Wedding Ideas: Day to Day Life at GfB
Today is the day.
Morning everyone,
Well today’s the day, after 11 months of planning I can’t believe our wedding day is here!
Today’s update will be brief as we are getting married at 12pm, so I need to be super organised today as I need have my hair and make-up done before Nicky arrives at 11am to help to get me dressed.In true tradition Mike didn’t stay at home last night, but I had a relaxing evening with my Mum and a couple of bridesmaids that are staying with me.
So, this is it! I can’t wait to see Mike at the church at 12pm and spending the rest of our lives together. Mike, if you read this I love you loads and am so looking forward to be Mrs. H-D
Lots of Love
Sarah x
My wedding countdown! -Thursday. So near yet so far.
Dear All my brides to be,
Thursday was a much more relaxed affair! I actually managed to sleep from 10.30pm to 6.30am! Having gone for a run to set the day off, I went to see Laura at Eynsham Hall. We went through the day and all the gifts, table plans and table decorations, just to make sure that we were thinking along the same lines. From there I went to Oxford to pick up the new waistcoat and trousers for Mike, then off to Wantage to get my engagment ring cleaned. I also managed to collect Mike’s present and did a food shop for the morning of the wedding.So when I eventually got home, I wrapped Mike’s present and finished packing for the honeymoon. I also managed to walk around my house whilst wearing my wedding shoes to break them in. Spray tan at 7pm, then supper cooked by Mike and an early night… Watch this space!
This morning, Friday, I start with a manicure and pedicure, then a quick lunch, before collecting my bridesmaid, Donna, from the station. Not much later I have, Linda, my bridesmaid and flower girl, my brother, mum and dad turning to help me bring together the final things. Once we have finished the final bridesmaids fitting we just have the church rehersel and then some beauty sleep I think! Wish me luck for tomorrow…a big, but beautiful day.
Loads of Love Sarah x
My wedding countdown – Wide awake on Wednesday!
Dear All my lovely Brides,
Wednesday started a little earlier than I would have liked! Having woken up at 4am, I decided at 6am I might as well get up! At 9.30am I had my waxing and eyelash tint by Kerry Boniface, the lady doing my make up on the day too. We had some bad news from the band….unfortunately the lead singer cant make it now due to really bad personal circumstances, but luckily they have found a replacement singer- lets hope he is up to the job!
After lunch I took on the growing list of jobs! Haveing dropped off the ushers suits, cleaned the house and made up the spare rooms for guests coming on Friday, I packed my overnight bag and (the start of!) my honeymoon suitcase…
Then I met up with Nicky and Dani, for the dress rehearsal. It was a last chance to make sure that everything was okay, and hopefully an attempt to make the big day a little more relaxed! If that’s possible?! Arrived home for the night to find an usher, who has come over Oz for the wedding, already trying on his suit! A few phone calls then bed.
Not long now, the end is in site. A real mixture of nerves and excitement! Hopefully sleep better tonight
Lots of love
Sarah x
My wedding countdown – Toppers for Tuesday!
Dear brides to be,
Here I am again… not long now! Just looked at the weather forecast for Saturday… looking a little showery! Hopefully the rain will stay away long enough to get everybody into Eynsham hall, our reception venue. I dropped off the cake toppers and went over the final details of the cake decoration with Jana Mccagie at Tortebella. All looking good in that department! Just found time to pop into Oxford to collect my currency, toiletries (and some clothes!) for the honeymoon. Can’t wait for a chance to escape away for a couple of weeks with Mike!
Found some nice white pashminas for my bridesmaids as it looks a little chilly on the day! Although I am rushed off my feet I still found time to meet up with my friend, Fran, for lunch.
In the afternoon, I made up all the bags for each table to be taken to Eynsham Hall on Thursday and printed off all the information about them.
I am still trying to sort out the suit problems…(the best man shirt is too small!) with my phone contanstly off the hook! My mum is asking about the church seating and timings and my brother about what jobs he has to do… Despite sending an email to the ushers with their jobs last week, I sent it again just to make sure, as well as printing of maps to the reception venue and a list of ‘Jobs on the day’ for the best man!
I suddenly remembered that I had to have cash for payments on the day, so ran and got that out of the bank. I finished the day by choosing my brothers as witnesses and sending the order of the day to my bridesmaids.
Thank god for Fran, would not have made it through the day without her! We topped of the day with a bottle of wine in the tap and a curry! The best way to get over a busy day….
Looking forward to hearing from you
Love Sarah x
An end to Vintage cars?
With a vintage revival across the wedding industry it is sad that vintage wedding car businesses are now under threat from the Law Commission who are considering removing the existing exemption for wedding and funeral cars for their new private hire regulations.
