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What is a Vintage Wedding? – Vintage Wedding Advice on The Wedding Community

March 21st, 2011 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | The Wedding Community Articles - (0 Comments)
Picture of a vintage wedding dress

Image from Flickr by Jenlynnephoto

The word vintage is used to describe a certain style, and one which conjures images of anything from the glitzy, sparkly, romantic Hollywood glamour of Jean Harlow and other lovelies in the fabulous 1930’s movies, to the more down to earth village hall and bunting make do and mend, with tea being poured from a big Brown Betty (a giant earthenware teapot).

Everything from your wedding dress, veil and shoes, flowers, bridesmaids’ outfits, table decorations and even your wedding cake can all be vintage style, and the use of vintage china hire can bring a dramatic vintage look to your wedding day.  It is perfectly acceptable to wear your mother’s or grandmother’s wedding dress and to purchase an antique headdress for your veil…

Read the full article by Amanda Baird on The Wedding Community.

What is a Vintage Wedding? | The Wedding Community

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How to Handle Your Mother-In-Law

March 10th, 2011 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | Guest Articles - (0 Comments)

Did you know that an anagram of mother-in-law is “Woman Hitler”? You can draw your own conclusions on that one. Now, I’m not trying to cause a fuss but recently when we’ve been attending wedding fairs, we’ve had more than a few brushes with the bride’s mother and it’s plain to see that the notion of an interfering mother-in-law is a huge issue for many grooms (and brides). To that end we thought we’d put together a few tips for grooms experiencing their own Woman Hitler moments…

Present a United Front

One of the biggest threats that an interfering mother-in-law presents is that it causes a rift in the relationship between the bride and groom. The groom is getting hacked off because his mother-in-law is actively stopping him from getting involved, but if his bride is close to her mum he might not want to cause a rift by telling her. That’s why it’s important that you discuss the issue with your wife-to-be and tell her exactly why it’s annoying you and reach an agreement on the issue before you act on the situation.

Be Tactful

For many mothers-in-law it seems that her daughter’s wedding is the chance she’s been waiting for to create her dream day. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s wayyy wrong. The wedding is about the couple and their relationship. If the mother-in-law wants to help them to create their dream day then that’s great, but she should have absolutely no say in how their relationship is celebrated.

That’s still true even if it’s her husband that’s paying for it (which is increasingly rare). If that’s held over you as a means to let her have her way, then you need to have a serious conversation about whether the cost of the financial support is too great. Again though – it’s all about you and your wife-to-be discussing it and agreeing what you want.

Set Tasks

Weddings are essentially long, long lists of tasks that need to be researched, completed and paid for. That might be stripping away the romance a bit, but you get the point. If you are blessed with a mother-in-law who is desperate to participate then focus her energies. Do not give her carte blanche to meddle.

Be enthusiastic about her help, thank her warmly and then set her a list of tasks. Explain that you are covering tasks A to W and it would be great if she could research (or even do if you trust her) tasks X, Y and Z. This way she knows she’s being helpful (and that you’re grateful) but most importantly of all it tells her exactly where the boundaries are.

Ultimately, in our reader’s experience the majority of people loved their mother-in-law (53% loved, compared to 47% who loathed) but there was enough who had problems to suggest that there’s a reason the groom/mother-in-law relationship is such a staple of sitcoms. Good luck…

Article by Andrew Shanahan of I am Staggered

If you’re needing help with your mothers-in-law then don’t forget to stop by www.iamstaggered.com where you’ll always find a friendly ear and a funny mother-in-law joke.

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VOWS Event – Visualise Our Wedding Secrets

February 3rd, 2011 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Events - (0 Comments)

VOWS Wedding Event

On 11th October 2011 between 5.30pm and 9.30pm, VOWS, an exclusive wedding event, is taking place at Richard Ogden in the Burlington Arcade, London.

