Q & A with a Bride-to-be

Would you ever wear a non-white wedding dress? A pretty cream or champagne colored frock could be lovely. What about something bolder? Like deep red, say?

Last week I interviewed Kelly M.-K., 31, from Berkley, CA about her upcoming June 5th nuptials and she told me that she plans on wearing a bold, red gown when she walks down the aisle. Kelly’s future in-laws have no idea about her sartorial risk, so she asked that I keep her last name confidential on the blog.

Q: How did you decide on such an unconventional dress?
Kelly: I tried on a few more traditional dresses but they didn’t feel like me. I went shopping with my sister and she saw this fancy, red dress and said that I should try it on for fun. I did and I fell in love with it immediately. I knew straight away that I was going to get married in that dress, I just had to break the news to everyone else.

Q: How did your fiancé respond?
Kelly: He was incredibly supportive. He said ‘that’s cool, you should wear what makes you happy.’ He knows me though.

Q: What about your family? His family?
Kelly: Well in the store, my sister’s reaction was “whaaaaat?!!” My family wasn’t surprised at all. But his family doesn’t actually know yet. I decided not to tell them, so it’ll be a surprise on the wedding day. I’m a little worried that his mother is going to have a heart attack when she sees the dress, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to wear it.

Q: What does it look like?
Kelly: It’s formal: floor length and silk with a train.

Q: Do you think you’ll regret not wearing white?
Kelly: I hope not. I wasn’t ever the type of girl who pictured myself in a white dress so I don’t think so. I’m also not a fan of wedding conventions so I don’t feel the need to conform to them.

Q: Are there are any other offbeat aspects to your wedding?
Kelly: There are a lot actually. We’re not having a traditional cake, instead we’re going to have 10 mini cakes of all different flavors from a local bakery. We aren’t the same religion, so we’re having a Presbyterian minister and a Catholic priest conduct the ceremony together. That was pretty hard to pull off. Also we worked in a hand binding ceremony into the service.

Q: What’s that?
Kelly: Our attendants will literally tie lengths of fabric around our wrists. None of our grandparents are still alive, so we’re using fabric that used to belong to them, my grandfather’s tie for example, we thought it would be a way to honor them and to literally show our families being bound together.

Q: Interesting. Anything else?
Kelly: The reception is going to be in my parent’s backyard. My aunt and uncle who are musicians will be playing music. We’re also having a juggler, a belly dancer and a fire-eater. Oh and my five-year-old nephew is performing a dance.

Q: Are you joking?
Kelly: No! I’m completely serious.

Q: That’s amazing.
Kelly: I know! It sounds crazy, right? But I’m thinking it will be a really fun day if nothing else. I’m a little worried about my nephew’s performance, but I mean he’s 5, I couldn’t say no.

Q: A juggler and a fire-eater sound more like a circus than a reception!
Kelly: Yeah. It’s going to be the best party ever though. We both knew going into this that we were going to make unconventional choices, so we were open to anything.

Thanks Kelly!
Thoughts? Would you ever consider having a fire-eater at your wedding? They kind of freak me out, so I don’t think I would!

Bride on a Budget

Weddings are expensive. Very expensive. If you live a big, metropolitan city and you plan on having an "averaged-sized" wedding (150 guests by US standards) you could easily be spending upwards of $60,000 if you wedding is staffed by experienced professionals, is held in a fancy location and takes place during the popular summer months.


But there are options. It is completely possible to have a budget-friendly but sophisticated soiree. It's simply a matter of prioritizing. Here's my top 5 favorite money-saving ideas:

1) Consider getting married off-season
Everyone, myself included, wants a summer wedding. The weather is lovely and the summer always feels celebratory. But having a wedding outside of the peak season could seriously slash your location fees. Plus don't fall weddings with changing leaves or snowy January weddings seem appealing too?

2) Say no to Vera
Everyone wants to get married in a dress that makes them feel beautiful, but that doesn't mean that you have to drop serious dough on designer duds. Consider a pre-owned dress from eBay or OnceWed. Other possibilities include wearing a short dress (you're so much more likely to re-wear it) or if you don't think white is your best color (lots of brides don't) get a fancy cocktail dress in a different color - it'll be cheaper.

3) Have a DJ instead of a wedding band
This could just be a personal preference but wedding bands generally aren't very good and I would prefer to hear the real song than a washed-up wannabe Sting's version. You'll save big bucks on your music budget.

4) Nix favors
Chances are your adorable monogrammed knickknack is just going to be collecting dust in your parents' homes. Everyone else will probably toss it after 6 months- tops. I say skip it entirely.

5) Limit the open bar
I understand the hesitance to go the route of a cash bar: it looks stingy and guests hate it. That said, open bars are expensive and who wants to be presented with a (partially) surprise tab at the end of the night? A good compromise is serving only beer, wine, and champagne at the open bar. You'll save tons on pricey top-shelf liquor. Also forget that champagne flute at the table thing. Most guests simply toast with what they have or take one sip of champagne. Guests who love the bubbly can get it at the bar.

What do you think of these ideas? Would you use any?

Ahoy Bridey?

Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran an article about weddings on cruise ships. Apparently the number of couples choosing to get married on a cruise is increasing exponentially. The most popular cruise ship line mentioned in the story, Carnival Cruise, expects to have 2400 weddings on their vessels this year.



The idea of getting married on a cruise is an intriguing one. Pretty much everything is taken care of for you so I imagine that it would greatly cut down on wedding planning stress. Also a lot of the options mentioned in the article are extremely affordable. If the bride and groom decide to get married without guests, a cruise ship package can start as low as $1195. That includes the ceremony, flowers, a cake, and the photography.

One of the biggest decisions that cruise ship couples have to make is whether or not they want guests at their wedding. Obviously guests increase the price tag but not by as much as you might expect. The same cruise line quotes guests, an hour-long open bar and hors d’oeuvres as $1635. They don’t specify the number of guests though, and I am assuming that that quote is for a very small wedding, but that’s still surprisingly affordable.

Another benefit to getting married at sea, is that couples can combine their wedding and their honeymoon which basically slashes your budget in half. The only downside to that is if you have guests at your wedding, then they’re also on your honeymoon. Not very romantic.

Not all couples who decide to get married at sea are doing it to cut costs though. One couple mentioned in the story plan to have over 100 wedding guests at their nautical ceremony!

What do you think? Is a cruise wedding something you would ever consider? It’s not my style but I think there are a lot of advantages to having one.