The 10 Hottest Wedding Trends - Most Popular 

Like everything else in life, how we style weddings changes with time. While ostentatious, celebrity-inspired over-the-top weddings ruled for many years, these have fallen out of fashion.

Here are ten of the hottest wedding trends of 2024.

Smaller, intimate weddings

It’s not the quantity of guests that’s important, but the quality. While it can be hard cutting the wedding guest list down to a reasonable size, more and more couples are opting to restrict their special day to the people they love the most. Smaller numbers can mean a less expensive wedding, but not if you follow wedding trend number 2 — personalization.

Read more ...

9 Smart Ways to Cut Wedding Costs

Weddings are expensive — there’s no getting around that. But there are many ways you can limit your costs while still having your dream wedding. The most obvious way to do this is limit the numbers to the people you love most. However, that can be tricky. Nobody wants to insult family members, after all. If you’ve been invited to your third cousin’s wedding, despite not having seen him in ten years, not returning the invitation can lead to family drama.

Luckily, there are plenty of other ways to save your dollars. Here are some smart ideas.

1. The Venue

Spring and summer is prime wedding season, so venues charge the most during these months. Having your wedding between January and March can save a quarter on venue fees.

Consider holding your wedding on Friday night or Sunday morning or afternoon. Venues charge a premium for Saturdays which can add as much as 20 percent to the cost.

Read more ...

Wedding Dress Shopping? You need to have Two Budgets...

How much would you spend on a wedding dress? In recent years there’s been two opposing trends. The first is the not-so-surprising fact that wedding dresses, along with weddings themselves, have become more expensive. The second is the growing popularity of cheaper, off-the-rack gowns and wedding dresses from popular clothing stores.

In 2015, brides spent an average of $1,357 for a wedding dress. That may seem like a lot of money — and it is — but it’s only about 4 percent of the total spent on a wedding. If movies are to be believed — and they aren’t — women will spend any amount of money to get the perfect wedding dress. In fact, some people assume that the rising cost of weddings is due to blushing brides-to-be insisting on designer hand-stitched organic silk gowns costing thousands and thousands of dollars. It’s not true… Sure, many of us would love a gown fit for a princess, but even so most of us are realistic about what we can afford.

Read more ...

Getting Married While in the Military - Your Questions Answered

If you or your beloved are in the military and planning on getting married, you might wonder if there are restrictions, concerns or other issues civilians don’t need to contend with. Read on for advice.

Do you need permission or extra paperwork?

If you are getting married in the States to another citizen, the answer is no. You don't need advanced permission, and there is no military paperwork to complete. You get married according the laws of the state.

Discount for Military Personnel & Veterans. #militarydiscount

If you are deployed overseas and marrying a foreign national there are plenty of forms and regulations. You’ll need to go for counseling. You’ll also need your commander's permission, but this is rarely withheld, unless there is a very good reason to do so. Your intended will need to pass a security background check and medical examination.The marriage has to be recognized by the United States embassy. Bear in mind that the whole process can take several months.

Read more ...

User Rating: 4 / 5

Groomzillas

Having an opinion about what happens on your wedding day doesn’t make you a Bridezilla, a Groomzilla or any other kind of towering monster. It means you care. Your wedding is the most important day of your life. It is also one you’ve shelled out a lot for, especially since many retailers and service providers seem to add a hefty premium once they hear the magic word “wedding.” It’s no wonder many brides and grooms get huffy when people try and fob them off with something they didn’t order, while charging them top dollar.

Having said that, there are a handful of people who get just a little bit… well, let’s say over the top. We’ve rounded up a few for your pleasure… and horror!

Bride with no chill

My sister is getting married on Friday. She threw the ring at her fiance yesterday and stormed off down the street barefoot because she asked him when he was picking up some decorations for the wedding and he asked when he should.

Read more ...

Age of Marriage... Good Things Come to Those who Wait!

Getting married is a big step — and it is one we have been waiting longer and longer to do. These days the average American man is 29 years old before he walks down the aisle, and his blushing bride is 27.

The average age when we get married has been creeping up. In 1990 brides and grooms were 23 and 26 years old respectively; in 1960 they were just 20 and 22 years of age. Americans are not dragging their heels, at least not comparatively. In Chile, men are on average over 35 when they marry, and women are heading towards 33. Across much of Europe, grooms are over 30 too — about 34 in Italy, Spain and Ireland; their respective brides are older than in the US as well —between 31 to 32.

Read more ...

