Wedding A-Z: I is for Intimacy

Have you thought about your wedding night?

The first night you spend together as husband and wife can be very meaningful and romantic.  It can also make you feel under pressure to have great sex when you are actually completely shattered and just want to sleep! 

Here's just a few top tips for enjoying your wedding night:

• Take your time and set the scene
• Spend some time talking about the day, share some of your favourite moments
• Pack a bag - make sure you have prepared for your wedding night and the day after.  I know a bride who ended up wearing her wedding dress the day after her wedding as she forgot to pack a change of clothes!
• Have a snack - its likely that you will have spent your wedding day celebrating and catching up with all your guests, you may not have eaten very much!

Just remember that the only people who know what happens on your wedding night are the two of you so please don't worry about it!
   

Getting Married Again

Second marriages are becoming more and more common. Planning your second wedding (or third, or forth even) will be a very different experience to doing it for the first time. You are probably that bit older and wiser and want to get better value for money. You will also want the actual wedding day to be different to your first. Perhaps your first wedding signifies a marriage that failed so what better reason than to make this wedding completely different.

There are several things you need to consider though:


Do you/your partner have children? Do you want them to be included in the ceremony? Do you want a big wedding or would you prefer to keep it low-key?

You may want to place more emphasis on the actual ceremony this time around, as it might feel more important to you or you might want to get away from it all and get married abroad.

Lots of venues have a civil ceremony licence, so the days of a church wedding and hotel reception are definitely over. You can even get married in Snape Maltings Concert Hall, or for a historical feel how about Christchurch Mansion or Kentwell Hall?

There are so many different ways you could get married, if you are getting married for the second time and want a break from planning it – hire a wedding planner to deal with the stresses so you don’t have to. By hiring Endless Love, you make all the decisions and we do all the hard work!

Photo credit: Gorgeous Bride

Royal Wedding Preview

I'm sure you haven't failed to notice that there is a very big event happening in London tomorrow!  The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton takes place at Westminster Abbey at 11am, but there will be lots happening all day.

The Official Royal Wedding website has released detailed timings for the day as follows:

8.15 -9.45am The general congregation will arrive at the Great North Door of Westminster Abbey.
From 9.50am Governors-General and Prime Ministers of Realm Countries, the Diplomatic Corps, and other distinguished guests arrive at the Abbey.
10.10am The Bridegroom and Prince Henry of Wales leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.15am.
10.20am Members of Foreign Royal Families arrive at Westminster Abbey from Buckingham Palace.
10.20am Mrs. Michael (Carole) Middleton and Mr. James Middleton leave the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.27am.
10.25am Members of the Royal Family (except those listed below) leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.30am.
10.35am The following Members of the Royal Family leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.40am: The Duke of York, Princess Beatrice of York, Princess Eugenie or York, The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence
10.38am The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.42am.
10.40am The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.45am.
10.48am The Bridesmaids and Pages leave the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey. They arrive at the Abbey at 10.55am.
10.51am The Bride, accompanied by Mr. Michael Middleton, leaves the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
11.00am The Marriage Service begins. The Marriage Service will be relayed by audio speakers along the Route.
12.15pm The Carriage Procession of the Bride and Bridegroom with a Captain’s Escort of the Household Cavalry, followed by The Queen’s Procession with a Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry, leaves Westminster Abbey for Buckingham Palace.
12.30pm The Bride’s Carriage Procession arrives at Buckingham Palace.
12.40pm Members of the Royal Family and Members of Foreign Royal Families arrive at Buckingham Palace.
From 12.40pm Other guests for the Reception arrive at Buckingham Palace.
1.25pm The Queen and the Bride and Bridegroom, together with their Families, appear on the Balcony.
1.30pm Fly Past by the Royal Air Force and Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Miss Catherine Middleton, accompanied by her immediate family, will spend the night before the wedding at the Goring Hotel. This was the Middleton family’s personal choice.
All arrivals at Westminster Abbey are at the Great West Door unless otherwise indicated.

The wedding will be shown on various big screens in London as well as extensive coverage on all the main TV channels.  I've already booked my seat on the sofa in front of my mun & dad's new big screen TV - my 3 year old daughter is most excited to see a real life princess getting married!

Where will you be watching the Royal Wedding?
   

Wedding A-Z: G is for Groom

It can be very easy to get so absorbed in planning your wedding that you forget about your groom!  Make sure you are including him in at least some of the planning - here's a few suggestions:

• Get him to view venues with you - it's important that you choose a venue that you both like
• Ask his opinion on flowers and colour schemes
• Ask him to research Bands or DJ's
• Ask him to help choose the menu

Direct him over to the Staggered website as well - it's a wedding website developed especially for men.

Their tag line sums it up for me: Weddings, Blokes, Sorted!

Enjoy!

Choosing the Perfect Dress

Part of my job involves going along with brides to search for their perfect dress – as a wedding planner, I can provide a no nonsense, impartial opinion and relate that to how the style of dress will fit with the overall theme and design of the wedding, as well as how well the style suits the bride.


