The Bride is Always Late: Irish Wedding Blog from WeddingDates.ie » Wedding Resources

Finding The Perfect Wine: How To

ClaireB — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:01:36 +0000

It’s important to have just the right wine for a wedding. Nothing complements a fine meal as much as the perfect bottle of wine. Special wines make special weddings. On the other hand, the wrong wine can practically ruin the meal. That is why it’s critical to spend the time to find the wine that brings the meal together.

Don’t count on hear-say. Pursue the matter by attending a wine tasting. It makes sense to sample the options if you want to enhance the flavors of your meal. There are two basic rules to use for choosing a wine:

1. Red wines go better with heartier, heavier meats like beef, veal and pork. The complex flavors in a red wine are more evident with more savory foods.

2. White wines work better with lighter meats like chicken, fish and seafood. Their delicate flavors balance beautifully.

Buy the best wine the budget can stand. See if it’s possible to return any unopened bottles. If the liquor store won’t accept returns, use the extra bottles as presents. Hardly anybody’s going to complain about a red wine gift. A local liquor store is more likely to give a sweetheart price by the case.

Knowing The Basics:

• When taste-testing wines, try five red wines and five white wines. Include some low and high priced options, so you can compare what you’re getting for the dollar.
• If it’s desirable to have something bubbly, pick a nice sparkling wine instead of champagne. Sparkling wines are a great deal. Nobody will know the difference or ask the cost of the wine.

• Pick a wine that people are familiar with, like a chardonnay or merlot. It’s not your job to educate your guests. Give them something they already know and love.
• Don’t be afraid to look outside the US. Believe it or not, it can actually be cheaper to buy imported wines from places like Argentina or Sicily.
• Check out the wines offered by the catering hall. It could be cheaper to go with a better house wine than to pay corking fees for wine that you bring to the wedding.

A wedding happens once in a lifetime. Make sure the wine is as perfect as the rest of the celebration by taste-testing and following the advice of a professional!

{Brandon Gray works part time for a wine delivery company and has a personal affection for wines and food. What appears to be missing in wine writing is the personal attachment to wine in one’s writing – the soul, the desire to not just drink a glass of it but maybe drown the whole bottle because it tastes so good to the meal one made for himself / herself. Isn’t that, what wine should really be about? The desire of tasting something that gives you an instant feeling of being taken either to Tuscany enjoying the fabulous grapes and cherry notes while eating classical Spaghetti, or to French Riviera wearing your big shades while sitting in a restaurant at the boardwalk being all tied up with yourself and the glass of Bordeaux Chateau de Selle and Chateau de Saint-Martin in Taradeau.}

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Make The Morning of The Wedding Fun with Ring Pillow Diva

ClaireB — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:00:59 +0000

Ring Pillow Diva are now offering all manner of fab products that help you add sparkle and personality to your wedding: lose the stress of having to source these items and let the Diva do the work for you.

On the morning of the wedding, all the girls get together to have hair and make up done. An upcoming trend is to have the bridal party wrapped in Wedding bathrobes, that also make an ideal gift for your bridesmaids and a wonderful, long lasting keepsake for the proud mother of the Bride & Groom.

The bathrobes are available in Egyptian cotton and Waffle cotton and can be personalised to your wedding party. Bride, Bridesmaid, Mother of the Bride etc. The embroidery thread colour can be chosen to match your wedding colour scheme.

Wedding shoes painful by the time dinner comes around? Why not opt for a sparkling wedge heel Flip flop to dance the night away, These are ideal as the height ensures your gown doesn’t trail as you mingle with your guests. These are also ideal for your honeymoon if you are heading to a warmer destination.

We are now specialising in gift hampers for the house of the Bride and the Groom, ready for the morning of the wedding.

