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Guys, let’s be honest… All tuxedos really look the same, don’t they? At the end of the day, all you’ve really got is a penguin suit. Maybe you can wear a bow, maybe you can wear a straight tie, but either way, everyone’s wearing the same outfit. The only place where you really get to show off your fashion sense at the wedding is, of course, in the wedding shoes.

So, these shoes are where you really drive the point home that you do, in fact, have a sense of style, thank you very much! And no, your new bride didn’t pick them out (well okay, she probably did, just like she picked out everything else about the wedding, or else you’d be wearing that cool baby blue suit instead of the tux, right?).

You have a few different styles to choose from when it comes to these shoes, and they’re all pretty cool…

Black Shoes

You can’t go wrong with black shoes. They match everything, no matter how good or bad the rest of your outfit happens to be! With black, you can wear a tux, that blue suit we were discussing earlier, or slacks and a Hawaiian shirt if you’re getting married on the beach. In fact, if you can somehow manage to find an outfit that doesn’t go well with black shoes, you should probably be given some kind of award for brand new discoveries in the world of fashion.

Light Shoes

You have to be careful with white shoes as they don’t really match everything, but you can really pull off some cool styles if you know your way around fashion. They tend to match lighter colored suits, so if your wedding is less traditional, if you can wear a baby blue suit or a full white tux, white shoes can really finish up a great outfit.

Brown

Brown shoes offer some versatility, but they might clash, too. Use your own judgment when it comes to figuring out what they match. The basic rule of thumb is that, the darker the brown, the darker the outfit should be. You can wear dark brown shoes with, say, a Hawaiian shirt if you’re getting married down in Florida, but beyond that, when it comes to suits and tuxes, you need to be careful about what shade of brown you’re wearing. Just be careful, use common fashion sense, look in the mirror, and try a few things out until you can come up with something like as your outfit to wear to the wedding.

Spats

Spats are those really cool black and white shoes you always see people wearing with tuxedos. They’re kind of an obvious choice, of course, but you should probably go ahead and give them a try just because… How many opportunities will you have in your life to wear spats? They don’t have weddings every single day, so you may as well take the opportunity to wear such cool shoes while you have the chance.

The only place where you really can show off your fashion sense is at a wedding, of course, in the most exquisite wedding shoes and wedding dresses. We’ve got the inside scoop on the best wedding fashions.

Most women would want to look their best when it is time for them to walk down the aisle. To achieve this dream that they may have since they were young, they need to pick the right kind of wedding dresses that will make the wait worthwhile.

You will not run out of choices, actually, because there are many shops, stores and catalogs where you can search for ideas about wedding dresses.

The internet is very useful when it comes to this task because it has lots of resources for various topics that can help you on your big day, including sites that contain useful links about wedding dresses. You will be amazed at how the trends vary through the years when it comes to the gowns that women wear when they walk down the aisle, from your grandmother’s time, your own mom, and now that it is your time to say your vows.

Do you think about where the trends begin or what women used to wear in the olden days for this special occasion?

At the years during the medieval era, weddings were known to happen to unite families that belong to the same social status, or to bond political agendas between two forces, and other weddings happen to expand business or to make two families become richer. At the time, these are mostly common to people who belong to rich and noble clans.

The bride had to wear their best to show off their prominence and wealth. They represented their families during the event, which is why it was very important that they wear gowns that are made from exclusive fabrics or the kinds that came in bold colors, with embellishments of hard-to-find precious stones, and they also wore velvet, fur and silk on top of the material.

Many centuries have passed and brides are still expected to wear the kind of gowns that reflect who they are and what kind of social status their families belong to. For common people and poor individuals, women opt to come with their best church dress on the day that they have to walk down the aisle.

It is a good thing that nowadays, women have more choices when it comes to the gowns that they will wear on this special day. Most women choose the types that reflect who they are, their personality and the style that they prefer, more than what they can afford or how much they have on their bank accounts.

