I’m one of those people who secretly gets excited about Valentine’s Day. I think it’s the decorations and the endless red and pink inspiration that proceeds this day of love.

Are you celebrating Valentine’s Day this year? What are your plans? Do you have any unique ideas for telling your fiance or husband, “I Love You?”

From julieannart.com via Pinterest

I used to work for a Promotional Printing company. You name it, they could slap your logo/design on it. I saw a lot of wedding favor items come and go through that place – Bags, Towels, Wine Glasses, Wine Corks, etc, etc, etc. I don’t know if it’s a product of me seeing so many of these items or what – but I do not want a little trinket sitting at my wedding tables for guests to take home. No offense to anyone that does love these, they’re just not quite my and Olive Dude’s style.

So – what does that leave us with? Well, I’ve actually stumbled across a LOT of “unique” wedding favor ideas (PS. Pinterest, I heart you.) But – how can we narrow it down? Here are the two big options currently being debated in the Olive household:

1. Scratch-Off Lottery Tickets

Super Cute - Can also put a penny inside!

Why it works:

1. SUPER fun for guests – hey they may even win!

2. Very inexpensive – about $1.50 each when all is said and done.

2. Something edible

Love the packaging of these chocolate covered sourdough pretzels!

Homemade cookies in CD sleeves.

Why it Works:

1. Towards the end of a reception, people are normally hungry and they could snack on it during their drive home.

2. People could also take this home for their children, who weren’t invited to our wedding.

I’m leaning towards lotto tickets because it’s different and fun – but am not totally sure. What are your thoughts – what favors are you giving your guests?

I have always been a sucker for the super personalized gifts, especially around special occasions like weddings. My day-of gifts will be no exception. I can’t share what I have in mind for Apricot Momma because she will read this but let me share what I have in mind for my Dad and my FMIL. I found this handkerchief idea on Pinterest and fell in love with it. My Dad is an avid “hankie” user, as he calls them, so this will be perfect.

Similarly, this idea to give you FMIL the hankie below would be awesome. What a powerful message full of so much love and emotion. I think I will order one soon! There are lots of artists on etsy.com who make customized handkerchiefs starting as low as just $10. Check them out! Happy shopping!

What are some other great day-of gift ideas that you used for your parents and in-laws?

I was looking at pinterest yesterday and came across a neat idea called the Date Can.  Basically, this is something to do for a shower but I’m thinking about doing it for the wedding.

The idea is this, you think of, or in my case google “date ideas,” and make a list of all the unique or fun ones.  Print them out, you can even do this on fun paper, and then cut the dates out and put all of them in a can.  Your guests can then pick a date that they can take their significant other on.  What I’m planning on doing as well is giving this as a “wedding gift” to a friend of mine.  Don’t worry, I’m not just going to show up with a tin can with paper in it and gift it to her   You see, my friend is a big gamer, not in the online gaming kind of way but she is always thinking up fun games for people to play when they come over for dinner so I thought that along with some swag and a gift card for her wedding I would also attach an envelope to a bottle of champagne, which would have a tag of its own that said “Live, Love and be…Bubbly!”,  that says the following:

” 12 fun dates for 2012!  Reach in when you’re feeling spontaneous.  Take a photo of your date for your memory book!”

Naturally, I will also get a fun photo album and stick a tag on it that says “memory book.”

Weddings are about fun and love so I’m hoping this gift will exude both and stand out from the usual envelope of cash…which is also nothing to frown upon

Here’s a photo of what got my creative juices churning.

What fun diy ideas do you have for favors?

If you’re anything like Apricot Dude and I, your first dance song holds a special place in your heart. I’ll never forget when we decided on “our song.” We have always been huge 80′s music fans and had my ipod in on the “80′s Awesomeness” playlist. We were driving in the car when our dear friend Phil Collins started singing “We Got A Groovy Kind of Love” and we knew instantly that was ours. I’ve been thinking of a neat way to remember our first dance for many years to come and came across these on etsy today.

