PHOTOS:#NIGERIAN ARTISTE ORESEGUN OLUMIDE DISPLAYS HIS DRAWING THAT BEATS THE MONALISA PAINTING

 PHOTOS:#NIGERIAN ARTISTE ORESEGUN OLUMIDE DISPLAYS HIS DRAWING THAT BEATS THE MONALISA PAINTING

COLOUR INSPIRATION

Wedding colour and themes are as old as time, the trend continues today, seeing couples and wedding planners build themes around certain colour groups certainly isn't uncommon. The right colour combination is certainly a personal choice that sets the tone and vibe of your ceremony.

We have gathered an assortment of color hues from the lightest to the darkest shades and their meanings, to give you.

Black & Silver

Neutral tones inspired by love....

Black: Yes black. This shade represents power and elegance. This is definitely one for a daring couple and it works well with every colour.

Silver: This shade represents rich history, it is also very up scale and elegant. It flirts with almost every colour.

Indulgent shades of pink...

Soft Pink, Dusty Pink & Blush: This shade represents spirited romance, often associated with fresh love and all things beautiful

Fuchsia & Magenta: This shade is a strong contemporary representation of feminine energy.

Coral & Dusty Rose: This shade represents vivacity. It works well with many shades, including blue, brown& gold. 

Purple, Lilac , & Champagene Gold

Purple and Lilac pair excellently together like a fine wine and cheese, while champagne gold is a perfect neutral metallic shade for that added that luxurious glow. 

Purple represents royalty, wealth prosperity and influence. 

Lilac represents delicate femininity. 

Gold arouses feelings of luxury, taste, warmth and culture.

Sunny Yellow with Rays of Gold

Yellow: This shade represent positivity and assurance. Yellow is 100% exciting. The possibilities to be explored with this colour are limitless

Gold, Antique Gold and Mustard: These shades arouse feelings of luxury, taste, warmth and culture. It can be blended with almost every colour.

Cranberry Red: This shade represents passion and love. This exciting hue can be used to create numerous look. Red looks gorgeous with champagne, greys and greens.

Burgundy: This shade represents courage, strength and, action. It's darker hue is better suited to lighter colour combinations .

Ocean inspired shades of blue....

Sky Blue: This shade represents trust and faithfulness. This colour fosters a relaxed and productive ambience.

Turquoise: This shade represents peace, tranquil and healing. Lighter shades of turquoise have a feminine appeal and foster vigor and happiness. Blends nicely with silver.

JUST ENGAGED? 5 THINGS TO DO FIRST

   Don't let the idea of wedding planning intimidate you. Start off easy by tackling these simple tasks.

 1. Make the announcement.

Some couples don't feel "right" if anyone knows their big news before parents and other close family. If possible, tell the folks in person. If your parents don't live nearby, put in a special phone call.

                       

2. Delve into dreams.

Sit down with your fiancé—preferably over a candle lit dinner—and let the ideas, dreams, schemes and pie-in-the-sky plans fly. Think about the style you'd like, whether it's an outdoor event, a sit-down dinner in a ballroom or a ceremony on a mountaintop. =-D No talk of money. Yet.

3. Talk money.

Oops, sorry. Dreamtime over (for now). It's rare these days that the bride's parents pick up the whole bill, so decide now on your bottom line. Find out from both sets of parents if or how much they can contribute.

4. Rough out the timing.

While you don't have to set a firm date now, it's smart to at least have an idea of what month or season you want to marry in. That'll give you a sense of how long you have to get things organized.

5. Create a guest list.

Because your wedding's size determines where you'll hold the party, how much it will cost (prices usually rise by guest) and whether travel will be involved, creating a guest list is one of the first and most important things to do. So make your list; your fiancé and both families should do the same. You can, and likely will, cut later. 

Bridal Bouquet - Significance and Meaning

Significance and Meaning

Selecting the perfect blooms for your bouquet might seem to be a question of aesthetics, but there is actually a lot more to flowers than the way they look. The meaning of most flowers dates back to the end of the nineteenth century in England. The reserve of the Victorians prevented them from discussing emotions, so a sort of flower code helped men to tell women how they felt about them.

Before you go ahead and order your wedding flowers, check out the meaning of certain blooms to be sure your bouquet signifies true love and not infidelity or mistrust.

• Roses

  are by far the most popular flower used in wedding bouquets, corsages, buttonholes and table centres. This is hardly surprising as the rose signifies love, joy and beauty.á Different coloured roses have different meanings with white roses indicating innocence, ivory roses showing fidelity, red roses depicting passion, and dark pink roses expressing the couple's gratitude for having met one another.

• Calla Lilies

  are currently very fashionable wedding flowers and they signify magnificent beauty. Calla lilies add an element of elegance and sophistication to your wedding, and can be used on their own to create a simple yet striking bouquet or centrepiece.

