While a Las Vegas wedding package would be fun, is it really something that you want your children knowing that you did for your marriage?  Granted, there are legitimate reasons for wanting to get married in Las Vegas in a quick wedding.  If you must leave and won’t have time to get married later, if your are living in Las Vegas already, or perhaps if you have already been married before and don’t want to do the traditional family thing; all of these are good reasons to have a Las Vegas wedding.

If you really don’t need to get married on the fly, however, you should really chat with your fiance and ask them if it’s wise to go to Las Vegas for a wedding.  Although it takes a little extra time and money, a traditional wedding is really a wonderful experience that a new husband and wife will remember for the rest of their lives.  And you family and friends might not approve of a Las Vegas wedding, because it’s much more satisfying for them to see you and your spouse share your happiest times together.

If you decide that a Las Vegas wedding ceremony is right for you, at least keep an open mind and consider having a proper wedding at a later date in which all of your friends and family members can attend.  At least then your families can get to know each other, see the bride and groom share their vows, and won’t have to buy a ticket for a Las Vegas wedding!

Regardless of whether you decide to choose a fast Las Vegas wedding at a drive-through chapel on the strip, or go the more traditional route of inviting friends and family to a church wedding, remember that the experience is one that will be in your memories for many decades.  Do your wedding right, remain true to your heart, and you won’t fail!

So, how do you pick the best wedding music to make everything come together on your marriage day?  First of all, really consider the relationship you have with your fiance and what the perfect music would be to capture those unique dynamics.  If the bride and groom are best illustrated by romantic wedding music, then by all means choose some beautiful songs to represent your romance.  But if more upbeat, unconventional wedding music is a better fit for you, don’t be embarrassed to choose another song.

Another thing to remember is that wedding music is often different than wedding reception music.  While a wedding ceremony calls for music that is more tasteful, romantic and traditional, the music you choose for your wedding reception will give you the opportunity to let loose a little bit and have some fun.  Your wedding music can represent two sides of the coin of your relationship, both formal and exciting.

One bit of friendly advice, though: when picking out your wedding music, also consider your audience, as well.  While the tastes of the bride and groom is the most important consideration, you should have enough respect for your guests, whether they are family or friends, to choose songs that they might enjoy, too.  If your wedding music is offensive or confusing to them, it may end up having the opposite effect that you intended for your ceremony.

Having said that, make sure that you make a point to sit down with your future husband or wife and decide together what your wedding music will be.  Planning what music and songs you will play at your ceremony and reception will bring you closer together and help get your marriage off on the right foot!

Asking to see a wedding invitation sample may seem like a pretty simple and silly thing, but you’d be surprised how many brides and grooms fail to do just that while planning their wedding.  Many people simply look through a catalogue and order right away, rather than actually get their hands on a physical copy of a wedding invitation sample first.

By actually holding a sample of a wedding invitation in your hands, you may notice subtle differences that aren’t apparent in a catalogue.  The paper weight, the gloss or sheen, and even slight characteristics of the font and script writing are all things you might notice from a wedding invitation sample that you wouldn’t see in a book or picture.

And that means that you need to find an actual brick-and-mortar wedding store or print shop in order to speak face-to-face with the people who will design and print your wedding invitations.  Ask to see a sample or mock-up of your favorite designs, and compare them side-by-side to make your discussion.  You simply can’t make these decisions from a catalogue, and having wedding invitation samples in front of you will help you make up your mind.

Never be afraid to ask a printer to see wedding invitation samples before you order them or pay, or you may end up making a decision you will regret.  There’s no worse feeling than getting hundreds of wedding invitations and wishing you had gotten samples before buying!

Learning to point and shoot pictures of a bride and groom exchanging their wedding vows is relatively easy to do compared to putting together an inexpensive wedding photo album, even with the tons of high-tech picture editing programs out on the market today.  You may be a wedding photographer with an ultra-expensive camera and the best picture editing software out there, but making the jump from being a  good photographer to a great wedding album creator is a long one.

So here’s our advice: when you’re doing research to choose the right wedding photographer, don’t just ask to see his or her best pictures.  Instead, also ask for samples of some of their best wedding photo albums, as well, and see how they put the pictures together and what kind of presentation they create.  Remember, there will potentially be hundreds of pictures taken by your photographer at your wedding, and you need to be sure that he is able to choose the best ones to highlight and that really capture the heart and soul of your wedding day.

In addition, your wedding photographer has to be able to timelessly capture these pictures in a seamless, flowing fashion in your wedding scrapbook.  If the photo album doesn’t portray the wonderful feelings shared by the bride and groom, then it just isn’t worth it.  And even if the wedding photo album is top quality and very well put together, it still isn’t worth it if the photographer charges far too much or doesn’t get them to you in a timely fashion.  Affordability and speed are important factors, too!

