1. Victoria “Posh Spice” Adams and David Beckham

2. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas

3. Madonna and Guy Ritchie

4. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

5. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio

6. Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra

7. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier

8. Kate Hudson and Chris Robinson

9. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt

10. Celine Dion & Rene Angelil

Destination

Where are you getting married?___________

When? _____________

How many people do you want to be there? (Family members, friends, or just you and your future spouse?) ______________________

Getting there

Airfares Hotel (a villa might be cheaper if there are a few going). Find out about airport tax. Some airports charge a departure tax so you’ll need to have enough currency left at the end of your stay. If you are having friends or family, you must consider if they can afford the expense of the trip.

The venue

How much will it cost?________________

Transportation to and from the venue___________

Entertainment activities ______________

Catering

Book your reservations early. Many resorts and hotels are booked months in advance, especially during peak travel seasons.

Ceremony Type

Are religious ceremonies allowed?_______

Check the regulations for the country to save you time and aggravation. You may be able to get an all inclusive package. (Venue, catering entertainment, etc.)

Documents and other legal matters

Research the marriage requirements. It may be as simple as going to the local courthouse, or it may be as complicated as having to be a resident. What type of documents is required? Birth Certificate (original, certified, copy), passport, divorce decree? ________________________________

Must they be translated? ____________________

Residency requirements

There are destination wedding coordinators who will handle the entire license processing for you.

Documentation

It will cost a little extra but will save a lot of time. Once you arrive at your destination, how many days do you have to wait in order to get married? ______________

Are certain medical tests required? Blood test, certificate of immunization?___________________

Find out if you will need to send the documents in advance of the wedding. From the time you get the license, how long do you have to wait until you can get married? _______________

Can you get it in advance?__________________

Is witnesses needed? Must they be citizens of the country you are getting married in? ___________________

And don’t forget

Bride and groom outfits and accessories

Flowers (You should be able to get them included in the venue price)

Photography (Ask family members or friends to take camcorders)

1. Gift basket shower

Designate each guest a room and get them to bring a basket, box or container filled with goodies that will be of use for that room. This allows the guest to give a gift that will be useful for the bride and groom.

Decorations

Place baskets all over the room filled with nibbles. Use boxes to sit on.

Invitations

Use a piece of card with a small hole in the top and thread through a piece of ribbon so that it looks like a gift tag. Write on what room that person has got to fill a basket for. Leave enough space for the person to write the contents of the box onto it and then they can attach it to their gift.

Gifts

Bedroom – candles, silk pillows
Kitchen – detergents, recipe books, cookie cutters
Bathroom – laundry basket filled with soaps, shampoos, towel set
Lounge – ornaments, small pictures, or a picnic basket filled with items used for a picnic

These might sound like strange gifts to give but they are useful and they won`t break the bank.

Games and activities

Play treasure hunt where the guests have to find an item in each room and the winner receives a bottle of wine.

Favors

A small basket of pot puree.

Who couldn`t do with extra towels and bathroom accessories. The bathroom is usually neglected compared to the rest of a home so why not hold a bathroom shower and give the bride and groom a head start in their new home.

Decorations

Drape towels over the backs of chairs. Place bowls with floating candles in around the room. Hang soap from rope on the window.

Invitations

How about a bath shape invitation card with bubbles on. These are easy to make from card and will save a fortune on stationary.

Gifts

Towels, bathrobes, soap dishes, toothbrush holders, bath mats, shower curtains, shower caddies, bathroom scales, a basket of toiletries.

Games and activities

Who knows the bride best – The bride has to fill out an info sheet on herself (favorite food, restaurant, color, etc.) 20 things should be enough. Give the same sheet to the guests and the one that gets the most right wins a bottle of wine.

Favors

Small baskets filled with soaps, shampoos etc. You can usually buy sample sachets at local markets.

If the bride is a health fanatic or into her sport and fitness, why not theme the shower around that?

Decorations

Hang streamers and pompoms from the ceiling.

Invitations

Make the invitations from card in the shape of a tennis racket or other sport themes that the bride likes.

Gifts

Workout clothes, certificates for a health club, tickets to a game, sports equipment, health food cookbooks.

Games and activities

Everyone must bring an exercise video, book etc. or any exercise games that they can think of. Twister is a good and fun game for this theme.

Favors

Whistles, small pompoms, water bottles.

Does the bride to be love cooking? Is she a homely person? Why not theme the shower around that?

Decorations

If you have a large kitchen then hold the shower there. If not place cook books, bowls etc. around the room.

Invitations

Send out invitations that look like recipe cards. It should read like; take one bride to be, mix with lots of friends, sprinkle with gifts and serve on (date, time) at (person’s name) house.

