Category: Weddings

Every bride dreams of having an amazing and memorable wedding. Yet, planning out the perfect wedding can be quite costly. In order to save some money while still having a dream wedding, you might want to implement some simple wedding planning tips.

Go Secondhand

One of the best moneysaving tips you can follow with your wedding planning is to purchase a secondhand dress or to use the dress a family member wore. Some brides are apprehensive about wearing a secondhand dress because they fear that it won’t be quite so special if it was worn by someone else. Remember, it is now up to you to create new memories with this dress and the memories of its past don’t taint the memories you are creating in any way. You can actually purchase a very extravagant dress that you may not otherwise be able to afford if you choose to go with a secondhand dress.

Let the Family Pitch In

One of the biggest expenses of a wedding is the food and the cake. By enlisting in family members to help with the cooking, however, you can save a significant amount of money on your wedding day. You might also want to consider having an early afternoon reception so you can serve finger foods rather than a sit down dinner, which will be much easier for your family and friends to prepare for you.

Bypassing the DJ

Rather than hiring a DJ, you might also want to consider preparing your own mix of music and setting up your MP3 player to play the tunes for you. With the help of your MP3 player and a good sound system, which the venue may be able to provide for you, you can shave hundreds of dollars off your wedding expenses.

Reducing Your Guest List

By reducing your guest list, you can save a great deal of money while also making your wedding celebration cozier and more intimate. In fact, by eliminating your 2nd cousin’s best friend from the list, you may find that your guests enjoy your special day even more.

Choosing Your Venue Wisely

Selecting the right venue is another great way to save some money. Having your wedding outdoors at a beach or in your own backyard are two options that can save money while also making your wedding unique and romantic. You might also ask a family member or friend if you can have your wedding at their home.

By following these simple budget wedding planning tips, you will easily be able to have an incredible wedding while keeping more money in your pocket.

Six months to the big day, and one two three – panic!

No, it doesn’t have to be like that!

It may be tempting to fling yourself into a crash diet, join a gym, buy brand new gym wear and flog yourself half to death on the treadmill, or even opt for the surgeon’s knife in an attempt to get into shape for that big day, but unless you have allowed yourself to develop seriously bad habits, it’s hardly essential.

Instead, with a generous six months to play with, there’s plenty of time to tone up. Start by taking a long hard look at your current diet and level of fitness. It may be that simply cutting out cigarettes and alcohol, or at least, cutting down, can make an enormous difference to the overall level of fitness. Worried about having bingo wings or a less than flat tummy? There’s still plenty of time to do a spot of toning and exercising to pep up those areas of the body that you may be less than proud of.

This doesn’t even need special equipment – doing arm curls with a bottle of water in each hand, or a series of sit ups and stomach flattening exercises can make big changes to your body shape with little real effort. In between booking the reception and choosing the bridesmaids, a few brisk walks in the fresh air really help to boost circulation and get that peaches and cream complexion. Try a deep muscle massage or a body wrap to improve the look of the skin – with no effort at all required on your part!

Do bear in mind, though, that making any kind of drastic changes to your body shape once you’ve chosen your dress will probably mean a few extra trips for additional dress fittings. Better, then, to tone up sooner rather than later, and you’ll walk down the aisle looking and feeling a million dollars.

As a groom, would you buy shirts and rent the suits for your wedding?

The cost of a wedding these days can be £15000 and upwards.  With church, reception, cars, bridal gown, along with bridesmaids, ushers and all the accessories, the price is just too high for many couples.  It is tempting to compromise on some of the costs involved, especially for formal wear, which tends to be packed in the loft, gathering dust for many years following the happy event.

However, brides tend to be sentimental over their choice of gown, lots of time is spent choosing materials, styles and cut.  Different shops and boutiques are visited before any decisions are made.  It’s a major part of the event and enjoyed by most females.

Males, on the other hand, tend to be more practical and concerned with cutting expense where possible.  Most grooms would be happy to hire their suit and accessories, especially considering the difference in costs between hiring and buying.

The first name people think of when hiring suits is Moss Bros.  If you hire four or more wedding outfits from them, the groom’s wedding suit will be free!  The price for hiring a three piece morning suit, plus shirt and cravat averages between £70 and £80.  The quality of material and styling is generally superb.

Many hire companies offer lower prices that this, depending on quality.  Most towns have specialist hire shops, many conveniently situated on the High Street.  The groom, best man and ushers can visit the shops, feeling the quality of material, style and cut.  They can try on various styles and check which suits them best.  Hire firms will also do alterations where necessary and deliver to the home, all at little extra cost.
A designer morning suit of similar style and quality would cost anywhere between £600 and £800 to buy.  There is such  a huge difference in price for a suit which would be probably never be worn again, that it’s no surprise that more grooms than ever before are choosing to hire!

You have 6 months to your wedding day – what’s your fitness routine to get into shape for the special day?

Well you can always just go for designer jewellery, it will always fit. I got engaged in September and arranged my wedding for February. I am not a slim girl and needed to get myself in better shape for my wedding. I dreaded the shopping trip to find a wedding dress, I had previously done bridesmaid for my sister and found it quite humiliating looking for a dress when I was not the ideal 10 or 12. I was always told that wedding dresses are usually small fitting and therefore I would need a larger size for the big day, another nightmare to face. But before buying a dress, I surely needed some gym wear!

I realised that I would not lose lots of weight before my big day but I was determined to look better, and smaller, I set about on quite a strict regime. I had a healthy eating plan, cut out alcohol and took up walking and playing badminton with my sister. I also hoped that the stress leading up to the big day would help me lose weight, but it did not

My wedding was to be in the February and I put off looking for my wedding dress until the beginning of January, partly because I thought I might get one in the sales but mostly to allow me more time to get into shape. I must admit that the sensible eating and moderate did make some difference to my body, not so much to my weight but it definitely improved my body shape. I still found the whole finding a wedding dress experience a bit humiliating, hopefully something I will only do once.

My wedding was eight years ago so fitness techniques have probably moved on since then, but I think the basics of a sensible eating plan and moderate exercise should help most brides to be. I could not afford to go for special treatments or to join a gym with a personal trainer, it would probably be a very good idea to join a gym and get some professional help.