10 Secrets to a Successful Stress-Free Wedding

Your wedding is supposed to be the most important day in a your life, and yet for many, just getting there in one piece is harder than fitting stilettos on an elephant. Why is it so difficult? The biggest problem is stress and how the interplay of all the different participants at your wedding adds or subtract from that stress. Here are some wedding ideas to have a truly successful and happy wedding.

Scientists use the term HOMEOSTASIS (homeo = the same; stasis = standing) to define the physiological limits within which the body functions efficiently and comfortably. Stress disturbs homeostasis by creating a state of imbalance. The Lord knows how easily some people can cause us imbalance. Well, the secret of all of this is that, if we know how difficult it is to change ourselves, we must then take for granted that we are not going to be able to change others, especially between now and the wedding date. So what can we do to make or create STASISHOMEO "the ability to maintain the same mental condition we enjoy now on the day of your wedding" (LOL)?

The all time stress-o-meter gives the following scores to different stress events in our lives:

Event Stress Score

Death of spouse 100

Divorce 73

Marital separation 65

Jail term 63

Death of a close relative 63

Personal injury or illness 53

Marriage / partnership commitment 50

Loss of job 47

Retirement 45

Illness in family 44

Sexual problems 39

Childbirth 39

Change in finances 38

Death of a close friend 37

Change of job 36

Taking out a mortgage or loan 31

Mortgage foreclosure 30

Increased responsibilities 29

Offspring leaves home 29

Fight with in-laws 29

I don't know girls, but I think that a fight with the boss rates right up there with marriage.

The first thing we must do is to be able to recognize stress in others and ourselves. Stress management involves four main tasks:

ü Recognize and understand the signs of stress.

ü Identify and understand the sources of stress.

ü Learn to manage controllable sources of stress.

ü Learn to support yourself and cope with stress reactions to 

situations beyond your control.

Terrific Advice Concerning Destination Weddings As Shared By Two Gurus On The Topic

Today Norm Goldman, Editor of Sketchandtravel.com & Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as a guest, Denise and Alan Fields, authors of BRIDAL BARGAINS and the BRIDAL PASSPORT WEDDING PLANNER. Both are in bookstores nationwide or you can order online at WINDSORPEAK.COM.

The Fields have been featured on the TODAY SHOW, OPRAH and DATELINE NBC.

Thanks Denise and Alan for accepting our invitation to be interviewed.

Norm:

Please tell our readers how you started writing about weddings and why did you want to write about this subject matter?

Denise and Alan:

We began writing in 1989 as we were planning our own wedding; yep, we are still married today. As two starving college students in Austin, Texas, we quickly realized planning a wedding was a darn expensive endeavour. We wanted to know how to save money but still have a nice wedding without getting ripped off. We heard the horror stories from our friends and decided the world needed a consumer's guide to tying the knot. Bridal Bargains, our first wedding book, was the result of that effort it was first published in 1990 and now is in its 7th edition, with 500,000 copies sold. Our latest book, the Bridal Passport wedding planner (the Dollars & Sense Guide to Planning a Wedding) was published in December 2004.

Norm:

What in your opinion makes for a wonderful and unique wedding experience, where everyone would be left with fond memories? As a follow up, do you have to spend a great deal of money to have such a memorable experience?

Denise and Alan:

Think about the best weddings you have ever attended and what made them so memorable? Chances are it was a FUN event first and foremost. That might have been a combination of several factors, a unique setting, a great band, and so on. Focus on those factors when planning your own wedding. Conversely, realize there are many parts of a wedding that are expensive, but contribute little to the fun aspect of a wedding flowers, for example.

No, you don't have to go bankrupt to plan a memorable wedding! Yes, you may have to make a series of trade-offs to pull it off, but you can save and still have a fantastic wedding. Example: instead of a fancy downtown hotel, you can rent a historic home*that lets you bring in your own caterer. That enables you to hold the total cost down, way under what the hotel would charge. The key: you save money in ways your guests don't see. A bottle of house wine from a hotel might be $50; that same bottle from a wholesale club like Sam's or Costco would run $10. Do you guests know the difference? No.

A destination wedding is another great way to save and you have a special setting for your wedding, without all the cost of a domestic affair.

Planning a Wedding That Doesn't Kill Your Budget or Your Relationship

If you're planning a wedding and you're concerned about your wedding budget, there are several ways to save. The keys to successfully planning a budget-conscious wedding are having the abilities to be creative, flexible, and opportunistic.

Think of this scenario: You wake up in the middle of the night with a craving for ice cream. All grocery stores are closed, so you run through the options in your head. You can go to the all-night convenience store or coffee shop and pay a premium price for this craving or you can settle for the granola bar in the back of your pantry. Then the thought occurs that you could have planned ahead while grocery shopping earlier that week and had your ice cream at a fair price. The same shopping options exist for every part of your wedding. Do you pay premium prices? Do you plan ahead? Or do you simply do without? There are no wrong answers, but planning ahead can almost always offer the most bang for the bucks.

