How To Look And Feel Your Best On Your Wedding Day

Its your wedding day, of course you feel amazing! But here are a few tips to make sure that what you're feeling on the inside matches the outside, and that you're picture perfect and spotlight ready for your big day!

• Try, Test, Trial- The best thing you can do for yourself is try, test, and run through a trial of everything! Now everyone knows that you need to pick out a hair style before the big day and try on your wedding dress(es). But don't stop there! Run through a make up trial, experiment with nail polish colors, try on jewelry, wear your shoes. I always see brides make the mistake of buying the most beautiful shoes that match oh so perfectly and they can only wear them for 30 minutes because its the first time the shoes have been worn and they're impossible to stay in. Wear your new shoes around the house every now and then so you don't ruin the soles for pictures. Be sure to take pictures of everything, don't let your memory be your guide on the big day. Take pictures from every angle in good lighting so you and your hairstylist/make-up artist know exactly what to re-create.
• Beauty treatments - Let the spa days begin, but tread carefully! Every bride knows there are hundreds of treatments you can get from getting your teeth whitened, to facials, to peels, to waxes, to masks, to scrubs, the list is almost never ending. But in your quest to have glowing radiant skin, don't over do it, or do anything that may cause a bad skin reaction. Try any treatment months in advance and make sure your skin is up for it and then again a few weeks before the wedding. If your skin is particularly sensitive, or maybe even your wallet, there are tons of home treatments you can try. Lemon and yogurt are great for your hair, and honey, oatmeal and bananas make a great face mask. Here's a great site I found with lots of spa at home tips and recipes. www.spaindex.com/HomeSpa/HomeSpa.htm But be sure to test these as well!
• Mehendi - Every Indian Bride for years has had to face the challenge of how to get the best mehendi color for her wedding day. Contrary to the myth that you should get your mehendi done the day before your wedding, the best time to get your mehendi done is 2-3 days before your wedding day, as mehendi reaches its peak color 2 days after its been removed. Try to keep the mehendi on for at least 6 hours, if possible sleep overnight with it on. Keep it wrapped up in paper and not plastic as plastic prevents air circulation. Apply a mixture of lemon and sugar about 2-3 times, but don't over do it. Scrape off your mehendi, don't wash it off, and keep your hands from water for 2-3 hours after removing the mehendi. Once removed, massage in oil over the design. If you keep all these tricks in mind, your mehendi will be at its best!
• Don't crash diet! The worst thing for you to do is to get engaged and then immediately put yourself on some sort of crazy crash diet. Many times a crazy diet can have the opposite effect, it can slow down your metabolism and force your body to burn fewer calories. Instead, make small realistic changes and adopt a healthier lifestyle. Start going to the gym with your fiance or a friend so you have someone else to motivate you as well. As always get plenty of water, fruit and vegetables in your diet and that will help your skin, nails and hair too. If you are steadily losing weight be sure to get your last dress fitting as late as possible and then hold steady! You don't want to be running to the tailor the day before your wedding.
• Make-Up - Generally when applying make up for your wedding day, one should have a slightly heavier hand. The make up has to show up in your photographs and has to last all day. But remember that make-up is there to enhance your features, not make you look like someone else. If you're used to wearing little or no make up, then a little mascara, lipstick and concealer can go a long way, you don't have to worry that you have to cake it on. Remember to blend blend blend, and of course try the look before hand. If you buy your make-up months in advance be careful that you don't tan or lose color, you want to be sure that your foundation is still blending well. Your wedding planner will of course always be nearby with the essentials like lipstick and powder for touch ups, otherwise, ask your bridesmaid or friend to carry it around for you.
• Bag of Tricks - Don't forget to pack and carry your beauty survival kit, complete with scissors, thread and needle, deodorant, lotion, toothbrush, perfume, eyelash glue (perfect for keeping those bindis and jewelry pieces from moving). Check out my blogpost on your complete wedding survival kit!
• Smile! - After all the primping and prepping, just try your best to get a good night's sleep the night before, even though you could stay up and take care of a million little things. Remember to eat on your wedding day, give yourself the energy to party all night! And finally don't get caught up in the details anymore, your fiance will think that you are the most beautiful girl he's ever seen - that's why he asked you to marry him. Let that thought sink in and let it show on your face - everyone will notice that the most!

Wedding Gifts - Help Your Guests, Tell Them What You Want!

There are few things more daunting for your guests than being invited to your wedding and then having to figure out what to get you. Usually, the answer becomes cash. Or the answer is some random trinket that you are now stuck with, without any return receipt.
Make life easy for your guests and start a registry and be specific about what you like and want. Be sure to include something at every price point, and your guests will feel good about the fact that they are getting you something you will value. Your guests can ship directly to you, and before you know it your home is coming together just the way you wanted it to.
Need a jump start on putting your registry together? Attend a Crate and Barrel Wedding Party at your local crate and barrel store on select dates to get advice from their experts, meet and mingle with other couples, all with a little wine and cheese.
www.crateandbarrel.com/Gift-Registry/Events.aspx
If you prefer cash because maybe you just don't know yet what you want to fill up your home with, or maybe you're moving and cash would be the easy way to go, let your guests know and include a note in your invitation. Something along the lines of "No Boxed Gifts Please" usually indicates that you would prefer cash.
Finally, a nice idea if you prefer not to receive anything specific from your guests, is asking them to donate to your favorite charity. Again, your guests will appreciate you taking the guesswork out of attending your wedding and you can feel good about getting exactly what you want!

