Bridal Boutique
Ashley & Alexandria’s bride Lisa was fabulous on her wedding day. Lisa’s intimate ceremony was at the Guardian building and her reception was held at The Whitney in Detroit. Our bride was looking for a classic and timeless style when it came to her wedding dress and she found it with Lusan Mondangus.
[Read more…] about Ashley & Alexandria’s Real Bride: Lisa is Lovely in Lusan Mondangus
Source: Martha Stewart Weddings
For every bride and groom who coo over kids at weddings, there’s another couple that’s nervous kids might disrupt things. Neither group is wrong exactly—asking children to be a part of your celebration (as participants, attendees, or both)—can definitely impact the big day. That’s why, before you finalize your guest list, you should consider whether or not you want to invite them.
Kids make having a flower girl and ring bearer possible. Involving them also means taking the weight off of parents to find a caretaker for their little ones on the day-of. Plus, there may be important children in your life—like nieces and nephews—that you want to share the occasion with. On the other hand, toddlers are known for tantrums, teens may grouch around with their “too-cool” attitudes, or your friends and family members might prefer a break from their younger entourage. As you can see, there’s a lot to mull over!
No matter where you are on the love ’em to leave ’em spectrum, stating and executing your position requires a certain degree of decorum. Thankfully, both traditional etiquette and modern manners offer guidelines on how to stand by your intentions and avoid confusion and hurt feelings. Here, we highlight some of the most common questions we’ve received regarding young celebrants. To answer them, we’ve consulted our plentiful years of wedding experience, plus asked experts to share their advice, too. Aside from responding to Qs, we’ve also added other information that’s relevant to making and carrying out your decision.
Decide Early
Unlike decisions about menus or music, those related to children should be handled quickly to avoid awkward questions from parents who need to make plans.
Is It Appropriate Not to Invite Kids?
Yes—especially if the wedding is in the evening or is very formal. “It may be more of a challenge to restrict children during a daytime or casual wedding without people feeling offended,” says Joyce Scardina Becker, a San Francisco-based wedding designer and planner. The no-kids rule works best when the majority of the families are local, which means that parents can leave their children with familiar babysitters for the entire day or drop them off between the ceremony and reception, adds Karen Kaforey, a wedding planner in Nashville. If you’re hosting a destination wedding, it’s harder to not invite kids.
Address Your Envelopes Explicitly
Address your envelopes properly. Becker says the traditional way to indicate whether a child is invited is to include his or her name on the invitation. If your card will have both an outer and inner envelope, the child’s parents’ names should appear on the outer envelope, but on the inner, the name should be written beneath the parents’ names. (If you’re using just an outer envelope, of course, the child’s name should also be on it.) If the child is over age 18, he or she should receive a separate invitation, even if he or she’s still living at home. Becker feels that it’s “generally not in good taste to address an envelope to ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Family,'” since the wording can be vague. However, Kaforey says that the phrasing’s okay as long as you write the names of those invited on the inside envelope.
Call All Guests with Children
After your invitation is sent (or better yet, before), make a call to your friends and family who have children to explain that your wedding is or isn’t child-friendly. “If you’re willing to invite this person to your wedding, you should be willing to pick up the phone and have a conversation with him or her,” Becker says. This is an especially effective approach if you’re worried about a stubborn friend or flaky relative bringing children against your wishes. Becker adds: “And, if you’re arranging for childcare services, a telephone call is a great way to let the parents know that their children will be well taken care of at the wedding.”
Read the rest here.
Source: Martha Stewart Weddings
Of all the wedding-related fights you might have, the biggest is often over who’s invited. You want to invite your friends and family, your spouse wants to invite their own friends and family, and both set of parents might have people they want to invite, too. That’s why we spoke with Randi Barksdale of Jet Set Planning about splitting up the guest list amongst the key players. Here, she suggested a few ideas to make this part of wedding planning a little bit easier.
An Even Split
If everyone is contributing equally, or if you and your future husband or wife are footing the entire bill, everyone should be allowed to invite roughly the same number of guests—about a third of the total guest count each. Want more control over the guests? Then the couple should get about half of the guest list, and then the bride and groom’s families each get to invite a quarter of the total number. So, if you’re able to invite 200 guests, the bride and groom should choose 100 attendees, and their parents each get 50. [Read more…] about How to Decide How Many Guests Each Family Can Invite to the Wedding
Source: Martha Stewart Weddings
Weddings are expensive, and most people are well aware of the costs related to planning a modern-day ceremony and reception. But until you’re the one who is actually getting married, you aren’t fully aware of all the teeny-tiny—as well as the substantial—expenses involved in the year, months, weeks, and days leading up to the big day. To make sure you’re in-the-know as you plan, we turned to top wedding planners to find out about the unforeseen wedding expenses that most couples don’t plan for.
