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Each week, we feature music recommendations from Scratch Weddings, the nation's leader with the best wedding DJs at affordable prices. This week's post comes from DJ Lil Ray. The Brooklyn-based DJ creates her infectious musical blend of with a mix of crowd favorites and unexpected hits. Since relocating to NYC from her native Atlanta, DJ Lil Ray has blown up: opening for acts like M.I.A. and Childish Gambino, spinning at SXSW and the GenArt Film Festival and making regular DJ appearances at NYC's hottest night spots. Lil Ray loves to spin weddings because of the special energy of a festive crowd. "Weddings are so much fun! It's great playing to a big group of happy people who are all there to celebrate together."

Photo Credit: David Schwartz Photography

The bridal shower — the better-behaved older sister of the wacky hat-wearing bachelorette party — is an opportunity for a bride to relax and enjoy this exciting time. Like a wedding, a well-planned bridal shower takes a lot of work — which is thankfully left up to close friends and family, so the bride-to-be gets to just show up and enjoy (lucky you!).

Q. “My fiancé and I are planning a wedding for about 150 guests, and half of them will be from out of town. Is it appropriate to have a cocktail hour and dessert reception? Or should I provide a full meal?”

A. It’s perfectly fine to have a cocktails and dessert reception. And I wouldn’t worry about not having enough food to feed your guests. Believe me, I’ve been to many a wedding where the cocktail hour fare far outshone the reception dinner! It’s all about offering fabulous, abundant food at stations as well as passed hors d’oeuvres.

Think pasta bar or a Tuscan table filed with Italian breads, cheeses and olives. Offer comfort foods (a surefire crowd pleaser) like mac ‘n cheese, French fries, mini burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches and shot glasses filled with soup.

Photo Credit: Mel Barlow
Photo Credit: Red Loft Studios

If your budget allows, you can have a made-to-order sushi station or a seafood bar featuring lobster, shrimp, oysters and salmon.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Wherrett

Eggnog, cocktails, Christmas cookies, cakes, hot chocolate, holiday parties, dinners... 'tis the most festive (and my personal favorite) season of the year!

Our social calendars are beyond full, and with so much more on our plates, it’s easy to let your exercise routine be the first thing to go out the window (along with your waistline).

But please, refer to line one of this article (re: excess amounts of decadent food and drink)! It is at this time of year that I believe it is most important to stay on top of that workout regimen — not only to combat the holiday weight gain but to beat stress and not feel guilty about all the indulgences (yes, I encourage you to soak it up; it only comes once a year). So enjoy it, just learn how to navigate so you don’t roll into the new year at your heaviest (not a good start).

Plus, don’t you want to look and feel your best at all your holiday parties? That’s right ladies, feel empowered to break out that firey red dress! And for the men, bulging guts are not jolly unless your name is Santa.

‘Tis the season to be merry… except when unwelcome family feuds intrude upon all the merriment! Newlyweds especially often have to deal with unhappy parents and in-laws questioning their plans on where to spend the holidays. Do you visit his family, her family, both families? And how long do you stay? We asked Deanna Brann, Ph.D, an expert on mother- and daughter-in-law relationships and the author of Reluctantly Related: Secrets to Getting Along With Your Mother-in-Law or Daughter-in-Law for some sage advice.

According to Dr. Brann, couples want to please everyone but typically end up pleasing no one and feeling awful about it. And parents often ignore that now, as a married couple, you and your spouse want to create your own family traditions. What to do? Here’s what Dr. Brann suggests to help you navigate the holidays:

► Before even considering your different families and what they want, sit down with your spouse and decide what the two of you want to do. (This is not about doing what your families want you to do, but instead, ask: If you could do anything you want, what would it be?)

With just one more episode remaining before the series finale on December 17, The CW has released some evidence that Blair and Chuck will be exchanging vows on the final episode. 

Blair, in a gorgeous Elie Saab gown, with BFF Serena.

Blair's step-father, Cyrus Rose, performs the ceremony in Central Park.

Now, we all know that Gossip Girl loves a good dream sequence, so the jury's still out on whether this is really happening. What do you think?

