Over the moon – now the hard work starts!

When my lovely fiancé, Dave, popped the question on Christmas day – I could not have been more surprised OR happier. We had a lovely morning together in our new home and planned to visit my mum for a family lunch. Little did I know, as he opened the Champagne for a bucks fizz with breakfast, that small boxed shaped present wrapped up neatly beneath the tree was in fact the most gorgeous diamond ring!

Having the chance to celebrate with my family that day over lunch made it really special and I can’t thank Dave enough for being so thoughtful.

As soon as Boxing Day came, I dashed to the shop for a stack of wedding magazines – and found out just what I had in store for the next months of planning the perfect nuptials. Neither of us want a long engagement so it looks like there will be some hard work involved, but I am sure we will love every minute of it.

Of course, I instantly booked VIP tickets to the National Wedding Show in spring for me, mum and my sister Kirsty, I can’t think of a better place to start looking for inspiration. Especially for my dress as Dave will not be coming with us.

Of course second thing on our to-do list is to choose a location…we both love the sun and go on holiday whenever we can, so are brainstorming foreign locations where we can have a wedding and honeymoon all in one. It will also mean our guests get some sunshine and fun out of it too.

Jenny xx

If, like Jenny you want a bit of A-list treatment and glamour - why not treat yourself to a VIP ticket to the National Wedding Show available to buy on the websitewww.nationalweddingshow.co.uk

The National Wedding Show features a number of top quality venues and planners for abroad weddings, visit www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk to see the full exhibitor list

Our Bridal Coach Michele Paradise offers her top tips for ensuring you both look and feel fabulous on your big day

-Always get your feet measured before buying your wedding shoes. Your feet have changed since the age of 6!

-Always buy new shoes in the afternoon or early evening when your feet are at their largest. Feet swell during the day.

-Cover new shoes with cut off tights, wear them everyday for 15/30 mins to break them in at least a month before the wedding.

-Before the photo shake out your hands, gently place them on your hip or bouquet so that they look beautiful, not like a claw!

-In photos, stand at an angle with one foot slightly in front of the other. If feet are together you will look flat and wide.

-Perfection doesn't exist so stop striving for the perfect wedding. Celebrate, have fun, eat, laugh and enjoy the ride!

-Wearing a veil makes you feel different and requires a bit of practice. So put one on and practice now. It will pay off!

-Clean, shaped eyebrows open the eyes and create a wider eye they look better in the photos and you look rested and relaxed.

-Choose a creamy white dress so that it doesn't create glare when photographed and it's kinder to the skin tone.

-Don't follow make up trends for your bridal make up. Stick to a classic look and your photos will be timeless.

-In photos don't keep both arms entirely straight, bend one or both to create space between the arm and body.

-In photos rest most of your weight on one foot or the other. This looks less posey and gives a slight slimming effect.

-Focus on what you want to happen on your wedding day, not what you don't want to happen. You get what you wish for.

-When walking up the aisle please, please, please look up at your guests and your fiancé. Smile and they will smile back at you.

You can attend Michele's Bridal Coaching sessions at the show to hear more top tips for looking and feeling great on your big day. For more info click here

How to achieve dream hair for your wedding day

Our celebrity hair stylist Errol Douglas shares his top tips on how to achieve picture perfect hair for your wedding day

Start Early - it is vital that you have a good consultation which allows you to think about colour and growing short hair long

Watch the bleach on the beach - if you are having your hair bleached you need to consider the adverse effects strong sun may have on the look of your hair. If you are getting married in an exotic location or planning a beach honeymoon, make sure you consider which products you use very carefully.

Make sure that your veil is not too heavy, time after time I see brides who have amazing hair that is immediately flattened by a veil that is too heavy.

Practice makes perfect, make sure you have at least 2-3 trials including the use of any hairpieces well before your wedding day.

Never wash your hair on the big day; it will simply strip your hair of the natural oils which help the finished look stay looking great for longer.

Never style your hair with too much hair on your face as what looks great in real life can act as a mask in photographs. Your wedding album will be kept forever so you must consider how your hair is going to look when photographed.

