Wedding Invitations|Cheap Wedding Invitations|Wedding Invitation

Humorous wedding invitations relax even the most uptight person that can't stand the thought of putting on a suit and tie and stepping into a formal ceremony. Almost instantly, upon receiving your invitation, the recipient will appreciate your tongue-in-check approach to the big day. Humorous wedding invitations are a popular way to lighten up the sometimes stressful and serious moods associated with weddings and getting married. They are perfect for casual, somewhat informal, wedding ceremonies. People will appreciate knowing that the two of you are approaching this important day of eternal commitment with fun on the mind. Humorous wedding invitations come in a variety of forms. You can insert funny text or funny caricature artwork. Anything from funny illustrations of the groom carrying his bride, the bride pulling her panicked hesitant groom to the chapel, the newlyweds riding off on a motorcycle to the skiing bride and groom. Much to the horror of the red states, in an effort to be politically correct and also target a niche, there are groom & groom or bride & bride selections.

Humorous wedding invitations are often keepsakes for your wedding guests. Perhaps they will look back at your invitation to reminiscence about the night or just get some chuckles from the invitation itself. When wording your invitation it's important to not overlook important event details. People want to know the full names of the bride and grooms. Nobody likes to make out a wedding card only to discover that they wrote the names incorrectly. Regardless of the humorous tone to your invitation people still need to know the date, the time and location of the ceremony and reception. So, it's alright to be funny with humorous wedding invitations but don't forget that wedding invitations need to serve their function as well.

Discount Wedding Invitations provide humorous wedding invitations online where you can include your own wording so the invitation reflects your personal style. You are given significant input into the design of your invitation. It's just a matter of completing your order form and expressing exactly what you want from your wedding invitations. The site has a team of designers who communicate with you through the completion of your order. You are emailed proofs within 2-3 business days. You can either approve or decline these proofs and there is no limit to the number of adjustments you may request. The invitations must meet your exact criteria before they are shipped to you.

Categories of Light

All light can be divided into categories based on the type (source), the intensity, and the direction. One of the most basic divisions is between natural and artificial light. Another is hard versus diffuse (soft) light. A third set of categories distinguishes the direction from which the light is coming, which it also determines where highlights and shadows will appear in the image. Side, frontal, and back light are a few examples of direction. But, before diving into specifics, it's important to understand the relationship of these categories to one another.

Natural Light

Natural light is the best type of light for many photographic situations. In fact, the broader goal for many photographers using artificial light is simply to emulate the qualities of natural light. One positive note on natural light: no batteries needed. It's available anywhere you go and, apart from the subject matter, it's probably the quality of the natural light that drew you to the scene in the first place. In short, the one reason why natural light looks so good in images is that it is natural.

As previously noted, natural light comes from the Sun (or other "suns," in the case of starlight), and each type of natural light has its own qualities:

• Full, midday sunlight versus early-morning or late-afternoon


• Open shade


• Overcast skies


• Sunrise or sunset


• The deep blues of twilight


• Moonlight


• Starlight


• Window light


• Reflected sunlight, both soft and hard


• Daylight illumination from a frosted skylight


• Other natural sources not from the sun include firelight and lightning

Natural light can also be great for photos of people, though it may sometimes prove more difficult to use because it requires careful planning and observation. It takes more skill to find the ideal natural light for the idea, emotion, or mood you wish to convey.

Learning to evaluate and take advantage of natural light will dramatically improve your photographs.

Taking Advantage of Natural Light: Time of Day
Please review the following images closely. Pay close attention to the shadows, highlights and feeling of depth created in the photo of the woman at 7:45 a.m. as compared with the picture of her at 7:00 p.m. The light used in the earlier image (7:45 a.m.) helps create more depth in the scene, and it helps provide the perception of more space between foreground, middle ground, and background. In the later image (7:00 p.m.), the light is not helping to create more depth. Spatially, the scene is "flatter" in terms of contrast, and thus has less depth.

Landscape photographers are known to use the warm colors and long shadows of morning light. This can create more drama in the landscape, which may better represent the land itself. If you search for landscape images in magazines and calendars, you will find many examples of dramatic light achieved in early-morning hours. You will not see many landscape images made in midday light, because the increased contrast, lack of visual depth, and (unsaturated) colors are not what the photographer thought would best describe the scene.

