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Pictures are an integral part of any wedding. Newlyweds are usually thrilled to get their pictures back from the photographer so they can relive their special day. But there are many special activities you can build into a wedding that involve photos.

One fun idea that many brides employ is to take photos of everyone as they arrive at the wedding, almost like you do at a high school prom or company Christmas party. You can provide a backdrop and couples can pose either for a paid photographer or for whoever happens to pick up the camera. These pictures can be taken with a Polaroid camera for instant fun or with a disposable camera. If you want slightly higher quality photos, go for a digital camera.

This can be an excellent way to keep guests busy and happy until the “official” reception begins with the arrival of the bride and groom.

As an extension of that idea, you can take instant photos and create scrapbook pages or memory book pages with the photos. There can be supplies on hand so guests can create pages on site, or pages can be pre-made and photos simply placed into the prepared spaces. If guests don’t want to create pages on site, or the bride doesn’t want this particular activity going on, the photos can be saved for later. As a gift for the bride and groom, someone can create memory books with these photos.

If Polaroid cameras are used, another option is to have the people in the photo sign the Polaroid photo and place that in a basket somewhere. The bride and groom will enjoy looking at the photos later.

While it’s not a particularly unique idea, many brides like to provide disposable cameras on each table at the reception so guests can capture candid shots of the reception and the table guests. These photos can be added to the newlyweds’ wedding album or they can be placed into a separate album showing the wedding from the guests’ perspective.

Another fun activity sure to be entertaining is to create a “silent photo guess” area. Here’s how this works: before the wedding, someone close to the bride and groom collects pictures of the bride and groom at various stages in life. The photos should depict the bride and groom doing things, not at Christmas or with their first birthday cake. In other words, the photos should include some action, but it shouldn’t be obvious in the picture what has taken place or where the person is.

Much like a silent auction, people will come along and look at the photos, then take a silent guess as to what the photos show. They can write their guess on a piece of paper and put it in a numbered basket that corresponds with the number on the photo. Reading these guesses during the reception is entertaining and sure to be amusing. The bride or groom can provide the real answers. This is a particularly fun activity at a relatively small, family wedding where the participants know the bride and groom very well.

If you want to provide an area for guests to have their photos taken but aren’t thrilled with the “prom night” idea, how about having a photo corner set up somewhere in the reception hall or facility. Here, the wedding photographer will take candid shots of wedding guests. They might be couples, but could also be entire families, friends having a good time, or the groom being carried on the shoulders of the best man. Whatever the pictures end up being, they provide a fun, “let it all hang out” area for the wedding guests and a surprise for the bride and groom. Since they will likely be busy with all the reception details and having the time of THEIR lives, they might appreciate knowing their guests had a pretty good time too, as evidenced in the photos.

When looking at what to do, how to do it and helpful information concerning that important day, it is a good idea and gather your information from a lot of different resources. One of which are the following magazines that are filled with all kinds of ideas and great information fomr professionals all around the world!

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Brides Brides Magazine is for the bride-to-be: everything to ensure a successful wedding! Bridal fashions, etiquette, honeymoon plans, and what to expect.

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Modern Bride Modern Bride Magazine is the bridal magazine that features fashion advice and options, answers all your questions about planning memorable weddings and articles on etiquette, home decorating, entertaining, the honeymoon, and the marriage relationships.

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Something Blue Something Blue Magazine is the new wedding publication for Hawaii. It is a young, fresh and beautiful magazine for today’s stylish bride. Each issue is overflowing with photos, trendy tips, and inspiring ideas to help the bride-to-be plan her wedding to be as unique as she is. Published twice a year, the Spring/Summer issue of Something Blue comes out in March, and the Fall/Winter issue comes out in September.

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Bridal Guide Bridal Guide Magazine is published for the contemporary bride-to-be to ensure a successful wedding day. Topics include wedding fashions, etiquette, decorating and honeymoon travel as well as relationships, marriage and sex.

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If you are planning a wedding and plan to have a unity candle as part of the ceremony, you might want to think outside the box.

Traditionally, the unity candle involves three candles. The bride has one, the groom the other, and their two lighted candles light the third candle. This is done to represent the coming together of the two people to make one unit. In some alternate methods, family members are invited to participate in the unity candle lighting, often the mothers of the bride and groom, or other close members of the family. Each family then lights a candle, and together they light the unity candle to symbolize of the coming together of the families.

Now, there are a few twists you can add to this fairly conventional aspect of a wedding ceremony. You can provide each guest with an unlit candle when they arrive at the ceremony. After the couple lights the unity candle, they can ask the guests to move to the front of the church (or wherever the ceremony is being held) and light their candles with the lighted unity candle. This can take a bit of time and might be best with a smaller guest list. But it is a meaningful way to not only get your guests involved in the ceremony itself, but also symbolize the union of family and friends with the marriage.

If there is a large guest list and it would be a prohibitive waste of time to do a candle lighting involving everyone at the ceremony, some brides and grooms like to bring the unity candle to the reception. Light the candle again and provide each guest with a small votive candle (the candle holder will be on the tables at individual table settings). As guests come into the reception area or hall, they can light their votive and take it to their table to place into the votive holder. This small votive candle can double as a wedding favor, particularly if you decorate or enhance a plain votive candleholder in some way to coordinate with your wedding.

Of course, you can forget having a unity candle at the ceremony altogether. Many brides these days are trying to reduce the length of the ceremony and spend more time planning the reception. In that light, some choose to do away with a unity candle altogether. You can certainly do this, or you can cut it out of the ceremony and make it part of the reception.

