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Tag: Wedding Planning Tips

What Truly Matters On Your Wedding Day

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

There are only really a handful of things that matter on your wedding day. So many couples agonize over the very smallest detail, when in reality, these things don’t matter at all. It isn’t about wedding favors, chair ribbons, or anything like that. They may make a nice addition if you want to, but they won’t make a difference to how great a time your guests have.

 

Here’s what truly matters on your wedding day, to put things into perspective:

 

Your Guests

Your guests are one of the only things that truly matter on your wedding day. If you plan on getting married just you, your husband, and a few witnesses, then more power to you! Nothing is saying you can’t get married like that if this is what you want. However, most couples end up inviting the majority of the people they know. If you plan on inviting people in this way, then you need to make sure you think about them in most of the decisions you make. How do you want them to talk about the day afterwards? You want them to say they had an awesome time, of course! Make sure that’s what you set out to do, to thank them for celebrating your special day with you.

 

Your Photographer/Videographer

The photographs of your big day are one of the only things that will last forever. Your grandchildren’s grandchildren could end up looking at these pictures, so it’s a good idea to select a photographer that you love. Every photographer has a different style, so check out portfolios and see what suits you as a couple. Make sure you look at testimonials to ensure they are reliable too.

 

The Food

Everybody will eat the food, your guests, you, your vendors. The food is one of the things that can make a wedding a ‘wow’ day or a bit of a let down. People will be relying on you to give them enough sustenance to feed them through the night. This doesn’t mean you should pay for a 5 course meal for each guest – you could have a buffet if you wanted to. It just means you should take into account the theme of your wedding, any allergies and dietary preferences, and then select a caterer that has amazing reviews.

 

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Your Venue

Your venue can be the perfect backdrop to your big day. If you choose a place like Liberty Grand banquet halls, you may even find you can cut down on the decorating side of your wedding, and simple use as it is. You could save money on decorations, and time decorating the venue – your time is all important when you’re on a wedding planning schedule!

 

Your Wedding Outfits

Your wedding outfits will affect how you feel on the day. If you want to feel your best, then you need to make sure you’re wearing something you absolutely love, that you feel suits your personality. It should be in keeping with your venue theme too. Make sure you take into account things like whether you’ll mind a friend having to help you to the toilet if you have a long train.

 Is it a Gay Wedding, read more about it here

A Small Wedding With Wide Reach

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

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For some of us, the idea of a large wedding doesn’t appeal. If you’re introverted, having a room full of eyes on you can seem hellish An experience like that is sure to take the enjoyment out of the whole day. Not to mention that big days cost big money. It’s simply not a goal everyone can achieve.

But, there’s no getting around the fact that you let a lot of people down by opting for a small affair. While the wedding day should be all about the bride and groom, that’s rarely the case. In fact, the guests become just as important in a lot of ways. And, if your nearest and dearest aren’t included in proceedings, you can’t be surprised if they get upset about it.

Your first reaction may be annoyance, but put yourself in their shoes. They love you, and they want to share in your special day. They only want a chance to see you happy.

Of course, you still can’t ruin your day just to keep everyone else happy. But, there are ways to widen the reach of your small wedding. Taking the time to find out how is the best way to ensure everyone’s happy. Here are a few methods worth considering.

Set up a photo page on social media

Your friends might not be able to attend the ceremony, but that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy the pictures. Even though you’re keeping things small, it’s worth investing in a photographer who can capture every moment. Then, you can start a social media page for your day, and post all those pictures in one secure place. Sharing them online ensures everyone gets a chance to see. You can even invite friends to like the page so that they get updates as soon as you post. It’ll be like a live feed to your wedding.

Make a YouTube video

The chances are that you’re already going to film the day. So, why not put that video on YouTube? You don’t have to let the world see if you don’t want to. But, setting this to private and only showing people you choose will ensure those who matter get to see. This is the best way to give absent friends a good idea of your venue. They’ll also be able to hear your vows and join in your special moment.

Keep mementos for people who weren’t invited

Another way to soften the no-invite blow is to keep mementos for people who matter most to you. Something small, like a bag of confetti, or even a bouquet, is sure to go down well. Or, perhaps you had a small cake which you can divide among friends who couldn’t come. Think of this as a goody bag for absent friends. Throughout the day, consider things you can put in there. The chances are that your friends will be so touched you thought of them, they’ll let go of their anger straight away. At least, that’s the hope!