Chelsea Bidwill of Beyond Weddings, a bespoke gift list service, has joined forces with top wedding professionals Sarah Ducker and Andrew Prince to bring this event together. Based upon their desire to offer a wedding event that is completely different, this event will be one with no obligation, where brides-to-be can benefit from a wealth of industry knowledge and advice in a relaxed environment, without the sales pitches and overwhelming handfuls of flyers often received at traditional wedding fairs.

Here are just some of the suppliers who will be attending this event:

Photographer David Burgess from Blink Weddings
Wedding stylist Lynn Crenn from London Wedding Dress Finder
Make-up artist Lina Cameron
Cake maker Nicola Hall from Hall of Cakes
Wedding stylist Penelope Merricks from TigerLilly Weddings
Photographer Julia Boggio from Julia Boggio Photography
Caterer Julie Gray from Bovingdons

Come along and have a glass of champagne and enjoy a relaxed evening in the company of top wedding professionals.

Tickets for the event are £15 in advance and can be purchased from www.vowsblog.co.uk

Please note that this event was originally due to take place on 8th March 2011 but has been postponed until October.

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Men Crying at Weddings

September 15th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | Guest Articles - (0 Comments)

Men – we’re surprisingly complex beasts you know? You women look at us and just see the oil-stained hands, our knowledge of football trivia and the leering at women we do as we drive past them on the street, but you completely overlook the fact that beneath these crunchy, sexist outer layers there lies a chewy, emotional centre. Sometimes us men are just big girls in shiny shoes and nowhere is this more apparent than at a wedding, where we can finally let ourselves go. Like these colossal jessies.

Ok, this bloke might be taking the whole emotion thing a bit too far. From the opening seconds where you think you’re going to witness him upchucking his pre-wedding G&T to the stomping and restraining, you do wonder just how eager he is to get on with the whole first night thing…Glory indeed.

All the women in the congregation are sighing and wishing they had a man who could be as open and emotionally honest as this groom. All the men are counting down the seconds until they can laugh straight in his big teary face. His bride dabbing his tears away with a little silk hankie just makes the whole thing unbearable.

Meh. Not so sure about this one. The whole massed audience, the cameras and his pre-prepared speech make us wary that he’s faking it. We’re not going to come right out and say sociopathic tendencies but we’re all thinking it.

Article by Andrew Shanahan of I am Staggered

If you want more wedding related nonsense then you should stop by the Staggered forum where we spend countless hours scouring the internet for funny wedding stuff, like brides and grooms falling over and best men falling into cakes.

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5 Essential Things For The Father of the Bride

August 20th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | Guest Articles - (0 Comments)

There seems to be a general feeling that the Father of the Bride is often the forgotten man of the wedding planning process. The feeling is that you’re probably experienced enough to cope with the nerves and tough enough to cope with the emotions. But that’s why we often end up feeling sorry for the FOTB (you’ve even got the worst wedding acronym for crying out loud) and decided to round-up some essential advice for all the dads out there prior to the big day.

  1. Deal With The Nerves Before They Ruin It
    It’s perfectly natural and acceptable for you to feel nervous. Nerves about the ceremony and speeches are in the top three subjects that fill the Staggered inbox. Fortunately, both can be cured with some simple preparation. Write and practice your speech at least a month in advance of the big day and do everything you can to make it to the church rehearsal as this will give you an idea of where to stand and when.
  2. Speeches Are Easy When You Prepare
    You can find way more information on Staggered about wedding speeches but this is it in a nutshell. Between 5 and 8 minutes, less is more, stand straight, don’t mumble and speak from the heart. Always write your speech in full (never “wing it”), because even if you don’t use it you’ve always got it in case you need it. Give a copy to your daughter for the wedding memory box. The Father of the Bride welcomes the guests, sets the tempo, welcomes his new family members and talks about his daughter without embarrassing her!
  3. It Will Be Emotional – Get Ready
    Blokes and emotions are never a good mix, for the simple reason that we’re often a bit slower at dealing with them and how they affect us. Take some time before the wedding to talk to your daughter about the wedding and what she means to you. Too many men think they’ll come out with the perfect speech in the car on the way to the church and end up feeling that they never quite explained how they feel – or worse: end up at the church a sobbing mess!
  4. How To Deal With The Money
    The good news is that this generation are getting married later, the bad news being that they’re living with their parents longer. As a result more of them are paying for their own wedding. If you’re still footing the bill and you find that the wedding is placing too much of a burden on your finances then make it clear that costs need to be cut. Everyone wants a perfect wedding, but no one wants that to come at the expense of a stressed dad. Also there are thousands of resources out there on how to get a champagne wedding on beer prices, use them!
  5. Plan Your Advice
    As with the emotions, this is another topic that should be tackled in advance of the big day. It’s tradition that you pass on some advice – whether that’s in your speech or just in passing. This is a big thing both for the bride and the groom and many people remember for their whole lives what was said to them at this point. So make it wise, make it original and make it something personal. Think about your marriage: what have you learned? What can you say that will improve these young people’s chance of happiness? But remember, no pressure…


