After a year of planning details, hiring caterers and interviewing bands, disc jockeys, and surveying wedding halls and churches, you are going to be either completely exhausted or totally focused. In either case, the last day of your wait, which is the day before your wedding, you have 24 hours to wrap up the details and take care of a few commitments. However, the biggest challenge you now face is getting some rest, you are going to need it.

The last day before your wedding is usually reserved for beauty treatments such as hair and make-up prep, nails and for final rehearsals. With any luck, you have worn and broken in those shoes you are going to be standing in for eight to ten hours tomorrow. If not, today is your last chance to get them worn so you know what to expect from them. You have a long day tomorrow, which means you have a lot to do today.

Don’t Forget to Breathe The big day is coming faster than you can prepare for it and you are so stressed out you could light a match…just by looking at it. Pre-wedding stress can be a royal pain in the wallet as well as the heart and there is no worry worse than one that involves money. You have planned a wonderful wedding and reception but more things have seemingly gone wrong than right. You have heard that wedding planning is supposed to be fun but by now, that is just a vague rumor and you know the truth. If this sounds familiar and you are still planning your wedding…, STOP! Do not forget to breathe.

Choosing Your State of Mind Wedding stress is natural and is sometimes hard to deal with. It is also fun and a wonderful experience. Which one of these you get the most out of is completely up to you. If you are in a frenzied, ready to pull your hair out and then start on someone else, very stressed out mode and you are just weeks from the big day it is time for a breather because this kind of state is the last frame of mind that you want to be in going into your wedding day. It is okay to let someone else take the reins for a little bit while you gain your composure. Pass smaller but important tasks, like choosing wedding favors, especially unique wedding favors, on to someone you trust. You do not have to do everything yourself.

Many people are still under the impression that once a woman gets married, she has to change her name. While it is true that this is common, the fact is that there are many options available to couples and all should be explored. Here are some other options that are available to couples in the 21st century.

It’s a Guy Thing Most people do not know that it is just as feasible for the man to change his last name to that of the bride’s family. This is rarely done as men tend to think of carrying on their family name and feel a sense of pride when they provide their fathers with a new generation in their lineage. Why is this so important? It is a guy thing. The fact of the matter is, in families who have only one daughter who is marrying into a family with more than one son, using the bride’s family name just makes more sense. Unfortunately, until recent times it has been a predominantly man’s world.

The traditional wedding ceremony is a special and beautiful ritual in its own right. Most people feel no need to alter from the beauty of it and cherish every moment. There are some, however, who feel the need to take that ceremony and make it uniquely their own while others come up with an entirely new one. What you do is up to you and every ceremony that unites two lovers in the bond of matrimony is special. Here are a few tips to make yours special as well. Use these and create a few twists of your own.

Vows by candlelight There are few things so romantic and touching as two people publicly exchanging vows of love and promises of fidelity. It is as romantic a gesture as you will ever make to your spouse. Make that moment even more special with candlelight. When the ceremony reaches this point, have the officiant announce that you have made vows for each other. Have the lights dimmed at this moment and light two big candles. The bride and the groom hold one candle each illuminating just the faces of the couple. Exchanging vows in this way sets a remarkable stunning moment in which the guests can see bride and groom look into each other’s eyes as they speak their love for one another. Intimate moments like these are remembered for a lifetime.

one of the most exhilarating times for a young woman is planning a wedding, whether it’s planning her own or helping a friend plan one. From the dress to the flowers, every detail has to be perfect. One small but important detail that can often be overlooked is the wedding favors! These small trinkets will be mementos for your guests to take home to enjoy, so everyone can remember your special day in the weeks and months to come. Here are ten quick tips to make yours memorable.

If your wedding has a theme, make sure your favors tie into the theme seamlessly! If you’re having a down-home western, consider tiny cowboy hats or boots filled with bubbles or candies. Getting married by the sea? A shell-shaped candle with an ocean scent will remind your guest of the great time they had! As long as the idea remains consistent, the sky is the limit.

You can also use colors to tie your wedding favors together with your ceremony. Try alternating shades of the same color – sky, turquoise, and navy blue, for instance – to provide variety and an eye-pleasing dcor for your guests and your attendants alike. Check fashion magazines to see this seasons “it” colors and decorate accordingly!

Are you planning a wedding and getting ready to tie the knot? Many people find themselves becoming a little bit blue before the big day arrives. It is okay because it is only natural to get a little overwhelmed at the prospect of a big day on the horizon, especially if you have living and dreaming it, and spending the better part of everyday planning for it. It was a big decision to begin with and it is only getting bigger as the days pass. You are probably not the only one going through it right now. Chances are, there are a couple of million grooms and brides to be swelling on it right now, including yours. While it is okay to be experiencing some anxiety, there are a few steps you can take to lessen the severity of it and get yourself back on the right track and into the right frame of mind.

You are planning a wedding and you need some ideas that will make it special and unique but you do not know where to look. Well, if you are looking for ways to make your wedding unique, it will not be unique. In order for you to do something special you only have to look at your heart and what it tells you. Find your inspiration from within and if that does not work, try these ideas on for size and maybe you will be inspired. It is the little things that will make your wedding experience different because it is the little things that people notice the most. A good for instance would be to add little tags everywhere your guest will look that have poems or declarations of love. Even love song titles will stick in your guest’s minds and remind them of how special this occasion really is.

Dedicated to my brother and his wife, who are no longer with us now.

There is a long moment in time as a you, the groom, waits at the alter. This moment seems to be suspended in time. It floats there before him, making him dizzy with anticipation. He is so much in love and on this day, the day they will promise to be together forever, he has only caught glimpses of her. Then suddenly, the moment is broken as she appears at the back of the chapel, holding her proud and beaming father’s arm. She begins to glide over the flower petals toward him and he catches his breathe, he has to because the angelic way she appears in her wedding dress has taken his breathe away.

Your near future Father-in-law gives you a last look that says you had better not hurt his daughter but you do not notice, because you are still enraptured by her beauty, her confidence, her elegant radiance. Suddenly, those decisions that seemed so important just a few weeks before, like whether to get wedding favors or unique wedding favors, are meaningless. They are so far away from you now, like a distant memory, wisping away in a breeze, that you barely remember them.

In today’s world of instant internet access, you can plan an eloquent and expensive wedding or a cheap wedding that looks expensive in much less time then it used to take and with much less effort. It used to be if you wanted to compare prices on say…, a wedding dress, you would have to drive to different parts of your city to different bridal shops and take notes. Now, with everyone and their brother running a website, the information that you need is right at your fingertips.

The average wedding dress costs about fifteen hundred dollars. The price that comes up most often as an average cost quote is $1505.00. With that in mind, you can get a wedding gown off the rack at a discount department store or bridal retailer for between two and four hundred dollars. These are usually cream-colored dresses made from common synthetic materials. They are just a pretty as an expensive dress and only an expert could tell the difference and they would have to examine the dress.

While there are hundreds of decisions to be made when planning a wedding, perhaps none are as fragile and important as choosing a florist to cater to the event. You can simply pick out arrangements and transport them yourself or you can have them delivered. Either way, remember that the flowers in your wedding can make it or break it — so you may want to consider having them catered instead.

Florist catering is a new aspect of the wedding that has broken traditional grounds of supplying the wedding with flowers by actually having an employee of the florist deliver your flowers and ensure their placement, workability within the wedding, and the maintenance throughout. They will even dispose of the unused and unclaimed remains of the day. Having a florist employee on hand to keep the flowers fresh and the arrangements moving from area to area is a sure way to make that part of your wedding a success.