Okay the wedding engagement has been called off (Scream!!!) What do you do? Bury your head in the sand and pretend that nothing had happened or sit at home and stay away from as many people as possible?

The thing is, you do not have to explain why the engagement is being been broken off to anyone. Of course people will be curious to know what happened and even shocked! Don’t let their curiosity kill you. It is best for everyone involved if the former couple and their close friends or families can agree to merely say that the engagement was broken off by mutual agreement.

Start by notifying your family and friends by phone or just send them a note (a note will probably be easier and will help deflect unwanted questions). You do not need to say anything more than that the engagement has been called off, or that the wedding will not take place. Do not say that the wedding “has been postponed” unless it has genuinely been postponed.

If wedding invitations have already been sent, you should send a formal announcement card to your entire guest list. Any gifts received like wedding gifts or shower gifts - should be returned to the person who gave you the gift with a note saying you appreciate their effort and support but the wedding has been called off due to mutual agreement

Tags: Wedding engagement.

This has happened to almost every couple getting married. Its either the Bride is late or the Groom comes one hour later! Why is this always the case?

Organization is the Key!

Most “to-be-married” couples make the grievous mistake of not planning the timing of the wedding programme to make allowance for any hitch that may arise. Last minute arrangement could be embarrassing, frustrating and a cause for pointing fingers! To avoid this, certain things must be considered during the planning of the wedding.

Location of the Church and Hall: Is the Church and Hall located at a reasonable distance from your departure point? If this is not then you might want to consider lodging at a nearby hotel or Inn a day before as this will create opportunity for you to be on time and to walk into the church, relaxed and composed.If the venue location, you reckon might be difficult to locate, then help your guest by creating a little map of the venue location in the invitation card.

The Wedding Guests: Although most friends would not tell you, they find it rather inconvenient and tiring to travel a long distance just to attend the first ceremony. You want to consider where most of your friends and relatives are based to avoid them coming late or walking in just when the ceremony is almost over and all the pictures taken.

Save them the trouble. We know its all about you getting married, but at the same time you want your guest to be happy and satisfied as well. How about transport arrangements to the venue. You can hire a car or a luxurious bus to pick guests up from a convenient location. You can also make a journey plan from a central location highlighting what bus to take and landmarks to help find the venue! This can be added to the invitation card.

Transport or Traffic: If your wedding ceremony is to be held in the city, consider the traffic situation and do not set the time during rush-hour period. As most weddings are conducted on a Saturday, traffic could be hellish as earlier said; choosing a hall or church at a reasonable distance from you, your partner and invitees would help matters a lot. If you feel you have no choice as to the wedding location then be prepared to leave the house or departure point early enough. There is no point telling your guest to be prompt and then you come in late. That shows lack of organization.

Bridal/Grooms Wedding Car: Always make an alternative car arrangement; do not be too confident that nothing might go wrong! Arrange for a friends car or at least an uncolored cab just in case “the car” becomes an issue.

On your Invitation card, you might consider adding the number of a friend or family that is readily available to pick calls and answer enquiries on or before the wedding day. Do not give a number that just rings and no reply at the other end.

Whatever the situation, always have a plan B or an alternative arrangement to save time!

Tags: Wedding Day

Wedding cake and cake toppers serve as an important part of the overall decoration at the wedding reception. Many couples are opting away from the traditional white cake to that of different colour, shape, flavour and design.

In most cases, cakes continue to be tiered to provide the height that is really essential if the cake is to command the centre of attention as far as the reception decorations are concerned.

In a bid to make their wedding cake really stand out from the rest, many are beginning to spend a little extra time to get a special wedding cake topper. Humorous wedding cake toppers can really be an eye catcher. There are a wide variety of wedding cake toppers to choose from and a variety of sources where they can be purchased.

You can ask your baker or wedding cake maker to create one if possible, it might not be the best but its the easiest and quickest way you can get one.If your cake maker does not know how to make one, then you can search for companies that makes unique wedding decorations and order yours online.

