Olga is manager at Best for Bride since 2005. Currently Best for Bride operates 4 bridal stores in Canada (Toronto, Etobicoke, Hamilton and Barrie). Best for Bride sells wedding, bridemaids, mob dresses and more. https://www.bestforbride.com/
Okay, so you’ve finally settled on a date for your wedding and booked the venue you’ve been dreaming about ever since you first slipped on your engagement ring. Now it’s time to decide on the perfect wedding invitations. Invitations do more than just invite people and provide them details on your upcoming nuptials, but can set the tone for your wedding. And since you’ll probably keep one in your wedding book, it’s going to become a valuable keepsake for you and your husband one day.
But with so many options to choose from, your head is spinning as you try and narrow it down to your Top 10. To relieve some of your stress, here are some helpful hints to help make choosing the best wedding invitations easier!
You finally did it! You picked out your perfect wedding dress, allowing for plenty of time to have it ordered in your size and shipped in time for your wedding. Then it hits you: this will be MONTHS from now and with all the upcoming pre-wedding celebrations, how can you be sure that the size ordered will still be suitable when it arrives?
No need to panic. These tips from our Registered Dietitian, Anna Gofeld, will help you make sure that dress fits even more beautifully on your wedding day than the day you fell in love with it.
Getting married is exciting! You not only get to tell the love of your life that you want to spend the rest of your life with them, but you get to have a big party to prove it, along with several smaller ones.
While you’re focused on putting together the perfect big day, you are probably having a few pre-wedding celebrations as well. Regardless of their size, the one thing most gatherings have in common is FOOD.
Eating together to celebrate is a cornerstone for gatherings of any culture, with alcohol often also added to the mix. Between the engagement party, bridal shower, bachelorette, and wedding food tastings, many brides struggle to keep their dress size in check for their big day.
Here are 3 tips that will help you fit into that wonderful dress you ordered, months later:
1) Avoid Stress Eating and Drinking
Many people turn to food and drink when they are stressed out, often craving sweets and refined carbohydrates (carbs). This a stress response rooted in our biology. When we eat carbs and sugars, our brain releases a chemical called serotonin, which improves mood and induces calmness.
Alcohol also has a calming effect, as it changes the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain to decrease the response of nerve cells.
However, the long-term consequences of poor eating habits and excess alcohol consumption far outweigh their short-term benefits. Refined carbs and sugars—including sweet cocktails—increase the body’s production of insulin, often followed by a sugar crash and a renewed feeling of hunger. This is a double whammy, as insulin is a fat storing hormone and the sugar crash causes an even greater intake of calories. As well, keep in mind that alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, which is almost as much as a gram of fat.
Instead, aim for a balanced plate that includes half vegetable, a quarter complex carbohydrates, and a quarter lean proteins. This will help balance out your calories, as well as ensure you are getting a good range of nutrients in your diet. If you choose to consume alcohol, do so in moderation, with no more than 2 standard drinks on most days and even less whenever possible, as alcohol can really pack on the pounds and interfere with vitamin absorption. Remember that 1 standard drink is equal to 12oz of 5% beer/cider/cooler or 5oz of 12% wine or 1.5oz of 40% spirits, while your glass may hold more than that.
2) Don’t use food as reward
After checking a few big things off your seemingly never ending to do list, it is often tempting to reward yourself with a nice dinner or a yummy treat. This is often a learned response, especially if your parents used food as a reward when you were younger. Over time, our brain connects accomplishment with food treats and we end up reaching for those “sometimes” foods more often than we should. This can add up over time. For example, if you reward yourself with a Starbucks grande white chocolate mocha made with 2% milk (no whip cream) and peanut butter cookie once per week, that will equate to 880 calories per week, which adds up to 13 lbs per year.
Instead of rewarding yourself with food, think of new creative ways to pat yourself on the back. Go for a manicure, buy a new shirt, play a board game with your partner, or just take some time to relax with a good book or craft activity.
If your partner likes to spoil you with chocolates and yummy things, encourage them to be your ally by getting you things like a card or flowers instead.
3) Stick to the 90/10 rule
In life, it is nearly impossible to have perfect eating habits. Particularly when things get hectic and the number of social gatherings increases, some less desirable food choices are bound to happen. This is perfectly fine, but needs to be planned out in order to avoid excess weight gain.
Enter the 90/10 rule of eating: 90% of the time you are eating healthy and 10% of the time you allow yourself to have less desirable food choices. For someone who eats 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, this roughly translates to 2 less healthy meals and 1 less healthy snack per week.
