It’s always fun to look up stuff in books and online for your bridal shower recipes when you are putting together the shower. Who doesn’t love a chance to put out those fun, dainty little finger foods? Well, maybe not guys.

Parmesan Cheese Straws: you’ll find these are elegant, easy to pick up and quick to make, taking only about half an hour to make. You’ll need;

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

3 sheets of room temperature phyllo dough

Before you get started preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. In a small bowl mix up the Parmesan, chili powder and cumin. Place a sheet of Phyllo dough on a flat work surface. Spray the surface with the cooking spray. Sprinkle with a couple teaspoons of cheese mixture. Then fold the dough in half to cover the cheese. Sprinkle with another two tablespoons of the mixture, then fold again and spray again, then sprinkle with more mixture. Continue this until the phyllo dough sheet is about 6 by 4 inches. Spray it and sprinkle with a little bit of the mixture. Cut the dough rectangle with a knife into thin strips. Repeat the process with the other two sheets of Phyllo dough. Place them on the baking sheet 1/2 inch apart. Bake about 10 minutes or until they are golden and crisp.

Spiced Olives: if you have a taste for sour foods or just want to serve a tasty addition to the pickle platter these olives are great and take almost no time at all. You’ll need;

Olives; Kalamata, black, green

Fennel, thinly sliced

Garlic, one clove chopped

Lemon Zest, 1 tablespoon

Rosemary, chopped or crumbled

Thyme, chopped or crumbled

Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon

Olive oil, 1 tablespoon

Mix all of the ingredients together and serve at room temperature. You can provide toothpicks for guests to spear the Olives with.

By: Gail Leino

Every year, celebrities set the trends of fashions and hairstyles. Everywhere you looked, you could see celebrities with many different and fashionable hairstyles from short and sweet to long and elegant, from curly or wavy to up-styles. No matter what the style these celebrities were wearing, they made a fashion statement that everyone else followed after. If a next-door girl won’t wear celebrity hairstyle to work or to school, the weddings is a perfect time for her to try celebrity hairstyles, and feel like a true celebrity.

Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez were two of the most popular celebrities that people were talking about when it comes to hair styles. Each of these celebrities had a hairstyle that no one else could touch and until recently, many of us only dreamed we could have a Jennifer Aniston Sedu hairstyle or a Jennifer Lopez Sedu hairstyle.

Creating beautiful wedding hairstyles is easy after browsing through the numerous bridal printed magazines or available on the Internet. Searching “hairstyles 2006” in popular search engines, you’ll have a plenty of ideas.

Long hairstyles are still the favorites of most brides, because they add sophistication and elegance to a wedding ceremony and reception accordingly. Go for casual, romantic long hairstyles or practical, modern short styles if you feel that any of them match your own style. If you are wearing short hair but you want a fashionable long hairstyle or up-do, you can let you hair grow in plenty of time or opt using hair extensions.

If you decide to wear a Jennifer Aniston sedu hairstyle or a Jennifer Lopez sedu hairstyle for your wedding or your friends’ wedding, I‘ll reveal the secrets here. The secret behind their gorgeous hairstyle is of course partly due to the sedu flat iron, not to mention what they do prior to using this wonderful sedu flat iron. They both must use a conditioning shampoo and then dry well and again add more conditioning to assist in straightening their hair and making it very soft and flexible. The next step in the Jennifer Aniston sedu hairstyle is to add equal parts of shaping gel and calming serum massaged into the hair. Using a big round hairbrush and your blow dryer, you will be simulating how Jennifer Lopez sedu hairstyle is created. The next thing these two Celebrities have done is the flattening with the sedu flat iron.

Will the 2006 hairstyles give us the same great looks with celebrity hairstyles or is there a change a coming? The new in fashion for celebrity hairstyles, or what designers are saying, is that short hair is coming back in style. The bob is one of the hairstyles that is making its way to the big screen and all around Hollywood. This celebrity hairstyle is easy to manage, looks great, and may become the top 2006 hairstyle. We will have to wait and see if the Jennifer Aniston sedu hairstyle or the Jennifer Lopez sedu hairstyle will be one of the prominent celebrity hairstyles in 2006 or if someone else with a bob style or a curly style makes the headlines. Whatever wedding hairstyles you choose, they shouldn’t lose your personal identity.

By: Natalie Aranda

It’s easy to spend a fortune on your bridal bouquet alone, so finding some money-saving bridal bouquet ideas is a must. Although bridal flowers are beautiful, it’s important to keep your costs in check. So here’s a run down of what to avoid and some tips to reduce your bridal bouquet cost.

Firstly, what to avoid

Bouquet arrangements tend to be the most expensive type of bouquet, simply because they take a lot more time to complete. They’re also very heavy and you’ll probably get arm ache carrying it around for a few hours. It may also do some damage when you come to throw it at the end of the night!

Long cascading bouquets also tend to be very heavy, since there are lots of flowers and greenery. They’ll also hide your beautiful dress, so it seems a bit silly to spend a fortune on a dress only for it to be hidden by your flowers.

The last thing to avoid is exotic flowers. It’s difficult to grow them locally, so they tend to have high transportation costs, which are then passed onto you.

It probably seems that your options are somewhat diminished. Not so and here’s a run down on how you can save on your bridal bouquet.

Low-cost bridal bouquet ideas

Hand tied bridal bouquets are usually half the price of arrangements. The florist selects the flowers, then arranges them together and ties them with floristry string or wire. A ribbon is then tied around the stems to protect the bride’s hands and finish the bouquet. Simple and effective.

You can use most flowers in a hand tied bridal bouquet, they’re versatile and more importantly, cheap.

Single stems can also be effective bridal flowers. Having a single stem is a dramatic look and works well with elegant, slinky dresses. You could have one stem, or even increase it to three stems tied together in a simple hand tied bouquet. Either way, it’s more cost effective as you use fewer flowers.

Lilies, roses, gerberas and sunflowers looks great as single stems.

Go for flowers in-season as they’ll be fresher, grown locally and therefore cheaper. There are lots of blooms available all year round, so ask your local florist what’s in season at the time of your wedding.

An alternative is find stems with lots of flowers so you get more blooms for your buck. There are lots of flowers that can give you this effect, including lilies and hydrangea.

By: Nicola Ray