​Your wedding day is one of the most significant moments in your life. It's a celebration of love, commitment, and the beginning of a new chapter. Naturally, every bride wants to look and feel stunning as they walk down the aisle. Traditionally, this has meant donning a white gown, but times and wedding dress norms are changing. More brides are opting for unconventional wedding dresses, and there are plenty of reasons why you should consider joining them.

​Express Your Individuality

Your wedding day should reflect who you are as a couple and as individuals. Choosing an unconventional wedding dress is a fantastic way to express your unique style and personality. Whether you're into bold colors, intricate designs, or alternative fabrics, there's a non-traditional dress out there to perfectly capture your essence.

Break Tradition

While there's certainly nothing wrong with sticking to tradition, breaking away from it can be liberating. Choosing an unconventional wedding dress allows you to challenge societal norms and create a wedding that truly represents you and your partner's values and beliefs. It's an opportunity to do things your way, without feeling confined by expectations.
An unconventional floral wedding dress can beautifully express your individuality while adding a touch of nature's elegance to your special day, for example.

Stand Out from the Crowd

Let's face it; traditional white wedding dresses can start to blend together after a while. Opting for an unconventional dress ensures that all eyes will be on you as you make your grand entrance. Whether it's a vibrant color, a unique silhouette, or unexpected embellishments, a non-traditional dress is sure to turn heads and leave a lasting impression.

Celebrate Your Culture

If you come from a cultural background with its own wedding traditions and attire, choosing an unconventional wedding dress can be a powerful way to honor your heritage. Incorporating elements of your culture into your wedding attire allows you to celebrate your roots while still putting your own modern twist on things.

Comfort is Key

Traditional wedding dresses often come with layers of tulle, corsets, and heavy embellishments that can be uncomfortable to wear for extended periods. On the other hand, unconventional wedding dresses offer a range of options that prioritize comfort without sacrificing style. From flowy bohemian gowns to sleek jumpsuits, a non-traditional dress will keep you feeling comfortable and confident all day.
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Budget-Friendly Options

Wedding dresses can be expensive, but an unconventional one can often be more budget-friendly. Since non-traditional dresses tend to be less in demand, you may have an easier time finding affordable options that still look stunning. Additionally, you can explore alternatives to traditional bridal boutiques, such as vintage stores or online retailers, where you might snag a unique find at a fraction of the cost.

Environmental Considerations

With sustainability becoming increasingly important to many couples, opting for an unconventional wedding dress can be a more eco-friendly choice. Traditional wedding dresses are often made from materials that have a significant environmental impact, whereas non-traditional dresses offer more opportunities to choose sustainable fabrics and support ethical fashion brands.
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Conclusion

Choosing an unconventional wedding dress opens up a world of possibilities for expressing your individuality, breaking tradition, and creating a wedding day that is truly unique to you and your partner. Whether you opt for a colorful gown, a vintage find, or a modern jumpsuit, the most important thing is to choose a dress that makes you feel confident, comfortable, and ready to celebrate the beginning of your happily ever after.

Are you struggling in your marriage? Read on to learn marriage building tips which may help your marriage work better for both of you.

What are the most important qualities of a marriage? Sticking with each other, through thick and thin? Loving each other no matter what? Never being someone they can’t count on, etc? Well, that’s all quite Disney fairytale stuff but in reality, it's actually, just the simple human qualities we all want to receive. Respect and perseverance are the two top things you need. Respect comes in many forms. Respect for their body, their space, their property, their personal life that doesn’t include you, their style, their side of the bed, etc. perseverance is needed because you have to accept, they aren’t perfect, and neither are you!. You’re going to want to strangle each other at some point. You will get into arguments, you will feel slighted and jaded. But you have to remember, they aren’t a robot, they are a human being with flaws. Strap yourself in because this read is going to be illuminating. 
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All-important, integrity

Integrity isn’t just about telling the truth, it's about upholding some unwritten rules. This is what makes marriage so holy and so precious, because we don’t just follow the standard rules everyone knows about like ‘don’t sleep with anyone else’, but we follow those that we can’t see and haven’t technically agreed. The foundation of integrity is self-respect. You know right from wrong, and you shouldn’t want to degrade yourself by doing something morally wrong.

