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 ;)

Sandy Gaggini shares her tips for choosing the perfect photographer.

Along with the dress, the venue and of course the groom, one of the most important things to get right is the photographer.

Your wedding day is only going to happen once, there will only be one entrance at the ceremony, one first kiss as husband and wife, one first dance. There's no room for retakes so everything needs to be captured perfectly first time. With so many things going on on your big day you're going to miss things that happen that don't directly involve you, but hopefully your photographer will capture some of these moments. Your Wedding Album is going to be a massive reminder of your big day and something you can share with friends and family who were unable to attend and your children and grandchildren. That's how important these photos are!

I first started looking at photographers when I was looking at potential venues. I would google each potential venue and the phrase "wedding photography" to look at the different photo opportunities each venue could provide. We wanted a beautiful church and a gorgeous wedding reception venue that would look amazing in our photographs, and what better way to envisage the potential than looking at pictures from previous weddings. This also allowed me to scope out potential photographers, find styles that I liked, get an idea of how much they cost and just generally be nosey into complete strangers weddings!!!
I soon discovered that photgraphers are pretty pricey, and each photographer offers a different package so you should make sure you know exactly what is included for the price.

As somebody who doesn't really like posing for photographs the main pictures I was interested in were the natural ones where the people in the photos don't realise they're having their picture taken. I did stumble across one particular photographer who's posed photos I loved, Steven Gerrard, so creative and talented. Unfortunately his prices don't fit in with our budget.

As I am finding with a lot of this Wedding Planning malarkey it's as much who you know as what you know. An old school friend's sister has started her own Wedding Photography business. As soon as Adam and I announced our engagement my friend recommended we take a look at her sister's website and facebook page to consider her for our photographer.

When I looked at Katie Ingram's photos I thought she was was the perfect choice. Her pictures are stunning and really capture the moment. I love the unforced, natural photos that she takes, and for the posed ones, who better than someone I have known for several years to make me feel comfortable and relaxed. In Katie's own words "I like to show the joy and happiness in people from the day. It's a celebration and I embrace the happiness and capture it as well as I can."

Check out her work and I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I was. www.katieingram.co.uk

Other than the professional photos, I have quite a few friends who enjoy photography and am planning on getting copies of the photos they take on the day, and if our budget can stretch to it I would really like a photobooth to add a really fun element to the photography and allow guests to take a memento of the day home with them.

Angela Harkin reveals all about her wedding day theme!

Superheroes, Zombies, Star Wars and even Shrek! These are just some of the bizarre themes people come up with for their wedding day. Ok, so those ones aren’t for everyone and you would need to be a very brave (and skinny!) woman to dress up in figure-hugging Wonder Woman hot pants on your wedding day. But why do we need a theme anyway?

As a teacher, I’ve always been involved in organising the school prom and, as the years have gone by, more and more pupils want a theme. This year, it was Las Vegas - seat covers were red and black, table decorations were poker chips, cards and dice and we had chocolate favours in the shape of hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds. For a wedding, this could be enhanced by adding cocktails, an Elvis impersonator and a casino at the reception. So themes are becoming very popular at all events but especially weddings.

People now regard the theme as a way of bringing their wedding together and showing off their personality. It’s about making the wedding one of a kind and memorable for everyone there. The simplest method is using colours and making everything from the invitations to the favours and bridesmaid dresses all the same shade. Some people prefer to use the season in which they get married for example, shells, pebbles and sand for summer weddings or winter effects such as ice carvings and snowflakes. Vintage and Eco weddings are growing in popularity with more emphasis put on saving money and DIY decorations. As the grooms-to-be become more involved in wedding preparations, football is also a growing theme - tables named after footballers, team colours everywhere and even having the ceremony at their beloved stadium.

So what about our theme? Well, we decided early on that we had to have a gig theme. Our love of music and seeing bands meant that it was only right it should form the basis of our wedding. We have recently chosen the perfect invitations in the design of concert tickets – not your typical wedding invitations however they are unique to us. Once our guests start to receive them, they will be intrigued as it gives a clue to what the wedding will be like. They will also be asked to request a song on their RSVP for our DJ to play at the reception. This is a nice touch as it means every guest will get their song on the reception playlist plus it will mean everyone will want to dance to at least one song! We will be naming our tables after our favourite bands and making LP sleeves to match. Our table plan will be done in the form of a festival poster (with the help of a very creative art teacher colleague!). We are going to replace the traditional order of service for a set-list of the songs that will be played at the ceremony. Many a time, I have gone to weddings and wondered what choice of song was playing so this will be a nice keepsake for guests.

For me, the theme is a key part of our wedding but it may not be for everyone. The occasion is so special and meaningful by itself, you may not feel the need for a theme. I would say it’s more about the little personal touches you add rather than the grand statements. So if you are choosing a theme, it should be personal to you, fun and easy to manage. My only warning is to think carefully about your decision as choosing a Wonder Woman outfit over a beautiful wedding dress may be something you look back on with regret.

Katherine Charles fills us in on finding her dream dress!

So, the date has been chosen and the venue is booked....now it is time for the real fun to begin – dress shopping!

When I first started looking for my dress, I was pretty open to suggestions. I had taken some inspiration from other weddings that I had been to as well as being a regular at the local wedding fair circuit. I hadn’t intended to get my dress so far in advance, I was just keen to start the shopping; after all, a girl only gets to try these on once, right?!

The only ideas I had in my mind, was that I wanted an A-line shape (to cover what I consider to be a larger than average backside) and something in more of an ivory tone, rather than a plain white since I had a feeling this colour would wash me out. I was also quite clear that I wanted something simple and not too ‘bling’.

Sure enough, my first shopping trip entailed trying on several in this style, all equally beautiful dresses. I was starting to realise how hard it must be to find ‘the one’! It seemed that every dress I tried on, I fell in love with – and it is definitely true what they say, you do feel like a princess! And, let’s just say (without revealing too many details), you surprise yourself once you start trying on different dresses!

What surprised me most was how comfortable the majority of them seemed to be – sure, there was that awkward ‘breathe-in’ moment when you first get into the dress, but after a few minutes, it’s amazing how you can adapt to them! I was also shocked by the sheer variety of dresses and was easily coaxed into trying on lots of different styles of varying meringue sizes. On my first shopping trip, I fell in love with a beautiful Alfred Angelo dress and was 99% convinced that this would be the one, but could it be that easy to find it on my first trip? We had been to see 14 venues, how on earth could dress shopping be so easy? And, more importantly, I WANTED to do more dress shopping!

Unconvinced that shopping for your wedding dress could be that easy, I booked a few more appointments with some other local suppliers; each a different experience. I am glad that I did....!

I had seen my dress on display at a wedding fair and had instantly loved it and was fixated on trying it on – sure enough, my Mum, my mother-in-law to be and I ventured to Rena Zhang Couture in Farnham on a cold December morning last year to seek out said dress. The whole experience was amazing – as soon as we arrived, the staff made us feel so welcome. We sat on a beautiful chaise-longue and talked through the style of the wedding whilst sipping champagne in a warm and relaxed shop. I had a very good feeling at this point...and luckily I wasn’t disappointed! As soon as I tried it on, I knew it was the one – it sounds clichéd but I did get goose-bumps and, as if I needed any more proof, the tears of my maternal support group soon proved that this was indeed the one for me.

I won’t reveal too many details about the style, just in case my eagle-eyed fiancé is reading this, but sufficed to say that it puts a big smile on my face when I wear it and I hope it has the same effect on him too. Now I just can’t wait to wear it for the big day