Wedding Ideas Awards

GO AND VOTE FOR THE BEST!

It is that time of year again where the wedding industry ask their past and present clients to vote for them in the wedding awards.

I was lucky enough to win the award for 'UKs Best Wedding Planner' this year and I hope to defend my title this year too. If you think this blog has helped you with the planning of your wedding or would like to recognise the hard work of any wedding supplier - please do not hesitate to click on the link below and cast your vote.

Thank you very much
Beverly

www.the-wedding-awards.co.uk

NEC Success

I had a fabulous time at the NEC and met lots of lovely brides and their grooms!

Ant and Dic were excellent and I really enjoyed our joking about on stage, but hope people learnt a few things from me too!

The lovely team at Wedding Ideas magazine backed me up all weekend and I have a great time working with them and the lovely Rachel Southwood took a couple of photos of me and the boys which I will hopefully upload here soon.

Thank you to everyone who saw me and said hello - I hope to see you all again next year.

NEC National Wedding Show

Inspiration Sessions

Planning your big day
Beverly Pearce, from All Things Bride and Beautiful
FRI/SAT/SUN 13.00

Top tips on wedding planning and budgeting to help you create your dream wedding. Beverley will discuss how to make sure your planning runs smoothly and how to make sure you don't overspend, as well as giving you a few essential on the day tips!

Yep - I will be there! I hope to meet as many of my readers as possible so come and find me! Before and after my session I will be on the 'Wedding Ideas' magazines stand (M42).

Anyone who comes and says hello will receive 10% off of my Big Day Back Up service (click on to the planning tab and choose 'Big Day Back Up') so do not miss me!!

I look forward to seeing you there and hope you enjoy my talk.

Milton Keynes Wedding Fair

Come and see me if you are in the area?!

I will be on the 'All Things Bride and Beautiful' stand at the wedding fair in Central Milton Keynes on Saturday 4th October 2008

Wedding Fair website here

I would love to talk weddings with anyone who is near - so come and say hello - don't be shy!!

BTW - I will also be talking at the NEC wedding show on the 10/11/12 October - more details to follow!!

NEC wedding fair website

An amazing wedding day

I was lucky enough to coordinate a lovely wedding on Saturday at Packington Moor Farm in Litchfield, Staffs The venue is truly gorgeous. A modern feel inside a wonderfully converted barn. It has a civil ceremony license and a huge room for your wedding breakfast and reception. They also throw in a beautiful bridal cottage for your wedding night. Take a look at the website – even though it rained all day it was still the perfect venue. The staff were all friendly too and couldn’t do enough for me or the Bride and Groom. Highly recommended!

I also met an unbelievable artist called Laura Napier-Burrows. Now I have seen many ‘wedding singers’ in my career, but Laura was something else. If she had sold CDs at the wedding I would have bought one for myself without hesitation and then one for all my family and friends for Christmas! There are demos on her website, so visit now. She is also a lovely person as was her wonderful partner/sound technician. Based in the South of England, they travel - so book now!

And lastly to the couple – the Bride Karen looked gorgeous and Gareth made a very handsome Groom. A perfect couple who are both lucky to have wonderful families who were all having an amazing day. I love my job!

Venue Entertainment ideas

Marquee reception

Warm evenings filled with laughter and children running off their dinner in the gardens, must be a marquee wedding! Entertain your guests during the day with the sounds of a live guitar as your guests mingle in the grounds surrounding your marquee and throughout dinner. It would set the perfect atmosphere of carefree intimacy. Moving into the evening, continue your theme and hire a live band to play at your reception. They sound fantastic in marquees and guests can walk out and cool down just a few steps away from the dance floor! Being in a marquee you won’t even have to worry about hotel guests complaining about the noise!

Pick a Piñata!

Piñata’s originate from Spain and are papier-mâché shapes, filled with sweets and small gifts. They come in all shapes and sizes and are hung from a tree branch or sturdy door frame. Children are blindfolded, handed a stick, turned a couple of times on the spot and then positioned in front of the shape when they try and hit the piñata hoping to split it open. The person who breaks it open gets the biggest prize and then the other gifts are shared between everyone. They will love bashing the piñata with a stick, but please make sure they are supervised by an adult and preferably one who hasn’t enjoyed to much champagne!

