I simply had to share this with you. After reading the article below, written by Chris Chase at sports.yahoo.com, I pondered the wedding favors this couple might have chosen, and I’m leaning toward heart-shaped coin banks with instructions for it to be filled and returned to the happy (weird) couple. Without further ado…

What do you get a millionaire quarterback and a former pageant queen for their wedding? If you were invited to the Memorial Day weekend nuptials of  Tony Romo and Candice Crawford, the question was easily answered on the two online registries the couple created at Macy’s and Crate & Barrel.

Shutdown Corner has looked through the gift requests, from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Tree to the Double Dip Dish to the Kate Spade New York dessert knife set and jotted down a few of our thoughts:

As if forcing people to make the trip to Dallas on a three-day weekend wasn’t bad enough, the Romos then ask folks to buy them various home knick-knacks that they’ll never use and easily could have afforded for themselves? I suppose you have to get a rich guy something when he gets married, I just never figured it would be a six-dollar gravy boat.

Me, again. Sorry, but any couple with their kind of money should put “No Gifts, Please” on their invitation. Unless, of course, they think they’re being kind to underprivileged family and friends who wouldn’t be able to afford to buy them more costly presents. Either way, it’s pretty classless to me. What do YOU think?

Of all the pre-wedding parties you can have, a wedding prep party will, by far, mean the most to you where it counts most! The catch phrase “Do It Yourself” doesn’t mean you can’t have help in creating…

Invitations, Decorations, Centerpieces, Wedding Favors!

In this economy, no one is surprised when engaged couples look for viable ways to save money. And you, as the bride-to-be, will be as busy as…well, a bride-to-be! Don’t just be the party planner—party while you’re planning! Look around you. There are bridesmaids, family and friends who would be happy to be part of a party with a purpose—making your wedding beautiful and meaningful!

Your Own Design or Kits?

If you’re imaginative, crafty and computer-savvy, you can design  your  invitations, decorations, centerpieces and unique wedding favors. You’ll need extra hands to address and stamp the invitation envelopes, as well as assemble the decorations, centerpieces and favors.  For those of you who are creatively challenged, a kit is probably the way to go. You get everything you need, but you still need to put everything together, so extra hands do help.

Step One:  Create the designs or purchase the kits for everything you want to do “yourself.”  If you create your own designs, purchase everything you need for assembly and have it ready for your party.

Step Two:  Choose a day or evening for the prep party, and invite family and friends based on how many do-it-yourself projects you want to accomplish in 3-4 hours.

Step Three:  If you’re doing more than one project, set up different “stations” in your home so groups of people can focus on a single project.  Make sure each project table has everything required for the task at hand (materials, scissors, pens, rulers, glue gun, etc.)

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Step Four: Make it a party! Have plenty of snacks, like pizza, chips and dip, sandwiches and cookies on hand, along with a variety of beverages. Some upbeat music in the background is helpful, too.

Step Five:  Before the party, make one prototype for each project and place it on the project table so everyone will know how the centerpiece, wedding favor, envelope, etc. should look. When everyone’s ready to go to work, demonstrate how to assemble the item at each table.  If you have more than one table, check each group early on to make sure they’re putting your items together correctly.  Before you know it, you’ll have everything assembled for your wedding! You might want to send a short thank-you note to everyone who helped.

Think of it as “frugal fun!”

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The other day, I answered a personalization question on a wedding forum. The couple were wondering what to put on the back of their brand-name soda bottle favors to make them personalized wedding favors (the front of the soda bottles are also personalized with a favorite photo of the couple.) Most of the answers were the typical “Thanks for sharing our day,” or simply “your names and wedding date.” Out of several suggestions, mine was chosen by the “asker” as the best one. Here’s why…

Follow the Favor

What do I mean by “follow the favor”? As I wrote in response, think of something short and relevant to the favor itself. For their soda-bottle favors, I offered these three personalization ideas:

• We’re Bubbling Over with Happiness!
• So Happy, We’re About to Pop!
• The Drinks Are On Us Today!

