Wedding Planner - Choosing your Honeymoon!

Today's guest post is by the lovely Zoe Rogers of Designer Travel who gives us some top tips on choosing your perfect honeymoon. This post should really come with some kind of warning as I have just spent over two hours looking into The Cove, Atlantis resort and trying to justify a trip (in my dreams lol!) Readers of this post may suffer severe 'Honeymoon Envy' - Hope you enjoy! ...

Hello I am Zoe and I am part of a fantastic team at Designer Travel I have been specialising in Honeymoons for longer than I can remember and have sent Brides and Grooms away to many far flung destinations. With that in mind I have compiled so useful information to help you choose your Dream Honeymoon...

Here are a few top tips for you when you’re choosing and booking your honeymoon:

Honeymoon Top Tips

Book as early as possible to ensure your favourite destination and hotel are available. These days discounts and rewards are offered to those who book early not late. Holidays are available to book 11 months before the month you want to travel, so get those enquiries in and ready and book as soon as you can. (Especially is you’re getting married at peak times like July/Aug, Easter, Christmas and New Year).

Seychelles

Weather- not all destinations have all year round weather and the month you’re getting married may not be the best time to visit a chosen destination. If you have your heart set on a destination you may need to plan your wedding round it

Hawaiian Sunset

Special Honeymoon Offers – There are lots of hotels that offer complimentary upgrades and extra special offers to make your honeymoon unforgettable- so don’t forget to tell the agent it’s your honeymoon and ask what offers are available. This could be anything from free room upgrades, to a complimentary romantic candlelit dinner on the beach.

Africa Safari

Budget- This will vary greatly for your own personal honeymoon, but on average Brides & Grooms to be are spending around £4500 on their dream honeymoon. With that in mind a good travel agent will work with your wish list and your budget to find the very best honeymoon they can for the price you want to pay and providing options to help you choose. You don’t have to spend a fortune have an unforgettable honeymoon.

Carlisle Bay Beach - Antigua

Bridal Registry Services- Some travel agents can provide an excellent alternative to the traditional gift list. Guests can contribute towards your first holiday as Husband and Wife. Designer Travel can offer this service for FREE.

The Cove, Atlantis - The Bahamas

Passport name change- If you’re going to change your passport into your married name make sure all your booking and documents are in the same name. Make sure you have plenty of time to send the documents off and be returned. If you are going to be visiting or travelling through the USA there are new ESTA regulations that need to be complete and if you are travelling within a week of getting married it may be a good idea to travel in your maiden name.

Sandpiper Hotel - Barbados

Honeymoon Hot Spots

Here are my top ten destinations to honeymoon:

Maldives

Caribbean

Mauritius

Thailand

Africa

Bali

Sri Lanka

Mexico

North America

Cyprus

Burj Al Arab - Dubai 

Why have one honeymoon when you can have 2 or 3....

More recently I have noticed that more and more brides and grooms are wanting to experience more than just a week by the beach combining it with and exciting or cultural sector within their honeymoon itinerary. Tailor made honeymoons are really on the rise and by booking savvy you can get an amazing itinerary for a fantastic price. So if you get bored staying in one place too long then you really need to look at a multi centre honeymoon here are a few of my best:

Maldives and Sri Lanka and or Dubai

Dubai and Mauritius

Vegas and Mexico

Miami and Grenada

Bangkok and Koh Samui

Malaysia and Cambodia

USA and Hawaii or Caribbean.

The options are endless don’t be afraid to ask........

Tel: 01942 522221  Mob: 07877 233065

Email:  zoe@designertravel.co.uk

Visit: www.designertravel.co.uk/zoerogers

Wedding Planner - Choosing a theme for your wedding

Today's post has been very kindly provided by the lovely Lucy of Lucinda George Wedding & Event Design who talks about the important things to consider when choosing a theme for your wedding and even includes a gorgeous pistachio mood board - makes me want to get married again!! I hope you enjoy....

Choosing a theme for your wedding

Choosing a theme for your wedding enables you to create a celebration that perfectly suits the desired style and atmosphere of your big day.

