Hair Today, Fall Tomorrow

Some of the top trends for Fall '10 hair are blessedly DIY-friendly, a boon for any trend-spotting bride or bridesmaid on a budget.

Take this curly bob. It's a simple style for straight or curly-haired ladies who love a little casual ease to their style.

For curly-haired ladies:

- Wash and either air-dry your hair or use a diffuser, scrunching upwards underneath the top layer to dry it to completion. A leave-in mousse-gel combo will smooth frizzies and flyaways without weighing down the hair too much. Ouidad makes specifically curly-hair-friendly products that work wonders.

- Use a round brush to smooth the top of your hair, if you like the smooth roots look that these models are sporting. Note: If you do smooth the roots, make sure you tease underneath the smooth area though to create volume. Otherwise, you may wind up with something that looks like bad hat hair.

- Use a hot flat-iron to flatten the ends of your hair. It's okay to leave some ends fully curled. The idea is to give it a lived-in look.

- If your hair is still laying a bit close to your head, tease the under-layers to create more volume around the head.

For straight-haired ladies, the folks on becomegorgeous.com do a fabulous job of explaining the details of this style for you. You can also find other fall hair trends on their site.

* As with any event hair, make sure you practice before the big day to ensure you can do it and it looks good.

Mason Jar Decor

Whether planning a garden party-themed summer wedding, a rustic fall wedding or an elegant glass-centered winter wonderland wedding, mason jars can be a budget-friendly way to create warm lighting, charming decor and memorable favors.

I'm sure you're familiar with the classic and beautiful flowers-in-mason-jar centerpiece. Both wildflowers arranged by the wedding party or family or professionally arranged flowers look fantastic in mason jars and give a homey welcome to the event.

They can also be used as table lighting with a little bit of sand (colored or natural), stones or shells as a base for votive candles. This inviting lighting allows for a protected open flame at the table and less (potentially more costly) lighting elsewhere.

Another option for lighting is hanging lanterns. This involves slightly more DIY-work on your part, but are a great option if you're going with an outdoor wedding. P. Allen Smith has a great how-to on their website: www.pallensmith.com

And never underestimate the charm of using them for guest favors. Use your imagination to showcase the wedding locale or your personalities through a small mason jar full of items like:

- local jam (ex: huckleberry jam in Montana)
- a favorite candy (or candies in the color of the wedding)
- soil & a planted seed (for a green-themed wedding)
- local flowers petals (to evolve into potpourri; also involves a bit more DIY)

The options are endless!

Justifying Tradition

Never one to accept and perform a tradition simply for the fact that it's a tradition, I absolutely love Jennifer Grabenstetter's blog post on the real history of several wedding traditions: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15969

It may give you that extra ammo you need to convince your mother that wearing red is actually perfectly acceptable as a wedding dress.