How cute are they? Honestly, I think I’ll try to make my own. All you would need it to have it printed and placed in a frame. Or you can check it out on etsy too!

I love everything about food. When I look at my boards on Pinterest for any graphic design inspiration for work or for wedding inspiration – I always find myself drawn to the pictures of food. Not only are most professional food pictures beautiful, but I also pretty much want to eat everything. No judgment.

Anyway, I stumbled across this little gem.

Chocolate + Strawberries + a little Adult Soda? YUM!

These look like they’d be perfect for a bachelorette party or as part of a dessert table at ano-kids wedding. They seem pretty easy to make – and they look delicious!

Not into the alcohol thing? No worries. I’ve also been researching food as an idea for a favor for my guests. A late-night sweet treat of sorts. So far, the current winner is this.

How pretty do these look?

These may be a little bit on the more difficult end to make – but I love how I could incorporate my wedding colors into them by using a little food dye and white chocolate.

What do you guys think?

So after seeing Lilac’s post, I couldnt stop myself from looking for website to website at these adorable hangers.  The pictures of brides’ dresses hanging on them the morning of their weddings, was just too cute for words.  I kept my obsession to myself, why?  I have no idea!  Anyway, one of my closest college buddies came to our engagement party in June and declared that she had found the best engagement gift for us (well really just me! ha!)  But, that it was on order because it was custom and would arrive in a few weeks.  Well the suspense has continued all summer with the final shipping confirmation coming in only 3 days ago.  Well, let me tell you my friend could not have been more right-this was the perfect gift!  Last night, a box addressed to the “Future Mrs. Kobis” arrived at our apartment and it was one of the personalized hangers I’ve been in love with!  Only, this one was 10 times better because my friend found a PINK one!

In Love.

My friend ordered it from Suspended Moments, of course a fantastic Etsy shop because it had the fantastic PINK color.  So Hillary, thank you for knowing me so well and for getting me the perfect gift.  My dress is anxiously waiting to be  hung on it! xo

What was your favorite personalized wedding gift?

Since nothing about the wedding was related to a hotel, I gave guests a list of local lodging and didn’t do welcome bags or anything.

My extremely conscientious maid of honor decided to make bathroom baskets for the women and the men.

The men's restroom basket

She decorated the baskets in tulle and pearls to match the rest of the decorations for the reception. Some of the things in the baskets were:

- hairbands and bobby pins

- shoe shine

- clear nail polish and a nail file

- contact solution

- mini first aid kits

- Tums, ibuprofen and cough drops

- tampons and pads

- tissues and Q-tips

- hand sanitizer and hand lotion

- Shout wipes

- lint roller

- hair brush, comb and hair spray

Along with the baskets she included a cute poem and the number for a cab company in case anyone needed a ride. I’m not sure if any of my guests had to call for a ride, but it made me feel better knowing that it was there for them.

If you’re considering making baskets or some sort of care kit for your guests, I highly recommend it. Half of the hair bands and tampons were gone by the end of the night. One of our male guests was delighted by the shoe shine and several ladies used the nail file and lotion. And that’s only what people told us about.

One thing to consider that my maid of honor mentioned is that if you’re having a reception at a restaurant or somewhere that you have to share the bathroom with other events is that people other than your guests will use and possibly steal the care items. There’s not much of a way to avoid it if you set out a bathroom basket, we had the whole facility to ourselves so that wasn’t a problem.

So just like Magnolia Bud, I am not afraid to admit that one of my newest favorite hobbies as a bride is registry peeking!  Come on-when is there ever another time in your life that you can basically preview your presents?!  And in fact Magnolia, I know we’re not the only two.  I was on the bus on my way home from work last week and saw another girl doing the same thing on her blackberry!  So needless to say, I basically knew 85% of our engagement party gifts before we got them.  The biggest question was who bought us what?  I guessed some based on the gift’s price (my grandma bought us a place setting for our china) and others based on personality (a crystal bowl from our china pattern from Peachy MOH).  The guessing game didn’t take away from the fun of opening the gifts though!  Several of our friends bought us gifts off of registry, which usually I don’t understand when the couple is basically making gifting easy.  But our friends and family know us so well that each gift was picked with our interests and tastes in mind.  Our two favorite off the registry gifts?  A couples massage to relieve some of the wedding planning stress!  and this fun sushi making kit!

