Stationery (part 1)

When it comes to planning a wedding a very important element of the planning is your stationery. Do you simply buy it off the High Street? Do you get a bespoke design? Or have you a crafty ability and can make it yourself? These are all things you have to consider.

The next thing to think about is style. Do you want it to complement the theme of your wedding? What sort of colours are you having for the wedding, how would you like them to compliment your stattionery.....oh the mind boggles and to be quite honest there's to much to think about your head begins to hurt!! Lets simplify it a little:

Stationery you will more than likely need -

* Save the Date Cards - these are great wee cards that you send out approximately a year before the wedding (especially if your wedding is at certain times of the year when people might be otherwise busy like summer holidays, Eastertime or even if it's a midweek wedding). These can be simple little postcard notifications ordered from the likes of Vistaprint
Or if you're more crafty you can make a wee card yourself to let people know when your wedding is, where it is and any other details you feel might be important (for instance if you have a wedding website).

* Invites - the most important piece of stationery for a wedding!! These are pretty much as you suspect to invite people to the wedding. For this you can go along the Vistaprint route - less personal feel but cost effective and less stressful as you work from the styles and designs on their website to create your own (unless you're creative and want to upload a design you've created yourself).

Or you can take the route I've taken and order stationery from an online business. Here you can work with the designer to create something specific and tailored to your needs, you have a greater level of control over your design. Many people this this is a more expensive route to take, however many companies will offer discount or packages if you are ordering ranges of stationery from them.
For bespoke stationery or even standard handmade stationery I would recommend Little Tiger Creations who is run by a very lovely and helpful Scottish lass, Jac who got married last year and so understands the struggle to get stationery the way you want it at a cost effective price.

*RSVP Cards - Simply cards you can have made to send out with your invites for people to tick a box to say they will/will not attend the wedding. This is especially a good idea if you think certain family members or friends will forget to RSVP. If you're as bad as me, it might be an idea to stick some stamps on certain ones so that they have no excuse not to RSVP.
Tip: make a wee note on each card with a number or letter in the corner so if they forget to note on who they are you can identify the sender - for instance number 1 might be your mum so stick a "1" in the bottom corner of the RSVP but make sure it's somewhere only you will notice and not the recipient and remember to keep a note of who all the numbers correspond to!!

This concludes part 1, more to follow later!!

To Do List

Right as a basic starting point this is the sort of to do list that I worked from:

1. Groom (pick one!)
2. Pick a date
3. Pick a ceremony type
4. Pick venue
5. Pick attendants (bridesmaids, best man etc)
5. Draw up a rough guest list so you have an idea of numbers
6. Think about colours/themes/ideas
7. Keep a scrapbook for dress ideas/reception ideas/general ideas
8. Research photographers
9. Research videographers if you want one
10. Think about dresses - use your scrapbook for ideas of that you like in a dress and take that with you for trying on dresses.
11. Make bookings
12. Research wedding cars
13. Look into stationery
14. Start thinking about favours and thank you gifts for important people
15. Pick readings for ceremony (and music if applicable)
16. Wedding cake!!
17. Organise the groom - what's he going to wear?
18. Pick a menu for the wedding banquet
19. Research wedding make up and hair
20. Make sure you have all the relevant paperwork in order!!

That's just a rough guide, there are no doubt things missed off, but as you go along you end up adding extras to the list, merging bits together and then taking things off the list when you change your mind!!

Steps to being a "Super Bride"

As we all know planning a wedding can be a costly business! As soon as you mention the "wedding" word, prices seem to skyrocket and suddenly you're thinking it might be better to elope.
There are so many ways to save money when planning your wedding, for instance you could buy a dress from the High Street from the likes of Littlewoods, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon? They sell some really pretty dresses and at a fraction of the price of bridal shops they are a steal! Failing that when you're dress shopping tell the assistants in the bridal shop your budget and that way they will point out dresses that you can afford and steer you away from the ones that will break the bank.

Other ways to save are to hunt around for bargains, eBay will soon become a favourite for many brides to be. You'd be amazed at the things you will find on there! So far I've managed to get all the favours, favour boxes, thank you gifts, cuff links for the attendants and many other things from shops on eBay and at very good prices. So long as you're not afraid of hard work this route might be for you!

Often a lot of brides to be want to make their own stationery, which for those who are creative and not in any way artistically challenged, it's a great way to save money. Again EBay will have the bits and bobs you need, failing that there are many websites out there with everything you will need. But if like me you want something professional looking then there are a variety of shops, sites etc to buy stationery from or you can have it custom designed for you to suit your theme. Some of the stationery and gifts for our wedding is coming from www.littletigercreations.com which is run by a close friend of mine. She has been great and helped me work out what I wanted from my stationery and made my ramblings turn into an actual creation.

For the cars, do you know anyone with a "posh" car? Does your uncle drive a Rolls Royce? Can you sweet talk him into taking you to the church/hotel? Failing that ask the car companies if they offer any discount for booking more than one car, or if they would give you discount if you are only needing the car for a short time? It's worth asking, you never know you might get £50 off the price and at the end of the day wouldn't you rather the £50 in your pocket?!