Free Wedding Planning Tools
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Twelve smart questions to ask your wedding venue
When you’re researching and visiting suitable venues for your wedding, it’s really important to ask the right questions to ensure that you will be getting the best deal and overall option for your wedding venue. It can be easy to be swayed by how gorgeous the wedding venue looks, or a delicious sounding array of menu options for your wedding breakfast but it is super important to remember that this is likely to be the biggest spend of your wedding and not to get carried away! I know, much easier said than done!
I have put together twelve questions below for you to ask your wedding venue when you are going for your show-round. Hopefully these questions will help you to make the best decision when it comes to choosing your wedding venue.
1. Will the price change if we changed the date – off season / mid-week?
Some venues will be able to seriously reduce your wedding venue hire fee if you book your wedding for the Winter or a mid-week date.
2. Do you have a corkage option where we can bring our own booze?
Some wedding venues will allow to you to bring in your own alcohol for a small fee per bottle. This can work out a lot cheaper than the wedding venue supplying all of your alcohol.
3. Can we have access to the venue the day before for decorating?
Are you going to be decorating your wedding venue yourself? Find out if the venue will allow you a few hours the day before to get things set up.
4. What are your charges for additional guests?
Make sure you aren’t stung by high excess number charges.
5. What time do we need to be clear of the venue by on the wedding day?
If it’s important to you that you can party until the small hours, cover off the question before you sign your contract.
6. Do you have any set budget package options?
Sometimes it can work out cheaper to utilize a package offer for your wedding.
7. Do you have any preferential rate agreements with local hotels where our guests will be able to stay?
Your family and friends will thank you if you have been thoughtful enough to wangle them a discount!
8. Do you have a room that the Bridal party can use as a private area on the day of the wedding?
Having a room where you and your bridesmaids can go and take a breather on the day will be a wonderful thing!
9. Do you have any preferred suppliers (photographers, cake makers etc) who we may be able to get preferential rates with?
If you’re starting from scratch, it can be wonderful to have a recommendation for a trusted supplier from your wedding venue.
10. Are we able to bring in our own caterers?
Not all venues will allow external caterers in, but if yours does, this can be a big money saver and give you more flexibility on the type of food you will be serving your guests.
11. Can we throw confetti?
We all love a good confetti shot – but clear it with your venue first! Some wedding venues will only allow natural biodegradable petals for throwing – others none will be allowed at all.
12. Will we be the sole wedding party on the day?
This is a BIG one! If you don’t want to be running into another lady wearing a wedding dress on your big day, check with your venue that you are the only wedding taking place on your chosen date.
Have you booked your venue yet? What questions did you ask to make sure you were making the right choice? Let us know over on the Facebook page!
Laura x
Photography in this post courtesy of Danielle Mobbs
Cute roles for kids at weddings
Last week, I asked you guys whether you were planning on having any flower girls or page boys at your wedding, and it got me thinking of how many lovely ways there are to incorporate children into your wedding day plans. Now I have a little one myself, I am keen to involve her as much as possible in our wedding day. Have a look at my suggestions below for cute roles for kids at weddings – have you got any other ideas for how to involve children in your wedding day?
Cute roles for kids at weddings
♥ Page Boys / Ring Bearer
This is an obvious one, but a goody. Who doesn’t melt at the sight of a tiny little boy helping out the Bride with her train, or bringing the rings up the aisle?
♥ Flower Girl
It’s such a wonderful start to the wedding procession, to have one or two of the little ladies in your life heading down the aisle scattering petals ready for the entrance of the Bride. The role isn’t too responsible and if your little Flower Girl gets stage fright and wants to run back to their Mum and Dad, sometimes that can be all the cuter, right?!
♥ Bridesmaids
Although you might want to go for older Bridesmaids (your best friends / sisters etc), having a younger Bridesmaid involved can be a really nice idea. They won’t be so nervous, as they will be walking down the aisle in company, plus having younger bridesmaids looks super cute in the photos 😉
♥ Toast Master
My lovely friend Tamara opted for a young nephew to act as Toast Master at her wedding (see the cute lil pic at the top of this post? That’s him 🙂 ). It worked SO well! You can see the full wedding story here.
♥ Handing out gifts at the wedding breakfast
This is a lovely role and is also super useful. You and your new Husband or Wife get to sit put and one of your favourite little ones can do the running around with gifts for the Mummy’s of the Bride and Groom, Bridesmaids and Best Man!
