Hosting a wedding in Italy can be expensive, but with the following tips for a cheap Italy destination wedding, you can organize a trendy and charming wedding day in Italy without spending a fortune!

Choose the Region

Like every country in Italy, there are some areas that are very expensive and others that provide convenient pricing when it comes to destination weddings. Lake Como, for example, is a very popular and exclusive spot of Italy, however, there are some other very beautiful lakes in Italy, like Lake Maggiore or Lake Orta, where you can organize your wedding on a limited budget!

There is such a wide array of venues at all price levels that all budgets and styles can be satisfied for a cheap Italy destination wedding! The seaside Amalfi Coast includes both exclusive and more affordable destinations, with weddings in Sorrento, Amalfi, and Ischia Island boasting beautiful venues with a high quality to price ratio.

Choose the Venue

There are big differences in every region, beginning with the marriage hall fee. Rome municipality applies a wedding fee starting at euro 1200, but just a few miles from Rome, in the village of Tivoli, the fee starts at euro 100.

It is often said that the marriage hall fee is expensive because of the beauty of the location, but that is not always the case, darling bride-to-be! There are extraordinary locations in Italy with affordable wedding fees, like Como and Cernobbio in Lake Como, Pisa in Tuscany, and Alghero in Sardinia.

Avoid the Weekend!

If at all possible, avoid saying your vows on Saturday or Sunday. In Italy, much like the United States, wedding prices go up immensely during the weekend. You could easily spend half the price for an exclusive villa by holding your ceremony on a Friday rather than Saturday.

Avoid Multiple Transfers

If your plans include more than 60 guests, you’ll quickly realize how expensive it can be to move your guests from one place to the next! If the marriage hall, reception venue, and hotels where the guests are accommodated are far apart, it will be necessary to arrange three to four bus or car transfers, ending with a night transfer – which normally has an additional fee.

The Hairdresser

In many areas of Italy, the hairdressers apply unexpected rates to a bridal hairstyle…styling for a bride can cost 5 times the price of a standard hairdo! Italian hairdressers explain the prices by noting the great care they take, so prepare to either work the additional cost into your budget – or tell the hairdresser that you are a bridesmaid for a more reasonable bill.

Photo credit from top to bottom to: Villa Baroncino, Grey Likes Weddings, Gianni Dinatale, Hayden Phoenix, Weddings Italy by Regency, Simply Bloom Photography, Kenny Kim Photography, The Tuscan Wedding, EngagedAndInspired, Weddings In Italy – On A Budget, Manuel Meszarovits Photojournalist, Distinctively Italy Weddings, Jules Photographer, Rochelle Cheever; Featured Image credit to: The Tuscan Wedding

The post Where to Get Married Wednesdays: Cheap Italy Destination Wedding appeared first on WedAlert Network.

Sheena and Randy’s wedding has me itching for some sand in between my toes! I adore their sweet details – especially the tables named after some of their favorite musicians! Why yes, I’ll have a seat at Bob Marley! The dashing duo are also the power couple behind Hook Productions! As you can imagine, they had a song for every moment and a great playlist that kept the dance floor hot all night long!

Read the full post and check out Sheen & Randy’s wedding playlist at Hi-Fi Weddings.

Photos: Maria DeForrest Photography

Hi Fi Weddings

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A Wedding Steps bridal show is the perfect place to meet vendors.

As every bride planning a wedding knows, there’s a lot of steps to creating a perfect event. And that’s where Wedding Steps, Western Connecticut’s premier wedding planning resource, comes in. Wedding Steps covers the wedding planning gamut from tips and advice on the Wedding Steps blog, to vendor listings  in an online directory, to producing beautiful and unique bridal shows. If you’re a bride in the Greater Danbury or Western Connecticut region, you need to know Wedding Steps!

You can start with The Wedding Steps magazine. Published annually, the magazine is a helpful guide for the newly engaged. You’ll find planning tips, budget sheets, and wedding inspiration and ideas. Articles written by top wedding professionals in the area will help guide even the most anxious bride through the planning process. You can pick up a copy at Macy’s, at retailers in the Danbury Mall, or from many of Western Connecticut’s wedding planning professionals. You can even request a complimentary copy from the Wedding Steps website, or you can pick up a copy at a Wedding Steps bridal expo.

Now, about those expos… don’t miss a Wedding Steps bridal show! Bridal shows are a fantastic way for brides to meet local vendors, taste cakes, listen to DJs and find out everything they need to know about wedding services. But Wedding Steps bridal shows go a few steps further. What do they do that’s so special?

The fashion walk through gives brides the chance to see gowns up close.

Almost all bridal shows present a fashion show so brides can see the latest dresses. But Wedding Steps gives brides a fantastic twist on the bridal fashion show. “We didn’t want to take the time away from brides having the chance to talk to vendors,” says Teri Damo, show coordinator for Wedding Steps. “So we asked the bridal boutiques to have models do a stroll around in top fashions. Brides can get a close look at dresses, see all the details, and actually feel the material.”