The key trick in saving money for your wedding is flexibility. Think about your wedding date. It's probably a mild Saturday evening in late Spring or early Fall. I'm no Nostradamus, it's just a fact that the vast majority of couples choose the same dates for their weddings. You can slash your overall wedding costs significantly by changing your wedding date away from Saturday evenings in May, June, September, or October. Go crazy and avoid Saturdays altogether and have a raging Friday night wedding or a relaxing Sunday afternoon wedding. You might not think these date/time adjustments matter, but vendors' schedules are much less likely to be full on a Sunday afternoon in August or a Friday night in March. This availability can translate into staggering deals if you shop around. I've seen $10,000-$15,000 weddings (combined vendor cost) reduced to $2,000-$3,000 with every component of the wedding staying exactly the same, including the venue. The difference? An 11am ceremony time on a Saturday in June versus a 5pm wedding the EXACT SAME DAY. An unexpected perk to avoiding Saturday evenings goes to your guests who can now plan a weekend after your Friday night bash or before the Sunday nuptials. That Saturday night wedding breaks everyone's weekend in half. Having schedule flexibility is huge for all vendors, but specific savings can also be found for each part of your big day.

Wedding venues: The venue is usually the costliest of the wedding investments, but that only means it is also the biggest opportunity to save money. If you want elegance, maybe avoid the country clubs and golf courses and find a shady park or beach and spend a fraction of your budget on elegant tables, string lighting, and candle-lit centerpieces. If you're quirky and fun, bypass a regular venue and rent an old theater or local art gallery. Think outside the box. Depending on the size of your guest list, you can find venues that aren't considered traditional, but will more than fit your needs. Private residences and local restaurants might fit your needs perfectly. With any non-traditional venue, be sure to get all the details. Some places may require additional insurance or have restrictions on attendance, food/drink, etc, so be sure to be thorough in your interviews. If you are looking for a traditional venue, many times finding a location that can host both the wedding and reception is ideal. For both convenience and cost, this option almost always is preferable to separate locations. If you opt for a church wedding, keep in mind th`t some churches offer weddings a low or even no cost. Call around and you might find a great deal

Buy Wedding Jewelery Only After Keeping Your Wedding Party in Consideration

Are your feet well taken care of? In such a case, you can buy a pair of wedding sandals instead of wedding shoes. Stylish sandals with open toe or open back, trimmed with rhinestone are today the choice of many young brides-to-be. Sometimes these shoes are adorned with fake pearls, crystal or beads. They can also be decorated with seashells, silk-flowers or ribbons. Their heels may be stiletto, or may be of medium height or even flat. However, one thing is sure; they are generally as comfortable to wear, as they are pretty to look at. Be particular about caring your feet by preferring wedding sandals instead of wedding shoes if you feel uncomfortable. Most young brides-to-be enjoy stylish sandals that come with open toe or open back. They are properly trimmed with rhinestone. In some cases fake pearls, crystal or beads are used to decorate shoes for beautification. Seashells, silk-flowers and ribbons too are used to decoration. Usually heels of such shoes are designed stiletto, medium height or flat depending upon choice. They are best to wear like their designs. Ensure that your feet are properly cared. Preferring to buy a pair of wedding sandals on wedding shoes can be best. These sandals are stylish having excellent open toe and open back features and are trimmed with rhinestone. They have become ultimate choice of many young brides-to-be nowadays. Often fake pearls, crystal or beads are used to decorate them. Similarly seashells, silk-flowers or ribbons are other unique decorating options. Such shoes are designed with stiletto, medium height or flat heels. Most importantly they are excellent to wear comfortably while their look too remains amazing.

If on the other hand, if you have never used a stiletto, but chosen one for your wedding, you can never hope to go through the occasion as dignified as you wish to do. Imagine yourself walking down the aisle in slow steps with the veil trailing behind you and bridesmaids with flowers in their hands all around you. Then suddenly you have a fall! It was not because the wedding shoes were defective, but because you were not used to them! Suppose you aren't used to stiletto earlier and choose it for wedding then you can't enjoy these excellent moments as nothing look dignified due to odd selection. Feel the importance of this moment of life in which you slowly walk down the aisle while having veil trailed behind where bridesmaids keep flowers in hand and join you in assistance. Things go smoothly and suddenly you fall that surprise many. Such incidence may occur due to wrong selection of wedding shoes rather than due to any defect. May be you are one of those not accustomed to stiletto earlier and ironically select one for wedding ceremony. If such is your decision then you won't enjoy best moments of wedding time due to absence of dignified sense. Feel the worst situation that may occur when you have just started walking down the aisle slowly with trailed veil whereas bridesmaids accompany you with flowers in their hands. All of a sudden you fall flat. Who would be responsible for this worst situation? It is obviously wrong selection of shoes rather than blaming the pair of shoes for being defective.

