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Local experts offer stellar advice on wedding dilemmas

Entertaining The Little Ones

We’ve just started planning our wedding; what advice can you share to keep the little ones busy?

Childcare is not often one of the first things to be considered when planning a wedding. However, we feel it’s one of your most important decisions. Here are some benefits of having a professional childcare service for your special day.

A wedding unites two families, and a unique service like ours allows the wedding couple to live fully in the moment throughout their beautiful day by letting us be the eyes and ears for their kids.

All children are precious but also a little unpredictable. If there are any mishaps, we’re there to resolve them so the day can run as smoothly as possible.

We’ll attend to all the children’s needs and routines for the duration of the wedding by taking care of all the nappy changes, feeds, naps, bedtimes and keeping them overnight if required.

A wedding can be very overwhelming for adults, even more so for children. Professional childcare can help manage their emotions and keep them engaged while ensuring the children are still fully present and part of the day.

Natalie Robson | The Wedding Nanny www.theweddingnanny.co.uk

PICTURE-PERFECT PHOTOGRAPHY

We’re very conscious of having our photos taken; what advice can you share with us?

Choose your professional wedding photographer wisely by shopping around and asking for recommendations. Once you find a photographer who’s style you like, contact the supplier to get a feel for them as a person as this is the perfect opportunity to see if you feel comfortable with the photographer. Check out their full galleries rather than just their best photos, and see if they have photographed similar weddings to what you’re planning.

If you’ve booked a documentary wedding photographer like me because you want natural photos, please put your wedding Pinterest board in the bin. Comparison is the thief of joy and causes people not to like their wedding photos. If you have your heart set on a specific photo/look, discuss it with your photographer in advance. It all comes down to choosing your photographer wisely, a style that matches your outcome and a lot of communication with your chosen wedding professional.

Have a timeline for the day and plan travel times between venues if needed before discussing this with your photographer. If things feel rushed and the timings are unrealistic, it will show in photos.

It’s incredibly overwhelming to receive hundreds of images from your wedding day with the chance that you’re in 75 per cent – go easy on yourself as you won’t look picture-perfect in every single one. You’ll get hundreds of photos for a reason, so you can choose and print off the ones you adore.

Have a pre-wedding shoot, as it’s excellent practice and will help you get to know your photographer while preparing you to receive a photo gallery of yourself.

Gina Fernandes

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Gina Fernandes Photography https://ginafernandesphotography.co.uk

Exchanging Vows

We want a customised service for our summer wedding and are considering booking a celebrant. How can the supplier make the day more personal?

When creating a personalised service, choose a trained celebrant that you feel connected with. By getting to know you both, the supplier will discover your interests and find inspiration before working their magic to add unique moments designed only for you in a location of your choice. It’s your day, so don’t let traditions dictate! The ceremony is the most essential part of your wedding day and can be easily overlooked – so make it special. You can have a whiskey box ceremony, ring warming on a climbing rope around a spiral of guests, rose exchanges and more. Think outside the box and incorporate your interests. I’ve binge-watched Stranger Things to get into the vibe for script writing and simply short but very personal vows – there are endless possibilities for your big day. You cannot beat the personal touch and moments that are priceless and cherished.

Andrea Felix | Your Celebrant | www.yourcelebrant.org

Planning Sos

We’ve just started wedding planning; what advice can you share?

You might have had a Pinterest board in production for the past five years, or you don’t know where to begin. A great place to start is to sit down and list what you both adore, such as your favourite date night spots, hobbies, colours, food dishes and places you’ve visited. Forget wedding logistics for now, and let your creative minds wander!

Write down all the people you want to share your special day with to give you an idea of numbers; this will help plan the costs, invites and capacities. Don’t get too caught up in family politics at this stage – a rough idea will do for now!

Pick Of The Bunch

We’re looking for the perfect blooms for our wedding; what’s new with dried flowers?

The world of dried flowers is constantly changing and progressing. Gone are the days of brown and tired-looking blooms as we now see such an array of beautiful colours and endless possibilities.

The newest change in this category is using preserved flowers treated with a glycerine solution to capture them at their peak. Preserving the florals keeps them looking soft and fresh without wilting or dying.

The most popular flowers to preserve are roses, which come in various colours. Still, there are now more varieties of preserved flowers, including dahlias, orchids, hydrangeas, carnations and much more. Preserved foliage also adds a beautiful touch to wedding bouquets, allowing for more movement than dried flowers and replicating the look of fresh flowers.

We love combining preserved flowers and foliage with dried flowers and grasses, especially with a touch of pampas for a look that lasts long after the wedding.

Sarah Ogden | Horseshoe Flowers | www.horseshoeflowers.com

Start with a guide expense for each element of your wedding. All these costs should add up to the total wedding budget you have to spend. These will likely change up or down, but you’ll know where to indulge more or cut costs. Your budget should ultimately be a live document showing your total, current expenditures while reminding you which suppliers must be paid what and when.

Working back from your wedding date (or ideal month if you haven’t decided yet), make a rough timeline of decisions and actions that must be made before then. Depending on how long your planning process is, you realise that you have time to make the right decisions for you both – don’t feel pressured into rushing things. However, your timeline will also help set deadlines to ensure you stay on track so your lead-up to the wedding is stress-free. Setting these documents up as separate tabs on one shareable document like GoogleDocs allows you to access everything on multiple devices while ensuring you’re both working from the latest version as it automatically updates. You could also include and allocate a list of needed actions to help equally share the workload.

Bethany Wells | Bethany Rose Weddings

www.bethanyroseweddings.com