How to Shop for Bridal Underwear

Shopping for bridal wear can be exciting, and quite nerve wracking too. You flip through magazines, websites, or any medium that gives you options on bridal wear. This does not end with the bridal gown. The veil, corsages, shoes, accessories, and most importantly lingerie, are all part of the bridal shopping list that you prepare. Picking the right bridal underwear is as important as picking the right gown, because what goes inside determines how you look and feel on your big day. So here are some tips that can help you pick the right women’s underwear sets, and make the shopping experience a lot less worrisome.

Know what kind of bridal underwear you need

Before you go shopping, it is a good idea to list down the kind of bridal underwear that you need. Wedding lingerie includes many products – bras, panties, corsets, waist clinchers, garters and garter belts, stockings, hold ups, and so on. Make a note of what among these needs to accompany your gown on your wedding day. This would primarily be determined by the kind of gown you wear. Classic ones like ballroom and A-line gowns are extremely accommodating, and you can sport nearly any kind of bra underneath them. If the gown reveals a good amount of cleavage, opt for a bra with push-up benefits. Choose stick on or invisible strap bras for backless gowns, and strapless designs for the off-shoulder gowns. Wired bras are a good choice when you want fine shaping, but they may also be uncomfortable to wear for long. Gowns that are fitted around the abdomen or thighs need shapewear underneath. Invest in waist cinchers, tummy tuckers, or thigh and buttock shaping underwear for a smooth, flat, and well-toned look under such gowns. Also, if you are not confident baring your legs, pick up stockings, and holdups or garters and garter belts to go with them.

Pick lingerie not just for your wedding, but for the honeymoon too

The love and excitement of the wedding also spills to the honeymoon. So, when you shop for bridal underwear, do not stop with lingerie to wear under your gown. Pick sexy and seductive lingerie such as babydolls, teddies, bodysuits, or chemises for your wedding night. Invest in erotic styles for the honeymoon as well. Opt for lacy styles for a classic and sensuously feminine feel. Choose satin or vinyl underwear with strappy or cage-like designs when you want things to get really steamy. Retailers of bridal underwear also tend to stock up on sexy honeymoon styles, so it would be wise to pick up both of them together.

Try on, whenever possible

Comfort and good fit are extremely important with the bridal underwear that you pick up. An ill-fitted lingerie not only kills the look of your gown, but also makes you feel uneasy and conscious, which are actually the last things that you want on your big day. To avoid this last minute trouble, try on your bridal lingerie before you buy them. Some products may not be up for trial owing to hygiene reasons, but whatever is, can be tried and tested to ensure that it fits you well, and that it remains hidden under what you wear. Peeping straps, pinching underwires, visible seams, and many more can be caught at the right moment when you try on lingerie before your wedding day. This lets you decide what’s right for your gown, and make adjustments wherever necessary.

Don’t buy them too early (or too late)

Not just the kind of lingerie that you buy, but the timing matters. Shopping for bridal underwear too early or too late can be troublesome. In the days leading up to your wedding, you may lose or gain weight. Buying the underwear too early may result in it being ill-fitted during the wedding day. Shopping too late can cause you to rush and buy inappropriate lingerie hurriedly. Both these situations can be bothersome, especially when there are no return or exchange policies in place. So always buy your bridal underwear just a couple of weeks, or a month prior to the wedding.

Now that you are armed with the right tips to pick the perfect wedding underwear, go ahead and shop for them with confidence.

Flowers for Summer Weddings: Four Ways to Keep Them Fresh

Summer season is witness to a large number of weddings. The warm season also has the advantage of being the perfect time for an outdoor wedding; giving couples a wider range of options in terms of venues, wedding themes, and décor ideas and so on. Like spring, summer is also the time when a large number of blooms are available. These flowers add beauty and serenity to the auspicious day, and create stunning visuals when captured through the lens. However, preserving wedding flowers in Chicago, Houston or Los Angeles isn’t really an easy task, neither is it too difficult. We give you 4 easy and effective tips on how to keep them fresh and looking lovely all throughout your wedding day.

# 1 – Pick seasonal blooms and hearty flowers

Flowers that bloom in summer have better ability to withstand high temperatures than rare flowers. Buying fresh and just picked flowers from a local vendor also helps keep them intact for a longer time. Opt for blooms with a waxy texture as they stay fresh longer. Hawaiian blooms, such as orchids (especially cymbidium and dendrobium orchids), are a good option. Tiger lilies, roses, ginger halcyons, and birds-of-paradise, too stay put and do not wither easily in the summer heat. It is always a good practice to check with your florist on which flowers work best for your wedding venue.

