The Best Toasts Are Never Magic

The truth about giving the perfect toast – no matter the occasion – is that it does not come easily to most people.  And, while your wedding may feel magical to you – there is no amount of magic that can save a bad wedding toast.

Wedding Toast Reality:

1) The wedding toast is a part of the reception to be considered when planning, just as you take into consideration plans for your first dance together, your entrance to the reception together, and so on…

2) Just because others are toasting you – this does not make it wrong for you to plan for it, around it, or offer your assistance when it is needed.

Planning the Perfect Toast

For the Bride:

• Decide how many toasts you want, and how much time you want to leave open for them in the reception schedule.  You can then schedule other events around this time frame, such as cutting the cake, first dance, etc.
• Choose your “toasters” and confirm with them (far in advance) that they would like to give a toast.  Give the toasts an order, and make sure that somebody is in charge of keeping the toasts going – in order – during the reception.  This will eliminate confusion for the toasters, the guests, and will also prevent random guests form getting up to give toasts.  The whole point of scheduling the toasts is to keep a good flow going, and to prevent random toasts that could last for hours on end.
• Be sure to check in with your toasters leading up to the wedding: offer your assistance when needed, and remind them that they need to be prepared, etc.
• Be realistic about the number of toasts scheduled… planning anywhere between one and four is reasonable in terms of time.  Think about your guests, and how long they will have to sit before they can eat, dance, talk, etc. (depending upon your specific schedule.)  You do not want your guests to be bored and “antsy!”
• Be realistic about when to schedule the toasts: schedule them at a time when guests are already seated (like after dinner is served, etc.)  Scheduling earlier may also prevent the “drunk toast” – remember this one from The Wedding Singer?)

For those giving the toast:

• Be prepared, be prepared, be prepared…
• Listen Here – it is a great podcast with some basic pointers for preparing a wedding toast.  In fact, it pretty much covers everything that I would have written any further. 
  (Podcast site link here.)

♥ Enjoy the podcast, and good luck! ♥

Like A Bad Horror Movie Title: Misled Into the “Pod” People…

Entirely aware of the fact that everyday I grow older, I grow just a little bit more unaware of the “cool barometer” readings that 16 year-old girls seem to know by heart (case in point: this entire sentence!)

Mind you, I am only 27… but, let’s just call it a “premonition” that within five years or so – I won’t exactly have that same “cool kid” appeal that you find at a local keg party (I can live with that, I’m sure.)

However, my latest venture into the iTunes world has left me so amazed that I can only believe one of three things:

1. I am older than I think due to my senility, and am therefore unable to “navigate that darned Internet” appropriately…. or:
2. The reason for my amazement was totally just, and well….. I frankly a little shocked and amazed! Or:
3. I have seemed to miss the bus full of people that “know people” and could have navigated me away from such a situation like this in the first place.

… tapping my fingers in suspect…

Okay, I won’t lay the blame – I’ll just get to the point:

As I was navigating through the various “themes” available to qualify the various pod casts out there just waiting for me to listen to as I work – I decide to take a trip to the “fashion and beauty” section, which to no surprise, houses many wedding pod casters full of big ideas – yada, yada,…

So here’s the thing… I found anything that didn’t suck to my dissatisfaction, okay?

I’m not sure why I am so surprised to find such a gigantic Wisconsin cheese-fest every where I searched – and searched, and SEARCHED…

I mean, the entire basis for this blog’s existence was once my continuous rants about the insanity out there in wedding shopping land… but, I think that anyone who reads this blog even remotely is aware that I shifted my focus away from those posts, in lieu of something pretty and unique for independent, smart, and totally ass-happy brides out there only wanted a decent level of eye candy!

And, let me tell you something: I made that shift while an engaged woman myself – after finally finding some incredible blogs out there to savor – with new lovely images, and palettes put together every day… it was like taking a trip to a Paris every day for a lunch filled with brightly colored petit-fours! Those bloggers were working freaking petits off to make sure every bride could have a piece of a wedding that they only dreamed of affording. After seeing the potential to make my laptop look that beautiful, I finally saw the light – and, I loved it! (In fact, I liked it all so much that I opened my own store full of pretty bridal veils and hair pieces – not news, but a good time to bring it up, right?)

Well, lucky me – I had been living in a world of my favorite blog feeds for so long that I forgot how bad it can really be out there in the world of “cake topper humor” (just to give one example.) A girl can get frustrated, and a girl can get lost, and a girl can start to think that eloping is a better idea for everybody! That’s not right!

So, I’m asking you: you, the avid wedding blog reader - to tell me that a few indie girls like us managed to find their way through the cheese-pod wreckage! I need somebody to tell me where its safe to listen after dark, without becoming utterly convinced that weddings have no other choice than to look like a haunted house version of “Graceland” – or, something.

If anyone out there listens to a fabulous pod cast: about lovely weddings, and unique, ind pendent ideas at every passing second… reach out and pass me that info in the comment section!

Pass the mic.. to anybody out there?

And, if this bone I’m tossing doesn’t ever get thrown back – then, I might have to make another plea – but, this time to the blog authors that live in my blog feed “organizer” – I might have to go a hunting for somebody to team up with me and getting a fantastic indie wedding pod cast somewhat kicking?!?

(But, that’s a lot more work than admitting that I just suck at searching for good pod casts… so, help a bride out!)

Speaking of "pod people" - not a bad impression, yeah?