WeddingDates.ie

There’s a reason why actors say you should never work with children or animals; they are the most unpredictable creatures on the planet! A key decision when deciding on your guest list is if you are going to have children at the wedding.  If you ARE, then make sure you read my guest post over on the Confetti.ie blog about How to Keep Kids Entertained at a Wedding

Couples shying away from the big lavish Irish wedding often opt for a wedding abroad. Guaranteed sunshine, great food and wine - and usually at a fraction of the price - what’s not to like?! Some things to consider if you are thinking of flying off to get hitched …>> Read my guest blog post over on the Confetti Blog

The colour scheme of any wedding is of great importance as it has an effect throughout the whole wedding from bridesmaids dresses, invitations, room décor and flowers.  Read my guest blog over on Confetti.ie for the Top five things to consider when deciding on a colour scheme >>

For this weeks Confetti blog post, I wrote about the Tradition of Old, New, Borrowed, Blue….some clever suggestions on how to keep the tradition alive but also a few quirky ideas!

Something Old

• A locket containing a picture of your great-grandparents.
• A family rosary for the ceremony.
• Antique combs or hairpins, to adorn your hair.
• Wear wedding bands from both your grandmothers on your right-hand ring finger.
• Superstition has it, if you hide an old British sixpence in your left shoe it’s supposed to bring good luck.
• Place a baby bracelet of your own, or one of your family members around the base of your bouquet.
• For a true “something old” consider an antique veil. Browse online auction sites, like ebay.com, where you can find true treasures from decades past.

Something New

• A key to your new home, if you’re moving in together for the first time, hidden in your bouquet wrap.
• A lucky penny minted in the year of your wedding.
• Everything else!

Something Borrowed

• For the nature-lovers, put a flower from your own garden into your bouquet.
• If your dad still uses handkerchiefs, then use one tucked under your bodice.
• For a Christmas, or winter wedding, borrow a fur stole or wrap.
• Borrowing jewellery is a very common one, we all have eyed up certain pieces on our mums, friends, or relatives!
• Religious? Then borrow a family bible for the ceremony.

Something Blue

• Not interested in an all white-gown? Then you can have a blue sash on your dress.
• Blue flowers in your bouquet.
• My mum did this one!! Wear a blue garter!
• Sapphire jewellery
• Get creative with a blue pen for signing the marriage certificate!
• This is lovely if you are thinking of having your wedding dress made into a christening gown if you plan on having babies after the wedding - Have your initials and wedding date embroidered onto your dress lining in baby blue.
• As done by my web designer, Sabrina - Paint your toenails cobalt blue!

Today’s post was featured over on my guest blog spot on Confetti last week, Music to Your Ears people!!  - some advice on choosing appropriate music for the church/ceremony.

When you think about your big day, you probably imagine it as a glam mixture of flowers, smiles and music. The entire mood of a wedding is definitely projected by the selected music for the event, and choosing the best music might seem like a very difficult task, but you need to be aware of the importance of it for the big wedding day

You’ll have to head on over to Confetti for the rest of the post, including song ideas….

Consider this gorgeous tune for when the newlywed couple walks back down the aisle as Husband and Wife.

Weddings are a momentous occasion to be cherished for a lifetime. Putting unique touches small or large can help make the most of those memories. One way to personalize your wedding is by creating bespoke place cards that guests can appreciate and take home.  It’s also a great fun task that you can DIY and not have to spend a fortune on. You don’t have to go all out, or use place cards that are ill-fitted to your wedding.  The whole purpose of personalizing your name cards is to make them unique and represent your style, and it’s great to be able to put a bit of your own personality into every aspect of your wedding.

For the full post with practical ideas, you can read it on the Confetti blog

Five MORE Thrifty Tips to Save Wodges of Wedding Cash!!

Here’s the second part of my Confetti Blog Series - Top 10 Tips on how to save money on your wedding.  It’s essential reading, ladies.

Last week we covered the first five of our Top 10 Tips to save money on your wedding. Hope you found some good suggestions and tips on saving money on your big day.

Here’s tips five to 10 on our Wedding Budget series:

5. Wedding Favours & Table Centrepieces  ~  If you are creative and have plenty of time on your hands, why not make your favours or centrepieces yourself? You can buy supplies in bulk from hardware stores, garden centres, or even online and save a fortune going the DIY route. You can spend the weeks in the run up to the wedding making them, but just remember – you have to store them somewhere before the day itself!