Integrity in marriage means, showing up at a time you said you would. If your spouse’s car is broken down, and they call you to be picked up, don’t tell them you’re on your way and then catch 5 more minutes of the football game. Integrity means doing the right thing, even when your spouse isn’t watching. Each word has to be met with action. If you say you’re going to do something, you stick to your word. It's about being ethical for yourself and your partner. The crucial aspect is, only you can uphold good standards, only you can be a good person, your spouse cannot make you into these things.

Don’t close the doors

Openness is something that can fade over time and that can lead to you going from a married couple to just a couple. Those rings on your fingers don’t mean much if you aren’t sharing your deepest darkest secrets, insecurities, and desires with your spouse. But why then, would openness in a marriage deteriorate?

It's usually because of over-critique. If you’re playing whack-a-mole with your partner’s feelings and desires, you are going to burn them eventually. They won’t want to share with you because they know what is going to follow if they do. So, what you need to stop doing is, belittling their feelings, saying that they’re making a mountain out of a molehill when they are clearly seeing and feeling a situation through a different lens. If you need help understanding when they are being serious and when they are over-thinking something, read a body language book or watch a few videos on the subject. Without saying a word, you can look at your spouse and know when they are emotionally fragile when they have experienced something very troubling. It's good to try and bolster their confidence by sometimes showing they are worrying over nothing, but other times, you should be sensitive to their needs.
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Power and Humility 

The power dynamic in a marriage is just like the one in a normal relationship without a holy bond. Here’s what you may know already about this dynamic.

Men: 

• They feel like they’re in control of the marriage when they earn more money.
• They feel in control when they’re the leader of the household
• They are in charge of the family’s security, i.e. picking out and installing CCTV cameras, fingerprint door locks, etc.

Women: 

• They feel like they’re in control when they control life in the bedroom.
• They feel in charge when they can show financial independence to their husband.
• They feel secure in their leadership role when the children obey her more than the father.

Humility in this regard goes a long way. Admitting that you have some kind of power over your spouse is the first step to breaking down invisible barriers. Otherwise, couples can get into a Cold War-type of a situation where no one acknowledges they have the power that scares the other person, and they both end up trying to one-up each other. Husband and wife, have to honestly talk about these things if you are to have a balance of some sort.
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Do you enable each other?

Do you do things such as cover-up or make excuses for your spouse’s bad behavior? This might seem like something a ‘loyal’ husband or wife would do, but when you know they are doing something harmful, you’re just enabling them. With your silence or even, the backing of some kind, they feel emboldened to do it again and again. This can result in both spouses becoming locked in a descending spiral where nobody will win. If you find that both of you or just one person, in the marriage is experiencing substance abuse of any kind, call the couples rehabs center. They have been delivering incredible services to married couples that have addiction concerns.

They have both inpatient and outpatient services. They believe that when couples are addicted to drugs or alcohol, their behavior progresses together. In other words, you both enable each other. With their rehab services, both of you can turn from enablers to solid rocks of self-belief and direction. You can help each other become sober and look after one another. This is why the success rate among couples is so much higher than individuals because you stop each other from falling back into the cycle. Check out their cognitive behavioral therapy program which helps couples to understand their thoughts and feelings may be counteracting their need to overcome addiction.
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Become fitter together

Couples that workout together and exercise in unison, are far healthier both mentally and physically than those that don’t. Married couples might think they need time alone and working out is a good thing they do by themselves. However, it can like having a workout buddy that knows your every limit. 

Go running together, through the countryside. Or you can both get up at the same time each morning, and perform yoga in your living room together. Meditate side by side and really become comfortable with each other, on a deeper philosophical level. Both of your energies and human beings will merge and something amazing will happen. You will see each other’s true nature when you’re pushed physically. The gritting of teeth, sharing of pain, and exhaustion is something that will build camaraderie. 

