When planning a small wedding for a few close friends and family members, you will be able to be more flexible with some of the details than you would otherwise. For example, where food is concerned you’ll have a lot more leeway. Depending on what your budget will allow, you can have hors d’oeuvres, a full buffet, or go all out with a catered event. If your wedding party is small enough, you can even reserve a room at a nice restaurant.

Planning a small wedding should not break the budget, and you can spend the money where it really matters. While no one will remember what they ate or drank, the photos and videos from the event will last forever. Your wedding should be a one-time affair, and you’ll want to capture photos of you in your wedding gown, and you’ll want them to be of the highest quality. You definitely don’t want to skimp on the photos and videos.

You will be able to involve your guests for when planning a small wedding. At one wedding, the couple had each guest sign their name and write their sentiments on the tablecloth. Through the next several years, the wife took those sentiments and embroidered them onto the tablecloth. Today, that is a cherished heirloom that will get passed down through the generations.

Smaller, more intimate weddings generally seem more personal than the large social gatherings some couples choose. When you are planning a small wedding, you have a lot more options on where to hold the event. You can have it in your home or another home, you could have a garden wedding, or you could rent a gazebo and have the wedding guests gather around it has you exchange vows.

Whether you decide to plan a small wedding or a large wedding, the size of the wedding is not necessarily tied to the size of the budget. Many couples have large weddings on a small budget, and you can definitely have a small wedding on a large budget. If you are planning a small wedding though, you should be better able to get the groom involved with the planning. Large weddings can be intimidating to the groom, as they see a lot of people involved. Planning a small wedding gives you both an opportunity to exchange ideas before you exchange your vows.

Matt Ream

http://www.articlesbase.com/marriage-articles/tips-for-planning-a-small-wedding-123222.html

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Need speeches for weddings help? – check out the father of the bride speech

Your wedding day may very well be the biggest day of your life, and for many, it is second only to the days their children were born. Preserving those wedding day memories may not seem like a big deal right now because that day is still fresh in your mind, but as the years wear on, those memories may start to fade. By taking steps to preserve the special moments of the day, you can enjoy these memories for the rest of your life.

The first step for preserving your wedding memories is to take pictures. Any type of camera works great for a wedding and it allows you to capture every special moment. Wedding photography is important to many couples and there are several options to consider when taking these pictures. The first option available is to bring your own camera and ask a family member to take the photos. Another option is to hire a professional photographer. A photographer can capture every moment from the ceremony to the reception. If there is extra time between these events, you can gather at a local park for pictures with the bridal party. Regardless of how many pictures you order, making sure that they are preserved correctly. Always handle pictures by their edges, as the natural oils on your hands could cause smudging, fading, and discoloration.

Aside from taking photos, you can order a professional video of your wedding. Although these can be expensive, they are well worth the investment. Like the photos, the video captures every special moment of your celebration from the ceremony to the reception.

If you choose to take pictures at your wedding, you can create a memory book. These scrap books are an excellent method of preserving these memories because you can always look back to this special day. These scrap books may also contain your photos from your honeymoon.

You can also purchase a guest book to help you remember who celebrated your big day with you. Guest books can be signed before the ceremony, or you can use the guest book at the reception, where people often have more time to leave personal messages. Some guest book kits come with a kit for storage, as well as drawer where you can keep a copy of your invitation, special wedding pictures, or your marriage license. When looking for a guest book or a photo album, make sure you find one that is acid free. Acid is what makes pages turn yellow and brittle with age, so by choosing an acid free guest book instead, yours can stay as preserved as possible. As for your invitation, if you do not store it with your guest book, consider getting it framed. Small wedding-related displays in your home look beautiful and help you remember how you felt that day.

Preserving your wedding dress is also important. There are a number of ways to preserve your wedding dress, but it starts with making sure the garment is clean. Do not try to do this yourself, even if you have a very casual wedding dress. In fact, you should not even take your wedding dress to your regular dry cleaner. Look for a dry cleaner with experience in dealing with wedding dresses, and take it there right away – do not wait until you get back from your honeymoon. If you are leaving right away, this duty may fall to the mother of the bride or the maid of honor. After the dress is clean, you can have it preserved in a box, either sealed or not. You can also have the dress carefully cut and turned into pillows, wall hangings, or other decorative pieces. What is most important is that you do not just throw the dress in the back of your closet and forget about it.

