Now that you’ve walked down the aisle in style and changed your name you may be wondering now what? Don’t worry! We have newlywed ideas to help you.
First up, what to do with your wedding gown. It’s still hanging in your closet isn’t it? Here a few options for you to think about:
Preserve your gown with minimal hassle…
After all the planning and hoopla of a wedding, what newlywed wants to drag her dress to a dry cleaner and hope they do a professional job for a reasonable price? None that we know of! The simple solution: WedClean.com. For $129, this fabulous company will mail you a pre-addressed box with pre-paid postage. What do you have to do? Simply put your dress in the box and drop it off at your local UPS store. With online tracking you’ll know exactly where your gown is in the preservation process and when it will arrive on your doorstep in its sealed storage chest. Preservation problem solved!
Donate your wedding dress to a great cause…
Have you heard about Brides Against Breast Cancer. They sell donated bridal gowns to raise funds for the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. You can donate your gown to them via mail and receive a tax credit for your donation. Talk about a great use for your used gown. With one act you will be helping stage 3 breast cancer patients, enabling some other bride to find the dress of her dreams at an affordable price and you’ll get a credit from Uncle Sam!
Have a wedding themed cocktail party…
Who says you’ll never wear your wedding dress again? Plan a wedding-inspired soiree for your couple friends. It can be as simple as champagne and cake or you can go all out with flowers, candles and favors. The important part is to make sure everyone attending wears their wedding attire! Imagine the amount of fun and photos that will result…especially if you all go out on the town afterwards.
Want to include single buddies in your party? Let them pick out wedding gowns and tuxes from the local thrift shops…the crazier the better!
Newlwed Idea #2: Loved your wedding bouquet? What bride didn’t? After spending many hours and many glasses of wine poring over magazines and blogs to find the perfect flowers for your big day, you might wonder what to do with your floral masterpiece now:
Have a wedding themed cocktail party…
Are you a Martha Stewart- in-training? If so, following these simple instructions will result in a lovely dried version of your bouquet.
Attach a wire or hook in a dark, dry cool place where you can leave your flowers for 2 weeks. Next, remove any ribbons from your bouquet (you can always reattach them later). Tie a string around the base of your bouquet and use it to hang your flowers upside down on the wire or hook. Now resist the urge to continually touch or “test” the dryness of your flowers. Wait two weeks and you will have a prettily preserved bouquet.
Have a wedding themed cocktail party…
Feeling a little crafty? Potpourri is an inexpensive and easy way to keep the flowers from your bouquet long after you’ve said “I do”. Simply remove the petals from your flowers before they start to turn brown and put them in an air-tight container. For every quart of flowers you have in the container, add one tablespoon of fixative (available at any craft store). Then you can add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to increase the scent of your potpourri. Popular choices are lavender, rose or even a few drops of your wedding perfume. Seal the flower/essential oil mixture in your container for 10 days to and shake it lightly every two days to evenly mix the scent. You now have post-wedding potpourri that you can put in a decorative bowl or sew into sachets to keep your lingerie smelling newlywed naughty!
Have a wedding themed cocktail party…
A pricier newlywed solution than some of our other ideas, but the results are literally picture perfect. A professional flower preservation company will freeze dry your bouquet or selected flowers from your bouquet and place them in a shadow box or display frame of your choice. The nicest ones we’ve seen include a wedding portrait and one of your invitations in the box or frame or your flowers turned into a framed monogram. It’s a great way to preserve your wedding memories and decorate one of the bare walls in your apartment or house at the same time!
Wondering what to do with the fabulous wedding photos you spent a fortune on? Here are a few newlywed ideas to help you maximize the memory potential of your favorite images (and even justify the investment a bit more):
Have a wedding themed cocktail party…
Display your professional wedding photos in a truly professional way. Kolo.com has the nicest albums and photo boxes we’ve seen anywhere. If you received proofs of your wedding photos, this is the perfect way to showcase them!
Print a custom wedding album (inexpensively)…
Are you a busy bride and want a custom wedding album without the hassle of ordering , gluing and cramming photos into a traditional book? We’ve got the solution for you! Use Shutterfly’s easy online software to drag and drop your professional digital wedding photos (and even a few candids from your own camera or honeymoon) into a custom book. You can choose your album cover, page designs and layouts or use one of the standard wedding templates. Once you’ve arranged the photos of your big day to your heart’s desire, you can order additional albums for family and friends. Hasn’t your mother-in-law been dropping hints? Starting at $29.99 this is one photo option that won’t break your post-wedding budget.
Print a custom wedding album (inexpensively)…
Decoup…what? Warning, this newlywed idea is for the serious craft queens out there or those willing to make a giant mess in the name of a wedding project. Decoupage is the art of decorating a surface with cutouts and then adhering them with several layers of glue or varnish. You can use your favorite wedding pictures along with pressed flowers, decorative papers like your wedding invitation or program and fabrics (finally a use for bridesmaid dress swatches) to decorate any surface of your choice. Note that it’s best to use color photocopies of your wedding photos because the ink in real photos might smear.
So how does this process work? First choose an item to decoupage, such as a cardboard photo box. If you can’t think of a fun idea, craft stores abound with inexpensive items to decoupage. Brush a layer of Elmer’s glue, thinned with water, onto the surface and arrange your decorative items on it. Let the first layer of glue dry and then brush a second layer on top of the items, making sure to cover all decorative items and the edges of the surface completely. Let this new layer of glue dry and then add 2-3 more layers and allow ample drying time. You have now created artwork that celebrates and preserves your favorite wedding memories. If it turned out well, you can use your newfound skill to make customized wedding thank you presents for the people that helped you the most on your big day.
Print a custom wedding album (inexpensively)…
This newlywed idea is a must for the newlywed couple that is shamelessly addicted to pop art. Can’t afford an Andy Warhol of your own? Let photohow.com turn one of your wedding portraits into a crazy cool custom canvas. This is also a great (and dare we say sneaky) way to get your new spouse to proudly display a wedding photo at the office.