Pay with Plastic Always pay for your wedding gown with a credit card. If something goes wrong with your dress order or with the bridal shop, you'll have recourse via the credit card company. Discount Gowns If you want to save big bucks on your wedding dress, try calling local bridal shops in your area and asking if they have any clearance dresses. Often they'll be clearing out past season's dresses, demos or gowns with tiny mistakes and selling them for low prices. Keep an Open Mind When shopping for your wedding gown, even if you have an idea of what you want, be sure to keep an open mind. The styles that you like in photos may not look good on you. Many brides later say that the dress they ended up choosing was one that they never would have thought to try on! Dress at Your Venue Take the weather into account before disaster strikes! If you are planning a winter wedding, make arrangements to dress at the church or venue to avoid slush and salt stains on your gown. Enlist the ushers to shovel the entry way prior to the guests' arrival. Stop and Smell the Roses When designing your bridal bouquets, consider the flowers that are the most important to you and then consider the look and feel of your wedding. Talk to your florist about your favorite flowers, and let the florist make recommendations on how to use those flowers in a bouquet that fits your wedding scene. Romantic bridal bouquets are those that mix colour, scent and appearance in combination to accent the bride. Dancing in Your Dress If you're going to be doing a lot of dancing or moving around at your reception (which you probably will), you might want to consider getting a detatchable train or one that will bustle. Boutique Field Trip When selecting bridesmaids' gowns, get your choices narrowed down to six or seven dresses and have the store(s) write down the style numbers. Gather your bridesmaids together and have them try on the various dresses so you can get a better idea how each dress looks on each maid. The Gown Goes On Last When you are getting ready on your wedding day, put your dress on at the very end, after you've done your hair and your makeup and had a bite to eat. You don't want to risk getting any food or makeup on your gown. Do-It-Yourself Veils If you're a crafty sort of girll (or have a friend who's good with artsy things), you might consider making your own veil. You can buy a wedding veil kit, usually for less than 30 pounds, from most crafts stores. These veils are very easy to assemble, requiring a glue gun and other basic tools. Dress Documentation When you order your wedding gown be sure to get a copy of the order form, complete with the following information: style number and manufacturer our measurements and the corresponding size for that manufacturer (they differ amongst companies) colour any other special instructions When to Shop When you're planning shopping trips to look for a wedding dress, consider going during a weekday rather than on a Saturday, especially if you're going to a large discount store. Often you'll have to wait several hours on the weekends and you may not receive as much attention as you would during the week. Source: - lifetips.com

Children?This is a topic that many couples who are getting married struggle with. Should you invite children to your wedding or ban them from attending? Will they ruin it for everyone else? Will they scream during the vows and spoil it for the happy couple? Deciding whether or not to invite children to your big day is an important thing to think about. Some people instantly decide one way or the other. For example they may have heard nightmare stories about other people’s weddings and decided not to invite them at all. Other people may think that if they have children in their family, they have just as much right to attend as everyone else. But of course it isn’t always as simple as that. For example if you ban children from attending there is a real chance their parents won’t be able to attend either. If they cannot get a babysitter – or are not willing to do so for some reason – they won’t be able to come. On other occasions the parents themselves may not agree with their children not being allowed to attend, so they won’t want to come themselves. This does happen, but it should be remembered that this is your big day and you will need to do whatever is right for you. If you don’t want children to attend, this is your decision. Some people decide to split the decision and ban kids from the actual ceremony but allow them to come to the celebrations afterwards. This is actually a good middle ground because no one really minds children running around during the celebrations. There will be music and dancing going on anyway so they can join in with that. It is different during the actual ceremony though because the happy couple will want everything to go as smoothly as possible. There should be silence during the vows. Adults can understand the importance of the moment but children of a certain age and below will not. We have all been to a wedding where an embarrassed parent has to take their child outside at a key moment. If you do want to invite children to the whole day, it can work well to make sure you have some activities on hand for them to do. You cannot really expect young children to sit through a long service without doing or saying anything. So you need to bear this in mind and see if you can make alternative arrangements for them. This is what some couples begrudge doing though. It adds to the cost of the wedding and the parents may not agree with the plans either. In the end you need to put the focus on you and your partner. Do you really want to have all the children you know present at your wedding? Or would you rather them not be there until the evening? Whatever answer you come up with should be respected by everyone else – after all, it’s your wedding day and you want to remember it for the right reasons. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

