Wedding

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!

Bridal Glow At Any Age

Looking to achieve a bridal glow? Did you know the age of the average bride getting married in 2011 is 25.8, up from age 20 in the 1960s*? While that may be the current statistic, the majority of my friends were closer to thirty when they tied the knot.

Does this mean the era of the young blushing bride is over? Probably not, but it does mean that there should be a more modern vision of the bride as mature and independent!

Regardless of age, all brides want to beautiful on their wedding day. This can cause slightly older brides to pay more for beauty products and procedures. While we think cosmetic surgery and botox are a bit much for any bride, splurging on a facial or skin care regimen is usually a great idea!

Want that amazing bridal glow…but it’s not in your budget?? Don’t worry! Our January newlywed blog contest is perfect for you! Envy Medical has teamed up with MissNowMrs.com to offer one of our lucky newlywed blog readers the chance to score a Lumixyl Topical Facial Brightening system kit (valued at over $650)! Whether you’re trying to maintain your newlywed glow, or you’re planning to walk down the aisle, who wouldn’t want to kick off 2011 with a more fabulous face?!

Ready to get your bridal glow on with our January giveaway? Leave a comment on this, or any of our Newlywed Posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Tell us all about why you should win this prize and what trouble spots it would help you eliminate. The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on January 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!

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

*Statistics Source: healthymarriageinfo.org

Last Week to Win Our Newlywed Art.com Giveaway!

Are you ready for an Art.com giveaway?! What makes a truly great picture? Some may argue that there needs to be a specific resolution, great lighting and depth of field for a good photo. I beg to differ on this one! Some of my very favorite photos are from my own wedding when the photographer’s lens fogged over due to the humidity. The result was a series of dreamy images of two newlyweds leaving the church and driving off down the road. I believe that a great picture needs to provoke a strong emotion in the viewer.

If your favorite photo shows you and your beloved on the beach, but you elbow is cut off….who cares? Frame that picture and remember all of the fun of that exact moment in your newlywed life!

Do you have a favorite newlywed photo that you’re dying to frame? Great news: Art.com is giving one of our newlywed blog readers the chance win an 18×24 printed canvas image (or 25×31 framed image) valued at $150 to hang in their home! Talk about an inspiring giveaway!

The Photos to Art feature on Art.com will allow our winner to upload an image of her choice (be it wedding, honeymoon or even a favorite family photo) and translate it onto high-quality photographic paper or artist-grade stretched canvas. The result? A high-quality, large-scale, beautifully-finished and ready-to-hang wall art.

Ready to win our awesome November art giveaway? This is the last full week to leave a comment on this, or any of our Newlywed Art Posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Tell us all about the photos from your wedding and honeymoon. We’d love to know what image you’d want to have printed and where you plan to hang it.

The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on November 30th!! 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, you’ll receive an additional Art.com giveaway contest entry!**

The Wedding Salon is in Chicago!

MissNowMrs.com would like to offer our readers complimentary tickets to this fabulous bridal show! Please use the following code: MISSC when registering at: weddingsalon.com.
Don’t miss this event on Monday October 4^th, 2010 from 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM at The Sofitel Chicago Water Tower 20 East Chestnut – Downtown Chicago, IL 60611
Here is what you don’t want to miss:

The hottest trend in Fashion Shows, Podium Modeling, with Celebrity-Style Couture Gowns from Vera Wang, Chicago & Belle Vie Bridal Couture
The ultimate Beauty Suite designed by Heffernan & Morgan with bridal updos, manicures & makeup consultations accented with antique mirror décor. Featuring the nation’s top makeup artists from Saks Fifth Avenue & Beauty on Call with makeup by Bobbi Brown, Dior, Chanel, YSL & Giorgio Armani Beauty
Fantasy table décor by SQN Events paying homage to Chicago’s “Speakeasy Era” with caramel & bronze hues, antique candelabras & chandeliers accented with feathers & crystals
Hollywood’s hottest detox, The BluePrint Cleanse, a favorite of Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Szohr and Bethenny Frankel
Ivory cakes with edible jewels and crystals by SweetPea Cakes, Raspberry Hazelnut Truffle Boxes by Delish Cakes
A fantasy ballroom designed by Heffernan & Morgan with regal shades of lavender, purples and golds, wedding décor by Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings
Exotic Honeymoons &Destination Weddings from The Leading Hotels of the World, Sandals Resorts, Atlantis and One&Only Ocean Club, Bahamas
Dream Registries by WILLIAMS-SONOMA & The Registry @Bloomingdale’s
Cocktails, Truffle Displays, Hors D’ Oeuvres and Fabulous Gift Bags featuring Stila, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden & Guerlain Cosmetics