 

Important Trinkets To Take Care Of For Your Wedding Day

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

https://www.pexels.com/photo/beautiful-bloom-blooming-blossom-540522/

At some point during your wedding planning, you’ll start to realize that there are so many more finer details that you have to cover off than you first thought. Because there’s always a lot more that you need to do to make your wedding day come together than you can first imagine. But that doesn’t mean you have to let your wedding planning process stress you out. Once you’ve got some of the bigger plans in place, you’re then going to want to think about some of the smaller things, like the important trinkets you need to have with you on your special day.

The Wedding Rings

Hopefully, this won’t be one of the things that you forget; it may even be at the top of your smaller things list, but you have to get your wedding bands sorted. You may even know what kind of rings you want to go for based on your engagement ring design. However, whether you go for something like the Tacori wedding bands at Whiteflash or even something you’ve designed yourself, you need to pick them out. Then, you should also make sure that you keep the safe until the big day.

The Bridesmaid Gifts

After your own rings, there are some other trinkets that you need to cover off for other people on the wedding day. Traditionally, during the speeches, the groom will give the bridesmaid their gifts. So, you may want to think about what you’re going to give yours. Whether it’s memento from the day or even a piece of jewelry, this is something that you’re going to keep in mind as a part of your trinket search.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/dinner-roses-decoration-wedding-57980/

Something For The Parents

Next, you may also want to think about gifts for the parents. Here, you’ll often find that traditionally flowers are given to the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom. But, you may also want to think about other gifts to give them that could be a bit more personal. Plus, if your parents have helped you out with the wedding planning or even the cost, you may want to think about a thank you gift that you could get for both sets of parents as a whole.

A Gift For Each Other

Then there’s also the gifts that you give to each other. Although you’re going to be spending a lot of money on your big day (yes, even when you have a small budget), it’s also beautiful to be able to give each other a gift. So, when it comes to the presents you choose for the bride and groom gift exchange, make sure that they are personal to you, and not what you feel like you should be giving each other.

Favors For The Guests

And, of course, you’ve also got the wedding favors that you give to the guests. Again, if you’re going to go with tradition, these will be sugared almonds. However, you could also tailor this choice based on your wedding theme or even something personal to you both.

 

 

The Key To Successful Wedding Planning: Divide and Conquer The Responsibilities

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

Once the butterflies and excitement have quieted down after your engagement, you’ll be hit by the sudden realisation that, oh gosh, there’s a wedding to plan – and boy oh boy, are there a lot of details to take care of! Like your eventual marriage, the planning will work best when things are equal, and when both bride and groom share the responsibilities of a day that will launch you into the rest of your life. Below, we take a look at how you can ensure this happens, all the while guaranteeing that your special day is just as magical as you hoped it would be.

Source: Pexels.com

The List

Before you start handing out assignments to your partner, it’s important that you both sit down and write a list to determine what exactly has to be arranged before the big day. It’ll hopefully be no shock that there is a lot to take care of, but even if you’re expecting a heavy workload, you’ll be surprised at just how many little things have to be sorted before you can start looking forward to the event.

Your Skills

With your list by your side, it’s time to take a look and see what tasks are naturally suitable for each person in the relationship. If you’re a queen of talking to people, then it’d make sense that you would be in charge of chatting with the florists, caterers, and so on. If your partner to be is a boffin at spreadsheets and organisation, then leave all the tasks with nitty gritty numbers and the like to them. Things will run much more smoothly if the person in charge of a specific task has the natural skills to organise them without a hitch.

…But What Do You Care About?

That being said, not every surrounding your wedding will be a chore. Some will be fun, and it’s understandable that you’d want to be involved in those details, even if your partner has m0re of a claim to be suited to it. If you really care about one aspect of the wedding, then pipe up – we’re sure your fiance will be happy to let you have it. If they’re not, it might be time to think twice whether you want the day to go ahead (just kidding…)!

What You Can Live Without

The wedding, again much like the marriage, will be a question of compromise. You can’t always get everything you want, and if something is vitally important to your partner, the best solution might be just to let them get their way, especially if it’s something that doesn’t overall concern you. There’s no point trying to agree on the wedding DJ if your fiance is a music fanatic and you’re happy dancing the night away regardless of what music is playing.

The All Important Wedding Guest List

There’s one area of the wedding that simply can’t be left to one person: the guest list. Of course, you can both a long list of the people you would like (or think you should) invite, but in reality,

there will be practical limitations, both spatially and financially, regarding how many people you can have at your wedding. This might be the real first test of the wedding, as it’s not easy telling your fiance they might have to cut their great uncle Joe because the budget is taking a beating. Handle this one carefully.

Joint Decisions

Some issues can be organised separately, and some can be organised through compromise. Others, however, should be made jointly. This is, after all, a day when you’ll become a union, so it makes sense that there’ll be aspects of the wedding that you both contributed to! You should pick your wedding invites together, as this will be the first thing that any of your guests see from the two of you. Also, the big factors, the ones that you couldn’t possibly be ambivalent about – the venue, date, and so on – need to be made together.