♥ Gift attendant / guest book attendant
After the wedding is over and you’re back from your honeymoon, you will want to read through your guest book (or guest signing picture) and see all of the well wishes. Make sure that all of your guests add their note by assigning one of the kiddies in your party to be in charge. Either have them look after the book near the gift table, or get them to wander around the wedding breakfast asking your guests to sign it.
♥ Reading
Readings at the ceremony are not strictly limited to older family members or friends. It will make a lovely memorable moment for a young child to read something short and sweet at your ceremony.
♥ Give away the Bride
Personally, I love this idea. If you aren’t going to be given away by your Dad and are looking for an alternative, why not have your own little one or another child in your family give you away? Might make a good choice for a slightly older child, so that they understand the importance of the role 😉
How are you going to be involving children at your wedding? Have you got any other great ideas for roles for kids at weddings? Let us know over on the Facebook page!
Laura x
Finding the right Wedding Suppliers for your special day
As someone who has worked in the event industry for years and years, I know exactly how important having great quality suppliers who you can really trust is to the success of your event. Finding the right wedding suppliers for your wedding is no different. You are going to be parting with a sum of money, no matter how large or small that amount may be, and you need to have the service or product delivered to the standard that you are happy with. After all, it’s your wedding and things need to live up to your dreams, right?
At The Budget Bride Company, we specialise in finding the right wedding suppliers for our Brides. As well as using our Wedding Supplier Directory, where you can search by region and category, we also offer a bespoke Wedding Supplier Finding Service. By letting us know which suppliers you would like, how much budget you have available, as well as the date and venue of your wedding, we can research the best suppliers for you and put them directly in touch with you. This service saves our Brides hours and hours of research time, allowing time to be spent on your other wedmin tasks (read: drinking champagne and having fun with your bridesmaids 🙂 )
Finding the right wedding suppliers is totally free when you use our Service. Have a look at the form submission page here or sign up for our newsletter on the homepage and we will send you across a full form with all of the elements that you might like to consider.
From Wedding Dresses to Flowers, and Entertainment through to Catering, finding the right wedding suppliers to make your wedding day a success is a breeze. Get in touch now and let us do the hard work for you!
Laura x
How Wedding Mood Boards can help you with your Wedding Planning
From speaking with lots of newly engaged brides to be, I know that the DIY element of your wedding planning can be one of the most fun parts in the run up to your wedding. Visualising your wedding and putting down your thoughts and ideas onto paper is a great way to pull your theme together. This is why I am such a fan of wedding mood boards – not only can you see what colours and themes are emerging from your magazine clippings and fabric swatches, but it’s almost like an image version of your what to buy list!
I touched on the subject of wedding mood boards last year, here is an excerpt from that post to help you get started with creating your wedding mood board…
When you get engaged, it can seem like you have a massive mountain of wedding planning to climb, but by creating your first wedding mood boards, you will hone in on that lovely feeling of creating a day that is unique to your tastes and really shows off what you and your partner are about.
Wedding planning can be stressful, I admit it, but the overriding feeling should be FUN – afterall you’re marrying the love of your life 🙂
How you create your mood boards is up to you. Do you love the digital? You may want to go down the Pinterest route, like we do. As well as having the entire internet as your playground for searching for wedding eye candy, it is incredibly easy to use, free, and can be amended and refreshed whenever you fancy. Search for exactly what you are after and create your special board to collect all of your inspiration. You can also create secret boards, if you would prefer to keep your wedding themes private, or as a surprise for your guests.
If you are more crafty, and love getting busy with glue and cardboard, then a physical mood board will be a delight for you. Catalogues, glossy magazines, product packaging and swatches of material can be collected and arranged on your board. There is something wonderfully tactile and exciting about creating a mood board that you can actually feel.
Another, less structured way of creating a mood board, is to collect all of your swatches and cut outs and keep them in a box. This means that you can play around with the items, seeing which goes well with the other and enabling you to easily take certain items to your suppliers to show them the exact colour, or feeling, that you are after.
There are really no rules, and if you feel most comfortable and inspired by creating your mood board on the fridge door, with lots of magnets – then so be it! The important thing is to have a designated place for you to collect all of your favourite snippets of style. Having a mood board (or box!) can really help you to bring all of your ideas into one place and will clearly tie together your dreams and ideas.
I’d love to hear if you have got any wedding mood boards in place yet and how it has helped you with your planning? Let us know on Facebook or on Twitter @BudgetBrideCo.