Most importantly of all wearing your hair up is not for everyone if you feel it doesn’t suit you trust your instincts and wear your hair in a way that makes you look best.

www.erroldouglas.com

The Exhibitors Story – Part 3

OMG. I know things are stressful when we are communicating in acronyms. With only two full days left in the office (one by the time you read this) before we have to pack everything up and take it down to Earls Court for The National Wedding Show, our favourite acronyms in indisputably ASAP.

Please can we have the leaflets ASAP? Please can you arrange special delivery for those shoes, ASAP? Artwork for posters? Ah yes...ASAP. AAMOF I would LOL if I wasn’t so PANIC stricken. And that’s not an acronym, in case you’re wondering, it is in BIG letters because it is BIG panic.

However, we are making progress now. The backdrop to the stand is now printed (cough..hum..nearly) and all the artwork for posters and leaflets is signed off. We have enquiry forms (you’d better do some serious enquiring, people) and a fantastic Alter Ego competition and exclusive show offer.

Our outfits for the show are planned, we know who is working on which days, and the hotel rooms are booked. I have an email to confirm that our exhibitors’ passes are ready, and we’ve even got down to the nitty-gritty ‘flowers’ and ‘sweets’ level of detail – which is reassuring.
I have to admit, the costs do grow as you get closer to the show. We started with a really detailed budget but still there are little add-ons which creep up. One of the biggest areas for this, for us, has been printed items. My advice to any potential exhibitors: really plan your printed material to make sure it is ‘multi-functional’ (for example, we have one form to handle enquiries and competition entries) and shop around to get the best prices. However, it still is, without doubt, one of the most cost-effective ways of talking (properly) to 20,000 people.

So, more importantly, about that competition I mentioned. We will be offering one bride a complete Alter Ego Vintage Hen Party for up to four people in our free prize draw. The lucky Hen will get to bring her three Chicks to the studio for a full day of pampering and vintage styling. In addition to the fab sets and props, inspirational photography, and wonderfully friendly team...we’ll also provide a light lunch and a few glasses of bubbly. Plus every guest will get a gorgeous, complementary framed print of the day. I can promise you with absolute confidence (and experience), it beats propping up the bar in some dodgy nightclub hands-down. It is classy, relaxed, indulgent and hugely good fun – and you will have the pictures to treasure for a lifetime.

We are all getting exceptionally excited about Friday. I simply cannot wait to see what the stand looks like in real-life, speak to the visitors at the show, and find out what they think about Alter Ego. And, as this is the first wedding show we have attended, I’m sure it will be a real eye-opener.

This will be my last post before the show (you haven’t seen my to-do list), but I can’t wait to meet you all over the weekend. If you’ve got this far...thank you for listening!
The last few weeks have, as they say, been emotional...
B4N!

Erica

Erica from Alter Ego Portraits:http://www.alteregoportraits.com/www.facebook.com/alteregoportraitsor call 01604 871187

The exhibitor’s story – Part 2

One minute we were four weeks away, and then – we blinked – and now there are only two weeks left. How did that happen?

The National Wedding Show is looming large on our horizon at the moment. Have you ever had one of those dreams where you turned up at your wedding with no frock and a bad-hair day? (No? Maybe that was just me then....erm...anyhow...) Well, I have definitely had a dream that we were standing at the wedding show in an empty stand – or ‘shell scheme’ as the exhibitors’ pack calls us..

So, what have we done? Firstly we have moved up a gear today. Gone are the chocolate hobnobs, we’re on the serious stuff now. Oh yes. Krispy Kreme doughnuts are now powering our organisational skills.

We have spent the last two weeks designing, and redesigning, stand graphics. Taking a brand and converting it into a 2m x 2m stand, we have found, is a tricky business. As with all forms of marketing, people look at different media in different ways – what works in a gift voucher pack, isn’t necessarily going to work on an email – and all the team had different ideas about how Alter Ego should be presented.

We did all decide that it needs to be simple and striking, but we decided to get advice and ask the experts – so we picked up the phone and called (the wonderfully patient) Gabi, the Marketing Manager at The National Wedding Show. Her advice was to think about our objectives and to consider doing something interactive on the stand. For example, do we want to hand out three thousand leaflets, or do we want to be able to talk to people after the show?

