Secrets For A Perfect Wedding Day

Your planning your wedding and you want the day to be perfect. After months of wedding plans the big day will be staring you right in the face and you could be a nervous wreck. It is normal for you to be worried that something could go wrong at the last minute with your reception or that you will not look perfect when you walk down the aisle. Here are a few tips for you.

Your reception fears are relatively easy to handle. While you might consider your reception to be an important part of your entire wedding, it is, in reality, a fancy party. What makes a party successful?

Plenty of food and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for the duration of your reception will sooth your anxiety some. People get testy and start leaving parties early if the food and drink are slow to arrive or not abundant.

If children are part of your guest list, make sure that you have a good assortment of finger foods and soft drinks. Ice cream in cups might be a good idea, too.

There will be times when your guests are just marking time, waiting for you and your new husband to finish with the wedding photo shoot after the ceremony and, perhaps, when you both are changing clothes before leaving for your honeymoon. You will need entertainment to keep them from being bored and getting restless. There’s several easy ways to do this.

Besides the band or disk jockey providing music, have members of your wedding party or families get the guests involved in quiet activities while they are snacking and waiting. Simple games are the best option. Have small tablets and pencils at each place setting and have your helper ask everyone to write down their favorite crazy thing either one of you did when you were kids. Go around the room and have each guest read what they wrote.

Another option is to ask them to write down all the details they know about each one of you, like where you met, when you first kissed, favorite music, sports, etc. As before, go around the room for a reading. If someone is video taping this, give it to the couple at the end of the reception.

There are a few simple remedies you can use if you get up on your wedding day and your eyes are sore, irritated or puffy. Irritated eyes can be relieved if you soak a cotton ball in cold milk and place it over your eyes for a few minutes. Wipe the milk off your eyes with a warm, wet cloth.

Another way if your eyes are puffy is to run cold water over a metal spoon until it is cold. Place the spoon on your puffy areas for a minute. If you don’t get relief, dip the spoon in ice water and do it again. Cold, wet teabags will also reduce the puffiness.

Make sure you use waterproof makeup on your wedding day. Tears of joy are very common and waterproof makeup, particularly mascara, will keep your face looking beautiful. If you should shed a few tears, don’t wipe your eyes, but dab them at the corners of your eyes with a tissue. Before you enter the chapel, tuck a tissue in your bouquet or inside your long sleeves so you have it handy when you need it.

Concealers will adequately cover up an unexpected pimple or blemish and do double duty with dark rings under your eyes. Consult a makeup artist for the best choices for shades. They might suggest using two concealers of complimentary shades to give your eyes the sparkle you want.

These are just a few tips for perfect wedding day. Your wedding should be as beautiful as you want it to be and with some advance planning for the unexpected you should be able to handle anything.

Technorati Tags: secrets for a perfect wedding day, perfect wedding day, wedding day, wedding party, wedding, reception, guests, children, music, husband, wedding photos, ceremony, honeymoon, More Wedding Info Blog, TC Champigny

Bookmark This:

Related posts:

1. Crystal Or Diamond Jewelry Are Perfect For Weddings
2. Getting Along With Your Mother-In-Law
3. Getting the Groom Involved in the Planning

Getting Along With Your Mother-In-Law

Getting along with your mother-in-law can be hard but in some very few cases bride and mother-in-law get along famously and even like each other. In most cases this doesn’t happen. But sometimes you are lucky. That being said it is after your wedding, reception and honeymoon, settling down and getting to know your in-laws, particularly your mother-in-law, can be a stressful affair that can put sharp edges on your married life that might be difficult to remove.

There’s a different dynamic that goes to work with both your mothers when you get married. Your mother was aware of the inevitability of you marrying and filling your life with your own family since the day of your birth. She did the same thing when she married your father.

Your husband’s mother, on the other hand, might not be so understanding when she has to hand her son over to the care of another woman, you. She’s spent several decades tending to her son’s needs and grew very used to being the one who guided him and provided what he needed. Now, you are the one he shares his life with and she is dealing with a raw sense of loss.

She might feel that she can give you helpful advice and guidance about taking care of her son. Her advice on what foods he likes or how he needs to rest after work and not be bothered with household details might seem like helpful advice to her. But, to you, it will feel like meddling and an attempt to control your married life and structure it like hers. This tug of war is a perfect breeding ground for domestic fireworks.

Another way for your mother-in-law to maintain a connection with her son, and establish some control, might be phone calls several times a day or every evening when you both are at home and enjoying being together. She might need his help doing something he used to do for her before he married you. She might need to “talk to him about something” three or four times a day. She might drop in without warning on weekends and interfere with your plans or knock on your door before you are out of bed.

While this nightmare might seem inevitable to you, a new bride, just putting up with this situation is not a productive solution. Neither is complaining to your new husband about his mother’s controlling activities. A better plan would be to quietly explain to your husband how his mother’s activities in your marriage are affecting you. Before you do that, it would be good idea to turn off your phone and lock your door.