Obviously, this is a generalization, but as you pay close attention to the thousands of images you encounter daily, you'll likely notice trends in terms of the type of light used for different situations.

Taking Advantage of Natural Light - Disabling Your Flash
The one thing that can kill the ambience of natural or existing light is the on-camera flash. Though this is not as big of an issue when shooting in manual mode, semi-automatic and fully automatic modes (such as aperture-priority and sports modes, respectively) can trigger the flash.

The best thing to do is to turn off the flash in these modes. The camera is programmed to make a good exposure, and often that includes adding in some of its own light if it feels there isn't enough available light for a good exposure. In some cases, the flash is triggered simply because it has been fooled by the presence of dark tones in the main subject or the background. This goes back, remember, to your understanding of how your in-camera (reflective) meter works.

Nothing can destroy the subtlety and character of natural light more than camera's built-in flash. If you want to take advantage of natural light, learn how to turn off your camera's built-in flash.

Artificial light is any light that is not natural and depends on an external source of power. This could be your on-camera flash, external flash units or studio strobes, tungsten photo floods, an overhead light fixture, fluorescent lights in an office environment, streetlights, stadium lights, stage lighting for a concert, the twinkling glow from Christmas-tree lights, neon, and so forth. Like natural light, artificial light can fall under the larger category of existing or available light (in other words, light you do not bring to or set up for your subject).

You might decide to use artificial light for a variety of reasons, including:

• When you need maximum control of your scene by using studio light sources, whether they are strobes or continuous hot lights.


• When there is not enough natural light to make an exposure.


• When you want to preserve the quality of the artificial light as an element in your image, such as the warm yellow light from a corner lamp, the harsh overhead from fluorescent lights, or the colorful glow of stage or club lights.

Experimenting with different types of artificial lighting will help you understand how they influence the image and how your camera records them. The more you know about the qualities of light, natural and artificial, the better you can visualize and control the effects they bring. Being able to identify different sources of artificial light and their inherent qualities will go a long way in helping you predict how they will affect your photography.

Tungsten Lights

These are also referred to as incandescent lights. They are most often found in homes, and they are among the cheapest bulbs to purchase. However, they are much less energy-efficient, and they give off a good amount of heat. Light from tungsten bulbs can vary quite a bit in terms of brightness (25-watt bulb versus a 500-watt photo flood, for example), but this light is generally softer and warmer than fluorescent light.

Halogen Light

This type of incandescent light is more energy-efficient and produces a brighter, whiter light source. It is used in projectors, household lamps, some streetlights, car headlights, and continuous studio lighting (also referred to as "hot lights").

Neon Light

A true neon light will have an orange-red color and is filled with neon gas, through which a small current is passed, causing it to glow. What we know as neon signs, which may be a number of different colors, rely on other types of gases for their color. Though neon lights don't really provide enough illumination to be a light source for a broader scene, they themselves can make for interesting subjects or background material

Streetlight (Sodium Vapor)

Like neon lights, sodium-vapor lights use pressurized gas to produce light. You can identify sodium-vapor lights by their yellow illumination. If you take a long night exposure using street lamps as your light source, you'll notice this same, somewhat eerie yellow-orange glow pervade your image.

Artificial Light (continued)

In addition to ambient or available artificial light, there are a number of options with which you can have more control: namely, flash or strobes. Many digital cameras come with built-in on-camera flash units that may automatically pop up, ready to fire in low-light situations (depending on your exposure mode and camera make). As alluded to earlier, these are generally the least appealing light sources in terms of effect..

Off-Camera Flash

An off-camera flash is more useful and offers many possibilities for positioning the flash, as well as for using accessories such as a mini flash-softbox or bounce cards to modify the quality of the light. In order to use an off-camera flash, your camera needs to have either a hot shoe or flash sync connection.

Club or Stage Light

Amazing effects can be achieved with these multicolored directional lights. Stage lights in particular are extremely powerful, making it easy to isolate separate beams of illumination. Concerts make liberal use of such effects

Studio Strobes
These are lighting systems that run from a power pack that is plugged into a standard power outlet. They connect to your camera via a sync cord, a slave unit (a device where an on-camera flash triggers the studio strobes), or a wireless connection. Studio strobes offer the most versatility and control in how the scene is lit. Their power output can be varied at the power pack, and they can accept a wide variety of light-modifying accessories.

