World Cup Wedding?

So, World Cup Fever seems to have gripped the nation and with kick-off just hours away everything seems to have turned red and white.  England flags are draped decoratively from upper floor windows and also seem to adorn anything on wheels - cars, vans, prams .... even shop-mobility buggies at our local shopping centre!  Kids seem to have been given special dispensation to play out in the streets (probably because their harassed mothers are fed up with footballs being kicked around the house) and yesterday I even saw a poodle whose curly locks had been sprayed with a red cross especially for the occasion!

So what has all this got to do with weddings?  Pity the brides and grooms who a year or more ago unthinkingly booked the date of their wedding for anytime over the next few weeks!  And even if they themselves are not the least bit interested in watching 'a lot of grown men chasing a ball around in South Africa', how many of them will nevertheless suddenly find that their table-plans have to be re-designed at the last minute to accommodate an unusually large number of cancellations from their guests?

This serves as a reminder of how important it is to really do your research in the early stages of your wedding planning to ensure that your date does not clash with important events.  Obviously you can't safeguard against everything - the sudden announcement of a royal wedding for example might throw an unexpected spanner in the works (and before you ask .... I know nothing!) but key annual events - especially those which might effect a significant proportion of your guests (eg Wimbledon fans, Grand Prix fanatics etc) really should be avoided if at all possible.

Something else to remember regarding date selection is that as romantic as a Valentine's Day wedding might sound, the floristry bill is likely to be more nightmare than fairytale as flowers of all types (not just roses) can almost double in price around these special days ... other dates to avoid if you are on a strict budget include unusual dates (such as 10/10/10 or 11/11/11) - although on the plus side of course your hubby is at least more likely to remember your anniversary!

So, to summarise, it's best to check more than just your own diary when setting the date of your wedding ... unless of course you are happy to include the hire of a big screen on your wedding shopping list.

And, if any of you out there are already feeling like the World Cup has taken over your lives ... get hold of a copy of the film Sixty-Six.  With an all-star cast it's a story of a boy who has been planning his Bah mitzvah down to the last detail for years and then discovers that the date falls on the day of the World Cup final (in which England played West Germany and won!)  Funny and heart-warming it's a definite winner for any world-cup 'widows'!

What are you doing on September 17th?

The National Wedding Show have launched a new charity initiative to raise money for BREAKTHROUGH BREAST CANCER and we at Weddings Co-ordinated are delighted to offer our support.

We are calling on all Brides (past and present) to wear their wedding dress to work on 17th September 2010 to raise vital funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. We want everyone to get involved, no matter when the wedding took place - or indeed if the wedding is still in the planning stages ... brides, grooms, bridesmaids, mothers of the bride, wedding guests .... everyone is invited to take part.

Don’t worry if you can’t wear your wedding dress, just a tiara, veil or even a garter will do... it’s a great opportunity to have some fun and raise some money for an excellent cause at the same time.

There are lots of ways you can get involved:

Take Part Yourself

It's a fantastic opportunity to wear your wedding clothes again but if that's not an option - anything wedding-related will do. Why not get your friends and colleagues together and all dress up, travel to work together or hold a fundraising event with a bridal theme.

You can register at www.breakthrough.org.uk/bridesatwork where you can get lots of tips and ideas for how to raise money through sponsorship and fundraising events. You can also set up a JustGiving webpage which makes it really easy for your sponsors to donate.

Tell Your Friends

Send this blog to all your friends, family and colleagues and ask them to do the same. The more people who get involved, the more money we will raise together.

Sponsor Us!

At Weddings Co-ordinated we are planning to have a lot of fun on Brides at Work Day. You can sponsor us at www.justgiving.com/weddingsco-ordinated and you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook or sign up for our newsletter to keep updated with all our plans for the day.

Every year nearly 46,000 women and around 300 men are diagnosed with Breast Cancer in the UK. The good news is that through better awareness, better treatments and better screening, survival rates are increasing year on year.

Please help this brand new fundraising initiative and tell all your friends about it too. www.breakthrough.org.uk/bridesatwork.

Thank you!

SPRING WEDDINGS AND BARGAINS

Don't you just love the Spring? I was at Compton Verney this weekend having a mooch around their wedding Fayre on what must have been the most GORGEOUS day of the year so far. The fabulous grounds there, the lake, the lovely old stone bridges etc almost made me wish I was getting married myself!

But, looking at all the couples wandering round - many of them in a confused daze - not really sure what they were looking for or how to choose which suppliers to book or when they needed to decide by etc made me think how useful our Half-Day Wedding Consultancy Service is to couples who really just need some help getting started.

These days, a wedding is not a simple thing to plan - there are so many more suppliers out there to choose from so how do you know which one to go with? is it possible to negotiate a better deal? What happens if it all goes wrong - or if your supplier goes bust? and these days of course you have to think about a whole raft of other things which our parents didn't worry about at all.... health and safety, insurance, hefty cancellation fees etc.

