Angela Harkin on planning the perfect hen do!

I’m unsure of what I want to do for my hen do but I know what I definitely don’t want!

Luckily the responsibility for arranging everything falls on my sister’s shoulders. As my one and only bridesmaid, she will have the problem of deciding how her younger, fussier sister would like to celebrate her last days of single life.

I’ve been on my fair share of hen parties and after a near-death experience and far too many drunken nights, with the obligatory oiled-up stripper, I want something classy for my hen night.

I asked my friends about hen nights and if they had been to any unusual ones. Dance lessons seemed to be a popular choice, from belly-dance, can-can or even pole dance lessons but that is just not my thing. I prefer to sit and listen to music than dance to it.

Mini-breaks are still popular but I do feel this can be a big commitment for people from getting time off work to getting the kids looked after, not to mention the cost involved.

I’d also heard of someone who took all her hens tank driving! I experienced a hen weekend where we all went white-water rafting however after my raft crashed into a bridge and I was plunged into freezing water in the middle of January (and thought I was going to drown!), I vowed never to do anything like that again. Adrenalin junkie I am not.

Another favourite is a luxury pamper session with treatments and massages combined with a leisurely champagne lunch. Now that sounds more my thing although most places can be pricey and I don’t want it to cost a fortune for all the ladies.

I do love cocktails (one of the reasons we chose our honeymoon hotel is for their fabulous mojito lounge) so this has inspired me to look into having a cocktail masterclass. There seems to be more and more places doing these and they seem reasonably priced. I mean, what woman doesn’t enjoy a cocktail? We’ll have a great time whilst telling ourselves we are learning a new and essential skill!

I was actually surprised to find out that more and more girls are going for small get-togethers where they have a room in a bar or hotel and can all get a chance to chat and laugh in privacy. This means if the celebrations get loud and wild (or, in my case, if my sister starts shrieking her favourite songs at the top of her voice!), we won’t be annoying anyone else. The important thing is I have a fun hen night that doesn’t cost the earth. I want everyone to have fun and let their hair down for a night.

Now, I’d better make sure my sister reads this so that there are no unexpected surprises.

Sandy Gaggini enjoys every moment of choosing her wedding cake!

I LOVE cake! So this was naturally one of the first things I started thinking about when myself and Adam got engaged. I was adamant I wanted a tower of cupcakes and to be honest I didn't think Adam would really mind what cake we had as long as it tasted good... I was wrong! Adam totally surprised me and was insistent that he wanted the traditional tiered cakes.

One thing you should know about me is that I can be quite stubborn, so although I'm not a Bridezilla (honestly I'm not) I do like things to happen the way I want them, I don't go crazy if they don't but I do sulk! I began looking on-line at gorgeous looking Wedding Cupcakes and showing them to Adam in the hopes that he'd change his mind. He agreed that they looked awesome but he wanted a cake that we could cut.

We had a look at and considered a giant cupcake as the top tier but decided it wasn't what either of us envisaged for our wedding cake. Eventually we came to a compromise, tiers of cupcakes with a traditional wedding cake for the top tier that we could cut. I don't know why we didn't think of this sooner!

One of the things I love about cupcakes is the fact that they are individual cakes, allowing for a bit of variety. You can have different colours, different flavours and different decorations. For example we go to our local Farmers Market every month and the lately there has been a stall there selling cupcakes, although if you're there at midday she only has a couple left! She has Chocolate Orange cupcakes, Oreo cupcakes, Earl Grey cupcakes, Lemon cupcakes and even ones that look 99s with the flake.

I think your Wedding Cake is as much about how it looks as it is how it tastes. I could make cakes that taste great but I'm not creative and they wouldn't look very impressive.

I started contacting a few cupcake bakeries. Most seem to have price bands depending on quantity and vary depending on flavours and how intricate the detail you want on each cupcake is. Something I hadn't considered was the cake stand and some (not all) charge for the use of the cupcake stand.

As I've said in a previous post, I'm learning that it definitely pays to know people in the Wedding Industry. My uncle is a postman and on his round he delivers to Juci Luci's Cupcake Factory! I like to imagine it's like Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory but with cupcakes... AWESOME!!!

I checked out her website (www.juicycupcakefactory.co.uk) and her facebook page (social media and the wedding industry is fantastic) and fell in love with her cakes.