As far as studio work goes, for the new user, the main disadvantage of a strobe system is that you cannot see the effect that the light will have on the subject. You have to use a flash meter to determine exposure and take test shots to determine how well the lighting setup is working. Fortunately, digital cameras provide instant feedback without the need for costly Polaroid tests.

Lightboxes and Studio StandsThere is a wide variety of stands and softbox types. If you plan to shoot on-location, size and weight might be an issue, and if you plan to keep lights only in the studio, maybe size is not such a big issue. More important, though, is the quality of light provided by the various light-modification tools. There are many different shapes of soft boxes and umbrellas, and they all produce a different quality of light.

Tungsten-Halogen Lamps

Some portrait studios still use hot lights for various reasons. There are advantages and disadvantage to both. In general, these are all terms with which you should be familiar, and this knowledge will help you choose the right lighting for any situation down the road.

Hard and Diffuse Light

We used the terms soft and hard light several times to describe characteristics of individual artificial light sources, and, in the case of natural light, qualities relating to specific times of day. Certainly, all light can be divided into one of these two categories, also referred to as specular and diffuse light.

Diffuse Light(or soft)

light is lower in contrast and more even. As a result, it is often easier to achieve a good exposure for both highlighted and shadowy areas, as the difference between the two is slight. Diffuse light can be very complementary for pictures of people where that person's likeness is the highest priority.

Diffuse light is either filtered through or bounced off another surface before hitting the subject. Open shade is one source of diffuse light. Other examples include: light filtered through a high canopy of leaves, the shady side of a building, or in the shelter of a doorway. Clouds, fog, dust, smoke, and smog are other environmental circumstances that can yield varying degrees of diffuse light, each serving to block or bounce the sun's rays. Window light may also provide very soft light, depending on the direction of the sun or how dirty the glass

Hard Light

Hard light is directional and generally more intense, thereby heightening contrast. It's great for building drama in a scene and emphasizing shape and dimension. Deep, defined shadows are characteristics of harsher light. Generally, hard light is used to illustrate an idea or concept, but it does not create a good likeness of a person.

Directional Light

The direction from which light hits your subject can have dramatic impact on your shot. Side lighting, for example, is quite effective at sculpting a subject, throwing long shadows, bringing out details, and adding a powerful flair. Backlit scenes can also be dramatic, with the light coming directly towards the camera, creating stark outlines of foreground elements or rendering a subject to complete silhouette. Frontal light tends to "flatten" a subject by minimizing the distance relationships between foreground and background and eliminating shadows that would otherwise give a sense of dimension.

The direction of light can also be used to slim a face or make a face look more full. For example, if your subject has a round face, you can use side lighting to give the perception that the subject's face is not as round. For a thin face you wanted to make a little fuller, you could use more frontal light. The best thing to do is try many different combinations to see what you like and in what situations.

Directional Light (continued)

Additional possibilities, though seldom used, as they are less flattering, include lighting a subject from above or below. Yet, even these have their uses. Lighting a subject from above may reference police questioning or interrogation, or even the sun at midday. Lighting from below may conjure the feeling of telling ghost stories around a campfire, with the story's narrator holding a flashlight under his chin for eerie effect.

In addition to the direction of light, you can also play with how this relationship changes when your subject is not facing the camera, but instead facing away, or into the light.

Personalized wedding invitations are the perfect way to create an invite that is as unique as the bridal couple themselves. They have the unmistakable stamp of the bridal couple all over them and leave a lasting impression on the recipients. If you are planning on having everything personalized for your wedding, why compromise on your wedding invitations? Sure they may be a little more expensive than regular wedding invitations but for the impact they create, they are well worth the money and the time spent over them.

An Invite is an Invite is an Invite... Or Is It?

