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.