In previous years, exhibitors have created interest by having stilt-walkers on the stand and women in wedding dresses – both of which made the stands and the companies memorable. Gabi also recommended continuing the themes from our website and gave the example of the lovely lady from a business called Shoot It Yourself who pulled this off perfectly and had great success at the last show.

In addition, she suggested overlaying the shell scheme with beautiful wall paper or a back-drop to create an environment which draws people in, and encourages them to investigate further.
So, we now have a background which we all love. It is simple, elegant and carries on our branding from all of the other work we are doing in the studio, in our literature, in the press and online. We had a fabulous vintage hen-party shoot last week, and the girls have kindly said we can use some of these fantastic shots for our literature. And, we also have a few tricks up our sleeves which will hopefully cause a bit of a stir during the show. We just need to find a way of getting all of the equipment down to London on the set-up day. Van anyone?
Erica from Alter Ego Portraits:

http://www.alteregoportraits.com/
www.facebook.com/alteregoportraits
or call 01604 871187

Tips for brides speeches on the big day!

I gave a wink to our MC and took the microphone. No one knew I was going to make a speech and up until that point, I was not sure if I was going to do it either. There were some things that I wanted to say too, and anyone who knows me realises that I am not one to keep quiet!!! However standing up in front of the most important people in your life can be quite daunting. The best advice I can give when making your wedding speech is look at it like as if it is a skirt – long enough to cover the essentials, but short enough to be interesting! I was also told – don’t try to be funny – you wont be, but I am pleased to say I had them all laughing in their seats just from my general anecdotes and stories of situations that might arise in day-to-day life. The point of my speech was to toast to friendship – they give me a unique blend of affection, loyalty, love, respect, trust and best of all - loads of fun!!

If you would like to say a few words, but like me are not sure if you have the confidence in front of your guests, visit the Bridal Confidence coaching Clinic at the National Wedding Show. Michelle Paradise is on hand to give you tips to feel confident in yourself and keep your emotions in check. If you use her tips to help you through the ceremony and posing for your pictures - by the time you get to the point of standing up in front of 100 guests you will be feeling fabulous!

Just one last thing to remember – everyone who will be sharing your special day loves you and will be embracing the magic. Enjoy it!!!

An exhibitors story - Part 1

Yesterday, life in the studio was cracking on as merrily as ever. Today, panic has set in and we are all sitting looking at the longest to-do list any of us has ever seen. What happened? What else – The National Wedding Show of course.

I’m not sure who’s idea it was, although I think we all talked each other into this (helped in no small amount by the lovely Kelly at The National Wedding Show team) but I have a feeling life is just about to get very, very busy.

It will be brilliant. We have no doubt. The National Wedding Show is the perfect place for us to showcase our services and, as this is the first time that Alter Ego Portraits has done anything like this – we figured we ought to do it properly!

So, where to start? The contract has gone back, and we know the stand number (K2, just in case you are wondering) which we have chosen because it is in the corner of the exhibition space near to the toilets. Unlike in a restaurant - this is a positive thing. Apparently, there is reliable research which demonstrates visitors at the show go to the toilet 2.4 times during their visit, so everyone is very likely to see us at least 2.4 times after they have powdered their noses! You have to admit, it makes sense.

The first step this morning was to consider the space we have. We have marked out the equivalent size space on the floor in our studio using masking tape. Then, we all stood in it and wondered how we would fit everything in. Then we sat down, had a coffee and some biscuits (think this could be a regular feature of the next few weeks) and looked at the masking tape for a bit longer. It didn’t make it any bigger. However, the coffee and the biscuits did the trick and we now have a plan in our minds for the furniture we need on the stand.

Practical stuff first. We have albums and pictures that we need to display, so we need something for them to be perched on. However, this display needs to draw visitors onto the stand, not block their access. We need storage space for leaflets and vouchers, and we need to make sure the stand feels open and welcoming. Do we build it ourselves (this could be a very interesting set-up day), or do we find existing pieces we can personalise? I feel a trip to some well know furniture shops coming on....

Erica from Alter Ego Portraits: http://www.alteregoportraits.com/ , www.facebook.com/alteregoportraits or call 01604 871187.