Wedding Steps bridal shows are also held in possible reception venues. Not only can brides meet vendors, take advantage of special show discounts, and possibly win door prizes, they can check out a reception location that they may be thinking of. Wedding Steps bridal shows are held in some of the finest and most in demand venues in Western Connecticut and it’s a great way to not only visit a venue but to see how an event unfolds in that venue.

Wedding Steps offers bridal shows throughout the year, so no matter when you get engaged there’s probably an upcoming show to attend. “We’ve been producing shows for many years and we offer good shows for the brides,” says Teri. “It’s something to help the brides stay on track. The can meet the vendors and get to see the work up close. Things like bridal gowns look beautiful in a magazine, but it’s different to see it up close.”

And Wedding Steps is there for brides after the bridal show too. With a full-service online directory of local vendors, brides in Connecticut can find the vendors they met at the shows and liked the best with ease. The Wedding Steps directory covers all the different elements of planning from reception locations to finding hair and makeup artists. With useful articles and links to other bridal inspiration sites, there’s no reason to look further than Wedding Steps!

Get a close look at what wedding professionals offer at Wedding Steps bridal shows.

As Teri notes, at the end of the day, it’s all about the brides. “It’s a big day and we want them to meet the right vendors,” says Teri. “I mean, I’ve been there and I understand what it takes to plan a wedding. We don’t make it overwhelming for the bride, but we get them the right information.”

You can find more information about Wedding Steps online at www.weddingsteps.com. There you will find the bridal expo schedule and you can request a copy of the Wedding Steps bridal guide. You can also find Wedding Steps on Facebook.

The post Spotlight: Wedding Steps is Western Connecticut’s Premier Wedding Planning Resource appeared first on WedAlert Network.

Time Magazine notes beautifully how Zac Posen’s name brings to mind old-Hollywood glamor, refined tailoring, and dramatic details as it conjures up images of all the celebrities he has outfitted for the red carpet, including Beyoncé, Natalie Portman, and Claire Danes.

With his new diffusion line for David’s Bridal, Truly Zac Posen, a more diverse variety of women—of brides, to be more specific—will be able to pick up his designs right off-the-rack!

Featuring the designer’s signature details, such as mermaid tails, figure-flattering corsetry, and delicate layering of textures, the line will launch next February 2014 and in 50 stores, with six wedding-dress styles ranging from $850 to $1,350, and five social occasion dresses (bridesmaids dresses, anyone?), which will retail for $195 to $225.

“Truly by Zac Posen brings to David’s his well-known red-carpet aesthetic and flair for drama,” Catalina Maddox-Wagers, executive vice president of merchandising at David’s Bridal, told TIME. “His designs are meant to enhance and celebrate the beauty of a woman’s curves expressed in the form of exquisite corsetry and sophisticated lines accented with romantic details—a perfect formula for bridal that was missing from our assortment.”

She added that plus-sized brides are likely to love to line, since “Zac’s fascination with curves translates beautifully and with ease into plus sizes.”

“I’ve always felt there was a void when brides come to me and want to commission a wedding dress, because that means they can’t find what’s out there.” Posen, who designed custom wedding dresses for Portia de Rossi and Coco Rocha, told USA Today.

The best part? The dresses will be available in sizes ranging from 0 to 14 off the rack, and up to size 26 by special order! “I have such a wide fan base,” Zac Posen commented, “I wanted to find a place where I could actually address them and dress them.”

Posen’s bridal line will be sold alongside those of Vera Wang and Oleg Cassini; look for the gowns to hit stores and online in February 2014!

The post Wedding Dress Tuesdays: Zac Posen 2013 Bridal Collection appeared first on WedAlert Network.

Small wedding cakes can help you cut down on a large portion of your overall wedding budget, but the inability to resist a show-stopping seven-tier, pearlized, fondant wedding cake with ribboned draping is understandable as wedding cake designers produce more and more elaborate wedding cake creations…

Have no fear, darling bride-to-be! Small weddings cakes can be every bit as glamorous as their over-sized counter parts and they allow you to have all the high-fashion drama at a much lesser cost than that of a traditional wedding cake! Small wedding cakes work perfectly for intimate and large weddings alike; for receptions where you plan to host 200+ guests, showcase your small wedding cake for the cutting ceremony – but serve deliciously inexpensive sheet cake!

For budget-conscious inspiration, read on for tiny tasty treats -aka- adorably elegant small wedding cakes, and share which small wedding cake is your favorite in the comments below!

The post Wedding Cake Mondays: Small Wedding Cakes appeared first on WedAlert Network.

Wedding invitations are a definite must-have, but brides-to-be often ask if it’s absolutely necessary to send out save the date cards. While it isn’t mandatory, it does show proper courtesy to your guests – especially if your festivities are more than six months in advance and guests will need to travel to get to your celebration.

Save the date cards go beyond just good manners, though, darling bride, they also offer a chance for you and your groom to loosen up and have some fun! Wedding invitations tend to be on the more formal side, but save the date cards can be light and fun…send them in the form of magnets, stickers, or personalized movie posters!

