Liz and Craig used a puzzle with their monogram and invitation patterns on it as a guest book. Instead of the traditional book, guests signed the puzzle and added a good-luck wish for them.

The couple plans on putting the puzzle together on their first anniversary and reading the well-wishes from their guests then.

Using something other than a traditional book is fun for the guests and gets people interested in "signing in."

Here's another idea for table numbers that was done by an RBA bride.

Jennifer got married on May 5th, and used photos of herself and her fiance for the table numbers. Table number one had photos of the two of them when they were one year old, table number two when they were two years old, etc.

This was a fun way to personalize the numbers, and I'm sure it was a conversation starter for their guests!

The RBA clients who get married in April gave us some advice to pass along to brides whose weddings are coming up.

This month the emphasis was on enjoying your day. The brides told us that it was one of the fastest days in their lives, and that everything really does go by in a blur.

"Take my word for it, it goes by really fast" one bride reported. "It was hard to get everything in."

Another bride commented that it's very easy to get caught up in overthinking everything, and that as long as you've done your planning in advance it's good to be able to let go a little and enjoy the day.

"Do your best to stay in the moment and experience it all" another said.

So take their advice and do your planning in advance, then let it go and enjoy your day. Hiring an RBA wedding planner can help to take some of the burden of arranging the timetable off of you so that you can actually enjoy everything that you've planned.

RBA clients are a creative bunch, so we're going to start sharing some of the things that we run across at their receptions.

Jannette got married on May 4th, and she made this cute table-number holder herself. She had a garden-themed reception, and there were touches of bird nests and flowers throughout her decor.

The table numbers were printed on cardstock and inserted into florist spikes. Jannette put these into a tray full of grass and moss that she built using wood molding, then scattered candy bird eggs in the grass.

This was a cute way to have guests find their tables, and it was a nice addition to the theme of the party.

The Richmond Bridal Association used to do an annual bridal panel, where we invited 5 or 6 recently-married brides to answer questions from our members. This was always interesting because the brides brought their own perspective about the wedding planning process to us, and the answers that we got weren't always what we expected.

We've now moved the panel online, so that we can get feedback from brides every month, not just once a year. The panel is composed of brids who have volunteered to answer questions about the planning process as they're going through it.

Richmond brides are our market, and even though it's nice to hear statistics about the "average" national wedding, we're more interested in what's going on with our clients in our area. By getting feedback from local brides the RBA can better serve our own clients, and that's the intention of the bridal panel.

If you'd like to add your voice to the bridal panel, email us at richmondbridalassociation@gmail.com and tell us your wedding date.  You'll receive one or two surveys a month at the most, and you can choose to respond or not, depending on whether the topic is relevant to your planning process. Responses are anonymous and we don't use the list for any kind of spam!

At the March membership meeting, TeriLynne Petersen of Wyndham Virginia Crossings presented a check for $1000 to Bob Ruthazer, founder of First Things First of Greater Richmond on behalf of the members of RBA.

The members of Richmond Bridal Association approved First Things First as one of the charities that we support, since their mission of strengthening marriages and families dovetails nicely with our focus on weddings.

Bob said "Thank you and the members for your generosity.  We will continue to encourage more couples to get married and give them skills for healthy lasting relationship which also encourages the next generation to the altar... your support helps couples, kids and Community. We look forward to a strong and long partnership."

Look for a giveaway from First Things First in our April newsletter. Only subscribers are eligible, so if you don't receive the newsletter by email send your wedding info to us through the contact page on this website and we'll put you on the list!

Straight from Laura Price of the Richmond Times-Dispatch comes this advice on how to handle some common situations that can complicate the wedding announcement:

Question: My fiance’s parents are divorced but live in the same city and still have the same last names. How do I include this in my announcement without confusing people?

Answer: The way in which I usually cite parents who have divorced and have the same last names is, “…to Mr. John Doe, son of Mrs. Joan Doe of Richmond and Mr. James Doe, also of Richmond.” This way, the parents are mentioned separately and folks will realize that they are no longer married.

Question: What do I put for my city and state in my engagement announcement--my current address or where I grew up? I would imagine my current city of residence but I wanted to confirm.

Answer: I usually advise the bride- and/or groom-to-be include both (….“Miss Jane Doe of Richmond, currently of Atlanta”) or something to his/her liking.  If the customer is only working in a particular city but plans to return to his/her hometown after the wedding, I suggest that he or she uses the hometown as the current city/state.

