August 01, 2009
In this Issue:
Wedding Cake History and Traditions
Wedding Reception Invitation Wording
How to Make Your Wedding Reception Enjoyable For Everyone
As well as our featured wedding vendor, featured product and a coupon for another popular wedding store!
Wedding Cake History And Traditions
The wedding cake as we know it now has had a long history that sent it through many transformations as it became the focus of more than a few customs and traditions.
The history of the wedding cake has been researched back to the Roman Empire, with the custom of breaking the cake over the bride's head. This practice was a symbolization of the end of the bride's virginal state and the beginning of the groom's power over her. In this case, the "cake" was actually a loaf of freshly baked barley bread.
Flour-based breads without sweetening were the centerpiece of weddings in Medieval England. One custom mentioned occasionally told of stacking sweet buns in a pile and, if the couple could kiss over the pile, they would be blessed with many children.
The bride's pie was introduced somewhere in the middle of the 17th century and lasted well into the early 19th century. This wedding pie was either a mince pie or filled with sweet breads or mutton. The tradition was a glass ring hidden in the pie and the lady who found the ring would be the next bride. While pies and breads ("cakes") were not the main symbol of the marriage ceremony at this time, mention can be found if historians dig deep enough.
The bride's pie disappeared in the late 19th century, replaced by early, simple plum cakes in several versions. These cakes did not resemble today's multi-tiered, towering wedding cakes in any way.
A Cake Pull, a pre-Victorian tradition that has survived the years and is still seen at some weddings in the southern United States, is the custom of baking tiny silver charms attached to satin ribbons inside a layer of the wedding cake. During the reception, single women pull the ribbons from the cake and read their future in the charms attached.
The charms represent their future success, or lack of it, with marriage, wealth and several other conditions. Spinsterhood is predicted if the charm pulled out of the cake is a thimble. This practice has moved over to bridal showers and been expanded with the availability of hundreds of silver charms.
Another 17th century superstition that went through a few changes over the centuries is the practice of sleeping with a piece of wedding cake under your pillow to dream of your future spouse. A hundred years later, in the late 18th century, brides would pass tiny crumbs of wedding cake through their wedding rings and pass them on to guests. Those crumbs would be placed under many a pillow that night. There's no evidence of the effectiveness of this traditional superstition, but it survived for several hundred years. Some researchers say that the custom was abandoned when it became the practice for the bride to not remove her wedding rings after the wedding ceremony.
The color white has always symbolized purity, gentleness, innocence and softness and, in weddings worldwide for centuries, virginity. Early wedding cakes were often white, but not usually to represent the bride's purity. The ingredients for icings were difficult to find in very early Victorian times and white icing only required fine sugar. As with most traditions, white icing evolved into a representation of the family's wealth and standing in the community – the whiter the icing, the more affluent the family.
There's a lot of history behind the wedding cake that has continued in one form or another throughout centuries of both simple and elaborate wedding ceremonies. Next time you are enjoying a wedding, see if you can spot some traditions that survived the passing of time. You might be surprised.
Want to know more about wedding cakes?
Check out some of our other articles:
Wedding Cake
Wedding Cupcakes
Black and White Wedding Cakes
Wedding reception invitation wording by Nancy Walters
Wedding is really a big day in everybody’s life. Isn’t it? The ultimate credit goes not only to bride and groom but the share of credit gets distributed into many different persons concerned for wedding ceremony. Wedding is very religious ceremony that needs to be performed with correct rights and rituals. Right from wedding dress to wedding invitation everything is so pleasing and pompous in its own way. Before the wedding ceremony takes place the first primary task to fulfill is to invite all the guest and relatives to attain your wedding. Wedding invitation cards is the first impression which holds and reveals a lit bit scenario of your big day – wedding. You need to pay equal attention towards the wording and etiquette of wedding invitation cards.
Initially, your mind would be just blank about the type, size or to classify appropriately your wedding invitation cards. You are always free to take guide from any expert card printing dealer or the best pal – Internet is always there to provide the detailed source. You can also invite by sending an e-mail or just by a phone call but that sounds too formal and that too for our closed one relatives. So the best and lovely way is to invite your loved ones dear guest by sending an invitation card. The first priority of choosing of the words should be of the couple who are going to tie up in marriage relationship. They (couple) should be the one to finalize everything in order to suit their requirement.