You can create a unique cake topper by infusing your personality into it. For example if your husband has been reluctant to tie the knot and seal the deal then a wedding cake topper where the bride is dragging the groom can be humorous.

Another way to make it humorous is to design the topper around something that you both enjoy together. Whatever your hobbies are try incorporating one of them into your wedding cake topper this can make for a unique topper.

As much as you want to be different and unique, do not create something that would be offensive, questionable or downright irritating. Below is a picture of a cake topper from a Wedding.

In as much as it drew most attention from people all over, most comments about it were negative. So you want to be careful what you decide to create!

Cake toppers are meant to make your guest laugh, poke fun and create a chance for people to start conversation on the wedding day! Tell us what you think about this wedding cake topper.

Tags: Cake Toppers, Wedding Cakes

It is being said that one should marry someone you know you cannot live without and not someone you can live with. So if you are ready to make that important decision, how can you do it without the thought of being labeled unromantic and boring?

The special season is always a big opportunity to pop out the big question because special occasions add to the excitement! If you want to actually propose during the Christmas season or at her birthday, you need to decide if you like to make it public or private. Perhaps you want everyone to witness this special event. Whatever you decide, private or personal, you need to think of the right time and the right place.

As you probably know her more than any one at this stage, you need to think of ways that you feel would bring a smile to her face and say YES!

The age old “drop on one knee” to propose is fast becoming obsolete, many people are actually creating a landmark moments in their proposal.

For instance, a girl was on her way to work one morning, then found a bill board on a normal route with her and her boyfriend asking her to marry him.

Be creative and romantic, do something that people would want to talk about for ages on.

Do not propose to her when she is just out of the bathroom after brushing her teeth or proposing to her on the phone or worse still on the internet!!! Make a solid plan; take her on a romantic trip to a place you’ve both wanted to go, as you watch the sun set, ask her to marry you or to her favorite spot where you spend the time together most times. You can propose to her at the cinema, with your proposal popping out of the screen before the movie starts. How about on the pages of her favorite newspaper or journal.

How about creating a treasure hunt especially for her? Start by creating a note that may simply say something in a note like follow the rainbow to find gold. Next lay her trail of something she loves that she’ll definitely follow. Put a few more notes in between that say how you feel like, “you colour my world”.

Of course at the end of the trail when she opens the door, there you are, in perfect position and saying the loveliest phrase any women can hear. It would surprise you how easy and cheap it is to arrange for this.

It doesn’t have to be anything too elaborate, but your lady will definitely appreciate the time and effort that you put into it. It’ll also help you avoid funny incidents like losing the ring as she flips open her table napkin, if you think the deed through. In the end, it’s still all about one question and the fervent hope that she’ll say yes!

Any creative and romantic proposal you’ve heard or seen? Tell us about it!

Tags: wedding proposal

It’s your big day. You’re getting married. As you plan to make your wedding big, or lavishly, its time to start thinking of your probable life together in DEBT!

Let’s face it, more bride and groom are paying for their own wedding these days, but want to do it responsibly. Not many young couples would like the idea of spending a fortune on their wedding day without having to think of the expenses of welcoming a special one to the family almost soon afterwards. You want to carefully think about how much you are spending on the D-day without having much impact on your finances.

The good news is inexpensive weddings do not necessarily mean you have to give up on style or class. These are tips that should be considered when you are trying to cut cost and still want to create the “LOOK” and the “FEEL”.

Firstly, start by cutting down the number of invitees to your wedding as more people more expenses! If it must be a come one , come all party then you should still have an idea of the number of guest coming so that you can cater for their needs and make sure all is happy. Although not quite popular, having a strict invites to your wedding is a sure way of making your wedding look organised and controlled. whether there are 20, 50 or 100 people invited, you know they would all go home happy.