So to reiterate, always make sure that one of the criteria you use to judge a photographer is a good sampling of their recent wedding photo albums.  If you don’t check to make sure that you’ll be getting good wedding pictures and a good wedding scrapbook, you may regret it for the rest of your life!

But does that mean that there is something wrong with you if your tastes are a bit different, and you prefer wedding jewelry that doesn’t go with the norm?  Of course not!  There are plenty examples of successful, fun weddings that featured beautiful brides and handsome grooms who wore wedding jewelry that was unique and far from cliche.  Whether your tastes in wedding jewelry include pearls or rubies or emeralds or other less common materials, you’ll look great if you stay true to your tastes.

We’ve all heard the stories of the husband and wife who have been married for fifty years and whose wedding rings only cost a few dollars because that’s all they could afford.  You see, regardless of what material your wedding jewelry is fashioned from, it’s your love that will make your marriage successful, not the type of jewelry.

Besides, your relationship and tastes are unique in the world, and you should be true to that individuality when you choose your wedding jewelry.  While there is nothing wrong with wanting an old-fashioned or traditional wedding, that doesn’t mean that every single aspect has to fall in line . . . and that includes your wedding jewelry!  Don’t let other people’s opinions decide what your wedding ring or band will look like.  Instead, let your opinion—and the taste of your fiance—decide what the details of your wedding will entail.

An important question to keep in mind if you do want to be unique, however, is whether or not you and your fiance will have the same style of wedding jewelry.  While there’s no problem with having different style wedding rings, most brides and grooms feel that their jewelry should at least be similar.  And it really isn’t difficult to find a woman’s wedding ring and man’s wedding band that are both unique but that share common characteristics.  Just remember top do your research . . . and remain true to your own tastes!

One of the themes of Romance Tracker is that you don’t have to spend lots of money to make a truly meaningful romantic gesture, and Sweetest Day is a great example to show how true this is. The greatest romantic presents and dates are the ones that you put thought into, and there are plenty of romantic inspirations out there for this special day. Rather than going straight to the most expensive Sweetest Day gift you can find, why not think about a few options for your sweetheart that are cheaper, but better able to show the deep love and affection you have for them?

That’s not to say that you should be too cheap on Sweetest Day, or just stop with buying candy or ordering flowers for your lover. Small gifts and romantic cards are great, but make sure there is something special and unique behind everything you do for your sweetheart. Every romantic relationship has unique aspects and moments that can’t be found in any other, and it’s easy to weave that unique flavor of your romance into your special day. Remember: the most romantic Sweetest Day dates aren’t at four-star restaurants that cost an arm and leg, but rather at special places that fit with the uniqueness of your relationship.

Rather than an expensive date at a restaurant, how about taking your sweetheart on a romantic picnic in the park for sweetest day (if the weather is nice enough!). And instead of buying your special someone diamonds or gold, wouldn’t it mean more to them if you put some thought and time into creating something or writing something yourself? Even a small, simple love letter or romantic poem can be a great Sweetest Day gift, and you don’t have to be the best writer in the world to create meaningful poetry!

Just remember that the cost of your present or date has nothing to do with how well it will be received or appreciated by your lover. Sweetest Day is a special event that comes only once a year, and it deserves some special thought and consideration. Start the day off with a bang by making your sweetheart breakfast in bed or giving them another special surprise, and keep the romance going strong all day with little surprises. Then top things off with a wonderful romantic evening at home or in a special place where you can let your sweetheart see that they are the most important thing in your life.

While the regular old dating game can be tedious and uncomfortable, the virtual dating game lets you have more anonymity while you search for love online.  Quite often you are able to get to know about the people you meet online before ever having to meet them face-to-face.  In this way, the dating game is made much easier with modern technology and the Internet.

But is a virtual dating game really the best thing to build a strong and long-lasting romance, or is it the old-fashioned face-to-face dating game that is more conducive to strong relationships? While there’s nothing wrong with using the Internet to try to find your true love, it does make it much more impersonal to play the dating game on the computer rather than in the traditional manner.

Before you make the decision to ditch the traditional dating game at social sites and turn to the Internetm make sure that you are fine with the fact that you’ll be giving up a lot of familiarity with the regular scene and that the web is full of lots of people who aren’t what they seem.  While the online dating game may give you the anonymity you are searching for, you could also end up playing a game in which you don’t know the identities of the other players!

