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Your wedding reception is where your guests will spend the most time. As we’ve said before, you should count on spending at least 40 percent of your budget on the reception. This includes the food, decorations, drinks, music, etc. But a beautiful reception doesn’t have to break the bank. Once again, count on your friends and family to help out. I can’t tell you how many halls I’ve decorated just because someone called. If you’re a benevolent soul like I am, call in your favors when your big day comes!

Use the bridesmaid’s bouquets to decorate the tables, the head table, or the cake table. You don’t have to have expensive floral arrangements everywhere to make a beautiful reception hall. There are many, many alternatives and most can be put together with supplies from the dollar store. The following suggestions utilize supplies that I found at the dollar store and make for gorgeous table decorations.

Centerpiece suggestion #1:

Find picture frames of varying sizes. Gather together your favorite pictures of the bride and groom. Put the pictures in the frames and arrange on the tables surrounding them by clear glass marbles and some greenery.

Centerpiece suggestion #2:

Get some small terracotta pots and some florists foam. Pick out some silk flowers in your wedding colors along with some greenery. Stick the flowers in the foam bunched tightly together and arrange to your heart’s delight!

Centerpiece suggestion #3:

Take a silk rose and separate the bud from the stem. Disassemble the bud into individual petals. With a clear votive holder and a glue gun, you will glue the petals onto the holder. Start at the top with the smaller rose petals. Place one petal next to another, with the sides touching slightly.

Once your first row is completed, you can start on the next. Make sure to cover any bare areas at the bottom of the first row, and work your way down the holder until the rose petals cover the entire surface. Take the leaf from the flower and attach to the bottom of the holder. This will give the illusion of a lighted rose once a candle is placed inside and lit!

Centerpiece suggestion #4:

Take small grapevine wreaths and decorate with tulle and ribbon. Place a bottle of champagne in the center or a bottle of wine from a local winery. For extra fun, attach a balloon to the bottle.

Centerpiece suggestion #5:

Get some small baskets and decorate with ribbon. Print out some index cards that say “Advice for the Newlyweds” and lay them on the table with pens and/or pencils. Encourage guests to write something on the cards and place them in the baskets. Surround the baskets with flowers, greenery or pebbles. This can be a great ice-breaker for people who don’t know each other. Be prepared, too, for the jesters in the crowd who may offer up some ridiculous and sometimes bawdy advice.

Centerpiece suggestion #6:

Buy some glass cereal bowls and place colored glass marbles in the bottom. Add water half way up and put a floating candle in each. Instead of floating candles, just

Add a regular votive in the middle of the marbles. When the reception is over, the bride and groom will have a matching set of bowls!

Centerpiece suggestion #7:

Take two plastic champagne glasses and hot glue them together so that they cross when laying down. Hot glue four clear glass marbles inside each glass and tie a helium balloon to each. It will look like there are bubbles flowing out of your glasses as they lay on the table!

You can have balloons at wedding receptions too. Not only are they festive and fun, they can help keep bored children entertained. Most dollar stores have helium balloons they will fill with purchase. However, you may want to look into a portable helium tank and do it yourself. The tank filled up about 40 balloons so that’s one way to save a little money on your balloons.

Want some wacky and unique centerpiece ideas? There are some online for the inventive and fun couples!

Buy glass fish bowls at the dollar store and fill them with - fish! You can find goldfish pretty inexpensively either at Wal-Mart or a local pet store. If you have the money, try to find beta fish in your wedding colors! One word of caution if using live fish: be sure to give their water lots of surface area to provide enough oxygen. The last thing you want is a bunch of dead fish decorating your tables. Let the children in attendance take the fish home - with the permission of their parents, of course.

If you’re getting married around a holiday, you can come across some fun decorations that celebrate that holiday. At Christmas, spray paint pine cones silver and gold and surround them with pine sprigs. Having an Easter wedding? Use plastic Easter eggs and that annoying plastic grass you put in the Easter baskets.

If you’re having an outdoor reception, decorate around that. Use lots of live flowers and greenery to reflect the beauty of Mother Nature surrounding you. If it’s windy, avoid using candles and be sure any balloons are secured so they don’t blow away!

The diagnosis of twin pregnancy should be simple. It ought to be obvious that two babies are present; that the uterus is larger than it would be for one baby and that there are two of everything including two fetal heartbeats. In fact about 8% of twin pregnancies reach delivery before the discovery of the second baby - usually to the equal embarrassment and astonishment of the doctors as well as the mother.

The following factors may make the doctor consider the possibility that you might be having twins:

• Excessive nausea and vomiting - may be associated with a twin pregnancy, especially if the symptoms continue beyond the 13th and 14th week.

• The uterus - is consistently larger than the dates suggest. Pelvic examination is performed at the first visit to the doctor or the antenatal clinic and the presence of any fibroid or tumors is noted. If the uterus is subsequently noted to be larger than the dates it is essential to know that a previous pelvic examination has been performed to exclude any other pelvic mass.

• Fetal movements - are felt in a twin pregnancy at the same time as they would be felt in a single pregnancy. As pregnancy advances, however, excessive movements may lead the mother to believe she might be carrying twins.

• The fetal hearts - it used to be very difficult to confirm the presence of a twin pregnancy by listening to the fetal hearts through the ordinary fetal stethoscope, but the sonogram will detect the presence of two fetal hearts as early as the 14th week.

• Acute hydramnios- usually accompanies a uni-ovular (identical) twin pregnancy. During the 24th week there is a rapid and dramatic enlargement in the size of the uterus. This may be so sudden that it causes considerable pain and discomfort and the abdominal girth may increase within a few days. This only occurs in identical twin pregnancies because the circulation of one twin becomes so dominant that the other twin is forced to produce a large quantity of amniotic fluid to prevent itself from getting heart failure.

