With Valentines Day looming, the stores are full of items to buy your special someone. Lots of women will get flowers, boxes of candy, and sentimental cards from the one that they love. Many will get a small jewelry box holding a beautiful diamond ring attached with a question of commitment and moving their relationship forward.

Being proposed to is a special event for any woman. I’ll never forget the traditional military saber arch that my husband organized as he knelt at the end of it with my sparkling engagement ring and a simple, life changing question. How could I say no to such a set up? Saying yes to his proposal that day was the best decision of my life.

Unfortunately, for too many women, the joy of the proposal fades quickly after the wedding when the reality of life together begins shortly after the wedding. Many times, women get caught up in the moment of getting married and forget to ask themselves a different but equally important question: “Is he the one?”

All too many couples today are “sliding” instead of “deciding” in their relationships. They meet and like each other well enough to go out a few times. When no one better shows up, they continue the relationship. After a year or so of this, they decide they’ve gotten along well enough, and maybe should more their relationship to the next level and move in together. Eventually they marry for the same reason: moving the relationship forward is easier than moving on to the right relationship. But did they ever ask, “Is this the right person for me?” Often they do not, and wonder why the marriage falls apart.

It’s hard to imagine, but studies show those who live together before marriage actually have a higher divorce rate. How is this possible? I believe it is because of the way people choose their marital partners nowadays. Instead of deciding on who to marry based on compatibility and future goals, couples now slide into marriage more as a matter of default.

Don’t be part of this statistic. As you get ready for this February 14th, make sure you take the time to decide on the future of your relationship. Make sure you ask, “Is he the one?” before he asks another life changing question.

Is it possible to answer the question, “Is he the one?” Your heart is fluttering too fast to make sense of it, and your friends and family all are biased. I recommend looking for an outside, impartial source to help guide you in answering this question. Compatibility tests combined with an honest evaluation from you is a great place to start. Remember, you can’t really control when he proposes, but you can make the effort to ensure you make the right choice when he does.

Tags: wedding planning, wedding bouquets, weddings

As couples get more creative with their wedding, the number of wedding theme ideas have also sprouted out increasingly.

Many couples are faced with a tough decision on which wedding theme to choose from. With so many wedding ideas, how is one to choose?

One way of deciding on a wedding theme can be based on some sports or hobbies that you and your spouse have passion for.

If the passion or hobbies that you and your spouse enjoy does not fit well as a wedding theme, you can look at other themes that you may personally like. Discuss it with your spouse if both of you can agree on that theme.

The decision process is much easier if one of the party is more involved in the planning while the other person lets the partner run the show. If this is so, there should not be any problem on the decision. However, if both parties wants to be active in the process, there should be some compromise between the couple.

Despite what personal preferences each of you may have, there are some basic considerations to take note when choosing a wedding theme:

1) Costs – Have a budget in mind

2) Place – outdoor or indoor

3) Size – How big do you want your wedding to be? How many guests?

4) Formal or informal

5) Schedule – Do you have enough time for this theme?

6) Weather – Is the theme susceptible to weather conditions?

Here are some wedding theme ideas that you can consider:

1) Western wedding theme

2) Las Vegas wedding theme

3) Garden

4) Garden wedding theme

Garden wedding theme

6) Western

7) Fall wedding theme

Hawaiian

9) Ethnic wedding theme

10 ) Las Vegas wedding theme

Be sure to include a back up plan especially if your wedding theme is dependent on the weather. For example, the beach theme.

Once you have decided on a wedding theme, it is important to carry it through to the end. You may be tempted to side track or change the theme halfway, but in most cases, this will only slow down your planning and incur extra costs.

You may get frustrated during the planning process. But don’t take heart because on your big day, when you see the happy faces on your families and friends, you know it is all worth it.

Tags: wedding rings, wedding bouquets, wedding night

When it comes to planning a wedding, the food can be the most costly part of it. You’re fortunate if you can get food for your guests for less than $50 a person. You have some choices if you’re on a budget.

Do you have fewer guests, or do you simply not feed them? Instead, how about you break out a cookbook and find some wedding recipes to make your own food for the reception?

Making your own wedding food comes with plenty of benefits. You have more control over the cost, first of all. You also have control over what goes into the food. If you want to follow specific dietary guidelines for your reception, making your own food and choosing your own ingredients is a guaranteed way to do that.

But you’ll need plenty of time to plan ahead, because your wedding day is going to be busy. Be sure to test all the recipes first. You also want to choose recipes that can stay fresh in the fridge for a few days, or freeze well.

Enlist the help of your family and friends. As long as you give them plenty of notice, a lot of them should probably be happy enough to help you make some wedding recipes for a few days.

Choosing the recipes to serve your guests could be the toughest part of the plan. There are thousands of possibilities. Peruse cookbooks at the book store, and perhaps buy a couple that each have several good ideas.