Gifts

Remember the big gifts are kept for the big day so little things that can help to make the couples’ kitchen complete are all that is needed. Remember to write on the invitations the colors of the couples’ kitchen. Recipes, cookie cutters, can opener, dish towels, dish drainer, pedal bin.

Games and activities

Each guest must bring along one of their own recipes and the ingredients needed to make it. Write the names of the recipes on pieces of paper and place them in a hat then everyone has to pick one out and attempt to make the recipe stated. If anyone picks out their own recipe they have to put it back and pick again.

Favors

Cookie cutters, fridge magnets, aprons, cheeky dish towels.

Lingerie is a big part of a women’s life, why not theme the shower around that? Have a lingerie party.

Decorations

This is defiantly a night time party. Create a romantic atmosphere with soft lights and lots of candles. Drape the room in silk throws and cushions.

Invitations

Black card with red lace around the edges. Make sure to include the bride’s lingerie sizes and color preferences.

Gifts

Nightgowns, slips, bras, pajamas, teddies, lingerie cases, peignoirs, nightshirts, camisoles, stockings, garters. Maybe even silk boxers for the groom.

Games and activities

Why not have a lingerie selling party and make money into the bargain. These parties are great fun and the guests can shop while they celebrate. Contact your local lingerie boutique to make a reservation.

Striptease - Cut out a cardboard silhouette of a man and dress him in clothes. During the shower each guest has to answer intimate questions about themselves and if they do they get remove an item of clothing if they don`t they have to do a dare by the one asking the question. Underneath all the clothing cover his groin area with a fig leaf and write a small message on it like “not tonight darling I`m washing my hair”.

Favors

Small satin pillows or silk scarves.

The bride will be that busy running around trying to organize everything that she will wear herself out. Make the bridal shower a special one where all the girls get to be pampered.

Decorations

Create an atmosphere of luxury, indulgence, and tranquillity. Adorn the room with flowers, potpourri, and candles. Bring in all the cosmetics, and hair accessories.

Invitations

Pretty invitation cards are a must, preferably with lace around them.

Gifts

Perfume, a loofah, gift certificates for a health spa, bath oils, bubble bath, manicure/pedicure, a bottle of champagne, bath soaps,make over by a professional.

Games and activities

Each person must bring along a bag of clothes, shoes and accessories. Try each others clothes on and do a private catwalk. You never know you might even swap clothes in the bargain.

Favors

A small basket of toiletries or a bag of cosmetics.

Location

Church or Country hotel. If you use a hotel you can use it for the ceremony and reception. Have a night ceremony and make it romantic with candles and soft music.

Invites

Make invitation cards heart shape using red card.

Decor

Make heart shaped wreaths for the walls. All you need is some chicken wire and dried flowers. Make your own heart shaped place mats and write a love quote on each one. Put photos of you and your fiancé on love hearts and put them on the walls. Buy heart shape confetti. Place red and white candles on the tables.

Bride’s attire

Red ball gown is a must for any valentine bride. Hair left loose with silk flower clips.

Groom’s attire

Black or white tuxedo with a red carnation in the button hole.

Flowers

Instead of a bouquet ask your florist to make you a heart wreath and add roses and ribbons, use little ones for the bridesmaids.

Catering

Have a white cake with red hearts and/or pink flowers. Ask the baker to make two puff swans that join in the middle to form a heart shape. Have oysters, prawns, heart shaped sandwiches and cookies.

Favors

Make a goodie bag up and put heart shaped biscuits/cookies or sweets and write a little love quote on a heart shaped piece of card.

Make a heart shaped guest book.

Location

Football, your team’s stadium. Tennis, Wimbledon Rugby, your team’s rugby ground. Golf, your local golf course. What ever sport you are into you will be able to find your location. Most premiership teams allow weddings to take place at their stadium.

Invites

Send invitations in the shape of your sport theme i.e. Football. You can make them yourself from card.

Reception

If you are marrying at a golf course you should be able to have your reception there as well. If your theme is football have your reception at the local pub near the stadium.

Decor

Put up photos of your favorite sports personalities on the walls of the reception venue. Have place mats in the shape of footballs, tennis bats etc. Have turf on the center of the table.

Bride’s attire

For a football theme you could wear your team’s shirt/kit or you could wear a wedding dress with a shirt over the top of it. For tennis you could wear the tennis skirt and top. Wear an outfit that fits in with the theme of the wedding.

Groom’s attire

Much the same as the bride’s. Your sports theme outfit. Ask the guests to wear outfit that fit in with the theme.

