A reader recently wrote to me, asking if she had to invite her nephew's girlfriend of two years to her wedding.

The issue of guest's dates is a tricky one. Many single people look forward to bringing a date to a wedding, but for the bride and groom that means having a stranger at a very personal event. With limited budgets, that stranger is quite literally taking the place of someone they do know. Read more...

Wedding invitation wording always seems to confuse engaged couples. With blended families, couples paying for the wedding themselves, and other tricky situations, the standard invitation wording just doesn't suffice.

Rachel writes:

My fiance and I aren't sure how to word our wedding invitations.Our theme of our wedding is romantic & traditional. Where our problem is incurring is that both of our father's have passed & our mother's are paying for the wedding. How do we word that?

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Gurkan writes:

I am getting married in about 16 days, and it's my job to create the wedding programs. I have read your helpful article, Essential Elements of a Wedding Program, but I am stuck trying to figure out how to find the materials I need to start with. What kind of paper should I use? Are there blank ones available that I can just grab and fill it out ? Or should I just sit down and write everything down in Word?

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On your wedding day, you're going to be kissing, eating, and toasting, and through it all, you need your lipstick to last. But most long-wear lipsticks we've tried have been super drying, and a couple of hours in, our lips were flaking. That's not exactly the look you want on your wedding day.

The ones that weren't overly drying just didn't last very long, and what's the point of that? But finally, we've found a long-wear lipstick, available at the drugstore, that we love. Read more...

The chance to write all or part of your wedding ceremony is a marvelous gift. It causes you to take stock of your relationship, discover what is most important to you, and find a way to convey that through original words, literature, and song. It's an exercise that takes hard work, but they payoff can be enormous, bringing the two of you even closer together.

Start off by reading A Sample Wedding Ceremony and Order of Service. It will help you understand the different elements you'll need to include, and give you one way of organizing them.

Next, you'll probably want to write your own wedding vows. Check out my article 6 Easy Steps to Writing Your Own Wedding Vows, and look at some examples for inspiration.

Next, consider your wedding readings, which can come from your favorite books, The Bible or other religious texts, or even something a friend has written. We've got an entire Library of Wedding Readings here.

Music is an important part of most rituals, and a wedding is no exception. We've given you some examples of wedding ceremony music here. You might also consider some contemporary and secular wedding ceremony music.

Receiving lines, where the wedding party stands in a line ready to greet each guest and welcome them to the wedding, are an efficient way to make sure you've talked to each guest. But guests often complain about them. Read more...

Don't get us wrong, we love this wedding invitation. In fact, we even featured it in our article 10 Unique Ways to Personalize Your Wedding Invitations. But there's something wrong with it. Can you spot it? (You'll probably need to click here to see the invitation full size. ) Read more...

Your wedding guests are more than just an audience for your wedding performance. Their presence there makes your vows more meaningful. After all, it's easy to make a hollow promise just between two people, but when everyone you know is witnessing that promise, it's harder to not take incredibly seriously.

But perhaps you want to make sure your guests understand what their presence means to the wedding, and get them to vow to support your marriage.

Here are suggestions for wedding guest vows that will help make your guests a meaningful part of your wedding ceremony.

With the current state of the American economy, taking a fantasy honeymoon is starting to look like only a fantasy for many brides and grooms. Even if you're able to use airline points to ferry yourself to a far corner of the globe, the cost of hotels, meals, and activities may still be out of your reach. But where can a couple on a budget go for a fantastic honeymoon? Read more...

Wendy writes:

I'm getting married Nov. 1st and we're on a smaller budget so decided to have a luncheon reception. It will be in a hotel north of Vegas which has a nice reception area. What have you heard people doing afterwards if the wedding is over by 3:30 or 4? just curious b/c now we're not going on a honeymoon right after. I'm not sure if the guests will just leave? I've ever been to a lunchtime wedding so any thoughts you could send my way would be appreciated.

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