Win A Wedding at the Empire State Building

Modern Bride Magazine is having a contest and the winner will get married at the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day 2008. The wedding will be styled by their Brides.com. It includes a gift bag worth over $500, hair and makeup and other prizes. To enter, you need to answer some essay questions to win your SKY HIGH WEDDING. To enter, click here. Good Luck!

Unique Beach Wedding Favors & Invitations

I get a lot of catalogs of wedding favors and invitations, and just a few are unique enough to make me stop and look.

Here are a few of beach themed items that are out of the ordinary! They are unusual, affordable and just set the perfect scene for a beach wedding!



What's unique about these shell favors is the inscription: "Our Love Shell Last Forever". How cute is that? Not only are they real shells and totally unique, the personalize them free! Click on the photo for more info.




I actually received one of these invitations in the mail in its own box. I LOVED IT!
Click on the photo for more information. The presentation is amazing and impressive!

"Send your invitation like in the days of old with this incredibly unique message in a bottle invitation. Right out of a classic old tale or romance and adventure, this glass bottle is filled with real sand and seashells, and your message is printed on beautiful paper, rolled, and place inside. The bottle is then corked and ready to be sent on its journey to all of your guests inviting them to your wedding in such a memorable way, they won't be able to turn it down."





I LOVE these shell place card holders and favors. They are real sea shells with a groove cut into them for the place card. They come in a set of 6 and are assorted in styles. How much more natural for a beach wedding than REAL shells? Much better than plastic palm trees and they come with an organza bag for your guests to take them home. Click on the photo for more info.

Taming Your Hair In a Different Climate

Nothing is worse than having your hair care products let you down when you are in a different climate. Humidity, dry air, high altitude, beach breezes all wreak havoc on your hair. What works at home won't work as well away from home.

I know from experience that when I am out west, I need a deep conditioner and a softer hairspray. When I'm in humid weather, my hair gets curly and frizzy and I look like a poodle. I basically need something like shellac or lacquer to tame my hair.

I tried this new climate control hairspray. My destination brides have raved about it. One heard about it from a friend, who told a friend...

I decided to buy it to put it to the ultimate test. My nephew got married on a beach in Florida on a day where the heat and humidity was off the charts. So I tried THE hairspray. And it worked! At the end of the evening, my hair looked amazing. My dress was droopy, but not my hair! No Frizz, no curls! If it works for me, it'll work for you at your wedding.

Here's the link to this spray:

Phillip B Jet Set Precision Control Hair Spray - NEW!

Another Beach or Outdoor Wedding Photo Tip

Here's another beach photo tip: Nix the sparkly body lotion on any outdoor wedding. The sparkles in the lotion can deflect light and cause a light reflection on you when the photographer takes your wedding pictures.

I was talking to photographers and skin experts at my fashion show last weekend looking for new tips. When the photographer gave me this tip, the skin esthetician recommended using a tinted moisturizer sun screen with an SPF of 15.

All-in-One Tinted Moisturizer Sunscreen SPF 15
is the product she recommended.

The self-adjusting formula delivers moisture only where skin needs it most, making it ideal for all skin types, even oily skin. It comes in several shades that matches each skin tone perfectly. It provides a lightweight, flawless finish with a sheer fresh look. It softens and hydrates skin, provides sheer coverage and adequate sun protection with an SPF 15. This all in one product also protects skin by eliminating the need to pack and use multiple products. It evens out your skin tone making wearing a foundation unnecessary.

You can also use foundation over this product for your pictures, but please, leave the glitter and sparkly lotion for the honeymoon.

Beach Wedding Photo Tip

A photographer who specializes in beach weddings just gave me this great photo tip. She said that if the bride's hair is too dark, it casts a shadow on her face in the pictures. She advises the bride add highlights to the front of her hair so the light bounces off her hair instead of being absorbed into her dark hair.

She also said if the bride doesn't want to highlight her hair, she should wear a tiara or headband to draw the light to the face. She explained it to me, its the sun, the water and the light filters...but I don't understand the technicalities and I can't explain it. She's the pro, I'm the tipster.

One of my brides with jet black hair had the front of her hair highlighted for her wedding photos. Her face was so much brighter and her eyes just popped. I hadn't realized how beautiful she was, but just adding a few highlights, the transformation was amazing. In my mind, this validates the photographers tip.

Ask your photographer, ask your hairdresser. I'm giving this tip two thumbs up.

Wedding Trends, Destination Weddings

Wedding trends are always changing. For 08 weddings, we are seeing a lot of tiffany blue accents and themes, sparkle and shine, green weddings and as no surprise to me, DESTINATION WEDDINGS!

I've seen the trend from the big 400 guest ballroom wedding blowout turn into personal, smaller more intimate weddings. At least 1 out of 4 weddings that come through the bridal salon are destination weddings. Some are Las Vegas weddings, some are beach weddings, a few are on a cruise ship.

Why is this you ask?

A lot of the couples are in their 30's and have lived together for awhile. They don't want the big fairytale wedding. They want something more personal, yet meaningful.

For many of the couples , this is a second wedding. They've had the blowout, they want a wedding that is light years away from the first wedding. They want a wedding and none of the fuss.

Other couples feel that it is more cost effective (cheaper) to have a destination wedding. They can have the wedding and the honeymoon in one location. They get the honeymoon of their dreams AND a romantic wedding.

For other couples, the beach or destination wedding has always been the dream. A wedding at sunrise in Hawaii, a sunset wedding in the Caribbean, a Las Vegas wedding near the Bellagio fountains, or an Elvis wedding at Graceland Chapel.

Other couples have family problems. Blended families, too many stepmothers, too much conflict. Its a lot easier for them to avoid the issue and have a wedding away from home. The focus is on THEM, not the family squabbles.

If you need help planning a destination wedding, check out this free destination planning guide.


Dream Honeymoons; Destination Weddings!

Beach Weddings

Thinking about a beach wedding? Google beach wedding and you will have 10,200,000 results. WHOA!! Thats a lot of information to sift through. Even the most die hard bride will have grandchildren before she can check them all out.

So where do you start? Most wedding couples have a favorite beach or location. Maybe its the beach they went to ever summer on family vacations. Maybe they've always dreamed of a Hawaiian beach wedding. Or maybe its the Caribbean with its turquoise waters and soft breezes.
Start with your favorite location and use that as your starting point. Contact the city or chamber of commerce for information. They'll give you a list of wedding planners and contacts and go from there.

We advise you to use a wedding planner if you are planning an out of town beach wedding. They'll cut through all the red tape, steer you in the right direction and keep you from making a costly mistake. The best part: They save you time and stress because they'll do all the detail work.

Before you sign ANY contracts, make sure you ask for references and testimonials. A hotel that looks so marvelous on the internet may not be habitable in person. Also check beach wedding reviews at Trip Advisor. These are unbiased trip reports from real life beach brides.

I also use Trip Advisor to check out hotels in any city I'm traveling to before I make my reservation. All the glossy web pages in the world don't make a difference, I prefer to hear from people who've stayed there and get the real story.