Wedding planning can be overwhelming. Find out how to stay whelmed with advice for your planning, your stag or hen do, ceremony, and reception.
And we have advice from real couples on the best ideas you should steal – and what you should avoid – from their weddings.
A wedding website is one of the most useful tools you have to help plan your wedding. (And I’m not just saying that because I’m massively biased.)
A wedding website can organise your guests, remind people to RSVP on time, collate everything you need to know in one place, and save you having to answer the same question over and over again. (Are there more beautiful, voice-saving words in the English language than, ‘It’s on the website’?)
We’ve spoken before about how useful they are (so useful) – but what do you need to have on your wedding website to make it useful? What information do your guests need to know?
We’ve put together a list of the 6 things you need to have on your wedding website.
Already Owns Enough Toasters has written into our Problem Pal advice column with a worry a lot of couples have:
Can you ever ask for money for your wedding or will everyone think you’re being rude?
My fiancé and I have been living together for a long time and we already have everything we need.
We’re getting married in France and we don’t want our family to have to bring presents with them. And we don’t want to haul them back, either!
Can we ask for money without it coming across the wrong way?
Yes. Yes you can.
Yes. You do have to write thank you cards for your wedding.
While there are a lot of wedding traditions you can take or leave, thank you cards are about manners. Wedding guests go all out, gifting money and expensive presents – even if you’ve asked them not to!
A hand-written thank you card shows you appreciate what they’ve done to support you.
But hand-writing thank you cards doesn’t mean risking RSI. There are a few things you can do to make it easier on yourself – while still making the cards feel personal and appreciated.
The word ‘wedding’ conjures a fixed image for people, based on hundreds of years of tradition. A diamond ring. A white dress. A cringey disco.
But some of those ‘must-have’ wedding traditions aren’t even that traditional. (White dresses only got popular in 1840!) And they probably aren’t you, either.
Here’s the thing: your day should feel like your day. With the time, money, and effort you put into your wedding, you should have a day you love, that reflects you and your partner – not snobby etiquette writers from 1803.
It can be hard to feel you can push back on wedding traditions – especially when everyone from your in-laws to your dog walker keeps telling you you need to do this or you’ll regret not doing that.
But you don’t have to have anything at your wedding that you don’t love. Really.
Right Place, Wrong Time has written into our Problem Pal advice column with a problem that will sound familiar to anyone who’s looking for their perfect wedding venue.
My fiance and I have been looking for a venue for our wedding all year. It feels like we haven’t had a weekend where we’ve done anything but drive out to stately homes or talk to hotels about packages, but none of them have been right. We can’t imagine having the wedding we want at any of them.
Until…! Last week, we finally found the perfect venue! It’s exactly what we’ve been looking for – and it’s even in our budget! The problem is, when we asked them about dates, they said they didn’t have any more until the end of next year – and they didn’t have any spring dates for the next two years?!
I want to cry. I don’t want to look for another venue but I don’t want to put my wedding off for years either. What should I do?
I speak to a lot of couples who say they’ve never been to a wedding fair like it’s a badge of honour – like they’ve avoided the horrors of war.
But wedding fairs are a fantastic way to get ideas, suppliers, and discounts for your wedding. Before you decide they’re not for you, it’s worth considering…
Choosing your wedding guestlist is already a minefield. Balancing the people you feel you ought to invite with the people you most want there. Working out who’s a day guest and who’s an evening guest. Broaching the dangerous debate of kid-friendly or kid-free.
But what do you do when you’ve got it all worked out – then your friends break-up?
In this month’s Problem Pal, we’re looking at how you should handle a friend breaking up with their plus one before your wedding.
Read on for her best advice on what to do at your wedding – and what you absolutely shouldn’t!
Welcome, pals, to our monthly Problem Pal segment, where we give actionable, anonymous advice on all your wedding woes.
So No One Told You Life Was Going To Be This Way has written in with a worry I reckon everyone’s had planning their wedding:
How do I pick a best man without insulting my other friends?
It can be hard enough working out how to choose your wedding party, but singling out just one of your friends to be your best man, maid of honour, or mate of honour can feel like a minefield.
While different couples will have different priorities for their weddings, and I’d always encourage you to work out the things that are most important to you (without looking at any wedding checklists) and divvying up your budget accordingly, there’s one area I’d always recommend you do consider spending money on: professional wedding photography.
Why? Well…