One week from today, Prince William and Kate Middleton will walk down the aisle. What does that mean for the wedding industry in America? If you’re a member of the industry you know that the answer is a lot. Kate’s choices, from flowers to gown to transportation, are without a doubt going to influence brides across America, whether they watch the Royal Wedding or not. Celebrity weddings set trends without even trying. Floral and fashion designers will be paying close attention to color and fabric choices. Certified wedding and event designers will be watching closely for every little detail. And many of you are awaiting the wedding with bated breath, as the results of Lovegevity’s Wedding Planning Institute Royal Wedding Survey show.

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While the American public at large may not be as interested in the upcoming nuptials, 78 percent of LWPI members say they have been following plans for the Royal Wedding, while 71 percent are planning to actually watch it. And goodness knows opportunities to watch it will abound, with every network sending correspondents to cover what should really be called Royal Wedding Week!

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When it comes to the details, 65 percent of you think the Royal Wedding will be a mixture of timeless and modern traditions. A bit more than half of respondents, 55 percent, do not think the Royal Couple will write their own vows. And 69 percent think the Royal Wedding will be at least as grand as the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. That’s saying a lot because if like us you’ve been rewatching that grand wedding over and over it’s clear that even 30 years ago a Royal Wedding was a true fairytale affair. Will Kate top Diana? Will she keep things more simple? Does she really have a choice? We’ll find out in just a few days.

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While the details have been kept mostly secret there has been an abundance of ways to keep up with what’s happening as the wedding date gets closer. We wanted to know how LWPI members are keeping up with the plans. A few of you, 29 percent, are following on television; 8 percent are turning to magazines; 41 percent are checking out a combination of sources; and a whopping 95 percent of you are looking to the Internet. It’s clear that wedding and event planners, and other members of the wedding industry, consider the Internet the best place to turn for up-to-the-minute wedding news.

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And while the wedding will be a glorious affair, we’re sure, we also know that the media will quickly turn its attention to any notion of turmoil. And 80 percent of LWPI members agree. They believe it will take less than a year before the media starts to report marital mismatch.

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All of this information points to one thing: This wedding is a big deal in the wedding industry. Just as we’re still talking about Lady Diana’s wedding all these years later we’re sure to be discussing Kate’s choices as the years go on. Interested in sharing your opinions? The LWPI Royal Wedding Survey is still available online, and we’d love to know what you think! Stop by and give us your opinions today.

Christmas weddings. Winter weddings. Snowy, elegant affairs! No, winter isn’t the most popular time to get married as you certified wedding and event planners know, but it has several things going for it. It’s less expensive. It’s oh-so-romantic to get married under snowy skies. And the decor can be natural and rustic or holiday-style and festive! Here are some of our favorite winter-wedding finds, from cakes to gowns to decor. We love this time of year! How can anyone be in a bad mood when they’re surrounded by snowflakes and twinkly lights?

1. superweddings.com; 2. dotcombride.com; 3. whitelacewedding.com; 4. blog.idoityourself.com

1. Allegro Photography of Boston (Amaaaazing vendor!); 2. The Knot; 3. Ritva Westenius Coutoure of the U.K.; 4. weddingsplendor.com

1. Martha Stewart; 2. Sugarlicious Cakes & Sugarcraft; 3. The Wedding Dish

Want more eye candy? Check out these beautiful winter-wedding roundups!
* Angela and David
* A gorgeous Christmasy, military-style wedding. Great pics!
* Bethany and Eric - Rustic in Vermont!
* Eve and Richard - Classy and sparkly.

What are your favorite, elegant touches for holiday weddings?

A green wedding is a celebration of awareness. At a green wedding, a couple is not just affirming their commitment to one another, they are also affirming their commitment to a sustainable life together - one that takes the needs of the environment and future generations into account. A Certified Green Wedding Planner has the knowledge and resources to help couples make eco-friendly choices throughout the planning process. The LWPI Green Wedding Planning course teaches the planner everything needed to help clients make the decisions that lead to a better world for all of us.

The four-week online course, written and instructed by Kate Harrison, the founder of the Green Bride Guide, will teach wedding professionals how to incorporate eco-friendly wedding solutions into their clients’ events to help lower costs and save the environment. Harrison graduated from Vassar College with a major in Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development. She holds a J.D. from Pace Law School and is currently finishing her master’s degree in Environmental Policy, Law, and Economics from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She wrote The Green Bride Guide after she and her husband Barry planned their own green wedding in 2007.

