Wedding Wednesday: Night Skin Care Routine

A little while ago, I shared with you my daytime skin routine. I'm trying hard to be diligent with my skin in the months and weeks leading up to the wedding.  Nighttime skin care is quite important as your skin is very clean, allowing for anything you apply to really be able to sink in and do some magic!

I start by cleaning with the same thing I do in the morning, The Body Shop Nutraganics Foaming Cleanser.

Second is my Olay Regenerist Intensive Repair Treatment. I use this on my forehead and the smile lines around my mouth. It doesn't cause me any sensitivity, but my skin isn't very sensitive as a rule. I bought it quite some time ago and it was on clearance, so I'm not sure if it's been discontinued.

Third is The Body Shop Nutraganics Smoothing Night Cream. This leaves my face feeling really soft and well-moisturized.

Last is The Body Shop Nutraganics Smoothing Eye Cream. My eyes never feel dry after using this product. I love how the dispenser allows you to get the exact right amount, so you're not wasting anything.

That is my basic routine and then once per week I exfoliate and on another night I use a mask.

My go-to exfoliators are The Body Shop Aloe Gentle Exfoliator and The Body Shop Vitamin C Microdermabrasion.

I've usually been using some samples I've had of masks from The Body Shop, but last week I used a mask I found at Target, the Cucumber Peel-Off Mask by que bella. My face has been so soft ever since! I can get rough spots on my cheeks at times, and I have had none since I tried this mask. For $1.99, it was a great deal and I have enough left over to apply it again.

I buy my products from The Body Shop when they are half-price (happens once per month or so, although the products last a lot longer than that).

Do you have any night time products that are must-haves? I tend to be a product junkie! I'm happy with what I'm using now, but admit I really would like to try the new Clinique Smart Custom-Repair Serum.

XOXO
Glitterary Girl

Wedding Wednesday: The Shoes

"Do you have your dress?" is almost immediately followed by, "Do you have your shoes?"

For me, the shoe shopping wasn't agonizing or drawn out. The day I ordered my dress, my mom and I saw a pair of shoes at John David in Halifax that fit my criteria of:

1) Pretty
2) At least moderately comfortable
3) Less than 3 inch heel
4) Affordable (sort-of...)
5) Wearable again
6) Will stay on my crazy-narrow feet

I thought about the shoes for a week, then went and bought them. I knew there was only one pair in my size so I didn't want to chance them getting scooped up.

I stare at my shoes a lot. About once a week I will walk around the house in them. You don't get to see them until the wedding, but I found some other lovelies that will perhaps satisfy your wedding-shoe lust.

Crazy Wedding Shoes by jennifer-merlin featuring peep toe booties

Kate Spade slingback shoes / Jimmy Choo pointy toe shoes / Christian Louboutin peep toe booties, $915 / Kate Spade high heel pumps / Christian Louboutin studded shoes / Iron Fist high heel pumps

My shoes actually look rather similar to one of the above pair. Which one? I'll never tell...

XOXO
Glitterary Girl

Wedding Wednesday: Daytime Skin Care Routine

I like to think I generally take good care of my skin. I've been wearing SPF every day for over ten years, I've been using night cream and eye cream faithfully since my late 20's, and I never EVER sleep with makeup on.

With the wedding a few months away, I questioned whether I had to make any big changes to my routine. After some careful thought, I decided to invest in a few more products and actually use them rather than spend a lot of money on facials. I LOVE facials, but wedding prep s expensive enough and where I don't have any major skin issues, I need spend my dollars on something else.

My daytime routine is more simple than my nighttime routine.

1) After working out (which I will share the details of in another wedding prep post) I wash my face in the shower with The Body Shop Nutriganics Foaming Face Wash. 

2) Once I'm out of the shower and dried off, I immediately apply The Body Shop Nutriganics Drops of Youth. I've been using this product for almost a month now and it is ahhhh-mazing. It gives my skin a glow that nothing else does. I can tell if I forget to use it (which doesn't happen often) and it does wonders to reduce the little lines on the sides of my eyes.  A little goes a long way - I only use a drop or two.

3) I'm not too picky with that I use for SPF. I've tried a few from The Body Shop, but I'm not a huge fan of their SPF 30 product. In the winter, I use SPF 15, but in the summer I always wear SPF 30. Right now I'm using Olay Complete.

4) The last thing I use before make-up (which in the summer is often just concealer and BB cream as far as face products go) is my Vitamin C Skin Boost. from The Body Shop. It makes my skin really soft and acts as a primer. Plus, it smells like oranges which is a great scent to energize you for the day!

