Still, you’ve been dealing with your own face and hair since you were a little girl. However, I guarantee that your wedding day will be the one time that your naturally shiny and perfect hair will morph into a state of frizz, and your bridesmaids will play connect-the-dots with your stress-induced breakout—leaving you with unnecessary iritation and frustration to deal with. As the lovely bride, you need to enjoy the opportunity of sitting in a chair and feeling like a princess on your big day, while a beauty professional smoothes your hair into a beautiful style and creates a look of subtle glamour for your special day.

Aside from the privilege of being doted on by having a stylist and artist to work with, there are so many other advantages to hiring someone to take care of your hair and makeup.

Professional Products: You are used to your usual routine, and the products you carry in your purse are more than enough to appease your comfort level for work, school and daily life. However, on your wedding day it is important to allow a professional to use a combination of products that are meant to last and withstand the rigorous pace of the day.

Proper Skin Prep:  Underneath the look of beauty that is created just for you, it is important to ensure that each moment is flawless. By utilizing the proper application and combination of skin moisturizers, primers and hair products that are used by professionals, each smile for the camera and hug to each guest will be equally composed and put together.  The compliments will flow in excess, and your look will last through the final table dance by your great Uncle Leroy.

Read the rest of this article here.

1. Bridesmaids

An Academy Award nominee, this frenetic comedy has proven that a female cast can be just as funny—if not more—than a group of Judd Apatow’s dudes. The film follows the ladies, including Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, destroy the sanctity of the wedding one bridesmaid’s dress at a time… and you’ll love every minute of it. What I love most about Bridesmaids is how true to life it is—well, maybe not the bridal boutique scene. But there is a competitive nature to being a bridesmaid, and the pressures that come with planning and being in a wedding can be insane (though, I don’t know anyone who has lost their hair because of it). Plus, doesn’t every girl want Wilson Phillips to perform at their wedding?

2. 16 Candles

There’s that moment when Sam walks out of the church, still dressed in her bridesmaid’s dress, and Jake Ryan is leaning against his Porsche. And he waves. And she’s like, “Who, me?” And he’s like, “Yeah, you.” And she totally freaks inside, but then casually walks over to him. Oh my god. Best scene ever!

Now that we got that out of the way… On the surface, 16 Candles is not necessarily a “wedding movie.” Well, at least it’s not the main theme. But it’s such a perfect story to revolve around a wedding: Samantha is like any other teenage girl in the 80s, except that her family forgot her 16th birthday, her big sister is getting married, her grandparents are in town so she has to sleep on the couch, and the entire freshman class has seen her underwear. But as all John Hughes movies do, this one will make your heart melt. And the wedding is possibly the funniest movie wedding ever. And it really does illustrate how weddings can do crazy things to a family.

3. Big Fat Greek Wedding

Such a surprise classic. But the movie has so much heart and soul, that you really can’t deny its charm. You don’t need to be Greek to love and respect the satire of such a traditional family.

4. Wedding Crashers

Ok, I know what you are saying, “Really? A movie about guys trying to get laid?” The thing that makes Wedding Crashers a great wedding movie is that while, yes, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are looking for action, they also have a tremendous respect and love for the wedding as an act of love and celebration. And at it’s core, a wedding should be all about the celebration.

OK, these are our favorites. What are yours?

1. 100layercake.com
This beautiful site features a blog, marketplace and vendor request section where you can submit your wedding needs and budget and allow vendors to bid for the job.

2. CardAvenue.com
A perfect solution for today’s modern bride looking for an alternative to a traditional registry, Card Avenue allows you to register for gift cards to national retailers. Guests can contribute any amount they like and even take advantage of savings by purchasing discount gift cards.

3. MyWedding.com
This site is chock-full of wedding planning tools, including creating a personal website, budget tools and an RSVP manager.

4. OffbeatBride.com
No one wants a cookie-cutter wedding! Offbeat’s approach will spark creative ideas and connect you with vendors who think out-of-the-box.

5. OnceWed.com
Founder Emily Newman started this site as the only free listing service for used gowns. Now she has a media empire with Once Wed, which includes a newly published magazine.

6. Pinterest.com
Don’t just pin and repin. Set up multiple boards for each aspect of your wedding and invite your maids and moms to weigh in on such important decisions as side-swept hair or chignon? Check out Colorado Brides on Pinterest!

7. ProjectWedding.com
A leader for creating free, personal wedding websites, this is another one-stop-shop for wedding planning and resources. Tip: Set up a personal domain name, like EricandErin.info to forward to your wedding website URL.

8. RocknRollBride.com
This UK-based website is brimming with nontraditional, unique and beautiful wedding ideas. If all things pastel and princess are not your thing, you’ll feel right at home here.

