If like me (Laura), you struggle with being presented with the blank page of a guestbook at a wedding, trying to come up with something meaningful but also not just copying what the person before you has written, then this may be the video for you!
Having a guestbook of some description is an excellent way of providing you with a lasting memory of your wedding day. And let’s face it, who doesn’t like to read comments saying how wonderful you are over and over again?!
We’ve come up with a number of ideas for your wedding guestbook, from the traditional to the slightly more alternative (Jenga guest book anyone?). Check out our latest video below.
You’ve set the date (YAY!), you’ve booked the venue (double YAY!) and now you’re looking at wedding invitations wondering how it is possible for it to cost so much just to ask your guests to attend your wedding. Now of course it’s all good if at this point you decide an e-vite will do you just fine! A totally legit option…assuming your granny knows how to use a computer. But if you’re hoping to find an option somewhere between gold plated and electronic, then maybe it’s time to have a go at making your own. Caution: Know your skill level, time availability and price out the materials for the number you’ll need (factoring in a few extras for spills, smudges etc)!
If you’re feeling game for having a go at the DIY approach, then we’ve got a really easy one for you to try that will look pro. I’ve always loved the embossed look on invitations, so we’re showing you how to add some detailing design to an invitation that you can just make and print out onto card at home. Of course you could also give the text of the invitation itself the embossed effect if you have a stamp made – if you’re giving me a vote, I’d say do it!
Any questions or requests for future videos, let us know in the comments below.
Children can bring joy and laughter to your big day. They can look super cute in a mini tux or a tiny tutu and to them it’s all a magical fairy tale. But let’s face it, our little bundles of joy do not tend to excel at sitting patiently for extended periods of time!
If you’ve decided to have children at the wedding, then all power to you. Give them little jobs and their own responsibilities where you can – it will make them feel super special (and keep their minds occupied). If there are lots of children coming, and you have the budget for it, you could go all in and keep them entertained with a professional crèche service, or book a bouncy castle.
Less children? Smaller budget? Put together individual activity packs for them based on their age and whatever you may know about their likes/dislikes. Get your Ushers to give them out at the ceremony so they don’t start getting twitchy during the vows, or put them on their place setting at the reception to help them through the speeches. That way no one starts having palpitations when you hear a voice during the, “does anyone know of any lawful reason why these two cannot be joined…” portion of the event! Everyone wins!
We’ve put together a sample pack to give you some inspiration in today’s video. Check out what we put in…
…if you’re looking for the super cute kids party crowns we mention in this video click here, they are available from Sainsbury’s, £3 for 6.
Little did I realise as a little girl with my hula hoop that one day I would find another, very different, use for it. But, behold, that day has come and in the form of hot wedding trend; Floral Hoops!
Now naturally when Laura and I first bought the hula hoop for this DIY, I had to try it out for old times’ sake (Laura was more sophisticated and refrained from my childish antics)…turns out I have lost all skill I spent so long curating as a child, picture a flailing fish on dry land. Apparently all my years of Salsa training since has disappointingly not maintained that essential hip motion, such a waste! I would like to blame the small size of the hoop, but that was likely only 10% of my problem. Sad times.
Moving on for the purpose of this blog, know that I am still deeply disappointed in myself behind the scenes … let’s transform this hula hoop into something much more befitting of my current age (that said, I’m betting there is a hula-hooping workout craze taking the country by storm)!
We think floral hoops are a really beautiful wedding trend that’s super versatile. Use different sized hoops, hang alone or make a combo, move them between your venues, make them with faux, dried or fresh flowers (FYI, ours are fresh flowers) or simply just foliage, decorate a section or the whole hoop…we love the idea of having them featured at the head of your aisle to frame your “I-do’s” and then hanging them at your reception for guests to have their photos, you could even put a couple of props nearby for added fun.
WARNING: If you’re going fresh, although it’s my preferred option, remember to consider how much time you / your #teambride actually have to make them the night before / morning of your wedding. ‘Stress’ is not the key emotion you want to be feeling on the morning of your wedding!
We’re ONE! Can we get a “whoop, whoop” please?! It is officially one whole year since we posted our very first YouTube video and Bride Society was born. We’ve been here every single Friday and even an occasional Tuesday for good measure, and we hope to be here for many more to come!