• Stephanotis

  is a traditional bridal flower, shaped a little like a trumpet.á Their popularity at weddings becomes clear when their significance is explained; stephanotis is a symbol of marital happiness.

• Chrysanthemums

  can be combined easily with other flowers as they have no scent and so are perfect for bridal bouquets. The name literally means golden flower, but the chrysanthemum signifies wealth, abundance and truth, which are welcome in any marriage.

• Orchids

  are a fashionable choice for weddings, partly because of their large price tag and partly because of their striking appearance. However, they are also a good choice because of their meaning, which is love and beauty.

• Tulips

  are best suited to spring wedding, and come is a huge variety of colours.á They symbolise undying love and passion, which makes them a perfect wedding motif, but they are very fragile and may get easily damaged as part of a bouquet.

Wedding flowers to avoid

There are some flowers that may be beautiful, but have a negative meaning that you might not want to associate with your wedding. In some cases it is just certain colours of one particular flower that have an unfavourable meaning. Of course, if one of these is your favourite flower you may decide to ignore superstition and just choose it anyway.

Try to avoid larkspur, meaning infidelity and lavender, signifying distrust, as these are certainly not emotions you want associated with your wedding.á You might also rule out foxglove and yellow lilies, which mean insincerity and falsehood respectively. A Christmas rose suggests scandal, and a marigold depicts grief, so these are also perhaps best avoided.

If you are having a yellow theme tread carefully as yellow carnations show disdain, yellow chrysanthemums signify slighted love, and yellow roses mean jealousy.á Be equally careful with a red colour scheme as the meaning of a red carnation is 'alas my poor heart,' and red poppies symbolize consolation.

Flowers have different meanings and you may use these to determine what type of flowers you would like.

Flowers	Meaning
Apple Blossom	Better things to come
Aster	Love and Daintiness
Carnation	Pure Deep Love
Clematis	Love Vine
Freesia	Trust
Iris	Wisdom and Hope
Ivy	Marriage
Jasmine	Amiability
Lily	Purity
Poppy	Imagination
Rose	Love
Rose - Red	Passionate Love
Rose - White	Innocence and Pure Love
Rose - Red & White	Unity
Tulip	Perfect Lover
Tulip - Red	Declaration of Love
Tulip - Yellow	Hopeless Love

Wedding Hair - Best tips in one spot

Your wedding may very well be the biggest event in your lifetime. All eyes are on the bride on her big day and the expectation is that you'll look your very best. This means working out in the months before the wedding, scoring the perfect dress and doing something fabulous with your hair.

Getting your hair right can be daunting. Should you wear it up or down? Do you choose the dress first or your hairstyle? Can you do it yourself? What is all this talk on wedding boards about a "hair trial" and how much do they cost? How far in advance are you supposed to book the stylist?

Deep breaths. I've got you covered. In the article below, I'll answer all these questions and more. And by the time you walk down the aisle your hair is going to look fantastic.

Rule No. 1: Thou Shalt Look Like You, Only Better

On your wedding day you should look like the very best version of yourself.
This means if you are a casual person in your daily life who never wears makeup, your wedding day is not the time to break out your inner Kim Kardashian. Likewise, if you walk around looking like a Kardashian in your daily life, this wedding hair experience is going to be epic for you. Start collecting pictures now.

Here's the deal: You want your groom (or bride!) and your guests to recognize you as you walk down the aisle. Even more importantly, you want to feel comfortable and supremely confident as you walk down that aisle. True beauty, after all, comes from within.

Throughout this process, check in with your gut. Does this feel right? Does this feel like you? And if I can give you a bit of advice learned from generations of brides that have come before you: you can tune out that well-meaning advice that will surely come from friends and family. If you want extensions, get them. If you don't want to grow out your short haircut, don't. If you don't want to wear that moth-eaten veil from your mother's 1978 wedding, don't.

Remember: this day is about you and your partner. This is not about what others want for you. So take that, future mother-in-law  

Picking the Right Hairstyle

Once you make the decision to have a wedding, all of a sudden life can get very, very complicated . The wedding options are endless. So are the wedding hair options. You can pull your hair up in the most amazing loop de loops, or you can wear your hair half up and half down. There are jewels you can wear in your hair or flowers .Maybe you should do a retro 50s thing with a short little Jackie O veil. Or curls spiraling down your back....

Deep breaths.

Before you do anything hair-wise, you should pick your dress. A bride's hair should complement her dress, not compete with it. Your veil is different. If you choose to wear one, you can actually choose a veil based on the hairstyle, or vice versa.

Another good rule of thumb for selecting a hairstyle is to consider your personality and the wedding theme.

As for hair texture, I recommend you don't fight your natural texture. Curly hair looks amazing either down or up. Straight hair can be curled into waves and wound into ornate updos (with the help of pins and hairspray). Wavy hair can be either straightened or curled and is the perfect texture for half-up/half-down styles as well as updos.

