Personalise your wedding

Weddings are all about joining two families together, creating new identities and starting life afresh.

One way to channel all these new beginnings, is to personalise your big day, and incorporate elements of both families into your celebration.

There are so many different ways you can do this – and not all of them involve spending loads and loads of cash!

Here are just a few ideas that I’ve seen other Brides incorporate into their big day!

Name tables, rather than number them

• You can not only choose something that is really unique to you, but you can also provide a talking point for your guests while they are seated. Name each table after a country you have been to, holidays you’ve been on, your favourite bands, TV characters or films, inspirational figures, favourite flowers or even favourite sports players (eek!).
• If you do decide to use numbers, how about giving them an interesting twist by adding a photo of either you, your partner, or both of you at the age of the table number. Family members will love cooing over the pictures and reminiscing the ‘old days’ and it’ll definitely give all your friends and colleagues a good laugh. A perfect ice-breaker!

Photos, photos, and more photos!

• Carrying on with the photo theme, collect loads of pictures of you and your partner and create a photo wall, or photo corner. You could create an interesting focal point in the room of photos of your time together, or go right back to the baby years and create a timeline. This is something I am currently in the process of doing! I have scoured all the baby albums and collected and scanned photos of myself and Mr M throughout the years and I’m planning to make a display to showcase during the evening reception (which will be a complete surprise to Mr M as this has all been done in secret!). Facebook can be a godsend for this kind of thing, as its one of the easiest ways for friends and families to share photos, and provide you with loads of choice of embarrassing photos to add in!
• You could also try and add pictures of your guests in with photos of you and your partner – it will bring back good memories for everyone, and they’ll love to hunt through the pictures to see if they feature!

Handwrite or DIY as much as possible

• You’d be surprised what effect handwriting little bits and pieces throughout your big day can have on how ‘you’ your wedding appears to your guests! I’m not saying you should painstakingly handwrite in full each invitation, RSVP card, menu and order of service, but simply handwriting your guest’s name on the invitation rather than having it printed it makes your guests feel like you want them there! Its also a lot cheaper to hand write something rather than have it printed – intimate AND purse friendly! I will be making little ‘reserved’ signs for the chairs at our ceremony, to make sure that those people who are most important to Mr M and I are right at the front watching us take our vows. This will also cease any confusion between guests as to who is supposed to be sitting where etc! There is nothing worse than the awkwardness of musical chairs when it comes to a big occasion such as a wedding!

Appreciate your guests

• If you have guests travelling from a long distance away, make sure they know you appreciate them making the effort. This can be done as simple as creating a mini welcome pack for them to leave in their hotel room. Including items such as mini shampoo, body wash, mints, paracetamol, will make them feel like you’ve recognised their efforts and are genuinely glad they’ve attended your big day. All these things can be gathered together for a few pounds per person and will be most appreciated by those who have travelled from abroad or from the other end of the country.

Remember those who are no longer with us

• For many families, including my own, we will have lost people who have played an important or significant part in our childhoods, or have moulded us into the people we are today. An way of doing this is by displaying some photos of those who are no longer with us, so that they still feature in your big day. This is a lovely and really cheap way to incorporate those special people who for no fault of their own cannot be part of the biggest day of your lives.

And finally, make your wedding about YOU as a couple. Don’t feel forced into doing something a certain way, or having a certain thing if it does not already feature into your characters and relationship. Magazines are always saying you should do things this way, and you NEED to have this and that. In all honesty, you don’t need any of the material stuff as long as you and your partner are ready to take the next step into your relationship by marrying each other. Everything else apart from that is just ‘fluff’. Don’t get me wrong, I love fluff, but make your day about YOU, not what you are told you should by someone else!

The trials and tribulations of thank you gifts

More often than not, many couples’ parents and family are involved in the wedding planning process from day one; perhaps financially or perhaps emotionally. 

As a gesture of thanks, most couples want to give their nearest and dearest a token of their appreciation for the support that they have shown throughout what can be an emotionally trying time.

But what do you give? How much do you spend? And how can you give your loved ones something meaningful when you are on a budget??

Traditionally many couples give flowers to show appreciation which are always gratefully received, however I want to give our loved ones something they can keep and look upon in years to come and remember our special day. However as soon as you add the word ‘wedding’ into the equation, the price often doubles. I also found it quite hard to actually find good gift ideas on the internet that didn’t have a massive price tag.

So once again I’ve fallen back on my good friend, eBay. I must point out I haven’t purchased all the items from eBay (I’ll share more info at a later date once all my items have arrived and I can add pictures), but lots of things I found to be considerably cheaper on there compared to other websites and shops. I’ve bought our parents gifts from a lovely seller on there, and a couple of little items for the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen also from sellers on eBay.

