Wedding Party Guide

The great thing about wedding jewelry is that you can wear it during the wedding and every day after if you want. Of course, you are not going to wear the exact same jewelry every day with exception to your wedding ring. And although your wedding dress and tiara are going into storage, your wedding jewelry can be an integral part of you daily, weekly, or monthly jewelry wardrobe. The important thing to consider when purchasing your wedding jewelry is that you will wear it after the wedding day so you want it to not only match the theme of your wedding, but you also want it to be functional for wearing years after the wedding.

Don’t limit your wedding jewelry to only the big day itself. This is where a really good and reliable jeweler comes into play. If you don’t know a good jeweler already, have a friend or family member refer someone to you. The reason that I bring up the jeweler is because they are very experienced when it comes to the before and after effects of wedding jewelry. An experienced jeweler will understand the jewelry that is necessary for the theme of your wedding, yet also understand how to incorporate the wedding jewelry for the after years.

Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. It is one of the only times that you get to “kill two birds with one stone” and buy jewelry for the wedding and jewelry for after the wedding. But you won’t have to buy more than one piece to accomplish this. Yes, you may purchase multiple pieces of wedding jewelry, but you won’t have to buy extra pieces for after the wedding because it will be all-inclusive.

But even if you decide to buy online and not use a jeweler, just make sure you are thinking not only about the wedding day, but about what you will want to wear after the wedding. This will not only save you money, but it will allow you to wear jewelry that is sentimental because it will remind you of the big day!

For those of us who are married, we can relate to the dilemma of choosing the gifts for the wedding party. On the bride side, you often have a choice between the same gift for all the girls, or individual gifts for each person. On the groom side, it is usually one masculine gift for everyone in the party. And in some instances, the bride and groom will provide the same gift to both the bridesmaids and the grooms. For example, when my very good friend got married a few years back, him and his wife gave the whole bridal party each a bottle of wine with their names on it and the date of the wedding.

Speaking to the bride, have you ever thought of giving costume jewelry bracelets to your bridesmaids. The reason this can be a great idea is that you can customize the bracelets for relatively cheap but at the same time provide a wonderful keepsake. You could buy the materials for the costume jewelry bracelets at a dollar store or you could go to a craft show or galleria to pick out the pieces. Given that you are likely on a time crunch with the whole scope of the wedding planning, I would suggest placing a custom order at either a local craft store or an online store.

Given that designing costume jewelry bracelets is not a new concept, the process of ordering each bracelet for your bridesmaids should be relatively simple. Depending on how many bridesmaids are in your party will likely determine how much you will spend. If you have only three or four then you can afford to get fancy with several different types of settings. However, if you have 8 or more bridesmaids then you may want to simplify the customization, but not too much that you detract from the design. Remember, like most of the things you do to prepare for the wedding, you want the final product to produce long lasting memories.