You can’t always rely on the British weather so consider buying or hiring a small marquee (www.argos.co.uk) so these games can be played out of rain and wind if required!

At Last.....

A great hire company with plenty of choice!!

www.bonnefete-hire.co.uk

You can hire pieces seperately or in themed groups for example,

Vintage romance
Sweet Match

Take a look - theres a sale on at the moment too!!

Venue Entertainment ideas

Castle

A dramatic venue needs dramatic entertainment and a castle venue gives you an excellent choice of activities that would fit the bill! Bring back the history of the building by holding a jousting tournament. www.medievalworld.co.uk. Obviously these tournaments are performed by qualified actors and not your wedding guests! Ask your guests to choose a knight to support and cheer them on from the sidelines. After all the excitement, treat your guests to a traditional medieval feast and provide more actors to perform as court jesters, lute players and jugglers!

Uplifting Lanterns

Castle venues also provide a beautiful backdrop to photographs and weather permitting, in the evening a gorgeous new trend that is beginning to emerge in the wedding industry. www.skylanterns.com is a gorgeous idea to end your wedding celebration with. Make a wish as you send a lantern floating up into the night sky and ask your guests to do the same. Using the power of fire and heat, each lantern will float into the air and upwards until slowly disappearing.

Great new website

www.lovelyfavours.co.uk

Some great ideas on theming your weddings here including one of the most popular themes at the moment - vintage weddings.

You can buy individual pieces to contribute to the theme or buy a 'pack' of stationery,favors and decorations that include everything you need.

Other themes include vintage christmas wedding, nautical, baroque and exotic wedding too.

Really good ideas and some gorgeous looking products - Good Luck Lovely Favours!

Quick Theme Tips - Country

A long warm evening of friends and family laughing and having fun will be perfectly complimented with a country style wedding. Surround your guests with big bunches of dried flowers in wicker baskets which can be moved from ceremony venue to reception venue and add lavender and herbs to the arrangements to add the scent of summer. Dried flowers can also be used for table centres and displayed in old style milk jugs or decorated wooden crates.

These can be given away to guests at the end of the evening as lasting mementoes’ of your day. Carry the country theme over to the rest of your table decorations by wrapping coloured raffia around your napkins and using gingham cloth as table linen. Favours can be horse shoe shaped cookies with each guests named iced on to the front to double up as place names.

Don’t just provide a DJ or live band to entertain your guests, give them a barn dance teacher and band to dance to! www.hireaband.co.uk has plenty to choose from. Another great idea as a gift for your guests would be a CD of the music the band plays and instructions on one of the dances so they can dance their way home! Give your guests a place to relax and get their breath back by placing real hay bales around the dance floor draped in more gingham material.

Buy this wedding magazine!!

Wedding Ideas tells you how!

Wedding Ideas is set to confirm its position as the most fun, friendly, down-to-earth and practical wedding magazine on the market with the publication of its ‘How To...’ special issue, on sale nationwide from today, the 23rd of May.

So, how do you lace a wedding dress? Make a buttonhole? Tie a Windsor knot? All these questions and more are answered in the June issue of Wedding Ideas, the UK’s best for real-life inspiration.

This down-to-earth ‘How To...’ guide shows brides and grooms how to tackle the most common planning elements without any stress and, more importantly, without spending a fortune.
Rachel Moschke, Editor of Wedding Ideas says: “More and more couples are making things for their weddings – stationery, table decorations and so on. It’s a great way of saving money and making your day even more personalised and unique. Our ‘How To...’ special is something brides can refer to in the run-up to their big day to make sure everything runs smoothly.”
And it’s not just about making things for your reception. There are tips on everything from choosing a hairstyle that suits you to having an eco-friendly wedding.

.....and a fabulous wedding planner writes a monthly article for this magazine too.......!!