When you're planning a wedding there are a lot of situations that arise which you never think about until you're in the middle of them. The bride's and groom's families  always have to figure out who will be paying for what parts of the reception and other wedding-related events.

Sometimes that idea of who's responsible for certain things isn't clear, though. Laura Price of the Times-Dispatch Celebrations section noted that occasionally the bride's family doesn't plan on placing an engagement announcement in the paper, but the groom's fanily still wants to do one. This is her advice if that kind of situation arises:

"In this day and age, I must say that anything goes! If you wish to share your family’s happy news by announcing your son’s engagement, then feel free to do so.

"However, when it comes to weddings, ruffled feathers and hurt feelings cause undue distress, so you might wish to make a friendly phone call to tell the parents of the bride that you wish to proceed with an announcement. If it is something that you feel is important for your family, friends and associates, I am certain they would allow you to publish an announcement. This may be a tradition that is not part of the bride’s family."

Happy Valentine's Day! First of all, best wishes to all of the ladies who will be proposed to (or do the proposing!) today.

Valentine's Day usually brings a new wave of brides to the market, so I have a little advice for you newly-proposed-to brides.

Don't wait too long to start hiring your wedding professionals.

I'm not saying that you need to rush out in a panic and hire the first people you talk to. That's not a good idea. But you don't want to be a Valentine's Day shopper even if you're a Valentine's Day bride.

I was at Walmart around 7:30 this morning, and the place was overrun with men who were obviously shopping for their Valentine's Day gifts. Flowers, cards, chocolate, the works. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, guys! There were also a fair number of frazzled-looking moms dragging little kids who were buying Valentines for the preschool class at the last minute.

I had to laugh, though, because I used to work at a store that was right off of the train line in Boston. On Valentine's Day we had a constant stream of men coming off the train after work and frantically running into the store looking for cards. The best was when they'd get mad at us for not having "any good" cards in stock. I never felt bad about giving them a lecture about how if they hadn't waited until the last minute they'd have more of a selection to choose from, either.

That's the problem with waiting until the last minute to buy things for important dates, like your wedding. The earlier you purchase, the more selection you'll have. Especially on dates that are popular (which in the case of weddings in Richmond would be any weekend between April and October), you don't want to wait until really close to the date to start hiring people.

Many wedding magazines tell brides to wait until close to the date to hire vendors, because we'll be so desperate for the business we'll hand out all kinds of discounts. In my experience, this isn't true. The only thing that you'll accomplish by waiting is to make it less likely that you'll be able to hire the vendors who you want to hire. The best professionals usually book up far in advance of the date for popular wedding months, so don't wait.

I've written several articles about this on my blog, and they all kind of come down to the fact that it all depends on how fast the other brides are. If you love a business that you just met with, but you take too much time to decide, they might be booked by the time you decide to put a deposit down.

My advice would be to do your research BEFORE you meet with people, so that you know that they're reliable BEFORE you meet with them. Then, if you like what you see during your appointment, you can book them immediately and know that you're hiring someone who will do a good job.

(One way to make sure they'll do a good job is to check out our list of members, since RBA screens businesses before we allow them to join.)

So basically, don't be the shopper who's running around desperately right before the big day trying to hire whoever is still available. Do your research, make appointments with the people who pass muster, then hire them if you like them. You'll end up with the professionals you really want, and you won't be so stressed out trying to put things into place right before your wedding date.

Kara Buntin owns A Cake To Remember LLC, custom wedding cakes in Richmond VA. She is currently serving as the President of the Richmond Bridal Association.

Shanna and Niketa got married last October, and I had the pleasure of making their wedding cake for them. They had also used Al from Flora Culture, another RBA member, so I asked Niketa if he would write a review of our services so that I could put it on the blog.

"Well, God and I are talking and he pops me in the head during my sleep and asked me what is wrong with me. You have the woman you asked for and you are just going to let her go. I asked what are you talking about, she is not what I asked for in a woman. I receive another pop in the head and he hands me the list I made a long time ago. I had forgot some of the things on this list until it was in front of my face. Not only this woman has the top ten things I asked for, she has 34 of the 40 things I was looking for from a woman. I receive one more pop and then opened my eyes. I opened my eyes, on my birthday wanting to get married to this beautiful woman."

