Whether or not it’s actually ironic is another story, but if you’re planning to get married you may have to consider the possibility of rain on your Big Day, especially if you’re marrying in the UK (and yes, I’m afraid that includes summer).
BUT a bit of rain does not need to dampen your spirits!
So, if you’re planning an outdoor ceremony and want to come up with a contingencyplan, or just trying to plan for any and all eventualities, we’ve put together some practical tips and advice to help plan for rain on your wedding day.
No wash outs here!
Have you got any tips we haven’t mentioned to help embrace the rain? Leave them in the comments below to help other couples on their wedding planning journey.
Looking for even more content like this? You can find us in all of these places too:
Tips for being the very best bridesmaid you can be!
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I mean, obviously you’re already totally awesome, and you’ll simply carry that awesomeness right into your role as bridesmaid / maid of honour. No question. But if you’re looking for tips on exactly how to translate your awesomeness into bridesmaid perfection, then our latest video is for you.
We’ve previously delved into the specific ins and outs of what is involved in the roles of bridesmaid / maid of honour / chief bridesmaid, aka what you’re in for, what you need to do and what you should expect, in another video which you can find here. This week we take that one step further so you can excel in helping the bride have the ultimate wedding experience from “yes” to “I do”. She’ll feel so happy she picked you to be by her side on one of the most memorable days of her life!
We hope you found a few ideas in there helpful. Anything special you’re planning to do as a bridesmaid? Comment below to help out other bridesmaids that might be reading!
Looking for even more content like this? You can find us in all of these places too:
Sometimes you might want to get creative and, if you’ve got the urge to put some of that creativity towards your wedding planning, this simple DIY might be the one for you. Especially, if like me, you already have a stash of watercolour paints in a cupboard from your teenage ‘artistic’ phase.
Although if we don’t have that shared experience, this Watercolour Place Card tutorial still doesn’t break the bank if you choose to buy a watercolour paint or two.
This is a DIY project that ticks all the boxes. It’s easy to do, budget friendly and means you’ll have unique, personalised place settings for all your guests, which can be tailored so easily to match your colour scheme. Plus, it’s a DIY that won’t actually take too long. Although just make sure you allow for some drying time!
To create your place cards you will need:
Watercolour Paper – we used an A3 watercolour paper pad but any watercolour paper will work as you tear it to the size you want your place cards to be.
Watercolour paint in the colour(s) of your choice
Paint brush
Sharpie/Marker pen
Hole Punch
Ribbon of your choice
We’d love to see if you give this DIY a go. Tag us in your photos over on Instagram! Want to hear even more from Bride Society? You can find us in all of these places:
Our picks from Hobbycraft’s 2024 Wedding Collection
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It’s no secret we love a wedding DIY here at Bride Society – shockingly our YouTube ‘Wedding DIY’s’ Tutorials playlist already contains 184 videos…and counting! But sometimes there’s just not enough wedding planning hours in the day to DIY every single aspect of your wedding, shhh, we won’t admit that twice! Well, the joy of Hobbycraft is you can go either way – materials for DIYs, the basics for your own additions, or even ready to go, they’ve got you covered.
For this week’s YouTube video, we’ve been shopping to see what Hobbycraft have to offer for the 2024 wedding season, bringing you a sample of our favourite offerings (though of course there’s always more!). We’ve gone for the slightly more unique items they had, aka, not their guest books or invitations, giving ideas about how you might use them in a wedding setting.
We’re in no way affiliated with Hobbycraft, we honestly just love them because you can pick up the raw materials to get super creative, like with these acrylic signs – turning them into your table numbers / guest book sign / cake menu…, or you can pick up their pre-cut confetti cones with slits and slots ready to simply be assembled.
The confetti cones and holder they’ve got this year are plain and classic, perfect just as they are or as the bare bones if you’re wanting to add embellishments, such as your wedding monogram. That said, if you want to DIY confetti cones from scratch, or indeed the confetti cone box, you totally can with our tutorials! Do some of the work or all of the work, it’s up to you(and maybe your budget and skill level)! Product links below video.
Featured Products:
If you like something you see in our video, you can find the link below (in order of appearance). Prices correct at time of filming (June 2024). NB. This is not an advert, we are in no way affiliated with Hobbycraft, items were not gifted and we receive no payment for any purchases made through these links…we just love Hobbycraft and wanted to share!
The invitation’s landed on the mat, you’ve RSVP’d well before the deadline and now all that’s left to organise is the gift. If the couple have opted out of a wedding registry or, have created one, but you’d still like to give them a small extra, token gift that’s more personal, it can be tricky to come up with the perfect idea.
