Source: helium.com

Everyone expects winter to be cold to some degree, but temperatures can turn from chilly to frigid in an instant. When you’re facing unexpected cold temperatures at your winter wedding, try some of these tactics to combat the cold.

Minimize Travel

When temperatures turn frightfully frosty, any minute spent outside seems to go on forever—and in truth, you don’t need to be outside very long for frigid temperatures to cause you harm. For this reason, try your best to minimize moving from place to place as much as possible. If your ceremony and reception are booked at two separate locations, see if you can move one or the other to eliminate travel time (moving the ceremony to the reception hall is probably the easier of the two). This will also prevent you from spending any time outside in a dress that probably isn’t constructed with frigid temperatures in mind.

Adjust Your Outfit

If you must move from one venue to the next in your wedding clothes, adjust your outfit in small ways to ensure your safety and comfort. Purchase some white arm and leg warmers, as well as white earmuffs (which will preserve your hair).  Any bride of a winter wedding would be wise to invest in a long white coat to go along with her gown. You may even want to have some boots available to change into just for the ride to your reception. Make sure to take some pictures in your winter wardrobe – it can become part of the special memories on your big day.

Get Everyone Together Early

If the cold spell is more than a few days long, contact guests to invite them to come to the hotel a day early. This lets people travel during the warmest parts of the day, and it means that guests won’t be as weather-worn on the actual day of your ceremony. In fact, when you’re planning a winter wedding it’s a good idea to invite your guests to come early anyway, just in case of a freak storm on your big day.

Ensure Comfort at Your Venue

Communicate with whoever is in charge of your venue to make sure that the space will be well-heated in plenty of time for the wedding. You can make the atmosphere more comforting and inviting by adding some blankets and cushions to the chairs (in your wedding colors, of course). Perhaps for wedding favors you should consider mittens or scarves— items your guests will surely appreciate if they’re driving home the same night.

Add to the Drink Menu

A hot drink can do wonders to warm up the body. See if your venue can serve hot tea/coffee/cocoa before and after the ceremony of your winter wedding to keep everyone nice and toasty (just be careful – you don’t want a cocoa stain on your white dress!)

You can have a beautiful ceremony even if the weather hits you with unexpected cold temperatures at your winter wedding. All it takes is a little precaution and creativity – not to mention that cup of hot cocoa.

Source: helium.com

Source: www.starting-out-london.com

Getting ready for a wedding is exciting, but the strain can really start to wear on the beleaguered couple long before the big day. A wedding can be a complex event to pull off, and there are many separate aspects to consider. Stressful situations can be a common occurrence in the run up to the big day, even if they are celebrations meant for fun. Why not take a bit of that heavy seriousness off the occasion with a funny wedding or pre-wedding gift for the bride, groom and their attendants?

Funny wedding gifts are highly underrated. The gift of laughter, especially the gift of laughter under stress, can be one of the most precious gifts you can give. When everyone else is going out of their minds trying to choose useful, memorable and serious wedding gifts, the gift that makes everyone laugh can be the most precious gift of all.

Some of the funniest wedding gifts fall under the category of apparel. T-shirts and hats with funny pictures and sayings are among the easiest and most popular humorous wedding shower and pre-wedding gifts. You can find t-shirts for the bride and groom with goofy pictures or cartoons that spoof marriage or that assign titles to the bride and groom like Queen of Hearts and King of Hearts. One popular t-shirt for either the bride or the groom features a cartoon of an elderly couple and the definition: “Finding that special someone to annoy for the rest of your life”.

An additional advantage of t-shirts and caps is that they allow for easy personalization with the names of the bride and groom and the date of their wedding. Wedding party character gifts take personalization to a whole new level by allowing you to choose figures for each member of the wedding party. You can pick hair color and skin tone for the bride, groom and wedding party members, and even choose dress colors for the bridesmaids. The wedding party can end up on mugs, plaques, and plates or even on playing cards to help the bride and groom while away the hours between planes on their honeymoon.