Without question, destination weddings require save the date cards as a simple courtesy to your guests; break out the passport-themed save the dates! Whether you decide to choose something vintage or traditional, casual or contemporary, the style of your save the date cards is up to you! Tie in the tone, color, or theme of your big day and coordinate them with your wedding invitations.

The post Wedding Invitations Sundays: Are Save the Date Cards Necessary? appeared first on WedAlert Network.

Express your style in your bridal bouquet with your birth month flowers! Wedding flowers, like gemstones, are linked to corresponding birth months, and for this reason, a lot can be ‘said’ by simply introducing specific blooms into floral pieces at your ceremony and reception.

Some couples have even begun to use the flower that corresponds to their wedding month to symbolize the birth of their new life together as husband and wife.Check the chart below to locate your very own birth month flower!

January: Carnation

February: Violet

March: Daffodil

April: Daisy

May: Lily of the Valley

June: Rose

July: Larkspur

August: Gladiolus

September: Aster

October: Calendula

November: Chrysanthemum

December: Poinsettia

You can take this trend a step further, darling bride-to-be, by thinking of those who hold a special place in your heart, like your parents or grandparents, and honoring them by including their birth flower into their individual bouquets or corsages.

Whether you show your birth month flowers in your own bouquet, have them sewn into the backline of your wedding gown, or strew them on a reception table, the presence of wedding flowers have the ability to speak the language of love!

The post Wedding Flowers Saturdays: Birth Month Flowers appeared first on WedAlert Network.

Have you heard of the wedding dollar dance, darling bride-to-be? Basically, the dance is a tradition where guests pay to dance with the bride! The intention is for the bride and groom to collect a small amount of cash to use as spending money on their honeymoon or for household expenses as they start a new life together. The wedding dollar dance is also often viewed as a great way for guests to get a few minutes of  personal face time with the bride so they can offer theirs congratulations.

Some Variations of the Wedding Dollar Dance Tradition

Some traditions have guests pin the dollar to the bride (though this seems ill advised in light of  the cost of wedding dresses), while other traditionalists have guests taping the dollar to the bridal gown. I say a collection jar is he way to go…

Should I Have a Wedding Dollar Dance?

If it’s a tradition in your family or community, yes! Because some couples view the wedding dollar dance as a little tacky, but would still like to have that time with the guests, a variation of the dollar dance is known as the “dime dance” where guests are provided with a dime at their tables so they don’t feel pressured to pony up cash.

How to Have a Wedding Dollar Dance

1. Let your DJ know that you plan to host a wedding dollar dance. Chances are they’ve seen it done and will have suggestions about how to make things go smoothly.

2. Choose your music! Look  for songs about friendship while avoiding songs with overly romantic overtones.

3. Have the DJ make an announcement to get guests lined up for the dance; each jig should last only about 30 seconds or so before a new guests is rotated in.

4. Have a member of your bridal party makes notes on which guests participate in the wedding dollar dance and be sure to include a special mention in your thank you notes.

5. Collect the money and use it for a fabulous meal on your honeymoon – or buy trinkets and souvenirs for your family and friends!

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With a Bachelors in Fine Art Photography, Michael McNett combines nearly 16 years experience as a wedding and special events photographer with his background in fine art and fashion photography to create a unique and memorable take on your wedding day!

Michael McNett introduces elements of storytelling and design in all of his custom work from the photography itself to the custom albums he creates for his clients. His work has a high emphasis on the individuals, the couples day and their own personal experiences as they say “I do” and celebrate with family and friends.

In Michael’s own words,

“All the great things that my art was an outlet for, fused with my wedding photography, makes each and every wedding feel fresh and new with its own artistic voice. I not only get to tell my story, more importantly, I get to tell yours as well. That relationship, that coming together, is why I love my job so much. It ceases to be about documenting an event and becomes about the in between moments and how they relate to each other. Not just what you see on the surface, but what you feel underneath it. And the best part is that these stories, these pictures that you look at and the albums you hold in your hands, live on, get passed down and shared over the years. If done right, it can matter.”

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If you’re like me, darling bride-to-be, you’ve long since graduated from smiling at the Prince in Cinderella while clutching your teddy bear to swooning over Flynn in Tangled while sipping a glass of wine! A woman’s love for all things love cannot be outgrown – which makes today’s Tangled-inspired wedding inspiration all that more special for my Tri-State brides!

Just one tour of The Bethwood‘s breathtakingly beautiful grounds had me convinced that there was no other place I would recommend more highly for an outdoor Tangled inspired wedding. Sparkling waterfalls, glass-enclosed chapels, gorgeous outdoor gazebos…need I say more?

Designed as a show of sending out blessings of harmony, unity, and peace for all who witness and take part, the release of Chinese lanterns is a beautifully meaningful way to begin a marriage.

What do you think of this tradition-turned-Disney inspiration for a spring wedding, soon-to-be Mrs.?

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