Here are some interesting statistics about green weddings from Harrison:

1. 48 percent of couples are committed to incorporating eco-friendly elements into their wedding.
2. In a year when wedding spending fell 25 percent, green wedding spending actually increased 6 percent.
3. Green weddings are a top 5 wedding trend.

This all goes to show that green weddings are here to stay and that there is a need for qualified, certified professionals to help bridal couples reach their “green” goals!

Want to know more about this class? Read our recent interview with Wendy Dorsey of Essential Sage Weddings and Events. You can also take a tour of the course and register today.

And if you need another push to sign up, how about a $100 back-to-school tuition discount? Just enter the code GBGWPI100 when you enroll.

Here are some of our favorite wedding-related links, finds and stories from the week:

* Talk about going all out for your one true love. Have you seen this amazing projector ring? It “contains a tiny photographic slide paired with a lens. When illuminated by an equally small light source—Jerram says even a candle will work—the couple will have four adorable images of themselves projected wherever they go,” according to gizmodo.com. Sounds like it’s a one-of-a-kind deal, but we think it would be a great inspiration piece for planning a wedding. Think vintage photos, projector reels, old pieces of film as decor….

There is inspiration galore in Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

* An LWPI student recently posted some ideas for a Cinderella-inspired wedding in the student-blog section for the Preston Bailey Design course. We loved her vintage, Audrey Hepburn ideas so when we ran across this Alice in Wonderland themed wedding we were immediately smitten! The decor - including “eat me” and “drink me” labels on the food and drinks are adorable. Check it all out here, on bridesmaid.com.

* Some brides are hard-pressed to get their grooms to take part in filling out the registry, but that’s probably because a lot of men have a hard time getting excited about china, vacuums and pillow shams! That’s where The Man Registry comes in. (Yes; for real.) It’s a place where guy stuff reigns supreme: sports-related home items and memorabilia; gifts for the griller and outdoorsman; and yes, of course there are tools to be had, too. We know a lot of brides like to grill and user power tools, too, but adding them to The Man Registry is a sneaky way to get the groom involved!

* What are the best honeymoon locations on earth? Denise and Mark Duffield-Thomas have the dream job of discovering just such places. The Irish Times held a contest to find a couple willing to act as honeymoon testers, and among 30,000 applicants those two got the job. You can follow their adventures on thehoneymoontesters.com, nicknamed the ultimate couple’s travel blog. Where have they been so far? Jordan, Malta, Ireland and Mauritius just to name a few spots. Some people have all the luck, don’t they? (If you think YOU have the luck apply here to be next year’s testers!)

Photo courtesy of mongabay.com. (Destination wedding, anyone?!)

* We love Green weddings. Weddings are an easy way, some say, to waste resources, but it’s not hard to turn them around and make them much more eco-friendly. In honor of World Sea Turtle Day, which is June 16, “the 237-suite Marquis Los Cabos resort introduces a new Green Wedding Package that includes eco-friendly décor, organic food, local Baja wine selections, Green Turn Down service, and, most excitingly, the opportunity to assist in the release of baby sea turtles.” We know many people who plan to some day help release baby sea turtles, but we’ve never thought of it as a wedding event. It does sound memorable, however, and watching those little babies waddle toward the ocean to begin their new life is a great metaphor for marriage!

* It was a super wedding. Literally. You see, Batman recently married Wonder Woman. The PowerPuff girls stood as the bride’s maids. The best man? Robin, of course. And none other than the Joker served as the officiant. Who needs tradition? Even the guests got in on this theme wedding! (Iron Man was there!) Extra! Extra! Read all about it! (Sorry; we couldn’t help ourselves.)

* We all know that planning a wedding consumes every bit of free time a bride has. (But that’s why brides need you guys - certified wedding and event coordinators - right?!) But did you know that 90 percent of brides to be plan their weddings at work? That’s right, one survey recently found that 9 out of 10 women use company time to plan their big day, but only a third of them think it negatively affects their work performance. Vendors report that lunchtime and Mondays are when they see the most traffic on their websites. Well, we guess that planning your wedding is one way to get over that Monday hump.

