Your Wedding Recessional: It's So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades!

Forgot a boring wedding recessional!

As you are planning your wedding ceremony, take a little time to consider how to jazz up your walk down the aisle as husband and wife.

Here are four tips on how to add some "kick" to your wedding recessional for a fun and memorable "we're just married' walk down the aisle - not only for you but for your wedding party, too!

1) Surprise Roses & Note Cards for Mothers or Parents: Creating authentic and loving memorable moments within a wedding ceremony just doesn't happen. Most of the time, such moments are planned and orchestrated with a bit of planning and heart.

One nice touch for your recessional is to have your Officiant or Minister hand you both note cards and roses at the end of your ceremony (after the kiss and pronouncement, of course!).

Before you take your sweetie's hand and walk down the aisle, you both give your mothers or parents surprises roses and note cards as an "end of ceremony flourish!" This touch is especially special for a bride and groom who are especially close to their mothers or parents and makes for a sweet memory for a couple and their parents.

2) Parade of Children: This is a nice end of ceremony touch, especially if you have a lot of children at your wedding. Seat and group children together with their parents. At the end of the ceremony, the children pick up their small instruments which may be placed under their chairs (horns, kazoos, small drums, etc) and they become the "recessional music" and lead the bride and groom out for recessional.

You would need to put someone in charge of all of this. To create extra joy in the room, you may have your Officiant mention what is going on so everyone can fully participate and appreciate the chaos and joy of a children's parade. And what is true? A wedding is about authenticity and giving children a big and unusual job in a ceremony creates a lifetime moment.

3) The Interactive Recessional: Flowers and Kudos: As guests are seated, a hand-picked group of ladies are seated on one side of the aisle on the end and gentlemen line the other side of the aisle on the end seat. As the couple walks down the aisle after they are married, the ladies hand the bride flowers which become her "recessional bouquet."

The guys can "high 5" the groom, shake hands or conduct other fun "male bonding activities" as the couple creates an interactive recessional. The guys and gals lining the aisles are in on this surprise and if well orchestrated, makes for a great recessional moment!

4) It's So Bright You've Gotta Wear Shades! I was just at a wedding last year where as the bride and groom shared a kiss and were pronounced as husband and wife they turned around, pulled bright sunglasses from their pockets and danced down the aisle with their shades on! This moment created so much joy in the room.

To top it off, the wedding party then pulled shades from their pockets and danced down the aisle, too!

Seattle Wedding Nightmares: 4 Important Things To "Know" As You Plan Your Wedding Day in Seattle, Washington...

Weddings are a beautiful thing. Especially in Seattle, Washington during the popular summer months.

And, on the way to a wedding day in Seattle, there are "local/regional planning situations" that can create added wedding day anxiety, stress and the occasional wedding planning nightmare.

As you plan your Seattle wedding this summer, I invite you to consider these 4 planning tips if you want to want to move into your wedding day with more grace and ease:

1) Seattle's Seafair Weekend - Traffic! Each Summer, Seattle goes crazy for its annual Seafair celebration. This culminates on the first week-end of August (check the calendar for exact dates) with a 3-day weekend extravaganza which includes hydroplanes and aerial acrobatics by the Navy's Blue Angels. Due to hydro practices and Blue Angel practices, the two bridges over Lake Washington are closed for periods of time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, creating traffic chaos in Seattle.

If you have other dates to work with before confirming a wedding date, I encourage you to select another weekend. If you already have your date planned, consider putting an earlier ceremony start time on your invitation as people are often delayed/late because of traffic. Also, depending on where your ceremony is located, you may have engine noise from overhead as the Blue Angels fly over!

2) The Seattle Mariners/Seattle Seahawks/Seattle Sounds (August/September traffic nightmare combo) - Again, this is a well-known event cocktail that can create serious local traffic snafus, particularly if a wedding is located in downtown Seattle. Each August and September, the Seattle Mariners, Sounders and Seahawks schedule a game on the same day - and as both sports facilities are only a block or so apart, this create monumental traffic jams in and out of Seattle.

If you can, check ahead and see when the Mariners, Sounders and Seahawks are scheduled and adjust your wedding start time as needed. If you have already booked your wedding date and both teams are playing, alert your guests and suggest they arrive early to enjoy a complimentary cocktail!

3) Be Careful About Booking Your Wedding At The Seattle Center Space Needle On Bumbershoot Weekend - Bumbershoot is a huge and very fun music festival hosted at Seattle's Seattle Center each Labor Day Weekend. If you are looking at The Space Needle for your wedding ceremony and celebration (a very cool place!), talk to staff about logistics and parking because of the high auto and foot traffic all over The Seattle Center grounds.

Also, beware that if you do hold your wedding high in the sky in The Space Needle, you may hear music from the bands playing below. For most couples, this only adds to the color of their wedding!

4) Timing It Right And Don't Get Left Behind: Catching A Ferry to Kitsap County In The Summer Months - Each year, hundreds of weddings are held across the Sound from downtown Seattle in the beautiful area of Kitsap County. From Seattle, you can drive to Kitsap County and it's most convenient to take a ferry from downtown Seattle to either Bainbridge Island or Bremerton.

If you are planning your wedding on a popular Summer Seattle day, beware that the Washington State Ferries are packed with autos and people and oftentimes, family and friends have to wait one or two ferries before they can get on.

To make things more convenient for your guests, consider having them walk-on the ferry and then plan to have a bus or shuttle on the other side to get them to your wedding venue. This way, your family and friends can just park on the "Seattle side" and enjoy a ferry ride with curbside service to your wedding!