Flowers for Summer Weddings Four Ways to Keep Them Fresh

# 2 – Maintain wedding flowers

Wedding flowers need maintenance in summer, more than in any other season. The higher the temperature, the more the upkeep required. Have your wedding flowers delivered early on the day of your wedding rather than on the previous night. Arrange for a refrigerator at the wedding venue so that the blooms can be stored in a cool place till the ceremony begins. When you aren’t being photographed, keep the bouquets away in shade or hand them over to your bridesmaid to be kept in a vase of cool water. Keep a bottle of water spray handy and moist your flowers every hour to keep them looking fresh and crisp.

# 3 – Choose bright colors

Nude and light hues flowers tend to brown faster than bright and bold ones. Using the latter ones not only makes them look better in pictures, but also fills those photographs with a riot of colors. Hues such as violet, fuchsia, deep yellow, magenta, and green work well in outdoor and semi-formal weddings. Wine and deeper shades of red like dark red roses, and deep purple lilies are more appropriate for formal weddings. Shades of yellow and orange are a great option in casual weddings. Blooms such as sunflowers work well in this regard as a few stems is all that is needed to create a pop of colors.

# 4 – Use herbs and succulents

Greens are a big trend in weddings these days, and they are just as apt for summer weddings as they are for any other season. Succulents and herbs pair well with flowers in bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, and even centerpieces. They also fill the air with a pleasant fragrance. Greens stay fresh for a longer time than flowers, and hence work extremely well in the high temperatures during summer. They also add a dash of freshness to the warm wedding venue, and create interesting contrast in photographs. Herbs and succulents are also the perfect choice for rustic and vintage themed wedding. They work well in casual weddings and those themed around the countryside.

No wedding is complete without flowers, and summer, though a great time to exchange vows, worries most wedding hosts about how to keep floral arrangements fresh and intact. However, with a little extra care, you can keep your blooms pristine and beautiful all throughout your special day, even in this season of high temperatures.

How to Get Cheap but Awesome Wedding Favors

What’s a wedding if there are no guests to bless and congratulate the bride and groom. In fact, it is the guests that bring in fun and joy to a wedding with their antics and unique personalities. Acknowledging their presence and thanking them for their arrival is a very nice way to keep the wedding day memorable, both for you and the guests. While a few guests wouldn’t expect any wedding favors from you, a few would certainly expect, at least as a part of tradition. However, wedding budget is also of huge concern and buying a wedding favor for each and every guest at the wedding is not cheap at all.

If you have a tight budget and want to cut down costs on wedding favors, this article is for you. Rather than deciding not to give out any wedding favors, you can go for inexpensive but amazing wedding favors. In this article we will list down ways one can get these inexpensive wedding favors and give them to their guests.

1. DIY Gifts

Do it yourself (DIY) gifts are the most popular option on this list. If you are feeling a little short on the wedding favor budget, you can always improvise and prepare your own wedding favors. There are countless wedding websites which will give you thousands of DIY wedding favor ideas that can be realized with little or money. All it takes is a little of your time and creativity.

2. Wholesalers

If you find preparing your own wedding favors too tiring and time consuming, you can resort to wholesale dealers who will give you a lot of discount when compared to retail stores. All you have to do is find a wholesaler network which distributes wedding favors and small gifts as such, contact them and give them your bulk order.

How to Get Cheap but Awesome Wedding Favors 3. Shop after Christmas

If your wedding is somewhere in the month of January or February as you can buy your wedding favors from a after Christmas sale where everything will be highly cheap or discounted. The store owners just want to sell their unsold goods and offer lower rates on gifts and products though they are of the highest quality.

4. Online Shopping

Online shopping is the new virtue of shopping and there are always some kind of deals offered by these online stores. Especially on websites like eBay and Etsy you can exchange gifts from someone else for a cheaper amount. If not customer to customer exchange markets like eBay, you can find these wedding favors on regular online stores too, stores that offer a lot of discounts on special days.

5. Iced Christmas Cakes

If your wedding is sometime after Christmas, you can get cheap iced fruit cakes that were left unused during the Christmas. Do note that these fruit cakes will be extremely good and time has nothing to do with them. These cakes will also come in handy when you run out of the wedding cake pieces.