Of course, you can always choose a gift to help the happy couple remember their new stations in life. Matching t-shirts or pillowcases that proclaim Mr. on one and Mrs. On the other guarantee that everyone will know that they’re happy honeymooners. Of course, not all t-shirts are quite so polite – you can spark a laugh at a wedding shower with a t-shirt for the bride labeled “Ball and Chain” if your bride has a sense of humor or one for the groom marked with his Bachelor Expiration Date.

T-shirts are such an ideal canvas that you do not have to confine yourself to just those t-shirts that have sayings pre-printed on them. Pick out a funny line from the lives of the bride and groom, or do a little research to find your own funny wedding line and have it printed on a plain black or white t-shirt or a black or white baseball shirt.

If you are looking for an unusual and funny gift for the groom, skip the t-shirt and go straight for the boxers. There are lots of funny boxers, but one of the best groom’s wedding gifts going is a pair of boxers that mimic a tux, complete with the bride’s initials embroidered in a heart on the leg of one boxer.

You can also go for the cuteness factor with a gift like the Precious Moments Magically Ever After figurine that features an adorable bride and groom all decked out for their big day, right down the Mickey Mouse ears – in white, for the bride, of course! Precious Moments are perpetual favorite wedding mementoes, and you can find quite a few of the big-eyed couples enjoying their first dance, cutting the cake or setting off on their new life together.

Some gifts, though, are both funny and touching at the same time. If you are looking for a very special gift for the happy couple, why not commission a work of art specifically created for the bride and groom? A specially drawn caricature of the bride and groom on their wedding day is an heirloom gift that’s a bit out of the ordinary. All you need to provide is a clear photograph of the bride and groom and let the artist do the rest.

Just keep in mind that if you decide to be funny there is a fine line between tastefully funny and stepping over the line. Consider the personality of both the bride and groom, and whether or not they will both appreciate your sense of humor. After all, a good laugh is not worth losing a good friend or unsettling feelings on such an important occasion. Poke gentle fun, be good-humored and watch the smiles when they open your funny wedding gift.

Sharing the big day with friends and families is very important to most married couples. However, on the big day you don’t want to miss out on all of the friends and family members who are in attendance! Be sure to keep the social sharing to a minimum on your wedding day with these helpful tips!

Source: mashable.com

As social media becomes more and more a part of our lives, etiquette failures can occur when there are so few precedents.

A wedding day is the perfect example of this. You want to share your special day with your social circle, especially those who can’t attend, but where do you draw the line?

We’ve talked to experts in the wedding industry and a recent bride to try and establish the ground rules for tastefully using social media at your wedding.

Check out their advice and let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

1. Pre-Wedding Preparations

Introducing wedding attendees online before the big day can help you avoid any day-of awkwardness. This will give people the chance to break the ice and virtually get to know a little about everyone else.

“Help your wedding guests mix, mingle and stay in the loop with a private social network created just for engaged couples, like OneWed’s Wedding Pre-Party,” suggests Azure Nelson, the marketing manager and editorial director of OneWed.

“Wedding Pre-Party allows wedding guests to see who’s invited to the wedding (and lets the singles scope potential hotties before they meet face-to-face), interact and post comments on a wall, upload photos from pre-wedding parties and post-wedding, and much more.”

If you’d like to skip the specialized sites route, you could also create a pre-party on Facebook using its “Groups” functionality. This can be a clever way to avoid cluttering the news feeds of folks not invited to the wedding, both before and after the event.

2. Stay Offline During the Ceremony

“We’ve all seen these goofballs that bring social media right to the forefront of their ‘I dos,’ and in my opinion, there’s nothing tasteful about this,” says Nelson. “Tastefully using social media at your wedding means incorporating it before and after the actual wedding. The wedding ceremony should be off limits.”

There’s plenty of time during a wedding day to connect with the online world. Doing so during the ceremony is definitely not the right time for the principle players or even the guests. Mindy Howard of @TweetMyWedding has some advice for attendees:

“Be polite. Don’t tweet when you should be participating and listening, specifically during the liturgy or the ceremony.”

3. Appoint a Chief Tweeter

If you want your wedding to be recorded for posterity in 140-character posts, then let people know and even encourage them to get involved by creating a hashtag.