Visit MyWeddingDressForLess.co.uk to find your dream wedding gown. We offer a beautiful collection of wedding dresses for the UK bride. Same style and quality as designer wedding gowns for a fraction of the price. Browse through our http://www.myweddingdressforless.co.uk/index.php?cPath=17″>bridesmaid dresses to find the perfect dress for your close friends.

Beach weddings are easy to plan and their cost is quite reasonable. This favorable combination makes considering a seaside wedding a very good idea. Some cultures hold all their weddings on a beach. Whatever influences your decision, if you decide on a seaside ceremony, everything should match the setting’s elegance, including your beach cakes. Wedding pastry shops now offer a wide variety of options in addition to the traditional multi-tiered cakes served at most weddings. Your choices will include some exciting pastry sizes, shapes, colors and designs.

Below are a few tips to help you decide on the perfect pastries to serve at your celebration.

If you use a theme, you can complement it with the shape of the cake you choose. Seaside weddings are ideal for cakes in the shape of seashells, flowers, boats, lighthouses or palm trees.

Colors can also be important when you are planning a beach wedding. Brides often choose white or more subdued colors for their wedding cakes, but with a seaside wedding you might also want to include some generous touches of bright colors. If your wedding has a tropical theme, you could add tropical flowers on and around your cake to match it. If your theme is musical, you could complement the theme by having a skilled cake decorator sculpt icing into shapes such as musical notes or your favorite musical instrument.

Your budget will influence your options, but you may want to consider more exotic flavors for your cake and its frosting. Passion fruit, coconut, and kiwi, combined with mango butter cream or coconut cream frosting, are a few of the flavors that are perfect to serve on your wedding beach. If your budget won’t permit an unusually shaped cake, your guests will love it if you select a more standard shape but your cake features one of these more unusual flavors.

There are many different types of wedding pastries available, and unless you see an example it might be hard to picture the perfect design. You can stimulate your imagination by looking for wedding pastry pictures, both online and in magazines. The design you settle on might incorporate aspects of the best examples you find.

Here are some unusual options to help get you started:

Bem-casados: These pastries are a tradition at Brazilian weddings. Bem-casados are cake sandwiches made by putting sweet delicacies such as caramel sauce, jelly or egg custard between two small sponge cakes. Their sweetness symbolizes the sweet life the bride and groom will have together. Bem-casados are served at Brazilian wedding receptions instead of what other cultures think of as a traditional wedding cake. They come in a variety of playful shapes like hearts, rings and doves, but for beach cakes, wedding bem-casados can be shaped like boats, starfish, flowers or sand dollars.

Wanda Italian Bowtie Pastries: The wanda is a traditional Italian wedding pastry. These small, individual sized pastries are typically shaped as bowties. Wandas can be stacked on a plate to resemble a cake. In Italian wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom often begin a dance with the wedding guests joining in. The wedding party then dances toward the wanda plate where everyone chooses a pastry. The wanda is a fun and delicious wedding cake substitute.

Cupcakes: Rapidly becoming a popular alternative to traditional wedding cakes, cupcakes can create an impressive display when arranged on a multi-tiered cake plate. A wedding cake has only one flavor, but that is not the case with cupcakes. You can present several flavors and let your guests choose their favorite. It is also much easier to transport and set up cupcakes than a multi-tiered wedding cake. Wedding beach cupcakes could be decorated with palm trees, turtles, tropical fish or other things that blend with your theme.

Use your creativity when selecting beach cakes. Wedding pastries at your ceremony should mirror your style, taste and personality.

Beach Wedding Magic helps soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for tips and advice on beach wedding cakes, wedding favors, decorations, wedding planners and much more.

Have you been putting off selecting the location for your wedding? There are several convincing reasons why on-beach weddings have become so popular with couples about to be married. Instead of more traditional weddings held in churches, more and more couples are choosing less formality and more romance. They are being married on the beach, surrounded by their friends and family members.