www.iamstaggered.com is the UK’s leading men’s wedding website.

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Top Tips for the Morning of Your Wedding

July 16th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | Guest Articles - (0 Comments)

Julie Dawson, The Wedding Genie, shares her top tips for the morning of your wedding.

The wedding you have planned and dreamed of for probably the last year or even more is here. You may be excited, happy, nervous and scared all at the same time, the big question I am often asked is  – “What is the first thing a bride should do when she wakes up on the morning of her wedding? “

Here is a simple list to help you focus on what’s important on one of the biggest days of your life.

Smile! It’s your big day!

Have breakfast -

Something light perhaps cereal and fruit. Try not to miss eating because you are nervous, you will feel even more jittery if you are starving and as the day goes on you will have less time to eat. Make sure you have some nibbles in the room where you are getting ready. If you really can’t face anything, put one of those power snacks in your bag to give you a boost when you need it.

Don’t go to the window and panic about the weather -

Our English weather changes so fast in a few hours it will probably be lovely for your ceremony, so just get on and enjoy your preparation. You can’t do anything about it and you will have put a plan in place anyway for bad weather.

Trust your wedding team and make sure they have the heads up of the day’s timings -

Many brides are stressed because of the list of things that have to be done and checked on the day. Make sure you have planned well beforehand. Give that list to your chief bridesmaid, or whoever is your key helper. Make a time plan for the day so that everyone knows what is happening and when, and give your bridal team a copy. Remember you chose them because you can trust them and they are your support system.

It’s your job to look and feel gorgeous -

Give yourself plenty of time to be pampered. Getting hair and makeup done takes longer than you think and you should have time to enjoy it too!!

Make sure you have your little bag of essentials -

For each bride that might be different, but your favourite lipstick or lip-gloss for touching up is one that should be in there, a miniature perfume if you want to freshen up as the days goes on and Tissues, you will cry at some point. Blotting tissues if the weather is hot and you want to avoid shine on your wedding photos. If you don’t want to use a bag then make sure a bridesmaid has those things for you in their bag. Extra things you should have close by, to keep in the car or your room are an emergency sewing kit, spare tights/stockings, clear polish for runs in tights and safety pins. If you wear contact lenses make sure you have a spare pair.

It is a good idea to have worn those new wedding shoes -

You should wear your wedding shoes for a few hours beforehand to break them in. There is nothing worse than having sore feet. You can even have a spare pair for after the ceremony just in case they do start to rub. Clear blister plasters are a godsend and really do work.

Take time to enjoy the details of your day -

Go and have a look at the tables and decoration before anyone else. You have spent months planning these details, so take them all in before your guests are seated.

Remember today is all about you and your life partner -

Just take a few minutes to think about how much you love your husband-to-be and why you are meant to be together. It will make you smile as you walk down the aisle.

Don’t panic -

whatever is not done now probably won’t matter and no one will notice.

Enjoy every single moment of your day -

It is true, all brides will tell you the hours just speed by.

If you hired a wedding coordinator for the day roll over in bed, smile…

and begin the pampering in total comfort and enjoyment.