Brides, you won’t want to miss out on this fabulous event! Newlyweds, you don’t want your engaged friends to miss this event either…so let them know!!
Readers, have any of you attended a Wedding Salon event? We’d love to hear if you enjoyed yourself and came away with great ideas for your wedding! Please leave us a comment.

Last Week to Enter To Win Adorn Jewelry!

Did you enter to win Adorn jewelry? Ladies, this is the last week to enter to win a $200 jewelry rental from ADORN! Imagine yourself dripping in free jewels for your big day (be it your wedding, anniversary, birthday or an upscale event). There are only three days left before we announce the lucky winner, so be sure to leave a comment before it’s too late!

ADORN has partnered with MissNowMrs.com to present our lucky September Giveaway winner with a $200 jewelry rental for free! ADORN is the equivalent of every budget oriented bride’s fairy godmother. You can rent diamond earrings, necklaces and bracelets from their website for a fraction of the cost of buying them.

Psyched to win our September Giveaway?! Leave a comment on this, or any of our jewelry posts on Mondays this month and you’ll be automatically entered to win. Share your big day dreams with us and how ADORN jewelry will complete your look. The randomly selected contest winner will be announced on September 30^th!! 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!

Newly Married & All Wedding’ed Out

Have you and your spouse found yourselves to be all wedding’ed out!? I’m not talking about feelings of exhaustion from your own wedding, but suddenly now everyone you know is getting engaged and shower and wedding invitations are flooding your mail box! Everyone seems to say the same thing, that if you’re one of the first of your friends to get married, you will have one “golden” year where you will find yourself loading up your calendar with showers, bachelorette parties and weddings to attend.

Of course you are so excited for your friends, and look forward to sharing this special time with them and helping with preparations for their special day, but you may also find yourself feeling somewhat overwhelmed, and unfortunately not being able to accept all invites due to other schedule conflicts, and not to mention the obvious… budgetary restraints.

My husband and I have now attended 4 weddings so far this year and still have another 5 remaining in 2010! Is it selfish of me to want a vacation of my own? Well I’ve come to grips that it’s not going to happen this year, so my husband and I have promised each other that we’re going somewhere fabulous in 2011!

With so many weddings, and your free weekends becoming well… non-existent, how do you choose when to decline some invites, and… if you have mutual friends, when is it OK to decline some and accept others?! This is becoming an on-going, harder-to-handle issue as you certainly don’t want to create hard feelings!

There are a few obvious questions that come into play when making your decision on whether or not to accept your invite! Are you available that weekend? How far away is the wedding (is it a destination wedding with plane tickets and a car rental), and can you afford it? Is it a family member’s wedding? Did you invite them to your wedding? Did they attend your wedding?

I have recognized one thing when making your decision to attend or regretfully decline… Remember to make your decision based on logical factors, not based on whether or not that couple attended your wedding! Even if you’re not the best of friends, the couple must have thought highly enough of you in the first place to put you on their guest list, so you should take a moment to decide on how to mark your reply card. Sometimes you will be forced to decline if you have a conflicting event or just don’t have the funds, but do be sure to mail a card! It is considered courteous and acceptable to send a card and/or gift up to six months after the wedding date.

Remember, it’s an honor to be invited to someone’s wedding, so always be sure to handle your response with care… but above and beyond anything, be sure to respond! There’s nothing more awkward and annoying for a bride and groom than having to call guests who didn’t respond! So hang in there if you’re trudging through your golden year of weddings, and do yourself a favor and keep a photo book of the weddings you attend… its fun to reminisce about these events down the road!

How have you handled being all wedding’ed out? We’d love to hear your solutions in a comment.