Get in Shape: Mind

The most important thing to get in shape for your wedding day is your mind. You need to make the week of your wedding a relaxing one, otherwise you may set yourself up for a freak out.

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Here are some tips to keep your mind calm and at ease:

1. Finish all your projects and planning two weeks before the wedding. Try as hard as you can, there may be certain things that have to be left to do the week of the wedding, but get everything out of the way that you possibly can before then, this will save you so much stress.
2. The things that need to be done the week of and day of, delegate to someone else, a mom, a bridesmaid, a wedding planner, whoever. You need to have someone else in charge of things, especially on the day of, otherwise you are gonna get super stressed out trying to make sure that everything is on time and set up correctly. I recommend a wedding planner, that way you and your family can enjoy the day! MasterPiece Weddings would be happy to fill this role for you!
3. Do relaxing activities the week of your wedding. Have a spa day with the girls. Go to lunch with family that is in town. Have a nice dinner and movie date with your hubby to be. Again, the key here is to relax yourself and DE-stress!

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All of these tidbits will allow you to have a much more enjoyable wedding experience, trust me. If you are running around worrying about every little detail and about every little thing that could go wrong, you are not going to enjoy the day. I've seen it happen to brides, and it's not fun, it's really sad.

This day only comes around once, so you've got to make the most of it!

Get in Shape: Body

For today's get in shape post, we are talking about the body. Now I think brides can go a little overboard with this part for their wedding day.

Every girl wants to lose a few pounds here and a few pounds there, but let's not go crazy okay. We don't want you passing out on your wedding day from malnutrition!

Tips for getting your body in shape, you may have heard these before, but I would like to stress these key points.

1. Eat healthy. This sounds simple but everyone has a hard time with it. This does NOT mean stop eating good tasting foods. Eat less fast food and ready made dinners. Eat more fruits, veggies, and lower fat proteins such as fish and chicken. Try to roast and bake more than you fry foods.
2.  Drink lots of water and less soda.
3. Eat more whole grains and less processed foods. Just be more aware of what you are taking in. Also, treat yourself every once in a while!! Wedding planning can be stressful and dieting only adds to it, don't completely deny yourself. Reward yourself!
4. Exercise. Again, sounds simple but it's harder than it sounds. Make it a family affair, get your family fit for the wedding! Play sports together, go on bike rides, take classes at the gym. It's better when you have someone to do it with. Also, don't go overboard! Do what you can, 3-4 times a week for at least 30 minutes. Try to fit in some weights, muscle helps burn fat!
5. Remember that your fiance loves you how you are, they've been with you up until now, and they probably don't care if you lose those 5 or 10 or fill in the number pounds! You are beautiful to them now, and you are going to look beautiful on your wedding day, you just are, so don't go crazy stressing yourself out about losing weight! Just be healthy.

Caroline Johnson Photography

Get in Shape: Hair

An extremely important part of your bridal beauty is your hair. Brides know this and they stress over it a lot. We did a post on different hair styles about a month and a half ago that you guys can check out here.

This post is about prepping your hair to get done on the actual day.

Here's what to do and what not to do:

1. DO NOT wash your hair the night before! Your hair will stay better being one day dirty and your hairdresser will thank you, it's much easier to work with.
2. It is also helpful for you to straighten your hair the night before as well, unless you are wearing your hair wavy or in tight curls.
3. If you are getting your hair colored, do it at least a couple days before, maybe even a week. You don't want to have left over dye all around your face.
4. As far as length, I would say grow it out until you have your trial done, then you can play with it and see if you like long hair or short hair better. Just remember, you can always cut it, but you only have so much time to grow it back. Temporary extenstions are always an option.

Some inspiration for you

Photography by Bobbi and Mike; Hair by Graceful Strands

Powers Photography

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Get in Shape: Skin

For the second day of our get in shape week, we're gonna tackle skin. This is a very important part of your body that you need to prep for your wedding day so you can be glowing and smooth.

Photography by Pure by Lindsey; Make-up by Christy Connor

 Here are some tips:

1. For tanning, natural is best; if you want to do a tanning bed, that's your choice. But make sure to wear sunscreen, none of this 4 or 8 spf either. Let's go with 30 spf to be safe. You don't be want to be a lobster on your wedding day! I would try to stay out of the sun at least a day or two before the big day.
2. DO NOT GET A SPRAY TAN! Please, you just look orange and it's going to rub off on your dress. Just say no!
3. Make sure to moisturize daily at least a few weeks prior, so you have nice soft skin for the day and for your honeymoon!
4. Try not to stress as much as possible the week of your wedding. Stress can cause breakouts, and it doesn't do anything good for your skin! When it gets down to the week of your wedding, you've planned all you can plan so there is no use worrying about it! Just try to relax!!

Get in Shape: Nails

We are gonna start our get in shape week with something small, your nails.

Your nails are probably not too high on your priority list, but you still want them to look presentable on your wedding day, not like this..

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Ew right! You at the very least want them trim and polished! I have a couple tips for picture perfect nails on the big day.

1. If you are getting them done by a professional, no sooner than the day before your wedding, otherwise you run the risk of them getting chipped and ruined or growing out if you get acrylics.
1. Side Note: if you want to avoid a little bit of pain when getting your nails done, push your own cuticles back with your nails or a cuticle pusher, it's so much better, trust me.
2. If you're doing them yourself or having a friend do them, its best to go with the day of the wedding cause they probably won't last as long. And make sure they are COMPLETELY DRY before you put on your dress, please! Have them done a few hours before you put on your dress as precaution.
3. Toenails are important too ladies. Although they may not be showing all day, it is likely that the photographer will snag a couple photos of them in your shoes and you want to look polished.
4. Trim! You don't want them too long, medium length is probably best, then you won't need to worry about them breaking.
5. Neutral colors or a french manicure is best I think. You can try to match your colors if you want, but I think dark nails with the white dress is a little much. But if that's your personality, then go for it!

Here are a couple of images of pretty nails for the day.

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Feel free to bling them up a little with some small jewels or stick on flowers, but don't go overboard. You want the attention on your bridal beauty, not your nails, they are just an accessory.

Better Attitude



Gabriel chillaxing at a Summer BBQ- this kid has got it made!

Such is the life, right? Sitting on a lawn chair, feet up with a frosty beverage Juice Box.

Now that summer is wrapping up, and we are about to fall into Fall (get it.. fall... Fall...- nevermind).  It's time to start thinking about keeping up our summer figures, cooler temperatures (thank goodness) and Football.

So, really, this post was for me to remind you to have a great time, enjoy every day, every moment and every small victory, because sometimes we take those moments for granted and we forget to remember that life happens, and if we don't enjoy the little moments they will pass us by.