Newlywed Solutions

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!

Win 6 months of Skype Live Group Video Chat & a Web Cam!

Ready to win 6 months of Skype? Exciting news! We have a really fun and functional giveaway this month: a 6 month Skype voucher that allows the winner and up to 9 of her friends to communicate via video chat at the same time!! The folks at Skype are also including a FREETALK Buddy Cam, which plugs into your USB drive for instant video chat!

Think of all the fun things you can do and plan via live video chat with 9 of your gal pals. You can easily overcome the long-distance dilemma of working with a destination wedding coordinator or the bridal party planning with any of your bridesmaids who are out of state. Another fun idea is to plan a virtual happy hour with all of the friends that live too far away to regularly meet up.

With help from the ever-simple Skype, the Bride-to-be will forget about the knots in her stomach and get excited to tie the real one. Group video calling is part of Skype’s new premium subscription ($8.99/month), but only one person on the call has to pay for it (up to 10 people can be on one Skype video call at once).

Brides Can Use Skype to:

Try on her dress for the webcam with her bridesmaids watching from their own homes
Check out how her bridesmaids look in their frocks
Check in with her far-flung wedding planner
Get mom’s opinion on whether those flowers are tasteful or just tacky.
The bridal party can even get together via group video chat to plan the bachelorette party!

Newlyweds Can Use Skype to:

Show off their new house or apartment to out-of-town friends and family
Get instant input on furniture and decorating decisions
Stay connected with their long distance loved ones
Introduce new members of the family…be they pets or babies!!!

Are you ready to keep in touch with all of your long distance friends via live video chat instead of lame old email? Leave a comment on this, or our Skype Group Video Chat posts this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Tell us all about why you should win this amazing giveaway…are you trying to coordinate bridesmaids in 4 states or do you have family that you never get to see in person? The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on July31st!! 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!

**If you tweet this giveaway by clicking the green retweet button below and then post a comment that you tweeted with your twitter handle, you’ll receive an additional contest entry!**

Newlywed Solutions For Juggling Family Celebrations

It’s the beginning of April…time for the panic of realizing that it’s time for juggling family celebrations. For some, the decision is easy and natural, but for most, especially newlyweds, there is a lot of room for hurt feelings and resentment. If you and your spouse are on your way to happily ever after, then both of you must face the realization that with marriage comes compromise and that will become most apparent during holiday celebrations.

Whether an Easter Sunday dinner, Passover or a giant gathering around the Thanksgiving table, holidays are often the setting for the happiest and most memorable moments of childhood. So, it makes complete sense that you’ll feel sad at having to say goodbye to the ways of your childhood in order to make room for an expanding family.

But like it or not, if you want your marriage to have a solid foundation, you will be making holiday compromises very soon. That isn’t to say that you have to bid farewell to the traditions of your family all together. The great thing about holidays is that there are enough to go around. Even if your parents and your in-laws live hundreds or thousands of miles apart, a plan can be made to ensure that some of the customs of your family are experienced even after marriage.

For those who are fortunate enough to have both sets of parents within a near vicinity, the decision making does not have to be so difficult. Even if dinners are scheduled for the same time on the same day, it is possible to dine with one family and share dessert with the other. This can become habit and the parts played can be rotated each year, so both families’ traditions can be welcomed and appreciated.

As for those who have miles separating relatives, the decision may be more difficult, but not impossible. Perhaps your spouse favors his family’s Thanksgiving traditions and you would rather hold onto the Christmastime festivities. In this case spend the first holiday with his or her parents and the second with yours. If this is not the case, then consider cycling. Thanksgiving and Easter with your parents this year and Christmas and New Years with his or hers, but next year those occasions are switched.

The most important thing to remember is that while every couple is different, almost every newlywed makes accommodations around the holidays. Find a routine that works and stick with it so they can be times of celebration, rather than repeated times of stress each year.

What solutions have you come up with to keep both your families happy but also to keep your sanity? Do you cycle, alternate or just have everyone come over to your house? Are your parents or in-laws divorced, causing even more ways to split the holidays? We’d love for you to let us know your solutions for juggling family celebrations in a comment.

Post-Holiday Pep Talk!

Get ready for a post-holiday pep talk! Are you sitting around in a post-holiday daze? Well, snap out of it! Now is the perfect time to bang out all of those projects you meant to do last year. l If you follow our suggestions, you’ll be busy all Winter and totally care free when the warm weather arrives in the Spring.

Organize – Are your closets and cabinets completely out of control? Use the dark early evenings to get things organized. Not only will you feel better, but you’ll know exactly where everything is in your home, which will make doing other projects much easier.

Donate – Do you have a pile of unused gifts from this holiday season (and others)? Donate them and any of the items you discarded from your closets to a good cause.

