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About nine months before our wedding took place, my now-wife Claudia and I were entertaining some friends when someone asked who was going to officiate our ceremony. Without missing a beat, our dear friend Patty Woods proclaimed that she would. After the laughter died down, she stated that she would love to officially unite us in marriage. Having no previous experience with officiating, we didn't think much of it, and we assumed that the likelihood of this actually happening was very small.

A few days later, to our surprise, Patty presented us with the requirements needed to legally officiate a wedding. Armed with this information and her willingness to perform our wedding ceremony, we made our decision: Our best friend was going to marry us! Needless to say, it was all very exciting.

Although the process of obtaining her license was relatively simple, it did require diligence on Patty's part. First, she researched our state's minister credentials (we live in Indiana). There are many websites that can aid in this process; we used firstnationministry.org to obtain a step-by-step application. There are different packages available based on the duration of the license (two years, five years or 10 years). After paying a processing fee that cost around $32, Patty completed and submitted her application. Within a week, she received her officiant license from the State of Indiana, as well as detailed procedural requirements and instructions for filing our wedding license. 

Guest Blogger: G.E. Masana
G.E. Masana's roster of wedding clients have included magazine editors, models, art directors, actors, opera singers, cinematographers, fashion designers, graphic artists and photographers. He's been seen in Bridal Guide, Town & Country, New York Magazine, among many more. He currently writes about weddings for Huffington Post. A sought-after documentary wedding photographer, he's been interviewed by the two leading international professional wedding photography journals and was awarded by the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers. 

Sure, it was an ancient superstition that bad luck would soon follow if the groom saw the bride in her gown before the wedding. In today’s modern world, though, even non-superstitious couples still wrangle over the question whether to see each other prior to the ceremony. The main reason couples today seem to keep the tradition alive is because they believe it builds up the mystique before the walk down the aisle. However, other couples recognize the time manage benefits of seeing each other before the ceremony — meeting earlier for photos gets you to your party sooner.

Drew Barrymore hasn't lost that newlywed glow yet — she and husband Will Kopelman recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, but she still finds herself "smiling bigger than big" when thinking about weddings. 

In her latest tip video for her beauty line, Flower Beauty, she answers one fan's question about how to find the right lipstick for her wedding day. (Psst — Barrymore's The Wedding Singer costar Adam Sandler makes a special appearance in the video with a message for the couple!). 

A long-wear formula seems like a natural choice, but Barrymore had some major issues with her own long-lasting lipstick on her wedding day. Here's what she recommends instead:

Tell us: Have you chosen your wedding-day lipstick?

—Kristen O'Gorman Klein

Guest blogger: Bonne Marcus
A fitness industry expert for 27 years, Marcus holds numerous certifications from the Aerobic Fitness Association of America (AFAA), including Step, Spin, Bosu™, Pre/Post Natal, Youth Fitness, Aqua, and Personal Training. She has taught for New York City’s top health clubs, including Crunch, New York Health and Racquet, and Reebok Sports Club. A recognized name on Long Island, Bonne has taught at Dany Holdstein’s Two Worlds, North Shore Health Club, LA Fitness, Sport time, Equinox and currently teaches at the Sid Jacobsen JCC in Roslyn. Learn more at getfitwithbonne.com.

Photo Credit: Iofoto/iStockphoto

If you've ever gone for a long, challenging run or toughed it out in the weight room with your significant other, you know that sweat can bring you closer. Working out produces endorphins, and endorphins give you that "exercise high." When you exercise together and both produce these endorphins, you end up associating those positive feelings with your partner.

Guest blogger: Kate Harrison, creator of greenbrideguide.com.
After planning her own green wedding in 2007, Kate wrote the best-selling green wedding book, The Green Bride Guide: How to Plan an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget (Sourcebooks, 2008). In 2009, she founded greenbrideguide.com to help couples use their weddings to promote social and environmental change while supporting the local green economy. Kate has a JD in Environmental Law and a Master's from Yale in Environmental Policy.

When you picture a flower girl in your mind, it’s typically an adorable little girl holding a bountiful basket of flowers, walking down a long wedding aisle. The flower girl’s job is to throw petals or flowers and decorate the space for the bride. Although it may not seem so, there is a way to incorporate eco-friendly products into the flower girl’s duty to help eliminate some unnecessary waste.

Fill your flower girl’s basket with color-contrasting freeze-dried petals instead of fresh flowers. These beautiful accents are 100 percent natural, biodegradable and non-staining, making them the perfect flower basket alternative for your environmentally-conscious special day.

Two-year-old Logan Stevenson wasn't your typical best man. Instead of holding the rings for safekeeping, he clutched his favorite teddybear, "Bun Bun," during the ceremony; he couldn't give a toast at the reception, and in fact, he slept through most of it. But his presence alone surpassed all of the bride and groom's hopes.