THANK YOU to all our viewers and subscribers who have supported us during our first year. It’s been a lot of work and at times tricky to coordinate our schedules to film, particularly because we don’t live near each other, but we do it because we love it. Every view, every like, every comment and every subscribe really does mean the world to us and we are proud to be a part of your Big Day even in some small way. Thank you for supporting us in what we love! We hope you continue to enjoy what we put out there…please help us grow by sharing and spreading the word to all your newly engaged friends. Pretty, pretty please!
You’ve got at least five different check lists on the go, from the ‘what’s left to do’ list to the ‘guests to chase up’ list. In the final month before the wedding, something new is popping into your mind every other minute … something you need to get, something you need to ask the venue, someone you need to pay … believe us, lists are a life-saver at this point! To help you prepare for your Big Day, we’re showing you what was in my Wedding Handbag– my actual one! Showing you those little things you might want on the day, but might not occur to you until you’re lying in bed the night before to save you the mental stress of thinking all those little things through! We do like to be helpful.
Now, obviously you are unlikely to be walking down the aisle with a bag in hand (tip: my Mum hung onto mine for me during the ceremony, ready to hand me a tissue at any given moment), but this way you’ll have your essentials ready to go and still look super-elegant when you’re caught on camera, which will be a lot, and you probably don’t want those lasting memories to be of you rifling through your reusable Aldi bag!
I know it’s been said to never look in a lady’s handbag, but on this occasion, whether it be in the name of organisation or curiosity, you can take a peek with us….
With the heatwave in the UK looking like it’s hanging around for a while yet, it’s the perfect excuse to invite some friends round for a garden party or BBQ. And what goes perfectly with your burgers and vegetable skewers? Some refreshing and fruity, summer drinks ideas!
We’re showing you how to make three cocktails and mocktails perfect for your summer garden parties, BBQs or even your wedding drinks reception.
If you’re feeling super fancy, you can even make some edible flower ice cubes to impress your guests.
* Watermelon and Raspberry Mocktail
These measurements make one glass’ worth so scale up to cater for a group.
Add all your ingredients (apart from the garnish) to your chosen glass and give it a stir. Cut a slice of watermelon and make a cut part way up the slice in order to secure it on the side of your glass.
Add a sprig of mint and you’re ready to drink!
* Pomegranate Mojito Mocktail
These measurements make one glass’ worth so scale up to cater for a group.
Add the pomegranate juice and lemonade to the glass over ice, chop up the mint and add with the juice of one lime. Give it all a stir. Simple!
If you have some pomegranate seeds lying around, add those as a garnish or even freeze some in your ice cubes.
* Gin, Elderflower and Prosecco Cocktail
An adults only summer drink this time!
Add crushed ice to your glass, pour over a measure of gin, a splash of elderflower cordial and top up with prosecco. (If you prefer a bit more mixer in your drink you can also add soda water or lemonade.)
Finish with a squeeze of lime juice and garnish with a sprig of mint and a slice of lime.
We get it, you want to keep your wedding on budget and have admirable goals of DIY’ing your way through the whole thing. And whilst it’s true that it can save you a good chunk of change – and you know we love a good DIY…there also comes a time when you need to know your limits, both in terms of time and skill! And whilst we are here to guide you through many beautiful DIY ideas, there are only so many hours a person should realistically spend covered in glue and paint when over a certain age!
We’ve been shopping Ginger Ray wedding day supplies (via Hobbycraft, one of their retail sellers) to give you an idea what’s out there on the high street to help create your wedding day aesthetic. If you are unfamiliar with Ginger Ray, they are a party décor supplier who has a LOT of beautiful items and a surprisingly wide range of styles to suit your taste/look. So put down the glue gun, step away from the scissors and check out what we found for your wedding day in our haul video!
All items shown in this video are linked below in order of appearance.
For their full range, visit their website direct here.
Ever thought about scenting your wedding? We don’t mean dousing your venue in perfume or giving everyone a headache with room diffusers every 10 metres! …But doing it naturally with herbs!
This week we have been making napkin rings – and whilst they are not the most important rings of the day, we think they are a beautiful finishing touch that will bring your reception tables to life. Going to be honest…the scented thing was a serendipitous occurrence of what we happened to choose to make these rings, but we’re running with it! If you’re super organised, this can be a cost-effective DIY for your wedding because you can grow the herbs yourself in advance – awin for your home cooking as well as your wedding!
What is perfect about working with herbs/edible flowers is that there is no problem with them being in contact with napkins/cutlery etc because they are safe to eat. Always a bonus, especially if kids are around or the food needs a little extra seasoning!
