You there--the one who is about to hurl a bridal magazine across the room.Tired of reading about the same old wedding planning stuff? Well, you've come to the right place.

When planning my wedding, I found that 99% of the information was oriented toward a typical, large, hometown wedding with all the trimmings. My thought after slogging through the umpteenth wedding planning book: "Hello? Do we all have to have exactly the same wedding!?"

Information about less-traditional weddings is harder to come by (although it's getting better than it was 7 years ago). This page represents my desire to start putting that scarce info in one place. Make no mistake, I love traditional weddings, and believe tradition can provide some great guidance and add some real enrichment to your wedding. But tradition doesn't have to be a yoke around your neck. You can incorporate only those traditions that mean something to you, and then be a little creative for the rest. I hope this site can be a help.

This site includes 3-4 pages of links, tips, and resources for planning unique nuptials. I've included small weddings, theme weddings, special weddings, and destination weddings. I apologize for the lack of snappy graphics, but my goal is to share as much info as I can. That means text, links, and nothing real fancy.

Thanks for visiting; take your time wading through the links and ENJOY!

Here's Why We Eschewed a "Traditional" Wedding:

I am just not the type to wear a big puffy dress

I am a cheapskate at heart, and couldn't stomach spending money on some of the typical wedding elements that had no real meaning for me

The idea of lots of wedding guests staring at me (no matter how lovingly) gave me the willies

I am an uptight hostess --I would have fretted over how to please every single guest!

Our particular solution? A small destination wedding. We went to Charleston, SC with 29 guests. I talk more about my wedding in the small wedding and destination wedding sections of my pages. But you are probably really here for the....

Wedding Links

(1) Small Weddings

Want to stun the wedding industry? Want to befuddle wedding vendors? Want to send your relatives into orbit, and have your friends whispering about your antisocial tendencies? Try telling everyone you want a small wedding! Who knew such a simple preference could elicit such strong reactions!

First of all, you aren't alone, despite what the world might try to tell you. There are many couples who have planned elegant, intimate, memorable small weddings. I haven't found a lot of helpful information in the form of webpages, but I do have a lot of great ideas passed on to me by others. Those appear on the small wedding page linked just below.

Tips & Ideas for Small Weddings

(2) Unique Weddings and "Theme" Weddings

Many couples choose to make their wedding more meaningful and distinctive by including a theme of some sort. This may include adding new traditions, using a period theme, or adding holiday and ethnic traditions into your ceremony. Here are some other webpages which have useful information for these types of weddings.

• Wedding Themes Galore! Check here for ideas for Western, Medieval, Irish, Beach, Victorian, Winter, and Valetine weddings!
• Medieval & Renaissance Weddings Tons of good info here, including a FAQ.
  
• Irish Wedding Ideas from WedNet
  
• Scottish Weddings Scottish wedding traditions
  
• More Scottish Wedding Info Scroll to section 13 of this FAQ for wedding information
  
• A new site forJeanne's Christmas Wedding FAQ Tons of nice ideas and advice here
  
• African Wedding Guide Adaptions of African wedding traditions
  
• Weddings for Blended Families A site with ideas on how to include your children
  sorry, site is down and still looking for a replacement
• Lesbian and Gay Weddings This homepage includes some good links for planning same-sex ceremonies. You might also want to explore some of the Hawaii & Key West links on my destination sites page, some of which openly welcome same-sex couples
  
• Unfortunately the Victorian Weddings site I found is no longer available. I suggest you do a search on "Victoriana" and you'll find non-wedding sites dedicated to the period which may help.
  
  

Also, I've leafed through a few books out there which may help you break out of the usual weddingmold. "Creative Weddings" by Laurie Levin & Laura Goldern Bellotti has case studies from couples who have held weddings abroad, with special themes, or in unique settings. "Alternative Weddings" by Jane Ross-MacDonald has tips for customizing your wedding to fit your beliefs and personal circumstances. Another page which reviews some other useful "different" wedding books is Emerald Wedding's Bookstore with their nice page on non-traditional wedding books.

(3) "Destination" Weddings

What's a Destination Wedding? A destination wedding is when you travel to a special place for your wedding. It might be just the two of you (also known as eloping!), or you might include a group of friends and family. It's an appealing option if you want to do something different, "enforce" a small guest list, hold the wedding at a place equally (in)convenient for far-flung family, or just "get away!"

Another advantage is that destination weddings can be far less expensive than the traditional kind, though that depends on your destination and how much of the travel costs you pick up. In any event, you'll find your money is going towards an entire weekend of memories in a great vacation spot, instead of one afternoon in a reception hall.

Having a destination wedding was the best wedding-related decision I made! Our guests had an awesome time the entire weekend. I got a lot of "thank yous" for doing something fun and different. I can't recommend it more highly!

Due to the amount of info I've gathered on destination weddings, it has been moved to two other pages. Please take a look at both pages. Some of the links that are affiliated with specific sites (the "WHERE") have some awfully good tips on the HOW!

• HOW: Tips for Destination Weddings
  Tips and ideas from me and other sources, including links to webpages dedicated to destination wedding planning.Ê Info includes marriage license laws, some cautions, and some planning helps!

• WHERE: Specific Destination Wedding Sites.
  On this page, you will find links to websites of firms which coordinate destination weddings, and places that host them. There are options for Scotland, Italy, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Canada, and numerous US sites, including California, Colorado, Hawaii, Vermont, Tennessee, Florida....and all over! Also, my special page for Charleston, South Carolina. Browse through to get an idea of the possibilities, close to you or far away.
  

• The soc.couples.wedding Page

I know there are things to add and broken links here but I am very short on time these days. Sorry!
You are also welcome to link to this page.

You will notice that I have few links to wedding vendors (outside of those providing destination wedding services). I prefer to keep the focus on my page on special types of weddings. PLEASE DON'T WRITE ME ASKING ME TO LINK TO YOUR BUSINESS. Thanks!

Reach me here, though note you will need to modify address by removing "REMOVE"....kzarubaREMOVE@umich.edu