An unsurfaced deck can require all sorts of sanding and repainting, not to mention you may have to pay for expensive repairs when it comes time to replace any water damaged deck structures or major parts of the deck. 

If you haven’t waterproofed your deck in a long time (or never at all), you may find some nasty problems before next summer hits. If you have a deck for at least a few years, things can quickly start to snowball into a big problem.

Things change, time takes its toll, and simple aging can make a duvet worn and worn. If the deck is tilted incorrectly (causing water to pool around the house), the water can cause significant damage to the foundation of the house. 

If you have a wooden deck, covering it with a deck coating will prevent water from entering the deck, which can otherwise form cracks and splinters that can damage the deck and, above all, put your employees and customers at risk. One of the main benefits of adding a urethane lining to your wood deck is that it will provide you with a waterproof lining that will help protect it from the rain and prevent it from spoiling.

However, with a high-quality urethane coating, your patio surface will be well protected, allowing you to feel comfortable knowing it will look its best for a long time to come. First, when you add lining to your deck, it will not only keep your deck looking like new, but it will also protect it from water damage if the lining is waterproof. 

Besides the fact that this addition can make your outdoor deck safer, siding can also protect the wood, making your deck look new for longer. In fact, some restoration coatings act as a kind of deck waterproofing system, eliminating the need for strips entirely.

When your staining the deck, you cover the entire wood surface with several thick matte finishes. For example, water-based caulk is applied to the deck with a brush or long-handled roller. Instead of traditional stains or paints, your patio can be protected with a Scorpion protective coating. Unfortunately, paints and stains do not provide the level of protection needed for wood and often cause decks to fade or peel off quickly.

If so, you might want to consider a simple deck coat to help cover the wear and tear and bring the surfaces back to their former shine. A durable waterproof coating is one way to protect your patio from this type of damage, as well as protect it from moisture. 

By effectively protecting a deck from water damage, wear and tear, and other elements, waterproofing can extend the life of a deck for years to come. Waterproof coatings not only protect your deck from slippery surfaces caused by standing water, but also create a high traction surface for regular foot traffic.

However, with a waterproof coating, you can store all your favourite plants, flowers, and decorations without worrying about water damage. Plant care can also double the protection by absorbing some of the water that would otherwise land on the surface of your decks. 

Protecting your deck from water protects more than just the deck itself; it can also prevent water from entering your home and surrounding structures, improve pedestrian safety, and even prevent costly (and dangerous) rot and mould. 

Your bridesmaids are there to share your special day with you. From the dress shopping, food tasting, bridal makeup on the big day, the hen’s night and so on – they are there for you every step of the way. Why? Because they love you and are happy to support your journey in marrying the love of your life. 

How do you keep the bridesmaids pleased along the way; less stressed and more excited?

Get them acquainted and chatting

Ensure that you properly introduce each bridesmaid to one another. Get each one involved in the planning. The bridesmaids will be spending plenty of time together, so it is vital that they all get along, and no one feels awkward. Social media like Instagram and Facebook helps everyone get in touch, and your bridesmaids can even talk outside of wedding plans and sessions. Lovely friendships can develop outside of the wedding.

Let all the bridesmaids shine

When it comes to their outfits, try and be flexible. You will have bridesmaids that come in different sizes and shapes, so essential things like the dress decisions need to get done as a group, with everyone’s input. Ask each one what they feel most comfortable in and what they prefer. Even if there can’t be a decision agreed upon you can always have mismatched outfits. Mismatched dresses are a modern trend now, allowing girls to be individuals and define themselves when being in the spotlight.

Don’t fill up the calendar

Ensure that you plan ahead for the wedding, cake shopping, the bridal shower, hens night and the rehearsals. Your bridesmaids will have families, work commitments etc. Don’t fill their every weekend with wedding-related trips and chores as the wedding will soon go from exciting to annoying very fast.

Make them feel special

Your bridal party wants to be treated like VIPs. Book in a luxurious blow wave and treat them to skincare treatment. List them in things like your wedding websites, mention them in your speech and ensure they have a chance to have a few drinks and enjoy the night too.

Let them bring a plus one

If you have decided not to have extras, that is fine, but you need to extend extras to the bridal party. Your bridesmaids may not have a partner or be married themselves, Still, they may take you up on the offer considering the time and money they have invested in the wedding and just bring a close friend. This is another way you can show your appreciation.

Look after your friendship 

While you may be eaten up in the wedding, remember the bridesmaids are excited to be with you and be part of your day. Ensure that you are keeping in touch and catching up at other times, not just when it comes to discussing the wedding. Make your chit chat subjects over coffee other things rather than wedding-related as their lives matter too.