Choosing a Wedding Photographer For LDS Weddings and For LDS Receptions

After months of planning, your temple wedding day seems to happen in the blink of an eye and then it's all over. We are so lucky to live in an age where we can document dding Photographer for LDS Weddings every minute of the wedding day with wedding pictures. The fleeting memories of the wedding day are captured in photographs that we can look back on, year after year. Because youe LDS Temple wedding pictures are what will last long after the ceremony and reception are over, it's important to get it right. No matter where or when your wedding takes place, preserving those memories in pictures is vitally important.

If you have the funds to hire a professional, then you probably want to spring for one. Hiring a professional wedding photographer generally gives you access to better camera equipment and a more experienced photographer and crew. Many professionals will also include additional services like air bushing photos or compiling the prints in a high-quality engraved wedding album when they're finished. Even though the sticker shock may give you heart palpitations at first, realize that wedding photography is a very specialized art. You're paying for more than just a handful of pictures. A professional photographer carries his or her experience from shooting hundreds of previous weddings and knows how to make yours the very best yet. The wedding pictures taken by your photographer will last forever, so you want to do everything in your power to secure a good photographer who you trust to handle your LDS wedding.

On the web,there are websites with wonderful tools for planning LDS Weddings for researching and selecting professional wedding photographers quickly and conveniently without picking up the phone or leaving your home. Use our vendor directory to look at thumbnails of work of several photographers in your local LDS Temple area. Seeing the portfolio of a photographer's work is extremely important. Different photographers have very different styles of wedding photography. Some are more traditional and like to shoot "portraits" of wedding party members as they pose and smile for the camera; others avoid staging shots and prefer to capture the spontaneous moments of the wedding on film as they unfold. Neither approach is better or more professional, just different.

Choosing the Perfect Photographer For Your LDS Wedding and Reception

After months of planning, your wedding day seems to happen in the blink of an eye and then it's all over. We are so lucky to live in an age where we can document every minute of the wedding day with wedding pictures. The fleeting memories of the wedding day are captured in photographs that we can look back on, year after year. Because the wedding pictures are what will last long after the ceremony and reception are over, it's important to get it right. No matter where or when your wedding takes place, preserving those memories in pictures is vitally important.

If you have the funds to hire a professional, then you probably want to spring for one. Hiring a professional wedding photographer generally gives you access to better camera equipment and a more experienced photographer and crew. Many professionals will also include additional services like air bushing photos or compiling the prints in a high-quality engraved wedding album when they're finished. Even though the sticker shock may give you heart palpitations at first, realize that wedding photography is a very specialized art. You're paying for more than just a handful of pictures. A professional photographer carries his or her experience from shooting hundreds of previous weddings and knows how to make yours the very best yet. The wedding pictures taken by your photographer will last forever, so you want to do everything in your power to secure a good photographer who you trust to handle your LDS wedding.

It is very important for the LDS bride and groom to do extensive for researching and selecting professional wedding photographers. The internet provides a great set of resources to quickly and conveniently without picking up the phone or leaving your home. Use our vendor directory to look at thumbnails of work of several photographers in your local temple area. Seeing the portfolio of a photographer's work is extremely important. Different photographers have very different styles of wedding photography. Some are more traditional and like to shoot "portraits" of wedding party members as they pose and smile for the camera; others avoid staging shots and prefer to capture the spontaneous moments of the wedding on film as they unfold. Neither approach is better or more professional, just different.

Planning Your Memorable Wedding

He has asked for your hand in marriage and you have finally said, "Yes." Wow what a fantastic feeling, as this is the start of your new life as a couple. After the celebrations have subsided and all your family and friends have showered you with congratulations and prior to that much awaited big day, both of you have so many decisions to make and wedding related tasks to complete in harmony.

Planning in advance of what you need to do for your wedding day is the answer to stress free preparing for your wedding day. As planning your wedding together should be so much fun, enjoyable and equally as memorable as your big day. So your starting point should be both of you putting together a wedding timetable and assigning responsibility for each aspect of this timetable to each other - sharing is caring. What I am going to give you is a short list of wedding related tasks as well as a rough estimate of when the activities should be done. I will present you with tips and guidelines to keep you organized and help you think of everything that you must take into consideration in the course of planning for your wonderful memorable Wedding day. These are mere suggestions which should help you to adapt the correct mindset and get you organised. I find it is always better to have suggestions to work from as opposed to a blank sheet so my suggestions will help you both agree on the perfect schedule of activities that you both need to decide on - depending on your priorities.

Let me start at the Time of the Engagement - What ever you do don't forget to tell both parents first cause forgetting to do that would get you both off to a slow start. So you must tell your parents the happy news as soon as possible.

- A wedding planner is a great idea and not that expensive, especially when you consider a good experienced wedding planner can find everything you require for your wedding at the right price which could result in saving you lots of money. The wedding planner is also great for helping you keep track of all the appointments, payments and other wedding related activities that you must attend to.

- No doubt you had your photo taken at the time of the engagement well that is a great idea and a great keepsake. If you did not have it taken on the day then go to a professional photographer and get it taken by him/her and yes while you are there check the photographer out for your own wedding day.