Selecting a theme for a wedding can be initially off-putting. For some, the idea conjures up thoughts of fancy dress parties and/or an entire catalogue of Disney films! In reality, deciding on a theme need be no more strenuous than selecting a single colour or few words that inspire the design of your wedding.

A theme influences your venue and supplier selections, as well as your choice of decorative features. It also focuses your attentions more closely on the aspects of your nuptials that are the most important to you and makes you less likely to get distracted by a number of different design options that aren’t cohesive. This is always beneficial for those really needing to stick to their budget throughout the planning process.

Consider the style of your nuptials

Do you want a wedding that appreciates the great outdoors and combines the simplicity of beautiful landscapes? If so, would a wedding on a farm appeal, or even a reception that invites guests to set sail on a boat as part of your celebrations? Would you like a much more casual wedding that resembles more of a family reunion? Or would a formal wedding with lots of adherence to traditional customs be preferable to you? Would you like to inject real drama and glamour and design the theme of your wedding around a particular TV show or film? If this doesn’t appeal, would you prefer a more arty approach to your celebration or possibly an environmentally friendly one? Perhaps you are both sports fans and would like to incorporate that interest into your marriage? Or look at your love of history- do you covet a certain era, which you would like to recreate for your wedding celebrations?

Pictured: The home of cricket, Lord's is now licensed for civil marriage and civil partnership ceremonies.

Identify a common interest that you and your fiancé share.

Write down separately things that define your personalities and interests, for example ‘the colour green, visiting Italy’. These ideas can be combined to create your theme. Your wedding design can be influenced by anything that mattes to you, whether it be a hobby, a favourite holiday destination or a language. This is a vital first step to personalising your wedding.

Produce a mood board sourced from pictures online or in wedding magazines. Cut them out and take time, selecting the ones you ‘love’ and discarding those images that are just a ‘like’. Blue tack them to a neutral background and see how the ‘love’ pile works together. Return to them after a break and review your selections again – so often a few days away really sorts out your preferences!

Creating a mood board is very useful in reviewing whether a desired theme will work, as well as clearly showing if it really wouldn’t! Don’t hesitate to collect images that do work under your ‘theme heading’ but you would not want to feature in your celebrations! For example, your wedding theme could be ‘cinema’ but you might have a real aversion to featuring popcorn in any way during your celebration! These things are useful to know from the outset as it saves a lot of time if you are clear on what you would hate to feature in the design of your wedding. Sometimes a mood board that shows a couple’s ‘dislikes’ is even more useful to the planning process than one which shows ‘loves’. It narrows the search and establishes the things to definitely avoid in the design.

This mood board Pistachio Perfection was created for the couple that simply share a love of the colour green and visiting Italy.

  

This theme combines stunning pistachio features (starting with the dress!) punctuated by chocolate brown detailing on a cream canvas - with candles, flowers, car and lounge furniture all matching the exquisite marble reception décor.  The decoration is simple to complement the venue: understated clear glassware and traditional lanterns combine beautifully with natural light as it floods the venue, showing that spring has definitely sprung!

Photo Credits

Dress  - by Lazaro via http://idoinspiration.blogspot.com/

Invitation – designed by Fine Moments for www.weddingpaperdivas.com

Lantern & Flowers – Photography by Abby Ross Event Planning/Design by Atlas and Campbell Event & Floral Design by TFS Studio via www.stylemepretty.com

Favours  - unknown via http://idoinspiration.blogspot.com/

Cake & Flowers – unknown via www.marthastewartweddings.com

‘Just Married’ Car – Jessamyn Harris Photography via www.stylemepretty.com

This post has been provided by Lucy of Lucinda George Wedding & Event Planning 

You can follow Lucy on Twitter - www.twitter.com/lucindageorge

Wedding Planner - Tips on how to choose your wedding food and drink

Today, I am very pleased to welcome back Melanie Helen of Cranberyy Blue Weddings & Events who has very kindly provided this post which includes tips on how to choose your wedding food and drink. Hope you enjoy....