The new regulations will require vintage car owners and drivers to jump through a number of (expensive) hoops including local authority licensing, special driving tests, medical tests and CRB checks, and while it will increase safety it will also force the smaller operators off the road.
Good luck to all those campaigning, including David Jones of The Vintage and Classic Car Company. Let’s hope a degree of common sense can be employed before this consultation becomes law.
Coming soon… our blog on Kindle
The Guides for Brides blog will be available on Kindle via Amazon from Monday.
Wedding TV advert
We are all very excited here that our advert on Wedding TV is being launched tomorrow. For anyone who hasn’t discovered Wedding TV yet it is on Sky 266 and on FreeSat and has loads of great wedding based programs including Bridal Boudoir and Celebrity Hens & Stags and loads of honeymoon suggestions.
Want to see our new TV advert before anyone else…?
Trudi’s Wedding
Countdown over, and I have been inundated with requests for an update.
HOW DID TRUDI’S WEDDING GO?
Well, a full report will be featured in our South Oxfordshire Guide, and with our other online Real Life Weddings, and of course no one is going to get to see any of the 1700 photos taken until Trudi and Ian return from honeymoon next week…
The wedding went without a hitch, which is just as you would hope and expect after so much preparation. The weather was perfect, in that no one had to worry about getting too hot, or squinting at the sun in photos, or indeed about washing their clothes afterwards thanks to an evening downpour. For an English wedding you have to look on the bright side when it comes to the weather.
Trudi wore a stunning three-quarter length dress. No one really noticed what Ian wore as they were all looking at Trudi, and bridesmaids Gemma, Ellie and Maisie looked fabulous in their last-minute choice of dresses.
The food was great (thanks to Guides for Brides staff Jackie, Hannah and Grace for rolling their sleeves up and serving for the afternoon) and the dance floor was packed until well after midnight.
Trudi and Ian left for their honeymoon in Malaysia the following day, and from all reports have been very well looked after by our generous friends at The Shangri-La, Majestic Malacca and Tanjong Jara hotels. We look forward to reading the reviews!
Countdown to Trudi’s wedding; Never work with animals
Every wedding has a different set of challenges to overcome in the run up, and marquee weddings definitely invite more than their fair share.
Location, location, location is key, and we were all delighted that Trudi chose the grounds surrounding the Guides for Brides offices at Larkhill Farm to pitch her marquee. Like all farms, Larkhill Farm is home to various animals.
Marquee preparations were interrupted today by one of the dogs choosing to decorate the marquee floor in her own unique way. Having been chased out of the marquee they discovered to their delight that a gate had been left open and freedom was theirs.
One of the resident horses then took flight at the sight of the gently flapping marquee and attempted, only partly successfully, to jump a 5 bar gate. Another interruption to help free the wildly flailing horse from her precarious position suspended by her hind legs.
Of course the advantage to the farm setting is all the lovely fresh eggs; no problem in supplying a couple of dozen free range chicken eggs to be whipped into pavlovas tonight. The dozen ducks eggs for the vegetarian quiche are more of a challenge thanks to a fox who visited today taking all but one of the ducks. We suspect the remaining duck is actually a drake and may not be much help for laying eggs….
Countdown to Trudi’s wedding; the music debate
Every great wedding reception needs a really good live band or disco and Trudi has chosen a client who has been a huge supporter of Guides for Brides since we started in 1995, Adrian North Disco.
Over coffee this morning the office debated the top 5 “must have” wedding reception songs, and the 5 guaranteed to kill the party and after much debate on whether we could include “all songs by Status Quo” in either list, we have the ultimate top 5.
Our Top 5 classic Wedding Disco songs:
- Dancing Queen by Abba
- I’ve had the Time of my Life from Dirty Dancing
- The One that I Want from Greece
- The Road to Amarillo by Tony Christie
- YMCA by The Village People
And the 5 to avoid:
- D-I-V-O-R-C-E by Dolly Parton
- Agadoo by Black Lace
- The Macarena by Los del Rio
- **** You by Eamon
- Walking in the Air by Aled Jones
Countdown to Trudi’s wedding
Trudi has been part of Guides for Brides for nearly 10 years – it seems that most of that time she was waiting for Ian to finally get down on one knee.
But he eventually did, and after many months of preparation the big day is just 5 days away and we thought it would be fun to share the trials and tribulations of a bride who has all the possible contacts and connections to ensure that her wedding does without a murmer of a problem … if only life was that simple.
