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A wedding destination with sublime surroundings

Imagine a palatial hotel wedding destination that exudes elegance and grandeur situated in over 1,065 acres of glorious parklands with lush meadows and exquisite gardens. Grade I-listed Luton Hoo Hotel, Golf & Spa, located on the Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire border, is that destination. Highlights of the hotel include the fine-dining Wernher Restaurant, with interior design reminiscent of the Palace of Versailles, an ESPA spa and wellness facilities, a 7,107-yard, par 73 golf course and club house, as well as a separate private events venue, Warren Weir, which overlooks a lake. The sublime surroundings, 1,065 acres of grounds, largely landscaped by capability brown provide a picture-perfect backdrop for any wedding celebration.

Could This Be Prince Harry’s Stag night?

Stag Do

Like most, we woke up on the 27th of November to the news that Prince Harry will marry his girlfriend and Suits actress Meghan Markle. The couple have been dating for a year and a half and will tie the knot at Windsor Castle sometime next year. While many people’s first thought was wondering if we get a bank holiday and day off work to ‘celebrate’, The Stag Company decided to get in quick and throw in their hat to host Harry’s stag night. The Prince is renowned for his party antics and unsurprisingly the thought of a stag night for such a man has excited many. The Stag Company’s iteration is a weekend in both London and Prague with activities that are all related to the prince and royalty.

10 Tips to Exhibit at a Bridal Show Like a Pro

Wedding show

Exhibiting at a bridal show can be great for your business: you get the chance to meet brides who are looking for your products and services, which could result in lots of sales.

However, they can be very overwhelming and stressful if you turn up unprepared.

 

Here, RAL Display discuss their top ten tips for exhibiting at a bridal show.

 

1. Create an Eye-Catching Stand

Say ‘I do’ to a scented wedding hat

Wedding Hat

Fragrance experience designers Design In Scent have collaborated with royal milliner Jane Taylor to launch the UK’s first scented wedding hat collection – a beautiful way to mark the big day and continue remembering it long after it’s over…

Looking for a unique way to remember your – or a friend or relative’s - wedding day? Then it could be time to invest in a scented wedding hat. The brainchild of fragrance designers Gemma Hopkins and Meghan Fay – aka Design In Scent – and Kate Middleton’s milliner Jane Taylor this exquisite Winter collection of scented hats is cleverly infused with perfume from the Design In Scent Wedding Collection.

Wedding planning with Red Herring Catering and Event Management

Wedding planning with Red Herring

Your wedding day is the biggest day of your life and definitely the best party you will ever throw. Which, from the outset makes the wedding planning feel a major task and perhaps a touch overwhelming. As award winning caterers with a team who can offer the whole package, including full event management of your big day, wedding planning with Red Herring really couldn’t be a more attractive start to your wedding.

3 Untold Ways to Prevent Overpaying for Your Wedding Suit

Mens Finest

Undoubtedly, wedding is the most illustrious occasion in every man's life, as this mark the beginning of a new chapter in his life. On the wedding eve, like all men, you must be striving to look charismatic, smart and ‘dress-to-kill’. Making sure the heads of your best pals and relatives turn towards you, and most importantly, magnetise your bride at first look. However don’t try to out-do your bride. She is the most important person that day. Picking a wedding suit has always been a baffling task, because, you need something really adorable the match up the aesthetic beauty of your upcoming soul mate.

When wedding stress turns into anxiety

Dealing with wedding stress

It’s widely recognised that wedding planning is a joyful, exciting and stressful time and wedding stress is probably going to affect you! There’s a huge amount of pressure for everything to be ‘perfect’ and for those suffering with anxiety, that pressure is felt even more intensely – above and beyond the usual stresses. As well as worrying about the ‘perfect day’, anxiety sufferers may find themselves over-worrying and over-analysing.

Am I the only bride-to-be that feels like this?

I can’t tell anybody – what if they think I have cold feet?

It’s supposed to be the happiest time of my life – why do I feel so over whelmed?

Five questions to ask your venue’s wedding coordinator

Redworth Hall wedding venue

Vicki Dewdney and Deborah Allen, Wedding Coordinators at The Redworth Hall Hotel in County Durham, part of The Cairn Collection, have nearly 15 years’ experience between them of organising weddings, from a two-day multi-cultural wedding with more than 300 guests to an intimate soiree for just 18 people. They share their insights into how to get the very best from your venue’s wedding coordinator.

Top ideas for the perfect wedding breakfast

Hyland wedding venue

Michelle Marwood, Events & New Business Coordinator, at award-winning wedding venue Hylands House, Essex gives us some sweet ideas for making a wedding breakfast that is just your cup of tea.

A wedding breakfast can be anything you want it to be these days from a traditional three course meal to having lots of food stations where guests can help themselves to a variety of different foods. And these days you can really indulge people with an array of cakes.

5 Top tips for a perfect wedding breakfast

Wedding breakfastEdible Venues

Embrace colour with a fusion wedding

Get knotted flowers

When planning your wedding, how do you decide on a theme or colour scheme? Simple, don’t stick to one, incorporate a few themes and colours for a stunning fusion wedding. Be creative with colour and include different tones and hues of your favourites across all of your styling and details.

Wedding stylist, Lindsey Hunter shares how you can create a colourful wedding using Indian, Moroccan and Scottish details for a beautiful take on a striking fusion wedding.