Ten Reasons A Wedding Website Is A Must Have, Not A Nice To Have

These days no wedding is complete without your very own wedding website, filled with his and hers stories on how you met, the song you first danced to, your very first picture together, and of course all of your wedding details. While you might be thinking that its just a fun project to take on if you have some extra time, its actually just the opposite, it should be one of the first things you think about once you start gathering all of your wedding details. Here are my top ten reasons why 'create wedding website' should go at the top of your to do list!


1. Save Money on Printing Save the Dates and Invitations! Wedding websites are an easy cost effective way to get Save the Date information out to your guests. Its not always economical to print and send all 700 friends and family members an actual Save the Date Card. Cut down on costs by sending an e-version through your wedding website to friends and family who you know would appreciate it just as much as the actual card.

2. Share Important Wedding Details - If you're lucky enough have a huge family like I do (as most Desi people are) with 15 aunts and uncles, 28 first cousins, and numerous 2nd cousins, nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends spread around the world, you might find that you're having to repeat yourself quite a bit to fill in the details of your wedding festivities for everyone. With a wedding website, you can simply share a link with your guests, and they can find out travel options, places to stay, fun things to do while they're visiting, what the weather will be like, what to pack, where you're registered, all wedding details, and ANYthing that is simply too much to include on a wedding invitation, but common questions that your guests will have.

3. Share Your Love Story - Most of the time, the majority of your guests will be meeting your significant other for the first time at your wedding. Why not 'introduce' them earlier on, and share your story before and after meeting one another. Let everyone get to know both of you as a couple. Guests want to know how you met, fell in love, how the proposal happened, pictures from your life together so far. Aside from your actual wedding day, this is another place for you to show off your personality and style and give guests a feel for what's to come.

4. Make it Interactive, Let Your Guests Share Too - As much as all of your loved ones want to take the floor and the microphone on your big day and tell you how much they love you and wish you happiness, there isn't always time for that. The best receptions are the ones where speeches are kept to a minimum and are short, sweet, simple and sincere. So encourage your bridal party, friends and family to share all of their thoughts, funny anecdotes, and well wishes on your website instead, by creating a guestbook. Have a poll question if you want to break a tie and decide on what your entrance song should be. Create a fun quiz so friends and family members can show off what they know about you as a couple. Finally, keep a countdown to the big day!

5. Serves as A Keepsake - Unless you've been scrapbooking your entire life, and you've already had half of your wedding scrap book completed before you even met your husband to be, your wedding website is the perfect scrapbook! Its a great place for all your wedding details, memories of all the meticulous planning, pictures, and well wishes from guests. Ask anyone that made a speech or toast at your wedding to write it down for you on your website so you can save and cherish the words.

6. Share Memories Even After the Big Day - As soon as the wedding is over there are tons of pictures and memories you're dying to share and others are waiting to see. Keep the 'scrapbook' going with pictures from all of your wedding festivities, videos, and speeches for everyone to relive the fun.

7. Online RSVPs! - Try to make your life just a little bit easier and include an online RSVP form. The more guests that use the online form and indicate their meal preferences, the less physical mail you have to open, decipher, sort, and record!

8. Includes Loved Ones that Can't Make it for the Big Day - Inevitably there will be loved ones that can't make it to the wedding for one reason or another. That doesn't mean they can't know all the details of exactly what's happening, and share in the pictures and memories.

9. Password Protection Optional - If its privacy you're worried about, then simply add in a password to access the site and give it out only to your friends and family.

10. Easy to Set up, Edit and Share New Content - If you're concerned that all of this will take up countless hours that you already don't have, don't worry. With free templates available everywhere, all you really have to do is choose which template you like best and start uploading! Editing is a breeze and if you have any announcements, or new information you want to share with your guests, you can do so in a matter of minutes.

Finally have fun with it! Traditionally your wedding invitations and your actual wedding will be a bit more formal, this is where you can let loose a little, and have fun with your whole wedding process. If you really want to run with it, create a facebook page for your wedding, or create a twitter account and have your friends follow you for updates! Here are a few free wedding websites to get you started!

http://www.ewedding.com/

www.mywedding.com/main/wedding_websites.html
http://www.theknot.com/
www.weddingwire.com/wedding-website.html

Wedding Color Inspirations

With summer quickly being ushered out by fall, September is a limbo month for color inspiration for wedding decor. A great base color that can be used in combination with any other color you love is brown. Its rich, warm, and provides a great backdrop for any color to pop. Keep summer alive by using bright pinks and yellows against the brown. Or embrace fall by using oranges, and reds. Acheive a refined elegant look by doing all cream against the brown. Bright blues or even apple green can be a nice color with brown mimicking the outdoors. Take a look at my inspiration board to get ideas for your wedding!