With myriad other things to attend to does it make sense to spend endless hours poring over the details of your personalized wedding invite in an attempt to get it just right? Yes it does. Personalized wedding stationery tell your guests more than just the date, time and venue of the event. They are the first indication that your guests will have of the style and tone of your wedding. It is like an introduction to your wedding; a preview of what is yet to come. One look at the style, design and wording of your wedding stationery and all your guests will know what kind of wedding reception they can expect to look forward to.

Personalized wedding invitations in pure white with embossed letters and gold edges would be indicative of a traditional wedding whereas colored or dual toned personalized invitations would tell your guests that the day is going to be more modern.

How to Personalize Wedding Invitations

When personalizing your invitations it is best to choose something that reflects your personality as well as the style of your wedding. One of the most basic and simplest ways of personalizing your wedding invitation is by incorporating the wedding colors into the card. If you've designed a logo for the wedding, you could have that printed or embossed onto the wedding invitation too. If you are planning on having any one type of flower for the wedding; perhaps roses, you could have your wedding invites printed onto handmade paper with echoed rose motifs all over.

Monogramming is another brilliant idea for personalizing wedding invitations. A simple monogram with the bride and groom's initials intertwined can set your wedding invitations apart from anybody else's. One carefully chosen romantic phrase or just one line of a special love poem at the top of the card sets the tone for a romantic wedding.

Incorporating a photo of the bridal couple onto the invite is the ultimate way to personalize wedding invitations. By doing this you can be sure that your personalized wedding invitation is truly unique and one-of-a-kind. Personalized wedding invitations set the stage for a truly one of a kind wedding and are the perfect way of creating exclusive custom-made invites that reflect the unique personality of the bridal couple.

Along with the other wedding decor, personalized wedding stationery offers bridal couples yet another way to display their creativity. With beads, sequins, shells and an endless assortment of fonts and graphics, the possibilities are endless.

People participating in Christian weddings have a whole lot of options to choose from regarding their music and songs. Usually the music is reflective, and suits of the time and mood of the wedding.

Since the early weddings of the sixteenth century, a Christian wedding held in the church has involved the bride walking down the aisle, being led by her father or alone. This walk is accompanied by slower, processional music tunes. After the marriage, she walks down the aisle again, this time with her husband, to a livelier recessional tune.

Many tunes have been popular for weddings, the most popular one being Wagner's Bridal Chorus, composed in 1850. This song is more commonly called "Here comes the bride". The other most popular recessional tune is Mendelssohn's Wedding March composed in 1826.

Following the wedding ceremony, the reception is where a wide variety of music is played, either by a live band or a DJ. Favorite Christian wedding songs include "Cherish the Treasure," "Flesh of My Flesh," "Household of Faith," "How Beautiful, I Will Be Here," "Love of the Lasting Kind," "Love Will Be Our Home," "Perfect Union" and "This Is the Day."

It is important when choosing musicians for a wedding to hire only those with experience and references. You can also request sample CDs of the music played by the musicians in earlier weddings, which most reputable performers will have. You can conduct an interview with the bandleader or the DJ and hire the person who inspires the greatest confidence and is sensitive to your needs. Another important factor is negotiating the price of the service and the deposit amount.

Catering usually plays an extremely important part in any special activities and the success of these events majorly depends upon the company that a man or women chooses. Food alternatively is very important in making events like wedding, birthday, company picnics and various family functions successful. It is therefore vital that you have some tips on how to choose a catering company for any functions that a man or women would likely wish to hold.

The first thing to consider in selecting a caterer must always be the type of event. The caterer needs to be handling the number of guests that are likely to attend the function. The type of dishes that the caterer specializes in should also be considered. It's usually vitally important to make sure that these companies are able to always meet the needs of the guests to guarantee their total satisfaction.

The next consideration should be the budget of the entire process. Perhaps it is important to obtain quotation from numerous caterers and find out the one that is affordable. The price must always be suitable for the proposed menu. It may be essential to select the most affordable caterer. Caution must always be taken with very cheap caterers as they may not have sufficient experience to successfully handle major functions.

Another way of acquiring reputable caterers is through recommendations by anyone who has used these services previously. Functions like weddings and picnics usually happen almost on a daily basis; it would therefore be a good idea to inquire from those who have used catering services in the past. When getting recommendations from friends, it is always important to ask for references where one can contact to verify the details of these companies.

