by | Sep 27, 2016 | Fashion |
Let’s face it: most of us can’t afford to budge on our wedding budgets. Planning a ceremony when money is tight is easier said than done; however, savvy couples can easily cut costs granted they know where to look.
First and foremost, couples should consider the most important aspects of their ceremony and trim the fat accordingly. For example, compromises should be made concerning the following:
- The size of the ceremony and how many guests should be invited (an intimate affair versus a lavish party)
- Which of the major and minor details of the ceremony matter the most, from fabrics and arrangements to music and catering
- How much you’re willing to spend on the essentials, such as wedding rings, her dress and his tuxedo
Understanding what matters most can reduce a couple’s stress of planning the ceremony; meanwhile, it can also uncover opportunities for you to slash costs and stay within your budget. By harnessing the power of smart shopping and keeping the following tips in the back of your mind, you can save big without sacrificing your ceremony.
Research the Ring
It’s incredibly easy to overspend on your wedding rings if you don’t know what to look for. Diamond prices can vary wildly from dealer to dealer and are determined by a number of factors including:
- The diamond’s weight and amount of carats
- The cut of the stone
- The clarity and certification of the diamond
If such concepts seem foreign to you, make sure that you research the in’s and out’s of price prior to committing to a ring. In many cases, it makes more sense to shop around online versus buying blindly at a brick-and-mortar retailer.
Frugal with Flowers
Flowers can eat up a shocking seven to ten percent of your wedding budget, leaving many couples wondering how they can keep their ceremony classy yet also save on decorations. Thankfully, getting frugal with your flowers is relatively easy, depending on how much of your budget you are willing to spend. For example:
- You can rely on seasonal or local blooms which are guaranteed to be fresh and cost-effective
- Seek out year-round blooms such as roses and orchids which likely won’t have to be imported
- Consider artificial flowers or a mixture of real and artificial flowers: in many cases, guests won’t be able to tell the difference
Flowers on candle stand
Many couples aren’t willing to fore-go flowers; therefore, consider cost effective options before ruling them out entirely. Once you’ve made your decision, price out your flowers both locally and online to find the best deals.
Cutting Cake Costs
What’s a wedding without cake? Elegant wedding cakes are indeed fun to marvel at and eat; however, they can quickly add up in terms of price. To compromise, it’s common for couples to have a small centerpiece cake coupled with a large sheet cake. You can also get more mileage out of your cake by cutting it into smaller slices or choosing butter cream icing versus pricier fondant. A little bit of creativity can go a long way to keeping your wedding cake delicious yet affordable.
A small cake can save money when on a budget.
Wedding’s don’t have to be insanely expensive: it all comes down to how you allocate your budget. By shopping smart, doing your homework and looking for smart ways to save, you can have the wedding of your dreams without sacrificing the essentials.
*guest post*
by | Sep 27, 2016 | Beauty, Fitness |
Most of us have an image in our heads of our ‘dream figure’- how we would ultimately love to look. Perhaps it’s how we used to look when we were younger, or maybe we aspire to achieve a celebrities enviable shape. This can be useful in motivating you in your diet and exercise regimes. However, it’s important not to get hung up on a shape that’s not actually achievable for you personally. Here are some of the things to consider when working towards your dream body.
Have You Considered Your Bone Structure?
If the ‘dream figure’ you have in your head is tall and petite, and you’re five foot nothing with naturally wide hips, then you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. It doesn’t mean to say you won’t look incredible at your goal weight. But all of the diet and exercise in the world isn’t going to change your bone structure. It’s the reason why the ‘thigh gap’ trend and other similar fads are so dangerous. Not all women are naturally built in a way where this will ever be possible at a healthy weight. Focus on looking like the best version of yourself, rather than a celebrity or model that’s built completely differently.
Will You Be Losing a Lot of Weight?
Losing weight if you are above a healthy BMI is of course fantastic for health, as well as confidence reasons. But sometimes after losing weight, the body doesn’t ‘spring back’ to the smaller shape it once was. Some people can find loose skin or pockets of stubborn fat an issue. These kinds of things can be treated successfully with plastic surgery, but it’s worth knowing that this may be a hurdle to cross when reaching your dream figure. You could check out a cosmetic surgeon such as belredcosmeticsurgery.com to find out the different procedures available. Alternatively, you could look into non- surgical body sculpting methods such as fat freezing and laser fat removal.