Cakes

For a football theme have a cake made the shape of a football or you could pay for your team`s stadium to be made which will probably cost a lot of money. For a tennis theme have a center court cake made. For a golf theme have a golf course cake.

Favors

Give gifts that fit in with the theme of your wedding i.e. mini footballs, mini golf clubs, tennis balls and so on.

Location

Yacht in the middle of the sea. Time the sunset.

Invites

Send cards in the shape of sea shells, if you have the cash send invites in little boxes that are decorated in shells or send pebbles that have messages wrote on them.

Decor

Sea shells, starfish, sand, fish, other sea life, or even mermaids. Have Christmas lights dangling from the yacht. Hang shells and use big shells to hold candles.

Flowers

Ask your florist to make a Hawaiian bouquet. Everyone could wear a Hawaiian garland around their neck.

Bride’s attire

You could dress as a mermaid with a fish tail (check costume shops or have one made) and wear a bikini top. Wear jewelry made from shells and pebbles and wear a flower in your hair. Or you could dress in a sailor suit, white pleated skirt and sailor jacket with a sailor`s hat. Guests could dress as sailors or if you opt for the mermaid theme they could wear grass skirts

Groom’s attire

Without a doubt a sailors suit – the full lot with a Hawaiian garland around his neck.

Catering

Lobster, prawn cocktail, fish definitely sea food. Ask a baker to make you a sea theme wedding cake. Mermaids, shells, seaweed hanging over the side of it. The choice is unlimited. Have fish made of ice.

Favors

Boxes made of shells, shell ornaments.

Ideas

Dolphin wedding rings are popular. Smash a bottle of Champaign over the side of the yacht. Dive in the water for a swim as soon as you said “I do”.

Location

Use a Church, Cathedral, Castle or a Country hotel. Try and hire a castle or a building that looks very old then you can have your ceremony and reception there.

Decor

Decorate with plenty of ivy the traditional wedding plant of the time. Black iron candle holders, Banners of family crests (everyone has a family crest) find your`s and your husband to be and put them on show. Have large baskets of flowers and flowered garlands. Use lavender and wheat wrapped around candles for the table center piece.

Invites

Use ivory or beige colored paper and write invitations in calligraphy. You could roll them up and wrap a bit of ivy around them like they did then.

Flowers

You will need a very large bouquet for you and a smaller one for the bridesmaids. Gloriosa lily, ivy, red roses, amaryllis, birch twigs or holly branches and parrot tulips are good choices of flowers as they will blend in with the theme. Ask your florist to add some herbs such as rosemary, thyme, basil, etc. Herbs were used a lot at weddings in the Medieval times.

Bride’s attire

Brides in the Middle Ages wore dark and regal velvet dresses in such colors as hunter green, burgundy wine, or deep purple. Often these dresses were laced up the sides and/or back, had long, pleated skirts, and were floor-length and long-sleeved. They were also usually relatively (tastefully) low-cut. A metallic (gold or silver) braided ribbon often ran throughout the design. The torso of the dress often was cut like coat. Try costume shops, theatrical groups or have the dress designed and made for you. If you have long hair braid it or tong it and leave it hanging loose. Ask your florist if she can make you an ivy wreath for your hair piece.

Groom’s attire

The dress is as unique for men. Tights, breeches, tunics, pirate shirts, laced vests, and boots are the order of the day. If his hair is long, it should be worn loose. Also, anything in a tapestry pattern is perfect for either the bride or the groom.

Catering

In medieval times the banquets were massive feasts that could feed an army. Try roast pork with an apple stuffed in it`s mouth. Steak, new potatoes anything will do. Ask the caterers if they can do a center piece of stacked food maybe salad, or a desert. People ate with their hands, a spoon and a small knife the size of a steak knife. Forks were not used in the middle ages.

Favors

Buy medieval trinkets, black iron candle stick holders, or a wreath of dried flowers, herbs and wheat and put them into little baskets.

Location

Use a forest or a castle that is rumored to be haunted. Have the wedding at night. That way you can party until dawn, plus it is more spookier.

Decor

Black and lots of it. Spiders, ghosts, bats hanging from the ceiling and walls. Have the room lit with candles only and an opened flame fire. Make place mats in the design of the ghosts, bats, pumpkins, etc. Put candles in pumpkins for the table decorations. If you choose a forest as your location you wont need any decorations just keep a fire burning.

Invites

Make cards in the shape of bats, ghosts etc.

Bride’s attire

Go with a Mortisha style dress. Tight bodice, long flowing, jagged edge skirt, long sleeved. Or you could go with a black lace, see through bodice with a long flowing skirt. A black cape with a red lining. If you have black hair have it straightened. If you don`t have black hair wear a long, straight black wig.