The couple that bought us the sushi kit shares our love of sushi and thought it would be fun for us to get together and make our own!  So creative!!

So back to the registry gifts.  What Mr. Peach and I are most excited about is that we received half of our china place settings!!!  I’m slightly obsessed with our china pattern.  I fell in love with it months before our engagement while shopping for other friends engagement/wedding gifts.  In fact, Peachy Mom was so sure I wasnt going to change my mind, that on the night of our engagement, she surprised us with a frame from the pattern.  So what pattern is it you ask?  Kate Spade’s Belle Boulevard

We registered for our china at both Macy’s and Bloomingdales.  Why both places?  This was a suggestion from my Aunt and it actually has worked to our benefit.  Each store runs different promotions at different times.  For example, a short while ago, Bloomingdales ran a promotion that when you bought a place setting you got a soup bowl for free (a $50 something value). So Peachy Aunt, Mom and Grandma each bought us a place setting and got us a free soup bowl too!  Macy’s is now running that promotion and because another three of the place settings that were purchased for us were from Macys, we were able to call Macys and they’re sending us three soup bowls!  Woo for getting 6 soup bowls total for free!   Dont be afraid to work the promotions-you’re only a bride once!

When I decided who my bridesmaids were going to be, I knew I wanted to ask them in a creative way. It’s no secret that I love a good class of wine so why not combine two of my favorite things: some vino and my best friends. I thought about just writing in a card and giving them a bottle of wine but then decided to take it one step further and put the two together.

Here is how they turned out:

This was super simple and something that can easily be done! Here is how created them:

1. Pick out your favorite wine or wine that you know your gals would like.
2. Go to the nearest craft store and pick out your favorite wedding themed stickers. Since I had 6 bridesmaids and 1 maid of honor, I had a very difficult time finding stickers in stores. I ended up ordering them online through amazon.com. Just look up “bridesmaid stickers.” They were about $2 each I believe. I also picked out a different one for my MOH.
3. Print out on some color cardstock of your choice a simple message asking your gals to be a bridesmaid!
4. Hot glue that cardstock to another piece of cardstock slightly larger to make a nice border.
5. Hot glue this online the wine bottle over the front label (hint: you may have to remove the label already on the bottle. Nail polish removed and a paper towel work great)
6. Hot glue the stickers where you want them (I initially just stuck them on there but because of the curve of the bottle, they weren’t sticking. Hot glue works wonders!)
7. Add some little sparkly gems if you wish to glam it up.
8. Wrap in a cute bag.
9. Give to your gals all together and share in this memorable occasion!

And I seriously mean to check your RSVP card envelopes!

{image from thepulpstudio.com}

I’m having a minor panic attack because we received a *really late* RSVP from a couple who couldn’t attend the wedding. Lilac Dude’s mom opened it when it arrived (responses were sent to his folks because they are the only ones not moving right now!). Since it was a “no” response she put it in Lilac Dude’s box. He took the card out of the envelope noticed that the couple was from my section of the list and gave it to me. When I went to slide it into the envelope to deal with later, I noticed a check.

The card had been in and out of the envelope three times before we noticed the check in it! Now I’m freaking out because what if other people did that? What if we’ve thrown away the empty envelopes and some of them had checks in them?!

Selfish as it sounds, we would have literally thrown away money! Ahhh! Check your envelopes ladies!

Now I’m hoping we didn’t throw out any wedding gifts and have people feel hurt when they don’t get thank you notes!

Registering for wedding gifts is pretty overwhelming, so I thought it might be kinda cool to post here with some of the insight we’ve gathered from doing our own.  We really enjoyed ourselves… but it was definitely a great lesson in sharing, compromising and letting Mr. Man win every so often (as in, he registered for one of those soda makers and about a gazillion soda flavor things).