One last thing, your wedding will be fantastic because weddings just are. They are all about you and your family and friends; no one will notice the little mishaps that may occur. If the weather is not as you wished, a good photographer will make sure you have the best pictures and there is always time to pop out when the sun comes out.

Written by Julie Dawson, The Wedding Genie, read more on The Wedding Genie blog.

Images Courtesy of Emily Quinton Photography

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Rules of Church Weddings Relaxed

July 14th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Wedding News - (0 Comments)

Church leaders have decided to relax the current laws which previously prevented couples from marrying in a church where they don’t have a “qualifying connection” to the parish.

Church of England marriages have dropped over the last 10 years by 40 per cent to around 55,000 marriages per year. Leaders are hoping that this change in the law will help to entice couples to marry in churches rather than having civil ceremonies in country houses, stately homes and hotels.

Church officials have admitted that the old rules were difficult to justify and excluded people unnecessarily. Now brides and grooms-to-be will have greater freedom to choose a church which best suits their needs. The change in regulation means that engaged couples who want to marry in idyllic churches rather than the church in their parish can, as long as they can prove a “a qualifying connection” with a parish in the area or benefice.

It is anticipated that some of the churches that have been used in films, TV shows or where celebrities have married are likely to be in high demand. A few that may be in demand are St Mary’s Church in Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, where Piers Morgan and Celia Walden married last month, St Mary the Virgin in Turville, Buckinghamshire, the setting for The Vicar of Dibley, and St Mary’s Church in Nether Alderley, Cheshire, used for weddings in Coronation Street.

Image Courtesy of Matt Pereira Photography

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Get Creative with ‘Bridal Jewellery’ by Clare Yarwood-White

July 9th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in theweddingcommunity.com | Wedding News - (0 Comments)

Are you looking for ways to save money on your wedding?  Are you the creative type?  Then get yourself a copy of Bridal Jewellery, a jewellery handbook by The Wedding Community’s wedding jewellery expert Clare Yarwood-White.  This book will also advise you on how you can use your skills to start up and build your own business.

Bridal jewellery is, for many women, the most cherished jewellery they will ever own, linked to one of the most emotionally-charged chapters of their lives.  This handbook provides insight into this unique world, guiding the reader through the process of consulting, designing, planning and making.  Bridal Jewellery is the complete package, offering concise and comprehensive how-to-do-it instructions for making unique tiaras, hair accessories, necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  It also contains a brief background of various wedding traditions, information about the significance of different materials, tips on co-ordinating with a bride’s dress, hairstyle and wedding theme, and instructions for working around and remodelling special and significant family jewellery.

Bridal Jewellery is packed with simple, straightforward tips as well as easy-to-follow, step-by-step illustrated sequences aimed at beginners or tuhose looking to improve their skills.  Also inclded is a section on building up a business and a comprehensive appendix to make this both a long-term reference book and a valuable companion for the more entrepreurial craftsperson.

Contents

Introduction to Bridal Jewellery

Working with Brides

Tools and Materials

Engagement and Wedding Rings

Tiaras and Headdresses

Necklaces, Bracelets and Earrings

Other Accessories

Building a Business

To order your copy click here.

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Picking Your Best Man

July 7th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | Guest Articles - (0 Comments)

One of the few wedding jobs going that is emphatically the groom’s responsibility is choosing the best man. Now that doesn’t mean that certain people *cough* the bride-to-be *cough* might not offer an opinion or two on who it should be, but they ultimately know that the best man is as serious as male friendships get and therefore they should back the heck off. We’re not going to join the roster of people queuing up to tell you who to pick, but we do have some advice.

Pick with your heart, not your head

What the bride wants is for you to pick someone who won’t take you to a strip club on your stag do. She wants you to pick someone who will say disarmingly charming things during his speech. She wants someone who looks good in a suit and won’t spend the reception at the bar chanting: “CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” with their pants on their head. In essence, the bride wants you to pick your grandmother. The guy you’re thinking of choosing might fit the above description, or they may be a rogue of the first water. Just remember that you’re picking your best man on the qualities of deep friendship, of shared experiences and, damn it all – on love. Go with your heart.