Today, a big “thumbs down” to Sainsburys in Wantage. We would always recommend that you use a catering hire company for all your glasses, and Trudi has used Oxford Event Hire for mst things, but when supermarkets offer free or cheap glass hire it is tempting. Needless to say the order, placed many months ago, was lost by Sainsbury’s staff. We will be sipping champagne straight from the bottle.
And another thumbs down, again for Sainsbury’s. They need 7 days notice, not 5 days, to supply fresh bread rolls. They don’t sound that fresh if they need that much notice. Now, I don’t mind sipping champagne from the bottle but eating hog roast without the roll might get messy. Hoping that our friends at GW Shepherd Bakery in Chieveley may come to the rescue.
To err is human, to forgive is divine
Those with an eagle eye may have noticed a major change to our site with the addition of 9168 churches last night. This is a major project that we have been quietly working on with the Church of England for several months and will, at last, make churches more accessible to couples who do not regularly attend.
Unfortunately we overlooked one minor issue, and as we uploaded adverts for every Church of England church, from Guernsey to the Isle of Man, an automated email went to every single one of them confirming a total of £871000 in advertising.
Never before have we answered quite so many phone calls in such a short period of time, while waiting for approval from the church media office to send an email to confirm that we are not charging churches for this service.
What has surprised us, from the calls we have received, is the variation from church to church in the understanding and interpretation of the Marriage Measure 2008. Some have asked for the wording on our site to be changed to discourage “casual Christianity” they would like to make it clear that couples are expected to have a strong connection with the church where they would like to marry as well as regularly attending for at least six months and undertaking to join an ongoing “support” group. Other vicars are keen to make everyone welcome if the law allows it.
It will be interesting to see whether making the church more accessible to couples starts to correct the balance between civil ceremonies and church weddings.
Wedding TV
It was great to sign an agreement with Wedding TV today. They have had a rough few months with changes in owners and investors, but they have a great team headed up by the indomitable Nick Tiday and some great content on their channel.
In the United States, wedding television shows are big news, and with the popularity of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and Four Weddings in the UK we are heading in the same direction. Sky’s Wedding TV channel currently includes content on venues, honeymoon features and a couple of different series on wedding cakes. “Crafty Brides” will follow soon – a series on how to make your own wedding dress, cakes, invites and bouquet. We will be featuring some of their content on our web site and look forward to seeing our TV adverts going out over the next few months.
Sky’s Wedding TV can be found on Channel 266
Discount Weddings
I am surprised it has taken this long. I received an email today from a company following in the footsteps of Groupon with a discount wedding web site.
Participating businesses offer a minimum of a 25% discount to brides, and then pay the web site a further 25% commission on each deal.
Will it work? Never.
For an important event like a wedding couples choose their suppliers based on a large number of criteria, not on price alone. For the company to lose nearly 50% in the deal they are likely to cut corners in supplying their service. So, the couple has compromised on their choice of supplier AND is receiving sub-standard service.
It is bad news for wedding businesses too. Savvy brides will start browsing the net to see if they can book their chosen supplier cheaper by not booking direct. So, the couple that you met at a wedding fair and were ready to book you at full price will book you via “MyWeddingDeals” with a 25% discount, landing you with a bill for 25% commission just to double your misery.
Cutting edge in wedding stationery
It is always nice to see new businesses with a really good product, and at Earls Court’s Top Drawer trade event yesterday the stand that really stood out was Cutture who design and make intricate wedding place settings and small decorative pieces.
Director Helen Sharland is working hard to expand the range which also includes beautiful butterflies, birds and snowflakes to perch on the edge of wine glasses as an innovative place setting.
Has that dog signed a disclaimer?
It was with a sigh of relief that I read yesterday’s Prime Minister notes detailing plans to drastically reduce the amount of time SMEs are spending on risk assessments and health and safety, and addressing the “blame and claim” culture where employers seem automatically at fault for accidents in the work place. This must be the best news for small businesses for a very long time.
Every Wedding Fair we run requires an inordinate amount of health and safety checks and paperwork, but to add to that our offices are in open countryside, so our risk assessments need to cover such eventualities of safely removing a small pony from the kitchen and a chicken from a desk. Both have happened in recent years.
We had, however, failed to file a risk assessment for the eventuality of a seemingly friendly Staffordshire Terrier leaping into Grace’s car as she left the office yesterday. Having curled up on the passenger seat nothing could persuade it to get back out, so off Grace drove to the local vets with several stone of potentially aggressive dog within easy reach of her jugular. Imagine the liability there had it all gone wrong. Having safely deposited the dog with the vet we are now awaiting a claim from the dog’s owner against us for kidnapping their stray dog.
The regulation changes can’t come soon enough.