Wedding Advice

Swap tossing and turning for sweet dreams and get a good nights sleep, with these pre-wedding sleep tips from pyjama and slipper brand Pretty You London.

Sleep is hugely important in the run up to your wedding day.  You’ll want to be well rested to take on the biggest day of your life (and party until the early hours).  And of-course it’s the one night when beauty sleep is even more of a priority.  Yet the stresses and strains of wedding planning often result in sleepless nights. So, how do you ensure you’re getting enough shut eye ahead of the big day? Rebecca Brown, head of design at premium pyjama and slipper brand Pretty You London shares the following tips.

A memorable wedding day is of course always about seeing a stunning bride and groom tie the knot - but make sure you pay attention to the small details when you’re planning a wedding! It’s the small intricate details that will leave a lasting impression with your guests and leave them with a wedding to remember that they will smile about the day for years to come!

The top tips for making a wedding to remember

Small personal touches really go a long way with your guests. Making sure every detail ties into your theme really shows you have thought about everything.

Are you currently planning a wedding or maybe your a guest saving to attend a wedding? According to recent research carried out by Barclays, "4 in 10 Brits regret their wedding day, with 36 per cent citing poor financial planning as the main reason for this".  That's why here at Vows and Venues we have spoken with Clare Francis, director of Savings and Investments for Barclays to get you the top wedding saving tips.

Planning your wedding can be extremely stressful - and it’s no surprise, you’re juggling everything from flowers and photography to table planning, guest lists and everything in between. To manage your stress levels, as well as to ensure you’re looking and feeling your very best on the big day, it’s essential that you get enough rest, relaxation and sleep. All helping you to have a stress-free wedding while also boosting your energy levels overall, and ensuring that you’re skin is looking radiant and your eyes bright and sparkling!  

It's officially wedding season!  And and their will be many babies at weddings with their parents during the season.

In preparation, experts from The Baby Show with MadeForMums, which returned to the Birmingham NEC last weekend and London Olympia in October (19th - 21st) have compiled a list of their top tips to parents who will have their babies at weddings this year.

Think about it!

Make sure that you are clear about whether or not your baby is actually invited. 

Ultimately, your wedding is meant to be a day of celebration with your loved ones. However, planning for the big day can be notoriously stressful as you try to organise the details against the clock while your savings rapidly disappear. Newlywed Shane Clifford – Co-Founder and CEO of household bill management app, WonderBill – shares his tips on how you can make your special day a fairytale wedding, but on a budget. After all, your wedding doesn’t have to be a blowout in order to be special.

Planning a fairytale wedding on a budget

DIY is your friend

Rahib Bashar, business development manager from Deko talks about the rising cost of weddings and the financial options available to support your big day.

When it comes to tying the knot, the Office for National Statistics says that over 200,000 Brits say ‘I do’ each year. However, it has become a costly affair and more than half of us regret spending so much on our special day. This is unsurprising, with the average cost of a wedding now being over £25,000 according to Hitched.com – to some this could be a deposit on a small house!

The ring

Your wedding will undoubtedly be one of the most special days of your life, but unfortunately it may also be one of the most expensive. Last year, Brides Magazine reported that the average budget for a wedding was over £30,000, which is only slightly less than the average house deposit. With this in mind, short term loan provider Wonga has compiled a list of tips and tricks to help save money when planning a wedding.

Pipped by the post

Former wedding planner Stephanie Varda https://www.svardalifecoach.com/ is now a life coach specialising in stress management and bridal coaching and shares her top 5 stress busting wedding tips. 

“We all know by now that weddings, whilst wonderful occasions, are also extremely stressful. Having worked in the wedding industry I’ve seen it all, but brides can still be surprised by just how overwhelmed by planning a wedding they can get.” 

Top 5 stress busting wedding tips

1. Ditch the Dull and Grow the Glow! 

Whatever you do, don’t say the ‘P’ Word: There is no doubt about it: prenups are a divisive issue. If you want to find out how romantic a person truly is, say “prenup”, step back, and watch what happens. Aysen Soyer, Head of Family Law at Wilson Solicitors in London talks to us about the ins and outs of the prenup.

Some argue that even thinking about what should happen to assets should your marriage come to an end is terribly pessimistic. Others feel that having the discussion early is pragmatic, realistic, and paves the way for a more harmonious future. 

With thousands of couples (including a certain Harry and Meghan) planning their weddings to take place this spring and summer, Friends of the Earth reveals a new list of ideas to help everyone enjoy a green wedding.

Katie Riviere, of Friends of the Earth, said: “At Friends of the Earth, we love helping people to make their big day more eco-friendly – with weddings sometimes seeming to cost the earth, in more ways than one. From beautiful wild flower bouquets to crowdsourced decorations, there are a lot of things you can do which will make yours much kinder to the planet, and also that bit more special!” 

Weddings are meant to be the happiest days of our lives — and they are. But, when it comes to the wedding night, many of us spend weeks worrying and stressing about making sure it’s a success.

To help alleviate your anxieties and get you truly excited for your big day, we’ve teamed up with leading pharmaceutical supplements provider, Pharma Nord, to find out how you can ensure your wedding night is unforgettable for both of you.

Top tips to make your wedding night a success

Dress nicely

Heiress Paris Hilton announced her engagement to Chris Zylka and, flaunting a 20-carat diamond ring worth almost $2m, added to the theory that Christmas and New Year is the most popular time for a proposal. If your partner put a ring on it over the festive season – congratulations! With months of planning ahead to enjoy, the more serious considerations are easy to put to one side. Here in a handy guide, Bryan Scant – a family solicitor at Coffin Mew – outlines his six top tips for those planning on getting married this year: 

These days, it’s a personal choice whether you take your partner’s name when you get married. However, despite it no longer being a requirement, many women still want to share their partner’s surname. If you’re going to go down this route it’s important to know the process as, although it may seem like boring admin, prior planning to make sure the name change goes through seamlessly should be on your list of wedding essentials.

It’s possible that you may not even realise all the options that are available to you. Some need you to go through a process with deed poll, others just require your marriage certificate. Combining surnames, double-barrelling or using your maiden name as a new middle name are all possible.

ESPA founder Sue Harmsworth reveals her secrets to Vows and Weddings about Pre Wedding 'I dos' and definitely 'do nots'

DO sleep well

“Blue light makes us think we are still in daylight so keep tablets and smartphones out of the bedroom. Not only that but get rid of the television and electric alarm clock too. I really think it makes a huge difference. It’s like putting babies to bed, you have to do the wind down and if you go to bed on high alert, if your brain isn’t going into that regenerative restful phase, you won’t sleep.