Wedding Day Disasters

Weddings, eh? Your wedding day is a special occasion, so you’ll want it to be perfect. It won’t be. Things will go wrong — they may even go horribly wrong. The trick is accept that now and remember that the marriage is more important than the wedding. Besides, no matter what disaster befalls — from missing wedding rings to inebriated guests — it’s unlikely that half the guests will be murdered to the strains of The Rains of Castamere’. Well, probably not — Game of Thrones is very popular, after all.

As they say, into every life a little rain must fall. Here’s a round-up of some funny, and some tragic, wedding day disasters.

Mmm… cake…

A guy I know went to a wedding and got drunk and ate the inside of the wedding cake. He was a chef so I guess he figured out a way to (with the help of someone else) tilt the cake and eat the majority of the inside so the only thing that remained was the hard fondant shell. When the bride and groom went to cut the cake there was hardly any cake inside left.

Read more ...

User Rating: 5 / 5

10 Non Traditional Wedding Vows Funny

Writing your own vows can be romantic because they are personal and intimate. It also gives you a chance to let your personality show — and your imagination run wild. Thanks to the power of the internet we have collected ten of the funniest, strangest vow.

A hairy situation

This girl I know from high school posted her wedding vows on Facebook, and the closest thing she made to an actual vow was telling him she'd shave his back when they get old.

Now that’s competition

I vowed to my husband that I would always find him hotter than Vin Diesel.

Read more ...

9 Reasons Why People Procrastinate

If you have a tendency to put things off, you’re not alone. It has been estimated that around 20 percent of adults procrastinate, and around half of all students do. Unfortunately procrastination has negative effects. These include poorer performance and increased stress, as well as mental and physical health impacts.

People procrastinate for different reasons. Here we look at the most common ones, and what you can do to correct your behaviour.

1. Lack of Self-Compassion

People who lack self-compassion tend to be more stressed when they are performing tasks. If this is you, try being kinder to yourself. Accept that you are human, with regular human flaws. Try to be optimistic about your success instead of pessimistic that you’ll fail.

2. Bad Influence

If your parents, siblings or role models were procrastinators, chances are you’ll be one too. You can ameliorate this by reminding yourself of the negative consequences of putting things off. Try and find a new role model — ideally someone who is a go-getter type.

Read more ...

Sand Sculptures are one of the Latest Wedding Trends

If you are planning a destination wedding on the beach, then you may have been considering a sand sculpture.

Sand sculptures are one of the latest wedding trends, and they have been growing in popularity over the last few years. There are a couples of reasons why.

Sand sculptures, like ice sculptures, can be intricate, personal to the couple and they offer an amazing focal point. A great sculpture has the wow factor — something flowers, no matter beautifully arranged can rarely achieve. Sand sculptures have a lovely warmth — they evoke happy memories of making sand castles as a child, and beach holidays as a couple. Sand sculptures are also kind to the environment. Sculptors don’t use anything but pressure and water to bind the sand. The artwork will be reclaimed by the sea and wind, leaving no trace behind. In addition, they are made by hand. In a world increasingly digitised, handmade products hold a particular allure.

Read more ...

Bad Wedding Toasts, we’ve rounded up some Truly Terrible.

You can plan every aspect of your wedding — expect the wedding toasts. Anyone who has ever been to a wedding knows that toasts can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes they go on too long, sometimes they are full of inside jokes that you don’t get, and sometimes, just sometimes, people say awful, embarrassing and cringeworthy things that leave you squirming.

Thanks to the power of the internet, we’ve rounded up some truly terrible toasts.

Her? Nah!

Best man to the groom: “(Groom's name), man I love ya, you know I do. I hope you thought about this and that this is what you really, really, really want.”

Heartfelt wishes

“To the bride and groom — 60% or marriages end in divorce and in the rest, you live happily until death. Here's hoping you die.”

Read more ...

5 Most Iconic Engagement Rings

As soon as you announce your engagement people want three things: to hear how did the proposal happened; to find out if you’ve set a date; and to see the engagement ring.

It’s popularly assumed that De Beers, the diamond company, is responsible for creating the concept of the engagement ring. That’s not wrong — they certainly helped to popularise diamonds as the standard for engagement rings — but the ring, and what it symbolises, has a much longer history.

Over 2,000 years ago to Pliny the Elder wrote that husbands gave their brides a gold ring to wear during the ceremony and at special events. At home, the lucky lady wore an iron ring, which signified her husband’s ownership of her. Romantic!

Read more ...