Beach weddings, much like daytime weddings, are not a time to go crazy with the makeup and prom-like hair. Keep it lovely by working the bright eyes and clean-looking skin. And, because you’re going to look naturally-pretty instead of hooker-hot, pick a dress with a fun neckline or a statement necklace to add a little something-something to your look.

It’s easy to be cynical about attending a wedding, and unfortunately the recession has only made it easier to begrudge those who bask in true love’s light and make us schlep out to some random country club in the middle of nowhere. I actually love weddings, but celebrating the chubby-cheeked cupid is expensive. The outfits, the gift, the travel—it all adds up! Before you start getting all anti-wedding, here are seven easy ways to save this season.

On Sunday, my sister is getting hitched. Lizz is the exact opposite of a bridezilla, but because she’s a professional event planner, she sent me an amazingly precise document laying out exactly what time everything will be going down on the big day. So I know that at exactly 3:45 p.m., it’s time for me to give a toast.

I’m very excited about giving the toast. Public speaking doesn’t phase me much, and I kind of like the rush that comes with lots of people staring at you, hanging on to your every word. I want my toast to be semi-brilliant. I want people to laugh, I want people to cry. The thing is—I’m not exactly sure what to say. I have lots of ideas swirling about, I just haven’t settled on the right one. And so, I consulted Tom Haibeck, who wrote the book Wedding Toasts Made Easy. Here are his five tips for creating the perfect toast.

Wedding season is upon us. And I don’t just mean that wonderful time between March and September when thousands of men and women dress up, say “I do,” and watch as friends and family get pleasantly drunk on the couple’s tab. No, I mean that four to seven year period during your 20s and 30s when destination weddings become proxies for summer vacations, and where a church service doesn’t seem complete without a big kiss and some wild applause to wrap things up. Since most guys don’t dream of their big day from the time we’re 8 years old, this big day baffles us a bit. But, by following this handy-dandy program, every dude can successfully navigate perils of the season. Begin the regimen, after the jump.

While choosing bedazzled table linens and lacy garters can be stimulating, wedding planning can also be pure misery. Every day I fantasize about telling my mother and future mother-in-law to take a hike so my fiancé and I can hightail it to Vegas, or even better, Paris, or some exotic, beachy location, but unfortunately, that isn’t in the stars for my impending nuptials.

Getting laid at a wedding is even easier than getting drunk at one. While holding onto Johnny Walker is a good time, you can get your rocks off, too. The key elements are there: dudes are lookin’ their finest, love is in the air, and you definitely wore cute underwear (unless you’re wearing Spanx to fit into your dress). Hey, the bride and groom shouldn’t get to have all the fun! So here’s how you can get a piece… of cake at a wedding.

A New Zealand man wants to dispose of an engagement ring he gave to a woman who spurned him. Anthony Gardiner, 29, couldn’t return the ring and didn’t want to sell it, so he came up with the novel idea of a treasure hunt. “I met this girl I thought was pretty cool, bought a ring, turns out she wasn’t as keen,” said Gardiner to the Dominion Post newspaper. Anyone who wants to hunt for the diamond ring, valued at NZ$5,000 ($3,268), needs to be in Wellington, New Zealand, this Saturday. He will post clues to the ring’s location via his Twitter page on Saturday at 8 a.m. local time. Gardiner says he’ll post clues all day, but if the ring isn’t found by the end of the day, then he’ll start posting directions. Some would wonder why he doesn’t just hold onto the diamond ring until he meets the right woman. “Obviously, it’s been a pretty unlucky ring for me,” Gardiner said. But he hopes the lucky treasure hunter is someone who has “found a cool chick and who wants to give them something they normally wouldn’t be able to afford.” [Reuters]

I’m on the borderline of sizes between plus and misses—a 14/16 that can easily fill an 18 after a Snickers bar. So, every time one of my friends takes the plunge, I have to try to squeeze into dresses that look great on all the other, thinner girls. I get to sport that skin sausage look, which, although unflattering, helps me get lucky with the single groomsmen—they look at me and can tell I’d do anything to get out of the tight dress.

For once, I’d like to wear a dress that fits me and doesn’t cause post-traumatic dress disorder. It’s not any of the brides’ faults, they are true friends. Most boutiques and designers only go up to a size 8, 10, or 12 at best. What am I supposed to do, sew two dresses together?! Or, the shops are strictly for big beautiful women and they only go from 14 up. What are those skinny girls supposed to do, cut the dress in half?

Self-proclaimed sci-fi addicts Noah Fulmore and Erin Finnegan will be the first couple to get married in zero gravity on June 20. On that day, they’ll venture down to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral to tie the knot in a plane owned by the Zero Gravity Corporation, the only government-approved provider of commercial weightless flights. “We would really prefer to do it in space or on Mars,” Fulmore told the New York Daily News, “But living in the time that we do, this was the closest we could get to zero gravity.” [NY Daily News]

When I got engaged about a week ago, the questions, inevitably, came pouring in: What’s the date? Where are you registered? Are you planning a shower? My answers were: No idea, I’m not, I’d rather be attacked by a hive of angry bees with no EpiPen nearby. People were aghast. No shower?! Why wouldn’t you want a shower? It’s a party in your honor! Espresso machines as gifts! Enough wine glasses to last through forty years of snapped stems! Expensive-ish linens!

