Dazzling July 4th | Wicked Wonderful Weddings

Dazzling July 4th Wedding

The streets are filled with livelihood and happiness, trumpets and drums soundeverywhere, the smell of barbeques circle in the air, families gather together for celebration and the land joins together in cheers heard throughout the world.

It is America's Birthday.

As the nation celebrates a glorious and ever memorable day, why not add to the festivities andcelebrate your everlasting love with each other by having your wedding on July 4th? It’s the perfect day for all families, friends and fireworks to join together in celebration of your wedding.

Venue

Dazzling July 4th Wedding Guide

FINDING your Mount Rushmore

An ideal place to hold the Dazzling July 4th Wedding, would be a local park. Fourth of July picnic parties are found all throughout America so keep with the tradition. Plus, you can't go wrong with the beauty of the garden and trees! Another great spot, would be a street wedding party. If your neighbours are in, why not block off the street and hold your wedding on the street? Tons of streets are blocked off this time for the various parades going on in the cities and towns so why not join in?

Of course, any other type of venue of your choice would work wonderfully.

Some venue selections might be:

A Beach
A Local Fairground
Your Home or Friend's
A Community Hall
A Hotel
A University or College Area

INVITING Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam might not RSVP, and ghosts may skip the guest list, but your family and friends will be eagerly awaiting your special day! Try finding an invitation to let them know a glorious celebration awaits. Patriotic, bold, and uniquely you, it sets the tone for a day filled with love and joy.

Here are some ideas to spark some inspiration on finding your idea to raise your "Flag of Love" and give your guests the perfect preview of your big day!

DECORATING bravely & beautifully

If you do consider to have your wedding at a local park, you will have a lot of decor already done for you with the beautiful gardens etc. However, add these extra touches to really spark a 4th of July atmosphere:

Your color scheme is easily done here - red, white and blue!Everything from your bridesmaid dresses, tuxes, flowers totablecloths should use this beautiful color combination.

Simplicity is a key to July 4th celebrations. Families want to spend timewith each other not decorating and fussing. Remember this with yourdecorations! Use balloons anchored throughout the area (of course, inred, white & blue), have them filled with helium and tied with ribbon sothey flutter in the wind. Streamers are also a favorite American traditionfor decoration so use them everywhere!

If you live in the U.S., you are sure to find a variety of Americandecorations you can use for your wedding such as American Flags,Uncle Sam hats or even liberty bells.

Considering on what you want to use, you could supply each of your guestsat the table their very own flag or hat to wear for the reception. Not onlywill this add to your table decorations, your guests are sure to be swept upin the little extras.

Table decorations and centerpieces should be bright and informal also.Take a simple arrangement of red carnations and embellish it with flags,stars and an assortment of greenery. Depending on your budget, youcould substitute the carnations for red roses or even blue roses.

For your tablecloths, consider going with all white tablecloth and thenadd blue and red streamers to act as tablerunners. Secure the streamers atthe middle of the table and let the ends of them blow throughout thenight. Place blue and red candles with red, white and blue balloons in thecenter. Or instead of white tablecloths, use red and white checkered tablecloths which are considered a symbol of the American picnic.

Let your snacks guide your table decorations. Blue corn chips and redsalsa served in painted (red, white and blue) baskets can serve twopurposes for you. Also place jugs of lemonade and ice tea on the tables(consider adding red and blue food coloring to the drinks).

Put a romantic glow into your reception by adding twinkle lightsthroughout the venue. Except replace the bulbs with blue and red lightsinstead of the traditional white lights.

Consider placing water fountains around the venue and put a sparklingblue or dynamic red food coloring in the fountains

BACKYARD barbeque fare

It happens every summer, the male figure of the house, with beer in hand, steps out of the house and into the backyard, where he takes his match and lights up his barbeque. This is quite a proud moment as he is about to cook some meat.

Don’t disappoint your guests! A July 4th tradition is firing up that grill and serving some good old barbeque fare.

Here are a few suggestions to serve:

The Ultimate BBQ Menu:

Mouth-Waterin' Watermelon:

WASHINGTON'S tips & traditions

Let Bells Ring!

Let bells ring! The liberty bell is part of the American heritage so placebells at each table for your guests to ring for you to kiss. Many guests areforgoing the traditional clinking of glasses but the great thing about theDazzling July 4th Wedding is that the more noise the better!