wedding cakeWhen choosing a Wedding Cake Designer you should give at least 6 months notice. Not only does this give time for your fruit cakes to be matured but good cake designers do get booked very quickly. Some take bookings a year or more in advance. During your initial consultation your cake designer should be able to offer you a tasting of wedding cakes in order for you to choose whether you want fruit, sponge, chocolate or something different like carrot cake or a flavoured sponge. Next you need to decide how many portions you need from your cake. This will depend on number of guests and whether you wish to keep your top tier [traditionally for the Christening of your first child] As for decoration - you should take with you any pictures you may have found in magazines along with colour swatches of your bridesmaids dresses if you want the colour incorporated into your cake. If you want hand made sugar flowers on your cake ask your florist for the names of the flowers you have chosen in your bouquet so that your decorator can reproduce them in icing. Your chosen decorator should be able to show you pictures of their past work and NOT just pictures in magazines or books. Also thank you letters or cards from satisfied customers are always a good indication of the quality of past creations. You should also discuss whether your decorator will deliver and set up your cake for you at your reception venue. Be very careful if a well-meaning friend or relative offers to make your cake. A wedding cake is a lot different to making the odd novelty cake here and there. Disasters can happen for instance when the cakes have not been cooked for long enough or the other extreme been cooked for too long and are burnt and dry. Or icing that hasn't had time to set. Cakes set up without dowels can collapse - and you don't want to be featured on TV's Wedding Video Clip Disasters!! Source www.countywedding .co.uk

The meaning of giving and choosing specific flowersFlowers are an important part of many wedding celebrations. It is always good to spend time thinking about which flowers you will choose for the bride’s bouquet as well as the table centrepieces. This may depend on what time of year it is and what happens to be in bloom, but many flowers also have meanings that you should be aware of. Have in mind the colour you want to choose first of all. If you have a colour theme prepared for your wedding you will want to choose flowers that blend in with that. But you also want to think about the message you want to convey with your chosen flowers. For example, red chrysanthemums mean ‘I love you’. What better message could there be for a wedding? Yellow irises meanwhile convey passion, which could also be very appropriate for a wedding! Think about different combinations of wedding flowers as well, and what the combined meanings could point to. For example a combination of red and white chrysanthemums would give out a nice message, since the white variety means truth. So the combined message would tell people that the message ‘I love you’ stands for truth. Of course you can get too bogged down in trying to go for the best meanings and forget about the look of the flowers themselves. There might be some that you simply don’t like, or the flower with the nicest meaning won’t fit in with your colour scheme. It is always wise to check the meanings of specific flowers before opting for any of them though. You don’t want to have a nice display and then find out all the flowers mean something inappropriate for your wedding day. For example dahlias apparently mean instability! Not the best start for your married life together, is it? Another good example is not to opt for a flower simply because it sounds nice. There is a flower called ‘love in mist’ which sounds like an ideal choice for a wedding. But the meaning of this particular flower is perplexity, which basically means confusion. It may have a nice name but it obviously isn’t ideal for a wedding bouquet or for the table decorations. Sometimes the best way to go is to look at the various meanings of flowers and see if any stand out as being particularly appropriate to you both on your wedding day. You can then think of flowers you both like and check that their meanings will be good for the day as well. Some countries may have different meanings attached to various flowers though, so if you research online be sure you find a UK website to look on. Sometimes meanings of certain flowers will change through time as well. For example yellow roses used to mean infidelity in some circles, but nowadays most people know that they stand for quite the opposite. Now they mean that love will last forever, which is a much more positive reason to use them at your wedding. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