Here are four convincing reasons why getting married on the beach makes good sense:

1. An on-beach wedding is unforgettably magical and unequaled for its air of romance. The beach setting is almost guaranteed to leave you starry-eyed. Imagine yourself on a sparkling white-sand beach with a gentle ocean breeze wafting the light perfume of your tropical wedding flowers all around you. Then picture the bubbling water dancing lightly onto the sand, carried onto the beach by glistening azure waves. Try to imagine the ultimate moment, the magical time when you stand facing your beloved, surrounded by your loved ones and lit by the golden rays of the setting sun. Looking lovingly into each others eyes, you say, “I do.”

2. Treasured memories for your guests. No event creates memories quite like a wedding. For your loved ones and other guests, a beach wedding means more than the opportunity to share your happiness. An on-beach wedding gives your guests a chance to get away from work, travel and relax. It might even mean they can extend their stay and have a vacation. An on-beach wedding gives your guests something to anticipate, and the more exotic the location, the better.

3. An on-beach wedding is less expensive than you might expect. If your budget allows it you can fly in a large number of guests, book a whole resort hotel, host a lavish two-day party and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on your wedding. Beach weddings, however, don’t need to be that expensive. You can opt for an intimate, private wedding with you, the minister, the sand and the waves. It will hardly cost you anything. You’ll be surrounded by natural beauty when your wedding is on a beach, unlike indoor weddings. The beautiful surroundings allow you to use fewer flowers and decorations. Seaside settings also allow you to save on clothing as you can dress more casually for the wedding. Beach weddings provide maximum budget flexibility yet provide a truly magical experience.

4. An on-beach wedding is easy to plan. Once you’ve settled on a location, you can breathe easy. Even without the help of a professional wedding planner, organizing a beach wedding is pleasurable and entertaining, especially if you and your husband or wife-to-be work as a team.

You can simplify the planning process by creating a theme (such as tropical, musical or luau) for your beach wedding. Beach wedding coordination then becomes a relatively straightforward process of tracking down capable service providers, negotiating the best deals and making sure that your guests have the help and advice they need as they complete their plans to attend.

Even better, your on-beach ceremony can be at the same resort where you will have your honeymoon, which can begin as soon as the reception is over. No packing, trip to the airport or long flight. Just kick back and enjoy it!

BeachWeddingMagic helps couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for expert advice on planning a beach wedding, wedding decorations, flowers, wedding planners and much more.

US couples spend an average of $20,000 on their weddings. Decorations are usually around 8% of the total wedding cost, averaging about $1,600. But wedding beach decorations can be less expensive if you plan well. Continue reading and you’ll learn how.

Finding decorations for your beach ceremony is a no-brainer, right? Maybe if you’re a creative genius. For the rest of us things can be a bit more complicated.

Follow these simple tips for creating chic, hassle-free beach decorations for your wedding.

Flooring

If you are planning a casual, barefoot wedding, forget about flooring. If however, you are planning a more formal ceremony, you’ll want flooring. Why? Without it, shoes will fill with sand, pants and dresses will become soiled, wet or torn and guests will have difficulty walking. Also, if any of your guests are elderly or infirm, you’ll want to provide chairs for them. Without flooring, chairs can easily sink into the sand and tip over.

Rental companies frequently offer flooring. Including set up, the typical cost is $3.50 – $4.00 per square foot.

Arches

Many styles of arches are available, probably as many as there are brides who would love a beach wedding. It’s easy to rent an arch but making your own is often cheaper. Begin with a metal or wood arch from a hobby shop or building supply store, then decorate it to suit your taste.

These two sophisticated types of arches are perfect as wedding beach decorations:

Tropical Arch: Start with your metal or wood arch and wrap palm or banana leaves around it. Add a big dash of color with tropical flowers like antherium, birds-of-paradise or heliconia. Hang a large seashell, starfish or other beach item from the peak and you’re done.

