Your bridesmaids need to know how grateful you are for all of the hard work and moral support they’ve provided over the past several months.  Traditionally, the bride-to-be hosts a bridesmaid luncheon where gifts are given and this gratitude is expressed.  These luncheons should always be held as close to the wedding date as possible.  However, maybe you’d like to show your appreciation while you’re not so rushed and bogged down in wedding details.

Consider treating your bridesmaids to a traveling girls’ night out several months before the wedding.  Start out at a nice restaurant and enjoy a light lunch or small dinner.  Then travel to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures.  Make an appointment with a make-up professional to give your attendants tips on how best to enhance their features and compliment their bridesmaid gowns.  You can also visit a hair salon for hairstyling tips and maybe even do a little jewelry shopping to accessorize their gowns.  Top it all off with a decadent dessert and coffee at a local coffee shop.

You can fill the day with as much or as little as you like (or can afford).  The idea is to show your bridesmaids just how special they are to you and how much you appreciate their friendship.

Once you’ve decided on your color palette for your wedding, be sure to continue to keep an open mind.  This isn’t saying that you need to change your color scheme totally, but remember that there are many colors that go well with and even compliment each other. 

Incorporating different shades of the same color can really bring some style to a wedding party.  Consider allowing the maid of honor to wear different colors than the rest of the attendants.  For example, your maid of honor could be dressed in burgundy or merlot, while your bridesmaids wear a lighter rose color.  Another alternative would be to invert color schemes in the dresses.  A silver dress with a violet sash on the maid of honor would be beautifully complimented by violet bridesmaid dresses with silver sashes.  Use accessories like shoes, jewelry, shawls or sashes to incorporate other colors.  Silver is fast becoming a very popular wedding color today simply because it does go so well with so many other colors such as gunmetal grey, slate blue, violet or pink.  Keeping these accenting colors in mind also helps when the mothers of the bride and groom go to choose their dresses.

By varying the colors in your wedding party, you add an elegant touch of class that is completely unique.  Just remember to keep within your color palette and watch out for colors that clash.  With a little imagination you can create a truly sophisticated look.

Picking out your wedding favors can be the most enjoyable part of planning your wedding.  You can literally spend hours browsing through all the adorable favors that are available today. 

Once you’ve chosen those perfect favors for your dream wedding, consider finding a favor to give out at your rehearsal dinner as well.  No matter how elegant your wedding will be, the favors you choose for the rehearsal dinner can be just plain fun.  You can coordinate them with any theme, or they can be totally unrelated.  After months of hard work and planning, this is the time for a well-deserved evening of relaxation.  Let yourself be a little silly with your favors.  Then share that silliness with your friends and family!

When purchasing gifts for your bridesmaids or groomsmen, personalization is a great way to express your love and gratitude.  It shows your attendants that you’ve put a little more thought, time and effort into choosing their gifts.  Whether you choose to personalize their gifts with their entire name or just monogram it with their initials, it turns an ordinary present into a true gift from the heart.

For your groomsmen, consider giving items such as keychains, Swiss Army Knives, tie tacs, or pens engraved with their names.  Any bridesmaid would love personalized items such as cosmetic travel cases, jewelry cases, flip flops, or tote bags.

Personalization adds that little something extra that will make whatever you choose to give a wonderful keepsake.

Choosing a color theme for your wedding can be a lot of fun.  Whether you want to work around one main color or a combination of two or more colors, you should keep several things in mind. 

 The first thing you’ll want to consider is the popularity of your color or colors.  Teal and rose look beautiful together, but it’s not as popular today as it was about 10 years ago.  You want to be able to find bridesmaid dresses, as well as other accessories in the colors you pick.  Check out the available colors for items such as napkins, flowers, candles, wedding favors, cake toppers, and invitations to name a few. 

You’ll want to take into consideration how colors will look on your bridesmaids.  You will, no doubt, be dressed in either white or ivory, however, the bridesmaids will want to look their best that day as well.  Colors like yellow or orange can tend to wash out lighter complexions, whereas blue or green may compliment certain color eyes. 

If you want two or more colors for your wedding, consider varying shades of the same color.  Brown can be a very elegant look for a wedding, especially when it is combined with a coffee bean or lighter mocha.  Totally different colors can work too, however stay away from opposite ends of the color wheel such as purple and yellow. green and red, and blue and orange.  Instead, choose color shades that are next to each other on the color wheel.

Ever wonder why the bride traditionally stands on the left side of the groom during the wedding ceremony?  Long ago it was not unusual for kidnapping attempts to be made on a bride-to-be.  The bride, therefore, would stand on the left side of the groom in order for him to keep his sword arm free in case he needed to protect his bride.