Sex is the end-all-be-all

You can only connect with each other on a romantic level if you’re both physically attracted to one another. The union of bodies is something that cannot be replaced by anything else. Loving each other is very noble, but you cannot underestimate the value of being sexually fulfilled in a marriage; especially for the man. 

So learn how to get better! You are with the last person you will ever be intimate with, so you have free reign to be as wild as you want. Do you have any sexual fantasies? Why are they still fantasies only!? You should be doing them with your spouse. Be brave and don’t hold back, tell him or her, exactly what you like. Be very detailed and even, demanding. This kind of sexual fulfilment keeps marriages alive but also, keeps them spicy! 

Sex shouldn’t even be a chore either, you should want to do it. So instead of going purely for quality, try to focus on quantity too. Don’t have some kind of end-of-the-week sex engagement, you should be doing it throughout the week. Even if it's for 5 minutes, release that sexual urge before you go to work in the morning. And most importantly, don’t ever use the withholding of sex as a weapon. Your spouse will resent you and feel like a prisoner.

Learn to cook

For any marriage, cooking great meals is another cornerstone of a healthy relationship. When you come home from work, you shouldn’t be diving into a pre-cooked store-bought meal. You deserve better. You both do.

So, pick out a cuisine and then buy a recipe book online in the one you have chosen. Next, you need to buy the ingredients for one of the meals and cook together in the kitchen. Once you become comfortable cooking great meals at home, it's going to make dinner dates and dinner parties so much more fun. It allows you to wow each other and not always go to a restaurant for a candle-lit dining experience. You can also become hosts for your guests, work as a team to impress your in-laws or friends.


There’s almost no chance that you have tried everything to make your marriage work. There’s always something that you have yet to experience together. These are just some of the things that will make your bond stronger than ever before. 

Deciding to get married is one of the most wonderful, exciting things that can happen in someone's life. And right at the start of it all is that one special thing: the ring. That outward sign to the world that you're ready to tie the knot! And, let's face it, it has to be perfect. No-one wants to walk around with a ring that they hate on their finger, do they? The other thing is that you don't want it to be just any ring. This is one of the biggest things that you'll ever do; you want it to be unique and individual. Your engagement ring should be something that represents the unique bond between you and your partner. So a lot of people have taken to designing their own ring. If the bespoke approach appeals to you, then here are some tips on designing your very own engagement ring.

Pick your stone

Now, the traditional approach would tell you that diamond engagement rings are always the best option. And, let's be honest, it's a classic for a reason! If that's the direction you want to go, then you can find diamonds in all sorts of shapes and sizes to suit your personal taste. If you're interested in something a little different, or your budget doesn't quite stretch to diamonds, then there are lots of other options available. You could choose your birthstone or even a ring that combined yours and your partner's. If you wanted to you could decorate the main stone with smaller diamonds, just to get that traditional quality in there without breaking the bank. The great thing about designing your own ring is that you have the freedom to base it around whatever you like, or at least whatever your budget will allow!

Setting

Once you've got your rock all picked out, you've got to decide how it is that you're going to set it. Think about your lifestyle. Are you an active, outdoorsy type? Then a lower setting might be better. But if you prefer to really show off your style and you want everyone to see it, then why not go for a really high profile setting! Again, the choice is completely up to you! This might seem like an extremely small touch and one that you really don't need to think too much about. But this is probably going to be a ring that you're going to be wearing, along with your wedding band, for the rest of your life. You want to make sure that everything about it exactly right for you, your tastes, and your lifestyle.

Choose the band

A lot of people focus so heavily on the jewel that they forget about the ring itself. You a have few choices here, but the most common are gold and platinum. Think about your personal style as well as the jewel you've chosen. If you prefer warm shades then gold might be best, but if your style and the jewel go better with cooler hues then platinum is probably your best bet.  Of course, style isn't the only thing that you should consider. You also have things like the weight and strength of the band as well. Sure, gold or silver are incredibly traditional but they can also be rather soft and delicate. If you want something a little more weighty and strong then why not consider palladium instead? Again, these might seem like incredibly inconsequential changes but the truth is that crafting the perfect engagement ring is always going to come down to the little details and how you're able to make them work to achieve what you really want out of them.