Grooms Hamper can include:

Bathrobes for the Groom, Best Man and Mother of the Groom
Wedding socks for the men in the wedding
Funky Cuff links for the men in the wedding party
Wedding Crew T-shirts for the men to wear for the morning shave/haircut
Ring Security T-shirts for the Best Man and page boy
Under New Management T-shirt for the morning after the wedding
Hip flask for the Father of the Groom and groomsmen

Brides Hamper can include:

Bathrobes for the Bride, Bridesmaid, Flower Girl and Mother of the Bride
Wedding Socks & Hip flask for the Father of the Bride
Wedge Heel Crystal Flip Flops for dancing later that night
Bride & Bridesmaid Tote Bags

Also, let the ceremony shine with some of the new ways of marking your walk up the aisle: from Silver Rose Ring Holders to personalised ‘Here Comes the Bride’ banners .

Contact Tracie or find Ring Pillow Diva on Facebook to see some of these unusual products that are sure to make your day memorable.

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Choosing Wedding Colours and Themes: 3 Useful Sources

ClaireB — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:00:08 +0000

Your mother in-law wants one colour. You want something else. Your groom has his say and then your mother gives her two cents too. How about consulting a few sources as a starting point:

1. Pinterest
This is a virtual pinboard where people pin up all their favourite things. The various pinboards might not be related to weddings but just strolling through the categories and various boards will get you thinking about themes and colours.

2. Flickr
Flickr has thousands of groups that will get your creativity flowing. Use the link above as a starting point and dig deeper from there. You will be amazed at what you find along the way.

3. Compfight
Compfight is a Creative Commons search tool but you can use it in a unique way for your wedding. By typing in a colour you can bring up multiple search results with images that have been tagged with that colour. The images will not only provide decor inspiration but they will give you a good idea of complimentary colours and also hues that clash.

Happy colour hopping… you might just lose yourself in the colour spectrum!

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Pearly Whites for your Wedding Day

Ciara Crossan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:30:00 +0000

One of the perks of this job it has to be said is that some businesses offering services to wedding couples ask me to try it out for myself so I can relate to what our brides and grooms to be are going through. Well, this month I got my teeth whitened to try out this relatively new phenomenon of everyone wanting that “hollywood smile”.

Dennehys Cross Dental offers this service and are in huge demand not only with wedding couples, but also with mothers of the bride, bridesmaids and groomsmen and even wedding guests – everyone wants to look their best at the wedding!

The treatment in Dennehys Cross Dental is called Solus Pro which is a “light activated enahancement whitening process that lightens discoloration of the enamel and dentin.” What does that mean? Basically they put a gel on your teeth and point a bright light towards your teeth for 3 sessions of 10 minutes each, one after the other.

All in all,you’ll be there for about an hour, between the 5-10 minutes prep and the treatment itself. Some patients say they experience some sensitivity, but (thankfully!) I didn’t get anything more than a little tingling. For 24/48 hours after the treatment, you are suppossed to have a “white diet” – ie, no red wine or strong curries etc.

Rest assured, you are not going to come out looking like Simon Cowell afterwards, people won’t need to put on shades to talk to you! If you take a look at the before and after photos, you can see the difference that the treatment made – I was delighted with the results!

Depending on your diet, if you get this treatment done it should last about a year or a year and a half. So, great value at the €199 cost!

To find out more about teeth whitening and to book your appointment, go to Dennehys Cross Dental Care >>

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White Vintage Wedding Inspiration: Think Creatively For Your Day!

ClaireB — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:00:08 +0000

Your day needs to reflect you. Use this gallery as an inspiration board to get you thinking out of the box.

white vintage wedding inspiration for weddingdates.ie, a gallery on Flickr.

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Wedding Styling….oh so chic

Ciara Crossan — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:30:56 +0000

My current obsession is the online shop NotOnTheHighStreet.com which stocks unusual and personalized gifts from sellers all over the UK, things that you cannot get in regular stores.

They have a whole wedding section, and even have a gift list registry which is a brill way to deck out your new home with funky stuff! But, what really took my fancy was the wedding styling section. Styling your wedding is becoming a big deal these days and couples try to personalize their big day as much as possible. That means that no matter where the wedding venue you can put your own stamp on the place and create real memorable moments for your guests.