Tips on how to choose your wedding food and drink

To get the most out of your budget, always ensure you choose food that is in season as this will be much more cost effective, plus it’s nicer to have dishes that suit the time of the year. Fillet of Sea Bass, wilted greens and saffron potatoes are great in the summer and braised shank of lamb, studded with rosemary & garlic with a red wine jus are perfect in the winter.

Don’t compromise on the quality of the food as this makes up such a large part of the wedding and will be remembered.  Choose a well regarded caterer and use their expertise to help you put a menu together that works for your budget.

If you want to reduce your food budget then you could have a later ceremony and therefore a later wedding breakfast, so you are unlikely to require anymore food in the evening.  Alternatively a later ceremony at the same venue as the reception could mean a shorter champagne reception without serving canapés.

When choosing a potential caterer, always ask for references and people you can speak to.  Ensure you are able to have a tasting session so you can try several of the dishes you like the sound of. Be sure to get a clear idea as to the overall cost, which includes service, waiting staff, crockery and glass hire, any equipment costs and of course VAT.

There are plenty of options for food at your wedding.  Consider the overall style and timings for the day and choose something that suits.  For example if you are planning a contemporary city wedding then by having slightly unusual and interesting canapés would be pefect, served with a signature cocktail.  This could be followed by a sit down meal and then potentially a cheese board later on.  If you’d like a more relaxed and informal wedding then afternoon tea instead of a traditional canape reception could be lovely, with bite-sized cakes and scones.  The wedding breakfast could then be served later as a fork buffet or even a barbeque.

Another good tip to keeping the cost of the food down is to serve the wedding cake as dessert.  Choose a cake that is more of a gateaux and and accompany it with cream and mixed berries.  This also helps to avoid guests being too stuffed and cake being wasted.

Champagne is obviously the traditional drink served at the reception; however there are some excellent sparkling wines that can be served instead at a fraction of the cost.  Alternatively why not choose something a bit different such as mulled wine in the winter or an elderflower cocktail in the summer?

If you’re not sure your budget can stretch to having an open bar then I would suggest it is better to have good quality wine with the meal rather than scrimping on this to allow money for drinks later.  Alternatively you could set a limit at the bar in the evening which could allow everyone to have a couple of drinks without things getting out of hand.  The choices could also be limited to beer, wine and a particular spirit with a mixer.

Melanie @ Cranberry Blue Weddings & Events
www.cranberryblueweddings.co.uk
enquiries@cranberryblueweddings.co.uk
Follow Cranberry Blue on Twitter - www.twitter.com/cranberrybwed

DIY Wedding Favours

Today we are very lucky to have a post by the lovely Chloe Adlington from Love Making It (soon to relaunch as Adore by Chloe - what a gorgeous new logo eh!) who provides some fab ideas for DIY Wedding Favours. Enjoy.......

DIY wedding favours

Wedding favours are small gifts from the bride and groom to show their appreciation to their guests. There are so many creative options out there and doing-it-yourself not only makes them more personal but can also be more cost effective, sorry sugared almonds!

My first suggestion would work well for ‘natural’ or ‘rustic’ wedding styles and were really simple to make, here’s what I used:

The mini buckets are from Hobbycraft [www.hobbycraft.co.uk] and the flags and ‘Love Bloom’s stickers were both printed onto self-adhesive address labels beforehand to make the assembly really easy:

Next up is homemade jam… perfect for an ‘autumn wedding’ or ‘country fete’ theme. You can even be creative with the type of jam you make; the BBC Good Food website [www.bbcgoodfood.com] has some great recipes.

Again my label was made using self-adhesive address labels but you can buy ready made jam jar labels and fabric lid covers like this one from Hobbycraft:

I’ve saved my favourite idea until last… a cup of tea makes any situation better in my eyes! These tea bag favours are lovely for a ‘vintage tea party’ theme or an ‘English afternoon tea’ party.

To make you’ll need tea bags with strings, small clear treat bags (available from Hobbycraft), some patterned paper that matches your theme and pre-made labels:

These were the quickest to make as you simply glue a small piece of folded paper over the teabag string label, pop the tea bag in the treat bag and glue a larger piece of folded card to secure the top:

So there you have it, three lovely DIY wedding favours that would be easy to make in large quantities!

