dinner.
· Make sure the ushers have the final guest list.

About the author:
For more tips and ideas on planning a wedding, check out The Ultimate Online Guide to Wedding Planning

Don’t forget to visit my main wedding photography website

The wearing of a man wedding ring is a relatively modern phenomenon. So is the use of Titanium in Titanium mens rings.

One of the newest and classiest of the modern jewelry materials, Titanium is setting a standard in the looks of contemporary mens wedding bands.

Despite this, mens titanium rings are reasonably hard to find in your local jewelry store. Unfortunately titanium hasn’t quite made it into the consciousness of your local jewelry merchant. So if you want to find the ultimate in contemporary male jewellery, including men’s titanium rings, you have to look further affield.

Enter the internet. There is a world of choice on the net for the modern couple searching for the ideal contemporary design mens titanium wedding band.

But first, what is titanium?

Titanium is a naturally occurring element, not an alloy. In other words it isn’t just a mixture of two or more different metals to produce a third one, as alloys are. That is not to say that Titanium cannot be alloyed with other metals, just that Titanium itself is not an alloy.

It is in fact often alloyed with other metals for jewelry making to make it harder, although all Titanium including pure Titanium makes a fine jewelry material.

For the more chemically minded amongst us, Titanium is listed in the periodic table as a natural element, atomic number 22.

It was named in 1795 after the god Titan.

Titanium can even be found in space rocks. The Apollo 17 mission brought back rocks with up to 12% Titanium in them.

Because of it’s natural properties Titanium has been primarily used in the aerospace industry, and only more recently applied to jewelry making.

But why is Titanium such a great material for making mens wedding bands? A number of reasons.

Firstly it is very hard, much harder than traditional ring materials such as gold and silver. It is extremely lightweight, corrosion resistant and very strong. It is so strong in fact that rings are fashioned out of a solid block of metal, so make sure that you get your size right as resizing is usually not an option.

It is hypoallergenic, meaning that it cannot produce skin reactions or allergies as can be found with some other ring materials, though rare.

But the real reason is that it looks great! Titanium can be shaped into a wide variety of styles. It can also be colored into a stunning range of colors which can be mixed and matched.

For this reason the range of choices in mens Titanium wedding bands is much greater than for a more traditional material such as gold for example. Although gold can be altered to offer a small range of different colours, it is basically gold colored. Titanium offers a much wider range of choices in colour.

Titanium also offers a choice of finish, most commonly satin, matt or polished.

Black Titanium mens wedding rings are amongst the most eye catching of all the Titanium rings. Black Titanium rings are usually a mix of black Titanium coupled with another colour as an all black ring can be overpowering. But a contemporary style mens black Titanium ring is almost the ultimate in chic for the man who wants to make a statement.

Mens Titanium rings can be coupled with a wide range of precious gemstones, including diamonds, to add effect. And as Titanium is so strong it is also possible to buy tension set titanium rings.

What are these? Well the strength of the material is used to suspend a gemstone, say a diamond, between the two ends of the ring so that the gemstone is almost hanging in space in the ring. A totally modern look.

The strength of the Titanium keeps it there.

And for the more creatively minded amongst us it is possible to design your own mens Titanium ring. There are online jewellers who offer the option of making up a design for your Titanium ring that is unique only to you. You decide exactly what style, colour or mix of colours you want.

Want to add a gemstone? Or more than one? Where do you want to put it in the ring? It’s all up to you.

There is no doubt that the older traditional materials used for making rings make beautiful rings. Gold or silver rings are still high on the list of choices for many men, and modern ring designs in these materials are also impressive.

But the modern man who has decided to wear his marital status on his finger shouldn’t buy a ring before he looks at the range of
Titanium mens wedding rings.

The only difficulty is making up your mind which one!

Circulated by Weddings Direct

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