Sometimes it depends on the number of personalization lines or characters allowed. I recommended using something other than names and wedding date because 1) guests already know whom they’re celebrating and 2) the likelihood that guests will hold onto a sticky soda bottle as a memento is remote. Why not dazzle them with your wit instead?

More Personalization Messages!

To get your mind moving in this direction, I thought I’d give you some message ideas for a few different favor categories. Here goes:

Candles/Tea Light Holders—Our Love Shines Brighter Every Day; Love’s Glow is All Around You; We’re the Hottest Couple in Town!

Favor Boxes/Jars—It’s the Sweetest Day of Our Lives!, It’s a Treat to Have You With Us Today! Sweet Memories Especially for You.

Photo Frames—We’re Giving Marriage Our Best Shot!; Just How We Pictured This Day–With You!

Salt & Pepper Shakers—Thanks for Spicing Things Up Today!; Celebrating Our Seasons of Love!

Wine-Themed Favors—Thanks for The Vintage Memories!; Popping the Cork on a Happy Marriage!; We’re Drunk on Love!

Heart-Themed Favors—Two Hearts. One Love.; With Our Love and Heartfelt Thanks; A Day “Heart” to Forget!

Coasters—Happily Coasting Toward the Future!; The Drinks Are On Us Today!

Now you’ve got the hang of it! And I’ve decided to make  FREE PERSONALIZATION MESSAGES an ongoing offer. If you’re looking for a unique personalization message for your favors, let me know, and I’ll put my creativity to work for you! Have fun today!

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I know you’re out there! This is for all those thousands (okay, maybe dozens) of engaged couples whose love of the thinking-person’s game of chess brought you together. Maybe you met at a high-school chess club or a chess tournament.  Or did you check each other out on a dating site, where you both put “chess” in your list of passions or likes? Now that you’re going to mate for life, here are a few ideas to move you toward a chess-themed wedding–from your color scheme right down to your unique wedding favors!

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Made for Each Other!

Black-and-white weddings have always been the height of elegance, so your love of chess lends itself perfectly to a time-honored wedding palette. If you want to create some eye-popping accents, add touches of red or silver in your flowers, your centerpieces, your gown—whatever suits you.

I’m not suggesting you overwhelm your event with chess references—maybe just something in the save-the-date cards (Checkmate! He Made a Great Move! He Captured His Queen!), the reception table centerpieces and the favors. When you choose black and white for your wedding colors, you made your planning fairly simple.

There’s an abundance of white wedding gowns with touches of black, and your bridesmaids will look smashing in black dresses with black accents.  Same with the groomsmen, whose red-rose boutonnieres dazzle on those black tuxedos with white shirts.

Of course, you can really go all out and request that your guests wear formal black or white—it will make for some stunning wedding photos, but some of the guests might not be smiling, like poor Aunt Irene, who was just dying to wear her new lavender-satin pants suit. Oh, well. At least the rest of your event will be stunning. Before I show you your perfect favors, take a look at some ideas:

I promised you chess-themed wedding favors, and here they are.  The “Check Mate!” King and Queen Place Card/Photo Holders are the perfect touch for your reception tables. When guests take them home and add their favorite photos, they’ll be pleasantly reminded of your perfect match—and the winning move you made in planning your wedding!

Race car sets, model trains and Legos!  One look at any one of them will send you straight down memory lane.

If your love affair with these childhood favorites never ended, why not incorporate them into your wedding day?  A unique theme if I ever saw one, having a Lego wedding will certainly build some excitement.

Inspired by Eric Harshbarger’s wonderfully creative wedding cake made entirely out of Legos, I couldn’t help but wonder what else you could do with this theme.  Would it be classy or cheesy?  Would your guests really get it?  I don’t know, but it would definitely be fun.  If you’re looking for a unique way to celebrate building your new lives together, incorporate these Lego wedding ideas into your special day.