To do this, you can use the votive candle option suggested above, or you can simply incorporate the unity candle lighting into the reception activities themselves. For example, you might choose a quiet moment in the reception to have a lighting of the unity candle. It might be during a short prayer prior to the serving of the meal, or right before the cake is cut. In this case, the unity candle can then be used as decoration on the cake table. As the bride and groom cut the cake and pieces are served to guests, the candle can also serve as a reminder of the couple’s new bond and that the bond is shared with all the guests as well.

Although having a unity candle at the wedding or reception isn’t necessary, it is certainly an option that many brides and grooms opt to include. But it’s important to remember that as with so much surrounding wedding planning there are ways to make it unique and interesting and special to the couple getting married.

Choosing a wedding invitation is important because it will give your guests a first impression or glimpse of what your actual wedding will be like. A wedding invitation must, first and foremost, reflect your wedding theme and motif. Wedding invitations also serve as a purpose of being delightful keepsakes.

However, the right wedding invitation need not cost an arm and a leg. It is not wise to spend a fortune that can be used somewhere else. The range of kinds and styles of discount wedding invitation is vast. Choosing a particular one can be very confusing. There are discount wedding invitations and if you follow the guidelines below you will definitely never go wrong in choosing one. The key is to be prudent and not letting yourself get carried away. You can even save more money if you follow these guidelines.

Choose your wedding invitation style well. As mentioned earlier, your primary consideration in choosing a wedding invitation style is the theme and motif of your wedding. Is your wedding grand or simple? Will your wedding be light or formal? Other than that, it all depends on personal taste and budget. But whatever your taste or budget range is, you will definitely be able to find a good wedding invitation.

Determine the kind of wedding you’ll have. Your type of wedding invitation will largely depend on whether you will have a traditional or modern wedding. Traditional weddings would require a more formal invitation. On the other hand, a modern wedding will call for a more modern kind of wedding invitation. Traditional wedding invitations would only contain texts. It wouldn’t contain any graphics. Traditional wedding invitations are usually upright and folded with the words engraved on the right side. Cards used in traditional wedding invitations are usually white or cream and the letterings are in silver and black. If you are having a themes wedding then choose a wedding invitation that is appropriate for your chosen theme. For example, you can have a sixteenth century scrolled parchment wedding invitation if the theme of your wedding is Tudor.

Choosing a supplier. Wedding invitations can be obtained by mail order, printer, stationers and stationery designers or you can buy online. Choose a supplier that provides value added services and features so you will get real value for your money. Some suppliers will help you right the wording in your wedding invitation. Some will even help you with wedding etiquette rules and would help you if you are confused about all the etiquette rules involved in sending out wedding invitations. It would also be nice if the supplier has trained and experienced wedding etiquette and social correctness experts. Choose a supplier that offers personalized service so you can be sure that you are not getting run of the mill wedding invitation.

A good discount wedding invitation supplier will also respond to your inquiries and requests promptly either through email or by phone. But your privacy must always be requested so make sure that any personal information you provide to them is used for the sole purpose of processing your order. Your order must be transmitted across a secure server, so your billing information is kept private.

With today’s economy, one of the least expensive forms of wedding invitations has been designing your own invitation and printing it out on your own printer. Many of the current color printers on the market today have excellent quality and you can purchase your own paper design at places like Office Depot or Paper Chase. JBT Graphic Design is just one place online that you can have your design typed up and use it to print at an extreemly affordable price.

Attending a wedding soon and you still don’t know what to give the couple-to be? Tired of the usually home appliances or home décor? Please, not another blender, vacuum cleaner or oven toaster. Money of course will be very much appreciated but it would deem to impersonal.

Giving gifts to the couple is part of the traditions on wedding. Your gift symbolizes your good will towards the couple. It represents your wish for them to have a happy life together.

Of course, your first consideration when buying wedding gift is durability. You would want to give a gift that would last a long time. But of course you would also want a gift that is individual and would reflect your personality. A gift that the couple will remember is from you because of its uniqueness. This means the wedding gift you should give should make a lasting impression about you.

Below are several unique gift ideas that will surely make you unforgettable with the couple:

Jewelry
Jewelry is a very “safe” yet unique wedding gift especially for the bride. We all know that most women love jewelry and the bride would simply be happy upon seeing your gift of jewelry. The bride will be definitely be surprised and fascinated when she open your gift. Choose simple yet very elegant pieces like brooch pins, hairpins, earrings, pendants, chains, necklaces and bracelets. If you have the money and if the bride really matters to you (a sister, best friend, etc.) then of course you could give her diamonds. You could also include a\n elegant jewelry box along with your jewelry gift.

Bags
Again, this will be another hit with the bride. Next to jewelry, shoe and bags delight women You can give her a beautiful and exquisite evening bag or hand bag. If your want something smaller then give her a clutch bag. You could also put a small make up kit inside.

Gift ideas for the groom
Of course you shouldn’t forget the groom. They say that it is easier to give gifts to men because and it could be true. Some ideal gifts for grooms include writ and pocket watches, ties and tiepins, gold, silver or diamond studded cufflinks. You could also give the groom formal suits and shirts. You could also consider his hobby. Give him a musical instrument like a guitar or drums if he is into music or a set of golf clubs, basketball or baseball set if he is into sports.

Naughty items
Naughty items found in most novelty shops like naughty t-shirts, hast, caps, wedding night kits, underwear are always a hit with couples. However, be sure hat you know the bride and groom very well before considering buying such items for them. Naughty items may seem impolite and offensive to some individuals.

Artwork
Paintings and sculptures are very ideal as wedding gifts. They are also very practical since the couple can use them to beautify their future home. Just be sure that you know the preference of the couple when it comes to art or else your gift would simply lie around in the garage of attic.

Personalized items
You could give the couple personal items like photo albums, pillows and pillow cases, photo frames, wedding plates, etc. There are many companies specializing in personalizing different things so for sure you wouldn’t have a hard time looking.