Do not forget to preserve items from your honeymoon. Many couples do not think about it, but ten or twenty years down the road, you may wish you had those ticket stubs, itineraries, pictures, postcards, and other items from your honeymoon. Here is a good idea, while on vacation, keep a special pocket or bag where you store items that you want to save. At the end of each day, put the items you have in that pocket or bag so that they are not scattered when you get home or, worse, accidentally thrown away.

Today, your wedding day might be clear in your mind. For many couples, those memories of the day may last forever, but it is always nice to have beautiful reminders of your big day. Do not overlook preservation just because you feel like you do not need it to remember your wedding right now. You will thank yourself in the future that you have taken the time to preserve your memories today.

Lisa Parker

http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/preserving-wedding-memories-for-years-to-come-682936.html

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Make sure they choose a camera that can zoom from far away without producing a grainy or unclear picture. It’s sometimes hard to get close-up to the scene at a wedding so you’ll need the best zoom feature. Optical zoom is a good friend and will ensure a better quality of image. Next, it’s important for a camera to have a high mega pixel range, say 5 or above. This is especially critical for making prints because resolution affects the illusory realism of the picture in the sharpness, etc.

Furthermore, the memory capacity of the camera is important because of the multitude of pictures you take at a wedding. It can be daunting and you don’t want anything to go wrong.. You won’t want to run out of memory at the couple’s initial kiss as a newly married couple. In other words, you don’t want, “You may kiss the bride”, to become equivalent to, “No more memory, please shut down the camera.”

There is usually someone that knows the bride or the groom that is a keen amateur photographer. They are often willing to take pictures at your wedding. But think twice – although you may be saving money, you may also be creating a headache for yourself (and the amateur cameraman).

Eric Hartwell

http://www.articlesbase.com/marriage-articles/wedding-photos-think-before-you-ask-an-amateur-125122.html

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These top tips will help you to get the photos of your dreams from the day of your life.

1. Don’t rule out doing it yourself. Surprised? You probably don’t expect to feed the guests yourself and few people these days make their own outfits, so why wouldn’t you hire a professional photographer to take the photos or film the whole event?

For starters, nobody knows your friends and family like you do, except for them themselves. Many professional photographers stipulate that no one else is allowed to take pictures at your wedding – after all they want you to buy as many pictures from them as you can. But professional photographers tend to concentrate on posed pictures of the ‘wedding party’ post-vows and whilst we may want a record of how fine we looked, those stiff group shots never sum up the feel of a day like a picture of a loved one laughing or revellers on a dance floor. By allowing your friends and family to take their own shots, you can get those candid shots that a professional would never think to take.

2. Appoint two family members to be head photographers. Why two? Unless your families know each other very well, the chances are that each photographer will show a bias towards the people they know. So whilst the groom’s family are in every shot, the bride’s might be neglected. Most families have at least one person with a photography hobby that they’d love an opportunity to practice. You might think the day is all about you, but a wedding is a huge celebration of your commitment and in years to come you’ll enjoy looking at the pictures of your friends and family enjoying themselves. Yes, you want some great shots of you and your spouse looking your very best, but don’t neglect the guests!

3. Put a disposable camera on every table at the reception and offer a prize for the best photos. Sounds unconventional? Well, you may find a few unwanted snaps come development time, but this ups the chance that the cameras will be filled. Quite often people forget about the cameras after the first bottle of wine is opened and at the end of the event only a few pictures may have been taken. By offering a token gift for each filled camera brought to you at the end of the night you’ll be sure of having photos that show what happened after the vows have been said and the posed shots are over.

4. Encourage your friends to bring their cameras and get them to email digital shots to you afterwards or forward their pictures by post. Once the wedding is over you’ll realise just how little time you got to spend with each guest and it’s far better to have as many pictures to choose from as possible of your big day, particularly if you plan to print them for an album later. Don’t forget to ask when you write your thank yous.

5. Remember that even the best laid plans can go awry. Having a photo of that ripped veil or Uncle Bob drunk (again) under a table or the pageboy picking his nose at the critical moment will one day be something you can laugh about when the photos come out. If you do decide to go the ‘unprofessional’ route of wedding photos, the good thing about using amateurs is that you won’t be relying on just one person to produce the goods. Because even professionals can get it wrong and if that happens, the chances could be that you’ll have no record at all.

Abbi Rouse

http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/top-five-tips-for-getting-great-wedding-photos-679648.html

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