Archive for the ‘General Wedding’ Category
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Pompoms are so cheery they always make me want to laugh*; the perfect accessory to a cute, contemporary shindig. These ones from Party Poms are especially beautiful.
These minature napkin holders are cute, cute, cute!
*maybe this is because they remind me of furiously wrapping wool around two cardboard circles at Brownies. I don’t know what they were for but I remember making lots of pompoms at Brownies. How strange.
Posted in Accessories, General Wedding | 3 Comments »
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Monday, 4 January 2010
Hello lovely readers! We hope you had a really magical Christmas and a wonderful New Year. We had a fab time enjoying the snow, great friends and lots of delicious food and are now looking forward to seeing what 2010 has in store.
To kick the year off, today we’re featuring a back to basics planning guide. So for all you newly engaged couples this is the post for you.
Happy reading!
4 Back to Basics Planning Tips
1) Set a budget. This little piece of advice is as old as the hills but it’s so important and allows you to build a firm foundation for your wedding. Many couples struggle to set a budget because if you’ve never planned a wedding, it’s hard to know what is realistic and how far your money will go. However most people know how much they can realistically afford and how much they are comfortable spending on one event: it really is worth spending some time researching and getting your budget right at the beginning. Until you have a budget, you can’t begin approaching suppliers and all of your plans become a series of confusing ‘what ifs’. It’s much better to start things off properly with a good idea of what you can spend in each area.
2) Clarify your priorities. Unless you’re on a very large budget, you will have to compromise on some aspects of your day. Identify your top 5 priorities at the outset so that you can concentrate your budget and energy on doing a few things really well rather than spreading yourself too thinly and doing everything badly. We tend to find that for most couples that as they focus on a particular part of the celebrations that aspect becomes THE most important part of everything and that it becomes very tempting to overspend. Formally setting your priorities at the outset helps to guard against this and saves lots of heartache down the line.
3) Get the basics in place first. From the second that engagement ring is on, planning a wedding can be an overwhleming whirlwind of well meaning people asking questions and giving their opinion. Rather than allowing yourself to be swallowed up into the insanity of it all, take a couple of weeks to soak up your new status and to slowly chat your ideas through with your partner. Once you have a rough idea of what you want as a couple, you can begin (slowly and rationally) putting the basics into place. You’ll need to start with finding your venue and you’ll be able to narrow down the options by budget, availability and style. Once your venue is confirmed you will have a date and this will allow you to begin approaching the other suppliers. Here, our advice is to focus on those suppliers who can only do one wedding per day e.g. photographers, transport, entertainment, hair and make up artists. After booking these suppliers, you can relax and start thinking about the visual aspects of the day and finding items such as dresses and stationery. Don’t be tempted to do these things before you’ve confirmed your basic suppliers as you will only tie yourself up into stressful knots and end up making little if any progress.
4) Finally, view your wedding holistically. It’s easy to view your wedding as one long to do list but it’s vitally important that you don’t make decisions (especially regarding visual elements) without considering other aspects to ensure there is a thread of continuity running throughout your celebration. For example, it’s easy to rush out and buy a dress before you’ve really thought about items such as your venue or entertainment. However, the style of your dress should be heavily influenced by your venue and how formal your celebration will be. This in turn will effect the type of entertainment you choose, the style of your flowers and even the type of menu you serve. As bizarre as it sounds, it’s really important to consider all of these items together because if you don’t your wedding will lose its sense of flow and can end up feeling as though it has lost it’s soul.
By its very nature, being engaged doesn’t last forever so enjoy it while you can; take things slowly and don’t be tempted to wish it away. There are no second chances with weddings!
Posted in General Wedding, Planning Tricks | No Comments »
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Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Going about our daily business, we meet lots of people with lots of different opinions about various wedding trends and traditions. Occasionally, we meet people who haven’t got much time for the humble wedding favour; many couples don’t feel the need for this additional expense and besides aren’t sure what’s available other than sugared almonds. Being all about the details, unsurprisingly we don’t feel the same!
Not only are favours a great way of injecting personality into your wedding, they’re perfect for decorating place settings and are also a great way of thanking guests for turning up. It might seem strange to thank people for attending your big day but here at WBZL, we thinks it’s a really important point that often gets brushed aside. So often guests have traveled from far and wide, spent a small fortune on a new outfit and a lovely gift, paid for accommodation or even taken a day off work so a small token of gratitude doesn’t seem unreasonable. Below are just some of our favourite favour ideas, lots of which can be homemade for next to nothing or bought if you don’t have the time nor the inclination.
Big, swirly lollipops
Moustaches on sticks (great for hilarious photographs)
Christmas tree decorations (tied with ribbon and with place names attached)
Flavoured olive oil
Potted herbs (mint, lavender and thyme are our favourites)
Pretty napkin rings
Gourmet ground coffee
Cosmetic miniatures
Jars of Jam (homemade if you like but definately finished with personalised labels and pretty ribbons)Welsh Love Spoons
Mini bath bombs
Feather butterflies (from Covent Garden flower market where they cost next to nothing)
Herbal tea bags (again with personalised labels)
Potted strawberry plants
Paper windmills
Moo sticker books
A wooden letter of the guest’s initial (again doubling as a place name)
A single flower stem
Origami birds
A chocolate bar with personalised labels
Customised pin badges
Macaroons (I know, I know, they have been ‘done’. That being said they are too pretty and too delicious to stop using now.)