Or, you may be reading this as a married person to be, and have just started thinking about what you might put on your gift registry.
We’re here to help on both counts! Wedding gift inspiration at a wide range of price points, that basically tick all the boxes. Thoughtful, personal, and/or useful!
Whether it’s something as simple as a personalised card, to a larger splurge (neon light anyone?!) we’re sure there’s something in our gift guide to help give you the inspiration you need to find the gift you’ve been looking for.
Check out everything we mentioned and more on our Pinterest page:
What to find a specific product we talked about: (* = Affiliate links: we get a small amount of commission from the retailer for the referral at no additional cost to you.)
Have you been struck with the perfect gift idea? Let us know if you’re choosing something from our guide or if you have any other ideas, in the comments below.
Budget friendly online wedding planning tools and resources.
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These days you never really need to step out from behind your devices to plan anything, and a wedding is no different. Not that we’re advocating for zero in-person contact, things like picking your venue or your wedding dress – probably best done in the flesh! Though of course you can do a lot of that leg work – like finding options, narrowing them down, and booking appointments all via the internet!
How we plan weddings has changed beyond recognition since 1983 (the ‘birth’ of the internet in case you were wondering), chances are your parents’ generations experience of planning their weddings was, well, somewhat different! We all know the world wide web has become a powerful resource tool in our everyday lives, but how exactly can it help you plan your wedding? Where should you be looking (no Googling recommendations here!)? What wedding specific tools are out there that you might actually find helpful or worth your time? How can social media help you plan your big day?
We’ve done the digging so you don’t have to. Sites that have been tried, tested and reviewed by engaged couples, tools that we at Bride Society love to use, plus resources you’ve probably come across but never thought to use for wedding planning.
Ready to dive right into your streamlined wedding planning experience?
Found any wedding resources online that your love to use and couldn’t be without? What’s your free go-to online tool? Drop them in the comments to help out other couples who might be looking!
We hope you found something helpful here! You can find even more wedding advice, tips, inspiration and DIYs from us in all of these places:
Wedding Chair Styling for Cross Back and Chiavari Chairs with the Secret Bridesmaid
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Times have moved on since the only option to decorate your wedding chairs was a white chair cover. These days many venues have invested in chairs that don’t need hiding (hooray!), but you still might want to add a bit of something to add interest to both the chairs, and provide decor for the room.
Enter chair drapes!
Available in every colour imaginable, chair drapes are an extremely versatile option to style your wedding chairs.
We are welcoming back Steph from the Secret Bridesmaid this week to demonstrate how easy it is to style your chairs. We’re sharing four styles to give you inspiration for how you may want to dress your wedding chairs. Two are suitable for cross back chairs and two for chiavari chairs. But, these four styles can still be personalised in numerous ways, simply by changing the decor you add to them. e.g. switch the ribbon and add a floral posy and you’ve automatically got a completely different look.
If you’re a DIY wedding couple, this is something (with enoughtime) you could easily do. Or you may just use the video to share ideas with your wedding stylist.
Something to factor in when choosing your wedding chair dressing. Whether you’re setting up your room yourself, or employing a stylist to dress the chairs for you, choosing a style that uses multiple drapes per chair will be more time consuming and potentially more expensive.
Special thanks to Steph for demonstrating the chair styles this week. If you’d like to see more of what she has to offer (including her multiway dresses and styling services!), you can find her website here and Instagram here.
Be the ultimate wedding guest with our tips this wedding season!
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So the fact that you’ve chosen to read this blog to start with, already shows you’re on the right track to be a fantastic wedding guest because you care enough to be here. Guest points won! Now what can you practically do about it…
It takes a lot to make a wedding run smoothly! There’s what seems like a billion moving parts – numerous suppliers, timings, weather, logistics, set up, break down…and that’s all before you even begin to contemplate the complications and implications of dealing with people, aka the guests – a mass of people all to be co-ordinated and manoeuvred, all with their own needs and wants. Add animals and/or children into the mix and you can really begin to imagine the potential challenges they’re up against. This is A LOT for the couple to think about, especially if they don’t have a wedding planner / co-ordinator. So, endeavouring to be a good wedding guest will be the best wedding gift you could give!
We’re reflecting on all our wedding experience to get inside the minds of the happy couple, to identify what the key things are that will help them have the best day they could possibly have. What do couples actually want from their guests? What can you do to make their day extra special, that even they do not know they want? Not been to a wedding for a while (or maybe ever?), what even is the etiquette for wedding guests these days? We’re covering it all so you’ll have all your good-wedding-guest-bases covered!