9. RuffledBlog.com
Pre-wedding, browse this collection of DIY projects and real wedding inspirations. Post-wedding, list your items for resale for free in the Recycle Your Wedding section.

10. StyleMePretty.com
The gorgeous photography featured on this blog is unparalleled and will leave you clicking through galleries from real weddings and vendors for hours.

11. WeddingBee.com
Boards and classifieds connect you with other brides while DIY and template section and a wiki will get you hands-on in no time.

12. WeddingChicks.com
There’s plenty to love about this site, but one of the best features is its extensive printable online invitation suites. Print your own custom, designer invites for the cost of the ink and paper!

13. WeddingGawker.com
Think of it as Pinterest solely for weddings. This site features gorgeous photography and days’ worth of unique, modern ideas for today’s celebrations.

Weddings expert Cara Davis is the author of Cheap Ways to Tie the Knot and blogs from her home in Orlando, FL, about cheap ways to spend and save at CheapWaysTo.com.

First things first, get the who’s who mapped out before you arrive. Ask yourselves some questions to figure out how you want the processional to look.

1) Will your bridesmaids walk down with groomsmen or on their own? Bridesmaids can either be paired up with groomsmen or go down by themselves while the men file out with the groom.

2)  What other family members do you want included the processional, ie parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, dogs & who will walk with whom? This may take a little extra coordinating as it is customary to have the ladies accompanied by a gentleman, whether he be her husband, son, brother, usher, you name it. If one gentleman has to walk a lady down and then loop back around to accompany another, that is perfectly fine.

3)  In what order will everyone walk? Traditional walking orders look like this:

Officiate, Groom & (possibly) Groomsmen
Extended Family (aunts, uncles, etc.) of the Groom
Extended Family of the Bride
Grandparents of the Groom
Grandparents of the Bride
Parents of the Groom
Mother of the Bride (accompanied)
Bridesmaids
Maid of Honor
Flower Girls & Ring Bearers
(trumpets sound) The Bride!

During the processional rehearsal, bridesmaids should be practicing where to place their bouquets (at their belly buttons, so they don’t look silly in pictures), everyone knows walking speed should be nice and natural (No step, together, step, together) and where to stand and space themselves up at the front. Everyone should be evenly spaced and turned slightly inward.

People—notably, women—are flocking to this new breed of online information sharing, making life in the world wide web a lot more colorful. Known as an online pinboard, Pinterest serves as a fountain of ideas, inspiration and visual beauty for all sorts of things—pretty, pretty things. From fashion to architecture to cute kitties (!), it’s the new hot spot for exploring, sharing and congregating over imagery. Now getting 10 million visitors a month, Pinterest has soared to success faster than Facebook or Twitter. But unlike its social media predecessors, here, women are heading to the simple, clean website in droves to share photos of green dresses, luxe shoes and beautiful rooms. Pinterest has also become a mecca for brides looking to gather and share their wedding hopes, dreams and realities. Got at it!

What does change with time is the desire to wear a tiara with veil and get blasted to the max (see “Bridesmaids“). This begs the question how best to celebrate without acting like a gaggle of giggling pre-pubescent girls. Here are a few thoughts applicable to our status in life that won’t wring all the fun out of the occasion. Oh, and I’ve included a few money-saving ideas, some of which are based on my thrice-married experience.

1. Vegas, Baby!
You know your secrets will stay in Las Vegas, right? While you and your gal pals don’t have to go the route of the boys in “Hangover,” the town that never sleeps is mighty tempting for a destination event. Plane fair and accommodations are usually cheap and there’s nothing that says you have to blow a pile of money to have fun. Atlantic City makes for a good alternative, should you live on the East Coast.

2. Ante Up
If a trip is out of the question, how about hosting a poker night with friends? The bride might even walk away with enough cash to pay for a portion of the wedding or—if everyone is a high roller—the entire event. If cash flow is a problem for some, play penny ante or with poker chips. (Wood matches also make a cheap and funky substitute.)

3. Gift Card Your Way to Happiness
There are registries for weddings…why not a registry for bachelorette parties? You can defray costs by setting up a gift registry at such sites as CardAvenue. Register for everything from hotels and gas to car rentals and party supplies. This works particularly well for Boomers, since we already have all the fine china and blenders we normally would request in a wedding registry. (Unless, of course, you lost all those things in the divorce.)

4. Live in the Lap of Luxury
If you can’t afford a spa weekend, how about just a spa day or a few hours of pampering? My first (and only) pedicure was administered during a bachelorette party, during which we all gabbled away while luxuriating in personal care. It was a total blast, particularly because the spa allowed us to supply our own libations and treats. They were happy for the group business and we came out maximally relaxed.