Reputation of the caterer is also very important. Nowadays events caterers will often have their own websites. He or she can always look for relevant information from these websites to be sure of the reputations of the caterer. A number of them even include the client's testimonials on their websites. These testimonials may also help him or her acquiring some of the best caterers. Through the website, he or she can also receive contact information on these companies.

The first impression is also very important when choosing caterers. The first impression given by the caterer to the client will always enable the client to know the right service providers. The responsibility of the caterer should be to offer quality services to their clients. If the company just isn't willing to properly explain to their client about types of services they offer, then the client will most likely always look for other alternatives.

The taste of food is another factor that should always be considered. Reputable caterers will always be willing to invite their clients to have a taste of their meals. This will assist the client make decision depending on the taste of the food.

The very best catering company will not only ensure that great menu to their clients but will also offer unmatchable services. This will always make any special activity a memorable one. You can always learn how to choose a catering company by registering for online courses.

Trying to finish all those last minute jobs that need doing a couple of days before your wedding? Got the wedding jitters? AND you need to pack for your honeymoon. Some brides don't even know where they are going, as a surprising number of grooms will book a honeymoon without telling his bride to be.

It's a tricky one, particularly if you are not sure of what the weather will be like, yet this isn't an ordinary holiday and you want to take something a bit special too. Following is just a few useful suggestions which can make your packing easier and ensure that your honeymoon luggage will not be an excess luggage charge disaster.

Cargo pants with zip-off legs are versatile and very useful for changing weather or travelling. Layers of strappy tops and T-shirts can be worn underneath a light jumper or cardigan for cool weather and over skirts and shorts for hot weather. Skirts are cool and flexible - perfect for a romantic evening or sightseeing. There are lots of long dresses around that you can dumb down for daytime and glam up in the evening with accessories and strappy sandals. Bring one pair of your favourite jeans, but no more! Hot weather and jeans do not make a match in heaven.

A backpack is really useful for taking on as hand-baggage on the aircraft, and doubles up as a shopping bag or beach bag. Zipped up securely, you are not prone to pickpockets or anything falling out.

To stop you packing everything but the kitchen sink we have some up with a list of "Don't Forget" and "Really Useful to Have" leaving you free to kick back and enjoy the romance

Don't Forget

• Your Passport (with marriage certificate if tickets are in your married name and your passport isn't)


• Visa documents/driving licence/airline tickets


• Holiday insurance


• Mobile phone & charger


• Money/credit cards (don't bring everything with you - just what you need)


• Camera (you need evidence of the amazing time you are having)


• Essential medication including contraceptives (would be nice to enjoy the honeymoon period for a little bit longer)


• Walking shoes or sandals


• Lingerie


• Light make-up

Really useful to have

• Cargo Pants with zip off legs


• Cardigan/light jumper/pashmina


• Waterproof jacket (I bring a Jack in the Sack)


• Socks (to keep feet warm on night flights)


• Mosquito repellent/Imodium/Paracetamol


• Sunhat


• Suitcase Lock


• Sunscreen


• Tampons/Pads


• Books/Cards


• Backpack/Beach bag


• EReader (for instant downloading of books)


• Plug converter


• Sunglasses


• Scissors

It is no disaster if you forget to bring a washbag - everything is readily available wherever you may be in the world and sometimes even cheaper.

Planning a wedding in the town where you live in or grew up in can be nerve-wracking. But planning a wedding somewhere you've never been (or only visited briefly) can cause a total breakdown! Our clients often ask what they need to remember when they plan a destination wedding, especially one on an island. Below are some of our top tips for planning a destination wedding.

1. Budget - this is probably the first thing for any wedding to start with when planning. If you get realistic about your budget, then you can consider the most important things for your ceremony: is it having all of your friends and family? Is it having the wedding in a specific place? Is it having the dress of your dreams? Knowing what you want to invest in as your top priority helps you to evaluate where to pour most of your money. Then you can figure out where you can compromise if needed after that.

2. Airfare - whether traveling as a group or just you and your partner, contact the airlines before you book your trip. Ask about rates on different locations and/or group rates. It might also help to contact a travel agent to help with coordinating flights and hotels. Travelocity.com, Priceline.com and other airline websites often have deals on hotels to compliment flights as well. It's good to make some calls and evaluate options. You can also contact the wedding planners in the destination location, as they can often tell you the best airline to use and offer suggestions for best deals for accommodations.