—Kristen O'Gorman Klein

'Tis the season for holiday proposals! More than 800,000 couples will get engaged during the holiday season, according to Robbins Brothers, a destination engagement ring store. In celebration, they've compiled the "12 Engagement Rings of Christmas," showcasing the year's most popular ring designs:

Tiara

Inspired by the tiara Kate Middleton wore for her 2011 nuptials, this sparkling ring features intricate side scrolls and 94(!) diamonds around a 1.5 carat center stone (from $2,495). 

Jingle Bell Rock

We love this whimsical, modern take on a halo design: The curved, diamond-encrusted band comes together around a 1.5 carat diamond (from $3,620).

The Ritz

Romantic and elegant, this dazzling ring features a cushion cut diamond surrounded by a halo, with two rows of diamonds on the band ($6,495).

Good news—my husband is home from his deployment in Afghanistan! Words can’t describe how incredible it feels to have Michael back.

We recently celebrated a big milestone: Our first wedding anniversary. We spent this entire past year living thousands of miles apart from one another, so we encountered a few challenges that most couples will never have to face. We didn't get to talk on the phone as often as we would have liked, and I only saw a pixelated version of his face a handful of times. In fact, the two weeks we spent together in the middle of his deployment was the longest time we'd seen each other in person since we got engaged. I'll admit—it was rough celebrating our first anniversary with a phone call, but knowing that we'd get to spend our lives together as soon as he got back made it all worth it.

Even though we were halfway around the world from each other, we still learned some valuable lessons about marriage:

Toasting to our first night in our new place!

Here, we are enjoying each other's company with pizza and beer in our furniture-less apartment.

When my fiancé Edwin and I planned our destination wedding in Italy the first time around (read about why we had to cancel our wedding, here), we were surprised by how time-consuming and expensive the process was. All of that crazy-gorgeous scenery came with a cost: Guests treated us more like travel agents than the bride and groom, and vendor interactions were confusing, at best. Here are five things I wish someone had told me before I started planning.

1. It can be tough to navigate all of the legalities.

Despite the challenges, we instinctively knew that we wanted to get married abroad. We looked into Hawaii (some islands have a 10 p.m. curfew) and Mexico (bloodwork is required in order to obtain a marriage license). We even thought about eloping to Paris—what's more romantic than The City of Lights? But when we found out couples must live in the city for a minimum of 40 days in order to legally get married there, this lovely idea quickly turned into a headache. We finally settled on Italy; although they require a civil ceremony prior to any religious or symbolic blessing, we think it's charming to have a separate ceremony to celebrate privately.

Photo Credit: One and Only Paris [Photography] via Intimate Weddings

Solving the age-old conundrums about bridesmaid dresses are a wedding tradition unto themselves: What to do with the dress after the wedding? How to pick out a dress that every bridesmaid will like? How to fit the dresses in the budget? Then try to find an eco-friendly bridesmaid dress that’s chic and can be worn again. Now that’s a tall order.

If you are a bride that is not overly concerned with uniformity, consider choosing a dress style that is more practical for everyday use, or hand out information to your bridesmaids on where they can donate the dress to after the wedding. Instead of making your best friends wear a certain dress, pick a color scheme and ask them to wear a dress they already own that matches your color. It will cost them much less and they are more likely to wear this new favorite dress of theirs again.

Here are the top three ways you can repurpose your bridesmaids dress and get the most for your money while helping the environment:

Photo via Brideonline.com.au

Each week, we feature music recommendations from Scratch Weddings, the nation's leader with the best wedding DJs at affordable prices. This week's post comes from DJ Ed-O, a musical star quickly rising to the top of the Philadelphia music scene. Through his years as a popular DJ in radio and the best in nightlife, he's cultivate a unique musical style that he calls his "audio fingerprint”. Couples are drawn to DJ Ed-O's eclectic musical prowess and personal approach to spinning weddings. "Providing the bride and groom with an experience that exceeds their expectations is the highlight of any wedding. If I can capture some of the feelings and energy that they value, then it helps me do a better job selecting the best music for their special day.”

Photo Credit: Erin Lindsey Images

The wedding rehearsal dinner is an occasion where the bride and groom can relax with their families and close friends — and forget about all of the stress associated with planning such a monumental event. Knowing that the wedding party needs to let loose, a great DJ plays music that stimulates everyone to have a great time and gets them pumped up about the wedding the next day.