….I tried but I can’t end without sharing this idea of Scrabble tile fridge magnets that I found on Project Wedding too, so cute:

Here’s the link for the tutorial: http://www.projectwedding.com/wedding-ideas/diy-wedding-challenge-2010-scrabble-magnet-favors

Thanks for reading, you can find my blog at www.lovemakingit.co.uk which features more ideas for creative homes and DIY weddings, come along and say hello!

Chloe x

This post has been provided by Chloe Adlington of Love Making It - soon to be Adore by Chloe 

You can follow Chloe on Twitter - www.twitter.com/ChloeAdlington 

DIY Stationery v Professional Stationery

Today we have a great post by the lovely Melanie Helen of Cranberry Blue Weddings & Events who offers some brilliant advice over the DIY Stationery v Professional Stationery debate....

      DIY stationery versus professionally designed?

The cost of a DIY invitation will generally be much cheaper than one printed by a stationery company.  This is therefore a good option if you have a limited budget or are having a small scale wedding.

DIY invitations are easier to customise and can be unique and personal to each guest if required. For example, some may need information about a rehearsal dinner or be printed in a different language, which would be more expensive to do with a professional stationery company.

You may have a particular design in mind but be struggling to find it through a stationery company, and not have the budget for a bespoke design service.  Therefore, by choosing the DIY option you can effectively create what you like within reason.

There is a huge selection of types of paper in various colours and finishings, in addition to a multitude of embellishments that can be added to give a different end result. It is advisable to choose a paper weight of at least 400gsm and then a backing card of up to a 700gsm to make the invite feel luxurious and good quality.

DIY kits can be ordered quickly, without the need to wait for proofs and then the printing process.

If you find you need to order more invitations then by making them yourself and printing at home, it can be done easily and cheaply, whereas re-ordering a short print run from a stationery company can be expensive.

If you do decide to choose the DIY route then make sure you select a kit that has good quality paper in standard sizes, that will fit into the printer comfortably and then can be cut afterwards.  Layered invites are ideal as they will have a sheet that will go through a standard home printer, and then you can apply this to a heavier card as the backing, which will make it feel more substantial.  Embellishments can be added for a personal finishing touch.

Always choose good quality envelopes and you can add a tissue lining in a matching colour for am extra touch.

The company ‘Bride Made’ (www.bridemade.co.uk) are a really good source for DIY invitations and they have a huge selection of different kits that are available in an array of colours and designs with lovely ribbon details. The kits include everything you need to make your invites, with the mount card and paper all pre-cut and creased, therefore making it much easier for you to put together.  They also have matching stationery items that can be bought in the form of other kits

      What are the disadvantages of DIY stationery?

Although DIY invitations are a budget-friendly option, they will be very time-consuming so this isn’t ideal for couples who have limited spare time or for those who are not very arty.

There is such a diverse selection of stationery companies available, all of which offer different designs, styles, types of invites etc.  Unless you have a natural talent for art and design then you won’t be able to achieve such a professional end result.

There are certain designs, looks and finishes that are not possible with DIY kits such as gilt edges, engraving, embossing, foil blocking etc.

Your invitations will undeniably set the tone for your day, as it is the first thing that people see. I believe that professional invitations always look superior to home-made ones so would advise to choose this option and find a supplier that fits your budget and taste.

In addition to making the invitations you will also have to consider all the other matching items that go with them, such as menus, RSVP cards, order of service etc. which will be incredibly time consuming to make as well.  By choosing a professional they can do all of this for you and also ensure everything is consistent and matches.

By choosing a professional stationer you will alleviate a lot of stress and hassle. You can either choose from an existing design and select the font type and wording, or have an invitation designed on a bespoke basis.  Either option means that you will have the expertise of a talented designer and therefore beautiful stationery with an attention to detail and of a high quality.

The prices are also surprisingly reasonable, depending on what style and design you choose of course and they can actually work out to be the same price or cheaper than DIY ones.