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​Consider your budget

This might not be the thing that you really want to think about, but budget is always going to factor into the kind of ring that you're going to have when the day of the proposal arrives. Whether your partner is taking care of the cost of the ring or you're doing something a little more modern and splitting the cost between you, you need to make sure that you're working within your means. After all, as wonderful as it is to promise yourself to your partner, the last thing you want is to one or both of you to end up bankrupt for the sake of a ring. Sure, this might mean that there are some compromises that you might have to make, but you can almost certainly still find something really wonderful, even if you end up having cut a few corners here and there.

What about two rings?

Now, if you're a real stickler for tradition when it comes to your engagement and your wedding, you might want to look away now since this bit suggests something really rather unusual and different that more and more people are doing these days. Instead of a single engagement ring, why not get two, one for each of you? After all, as wonderful as it is to get to wear that all-important ring, your partner might feel like they're missing out on it as well. Not only that but it lets you take on the role of the one proposing as well as the one being proposed to! Again, this really isn't going to be for everyone but if you're interested in doing something a bit different that puts the two of you on equal footing then it's certainly something that's worth considering at least.

You might be thinking, "wait! Why am I the one doing this?" Well, why not! It's the Twenty-first century, after all; there's nothing wrong with having a hand in designing your own engagement ring! There's something wonderful about going through this process along with your partner to make sure that it's perfect. Sure, you might want to leave the planning of the proposal to them so you don't spoil the surprise for yourself, but being able to communicate with each other and plan these kinds of things is going to be great practice not only for your wedding but for your marriage as well!


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Do you know how to find the perfect venue for your wedding day? This contributed post has some great ideas to help you decide. 

What do you think the most important part of a wedding day is? I’m sure that most brides will say that their wedding dress is their number-one priority, though most couples will also agree that their venue is equally as important. After all, it will be the setting for the entire day and will also feature heavily in the background of your wedding photography. So, there’s no wonder that getting the wedding venue is something that couples focus on when they are ready to start organizing their big day.

Are you ready to search for a brilliant wedding venue for your special day? Here are a few things that you should look for.

It Includes Catering

Some wedding venues will also cater your event as well as simply host it. Even though some couples prefer to hire a separate catering company to take care of the food, this still means that you will be paying for two firms to come and work on your wedding with you. So, it could be more economically viable for you to find a venue that will include all the food and catering with the venue hire.

It’s Within Your Budget

If there is one word that most people would use to describe a wedding, I’m sure that most people would use “expensive”! And it’s true, the cost of organizing a whole wedding day can be extremely high these days. Before you start looking for a venue, it is really important that you consider your budget and find one that you will be able to afford. After all, if you go for something too expensive, then you might end up needing to restrict your spending on a different area of your big day.

It’s In A Convenient Location

Next, it’s important to consider the location of your potential venue. Sure, rural venues will look super pretty in all of your wedding pictures, but they could be quite difficult for some of your guests to get to, especially those who don’t have a car. If you do want to get married in a very rural or hard-to-get-to location, it’s worth thinking about putting on some transport for all your guests so that they don’t struggle getting to your wedding.

Image courtesy of Image Studio Photography

​The Capacity Suits Your Needs

Do you have an idea of how many wedding guests you’d like to invite? Well, this may all hinge on how many guests can fit in your venue! Each venue will have a limited capacity, so it’s important that you find this out before you book. Otherwise, you may end up limiting your guest list a lot more than what you had initially planned. If you are happy to have only a few guests with you on your wedding day, then this point may not be such a big deal when it comes to organizing the venue.

So, as you can see, there are quite a few factors that go into making a wedding venue such a special place. Hopefully, this blog post will help you find the perfect one for you!

Follow the advice in this contributed post to ensure you have the breathtaking photographs you desire on your wedding day!

