Wedding Hairstyles

Every bride wants to look their best on their wedding day. While many women are comfortable styling their own hair, many more would rather leave their strands in the hand of a professional. You may even be able to find a hairstylist in your area that specializes in wedding day hairstyles.

It’s common for the bride and bridesmaids to have complimenting hairstyles. As the bride, you may not want to have the exact same hairstyle as all of your attendants.  The best practice is to choose the style you want, then choose the style for your bridesmaids.

If you can arrange it, have at least your maid of honor with you when you visit your stylist to try different wedding hairstyles. Your maid of honor will give you a third opinion on your chosen hairstyle, and will be able to help you choose what styles you want for your attendants.

Keep in mind that each of your bridesmaids has different hair, that is probably different lengths. A professional stylist will be able to you style both short & long hair so that the hairstyles are complimentary, both to the wearer and within the overall group.

If you have chosen a specific theme for your wedding, perhaps Medieval or Civil War, then you will want to make sure that your chosen hairstyles fit with the theme. If you or one of your bridesmaids has short hair, and your theme calls for long hair, you may want to check out wig options.

Hair can make or break the feel of a theme wedding, especially in the pictures. This is also true of traditional weddings, if one of your bridesmaids decides to show up with pink spiked hair. This may be perfectly fine any other day, but if that’s not what you want for your wedding, then you will need to make sure this is clear before hand.

You may want to have a hairstyle party with your bridesmaids well in advance of the wedding to choose styles and iron out any differences. You will probably also want to ask your fiance to talk to his groomsmen about their hairstyles and facial hair. Ask the men in your wedding party to make sure they are either clean shaven or neatly trimmed for the wedding.

To ensure your hair is healthy & beautiful for your wedding day, make sure you eat healthy, drink lots of wate, take a good multi-vitamin,  and use quality hair care products. If possible, don’t try out a new style for 6 months before the wedding. Keep your hair trimmed to avoid frizzies and breakage. Start this at least 6 months before your wedding and by your wedding day your hair will be gorgeous  in whatever wedding hairstyle you choose.

Handmade Wedding Invitations

Like many people, you are probably on a tight wedding budget. You don’t have to sacrifice style to fit into your budget though. There are many areas where you can cut costs. Handmade wedding invitations will save you money and add an extra personal touch to your wedding.

Your partner may want to help out with making the invitations. If not, then ask your wedding attendants to help out. Make it a fun, early hen party that your younger attendants and flower girls can also attend.

If you like to scrapbook, you may already have some ideas for invitations, and the necessary supplies. If you need some ideas for designs, check out some scrapbook magazines at Barnes & Noble or your local scrapbook store. Don’t forget to browse your wedding shop’s invitation catalogs for some design ideas. If you find one you like and you can’t get a physical sample, you can always check out the company’s website and print a copy.

Many couples who choose to make their own wedding invitations like to incorporate a favorite photograph. Some ideas include a photo of you holding hands featuring the engagement ring, or a professionally done portrait of the two of you.

If you are making your wedding invitations, make sure you leave plenty of time to make the invitations, and still get them out to your guests in time for them to respond. To be on the safe side, add an extra day or two to your time line to allow for mistakes and re-dos. You may find that your chosen design is harder to make than you first thought, or you may change the design after making a few. Leave time in your wedding planning for this.

Before making the final decision on whether to make your wedding invitations or to have them commercially printed, you will want to price out the materials. In most cases, doing it yourself will be much cheaper, unless you need to purchase expensive tools. Ask the local scrapbook store if they have a cropping room with tools that you can use if you don’t have them at home. This will save money.

Handmade wedding invitations maybe the perfect alternative to high-priced commercial invitations. If you want to do it yourself, but aren’t feeling creative, check out one of the many print-it-yourself wedding invitation kits on the market. You can find these at most office supplies and stationary stores, and stores like Target and Walmart. Your local wedding store may also carry these low-price alternatives as well.

Summer Weddings – What is the Best Dress

A big question of many brides’ minds is what type of wedding dress should they choose for a summer wedding. Most traditional wedding dresses are made with heavy material, such as satin, and have multi-layered petticoats under them to poof up the skirt. Needless to say, this sort stiff, heavy dress isn’t well suited to most summer weather. The last thing a bride wants perspiration marks under their arm and down their backs. So, what type of wedding dress is best to help you stay cool?

Fortunately, traditional wedding dress colors – white or pale colors – are perfect for hot weather. These colors reflect the heat, rather than absorbing it like dark colors do. Try to keep this in mind when choosing bridesmaid dresses too!

