Name Change Advice

Looking for name change advice or some tips for newlywed life? The MissNowMrs experts have created state-specific name change articles and checklists for you. We’ve chronicled our recommendations for how to travel while changing your name AND how to handle voting during the transition.

We’ve also compiled our best guidance for how to handle difficult sister in laws, holidays as newlyweds, the ever-annoying baby questions, and much more. Why? Because, while we are name change experts, we’re also newlywed wives, moms, and sisters.

We hope our name change advice articles help smooth your transition to your new name, and a whole new phase of life. Congratulations and best wishes from the entire MissNowMrs team!

Top 5 Wedding Flowers

Curious what the the Top 5 Wedding Flowers are for brides across America? We’ve compiled a list of the blooms most frequently found in a bridal bouquet for you. Use this information to follow the current flower trends or to make sure that you are completely unique and avoid using any of them!
1. Roses – Not too surprising as they’re a traditional romantic mainstay that both look nice & smell lovely
2. Tulips – Reminders of spring that come in hundreds of hues certain to compliment any wedding color palette
3. Peonies – These large blooming beauties call to mind English garden parties & add a perfumed note to the air
4. Orchids – Elegant, interesting & usually expensive (unless you’re doing a destination wedding in Hawaii)
5. Calla Lilies – Refined flowers that dress up any bouquet or centerpiece that they’re included in

Are you putting hours of planning into your bouquet or did you create the perfect collection of posies for your Big Day? If so, our October Giveaway of a custom 11″ x 14″ shadowbox floral keepsake (a $460+ value) is perfect for you! Keepsake Floral, the Nation’s leader in special event flower preservation will create a custom-crafted work of art that you will treasure for years to come!

Want to win our outstanding October giveaway? Leave a comment on this, or any of our floral keepsake posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win! Tell us all about the flowers in your bouquet, if they have special meanings or significance. The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on October 31st!! If we don’t hear back from the winner within 2 weeks, we will randomly select a new winner to make sure someone ends up with this great goodie!

Flower popularity information for our Top 5 Wedding Flowers list was found on EpisodeWedding.com

Football Sunday Fun-days Had By All

Heard of football Sunday fun-days? Are you a guy’s guy—meaning do you enjoy anything football related? Does your partner share your enthusiasm for the sport? I’ll bet that if she doesn’t you secretly wish that she did so you could watch the game(s) in peace every weekend (or at least once in a while)! Although there are some lucky couples that truly enjoy watching the game together and cheering for their favorite team; it’s not the norm. We’re hoping to change that for you with the following newlywed tips, so this Sunday you can enjoy every minute of the game uninterrupted by a nagging spouse!

Co-host a party: That’s right, I said party! Women love to be the perfect hostess and entertain guests. Perhaps if you say, “Hey honey, I was thinking we could have our friends over this weekend for the game. What do you think?” She will appreciate you considering what she wants to do and will most-likely say, “Great! I’ve been dying to make homemade chili and my buffalo chicken dip.” Maybe not in those words, but she will happily accept the challenge of hosting a get-together with friends (especially if other females will be there too). Here are some tailgating tips and recipes you might want to try!

Tell her to invite her girlfriends over: They could enjoy a glass (or three—wink, wink) of wine while discussing the latest trends in fashion, fitness or whatever suits them and you won’t have to miss a single play of the big game!

If all else fails, buy her a gift card to the spa or 2 tickets to the new chick flick so she and her BFF can enjoy the movie together while you celebrate every touchdown and sip on a few beers! Click here for the NFL schedule. Tell us how you enjoy your football Sundays…together or separate. If separate, what does your most special lady do while you watch the game?

5 Secrets to Separate Work From Play

Looking for the secrets to separate work from play? If you look like this during the workday, it’s quite possible that you’re bringing home a great deal of stress with you each evening. This stress can show up as muscle aches, a bad mood, headaches or difficulty sleeping. Nobody wants to come home to a cranky spouse, especially as a newlywed…so here are a few ways to help you separate work from play!

