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Have a 70's and 80's Themed Party / Receptions?

Don't forget the internationally published DJ article by Boogie Brothers' own - Dan Nichols - 17 Things Every Bride Should Know

Real Flowers on Wedding Cakes?

Wedding Website a Wedding Resource

Can real flowers be used on a wedding cake? The answer can be yes and no. It all depends who is the florist and who is the cake maker. According to one Detroit florist with 40 years of service, it all depends on the risk involved. And how much risk you are willing to take.

Some questions to be answered: Are the flowers from USA or imported from third world countries? Have they been sprayed with chemicals that can been harmful to humans and pets in minute quantities? Have they been washed and cleaned according to US food safety standards? Is the person applying the flowers to the cake a florist or the cake maker? Are the flowers non-poisonous? Will the flowers be eaten, perhaps by a child? How soon after the flowers are applied will the cake be eaten?

According to Pamm Meyers, a florist with 27 years experience, of Dallas TX, Bridal Blooms, "brides should always ask their florist, if they are putting fresh flowers on the cake, how they are applied. They should always be washed carefully and then wrapped with floral tape and ribbon before coming in contact with the cake. I have seen many florists just stick the flowers directly into the cake with always shocks me!"

As you can see there may be some risk involved. Your florist must be sure the flowers are fresh and washed clean and not sprayed with chemicals. They should be applied just before the guests arrive or see the cake. The flowers should be removed before cake cutting.

Flowers can definitely make the cake stunning. The decision is yours.

revised 1/2007

this wedding topic and hundreds more can be viewed at

www.Bridalpointe.com

For a unique and strikingly elegant alternative to the ringbearer and his pillow, ask a young girl to convey the rings carefully within one perfect calla lily, as brides did in the early 1900s. Note: don't trust this role to a child younger than ten or so, as smaller hands may not be able to keep the rings safely within the blossom.

A romantic gesture made popular by Queen Victoria is to include ivy in the bridal bouquet. Afterwards, the ivy can be rooted and planted as a beautiful, living reminder of your bouquet. Green thumbs in Victoria's day would nurture the ivy, with plans to include cuttings from it in their daughters' wedding bouquets.

Medieval brides believed that knots symbolized good luck, hope, and steadfastness, so their bouquets were tied with numerous knots. Continue the tradition by giving your ushers tie clips or cuff links adorned with sculpted knots, or adorn a ring pillow or kneeling pillows with silken curtain cording knotted at each corner and finished with tassels.

The "ties that bind" are potent symbols in many cultures around the world. Some African tribes tie the hands of the bride and groom together with braided grasses to represent their union. Mexican couples are "bound" by a ceremonial rope looped loosely around their necks. In a Hindu Vedic wedding ceremony, a delicate twine is used to symbolically bind one of the bride's hands to one of her groom's. You can symbolize your commitment to each other as you walk down the aisle together simply by holding hands.

The French and Finnish traditionally place laurel branches, the Germans evergreens, along the path of the bride and groom after the ceremony, to symbolize luck and fertility. For a garden ceremony, have ushers hand out bags of herbs, sprigs of greenery, and flower petals, to sprinkle over the path of the couple as they make their joyous walk back down the outdoor aisle.

A delightful and ecologically-correct alternative to throwing confetti is blowing bubbles. Hand out bottles and blowers to children of all ages before the ceremony starts.

Make inexpensive, original place cards out of home-made cookies, each iced with a guest's name. Consider gingerbread men and women, or heart and bell shapes iced in your wedding colors.

For a regal touch at each place setting for your dinner reception, make napkin-rings from lengths of ribbon, looped and then sealed with a daub of wax impressed with your initials. Stamps and sealing wax are available at most stationery stores.

Specialty rubber stamps depicting charming Victorian illustrations, often available at arts and crafts supply or toy stores, are great for decorating place cards, menu cards, or table-assignment cards.

Place a colorful square of cloth at each reception table place-setting and a few fabric pens on each table. Ask guests to sign the squares, then use them to create a one-of-a-kind wedding wish quilt.