Happy Wedding Mood Boarding!
Laura x
Photo credit: Xoyos.com via photopin
Congratulations on your Engagement!
Congratulations on your Engagement - amazing news! Getting engaged is the beginning of your own unique journey into becoming a Mrs and I’m so glad that we will get to help you along your way!
No matter what type of wedding you are planning – glamourous and sparkly, or laid back and bohemian, your wedding will be the ultimate display of you and your partners’ love – a total celebration of what you have together. So, make sure that you enjoy every moment between now and your big day – it really is such a special time.
When you’re ready (and you have soaked up all of the engagement cards, well wishes and champagne!), you can make a start on planning what kind of wedding you want to have. First up should be deciding roughly what will fit with you and your fiancés wishes the best – and what you would like to achieve. Will you be wanting a Barn Wedding or a Hotel Wedding? Something quite lavish or something quite simple? There are no hard and fast rules – choose a wedding style that says the most about you as a couple. From there, you can then start to think about your budget and how much money you will need for the wedding that you are imagining to take place.
I would recommend getting a copy of our Wedding Planning E-Course for Brides to Be – it has a fantastic way of guiding you through all of the bits to think about whilst planning your wedding and ensuring that you will be able to stick to your budget. You can get your course emailed straight to your inbox ready to help you with your wedding planning here.
Pulling together a wedding budget is a great thing to get done and out in the open with your beau – think about where you will be pulling your budget together from – your savings, your families helping out, an extra job? There are lots of ways to finance a wedding and the more upfront you are with your partner in the early stages of your planning means that there will be no need for upset further down the line.
Be ruthless in your honesty about how much you have to spend, which will of course influence where you hold your wedding, how many guests you invite and what you will spend on your dress, amongst all of the other elements you would like to include. If you feel overwhelmed at any point, just check in on our Real Life Budget Weddings on the Blog for some true stories on weddings with set budgets – there should be some really helpful points there that will help you realise your potential with your own wedding budget!
And if you would like an awesome way to track your wedding budget, I have created a really useful Wedding Budgeting Spreadsheet which contains all of the areas that you need to think about – from Catering to Venue Costs and everything in between - you can get your copy here! The lines are all pre-populated with everything that you could possibly need to think of, so you won’t worry that you have forgotten a thing!
Over the next few weeks, I will be going into the different parts of early wedding planning to help you plot your way! In the meantime, keep in touch on our Facebook page and on Twitter and Instagram @Budgetbrideco!
Happy Wedding Planning!
Laura x
Wedding Day Survival Kit 101
So, after all of your planning and preparations, your wedding day has finally arrived!! You will want to enjoy every single moment of the day from when you open your peepers in the morning, right through until when you collapse at the end of the day with your newly wed darling! To ensure that you get as much enjoyment as possible out of the day, I would highly recommend putting together a wedding day survival kit, which you and your bridesmaids can have easy access to on the wedding day and can be transferred from home to venue easily.
This survival kit will keep you refreshed and feeling on top of things throughout the day and should be full of those necessities which will give you a quick pep when you feel like you might be flagging… Assign the responsibility of looking after this kit and stashing it in a safe place with your Maid of Honour and then you can ask for various items from it as and when you need them throughout the day.
Below is an excerpt from our 30 Day Plan Your Own Wedding Course and what I have recommended to stash in your wedding day survival kit!
Wedding Day Survival Kit
♥ Spray deodorant and perfume
♥ Plasters and blister patches
♥ Spare full set of make-up for touch ups
♥ Hair brush, straighteners or curlers, hair spray, hair grips and hair bands
♥ Fashion tape
♥ A selection of wrapped snacks such as babybel cheeses and granola bars
♥ Toothbrush, toothpaste, mouth wash, mouth freshener and chewing gum
♥ Pairs of flip flops
♥ A spare copy of the Running Order of the Day schedule and of the Main Contacts names and numbers list
♥ Instant ice packs
♥ A present that you might want to give to your Beau at some point on the wedding day
♥ Pens and pencils
♥ Mobile phone charger
♥ Spare stockings if being used
♥ Your house keys in case anybody needs to go back for anything
Good luck packing your wedding day survival kit! What will you be taking in yours? Let us know over on the Facebook Page or tweet us @budgetbrideco!