Don’t pick a woman

You’re angry aren’t you? You’re thinking – “How dare they, women can be just as much a best friend to a man as a man can.” Well, that’s a debate for another time (as is the old When Harry Met Sally men can’t be friends with women because sex gets in the way discussion. However, the reason you can’t pick a woman is simple: the bride. No matter how ugly your female friend is and how Platonic the friendship, there will always be a part of the bride burning with jealousy that another woman is a closer friend to you than she can be. And you’re going to make her feel like that on her wedding day. Bite the bullet and ditch the gal pal.

Don’t pick two best men

The two best men scenario is just wrong. The speeches go on forever, the stag dos are a planning nightmare and the photos look weird. All of this just because you can’t admit to your best friends that you like one more than the other. You are not six-years-old. If you cannot tell your adult male friends that you want one to be a best man and one to be the usher without the dissolution of your holy friendship trinity then there’s something wrong. Grow a backbone and choose.

Don’t pick a dog

That’s even worse than picking two best men. If your best friend is a dog then you need therapy.

You can’t say no

It’s weird but we get *a lot* of best men emailing us who are struggling with their speech because they know practically nothing about the groom. We should probably be explaining that you can sensitively say no to a bloke if he asks you to be his best man, but you can’t really, can you? If someone asks you to be a best man, you pretty much have to take the role. You’d just have to do it and be the best man you possibly could be.

So who are you going to pick?

Article by Andrew Shanahan of I am Staggered

Staggered is the UK’s leading men’s wedding website. At his wedding the editor had four female Alsatian dogs as his best men. None of them wanted to take the role but they all felt it was better to do it and not say anything.

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Five Easy Stag Fancy Dress Ideas

June 30th, 2010 | Posted by The Wedding Community in Articles | Guest Articles - (0 Comments)

Something weird happens to blokes when you get a group of them together for an event, such as a stag-do. It usually only takes about four beers before someone will suggest that rather than just meeting up, having a drink and a chat and then going home, that the whole thing would go better if they wore weird costumes. Stag fancy dress is one of the more extreme examples of this, with guys going to great lengths to make sure they stick out. What if you can’t be bothered though and want a simple solution? Here are five lightning quick costumes.

  1. Ninjas
    Granted it might be a bit of an issue when you combine a group of blokes with beer and an incentive to practice amateur martial arts, but if you fancy living on the wild side, then this article shows you how to create an amazing ninja look, then all you need is a pair of black pyjamas and you’re set.
  2. Moustaches
    This one is actually a brilliant way of breaking the ice on a stag-do. You might get a bit of complaining from the people who have real jobs, but generally speaking you should be ok. There’s not even a costume to wear – all you have to do is grow a moustache for a month before the do, then on the night you sport the most magnificent ‘tache you can muster. Bristly!
  3. Mummies
    The one your mum always used to pull out of the bag for last minute parties. You get a load of bandages and wrap them around yourself. Bonus points for going naked underneath. It’s so simple, but it can all go horribly wrong so make sure any smokers in your group keep the lighters under control.
  4. Borat
    Yes it’s a cliché, yes it’s been done a thousand times before, but twinned with a nice sensible pair of socks and brogues, there’s still something hilarious about squeezing the groom into one of the iconic lime green mankinis. Do it as a group effort and you’ll be the talk of the town.
  5. Nuns
    Not so hilarious when you do this abroad in a staunch Catholic country, but men dressed as nuns has been fuelling the British comedy industry for decades and it’s not going to stop being funny now. Have a look at this for some simple instructions, just don’t get into the habit of it. Like a nun’s habit, you see? It’s a joke. Ok.

Article by Andrew Shanahan of I am Staggered

Staggered isn’t just about stag night fancy dress you know. There’s loads of proposal ideas and mens wedding suits too. Stop by and say hi if you’re passing.

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