An update on table assignments: instead of using numbers, identify each table with the title of a love song or a line from a poem.

Make the gift table look special by setting a display of family wedding portraits at one end. Include portraits of both sets of your parents and grandparents, if you can. Place small folded cards in front of each portrait, calligraphed with the names of each couple and their wedding date.

A touching way to honor your parents is to serve them the first slices of your wedding cake yourselves, before having the cake cut up by the caterer to serve to guests.

Miniature evergreens (either fake or real) make inexpensive yet dramatic reception table decorations for a winter wedding. String each with its own set of fairy lights, powered with a battery pack hidden under the branches.

Another inexpensive idea for a winter wedding is to paint pomegranates, pine cones, and plastic bells with gold spray paint. Arrange them in the center of each table, or wire them to styrofoam cones for elegant versions of Christmas trees.

For an early spring or winter wedding, spray bare branches (curly willow is particularly shapely) with silver spray paint. For each table arrangement, decorate a grouping of branches with a white toy dove, white ribbon bows, and a few white orange blossoms or snowflakes made from craft tissue paper.

For a Valentine's Day wedding, hot-glue sweetheart candies and cinnamon hearts to clean juice cans for flower vases that will have everyone talking.

For a summer wedding, try brightly painted metal buckets filled with white sand in which white candles, shells, and daisies are nestled, or an ice bucket filled with ice, two bottles of flavored spring water, and bright pinwheels.

For a fall wedding, fill hollowed-out pumpkins with sprays of tiger lilies.

For added visual drama at your reception tables, secure a colorful bouquet of helium-filled balloons to the centerpiece. Make sure there are as many balloons as chairs for each table. Insert a trinket into one of the balloons in each bouquet. At the end of the evening, your guests can give you a loud send-off by breaking the balloons. Whoever finds the trinket gets to take home the centerpiece.

In Britain it's considered good luck if a charwoman (bag lady or street person) appears and begs a coin from the couple on their way to their reception. Celebrate your joy with a donation to your favorite charity. Have your best man or maid of honor mail it on the day of your wedding.

Before cars and limousines, male guests at Irish, Scottish, and German village weddings would kick off the celebrations with a wild foot-race from the ceremony to the reception. Entertain your guests with a treasure hunt or car rally, a great way to occupy them during a long break in the day.

If there is a considerable time-lag between ceremony and reception, don't forget about your guests. Take a cue from Elizabethan weddings, at which pageants, masques, sporting events, pranks, and other sources of merriment were the order of the day. For an outdoor reception, set up areas for croquet and badminton, complete with equipment and cool drinks.

The best man will have a lot of responsibility throughout the day, even moreso if he is also the M.C. at the reception. Help him remember the schedule of events with a specially written timetable. One bride we know chose a beautiful piece of Florentine stationery, cut to fit his inside breast pocket. She wrote out the notes in her best hand in gold ink. It cost pennies, and made the best man feel like a million bucks.

An easy trick to enhance a punch bowl is to float ice cubes with a rosebud or other edible flower frozen in the center of each. The '90s host always offers enticing alternatives to alcoholic beverages. Sophisticated options include the new non-alcoholic wines and beers, as well as flavored sparkling waters.

Have a wandering violinist play love ballads during the receiving line.

Have a hilarious slide show of your and your fiancé's family histories running in a dark corner throughout the receiving line segment of the reception.

Pamper your guests while they wait in the receiving line. Have a prettily decorated bowl of punch set up nearby. Instruct your catering manager to have the wait staff serve tiny hors d'oeuvres to those standing in line, along with cocktail napkins printed with your names.

Make your entrance into the reception grand:

 Have a bagpiper pipe you in, or... enter to a trumpet fanfare (live or recorded), or...  have the best man announce your entrance and lead a round of applause.  Use pyrotechnics to really get their attention.

Add a personal touch to the place settings of the bride and groom with monogrammed goblets, or share a two-handled loving cup as the French do (for toasts only!)