Choosing A Honeymoon!Honeymoon translated in Spanish is ‘luna de mile’ and in French is ‘luna di miele’. In whatever part of the world you are, there will be a different translation However, the idea of a honeymoon is the same the world over. The honeymoon is the time when the newly-weds travel together to a romantic destination to begin their new lives together as husband and wife. After the hectic wedding day, relax and enjoy a wonderful honeymoon holiday together. When choosing your honeymoon location, there are a number of important considerations. One of the most important is when you will be going on your honeymoon. The time of the year will help determine where you are likely to go. Plan on how far you would like to go. Are you willing to go to the other side of the world, or would you rather go somewhere closer to home? The proximity also depends on how long you would like to spend on your honeymoon. If you plan to have a month available for this, then you can go as far as the other side of the globe if you want to. Further places tend to have different cultures, and then you would be able to discover and make new memories together. Check on whether you, as a couple, would like to go somewhere cold or somewhere warm. This would also determine the activities you will be able to do. For example, if you would like to go and learn ice skating or skiing together, then you could consider cold places during winter months. If you would rather go scuba diving or snorkeling, island hopping, you might want to go to tropical countries. Another consideration is whether you would like to be in a secluded location, an exotic beach location for example or if you would like places where you get to meet new friends as a couple. Some couples are people persons, happy to be surrounded by other couples. However, there are some who prefer a little more privacy and a more secluded romantic location. Nightlife is also important especially for young couples. They may enjoy a secluded romantic location with the chance to be completely together, however in the evening are likely to want some nightlife, so there are decisions to be made on balancing these options. When choosing your honeymoon destinations consider your budget carefully. Now that you are starting your life together, it is important that you make sound financial decisions. This does not mean that you grab at the next cheapest destination. However, you should consider setting a budget and sticking with it. Choose a honeymoon destination that would be memorable but would also be well within your budget. (Don’t forget you still need spending money!) The most important thing when choosing your honeymoon location is that you choose it together. After all, this is just one of the many decisions you will be making together from now on. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

Wedding ConfettiEveryone loves to throw some confetti over the happy couple after the wedding service is over. But while the confetti may look appealing and enhance the wedding photos when they are finally developed, it tends to hang around for a long time afterwards. And when you consider that a church may have several weddings during the course of a week, this adds up to a lot of confetti left lying around afterwards. You may well find that the church or registry office you are getting married at does not allow confetti to be thrown inside the building. This is because it creates a lot of mess which then has to be cleared up. But while you will always be restricted to throwing the confetti outside, you may also want to think about the nature of the confetti that your guests will have. Biodegradable confetti might sound unusual but it is the perfect solution to making sure your wedding confetti doesn’t hang around for too long afterwards. It is designed to look much like normal confetti, except that it will dissolve when it rains. Look for confetti that is already recycled from paper as well. This will be even better for the environment as it will already have gone through one use and now it will be used for something else too! This type of biodegradable confetti is still very colourful so you won’t miss out on the usual pastel colours that confetti is traditionally known for. Another solution is to use real petals from flowers. You don’t need to go and pick these yourself; instead you can buy them en masse from certain eco-friendly suppliers. They have several advantages because not only do they naturally disappear, they will also smell good too. You will normally be able to get mixed bags of these and you can get specific petals too, such as rose petals for example. In addition to this you could also get more than one type and mix up something different yourself. As you can see there are some good solutions to the unfriendly version of confetti. But what about something completely different that disappears almost as soon as it appears? If you are slightly confused don’t worry. We are referring to bubbles – the kind of bubbles that come in a pot with a stick, and you blow them whenever you want to release bubbles into the air. Some couples have used these to great effect at their wedding, and the beauty of them is that there is no mess at all afterwards. They also tend to catch the light and throw off lots of lovely colours, so they can work well in photos as well. They don’t obscure the faces as much as confetti can. So you can see that there are a number of good choices to make to ensure your confetti does not last longer than it should. And whatever you choose you will end up with a stunning result on the big day. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

Stress!Wedding day jitters, butterflies in the stomach, cold feet - are these normal things to feel before a wedding? Of course! We all get them! After all, your wedding is not just one of the biggest days of your life, but also the precursor to a new way of life. Read on for some ways to keep your cool on your Big Day: The wedding is a huge event that is often the result of months, sometimes years, of preparation and planning. Imagine a pot that has long been simmering and cooking over a small fire. It is bound to eventually reach boiling point! Try not to allow that pot to boil over on the day of your wedding.

AccessoriesWhen it comes to wedding accessories, invites and stationary are at the top of the list. Wedding invitations are the initial step in the planning process and are the first clue as to what surprises your wedding day will hold. Wedding stationary sets expectations for the guests and are therefore of upmost importance. Getting your wedding accessories right is essential especially when it comes to the invitations as they are a direct reflection of your wedding day. If you have picked a theme for the big day you may wish to incorporate this in the design of your invites and wedding accessories. However if you wish to keep the theme a surprise you can tie it in with the use of colour and not give too much away.Breathtaking Table AccessoriesThere are a whole host of unique ideas when deciding on the perfect wedding accessories. Creative table decoration is a perfect opportunity to wow your guests and create a talking point among them. You may wish to follow through with your chosen theme or choose table décor based on a seasonal theme. When it comes to wedding accessories the possibilities are endless. Make an impact with brightly coloured feathers or flowers, create mood lighting with a stunning candle display or choose edible wedding favours that your guests can take home with them as a token of the special day.Bridal AccessoriesThis may be the most important category of wedding accessories. Bridal accessories cover everything from the veils to the tiara and will ensure the bride is the centre of attention. These types of wedding accessories include everything to add the finishing touches to the wedding gown. Whether subtle or sensational there are a whole host of accessories to make the bride feel like a million dollars. Essentials include hair accessories, garters, jewellery, veils and underwear. Wedding accessories needn?t break the bank; there are options to suit all budgets online. Source: www.countywedding .co.uk