* We’re all about planning ahead, and you know that when planning a wedding it’s imperative that vendors and venues are booked well in advance of the big day. But this has to be one bride - if you can even call her that - who is taking the whole organized thing to a new level. You see, she has a venue. Her dream venue. And thus, she has a wedding date. But there’s one big kicker: She has no groom. And now she has a project, Project Husband, in which she’s marketing herself on TV and the Internet to find potential grooms. So far, she’s been on 46 dates. Who needs a dating service? It looks like all a single girl actually needs is a wedding date. “I’m really hopeful,” she said. “I will know in my heart who the right person is as I get closer to the date.“

According to research and statistics from WE tv Networks Wedding Report, the average cost of a wedding increased 21.9 percent in the first half of 2010, from $19,581 (in late 2009) to $23,867. That’s a good-size increase for the industry, and it should put a smile on the face of wedding planners everywhere. Despite the slow-to-churn economy, the wedding industry is growing, which means there are opportunities for success at every turn - if you know where to look. While not every service sector saw growth, most of them did. Let’s break down the increase (with more thanks to WE for these numbers):

* Planner/consultant a la carte services were up 84.2% at an average of $1,171.
* Gifts for the bride were up 53.1% at an average of $253.
* Hiring a consultant for initial planning was up 50.4% at an average of $920 - the sector with the biggest gain in spending.
* Other jewelry was down 61.7% at an average of $304.
* Reception accessories was down 55.3% at an average of $200.
* Ceremony accessories was down 49.7% at an average of $207 - the sector with the biggest decline in spending.

Demand went up in the first half of 2010 for products and services. Those with the biggest increases were travel and transportation and musicians, while demand went down the most for facials, manicures and pedicures and teeth whitening.

We don’t think there is a lot of surprise hidden in these numbers. It makes sense that brides are putting their money where it matters most and not with the frivolities often associated with weddings. Hiring a wedding planner to put together a budget at the very beginning makes perfect sense to us, and we’re not surprised to see an increase in that sector of the industry. What does this mean to LWPI’s certified wedding and event consultants? It shows you exactly how to market yourself in this down economy. Showing brides how to get the most bang for their buck is exactly what they’re looking for, and these numbers prove it. It’s easy to get down about business right now if you don’t look for the smaller opportunities. Offering smaller planning packages is a great way to get your foot in the door, and from there you can easily prove to a bride that she can’t live without you.

* Could it be true? According to a new Slim Fast study, one in three British brides admitted to choosing overweight friends as bridesmaids so that they would look thinner. We don’t know of anyone who has done something like this, but then again who would admit to it? We’d like to call B.S. on this one, but we all know that true Bridezillas walk among us….

Photo courtesy of Anthropologie

* First it was J. Crew. Then Urban Outfitters got in on the fun. And now it’s Anthropologie’s turn. We have to admit that these gowns are sure to be a hit - just like everything else the Anthropologie brand has debuted. The new bridal collection will be available in Spring 2011, and brides will be able to schedule fittings at local Anthropologie stores. The gowns will retail from $750 to $5000, which means there will be something for most bridal budgets. If you have a bridal client with her heart set on a natural, rustic, ethereal wedding this may be the place for her to find that perfect gown.

* Do you Tweet forever? Sounds strange, but every day there are more couples incorporating technology into their wedding ceremonies. One couple recently incorporated Twitter and Facebook into their wedding, and in fact they used an iPad to help officiate. The groom immediately took out his phone to tweet that he “just got married!” It went on Facebook, too. We have a feeling this is only the beginning…

* This next one isn’t exactly a new trend, but it appears to be gaining momentum. More grooms (and bridal couples overall) are taking dancing lessons ahead of their big day. “I think a lot of it’s due to the shows that you see on television that promote couple dancing,” said Traci LeBlanc, a ballroom dance instructor who offers wedding dance lessons through The Dance Center in Traverse City. Dance lessons are a great way for a stressed-out, engaged couple to spend some time together and unwind. Plus, we all know that dancing is great exercise. This is one trend we’re definitely excited to see grow!

* And finally we know that you guys are just as excited as us to read a true love story. This couple got their happy ending - even though at one point they thought it was never going to happen for them. Ryan Price, an Airborne Ranger in the U.S. Army, lost both of his legs in 2008 after driving over an IED in Afghanistan. It’s a miracle that he survived, doctors say. At first their relationship wasn’t meant to be because who wants to start something with a man leaving for another part of the world? But then Leslie Terry heard that Ryan died, and … well just read it for yourself. What a great story!