Chuppah arches: Often used in Jewish ceremonies, chuppahs are canopies made with a cloth or sheet supported by four poles. A chuppah provides an intimate ceremony and shade for the wedding couple. For additional appeal, use shorter poles and ask members of your wedding party to assist, with one holding each of the poles during your wedding.

Decorative Accessories

Here are five ideas to help you think outside the box and complete your wedding beach decorations inexpensively:

1. Use local flowers to line the aisle. If there are chairs on both sides, hang flowers from the chair backs or arms. If you don’t have chairs, make an aisle by putting palm fronds or banana leaves on the sand. Then add color by placing orchids or local flowers on top of the leaves.

2. Enhance your decorations with torches. Tiki torches are just what the doctor ordered to balance and harmonize your wedding beach decorations. Two rows of torches placed four feet apart can be used to create a natural aisle. If you already have an aisle, plant the torches randomly and light them to create a textbook tropical atmosphere. If your wedding takes place at dusk, all the better.

3. Ribbons are another spot-on accompaniment for beach weddings. Ribbons, fluttering and waving in the ocean breeze, are just the thing for setting off your celebration. Use pastel colors in pink, blue and coral. Make sure ribbons are well-secured so they don’t blow away.

4. If you scatter local items like starfish, seashells, coconuts and palm leaves throughout the area you’ll harmonize your wedding beach decorations with their setting. Make sure you don’t put any sharp items where guests might accidentally step on them and hurt themselves.

5. Boat oars, anchors and fishing net are also perfect elements for unifying your beach wedding theme. Borrow these from friends or nearby residents along the beach.

More Money Saving Ideas

Instead of buying expensive items like flooring, tables, chairs and other large items, it makes sense to rent them. If you want to buy them anyway, buy what’s on sale at warehouse clubs and hobby shops. Skip items that aren’t on sale.

Instead of buying or renting smaller decorations, borrow from family and friends. Someone you know probably has an arch, extra ribbon or sea shells they would be happy for you to use in your ceremony. Make a list of what you need and ask around.

Make some of your own beach decorations. Bows, signs, ribbons and those types of decorative items are easy to make, and making them yourself will save you money.

Use locally grown flowers whenever possible. They’re usually cheaper than flowers grown elsewhere. Another consideration is the limited shelf life that flowers have. If flowers aren’t sold quickly, within just a few days, they have to be thrown out. Ask local florists for special deals on flowers that need to be sold quickly.

Keep it simple. When you get married on a beach, the surroundings are the decorations. You don’t need much else. Include a few tasteful accessories and you’re home free.

Beach Wedding Magic is devoted to helping couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for expert advice on wedding beach decorations, cakes, flowers, wedding planners and much more.

Now you can relax, because when you decided to have a beach wedding instead of a more traditional setting, you just may have made the best decision of your life. No mundane local event center wedding for you; instead, you’ll have a romantic, picturesque seaside wedding. Beach wedding planning can be more complicated than planning for a traditional ceremony, however, so you’ll want to simplify wherever you can.

How can you simplify planning your wedding on the beach? We’ve developed a practical five-point strategy to help you plan a magical ceremony on your wedding beach.

1. Realism is Important

Whether their location is a beautiful church or on a scenic beach, it takes a lot of time to plan and organize weddings. Beach weddings involve a lot of things, including finding the right beach, booking flights or other travel arrangements, organizing the flowers and food, choosing the perfect wedding dress, organizing the reception and more. You see the problem.

For maximum results with minimal stress, it’s best to begin your wedding planning process at least 12 months in advance. This will give you ample time to book hotels, buy airline tickets, arrange your wardrobe and mail invitations. It will also give your guests enough time to make their own travel plans.

2. Select Your Setting

Selecting a wedding beach for your ceremony should be done as early as possible in the planning process. Why? More popular wedding beach venues are booked well in advance and you don’t want to end up settling for a less than ideal spot. Also, the remainder of your preparation process (selecting caterers, photographers, florists, etc.) will hinge on your chosen location.

Once you make a decision on location, commit to it. It will make the rest of your planning much simpler and easier.