Laura x
Photo Credit: Danielle Mobbs Photography - Wedding Packages available from £650
An amazing DIY Candy Buffet for your wedding in four easy steps
Having a beautifully laid out candy buffet at your wedding is a popular idea at the moment for adding a fun touch to your wedding reception. Both adults and kids relish the chance to grab a sugar rush and it’s a lovely talking point for your guests.
There are lots of fab companies who can bring in a ready-made candy cart or candy buffet ready for your guests to devour, but if your budget cannot stretch to this, or you simply want to give it a go yourself, here is a guide to pulling together your own DIY Candy Buffet for your wedding!
♥ Decide on the overall look and feel that you would like to present for your candy buffet. For all colour palettes and themed weddings, I would recommend starting with a trestle or round table (ask your venue for where will be best to set this up) and dressing it in a one colour lace or cotton table cloth. As you are going to be filling the table with a lot of things, it’s a good idea to keep the base as quite simple, so you don’t end up with a garish look!
Then think about your colour palette or theme. For vintage weddings, add flower print bunting around the front of the table and piles of classic books bound with ribbon or twine to present your sweets on top of! To pull a colour theme into your candy buffet, use pom-poms to decorate the front of the table and ribbon around your candy jars. For a natural themed or barn wedding, use lots of burlap and gingham to add a boho feel.
Vintage Lace Candy Bar Kit: £9.99
♥ Have a think about the kind of sweets you want to serve. Do you have a favourite that you would like to take pride of place? Or are you happy to provide a wide variety for your guests to choose from? Draw up a list of up to 10 options that you can focus on – you might want to include: sherbert flying saucers, cola bottles, rhubarb and custards, red rope licqorice, jelly babies, jelly beans, chocolate rasiens, chocolate buttons, humbugs and dolly mixture. You can order online from websites such as Sweets n Candy, Handy Candy and aquarterof.co.uk.
♥ How would you like to present your sweeties? Different sized jars are a great idea for keeping the look neat and pretty, but you could also use bowls such as these novelty heart shaped ones! Remember to get some sweetie scoops for each of the bowls or jars, so that your guests don’t have to use their fingers!
♥ What kind of portions would you like your guests to have? Based on the amount of sweets that you have purchased, you should have an idea of how much each guest will be able to take. Bearing this in mind, have a look for cones or containers that each guest can use to fill with their portion of sweets from the Candy Buffet.
Have fun creating your candy buffet! Send us an Instagram or Twitter picture of yours using the hashtag #budgetcandybuffet!
Laura x
Top and Bottom Photo Credits: The Wedding of my dreams via photopin
Wedding Planning Infographic
I love this Wedding Planning Infographic, to help you with your tasks in the 12 month countdown to your wedding! How are your wedding planning preparations coming along?
Laura x
Wedding Budget Spreadsheet
One of the things I get asked about most by Brides to be is how to create a wedding budget that works. Planning your wedding is SO much fun and it’s a great idea to have a grip on the finances from the outset, so that you don’t have any niggling money worries in the back of your mind whilst you’re cracking on with your preparations.
I have covered a lot about how to set a wedding budget in my Wedding Planning E-Course that you can enrol on here, but I think that it’s a brilliant idea to have a Wedding Budget Spreadsheet right from the start of your wedding planning, so that you can keep full tabs on the money that you have set aside and what is being spent as you spend it. It can be so easy to just pop into town on your lunch break and come back with three pairs of Bridesmaid shoes that you saw on offer, that somehow don’t get included in your overall budget – it’s easy to see where the money can disappear to!
I have created a Wedding Budget Spreadsheet especially for UK brides to be looking to get organised and on top of everything in the run up to their wedding.
This Wedding Budget Spreadsheet will help you to:
♥ Work out your total budget and figure out priorities on where you want to spend it
♥ Help you to stay in total control of your money from engagement through to honeymoon
♥ Keep track of your wedding guests, RSVPs and special requirements
♥ Sort your table plan for your wedding breakfast
♥ Organise your hen do
♥ Work out your timeline in the run up to the day as well as helping you sort out what you want to happen and when on the big day itself
With over ten years of event planning experience under my belt – as well as having my own wedding to plan! – I know exactly how to help you sort out your wedding budget. And best of all? You can get the Wedding Budget Spreadsheet now for just £4.50 saving yourself bags of hassle and research time! Just click here to buy, and your spreadsheet will be emailed straight out to you, ready to use.
Happy Budgeting, Brides to be!
Laura xx
Image courtesy of Danielle Mobbs Photography