Make the bride's chair special with a garland of greenery and flowers or a swag of tulle and ribbons.

Research local party rental and display suppliers for striking reception decoration ideas. Lattice arches, chair covers, live trees, and giant silk floral arrangements are a few of the exciting options available to rent, at surprisingly affordable prices.

A thoughtful touch for thirsty guests is to place two or three bottles of water at each table. Provide a selection of sparkling and still types. Tie a ribbon around the neck of each bottle.

Ask your catering manager about adding specialty dishes or wines that reflect the bounty of the region. Long-distance guests may appreciate having a taste of the local cuisine or favored libation. Alternatively, consider adding a dish to honor your heritage.

To add color to reception tables, place a large square of pretty floral giftwrap in the center of each. Choose candles in coordinating colors.

For an outdoor reception, flank the main entrance to the tent with two bird-baths (you might be able to borrow or rent them from a local nursery). Fill them with water and float wide, flat blossoms, such as lilies or camellias, in the water. Add floating candles, to be lit when the sun starts to set.

For an evening reception in a garden tent, string hundreds of tiny white lights all across the ceiling for a starry effect.

Couples wanting to give their guests an unusual wedding keepsake that helps others, as well, might consider donating the money allotted for wedding favors to a favorite charity, and placing certificates at each place-setting, rolled up and tied in a pretty ribbon, that declare the donation made in the name of each guest.

Animal lovers might place origami animals at each setting instead of wedding favors, with a declaration that a donation was made to the local animal shelter or a wild animal "adopted."

Unique wedding favor ideas include:

 keepsake eggcups, complete with mouthwatering chocolate eggs
 miniature heart-shaped vine wreaths, hand-decorated by the bride, complete with tiny plaster busts of Cupid
 plastic sunglasses with tiny plastic brides and grooms glued to the frames (great for the official photograph of all the guests).

When you're planning a warm-weather wedding and a sweet table seems too much, opt for plates of chocolate-dipped strawberries presented at each table.

Do-it-yourself cassette tape recordings of the reception speeches and toasts will make inexpensive mementos your parents will cherish. Add some of your own thoughts, thank-yous, and observations. Other versions could be custom-taped for elderly or out-of-town loved ones that could not attend the wedding.  Or even a website with pictures and such.

Long ago, wedding days began with loud merrymaking and a festive parade to the place of worship in order to scare demons away and ensure a glitch-free ceremony. Your wedding day can have a roaring start with music and good fun: send a singing telegram to your betrothed with the message that you can't wait to meet at the wedding.

Make sure out-of-town guests arrive at the ceremony on time and relaxed. Assign a few close friends or relatives, who'd like to help you on your wedding day, to pick them up from their hotels and drive them to the ceremony and reception. You might want to extend the same thoughtful offer to elderly guests.

Follow the Victorian tradition of giving each guest a white ribbon favor before the ceremony. A modern-day option is to have the ushers present each guest with a white ribbon rose, either as a stem or a corsage/boutonnière, easily made with ribbon and a glue gun.

If your officiator will allow it, ask a special family representative to begin the ceremony by welcoming your guests and explaining the meaning of what will follow.

Make a customized ring pillow out of plain cotton, with a sprinkling of your favorite potpourri or a few sprigs of lavender or fragrant herbs added to the stuffing. Make the pillow slip from two antique handkerchiefs or a patchwork of charming children's hankies. Add ribbon ties at the open end. Stitch another ribbon in the center of the top side to secure the rings.

More brides and grooms are opting to make their wedding truly a family affair by inviting their parents, siblings, offspring, and even their grandparents, to take part in the processional.

Rather than having the groom simply appear at the top of the aisle just prior to the ceremony, as is common in most Christian weddings, consider having him escort the bride's mother up the aisle in a quiet salute to the joining of the two families.

Welsh brides used to give their attendants myrtle to plant; tradition held that if the plant grew, the grower would be married. Consider giving your bridal party gifts that grow. Perennials that will bloom each spring are particularly appropriate, accompanied by cards asking the recipients to remember you whenever the flowers bloom.

