Guidelines For Choosing Your Wedding Gown Style

When you are shopping for your wedding gown, select a style that is appropriate for your body shape. This key piece of advice is the secret to looking amazing on your special day.  Choose a store where the salespersons know what makes you look fabulous and not the gown that they want to get sold.

 If you are a petite bride – shorter than 5’4” and small boned, look for gowns that give the illusion of more height like off the shoulder or gowns with vertical lines.  Your goal is to draw the eyes upward by keeping details at a minimum and focusing the eye to the bodice area.

If you are tall – usually 5’9” or taller, you can wear a wider variety of shapes.  It is best to emphasize your longer proportions.  Bias cut skirts and straight designs can be fabulous.

If you are a plus size consider a gown with a skirt that flows from just under the breast to the floor.  A-line silhouettes and princess lines work well as well as does heavier fabric like satin.

If yours is a triangle shape – narrower on the top and fuller on the bottom, your goal is to create balance.  A V neckline is excellent for you.

Guidelines for Toasting at Weddings

According to Random House, a toast is “a salutation uttered immediately before drinking in honor of a person or event.”

Toasts acknowledge the wedding couple and express good wishes for a happy future together. They also express a welcome – one family welcoming a new member to the group.

Some general guidelines:
· Toasts are not an opportunity to make the couple blush nor are they the place to tell inside jokes.

· The average toast can run about 3 minutes but no more than 5 minutes.

· The best times at the reception to offer toasts are either before the dinner starts and/or just prior to cutting the cake.

· The official host of the reception (usually the bride’s father) is the first to offer a toast. He is followed by the best man and then the maid of honor. Yes, the maid of honor offers a toast to the happy couple. Others may wish to offer toasts, but they should be controlled. No one should speak after the bridegroom or bride gives the vote of thanks.

· If the bride and groom host their own wedding, they start the toasts by thanking family and guests for being with them on this special occasion.

· When looking for words for the toast, consider lines from poems that have meaning for the couple or the person offering the toast. Song lyrics or short anecdotes about the couple are also appropriate.

· The host or master of ceremonies should discourage the clinking of silverware against the glassware for any purpose during the reception. Those offering toasts must remember that they are toasting and not rambling so they must get guests to “raise their glasses” to the couple.

TriniWeddings can help you create and deliver an appropriate toast, just call 868 624 4015 for an appointment that is convenient to us both.
　

Hosting Wedding Showers

Wedding Showers date back to the 18^th century according to Emily Post. The story is that there was a father who did not like his daughter’s choice of husband and refused to give her a dowry. Friends of the groom felt sorry for him and supported him by collecting enough “assets” among themselves and “showered” the bride with them so that the marriage could take place!

Today’s showers have evolved over time, but there are still some “rules” or guidelines most brides should follow.

*The bride’s maid of honor is the usual hostess for a wedding shower, but any bridesmaid, friend of the bride’s mother or groom’s mother or distant relative of the bride can be hostess. It is not acceptable for the bride to host her own shower, neither should any immediate member of her family or the groom’s family. To do this implies that they are soliciting gifts for the bride.

*With all the talk of “themed” weddings, potential hostesses wonder if they need to plan a shower in keeping with the theme of the wedding. The answer is no. The shower simply celebrates the upcoming marriage of the couple. The closest the events come to a “theme” is the kind of gifts guests bring to the shower, such as spa items, kitchen items or lingerie. Some showers are for couples. Gift items for those should appeal to both genders like bar items, tools, outdoor equipment or electronics.

*Only guests who have been invited to the wedding should be invited to the shower. The only exception is for a workplace shower where not all work colleagues may be invited to the wedding. It is also not necessary or even feasible to invite every female who is on the guest list.

*Including Gift registry information on the shower invitation is acceptable and this is the only acceptable place. Brides should open all shower gifts at the shower and thank each person as the gift is opened. Each gift must be followed by a handwritten thank you note. If multiple showers are given for the bride, guests who attend more than one shower need only give one gift. If a guest cannot attend a shower, she should not feel obligated to send a gift.

For answers to your questions, call 868 824-4015, or email mwilt@triniweddings.com

Changing Traditions

Many of the traditions that we follow in weddings today have their origins in Elizabethan or Renaissance eras and modern day changes have been made.

·        VOWS – the phrase “Honor and obey” has been replaced with various alternatives that reflect equality in the relationship.

·        BRIDAL ESCORTS – More and more brides and couples are having both parents escort them down the aisle.  In some ceremonies, the groom comes down the aisle with both his mother and father, followed by the bride on the arms of both of her parents.  This honors both parents and recognizes each of their roles in preparing their sons/daughters for this day.  In fact, if the bride’s father is not available or this is a second marriage, a bride may choose to walk down the aisle alone or she may choose anyone to escort her.  A sibling, her mother, her grandfather, her son or a friend may do the honors.

·        PARENTAL ROLES – Parents are no longer limited to escort duty.  Many grooms are choosing their father to be the best man and brides are asking Mom to be the matron of honor.

·        RECEIVING LINES - These may still be part of a very formal wedding where the ceremony and reception are at different venues, but for smaller weddings with the same site for ceremony and reception, more and more couples are foregoing the receiving line and instead making it a point to acknowledge and thank each guest at his/her table throughout the evening.

For more advice about changes you can comfortably make in your wedding plans, stop in and chat with one of our experienced consultants.  We know how to help you make your wedding uniquely yours or tie it comfortably to tradition. For answers to your questions,

call 868 624-4014 or email mwilt@triniweddings.com