Today we’ve used lavender, chive flowers and rosemary but feel free to use whatever you like that works with the rest of your aesthetic, our tutorial will still help you to create your chosen look.
Any questions or requests for future videos, give us a shout!
Necessity or luxury? If you’re wondering whether you really need to send out ‘save the dates’ for your wedding, well, personally I would say if you’ve set a date more than a few months out, then yes. Notice is essential, otherwise you run the risk of people who are really important to you booking holidays etc and being unable to attend, especially if it’s in the summertime.
AND, take note when I say, word of mouth does not work!People will not remember a specific date you mention to them in passing – they may remember which year, and possibly which season if you’re lucky, but that’s about it. People’s lives are hectic, full of various appointments, playdates, meetings, birthdays etc etc etc, so remembering a date that is not going to affect them for possibly a couple of years, is not going to stick! Your Mum may remember, maybe.
All that said, the method you choose to spread the date, who you send them to, and how much you spend on them is all down to budget and preference. If you want to create a Facebook event or send an email, go ahead! If you want every individual card to be delivered by an Elvis impersonator, do it (I’m not advocating for that one, just FYI)! As long as you are communicating with your guests through some form of written communication that they can easily reference again in a few month’s time, then you’re on to a winner – so yes, that does rule out Snapchat!
If you’re keen on sending something out physically through the post to your guests but budget is tight, consider store bought Save the Dates from places like Paperchase and Clintons. What’s also worth some thought is that you don’t have to send them out to everyone you ultimately intend to invite to your wedding. You could just send them to key people that are really important to you to have there. Or send them to people you’re likely to invite to the full day, rather than evening-only guests.
In today’s video we’re taking a look at some of the more interesting and modern Save the Date ideas that are out there right now. So if you’re looking for some inspiration that goes beyond the norm, take a look at this….
Remember when you were 10 years old and you’d always leave a party with a goodie bag? I was always pretty excited to see what was in there…I’m assuming that wasn’t just me! Well why should grown-up parties be any different?!
If you’re hosting a Hen Party / Bachelorette, then we think it’s a great idea to put together a little pack for each of the guests. Hand them out at the start of the party rather than the end so everyone can use the contents during the party, because really, what’s the point in waiting? Theme your packs to tie in with your party. It’s popular for hen parties to run the whole weekend – make the most of it we say, so we’ve gone for a slumber party ‘girls night in’ theme with our gift bags and even personalised the bags, check out what we put inside….
If this is your first time planning a wedding, chances are you’re finding it an enjoyable, but steep learning curve. When you’ve never done something before, how are you magically supposed to know all the ins and outs of how to do it, and how to do it well? You get training in your new job, you read parenting books during pregnancy, so why should planning one of the biggest days of your life be any different? Of course this is where Bride Society comes in handy, bringing you all our knowledge from having planned our own weddings – navigating the pitfalls and learning some great wedding hacks, as well as from our insider knowledge from working in the industry.
For me, my two biggest mistakes were 1) not realising just how long it would take to make everything I wanted to and 2) the one I really got caught out on, the reliability of suppliers. I learnt the hard way that if a supplier is not being responsive (within reason!) and helpful before they have your money, there’s no way they are going to be after they’ve got it!
With that lesson learnt in mind, this week we wanted to highlight some of those most common wedding planning mistakes brides and grooms-to-be make in the run up to their wedding to help you avoid them. Knowledge is power my friend! Welcome to a low stress wedding!
If you’ve been following our videos week by week you may be starting to get a feel for what we’re about. At the forefront, ok yes, it’s weddings, but what I was actually going to say was ‘personalisation’. We don’t mean that you need to plaster your initials on everything in sight from your aisle runner to your favours – although doing that to a couple of things here and there is all good in our books. For us personalisation is about creating something that is a reflection of you and your fiancé(e). Who you are, what your interests are, how you met, your journey together – your friends and family want to attend YOUR wedding, and so do you! We firmly believe that you will enjoy your own day more if the event that’s honouring your relationship actually resembles your relationship. You just have to get imaginative.
This week’s table confetti video lends itself brilliantly to achieving this. We’ve gone for heart shapes cut from a period romance novel (Emma in case you are curious!) – perfect if you’re both big readers, you met in a book club or in an English class! If you’re more musical, adapt it by using sheet music…
What’s even better is that this is SO cheap to make – especially if you happen to already have a second copy of a book lying around or can find one in a charity shop like we did. The older the book the better too as it gives the pages that aged look which looks great on print.