A touching way to honor your parents is to serve them the first slices of your wedding cake yourselves, before having the cake cut up by the caterer to serve to guests.

Miniature evergreens (either fake or real) make inexpensive yet dramatic reception table decorations for a winter wedding. String each with its own set of fairy lights, powered with a battery pack hidden under the branches.

Another inexpensive idea for a winter wedding is to paint pomegranates, pine cones, and plastic bells with gold spray paint. Arrange them in the center of each table, or wire them to styrofoam cones for elegant versions of Christmas trees.

For an early spring or winter wedding, spray bare branches (curly willow is particularly shapely) with silver spray paint. For each table arrangement, decorate a grouping of branches with a white toy dove, white ribbon bows, and a few white orange blossoms or snowflakes made from craft tissue paper.

For a Valentine's Day wedding, hot-glue sweetheart candies and cinnamon hearts to clean juice cans for flower vases that will have everyone talking.

For a summer wedding, try brightly painted metal buckets filled with white sand in which white candles, shells, and daisies are nestled, or an ice bucket filled with ice, two bottles of flavored spring water, and bright pinwheels.

For a fall wedding, fill hollowed-out pumpkins with sprays of tiger lilies.

For added visual drama at your reception tables, secure a colorful bouquet of helium-filled balloons to the centerpiece. Make sure there are as many balloons as chairs for each table. Insert a trinket into one of the balloons in each bouquet. At the end of the evening, your guests can give you a loud send-off by breaking the balloons. Whoever finds the trinket gets to take home the centerpiece.

Add ribbon streamers to each bridesmaid's bouquet for a romantic look. Tie each ribbon into several love knots, or tie miniature silver or gold bells to the ends of each ribbon for tiny peals of joy heralding your entrance.

Take advantage of an early spring wedding by filling tall urns with long branches covered in buds - an effect that's very modern and simple yet very dramatic for both ceremony and reception. A few toy birds, available at most craft stores, added to the branches lend another charming touch of spring.

New ways to decorate pew ends:

 hang painted baskets filled with flowers and trailing ivy
 hang vine wreaths sprigged with dried flowers and fragrant herbs
 hang styrofoam heart shapes completely covered in dried rosebuds
 hang evergreen wreaths with twinkling fairy lights (wreaths are individually wired up to small batteries)
 place rented topiary trees at every other pew end
 place pots of tulips or daffodils at every pew end

Preserved flowers are prettier than ever. Ask your florist about freeze-dried and specially preserved flowers - beautiful options for unwiltable bouquets and centerpiece arrangements. Some brides are choosing a mixture of fresh and preserved flowers in their bouquets.

Make your own aisle runner with hemmed strips of heavy sheeting decorated with a stenciled border of leaves and roses.

A very sophisticated bouquet consists of simply a few calla lilies, spray-painted gold and tied with a gold ribbon - a sensational look for a second-time wedding.

Ecology and safety-minded couples are offering group transportation for guests. An enclosure in your invitation could notify guests of this option. Mention a pick-up point or points. Consider offbeat options such as a double-decker bus, a chartered trolley, or hay wagons.

For an indoor reception, consider having a professional mime amuse guests while they enjoy drinks and appetizers.

An essential ingredient of any wedding,
toasts have several functions. They give some of the principals at the wedding an opportunity to put their feelings into words, and to express the collective feelings of everyone there. The toasts are also the first chance to introduce another essential ingredient: humor. And, most importantly, the speeches are a signal for the wedding to progress from the formal to the informal. At their conclusion, the bride and the groom, and the friends and relatives who have contributed to the day's success, can relax and enjoy themselves.

TIPS ON TOASTING

What better source for tips on toasting than an Irishman representing a whiskey company? We thought so, too, so here are the very words from Jameson Irish Whiskey's Toast Master, John Ryan:
"Make sure that not only your glass, but also all other glasses are filled before you propose a toast. If you are nervous, take three or four deep breaths very slowly, a minute before rising. Make sure that you know the first thing you are going to say, and the rest will usually follow comfortably.