Quick Theme Tips - Morracan

Bring the warmth and exotic atmosphere of an Arabian night to your wedding day by creating a Moroccan paradise. Visit www.weddinginvitationuk.co.uk and look at the Asian collection for invitations that would suit this theme perfectly. If your venue allows for a marquee, hire one from www.arabiantents.com. Beautiful, opulent marquees and tents in a range of colours and sizes would set the scene and dazzle your guests. Offer your guests a choice of food by arranging food stations in different corners of the room and create a twist to your wedding breakfast by serving different types of unusual food like curries (mild and hot!), flavoured rice and condiments. Oversized black Moroccan lanterns with jewel coloured candles and exotic flowers like ‘Bird of Paradise’ and coloured orchids surrounding them would create stunning table centres. Contrasting table linen, for example dark purple tablecloths with midnight blue napkins, would add even more color to your celebration. Showcase an amazing cake like ‘Moroccan Magic’ from www.amandastreeter.com and place in an area where your guests can admire as they relax to live musicians playing Moroccan music. Build in to your plans a chill out area in your reception venue with low tables covered with jewel coloured tea light holders and scatter over sized cushions for people to sit on and light the candles as the evening draws in. Leave big coloured bowls of quality street sweets, which are already wrapped in rich coloured foils, on each table for your guests to feast on throughout the evening. Add evocative smells to your evening celebrations by burning incense sticks and dimming the lights to create a relaxing ambience.

Quick Theme Tips - Black & White

Create a jaw dropping impression on your guests with a black and white themed wedding day. Your invitations set the scene for your day before your chosen guests even reach the ceremony venue, so make an impact by joining forces with www.libradesigns.co.uk and designing your very own personalised wedding stationery. Their fantastic cheque book style invitations would be perfect and you can then use the same design on the place name cards, your order of day and even your thank you cards to keep the theme constant. www.lvcc.co.uk have introduced a new range to their delicious cakes and now create couture cakes in monochrome colours which are stunning to look at and fabulous to eat!

Table centres do not have to be exclusively flowers so use feathers and beads to add interest. These beads can also be used to embellish your white napkins by wrapping a length of them around each one. Coloured glassware is very popular right now and black glasses would really create an impact on your otherwise white tables. Hire these from www.gordonscaterhire.co.uk. Delight your guests with some fabulous favours which can be as simple as a plain chocolate bar wrapped in white paper and tied with black ribbon, or labeled with a white sticker with each guests name printed in black and used as a place marker. Complete your theme by arranging a black and white dance floor to be laid in your evening reception room!

Quick Theme Tips - Vintage Tea Party

Bring back memories of bygone elegance with a wedding themed around the idea of a vintage tea party. Pastel coloured bridesmaid dresses and complimenting waistcoats for the men in the bridal party will match the delicate roses you use in your bouquet and in your table centres. White bird cages from www.lavendersoflondon.com decorated with fabric butterflies and filled with light green hydrangea heads can be placed in corners of the room or on the cake table and bar area. One of the hottest trends at the moment is giving your guests a choice of dessert. Buy glass and coloured cake stands from charity shops in lots of different styles or from the Rosanna ‘Playing House’ range (available at John Lewis) www.rosannainc.com and arrange on a table in your reception room and fill the stands with lots of gorgeous iced cakes. Not only will this look amazing, you could ask your caterers to box these up at the end of the evening and hand to guests as they leave. To ensure you still get the ‘cake cutting moment’ on your day, choose a show stopping cake like ‘The Birdcage’ from www.maisiefantasie.co.uk.

Give lemon coloured boxes wrapped in baby blue ribbon full of clotted cream fudge to your guests as wedding favours or place a couple of gourmet tea bags in a personalised envelope so your guests can enjoy a cup of tea after the big day has ended. www.prettywild.co.uk has some beautiful wedding invitations that would compliment this theme perfectly, for example Dandy, bon bon or Arboris.

How to decorate your venue

You have found your perfect venue and now want to make sure that when your guests arrive they are as amazed by it as you were. So how do you go about creating a truly unique space that not only compliments your style but uses all the venues features to their best advantage?

Even if your venue is well kept and modern or aged and traditional you can add special touches to rooms that will really pull your day together and make it look even more beautiful.

When visiting for any pre wedding meetings take a notebook and pen with you to jot down anything that catches your eye when you are there. If you go on a Saturday and a wedding is being set up for the day look at the way they use the space and learn from it. How will you do things differently? What would you do the same?