Be grateful

Ensure that you thank the bridesmaids. You don’t need to buy fancy presents and spend a fortune but show them how thankful you are. Give them a lovely card or something beautiful to wear on the day to make them feel special. Also, remember that you need to choose one of them to be a wedding witness – so pick your closest friends so as not to make anyone jealous. 

While it is your day, it is also a significant and eventful day for your bridesmaids to make them feel loved and unique when it comes to your big day.

Walking down the aisle is a one-time-big-time event that many girls dream about their entire life. While planning for it involves many things – booking a venue, ordering the food, finalizing the guest list and choosing the embroidery for the wedding gown – the biggest planning revolves around how to look good despite the wedding stress. While some women choose to do breast lifts and implants for the big day – your beauty regime doesn’t have to be that advanced. 

One thing I always recommend though is to focus on your skin. You want your skin to be perfect on your wedding day. Before my big day I had a hydrafacial in Melbourne and it was amazing. 

And then, of course, there is the food. The best diet to follow, regardless of whether you are getting married, is one that nourishes your body efficiently. Planning a wedding is fun but it gets stressful when nearing the actual day. Therefore, the prewedding-day diet should be planned out to keep the bride-to-be as blooming as ever. 

Below I’ve listed the best diets to follow before your wedding:

• A diet that consists of 6 small meals instead of 3 huge meals a day.

Your body is so smart that it knows when to store food for each bodily process it does 24/7. Food deprivation leads the body into storing more than what’s needed.

How does food deprivation happen?

Deprivation happens when there is a long period of time between your meals.  Ideally, a human body can digest food within 4 hours. If there are 24 hours in a day, 6 meals are just the right number of meals to take. If – like most people – you eat 3 large meals instead, the cells have to wait for its nourishment. It can be trained to do so, but each cell will be so hungry at the 8th hour, that it can lead you to eat impulsively. The result? You eat more than you’re supposed to and you’re body stores too much food making you bloated, swollen and fat.

Hence, adjust your meals into 6 small frequent feedings. 

• Acquire a healthy plate diet.

A healthy plate diet is where fruits and vegetables take up 50% of your plate, and the rest is divided between dairy, meat and carbs. Aim for the right combination of carbs, proteins, and fats, so that you stay efficiently fuelled. Stabilizing your sugar levels, instead of skipping meals will keep you from becoming a bridezilla-to-be, too. When you are approaching your wedding day, you don’t need any new wrinkles forming! A combination of fruits, veggies, and bread with nuts, unflavoured yogurt or cheese is your best bet here. 

• Be smart around snacking.

Fill the gaps in between your meals with snacks that contain calories and nutrients that provide energy. Don’t just reach for a handful of crackers thinking that it’s the best source. It might be ideal to choose snacks with less than 200 calories, but it could be a total work-up calculating it all together. To make it easier, base snacking on the meals you have just had. If no veggies were eaten in the previous meal, then munch on something green during your snack time. That way, you keep your diet balanced.  Remember that veggies are a much better choice than candy, because of the empty calories it offers compared to the nutritional value you get from veggie or fruit snacks. 

• Rid your diet of anything junk.

Refrain from eating and drinking junk foods such as sodas, processed foods, and artificially produced foods. These products will not only damage your taste buds (making you crave more), but binging on it will not help you out at all in maintaining a healthy diet. Sodas, for example, contain massive amounts of artificial sweeteners that make you crave more. The same goes for chips and other snacks. Chips are seasoned with salt, which attracts water and gets retained by the body. This leaves somebody feeling bloated with an unsatisfied appetite. The result? The body gets even hungrier, driving the body to eat more than it’s supposed to.

• Don’t underestimate water therapy.

Water helps the kidneys filter your blood effectively. Anything in excess that results from your diet is excreted by it through the aiding properties of water. For example, as Sodium attracts water, it follows the principle of osmotic pressure. If there’s too much salt in the body, water will flow where there’s greater salt concentration to regulate it. Once cleared out, the body then excretes the excess through urine or sweat. The same principle happens when the blood is concentrated with too much sugar as long as the person isn’t diabetic. All of these affect a person’s tendency to gain or lose weight and sustain it. Opt for water to follow-up on your pre-wedding diet.

Lastly, water somehow gives you a feeling that you’re full. This could help you keep a mindset that motivates you to stay away from binging or snacking excessively.

All of the above are tricks to keep you from going astray from your pre-wedding diet. Don’t forget to combine these efforts with at least 30-minutes of exercise, 5-6 times a week. That will give you the best results.