Here are a few tips we picked up along the way:

• Register for 2-3 times as many items as you have guests.
  • Sounds excessive, but think about it: you’ll have a shower, maybe two or three… those people will likely buy off your registry for the shower and the wedding.
  • Guests like to bundle.  Registering for a bunch of kitchen utensils? Someone is going to buy all 10 of those (at $5 or $10 a piece) and put them in a pretty basket or container of some sort.
  • Whatever you don’t receive as gifts (in most places, at least), you’ll get a discount on after the wedding.
• Prioritize.
  • Mr. Man wanted to go hog wild.  We all know I’m Type A and couldn’t have that.  $40 bathroom trash can? No sir, not when there are other $40 items that we actually need.
  • Even though it’s tempting to just scan EVERYTHING, think about it… you don’t want to cannibalize the stuff you really need/want with things that are extras.
  • Save those extras for the end… if you’re done scanning what you truly need, then go back through and add some fun stuff.
• Watch out for sale items.
  • Sale and seasonal items may not last… so if you register for them today, they might not be available 2 months from now.  Just keep this in mind!
• Register at more than one place.
  • This will get you a variety of gifts, and give your guests a bigger selection of stuff.
• Share the URLs to your registries.
  • Almost everyone likes to order presents online, so make sure you check the box that says “display our registry online” or something to that effect.
• Think about your “Ship To” address.
  • Most places will give you an option of pre and post-wedding addresses. Are you honeymooning? You probably don’t want tons of gifts sent to your house when you’re going to be out of town… think about asking your in-laws or parents, or MOH if you can have stuff sent to their places.  You can pick it up when you get back!

A good wedding registry will have a variety of items on it. Some are cheap others are $400 Kitchen Aid stand mixers. This is to account for people with a wide range of budgets. When buying something off of my friends’ registries, I always tried to buy a “substantial” gift. I always bought the dishes or the everyday glasses because I didn’t want to give someone, who I considered to be a good friend, a lame shower gift. But, I wanted to give them something that they would use every day.

Making meatballs has never been so easy

In my mind, a lame shower gift was a colander, or can opener. My friendship with these women was worth more than a colander or a can opener. It was worth a set of their china, but typically, I was on a budget. I rarely steer from the registry, but I have done so in the past. I gave my matron of honor a scrapbook with more scrapbooking material than she could count and I gave another friend of mine some fun stuff she could use on her honeymoon. Sometimes, I find out if there is something particular that my friend wants. One of my bridesmaids told me that one of her favorite registry items was a $20 hot chocolate maker. And that’s what she got from me. I try to put a little thought into buying off the registry, but I always stayed away from those lame presents.

Then two weeks ago, I was on the gift receiver end of the game. I got a ton of amazing and wonderful and generous gifts from my friends and family. By no means do I mean to sound ungrateful, because I’m so appreciative for all of it. But, I didn’t get some of the lame stuff I really wanted. I was thrilled to get my food processor. I can’t wait to make soup or sauce and have my prep time cut in half because I have a larger processor to chop onions, celery, etc. As as thrilled as I was to open that gift, I was just as excited to get my Pampered Chef garlic peeler, which costs like, $8.

The only kitchen gadgets I got were ones that I happened to mention to my mother, like a can opener and a meat thermometer. I was disappointed to see that I didn’t get the over the sink strainer that I think about every time I wash vegetables. Well, until a package arrive a few days later from my friend Toni, who not only got me that, but a few other small kitchen items.

I can imagine the reason why people didn’t get these kinds of gifts is because, well, they’re lame. When you pair up the garlic press against the ice cream maker, the ice cream maker looks like the superior gift, but really, the garlic press is just as awesome. I wouldn’t get my friends a garlic press unless they said, “Man, cooking is going to be so much easier once I get my garlic press.”