Cake Toppers: Although commissioning Mr. Harshbarger to make this one-of-a-kind cake might be a little out of your budget, you can definitely use minifigs as a cake topper.  Made to be customized, you can select your hair, clothes, head and just about everything else to make it uniquely you.  Some have even created Lego hearts with initials inside or some other figure that’s near and dear to the couple.

Centerpieces: For a fun centerpiece and a way to pass the time before the reception actually starts, place a bowl of random Lego pieces in the center of the table.  They’ll definitely add color to the reception and guests can build some “wedding presents” for you while they’re waiting on the buffet line to go down.

Place card holders: One couple with a Lego fetish even used them as personalized place card holders (pictured here.)  Choose the larger size in the color of your wedding and place the guest’s name on the side using clear, printable labels.  Simply attach their seating assignment and you’ve got an escort “card” and a wedding keepsake.  (See, Legos can be classy!)

Favors: Are those edible Legos pictured below?!  Not quite.  They’re actually compressed sugar candy building blocks called “Blox” that look just like Legos.  Place them in a bag for a cute reception favor or give them as bridal shower favors.

Vows: When you think about it, Legos have some great symbolism for marriage.  They’re built to fit together perfectly, you can take something small and seemingly insignificant and build something wonderful and they’re built to last–sturdy (have you ever stepped on one of those things by accident–hard as a rock, I tell you!)  Incorporating some of those elements into your vows will tie the ceremony to your theme in a wonderful way.  For some ideas, take a look at one person’s Lego vows at http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/archives/a_lego_wedding.php.

As you can see, there are all sorts of ways to really bring out the Lego wedding theme.  Just don’t let guests throw them like rice as you leave the reception.  Ouch!

From Lego cuff links for the guys to ice trays to make building block ice for the drinks, you can add these blocks just about anywhere.  If this Lego trend continues, we’ll have to add some to our collection of unique wedding favors!

I caught an article on the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy blog that made me wince. Apparently, funeral homes are taking a hit during the economic downturn, too,  so many are now offering their grounds for less-somber occasions—like weddings—to supplement their income.

USA Today reported that 10% of funeral homes “owned or offered a community or family center in addition to traditional funeral facilities” in 2011.

Okay. Clearly, having your wedding at a funeral home has to have upsides along with the downsides, and I thought it might be fun to explore what those might be. We’ll start with the upsides:

• Many funeral homes have lovely gardens and grounds
• Their “rooms” are often elegantly appointed
• The price is right (I can’t help but believe that only an amazing deal would attract a bride- and groom-to-be)
• If you time it right, you can save on flowers
• There’s probably a make-up artist on staff
• They’ll have plenty of tissues for the weepers during your ceremony
• You can ask them to throw in couple of plots while you’re negotiating for your wedding
• Now you can invite 96-year-old great-Aunt Beulah without worry

The downsides:

• It’s a funeral home
• You might not be thrilled with the “dressing room”
• There’s really no indirect way to say “Happy Memories Funeral Home” on an invitation
• Dance music will have to be kept low so you don’t “wake the dead”
• You can only hope your pastor or rabbi remembers why he or she is there when the ceremony begins
• A few uninvited guests might show up
• Good luck finding what would have to be seriously unique wedding favors (I do love the little favor box in the photo on the right, though!)

Well, there you go. The pros outweigh the cons.  Looks like passing up an opportunity to have your wedding at a funeral home would be a grave mistake.

And the good news is–you have two opportunities! One group, led by Harold Camping, whose calculations are based on his readings from the bible, believe that the End of Days will begin on May 21, 2011 (you won’t have much time to plan, but it’s definitely doable–and it’s a Saturday!) This gentleman’s first prediction for the end of days came and went with unexpected results, so he reworked his calculations to come up with a new date.

But wait! There’s More!

