Wedding Ideas

My husband and I were married last winter, after a year of planning and decisions and details. Because we were saving for a home and investing in our small business, we were committed to planning a wedding on a budget. At the same time, we wanted our wedding to be one of the most beautiful days of our lives, and one that was as free of stress as possible. I'm happy to say that we accomplished our goal to stay sane throughout the planning and the wedding day, and we learned these five things in the process.

1. Remind yourself frequently, "Our wedding is a stress-free zone."

You wouldn't believe how many times I said this to myself, silently and out loud. Remember that your wedding is about celebrating your love and commitment to your partner, so it would be a shame to let worries about money and logistics steal your joy. If you feel yourself getting anxious or upset about something, take a deep breath and put it out of your mind for a while. Before you come back to it, recommit to making your wedding a stress-free zone. 

2. Decide where to save and where to splurge.

My husband and I decided to invest in the items most important to us -- photography, food, and music -- and seek out inexpensive options for most everything else. We bought affordable wedding rings, reasonably priced wine, and a beautiful wedding dress on closeout. To finance our honeymoon, we encouraged guests to donate to our Honeyfund account instead of sending us a gift. It wasn't important to us to provide wedding favors, so we simply skipped them. Make a list of items you want for your wedding and rank them in order of priority. Splurge on the items at the top of the list, and save on the ones at the bottom.

3. Limit your guest list to close friends and family.

Given the astronomical costs of the average wedding -- currently more than $25,000 -- people will understand not being invited when they hear that you're keeping your wedding small. Let's put it this way: Are you willing to pay around $100 for your second cousin once removed to eat a sit-down dinner? Although I couldn't afford to invite my extended group of local friends to my wedding, I wanted to include them in the celebration. I sent an email early in the planning process to let them know that I was keeping my wedding small, but I'd love for them to join me at the after-party. Guess what? They completely understood. Plus, those who were planning a wedding on a budget themselves didn't feel obligated to invite me.

4. Find vendors through your network.

I live in a small community, and my husband and I made good use of our local connections to find vendors for our wedding. A few traded labor with my husband; for example, he designed a website for someone in exchange for professional lighting at our reception. Other vendors knew that we were planning a wedding on a budget and liked us enough to give us a good rate on their services; in turn, we recommended them to others as often as possible. We asked two dear friends to play music during the ceremony as their gift to us, and they were honored to be part of our big day. Think about your own connections, and the skills that you could trade with wedding vendors, or loved ones who have similar talents.

5.  Make decisions by asking yourselves, "What do we want for our wedding?"

You'll get tons of unsolicited advice from friends and strangers (Exhibit A: this very blog post!), and you'll probably feel pressure of some kind from your families. Take other opinions into consideration if you like, but keep coming back to what will make you and your partner happy on your wedding day. If you're lucky, it'll be the only one you ever have, so tune out the noise and make your own decisions. 

Stay within your budget by finding affordable wedding rings at My Trio Rings.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user sinksanctity.

My Trio Rings was started to provide incredible value for diamond engagement and wedding rings. We’ve done this by combining the power of eCommerce with four generations of experience in diamond manufacturing. One of our methods has been to utilize cluster head settings, which are comprised of many smaller stones. With recent Improvements to the My Trio Rings manufacturing process we’ve been able to start manufacturing larger solitaire stones with the same cost advantage we provide to our customers!

Today we’re really excited to announce the release of the My Trio Rings Solitaire ring collection. The line consists of our most popular ring designs mounted with a single solitaire diamond setting. The elegance and beauty of solitaire diamonds represent the merging of two individuals, one promise that lasts a lifetime. The diamonds we’ve just released allow our customers to experience the timeless traditions of marriage and everyday affordable prices not available elsewhere.

The eye-catching solitaire collection is available with princess cut and round cut solitaire diamonds ranging in carat weight. Many of the ring sets will now surpass 1 carat t.w., like ST110 and ST114 which are each over 1.5 carats t.w. when purchased in a Trio Set! Staying true to our company’s mission we’re making the solitaire engagement rings available at incredibly low prices that can be up to 65% less than inflated prices charged by high end jewelry retailers.

Our customers come to My Trio Rings for the best possible deal on wedding ring sets and we’ve had countless requests for solitaire diamond rings. Previously they were only able through custom orders, but with the growth of our company this year we’ve been able to scale up and provide this incredible value to any customer who comes to MyTrioRings.com. 

We’re excited for this new launch and hope you are too! Starting today, our solitaire lineup will be available through trio ring sets, bridal sets and as individual engagement bands. To celebrate the launch, we’re kicking off a two week Facebook promotion where visitors can vote for their favorite solitaire ring designs to reveal exclusive discounts upto $150 on the new Solitaire Engagement Rings and Solitaire Ring Sets. Feel free to take a look through our products or reach out to us if you’re looking for something more specific!

Are you ready to propose? Believe it or not, guys, if a Christmas proposal is what you’ve got in mind, the time to start planning is now. This gives you time to determine whether an affordable trio wedding ring set is right for your budget wedding, learn about the 4 C’s, decide what style ring you prefer, and even learn how to protect and care for your affordable trio wedding ring set.

Really, it isn’t that complicated. It is as easy as deciding on your budget and browsing the My Trio Rings website to choose the rings that you think you and your fiancée will love the best.

You may be a low-key, push-the-ring-box-across-the-dinner-table kind of guy, or maybe you’re a more traditional down-on-one-knee type. If either of those are true, then you may not be looking for creative Christmas proposal ideas. But if you want a more creative Christmas proposal, then here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. When the snow starts falling, get outdoors and participate in a winter sport such as skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, or even just wintry sleigh riding. When you come inside from the cold to warm up with hot chocolate, pull off your girlfriend’s gloves and offer an affordable trio wedding ring set as a way to warm up her fingers.

2. Ask your girlfriend if she would like to open one special gift on Christmas Eve. Pile wrapped gifts under the tree for her to choose from. Leave each box empty except for one that contains the engagement ring. Get her to keep unwrapping boxes until she finds the package with the ring inside.

3. Put the pre-planned proposal ideas aside. Carry the ring around in your pocket as the holiday nears, and just wait for a perfect, memorable Christmas moment to pop the question to the woman of your dreams. Maybe it will be while Christmas shopping, while sipping holiday-flavored coffees, while wrapping gifts, while singing Christmas carols, or even while trying to dig a car out of a snow drift. Trust your intuition and surprise both of you with the perfect proposal!

What are your Christmas proposal ideas?