Invitation Concerns

Your Invitation sets the tone for all of your upcoming festivities, so along with color, paper, design and font choices you have to figure out how you want to invite all of your loved ones to one of the most special days of your life. And sometimes there are special requests you want to make of your loved ones, and you want to be sure to do it in the most polite way possible. Here are a few tips that will help you avoid any faux pas on your invitations.

1.Always spell out all of the words on a formal invitation, no numbers(i.e. The Fifth of July, Two Thousand and Nine)

2.If someone hasn't responded to your invitation one week past the RSVP date, call him or her and confirm over the phone.

3.Children over the age of 18 get their own invitations.

4.Your officiant and their better half should get an invitation.

5.Send your parents and wedding party invitations as well as a keepsake.

6.You have to put return postage on your RSVP's.

7.Person with an occupational title is listed first, regardless of sex (Doctor, Judge, military, etc...)

8.List children's first names on line 2 of the outer envelope from oldest to youngest.

9.If you would like to have an adult only reception we suggest adding one of these phrases to the bottom of your reply card: Adult Reception or We hope that the (# of) of you will be able to join us

10.Send out Save the Date cards as soon as you know the date of your events, and give family members ample time to plan ahead.

11.Send Invitations approximately 6-8 weeks in advance. Any sooner, and they may forget the date or forget to RSVP, any later and they might not have enough notice to make their plans.

12.Be sure to include No Boxed Gifts please if you don't want to get stuck hauling hundreds of gifts home after your reception. Especially if you are a couple that will be moving to a different city other than your wedding location.

13.If you have a Wedding Registry, don't forget to include it on your invitations!

14.Think as if you were the guest, will they have questions on parking, directions etc, if so, be sure to include the answers on your invitations.

Top Picks from Indian Wedding Exhibit's Bridal Show

Didn't get a chance to go to Indian Wedding Exhibit's Bridal Show? Well here's Fifth Avenue Events' top vendor picks from the expo so you can still draw inspiration for your wedding!

As soon as you entered, the elaborate display of wedding decor was spectacular. L'Ambiance Decor had a stage set up that was warm and colorful. Wedding Design had a stage set up that was beautifully romantic and elegant. And Yaadein Weddings had a more modern and contemporary twist to their stage decor. With all of the flowers, beautiful fabrics and crystals I saw, it was tough to pick out one favorite, but these three certainly stood out.

For wedding cake, our top vendor pick was Indaroma Bakery & Cafe. While offering a full range of Indian dishes on their catering menu, this bakery also makes the most scrumptous cakes. Not to mention they can make any kind of cake imaginable, from classic white fondant covered 5 tiered cakes, to more traditional indian designs, to more quirky or modern designs. My personal favorite flavor was their chocolate mousse filled chocolate cake!

For photography, our top pick was Photographick Studios. Their eye for detail and their ability to capture the genuine emotion of the day is remarkable. From capturing the stolen glances between the bride and groom, to the warm embrace given by the father to his daughter on her wedding day, Photographick Studios helps you to truly keep the memories of your wedding.

Mayla Designs was our pick for all things printed for your wedding. With the flexibility to work with anyone nationwide with an extensive catalogue online, they have a wide range of choices where everything is customizable, from the paper, to the text font, to the designs and the shapes.

Then finally for the latest in bridal couture, Shehnnai is a must. With the latest fashions India has to offer, Shehnnai has colorful, elegant, dazzling wedding wear that will make any bride gorgeous on her wedding day.

Here are links to all of our top picks, enjoy!
L'Ambiance - http://www.myweddingdecorator.com/
Yaadein Weddings - http://www.yaadeinweddings.com/
Wedding Design - http://www.mandapdesign.com/
Indaroma Bakery & Cafe - http://www.indaroma.com/
Photographick Studios - http://www.photographick.com/
Mayla - http://www.mayladesigns.com/
Shehnaai - http://www.shehnaaiusa.com/
PartyLand Decor - www.partylandflowers.com

Bridal Show Season

Its that time of year again, its bridal show season! Discover all of the latest trends in wedding planning, and get inspiration for your own wedding. Here’s a schedule of upcoming bridal shows in the NY/NJ/Maryland area that can help get you jump started. Come visit us at the Fifth Avenue Events’ booth!

August 22nd, 2010 Indian Wedding Exhibit Bridal Show Dulles Expo Center, Washington DC Metro Area www.indianweddingexhibit.com
September 19th, 2010 Shaadi Bazaar Bridal Show, The Dedham Hilton Hotel, Dedham, MA
September 26th, 2010 Fall Dulhan Expo Hyatt Windwatch, Long Island, NY http://www.dulhanexpo.com/home.htm
October 17th, 2010 Fall Dulhan Expo Skylands at Randolph, NJ
http://www.dulhanexpo.com/home.htm
December 5th, 2010 Grand Dulhan Expo Garden State Exhibit Center, NJ
http://www.dulhanexpo.com/home.htm