The next date is December 21, 2012 (which gives you plenty of time to plan!), based on the Mayan prediction of the end of the world as we know it. There’s good news here, too, because this date is a Friday, and you know what that means–better prices on wedding and reception venues, the caterer, limo, etc. You’ll get deals you won’t believe!

Important Things to Know!

Of course, there are a few unusual issues you’d have to work out in the planning. Since we don’t know exactly what time the end of the world will commence, you’ll just have to take a leap of faith, pick a time and hope for the best.  If it starts at, say, 12AM, you probably should have tied the knot the day before. If the gun doesn’t go off until 11:59PM, clearly you can have a morning, afternoon or evening wedding, with plenty of time for dinner and dancing.

Your “Save the Date” card should be carefully crafted so as not to discourage potential guests from accepting your invitation. Maybe something like…

You’ll have to let the day dictate your choice of wedding favors. Certainly, candle wedding favors would be a meaningful choice, but if you really want to thank your guests with something practical, I highly recommend you choose a fan!

One more thing. If the date does turn out to be the end of the world, just make the best of it. Instead of a lavish, sit-down dinner, make it a barbecue!

LOL. NE1. BYOB. WYSIWYG. Thanks to texting and tweeting, we’ve become a nation addicted to acronyms out of necessity—whatever it takes to get your point across in no more than 140 characters (or before veering off the road and into a ditch when texting while driving.) And, of course, every industry has its own specific acronyms so those involved can talk to each other in the same “language.” The wedding industry is no exception, and brides have created their own shorthand.

W.T.H.D.T.M.? (What the heck does this mean?)

If you’re just embarking on your wedding planning journey, I’m including a list of wedding acronyms I found on DIYbride.com, so you won’t have to waste time figuring them out. And right below it, just for fun, I’ve created a list of acronyms for grooms who want to text and tweet about the wedding. First up are acronyms for the bride:

BF – Boy friend, Best friend
BIL – Brother-In-Law
BM – Bridesmaid, Banquet Manager, Best Man
BP – Bridal Party or Bachelor(ette) Party
CM – Catering manager
CP – Centerpiece
DH – Dear Husband
DIY – Do-it-yourself
DOC – “Day Of” Coordinator (A wedding planner hired for just the wedding day.)
DW – Dear Wife or Destination Wedding
EP – Engagement Party
ER – Engagement Ring
FBIL – Future Brother-In-Law
FFIL – Future Father-In-Law
FG – Flower Girl
FH – Future Husband
FI – Fiance
FMIL – Future Mother-In-Law
FOB – Father Of Bride
FOG – Father Of Groom
FSIL – Future Sister-In-Law
FW – Future Wife
GM – Groomsman (Groomsmen)
GP – Grandparent
HM – Honeymoon
JP – Justice of the Peace
MOB – Mother Of Bride
GTG – Get Together
MOG – Mother Of Groom
MOH – Maid/Matron Of Honor
NWR – Not Wedding Related
OOT – Out Of Town (guests)
PF – Pocketfold, pocket fold (a type of invitation with a pocket)
RB – Ring Bearer
RD – Rehersal Dinner
SO – Significant Other
STD – Save The Dates
TOJ – Tears of Joy packets (decorated tissue packs)
TY – Thank you (or thank you cards)
UWF – Unique Wedding Favors (Okay. You got me. I added this one.)
WP – Wedding planner, wedding party
WR – Wedding ring

Acronyms for Grooms!

ILHSM – I love her so much
INAD – I need a drink
IOTWPT – I’m over this wedding planning thing
PIRE – Personally, I’d rather elope
SIIMB – Should I invite my boss?
SSLPG – She’s shopping. Let’s play golf.
WSSY – Wow! She said Yes!
WTHIASS – What the heck is a sand ceremony?
WTMD – Way too much drama
WYSH -Whatever you say, honey

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If you can think of any others—for brides or grooms, send them to me and we’ll create a new list together! Meanwhile…

Word on the street is that it could happen.