 

Colour

A truly indulgent hen party at The Verbena Spa

Feversham Arms

For bridal parties looking to relax, unwind and truly pamper themselves before the big day, The Verbena spa offers luxurious spa experiences with delicious lunches, fizz and bespoke treatments that ticks all the beauty boxes. The Feversham Arms, home to The Verbena Spa in North Yorkshire, welcomes your hen party throughout the year to treat themselves and prepare their mind and body for the special occasion ahead.

Ever Fasting love

Nutritionist Kim Pearson

If your wedding day is approaching, or if it's the lead up to someone else's big day, the chances are you may be thinking about shaping up! If you don't have time to follow a wedding diet plan, fasting maybe the answer.

New research into fasting is turning traditional nutrition advice on its head. We’re now learning that going for extended periods of time without food can provide a wide range of benefits. Fasting has been shown to promote health and longevity by reducing numerous disease risk factors and promoting cellular regeneration.
When carried out in the right way, fasting will not automatically result in a reduced metabolic rate or rebound weight gain as once believed.

Blushing Bride Fled During a Fitting for her Wedding Dress!   

Blushing bride

Blushing bride Debbie Rhodes, 33, from Glasgow, talks to Vows and Venues about how she solved her blushing problem before her big day, with the help of KALME products.

“I struggled for years with severe blushing and redness before I knew what it was. Everything seemed to make my skin go bright red. Most beauty creams made me go red, if I went in the sun, drank alcohol, got embarrassed or got in any awkward situations my skin would flush an embarrassing shade of red.

Three-day weddings are all the rage at country hotel!

Dunkery Wedding Venue

COUPLES getting married are going for extended weddings with celebrations lasting a few days says one award-winning Somerset venue this month.

Dunkery Beacon Country House Hotel near Dunster, which is a boutique hotel with a multi-award-winning restaurant, says it is seeing an increase in interest for three-day celebrations. 

Jane Bradley, who co-owns the business with her husband John, explained: “Newlyweds wishing to spread the fun are going for an extended party. It’s getting very popular for couples to want the event to go on for a few days, rather than just focus on one BIG day.

The Road to wedding Relaxtion

Manchester Spa

As I scurry through the city streets trying to escape the worst of the pouring rain, I glance up to the grey sky and wonder how anywhere else on this planet could be blessed with sunshine and warmth. But Manchester has a hidden secret; an oasis of calm and relaxation among the buzz of the Northern Quarter offering a splash of exotic colour against the dreary, drab streets of the city in winter.

Finally I spot my my destination. Rather unassuming from the outside, the Sarasin Spa, in Bradley Street, looks like the usual hairdressers or beauty salon you’d expect to find in Manchester, but I urge you not to be fooled by its newbuild, typically British exterior.

Vows and Venues top 5 wedding transport tips

Wedding transport

Every wedding day should be fit for a princess, so what could be better than the fairytale dream of princess ball gowns, rose petals and the traditional horse and carriage for your wedding transport? 

The image of the perfect wedding can mean different things to different people, but it can be hard to shake off that expectation of a big white wedding.

However, gone are the days when every bride must resemble a meringue-based dessert and say “I do” in the family church.

Nowadays, the most important thing to a 21st-century bride is to make sure her big day is 100% unique.

Make room for relaxation on your wedding to-do list

Craxton wood

Weddings can be a stressful affair. Perpetual planning, hunting for THAT dress and don’t even mention the pesky guest list… What a bride-to-be needs, is relaxation and to escape that very busy head space of hers from time to time and at Vows and Venues, we know just the place.

Ok so it’s a spa, but stay with us because this isn’t just any spa, this is the world of ESPA...

We often think of spas as a special treat, a luxurious once in a blue moon break, which of course they can be, but how about upping the ante and making your journey through steam and sauna a necessity instead?

Getting Married in Moroccan Splendour 

Moroccan wedding

If you’ve been dreaming of a colourful, bohemian wedding or your style is more simple and charming, Es Saadi Marrakech Resort can ensure a dream wedding in Moroccan paradise.

An opulent resort set in 20 acres of palms, banana trees, roses, bougainvillea and bird-song, the Es Saadi Marrakech Resort is an oasis of Moroccan splendour in the heart of Marrakech’s Golden Triangle.  Couples looking for an exceptional and beautiful setting for their wedding need look no further, Es Saadi’s setting looking out onto the snow-capped Atlas Mountains, near the bustling souks and Jemaa El Fnaa square, is the ideal location for a destination wedding.

Self love, practice it before the big day

Practice self love

With your wedding day coming up, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. The pressure and stress of last minute changes, vows to write and the thought of a marriage to work on for a lifetime can fill you with doubt and worry. These feelings are quite healthy and common, and with the most beautiful day of your life ahead of you now is the perfect time to reflect on how you choose to embark on this journey. Now is the time to practice self love. 

A hen do to get you in the Festive spirit

Christmas hen do train

What could be more romantic than celebrating your hen do during the Christmas period, the most magical time of the year? For hen’s really wanting to get in the festive spirit, The Train to Christmas Town is the ultimate way to celebrate your last weekend of freedom with the merry man himself – Father’s Christmas! This brand new experience, curated by the team behind the original THE POLAR EXPRESS™ Train Ride, is launching in the UK this Christmas and tickets are selling fast! Hens can dress up in their best Christmas jumpers, cover themselves in festive glitter and join in with the joyous journey all the way to Christmas Town.