We’ve been searching ourselves for directions on how to Bustle. We found directions for the French or Under Bustle. Read further to find out how to sew the French Bustle and directions how to tie the ribbons to make the French bustle on the back of the wedding dress.

1) Measure the center back seam of train from the waistline seam to floor, as indicated by blue tape measure. Measure this distance from edge of train, as indicated by red tape measure; mark with pin.

2) Lift the center back seam at pin mark to waistline at center back; adjust the fold so train is 1/2″ to 3/4″ (1.3 to 2 cm) off the floor; pin to the waistline seam as shown.

3) Fold and pin train at each side back seam, so sides of the train are off the floor 1/2″ to 3/4″ (1.3 to 2 cm). Continue to fold and pin train as necessary between seams, to lift remaining train off the floor.

4) Release bustle, pin-marking points on train and waistline. Hand-stitch center of 15″ (38 cm) length of narrow grosgrain ribbon to waistline at pin marks, between skirt lining and train; catch ribbon securely into waistline seam. Repeat to make remaining ties.

5) Cut 2 1/2″ (6.5 cm) length of grosgrain ribbon; fold in half, and stitch loop securely to underside of train, 1/2″ (1.3 cm) below pin mark; reinforce area with small piece of interfacing, or attach ribbon loop to seam allowances. Repeat for remaining pin marks.

6) Insert ribbon ties through corresponding loops, and secure with a double bow. Adjust folds of fabric for desired look.

Visit the source, SewDeb.com, to view photos of sewing a French or Under Bustle on a wedding gown for a visual understanding.

Bustling your wedding dress before your wedding reception can be overwhelming for your bridesmaids. As we wrote in a previous article on How to Bustle Your Wedding Gown, NJ Wedding Vendors explained that bustling your wedding gown is customized for your wedding gown style.

The best planning you can do is to have your maid of honor watch the bustle demonstration while one bridesmaid makes a video and one or two write down the instructions of how to bustle your wedding gown. If some of your bridesmaids can’t be at the final fitting, upload your video to YouTube so they can learn how to bustle your wedding dress, too.

Before your wedding day, preferably the day you have your hair done for a pre-wedding trial, get together with your bridesmaids and maid of honor to practice bustling your wedding dress. By practicing your wedding dress bustle, you can also see how your headpiece and jewelry look with your wedding gown. You could also plan to have your make-up done on the same day…only be sure to step into your gown so that it doesn’t rub off on your gown!

Read the article that follows for more tips on How to Bustle Your Wedding Gown… (more…)

How to decorate a beach wedding is a fine line between creating a stunning location and losing the natural beauty of the beach. Here is how to create a beautiful beach ceremony whatever the weather.

How to Decorate a Beach Wedding

By Suzanne Daykin

When you are planning your beach wedding it is a good idea to think about the weather as this will effect all your plans on how you decorate. It doesn’t matter that it is raining or windy as long as you are ready!

You will want to have a designated area for your guests and yourselves as you may find that the sand will be too soft to have lots of chairs. For older guests you may want to provide deck chairs and for very young guests blankets for them to sit on. If you have guests in wheelchairs or with buggies then have matting down so that they can join in the celebrations.

You could use shells to mark an aisle in the sand and brighten them up with flowers - make sure you push the stems in so that they don’t blow away. If your ceremony is at dusk then you could mark the aisle with tiki torches or provide guests with lanterns to hold.

If you think that it might rain or it will be very hot you could provide your guests with your wedding color umbrellas and these could be used as your wedding favor as well. Check out ebay and overstock, plus your local dollar stores to find a bargain on the umbrellas. You could then have those little drinks umbrellas in the reception drink to add to the theme!

Covering the area with a wedding tent is a good idea but check with the beach authorities as to whether you would be allowed to have a wedding tent on the beach, some don’t.

If you know a local sand sculptor or local art student why not ask if they are able to design something for the ceremony - this may cost more than you want to spend but a definite wow factor and they last for ages. If you haven’t seen one before you will be amazed. You could recreate a fairy castle, a speed boat and even a vintage car - there really is no limit. If you have lots of children attending the ceremony you could provide them with a bucket and spade so that they can have a go themselves, this is a real help to the parents so that they don’t get bored.

Remember to add your beach theme to your wedding invites so that your guests dress appropriately!

Suzanne Daykin is owner of http://www.cheap-wedding-solutions.com

Suzanne has spent the last 12 years working in the Hospitality Industry as a wedding planner and event manager. Organising thousands of functions from small personal parties to large corporate product launches in the UK and Europe. Currently a work at home mum, Suzanne set up her own event company in 2006 and now looks to help future brides and grooms save money when they are planning their wedding.

Make it look like you spent thousands with simple Cheap Wedding Solutions, lots of ideas on how to decorate your beach wedding http://www.cheap-wedding-solutions.com/how-to-decorate-a-beach-wedding.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Suzanne_Daykin
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Decorate-a-Beach-Wedding&id=1347131

New Jersey beach wedding brides have some of nature’s most exquisite summer colors to choose from for their NJ beach wedding.

Beach wedding colors taken from nature are green, cornflower, aqua, and marine blue, orange, fuchsia, plus black and white accented with summery colors such as yellow or pink, Aqua Blue, and the lighter purples, like orchid and lavender.

For more daring brides, contrasting color combinations may include orange and fuchsia, green and hot pink, navy or black against any kind of eye-popping-color, and chocolate brown and pink or aqua.