3. Anticipate the Weather

You really don’t need to worry about the weather with indoor weddings. Beach ceremonies, on the other hand, make weather a real factor. Rain on the day of your wedding might be unwanted, but you can deal with it if you are inside a church. A beach may not offer any type of shelter.

This means that you and everyone else at the ceremony may need to quickly decide whether to continue with the wedding or stop it. Because you can’t plan the weather on the beach, you need to anticipate it by arranging a backup location. The best way to do this is to make arrangements for the alternate site as soon as you choose your wedding beach. Your backup will give you a place to hide from the weather if it turns ugly.

4. Secure Your Service Providers Early

Another critical component of beach wedding planning is finding the most competent wedding service providers to work for you. The best service providers are booked well in advance and typically charge more for spur of the moment service requests.

Ask the staff of local hotels in the area for recommendations. Most will happily provide you with a list of reliable florists, photographers and other providers. Sometimes you can negotiate a better deal with wedding service providers by having a local business refer you.

5. Don’t Procrastinate on Paperwork

After you’ve selected the right beach location and you’ve lined up your wedding service providers, you can move on to completing paperwork. What paperwork do you need to worry about? If you are a US citizen and your wedding is in another country, you definitely will need a passport.

You’ll also need a marriage license (which typically requires a blood test), forms for the bride to complete if she wants to change her name, and for most venues, a permit to hold the ceremony on the beach. This paperwork isn’t difficult, but you don’t want to overlook anything.

To avoid feeling overwhelmed, create a wedding planning blueprint using these tips as a guideline. Follow your blueprint and you’ll be on your way to organizing a magical celebrations on your wedding beach.

BeachWeddingMagic is devoted to helping soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for tips and advice on choosing the best wedding beach, decorations, flowers, clothing and much more.

If you are beginning your beach wedding planning process, then you probably already know that finding the right venue for your celebration can make the difference between a dream wedding and one that is not so dreamy.

The venue you decide on will also govern how far you will need to travel and where to look for the florist, caterer, photographer and other people who will provide services at your wedding. Beach venues, especially in international destinations, can also require some additional paperwork for you and your guests.

Here are some tips to help you settle on a wedding beach that’s just right for your celebration:

Enter “beach wedding locations” into your favorite Internet search engine. Look for a hotel or other business in a desirable area that owns a private beach. The reason a private beach is preferable to a public beach is that you will usually need to obtain a permit in order to hold your ceremony on a public beach. Local agencies are happy to issue such permits, but regulations on many public beaches ban you from bringing chairs, erecting temporary structures (such as tents and awnings), consuming alcohol (such as champagne) or having floral arrangements.

No permit is needed to use a private beach as the setting for your ceremony, provided the owner gives permission for your wedding. Beach owners usually have more relaxed rules about what can be done on their property, so you will have more flexibility to set up and decorate your wedding beach however you like. If you need this kind of freedom, book your beach venue through a business that owns an exclusive section of beach. Hotels are likely candidates.

You should also decide how far you want to travel. Do you prefer getting married on the United States mainland, or are you also considering international destinations as well? When you are deciding how flexible you want to be about your travel, also consider any possible travel limitations your guests might have.

If you’re planning a seaside wedding in a foreign country, your guests will have to schedule time away from their jobs as well as set aside money for their travel costs. Depending on which country they live in, some of your guests might need tourist visas to reach your wedding’s location.

There is less chance that American citizens will need a tourist visa, but they still will be required to have a valid passport before being permitted to travel outside the US. The bottom line is that although selecting a wedding beach in a foreign country clearly can be worth the annoyance, you will have some additional hurdles to overcome.

Fortunately, the United States offers an abundance of spectacular locations for your seaside wedding. Beach venues in the US are located along hundreds of miles of coastline on the country’s mainland, or if you prefer, offshore within US territory.