It's your choice whether you say a traditional wedding toast or compose an original. Either way, raise your glass with your right hand. In addition, be sure that the glass is held straight from the shoulder. When toasting first began, it was not unusual to find a sword, dagger, or other weapon in the right hand, or concealed in the clothing, and the traditional toasting position proved that you had come in friendship.

It is traditional to clink glasses after the toast has been proposed, but before it is drunk. This tradition is rooted in earliest human history: people have always made a noise, like the ringing of a bell or the clinking of a glass, to frighten away evil spirits." Toasts can be sealed with a sip of champagne, wine, a mixed drink, or non-alcoholic punch, but never with tea, coffee, or water. Whatever the beverage chosen, it should be served to the bride first, then the groom, then the maid of honor, then parents, and lastly the best man.

Note that a toast should always end with a formal indication to the guests to alert them and tell them what to say; for example, "Please join in a toast to the happiness of Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill!" If you are the recipient of a toast, you do not stand, raise your glass, or take a sip of your drink, but you do thank the toasters, or at least smile and graciously nod. You are not obliged to propose a toast in return.

Pre-packaged Toasts

When a joke just won't do, choose a classic salute that says it all. We offer here some tried-and-true options. Feel free to adapt them, especially if they are not direct quotes.

When a joke just won't do, choose a classic salute that says it all. We offer here some tried-and-true options. Feel free to adapt them, especially if they are not direct quotes.

 To the bride and groom (before the wedding)
This toast is perfect for the rehearsal dinner or any special occasion before the wedding has taken place.

Here's to the bride that is to be,
Here's to the groom she'll wed,
May all their troubles be light as bubbles
Or the feathers that make up their bed!

 TO THE BRIDE FROM HER GROOM

"Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss within the cup,
And I'll not look for wine."
- Ben Jonson -

"Grow old with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life,
For which, the first is made."
- Robert Browning -

I have known many,
Liked not a few,
Loved only one
I toast to you
- Irish toast -

"Wherever I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee."
- Oliver Goldsmith -

Because I love you truly,
Because you love me, too,
My very greatest happiness
Is sharing life with you.
Every day you look lovelier and lovelier,
and today you look like tomorrow.

To my wife,
My bride and joy.

To quote John Keats's immortal line,
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
Here's to you, my beautiful bride.

"Were't the last drop in the well,
An I gasp'd upon the brink,
Ere my fainting spirit fell,
'Tis to thee that I would drink."
- Lord Byron -

The world is happy and colorful,
And life itself is new.
And I am very grateful for
The friend I found in you.

To quote Walter Winchell,
"Never above you. Never below you.
Always beside you."

Here's to the woman that's good and sweet,
Here's to the woman that's true,
Here's to the woman that rules my heart,
In other words, here's to you.

To my bride: she knows all about me and loves me just the same.

Here's to the prettiest, here's to the wittiest,
Here's to the truest of all who are true,
Here's to the neatest one, here's to the sweetest one,
Here's to them, all in one - here's to you.

Let's drink to love, which is nothing - unless it's divided by two.

I love you more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

To the wings of love:
May they never lose a feather,
But soar up to the sky above,
And last and last forever.

Here's to my mother-in-law's daughter,
Here's to her father-in-law's son;
Here's to the vows we've just taken,
And the life we've just begun.

 To the bride from someone other than the groom
 To the groom from his bride
 To the groom from someone other than the bride
 To the bridesmaids
 To the newlyweds
 To the newlyweds from a parent
 To parents
 To grandparents
 To the wedding guests

TO THE BRIDE FROM SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE GROOM

These are suitable for a toast to the bride from the best man,
the maid of honor, or anyone else who is given the privilege.