Sew/Tailor –Looking at the pants you bought on sale last year and still haven’t had tailored? Now’s the time to collect all articles of clothing that need some mending or hemming and take them to a tailor or sew them yourself. The result of your efforts: “new” clothes in your closet that you didn’t have to buy!

Deep clean – Why save cleaning for Spring when you want to be outside enjoying the weather? Make a checklist of what needs to be done in your home and split it with your spouse. I find that having a reward for the completion of the list makes things much more fun. Decide to go out to the new restaurant you’ve been dying to try or to the movies as a reward for finishing your cleaning.

Doctors Appointments – What’s worse than going to the dentist or OB? Going to sit in their offices for hours when you could be playing tennis or soaking up the sunshine. Schedule your (and your hubby’s) year’s worth of doctors appointments for January-March and then you’ll not only be healthy, you’ll be free to enjoy the weather.

We hope post-holiday pep talk gets you motivated and through the Winter slump! If name change was on your to-do list last year, we can help with that. Check out the MissNowMrs name change app or online service to save 13 hours of hassle!

Help Me Change My Name

Newlywed: Not an Excuse to Let Yourself Go!

Feeling like you should let yourself go? If you’re like the majority of newlywed women, you’ve just finished a pre-wedding diet & exercise regime, beauty boot camp and planning the largest party of your entire young life. After all that, it totally makes sense to enjoy your honeymoon and let lose a little bit. Those are the key words: a little bit. Newlywed life can be a slippery slope of take-out, lounging around and basking in your newly married status.

Excessive “basking” can result in a shocking moment when you look in the mirror and realize it’s been a few months since you’ve seen the gym, salon or spa! The solution: Make some appointments…STAT!
We’re here to help! Are you dreading the trip for you next Brazilian bikini wax (but you know your husband loved it on the honeymoon)? We’ve got the solution for you! Extend the “honeymoon phase” a while longer with the help of BareEase & Cream. This kit includes a physician-formulated cream will not only erase the pain and discomfort associated with waxing, but its skin soothing components will leave your skin feeling soft, silky and sexy post salon visit! The cream is quickly absorbed into the skin underneath the cute pink panty made of latex, which keeps the cream where it’s supposed to be and not on your 7 jeans!

We want to make sure that our newlywed blog readers have the upper hand when going bare down there, so leave a comment on this post and be entered to win a free BareEase & Cream kit! The winner will be announced next Tuesday (November 2nd)!

Have any of you ladies used this product before? We’d love to hear your feedback or any crazy waxing experiences you’ve had…so leave a comment!

ME Time: Just What A Newlywed Needs!

What happened to me time? As we all know, newlywed life can be quite a balancing act at times, and you get so caught-up in your everyday responsibilities that you completely neglect to pamper yourself once in awhile! Before you know it, it has been weeks or months since you’ve last seen the inside of the gym, you have not had a mani or pedi in… you don’t know how long, your ends are splitting, your roots are showing, and you’re starting to feel a little less-than-impressed with yourself! Aside from being negligent of your appearances, if you have not been taking time to focus on yourself as an individual or spending time with your girls, you may find yourself falling down a slippery slope into pessimism, anger and maybe boarderline depression!

If this is happening, you can bet your spouse is noticing it too! So let’s make a promise to take time to do things for ME! Take control of your happiness and your well-being before you begin to make those around us unhappy as well!

Here Are 5 Quick Me Time Moments Every Newlywed Can Use in Her Life…

1. If not once a week, make it every other week- but look into the fitness classes scheduled at your local gym, and get in there, have fun, and sweat your butt off! This is for sure going to relieve any aggressions and stress built up from the day! Most classes are only an hour, and you will walk out feeling like a new woman, physically and mentally refreshed! If you don’t feel comfortable going alone, bring a girl friend, it will also increase your energy and enthusiasm during your workout!

2. Take a break during your work day, and instead of going out for lunch, go for a walk! Throw your sneakers into your bag in the morning, and pack a light lunch for when you return. This will give your mind a break from your everyday responsibilities. If you’re not feeling very energetic, bring a book instead and find a quite place outside to indulge!

3. Schedule your hair or nail appointment, followed by a dinner date with your spouse. You will pleased with yourself, feel better about your appearance, and furthermore, your spouse will notice how fabulous you look, and the tone for the remainder of the evening is already set!

4. Find a brand new recipe and give it a whirl! You’re not only setting perhaps a challenge for yourself, but you’re about to impress your spouse as well. Even take it a step further, and set the table tonight and dine by candlelight!

5. Call a girl friend that you haven’t spoken to in awhile, and see about making plans to get together soon! Segregating yourself from your girlfriends is not only unhealthy for you, but indirectly isn’t healthy for your spouse either! Besides, you just know there are plenty of stories and laughs built up, that are too good not to share!

We’d love to hear from you, so please share your Me Time moments with us by leaving a comment!