7 Ways to Beat Wedding Nerves
June 10, 2010
However much preparation you’ve done, and however much you’re looking forward to your wedding, it’s only natural to feel nervous too. In order to help beat your nerves and help the day go with a swing, here are 7 tips for getting on top of your nerves and easing wedding stress.
Our 7 tips
1. The weeks and days leading up to the wedding can be stressful, especially when trying to sort out last minute arrangements. To try and ease some of the stress you’re under, share the responsibility and organisation with other members of the wedding party. That includes your husband-to-be, bridesmaid and any other family members involved in the wedding organisation.
Focus on your big day
2. If you are feeling stressed, then take time out to relax, either on your own or with your fiancé. Exercise can be great for relieving stress, but you could also do yoga, have a massage or go for a swim.
3. Try and get plenty of sleep, especially in the days leading up to the wedding. Get a few early nights and try and have a complete break from thinking about the wedding.
4. If you’ve bought new shoes to wear on the day, then ensure you wear them around the house a bit a few weeks before the wedding. It make take a while for them to feel comfortable and knowing they finally feel okay can help ease worries about accidentally tripping over in your new shoes or that they’ll rub your feet.
5. Phone and speak to the caterers, the flower arrangers and the reception centre a week before the wedding. You can check that everything is going to plan and, if necessary, sort out any problems in good time.
6. Make sure you have a wedding rehearsal at the venue where the ceremony will take place, a day or so before the wedding. Ideally get the best man, chief bridesmaid and any other key players involved to take part. It can help allay any last minute nerves and offer reassurance that everything will go to plan.
7. The day before the wedding, make sure everyone else knows what their duties are on the day, so that you don’t have to worry about anything. You can relax and focus on the important part of the day – getting married!
Five of the Best Wedding Favour Ideas
May 6, 2010
Beautiful wedding favours
Wedding favours are small gifts that are given to guests at a wedding by the bride and groom. They’re usually left on the table at the reception, next to the place where each guest sits, and are a simple way of saying thanks to the guests for their support and attendance at your wedding.
Traditionally, they were known as bonbonniere’s and often contained sugared almonds or other sweets. These days the tradition of wedding favours has continued and, in addition to giving out sugared almonds, there are plenty of other small gifts that you can give your guests. Here are five of the best wedding favour ideas.
1. Chocolate Wedding Favours
A firm favourite with old and young, chocolates always go down well as wedding favours. Wrapped heart-shaped chocolates are widely available and appropriate for weddings, or you could choose your favourite chocolates to include. Just be aware that if you’re having a wedding in the height of the summer, some chocolate may be prone to melting, so choose carefully.
2. Sweet Wedding Favours
Like the traditional sugared almonds, wedding favours that can be eaten are popular. Any types of candy or sweets can be used and popped in small gift boxes or organza bags. Pick your favourite sweets, or opt for Love Hearts for a vaguely romantic twist.
3. Scented Soap Wedding Favours
Small scented pieces of soap, or fizzy bath bombs, fit well into small organza bags and work nicely as wedding favours. Choose items that work with your colour or floral scheme, such as pink rose scented soaps or lavender bath bombs. This type of wedding favour is best aimed at women – you could combine it with something other favours at men to appeal to everyone.
4. Personalised Wedding Favours
Some brides and grooms go the extra mile when creating their wedding favours and add personalised touches that will provide long lasting memories for guests of attendance at the wedding. For example, you could include a small box of matches, a wine stopper, photo coaster or personalised playing cards, with details of your names, the date of the wedding and even a photo of the happy couple.
5. Teddy Bear Wedding Favours
For the fans of all things cute, then tiny teddy bears could be added to wedding favour boxes to provide an unusual take-home present. If they happen to have a red heart on their front, all the better!
Choosing a Wedding Cake
May 3, 2010
Beautiful wedding cake
Your wedding cake is an important part of the wedding reception and ceremony and, whether you want a traditional wedding cake, or a modern alternative, it’s something you need to think about and plan for. Here are some tips on choosing your perfect wedding cake.
Collect Wedding Cake Ideas
It can be a bit daunting knowing exactly how you’d like your wedding cake to be – how many tiers, what sort of decorations you’d like and what shape of wedding cake you’d prefer. So it’s a good idea to collect as many ideas and inspirations for wedding cake ideas as you plan your wedding.
Wedding websites, wedding magazines and wedding blogs are all really good sources for wedding cake ideas, as are the websites of wedding cake makers and decorators. Cut-out photos of cakes you like the look of, or save web URLs, and build up your own wedding cake file full of ideas. A good wedding cake maker should be able to use a photo to re-create your ideas and get a better idea of how you’d like your wedding cake to be.