I contacted Luci and she's been really helpful. As we're getting married a few miles away she is happy to set up the cakes for us - one thing less for us to organise on our big day! She doesn't charge for the stand as she believes it's only right that the cakes are beautifully displayed. We haven't had a tasting session yet although I have it on very good authority that the cakes taste delicious, and Luci has offered to come to us or is happy for us to go to her for a tasting session and to discuss flavours, colour schemes and decoration.

Luci has also just started making Bride and Groom decorations and they look amazing!

I cant wait to see, cut and most importantly eat our wedding cake!

Our blogging bride Angela Harkin looks at the wonderful world of wedding stationery!

Apparently every bride needs nine, yes nine, different types of stationery! Don’t believe me? Drum roll please… we need… (1) Save the Date cards, (2) Day Invitations, (3) Evening Invitations, (4) RSVPs, (5) Orders of Service, (6) Table Plans, (7) Place Cards, (8) Menus and, finally, (9) Thank You Cards! Now if you take the average-sized wedding of, say, 150 guests, the cost of envelopes alone will eat up a large chunk of your budget so it’s important to be savvy when it comes to stationery.

The most important piece of stationery is without a doubt, the invitations. When my H2B and I decided on our gig-inspired theme, we knew that our invitations had to reflect that. It’s the first thing our guests will see and we want people to get a sneak peek of what our wedding will be like. There are so many unique ideas for wedding invitations, from printed chocolate bars to ‘Wanted’ posters and even computer games emailed to guests. As much as I like the traditional embossed invitations covered in diamantes, I think it is much more fun to try and do something different and make sure no-one else will ever have the same as you. We initially thought about flyers, coasters and even CD’s with the wedding information on however as we scrawled the internet, we came upon Treefrog Graphics who had the perfect invitations for us – concert tickets! They are distinctive and have a perforated RSVP that people simply rip off and return – two cards in one!

So with our invitations and RSVPs out the way, we have now started looking at stationery for the big day. I heard recently of one wedding where the place cards were cookies with names iced on them which is a great idea and a tasty treat while people are listening to speeches. We, however, plan to have the image of cassettes printed onto card and we will write the names of guests across them – a little bit retro and fun. This same design will also be on the menus. As I mentioned in my previous blog, we are having a set-list instead of order of service and our table plan will be in the style of a festival poster. These are things we plan to make ourselves and although I’m not very creative, I have found it’s easy to design them on the computer.

As for Thank You Cards, well we haven’t got that far yet. We have been toying with the idea of CD’s of songs played at the wedding but we will decide that nearer the time.

We are aware that our theme is very much a vital part of our wedding and the stationery will be a key element but we also aren’t letting the costs spiral out of control – Microsoft Publisher is definitely a big help!

My tip for stationery would be to ask the wedding venue if they do any of them for you as this could save lots of time and money. Many hotels will provide and write place cards, menus and table plans at no extra cost, saving a small fortune.

And after booking our luxurious honeymoon the other day, maybe I should follow my own advice and call the hotel…

Katherine Charles shares how choosing your big day flowers can be easy and fun!

It’s probably fair to say that there is only one task that I was dreading organising in the run up to our wedding.....flowers! I don’t know the first thing about flowers – What are they called? When are they in season? What is likely to last for the whole day? Seriously, I didn’t have a clue... Actually, thinking about it, I probably still don’t. But I am certainly a little wiser and much more relaxed about the flowers for our wedding all thanks to Lavenders of London, who we have chosen to provide the flowers and bits of decor for our big day.

They couldn’t have been more helpful – they asked me questions about the venue, about the general theme of the day and about any ideas that I had. In terms of my ideas, I did lots of Google research about what flowers would be suitable for a winter wedding – of course, most of the research I did suggested we might like to opt for traditional red roses, in keeping with a Christmas wedding. But I don’t want that....we are trying to move away from the “obvious” Christmas theme; however, finding pictures did help me try and explain what I was looking for.

When we visited the Lavenders of London warehouse, my poor Fiance thought we would be there for days...there was literally every flower, candle and ribbon you could ask for! I, on the other hand, was in heaven!! After chatting through all of my ideas with them and purchasing some decor in keeping with my theme, we have now organised all of our flowers in one visit alone. It was such a relief to have someone take a weight off your shoulders...in that single visit, I have been able to organise my bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, all of the buttonholes and corsages as well as some extra special touches for centrepieces and venue design, although I will keep those under wraps for now ;)