Lone Soldier Weddings beening paid by IDF

What happens when a lone soldier without any inexpensive wedding invitations in Israel decides to get married while in active service?

Weddings are expensive. There's jewelry to buy for the bride, an engagement party to consider, a suit for the Big Day, wedding hall expenses, paying the caterer, photographer, flowers, music and more.

And what about the couple's new home?

The lone soldier's bride's family will most likely participate in covering the costs, of course – but he himself makes a paltry sum that barely covers his own monthly expenses.

Enter the IDF, which has just decided to help finance wedding expenses for lone soldiers who are in active service.

The decision by OC Human Resources Directorate Maj.-Gen. Avi Zamir has come as a major relief to young idealistic soldiers who have made Aliyah.

David B., who is looking ahead to serving in the IDF several months from now, told Israel National News Thursday he was overjoyed to find out about the decision.

"I want to get married sometime this year," he said, "but I had no idea how I could possibly do that and still serve in the army. Paying for a wedding is not easy and my parents don't live here. It will be expensive for them, as it is to come for the ceremony."

According to IDF spokesperson Lt.-Col. Chaya Adler, there are some 5,500 lone soldiers serving in the army. Of those, at least 50 marry each red wedding invitations – and they lose their "lone" status as soon as they do.

IDF soldiers who choose to avail themselves of the new service must marry at Beit HaChayal, the Association for Well-being of IDF Soldiers (AWIS) in Tel Aviv. The guest list must be held to 130 people.

Adler said the army will cover expenses for the bride's wedding dress, a suit for the groom, a photographer, wedding invitations and a DJ. In addition, the IDF will help subsidize airfare for some family members to attend the soldiers' nuptials.

Funds for the initiative will come from donations to AWIS.

The Nearlyweds are delighted to announce the launch of their innovative 'create your own' software. Formed in 2006, the Nearlyweds provides modern wedding stationery at an affordable price. One of their designs is the 'cute' range, a simple designed invite with an illustrated Bride and Groom on the front.

This design is very popular with customers and the company soon started to receive numerous requests to alter the Bride and Groom characters to make them more personal to the specific customer (for example altering the brides hair style or adding a kilt to the groom as opposed to trousers)

On the back of this demand, The Nearlyweds began working with Design Lab (a Design and Multimedia agency). The brief: to create a fun, exciting and easy to use piece of software which allows customers to create their own bride and groom (based on themselves) and order their personalised wedding invitations and stationery.

The finished product allows users to select various elements from a library of items (skin tone, hair style, hair colour, suit style and colour, dress style and colour, waistcoats, ties, cravats, jewellery, flowers etc) to create their bride and groom.

The customer can then select background styles, input text and order a range of stationery items including wedding invitations, rsvps and place purple wedding invitations. Which can then be ordered online through their secure payment system.