Instrumental Pointer

After your honeymoon, that’s it for luxurious vacations right? You’ve now got your mortgage to think about, car payments, utilities, saving for children if you plan to have them, insurance, credit card debt and then there’s everyday expenses like food. With all those expenses how could you ever think about a vacation again, well you can!

Timeshares

Timeshares are great places to spend your time. Some find that they get several weeks on their ownership program each year while others may not be able to use them at all. However that doesn’t mean you can’t rent them out to others and make a slight profit.

Most timeshare owners pay on average $250 for a week. Find friends or family who are willing to split the fee and share the space. Or if you just want to stay the week you can pay the fee and enjoy your time there.

Before you head to your time share destination check on these things first: Make sure you agree on the price before taking over someone’s timeshare, and ask the other party about other expenses such as cleaning fees, and maintenance charges. Know what’s around you, you may think the time share comes with a full kitchen but find out there isn’t so you’ll want to know what you have access to and surrounding locations.

The more the merrier

Take a vacation with your friends. It can be fun, and less expensive because you can split some of the costs. Say you want to go to the mountains to do some skiing. An average price for a weeklong cabin rental with three bedrooms costs around $900. You can easily split that between other friends and save a ton while being located in an ideal spot. If you prefer to be outdoors, then take a camping trip. Your cost for the campsite will be nothing!

Before you go make sure to set some ground rules such as still making time for family, not just friends, or alone time with your other half. If you have kids, perhaps one night, one other couple or the friends you are with can watch them and then you can switch roles. Or you can choose to do your own things during the day and then get together during the night for dinner.

Swap Homes

Do you live in an attractive place where tourists always venture to. If so, consider doing a house exchange. Most house exchanges cost $30-$110 per year. You may feel skeptical about turning your house over to a stranger but it’s completely safe. Most home exchangers are prosperous, mature, and well educated professionals so they are not likely to destroy your home. Or you can choose to do a house swap with a family with children if you have children so you are going from one child friendly home to the next.

Nathan Dawson writes for http://www.marriedfinances.com and http://www.successfulmarriageresource.com, great online sources for marriage and finance information.

There are many kinds of anniversary gifts on the market today. In fact it is a big business bringing millions of dollars each year. Yet despite the wide range and availability of anniversary gifts on the market many spouses and loved ones still have problems deciding which kind of gifts to get that will perfectly suit their partners.

If you have this same problem take the time to sit down and think about your partner’s favorite hobbies and tasks or the things that cause them problems and see if you can come up with ways to make their lives better. A basket of foot lotions, scrubs and creams may not seem all that romantic, but throw in unlimited foot massages and pedicures and your partner will delight in the special treatment.

If you still can’t think of anything that suits your partner, or if your partner all ready seems to have everything one could want go ahead and get them something absolutely frivolous. They probably wouldn’t purchase any such items for themselves so it’s up to you to buy the fun stuff for them. New golf clubs, antique stemware or a really silky pair of pajamas can go a long way in the relationship department.

However if you still cannot think of anything good why not fall back on traditional gifts assigned to each of the anniversary years. The first year is paper, the second glass and so on. As the partnership last longer and grows stronger the content of the gifts becomes more and more valuable. If this is the first anniversary get them something on paper. How about a pair of tickets to their favorite concert or movie or sports event? On the second year you could take them to an artist’s glass foundry and watch them create a beautiful piece of artwork for your beloved.

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible party supplies, using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. Go to Anniversary Rock for more great ideas!

There are many reasons why the winter season is becoming such a popular one for weddings.

While the summer season is still the most popular time for wedding ceremonies, there are a number of excellent winter wedding ideas that have helped to make the wintertime a great time to get married.

==Your Friends, Family And Co-Workers Are Overflowing With Ideas==

There are many places to turn when seeking out the perfect winter wedding ideas and some of these great ideas may be as close as your friends and family members.