A good starting point would be to consider the area where your guests will enter your venue. Topiary trees can be placed both sides of the entrance and decorated with coloured feathers or loops of ribbon. These can also have battery operated fairy lights hung from the branches to be turned on later in the day to welcome your evening guests. If your venue has a long drive way, consider placing candle lanterns or luminaries (www.coxandcox.co.uk) along the side of the road or path to guide your guests to you.

Door arches are gorgeous and most often seen over church doors, but are just as fabulous over the entrance to a venue and a great way of introducing more flowers to your decoration. Ask your florist to use a small number of bright blooms and lots of greenery to keep the price down. Alternatively an arch can be constructed in front of a marquee entrance or within the venues grounds for a brilliant photo opportunity. Door wreaths (www.lovesmelovesmeknot.co.uk) are a pretty and clever way of indicating to your guests which rooms are being used on your day. Hanging from a ribbon attached to the top of the door (no drawing pins in sight!) or hanging from the door handle these can also be given away as gifts at the end of the day.

Stairways can be bought to life and made a real focal point with a few easy ideas. Wind organza fabric around the banisters or hand rails and add fairy lights set to twinkle all day. This can also be great for around pillars and posts to create a grand entrance to a room or to add extra light to an area. Ask your florist to trail ivy down each side of the stairs and stand groups of three battery operated candles (www.smartcandle.co.uk) on the top stair to create a warm glow throughout this room. Check to see if you can move any flower pedestals or arrangements used in your ceremony to your reception so they can be used again. Stand these at the bottom of the staircase or at the entrance to the room your guest will be eating in. If there are wide window sills, stand thick church candles here and scatter fresh or dried petals around them. If you only have thin sills available, purchase odd numbers of long tall vases and stand individual flowers in each one. An ideal solution if you want people to notice what is inside of the room rather than outside the window!

If you are not very keen on the decoration of a certain room you can always investigate the possibility of fabric drapes (www.shreyasdecor.co.uk) to hide the walls and areas of the room you would rather remain hidden. Drapes can also be used to highlight a certain part of your room, for example behind the top table or to decorate a whole room to match a colour scheme or to create a blank space to work with. To create an air of mystery to the room you will be eating your wedding breakfast in, hang organza fabric drapes from the top of the door so that when they are drawn back to allow your guests in, they are faced with their first glimpse of the fabulous room you have created within.

White table cloths on round tables will create a clean and traditional look. Match your napkin colour to the flowers in your centre piece or stay with white napkins but tie a contrasting coloured ribbon around in a bow to add colour and interest. You could even add a tag with your guests name on to the ribbon as a place marker or wrap a rose or flower from your bouquet to your napkins using bear grass as a gift for your guests. If you really want to make an impact patterned or coloured cloths will really make a statement! Checks, lines and contrasting colours like pink and orange or purple and yellow (www.specilaitylinens.co.uk) will look fantastic coupled with simple table layouts and will add colour and interest to any room. Don’t forget your tableware - Coloured glassware or charger plates bring that extra flash of colour to your table decoration and make your food and drink taste even more special.

Chair covers are a wonderful way of creating a polished look to your room and coloured sashes or bows will complement your chosen colour scheme. Alternatively, use the chairs available at your venue and make them more interesting. Hang small flower arrangements or single stems to the back of each or every other chair using a thick satin ribbon. Attach large tags with your guest’s names written in special font to the chair to direct people to their place at the table. If you are thinking of having favour boxes filled with sweets, wrap them in this ribbon too so they hang from the chairs instead of being placed on the tables.

Table centres don’t have to be flower arrangements, though these are still a great favourite to add colour and height to your tables. There are so many alternatives you can consider that will make your tables really make an impact. Over sized martini glasses filled with tropical fruit or chocolate goodies provide an amazing and edible option. Alternatively ornamental bird cages (www.lavendersoflondon.com) filled with flowers and greenery look amazing as do cake stands (www.argos.co.uk) with the bottom layer full of favours and the top layer overflowing with flowers and trailing ivy. Mirrored vases look perfect alongside lit tea lights as their reflection will create a lovely glow across the table and the flowers will also be reflected too. More flowers for your money!

