Fake or Genuine?

As time goes on I unfortunately hear more and more from brides who are organising their weddings about businesses particularly on facebook who set out with one aim alone and that is to make a quick buck! They set up facebook business pages offer you great offers, everything from wedding dresses, stationary and cakes to favours only to ask for either full payment or a large deposit, then the next thing you know "puff" they have dissapeared into thin air as fast as cinderella's fairy godmother! you then cannot get hold of these people and what's more, they have taken your hard earned money with them. As you can imagine this is a crushing blow to a bride who may have parted with a lot of money for her beautiful dress, only to find that it never really existed.

As a wedding planner and just like any genuine business within the wedding industry this makes my blood boil! It not only makes brides very nervous but give us all a bad name.

One of my jobs as a planner is to help guide couples when making choices, give them the options, the facts and figures and then let them make their choices and decide. I take immense pride on the fact that I see it as my job to try and weed these people out.
I spend an awful lot of my time arranging meetings with prospective suppliers and businesses to check out not only their work, testimonials and most of all make sure that they are genuine approachable people who my couples will feel happy and comfortable dealing with. What's more, I arrange discounts with them that are passed directly on, so hopefully my couples end up with helpful people who go that extra mile that they can contact as and when needed.
After all I guess by recommendations that I make to people it puts my reputation on the line.

Unfortunately in this economic climate there are no guarantees, everyone is having a tough time and the reality is small businesses are folding every day.
So what can you do to protect yourself

If you are not using a wedding planner to assist you in sourcing suppliers or businesses for your wedding, then make sure you check them out, recommendations by friends and relatives are always a good way to go.

check out the suppliers, testimonials, have they got a website? contact numbers? can you meet them face to face?

look out for warning signs such as if its an offer that seems too good to be true it usually is. Also never pay in full for anything, always get receipts, and check terms and conditions. All reputable businesses will have terms and conditions.

If all else fails and you can afford to take out wedding insurance.

So if your planning your big day, tread carefully - but most of us are genuine and all we want to do is provide a good service for our brides and grooms.

Flower Hair Style Inspiration for your Wedding

When it comes to your wedding day one of the most important decisions you will have to make is how to wear your hair. I know that when I was getting married I had very definite ideas about how I was going to wear my hair, long and wavy with a tiara. Like Myself, some of you may have a vision already of how to wear your hair for the big day, others may have not really even thought about their style yet. 

There are a few factors to remember when choosing your style such as:

 Length - is your hair long or short,

 are you wearing a veil or a tiara? 

finally the neckline of your wedding dress. 

The best thing to do is to always meet with a hairdresser well in advance to discuss your wedding hair and remember to take your tiara or veil with you for them to go through some trial styles. Always make sure that you use a reputable hairdresser too, I have known brides let down at the last minute on the day or day before and have ended up with the added stress of trying to create the perfect style themselves, not a good idea, as a bride you should spend your day relaxed. If you do not know of anyone, then contact a local wedding planner who should be able to help with recommendations.

So today we are focussing on beautiful hair styles, but keeping things simple by dressing it with flowers. Here are a few that I have chosen, its amazing how many different looks you can create by adding different flowers to different styles.

Long or short, bride, or bridesmaids flowers can be used in all sorts of ways.

If you are considering wearing flowers in your hair, its always a good idea to try and co-ordinate your look with the flowers from your bridal bouquet

perfect styles for flower girls and younger bridesmaids too

Friday Feature - Orange Inspiration

http://www.guttridgeweddingflowers.com

lovely Idea

Finally....... would you be daring enough to go orange for your wedding?

Parents And Your Wedding

You have announced your engagement and you are starting the planning of your big day.
 Years ago it was the tradition that the father of the bride would cover the majority of the cost of the wedding, in reality couples are now putting all their own savings to create the day of their dreams.

So whether or not they are footing the bill it is fair to say that the parents and in laws will want to have some say when it comes to planning your wedding. Now advice and suggestions will always be well meaning, but to you who are overwhelmed with things to do and arrangements to make, it may feel at times as if they are being pushy and interfering.

Just remember that in reality they are probably just excited and want to help.

Now the first thing you need to remember is it is not uncommon that along with all this well meaning advice there are likely to be disagreements and the odd fallout. Its true to say that sometimes you may have to give a gentle reminder about who's wedding it is. After all it is your day and you need to focus on "what it is you want" there is simply no way you can please all of the people all of the time.
However, do try to take a deep breath and just listen to them, at the end of the day some of their advice may be very useful. Just smile and thank them for their advice.
 As brides it is so easy to get swept up in the excitement of the wedding and to have someone pointing out the pro's and cons to some things is a good thing. Its useful to have someone who can keep you grounded at times - don't forget the wedding industry love brides and offer a variety of ways to spend your wedding budget and before you know it, you have the whole works and much more.............

Every Bride wants to stay in control of their big day, but there is nothing wrong with accepting some of their help. So to have the best of both worlds think of parts of the wedding that you don't mind handing over, at the end of the day parents just want to help and feel involved. So how about getting them to help with the invitations, or organising the cake?

One area of disagreement is often the guest list - if they are contributing a large share towards the wedding then they are bound to want to have some input, it is understandable that they may want to invite relatives that you may not have seen for years, but if you have to draw the line just sit down and talk to them and discuss a compromise - such as inviting the important relatives to the ceremony and the rest to the evening reception.
Its all really about communication.
 In the long run isn't it much nicer to have parents on board with your plans than having everyone at loggerheads - after all your parents and in laws are going to be in your lives long after the wedding day.

If you have any family issues you wish to discuss, just contact me and I will do my best to give you some advice.

Beach Wedding Inspiration

In an effort to cheer myself up after all this awful rain, this week I decided to focus on 

Beach Weddings, 

Whilst here in the UK Beach Weddings are restricted some of the ideas here can still be incorporated into a seaside theme. 

If you are lucky enough to be getting married on the beach in a more sunny climate then here are some useful ideas

A beautiful relaxed approach to a beach reception

This is a fab idea for the ring bearer

Martha Stewart Weddings

Simple idea for place names

I think this centrepiece is beautiful, simple to put together too

Again something fairly simple to put together

Wedding Planner - the Myths

Just had to share this in the hope that I may dispell some myths

Birdcages ..... inspiration

Birdcage Inspiration

With the Vintage theme still going strong for weddings Birdcages are still as popular as ever!

Whether you decide to hire them or buy them to decorate yourself, they can really add a lovely touch to your wedding venue.

So here are a few ideas to get you started...............

Candles inside grouped and finished with co-ordinating ribbon 

photograph www.theknot.com 

Flowers with artificial birds

Small vase of flowers - colour to match your theme

you could use it for the guests to put their wedding cards inside for safe keeping

I love this birdcage dressed in peacock feathers

I love this idea of putting the guests favour boxes inside

Don't fancy using flowers? how about feathers instead?

Do you have a christmas wedding or function? a simple way of dressing a birdcage

So let your imagination run free, there are so many different ways you can add your own identity to your big day, with just a few personal touches they are sure to be a talking point.