There is a point to this post and I’m going to get to it before I continue to sound like an ungrateful b*&ch. If you’re going to be giving a shower gift soon, consider the lame gifts. Maybe put together a basket with a whole ton of those lame gifts. The bride registered for a meat thermometer or a cutting board for a reason. Odds are that she’s been hoping for that stuff just as much as she’s been hoping for the new toaster oven. We all sort of feel like we have to quantify our friendship with an awesome gift, and we definitely need to get out of that mindset. Your friend is going to love you whether you get her a china setting or a basket full of kitchen gadgets.

And never over look the awesomeness that is cold, hard cash.

Let’s be honest! It is expensive to be a bridesmaid or a groomsman in a wedding! Because of the cost & the stressful moments our wedding party will endure, I want to make sure we get them the best gifts ever!

Poinsettia Dude & I have thought long and hard and we finally have the gifts for half of the wedding party figured out.    We plan on getting the guys some items to finish off their wedding day look – 1. skinny black tie 2. Black watch  & 3. Black Chuck Taylors

The Perfect Gift: Groomsmen by wiredbride featuring black flat shoes

Converse black flat shoes
$45 - footnotesonline.com

What do you think of these gifts? What are you getting your wedding party?

Here’s another idea that I had with the heart stick props.  This one, you can do so much more to make it more personalized.  Since the hearts are chalk friendly, you can write anything your hearts desire.  You can use these chalkboard hearts for your photo booth, engagement session, save the dates, or just for fun!  It’s an easy DIY project to do and budget friendly.  =)

Chalkboard Paint

Glue Gun

Large Popsicle Sticks

Pre-Cut Large Wooden Hearts

The other day while I was getting more supplies for my wedding invitations, I came across these really cute red hearts.  I thought, why not just play around with them and make something fun!  So I went back home, thought of an idea…and walaa…I made hearts on stick that can be used for engagement shoots, DIY photo booth, or you can even make a whole bunch for your guests as fun favors!

They’re super easy to make, not time consuming, and most of all…budget friendly:

Optional #4: Put more glue on other side of Large Popsicle Stick

Optional #5: Stick other heart on back.

Fini!

Other options: You can write something on it, leave it blank, or do whatever you want!

We all have our favourite wedding details, don’t we? One of mine is my guest book pens. Why? Well. Because they’re fabulous and look like this:

except, ours are only pale pink and ivory. Yes! Handmade by AmysLoft, they are felt flower pens, put into a vintage watering can, with a little tag with our names and wedding date, and tied with jute twine.

Each pen is archival ink, fade-proof and smudge-proof, and each flower has a pearl gem in the center. I don’t know how I found AmysLoft… lucky stars, or something. But I am so glad I did.

Loving the flowers? Other ideas:

Favors, or gifts. My mother was saying how every guest would want to take one of my guest book pens home. I hope they don’t (I want to keep them!) but if these pens were my favors, everyone could take one home.

Guest book pens, either wrapped with green tape or with jute twine. Sharpies could be great for message boards, signs or photo boards.

centerpieces! I love these. They are so shabby chic. Mason jars are so popular right now too.

The watering can set I bought would also make adorable centerpieces. And I love how all the pens are totally customizable to your wedding colors. The pens arrived quickly, adorably wrapped, and even more adorable and perfect in person (if that is even possible)!

Exclusively for BridalBuds readers, AmysLoft is offering a 15% discount with the code “BridalBuds15″ at checkout — so be sure to take a browse for even more eye candy!

Are you doing anything special for a guest book pen?

I love the heirloom aspect of weddings. The idea of things being passed down over the generations, of being taken out again and polished, reworn, reused, or even just reminisced over.

My parents had a small and simple wedding, put together in just two months. It didn’t have many details and unfortunately my mother doesn’t have anything from her own wedding day that I can use as part of mine. My Nonna’s wedding was even more simple… in Italy, the family was poor, and the her wedding dress and attire was borrowed. Anything left from their wedding day remains in Italy.

I’m having lots of details in my wedding, but when I think of what I can “pass down”, I don’t think I have very much, apart from my cake topper. So I decided that I wanted to have a cake server, engraved with our names and our wedding date. It’s a very traditional piece of silverware to own, but I wanted to own one. I like the idea of cutting the wedding cake with it on the wedding day and then using it for all future anniversary cakes.