Proposing to Your Wedding Party
It’s fairly common for the bride or groom to come up with a creative and endearing way to ask friends and family members to be part of the wedding party. “Special cards are given with cute poems, asking someone to be part of a bridal party,” Deb Erb, wedding and event planner at Simply Events Inc., says. “Unsuspecting friends receive a special package in the mail, and upon opening the box, find personalized gifts and confetti to ‘pop’ the question to be by the bride’s side on her special day.” As you can imagine, purchasing the items and décor, as well as the cost of sending them in the mail, can range anywhere from $100 to $1,000 or more.
Hair and Makeup Trials
Most brides plan to hire a professional for their wedding-day hair and makeup, but forget to consider adding in the expenses of hair and makeup trials. “Bridal party hair and makeup for the wedding day usually runs $50 to $75 for bridesmaids and $125 to $150 for the bride,” says Erb. While the bride is often the only one who does a trial, she may opt to book multiple appointments to try several different styles.
Food for the Bridal Party
Most brides never think about eating something on their wedding day (other than the menu for their well-planned reception). “It’s usually realized last minute, and the bride, her mom, or bridesmaids are trying to decide what food should be made available for both breakfast and lunch,” explains Erb. “Full course meals are not necessary, but you want your bridal party to get some protein and stay hydrated prior to the ceremony.” No one wants to see a domino effect of bridesmaids fainting at the altar.
Read more here.
Source: Martha Stewart Weddings
Wondering how to stop frizzy hair? We’re with ya. Whether you have fine or curly hair, chances are you’ve experienced out-of-control texture at some point in your life. The good news? It’s totally possible to prevent frizz from becoming an unwanted wedding crasher. Before you say “I do,” check out these frizzy hair remedies that will help you get rid of unwanted flyaways and battle humidity on your big day.
What Causes Frizzy Hair
The first step in solving any problem is understanding it. Simply put, frizzy hair is “any hair type that has a naturally uneven cuticle that doesn’t lay flat,” says Tim Rogers, creative director of Living Proof. “Additionally, hair that has been damaged by heat styling, chemical treatments or UV corrosion can experience frizz.”
Start With A Healthy Diet
If your frizz is due to dryness and damage, stop it at its root (literally!), beginning with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Incorporate superfoods such as spinach, salmon, blueberries, and dark chocolate to your meals, which will stimulate hair growth, combat dryness, and strengthen those strands. Beyond making you feel your best, what you consume in the engagement months could pay off in the form of lovelier locks on the big day. And if you want to be extra sure you’re getting all the necessary nutrients, a daily multivitamin containing iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and biotin will help your hair (not to mention your nails) grow fast and strong.
Communicate With Your Stylist
Honesty is always the best policy. When you get your hair cut, clue your hair pro in on your concerns so she can use techniques that combat frizz. “Always tell your stylist that frizz is a concern, so layering can be managed and minimized—no shags—and the use of a razor can be managed or avoided,” Rogers says.
Re-think Your Wash & Dry Routine
Though some will tell you that it’s best to cut down on your washes to prevent dry, damaged hair, Rogers says that it depends on the shampoo you’re using. “Washing the hair often with astringent formulas can damage the cuticle layer over time,” he says. Instead, look for one that fights frizz and blocks humidity, like Living Proof No Frizz Shampoo and Conditioner, which contains a patented Healthy Hair Molecule (OFPMA). “It’s more effective than other ingredients due to the fact that it creates an invisible shield around each strand, which works better than oil and silicone formulations at repelling humidity and stopping frizz before it starts,” Rogers says. Basically, the bottles are superheros in the shower department ($24 each).
Once it’s clean, don’t yank a brush through it. Instead, run a wide-tooth comb through your hair while it’s still conditioning. And rather than aggressively scrub-drying your ‘do with a towel, which raises the cuticle, use a gentle blotting motion. “Diffusing is fine if a wavy, natural look is desired,” Rogers says. “Otherwise, I recommend gently stretching the roots and mid-lengths with a flat Denman brush as blow-dry prep.”
Style It Right
When it comes to styling for the wedding, Rogers says it’s always best to start with clean hair: “One urban styling myth is that you shouldn’t wash your hair on your wedding day because the hair will be too ‘flyaway’ or ‘soft’ to style,” Rogers says. “With the styling technologies we have available to us, we can synthetically create great styling results without having to rely on ‘day-old hair’.” After all, “if you’re putting the work in to blow dry from scratch, don’t you want it to last as many days as possible?”
Avoid the Heat
Try to cut down on hair dryer, straightener, and curling iron use in the months leading up to your wedding, but don’t let it stop you from doing you. “We all know that high heat can damage hair,” Rogers says, “but if you need that extra bit of insurance against frizz and general ‘style failure,’ go ahead and use a flat or curling iron to lock in your shape. Just be sure to use both a great heat protectant and limit the heat setting to 350 degrees.” John Frieda Frizz Ease Original 6 Effects Serum is another tried-and-true favorite of brides and pros alike (it’s won three consecutive Big Day Beauty Award titles for the best frizz fighter!), that’s seriously clutch at controlling frizzy hair ($8).
Read the rest here.