Here’s to the happy couple! Cheers.
Let us know which tip you thought was most helpful in the comments! And for even more content from Bride Society, you can find us in all of these places too – come join us:
How to cope with an unexpected wedding day heatwave or a scorching summer wedding
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The sunshine may have temporarily disappeared, (at least in the UK!), but it’s sure to return and with that, the prospect of hot, sunny wedding days. While most people dream of good weather for their Big Day, if the temperature rises too much, it also has the potential for sticky guests, tempers flaring and a bad case of sunburn.
So, as with every aspect of wedding planning, some hot weather pre-planning is sensible. Especially if you’re somewhere with almost guaranteed sunshine or even maybe if you’re in the UK and planning a summer wedding. There’s always the chance of an unexpected heatwave!
We’re sharing our top tips for dealing with the heat on your wedding day. So you and your guests can stay as cool as cucumbers while enjoying your special day.
If you have any more tips you think would be helpful, please share them in the comments below along with any questions you may have. We’ll do our best to help.
Want even more content like this? Join the Society and find even more from us in all of these places:
How to make Personalised Cupcake Toppers using Cricut
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What party isn’t made better with a) cake and b) personalised touches? We recently made these little cupcake toppers for a friend’s hen party (along with hot chocolate cupcakes – yum) and all the guests were commenting on them and taking photos, so we thought we’d share how to make them so you can impress too!
Whether it’s a hen party / bachelorette like ours or a bridal shower, engagement party, birthday party, anniversary party, retirement party (…the list goes on…), there’s always room for a Cricut project to make something more personalised and special for the guest of honour. Yes, we’ve definitely been drinking the Cricut Kool-Aid!
If you’re still getting to grips with your Cricut machine (there is a definite learning curve, it’s not just you!), then this type of project is a great place to start. Our tutorial provides step-by-step instructions from creating the design in Cricut Design Space (which is easily adaptable to your words of choice), how to cut the project so it doesn’t just fall apart, and how to assemble your toppers.
All Cricut machines are capable of cutting this type of project, so whether you’ve got a Cricut Maker, Cricut Joy or Cricut Explore, you’ll have success! And whilst we’ve made cupcake toppers, you can resize these for bigger cakes too – just switch out the cocktail sticks for something a little longer and sturdier, like a cake pop stick.
So, materials…we used a plain purple light cardstock for our cupcake toppers – pick a colour to match your theme or the bride’s favourite colour like we did. You can use heavier cardstock if you wish, you just need to select the appropriate base material option on screen at the cutting stage. Basically, you don’t have to match our materials or design, the tutorial is highly adaptable and will give you the confidence with our tips and tricks to create your own exciting Cricut project.
Here’s the materials we used in case you need them:
(* = Affiliate links: we get a small amount of commission from the retailer for the referral at no additional cost to you.)
Cricut Maker* (all Cricut machines are capable of cutting this project)
Pritt Stick (glue)
Cocktail sticks
Cupcakes!
Coloured card to match your theme (or in the bride’s favourite colour like we did!)
NB. This video is not made in association with Cricut. Some materials listed above are affiliate links, these are clearly marked by an asterisk* where applicable. This means we get a small amount of commission from the retailer for the referral at no additional cost to you.
Got any questions? Let us know in the comments and we’ll do our best to help you out.
Looking for more Cricut project ideas? You can find our YouTube playlist here! Want inspiration for a hen party / bachelorette? Find all our ideas here.
Don’t forget, for even more content from Bride Society, you can also find us in all of these places:
Should I hire a Wedding Planner or Wedding Coordinator?
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Congratulations you’re engaged! Now you just have to figure out this whole “planning a wedding malarkey“.
If you’re super busy, clueless with where to start, or just want help during the wedding planning process, a question that has possibly crossed your mind (once the initial excitement and celebration of your wedding proposal has passed), is, do I need a Wedding Planner? Or a Wedding Coordinator? And what’s the difference between the two anyway? Throw in Venue Coordinators and it just gets even more confusing!
That’s where we come in. We’re breaking down the roles of both a Wedding Planner and a Wedding Coordinator, clarifying the differences, and even offering some pros and cons to help you make your decision on whether hiring a planner or coordinator might be the right fit for you.
Any questions, leave them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to help.
Want even more content like this? Join the Society and find even more from us in all of these places:
Ways to show off your Wedding Photos – be inspired!