I found TheTaffyBox on Etsy, and their customized text and font choices won me over. I chose a modern, stainless steel silver server and a cursive font. I also got matching forks – stamped MR. and MRS., with the date on the handle.

Koryn, from TheTaffyBox, was a real gem to work with. I can’t begin to tell you how patient she was with my requests… the placement of the text, the size of the letters, the font choices…. honestly, I was really spoiled.

By browsing her shop, I was really impressed to see that she also does custom wineglass names – how gorgeous would this be for a wedding?

And now, I’m seriously contemplating gifting Mr. Magnolia with these customized cufflinks with hidden message:

Now *that* would be a unique present for the groom, wouldn’t it?

I highly recommend you take a browse over at TheTaffyBox — you never know what you might find out you can personalize!

Are you into wedding heirlooms? What are you hoping will be yours?

As I said in a previous post I’m the MOH in my best friend’s wedding, which is taking place this September, so I’m currently working on more stuff for her wedding than mine, mine isn’t until October 2012 so we have plenty of time. On my to do list is her bridal shower and bachelorette party which are taking place in June in Florida. For the shower we will be having lunch at Carraba’s. Since they don’t open until 4pm we’ll have the restaurant to ourselves so that will be nice. We will be decorating with flowers on the tables and balloons around our area. Her wedding colors are pink and black so I’m trying to incorporate those colors into the shower and bachelorette party as well.

I’m working on the guest book, place cards, games, and favors. I have help from her Mom and the other BM’s but I’m trying to come up with the concepts. For the guest book I plan on doing a guest book picture frame but I’m open to other ideas if anyone has any. I thought this would be something they could put in the house afterward. I really like being able to reuse items that are bought for weddings and wedding related events.

I’m debating on the place cards, have you all used place cards at your showers? I could go either way on this but if I find something I like I might end up doing them to add a little more decoration. If you have any cute ideas that would be great.

Games, I think games are the dreaded subject when planning a shower. I’m making “advice for the bride” cards, if they come out good that is. Otherwise I will be purchasing some at Party City. I just bought all of the supplies, on sale at Michael’s yesterday, so hopefully my little DIY project will come out good and you’ll see pictures here in the near future. Other than the cards another BM will be putting everything together for a bingo game. Anyone have any other ideas for a successful game you had at your shower or you played at someone’s shower?

Finally we need to figure out a favor for the shower. Her Mom bought little boxes but we don’t have anything to put in them yet. I’m thinking candy but that’s pretty usual so if anyone has any creative ideas I’m all ears.

I can’t wait to hear all of your creative ideas, since this is the first bridal shower I’ve planned I’m really open to everything you all have to say.

Last weekend, Apple Sauce’s amazing parents threw us an engagement party. We had a fantastic time! Dinner, dancing, cupcakes and all of our friends and family in one place, celebrating with us. The whole thing was the perfect appetizer for the Main Event in September. I hope it whet our guests’ appetites for what’s to come as much as it did ours.

What was especially awesome was people brought gifts! We were completely floored by how generous our families were, and we are so very grateful. This post is about one gift in particular, one that proves the old adage, “It’s the thought that counts.”

Credit: vermilionstarpress / Etsy.com

Amid the boxes containing wine glasses and toasting flutes and platters, tucked between the cards and envelopes, there was a small 4″ x 6″ box, sweetly wrapped, from my cousin. Inside was a set of about 40 thank-you notes, envelopes and stamps. The stationery was beautiful and in a style I would’ve picked myself: thick card stock in crisp white with a simple script “Thank You” embossed at the top.

They didn’t come in the biggest or flashiest box, and they weren’t the most expensive item we received. But why I loved those thank-yous so much was because the gift was so thoughtful and useful. Something I never thought to ask for, but which I undoubtedly needed. AND it saved this time-crunched bride an errand — or three! Who has time to go buy stamps anymore?

It definitely taught me a lesson about gift giving, especially when it comes to weddings. It’s not how much you spend, it’s how much you thought you put into it that will really make an impact.