“Tell your bridal party it’s OK to tweet!” says Howard. “Create a hashtag for sharing your event. This will make all tweets from your day easy to find later on and helps to create a feeling of celebration for your guests.

“Print up some tented cards on your menu or program with the hashtag for your event and encourage your guests to send you their well wishes, touching moments and snap shots. These are moments that otherwise would have been missed.”

You can take this even further by appointing a “Chief Tweeter” — or several — to document the day.

“Have an Official Tweeter and Well Wishing Station — have one or more ‘Tweets of Honor.’ Have some technologically obsessed friends? This is a great job for them! These folks can quietly tweet from a corner as not to be obtrusive or can come out of the shadows and provide you with a full on social media guest book station,” says Howard.

And you can even incorporate social media into the more traditional parts of the day. In addition to reading cards and messages out loud from family and friends that couldn’t make it, why not read messages from Facebook and Twitter too?

“Have your Tweet of Honor compile some well wishes that have been tweeted out and share them during the toasts. This can be a very fun twist on the traditional toasting time,” suggests Howard.

4. Set Up a Social Media Station

There’s a way to keep a traditional look and feel to a wedding celebration and still make room for social media. A “social media station” is a place where those who want to connect or comment online can do so, without forcing the issue onto the uninterested.

“For the especially geeky — set up a station,” advises Howard. “Have a laptop, a projector and screen. Encourage guests to come by, tweet their well wishes and watch others’ tweets scroll over the screen.”

This can also work for photos, as well as text-based communications. A live stream of photos from the event can be a fun way to engage people and encouraging sharing.

“Ditch the tacky disposable cameras and set up a shared Flickr (Flickr) account so that guests can upload any photos they may take,” says Liene Stevens, former wedding planner and CEO of Splendid Communications.

“This doesn’t replace hiring a professional photographer, of course, but it does allow you and your guests to share in their view of your wedding,” Stevens says.

Jodie Welton, a founding partner of Connected PR who got married this summer, went down this route and had a huge projector showing images of the day for her evening reception, as well as a separate area for filming.

“We thought it was important that the guests are absorbed in the wedding and that social media enhanced the experience, rather than distract from it. So, to keep it ‘away from the party’ we had a designated area for guests to be filmed,” explains Welton.

“The DJ also took pictures and uploaded to Flickr there and then. As a nice touch, he then projected the Flickr stream across the walls so guests saw images of themselves. The DJ gave everyone the Flickr URL so all of the guests could view and add to it later.”

5. Live Stream for Those Who Can’t Make It

Thanks to the wonders of modern tech, nowadays you can share your special moments with people who can’t make it in person. Ustream is one such site that can help you share your ceremony with those well-wishing from afar.

“Live weddings give our users an opportunity to experience Ustream in a completely new way. It’s very exciting to see our broadcasters offer unfiltered access to the best moments of their lives. That’s one of the many reasons we’re here,” says Ustream’s Tony Riggins.

Howard notes it’s a particularly useful option for anyone getting married abroad or far from home.

“The use of Ustream to share (publicly or privately) your day live online for friends and family that cannot make it to your ceremony is especially useful for those having destination weddings. If Great Grandmother cannot make it, she can still virtually attend and share in your joy,” Howard says.

And don’t think this means you’re spilling private moments all over the web; there are ways to make this a private process, Stevens points out:

“If you have loved ones who are unable to attend the wedding, collaborate with your videographer on showing a live feed of the ceremony via Ustream or another online video streaming service. You can make these password protected if you’d like, so that you can share your joy only with people you know and not random Internet strangers.”

Welton streamed some of her special day to far-flung elderly relatives, and even got them involved in the speeches:

“Some of my family in Italy couldn’t make it to our wedding and we wanted them to get a sense of our big day. Being able to stream live video and pictures meant they could get a more authentic sense of the atmosphere. Amazingly, they even broadcast a live message (they are in their 80s!) after the speeches.”

6. Don’t Forget to Enjoy the Moment

“Changing a Facebook status from engaged to married just after the vows is a growing trend, but don’t miss taking in those moments with the people actually there with you. Put down the phone and enjoy the company of those who came to celebrate with you,” says Stevens.