Explain to him that you know his mother is missing him and trying to maintain the close connection they’ve always had. Do not accuse, badger him or say anything negative about his mother. Just enlist him in a solution that lets his mother relax and become a welcome guest in your home.

You can do a lot to change the intrusive dynamic running rampant all around your new marriage. There are several simple things you can do to calm the troubled waters and regain peace in your house.

Ask your mother-in-law for a copy of the recipes she always cooked for her son when he lived at home. Perhaps you could make a recipe book together and include some pictures of her with your husband. A picture of them making cookies together when he was young would be a goldmine of good will.

Pick one night a week and invite both sets of parents to a “family” dinner or Sunday brunch. Try an occasional weekend barbecue. Your parents might be missing you, too, and would welcome some together time with their daughter.

On your husband’s birthday or to celebrate special days, like a promotion or another success, ask your mother-in-law to help you plan a surprise celebration. Take some of her advice, making sure that she feels like a major part of the planning.

Mother-in-law stories have been made into movies and can be found all over the television sitcoms. A little compassion and good sense can make your mother-in-law sitcom fade into the past.

Getting along with your mother-in-law doesn’t have to be a chore. Someday you just might be in her shoes so try to think of what you would do if you were giving up your son to someone else. Think of how you would react to giving up your baby.

Technorati Tags: getting along with your mother-in-law, mother-in-law, bride, husband, wedding, reception, honeymoon, in-laws, More Wedding Info Blog, Teri Champigny

Bookmark This:

Related posts:

1. It’s His Wedding Too!
2. Getting the Groom Involved in the Planning
3. Active Wedding Reception Games

Active Wedding Reception Games

We’ve all been to receptions that are standard – we welcome and celebrate the new married couple, watch them dance, and enjoy cake with them. But creative couples often enjoy coming up with fun games that include the entire guest list.

Including the guests is an excellent way to get people out of their chairs, meeting people they might not otherwise know and feeling like they are truly a part of the celebration, not just observers.

One fun and active game that can be played by all your guests, including grandma as well as the young children, is “want it now”.

In this game, you designate a master of ceremonies (if you have a DJ for your wedding reception, this person can serve as the DJ). The MC will have a list of “wants” prepared before the reception. Everyone sits at their tables, and waits to hear the command. The MC says he wants a person with painted toenails. All the women with painted toenails run to the front of the room, toward the MC. Each time a table sends someone to the front first, they get a point.

Points should be tallied during the course of this game and prizes awarded at the end of the game. Be sure to have some obvious “wants”, as is the painted toenails, or a man with a mustache or a child with a pink dress. But also include some surprises, like “a man with a brown purse” which will require a man to find a woman at his table with the brown purse and run up to the front of the room with that.

Another fun wedding reception game that includes all your guests is musical chairs using men as the chairs. All the men line up and kneel on one knee. The women begin playing the game of musical chairs, but when the music stops, they must find a knee to sit on. No “chairs” are removed during the version of the game, but instead people are eliminated when either the man falls down when the woman finds his knee or when the woman falls down. Both are out either way, and if both fall down, they are also both out then (as well as perhaps a bit bruised). This is a fun game that often brings on gales of laughter and adds to a relaxed reception atmosphere.

If many guests are traveling a good distance to the wedding or don’t know many other guests, it’s always fun to include a game that will allow them to now only get to know each other but the bride and groom as well. For this game, you’ll need a MC again, which can be a very outgoing member of the wedding party or the DJ. The reception guests are broken into two groups, which can be as simple as having people count off “1, 2, 1, 2″ and so on until the entire guest list is either a “1″ or a “2″. Then the two groups band together for the duration of the game.

The DJ, or MC, offers a series of questions relating to the bride and groom. The teams should work together to answer the questions, then as quickly as possible provide the answer. The bride and groom will confirm if the answer is correct or not. This is an excellent way for otherwise “stranger” guests to get to know one another and have some fun in the process. It’s also an excellent way to get to know the bride and groom!

Organizing games at a wedding reception is a great way to get people involved and make them feel they are truly a part of the celebration. It’s also a way to fill time, if the wedding planners know this isn’t a “dancing” group or if you want to loosen people up for a long night of celebrating. Whether a small or large wedding, reception games work for just about any group.

In addition, don’t assume wedding reception guests will be offended or annoyed by these active games. Most people report to wedding planners they truly enjoy being more active and having fun games to play during a wedding reception.

Technorati Tags: wedding reception games, wedding, reception, games, celebrate, married couple, dance, wedding, reception, organizing games

Bookmark This:

Related posts:

1. What To Wear At Your Reception
2. Getting the Groom Involved in the Planning

Wedding planning isn’t just for the bride; the groom should take some responsibility and have some input in the process too. However, traditionally the arrangements are covered by the bride and her mother. That means that many people don’t know how to get the groom involved. Let’s take a look at a few ways to help him avoid feeling left out of things or run over by your plans.

