Article by Arricca Elin Sansone for CountryLiving

  © Kristen Kilpatrick/ Half Baked Harvest

1) White Christmas Mojito

If you need a signature cocktail for your reception, this pretty rum drink accented with coconut milk and topped with pomegranate arils is the answer.

 © Sugar and Charm

2) Gingerbread House Place Card

If there’s anything more charming than this mini gingerbread house/place card, we don’t know what it is! The tiny house doubles as a personalized favor that’s totally edible!

 © Something Turquoise

3) Pine Cone Firestarter Favor

How perfect for a winter wedding! This darling pine cone fire starter is the ideal themed favor your guests will enjoy using to light their fireplaces or fire bowls at home.

 © Julie Blanner

4) Poinsettia Centerpieces

Looking for a striking centerpiece for a small or rustic wedding? Snip off single flowers from a poinsettia plant, and place in decorative vases to line the center of the table. One plant yields lots of blooms, so you won’t break the bank on your floral budget.

  © Studio DIY

5) Stencilled Macaroons

These adorable cookies would look delightful on the dessert table or wrapped in cellophane and given out as favors.

 © A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

6) Floating Candles and Berries

Dress up the tables at your barn wedding with greenery interspersed with these adorable Mason jars filled with cranberries and floating candles. It’s inexpensive yet totally rustic chic!

 © Honey & Lou Baking Co.

7) Wreath Cookie Favor

These incredibly intricate, lovely wreath cookies look (almost) too pretty to eat! Send one home with each guest, or include them in your dessert buffet.

 © Lot 450

8) Natural Boutoninieres

Pine cones and preserved greenery make these seasonal boutonnieres stand out with their simple elegance.

 © Becky Luigart-Stayner

9) Pine Tree Cake Topper

Use any cake recipe you like (or try ours!), then decorate with a forest of delicate frosting trees. Use this as your main cake for a small wedding or as the topper at a larger affair.

 © Julie Blanner

10) Seasonal Bouquet

This gorgeous, understated combination of ivory, pink and red roses and anemones, accented with seeded eucalyptus, would suit equally well as your bouquet or as a stunning centerpiece.

 © Sugar and Charm

11) Gingerbread House Wedding Cake

Make this gorgeous gingerbread house your wedding cake, or use it to top a more traditional cake. Or simply use it to decorate your venue. It’s guaranteed to add that one-of-a-kind Christmas-y touch for your special day.

 © Mountain Modern Life

12) DIY S’mores Favors

How cute is this for a rustic wedding favor your guests actually will use, er, devour! The DIY kit includes a tiny chocolate bar, graham crackers, and marshmallows. You even can personalize the candy bars with wraps in your wedding colors.

 © Yvonne@StoneGable

13) Napkin Rose

These pretty and practical napkin roses are simple to fold, and they add a touch of elegance and a pop of color to a traditional place setting.

 © Julie Blanner

14) Seasonal Place Setting

A sprig of fresh greenery, a few berries, and a cinnamon stick are all you need to dress your place setting at a small informal event. You could attach a place card, too, for an inexpensive but classic seasonal accent.

 © 33 Shades of Green

15) Holly Vases

These lovely clear vases show off gorgeous holly leaves and berries, and they’re so simple to make! They work well anywhere you need a splash of color from centerpieces for the guests’ seating areas to the buffet table. Mix and match vase shapes for extra style points.

 © Honey & Lou Baking Co.

16) Elegant Place Setting Decor

Dress up each place setting with these gorgeous cookies, which guests can enjoy or take home with them.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/weddings/planning-a-christmas-wedding-don-t-miss-these-brilliant-ideas/ss-BB19oyka?ocid=msedgdhp#image=16

© Getty “I’m telling couples to get engaged now — and wait,” says celebrity wedding expert Colin Cowie

Almost every big wedding this year has been rescheduled for 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating impact on the world, celebrity wedding expert Colin Cowie tells PEOPLE.

“I’m telling couples to get engaged now — and wait,” says the party planner, whose A-list clientele includes Oprah Winfrey and Ryan Seacrest. “The idea of a socially distanced wedding with people standing 10-feet apart, I don’t find anything exciting or glamorous about that.”

Couples were “extremely and bitterly disappointed” at the idea of postponing their weddings, Cowie says. But after he explained what would have to be done to follow CDC guidelines and ensure everyone’s safety, all of Cowie’s clients elected to wait.

“A wedding is a very emotionally charged event — people have spent years dreaming of what it’s going to be like,” Cowie says. “You want to make those dreams come true, and we can’t do that in 2020. We have to wait until 2021.”

That doesn’t mean you can’t spend your extra time and cash prepping for the big day. Below, Cowie and finance expert Kelly Lannan share their best tips for planning a wedding during a pandemic.

Nail Down Your Venue

Cowie forecasts that 2021 will have twice as many weddings as usual if the situation in the U.S. improves, so he advises booking weddings set for May to December 2021 now.

“All the venues are very, very busy,” says Cowie, who is based in New York and has offices in L.A., New York and Miami. “Settle on a date immediately.”

Lock in your band and photographer too, he says: “Everything else can wait.”

Add a Cancellation Clause to Your Contracts

Cowie has added a cancellation clause to every one of his client’s contracts, stating that if the date needs to be moved again, “there will be no penalty, and any deposits we have will be respected and move forward.” With outcomes far from predictable, “it’s the smart thing to do,” he says.

Don’t Book a Destination Wedding Outside the U.S.

Cowie, 58, got married to commodities trader Danny Peuscovich on Feb. 22 in Cape Town, South Africa.

“The week after we got back, the whole world went into lockdown,” he recalls. “It was the last big, great wedding before everything came to a bitter end.”