Abroad WeddingsTo some people the idea of getting married in another country is the most romantic way of all to get hitched. Whether it involves standing on a mountain in Austria or standing on a beach in Mauritius, there are plenty of locations in the world you could consider if you want to get married anywhere but at home. But is it a wise idea? It might be a romantic one but if you want to follow it through you need to do a lot of research before you can turn this fantasy into a reality. For starters the logistics of the wedding automatically become more complicated. If you are planning a big wedding you need to think about the practicalities of asking all your guests to go abroad to see the ceremony. This may well be too expensive for many people, so you need to accept that a lot of people may not be able to go. Either that or you might have to foot the bill for travel expenses for some of them yourself if you really want them to be there. The second point to consider is how you would have to get married in your chosen country or location. What rules do they have for allowing foreigners to marry in their country? Is there anything you would have to do beforehand to make the wedding a reality? For example you may have to both go out and visit the country in advance of the wedding – and that adds to the costs as well. There are lots of other obstacles to overcome with regard to a foreign wedding too. For example you have to organise everything for the wedding and the celebrations afterwards without actually being in the country while you are doing it. There are services and wedding planners who specifically cater for those couples who want to get married abroad. If you are thinking of doing this yourselves you should definitely hire the services of this kind of wedding planner. It can save you a lot of time, confusion and heartache as well. But once again you will need to factor all this into your budget; and for some couples the costs of marrying abroad are simply too prohibitive to consider it as a viable option. But one of the most important things you need to find out is whether a marriage granted in another country will actually be recognised once you get home. There have been cases where a couple have married abroad only to return home and find their vows are not valid where they actually live. This is why you should always do your homework and find out in advance whether your romantic idea of a foreign wedding is really going to work out in reality. If you still like the idea of getting married abroad by all means look into it. But be prepared for more expenses and more hard work before your big day can finally take place. Source: www.countywedding.co.uk

Wedding Gifts For Couples Who Are Already Living Together.Wedding gifts are an essential part of any wedding. It’s good to be able to come up with a list of things that you and your partner will need to start your married life in the best possible way. But supposing you have already been living together for some time? Many modern couples do live together before making the decision to get married. And this means that the traditional idea of receiving wedding gifts to help you set up your first home together needs some rethinking. You will probably find it best to sit down with your partner to think about what you still need in your home. Go through each room in turn and jot down anything obvious that is required. For example you might want a new duvet and a nice new duvet cover set for the bedroom. This is a good option even though you will have some sets already. You could think of your wedding gift list as an opportunity to replace certain things that you don’t like or which are coming to the end of their useful life in your home too. Explore all the usual haunts and set up your wedding gift list in the best possible place. It is also becoming more popular to give the happy couple money at their wedding. This has led to some couples coming up with the idea of asking for a donation towards their honeymoon. It will already have been bought and paid for by the time of the wedding of course, but you can still ask people to donate money towards it and put the money in your bank account. Gift cards are another good idea. Since it is very likely that smaller gift ideas will be exactly the things you already have – such as the obligatory toaster for example – you can set your hearts on something larger instead if you wish. For example you might both need a new leather three piece suite. This is too expensive to expect one person to buy, so ask for gift cards to go towards the one you want for the specific store you will buy it from. This way people can donate whatever they can afford, and you should end up with a significant chunk of money to put towards your desired purchase. Another idea that some couples who truly do have everything are considering is to donate money to a charity. In most cases you will have one or two charities that you both particularly support, so you can ask for donations to one or both of these. There are websites that help you in this respect so you can set up a gift list in exactly the same way as you would normally. The only difference is that the money will go to charity instead of to you. As you can see there are lots of ideas for creating your wedding gift list if you already live together. And you can have great fun deciding what to put on it! Source: www.countywedding .co.uk