If you’ve just gotten engaged, you’re going to want to make the announcement. Both of you can create an announcement card to send out by mail or email, or share the responsibility of calling friends and family. Together, make the list of people you’d like to invite to the wedding.

Food is another important portion of your wedding. Your fiancé can help you with the budget, help figure out the catering situation, and maybe come up with a few creative ideas that you haven’t thought of. If one or the other of you is a skilled negotiator, consider delegating that person to work with the vendors to get the best price. Remember, every task is an important one!

You may wish to write your vows together, too. Collaboration can help you come up with the perfect words to say to one another to express your love. Other things you can do together include building decorations for the reception, researching the music and deciding on the DJs, and choosing the videographer or photographer. You’ll want to talk about just what each of you wants out of the wedding.

For many grooms, the wine and other drinks that will be provided at the reception are extremely important. If this is something your guy cares about, or if he loves food, let him handle the food and drink. Resist the urge to micro manage! Each of you has the ability to put together something great without supervision, as long as you’re clear on what needs to be done in advance.

Other things the groom can do to take a little bit of the load off the bride’s shoulders include choosing suits for the wedding, contributing his opinion on colors, theme, and size of the wedding, and choosing the transportation for the big day. He can also handle wedding present registrations and handle mediation with your families if there are problems. He can even talk about the toast with the best man if you’re feeling nervous about it.

It’s a great idea to involve your groom in the wedding planning. Just make sure to include him in the decision making as well as the labor, and relax about his ability to handle things. He can get the job done just as well as you can, and it’ll keep you from feeling quite as stressed and unhappy. If you’ll be married soon, you’re going to be entering a life where you do a lot of things together. Planning your ceremony and reception is a great start.

Technorati Tags: wedding planning, bride, mother of the bride, groom, reception, wedding, ceremony, planning, fiancé

Bookmark This:

Related posts:

1. Computerize Your Wedding Planning
2. Develop A Systematic Wedding Planning
3. Wedding Planning – When Everything Is Going Wrong

You’ve dreamed of the perfect wedding reception for years. You know exactly what you want and you’ve envisioned all the details from what the cake looks like to what the guests are wearing. But how do you make sure the guests wear the attire you’d like them to wear? Well, you could ask them.

Invitations often have a line added that mentions attire, such as “formal attire” or “casual attire”, and wedding invitations are no exception. What follows is a list of different attire labels and their descriptions.

Casual
This means pretty much anything is acceptable without being trashy or inappropriate for public viewing. This might be your choice if you are having an informal backyard barbeque reception.

Dressy Casual
When you want them to dress nicer than they would dress for “everyday”, dressy casual means slacks, button-down shirt and perhaps a blazer for the men, and dressy pants and a nice blouse for the women.

Semi-formal
This attire is definitely more dressy than casual or dressy casual. The men should wear suits and ties whereas the women should wear short dresses.

Informal
Same as semi-formal.

Casual Evening
Really the same as dressy casual except they might wear darker “night time” colors. A nice shirt and slacks on the guys and dressy pants and a pretty blouse for the gals.

Black Tie
Using this label means you want your guests to come formally attired in tuxes and long gowns or very dressy cocktail dresses with elegant bling.

Formal
Same as black tie attire.

Black Tie Optional
This means tuxes or dark suits with ties for the men, and long dress, cocktail dress, or dressy pantsuit for the women. If they don’t wear tuxes and long dresses, they should still be very dressed up.

Cocktail
Cocktail attire calls for short dresses and heels for the ladies and dark suits for the gentlemen.

Festive
This attire comes in to play at times such as Christmas. Females get to wear extra theme-appropriate bling or sparkly blouses or sweaters, and males might add a Santa tie to their suit.

Redneck
Time for people to pull out their cutoffs, tank tops, and flip flops and slap on a couple temporary tattoos!

In case you were wondering, putting the preferred attire on the invitation is not pushy; many people are relieved to know how you would like them to dress. If you decide not to put it on the invitation, people will generally look at the time of day and the wedding reception location for clues.

If it’s an afternoon wedding guys will probably wear sports coats and casual slacks while women wear dresses ranging from informal sun dresses to cocktail dresses.

If it’s an evening wedding expect to see more dark suits on the men and cocktail dresses on the ladies.

Keep in mind that even if you put your desired attire on the invitation it does not guarantee everyone will follow it. Remember that you are merely giving a suggestion and even though there are those who will wear what they want, your wedding and reception will still be the magical event you dreamed of.

Technorati Tags: wedding reception, what to where, attire, dresses, pants, suits, outfits, wedding, reception

Bookmark This:

Related posts:

1. The Beauty of a Beach Wedding Dress
2. A Guide To Wedding Invitations
3. Five Winter Wedding Ideas