Gosh, your day is fast approaching and what do you do now?!? Don’t stress! I can tell ya that much!! LOL You might not have every little tiny detail perfect, but really, no one will care!! Least of all…YOU!! I guarantee you won’t! LOL You probably won’t even remember most of it! All those little butterflies in your tummy will be driving those brain cells in so many different directions, that all you will remember are the major, happy things!! Ask most any bride, and I have no doubt she will have the same story! 🙂 We all want the PERFECT wedding! Let’s face it, we only want to do it once, and we want it to be spectacular!

So, what started all this anyway!?! When did the big WEDDING thing start?! Although we will never know who had the first wedding, it seems to have started in Ancient Egypt and Rome. With Rome even trying to give Women equal rights, although it was great on paper, not so much in reality! Ah well…we still fight! 🙂 And it seems the notion of marriage as a sacrament and not just a contract can be traced to St. Paul who compared the relationship of a husband and wife to that of Christ and his church.  Oh and I have to thank the Troubadours of the Twelfth century for bringing about the notion of ‘romantic’ love, since it apparently didn’t exist until medieval times.  It seems arranged marriages and such were the norm before that.  I much prefer the idea of picking my own husband, thank you very much! 🙂

Whew, and now there are so many different types of weddings all over the globe! Our common ‘White Wedding’ seems to have been inspired back by Queen Victoria. Boy, she sure had a ton of influence back then! 🙂 But, they tend to be divided on whether is was a sign of extravagance that she chose to wear a white gown, or due to the values she held about purity!?! So, I guess the call is yours! Men’s rings were another thing that didn’t show up until the early part of the 20th century. I wonder why? Is it greed?? Or just Men wanting to have something to show as well?!? Wanting a symbol of their love to wear as well? Again, I’d say it’s your call on that one! 🙂 But, then again, not all brides are into the “white” gowns we love so much.  And wow, have they gotten stunning over the last few years! I love all the added bling for sure! 🙂 But, the Kimono’s are still worn often in Japanese culture, and they also tend to still favor the “Tea Ceremony” over there, at least in the more Rural areas of the country. Urban Brides tend to blend that with our western ceremony.  The Tea Ceremony is quite elaborate and interesting, if you would like to look into it further. It is filled with family and friends.  

In India, the Sari is used by the Bride and in South India the male garb is called Dhoti.  The Hindu still conduct all or at least part of the ceremony in Sanskrit, which is the language of the Hindu Scriptures. And some of these ceremonies last for days. WOW and I thought all the planning for just the one day was nerve wracking! LOL 

Jews have a written ‘Ketabah’ or marriage contract before they wed.  It is formalized before the wedding and specifies the obligations of the husband to the wife and also has specific contingencies in case of divorce! WOW! Well, talk about planning ahead for sure! 🙂 And of course the breaking of the glass at the end of the vows.

Of course the Scottish have the Kilts, and west Africans have the Dashiki. Gosh, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. There are a lot of different customs when it comes to the wedding!

So, when thinking of your own wedding, be open to anything! It’s YOUR day!! You can make of it what you want!! No matter what!! I have been looking around at all the different party favors lately, and am amazed! So many choices! Colors! Ideas!! Go out there and check it out! Pick out something you love, and make it your own! Put a little personality into your special day!! Heck, it’s a party! A celebration!! It should be fun! I think we sometimes forget that in all the planning and such that goes into a wedding! We need to put some of the ‘fun’ back into it for sure!! You don’t want to look back and only remember the pain in the tuckus it was do you?!? You want to look back with smiles and joy at all the good moments!! I would think anyway! So do whatever you have to do to make it as peaceful and easy on yourself as possible!

I have been seeing all those tv shows about the bridezillas, and have been thinking to myself…how sad! That isn’t what it should be about! A wedding should be about the love two people have for each other, and in coming together at that moment, it should be a celebration! Not something just about the bride!! It’s TWO people joining!! Although I can see how there has to be an element of that to it. A bride is a ‘woman’ after all and we do have our little vanities, don’t we girls! LOL We want to be the center of attention and shine! I know I did! But, ladies, please don’t forget the poor groom! It’s his wedding too after all! And you’re in this together, till death do you part! Enjoy it!! Don’t let it become a stressful nightmare to be dreaded! Make it joyful and bright and just ENJOY!!

Well…I hope that helps some anyway! Heck, what do I know anyway! LOL I just make the bride dolls after the fact! I only get to see the smiling face of the bride after all the stress and strain! But, I hope you all will at least try to enjoy that special day as much as possible!! It passes so fast! And in keeping with trying to be of help with that, I have added a couple of places I found that might help you with your planning.

TheKnot.com seems to be a great place to get a lot of info in one place. You might try them. I also found the WeddingChannel.com helpful with a lot of good info in one place.  I liked that the WeddingWire.com had real reviews for you to read, which is a nice addition.  You can also try MyWedding.com.  Also, APracticalWedding.com was nice in that is has a page of “Wedding Graduates”. They have their stories told, so maybe you can avoid similar issues!!? I don’t know for sure if any of these sites can help you, and I don’t have any affiliation with any of them, I have just looked at their pages, and thought they might have some helpful info for you. You can do your own research as well. 🙂

Anyway, I hope that helps some with the planning of your wedding.  I suggest a lonnnnnnnnnng massage at least a day or two before the wedding too! :-)Relax as much as possible so you can really enjoy all the good things you put together! All those sweet memories you will be making between the two of you! It’s the little things, for sure, in life that make it worth living! I wish you all the love and luck in your coming days, and thank you for stopping by.

Also, if you would like to have a One Of a Kind Bride Doll of yourself, or someone you love, or would like more info on them, I hope you will think of me as well. You can visit my website by clicking the picture above or below, or this link:

http://www.tamarastrinkets.com/bridedolls.html

I hope you enjoyed your visit, and I hope you have a most wonderful wedding!
Thanks much,

Tamara