He doesn’t think he would have been able to get almost 200 guests to travel to a wedding in South Africa for several years given the pandemic.

“I was so lucky,” he says.

Cowie thinks guests will be far more likely to travel inside the U.S. before they will travel internationally. And given potential travel restrictions, they might not be able to.

Take Over a Hotel

Buying out boutique hotels will be “very, very, very popular” when large gatherings are safe, Cowie says. Consider taking over a 50 to 100-room resort or a more modest yet charming inn.

“That way you can have more control,” Cowie says. “Think about it: you go into a restaurant, you don’t know who is on your left or your right, but you know who is on your guest list.”

Livestream Your Wedding

Even if a vaccine is available by the time you say “I do,” not everyone on your guest list will feel comfortable attending in person, so Cowie advises pre-planning a virtual option over Zoom just in case.

“There will be a hybrid wedding,” Cowie says, predicting that weddings might have a mix of Zoom viewers and guests who are physically present.

And depending on rapidly changing local guidelines, in-person guests might have to be completely ruled out.

Have a Virtual Bridal Shower and Bachelor/Bachelorette Party

Kelly Lannan, the 34-year-old Boston-based Vice President of Young Investors at Fidelity, was invited to 10 weddings this year — and all of them were postponed because of the pandemic. (She has officiated four weddings, and actually offered to marry her friends whose weddings were delayed. To date, no one has taken her up on the offer.)

But online bridal showers and virtual bachelorette parties can — and should — still happen, Lannan says, because they’re fun and make guests feel included.

Take a Hard Look at Your Guest List

When Lannan got married two years ago, her mother and her future in-laws handed her guest lists.

“The guest list completely dictates a significant portion of your wedding budget,” she says. “There were people on my original list I realized I hadn’t talked to in eight years since I graduated college. The relationship wasn’t there. While it may hurt to cross someone off the list, it could definitely be a healthy decision for your budget, especially now when venues are really looking at the size of your wedding party. There’s a lot of capacity limitations given the coronavirus pandemic.”

But these B-list guests don’t have to be entirely excluded from your big day — you can send them the virtual link.

Get Crafty

You may not have pictured yourself as a DIY bride, but given the pandemic, you might have more time to spend with your glue gun working on a complex centerpiece.

“Get creative with those little things,” Lannan says. “That’s a good opportunity in the coronavirus.”

Put Your Gym Membership Money in Your Wedding Account

Is your gym membership still on hold? Not going to pilates or boot camp classes? Haven’t had a hair cut in months? You can funnel all that money plus what you’d normally spend on subscriptions and nights out into your wedding fund.

“You could even make automatic payments,” Lannan says. “That’s an easy way to save without thinking about it.”

Plus, if you have a virtual bachelor or bachelorette party, the money you would have spent in Las Vegas or Mexico can cover a splurge item on your wishlist.

Set Up An Emergency Wedding Fund

Lannan tells all her investing clients to have an emergency fund. It’s important to create one for a wedding, too, she says.

“Weddings always cost more than you think,” she says. “It’s important to anticipate over charges. Then you’ll be the one bride in the history of weddings who comes in underneath your budget.”

Lannan kept a couple thousand in her own wedding emergency fund two years ago.

“That definitely helped me feel comfortable,” she says. “And I dipped into it a little.” (She paid for hair and make-up for her 13 bridesmaids on the big day.)

Consider Wedding Insurance

Many of Lannan’s friends are buying wedding insurance for their rescheduled dates.

“From my understanding, it really does protect a couple’s investment from things beyond their control,” she says. “What if your limo driver doesn’t show up – they contract coronavirus, and you need to find someone else, and they are charging three times the price? The insurance will cover.”

Look at the Bright Side

“It’s okay to be sad postponing your wedding,” Lannan says.

But try to find an upside.

“My friend hated her original save-the-date cards. Guess what? She gets to send a new one,” Lannan says.

Don’t let the pandemic stop you from planning the wedding of your dreams, Cowie advises. Just be patient.

“There’s no crystal ball for this future,” Cowie says.

Article by Wendy Grossman Kantor  for People©

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/weddings/how-to-plan-and-save-for-your-wedding-during-the-pandemic-according-to-experts/ar-BB16d0En?ocid=msedgntp

Wedding Trends article by  Linda DiProperzio, a weddings expert and freelance writer based in New York.

Note:  This article was written in December 2019 before the virus emerged.  However, most trends listed are doable given todays restriction.

The New Year is coming up soon, and it will bring a fresh crop of hot trends that both wedding planners and vendors predict will help any couple’s big day stand out. From bridal fashion and florals to cocktails and desserts, here is a list of the 11 biggest wedding trends to watch out for in 2020.

1. Smaller Weddings

Having weddings under 50 people is becoming increasingly more common, as well as eloping or marrying abroad, says Elizabeth Babinski of Liz Rae Weddings.

2. Customization

This is a big trend, according to Whitney Cox of Vegas Weddings. “Couples want a wedding that is uniquely ‘them,’ and they don’t mind switching up traditions to create a personalized event.

5. Crystal Touches

Crystal wedding accessories are the newest unique wedding trend, say the pros at Fawn & Sparrow. “Ethereal brides are choosing natural crystal gemstones to incorporate into their modern weddings– with everything from the cake, favors, and hair accessories getting the mystical crystal touch!

6. Dessert Tables

“A bountiful buffet table withdesserts can make you feel like a kid again-and it’s a great thing to pick up on your way tothe dance floor,” says Anthony Cuellar, Catering Chef de Cuisine, Wente Vineyards. “Couples are seeking desserts that have meaning–whether it represent theirculture, country or hometown.”

7. DIY Cocktail Stations
José Rolón of José Rolón Events tells couples to expect to see more make-your-own cocktail stations.

Click here to read the whole article:

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