People spend a fortune and a whole lot of time in preparing for weddings. As soon as the date is set, the plan starts moving! A wedding planner is booked, the timeline is being set, the wedding makeup is booked and you start thinking about the look you’ll wear on the day. As countless tasks line up, stress builds up and this could affect your crowning glory. 

Ideally, walking down the aisle happens once in a lifetime. But what doesn’t happen once during a wedding celebration, is the clicking of cameras. A bride cannot afford to have a bad hair day. Following a timeline from the planning phase up to the day, here’s how to prepare your hair for your wedding:

From engagement until the big day:

Great hair is the key to having a perfect ‘do. You can achieve this by eating healthy, staying fit and resting aptly. Though hair is made of mostly keratin (which is dead cells), blood vessels feed the hair follicles connected through the scalp. That’s why your hair keeps growing but it doesn’t hurt at all when it gets cut. 

Wash your hair regularly to ensure you can achieve those blow wave curls on the big day. And avoid hair products as much as you can. Brushing can also aid circulation to the scalp but if done too much, it can break the hair in the middle leaving it frizzy by the time you need them tame. Also, air-dry your hair whenever you can. Blow-drying it almost every day may damage it and result to split ends. 

Around this time, you should be deciding what hairstyle are you pulling off with your dress. But don’t forget the events before the wedding day like bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, and photoshoots that would need your hair presentable. So, it’s advisable to take some vitamin supplements. Have sufficient Biotin in your body to help your hair grow thick and healthy.

In the months leading up to the wedding:

By conditioning your hair you are preparing it to stay vibrant for your wedding day. Follow this timeline and you’d be giving your stylist a fresh canvas to work on. There are two ways to achieve this. 

The most practical way involves your conditioner. While washing your hair, let the conditioner sit on your scalp for a good 5-10 minutes before rinsing it off. The conditioner moisturizes it as it seeps into the cuticle. This increases your hair’s strength and flexibility preventing it from dry spells and breakage.

Deep conditioning may also be achieved by going to the salon, but it could be a little pricey. You can invest in a good product for a feel of the treatment though. Either or, deep conditioning helps dodge oily scalp, brittle strands, and dull hair. 

You may want to opt for the on-the-go conditioner. Andrea Pomerantz Lustig, the author of How To Look Expensive, mentioned that conditioning oil helps in keeping your hair shiny, frizz-free and moisturized without the greasy feel. They are derived from natural ingredients and are helpful to people who have coarse and curly hair. Spritz it on your scalp anytime from leaving for work to maintaining it tamely at the office. 

Monthly until the Despedida de Soltera:

Just like you need to book a celebrant, there are other things you have to do before the wedding day. Oftentimes, the wedding day is preceded by scheduled events like the despedida de soltera or a wedding banquet. Whichever comes first, this is the start of flaunting your mane.

The best time to trim your hair depends on what hairdo you find most suitable on the day and how do you want to work it out with the dress changes.

Taking care of your hair involves trimming it as you grow it. This unleashes the healthy part of the hair freeing it from split ends and hair damage. In this case, you should trim your hair up to the desired length at least two months prior, to allow your hair to fall naturally as you approach the day.

A month before the wedding day

If you plan to colour your hair, it’s important to keep it within your normal hue unless you plan to look back 10 years later and think you looked like a unicorn. Let your stylist use the least damaging chemical or brand in colouring your hair, then follow what he would recommend to keep it hydrated, moisturized and glowing. You need ample time to let it sit too. Include a colouring touch up at least 7-10 days before the wedding.

A week before the wedding day:

Having a trial for hair and makeup is a must. If needed, it should include how to transform the hairstyle from an updo into a lengthy one after removing only, at least three bobby pins. This assures you of a smooth transition time or whether you still wanted to pull it through or not. 

24 hours before the wedding 

Better not to use any conditioning product the day before the day for it flattens the hair. You need to hold onto as much body to keep it light and vibrant. Flat and oily hair tends to make your cheeks chubby and easy to hold. 

If by this time, you are still convincing yourself of that colour or trim you’ve been itching to go for, hold that thought. Any plans of doing drastic hair changes from here will more likely end as a disaster.

An hour before the wedding date:

“You are the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen,” The Maid of Honor has done her job telling you the right words, but honestly, the only one that can make you feel as such is yourself. 
So, own your mane. Rock it, flaunt it and make it work. 

It’s normal for people to make the wrong moves when they don’t ask the right questions. Regardless of the anxiety and stress of organizing a befitting wedding ceremony, would-be couples deserve a dream wedding venue to hire in Melbourne. In this article, you’ll see the requisites of having a beautiful wedding venue.