​Your wedding day is a day of firsts. It’s the first time you stand in front of an altar and say “I do.” It’s the first time you kiss as a married couple. It’s your first (and hopefully only) wedding ceremony. So, it’s vital that everything goes to plan, and that includes the photographs. After all, you want to document the big day and look back at a later date.

Unfortunately, hiring a photographer and asking him or her to do their best isn’t the way forward. To get breathtaking shots, you need to follow this advice.

Ask For Permission

From the church. A large percentage of ceremonies take place in churches because it’s classy and traditional. Sadly, religions aren’t famous for their flexibility, and some prohibit photographs inside the building. Yes, this rule applies on your wedding day too, so they’ll be zero shots of your first moments as a married couple. Now that you know this is a problem, you can ask the leaders if they will allow cameras inside. Most will say yes, but they may include a few caveats. For example, only the official photographer can take pics and not the guests. This is a compromise which isn’t too much of an issue so agree and warn your friends and family.

​Choose A Different Location

Lots of photo albums include the same style of images. This is because of two reasons: photographers share techniques, and destinations are the same. To snap breathtaking pics, you need yours to stand out from the crowd and to do this, a new location is necessary. It depends on your style. Are you a traveler? If you are, see here for ideas. If you’re an adrenaline junkie, then these may be more suitable. Or, perhaps a beach wedding will make you happy. Whatever the destination, try and make it as incredible as possible.

Sanction Action Shots

There will be plenty of pics and vids where everyone is stood in position with their best smile. As nice as this is, it’s not real, and the best photos are genuine. With this in mind, speak to your photographer and tell them that you want lots of action shots throughout the day. In simple terms, this means you need them to take photographs of the guests while they’re not focusing! That way, they’ll capture the atmosphere and the experience of the day. Sometimes, posing can be boring and a little stale.

​Involve The Guests
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Quality shots come from the professionals most of the time, but that’s not to say your loved ones don’t have their moments. The truth is some guests know how to take a good photo, while others get lucky. Either way, it doesn’t matter who snaps it as long as it looks amazing. Therefore, give everyone at the party a Polaroid or an instant camera and let them go crazy. It takes some effort to sift through them all, yet it’s well worth the effort.

Come on – don’t you want memories which last a lifetime?

Differences and similarities

One of the biggest issues that tend to creep up in a marriage over time is when you start to notice that not all of your plans are the same as your partner’s. The practicalities of future life, employment, where you live, children, and the core principles that make you who you are aren’t easy to discover all at once. You have to make an effort to talk about the future with your partner. Talk about specific plans, greatest desires, ambitions, and more at length. Mishaps and small fights can be nothing but pebbles on the road to growing into a better understanding and respect of one another. However, if you don’t share a vision of the future that at least meets in the middle, tension is only likely to increase as time goes on.


Get a sense of perspective

Sometimes you can see the forest for the trees. The same can be said of a marriage. You cannot be impartial, and it is nothing more than ego to believe that you can. One of the biggest benefits of marriage counseling is the chance to involve someone who doesn’t have an emotional investment in the relationship. The impartiality and lower risk of bias can help you and your spouse view things with a little more distance from a new perspective. It can help you divorce yourself from the gut reactions that turn disagreements into fights and wrong-doings into vendettas.


Listen without blame

Social relationships involve a lot of give and take. We are naturally inclined to “keep tally”, whether it’s seeing who has the upper hand, who owes what, or to assert a moral high ground. In marriages, this is extremely dangerous. Even when you have been wronged, if you want to repair the relationship, you have to listen to your partner’s concerns. Even if they sound like excuses, even if it’s for a transgression as deep as cheating, communication is crucial. You have to listen, to share your own thoughts, and repeat. In time, with enough honesty on both sides, the conceits start to fall away, and you can address the fears and insecurities that often lie at the heart of the original transgression.


Though it may be easier than ever to back out of it, your marriage commitment represents more than just a relationship with another human being. It represents your ability to commit, period. Commitment involves sacrifice and hardship, not just agreeing to a long-term status quo. There are some insurmountable hurdles in marriages, that can’t be denied. But you have to try to surmount them before you can make that judgment in good faith.