Source: Pexels.com

Travelling and Reporting Back

There’s a lot of decisions to be made, but actually, a large portion of organising a wedding will be deciding what you don’t want. You should both be doing to things like tasting the samples of various caterers, but other things, like meeting with photographers, florists, and transport companies can be done individually. As this can be a slog, it’s best not to overthink the approach: simply draw a line down the middle of the tasks that require travelling; one person takes one side, the other person takes the other.

Roping In Friends and Family

With all the will in the world, you won’t be able to organise every last detail just as a couple. You have regular lives as well, remember! However, if you ask nicely (and maybe buy them a beer for their efforts), then you might be able to rope in friends and family to help out where they can. All the big things will be taken care of, but stuff like picking up supplies, taking a tie to be cleaned, and other non-taxing but essential duties can be passed off.

A Helping Hand/Watchful Eye

Even if you’ve handed off some of the responsibilities to your partner, you’ll still want to make sure that you’re keeping a watchful eye on what they’re doing. This is your wedding day we’re talking about! As much as you’d like to think you can trust them to do everything, mistakes are always made, so it’s best to have four eyes on every task rather than just two. If they overlook a detail, you’ll be on hand to help them out.

What To Do When There’s Unequal Division

Everything sounds good in theory, but it can happen that one person is left with too much responsibility. If this happens to you, talk to your partner; it’ll be a good test of the communication skills you’ll need to have when you’re married.

All going well, you’re planning will be a breeze – as well as fun – and you’ll have a day to remember!

 

 

Don’t Forget The Little Details That Will Make Your Wedding Special!

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

There are a lot of things to think about when you’re planning a wedding. In fact, the sheer number of things that you have to think about can often be pretty overwhelming. Because of this, a lot of people, rather understandably, tend to focus on the big picture elements of their wedding. Things like the venue, the guest lists, the dress, and the rings take up huge amounts of space in their minds. However, as important as all of these things are, it’s crucial that you remember that there are more aspects to making your wedding really wonderful than just the big stuff. Here are a few smaller details that you really don’t want to forget about when planning your wedding. 

Photography

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Since your wedding is pretty likely to be one of the most important and special days of your life, it only makes sense that you’re going to want to immortalise it with some beautiful pictures. However, if you want your wedding memories to be as beautiful as the day itself, then you need to hire a really great photographer. Leaving it too late and hiring someone who isn’t very good, or simply relying on friends to take pictures for you, is just going to leave you with pictures that don’t do your perfect day the justice that it deserves.  

Seating arrangements

You’ve probably got a pretty good idea of who it is that you want to invite to your wedding. But one thing that many people forget about is where those people are actually going to sit. The seating arrangements might seem incredibly simple, but the reality is it can make a lot of difference. You don’t want to create a divide among the guests, with one side of the family separated from another, but you also need to be diplomatic about it. Not everyone is going to get along, and if you’ve got a lot of guests, there are going to be people who won’t agree with each other. The last thing you want is your big day getting disrupted by a shouting match on table five!

Decorations

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The venue is one of the most important parts of any wedding, and it is often one of the very first things that people pick out. However, you need to remember that the venue is only half the battle when it comes to creating the perfect wedding atmosphere. You need to think about the decor as well. The decor that you choose will depend heavily on what kind of theme you’re going for. Do you want something homemade? Something Traditional? These kinds of questions are not only important when deciding what style you prefer but also which styles work best with the venue that you’ve chosen.

It can often be pretty tricky to keep track of all of these things, so it’s worth making a very clear plan of everything that you need to deal with well in advance of the big day. Trying to wing it is almost certainly going to leave you feeling pretty stressed out!

It’s Your Wedding Too: Handling The Responsibilities Of The Groom

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

When planning the wedding, contrary to popular belief, it’s a two-way street. As the groom, it’s your responsibility, to make sure the budget is set and stuck to. You’ll be in charge of the photography as is the modern trend to get future husbands more involved. You’ll also be in charge of picking out the attire for your groomsmen, best man, and the immediate family. You’ll also have the pleasure of buying small gifts and writing thank you letters to the guests that came to your wedding. There’s a long list of responsibilities in each of those categories and carrying them out; you’re going to need some help from your family and friends. However, the traditions of the wedding will give you the outline you need to perform these tasks as many men have gone before you. Experience is on your side because wisdom is readily imparted on those who need it for being the best groom they can be.