Melanie @ Cranberry Blue Weddings & Events
www.cranberryblueweddings.co.uk
enquiries@cranberryblueweddings.co.uk
Follow Cranberry Blue on Twitter - www.twitter.com/cranberrybwed

Wedding Planner - Wedding Beauty Tips!

Today's guest post is by the fabulous Joyce Connor of Brides and Beauty who provides us with some fab wedding beauty tips....

Wedding Beauty Tips

Many brides would like to be different or more dramatic on their wedding day. Here are my top tips to make sure you look and feel great!

You’re wedding day can be a very emotional one. I recommend using a waterproof mascara to ensure you don’t end up with panda eyes on your big day. I would only use waterproof mascara when necessary because it can be very drying to the lashes and cause them to fall out over a period of time. I use dark brown mascara for brides that prefer a softer more natural look on their eyes you can always top it up with a dramatic black for the evening reception.

Some brides would like to have a fake tan on their wedding day. My advice would be to make sure you have a trial run at least a month before so you know exactly how it will look. If you’re happy with the result and want to go ahead, it’s best to book the appointment for 2 days before the wedding to give the colour a chance to develop and look more natural. Be aware that fake tan does rub off so if your dress is pure white or pale ivory your arms may rub against it. Try it out beforehand by wearing a white t-shirt when you have the trial run.

Looking in magazines might make you want to make drastic changes to your hair. This isn’t a good idea just before your wedding. If you do want to change the colour try it out at least 6 weeks before and then retouch the roots a week before your big day. Remember vibrant colour in your hair can stain so make sure that all excess tint is rinsed away to ensure it doesn’t come off on your dress or skin. To give your hair a really fresh look highlights should be done no more than 3 days before the wedding.

Lipgloss is much more popular than lipstick at the moment, so if you choose a hairstyle with wispy tendrils that come down to your jaw line, it might be best to avoid lipgloss on a windy day. Hair sticks to lipgloss like glue and you don’t want to be pulling strands off your lips just before the big kiss!

And last but not least I always get my brides to wear an open fronted top or shirt while they have their hair and make up done. The last thing you want to do is mess up your perfect look before you put your dress on.

Now you can walk down the aisle with a smile ready to face your new husband.

This post was provided by Joyce Connor of www.bridesandbeauty.co.uk

Follow Joyce on Twitter - www.twitter.com/BridesandBeauty

A bit of Friday Fun

I came across this on www.airforce-wife-life.com blog and thought it looked like a good excuse for a bit of Friday Fun and it also tells you a little bit more about me too! Why don't you try it yourselves - The A,B,C of me!....

  Age:30

·  Bed size: King

·  Chore you hate: Drying up

·  Dogs:  Nope - I'm a little bit scared of dogs!

·  Essential start to your day: Pressing the snooze button at least 3 times!

·  Favorite color: Pink

·  Gold or silver: Silver

·  Height: 5’2 (and 3 quarters!!)

·  Instruments that you can play: Bagpipes

·  Job title: Director of Big Day Discounts (www.bigdaydiscounts.co.uk), and Military Wedding Discounts (www.militaryweddingdiscounts.com) which launches in 3 weeks

·  Kids: Not yet but one day fingers crossed

·  Live: Split between London and Colchester

·  Mom’s name:Elaine

·  Nicknames:Em, Emmie Lou, Emmsy

·  Overnight hospital stays: Only when I had my tonsils out

·  Pet peeve: Rude people, noisy eaters, whistling, people taking the micky out of people (in a nasty way!)

·  Quote from a movie: 'You had me at Hello' - Jerry Maguire - Gets me every time!

·  Righty or lefty: Righty

·  Sibling: One younger sister (27) and one younger brother (18)

·  Time you wake up: Normally between 7.30am-7.45am

·  Underwear: Worn daily! 

·  Vegetables you dislike: Pea's

·  What makes you run late: Being too laid back

 ·  X-rays: Finger

·  Yummy food you make: Salmon Tagliatelli (sp?)

·  Zoo favorite animal: Penguins