You can hire your wedding gown, as you might not have any need to use it afterwards. You can even get to hire that perfect designer wedding gown for your D –day. Nobody cares to know what you do with it aftewards, they just want to see how beautiful you look that day .

When making your cake, try to choose one with a simple design. You can make that simple cake look really sumptuous by its colour and natural designs on it. You can ask the cake designer to minimize the hand made designs and use natural designs like flowers and pearls as this would lower the cost of the cake.

When deciding on your video and pictures, you can ask two of your friends to come along with a digital camera to take your pictures, what is even more interesting is getting a disposable Kodak camera on your guest table (if the number of your guest are controlled). Let them take various shots as they wish so that everyone have a copy of the wedding pictures without the need to feel obligated to print extra for relatives and close friends. Take your pictures to your local photo lab and edit them yourself or use your computer and add your own effects. This will save you a ton of money. For your video you can do the same. You can have a friend get a video cam to take reality shots of you from the house to the alter, and then give to a professional editor to edit it.

No one would critize you if you decide to have your wedding at a home or at a friend’s house. When you have a wedding at home you do not pay any fees that comes with renting a hall. I remember going for a wedding that was done beautifully in the back garden of a house and it was perfect with the right decorations and flowers, you can never go wrong. Also you can bring whatever food you would like and ask your friends and relatives to help with the serving.

When deciding on entertainment, you can have a friend with access to the Internet to download your favorite songs and burn them to a disc and play them at your reception. You can even ask your brother to DJ on that day. He would be more than excited to do that am sure!
If you are having an outdoor wedding have it just before the rainy season, as this would most likely not be as hot as it would be. Also prepare yourself for the rain. Have an alternative plan to get the cake and other decorations that are sensitive to rain put up and out of the way as this would save the cost of setting up a marquee.

Do not be afraid to ask for help. Ask groomsmen and bridesmaids to help decorate before the wedding and assign each one of them a couple of simple tasks each. This will save you on decorating and clean up before and after the wedding.

What is more important than having to save more for your honeymoon and after- wedding expenses?

Tags: Wedding Budget, Wedding Planning

Going for a wedding, you are no doubt puzzled with an inevitable age old question - What should I give?

Most wedding attendees would like to be different but just don’t know how to. How do you guarantee that your gift to the couples would be appreciated or even loved? There are simple rules that we must keep in mind when considering buying a gift.

Get creative but not too creative- one way you can simply bypass all the fuss is by selecting a gift straight from the couple’s wish list. Look onto their webpage (if they have one), there you know you cannot possibly go wrong. What if they do not have a wish list? You might say. Then ring up and ask her or him to come up with a list for you.

Many couple would love to have a twist on their traditional gifts even if the gift hails from the kitchen, dining, bedding and bath department. For instance, you can give them gifts that would create a spa-like, hotel environment every morning when they wake up- for instance a lovely designed set of bedsheet with African prints!

A pair of thread- count hotel towels with their names on it. In terms of entertainment, you can consider giving a make do Barbecue stand or state of the art kitchen gadgets that looks good in the counter as they do when in use.

Start looking around within two months of the wedding coming up. We all live a busy life but realise that we still need to give a gift anyhow on or after the wedding day. Many of us rush to the market just that Saturday to look around and end up getting the same gift most people would bring!

Starting to look around early would provide the opportunity for variety and proper arrangement to deliver the gift appropriately whether on the wedding day or immediately afterwards without fear of damage or it being stolen.

Whatever you may decide to give to the couple as a gift; whether as expensive as a car or a house … to right down to a bottle of champagne or liquor or otherwise, always remember that it is your relationship with the couple getting married and your presence that matters more !

Received any weird presents or gifts lately on your wedding day? Share with us your rants or appreciation.

Tags: Wedding Gifts

We are launching this site in December. For all the lovely couples who are getting married and having their weddings in December, we will like to wish you a wonderful day.

This site will be writing about weddings every week and also publishing great pictures online of weddings. Hope to see you soon.

Tags: Weddings in Nigeria