First step is to decide the wording on invitation card so as to give tranquility to their viewer’s eyes. The main purpose of wedding invitation is to let guests know the particular details with accurate information. You should be ensured enough that the wedding invitation card does not have any mistakes or omission which gives bad impression. The foremost thing that you need to take care of is of wordings. Wordings can be simple which makes your task more easily and swift and that too with diligence. The first part can be said an introductory part with some inviting lines, it’s quite a pretty straight forward task. You can describe the wording for wedding invitation card in some different ways like traditional, modern, and free style. But equally different approach needs to be done for types of bride and groom hosting.
A traditional invitation sometimes just messed up the things which may result into inconvenience. If the wedding venue is located at some awkward place which is not known by too much of people then it is advisable to figure (map) out the place accurately.
Thus, wedding invitation wording has acquired great importance and especially in wedding season. You should go in a proper order rather than going in a haphazard way and that too when the question is of your marriage or any of your closed ones marriage. You have to follow invitation wording and etiquette so as to spruce up nicely in your wedding invitation card.
Nancy Walters love to write articles about weddings, one of her favorite topic is wedding invitations. More resources can be found at Wedding invitations website
Article Source: uberarticles.com
Want to know more about Wedding Stationery? Check out some of our other articles:
Traditional Engagement Announcements
Rehearsal Dinner Invitations
Purple Wedding Invitations
How to Make Your Wedding Reception Enjoyable For Everyone
Have you ever been to a wedding reception where guests sit around in little groups of people they know and no one mingles or looks like they're having a very good time? And it's all slightly awkward? Yep, I have too. This is not how you want your wedding reception to go. You want people to mingle and get to know each other, especially both sides of the two families involved. Plus, you want everyone to have a good time.
Let's explore ways to help your guests feel comfortable so they'll relax, open up, and enjoy themselves.
1. Start the bonding between families and friends at the bridal showers and bachelor party. That way the people at these events will have some common ground with each other when it comes time for the wedding reception. Even if they didn't previously know each other, they will now have some shared history.
2. Music is important, even if you don't plan to have dancing. Keep it loud enough so that people can hear it, but not so loud they have to shout to be heard over it. The type of music is important too. Make sure it's light and uplifting.
3. Have a slide show running on one wall featuring the bride and groom from babies to adulthood, lots of shots of friends and families, and as many funny (and potentially embarrassing) pictures as you can find. This opens everyone up for a good laugh and brings out the conversation as the bride's mom tells the groom's sister the story that led up to a certain picture, etc.
4. Make the room on the smallish size. If the room is huge and the number of guests small, they have plenty of room to go hide in the corners. You want the room size to force them to be closer together so they will mingle.
5. Group dancing such as line dancing, the Stroll, the Hokey Pokey, and even the Bunny Hop get people together. The more ridiculous dances are usually good during the latter half of the reception after the ice has been broken.
6. The dance with the bride (money dance) is a tradition for some families and one you should consider doing as it's lots of fun and gets everyone involved. Basically everyone lines up to dance with the bride and puts some money in the hat for the privilege to do so.
7. A tango contest or limbo contest is another activity to try half way through the reception. This can be hilarious and entertaining for everyone, not just those who are involved. Be sure to have someone video tape it as you might end up with some footage suitable for the America's Funniest Videos show.
8. Give the loners at your reception a job to do. You can assign these guests disposable cameras and ask them to be in charge of getting some candid shots during the reception.
These are some ideas to help you have a reception where your guests feel comfortable and have a good time. Keep these in mind and your reception may be talked about fondly for years to come.
Read more articles about the wedding reception here:
The Wedding Reception
Decorating For Wedding Receptions
Wedding Centerpiece Ideas
Have you started shopping for your wedding yet? If you need some places to shop we have some suggestions.
We have our own wedding store which offers thousands of items to choose from, so check it out and bookmark it for later:
Wedding Store
If you are looking for more reading material to help you plan your wedding, check this out:
Wedding Books and Magazines
Here is our featured wedding vendor of the month:
That’s our topper is an excellent shop. They offer a wide range of wedding cake toppers from the most traditional to the harder to find themed toppers. Check them out for some ideas on how you want to top your cake.
Here is our featured product of the month:
These are simply beautiful and it is so wonderful that you can now order flowers online for your wedding!
And finally, for those of us wishing to save some money here is a coupon for you. Visit A Gift Personalized and enter the coupon code AGP10off in at checkout and receive a 10% discount off of an order of $100.00 or more!
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. As always good look with planning your wedding and contact me if there is anything I can help you with!