For the make up. Face white, black eye liner and black eye shadow for eyes. Black or red lipstick. If you have long nails paint them black if you don`t wear false ones and paint them black. Ask the bridesmaids to wear red velvet dresses with a tight bodice and a semi flowing skirt.

Groom’s attire

A black or dark green vintage tuxedo suit with tails. A white or red frilled shirt. Face white, a bit of eye liner and black lips. Ask guests to wear black and dress to match the Halloween theme.

Flowers

Red roses are a must.

Cake

Have the cake made like a pumpkin instead of tiers. Or if you want a tier cake have spiders dangling over the sides.

Favors

Make a spooky goodie bag with spiders, (not real of course) candles and novelty Halloween torches.

Location

Use a garden or a marquee. A marquee may be best as it tends to be cold at Easter time.

Invites

Choose a card reflecting your wedding colors. You could make make your own cards in the shape of Easter eggs or fluffy yellow chicks. Send your card together with a small Easter Egg.

Decor

Decorate walls with daisy chains, make them with yellow and white crepe paper. Cover tables in pale yellow or spring green and white. Attach tissue primroses to lengths of satin ribbon and drape around tables or wind around poles in the marquee.

Make name cards in the shape of Easter eggs and chicks. Make table decorations. A flower arrangement in a small woven basket with a silk bow attached to the handle. Fill modern translucent plastic colored vases with yellow tulips. Have someone dressed as a Easter bunny to hand out Easter eggs.

Bride’s attire

Opt for a nice soft fabric dress like chiffon. Choose colors like pale yellow, ivory or white. Add beading and lace to the bodice. Wear spring flowers in your hair.

Groom’s attire

A white suit would go lovely with the Easter theme. But if it`s too daring have the shirt, and waistcoat matching with your outfit.

Flowers

Early seasonal yellow and white flowers – include daffodil, narcissus, Lilly of the valley, primrose, forsythia, lilies, freesia, iris, hyacinth, ranunculus and tulips. Mix a lot of green in with the bouquet. A bunch of tulips tied with ribbon makes a striking bouquet.

Cake

Have figures of the bride and groom emerging from two halves of a golden Easter Egg. Have lemon icing on your cake, with small chicks iced around each tier and a large fluffy chick on the top, standing in a nest with the bride and groom.

Favors

Give mini baskets with Cadburys cream eggs, mini fluffy chicks, and an Easter card.

Location

See if you can rent a barn that will allow to have open fires out doors, barns would make a nice backdrop. Think barn dance and check out movies that have those scenes in them for ideas.

Decor

Bales of hay, rope, gingham and calico, old boots, mason jars, jugs, bunting and swags, washtubs, wire, livestock, garlands of greenery and arrangements of fruit. Tree trunks are ideal for sitting on outside Set the wedding cake on a cool bird bath or pedestal wash basin stand. The bride’s dad could carry a prop shotgun for a real shotgun wedding effect!

Invites

Look for heavy rustic papers for your invitations.

Flowers

Use soft rope to hand tie the bouquets and add wild weeds and hay. Wildflower bouquets are all a cow girl needs. Fill old, odd containers with flowers at the tables. I.e. paint cans, tins, baskets, mason jars, use coils of rope to hide the vases. It should look simple and hand made. You can easily make all the decorations you need just using hay, weeds and herbs.

Bride’s attire

Look around for old western wedding dresses. Or wear a long flared ankle length skirt with a white shirt. Or a long denim skirt with tassels on and a white or denim shirt. Or you can dress in casual denim jeans and a shirt. Wear boots and put a bandana on your head if you are wearing any of the latter 3. If you are wearing a traditional western wedding dress wear wild flowers in your hair.

Groom’s attire

Find out if you can get cowboy tuxedo. He could wear a denim shirt with tassels on, jeans or a vest and blue jeans.

Food

Cowboy`s love their Barbecues, cook as much as you can outside. There are people that have rolling pits that can come to your site and cater barbecue. Don`t you do any of the cooking. Eat on a picnic table or benches and use extra bales to sit on. Drink from tins to give it the real western feeling. Have the cake made to look like bales of hay with plastic rifles on the top joining in the middle.

Transport

Ride to the wedding and the reception on a horse or horse carriage or hay wagon if possible.

Music

Find a band that can do at least one square dance number for mood if nothing else. Violins, banjos and guitar. Look for music to set the mood you are after. Take along a few tapes with all your favorite music on and a battery operated cassette player.

Favors

Give dead bullets away in tin cans.