You see, Logan is terminally ill and suffers from a rare disease called Fanconi anemia, along with leukemia and other medical complications. His parents, Christine Swidorsky and Sean Stevenson, originally planned to wed in July 2014. However, after receiving a diagnosis that their precious son has a mass in his only remaining kidney (and weeks to live), they decided to get married as a family — while Logan is still with them.

Photo Credit: The Today Show

In just a week, they organized their new backyard nuptials — which took place in Jeanette, Pennsylvania on Saturday, August 3 — thanks to a tremendous outpouring of support from their local community. Swidorsky and Stevenson were also joined by their two daughters, Isabella and Savannah. "This is our dream come true, all our family together, and we're all together celebrating. The celebration of my son's life and the celebration of our marriage," the bride told NBC affiliate WPXI.

Setting a budget has been one of the more frustrating exercises of wedding planning. Even though I knew weddings were expensive, I sat in denial for a few days about the fact that we could potentially spend the equivalent of a new car or down payment on a house on our wedding day. (Granted, it's a pretty important one-day event, but still.) Luckily, both my parents and my fiancé's mom have offered to help. But, they are by no means able to foot the entire bill — nor would we expect them to do so. (Learn how to broach the money talk with your parents, here.)

So, we still have to come up with a pretty penny to pay for everything by next fall. Thankfully, in addition to the amount that my fiancé Gray and I are putting aside each month, I happened upon an unexpected source of income. Just prior to our engagement, I got the opportunity to apply for an adjunct teaching position at our local community college. Teaching has always been something I wanted to do, so I jumped at the chance to teach an Intro to Journalism class.

When I first spoke with the college, I wasn’t even thinking about Gray’s and my eventual wedding. I was simply excited for the opportunity to teach and expand my resume a little bit. But post engagement, I realized that unless one of us drained our savings or we took on a lot of credit card debt, we would definitely come up short in the wedding finance department. Personally, we were against both of those options.

I am extremely proud to say that I am now down 20 pounds! When I woke up on Sunday and weighed myself, it was one of the best feelings in the whole world. Now, I still have about 60 more to go, but this is such great motivation to keep it going.

I had a pretty laid-back weekend, mostly because I am staying sober and sticking to my new diet. On Friday night, Rene and I went out with another couple to The Nautical Mile in Freeport, NY, and I was the designated driver. It was a beautiful night, and I enjoyed myself anyway — no cocktails needed! On Saturday, I woke up and went to the gym and did 45 minutes of cardio split between the elliptical and the treadmill. Rene cooked me breakfast when I got home (two over-easy eggs and three pieces of turkey bacon) — he is the best breakfast chef ever!

I cleaned my apartment, got a car wash, visited my dad, sister and nephew, and then went to the mall to find a dress for my engagement party. Shopping was unsuccessful. I went to two department stores and didn’t find a thing I liked. I did, however, fall in love with a dress from Rent the Runway. I ordered it (they send two sizes to ensure a good fit), but it'll only arrive two days before my party, so I'm pretty nervous about that. I'm still searching for a backup dress just in case. You’ll get to see what I choose when I post pictures from the party!

Brides love choosing unique dates for their weddings. Last year, 10/11/12 and 12/12/12 were popular choices and this year, the frontrunner is, hands down, 11-12-13 according to the David’s Bridal "What’s on Brides' Minds 2013 Survey." As of July 1, approximately 1,650 brides will be married on that day and you can bet that number will increase as the date nears.

We were curious as to why some of these brides opted for a mid-week wedding (11/12/13 falls on a Tuesday) and reached out to a few of these engaged ladies. All had purchased their gowns at David’s Bridal to wear on this special date. You’ll love their answers and some of the creative ways they’re incorporating the 11-12-13 date into their weddings.

Mona Abdi & Her Fiancé Mark

"We chose this date for a few reasons: We are both finance/accounting people so numbers are our lives! Second, I knew that Mark would never forget the date! We actually got engaged on a Tuesday and will be married in Aruba so the date works in our favor. Guests are flying in that weekend which gives them a few days to relax before the wedding."

When we see an adorable little boy and girl holding hands, declaring that they're going to get married, we usually chuckle and think nothing of it. In fact, decades later, they'd probably roll their eyes when reminded about this memory. But for Jake Kantrowitz and Sarah Truitt, both 26, this childhood fantasy actually came true. They met when they were just three years old, and tied the knot on July 27 this year in Boston.

In honor of their roots, they used a nostalgic photo taken on a carousel for their save-the-date. Off-the-charts cuteness, right? It gets better: The newlyweds recreated the picture on their wedding day! When Levi Albert, their best man, saw the new photo, he was inspired to create a then-and-now composite using Photoshop. "I thought it would be instant karma on Reddit," he told Good Morning America.

It wasn't long before the photo went viral, receiving more than 41,000 "upvotes"  and 1,830 comments on the social media site. One commenter wrote, "I felt goosebumps trying to imagine their happiness. If that's not the cutest thing you've ever seen... I mean come on, what do you say to that?"