BUDGET: Wedding Season's Price

Spring wedding season has arrived, ushering in hefty costs for guests -- and especially for members of the wedding party.

Today's WALL STREET JOURNAL has some practical tips for young people who are required to travel and spend money in order to participate in a wedding.

Some members of your wedding party may consider it a vacation to travel to your destination, but some may not be able or willing to travel in order to attend fittings and rehearsals in addition to the Big Day. To save your friends from having to spend a lot of money, have a basic colour scheme in mind, and send out swatches of the exact colours. This way, you can leave it up to your attendants to find their own outfits for the ceremony.

Or, you can always choose to have a small or no wedding party... This means more focus and pressure on you two, but less expense for your guests!

WEDDING: Props and Favors for a Non-Denominational Ceremony

i don't usually endorse commercial websites cos it's just not my style, but i discovered a website recently that offers an alternative from those cheesy and over-the-top wedding favour storefronts.

it's called MY SPIRITUAL WEDDING (http://www.myspiritualwedding.com/) and it has all the props a couple may need for a unity ritual. they carry items other sites don't often have in one place, like handfasting cords and Native American wedding vases, along with the typical stuff like unity candles, sand, ketubah, unity coins and more.

there's also a non-secular side to the spiritual, and the site has all that stuff, too.

i don't buy from the site, but i like using the information on the site to research the ceremonies and rituals i perform.

CONGRATULATIONS: Lucy & Talin!

A huge congratulations and many thanks to the lovely couple! It was a beautiful Hollywood Hills home ceremony/reception last night. The table settings were stunning, and the work of MAGGIE MECCIA and RON RILEY. i hope to have some photos to share with you, later!

After the ceremony, a lot of people asked me, "Where did they find you?" and "Did you write the ceremony for them?" to which i answered, "i'm not sure how they found me, but they definitely saw me on the internet and reached out through my website..." and "i wrote it, but they did most of the work."

Internet marketing is so vast, and can be so complex, and i am grateful whenever anyone happens to find my site, A NON-DENOMINATIONAL CEREMONY and feels a connection to it.

As for the writing part, i do indeed create the text from scratch, but it would not be possible without a couple's input. Once i am hired, i send home a 'Couple's Questionnaire', which is returned via email. The various answers supply the material i use to write an introduction, as well as a couple's story, and all the transitions between the different elements.