A while back ago when I felt like I could do 100 DIY projects, I made these.  At first, I was thinking I could do 350 of these for favors.  But, after about doing 10 of them…that didn’t fall through.  Each one took a while to do, but they turned out really cute!  I made these felt magnet corgi’s in memory of my dog that passed away about a year and a half ago.  They’re now posted on our magnet board.

Bride and Groom Corgi Dogs

The Original Corgi

If I get enough requests, I can do a tutorial on how to make these or just any other kind of felt designs.  Just leave a comment!

If you have another design in mind, let me know and I can try to make one.  Got lots of felt leftovers!

I don’t know about you, but I love it when couples incorporate anything with chalkboards into their weddings.  So I decided to give it a shot and design my own frame chalkboards.  I originally designed it to be used as favors, but we shall see.  I decided to go with all different sizes of wooden frames just to see how it would turn out.  Luckily, each frame was $1 at Michaels each!  Here are the results…

Here’s the final product with my magnet felt corgi’s I made a while back.

Directions on How to Make Chalkboard Magnet Frames:

Directions:

2. Cut about 1″ of the magnet tape, peel, and stick.

Fini!

Frames: Each were $1

Krylon Spray Paint: $7.50

Early in my planning process, I decided that we weren’t going to have favors. As much as I love how personalized favors can be, I wanted ours to be “more” than just little gifts for our guests to bring home. I wanted it to mean something.

My Nonna has advanced Alzheimer’s disease. It’s in its final stages: she now doesn’t recognize anyone, isn’t able to follow or contribute to a conversation, needs help to bathe, go to the washroom, and eat. She needs round the clock care, and has been placed in a nursing home for the past three years because of this. It breaks my heart, but we can’t have my Nonna attend the wedding. She is afraid to leave the nursing home, and this wedding – all the people, the different place, the duration of it – would be too much for her.

My Nonna and I, Dec 08

This decision brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. My Nonna and I used to dream of my wedding since I was a little girl. She couldn’t wait to see me get married. And as I plan my big day, I can’t help but think about how much my Nonna would have loved my dress – the princess dress. About how much she would have adored our reception venue for exactly the reasons I love it – its so Victorian and elegant. I can’t help but think about how unfair it is that when I talk to her, she doesn’t see me, doesn’t recognize me, her first grandchild. I can’t help but think about how much she would have loved this wedding, how much she would have immersed herself in helping me plan it, and how much she would have enjoyed it. I feel as though she was robbed of that — she’s here, physically here… but mentally, she’s not.

In lieu of favors, we are donating to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada, for research for a cure for this terrible disease.

http://www.alzheimer.ca/

Have you considered favors for a cause?

Let’s face it, times have changed.  A lot of couples live with each other now and already have collected much of their home furnishings or more.   More recently, I’ve seen couples do honeymoon registries in lue of a regular one.  On the other hand, some couples would rather just get a nice hefty check to help pay off the wedding bills!  So…how do you ask your guests for a “cash” gift instead of a regular gift?  Well guess what?  You can avoid that ackward situation!

Recently, I’ve been doing some research on where to do my wedding registry at.  I’ve been looking for places where they can give you cash back when you return something (in case you change your mind) and websites where there are no fees.  I’ve  gotten a lot of information from newlyweds and reviews on different places to register for your wedding.
Here’s what I found…

Website Registry:
Honey Fund- Not only do they have a honeymoon registry, but you can do ANYTHING.  From registering for some dishes to making a charity donation registry.  They have everything.   It’s basically a “cash” registry that guests can go through.  The best part of it is that there are no extra fees that you have to pay for every purchase a guest makes!   Here’s a sample of how it works:  Sample

Stores:
Bed, Bath, and Beyond: If someone purchases a gift from your Bed, Bath, and Beyond registry, but you have decided that you have no use for it…you’re in luck!  BBB will give you cash back if you return the item.  ***On the side note…just make sure that your local Bed, Bath, and Beyond does this.  I heard some of them don’t!  =(***

Question:

Any other suggestions?