For the more subdued, conservative bride, use of a monochromatic color palate may be more to your liking. Monochromatic appears to be the 2008 color trend for weddings. Monochromatic is using all the hues, (more…)

We’re adding five more NJ reception venues to our list of New Jersey Historic Estate Wedding Facilities. Driving along the NJ countryside to visit the beautiful grounds is in itself a great way to spend the day. These expansive, beautifully landscaped NJ estates have been converted into elegant wedding venues where the past meets the present.  Often, today’s country clubs were once elegant estates allowing enough land to build a golf course and offer a banquet hall for special occasions.  If there is a country club near you, give them a call…ask them if they cater weddings. Where they once limited use of their facilities to members only, country clubs often offer their facilities to the public to support the necessary upkeep expenses.

Ramsey Golf and Country Club
Ramsey, NJ

Hold your wedding reception in a gorgeous 19th century stone castle surrounded by stately trees, a formal garden on 30 acres with 3 lakes. They can accommodate your wedding whether it is for 12 or 200 guests and “are eager to bring our excellent food, superior services and fairy-tale setting to your affair and continue the legacy that has made the Ramsey Golf & Country Club one of New Jersey’s premier locales for special events and memorable weddings”. (more…)

We visited The Breakers in Spring Lake yesterday. Spring Lake, NJ is known for its beautiful large homes with manicured lawns. Spring Lake is a NJ residential summer location more than a tourist attraction. The beaches are clean and well taken care of. No coolers, food, or beverages are allowed on the beach. We witnessed a Spring Lake police officer require sunbathers to remove their cooler from the beach and empty out the cans. That was certainly better than getting a ticket for they had beer in their cooler.

Last April, we inquired about holding a NJ beach wedding ceremony and reception at The Breakers. The following is the reply we received from Shannon Costanzo, Director of Sales:

The Breakers on the Ocean has the distinction of being the only full service hotel located on the ocean in Spring Lake. For the most special day of your life, The Breakers offers the ideal setting for a NJ oceanfront wedding. From the cocktail hour on the Front Porch overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to the reception in the elegant Crystal Ballroom, guests will enjoy magnificent NJ ocean views, attentive service and exceptional cuisine.

Our wedding packages, including prices, are available on our website - www.breakershotel.com. Our package includes four or five hours of premium open bar, cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres, Champagne Toast, Five-Course Sit-down Dinner or Wedding Buffet, Custom-designed Wedding Cake, Private Bridal Suite for the Wedding Party during the Cocktail Hour, Complimentary Standard Guest Room for the Wedding Night, Complimentary Place Cards, Direction Cards and elegant Silk Centerpieces.

Our prices start at $112.00 per person, inclusive of tax and gratuity. We offer a 10% discount on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and 15% all day Sunday along with seasonal discounts. (more…)

Are you thinking of having a 4th of July wedding in New Jersey? Next year’s 4th of July is on a Saturday and since this year’s 4th of July just passed, now is a great time to shop for decorations and favors for your NJ 4th of July themed wedding. And where should you hold your 4th of July wedding? On a New Jersey beach, of course!

4th of July NJ Beach Wedding Fireworks

Almost anywhere along the Jersey shore or other waterview locations, you and your wedding guests can enjoy exciting fireworks and you won’t have to pay for them. You can check with the local towns to see when they schedule their fireworks displays. Red Bank’s, on the Navesink River, are always on July 3. NYC’s are always on July 4th. This year, Red Bank had the 3rd best fireworks display, with Macy’s in NYC having the best. We were in Red Bank this year for the 4th of July celebration and must agree that they were great! Red Bank really out did their past displays.

4th of July NJ Beach Wedding Save the Date and Invitations

Once you decide where and when, design your “save the date” announcements with your 4th of July theme, but decide first how casual or classy you want your wedding to be. Your announcement and invitation should give your guests an idea on how to dress for the occasion. For a NJ beach 4th of July wedding, you could include a picture of the two of you on the beach sitting at a table with your theme decorations dressed as you wish your guests would dress for you NJ beach wedding. (more…)

The Wedding Cake

Imagine spending $5000 for a wedding cake! Not many New Jersey brides would spend that much on their wedding cake. One Texas bride had a long time fantasy of having a doll modeled after her. (Wouldn’t an American Doll be a lot less expensive?) To celebrate the renewing of her vows after 10 years of marriage, her husband agreed to her having a life-sized cake make to her likeness. Chidi Ogbuta of Allen, Texas, worked along with two designers to create a wedding cake that looked just like her.

It took about 5 weeks to complete the wedding cake and after serving it to their 500 guests at the September, 2007 wedding, it took about 1 week to finish the leftovers off with the help of friends. Are you wondering if they saved the head for their first anniversary? Imagine going down to the basement late at night to get a pizza out of the freezer and have a head peering out at you? Well, not to fear, the body was the butterscotch cake and the head and arms were made from polymer clay.

How did she accomplish this amazing cake? The bride hired a pastry chef to make the cake, except for the (more…)

Today, I will marry my best friend
 The one I will always turn to.
 Confide and be strong,
 In my friend and my lover.

Today, I will marry my best friend,
 To drink of love’s eternal fountain.
 Where we turn our heads from the past,
 And trust in God to guide our paths.

Today, I will marry my best friend,
 Traveling together as one.
 Our dreams at last have came true,
 As we live our lives together forever.

Today, I will marry my best friend,
 Where our lives are not our own.
 We place our lives in God’s hands,
 and let him carry us all the way to the end.

Right now you are madly in love, you can’t be with each other enough…you count the time until you will be together again. Your engagement is exciting with all the NJ wedding plans, gifts, and attention. But it can be stressful, too, because now you are starting your life together, combining two lives into one. It is during the stressful times that we learn more about our partners and what they really value in themselves and life.

The following poem, The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, addresses those personal values that keep a couple together through a lifetime relationship of marriage.

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain. (more…)