Since the age of about 17 when I was preparing to move out of home for the first time to leave for university, I have loved walking around the ‘home’ departments in stores – perusing, imagining and fantasising about how my future home would look. At the time the purchases were Tesco Value irons and kettles, which back then seemed pretty exciting. As I’ve got older the items I look at and daydream about have altered somewhat, but that love for homeware stores has never waned. Some 14 years later, here I am walking around Ikea, Next @ Home and the like, when I stumble upon a wedding section in Sainsbury’s ‘Home’ department! Towels – yes, pans – yes, but wedding decorations? That was a surprise! And so this video was born… I can’t say Sainsbury’s would have ever occurred to me when I think ‘wedding’, but it will from now on as they have some pretty cute stuff.
We bring you our favourite items from the Sainsbury’s Wedding range in this haul video (links to products below) so you too can start to picture, not your future home, but your soon-to-be wedding!
Of course not everything is here…there is only so much I could fit in my trolley along with my weekly groceries, so check out their range in store for more!
Let us know what you think, will you be using any of these for your W. Day? Any questions? We’d love to hear from you.
Want to see more content like this? Let us know in the comments below.
This week’s video gave us a chance to shop! We both have weddings to attend this summer and so we are on the hunt for outfits to wear. Laura laid down the challenge of getting a whole outfit for £100 or less. The rules were as follows:
Total max. spend is £100
Must include a dress (or alternative, aka two piece/jumpsuit), handbag and shoes
No discount codes or sale items can be used to come in on budget – so that if you guys want to buy our look later on, then you too will be able to come in on budget.
I’m going to be honest, when I think ‘wedding outfit’, my first thoughts go to Ted Baker, then Reiss, then possibly All Saints…needless to say this would have blown my budget on dress alone. So my first headache was figuring out where I could go to get a formal look for less £££ – I can be a little opinionated about what guests should wear to a wedding. Yes, of course you should feel comfortable in yourself with what you are wearing and we’re not rolling in money, but I think it is respectful to the happy couple that you get dressed up for their event. Unless it’s a festival wedding, I’m not about to show up in a summer dress that I’d just wear any warm day to go to the park in, I’m going to make an effort! So with this added layer of self-inflicted complication I took to my laptop to shop online and picked out a range of things to try from Mango and Dorothy Perkins, sorted! Or so I thought…4 days go by, not even a dispatch notification…1 day until filming this video for you…panic! In the meantime, the lovely Laura has managed to calmly order and receive her purchases from both Oasis and ASOS – kudos to those companies!
The pressure is now on, with only a couple of hours left to shop, I head out the door in full on shopping mode! I like to shop, but I’m a browser who likes to pick things up as and when I notice them – we all know when you’re actually looking for something, you can never find quite the right thing!
I scoot around H&M, Outfit, New Look, River Island, Topshop….(you get the picture)…trying dresses on, buying as I go to make sure I have something on the theory that if I find something better I can take things back another day when I actually have time – filming in the nude is not an option after all! The clock is ticking, time feels like it is speeding up just to spite me, I make a dash to the last shop on my radar, knowing that I have to get shoes and a handbag too (barely even contemplating the possibility of accessories at this point even though I’m likely to have the budget margin), walk through the door and I set off the security alarms! Argh! The last place had left the tag on my dress – naturally the shop was at the furthest possible point within the complex from my current location…back I go! In my mind, as this point Laura is sat at home calmly painting her nails, sipping a glass of wine, contemplating her victory.
Good news! I found an outfit and even managed an accessory in the dying seconds…I am not naked in this video! Hurrah!
Hopefully if you too are shopping for a wedding outfit this season, you don’t find it this unexpectedly pressured! We hope you like what we found and if you’re interested in buying any of the items we’ve got links to them all below so you can shop the look. May my stress have relieved your stress!
Laura’s online shop totalled exactly £100 – skills! My (Rebecca’s) on foot shop ultimately came in at £72.99 (phew!). The question is, who did the best?! Which do you prefer / what would you wear? Let us know in the comments below or on the YouTube video so the winner can claim their bragging rights!
(My online purchases did make it shortly after filming and I have since tried them on…at some point we may upload my try-on sesh. of those dresses to see if you think I should change the outfit I ultimately wear to my friend’s wedding.)
