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
According to the flower girl dictates, she walks down the aisle in front of the bride and the bridesmaid at the wedding. They have held an important place in wedding and till today they continue to do so. These girls have also symbolized fertility at the nuptial union and have melt most hearts with their innocent and angel looks. There is no doubt she is the sweetest and youngest guest at the wedding. Apart from dropping flower petals in front of the bride, a flower girl performs other duties as well.
Although the bridal fashion has come a long way, but flower girls dress did not change a lot. Even though it is not necessary, but most brides select her dress similar to hers. This is mainly done to create a miniature version of her. This is really a great thing, but above all the girl’s dress depends entirely on her comfort level. Apart from the bride, the flower girl’s parents also choose the dress and accessories. It is usually a tea-length dress along with a satin bow or white bonnet. She carries a beautiful bouquet and a flower basket.
Now coming to the duties performed by the cute little flower girl. There are a couple of duties which the girl needs to perform during the wedding. Traditionally, the girl walks behind the ring bearer down the aisle and moves to the maid of honor. But along with this, it is also acceptable that she walks ahead of the bride and drop flower petals and grains on the floor from the basket. The main task is to look good while walking down the aisle. The girl also attends the rehearsal which helps her know the duties. This even helps to reduce her anxiety on the big day.
After performing her task, she can either stand or sit with her relatives throughout the wedding ceremony. The bride decides what works best for the girl. After the wedding, the flower girl once again walks up to the aisle to the maid of honor. Along with these duties, the flower girl also appears in the family portrait with the bride. This is also an important part of the duty and it can either take place before or after the wedding.
Now coming to the bride, the bride makes sure she prepares the girl just like her miniature version. Due to this reason, in most cases, the bride selects her gown and gives her a similar look like her, at the wedding. The bride also introduces her to the guests at the end of the ceremony.
Most brides look forward to choosing their wedding cake as this experience seems like it could easily turn into their favorite part of the wedding planning. However, even with that seemingly simple and fun task, there are some things you need to take into account.
1. Design
It’s best to start considering what you’d like as soon as you’ve chosen your venue and the style of the wedding. You can think of a design by yourself or use wedding photographs in magazines or on Pinterest as inspiration. The cake’s design should complement the design of the whole occasion. For formal weddings, for example, the cake design implies something ceremonial and grand – usually a structured, multitier cake.
2. Flavor
Narrowing down the flavor options for the cake can actually help you choose the design, as well. Traditional cake layers are white or yellow, but you can easily tailor your cake to the reception menu. You can add fillings such as whipped cream, chocolate fudge or lemon curd to bring in more flavor.
3. Finding the right baker
Choosing the best baker to make your cake is in fact as vital as choosing the design or flavor. You can ask them for samples, portfolios or photos of previous cakes. Your baker will know how to select and combine the ingredients to achieve the best results. For instance, almond cakes go well with berries or other delicate fruits. If you’d like to pair your cake with flowers, your baker can tell you which one are edible.
4. Arrange for a cake-testing
You need to make sure that you love the taste of the cake before the day of the wedding. You can arrange for a tasting before the cake is ordered to make sure that it tastes exactly as it should. Even basic tastes, such as chocolate or vanilla depend on how the cake is made. Arrange for a cake-testing before the big day – it will save you a lot of worries and troubles!
If you need help with planning your wedding or you’re looking for inspiration on how to make your big day perfect – check out http://www.bestforbride.com/.
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