You only get one wedding day — if things go as planned, anyway — so don’t waste any precious moments you could be interacting with real-life people. Rest assured anyone who is following your day online will certainly understand your priorities.

“When you’re one of the major participants, you need to unplug for the day and focus on the people who are actually there with you. Weddings go by in a flash anyway, and you don’t want to sacrifice seeing your crazy Uncle Wally doing The Worm because you’re crafting some clever tweet. Leave that to your guests,” says Sally Kilbridge, BRIDES deputy editor. “In fact, part of the fun of weddings nowadays is seeing how fast they can make that video of Uncle Wally go viral.”

That, of course, is a whole other story…

By: Makeup Tips

Planning a wedding can be so overwhelming that we sometimes forget to plan for during the wedding. The extra touch-ups and preparations that go into making sure your hair and makeup look as amazing at the end of the reception as they do during the ceremony are key. The following are some beauty tips to help make your wedding day even more special.

1. Stash baby wipes in the bathroom to freshen up. “I was literally dripping sweat down my back I was dancing so much! I was having fun, but it’s not so elegant when someone goes to give you a hug. I used baby wipes to freshen up. They’re also great for getting out stains in a pinch without leaving a big ring like water can.”

2. Dirty hair is the secret to a long-wearing updo. “I have super fine hair that doesn’t like to stay in an updo. I didn’t wash my hair for four days before the wedding so it was slightly greasy. This gave my hair some grip and it stayed in place all night!”

3. Do a trial run, even if you don’t hire a pro. “Prior to my wedding, I had a friend create a smoky-eye look on me. In my opinion it looked too dark, but after wearing it for a while, I got used to it and it really looked nice! If I hadn’t had a run-through, I would have been freaking out on my wedding day! After seeing my wedding day pictures, I was really glad to have gone with that look.”

4. Don’t stray too far from the real you. “Experiment with different hairstyles, but then choose the one you are most comfortable with, the one that is most you. You don’t want to look back at photos of the special day and wonder “who is that?”

5. Reduce pre-wedding jitters with a personal spa ritual. “Make sure to pick one beauty regimen that is personal to you, like taking a nice and relaxing bath,”

6. Splurge on a makeup pro. “I kept my hair very simple and did a simple chignon myself since it was going to be hidden by the veil anyway. I invested more time and energy into my makeup look. I did a trial run with a professional makeup artist keeping in mind how it would look in wedding pictures. To this day, I’ve never looked better in photos makeup wise, and I still use the tricks the makeup artist taught me.”

7. Make sure your touch-up kit has all the right colors. “I didn’t own the makeup shades my makeup artist used, so she gave me the lipstick, lip gloss and eyeshadow. Not all makeup artists do this, so make sure to ask yours. You don’t want to realize later on during your wedding that you don’t have the right stuff for touch ups.”

8. Don’t O.D. on blush. “My makeup artist didn’t use a lot of blush for my wedding look because she said my cheeks would be flushed all night and then I’d be too red in person and pictures. And she was totally right! My make up looked gorgeous all night!”

9. Go for waterproof mascara. “I made a huge mistake at my own wedding. I wept like a baby and had black track marks in some of my pictures (before my sisters pulled me into the bathroom for some damage control). I love Lancome Hypnose Waterproof Custom Volume Mascara because it makes lashes look super-lush, and comes off easily with eye makeup remover.”

10. Not a fan of waterproof mascara? “I used a lengthening and curling mascara first to help build my lashes, and then added an additional coating of waterproof mascara at the very ends, which also helps hold the curl in lashes.”

11. Don’t rush to remove your veil. “If you decide to wear a veil on your wedding day, wear it for the entire day – from your walk down the aisle until the end of the reception. A veil is that one element that transforms you from a woman in a white dress into a bride. Looking back at my wedding photos, I wish I hadn’t been in such a rush to take off my veil and show off my hair. I much prefer the photos of me wearing the veil; they have a much more romantic quality.”

12. Get your brows groomed by a professional. “I did my own make up and had my hair styled in a simple french twist, but what really made me look polished was a professional eye brow shaping. I had my brows done a few days before the wedding so they wouldn’t look red or bumpy on the big day. It made such a difference in photos to have perfect brows!”

