Say It With Shoes - The New Way To Shout Out Your Sense of Bridal Style

Every bride's dream is to look amazing on her wedding day! It only makes sense that her shoes should be as styish as her dress!It may have all started with Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw and her passion for Manolo Blahnik shoes, but since then, speciatly shoe designers, like Blahnik, as well as Jimmy Choo, and Christian Louboutin have moved into the forefront of fashion design. Celebrities like Oprah Winfry, Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, and many more have taught us that fashion is more than just the outfit, but involves the complete look from head to toe. For the stylish bride, this means it's not only about "saying yes to the dress", but also finding a fabulous pair of shoes to go with it!

All over the world, brides are moving away from the traditional white satin pumps and opting for something with a little more pizazz! They want something that reflects their personal sense of style. They want something that's fun. They want something that is going to complete the whole look and make everyone say "Wow"!

Color is huge! Lemon yellow, cobalt blue, racy red, and hot fuschia pink are just some of the stunning shades we're seeing brides choose for their shoes to go with their wedding white. It's a fabulous way to incorporate your wedding colors, and can even be carried through to your bouquets and such.

In terms of actual styles, you can choose from strappy sandals to sexy slingbacks. Maybe pumps are more to your liking. The best part is that no matter what your particular taste, the possibilities are endless!

My only recommedation is for you to carefully consider the size of the heel. The fact is that you're going to be on your feet lots throughout the day, with opportunities to sit far and few between. The stiletto hell may look fantastic, but will you be able to survive the day in them? If you absolutely have to have the killer heel, then at least have a second, more comfortable pair of shoes that you can slip on for the reception.

Shoes are a great fashion accessory! Not only are they fun, but they allow you to make a statement about who you are. What better day to express yourself and your sense of style, than on your wedding day!

So all I can say girls, is go out there, have fun, and make Carrie Bradshaw proud!

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Cathy MacRae is a certified wedding and event planner, and owner of Creative Weddings and Occasions and Del Sol Destination Weddings. Located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she plans wedding for couples in and around the Calgary and Banff area. She is also a destination wedding and honeymoon travel specialist helping couples plan their weddings in paradise all around the world. For more information about planning your own wedding or for advice from Cathy, please contact her at Creative Weddings and Occasions.

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Choosing Your Bridesmaids Wisely

With the excitement of announcing your engagement out of the way, many brides feel weighted down as they try and make the all-important decision of who should be in their wedding party. They have ideas of who they want to share the entire experience with, but don't want to risk disappointing, or worse yet, offending any close friends or family members.

Being asked to be a bridesmaid is considered to be a gesture of honor and appreciation. It signifies that the person is someone of great importance to the bride, but more importantly, the person is someone who the wedding couple trusts to help them make their big day a success. All of the bridesmaids are expected to assist during the planning process of the wedding, help relieve stress and anxiety of the bride, and provide much-needed emotional support in the months leading up the ceremony. This is even more true of the maid of honor, who basically become the bride's right hand throughout the entire process, helping her along each and every step along the way.

To ensure your wedding runs smoothly, it is critical to make good decisions about who should be in your wedding party. One of the best ways to help make this important decision is to consider some key factors when looking at the various candidates.

The first step is to consider is how important is this friend in your life. Are they someone you see often, or if they live out of town, at least someone you communicate with on a regular basis? I mean it's great that you were best friends as children, but are you still close? Growing up, the two of you may have inseparable. The two of you may have even planned out your dream weddings, promising with a pinky-swear to be each other's maid of honor, but it's okay to recognize that circumstances in our lives cause things to change and that people grow apart. Your childhood friend may be someone who is still important to you, but they could be just as easily invited as a guest instead of a bridesmaid. You aren't expected to keep promises that you made when you were 10 or 11 years old. Your bridesmaids should be people who you currently count as your closest friends. They would be the people that you immediately called as soon as you got engaged. They are the ones that you still envision being close to 10 or 15 years down the road. The people you choose should be the ones you consider to be your closest friends now in this current stage of your life.

Another critical component is to consider how reliable this person is. Face it. You're going to be counting on them a lot to help you out with a variety of tasks. It could include everything from addressing and sending out invitations, attending dress fittings, helping plan bridal showers, attending all the various pre-wedding and post-wedding functions, and running errands for you, particularly in the last week before the big day. Are they someone you know will be able to step in and help out as needed ? Are they someone who is good at anticipating things that will need to get done or in solving problems as they arise? You want to choose people who you can rely on to be organized and on top of things. Do you really want to have to deal with someone who blows off a dress fitting because something came up at work or continuously finds excuses to avoid helping out with the invitations and other odd jobs that all need to get done? More importantly, do you want to deal with the added stress of dealing with this person on top of everything else you will be worrying about? Choose people who won't let you down.