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You carefully selected your wedding photographer, you loved their style, they made you feel comfortable (not always an easy thing when you’re asking people to make out and then point a lens at them!) and you can’t wait to get your photos back so you can relive every moment of your special day.
They arrive…most probably into your inbox these days! The two of you eagerly sit down with a left-over bottle of bubbly from the wedding to look through them. You study every one in detail, commenting, “do you remember that happening?”, “I’m so glad that person made it to the wedding”, “everyone looks so happy”, “I love this one of us”.But after you choose which ones you’re posting online (naturally) and make an album on one of those do-it-yourself websites (if you didn’t already order one with the photographer), perhaps order a print or two to frame on the wall…then what? You know you want to do SOMETHING with these gorgeous photos, but what? There has to be something more creative right?
If you’re asking yourself this question, just like I did, keen to not just have those precious memories sat in a very nice album on the shelf, then walk this way! Give your gorgeous photos the limelight with these different ways to use, enjoy and show-off your wedding photos:
Featured products:
You can find most of the featured products in our Etsy Collection here (Affiliate link: we get a small amount of commission from the retailer for the referral at no additional cost to you.):
You can check out our accompanying Pinterest board for a sneak peek of all the ideas featured in today’s video, and don’t forget you can follow us on Pinterest too for lots more ideas and inspiration!
Feeling inspired? Let us know in the comments what you chose to do with your photos – we’re feeling nosey!
Want even more content like this? You can find us in all of these places:
If you’re planning a civil ceremony for your wedding or civil partnership, giving notice is an essential part of the planning process. It’s a legal statement at your local register office declaring your intent to get married or form a civil partnership. It might not even be something you realised you had to do, but without ‘giving notice’ you can’t legally get married*
*the process is different for Anglican weddings – check with your wedding venue to confirm which process you need to complete.
Because it’s such a vital component of planning a wedding and probably not something you’ve had to do before, it can seem a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be. The register office staff are not there to trick you or prevent you from marrying. The process is put in place to prevent any forced or illegal marriages.
We’re here to (hopefully) allay any fears or apprehension you may have by talking through the whole process.
For time and clarity’s sake, we’ve focussed this video on giving notice in England and Wales when both partners are from the UK.
Fancy getting hands on with your wedding florals? Whether it’s a cost saving exercise, a budding passion for florals or wanting to be fully hands on with your wedding, experimenting with silk flowers is an excellent place to start. There’s room for trial and error, you can play around and start again, AND you have all the prep time in the world as there’s no risk of wilting! What’s even better is you’ll have yourself a keepsake after the wedding, or pass them along to another friend or family member who’s getting married…you can’t get more green than that!
So far in our silk florals mini-series, featuring silks specialist Steph from The Secret Bridesmaid, we’ve brought you step-by-step tutorials on how to create a wedding bouquet and a pocket boutonnière, and now we’re showing you how to make a buttonhole AND a corsage! (Follow all the steps for the buttonhole, then continue on with one simple extra step at the end to turn it into a corsage – magic!)
We created the floral bridal bouquet first and then used the little bits and pieces left over for our buttonholes! Genius!
Having a go? We’d love to see what you did with yours. Tag us in your photos over on Instagram @bridesociety_uk.
Special thanks to Steph for the Bride Society takeover this week. If you’d like to see more of what she has to offer (including her custom silk bouquets and buttonholes!), you can find her website here and Instagram here.
Want to have a play with more florals for your wedding? Check out our Floral DIYs playlist over on YouTube. For even more content from us, you can find us in all of these places:
While we’re used to sharing advice and information about getting married in the UK, we decided we wanted to cast our net a bit further afield this week to see what’s happening out there in the big wide world.
We knew there must be some restrictions in other countries, just like there are certain things you must do here, in order to be able to get legally married. So we went down a rabbit hole of looking for some (possibly) surprising wedding laws from around the world.
While we’ve tried our best to be as accurate as possible with the information we’re sharing here, there is a chance that some of the points mentioned may now be outdated or not so common place anymore.
But we’d love to know if you were aware of any of the laws featured in the video or if any of them did surprise you. Let us know in the comments.
And if you’re interested in finding out a bit more about getting married in Mexico, Rebecca has filmed some videos at different Mexican resorts. Check out our Destination Weddings and Honeymoon playlist.
Looking for even more content from Bride Society? You can find us in all of these places:
And please do let us know if you’d like to see a part two to this. We’re sure we’d be able to find even more surprising wedding rules from other parts of the globe!
