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Take a garage sale candelabra and some of your grandmother's teacups, and what do you get? With a little ceramic glue and various things to put in the cups, you get a funky, one-of-a-kind centerpiece. If you just want to create one, you might even have the materials at hand, or can find them in the family. If you want to make six or eight or ten of them, though, you'll likely have to hunt a little further.

Possible storehouses of crafting goodness? The attics of older relations. Thrift stores. Ebay. Garage sales. If you have a local buy-and-sell newspaper, put an ad there -- or on good old Craigslist. When you have enough bases and cups, you could paint the bases the same color for a sense of uniformity, or you could leave them in all their irregular glory. For full instructions on how to make a candelabra centerpiece, follow the link!

Choosing your wedding day is often a process of balancing interests, schedules, holiday time, obligations. Once you've chosen the general time frame, you pretty much have to simply hope for the best, that the details come together, that the weather co-operates.

We can't help you with your friends and personal logistics too much, but we can suggest something that might help with the weather! Bridalweather offers a service that helps you choose the weekend most likely to have good weather. Available only for American brides (including Alaska and Hawaii), you choose your state, time frame, and specific location, and you'll get a forecast -- and even a link to a podcast. You can also approach it from the reverse: see the forecasts for every weekend throughout the year, and pick a weekend based on the likelihood of good weather.

We all know you can't get 100% accuracy that far in advance -- but knowing that a weekend is statistically likely to give you good weather can be reassuring, anyway.

You've never been a particularly fashion-conscious woman. Jeans and a t-shirt have been just fine for most of your life, with occasional forays into jean skirt and dressy tee, and suddenly, here you are looking in the middle of a whirlwind of fashion terms.

Whirlwind? How about tsunami? You've struggled through 'bodice' and 'pinch pleats', 'sweetheart' -- as a neckline, not a term of endearment -- and 'cathedral' (as a veil length, not a building), and you've found your gown. And your bridesmaids, bless their hearts, have something nice to wear, too.

Though the bride and groom have their gifts to buy, this post is for everyone else. The people who have to get gifts for the bride and groom, which can be an intimidating prospect. There are so many possibilities, people's tastes vary so much. If you don't know the person very well, and many people who are invited to a wedding will not be very, very close to the couple, how do you know if you've hit the mark?

One way to get it right is to buy off the registry. Simple, and you know the couple will like it. Another possibility is to consult the experts. Yes, there are gift-giving experts. Gift-giving experts who offer their expertise through websites.

Check out the wealth of ideas, tips and advice at Gifts.com. They have experts, they have lists of suggestion. They have a Question and Answer forum where you can input your particular dilemma. They even have a registry-finder, so you can find your friends' registry without having to ask them! Got a gift-giving crisis? See what the experts have to say!

There is very little about planning a wedding, and in particular, a green wedding, that isn't covered in My EcoChic Wedding. There's a wedding classified market, where you can buy, sell, and trade items, there are lists of vendors and lists of questions to ask those vendors, there are budget worksheets, timelines, to-do lists for every member of the wedding party. They will, for a fee, host your very own wedding website, which they'll let you try out free for a week.

They even give you a free, down-loadable 43-page wedding planning book. This is a seriously all-inclusive site, and though eco-oriented, it's not preachy. Even if you're not interested in having a 'green' wedding, you'll find the site useful. And you never know, some of those green tips might save you a little green money!

If you agree with Kristen that you can't drink champagne all the time, and you've decided to choose yourself some nice French wines for your wedding ... Well, they're French wines, aren't they? They'll need to be presented with style!
There are all sorts of ways to accessorize your wine. The most obvious is wine charms. You can buy them in just about any theme you can think of -- wedding, of course!, but also any hobby or interest the two of you have, or simple beads to match your color scheme. You can purchase them or, using a few simple items from the jewelry section of a craft store, make your own. There are cork place cards, decorative wine stoppers, elegant wine bags, and many more.

We're kind of partial to these wine cork candles. It looks like you're burning the corks, but you're not! Available from Beau-coup, each candle can be put into an empty wine bottle, and burns for two hours. Of course, you could always use the standard fall-back of real, actual candles (in your wedding colors!), popped into real, actual bottles, as well.

A "wishing tree" is a traditional part of Dutch weddings, and an interesting alternative to the guest book. A beautifully shaped bare branch (or two) is placed in a pot and arranged on a table beside the bride and groom's table. The branch can be bursting into bud for a spring wedding, or a dried and painted branch. You can decorate the branch with ribbons or beads, whatever looks beautiful to you.

Guests are given a paper leaf or piece of decorative card attached to a ribbon when they arrive. During the reception, they write their best wishes to the bride and groom. The couple gets to read them before hanging them on the branch. After the wedding, the couple can use the branch as a centerpiece or decorative item in their own home. Eventually, couple can take the leaves/cards off the tree and make a collage of them or put them in a scrapbook. Whatever you do with it, you'll have a tree-full of warm wishes to savor for years to come.

The picture of the arrangement in a teacup comes from Teleflora, so you could just order a few of these, but how much more personal (and less expensive!) to make your own. If you don't have a collection of teacups, you can find pretty and inexpensive cups from department stores. Dollar stores have even been known to carry cups and saucers!