The final important factor is to consider how will the members of your wedding party get along? If you choose people that are high maintenance, or can't stand each other, recognize that you could be setting yourself up for disaster. One would hope that people would be professional enough that they could put aside their differences for the day, but unfortunately, this isn't always the case. Some people need to be the center of attention. As the bride, you are entitled to be in the spotlight on your big day. You shouldn't have to share it with a high drama bridesmaid that requires excess attention.

Once you make your decision on who is best suited to being part of your wedding party, there is nothing stopping you from finding other significant ways to include some of friends and family who didn't make the list. From picking up people at the airport, to making sure people sign the guest book or photo mat, there is an endless list of jobs that need to be completed. With some careful thought and consideration, I'm sure you can find something to help make other friends and family members more involved. It is critical that you make sure that these friends know that you value their friendship and consider them to be an important person in your life. Most people will understand and be happy to be included in some way.

Your bridesmaids should be close friends or family members that will share the entire wedding experience with you. It's not to say that there won't be tension along the way, but a wedding can be something that draws all of you closer together. You want your bridesmaids to be people you can rely on and count on to support you every step of the way. Make good decisions about the people who are going to stand by your side so you can focus on the real goal of actually getting married and enjoying the entire experience!

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Cathy MacRae is a certified wedding and event planner, and owner of Creative Weddings and Occasions. Located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she plans wedding for couples in and around the Calgary and Banff area. She is also a destination wedding and honeymoon travel specialist. For more information about planning your own wedding or for advice from Cathy, please contact her at info@creativeweddingsandoccasions.com.

Making Your Wedding Your Own

Weddings have been around for hundreds of years and are an important part of most cultures throughout the world. Countless traditions and customs have been established as part of this sacred celebration that occurs when two people make a commitment to love, cherish, and honour each other. As a result, when a couple gets newly engaged, almost everyone they know has an opinion on what the wedding should be like, and aren’t afraid to express it.

For many engaged couples, the planning can quickly become very overwhelming especially when there are family members to please. The best advice I can give you is to step back from it all and figure out what is most important to the two of you. After all, this is your special day!
Don’t get me wrong! Tradition and customs are important. They help connect us and bring some of the past to the present and the future. However, these traditions should be also be meaningful to the both of you if they are going to be included as part of your wedding celebration. This is especially true if you start examining the costs associated with some of these traditions.
One the of the best examples I’ve seen is with a couple I recently worked with. Mike and Melanie had definite idea for their wedding. They had sat down and figured out what was most important to them, and were able to stick to their plans. It helped that the two of them were paying for the wedding, so although family members had opinions, the couple was able to have the final say.

One of the big decisions came in the form that they chose not to have any attendants. They felt that they had so many good friends, how could they pick and choose? Instead, they opted to have both of sets of parents walk them down the aisle. As these were the most important people in each of their lives, they also had their mothers sign the wedding registry, while their fathers both performed separate reading during the ceremony. Many guests commented that it made the ceremony more intimate, and emphasized the close ties that this family shares.

This decision not to have attendants also impacted the reception in terms that there was no need for a head table. As an alternative, they arranged for a table for two to be set in the middle of the room, allowing them to share their first meal together as a newly married couple as just the two of them. Definitely a romantic touch!

Many wedding traditions, such as flowers, decorations, and wedding cake also come with big price tags. There are ways couple can look at reducing these expenses, by using alternate materials or eliminating them altogether. For example, Mike and Melanie didn’t really see the need for a wedding cake. As Mike said during the ceremony, “if you’re waiting for the cake, you’ll have to come back to another wedding next weekend.” The dessert they chose as a replacement was a scrumptious chocolate mousse, created and designed by the culinary staff at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. As a personal touch, each dessert was monogrammed with two letter “M”s, one for the bride and one for the groom! I certainly didn’t see any guests mourn not having cake as they took their first bite of these mouth-watering morsels.

When planning a wedding in today’s modern society, there are so many details to consider. What you must remember is that this day should be about the two of you. There are legalities that must be incorporated, but in terms of the other decisions, you must make them based on what is most important to the two of you. Rules and traditions are changing. Opinions of family and friends should be considered, but you are ultimately responsible for the final decision. After all, this is your big day! Make it special and meaningful for you!

For more original ideas to make your wedding and reception unique and personal to you, contact us as http://www.creativeweddingsandoccasions.com/ .