13. Avoid bold nail polish. “Your hands will be on stage for the entire day—signing the certificate, showing off your rings, shaking hands—you’ll want them looking pretty and feminine. I made a huge mistake on my wedding day by painting my nails BURGUNDY and now I cringe every time I look at my wedding pictures. My hands jump out and scream “bad trend!” in every photo. Do yourself a favor and choose a pretty pale pink or nude for your wedding day manicure.”

14. Reduce your sodium intake. “A few weeks before my wedding, I cut out salt from my diet. In just a few days, the eye puffiness was gone and I could see a big difference in the contours of my face.”

15. Layer your makeup for ultimate wearing power. “Alternate lipstick with pressed powder, keep face makeup in place with makeup primers, line fillers, and setting powder — these all help to ensure your makeup lasts for as long as you want it to!

Source: Makeup Tips

Trying to maintain your weight during the holidays is no easy task. With these helpful tips you can get through the holidays and not have to worry about any upcoming wedding plans.

Source: Gaston Gazette

The holidays should be a joyous time of celebration with family and friends, not a time when putting on an extra 10 pounds is expected.

But with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s right around the corner, trying to make sure you don’t gain a lot of extra weight can seem like an impossible task.

“That doesn’t have to be the case,” said Lisa Marisiddaiah of the Gastonia Parish Nurse Ministry, which serves First United Methodist and First Presbyterian churches in Gastonia. “Keeping the excess pounds off around the holidays just requires careful planning.”

“We all tend to overindulge at the holidays,” said Marisiddaiah. “Most people don’t lose weight so this is a way to help folks maintain and keep things in check.”

It’s easy to become a little lax about your diet and exercise routine around the holidays, with family visits, office parties, vacations and gifts to buy. Still, foregoing some of those extra holiday calories doesn’t have to be hard.

Here are some tips on how to maintain through the holidays.

Eat Smart

Don’t skip meals. Trying to “bank” calories actually slows down the metabolic rate, which means you’ll store more of the calories you consume at a big holiday meal. Worse, skipping meals could lead you to eat more than you should when you do eat. If you’re having a big lunch, balance it with a lighter, healthier breakfast and dinner.

Have a healthy snack before you go. If you’re heading to a holiday party or gathering, have a healthy snack like fruit or vegetables before you walk out the door. Going hungry may cause you to make bad food choices.

Don’t drink alcohol in excess. Alcoholic drinks are simply extra, empty calories. If you are going to have a drink, eat a healthy snack first and have a glass of water for each alcoholic beverage you consume.

Move More

Find different ways to increase your movement. You can take the stairs at work instead of the elevator or park in the farthest spot at the grocery store. Go outside and play football instead of watching it on TV after your Thanksgiving meal.

Fit in exercise whenever you can. Every little bit helps. If you’re pressed for time, opt for a 30 minute workout instead of an hour-long one. And if you don’t think you’ll have time to run after work, try going for a short walk during your lunch break.

Make time for those everyday activities. Even if you have to ease up on your weekly workouts, you can still burn calories by doing household chores. The average person who weighs 150 pounds can burn 147 calories just by spending 30 minutes raking leaves. Don’t forget vacuuming (119 calories per 30 minutes) and cleaning the house (102 calories). Multi-tasking works for fitness, too!

Maintain – Don’t Gain

Remember portion control. A good rule of thumb when you’re eating is that a serving size is no larger than the palm of your hand. Keep that in mind when you get the urge to continue piling food on your plate – or go back for seconds. You don’t have to deprive yourself, but instead of eating half of your Aunt Sonda’s lemon-pecan pie, choose to have a sensible slice.

Drink plenty of water. Not only does it keep your body flushed and hydrated, but it also helps fill your stomach, which can help you from overeating.

Put a healthy spin on holiday favorites. When cooking, try using nonfat or low-fat milk instead of whole milk. Go for low-fat cheese and swap one egg with two egg whites. You can also mix in low-fat sour cream or light mayonnaise into dips instead of higher fats counterparts.

Source: Gaston Gazette