"Love, be true to her;
Life, be dear to her;
Health, stay close to her;
Joy, draw near to her;
Fortune, find what you can do for her,
Search your treasure-house through and through for her,
Follow her footsteps the wide world over -
And keep her husband always her lover."
- Anna Lewis, "To the bride"

Here's to the bride. May your hours of joy be as numerous as
the petals of your bridal bouquet.

TO THE GROOM FROM HIS BRIDE

It is not traditional, but entirely appropriate,
for the bride to toast her groom.

"Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss within the cup,
And I'll not look for wine."
- Ben Jonson

"Wherever I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee."
- Oliver Goldsmith

Because I love you truly,
Because you love me, too,
My very greatest happiness
Is sharing life with you.

"Grow old with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life,
For which, the first is made."
- Robert Browning -

I have known many,
Liked not a few,
Loved only one
I toast to you
- Irish toast -

The world is happy and colorful,
And life itself is new.
And I am very grateful for
The friend I found in you.

To quote Walter Winchell, "Never above you.
Never below you. Always beside you."

Here's to the man that's good and sweet,
Here's to the man that's true,
Here's to the man that rules my heart,
In other words, here's to you.

To my groom: he knows all about me and loves me just the same.

Let's drink to love, which is nothing - unless it's divided by two.

I love you more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

To the wings of love:
May they never lose a feather,
But soar up to the sky above,
And last and last forever.

TO THE GROOM FROM SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE BRIDE

In the immortal words of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
"Here's to the happy man: All the world loves a lover."

To the man who has conquered the bride's heart, and her mother's.

Here's to the groom, a man who keeps his head though he loses his heart.

A toast to the groom ­ and discretion to his bachelor friends.

Marriage has teeth, and him bit very hot.
- Jamaican proverb -

TO THE BRIDESMAIDS

The toast to the bridesmaids is traditionally given by the groom,
but may fall to the best man or the MC.

"To every lovely lady bright,
I wish a gallant faithful knight;
To every faithful lover, too,
I wish a trusting lady true."
­ Sir Walter Scott -

To quote John Keats's immortal line,
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
Here's to these beautiful bridesmaids.

"I drink to the general joy of the whole table."
- Shakespeare, from Macbeth -

Here's to women: they're the loveliest flowers that bloom under heaven.

"I have a dozen healths to drink to these fair ladies."
- Shakespeare, from Henry VIII -

The ladies, God bless them,
May nothing distress them.

To the bridesmaids: we admire them for their beauty,
respect them for their intelligence, adore them for their virtues,
and love them because we can't help it.

"And nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O;
Her 'prentice hand she tried on man,
And then she made the lasses, O."
- Robert Burns -

TO THE NEWLYWEDS

A toast to the newlyweds may be proposed by the best man
or maid of honor, or anyone else wishing to do so
(as long as the MC has been advised beforehand).

A health to you,
A wealth to you,
And the best that life can give to you.
May fortune still be kind to you,
And happiness be true to you,
And life be long and good to you,
Is the toast of all your friends to you.

Down the hatch, to a striking match!

"Marriage: A community consisting of a master, a mistress,
and two slaves ­ making in all, two."
- Ambrose Bierce -

To the newlyweds: May "for better or worse" be far better than worse.

"There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people
who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding
their enemies and delighting their friends."
- Homer, Odyssey, ninth century B.C. -

"May you grow old on one pillow."
- Armenian toast -

"Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar"
- Robert Frost -

"It's still the same old story,
A fight for love and glory,
A case of do or die!
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by."
- From the song "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld. -

Here's to the bride and the bridegroom,
We'll ask their success in our prayers,
And through life's dark shadows and sunshine
That good luck may always be theirs.

"And to his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth
And that was shining on him."
- Lord Byron -

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of
two chemical substances; if there is any reaction,
both are transformed."
- Carl Jung -

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward in the same direction."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"Here's to marriage, that happy estate that resembles a pair of scissors:
'So joined that they cannot be separated,
often moving in opposite directions, yet punishing
anyone who comes between them.'"
- Sydney Smith -

Here's to the new husband
And here's to the new wife
May they remain lovers
For all of life.