Lighting is so important and candles always cast a romantic glow across any room. Table centres can be created round thick church candles nestled in greenery and surrounded by coloured tea lights. Add fairy lights to table centres to turn on as the evening draws in and up lighters with coloured gels can add to the atmosphere as your elegant day turns into your evening celebration. If you have the opportunity think about adding height and interest to your room by hanging flower arrangements suspended from the ceiling over each table or hiring candelabras (www.waveawand.co.uk) to decorate with flowers or butterfly garlands (www.ourfavouritethings.co.uk) and light the long tapered candles.

Add scented candles to bar areas in bright colours and fill glass bowls with sweets in wrappers the same colour as your colour scheme. Remember to leave paper bags for the kids in your party to fill with these goodies and take home with them. Don’t forget to add small table centres to any separate bar areas and ask your coordinator to replace tea lights as they stop burning or re light any blown out candles.

Above all remember to look carefully at your surroundings and show your venue to its best advantage using as many tricks as you can!

Elegant alternative to a veil

I love, love, LOVE this gorgeous hair bling!!

Jo Thorne

Jo produces lots of amazing pieces and were all inpired by the sophisticated, smart, independent woman who is the modern day bride - just like you?

Its all delivered in a green box (green in all senses of the word!) and her website is certainly worth a look at!

Want to be a wedding coordinator?

Then apply to work with us now!

You will be given full training by me, The UKs Best Wedding Planner and get to work at some fabulous weddings and meet some lovely people.

Take a look at our jobs section on www.brideandbeautiful.co.uk and send us an email! We will then send you the job description and ask you to answer a few simnple questions.

I hope to hear from you soon and good luck!

Unusual honeymoon venues in the UK

Ever wanted to just get away and not to a hotel full of other people and children? Just the two of you or your immediate family? Then here are some unusual suggestions for you to be able to do just that:

http://www.forestholidays.co.uk/our_cabins/discover_our_cabins/tree_houses.aspx

Ever wanted to see what it would be like to live like a bird? Well now you can in these gorgeous tree houses. All fully kitted out for your comfort, wake up to the noise of the wind blowing leaves against your window and breathing in the fresh, clean air.

http://www.horsedrawncaravans.com/aboutus.php

If you like horses and want to be eco friendly on your honeymoon or holiday – this is the one for you! Imagine yourself a traveller, free to roam wherever you wish and sleep in your cosy caravan made for two.

http://www.sevendegreeswest.co.uk/cromarty-camper-van.asp

VW campervans – how much cooler can you get than touring in one of these! A home and a form of transport – pull up in a lay by with a view of your choice and relax with a can of beer in one hand as you strum your guitar with the other!

http://www.devonyurtholidays.co.uk/yurts.html

This really is getting back to nature. Stay in a yurt tent for your holiday and cook over its open wood fire and stare up at the night sky from your bed. Bliss.

http://www.waterwaysholidays.com/

Hire a canal boat and glide along the waterways of England. Water lapping against the sides of your holiday home, slow, warm pub dinners as you stop along the way. The British countryside at its best.

Cookie Favours!!

Visit www.biscuiteers.com to see their amazing range of cookies that can be used as favours, gifts or even sent in the post to say thank you after the event. Prices range from £8.00 + p&p for an individual cookies to about £38.00 + p&p for a lovely big box of them. I think they look amazing and will be ordering soon to try them for taste and will report back!

Spring wedding ideas

Here are my top ideas on how to theme and decorate your spring 2008 wedding;

1) Colour – Think fresh and new and you think of bright green and refreshing yellow. Daffodil yellow is uplifting and easy to find at this time of year and green should be lush like freshly grown grass (Not freshly mown grass – that’s my summer ideas!) Try mixing the two colours, not just in bouquets but also with your table wear too. Green table linen with yellow napkins would create a splash of colour. Speciality Linen has some great examples. Compliment with white chairs, each with a daffodil secured to the back with silk ribbon.

2) Favours – Think new and grow your own! Buy daffodil bulbs and wrap in pretty organza, tie with a ribbon and attach a tag with your guests name on. Packets of seeds should be sown around now, so provide your guests with a packet of lovely coloured blooms-to-be and place in mini terracotta pots decorated with ribbon. You could even pain their names on the side of these to double as place settings too!