Credit- Pixabay
Have You Had Children?
The miracle of pregnancy and childbirth is of course incredible. The only problem is pregnancy can permanently change some areas of your body. For example carrying a baby can make your ribcage expand meaning you look wider in this area regardless of how much weight you lose. This is why even if you’re looking at an old picture of yourself as your ‘dream figure’ inspiration, it’s not necessarily possible to get back to exactly that. Hormones change during pregnancy as well as from just natural ageing. This means you’re likely to carry any excess weight differently to when you were younger.. So something to bear in mind when trying to slim down to your pre-pregnancy body.
Credit- Public Domain Pictures
It’s always good to have a goal and something to aim for (providing it’s a healthy goal). It’s just important to be aware that ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist, and aiming to be the best version of yourself is the best way to look at things.
Are you working towards your ‘Dream Figure’?
FTC Disclaimer:
This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links.
by | Sep 26, 2016 | Fashion |
Hi Beautiful People,
Are you thinking about your steps? If not, you may want to start thinking about them. I thought that I had it all mapped out and I was getting my steps each day. I felt kinda proud about it. I would intentionally walk up and down three flights of steps at work about two or three times a day and I thought that was enough. I surprised that I had only achieved about 3,000 steps out of the 10,000 step goal. I started using a personal fitness tracker and it kicked my step level up a notch. However, with that tracker I had to always check my smart phone or its website to see how many steps I have achieved. This can be a disadvantage, especially when I want to see where I am at in a jiffy. I recently had the opportunity to try the FitBit Blaze Smart Fitness Watch, courtesy of Verizon Wireless, to see what the difference might be. The FitBit Blaze watch is available from Verizon for $199.99 and is available in Black, Blue or Plum.
JT hiking in the Canyonlands with her Fitbit Blaze Smart Fitness watch
Specifications from Verizon website:
Fitbit Blaze™ Smart Fitness Watch
Get fit in style with the Fitbit Blaze™—a smart fitness watch designed to help you maximize every workout and every day. Use fitness features like PurePulse™ continuous heart rate, multi-sport tracking, Connected GPS and FitStar workout on your wrist. Automatically track your activity, exercise and sleep. Stay connected with call, text and calendar notifications. Customize Fitbit Blaze with a variety of watch faces or accessorize with bands and frames. It’s everything you need for fitness and style—all in one sleek time piece.
- Activity Tracking – whether you are running, biking or hiking; the sensors recognizes the type of activity that you are doing and records it for you.
- PurePulse™ Heart Rate and Simplified heart rate zones – This feature tracks your heart rate during the day and during a workout. It will let you know if your heart rate is in the rate zone when exercising, to burn the most calories.
- Connected GPS – If you want to know the route of your walk or run; the GPS feature will track it for you.
- FitStar Workouts – From your wrist, the Blaze will give you instructions with graphics for a simple and quick workout. A perfect option if want to have a workout on the go. You can workout anywhere at anytime with images and instructions on how to do the specific exercises.
- The workout summaries provide insights and track progress from day-to-day, and week-to-week.
- The design is sleek with a high resolution screen that is easy to read.
- The watch band is interchangeable in leather, stainless steel and sports band selections.
- With a flip of the wrist you can see the time and your current step total.
- The sensors are sensitive and can register you taking steps when you are actually checking the screen. On my wedding anniversary, my hubby and I took an all-day Jeep tour through Canyonlands and Arches National Park. When we were jeeping through the rocks and rough terrains the Fitbit blaze was measuring my movements as steps. That was not an accurate count for me that day. It was good that I was also hiking on the tour. There is a big difference between in the total number of steps taken with my other tracker and the FItBit Blaze. If i reached 10,000 steps on the FItBit Blaze, I would still have about 3000 to 3500 more steps to do with the other tracker. This was very interesting because trackers were worn on different arms at the same time.
- With the FitBit Blaze connected to my smart phone, you can receive Smart notifications from your calendar, email accounts, and text message on the watch. Everything is easy to see and clear.
- The smart phone app organizes your daily stats with the option to add water intake and caloric intake. The information from the FitBit Blaze synced with the smart phone app with out any issues or problems.
- On the Fitbit’s website, you and see more detailed information about your steps, weight, sleep and compare it with previous days statistics. This allows you to see if you are on track with your target number of steps, calories burned, or water intake. You can set goals and the app and website will do the tracking for you to see if you within reach of achieving that goal.