Firework Display

Presidential Tables

Name your tables after those great American presidents! Consider naming the tables George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or AbrahamLincoln. Don’t be prejudice though - they do say there is always a greatwomen behind a great man so don’t forget using those First Ladies also!

It wouldn’t be a July 4th without a firework display! You might get luckyenough to have a firework display in view of your venue. If not, do yourown! They are sure to get a cheer from your guests in the night sky. Make sure you check with your local laws on use of fireworks. If fireworks are not allowed, give all your guests sparklers, ask them to save them until a designated time and have everyone light them at the same time.

Bring on the Games

Plan activities and games for your guests to play either while your gettingyour pictures done or during the reception. These an be very simple to veryelaborate. Consider typical picnic games like frisbee, horseshoes or lawndarts. Or perhaps you really want to get your guests into some active games such as football, volleyball, badminton or an old-fashioned sack race.

Late Night Snacks

Marching Bands

Here’s a fun midnight snack idea - McDonald’s is an American companyicon! After the stroke of midnight, let your guests indulge in that all time favorite snack -McDonald French Fries! Plus, you can’t go wrong withthe red packaging.

American History

Hire a local highschool band to either lead you into your reception or to entertain the crowd for awhile. Parades are never complete without amarching band and no July 4th celebration is complete without a parade.

Do you know the year America claimed its Independence fromEngland and democracy was born? Of course, it was July 4th but did youknow the year was 1776? Do your guests know? Consider having someAmerican History Trivia at your wedding. You could get them to answert rivia questions for you to kiss or just have a quiz at their table to entertain them during dinner. The winner at the table could be able to take home the centerpiece if you don’t want them. But, since some of us were more interested in the Quarterback in our American History class, you could just trick those winners and give them a pat on the back and let the person at the table whose birthday is closest to July 4th take it home!

MADE IN THE USA gifts and presents

Let all your buddies know that you are so happy they were able to participate in your Dazzling July 4th Wedding by sending them home with some of these unique give-aways:

Cannons use to fire off to signal Fourth of July traditions in the early republic, but cannons are quite large and hard to find so try other unique loud sounding devices such as cap (firecracker) guns.

Do you have a favorite Apple Pie Recipe? Send your guests home withyour fantastic recipe and attach it with a ribbon to a bright red apple.Remember the story about Johnny Appleseed?

Why not honor Theodore Roosevelt and give your guests a small TeddyBear as a take- home gift? Tie a little note with the teddy bear telling the story:

“The teddy bear's story begins in November 1902 when PresidentTheodore Roosevelt was hunting in Mississippi. After an unsuccessfulday, the hunting party brought a small bear cub to the camp for the president to shoot. He refused because the animal did not have achance to defend itself. Clifford K. Berryman, cartoonist for The Washington Post at the time, sketched the incident and captured the public's imagination as well as that of American toymakers.Soon the country was flooded with teddy bears."

RINGING the liberty bell

The diversity of music throughout America is unbelievable. Anything youdecide will be perfect for your Dazzling July 4th Wedding. Just make sure it’sloud! Depending on your budget consider hiring a Dixieland Jazz Band or aguitarist to serenade the crowd.

Also you should have someone sing “The Star Spangled Banner” - get all guests torise and honor the land of the free and home of the brave!

Songs to consider throughout the evening could include:

Sandy: 4th of July - Bruce Springsteen

Let Freedom Ring - Faith Hill
The Best of Love - Eagles
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Hero - Enrique Iglesias

HE'S AN ALL American Boy

All this wedding planning, all this worrying, all the debates... forget it all for a day and take

the day off with your future spouse and enjoy an all-American day!

Fill up a picnic basket for two and go swing on the swings with the kids.

Go to the fairgrounds and ride the Ferris wheel - stay for a few rides andjust cuddle as you watch the town appear and disappear again and again.

Get out and watch the local high school football team defend theirtitle! Bring a blanket if it’s outside to cuddle up in as the gamecontinues into overtime.

Nothing says America - then a good old baseball game! Either find a gameat the local baseball field or just grab a ball and play catch with each other fora while. Talk about your childhood memories and find out new thingsabout your love.

INDEPENDENCE for all

Being the land of the free, you have the right to your own independent ideas onwhat you would like to do for your Dazzling July 4th Wedding so here are just afew ideas to spark your own creativity and help you find some other special elements to your wedding:

Go to your local park and just swing! It’s amazing how good it feels tojust be a kid again. See how high you can get in the air and then just let theswing slow you down. It is a relaxing process and also a fun one at thesame time!