3) Entertainment – make your friends and family laugh by providing them with the equipment to hold a welly throwing competition! How about remembering the good old days and hiring a maypole for them to dance around (maybe not a good idea in the evening once people have sunk a few champagnes!) or ask a local Morris dancing group to come and put on a show?

4) Colour again – Tulips!! GORGEOUS flowers (can you tell they are my favourite?) and they come in so many amazing colours, they are perfect to bunch together and put in something a simple as a tin can with patterned paper or cloth glued around it and placing in forgotten areas like bathrooms (for the ladies!) bar areas and welcome halls. Cheap, but incredibly cheerful.

5) Cake – Yum! Look at this one – Masie Fantasie. Its even named after the season and after working with May in the past, it will taste incredible too.

6) Stationery – Lollipop Designs. This Company has an amazing design range, which features ranges called Daisy, Anna and Lola. All three would be perfect for a springtime wedding and funky and modern with it.

7) Table Centre – I love my wicker and as it comes in all shapes and sizes, consider using them as a table centre and filling with springtime blooms. Wicker baskets would look very country and large wicker ‘pots’ would be perfect outside the doors of your venue to welcome your guests in.

Sweet themed wedding favour

How about some glass sweets to scatter across your table or give to your guests as favours? These gorgeous hand made glass sweets are made by a fabulous artist called Sarah Banfield (sarah_e_banfield@hotmail.com) and the colour of the box wrapper/text etc and tissue paper inside, can be changed to suit your colour theme. You can even have both of your names printed on the front of the box with a note of thanks to your guests. Not avaliable anywhere else in the UK and a new product for 2008 - order now to be the first bride to have these at your wedding day!

Wedding coordinator job in the UK

Well, here is your chance! I am recruiting for a freelance wedding coordinator to work alongside me at All Things Bride and Beautiful Wedding Planning Ltd - Below is the brief job decsription. Do you think you fit the bill? Visit our website to find out more and apply.

Wedding Co-ordinators (PTWP/07)

We are seeking individuals to join our award winning wedding planning team on a freelance basis. You must have exceptional customer service and organisation skills. We take wedding planning booking on various days of the week and in various UK locations, for this reason you will need to be flexible in your availability and mobility. We offer full training and the chance to work under along side one of the industries most respected wedding planners and for one of the industries most ambitious companies.

Couture Cakes

In black and white icing, or white with dark chocolate, designs become nipped and tucked, neat and flawless. Couture cakes are all the rage according to The Sunday Times ‘style’ magazine and where better to find one than at www.lvcc.co.uk . Mich Turner, the owner of ‘The Little Venice Cake Company’ has been producing stunning cakes for bride and grooms and has written beautiful books on the subject, so you can be sure she will be able to design and create a cake perfect for you and your nuptials. This photo makes me want to reach in and indulge!

I am the UKs Best Wedding Planner 2008!!

I am absolutely thrilled and excited to announce that at the awards lunch at the Riverbank Plaza hotel, London (www.parkplaza.com) at a fabulous lunch hosted by the wonderful team at Wedding Ideas (www.weddingideasmagazine.co.uk), I was announced as ‘The UKs Best Wedding Planner’.
Thank you so much to all my clients past, present (and future?) who voted for me and for all the invaluable support and encouragement from all my colleagues at ‘All Things Bride & Beautiful’. A special mention to Donnalee and Caroline who never fail to make me laugh even at my most fraught!

Issue 53 is in the shops now listing all the other winners and nominees and you can see photos of the event in issue 54 out in March.

Also, check out page 146 in issue 53 - some wonderful wedding planner has written a great article about personalising your wedding!!!

Stop Press – or allergy sufferers!!

I get lots of emails asking me if I know a good cake maker that caters for people (like myself) who have food allergies or intolerance's. Well, I have good news! There is a fabulous company that creates cakes just for people like us!
London based Heavenly Cakes (http://www.heavenlycakes4u.co.uk) has the answer: a decadently delicious range of homemade, vegan delights that are free from eggs, dairy, wheat, soya, GM-ingredients and nuts (all products contain coconut oil2). Gluten-free cakes are available for the growing number of coeliacs in the UK and sugar-free cakes made with agave nectar provide a diabetic-friendly alternative.

Take a look at their website, they even produce and sell cookies and ice cream!! I feel a shopping spree coming on!