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Go camping.
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Away from the bright lights of the city with its loud bars and clubs, you might think that there’s no way you could throw a wild bachelor party in nature. But the best parties only need a group of close friends (and maybe a few packs of booze). That’s why you should organise a camping trip for your friend’s big night. Forget the smartphones and all other aspects of the modern world. Have a tipsy night in a forest. You could play drinking games around a fire, tell each other funny stories, and just have a great night.

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​Involve Your Kids

As second weddings often occur later in life, you might have children with your first partner or a previous relationship. If this is the case, you should involve them in the ceremony. For instance, your daughter could be a flower girl and follow you down the aisles in a pretty dress with a gorgeous mini bouquet. Boys will enjoy being page boys or ushers.


It Doesn’t Have To Be Modest

As I’ve previously mentioned, most people think that a second wedding needs to be fairly modest and demure. However, this really isn't the case. Just because you’ve already had one elaborate ceremony and reception doesn’t mean that you can’t go and do it all again! Of course, this time you might know just how stressful planning such a day can be. So, you might want to get details for a wedding planner who can help you with all the organization. There’s no point being super stressed for a second time and trying to do it all yourself, is there?!


Consider A Prenup

You’ve been here before and you know just how awful it is when a marriage starts to break down. Not only is there a lot of emotional stress to go through, but you will also have to deal with the legal aspect. If you don’t have a prenup in place, you will find that you might have to battle it out in court to get your share of all the family's finances. Are you sure you want to go through all of that again? I doubt it! So, it’s a good idea to discuss a prenup before you do get wed again. This will detail how your finances will be split in the event of a divorce, and will make all the potential legalities a lot easier to handle.

Enjoy your return to the altar!
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Facts about love that make sense.
by Irene Terehova

Throw Back Thursday. 
An interview between Irene Terehova and Frank Kermit for MTL Blog from 2016

A destination wedding is a dream for a lot of people. You get away from home, and you can often combine the wedding with your honeymoon. It gives you the option of marrying on a beach, in a castle, or wherever you might feel like it. However, they can get very expensive, even when your guests are paying their own way. If you're determined to have a destination wedding, you don't have to give up on your dream because you're on a tight budget. There are ways to save and get the wedding you both want without overspending.

Pick the Right Location

Choosing the right location is the first step you need to take to make sure your destination wedding isn't too expensive. This works best if you're not already set on going to any one place. You might have a certain type of setting in mind, whether it's an island or a mountain location. This still allows you plenty of flexibility to find a location that's right for you. If you are set on somewhere in particular, you can often still save money by choosing the less popular places or by going at the right time. Think about not just where you're going but whether the legal marriage process is expensive too.

Keep Your Guest List Small

Keeping to a small guest list is seen as an advantage for many people who want to have a destination wedding. In fact, it's the reason some people choose to go away to get married. You're not obligated to invite everyone, or you can bank on a lot of people not wanting to come. You probably still want close friends and family there, but you can avoid having to invite extended family members who you haven't spoken to in years. Draw up a small guest list, and you'll be able to save money, and perhaps even pay for the most important people to make it.

Choose a Package Wedding

One of the ways to save is by choosing a wedding package that gives you everything you need. It's an affordable way to plan your wedding, but it doesn't have to look cheap. Take a look at SweetHawaiiWedding.com to see what you could be picking if you choose to have your wedding in Hawaii. A package wedding doesn't mean you have no control. You often still have a choice of elements, and you can still make your own choices for things like your outfits too.

Get Group Discounts

If you're traveling as a group, it's a great way to make some savings. Using your power as a group booking, whether there's 15 or 50 of you, you can negotiate with everyone from airlines to hotels. You don't necessarily have to pay for everything for your guests, but if they're making an effort to come to your wedding, they'll appreciate you getting them a discount.

Your destination wedding doesn't need to be expensive at all. You can make it affordable and get the dream wedding that you want.
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