I don't know about you but public speaking speaking is one of the things I dread! And while I still do it, it makes me extremely uncomfortable. Here's some of my tips to make it a bit easier: Be prepared! Winging it hardly ever turns out well. Make sure you know the points you want to cover and either write out your speech word for word or use cue cards with some key words Get a good nights sleep the night before. This is essential, you operate so much better on a good nights

The constant battle that I see couples come up against is the ‘pressure’ to conform to what a wedding day ‘should be’. The dress, suits, rings, cars, ceremony, bridal party, head table, seated reception, speeches, favours, DJ/band, cake…. the list goes on. But guess what? You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to (awesome right?) And once you get your head around that, then the options are endless. Who says that you need to have a fancy white dress and a sit-down meal? T

Happy New Year!! With a new year comes new trends! I have spent some time reflecting on the 2018 trends I have seen and thinking about what we are likely to see as trends in 2019. The wedding trends for 2019 are shaping up nicely. Here in NZ we will start to see the trends from the staged photo shoots of the last 6 months start to be implemented in ‘real weddings’. Here are my top picks for what we will see in 2019: The Day Itself 2019 will bring more of a focus on creating a

Warning: you may find the content of this blog upsetting I’ve seen this topic pop up a bit on various forums recently, so thought I’d throw my two cents in. ​ Bear with me while I outline my journey. When I got married there were a couple of grandparents who had passed away, but overall the core people of our family and friends were present. There was the ‘token’ mention of the grandparents in the ‘father of the bride speech’ but other than that nothing additional was done; a

The age old debate when planning a wedding is what to splurge on and what to save on. Whether you have a bottomless budget or a strict one, this topic is bound to come up. ​Your wedding day will be one of the most important days of your life and its significance will last generations. Because of this when considering how you will spend your budget it is prudent to invest time to delve a bit deeper and consider why you are either splurging or saving on something. ​You don’t wa

​ Hiring a wedding planner is a relatively new concept here in NZ. In the States and Aussie it is a more widely used service, and while it is picking up here there is still a common misconception that Wedding Planners are only for the rich and that they are expensive. You may be presently surprised to learn that Wedding Planners often offer reasonably priced packages to ensure you get the most bang for your buck. They can also offer an hourly rate so that if you are just want

Christmas has well and truly passed; the New Year is underway and your wedding is approaching fast - sound familiar? It is easy to get overwhelmed after the silly season; your credit cards bursting and the balances on your wedding vendors are coming due; it’s easy to suffer from the post-Christmas budget blues.  ​ Now this is a little cliché but remember to strip it ​back to what is important, ​keep in mind the true reason for your wedding day… to marry the person you love an

So this is where my passion for all things weddings comes a little unstuck. I was not one of those girls growing up that had a scrapbook with cutout pictures of my perfect wedding dress, I did not play weddings and dress up in lace. So when I came to buying my wedding dress I took the pragmatic approach and looked at my options from a price perspective first. It costs what? Like most brides working to a budget I had to decide how much I wanted to spend on my dress. I research

Continuing on with my food theme I thought I’d delve into wedding cakes this week. One thing I was not prepared for when planning my wedding was the complexities around choosing a cake; I mean how hard could it be? ​ After trolling the internet I found my perfect cake; a two tiered chocolate cake decorated with White Chocolate shards and berries (it’s obviously not popular anymore as I cannot find a decent picture but kind of like this) In my mind it was relatively simple, th

One of the things I hear time and time again is that the thing people remember most about a wedding is the food. While I am not sure this is an accurate representation of the majority, it does indicate that food can play an important part in making your day memorable. ​If you are like me and enjoy ‘good grub’ then food will be high on your list of wedding priorities. For our wedding price played a big part in selecting our wedding food. Ultimately we wanted great food, a grea

As kiwis we are notoriously bad when it comes to talking about money. We avoid the subject; quickly change the topic or fluff over any details. This may be an underlying contributor to why when it comes to weddings we suffer unnecessary anxiety over who will pay for what; and how much we will spend. My advice is to treat it as you would a band aid... and rip it off quickly!  Get it over and done with so you can move forward. If anyone is going to contribute financially to you