So, I surveyed a group of friends about the shower phenomenon—some of them had been through their own showers, others who had been forced to buck up and attend about 84908923290123 of them like me. Here’s what I thought (and they agreed) would make a bridal shower vaguely tolerable, brides listen up!

Oh, Hindu rain god, won’t you please bless this Indian village with rain so defenseless, independent frogs won’t be forced to marry? Villagers in the northeastern In the northeastern state of Asam, marrying frogs is a local custom that villagers say appeases the rain god after a drought. There hasn’t been any rain for the past couple of months, one villager told Reuters. The villager added that she is sure the rain will come soon, now that they have performed the frog wedding. The villagers didn’t take any shortcuts even though this wedding was between amphibians rather than humans, and the priest adhered to Hindu wedding rituals. Local women even gave the “bride” a necklace that she wore with her traditional veil for her big day. “The marriage went off well. Our region is absolutely parched,” said the local priest. “We need rain. We don’t know what else to do.”

Check out the video of the marriage. Surprisingly, the frogs seem to be enjoying the festivities.

Dear Brides and Bride-to-be,

Seriously, has it really come to this? Are some of you actually growing your own salads for your wedding receptions now? And if you aren’t, the Telegraph thinks you should. In a series called “Grow Your Own Wedding,” it published an article today that laid out what to sow and grow and mix together, from “Ruben Lettuce,” to I s**t you not, fennel bulbs, to create your own perfect wedding day salad. All I can say is thank God I’m keeping my engagement short and getting married next month because I don’t think I could possibly stand another half a year of this silliness. Everywhere I turn to for ideas or advice, I’m completely inundated with this DIY crap. Look, I get that it can be fun to get all crafty and put your own personal stamp on your BIG, SPECIAL DAY, but I have to draw the line at lining my RSVP envelopes and growing my own fennel, and maybe you should to.

If you show up at a daytime wedding caked in makeup with a prom-style updo, you’re going to look like a moron. There, we said it. Daytime weddings aren’t always casual, but they’re definitely more chill than nighttime weddings. Your hair and makeup should match the minimal-fuss attitude of the event. After the jump, we tell you how to get model Jacquetta Wheeler’s smartly laid-book look.

Bring your own Romeo to this 13th century Veronese mansion and you could feel as romantic as Shakespeare’s most famous couple. Verona’s town council is now allowing couples to get married on the balcony of the Capello family mansion. It’s believed that the Capellos were the Capulets in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, so lovers across the world have flocked to this mansion to scrawl love vandals on its walls. The privilege of exchanging vows isn’t as costly as Romeo and Juliet’s fatal love affair, but it isn’t cheap either. Non-European lovers can expect to pay nearly 900 euros, or about $1,288. Soccer star Luca Ceccarelli and his Juliet, er… bride were the first to take advantage of this new wedding venue. “I feel very emotional. You know, marriage always gives strong emotions especially in a situation like this,” said Ceccarelli to Reuters before he and his bride exchanged rings. “We hope that this bring us a lot of luck.”

Hopefully, the Ceccarellis and any other couple that gets married at this mansion won’t end up committing suicide like Juliet and Romeo did in one of the most overrated tragedies of all time.

Simcha, Kate, what’s the big deal in going to a wedding sans date? I’ve gone to several weddings solo, and it never occurred to me that I should: A) feel offended that my invitation didn’t include a “plus one,” or that B) I should feel the least bit insecure that I didn’t have a “plus one” to invite anyway. One of the weddings I went to solo was shortly after a bad breakup in which I found myself truly single for the first time in several years, and it was for a snotty cousin who was five years younger than I and who positively delighted in “beating” me to the altar. But, so what? I had plenty of family to catch up with, enough cute boys to smile at, and an open bar to make even the most mundane of weddings tolerable. And even if I had thought to invite a guest (and had gotten the okay from the couple), I can’t imagine a more awkward date than dragging some poor guy I was just getting to know to a boring wedding (and come on, they’re all mostly boring) where he’d be forced to schmooze with my entire extended family and answer questions about when he planned to put a ring on it. Sure, the alternative meant being questioned about my single status, but I doubt any of the old ninnies who pressed me about it really spent more than a few minutes worrying about the state of my love life. After the jump, the seven reasons you’re better off going to a wedding without a date.

Improv Everywhere pulls all sorts of stunts around the country, and their latest was a surprise wedding reception. They grabbed a bride and groom who had just been married at New York City Hall and invited them to participate in a free impromptu reception, complete with wedding cake, bridesmaids, toasts, and dancing. Hey, it beats spending months quibbling over flower arrangements and table settings. [via Nerve]