Planning a 2023 Wedding

#AD

Over the past few years there has been a lot of uncertainty and heartbreak for couples wanting to say ‘I do’.

 

Many dream weddings and hopes to wed the one we love were shattered by Covid-19 and the pandemic. Thankfully now weddings are back in full swing and couples can showcase their love for one another with confidence. 

Whether you want to wed your beloved in a small or big ceremony, here are a few tips for planning a wedding.

Say "I Do" To These Essential Wedding Reception Tips

(image)

Okay, we know the wedding ceremony will be at the forefront of your mind when planning your wedding - this is the moment when you finally gaze into the eyes of your loved one and say those magical two words, "I do" in front of your friends and family - but you don't want to neglect your planning for the reception afterwards. For your guests, at least, this is possibly the most important part of the day - the opportunity to eat, drink, and get merry - but it's also time for you to let your hair down after the pressures of the day, so it's worth giving it some special consideration.

Here then, are the tips you need to say "I do" too when planning your wedding reception.

The costs of married life after you say I do

There is a lot of excitement, planning and expense surrounding a wedding. But what happens after you both say I do in front of your loved ones? Married life begins and it is surprising the costs that can follow the wedding.

Choosing the perfect engagement ring

When you have found that special one in your life who you can’t imagine not spending the rest of your life with thoughts of marrying them may be something that you desire. Once you have decided that you’d like to marry your partner the next big decision is how you will pop the question. Some proposals are romance personified, others are very personal whilst some may be impromptu proposals. Whenever, wherever and however you propose it will be a special day for you and your partner and one you will remember forever.

Wedding planning – offline vs online

Organising a wedding has traditionally been a real world, physical process where brides hit the high street, bridal stores and wedding events. Brides traditionally visit bridal stores to find their perfect wedding dress and often have numerous fittings so that it fits them perfectly. Grooms have to try on suits or have tailored suits with several suit fittings. Wedding venues are visited to find that ideal location to celebrate saying 'I do'. Wedding cake samples and reception menus are tried to find the tastiest wedding food for the reception. Unless you have a wedding planner, organising a wedding is traditionally a feet on the ground operation where brides and their loved ones have to go out and about to get everything bought, booked and planned for their big day.

Booking a band on a budget - wedding dreams

Music & money matters when planning a wedding

When planning a wedding there are a lot of elements that need to be carefully considered - the dress, the venue, the food and the entertainment for example. For most people all the elements that come together to make the perfect day come with a budget. Regardless of whether you have a low, tight budget or a lavish budget when booking and buying all things wedding related the money matters.

As we are a couple with a tight wedding budget for our much longed for wedding we are always looking at ways to make our budget work for us and ways to cut costs but still create the wedding of our dreams.

7 Things to think about when planning your accessible wedding

Your wedding is one of the biggest, most special days of your life and planning the celebrations can be incredibly exciting. When considering accessibility however, there are few things to bear in mind when you’re planning your wedding.

Whether it’s yourself, your bride or groom to be, or other members of the wedding party who require mobility aids or additional accessibility, what considerations are needed when planning your wedding day?

Accessibility is being discussed much more now than it once was and so making the biggest day of your life accessible is an important consideration. As such, mobility aid experts and suppliers, Ability Superstore, give their run down of what to think about when planning the perfect accessible wedding.

The cost of your dream wedding - Wedding Cost Calculator.

Even though it feels as if Lee and I are married, we are yet to tie the knot. We have been engaged for over 4 happy years now, but I am yet to have a wedding ring join my engagement ring. We would love to finally get married one day and I have often dreamed about getting married to my true love, but unfortunately it has never been the right time to plan our wedding.

There always seems to be one thing or another preventing us from getting married. Perhaps some could argue that there is always something going on to get in the way but for us it has not been the right time to get married. A month after we got engaged we found out we were expecting Bug and we decided the expense of a wedding was not one we needed at that time, deciding to concentrate on the happy time of making a family together and using the money we would have spent on a wedding on our new baby instead. Then over the years there has been the cost of moving house, new jobs, deaths in the family and now a new addition to our family all putting our wedding on hold.

The sad truth is that money, a lack of money that is, is the main reason why we have yet to get married. Weddings are expensive. Big white weddings with all the extras are extremely expensive. Even though a big white wedding is not our idea of a dream wedding for us, the cost of having our dream wedding always seems to be out of our reach. Whilst getting married on a budget is possible, even the money needed for a budget wedding has been needed for another reason before we manage to get as far into planning our wedding by having everything paid for and booked.

As we still hope to get married, hopefully in the near future and things are going well for us of late, our thoughts have once again turned to thinking about getting married and planning our dream wedding. To help us figure out where it is possible for us to afford our dream wedding I have been using an extremely useful wedding cost calculator created by Everyday Loans.

Top Tips For Using Marzipan On Your Wedding Cake.

If you’re making a wedding cake you’ll want it to be picture perfect and the best way to ensure a beautifully smooth finish is to use a layer of marzipan.  Not only will a marzipan layer ensure your icing and decorations look wonderful it will also help trap the moisture in the cake so that it’s mouth-wateringly delicious for that first slice.

Renshaw and Juliet Sear show you how to marzipan your cake successfully.

My Wedding Scrapbook.

Lee and I will have been engaged for 4 years in June this year.  Whilst our wedding may not be planned for the near future it does not stop me dreaming about and planning our big day.

If money was no problem here is what I would love for my wedding day where I would marry my soul mate in front of our loved ones with Bug and maybe if we are lucky other children of ours at our side.

The first thing that I would like to do is get a new engagement ring to replace my beloved yet broken engagement ring.  I would love a vintage inspired ring and if I had the money I would especially love a Vintage engagement ring from Romance Diamond Bridal Collection to sit next to a delicate diamond wedding ring.

Unique outdoor wedding venues.

Lee and I are engaged and have been for a little over three years now.  After Lee romantically proposed to me we started discussing tying the knot, dreaming of how and where we would love to get married.  But before any firm wedding plans were made, a little over a month after getting engaged we found out we were expecting Bug and decided to put getting married on hold and focus on our bundle of love instead.

Recently we have renewed our desire to get married and as we hope to be husband and wife in the near future rather than waiting yet another three years, we have revived our wedding plans.  As well as finding the perfect wedding dress, photographer, flowers, table centres, invites and decorations we have been considering a number of venues to find the perfect one for our magical day.

Initially we wanted to get married abroad and have an intimate beach wedding and then a safari honeymoon in Africa we have decided to get married in the UK instead as there are so many amazing places here where we could get married and getting married in the UK would mean that our friends and family could be part of our big day.

Even though I think traditional church/chapel weddings are beautiful, both Lee and I would love our big day to be at a unique outdoor wedding venue and have fallen in love with 5 stunning and unique wedding venues that offer outdoor weddings.

Win a £50 Paper Themes voucher.

I am delighted to be able to offer my readers a fabulous prize as a new giveaway on my blog.  Paper Themes are kindly offering my readers the chance to win a £50 voucher to use on their website.

Paper Themes make bespoke stationary and with over 100 years in the wedding stationary market they specialise in wedding invitations, stationary, favours and accessories.  Paper Themes’ beautiful collection of bespoke wedding stationary is heaven for brides-to-be with their exquisite designs and personalised wedding stationary perfect for helping to make weddings extra special for the happy couple.