I am by no means an expert on skincare, but this routine has been working for me! I'm going to be diligent with it all the way up to the wedding. I have a Love Your Body membership from The Body Shop, which always saves me 10%, and I also only buy my products when they have 50% off skin care (which happens about once a month). I don't have to restock often as it takes me at least three months to get through the products. I just keep a mental note of what I'm getting low on, and when a sale pops up, I buy.

Did you do anything special for your skin before you wedding?

XOXO
Gltterary Girl

Wedding Wednesday: The Reception Venue

It's a bit difficult to choose a reception venue when you're not sure how many people are going to be there! Our RSVP date is set for July 1st, but we expect there will be at least a few people that join along in the last few months before the wedding. We wanted to make sure we had a space that was big enough!

Knowing we weren't going to be making a trip to Vegas to check out the venues, we went with a place that had amazing reviews. Hundreds of couples can't be wrong,  right?

Our reception venue is Maggiano's which is located in the Fashion Show Mall (how appropriate for me...)

Maggiano's is an Italian family restaurant that has a number of private reception rooms. We've decided to rent three rooms that can be transformed into one large space with a balcony. We haven't decided on decorations yet, but I'm thinking we are going to stick with minimal decor as I really don't want to have much to worry about for the wedding besides showing up and having a good time!

I'm very excited for the reception as the reviews of Maggiano's are fantastic. We have a family-style dinner, which is where we pick several dishes and they bring them to the tables and place them in the middle so people can serve themselves. It will be hard to narrow down the choices as everything on the menu looks delicious!

A little over five months to go!

Do you have any tips for me on menu-choosing or easy decor?

XOXO
Glitterary Girl

Wedding Wednesday: The Ceremony Venue

The setting for our wedding ceremony was pretty important to R and I. We knew we wanted to do a hotel on the strip versus a chapel location, but there are so many options! We agreed we would prefer to have the ceremony outdoors, and Vegas in October (fingers crossed) should have temperatures in the low 20's.

We have a list of Vegas hotels we really want to stay in, and at the top of that list was Caesar's Palace. When we looked on Caesar's website and saw their outdoor options for weddings, we were struck by the beauty of Juno Garden.

I love all the white stone and tall palm trees and it's located by the Caesar's Palace pools, but is pretty secluded. Initially I was worried about the benches being uncomfortable, but our ceremony is going to be short, so people won't really be sitting for long.

We get a free night at Caesar's with the wedding package and we've decided to stay there for the duration of the trip. Caesar's is a central location on the strip and right beside the gorgeous fountains at Bellagio.

Hello says Ray!

I won't lie, the fact that the Cheesecake Factory and the giant fish tank with our friend Ray are both at Caesar's may have played a small part in our decision to stay there. 227 days to go!

XOXO

Glitterary Girl

Wedding Wednesday: The Destination

Of course Treasure Tuesday must be followed by Wedding Wednesday!

I've had some requests to share how I'm doing with the wedding planning. I'm going to keep this first post fairly basic and likely won't be doing a wedding post every week, as the whole point of doing a destination wedding is to avoid a lot of picky details. I'm not a picky wedding details type of person, and while I love receiving wedding jam, there's no way I'm going to be making any. Nor am I going to be sitting around making Save the Date cards or gluing tulle/burlap/ribbons to anything. The fewer things I have to do, the less stress I'll create, and the happier a bride I will be! And here's my disclaimer: I have been to a lot of weddings and loved them ALL so don't be offended by the lack of burlap/jam/tulle/ribbon-ness in my planning if you in fact used burlap/jam/tulle/ribbons - it was beautiful!!

The first big thing that R and I did after we got engaged was decide that we were going to do a destination wedding. In fact, we agreed on going away fairly early on in the process -I think we decided within a week of our engagement.. Choosing to go away and get married is a more popular decision these days, especially in the after-30 crowd. For us, we'd both been to a lot of local weddings that were absolutely amazing, but we wanted to do something different. We also figured we'd end up spending a lot less on "details" if we went away.

We tossed around the idea of going south (as in Caribbean), but based on our choice for time of year (fall), we decided against it as fall is hurricane season and we didn't want to risk the chance of a storm crashing our special day.

We wanted a place that was easily accessible, and that gave people some choice as to how long they could stay for. We also wanted to pick a spot with varying levels of accommodations, from budget to splurge-worthy.

Las Vegas is our destination! R and I have been there before, and I loved watching all the brides walking around the hotels, getting photos, and having fun.

XOXO
Glitterary Girl