The first thing most brides to be will do as soon as they get engaged is buy a stack of wedding magazine and start turning the page corners of the wedding dresses they like. A pattern will soon emerge and there is likely to be a style of dress that you continually go back to - but try not to set your heart on something purely based on a picture. Think about the outfits you have in your wardrobe and try to go with a similar style to your favourite dress. It’s your favourite dress because it fits you well and you feel comfortable in it.

Keep an open mind when going to try on dresses, and remember that the dress designers fit brides in wedding dresses every day so they really do know what they’re talking about – ask them for their opinion.

A strapless full gown doesn’t suit everyone, yet it is one of the most popular styles of wedding dress. You can still feel like a Princess in other styles. For example; if you are slightly larger in the bust area (like me!), you could really benefit from some structure and probably some straps to help you feel more secure (particularly for dancing!).

Most importantly you need to feel comfortable, the last thing anyone wants to see at a wedding is a bride constantly pulling up her dress or fiddling with the straps …and you just want to enjoy the day. Dress designers can work wonders with a needle and thread, my underwear was sewn into my dress when I got married so I didn’t have to worry about any unruly bra straps!

Good luck with your search for ‘The Dress’, if you would like a no nonsense impartial opinion when dress shopping contact us to find out how Endless Love could help you.

Wedding A-Z: F is for Food

Deciding what to serve your guests to eat is a tough decision.  Do you go for something you like? Or, do you try to please all of your guests by choosing a menu that will (hopefully) suit everyone? 

 

 

Here's a few things to think about when choosing the food for your wedding:

 

• What time is the wedding ceremony?  If you are getting married at 3pm most guests will likely have lunch before they leave home, however if the wedding is at 1pm they may not have time to eat beforehand.
• Will you serve a formal sit down meal or a more informal buffet style?
• How many times will you feed your guests? Will you have a sit down meal in the afternoon followed by a buffet in the evening?
• Will you be serving anything else? i.e. canapes?

 

Here's a few ideas to 'mix it up' when it comes to food:

 

• Why not have a candy bar?  Guests can help themselves to your very own pick n' mix sweets, the candy bar can easily be themed to match your wedding colours, or simply to include the sweets you like.
• Serve bacon rolls at around 11pm - we did this at a wedding I planned last year and they went down a treat!
• To keep the costs of a 3-course meal down, serve canape's with the reception drinks and follow it with a main and dessert course.

 

What will you serve at your wedding?

 

 

Picture credit: Talbooth Catering

 

 

Endless Love in the Press - A Royal Wedding in Suffolk

Have you seen the latest issue of Pure Weddings magazine?  It features an article I have written about the royal wedding - here's the article:


Prince William and Kate Middleton will be married at Westminster Abbey on Friday 29 April, followed by a reception at Buckingham Palace – but how would I plan the wedding if it were to take place in Suffolk?


Venue
One of my favourite venues in Suffolk is Hengrave Hall near Bury St Edmunds. I think it would be perfect for a Royal Wedding in Suffolk. There is a private church in the grounds and the main house is just a stones throw away. With sumptuous accommodation and a great selection of rooms which would be exclusively yours on the day – it’s the perfect location for a royal wedding in Suffolk.

Food
I think a traditional drinks reception would suit Kate and William with champagne and canapés served on the west Terrace – maybe with a great duo act like Mango Acoustic providing some background music, accompanied by garden games on the lawn.
This would then be followed by a traditional sit down wedding breakfast. Talbooth Catering do all of the catering at Hengrave Hall and I think they could create a bespoke menu fit for a Prince!.

Transport
It has already been announced that Kate will be going against royal tradition and will be travelling to her wedding in a car, rather than the glass carriage. The great thing about the venue I have chosen is that the bride and groom can get ready there as well (in separate rooms of course), so would be able to walk through the beautiful grounds of Hengrave Hall straight to the church.

Dress
For Kate it has to be a bespoke gown made just for her. We are very lucky to have a fabulous designer here in Suffolk who has made dresses for royalty before, Clare Perkins from Silk Rose. Clare’s design for Kate is a high regal lace neckline with long finely beaded lace sleeves, a bias cut silk bodice that flares out at the thigh. With lace godets inserted all around the bottom of the dress and a cathedral length train at the back this dress would make anyone feel like a Princess.
I would love to see her bridesmaids in shorter gowns with some fabulous shoes, maybe in a gentle spring lemon colour.

Suits
I think the men should go for something traditional, perhaps black or charcoal morning suits for William, Harry and their father, Prince Charles. It would great to see the groomsmen taking on the colour of the bridesmaids too.

Design
I think the overall design of the wedding should be traditional with a modern twist. There will be certain things with a royal wedding that can’t be compromised, like the guest list for example, but there are lots of areas where Kate can have the freedom to choose what she wants.


If you would like help planning your wedding, visit our website to find out how Endless Love can help. We offer a range of services from a bespoke hourly advice session to full wedding planning, including on the day co-ordination. Contact Caroline Gould on 01473 681201 or 07906 705191 for more information.