Summer brides can wear white easily, but may want to choose a lighter fabric. Whatever your fabric choice, remember that a good lining in an absorbent material will help soak up any perspiration and will help keep marks from showing on your dress. Look for a dress with a natural fabric lining, if possible.

Fortunately, bride’s have a wide choice in dress styles. Popular styles include lightweight, flowing fabric that are perfect for hot weather. When you try on the dress, make sure to leave it on for a few minutes to see if you heat up right away or not.

Of course, if you are having a more informal summer wedding, you may choose to go with a nice sun dress or even a prom dress, rather than a formal wedding dress. Choosing a more informal dress may open up a larger range of styles, colors, and fabrics. It may also be easier to choose complimenting bridesmaid dresses that won’t give you attendants heat stroke!

Choosing an informal dress has another advantage over traditional wedding dresses in that it is usually less expensive, even if it is custom made. This will free up your wedding budget for other areas, perhaps flowers or the cake.

Summertime is also the perfect time for a beach wedding. Sand can wreak havoc on traditional length dresses, so a beach bride may want to opt for a slightly shorter dress. But keep in mind that beaches are also often windy- you don’t want to show that garter until the reception!

If you live in an area where the weather is sometimes hot and sometimes cold in the summer, you may want to look for a sleeveless wedding dress, but keep a shawl or wrap handy in case the weather turns.

Wedding Flowers – How to Make Your Choice

Wedding flowers are one of the largest expenses for a wedding. Besides the bouquets and boutonnieres for the wedding party, brides usually want flowers to decorate the church, the reception hall, and for various members of their family. This expense can add up very quickly.

There are several important things to consider when choosing your wedding flowers. The first decision has to be whether you want fresh or fake- either paper or silk- flowers. Fresh flowers will generally cost more, especially if you choose flowers that are not in season. Fake flowers make not have the look and smell of fresh flowers, but are generally much cheaper. A good compromise may be fresh flowers for some items, such as reception centerpieces, and fake flowers for things people won’t be close to, such as bouquets and boutonnieres.

As a bride, you will also want to take into consideration any allergies that members of your bridal party may have. The last thing you want is an attendant sneezing all through the ceremony. No one will probably notice the red eyes- just write that off as emotions.

If you have already chosen your colors, this may dictate what kind of flowers you can choose for your wedding. If you are going with paper or silk flowers, you can choose any color you wish. However, fresh flowers only come in certain colors, unless you want to pay extra to dye their petals.

When choosing your wedding flowers, keep in mind the general style of your wedding (formal, theme, etc), and the colors of your attendants attire. Usually, attendant flowers are similar to the bride’s bouquet, which should make that choice fairly easy. However, you may wish coordinate flowers for the wedding party mothers, grandmothers, siblings, etc. with the color of their dresses.

To make sure no one has to figure out where all the flowers are going after the reception, you may want to mark a plate at each table as a winner. Whoever sits there gets the prize- the beautiful centerpiece!

Wedding Cakes

A wedding cake is the main focal point of the reception, after the bride of course . Wedding cakes are as individual as the bride and groom, ranging from simple homemade cakes to extravagant works of at costing thousands of dollars.

When creating a wedding budget, be sure allow for the expensive of a wedding cake. More complicated and intricate decorations tend to drive up the price of the cake. Once a budget is in place, look for wedding cakes that fit into that budget.

Many people feel that an expensive cake is a waste of money that could be spent elsewhere in the wedding. Others may just prefer a basic cake, or even an alternative to cake, such as cupcakes or individual desserts with special meaning to the wedding couple.

The most common wedding cake seen at weddings is done in a traditional style. This cake usually consists of several layers that are decorated according to the theme and colors of the wedding.

To save money on a wedding cake, chose a smaller size wedding cake for the cake table, with simple decorations. Have sheet cakes ready to be served to guests. They are cheaper and taste just as good!

Using real flowers to decorate a cake is a popular choice. It doesn’t take many flowers to decorate the top of a wedding cake. The bridal bouquet, or a bridesmaid bouquet, can be used as well. Real flowers, rather than icing decorations, are often a more cost-effective way to stay within the wedding cake budget.

Keep in mind that if you insist on going over your budget on an elaborate wedding cake, you will either have to cut costs elsewhere or be prepared to spend more overall.

Research several wedding cake designers, and don’t forget to ask friends and family for recommendations. You may be able to find someone with talent that isn’t necessarily professional. These wedding cake hobbiest often produce elegant wedding cakes at a much lower cost.

Before signing on the dotted line for your wedding cake, be sure to see samples of their work, and taste samples if possible. If you aren’t satisfied with the samples, you undoubtedly won’t be happy with the final product. Don’t feel obligated to order from them, just because they provided samples.