Six Things to Include in Your Wedding Day Checklist

There are so many things to take care at a wedding, so many people to manage and so much of emotions to deal with, it is quite normal to forget a few things; especially trivial but vital ones. Having a checklist of things to do will help in staying organized in these chaotic situations and hope for a perfect wedding. If you are one of those who has dreamed of a perfect wedding all your life, this article is for you. We have prepared a wedding day checklist for you by handpicking the most essential things to do on the day of wedding. Read on.

Six Things to Include in Your Wedding Day Checklist 1. Directions and Signage

You don’t want your guests to be lost on the day of the wedding nor bother you to ask the address of the place or the table they have been assigned. Ensure to inform your guests about the address of the place beforehand and update them with all the details they ought to know as guests.

2. The Ambience

Ambience and atmosphere play a very important role in determining how beautiful a wedding is. You should have a clear vision of how your wedding must look like and work with the décor people to realize it on the day of the wedding. Be it the entrance design, seating arrangements, flower arrangements or the lighting, ensure everything is in the way you imagined it to be. Also, stop obsessing with minute details either, nothing is perfect!

3. Calling the Vendors

Arrival of a lot of vendors like photographers, florists, makeup artists and catering services must be confirmed beforehand to avoid any last minute delays. Though bride and groom are the important people in the wedding, it is not complete without these vendors.

4. Wedding Favors

This is a blunder that happens in many weddings, embarrassing both hosts and guests. While a few guests don’t expect any gifts in returns, some guests do. Hence, it is wise that you decide the wedding favors way before and ensure that these gifts are handed over to the guests or placed on their respective seats.

5. Cake Table

Though it doesn’t seem like a big deal, having cake table on your checklist is very important. Cake and rings are the two most important things on a wedding and most of the guests prefer to take photos near the cake or take a slice. If the cake is not placed properly, on a firm cake table, chances are it will fall and create nuisance for everybody.

6. The Exit

Last but not the least, the exit plan must also be one of the elements of your wedding checklist. Ensure that the pathway to the car is decorated as decided, the car is ready in its place at the right time, the photographers are in their place and everybody has smiles on their faces!

Apart from the above mentioned, there are a lot of other things to do on the wedding day. A wedding day checklist might also include other elements like seating arrangement, menu cards, escort cards, guest books and so on.

Most Essential Tips to Make Your Wedding Memorable

Planning a wedding is no joke as it involves a lot of people and a lot of things. While it comes naturally for some people to handle these situations without freaking out, few wouldn’t know where to begin in the first place. If you are one of those unfortunate ones, don’t worry, this article is here to help you. In this article, we have prepared a comprehensive list of the most useful tips on wedding planning. Read on.

Most Essential Tips to Make Your Wedding Memorable

1. Prepare a Guest List

The first thing to do when you start planning for your wedding is that you prepare a guest list and have a slight idea of the number of people that would be attending the event. Knowing the number would help you to make other decisions like booking the wedding hall or ordering food and drinks. You could plan the number of wedding favors you would need, get the invites printed and strike off some names over the time when you feel that there are too many guests.

2. Decide the Budget

Once you have the guest list, you could decide the wedding place and food menu accordingly. Once you have narrowed down these two things as well, you will have a rough idea on the total expense of the wedding. Based on whether the budget is less or more, you can plan accordingly and make arrangements for the amount.

3. Set the Dates

Finding the wedding hall you like and caterers you think are the best is not an easy task. These places and professionals are very busy and expect to be booked for a particular event months before. You can go visit these vendors, have a face-to-face conversation with them, find a balance amongst all the vendors and then decide the date and place.

4. Select the Vendors

A wedding is impossible without florists, photographers, caterers, bartenders and vendors as such. You need to book them well before the wedding and make them understand the kind of wedding you want. In addition, these vendors have their own network of professionals as everyone works in the same industry. You can ask one to lead you to another and save time by avoiding searching for vendors all by yourself.

5. Selecting the Menu

Food and drinks is an integral part of every wedding and it is supposed to be exceptionally great. You must ensure that your guests like what is being served and get the kind of alcohol they want. When it comes to food, a few people are allergic to a few things. Hence, choose your menu carefully and order a bit more than your guests eat so that there is no shortage of food at any cost.

6. Décor and Dress

Decorations and dresses are what that make a wedding look beautiful. Book a wedding décor company well before the wedding as it is difficult to find these people you want at the nth moment. Also, get your wedding dress ready and fit well before the wedding day and try on the dress multiple times to see if it suits you.