Congrats to More Newlywed Friends!

My husband and I made the trip to Oak Brook, Illinois on Saturday to attend the wedding of my good college friend. Despite a little rain, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, only made more beautiful by the amazing wedding and reception, held on the McDonald's campus of Hamburger University.

The bride wore a beautiful, off-white gown, and the bridesmaids were clad in bright pink dresses. In fact, the entire wedding was very pink, with the table and chairs covers being pink and white, and the groomsmen donning pink and green ties. It was a bright, summery wedding for sure!

Best of luck to the happy couple!

A Kissing Menu?

Do you dread hearing the sounds of clinking glasses all night long at your wedding reception, begging you and your new spouse to smooch?

I was reading this Real Wedding story on the Southern Wedding Style Magazine blog about a couple named Alex and Jeremy and thought this was the cutest idea...

This couple listed their favorite wedding detail as being: The kissing game menu.

The bride said:

"My husband put together a great list of toast alternatives – instead of simply kissing when a bell was rung or a glass was clinked, we put our guests to work. Jeremy created a mini menu that listed some fun kissing alternatives.

Guests could either serenade us with a song (the "Singapore Sing"), demonstrate a kiss for the bride and groom to copy (the "Carolina Kiss"), recite a limerick about love (the "Irish Blessing") or share some time-honored marriage advice (the "French Toast").

Some amazing talent came out of the woodwork that night, including a tag-team comedic rendition of "Can't Help Falling in Love" and a few kisses that we can't copy for you here."

I think this is a great idea because it is not only fun and creative, but it also completely involves your guests in your Big Day. Your guests will come up with the most creative, thoughtful and funny activities that you, your family and your other guests will remember forever!

Unique Ceremony Sites in Central Illinois

A month or two ago, I was contacted by a girl who is a former Springfield resident and now lives in California. She is planning to be married in 2009 and was wondering if I possibly could give her any ideas of unique places to get married at.

She specified that she didn't really want a well-known church, but maybe a country chapel, gardens or somewhere interesting to tie the knot at.

At first, I had no idea what to tell her. But I started to do a little research and found out there are way more great places to get married at in Springfield and the surrounding areas that I thought. Aside from the traditional church, Central Illinois is full of historical landmarks and unique pieces of land that can play host to a wedding.

I gave her several ideas that she hadn't thought of to look at yet, and decided to compile my own list. So check out the latest wedding planning article at Simply Weddings for interesting and special ideas about wedding ceremony sites!

Providing Meals for Your Reception Vendors

The seating chart is turned in, along with your finals numbers for your reception. Not so fast - did you remember to include your reception vendors?

It's certainly not required, but I think that providing a meal for your vendors is a classy move and I'm sure hugely appreciated. Your vendors will be going for hours non-stop to provide service for your wedding, and getting a chance to sit down for a few minutes and enjoy a nice meal is definitely nice.

Think not only your DJ or band, caterer and wedding coordinator but also your photographer. Your photographer and videographer have most likely been at your side for the vast majority of the day, on their feet for hours and will probably be starving by the time dinner is served. As long as your vendors have everything covered for about 15 minutes (songs on the playlist, etc.), they should absolutely be given a meal in my opinion.

Sure, it's not a must, but a bonus will be that they will be happier in the end, and therefore do their jobs better!

If you're serving a buffet, just add your vendors into the head count. If you're doing a sit-down dinner, you could either serve them the same meals as your guests or a less elaborate version. And don't forget to have a place for them to eat, such as setting up a small table in the corner of your reception venue, so that they have a place to set any personal items (cameras for the photogs) and sit down to eat.

And be sure to talk it over with each of them and make sure that they actually want to be fed and don't have any dietary restrictions in regards to what you will be serving!