All these sticky questions get answered in our Private Half-Day Wedding Consultation - where couples (or sometimes the bride and her mum or maid of honour) spend half a day with us discussing all their wedding ideas and plans in intricate detail. We go through everything you could possibly think of - from advice on how to organise the budget and get more for your money through to how to make good deals with suppliers. We also offer some excellent tips and tricks of the trade on how to save money without compromising on style. We examine some typical contracts and clauses so you know what to look out for when signing on the dotted line and we look at ideas for entertainment, venue decoration, favours, themes and guest management. By the end of the morning our clients leave armed with everything they need to go away and confidently plan their wedding in an organised way. Not only this but a few days after their visit, we even send them a personalised wedding planner with key dates by which all the various things we talked about ought to be done by.

NOW FOR THE BARGAIN ....

As I was sitting by the lake at Compton Verney on Sunday I decided to hold a special promotion on our Private Half-Day Wedding Consultations and what could be more special than

70% off!

So, for bookings received up to 30th June 2010 we are offering this service for just £75.

All you have to do is call us on 0845 310 12 19 by 30th June and quote ref: WCOPC050001

More details on our website or you can email us: info@weddingsco-ordinated.co.uk for info.

It's a great deal but I shall have to be careful next time I take a stroll on a sunny day - who know's what I'll be giving away next!

Wedding Psychology

In preparation for a seminar I will be giving at Hogarths Hotel in Solihull next month on the subject of 'the psychology of weddings' I have been doing a bit of research. I was astounded to read that one in ten brides suffer from 'post nuptial depression' and this is a figure which is on the increase. Understandably planning your wedding is a really big deal (regardless of whether or not you have a wedding planner to assist you) however, it is very worrying that so many women let planning their 'big day' become so all-consuming that their lives actually appear to stop the day after.



It is no surprise perhaps that after months (or even years) of preparation when almost every waking hour seems to be filled with thoughts about the wedding day, many women will feel at a bit of a loss after it is all over. But, once the thank you letters are written, the photos are safely in their album and the video is played and re-played, it really is time to move on.



It is very important that you don't allow your wedding plans to take over your life. Of course trying on dresses, choosing stationery, selecting menus, booking entertainment etc is fun but always remember why you doing this. Your wedding is a single event which will mark the beginning of a whole new life and really it is that new life which you should be focusing on.



There are several things you can do to keep everything in perspective. Firstly get organised - keep everything filed in one place and make diary notes of when things have to be done by. Keep at least one night each week free when you and your partner do something together and ban any mention of the word 'wedding' or anything related to it. Better still, if you can, try to restrict your wedding discussions to one night only each week. Try to avoid spending every lunchtime surfing the wedding websites on the net, set aside one day of the weekend to do your shopping and surfing. Write down what you are looking for and only look for that - otherwise you will get so sidetracked that before you know it you will have spent the whole weekend staring at your computer... not much fun for your partner, friends or family.



And of course, consider hiring a wedding planner to help you - let them do all the boring leg work for you so you simply have to make the decisions - which, after all, is the fun bit! This will free you up to concentrate on what is far more important and challenging: planning for your new life together.

Keeping a Lid on Wedding Costs

As you will know if you are planning a wedding yourself, most couples plan their weddings at least one or more years ahead - and this means setting a budget and committing to your most expensive wedding cost - your venue - many months before the big day itself. The recent economic downturn has had a profound and devastating effect on some couples who booked an expensive venue and paid a large non-refundable deposit a year or two ago but who are now struggling to raise the money to pay the balance - let alone find additional cash for all the other wedding expenses which they assumed they would be able to afford. In some instances engaged couples have found themselves redundant and their parents have lost savings as stocks, shares and interest rates tumbled making wedding planning more stressful than ever for these unlucky brides and grooms.

Starting married life in debt is no fun which is why at Weddings Co-ordinated we pay particular attention to keeping a lid on our clients' spending. We discuss at great length how to set a budget and we are rigorous about ensuring our clients stick to their budgets. We also negotiate excellent rates with suppliers on their behalf and we always, always recommend that they take out a comprehensive insurance policy.

There is still a strong misconception held by couples in the UK that hiring a wedding co-ordinator is an unnecessary and frivolous additional expense. In fact, by negotiating good deals for their clients, a wedding co-ordinator can often save you more money than the cost of their fee and all our clients have reported that far from being ‘unnecessary and frivolous’ their co-ordinator was ‘worth her weight in gold’ in terms of the ideas, assistance and support given to the couple throughout the wedding planning process and on the day itself.

If you would like to find out more about how a wedding co-ordinator could help you with your wedding plans please do contact us or visit our website at www.weddingsco-ordinated.co.uk