Typically, the groom recruited the aid of one of the best warriors in his tribe to help him in just such an emergency.  This was the beginning of today’s best man.  Although it is still a special honor to be chosen for this position, the job description is far less life threatening (unless, of course, the best man loses the rings)!

Beyond the ‘Bride’s family on the left ~ Groom’s family on the right’ seating standard, there are a couple additional rules that should be followed in order to maintain total adherence to the wedding ceremony seating etiquette. 

Parents are always seated in the front row, with siblings in the second row and grandparents in the third row.  Additional close relatives and close friends then begin to be seated in the fourth row.  If you have very special friends or relatives that you would like to be seated within the first few rows, you may specify ‘in the ribbons’ on their invitation.  This signifies to your guest that they are allowed to sit in the rows that have been sectioned off with ribbons.

If your parents are divorced, the seating becomes a little more complicated depending on whether your parents have remained amicable after their divorce.  Typically, the mother has the honor of sitting in the first row.  Your father may sit in the second row if your parents still get along.  However, if ill feelings exist, it may be wise to seat your father a few rows back.  If either of them have remarried, their spouses should sit beside them.

Guests should always be seated in the order they arrive.  Any guests that arrive just before the ceremony begins will find no groomsman to escort them to their seat.  In this case, they should seat themselves quietly in the back of the church.  The mothers of the bride and groom are always seated last, just before the ceremony begins.

If you’ve ever attended a wedding, you may have been asked by the groomsman whether you were a friend of the bride or the groom.  This is in order to seat you on the correct side of the church.  Although, not etched in stone, it is traditional at a Christian wedding for the bride’s family and friends to be seated on the left-hand side of the church, while the groom’s family and friends sit on the right.  The opposite is true for Reform and Conservative Jewish weddings.  Traditionally, men and women are separated in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony.

This seating arrangement works well when the wedding takes place in the city where both the bride and groom live and the attendance from both sides is fairly equal.  However, many times this is not the case.  The bride and groom may be from totally different areas of the country, or perhaps you’ve decided on a destination wedding.  Whatever the reason, if the guests from one side will overwhelm the guests from the other, you may want to do away with this seating custom and just have your guests sit where they choose.  This will help to spread your guests out more evenly and create a more balanced look in the church for your wedding pictures.

When it comes to choosing those who will stand up with you during your wedding, the ‘rules’ are fairly non-existent.  Aside from not wanting more people standing up in the wedding than sitting down in the audience, you can pretty much determine the size of your wedding party without fear of breaking any ‘wedding party etiquette’.

A good guideline to consider is that you’ll want at least one usher for every 50 guests.  Of course, you can always have more, but fewer ushers may make it more difficult for those ushers you do have to perform their job properly.  Corresponding the number of bridesmaids to the number of ushers will even things out, but there’s no rule that says it’s necessary.

You will want to have consideration for the people you ask to be in your wedding party.  For instance, if your maid of honor is pregnant, it may be difficult for her to fulfill all the jobs that will be expected of her.  In this case, you may want to consider asking a co-maid of honor to share the responsibilities.  Having a co-maid of honor will help if the wedding date and her due date are too close and she is unable to attend the wedding.  This also works well if you have two best friends, or sisters, and you can’t decide between them for the position of maid of honor. 

If your best friend is a guy, you may even ask him to be your honor attendant (men are never referred to as maids of honor).  It is just as acceptable for the groom to have a female usher.  In these situations, however, they are not required to fulfill the same job responsibilities.  For instance, a female usher should not escort guests to their seats and a male honor attendant should not be escorted by a groomsman.  He should either walk down the aisle solo, or escort another bridesmaid.

Since being a wedding attendant can be costly, try to also be sensitive to your friends’ financial ability. 

Questions often arise about seating etiquette for the head table.  Typically the head table is reserved for the bride, groom and the wedding attendants.  The best man sits beside the groom, the maid of honor will sit beside the bride.  Bridesmaids, groomsmen and ushers then sit on alternating sides of the newlyweds.  If you have children in your wedding party, they should sit with their parents at a regular table.

Parents of the bride and groom will sit at separate tables from the wedding party.  These tables are normally arranged close to the head table.  Both sets of parents may sit together or they may prefer having their own table they would share with close friends, immediate members of their family or the officiant of the wedding and his wife.

The head table should always be set with placecard holders so the wedding party will know where they are expected to sit.  Unless you’re having a formal wedding, the head table is the only one required to have place card holders.