3. Dress - pick up a few bridal magazines and look at what features appeal to you most. Take them with you to dress stores. Look at the length of sleeves (or no sleeves), the type of material and trim, the length, the accessories and then the availability. Some dresses need altering, and some take months to arrive. Plan on another month after the arrival to try on the dress, get it fitted and altered and then shipped back to you. Also, if you're traveling by plane for your destination wedding, be sure to bring your dress as a carry on. We have had several clients arrive before their dresses do when they had checked their dresses in with the main luggage.

4. Flowers - check with your local florists in the destination location or your wedding planner to find out what types of flowers are available locally. You can spend a lot of money shipping in a specific type of flower if you have your heart set on a certain kind. If your wedding is on an island and on the beach, you might consider eliminating buying flowers and letting the natural setting decorate your ceremony instead.

5. Wedding Insurance - especially for outdoor weddings and destination weddings, it is a good idea to purchase wedding insurance to protect your investment. This can save you a lot of stress in the event of cancellations or delays. Check with your wedding planner for several different insurance options so you can see if there is one that suits you at a low cost.

6. Legalities - in the cases of weddings out of your country, check with local laws to see what the rules are for marriage licenses. Sometimes you can only get a license a certain amount of time after you have purchased it. It can be a better idea to obtain a license before you leave for your destination wedding ceremony.

7. Photography - good wedding photographers can be worth every penny of the investment. They are often booked well in advance if they are known for their excellence. Shop around to the local photographers at your destination, as they are often more experienced with photographs in that specific location (i.e. they know special places for the best sunset shots, they know how to photograph in bright sunlight next to the ocean waters, etc.). Different photographers have different styles, too. Ask to see their portfolios to get a sense of the style you like.

8. Day of the week - many vendors are less expensive when you pick a day other than Saturday, especially in off-peak seasons. See if you can play with your date to save money.

9. Afterward - plan to allow a couple days to unwind after your wedding. Planning the event, traveling to the venue and going through the ceremony can be exhausting. Having a few days with no plans to share quiet time with your new spouse can be a great gift.

10. Extras - especially when traveling for your wedding, pack extras of items in case of emergencies: tissues, makeup, bandaids, scissors, sunblock, hairspray, earrings, pantyhose or any other items you might need. Ask your wedding planner if they have an emergency kit with items (like scissors) so you won't need to pack them.

A gift basket is always a welcome present in a baby shower. The expectant mother will always be delighted with one, whether she's having her first or third baby. Your basket can be a small one with just three basic items inside or it can be a grand surprise of luxury stuff. When you're looking for baby gifts, consider giving gift baskets. They are interesting to give and to receive.

One kind of gift basket you can give in a baby shower would be a collection of bath items. Most parents would just buy soap and other basic toiletries. You can make the mom and her baby feel special by a set of luxury baby bath, shampoo, and lotion. You can also throw in a bath towel set, including a wash cloth and a squeaky toy.

Ask any parent and they'll agree that babies grow very quickly. So you shouldn't just think about things for the newborn when looking for baby shower gifts. You can choose to give a spoon and fork set, a training cup, plates or bowls, and other things he or she would need for meal time. You can also add a couple of bibs and some baby wipes.

You can also give a cuddly bear together with clothes and other things the baby would need for a good night's sleep. You can include a couple of pajamas and a blanket. If you wish, you can have a teddy bear, a blanket, and a bedtime book, instead.

An all-toy gift basket, of course, would also be nice. You can give an assortment of stuffed animals. Another option would be to give different brightly colored toys that would help practice the baby's senses like rattles and squeaky toys.

But you shouldn't forget about the mom. Maybe you can still go for one of the basket themes mentioned above and put in an item for the mother. If you wish to give a bath time basket, you can include a moisturizing shower gel to keep mom's skin soft and hydrated after giving birth. You can also take the meal time theme and throw in some healthy snacks and chamomile infusion tea for mommy so she can have a treat for herself once baby's sleeping. You can also add a nice pillow for the mother if you're choosing the bedtime gift basket.