• Many fetal parts - the doctor’s suspicion is aroused if an excessive number of fetal parts are felt within the abdomen, especially if two heads are palpated.

• Pre-eclampsia - does not usually occur until after the 32nd week of pregnancy, but a raised blood pressure or excessive weight gain before the 28th week is associated with twin pregnancy.

• Predisposition to having twins and/or heredity - if there are twins in the mother’s family, or the woman is of advanced age, these can increase the possibility of a twin pregnancy. The use of fertility drugs to stimulate ovulation, and in vitro fertilization are also factors that make a woman more likely to have twins.

• Ultrasound (sonogram) - the routine use of ultrasound in early pregnancy also helps to diagnose twins in early pregnancy. This is one of the trusted methods of determining a twin pregnancy. On the ultrasound monitor your doctor can easily distinguish two fetuses or two heartbeats with ease.

Some of these symptoms are probability that you may be having twins. Till date the ultrasound remains the most trusted of all the methods of diagnosing twin pregnancies. It’s only in rare cases that the ultrasound has failed, usually due to the position of the babies.

Before your baby is born, you begin to think about the perfect name, you want your child to be comfortable with the name especially any possible nickname because your child will be wearing this name for a lifetime, so you have a unique and important responsibility. Some people say that people with unusual first names enjoy an advantage because they are more likely to be listed in ‘’who’s who” and they are also more likely to have a positive sense of individuality, which helps them resist peer pressure.

Below is a list of some beautiful unusual names, their origin, meanings and their variations:

Unusual Boys’ names:

Adlai: (Hebrew) ‘‘Yahweh is justice ”

Aidan: (Gaelic) ‘‘fire ”.  Also Aiden

Anand: (west India) ‘‘happiness”

Akihito: (Japanese) ‘‘bright child”

Akinyele:  (Nigerian) ‘‘valor benefits this house”

Amazu: (Nigerian) ‘‘no one knows”

Ali: (Arabic) ‘‘exalted”. Also Aly

Augustus: (Latin) ‘‘magnificent”. Also Augie, Gus, Augusto, August

Barnaby (Greek):’ ‘son of consolation”. Also Barney, Barnabe, Barnabas

Bjorn: (Swedish) ‘‘bear” .Also Bjarne

Basil: (Greek) ‘‘royal”. Also Basilio

Bomani: (Malawi) ‘‘warrior”

Brassal: (Irish) ‘‘brave”. Also Brazil, Brissal

Cyril: (Greek) ‘‘master”. Also CY, Cyrille, kirill

Cyrus: (Persian) ‘‘throne”

Duncan: (Scottish) ‘‘brown warrior”. Also Dun, Dunc

Ezra: (Hebrew)”help”

Fariji: (Swahili) ‘‘consolation”

Farrell: (Irish) ‘‘valorous”. Also Farall

Gahiji:  (Rwanda) ‘‘the hunter”

Galen: (Latin) ‘‘calm”

Gunnar: (Old Norse) ‘‘battle warrior”

Hugh: (old German) ‘‘heart”. Also Hugo, Hud, Hutch, Huey, Huw

Ikaika: (Hawaiian) ‘‘strength”

Jabari: (Swahili) ‘‘brave”

Jaleel:  (Arabic) ‘‘great”. Also Jahleel, Jalil

Kane: (Gaelic) ‘‘warrior”. Also Kaine, Kayne

Keanu : (Hawaiian) ‘ ‘ the breeze

Leeor: (Hebrew) ‘‘my light”. Also lior

Unusual girls’ names

Allegra: (Italian) ‘‘cheerful”

Ada: (old German) ‘‘noble”. Also Adah

Anuli: (Nigerian) ‘‘joy”

Araceli: (Spanish) ‘‘altar of heaven”. Also Aracelie, Aracely, Arasely, Areli

Aziza: (Swahili) ‘‘precious”

Akosua: (Ghana) ‘’ born on Sunday”

Audra: (Lithuanian) ‘’ thunderstorm”. Also Audrey

Belle: (Latin) ‘‘beautiful”. Also Belinda, Bella, bell

Blossom: (old English) ‘‘flower”. Also Blossy, Bloom

Bernadette:  (old German) ‘’brave”. Also Bernadine, Bernarde

Birunji: (Uganda) ‘’pretty perfect thing”

Blythe: (old English) ‘’gentle”. Also blithe

Cleo: (Greek) ‘‘fame”. Also Cleopatra, Clea

Calista: (Greek) ‘’ most beautiful”. Also callista, callysta, calysta

Consuela: (Spanish) ‘‘consolation”. Also Connie, Consuelo, Consolacion

Dayo:  (Nigerian) ‘‘joy arrives”

Damita : ( Spanish) ‘‘princess”

Estelle : ( Latin)  ‘‘star”. Also Estella, Estrela

Flora: (Latin) ‘‘flower”. Also Fiorella, Flor, Flo, Fleur

Gemma: (Italian) ‘‘gem”. Also Jemma

Halima: (Arabic) ‘‘gentle”

Irene: (Greek) ‘‘peace”. Also Irena, Irina

Iruka: (Nigerian) ‘‘the future is supreme”.

Latifah: (Arabic) ‘‘pleasant”. Also latifa, lateefa, latteifa

Mona: (Irish) ‘‘noble one” .Also Monna, Monica

Thema: (Ghana) ‘‘queen”

Ziazan: (Armenian) ‘‘rainbow”