Friends, family members and coworkers, particularly those who have recently planned or attended weddings of their own, can be a great source of first hand information, and they may be able to create some wonderful winter wedding ideas you may not have thought of.

==Your Local Bookstore And Newsstand Has Great Ideas==

Another great place to search for great winter wedding ideas is at the local bookstore or newsstand.

There are a great many publications on the market to help you plan a wedding, including wedding planning guides and bridal magazines. These publications can be great sources of winter wedding ideas.

==The Internet Is Always A Great Source For Winter Wedding Ideas You Can Use==

In addition to these great real world sources, there are a great many winter wedding ideas lurking on the internet.

There are literally hundreds of different web sites on the internet that are devoted to all aspects of planning a wedding, and these web sites can be a great way to learn about all kinds of winter wedding ideas.

==Newsgroups On The Internet Where You Can Gather Wedding Ideas==

In addition to these web sites, there are a number of excellent newsgroups on the internet where those who are planning weddings, and those who have planned weddings, can gather to trade tips and tricks.

This kind of first hand experience can be invaluable to anyone planning a wedding. Not only will you likely find some winter wedding ideas you may not have thought of, but you will gain real world advice on what to look for, and what to avoid, when buying the many supplies you will need to make your wedding a big success.

Shaunta Pleasant is a professional writer and editor on wedding planning topics. Visit my site to learn more about planning the perfect wedding at http://www.best-wedding-plan.com/winter_wedding_ideas.html

We search endlessly for that perfect “soul” mate, our “true love” that we can spend the rest of our lives with, have children, raise a family, grow old, etc. We are tired of the “dating” scene, we want to settle down and get married. However, once we do, we realize that it is not all that it is “cracked” up to be. You call you mother and say…”Hey, how come you never told me that marriage was this hard?”

The current popularity of chick flicks, reality TV dating shows, books, and courses all portray dating and finding that right certain someone is an emotional roller coaster and soul searching journey. Once you have proclaimed your love, so to speak, you have fulfilled this destiny and will live in eternal marital bliss….Realistically, the day you get married is only the beginning of figuring how to keep two different people — no matter how well-suited — living and growing together for the next 50 years. It is the beginning of toilet seats being left up, the cap on the toothpaste being left off, the pile of shoes at the door, and the dispersing of household chores and allowances starts all over again.

And, this is all pre-children. Once you have children, all of these issues and MORE pop up in your marriage. Your workload doubles. Of course, you will glean advice from your other friends and family. Advice such as; never go to bed angry, communicate, and compromise. But these are tools (albeit good ones). They don’t get at some very basic truths: You Will Not Always Like — Let Alone Feel Loving Toward — Your Spouse. We all know couples who say they were born to be together. But more often than not, successful relationships are created by two willing and able individuals who have enough commonalities and chemistry to try to make a go of it. That means your spouse does not have 100 percent of the qualities on your mental checklist.

I learned early on that my husband and I were completely different in so many ways, and yet we were very much in love! There were so many times that I did not like him anymore, and I wondered what I saw in him in the first place. Once we had our girls, this fleeting thought became a constant theme at times in our marriage. I would get so frustrated, as did he. Although we are still married today, we constantly have to work at it. I still have days where I question my sanity and HIS. It is on these days that his less than “exceptional” qualities grate on my every last nerve more prominently than others. That’s okay. Because I finally deduced that it is not realistic to think that two wholly separate people — regardless of how well-matched they are — are going to think alike and get along every day of the remainder of their married life together. Hormones get out of whack. There are bad days at work. Daily life becomes cumbersome. Just be aware that the positive days outweigh the negative.

My husband and I like to look at our marriage as a business relationship. It is something that has to be taken seriously, managed, and goals have to be set and reset all the time. It is not always about love, romance, passion, and yes “sex”, it is about respect, individuality, and friendship. We live in an ever changing society, nothing is constant and neither is your marriage. You have to be able to adjust and make changes with your spouse. As long as you both have the same mission statement, then you will both end up on the same side most of the time.

