Blogger BlogNet13833

There's no doubt about it, weddings can be expensive. The average cost of a wedding today is $20,000 - $25,000, and weddings are estimated to be a $25.3 billion industry. But don't worry if your budget cannot stretch for the most expensive custom-made gown, elegant invitation cards, or the top photographer, it doesn't mean that your wedding will be any less unique or special than anyone else's.

You just need a bit of guidance and a few tips to help you achieve the dream of your big day. Here are a few suggestions with tips on how to save on some of the more expensive aspects of a wedding.

Wedding Gowns

Do you really need a hand-made wedding dress with beads and diamantes? This is where the big cost is and there are several options in cutting the cost. Why not opt for a second-hand wedding dress? It's probably only been worn once anyway and you can get a once expensive dress for half the price. Consider buying an evening gown/cocktail dress from a department store or look into renting your wedding dress for the day.

The Reception

This is where the cost of a wedding can get out of hand. The wedding reception is normally the biggest expense, but one of the easiest to cut down on costs. Statistics show that an average of 189 guests attend a wedding, this is a lot. Try and keep your guest list to a minimum, do you really need to invite family members who you have never seen for years? Instead of a three-course meal why not opt for a hot and cold buffet (even cater for yourself)? Instead of holding the reception in an expensive hotel suite or wedding reception, why not consider having it at someone's home or a club, or even book a restaurant. Keep an open bar to a minimal and only serve beer, wine and soft drinks.

Photography

The obvious choice is to shop around for the best rates, but consider hiring a photographer for the ceremony only and ask a family member or friend to take snap photos of the reception. Or you could go one step further and ask them to take the photographs for the whole day and not bother with the expense of a photographer at all.

Invitations / Stationery

If you're on a budget and looking for cheaper wedding stationery items, then you might like to consider print-at-home stationery. There are many online stationer's that will offer this service free of charge. You pay for the paper and envelopes, then use their software to print directly from your own PC. With sophisticated customization tools you'll be able to enter your own text and preview it before you print so as not to make any costly mistakes. Alternatively, you can buy software and do-it-yourself from your PC.

Miscellaneous

Flowers can be another great expense, but also an unnecessary one. Why not buy wholesale flowers, or pick flowers from your garden (or a friends or relatives). Buy plain gold or white gold wedding bands as these are the cheapest. Get a friend to make your wedding cake for you and opt for a smaller tier cake and it doesn't have to be a fruit cake - try a sponge, chocolate or carrot cake! Make your favors and center-peices yourself. Accessories for these can be found at little outlet stores or online. Lastly, instead of a limousine why not rent a car or borrow a luxury car from a friend or relative?

Summary

Weddings are expensive if you want them to be. But if you want to keep money aside for a deposit on a house or a honeymoon to remember, then there are many cost cutting ideas. All you need is a little imagination, and some help from friends and family and you too can have a luxury wedding with all the trimmings.

About The Author Claire Bowes is a freelance writer and owner of the Wedding Planning Online website where you will find further tips and tricks on planning your wedding day.

So your life needs a little spice and you want to escape to the solitude of your computer. Easily done simply pick up a 10-day trial version of World of Warcraft. Soon youll find yourself immersed in a world of magic and mystery, and youll lose all interest in sleeping, eating, and anything mundane like work or school. Your standard catchphrase will morph into, Just a minute! I have to finish this quest! Youll emerge triumphant, three years later, with epic loot and a haggard, pale face, to find that none of your real life friends remember who you are. But youll have a ton of friends in the game that respect you for your playing prowess.

Sound attractive? Step this way and let me explain some things. World of Warcraft is classified as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Millions of players just like yourself log on every day to interact with other players; either to cooperate with them or fight them. Often its your choice. There are four types of WoW servers:

• player versus player (PVP) servers - you must always defend yourself against players from another faction;
• normal role-playing (RP) servers - the idea is to deep-play your character (i.e., if you're a dwarf, you talk and act like one when chatting with other players);
• RP-PVP servers - you deep-play and must defend yourself;
• Normal servers - you don't deep-play and don't have to defend yourself unless you turn on PVP manually.

The casual player who wants a fun game should pick either normal or RP servers (if you want to pretend to be your character). If youd like to pit yourself against other players every time you log on, which can be both stressful and exciting, you can pick a PVP server.

You should also note what your server time is before you start: server time is based on time zones, but not always yours (for instance, you might be playing on a PST server while living in Wisconsin, so 6:30 server time would be 8:30 for you).

Once you decide which server to choose, you need to decide on your faction. There are two factions: Alliance and Horde. Each has five different races to choose from. Once you choose a faction you are stuck with it: the two factions are pitted against each other and can only communicate superficially.

Alliance faction is composed of Night Elves, Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Draenei (they sort of looks like blue satyrs).
Horde faction has Orcs, Taurens (cow people), Trolls, Undead, and Blood Elves (small, scornful relatives of Night Elves).

Each faction has capital cities and lands that belong to it. Factions may not enter one anothers cities (unless they want to encounter some very mean guards!). So if your friends are all rolling up Hordies, youll want to be on the Horde side too, or youll never be able to play with one another.

Now that you've picked a faction, it's time to create your character. In part two of my introduction to WoW, I provide a rundown of the different character classes in World of Warcraft. Let's get started!

Emma Martins an avid gamer who reviews World of Warcraft strategy guides at WoW Players Guides. Once you know what kind of character you'd like to play, you should take a look at Joana's Horde Leveling Guide if you're going to roll up a Horde character, or Brian Kopp's Alliance Leveling Guide for the Alliance faction characters. They both provide great tips on leveling your character as quickly as possible.