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!

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.

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!

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.

The beauty in up-dos is not only in the endless possibilities of curl sizes and decorative flowers, (even though they are so fun :)), but in the uniqueness of each individuals look. Two women could receive the entirely same up-do, but can look completely different due to the difference in hair. Because most women have different hair from one another, your up-do is your own. That is something worth considering!

Even while talking to my fellow recently-married friends, we decided that taking the time during your wedding day to properly have your hair done is a great element to experience in the big picture. Yes your mind is running on that big day, and you probably can’t tell your best friend from your mom, and you’re thinking about the possibility of tripping down the aisle, but what a wonderful thing to look back in pictures, and see all the effort you really did put into your wedding day! It’s just another “keepsake” moment to have hold of.

Some women are mistaken in the truth of up-dos. Yes, there are more extravagant styles than others, but it really is all about your own customized hair style. Whether it’s a higher up-do, with more curls, twists, and turns, or one with a milder grace about it, perhaps lower and with light curls and a simple flower.

Your entire wedding has the sole purpose of reflecting you and your spouse as a couple, meaning it should be customized down to the smallest details. Likewise, your bridal image on your special day is entirely based upon your own desire!

I want to make a step back into this wedding scene…the place that I adore so much! And because I don’t know if I could actually handle carrying out the action of being a real wedding planner, here I am to be the talk of wedding planning!

I believe that planning should begin as soon as the engagement has occured, because you’d be so incredibly surprised to the amount of work and time that goes into this wonderful day. That is why I, along with many other wedding bloggers, am here to help and give advice, both from experience and how I learned from the errors that I ran into along the way.

I am so excited to get this blog back in action! Please say you will follow me along this journey (again) of everything that is critical into a rememberable wedding!

Pandora jewelry is top quality jewelry and the chains and beads come in a variety of choices. For the chains you can choose 14k gold, sterling silver, oxidized silver or your choice of colored leather. For beads and charms the options include 14k gold, sterling silver, 14k gold and sterling silver, clips, murano glass charms and spacers.

All beads and charms are made with great detail and each one you choose has a different meaning. My Pandora bracelet is sterling silver with my new married initials as the main beads in the center. With all the options Pandora has to offer I can add beads to my bracelet or I can take away any that I want to remove and use on a different bracelet.

If you have never experienced Pandora bracelets make sure you add some to your wedding registry. They also make a great gift for bridesmaids and the mother of the bride.

We decided to do it a few days after we got back from our Honeymoon. He opened all the gifts while I made sure to record everything. Now this can take a few hours of time so make sure you are not rushed and that you are organized when opening gifts.

This process can be overwhelming if not handled correctly. Once you have finished opening the presents and have properly recorded everything it is time to start the next task - Thank You cards. As long as you have followed my directions the Thank You cards should be a breeze. They are time consuming but they are really important to let your guests know how great it was to see them and thank them properly for your wedding gifts.

PS - Don’t forget about all the vendors that made your day as special as it could have been - without all of their hard work your day would have never been the same!

Life after the wedding is pretty cool. Once you have found “the one” and it is official that the two of you have decided to spend your lives together you enter a whole new stage of life.

I am not talking about babies yet - but that will play a part in the future if that is what you both agree upon. I am talking about just getting used to the fact that you are now married and phrases like “my husband” are now a big part of your vocabulary. I still feel weird saying “husband” but I am sure it will get more comfortable over time.  Instead of being known as the fiancé,  I am now officially the wife and we both have rings on our fingers to show for it!

Life is going to through you curve balls (being a new married couple) so be prepared to handle them the best way possible. Don’t expect life to change just because your last name did. Always look to the future and remember not to take each other for granted.

Good luck newly married couples! I will continue to write about married life now that I am no longer a bride-to-be, but now a bride I will also continue to share stories and offer advice to brides as my journey continues!

Everyday was a new adventure for us. Since we didn’t pack much luggage, my husband and I did a lot of local shopping on our first day there. Where we live there is not much selection when it comes to summer clothes. So we both needed new swimsuits, tanks tops and just cooler clothing to survive the Hawaii heat. After an afternoon of shopping it was time to hit the beach. It was pretty windy the first day we were there, but we discovered a beach that was protected from the wind and stayed there the rest of the day. On Thursday we rented a cabana in Kaanapali. Cabanas are great because they protect you from the sun and heat. On Friday we spent the day relaxing and then that evening we went to a Matt Costa concert at the Hard Rock cafe in Lahaina. The concert was great and since we were newlyweds we ended up winning concert tickets to Ziggy Marley for that Sunday. Saturday we spent the day snorkeling at Makena beach, also known as turtle beach. At turtle beach we saw at least 10 turtles - it was pretty cool! On Sunday we went to Ziggy Marley concert - which was an all day event. Monday morning was one of my favorite days in Maui. I learned how to surf for the first time. Surfing by far is one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. I never knew I would not only be able to get up on a surfboard, but also stay up on a surfboard! On Tuesday I was so sore that I had to take the day off from surfing, but I was able to take pictures of my husband surfing. For our last full day in Maui we decided to go to Lahaina for the day. We did a little more shopping and then we had happy hour at Moose McGillycuddy’s.  After that we spent the evening shopping and then we went to a nice dinner.

I did not want to leave my Maui honeymoon! In fact when it was time to leave I had to convince myself that our honeymoon was over and reality was waiting for us back in the states. If you are undecided about where to spend your honeymoon – Maui gets my vote!!!!