Rock Out On Your Commute – Create a playlist or CD of songs for your ride home from work. The songs should be high energy to help you vent your work emotions.
Write a List – Making a list of tomorrow’s to-do’s before you leave the office can help you stop thinking about work when you’re at home. While you’re writing the list, mentally acknowledge that your work day is done and you cannot do anything on your list until you go into work the next morning. This should allow you to relax and move into enjoying your evening.
Break a Sweat – Schedule a trip to the gym before you go home. Pumping iron or engaging in heart-pounding cardio is a fantastic way to forget about office woes. The bonus: endorphins will automatically make you feel better after a work-out and you’ll go home a happy newlywed!
Breathe Deeply – Give meditation a try. Project-meditation.org is a great resource to get you started. If the idea of trying to meditate just stresses you out, try lighting a lavender scented candle when you get home and let the aroma relax you.
Make Out- The next time you’re having a tough day at work, say hello to your honey at the end of the day with a full blown make-out session. After a few kisses I guarantee that you won’t be worried about the quarterly report that’s due next week!

Can you share any of your secrets to separate work from play? We’d love to hear your solutions, so please leave a comment!

Newlyweds: 6 Tips to Bring Your Marriage Back to Life

Do you need a few tips to bring your marriage back to life? There are so many responsibilities in life that keep piling on your plate as you grow up, and may begin to interfere with your “alone” time with your spouse. Schedules can be so hectic that your marriage unintentionally is put on the back burner, causing frustration and tension to grow between the two of you, and your daily schedules may naturally become somewhat of a routine, and you simply go through the motions. If you have transitioned into parenthood, then you surely know that your life becomes kid-centric, as your attention, your emotion, and your everyday activities are focused on your little one now rather than each other.

If you’re experiencing this, you’re not alone, but the important thing is to recognize when your lifestyle is hurting your marriage, and then do something about it! Just as all things in life, it’s good to find a ‘healthy balance’ in all that you do.

Here are a few ideas to help keep your marriage alive and healthy:

*Surprise your spouse- who doesn’t love a surprise?! Sneak a note in your spouse’s lunch, or their brief case, just letting them know how much they are appreciated and loved!

*For parents – have a dinner date one night a week (after the kids are in bed) to relax together and enjoy one another’s company. Not a parent yet? You and your spouse could go out on a date once a week or as your schedules and budgets allow. Try going to a movie or dinner at your favorite restaurant.

*Day time chat- if you don’t normally communicate with your spouse during the work day, call, text, or write a quick email just to let the other one know that although you’re busy, you are still thinking of them, and while you’re at it you may want to even throw in some naughty comments that you wouldn’t say in front of the kiddos (however, keep the freaky emails to your personal email account, not your work email—otherwise you could find yourself in the HR Office or worse)!
*PDA’s – need I say more?

*Go for a walk with your spouse and hold hands. You will both benefit from the exercise, the physical connection and the uninterrupted adult conversation that distractions such as children, TV, internet, blackberries, iphones, etc. don’t permit!

*Think about what the two of you would do when you first got together…do it again! Sure you’re older and wiser, but you’re still a couple in-love…now show each other (and have some fun doing it)!
What have you done to rekindle your relationship? Our readers would love to know your tips and tricks to a happy and healthy relationship, so please leave a comment.

The Hidden Meaning In Your Wedding Bouquet

What’s the hidden meaning in your wedding bouquet? Bridal bouquets are the epitome of what your wedding was or will be like. Some are big, pink and covered in crystals, while others are fashioned out of twigs and tiny wildflowers. Have you ever wondered if there was a deeper meaning to your bouquet?

In fact, there is! Every flower has a meaning that was assigned during the Victorian era so sweethearts could communicate their innermost feelings via blossoms instead of words.

We’ve decoded our founder’s wedding bouquet, and here’s what we found:

Hydrangea – Understanding
Lily of the Valley – Happiness
Peonies – Ambition & Determination
Cala Lily – Purity

Not too bad for a few flowers chosen out of magazines! If you’d like to decode your wedding bouquet or even plan the flowers for it specifically, check out this article on The Knot.

Now that you know the hidden meaning of your wedding flowers, our October Giveaway of a custom 11″ x 14″ shadowbox floral keepsake (a $460+ value) is that much better! There’s no better way to preserve your bouquet, than trusting it to Keepsake Floral, the Nation’s leader in special event flower preservation. They will create a custom-crafted work of art you will treasure for years to come!

Overjoyed to win our outstanding October giveaway? Leave a comment on this, or any of our floral keepsake posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Tell us all about the flowers in your bouquet, if they have special meanings or significance.

The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on October 31^st!! If we don’t hear back from the winner within 2 weeks, we will randomly select a new winner to make sure someone ends up with this great giveaway!

**If you tweet this giveaway by clicking the retweet button below, you’ll receive an additional contest entry!**