Because I’ve decided I want to make a little goody bag for each of the Bridesmaid and Groomsmen, and include things I know will be gratefully received, (rather than risk it all on one  big and expensive item, which may just be shoved to the back of the shelf after a month or so) I did a lot of scouring the internet to source the items I want, for a price I like! eBay covered a few of the bits and bobs, but I also used the following websites to put together low budget, but good quality gift bags for our family members.

One website which I found to be pretty fab, is A Wedding Less Ordinary. Although relatively expensive if you are buying favours for each of your 100 guests from this site, if you are only buying a couple of items for members of the bridal party, it actually works out quite cheaply. Its also been featured on the TV show Four Weddings and has been used by a number of celebrities so it comes quite highly recommended!

Once again, the Confetti website has lots of fab stuff on there; and many of which are in the sale. You can pick up exotic flavour lip-glosses for your Bridesmaids for £1.49 (I’m bagging Cookies & Cream and Chocolate Fudge Brownie!), gorgeously decorated hessian bags stuffed with aromatic candles, body washes and soaps for the Mother of the Bride and Mother of the Groom for around £8, and lots of beer and alcohol related items for the boys for around £15!

I know I ramble on about the For Sale section on various wedding websites nearly every post (sorry!), but they really can be handy! Planning a wedding often caused Brides to crazily and manically buy everything they like, before realising that they don’t actually have any use for the thing they previously desperately wanted! You can often pick up Bridesmaid jewellery, organza bags (handy for putting gifts in) and other items quite cheaply this way!I managed to grab an absolute bargain from a Bride who ordered TWO Oh So Cherished Groom’s journals (???) who then offered to sell one of them at a reduced price; saving me a good £20 off the RRP!! It may be frustrating trawling through pages of rubbish that Brides are trying to offload, but every so often you’ll find a gem that makes it worth it!

I never thought I’d say this, but the Avon website is fab for purchasing affordable gifts for your bridal party! They currently have LOADS of deals on on fragrances (think a nice bottle of perfume or aftershave for each of your Bridesmaids and Groomsmen) – the best one at the moment is 2 bottles of perfume or aftershave for £12!!! Some of the bottles retail individually at £13!!! They also have some lovely jewelry for Bridesmaids on offer at the moment – my favourite find is the faux pearl set (necklace, earrings and bracelet) currently being sold for £14 for TWO sets!!

I have a couple of other important points that I think should be made when wading through tonnes of different gift ideas:

Don’t buy for the sake of it – everything adds up. Only buy what you know for sure will be appreciated.

Don’t buy rubbish just because it’s cheap and you have a budget to stick to - there is nothing worse than opening a present and being horrified with the cheap and tacky monstrosity that lurks inside and then having to pretend you love it. Go for good quality items that your family will cherish. They ARE out there!!

A card is a MUST – words are often more meaningful than a present, so if you feel that no present can ever match up to the amount of support you have received from someone, put it down in words and just get a small token present to give! I have bought all my thank you cards for my family, Bridesmaids and Groomsmen from ASDA – there are some lovely designs, and I managed to pick up some gorgeous ones for around £1-£1.50 each!!

Once I have received all my items, I’ll upload pictures of the finished products to show that you CAN give good quality, and thoughtfully created gifts even if you are on a budget!! 

Questions to ask your potential venue's coordinator

It is really important to ask lots of questions when viewing potential venues to make yourself aware of everything you are and aren’t allowed to do, and all that is involved with hiring the venue. 

As Mr M and I are off to visit our first potential venue this weekend, I put some feelers out on the You and Your Wedding chat forums, to find out what other Brides had asked their venue coordinators and thought I’d share the results with you!

• Do they give a discounted rate for kiddies meals?
• What time does the bar stay open till..(?!)
• Are you allowed to throw confetti?
• Are there any planned renovations or building work?
• Will you be the only bride on the day at the venue?
• Are candles allowed?
• Do they charge for cutting the cake?
• Will someone represent the venue all day and oversee everything?
• Does hire include tables and chairs/dancefloor?
• How does catering work – i.e. do they do the catering or is it from a recommended list of suppliers?
• Availability?
• Any Negotiation on price?
• Hire times?
• How many staff will be attending to your wedding?
• What decorations they will have up?
• What is happening on the days either side of your wedding?

And finally, GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING (no matter how trivial)

Hobbycraft has a SALE on!

Take a trip down to your local Hobbycraft in the next few days as they are currently holding their summer sale, and LOADS of items have been reduced!

Rubber stamps for personalised stationery, glues and adhesives, paints, paper, embellishments, glassware, even wooden letters and numbers are on sale ready and waiting for you!

I picked up a load of different adhesives which will come in handy when putting together my stationery, plus some fab embellishments!!