BBC, Virgin and Sky are considering airing the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton live from Westminster Abbey in 3-D.

If this doesn’t make the sales of 3-D televisions skyrocket over the next five months, nothing will.

According to the reports, though, you might not need to buy a 3-D TV—if you live in the United Kingdom, that is.  The three broadcasting channels recognize that not everyone (well,  hardly anyone, actually) can enjoy 3-D from their living rooms, so they’re contemplating putting 3-D broadcasts in public locations like movie theaters and pubs. Let’s hope they mean US movie theaters, too!

The wedding date,  April 29 of next year, has already been made a bank holiday by the Prime Minister. If you feel lucky, head over to London and enter their lottery to win one of 100 tickets to the wedding.

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Gifts for the Guests!

I’ve also learned that 5,000 pounds of the 50 million pounds to be spent on the wedding will be set aside for wedding favors. That converts roughly to $7,800 US for wedding favors. With the economy doing less than fabulous these days, many couples are planning to spend a similar amount on their entire wedding. But when you’ve got big bucks, you might as well spend them on a joyful occasion, so I say “have at it, you two, and best of luck!” Still, I can’t help but speculate on the wedding favors $7K+ will buy. The goodies at the right were created to celebrate their engagement, so it’s possible something similar and as special will be given to their guests.

From what I’ve read so far, they’re inviting 120 guests to the post-nuptials dinner, so that averages out to about $65 per guest favor. I suspect these will be incredibly unique wedding favors. What do you think? If you had $65 per favor to spend for each of your wedding guests, what gift would you choose to thank them? Something in silver or gold (the real thing, of course!)? Personal electronics? A gift card to McDonald’s? Just let me know by December 3, and I’ll announce my favorite three in my next post! Cheers!

And her groom may not like it—but he won’t know until he lifts her veil at the altar on their wedding day.

It’s controversial. It’s crazy. And it’s coming to the E! Entertainment channel November 28. According to FoxNews.com, the reality show “Bridalplasty” pits 12 brides-to-be against each other in relationship and wedding challenges each week “to win plastic surgery varying from veneers to brow lifts to breast enhancements.”

Prior to the competition, each contestant consulted with a celebrity surgeon to create a plastic surgery “wish list.”  One contestant is eliminated every week, and the last bride standing wins her dream wedding, but not until after she’s given all the surgical procedures on her list. Too bad a brain transplant doesn’t come under the “cosmetic surgery” category.

Okay. So who’s up for this? Who’s up for admitting on national television that you’ve got a body image problem? Who’s up for risking a lifetime of happiness if your groom thinks the new you isn’t what he signed on for? Who’s up for the pain and extended recovery from plastic surgery? Who’s up for a lifetime of regret if the surgery doesn’t turn out as you imagined? If you are–you’re one sick puppy.

I don’t have to tell you a volcano of negative reaction erupted when word of this new low in programming got out.  One behavior expert decries it as an attack on women that reinforces the message that one can never be good enough.

Dr. Patrick Wanis says, “Women are bombarded with advertising and messages that there is something wrong with them, something missing—they need to look younger, slimmer and change the shape of their body—they need to be perfect.” He goes on to say that “this new show tells women that even after a man has fallen in love with you the way you are, you still need to do more to be better because you are simply not good enough.

Amen.

That said, raise your hand if you’re going to be watching the finale to see the reaction of the groom when he sees her physical transformation for the first time. At the altar. When she lifts her veil.

It’s like a train wreck. You just can’t NOT look. Am I right?

If nothing else, it opens the door to lots of hilarious wedding-planning ideas—like walking down the aisle to the song “Who Are You?” by the Who. You can add to the part in your vows about “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health—no matter I look like five minutes from now.” Dance your first dance to Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were.”  I’m sure Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien will have a field day with this one.

I can’t wait until tinseltown comes out with a funeral-inspired reality show. One thing’s for sure…it won’t be called “Survivor.”