May their joys be as deep as the ocean
And their misfortunes as light as the foam.

Let us toast the health of the bride;
Let us toast the health of the groom,
Let us toast the person that tied;
Let us toast every guest in the room.

May we all live to be present at their Golden Wedding.

May your love be as endless as your wedding rings.

May the saints protect you
And sorrow neglect you
And bad luck to the one
That doesn't respect you

"May you have many children
and may they grow mature in taste
and healthy in color
and as sought after
as the contents of the glass."
- Irish toast -

May your wedding days be few and your anniversaries many.

May your voyage through life be as happy and as free
As the dancing waves on the deep blue sea

Here's to the groom with bride so fair,
And here's to the bride with groom so rare!

Here's to marriage: one soul in two bodies.

May thy life be long and happy,
Thy cares and sorrows few;
And the many friends around thee
Prove faithful, fond and true.

"Lack nothing: be merry."
- Shakespeare, from Henry IV -

"Heaven give you many, many merry days!"
- Shakespeare, from The Merry Wives of Windsor -

May every day be happier than the last.

Let's drink to love, which is nothing - unless it's divided by two.

To the wings of love:
May they never lose a feather,
But soar up to the sky above,
And last and last forever.

As Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet,
may "a flock of blessings light upon thy back."

"Look down you gods, and on this couple drop a blessed crown."
- Shakespeare, from The Tempest -

Here's to this fine couple.
May their joys be as bright as the morning,
and their sorrows but shadows that fade in the sunlight of love.

TO THE NEWLYWEDS FROM A PARENT

 "The man or woman you really love will never grow old to you.
Through the wrinkles of time, through the bowed frame of years,
you will always see the dear face and feel
the warm heart union of your eternal love."
- Alfred A. Montapert -

"Coming together is a beginning;
keeping together is progress;
working together is success."
- Henry Ford -

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children.
One of these is roots, the other wings."
- Hodding Carter -

It is written: when children find true love,
parents find true joy. Here's to your joy and ours,
from this day forward.

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other,
but in looking outward in the same direction."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

Here are some words to live by: Love to one,
friendship to many, and goodwill to all.

May you live to learn well, and learn to live well.

Remember that if you ever put your marital problems
on the back burner they are sure to boil over.

"Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up."
- Joseph Barth -

"A happy marriage is still the greatest treasure within the gift of fortune."
- Eden Phillpotts -

"Happy marriages begin when we marry the one we love,
and they blossom when we love the one we married."
- Sam Levenson -

"Seek a happy marriage with wholeness of heart,
but do not expect to reach the promised land
without going through some wilderness together."
- Charlie W. Shedd -

Here's to matrimony, the high sea for which
no compass has yet been invented.

TO PARENTS

"A mother is a mother still,
The holiest thing alive."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge -

"For a wife take the daughter of a good mother."
- Thomas Fuller -

It is written: when children find true love, parents find true joy.
Here's to your joy and ours, from this day forward.

TO GRANDPARENTS

 To the greatest grandparents.
May they live to be great-grandparents.

Let us raise our glasses
And then imbibe
To the splendid couple
Who founded this tribe

TO THE WEDDING GUESTS

"Laugh and be merry together, like brothers akin,
Guesting awhile in the room of a beautiful inn.
Glad till the dancing stops, and the lilt of the music ends.
Laugh till the game is played; and be you merry my friends."
- John Masefield, from Laugh and Be Merry -

Let us toast the health of the bride;
Let us toast the health of the groom,
Let us toast the person that tied;
Let us toast every guest in the room.

May we (you) all live to be present at their (our) Golden Wedding.

TRIVIA
JUNE WEDDING HAH??
The 15OOs - This is really interesting (and TRUE!!)

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and were still smelling pretty good by June.  However, they were starting to be fragrant, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers.

HOMEPAGE
DJ - Deejay - D.J. - Disc Jockey - Michigan - Wedding Reception - Mobile DJ