Every bride wants to feel like a princess on her wedding day. Quite a few of them want to feel like a more posh, professional, grown-up version of their favorite fairy tale characters, but these classic stories from childhood often continue to play a part in shaping our ideas about romance long after we’ve outgrown our pigtails.

A friend of a friend recently put herself on the waiting list to get married at Disneyland, an undertaking that involves a “fairy godplanner,” flowers, food, makeup artists, photographers, music–the whole wedding experience, including a horse-drawn carriage and a castle (naturally). The entire event takes at least one year to plan and execute with the help of Disney’s staff of planners and wedding professionals. If you grew up loving Ariel, Belle, Cinderella and Snow White, Disney Weddings seem like a fun way to capture a little bit of their magic for your big day.

But, what makes this particular fairy tale wedding story so amusing to me is that the Cinderella in question has no Prince Charming in sight. With slightly over one year until her scheduled wedding day, she is still (optimistically) single.

For those of you who actually have someone to meet you at the end of the aisle, busting your budget on a full-blown Disney extravaganza isn’t the only way to incorporate a little fairy tale magic into your celebration. Their website offers a variety of alternatives, including a charming Mad Hatter Tea Party Brunch or an Electric Parade Rehearsal Dinner. You can also add whimsical touches to your ceremony with these fun, princess-worthy designs from Wedding Paper Divas.

Adding things that make both you and your fiance unique will make your wedding day more personal. For example, I had a bar menu listing my favorite wine and added special quotes on our favors. I also created table cards made up of Vintage postcards from Disneyland and Disney World since we’re both big fans.

We also added this quote to our favors, “Trip over love, you can get up. Fall in love and you fall forever.” How about adding something short and sweet to your favors? Wedding Paper Divas offers modern mint tins that you can personalize with something sweet for your guests.

What will you do with all of your wedding keepsakes? You know the programs you spend all night making, the invitations you lovingly chose, and the place cards you hand wrote? Well if you’re like me, you want to save those as a treasured reminder of the wedding and everything that went into your big day. One option is to create a shadowbox which includes your wedding picture and anything else you want to display. Another idea that is pretty simple is to keep everything in a photo box. Beau-coup has one that is modern and elegant.

One thing I might do is store all of our wedding memorabilia in a scrapbook, labeling everything with place cards. You can handwrite different descriptions on each card with funny stories about how you used or created each item. Here are a few from Wedding Paper Divas that would beautifully decorate any wedding scrapbook.

With the stress of throwing a fabulous wedding weighing heavily upon engaged couples, it’s no wonder brides often have wacky, anxiety-filled dreams about blue frogs and wilted flowers. The Knot has gathered a charming collection of real wedding nightmares for your reading pleasure (terror?). Having the wedding of your dreams may not be quite what you expected if you share some of these brides’ nightmares. Here are a few of my favorites:

“My fiance was clueless about the planning, and I dreamed he told his groomsmen it was okay to show up with no shirts–just bow ties under their tux jackets.”

“I fell through a hole in the dance floor. Thankfully, it was absurd enough that I could laugh about it without worrying it was going to come true!”

“One of our dogs ate the wedding cake, so we had to go to 7-Eleven and feed the guests boxed cake and cookies instead.”

Check out the entire article for a good laugh to help ease any tension you might have over wedding planning!

With the gluten-free movement taking the country by storm, more and more people find themselves getting tested for–and diagnosed with–food allergies. As a member of this illustrious group, I am loving the idea of an allergy-free wedding.

Normally, eating at restaurants and social events is a huge hassle: Do you cook with corn oil? Does that sauce have corn syrup in it? Can you check and see if your powdered sugar is made with cornstarch or flour? The list of questions becomes so tedious after a while that you inevitably settle for a salad, sans dressing, and call it a day. It’s great for a diet, sure, but a wedding is supposed to be a chance to splurge! So when planning your menu, think about those of us who haven’t tasted a gummy bear, tortilla chip or sip of soda in a decade. With adept catering or just a little extra elbow grease on your part, you can host a fabulous allergy-free event that everyone can enjoy.

I ran across this BrideFu post on the topic and, although it fails to mention my particular allergy, I think it has a lot of great insight into allergy-free weddings in general. You might think it’s impossible to cook without the items on the site’s Big Eight list–eggs, milk, wheat and fish in particular–but it’s actually really easy to do with a flexible caterer. You don’t even have to change your entire menu. Just add a few delicious dishes without these ingredients and advertise them to your guests, as The Lovely Scones blogger did for her nuptials.

Creating your own allergy-free wedding is a great way to make sure that no one is fretting over the fritters on your big day. Just don’t be surprised if you find someone like me hungrily hunkered down over a heaping plate of your corn-free culinary creations!

I am excited to welcome a Katie M. as a regular contributor to both Tiny Talk and Diva Dialogue. For a little more information about Katie, read below:

Katie M. is a Marketing Copywriter at Tiny Prints. She has the privilege of viewing nearly every piece of stationery before it goes up on the website, giving her the ultimate inside scoop on upcoming trends in the stationery world. She loves classic designs with a surprising twist, and enjoys finding new ways to express her ever-evolving personal style-a blend of traditional glamour and bohemian whimsy that makes Tiny Prints & Wedding Paper Divas a perfect fit!

Some other interesting tidbits that Katie has provided about herself:

I am obsessed with: health & fitness, skincare, being allergic to things (I am allergic to corn and proud!), UCSB, all things adorable (my puppy included), the beach, rock climbing, cooking (primarily because I can’t eat normal things), getting real mail, having fresh flowers around, discount shopping, and shoes (who isn’t?)

Everyone at Wedding Paper Divas and the other contributors to Diva Dialogue look forward to learning more…

Now that the wedding’s over, what else do we have to look forward to? Lots that’s what! Many brides leap from wedding planning to the next biggest thing and that might be moving or planning for a baby. As I have graduated from wedding to marriage, I have also switched from my daily dose of reading tips from The Knot, a bride’s best friend in wedding planning, to their sister site The Nest. The Nest brings the same detailed, fun to read tips but for newlywed couples needing help on everything from buying a home to saving money. Being married also means a switch from buying wedding invitations to purchasing address labels with your new names on them or moving announcements to notify friends and family of your new residence. Smoothly transition to your new status as newlyweds with these. The Happy Mailbox address label is from Tiny Prints.

There’s something about the color yellow that evokes bright, sunny, summer days. Thread this happy hue throughout your wedding for a fun, modern look that will brighten up a spring or summer wedding, be sweet in autumn and golden in winter. Here’s some lovely yellow shades that we hope will inspire your yellow wedding this or next season.

pictures from top left: dress and earrings from Anthropologie,

candy buffet from Mel’s Brainstorms,

Desert Bloom cake from Brides.com

 Great post on Polka Dot Bride this morning. I LOVE the idea of colored wedding shoes - this is a fun and subtle way to show some personality!

Click here to check it out.