Wedding Cake Colour Theme
Many people link their wedding colour theme to their wedding cake theme and this can be a good starting point to think about for anyone choosing a wedding cake. For example, if your colour theme is lilac, then you could aim to have your wedding cake decorated with dainty purple flowers or purple ribbon, of if your colour theme is burgundy, then you could have burgundy sugar roses on your cake.
Taste Wedding Cakes Before You Buy
If you’re having a wedding cake made for you by someone else, especially if it’s a specialist wedding cake company that you’ve not heard of before, then always ask to taste a sample of one of their wedding cakes before you commit to buy.
Companies exhibiting cakes at wedding fairs usually have plenty of samples available for you to taste, but if you find your cake maker privately, don’t be afraid to ask to taste their cooking ability. If they’re not too keen to oblige, then think carefully about booking a cake from them – even if their decoration skills look wonderful – as the taste of the cake is just as important as how it looks.
Should You Have a Wedding Gift List?
April 8, 2010
Wedding gifts
Some people love them, and others hate them – if you’re getting married, should you have a wedding gift list?
Giving a gift to couples getting married is a long established tradition, but in order to avoid the numerous toasters or cut glass that some couples seem to end up with, it’s become a more modern tradition to produce a gift list. The gift list is a good idea to help avoid duplicate items and it means that you do at least get to choose thing you need or would like for your home.
The politics of gift lists are hotly debated though, with some people being less than thrilled to find a long gift list included with their wedding invite, especially when everything on it seems to cost rather a lot.
Tips For Creating a Wedding Gift List
Many large department stores now offer wedding gift list creation services, whereby you choose which items you’d like added and people then see what’s available to purchase. It does make the process much easier than having to handle it all yourself and is even easier to manage when the lists can be viewed online, as well as in store.
- If you do decide that you want to create a wedding gift list, then here are some tips for making the process go smoothly.
- Try and choose items for your wedding gift list that fall into a range of price brackets, from inexpensive upwards.
- If there are items you’d like that will cost more, then consider asking for monetary contributions or vouchers towards them instead, so that lots of people can chip in and help spread the cost.
- Make sure you keep records as to who has bought you what and remember to send thank you notes to them. Department store gift lists are useful for this, as they should also retain a record of who purchased what items which you can always double check if you need to.
- If you’ve been living together for a while, and have all the kitchen equipment and household goods you need, then perhaps you could suggest contributions towards your honeymoon fund instead?
- Alternatively, why not ask for donations for your favourites charities, instead of any gifts? The chances are that some people will still give you a gift – many people like to, regardless of whether or not you have a list – and your charities can benefit at the same time.
4 Tips Wedding Colour Theme
March 29, 2010
Pretty in pink
Having a colour theme for your wedding can help bring together the various elements and create a unified look. If you’re trying to decide on a suitable colour theme for your wedding, then here are four practical tips to help you make your choice.
1. Choose a wedding colour theme based on your favourite colour or flower.
A good starting point for choosing a wedding colour theme is to look at whether you, or your partner, have any favourite colours or flowers. If there’s a particular type of flower that you love, and would like to include in your bridal bouquet or in any other wedding flowers, then do check first that it’s in season when you’re getting married, otherwise it could be tricky getting the flowers.
2. Pick one main colour for your wedding theme.
Don’t get carried away and pick too many colours for your theme. Ideally, it works best to have one main colour, such as blue, burgundy or pink, for the primary theme. If you want to have other shade tones too, then these can be combined, like pastel colours or red and pale pink, but too many strong colours can be confusing.
Deep purple theme
3. Make sure your wedding colour theme will fit with the venues you’re using.
Before you finalise your choice of colour theme for your wedding, make sure that it will work in the venues you’ve chosen for your ceremony or reception. For example, if the reception venue has curtains, carpets or wall colours that could clash with your chosen colour, it may not be a good choice.
4. Choose a colour that will go well with the season in which you’re getting married.
When you’re debating colour theme choices, don’t forget to think about the season in which you’re getting married. Although you don’t necessarily have to stick to this, many brides find that winter weddings work well with darker colour choices, such as purple, burgundy or deep green, whereas spring and summer weddings work well with brighter colours or pastel shades. If you want to use flowers that are in season, this is particularly important to consider, as yellow daffodils or red poinsettias are both seasonal flowers that aren’t available all year round.