Ideas for gift baskets for baby showers are almost endless. You can arrange a gift basket on your own. Or you can buy a pre-packaged basket from an online store or a brick-and-mortar gift shop.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing help people find companies and services online. For businesses it's an excellent opportunity for free marketing. But if your website shows up on Google page three or higher, chances are that companies with better ranking will snatch potential customers from you.

This article talks about how to improve search engine optimization (SEO), how to get the most out of your keywords, and how to make your website more visible to Internet users.

Choose your keywords carefully

When coming up with keywords for your web copy and SEO strategy, find a balance between words that are specific for your business and words that people actually type in the search window. For example, if you specialize in wedding flowers arrangements, the keyword "flowers" is too general and wouldn't do much for you. "Wedding bouquets" is a better choice. "Yellow chrysanthemum", on the other hand, is too narrow.

Do you need some inspiration? Here's a trick: go to the website of a competitor that ranks well. In the web browser menu, go to View and View source. A new window will open up with all the information about that page. Look for meta keywords and you might get ideas for keywords to use, or not to use, on your company site. We don't recommend being a copycat, hopefully your website has something very unique to offer, but it doesn't hurt to check out what the competitors are up to.

When you incorporate your keywords in the website copy, make sure to include the most important words in the first paragraph of each page. Finally, keep in mind that you write for humans, not for machines, so don't overstuff your copy with keywords.

Understand the use of meta keywords

It's important to point out that meta keywords won't do wonders to SEO and website traffic. In fact, many search engine algorithms don't care much about meta keywords. However, as long as you do it right, it doesn't hurt to have them. In my opinion, having 5-15 carefully chosen meta keywords per page is better than having no keywords at all.

While general meta keywords won't have a great impact on ranking, putting keywords in page titles (or meta titles) can make quite a difference. Instead of having ordinary page titles like "Welcome to Company X" or "About", make sure you have descriptive page titles, for example "Welcome to Company X, Specialist in Y, City State" and "About Company X, experts in Y products".

Alt tags and alt titles are text that describes images. It shows when the mouse hover over an image, or when a picture doesn't load properly. Again, they don't do wonders to SEO but it doesn't hurt to have them.

In the end, the most important place for keywords is in your website copy.

Avoid competing with the whole World Wide Web

It's extremely tough for a small business, or a start-up company with a brand new website, to compete online with literally thousands of companies in the same industry with bigger marketing budgets. If you own a local business that only serves a certain city, state, or even country, zoning in on your geographical area can improve your ranking. If applicable for your business, include geographical areas in page titles, meta tags, website copy, and in other content elements of the website.

For example, if you own a small florist shop in Tampa Florida, the keyword "flowers" is like a needle in a haystack. Google it and you will get about 150 million hits. "Floral services Tampa Florida" on the other hand reduces the search engine competition significantly.

Images and videos make crawlers blind

Search engine spiders don't see images, flash videos, slide shows, etc. If your homepage is nothing but pictures and banners, search engines won't be able to crawl the page and take information from it. It's just as if the page were empty. So make sure you have at least one or two paragraphs of copy (text) on your pages, especially on the homepage.

Be inviting - Have control over Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are one or two short sentences of what a webpage is about, and on search engine sites they show up as preview snippets underneath the page title. They are important because people read them and determine if the site is of interest. If you haven't entered any meta descriptions, the search engine will take whatever it can grab from the page, and it's not always what you want Internet users to see. Also, if your homepage has a lot of images, the crawler can't read the page, and it will grab the few random word it can see on the site. Google sometimes ignores the meta descriptions and grabs text directly from the site, so again, make sure to have at least one paragraph of quality copy on each page.

When you write your meta descriptions (or web copy paragraphs) you want them to be descriptive, informative, and inviting. Have a look at your ranking competitors and ensure your preview snippets are the best.

Link building - A way to increase popularity

Popularity is important for search engine ranking, and links are a way to measure it. The more web pages that refer to your site, the higher the likelihood to rank well. The higher you rank, the more people see your site, and the higher the odds are people will talk about it on the web. And around and around it goes. In other words, external linking is good. Contact companies you trust about exchanging links, write a blog, and share your links in respectable and appropriate forums. But be careful not to overdo it, nobody likes an annoying spammer.