All Things Bride & Beautiful are expanding again!

And I don’t mean we are all putting on weight! Our fourth shop opens in mid February (Exact date to be confirmed) in Oxfordshire – watch this space and our website for more information as it becomes available.

Our new website

Has now been released!

www.brideandbeautiful.co.uk.

Its has had a face lift and now includes lots more information and a web chat facility – keep an eye out for times I will be available to answer your questions or one of the lovely ladies in one of our gorgeous shops who will be able to help you with any dress or accessory questions.

We will be advertising various event and special offers on here, so make sure you save it to your favourites and return soon.

Wedding Workshops!

It takes an average of 250 hours to organise your wedding day and at the end of it, that is what it is, a day, the rest, as they say, is up to you…..This is why so many ‘brides to be’ are trying to learn a little at the same time as organising their wedding days. An added extra to this is that you can create those all important special touches that make your wedding day memorable for your guests, often leading to budget savings!

So what type of ‘Wedding Workshops’ are available?

Do you like the idea of arranging your own wedding flowers? Now there are workshops that offer advice and expertise enabling you to do just that. http://www.suebillington.co.uk/index.htm Sue has 24 years experience as a professional florist and has begun to run classes on floral creations including wedding flowers. Courses include a day’s instruction on wired shower bridal bouquets and wedding reception flowers for only £65 for the day (10am – 4pm) these classes are based in Buckinghamshire.

For all you chocoholics, how about making your own chocolate favours? Chocolate Delight (www.chocolatedelight.co.uk) based in Bournemouth run their own chocolate workshop. The course lasts for 3 hours and is run by a master chocolatier who has worked in The Ritz! You will create 5 different filings before dipping them into real Belgium chocolate and creating your own toppings. You then get to take 25 handmade chocolates home with you! All this for £39.95 per person! How can you resist! The course as well as the chocolate!

Looking for an alternative to the traditional guestbook? Then how about designing and decorating your own signing plate? Gone are the days of offering a colour coordinated book for your guests to leave good luck messages in, now you need a signing plate! Your guests leave their messages on the plate with a special plate and then the specialist company take it away and gloss it to keep the messages pristine forever more. www.glazedexpressionsofolney.co.uk offer mobile pottery classes in the Buckinghamshire area so you can literally make your own!

Are you worried about who or how you will apply your make up on your wedding day? Then an evening with a make up artist would be the way to go. www.blush.uk.com are London based and prices start at £50 for a beginners class which covers the basics of colour analysis and make up application. Advanced and group lessons are also available where you will go into more detail on evening make up and achieving different looks. Blush also offer a wedding day make up service.

How would you like a day designing and creating your own wedding rings with your husband to be? Then you need to contact www.weddingringworkshop.co.uk. They offer two types of experiences dependent on the metal you decide to make your rings with. The day long workshop includes meeting with designers to discuss ideas, a demonstration if the making process and then under supervision you melt your metal, mill and shape your rings. They are then filed and polished and any engravings are discussed and then you get lunch and a glass of champagne to congratulate yourselves on your hard work! A great way to spend a weddingy day with your other half and add that special something to your wedding day and marriage.

Let your achievements go to your head when you design your own tiara! Susan King offers expert and practical advice in Richmond, London. You will be taken through tools, actual technique and also given advice on where to buy your supplies. Also covered is the history of tiaras and then the design process begins! Once you have designed your masterpiece you are helped to bring it to life! More details can be found on www.susan-king.co.uk. ‘Make Your Own Tiara’ packages are also offered and one to one or group classes can be catered for.

Happy new year!

And what a great start for me....

I have been nominated as a finalist for the award of 'The UKs Best Wedding Planner' by readers of 'Wedding Ideas' magazine. Thank you very much to everyone who voted for me. Fingers crossed for the 1st Feb when the winners will be announced. To view all the nominations and finalists buy this months wedding ideas magazine now (Issue 52)
www.weddingideasmagazine.co.uk

I am also mentioned in the article called 'Planned to Perfection' written by the lovely Becky Skuse on page 139 so a good start to 2008!!

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season and are looking forward to the mornings getting lighter earlier again in a month or two like me!

Come back soon to see what I have in store for this blog and All Things Bride & Beautiful in 2008.