The mainland offers a number of highly desirable wedding beach venues, including the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and San Diego, California. And Hawaii, far away from the US mainland in the Pacific Ocean, is simply one of the most breathtaking and accommodating wedding destinations you could find anywhere. It’s no wonder that hundreds of couples select Hawaii for their wedding celebration every year.

If you have your heart set on an even more far-flung destination, then there are plenty of stunning beaches around the world to choose from. Pristine beaches and plentiful beach wedding resources await you at coastal areas in Mexico, Greece, Barbados, Aruba and the Seychelles Islands. Most countries that are renowned for their beaches offer all the resources you need to turn your seaside wedding fantasy into reality.

These tips, along with the amount of money you can spend, can guide your decision about where you will have your wedding. Beach venues can be found almost everywhere, and finding the right one is a process that will be filled with exhilaration and anticipation.

Beach Wedding Magic is devoted to helping couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and advice on wedding beach venues, flowers, decorations, wedding planners and much more.

You want your beach wedding ceremony and reception to be a picture-perfect event where your family and friends come together to share your new-found joy.

It is essential to choose the right centerpieces since these will serve as the focal point of tables at your wedding. Beach centerpieces should be striking and natural-looking. They should blend seamlessly with the beach theme.

The four primary ingredients of wedding beach centerpieces are sand, glass, sea shells and flowers. These ingredients can be easily interchanged allowing for almost infinite centerpiece designs that are dazzling as well as practical.

Here are some tips for creating attention-grabbing centerpieces.

Playful Candles: This is the most basic and easiest design. Start with a small transparent glass vase – the kind sometimes used to shield candles from the wind. Fill the vase about 1/3 full with white sand. Place a lit candle on top of the sand, surround the vase with flower leis and sea shells and voila! You have classic table centerpieces for your wedding. Beach centerpieces like this one are delicate and pretty. They are also inexpensive and fun to make.

Tropical Flowers: To create a centerpiece that blends perfectly with beach surroundings, choose a larger vase heavily textured with a sandy, rocky surface. Balance the muted tone of the vase by filling it with zesty red antherium, hibiscus and birds of paradise flowers. Surround the flowers with palm or banana leaves. Add a few large shells and you have an elegant, “beachy” centerpiece to complement your reception.

Beach Buckets: For a more playful centerpiece, collect several small, brightly colored sand buckets (the kind designed for toddlers). Next, arrange a small pile of sand on the table. Place the bucket in the sand. Fill the bucket about one quarter full of sand. Place a small votive candle in the sand inside the bucket. Surround the bucket with small shells, starfish, seahorses and sand dollars. Light the candle and enjoy a gorgeous beach wedding centerpiece that only took you a few minutes to create! For an extra touch, add a few miniature rakes at each table so your guests can enjoy the serenity of their own tiny Zen garden.

Centerpiece Do’s and Don’ts: You might want some additional tips if your reception will be outdoors, in addition to the wedding. Beach sun can wilt flowers very quickly on a hot summer day, and those gentle beach breezes can sometimes become gusts that can blow out your candles at the wrong moment.

Fortunately, you can avoid this with some planning. If your centerpieces use candles, ensure that they’re well shielded. You can use something as simple as a glass to serve this purpose.

Choose flowers that will stand up to direct sunlight and high temperatures. For example, antherium, calla lilies, ginger and bird of paradise all do this well. An experienced florist can help you achieve the ideal balance between beauty and longevity.

Don’t buy any flowers until you tell your florist you plan to use them on an outdoor wedding beach. Ask your florist to give you one flower so you can test it. Put it in a vase and place it near the planned location of the reception. Keep an eye on it for several hours to see how well it does in the sun and heat.

Beach centerpieces that reflect your personal style can be created inexpensively by using these tips to blend the best flowers with sea shells, sand and glass.

BeachWeddingMagic helps soon-to-be-married couples create their own magical on beach wedding. Visit BeachWeddingMagic.com for suggestions and how tos on wedding beach centerpieces, decorations, flowers, wedding planners and much more.