Copyright 2005

Robyn A. Johnson
http://www.themomscafe.net

So you are now engaged and have the ring on your finger. The date is set and all that is left is the enormous task of planning the wedding. If you are on a tight budget and need to save money for your married life ahead then you have an extra difficult task ahead of you. At least you can have some hope knowing that many others have gotten married and had beautiful weddings very inexpensively. However, instead of being able to pay the professionals to do everything for you and merely directing the whole process you will need to get your hands dirty if you want to save the big bucks.

There is a whole area on the internet dedicated to helping you it is called the Do It Yourself wedding also referred to as DIY Wedding. So if you get stuck you can always use your online computer skills and hop over to google or some other popular search engine and type in DIY wedding and then what you are stuck on. For example DIY wedding invitations would help you find great sources of information on making your own wedding invitations.

This article looks at some of the areas that you can try to save money by doing the tasks yourself instead of paying a professional. However there are some things that are better to just pay for so read carefully some of the ideas that you could do on your own and be mindful of your time. The less time you have the more money you will have to spend. So you will want to start working early and get as much done ahead of time as possible.

Do It Yourself Wedding Invitations

Do it yourself wedding invitations are becoming very popular. Wedding invitations can typically run a good deal of money if you have them professionally printed. You can easily do the work yourself ahead of time and there are even a lot of resources that you can buy pre-made parts of the invitations to save some time. So start with a good idea and find the paper and materials you need and get started making your own wedding invitations.

Do It Yourself Centerpieces

Centerpieces for the wedding reception can easily be done on your own without professional help and save a good deal of money. This really depends on how elaborate your plans are. Having simple but elegant centerpieces will save you a lot of heartache, time and money. Something like beautiful glass bowls filled with water and floating candles can look wonderful and take very little time.

Do It Yourself Guestbook

Want to save money on your guestbook? Why not try putting out a photo album that you have decorated along with a Polaroid camera. Guest can take pictures of themselves and then write on the back of the picture and add the picture and message to your photo album. This will create a lasting memory and can be a lot of fun for guests also.

Do It Yourself Seating Charts, Name Tags and Organization

Why not use the computer or if you can even try your hand at some calligraphy and write out things like name tags, seating charts and even wedding programs. These can all be done pretty easily on your own or even with friends before the wedding. All of those little things can really add up and cost a lot so by making the tings yourself ahead of time you can save a great deal of money.

Hare are a few last suggestions to help speed you along the way to a complete Do It Yourself Wedding. Things are always easier and a lot more fun when done in groups of friends. So if you can have friends come over to your house a few times and help assemble wedding favors, a guestbook or decorate a seating chart. This can be a fun time to bond together and share great stories. Time is the most crucial component in a do it yourself wedding. Make sure you really plan your tasks ahead of time so you are not stuck last minute trying to put everything together.

If you are looking for a flower girls dress, you are going to want to make sure that you have some kind of an idea to what the color scheme you are looking for and even the style that you would like to have. That way you are not going to feel a little overwhelmed to all the different options that you are going to have in the store for a flower girls dress for the little helper in your wedding. You know that when it comes to a little girl being a flower girl and getting a flower girls dress it is a big to all the little ones that are getting the pretty flowers girl dresses.

If may be a good idea to take the little girls with you so you know that they are going to be able to try on some of the flower girl dresses so you will be able to see what they look like on the little girl. If you are taking the little girls along to try on all the different flower girls dresses you will see some little lights light up in their eyes when they are looking at all the different flower girl dresses that are in the store. They will feel even better, when they have a chance to try on all the different flower girls dresses that are in the store.

You will want to make sure that the flower girls dresses are going to match up with the rest of the wedding party so that they do not feel like they are not part of the wedding party. If they look like some of the other girls in the wedding party they are going to feel like they are a part of something and they are going to even feel special with the beautiful flower girls dress that they are wearing for the first time in front of everyone that is in the church to see the wedding.