This allows for increased food choice flexibility and a break from the constant meal vigilance that causes most people to give up the health habits they are working on. The most important thing is to get right back to healthy choices at the next eating occasion and ensure that this provisional rule doesn’t become too flexible.
Wishing you great health and good food,
Anna Gofeld, RD, M.A.N., BASc
Owner of Eat Well Anna – annagofeld.com
Registered Dietitian
Masters of Applied Nutrition
BASc Nutrition and Food
Anna Gofeld is a web-based registered dietitian (RD) from Toronto. Using a lifestyle management approach, she helps individuals develop skills and healthy habits that are sustainable for life, allowing for maintenance of optimal health for years to come.
For more information about Anna and her services please visit annagofeld.com
If you’re in the midst of planning a destination wedding you probably have already figured out that finding the right photographer can be a pain in the butt. It is always hard to book vendors in a location where you don’t actually live, as most want to meet face- to -face with you before your wedding day. The first step in tackling this necessary chore is to determine whether you are more interested in hiring an independent photographer or a photography studio.
An independent wedding videographer will likely have more freedom to meet your needs than one who has to answer to someone else. They usually work closely with their colleagues and can often give you more personalized services than you would get from a large photography studio. You will also generally be able to work out an agreement with an independent photographer that you may not be able to get otherwise, especially when it comes to shots and poses that are not standard in wedding photography.
In any case an independent photographer will likely ask you to pay their travel expenses in order to get to and from your wedding destination. If you really want to make sure you click with the photographer you are hiring (and this is always important) it may be worth it for you to travel to them or them to travel to you for a face-to-face meeting. Just be aware of the fact that independent photographers often charge a higher rate for their services than a large photography studio would. This is because they can set their own rate and that usually means they are in demand so you might have no luck negotiating for the lowest deal possible.
We all know that a destination wedding is expensive, so if you are trying to cut costs in other aspects of your planning you will likely be better off hiring a photography studio. Most offer a few choices of basic photography packages but do allow you to come up with a customized package that meets both your needs and your budget. However, most photography studios have a list of the poses they will photograph and you may be forced to stick with that list.
The larger the studio you work with is the less likely you will get any real one on one time with your photographer before your wedding day. This can cause problems if you end up with a photographer that makes you uncomfortable, produces poor results or annoys your guests.
If you have no choice but to hire a photography studio it is important to see examples of their work from each photographer on staff if possible. The last thing you want to do is end up with wedding pictures that don’t properly capture the beauty of your big day.
For more tips on finding the right photographer for a destination wedding or any other type of wedding check out BestforBride.com. The smartest brides believe in Best for Bride.
You don’t need a lot of money to plan a beautiful and elegant wedding! In fact, you can still plan the wedding of your dreams on a budget. Many brides make the mistake of going over budget because they fall in love with an idea and want it no matter how much it costs. If you’re determined to stay on budget and even come in under, here are a few money-savings tips to keep in mind as you’re planning your wedding:
1. Choose an off day
Everybody chooses a Saturday for their wedding, but did you know that by having a Friday or Sunday wedding, that you can save almost 30% or more? Many venues offer steep discounts for having functions on off days, so why be like everyone else? Change things up and have your wedding on a different day, which will say you in the end.
Having a sit down formal dinner can end up costing you more in the end, so if you’re trying to make budget, why not try a buffet style? This way, your guests can get up and mingle with each other and pick out food options that they want. Also, opt for chicken rather than beef and go with seasonal veggies since those choices are usually less expensive.
3. Trim the guest list
It’s understandable that you’d want to invite everyone you know to share in the joy of your wedding, but if you’re trying to save money, you’ll have to trim the guest list a bit to only those that you actually want there. If you have friends you’ve never seen or family that doesn’t come around anymore, axe them from your guest list. Also, let your parents know that space is limited and they can’t invite all their own friends no matter how much you’d like to extend them an invitation.
If you still want a designer dress, but don’t want to pay a designer price tag, research for sample sales in your area. You’ll be able to get amazing brand name dresses for nearly a fraction of the original cost! Just make sure that you examine the dress for any defects since you can’t usually return sample sale items. Or, go to a bridal boutique and ask to see their sale dresses. Most of the time, they’re from last season and still just as beautiful as this season’s styles.
Flowers that in season are less expensive than those that aren’t, which have to be imported. Also, roses and carnations are always inexpensive options that are beautiful and will look great in your bouquet or center pieces.
Best for Bride has everything a bride needs to make her special day amazing! With prices that will fit every bride’s budget, our store offers brides a complete solution so that they don’t need to go anywhere else. We offer everything from dresses, flowers, invites and more, making it a one-stop bridal shop!
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