A few months before the wedding, start perusing magazines and online hairstyle galleries to pick out some favorites. If you are super organized, you can even pin your favorite styles to keep them in one place and show off your options to your friends. In any case, you'll want a few options to bring along to your hair consultation.

Finally, when selecting styles, think ahead 20 years. When your kids look at your wedding album will they see a classic bride or a dated bride (careful with those cascading tendrils)? You want your wedding day style to be timeless.

Extra tip: Consider if you're going to keep the veil on for the reception or take it off after the wedding ceremony. Most brides take it off, but I've read in many forums that pictures can be really romantic if you wear your veil at the reception.

See photos on wedding hairstyles. 

Be-dazzle With Traditional Beads On Your Wedding Day

One of the most important thing on a woman’s mind is how she looks on her wedding day. She must look prim and proper on her big day because she is the center of attention.  Her hair, gele, dress, accessories, make up, shoes etc must be near perfect, if not perfect.

In Nigeria, traditional wedding precedes the white wedding. It is expected that the couples must go traditional with their attire. However, the unique thing about the African culture is that it is dynamic and versatile. As such, for the traditional wedding day there’s a variety of choices to make from depending on your tribe. Also the choice of accessory is dependent on the color of the day.

Using beads as accessories is usually unique for Nigerian women to enhance their beauty and looks especially during engagements, weddings and several occasions. It is a break from the norm which is the everyday silver, gold and bronze accessories. However for  lovers of silver and gold accessories, beads have been modified and fused with these metals to make it stylishly different. I have some fantastic Handmade Coral Bead Jewelry from Zuri Perle to share. Atinuke, is the brain behind the original beaded jewelry collection, they really are lovely. Enjoy.

                                         

Zuri Perle is a sure stop for your unique custom made jewelry, be it simple or complex. Contact them;

Website – www.zuriperle.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/zuriperle
Email – atinuke@zuriperle.com

The Wedding Budget!

It’s very hard to make the dreaded wedding budget into a fun, ‘sexy’ and exciting topic.

But, let’s face facts, your wedding budget affects all of your wedding choices.

(Except the most important one – who you choose to marry!)

It doesn’t matter if your budget is 2,000,000 or more, you still need to think carefully about how and where you’re spending your money.

Yep, we are awesome like that.

The Wedding Budget

As I mentioned in my last post on planning tips, a key area to consider as you start wedding planning is the budget. How much money can you afford to spend and how much do you want to spend on your wedding? How can you keep track of your expenditure and stop your budget from spiralling out of control?

The answer, as always, comes in the form of organisation!

Do your research

Asking how much a wedding costs is similar to questioning how long a piece of string is. It really does depend on a number of factors, including the style, location and date of the wedding. Once you’ve established these logistics, you can start looking into the different costs in each area. Disregard the average prices magazines give you and concentrate on researching suppliers in your chosen location to build your own list of prices. By researching these costs you will then have a realistic idea of what you can get for your money.

What’s your wedding going to cost?

Having done your research you will now have some guide prices to work towards and you can start thinking about how much you want to spend. This is when prioritising the most important elements of your wedding becomes crucial, as you may want to allocate more money to certain areas and source them early.

As a rough guide, I would designate 40-50% of your budget for your reception (including the venue, food and drink costs), leaving the rest of your budget to cover everything else. Be aware that just because something’s important to you, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to spend more on it, so much as it’s something you won’t want to compromise on.

Who’s paying?

Will both you and your fiancé be covering the cost of your wedding? Be realistic, look at your finances and work out how much you can afford. The start of married life is not the time to be getting into debt. Will you need to start saving or do you already have a pot put aside?

Are there any family members who want to help? If so it’s worth talking to them early on to establish what they’re expecting in return: is it a no obligation gift or are they going to want a large say in what the money is being spent on?

It’s always a good idea to use gifted money for a particular area of the wedding (such as the flowers or drinks) and give them some input into that particular element. If you feel it’s going to compromise the kind of wedding you want then consider declining their generosity.

Get Organised

One of the first things I do for my clients is set up a budget spreadsheet where I list everything needed for the wedding, especially the little things like postage for invitations, alteration costs for dresses, accessories and so on, and allocate the estimated spend. I also add a column for the actual spend – you can then compare the two columns and reallocate funds within your budget if necessary to keep to your target.

Give Yourself A Contingency Budget

Inevitably things may end up costing more than you thought or something might come up that you hadn’t budgeted for, so always cost in a contingency budget. Have a figure you’d like to spend and then another figure that if really pushed you could stretch to. General wisdom states that your contingency fund should be 20% of your budget.

Finally, whatever your budget is there will always be areas where, with a little time and some creativity, you can make great savings. We’ll be looking at that in a later post in this series so don’t worry if you’re feeling the financial strain, I might just have some money-saving tips for you!