- Though the FitBit website, you can join groups of like-minded, fitness-minded people. You can challenge each other for monthly step totals, miles covered or active-minutes achieved.
- Once you sign up for the app and website, you will receive weekly updates of your progress; and provide you with tips for a healthy life. These tips include recipe for healthy food choices.
Fitbit Blaze Smart Fitness watch
The FitBit Blaze watch is your all-in-one fitness tracker. It is the ideal tracker for anyone who wants to take control of their fitness level and goals. It is all within reach of your wrist or your laptop. With all the technology built into the FitBit Blaze; there is no need to worry if it will be hard to understand. FitBit has gone the extra mile to simplify everything so that it’s easy to set-up, easy to use and easy to understand. The time is now to know your fitness level and to know where you want it to go to. You can get there with the FitBit Blaze.
FTC Disclaimer:
Verizon Wireless provided me with the FITBIT Blaze to sample for six weeks, after which time I returned it back to Verizon. I received no monetary compensation to write this review. All opinions are my own.
by | Sep 25, 2016 | Travels |
Good Evening Traveling People
Who is ready for a road trip?
For my wife and I, our favorite way to travel is in our Jeep Wrangler. We have been blessed and fortunate to be able to travel to some amazing places over the last seventeen years. From the Biltmore Mansion to Monument Valley; from Chicago to Memphis, we have experienced wonderful museums, historic sites, national parks, restaurants and places to stay. We have walked through the urban mountains of the big cities. We have driven through and to the top of the real mountains. We have stood on the top of bridges, looking down at the people and the water. We hiked in the desert heat to see the Earth’s beauty.
And We Are Home! Returning from a road trip to Utah
In a new series on our blog, we will share with you our experiences from the road. It may be a memorable stay at a bed and breakfast or reliving a special moment together. It may be providing must-see sites in the cities that we have traveled to. It may providing tips and tricks that we have learned that will make your own road trip a better experience for you and your family. It may be destinations and sites that is on our wish list of places to go.
Just hop in the Jeep, sit back and enjoy the ride with us.
Jay
by | Sep 20, 2016 | Pets |
Every dog owner is aware that sometimes it comes at a price. More often than not this is your home. Just like with small children it’s inevitable that a dog will make a mess in your home. So you are going to have to invest in more time keeping it clean. With that in mind, I thought I would share with you some top tips to keep your home clean and tidy. Allowing you more time to enjoy with your dog.
Unpleasant smells
As a dog owner, we know that they have a scent. One that can get stronger at times especially when they have been outside. These odours can linger in the home. So it’s important to ensure that your dog gets bathed regularly. But make sure that you don’t wash too frequently, or avoid not washing your dog often enough. Just like we have specific requirements for our hair, so does your dog. So take into account if your dog’s hair is particularly greasy or dry. While bathing your dog is a great way to keep odours at bay, consider making sure your home is ventilated. Also, use strong fabric fresheners to ensure the rest of your home continues to smell rosey.
Source
Damaged items
Another thing that dog owners are all too familiar with is damaged items. If your dog likes to chew things, then you sure know about it. Nothing is safe from your slippers to the carpets. To avoid your furniture and other items being destroyed consider bones for them to chew or indestructible dog toys for them to enjoy. You can go to the website online to find out more information on what’s available.
Dog toys everywhere
Dogs are just as playful as young children. So it shouldn’t surprise you that there will be an accumulation of things like toys everywhere. It’s important to keep your dog occupied, especially when you are not around. But consider having a storage space where they can live at night or when your dog isn’t keen to play. Doing this will ensure that your home stays tidy.
Source
Dirty paw prints
The last thing you want is for your dog to go trailing through your home with muddy paws after a long walk. But these incidents can happen and cause stains on carpets, flooring and even the walls. However, training your dog to wait until you give the order to enter your home is one way to combat it. Although, you may find that these things do happen from time to time, so make sure you have a good stain remover spray on standby. Tackle the marks as soon as possible to avoid them staining.
Dog hair
Finally, one of the biggest issues with dogs is the accumulation of hair that can gather all around your home. Of course, the amount of hair a dog sheds depends on its breed. Regular grooming is essential to make sure you brush away those stray hairs. A dog will shed its hair more at certain times of the years, so make sure you are aware of when you may need to groom your dog more regularly.
I hope these tips help you keep your home clean and tidy.
FTC Disclaimer:
This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links.
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