The next hardest wedding decision next to whom you’re marrying and the dress: picking your wedding venue.

With so many locations to choose from, with so many ideas out there—It can seem frustrating and even impossible to decide on one location for your wedding. My best advice—Talk with those involved in your wedding planning about your wedding theme, number of people, age range of people, pre-wedding activities, reception options—all of the important details that may be affected by your venue option. If you are the only one planning your decisions—don’t sweat it! Plan time to consider all of the above, and talk with the venue owner or a previous bride or groom that may have married there.

This is an obvious one that every bride frets about, but really consider the climate and the possibility for weather conditions. Even if you are getting married in the middle of August in Texas—make sure you know that the venue you choose has under cover options, A.C., and a good set-up for a bar or refreshments table for lots of water! Also, don’t be fooled completely by place  you’re sure will have decent weather—anything can happen!

For more help and ideas for your wedding venue, visit The Knot’s venue search on their website—It’s great!

The colors of a fall wedding; Capturing the warmth of leaves, fire, and the natural beauty of nature’s fall-time.

From huge bouquets of reds, oranges, browns, and yellows—to the natural look of dark oaks and leaves falling everywhere—Fall weddings are by far my favorite. Maybe because of the endless possibilities of colors and accents, or the many options of food items on a fall menu. The warmth of fall-time is my ideal perception of the perfect wedding.

In 2010, I went to a total of five weddings, all during the month of September and October. This is when my fall-time wedding fantasy began.

I fell in love with the flower bouquets, the accents of small and big pumpkins, in whites and creams and oranges. I loved the idea of big white candles and huge fire places, garlands of leaves and fall flowers. I loved all the photos of brides and grooms in pumpkin patches and wide open fields with brightly colored fall-changed trees in the background. The butternut squash soup served in authentic pumpkins with cinnamon croutons was perhaps my favorite. All of this, and much much more, turned my mind on overdrive, and hasn’t stopped since.

Instead of rose petals flourishing the bridal party’s walkway down the aisle, how about dry leaves? Or how about a cake topped with pine cones,acorns, leaves or fall holly foliage?

I know that there can be these endless ideas, contorted and made appropriate for any other month for a wedding—but I just can’t understand anyone denying the beauty of a fall wedding.

No More Short Hair Blues!

We’ve seen them all—women who conveniently turn to hair extensions for length, thickness, etc., but unfortunately don’t realize that the public can see the extension’s lining or glue line. This is why I’ve been terribly afraid to go near the thought of wearing extensions. Because, of course, I would be “that girl”.

I chopped all my hair off in the spring of 2010 after my mother, the creative and imaginative hairstylist that she is, convinced me to cut my long 13-inch hair that I’d so anxiously and patiently grown out, into a 6-inch A-Line. I have always wondered what I’d look like with an A-Line cut, but had always backed out because I persuaded myself that I didn’t have the right kind of cheek bones or face structure for the style.

However, I ended up with very short hair and a whole lot of time spent trying to style what little hair I had to work with. After about 1-2 months of contentment with my hair, the resentfulness began. I had missed my long hair for so many reasons: quick styling, easy maintenance, flowy feelings, and an overall self confidence from my locks of love. Having short hair made me feel chubbier because I don’t have the defined cheek bones of Reese Witherspoon or Gisele Bundchen. I ended up wearing my hair back or in a bun with cute hair accessories, attempting to jazz up my “do” as much as possible.

So, it’s been about a year that I’ve had this short, (horribly slow-to-grow) hair, and I finally came to my senses last week and considered hair extensions. My hair is naturally at about shoulder length now, so I thought that if I got 10-inch hair that it wouldn’t look too fake or desperate.

To my surprise, the simple glue-in extensions that only cost me $13 for the hairpiece and glue, ended up being quite a success! You can also sew-in the extensions, but sewing extension clips (at beauty salons) to the extensions themselves with simply a needle and thread. This takes a little more time, but the hair will last much longer as it is so easy to take the extensions in and out of your hair! If you really want to go big, you can get a very teeny-tiny braid (like a cornrow) across the back of the crown of your head, and have the extension sewed into that braid, avoiding the glue process. Like I said before though, the glue actually worked great! I measured the crown of my head where I would be placing the hair, and cut the measured size 5 different times, creating 5 different pieces to match my head! The entire hair extension package comes with a very long piece of hair (probably about 10 feet total!) I pinned up layers of my hair, making sure that it was a straight line across my scalp, carefully lined up glue along the extension’s stitched edge, and held the hair onto my scalp, pressing for about 30 seconds. Then, I took a blow dryer (on low power, cool in heat) to the glued area for another 30-60 seconds to ensure dryness!

It’s been almost a week, and I’m still loving my extensions. A lot of people actually haven’t even noticed, except that maybe my hair looks a little darker. I was able to get a perfect light brown/sand color that matches my original almost perfectly, so it’s actually hard to even recognize the real hair from the fake hair! I love curling my hair now, because I have flashbacks to the days when my hair was long and flowing and I felt so great about my locks!

If you’re a bride-to-be, and you’re concerned with having short hair for your big day, I really encourage you to look into getting extensions. Whether professionally or just at home, you can find the right way for you. If you choose to insert a hair piece with glue, there are dark and white glues available that help suit your hair better when it dries. You can get a really great deal on extensions and tools at a local beauty supply shop that is open to the public. You can also ask a friend that may have their beautician’s license if they can pick up some good extensions for you at a Maly’s or any other beauty supply shop.

If you are a shop owner, get in touch with different brand owners about Store Locators. They are a great way for online shoppers to find your store through a brand’s website!

Have fun!

Like a Fairytale

Last night was the final episode of ABC’s The Bachelor, and I found my self in a room full of giddy, emotional young women, who couldn’t take their eyes off of Brad Womack and Emily Maynard. Anonymously, Emily had been the favorite candidate of everyone there, and quite possibly of everyone watching. So when Brad got down on one knee and asked the cute southern girl to marry him, we found ourselves teary-eyed and full of joy for two people that we didn’t even know.

This made me realize that women really do get worked up about love and the things that love brings. This proposal–physically simple but full of wonderful, verbal, complexity–made women feel like they were actually the ones being proposed to. It sounds silly, but the emotion and attachment that viewers witnessed progressing throughout the show between Womack and Maynard made them feel just as much connected.

I think we, as women, hold the reputation for wanting the best, most extravagantly planned proposals. Even though in most cases this wouldn’t be declined, I also believe that simple proposal, full of verbal reminders on how we make him feel and how he can’t picture life any other way, is just as flattering and emotional.

If you watch Brad’s proposal over and over again, you won’t find an absurd amount of over-the-top tools or advantages, (other then the fact that they were in Cape Town :)).

Extravagant or not, a proposal is more of a symbol than an event. Yes, it makes for one of the most remarkable days of your life–but it also marks the symbol of the rest of your life.