A word of caution: there are companies out there offering linking services or link exchange programs. Don't end up in so-called bad neighborhoods, a.k.a. websites with questionable content. It could sabotage your ranking. Do your homework before you buy any link building services.

When it comes to internal linking (links within your own site), avoid the generic "click here". Instead, create link text that describes the link well, e.g. "information on server virtualization".

How do I know if my efforts are paying off?

After you've put all this hard work into choosing keywords and putting them in various places, you want to find out if it's actually working. The obvious step is to enter your keywords on different search engine sites, and see if your website shows up on the first page. You may also notice a rise in inquiries about your company, or even better, an increase in sales. But in case you don't get the ranking results you were hoping for (keep in mind it can take time), you need black on white website data in order to analyze and improve your web traffic.

Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools offer great free online devices for accessing information about your website visitors and their behaviors. And remember, whether your results are fantastic or you get a bit disappointed, nothing on the web is static. There's always room for changes and improvements!

Next step - Attractive and persuasive website copy

Once your website attracts more and more visitors, you need to keep them interested and inspire them to come back for more. In my article "What makes for great web content " I talk about important factors for successful website copywriting, such as attract visitors with compelling text, easy-on-the-eyes website structure, and how to convert visitors to customers.

Well, it is time to invite! That means you have 3-4 months left to go before your wedding, time and place are known, guest list is already accomplished and you are almost sure about the chosen outfit. Invitations should be sent out no later than 2 months before the wedding. However it is recommended to invite earlier before as soon as guests have not planned their trips somewhere to ski resort or to the Maldives.

Take an advantage of web shopping and find your perfect wedding invites in Internet. Stop your choice on the online wedding stationery store offering wedding cards with personalised printed text ready for mailing. If you prefer to touch and scrutinize them before buying - order samples by post to be sure they really meet your expectations.

Contemporary weddings don't follow etiquette as strictly as 50 years ago and there is an enormous range of wedding stationery in an amazing array of styles and colours. The question is what to choose from the ocean of beautiful cards and their manufacturers. First of all you should realize what matches your style most of all, taking into account your preferences and format of reception. There is a helpful scheme of wedding receptions and relevant styles of stationery at your service:

• Black tie reception: white/ecru/ivory cardstock with black, gold, silver, red, purple, royal blue, burgundy accents. The most popular trends are Damask style, Antique style, Peacock theme, Monogrammed Classic style with elements of calligraphy. The hottest trend of 2011 considered to be a Fairytale look inspired by stories from childhood.


• Vintage inspired wedding: white/ecru/ivory cardstock decorated with lace, ribbons and pearls. Colour palette: candy pink, dusky rose, mocha, teal, mint, light blue, poppy red. The brightest example of vintage is polka dot pattern and retro vignettes.


• Romantic Garden reception: white/ivory/colour cardstock with botanical graphics. Colour palette: sage green, grey green, fuchsia, yellow, orange. The most popular symbols are silhouettes of grass, cherry blossom, flowers, stylized birds, butterflies and other insects - everything what we can find in the garden.


• Seashore wedding: white/ivory/turquoise background decorated with seashells, seahorses, corals and other sea attributes. Nowadays you can find even unusual solutions like scrolls tied with seaweeds or a message in the bottle.


• Destination wedding implies an accent on the place of wedding. After you had your pick of exotic locales around the world stress the essence of this idea with unusual invitations. Airplane tickets, geographical maps, tropical foliage, mountains, pyramids, symbols of cities such as Eiffel tower, statue of Liberty etc. - all these could be in use in the design of your wedding stationery.


• Casual weddings could be featured with informal wedding stationery. Some modern couples tend to ignore the established rules and choose invitations with funny cartoon pictures of bride and groom, calendar-invites or invitations printed on napkins or even issued as a multimedia CD.

All you have to do is to choose your style and colours. Don't be afraid to be different - it is your day. Like peacocks? You may have them on your wedding invitations as much as you want. Mad about adventures? Treasure-map invitation will mirror your passionate nature. Don't care about invitations? All right - take white traditional card and be happy.