Happy planning!
Photo credit:
About.com
Posted in Favours, General Wedding | No Comments »
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Thursday, 14 May 2009
I spy a super cute wedding over on Brooklyn Bride.
Seriously stylish boys:
Gorgeous escort cards:
And a smoking lobster! Ha! Pure genius.
Head over to Brooklyn Bride to read more.
Photo credits:
Jenny Jimenez
Posted in Amusing, General Wedding, Purple | 1 Comment »
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Wednesday, 28 January 2009
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across Project Wedding which is a complete treasure trove of wedding gorgeousness. There’s real weddings galore, forums, supplier recommendations, a blog and a wiki style planning guide. I love, love, love Project Wedding and could spend all day searching around all the pages. If you haven’t already, get yourself over there.
Posted in General Wedding, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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Friday, 23 January 2009
The Royal Mail have been offering these customised stamps for a while but I’m not quite sure how many people are aware of them. If you haven’t come across them, Royal Mail’s Smilers let you upload a picture to create one-of-a-kind stamps. Perfect for save the dates, invitations and thank you cards.
Putting the stamps together couldn’t be easier. You simply upload a photograph of your choice and then choose the design of the official stamp from a range of 16 designs (I like this Love one best). You then pay and the stamps are delivered within 5 days of your order. Easy peasy!
Price depends on how many you order and whether you opt for 1st or 2nd class delivery but as a guide is generally around 70p per stamp.
It is a shame that you can’t customise the whole thing and are limited to one of 16 designs – I guess it must be to do with it be the ‘Royal’ mail – but nevertheless I think this is a great finishing touch and an unusual surprise for guests.
Posted in General Wedding, Stationery | 1 Comment »
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Monday, 12 January 2009
Over the last few weeks as I’ve been reviewing 2008 and going over each of our weddings with a fine tooth comb, I’ve been considering the traditional timings of group and portrait photography at weddings. Most couples tend to plan time for these kind of photos during their drinks reception but there are a number of reasons why this doesn’t work perfectly and so I’ve been wondering whether scheduling photography for prior to the ceremony (frequently done in the US) is actually a better alternative.
Very often group and portrait photography is the first thing to overrun at weddings and although keeping to time might sound simple, invariably it is not. Following the ceremony, couples are excited to see their guests and reluctant to leave the party just as it’s getting started whilst guests begin to disperse themselves across the venue. Ensuring ushers get the right people in the right place at the right time can be a tricky exercise (especially when they don’t know who’s who) and asking a friend to bellow out the names of those needed for each shot is functional but can give your wedding a school-trip meets boot camp feel.
Scheduling photographs for before the ceremony not only means you bypass all of these problems but you also gain some significant benefits:
• You’re photographed looking your absolute best, sans smudged eyeliner and crumpled buttonholes.
• You get to spend the entire of your drinks reception chatting to your guests and soaking up the atmosphere rather than watching from afar as all the champagne gets guzzled.
• Your drinks reception will be more relaxed and enjoyable as you’ll be free from the worry that you need to get those all-important shots before dinner is served.
• You’ll get better photographs. Not only can you dedicate longer to getting some really creative images, without the pressure of time you’ll be more relaxed so look better and happier in the shots.
• Your drinks reception needn’t be hours long in order to accommodate a long photo session; you reduce the risk of bored guests and a flat atmosphere.
• You get the chance to start celebrations early, spending some quality time with your closest friends and family before the ceremony.
The major drawback to scheduling photography prior to the ceremony is that the first time you see each other won’t be as the bride walks down the aisle. However, this needn’t mean loosing the magic of seeing each other for the first time and does in fact have its own advantages. Seeing each other prior to the ceremony means you get the chance to talk to each other, calming your nerves and giving you the chance to really soak up the ‘we’re getting married feeling’ without being distracted by the wedding planning or ceremony proceedings.
Meeting each other before the ceremony needn’t be a negative thing either – you can make it into a really special moment, perhaps meet somewhere really special or get the chance for 5 minutes alone.
So there you have it, my thoughts on the matter. I’d love to hear yours so please drop me a comment!
Photo credit:
Martha Stewart Weddings
Posted in General Wedding, Planning Tricks, photography | 6 Comments »
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Monday, 2 June 2008
If you were watching BBC breakfast news yesterday morning and you were watching carefully, you might have spotted me! It was my second visit to the studios and this time I was commenting on why, according to Debenhams, 1 in 4 weddings end in some sort of feud. Although I’m sure a bit of artistic license has been used to exaggerate the results into a story, I’m not at all surprised that 25% of brides row with their bridesmaids or that 1 in 10 weddings were blighted by drunken behaviour.
What do you think? Ever been to a wedding that resulted in a row? Fallen out with a bridesmaid? Ever noticed a guest trying to upstage the bride or heard an offensive speech? Let me know your horror stories!
Posted in General Wedding, WBZL News | 3 Comments »
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