5. Sing Your Hearts Out
Karaoke isn’t for everyone, particularly in public, but it’s hard to resist a good warble in front of your closest friends. Remember that nobody expects everyone to turn all Beyoncé. There are always a few group-sing numbers particularly suited for those with a tin ear. You can rent a karaoke system for anywhere from $50 to $150, depending on the quality and number of song collections you select. If you don’t have a rental company in town, companies like Nationwide Karaoke will ship a system to you.

6. Take Them Out to the Ballgame
…or the football, soccer or hockey game, perhaps? Whatever your gang’s favorite sport, it’s more fun when you share the experience. Baseball games particularly make for great bachelorette parties as there’s plenty of time to chat while sitting in the sun and sipping a beer or margarita, depending on the refreshments available at your local ballpark. Don’t overlook minor-league games as an inexpensive alternative.

7. Give Back
A new trend in bachelorette parties is to forsake the traditional debauchery in favor of volunteering on a community project, such as working on a home-building project for Habitat for Humanity. You might also organize donations for The Women’s Community, which supports victims of abuse and assault.

8. Get Cheesy
Our mothers were the original fondue nuts, but this is a trend that’s making a sizable comeback, with entire restaurants devoted to this customer-cooks method. Naturally, you don’t have to limit yourselves to cheese. You can add separate pots of boiling bouillon for meat and melted chocolate for dessert. You can round up the necessary fondue sets without making a major investment by cruising a few garage sales.

9. Exchange Clothes
One of the best parties I ever hosted was a clothes swap. We all brought cast-off items in good shape and had a great time modeling our new wardrobe items for each other. Best of all, it didn’t cost a cent. You can donate any remaining items to a local non-profit.

Kate Forgach is a Baby Boomer consumer specialist for Kinoli Inc. She has written about senior issues for 11 years as a Cooperative Extension specialist and for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. She has been featured in USA Today, Detroit News, New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Yorker magazine, “ABC World News,” NBC’s “TODAY” show and many other media outlets.

So that’s cool. You’re engaged. And now that the holiday hype is officially a thing of the past,  it’s time for you to get serious about your future. There’s a good chance that you’ve already started planning. Which is great. Because the first thing that people are going to ask you once they finish fawning over your perfect ring and giving you a solid congratulatory hand-shake—is “how’s the planning going?” and “when’s the big day?” With so many people asking you such hard-hitting questions right off of the bat, it’s hard not to feel pressured to jump straight into the planning and start trying to sort out the perfect vision of you and your partner’s idea of wedding day bliss.

So instead of jumping feet first into a world of stress and panic, check out this upcoming, bridal show in Boulder. Find some direction. Get some ideas. Taste some delicious food. You’ll be happy that you did. You might even find your perfect venue! Which, next to finding the perfect partner and the perfect dress, is pretty much the most exciting thing about planning your perfect wedding.

The 15th Annual Boulder Wedding Showcase
Sunday, January 29th | 11 am – 3 pm

Wedding showcases are hands down the best way to get an sense of exactly what type of wedding details fit your style. This popular Boulder Wedding Showcase will give a good idea of the different culinary and photography companies that you can book in Boulder County. Sample food, check out photographer’s portfolios, listen to some live and jazz, and possibly find your perfect venue. The showcase will be hosted by the Boulder Theater and Rembrandt Yard, and you’ll get a good look and the chance to ask the experts about any questions that you might have about either venue. Maybe the funky, historic Boulder Theater, with its giant full bar and unique decorations is the perfect venue for you. Or maybe you’re the artsy type. Incorporate a little hipster into your big day and book a venue with tons of windows, tons of light, a beautiful and serene décor and local artwork covering the walls. Either way, follow this link and mark this Sunday on your wedding planning calendar today!

See more Bolder Life’s at yellowscene.com. Wanna get your bridal show plugged on cobrides.com? Email editorial@yellowscene.com

Bloomin Invites and More

One of our sales reps tossed a folder on my desk a couple weeks ago, and I didn’t peek inside until today (I get a lot of things thrown on my desk). Little did I know, had it sat there much longer, the folder and all its content could have eventually sprouted.

Bloomin, 3080 Valmont Rd. in Boulder, specializes in “seed paper.” It’s 100 percent recycled, post-consumer paper that is embedded with wildflower seeds. The ink is biodegradable and does not affect the seeds.

So, yes, your guests can basically plant your invites, your envelopes or your save the dates. No waste. No enviro-guilt. And lots and lots of wildflowers will sprout up in your name (which is just so romantic, isn’t it?).

Plus, there are some pretty cool styles, designs and colors for the paper. We love the Hawthorne Suite…can you get anymore Colorado than that?