They may think that all the people are there to see them in their new flower girls dress instead of for the actual wedding. That is why it is so cute to see the flower girls walking down the isle in their flower girls dress for the first time. In addition, all the people at the wedding are going to notice the cute little flower girls dress that they have on for the first time too. They may even end up with a couple of praises when the wedding is all over with because the way that they look in their new flower girls dress and how they were in the wedding. You know that is not only going to feel good about what everyone said about their flower girls dress and it will make you feel good as well because you help to choose it.

Kari Eriksson is an infopreneur and has discovered that flower girl dresses are very popular and came in many different forms and shapes. He has devoted two sites; http://www.flowergirl-dresses.info and http://www.flowergirldressesdiscounts.com to this topic.

My husband and I have been pastors for over sixteen years, serving in Protestant congregations and as campus ministers at a large university. During that time we’ve presided over a lot of weddings – probably close to a hundred between the two of us. And one of the things we’ve discovered is that unless a couple is an active member of a church or already friendly with a minister or judge, one of the last things couples tend to think about as they do their wedding planning is who will do the ceremony.

Most couples work hard to find the perfect dresses for the bride and bridesmaids, and the appropriate tuxes for the groom and ushers. They ask nieces and nephews to be flower girls and ring bearers, and book space for the wedding and reception months in advance, in addition to arranging for catered food, the cake, beautiful flowers, and a professional photographer. They order the perfect invitations to be sent the appropriate weeks in advance of the big day, select rings, and book the piano player, organist, string quartet, and soloist. But one of the last things many couples plan for is who will officiate at their wedding. In fact, for many, it’s not even on the “to do” list until the last minute.

I can’t even begin to count how many times someone has called our office asking if we do weddings for non-members of our congregation. We do, under the right circumstances, and tell them so. Then they tell us that they are getting married in a week. Or two days. Or tomorrow. And they wonder if we will do their wedding. I’m not kidding. They made all of their other wedding plans well in advance, the flowers are due to arrive on time and the cake is just about to go into the oven, but they forgot to arrange for who would preside over the spiritual ceremony itself, not to mention sign the wedding license and make the whole thing legal. And unfortunately, in most cases, we can’t just drop everything and preside over their wedding on such short notice.

Now I certainly understand that not everyone is an active member of a spiritual community, so you may not have a priest or pastor or rabbi or other religious cleric standing by to do the wedding. And that’s fine – being part of a faith community isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, we each have our own spiritual path and way of journeying on it. But if you are in the process of planning a wedding, and don’t have a pastor or other cleric you know who could do the ceremony, consider adding “Find an Officiant” to the top of your wedding to do list.

The Officiant can be any ordained minister who is licensed by your state to do weddings. Or it can be a judge or justice of the peace. If you are on a cruise, the Captain of the ship can marry you! Some folks ask their friends to get ordained online, and then they have them do the ceremony – and that’s fine, just make sure your state recognizes the ordination as legal. Whatever the case, just make sure you find someone who is licensed by your state to officiate. (If you don’t have a relationship with the Officiant before the wedding, you can expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $300 for your Officiant, depending on: how much, if any, pre-maritial counseling is involved; how much planning of the actual ceremony is involved; travel considerations; and whether or not there is a rehearsal to attend the night before the wedding. You can ask how much is charged before your first meeting together – most will let you know their fee up front.)

The bottom line is this – it’s your special day, you’ve put hours of thought and planning and work into making it special. Just remember, when you are choosing between prime rib and salmon, and deciding between live music or a DJ, and trying to figure out whether to have an open bar or cash bar, somewhere in the mix make sure you include finding someone to actually preside over the wedding. Because the simple fact is this – if you don’t have an Officiant, there can’t be a wedding!

Susan Ryder is a pastor and author. This article has been submitted in affiliation with (http://www.Prye.Com/) which is a site for Wedding Invitations.