Instead of an arrangement of cut flowers, you could put in a small plant from your very own garden or indoor plants. African violets would work, Devon violets, marigolds, or any other plant with smallish blossoms and foliage.

For a bridesmaid lunch, for a shower, or even, if you have enough cups and saucers, your reception, these gifts can be recycled, obviously: replant the flower in a pot, and reuse the teacup as a ... teacup!

via: eco-chic weddings

What's the mystique of French women and their scarves? The carefully-chosen square of silk, folded just so, twisted like this, knotted like that -- and, voilà! Perfectly casual, utterly sophisticated fashion.

If you want a French look to your wedding, put your bridesmaid in simple and sophisticated sheath dresses, and accessorize with a beautiful silk scarf. Each woman can choose her own scarf, each tied the same, or all tied differently. If you haven't the first clue how to tie a scarf, this site has several options. Experiment a bit! There's no one right way to wear a scarf. See what you come up with!

Truffles. The ultimate in sweet, creamy bite-sized balls of sinfully good decadence. Chocolate luxury. For a French flare to your reception, how about truffles as your wedding favors? They come in just about any flavor known to man (or woman). They can incorporate liqueurs or nuts or fruit. They are traditionally dark chocolate, but are also made from milk and even -- though purists shudder at the thought -- white chocolate.

Since they are obscenely rich, a little goes a long way. You can buy truffles in bulk for economy, knowing that they are intended to be savored, not gulped by the handful. One or two truffles, arranged artistically in pretty packaging, make for a perfect, Parisian-sophisticated favor.

If you're in the very early stages of choosing your gown, this gown-generator from iVillage might prove helpful.

You choose your body shape and size, then choose from a variety of skirts, bodices, and (if you want them) sleeves to make the dress. You then accessorize the basic gown with sashes, trims, and veils. Interestingly, you can only have one "trim" item, so if you want a tiara and gloves, you're out of luck. One or the other, but not both. Seems the gown-generator is a believer in simplicity.

The finished product is not refined by any stretch, but it might be a simple way to eliminate some possibilities. At the very least, it's an easy way to while away a little time if you're at loose ends ...

For the couple who's feeling just a little overwhelmed by all the wedding stuff and is wondering if it wouldn't be a lot simpler to just elope ... bored.com has just the page for you!

A three-step virtual marriage ceremony, ending in your very own real Fake Wedding Certificate. Enter the bride and groom's names, type in the witness (witness is optional), read a two-paragraph wedding ceremony, at the end of which you click on "I do". The virtual minister pronounces you husband and wife, and you kiss. Then you get your marriage certificate. There! Done! Wasn't that easy???

Oddly enough, only one party has to participate in order to receive the marriage certificate. This seems to us to have tremendous post-bachelor-party prank potential ...

Balloons are a bright and pretty way to add color to your informal wedding -- but they're not very environmentally friendly. If you plan a balloon release (check on this: it's illegal in many jurisdictions), or if a few manage to escape despite your precautions, it's a sad fact that deflated and popped vinyl balloons are a threat to wildlife. A shriveled balloon can look like a nice yummy worm to an unsuspecting bird, which is then choked by someone's "harmless" decor.

But balloons are fun. Are there alternatives? Well, there are Mylar balloons, of course, which when deflated, don't shrivel as latex does -- but they're not more bio-degradable. And then there are paper balloons.

Yes, paper, coated in water-soluble PVA. These paper balloons are completely bio-degradable, they can be filled with helium using a standard pump, they don't pop readily as do latex, and -- awwww -- they're shaped like doves. They've been around a while, too: they were released to great audience satisfaction at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. When released, they even look like they're flapping their wings.

via: Eco-chic weddings

A favor that will add a splash of color to your tables, these brightly-colored tulips are not flowers, but soaps. At about $19.00/box of nine, they're probably a little steep to give in their package to a hundred guests. You might consider giving an entire box to each of your bridesmaids, but if you'd like to use them as favors, you certainly can. You just have to ... think outside the box. Ahem.

Place an artful scatter of rose petals or colored confetti on your guest's white plates, then place a single tulip blossom in the center. Accompany the tulip with a tag or card expressing your thanks for their support and attendance, and you will have created a lovely favor -- at a lot less than almost twenty dollars apiece!

Planning a Paris-theme wedding? You can choose the very chic and urban Paris decor, and focus on the landmarks and monuments, or you could turn your focus to the sophisticated and urbane Parisian parks. Parks in Paris tend to be fairly formal, organized affairs. They have immaculate gardens, and lawns more often for gazing upon than racing over; often there are ponds, for gazing upon, yes, but also for sailing model boats.

Want to conjure up the ambiance of a Parisian park? This Paris Garden kit provides inspiration for your decor: sculpted hedges, topiary trees, a fountain. You may not may not opt to include a model of the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe, but some artfully placed flowering plants and a (chocolate?!) fountain could be used to good effect. Perhaps seating at the wedding, or around the dance floor, could be rented park benches rather than chairs.

Take the elements that appeal to you, and see how you can make them work for your celebration!