This cake came out so perfect my wife and I have pictures of this cake all over our home! We asked Kara for this cake and in our minds it was one way, but when we saw it, it was 100 times better than what we imagined!

When we met with Al we looked at his work and loved everything he showed us that day. His work was different from everything else we had seen and it was just gorgeous work. The array of flowers and just the combination of flowers this man put together had my wife in tears of joy! This is what we were looking for, someone that can make beauty into exceptional. Our centerpieces were gorgeous as well as everything he put together! I was really happy with everything he did."

Thanks, Niketa, and we're glad to have been a part of your wedding day and your fun story!

You can find more information about A Cake To Remember and Flora Culture online:

www.acaketoremember.com

www.floracultureonline.com

If you're a bride who's planning a wedding, we'd like to invite you to our upcoming Breaking The Ice night on February 8th.

This is an opportunity for you to meet all of our RBA members at one time, in one convenient location. We'll be at Wyndham Virginia Crossings Resort from 6-9pm. There will be food and a cash bar, and you'll be able to ask us questions about the planning process in an environment that's NOT a wedding show.

One of RBA's goals is to educate brides about weddings in general, and we want to be here to help you make informed decisions when planning your wedding. You'll hear a lot of misinformation during the planning process, and we want to help clear some of that up for you.

When you're meeting with our members, you're meeting some of the best wedding professionals in Richmond. We're the only group that requires a level of experience and screens our members before they join. Breaking The Ice Night will give you an insider's access to Richmond's wedding experts.

There's no charge for this event, but we do have a limited number of spaces available. Email us through our contact page to reserve a seat for the bride and groom, two tickets per person, please!

If you're a wedding professional who's interested in RBA membership, you can email us using the contact form on this blog to get more information.

The primary thing that you'll need is a business license that's at least two years old. You'll need to be able to get references from five brides who you've worked with as well as five current RBA members. Once we check out the references we'll look at online reviews and your BBB rating if one applies. We'll want to interview you informally to make sure that you understand what's required from RBA membership and that you're willing to be an involved member of the group. We want to get to know each other so that we can feel good about referring brides to each other.

We require that members attend at least four meetings a year, and we have both daytime and evening meetings so that if one time is better than the other everyone will have a chance to attend enough meetings. We generally meet the second Wednesday of each month. We have meetings that include speakers, and some that are business-to-business discussions of topics that our members have said are of interest to them. At least twice a year we have meetings where we invite brides to come meet us in an informal setting.

We do have an annual membership fee, but we don't charge to attend meetings. We're a non-profit business organization, and our financial records are available to members at each meeting. Our finances basically go toward promoting the group through different advertising venues, and toward supporting our charity organization, First Things First of Richmond.

We send out a monthly newsletter, maintain a facebook page, twitter and pinterest accounts, and this blog and website. This month we're signing up an online panel of brides who will answer surveys about their planning experiences and their thoughts about topics related to wedding businesses.

If you're interested in membership contact us! We'll also be at the Richmond Bridal Showcase this Sunday, and will have membership information there.

This Sunday, January 8th, is the Richmond Bridal Showcase. This is the largest wedding show in Richmond, and gives brides who are planning their weddings an opportunity to gather ideas and information in one place at one time.

The RBA has a few opportunities planned for the upcoming show.

First, we'll be doing a promotion where brides can participate in a game that will allow them to talk to every RBA member who's exhibiting at the show. Once they do that, they'll be entered into drawings for gift certificates that are good toward any RBA member's services! The grand prize is a $1000 certificate, and there will be two runners-up worth $250 each. We'll also be giving away two $50 certificates during the show itself, for a grand total of $1600 in prizes!

Second, each bride will have the opportunity to sign up for our meeting on February 8th, where we'll be meeting informally with brides. Our guests will be able to talk to all of our members in one convenient evening in a non-selling, no-stress atmosphere. One of the RBA's missions is to educate brides about the wedding planning process, and that's what we hope to accomplish that evening, while also getting feedback from them. We'll also be giving away another gift certificate worth $500 that evening!

Third, brides will have the opportunity to help us in a couple of ways. We want to find out what's important to you, so we'll be asking you to write down questions that you have for our Experts. We'll answer them in upcoming newsletters and blog posts.