Check out this fab birdcage Table Plan decoration which can be re-used as a noticeboard in your home after the wedding! Now that is recycling at its best!

Or how about this oh-so-cute Mr & Mrs sign which you can hang at the entrance to your venue – you can get these personalized for as little as £29.

Hang these willow hearts from the backs of chairs or use as part of your table centrepiece for a rustic look:

Have an elaborate venue that needs some signage? Check out these beauties….

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Introducing….the WeddingDates App

Ciara Crossan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:44:31 +0000

iPhone owners and lovers of all things Weddings, will be delira to hear that we now have a WeddingDates App which you can download FOR FREE >>

The app allows you to search for wedding venues and Suppliers by County or Type, save shortlists and send suggestions to your fiancee or friends. You can check out wedding menus and brochures and even watch videos on the app! And it will also deliver our blog posts and tweets right to your phone daily.

If you are a fan of the app, leave a comment we’d love to hear what your experience is like with it and if there is anything extra you’d like us to add in version 2, bring it on!

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Wish List, Gift List

Ciara Crossan — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:30:42 +0000

As I have mentioned here before, I am not a huge fan of cash gifts at weddings. I know it is the ”done” thing these days, but I still find it tacky to put cash in a card. Then again, some people find the whole registering-for-gifts tacky too. So, how can you win?!

I have written before about the honeypot idea where guests can contribute to the couples honeymoon fund in advance of the wedding and if you do have your heart set on a Gift Registry we had some great Do and Don’t tips from wedding planner Annie.

One irish company that operates an online gift list is called WeddingWishList.ie. They have 10,000 gifts online from 100 Gift Partners – with everything from crystal & diningware to home & gardenware to electronics to fine food & wine to luxury spa weekends so you don’t need to be restricted to just one shop.

They do it all online, so you can set up your list and then send the link to your guests to allow them logon and choose what they want to get for you at the click of a mouse. This is really handy if you are having an overseas wedding where guests can’t bring gifts or you have lots of visitors coming to your Irish wedding from abroad.

This month, they are having a €1,000 giveaway, click here to find out more >>

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Did someone say Wine?!

Ciara Crossan — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:40:43 +0000

Whether you are a connoisseur or a Friday night tippler, a pure wine snob or someone who wouldn’t know their Chardonnay from their Pinot – no Irish wedding would be complete without wine!

Our favourite wine dudes over at CuriousWines.ie want to survey Irish Wedding Couples to find out what’s hot and what’s not when it comes to picking your wedding wine.

They are generously offering wedding wine tasting kits to give away to three lucky respondents, each kit comprising six wedding wines from their specialised new site WeddingWines.ie menu, tasting glasses,corkscrew and an Essential Wine Tasting Guide. The survey should take no more than two minutes to complete so what are you waiting for…you like wine?! Then go take the survey here >>

Can’t wait that long or don’t feel lucky? Then check out the selection (and great prices) for your Wedding Wine direct on their site.

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Google Weddings

Ciara Crossan — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:09:51 +0000

The wedding world is about to have a revolution! Yesterday, internet giant Google dived into the wedding planning industry, launching a complete planning portal for brides and grooms to be. Google Weddings is a brand new site with wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik for save-the-dates, wedding websites, planning materials, invitations and more. Basically, you can plan and share you whole wedding now via Google. And all for free! This is going to have many wedding planning websites who charge for you to create your wedding website etc shaking in their boots now doubt!

Google has also partnered with a US based wedding planner Michelle Rago to give expert advice and suggestions on designs to use in the templates. A year ago, Google Docs began offering customized wedding templates that let users access pre filled templates to manage their wedding budget, collect addresses for invitations, compare prices for different suppliers, so this is a natural extension of that. Head over to http://www.google.com/weddings to see what it is all about and begin storing and sharing all of your wedding plans now!

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