Regardless of whether you decide to play the online dating game or the traditional, up close and personal dating game, just remember to take it all with a grain of salt and, more than anything, have fun!

The most obvious answer that many faithful Christians would present is that the entire reason Jesus Christ died on the cross was for a great and deep love for mankind, and that there is no better example of selfless love in all of human history than in the New Testament of the Bible.  While this may not entail romantic love, we have learned that there are many different types of love and that they are no less powerful than romance, and this is one excellent example of love in the Bible.

But beyond the example of Jesus’s love for mankind and his sacrifice on the cross, there are plenty of examples of romantic love in bible, as well.  So many, in fact, that it would be impossible to name them all in one short article!  The power of romantic love between a man and woman, and God’s approval of faithful marriages and long-term commitments, are present throughout the bible. 

I’m sure all of us can easily think of the earliest example: Adam and Eve!  This was the world’s first romance, and while things didn’t initially turn out too well for them in the bible (they were banished from heaven on Earth in the form of the Garden of Eden), it is arguable that their romance set the stage for love as it would exist throughout the rest of human history.  And after Adam and Eve, there are endless examples of love and romance throughout the rest of the Old Testament and the New Testament.

So, does romance and love exist in the scriptures of the bible?  Of course, and the stories are easily found in its pages.  Love and romance are an important ingredient of every story in human history, and are every bit as present in the greatest book ever written!

While Romance Tracker deals mainly with issues of romance and romantic love, in this post we’re going to focus not on romantic loneliness, but rather on a general absence of human interaction.  There are a couple reasons for this: first, fulfilling companionship doesn’t always have to be of the romantic type to satisfy a person.  Secondly, we believe that if you truly eradicate loneliness from your life, and focus on being a happier and more content person who interacts with many people, that your chances of finding true love become much higher.

Although your long term goal might be to forge many friendships and relationships with a large variety of people, like any undertaking you should approach overcoming loneliness one step at a time.  Making close friends will come with time, but in order to find people who have more in common with you, you need to make the decision to go to them. 

What are your favorite hobbies, passions, interests and talents?  No matter how quirky or strange, there is guaranteed to be an organization, group or gathering place that caters to people with those same interests.  Far too many people doom themselves to being lonely by convincing themselves that no one else could possibly be interested in the same things they are.  This is a huge mistake, and a quick check on your favorite Internet search engine will show you that there are countless groups of people out there looking to make contact with someone just like you.

In the end, the secret to never being lonely again is by seeking out intellectual and moral support and companionship.  These people will not find you if you don’t take the first step and innitiate contact, and they will most likely be very happy to welcome you into their ranks.  If you want to truly overcome loneliness, take the first step by researching groups in your area that are dedicated to the things you are interested in.

And a bit later down the road, after you’ve made some close personal and professional friends who are interested in the same things you are, overcoming your romantic loneliness will naturally come next.  When you surround yourself with people who are cut from the same cloth as you, it’s inevitable that you will eventually meet that special someone who will complete your life and give you the best remedy to loneliness that there is.

So what are you waiting for?  Stop dooming yourself to being lonely and make the decision to find other people out there who would love to get to know you.  The longer you wait, the more unnecessary pain you’re causing yourself in the end.

This post is an entry into ProBlogger’s Killer Titles Group Writing Project.  Go check it out if you get a chance!

Wedding etiquette is still a very important part of the marriage day, even in a society that has become less prim and proper. Luckily, however, the proper wedding etiquette is easy to learn, and manners aren’t very tough to remember to use. If you plan on attending a wedding soon, don’t panic when you get that invitation; wedding etiquette is mainly common sense, and you’ll have no problem fitting in at the ceremony or the wedding reception.

First, when it comes to receiving your invitation, proper wedding etiquette requires that you RSVP to let the bride and groom know that you plan on attending. If you don’t, they could end up reserving too few seats, and it’s just good manners to let someone know you’re coming to their wedding if they’ve invited you!

As for proper wedding etiquette for gift giving, you don’t need to empty your bank account to purchase a proper wedding gift and still have good manners. Never give something cheap and shoddy, but giving an inexpensive, tasteful gift that both the bride and groom will enjoy is certainly well within proper wedding etiquette.

At the wedding reception, be sure not to drink too much alcohol or say anything rude or unfriendly to the other guests. Following wedding etiquette doesn’t mean you can’t let loose and have some fun, though, as long as you use good manners and don’t offend anyone else at the reception.

Wedding etiquette is pretty simple: just use the golden rule, don’t do or say anything that your wouldn’t want at your wedding, and watch your manners. Above all, have fun, since that’s what weddings are all about!