The other way that we'll be asking for brides to help us will be in participating in our online bridal panel. If you'd be interested in giving us feedback about your planning process in general, sign up at the show and we'll send you occasional surveys to find out what kind of things brides REALLY care about!

We're looking forward to the show, and hope to see you there!

All members must be in business full-time for at least two years before applying for membership. This benefits the brides who hire our members in a few different ways, some of which are:

1. RBA members are full-time professionals, not do-this-on-the-weekends-for-fun businesses. They take their jobs seriously and will take your wedding seriously.

2. You don't need to babysit RBA members to make sure they'll do the job. They've done this many times before and know what needs to be done.

3. The finished product will look professional if an RBA member does it. You can't be guaranteed the same thing if a friend or a weekend warrior does it. Just because you watch a lot of wedding shows on tv doesn't mean you know how to work a real wedding!

4. RBA members own the right tools to do the job correctly. This is actually saying a lot, especially if you don't want to worry about things like your photographer having to use his iPhone camera when the only other camera he brought stops working (this really happened to one bride.)

5. RBA members are experienced and know how to use the tools that they own. This is saying a lot too, since without knowledge the right tools will do you no good at all!

6. RBA members won't change their minds at the last minute and decide that they're "too busy" to do your wedding. And yes, this has happened MANY times with less-professional businesses.

So make sure to check out our website for a list of our pre-screened experts who can make your wedding a stress-free zone. You won't have to worry about the results if you hire RBA professionals!

The RBA is glad to announce that we've chosen First Things First as one of the charitable organizations that we'll be supporting.

First Things First is a locally-based group whose mission is to enhance relationships and families by running training seminars for couples and families. They provide marriage prep and enrichment courses as well as classes for new parents and healthy relationship coaching for teenagers.

Bob Ruthazer of First Things First describes some classes that the group started and expanded in 2011:

"When Baby Makes Three (relationship tune up after baby comes) in hospitals and All PRO Dads to engage fathers with their Pre-K and elementary children in values-forming activities like thankfulness, humility and encouragement.  Our Boot Camp for New Dads has grown to over 30 programs per year, touching 400 new dads and we have expanded our marriage preparation and enrichment programs significantly, including It Takes Two; Keys to a Rewarding Relationship."

RBA is looking forward to working with First Things First in order to enhance marriages and families!

Our members have been published in many magazines and have presented to many groups on the topics of business and weddings. We also have members who write advice blogs for brides on topics that include common planning issues. We'll occasionally be linking to some of these blogs that might be of interest to Richmond brides so that you can get more information about the planning process.

Today I'm linking to my own cake blog, which is located at www.acaketorememberva.blogspot.com. I also have one at www.acaketoremember.com/blog1, which is more of a planning blog specifically for brides.

Considering that this is the time of year when a lot of brides are booking their wedding professionals, I thought that a reminder about not waiting too long was in order. If you really want to hire a wedding pro, the only way to do it is to put a contract and a deposit down with them. Verbal agreements usually don't work, and this is why:

http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2010/02/booking-cakes-how-long-to-wait.html

-By Kara Buntin

owner, A Cake To Rememebr LLC

Everyone has heard horror stories about wedding businesses that suddenly shut their doors and are no longer available to provide the services they're contracted to provide. For example, brides are left holding a receipt for a dress that they ordered, but they're told that the dress won't be coming.

If you specialize in weddings your cash flow can vary a lot depending on what time of year it is. Busineses that don't handle their money well, or who just fall prey to the whims of the market, can easily go under.

I specialize in wedding cakes, and I have a good number of calls from brides whose cakes fell through at the last minute. They're left to pick up the pieces and try to arrange for a substitute baker the week before their wedding. This is NOT how you want to be spending your time.

When I speak to these brides, many of them don't even have a contract with the vendor who cancelled. They put down a deposit but there was no paperwork to go with it. That makes no sense to me, and it should be a sign that you're not dealing with a reliable professional.

One of the reasons that I like working with professionals who are RBA members is that I know that when I refer clients to them, they won't have to worry about whether they'll get the services or not. All of the members in RBA are established and have shown that they're reliable.

I also like that if they don't provide excellent service, the client can let the RBA know about it. It gives the bride some peace of mind to know that RBA members have agreed to follow the code of ethics.

So if you hired someone who has cancelled on you, give an RBA member a call. We're there to help and to make your event worry-free.

By Kara Buntin, RBA President 2011-2012