So, as always: Tell us your favorite wedding stories of the week, or share the links with us! You never know what you’re going to run across in this industry.

Photo courtesy of the Bellingham Herald

* It was one mother’s dream to see her beautiful daughter walk down the aisle, but terminal cancer would have kept her from seeing this dream come alive if not for the loving support of her community. Bev McKissick, who passed away May 31, was able to watch her daughter Kaitlin get married last June. The wedding was made possible by an “outpouring of community donations”, and the date was moved up to make sure that Mrs. McKissick would be well enough to attend. A wedding is only as special as the people in attendance, and in this case there were a few silent guests - perfect strangers.

* RE-store employee and recent bride Rachel Blair suggests two key rules for DIY brides: Start early and always carry a tape measure. She offers classes at her store in Michigan, and she has developed the Salvage Bride Toolkit. Some people call it thrifting; some people call it wedding planning.

* Trying to plan a multicultural wedding? Expert Marilyn Ambra shares a few tips that every wedding coordinator should keep in his or her back pocket. She gives advice on “navigating those often-turbulent waters” of bi-cultural weddings (and the challenges their families present!)

* A certified wedding and event coordinator must be good at delegating tasks. That’s about the only way we know to successfully pull off a big wedding! But it might be helpful if we could run background checks on our helpers. Okay, sounds harsh, but then again maybe it doesn’t sound harsh when your helper runs away with all the couple’s gift money!

* The Father of the Bride is also lovingly referred to as Mr. Checkbook. Yeah, yeah, we know, that’s an old joke, but it doesn’t really ever get old. Ask any father! How can you make your dad feel special? How about a Father-of-the-Bride registry at Home Depot? Well, it was just a thought….

So, as always: Tell us your favorite wedding stories of the week, or share the links with us! You never know what you’re going to run across in this industry.

We’ve talked before about Lovegevity’s Green Wedding Planning course, and we’ve even discussed why it’s important to go green. Have you decided to take the plunge? (Pun intended, of course!) Or are you still wavering? Lovegevity’s Green Wedding Certification Course comes from a class designed by Kate Harrison and her book, The Green Bride. Harrison graduated from Vassar with a major in Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development. She wrote The Green Bride after she and her husband, Barry, planned their own green wedding in 2007. According to Kate:

“With 46% of couples looking for green options, there has never been a better time to go green as a wedding professional. There are so many reasons to take the Green Wedding Professional certification class, but I think this Ripple (above), hosted by Andre Yap, might be helpful. For additional information, see the Green Wedding Planning Certification class page.”

As professional, certified wedding and event coordinators you’re expected to carry every available tool in your tool belt. Becoming certified as a green wedding coordinator is just one more way to grow your business and show your clients that you’re on top of things. If you’re still unsure of the reasons why to go green be sure to watch Kate’s video above. It will answer a lot of your questions about the green wedding industry, and how you can be a part of it!

Photo courtesy of People.

* We’ve talked a lot recently about creative weddings and how it’s important for certified wedding and event coordinators to incorporate the couple and their personalities into the wedding details. Well, this is one way to do it! Shrek is a fairytale after all, right? Actually becoming Shrek and Fiona was this couple’s version of a fairytale, anyway.

* While there hasn’t been an actual White House wedding in a long time there are first daughters tying the knot these days. (Jenna Bush, who just celebrated her second anniversary, comes to mind.) Now it’s Chelsea’s turn, and all eyes are on her. While a lot of the details are being kept under wraps there are a few things out there. Here’s a link to give you all the information you want - or all the information you can get at this time.

* There is no denying the allure of Twilight. Women of all ages swoon every time Edward comes on the screen. (Unless you’re Team Jacob, of course.) And now they can have a little piece of Bella - Twilight Engagement Rings have arrived.

* Planning a wedding? (Of course you are you’re professional wedding and event planners!) Well, there’s an app for that! (Well, again, of course there is. Isn’t there an ap for everything these days?) Regardless this ap is something you definitely want to check out if you have a Smartphone. iBride is a personal wedding planner and directory that lets brides (or wedding planners!) plan their wedding on the go.

So, as always: Tell us your favorite wedding stories of the week, or share the links with us! You never know what you’re going to run across in this industry.