Let me entertain you.

Wedding entertainment ideas

Weddings can be long. As couples strive to make the most of their wedding day, they choose an early ceremony time and run the party late into the night. An early afternoon wedding means there is still around ten hours to fill until the carriages arrive to take guests home. Wedding ceremony’s take about half an hour – so how should you be filling those nine and a half hours? The question – is getting married enough to keep your guests entertained?

Long days require perks to ensure the enthusiasm of your guests doesn’t begin to dissolve. The obvious wedding entertainment choices are good food and good music. You can’t get away without feeding guests or having a dance floor at a wedding, but these are expected – so what else can do you to entertain guests at your wedding without breaking the bank?

Photo Booths

Such a winner at weddings – not only do your guests get a keepsake, you also have the opportunity to create a wedding photo booth scrapbook if your booth prints more than one copy. There is also the option of a DIY photo booth – simply create a backdrop and place a frame in front, and leave the rest to your guests! The pictures are bound to appear on social media for you to enjoy after the wedding. Ensure you have plenty of props and dress-up items for the funniest combinations.

IttyBittyWedding chalkboard Photo Booth props

Breaking tradition.

Wedding traditions – how relevant are they today?

Wedding traditions seem to be becoming less prominent in modern times. More and more people are figuring out whether they actually want to stick to wedding traditions, rather than seeing them as essential to their wedding day. Your wedding day should be a reflection of you as a couple, and if you don’t believe in the classic wedding traditions then you don’t necessarily have to follow them – unless you want to.

That’s not to say I will be sacking off the traditions of a wedding altogether, but I believe in ensuring that everything that is involved in our wedding is something we want, not what we feel we have to include.

So, which wedding traditions are still relevant today?

Wearing a long, white wedding dress

Where did it originate?
The history of the wedding dress is a surprising one. ‘Wedding white’ is seen as the most traditional colour for a wedding dress, however it is known to have been made a ‘tradition’ when Queen Victoria wore white at her wedding in 1840. Before this time, popular choices ranged from rich red to heavily embroidered gowns, along with an array of colours and no set style. While many brides ‘break’ current tradition, white is still seen as the number one choice.

Wedding dreams and nightmares

The wedding nightmares have begun already. Having dreams about something which is so important is to be expected – especially when you have plenty of time to mull over the details.

The thing is, nothing ever seems to be going right in our dreams. It’s not just me either, Dan has also had a wedding nightmare. Can we really only conjure up negative thoughts about our big day? Stresses and worries are building up and showcasing themselves in our subconscious thoughts, because we aren’t imagining happy endings. After they occurred on a few different nights, I started to think that we better take note.

Obsession of the month: Food, glorious food

When it comes to the catering for our wedding, we have been very lucky. With our chosen venue, we have the opportunity to select from four gourmet catering companies. Having the venue provide us with their partnered caterers means we know they have worked at the venue before and therefore know the kitchen specs, table layouts and everything else that comes with it – along with being endorsed by the venue itself.

Having a completely flexible venue in terms of who you choose to do your food is great if you have someone specific in mind or want to do it yourself, but if you don’t it could mean hours of researching to find what you’re looking for – if you even know what that is at this stage. If your venue has in-house catering, then the decision is out of your hands and that’s one less thing to worry about – but could you be missing out on something better? Even though it means having to make additional choices, I would not give up being able to select our caterer from a specified list. As I’m sure it is for everyone else as well, the food at our wedding is so important to us and we see it as one of the focal points of our day. Getting it right is paramount, and unfortunately we are having to taste a three-course meal with canapés at every one…

Obsession of the month: Flowers

‘‘This wedding has got your scrimpy fingerprints all over it.’’

It’s true, I am questioning every penny we spend. Due to a quality error with our save the dates, I managed to get a full refund – it was THE BEST EVER and I am so proud. Saving money makes me so happy. Start as you mean to go on, am I right?

The above statement was made by Dan while I was once again worrying about the fact that we wouldn’t normally spend this much money on things. To which Dan replied, ‘Well we wouldn’t normally get married would we?’

The main reason we are DIYing so many aspects of our wedding is because it’s actually really fun, minus the hard work and stressful situations. The other reason, however, is of course the money aspect. By sourcing and creating things ourselves, we are bound to save and guaranteed a certain uniqueness.

This conversation stemmed from a discussion about flowers. I’ve had a fair few warnings when I tell people I am planning on doing my own flowers. ‘Only the bouquets!’ I exclaim. ‘Oh and the centrepieces, but they aren’t big or anything. Then just a few bits dotted around the venue, nothing major…’

Obsession of the month: Save the Dates

Did we make a mountain out of a molehill?

Yes, it’s likely that we did. Compared to all tasks within a wedding planning list, the creation of save the dates is most certainly classified as a molehill.

Refreshing Pinterest has become a ritual, as it does with every bride who is planning her wedding. I have a desire for everything to be unique to us – so of course, like everything else, we are DIYing our save the dates. These pre-invites will not only set the tone for our wedding stationery, but also for our wedding. Fonts, colour schemes and designs will all lead into the day itself. Minimalist or maximalist, pared back or bold – the options are endless.

Grey Loves Weddings – The Gramercy Suite

A year has passed.

So a year has officially passed since we got engaged. On the 13th December 2015 we were in the beautiful country of Iceland celebrating our engagement.

A whole year has gone by and wedding-wise, not much has changed. Yes, we have a date, and we have a venue. But other than that, we don’t have a lot else. At the moment, we still have over a year until the wedding. Come February, I am pretty certain I’ll start panicking slightly. Up until now however, I have felt pretty chilled.

Now that it’s the dire beginning of 2017, we are being reminded that our wedding is now next year, while being asked the question, ‘how much planning have you done?’ more than once. While it is a valid question, the reply of course is that we haven’t done much. But hey, there’s still plenty of time, right?

The first wedding dress appointments.

There seems to be an unnecessary pressure surrounding trying on wedding dresses. Will there be tears? Will you find ‘the one’? Trying wedding dresses on for the first time is supposed to be exciting, but I did feel nervous. What if they all looked terrible? After the first out of three appointments that day, I got into the swing of things and my apprehension subsided. But that initial feeling of stepping into the unknown meant that I needed a little encouragement.

If I have accomplished anything from the first appointments, it was to find out what I don’t want, rather than exactly what I do. However, I believe it is important to rule out the things you don’t like as soon as possible, to free up time to search for what you do want. After trying on a few clear no’s during the first appointment, I was able to go to the following appointments with a better view of the type of dress I was looking for.

Cripps Barn Wedding Venue Review

If you read my post on shortlisting wedding venues where we used a scoring system to determine which venues we really wanted to visit, you’ll know that Cripps Barn was the overall top-scorer.

Cripps barn is based in the Cotswolds and is part of a chain of wedding venues called Cripps Venues. We were drawn to the rustic styling, informal setting and rural surroundings of this barn which is showcased idealistically on the venue’s website. However, when we stepped into Cripps Barn, it almost felt like a different venue.

Cripps Barn Ceremony Room

Addressing the dress.

I have been advised, or shall we say told, that it is time I begin the search for my wedding dress. The overall feeling from everyone is that it I am probably going to find it difficult, and I agree.

Inside Bijoutique

There is always the worry that it is too soon to start looking, but after some positive affirmation from my bridesmaids, we set a date and I have booked the first appointment of the day. I have of course been thinking about the dress since I got engaged (although to be honest, I did create my secret Wedding Dress Pinterest board just a tiny bit before). I am mainly concerned that I won’t be able to find everything I want within one dress off the rail.