Don’t neglect to search the internet, which could be your best resource. There are dozens of recipe sites out there that have thousands of recipes. Spend a few hours doing your research, and you could put together the perfect menu!

There are lots of things you might consider serving at your reception. Consider skewered meats served with fine sauces, tea sandwiches (carrot, pimento, cucumber & cream cheese, etc.), potato skins with unusual toppings, wedges of pita bread with dips, crackers with smoked salmon, etc.

You want your recipes to be tasty, but be careful that they don’t resemble the ordinary kind of food you might serve at a Saturday night party. That way, the event and food will stand out in your guests’ minds, and in yours.

Tags: wedding bands, wedding bouquets, wedding poems

Well now, the wedding is almost here but you still need some cheap wedding favors. Remember, your choice of cheap wedding favors will convey your thoughts about your guests. You have been at this for months and now the time of the wedding is at hand.

You carefully place each unique wedding favor on the tables which indicates to your guests that you want them to have fun. Don’t be haphazard in picking out your unique wedding favors. You really don’t need to spend a lot but they do need to present a warm welcome.

The anticipation is killing you, you really want this wedding to go off without a hitch. But wait, what about the reception? Don’t forget the wedding reception, think about your guests experience too when shopping for the perfect personalized wedding favors.

When your guests are seated guess what they notice first? Right, the cheap wedding favors. Get it right and they are a hit, make a mistake and you know what they will remember most about your wedding.

The one thing I would recommend you consider to ensure that your cheap wedding favors are a hit is personalization. When you personalize your favors you are saying to you guests that they are important to you and you care.

The number one secret to success in choosing your cheap wedding favors is to keep it simple and uncomplicated. Do this and half the battle is won.

Choose your guests feelings over yours when making your personalized wedding favors selection. You want them to remember your wedding as an enjoyable experience for years to come.

You can get some fabulous ideas looking through bridal magazines. This, of course, is the favorite pastime of brides to be the world over. Try it, you’ll like it.

Remember, buy your unique wedding favors with your guests experience in mind. You want them to feel welcomed just as soon as they arrive. Choose carefully, trying to weave the emotion of the moment into your selections.

Remember, your wedding is something that you have looked forward to since you were young. Take your time, think about others when choosing your cheap wedding favors and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you did the right thing.

Tags: wedding music, wedding programs, wedding etiquette

When she got married she was a size 2. After their daughter was born she was a size 14. Two years later instead of losing weight she was a size 18. Instead of hitting the gym or losing the “baby fat” she hit post partum depression and threw in the towels resolving to the fact that she was just big and “he better loves me for who I am on the inside rather than the outside.” He did love her for the person she was, but his looks on her enormously large size 18 body and 40-DD chest and a g-string that turned into booty-floss that got buried under all those “loafs of bread” did not make her feel the sexiest or most attractive woman in the world. But she didn’t care anymore

Perhaps you can relate?

What is a woman to do when she feels trapped in a body that is no fun, in addition to dealing with a depression that you can’t seem to explain since giving birth to a child should be one of the most exiting undertakings of anyone’s life? Even the shoes on your rack consist mainly of slip-ons, because you’ve grown tired of getting out of breath when tying your shoes.

By this time the excuses of caring for a small child keep you away from the gym, for good seeming reason. So you resort to diets and starving yourself – the weight has to come off somehow, even though we know that 95% of all diets fail. So we fall deeper and deeper into the hole of depression and the mountain of excuses soon seems to swallow us alive.

Should you leave this dead marriage? What if you did?

And yet, life goes on – with or without you!

Here are 5 things that can help you get off to a great start to regain your health and re-ignite a new spark into your partnership:

1. Stop all excuses. Instead of focusing on all the excuses that prevent you from losing weight, start focusing on all the good things that come to you from having a sexy figure. Trust that since you have had a slim figure in the past, you will get there again in the near future. No one is asking you to lose all the weight by next week, just get started and stay consistent.

2. Know that this is not about him, this is all about you. You are in this together, yes, but losing the weight for him is superficial and will only make your weight loss temporary. You must want to lose the weight for you and you only. You are the one feeling unhealthy or unattractive and you want to feel great about yourself. Having your partner be attracted to you once again is an added bonus and benefit and can serve as a motivator, but it should not be the main reason.

3. Be gentle and agreeable with Nature. Putting your hands on your hips and refusing to lose weight because you want to “teach him a lesson” is just plain stupid. He loves you no matter what, provided he truly loves you for who you are at the core and not your looks, but the truth remains that we are ruled by Nature and men are stimulated visually, and they are just as much turned off by visuals. This is just the way Nature has designed men and women to be different, so rather than wanting to take on a fight with Nature and hurt yourself and your partner, be grateful for the certainty Mother Earth delivers each and every time. Accept these simple rules and work with Nature rather than against her and watch miracles enfold.

Tags: wedding poetry, las vegas weddings, wedding night