Image credit – PublicDomainPictures

Photographer

The one who captures the moment is the responsibility of the groom. Look for high-quality work, by searching for the regional wedding photographers rather than local. Because they cover a large area, they’ll have the experience to back them up. Don’t book your best mate who you know does a bit of photography on the side, get somebody who is or has, forged a career out the profession. You need to build a rapport with the wedding photographer you choose, so you can advise them about what kind of lighting you want. Just in case they fall through or take pictures that aren’t up to scratch, you could book a wedding insurance policy that covers photography, such as from www.wedinsure.co.uk. It’s also great to have this kind of safety net if you’re going to be recording video. The lighting and the angles of the pictures are going to set the mood, so make a schedule of when pictures and video will be taken. Don’t leave it too late in the afternoon to take pictures as the natural light will begin to die down.

Image source – vargazs

Your men’s attire

This is your chance to show a little style because it’s your responsibility to pick the attire of your groomsmen and best man. Don’t wear a tuxedo or even a gentry suit, because although both look good, they’re not traditionally worn at weddings. Book yourself into a meeting with a Victorian Era fashion specialist. They will fit you for the proper kind of suit that will have tails to it which aren’t too long but go down to the back of your knees. Most wedding fashion for men has evolved from the Georgian Period, where the coat would hang on the floor, but has since evolved to become more practical. The same with the three-piece suit; your waist coast will be slightly longer than normal. You must choose contrasting colours to those of the bridesmaids and of course the bride herself. Therefore, dark blues and greys, perhaps even silver, would be a surefire way to not compete with their tones.

As the groom, you must get involved more than you might have been taught to believe. It’s your wedding too, and booking the right photographer to take the pictures, will determine if your memories are secured throughout the rest of your lives, in the highest quality. The attire should both reflect your style, but stick to the customs of past centuries of tradition.

 

 

 

 

 

Choosing A Wedding Venue: What Should You Ask?

Posted on by Aditi Malhotra

So, you’ve officially begun planning your wedding, and you couldn’t be more excited to be finally viewing venues. For every couple, finding and booking the perfect venue is at the top of the to-do list, or at least, it should be. It’s vital to pick your wedding venue before anything else as it’s the venue that dictates the time, date, and size of your celebration, as well as the vendors that you are able to use and kinds of photos you can get. While you may have a list of venues that you are dying to see, that doesn’t mean that you know what to look out for and what to ask when you are viewing them. It can be a somewhat daunting process viewing venues and making sure that everything that needs to be asked is asked.

To help make ensuring that you are selecting the perfect venue easier, below is a list of questions that you should ask. (We’ve skipped the basic ones, like how many guests the venue holds, and focused on the things that you are more likely to forget!)

Does the venue suit your theme?

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This is one to ask yourself, not the venue manager, but it’s still worth taking note of. It’s easy to get so caught up in how beautiful a venue is that you fail to take your theme into account. Obviously, if you are yet to select a theme then this doesn’t matter, but if you have an idea of the type of theme that you would like to incorporate, it’s vital to take that into account. Ask yourself whether the venue can accommodate your theme and whether it will be everything that you hoped it would be.

Are there any rules & regulations regarding the vendors that you can hire?

If the venue allows you to hire your own vendors that’s great, but it’s important to ensure that you have completely free reign over who you hire. Some wedding venues have a list of vendors that their guests need to use to be able to use their venue. So it’s worth finding out about this before booking a venue, as the last thing you want is not to be able to use a vendor that you are keen to incorporate into your big day.

Are there any restrictions in terms of decorations and flowers?

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A lot of people presume that wedding venues have no restrictions in terms of decorations and flowers, but that isn’t always the case. Believe it or not, some wedding venues do have restrictions in place regarding decorations and flowers – some even stipulate what confetti can be used – so it’s best to ask about this beforehand. You want to be able to make your wedding venue your own, and the decorations and flowers are a big part of that.

Is there a wifi connection available?

You may not think that wifi is a deal breaker, but if you are hoping to utilise social media to share your big day, then it is. Today, more and more couples are choosing to incorporate Snapchat wedding filters, personalised Instagram hashtags, and music streaming into their big days, which is why having an internet connection is vital. So, before you book, make sure to ask whether there is free wifi available to you and your guests.

Will there be any other weddings/large parties at the venue on the same day?

Do you want to have to share your wedding venue with another large party? Do you want to have to plan your photos around them? Do you want to have to stress about not making too much noise because of the other party that’s in attendance? If the answer is no to all of the above, then it’s a good idea to find out if it will only be your party at the venue. This is important as you don’t want to share your wedding day with strangers, do you?

There you have it, a guide to the questions that you should ask when viewing any wedding venue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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