6. Renting Seat Covers ~ Don’t let the hotel fool you into thinking that you HAVE to use their seat covers. These are often charged at a ridiculous rate and this is only because prospective brides don’t know that they have other options. Seat covers can be rented much cheaper for the day, the only drawback is that someone has to physically go to the hotel or venue and put them on all the chairs themselves. Really think about whether or not you even need chair covers, many hotels have now upgraded their furniture to more neutral colours and so you won’t need them.

For Tips 7 - 10, you can read the full post here

As you know, I am now a guest blogger for Confetti.ie and this last week was installment #1 on my Top 10 Tips on Saving Money on your wedding:

With the country constantly talking about the CEC (Current Economic Climate), we are all thinking about ways to conserve our spending and there are things you can do even on your wedding day to cut-costs or at least be sensible with the budget.  There are going to be certain parts of any couples big day that they won’t want to scrimp on, so decide what your top few priorities are and be prepared to be flexible on the other things.

Here are five of our Top 10 Tips on how to save money on your wedding:

1. Email out invitations ~ Not only will this save you on Stationary costs, it’s also ‘Eco-Friendly’.  Plus you can guests to RSVP by return email or via a webpage, so you can track guest acceptance instantly instead of waiting on snail mail.  On pingg.com you can design really great and colourful invitations that will still make it feel wedding-y and special.
2. The Dress ~ For affordable options in Ireland, consider buying your dress second hand from one of the charity shops.  More and more people are opting to recycle their dresses after their big day and you can get some beautiful gowns second hand nowadays.  Check out Oxfam’s Bridal Department website [www.oxfamireland.org/oxfambridal/about.htm].  If you’re handy with a sewing machine or have a reliable dressmaker you could alter the dress and make it into something very unique.  Alternatively, you could consider heading State-side to buy your dress and get the bridesmaids dresses over there as well. You can choose the dress from bridal catalogues, call the shops in the States in advance and then pop over to collect of the dress of your dreams.  Simple!

I don’t know a bride to be out there that hasn’t indulged in buying a wedding magazine or two while planning her big day, so most of you out there will most definitely have heard of Confetti - probably the biggest wedding mag out there!  Recently, I got an email from one of the Confetti-ites asking me would I be interested in doing some guest blogging for them.  Naturally, I was absolutely delira to be asked to contribute to the Confetti.ie blogs & newsletter which will be going out weekly.

For the first post, I wrote about…what else?!  Choosing the Right Wedding Venue..

Once a couple gets engaged, inevitably the first job to be done is to choose the wedding venue! Now, as the months of planning go on, you will begin to get very in tune with what’s hot in weddings and get a clearer picture as to what you want your big day to be like. But with one of the biggest decisions one of the first things you have to do, it can be a daunting experience!

Of primary importance is the type of venue you want to get married in. This will end up factoring into most other decisions you make regarding the wedding. The type of venue may help dictate the style and the pace of the day as well as some of the necessary and not-so-necessary suppliers you need to have.

For the rest of the article, check out the original on Confetti.ie

This whole “Yippee! We’re married! Now throw things at us!” tradition of confetti and rice chucking has never made a huge amount of sense to me, but a lot of wedding traditions are a little strange when you stop to think about them. The throwing of confetti is actually meant to bestow prosperity and fertility on the newly wed couple - a connection that’s less than obvious in modern times.

Assuming cash and babies sound good to you, rice is apparently out these days (it’s bad for the birds who eat it), and traditional confetti is frowned upon (it’s environmentally unfriendly) so it’s time to come up with some creative options you’d actually want to be showered with.

Top choices: rose petals are romantic and beautiful; birdseed is inexpensive to buy in bulk and feeds our feathered friends; and lavender is an unusual and fragrant way to make your way up the aisle.

You can make or buy simple cones in a variety of papers and tie them to the aisle seats to provide your posh replacement confetti to your guests:

Alternatively, you can buy fluted bonbonniere boxes and fill them with the sprinkles of your choice:

These tied rounds are easy to make yourself with some inexpensive muslin, a pair of pinking shears and lengths of ribbon in the colour of your choice:

Finally, if you just want to buy something off the shelf, bubbles are a fun and beautiful way to sprinkle the bride and groom, and if your photographer is any good, look amazing in photos. A whole range of bridal bubbles are available online in Ireland from Lantz, but you can also use any kind of bubbles and even wrap them with your own custom labels.