What Are the Basic Requisites for A Great Venue?

One mistake can ruin the effort of planning a wedding ceremony. While it might be intense to make wedding plans, there’s no substitute for an ideal wedding venue. Let’s see some basic requirements that make an ideal choice of wedding venue.

Early Preparation Is Important

To avoid stress, and anxiety, couples need to choose their wedding venue location early. Usually, there are popular wedding venues in every municipality. It could be a green park or an indoor hall with large seating capacity for guests. It’s important to start the search early and book ahead because other people might be interested in your date. Make sure that the dream venue you’ve desired ever since you were a little child and back when you had no idea who the groom was going to be, but had all the wedding details planned already, is available at the exact date you want without having to go fight another wedding party for it. We’ve all seen the bridal wars. Have your dream venue planned out and booked out for as many guests as you can accommodate well In advance so as to avoid any tension related to booking pressures. Also, you can get an expert guide, or search the yellow pages of the phone diary for great viewing venues. Don’t forget to have estimated your number of wedding guests if you need a perfect venue. Moreover, one can plan much ahead and think of a venue for an after-after party with close intimate friends. South Yarra is considered as one of the most prime locations for a peaceful and calm get together. Various restaurants in South Yarra now offer the best of offers for wedding parties who wish to end their extravagant day with a simple and elegant ending. Hence a consideration towards this thought can be added to your checklist.  Consider getting a check on the weather forecast to know whether to have an indoor wedding on a cold or rainy day or an outdoor wedding on a bright shiny or starry night.

Filter Your Search

Like the filter feature in most search tools, couples can narrow down their search for a bespoke wedding venue. To avoid the hassles of getting an ideal wedding venue, narrow your search with a list of preferences. A venue with functional HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) system is necessary for weddings in winter months. You wouldn’t want the weather uncertainty to get in your way or the guests to make a banter about any inconvenience. Throw the best wedding they have ever been to, small or big, you’ll find ways to make it as extravagant as possible.

Consider the State of Functional Facilities at the Wedding Venue

Usually, anxious couples are hard to please when they visit their wedding planners. They might struggle to understand what’s essential for a wedding plan checklist. However, the basic requisites for choosing a wedding venue are seat capacity and a free date for your event. Instead of being anxious, couples should read online reviews about the functionality of their favourite wedding venue.

They should consider the exterior and interior spaces around venues. These areas need to be conducive for everyone on the guest list. The style of the building is important too. It should have special toilets and pavements for guests on wheelchairs.

Check For Any Restrictions On Catering And Entertainment Services

We still live in a world where wedding ceremonies are celebrated with fanfare. While this social culture doesn’t seem to fade in a hurry, couples should take advantage of it. Check for a wedding venue that allows for mobile bar services. With a mobile bar service, food vendors can serve chilled drinks. Catering and entertainment services in wedding venues are important. There are plenty of options available in Melbourne with regards to bar hire and staff to cater to the event. One just needs to really get online and search the apt requirement according to the theme of the wedding and depending on the word of mouth from friends and family. And as mentioned earlier, the option of visiting a restaurant in South Yarra can always be your backup or plan B with close friends, in case you feel like ending the day with those special few in a decadent yet classy manner.

What’s The Quality Of Your Venue’s Sound System?

If the venue has a sound system, ensure the speakers, and microphones are functional. A sound-proof venue has high noise restriction levels. However, you should check if the venue can accommodate a live band or DJ platform. For the music, get an ideal set up location inside the wedding venue that has power outlets. The dance floor should be large enough to suit your guests.

Does The Venue Have Enough Parking Spaces?

If there aren’t enough parking spaces for your guests, you might need another venue. Except many of the attendees on your guest list are travelling by public transport to your venue, parking situation could be a problem. Alternatively, nearby car parks or the roadside can serve if the venue lacks an allocated parking lot.

Lighting Effects Are Important

The role of bright lights during wedding ceremonies can’t be overemphasized. Without light, your wedding photos might not appear colourful. If the venue is not well-lit, you can ask for some artificial lighting fixtures. Cameras need both artificial and natural daylight to produce clearer images. However, outdoor photographs are more spectacular during wedding receptions. Wouldn’t you want tiny details such as the lace of your white dress, the highlighter on your cheekbones, your wedding ring sparkle, the unique colour of your contact lenses, your flower girl’s cute smile, your fiancé’s cufflink shine, etc. to be illuminated in your wedding photos? Hence hiring the right photography in charge services and choosing the right lighting for your wedding becomes two of the most important requisites amongst many others.