Planning your wedding? Then plan effectively with Bride Book
Watch our 2 minute promo that highlights all the main features that Bride Book offers to help you plan your perfect wedding. We help you find the best suppliers with our Intelligent Matching software
A recent survey suggested that the average cost for a wedding in 2013 is a staggering £22,265. In todays economical climate that is a rather costly sum, and it can be a really daunting prospect for newly engaged couples to sit and start to plan their big day.
They key to cutting down costs is in researching before and talking through what is most important to you both. If you pick our certain elements of that such as photography for instance that is very important and invest some of your budget to that, you can then compromise elsewhere such as making your own DIY invitations etc. as a compromise.
Here are a few handy tips on how to get the most for your money:
Sit down together and work out how much you want to spend and what you can afford
Do some research into how much things cost such as photography, cakes etc…
Once you have some estimates, work out what is most important to you, for some it will be food, others it will be a top notch photographer, it’s your day so only you know what is best for you
Once you have done that, work out how you can compromise on other areas, by doing as much DIY work as possible.
Don’t forget to haggle- we all love a bargain, and you are certainly within your rights to argue prices, after all what’s the worst that can happen at least you have tried.
Thankfully, it has become for more accessible and common for brides and grooms to do a lot of the wedding work themselves. From art and craft shops dedicated to all things weddings etc. its far easier to put your own spin on things.
Invitations and order of service can be costly if you are paying a professional to do them for you, so why not have a go yourself? You can get all sorts of beautiful pearlescent card and luxurious decorations for pennies, it’s also a lovely personal twist for your guests.
Cake is another costly item, with the average wedding cake costing £300.00 and more. If you are a keen baker or know someone that is, why not have a go yourself or ask them to give you a hand. And instead of opting for a traditional cake, why not go ultra modern and opt for cast effective cupcakes instead.
It is indeed a very daunting task, but a bit of careful researching and decision making will certainly see you right. Its your day, so ensure that you make it all about you and invest in the things that matter most to yourself.
Plan your wedding on Bride Book and find the best suppliers that match your budget
Written by Steph Payne. Steph is the blogging and PR coordinator at The Watch Hut, the UK’s largest watch website. Steph is a wedding planner and bride to be herself and is always interesting in anything and everything to do with the world of weddings
This blog post is less to do with wedding planning but more to do with the wedding sites out there.
I came across this discussion on a wedding planning forum recently.
I have intentionally blanked out the name of the wedding planning website because this is not a mud slinging match at the end of the day. We hear these stories on more or less a daily basis from brides who have fallen victim to this.
It goes a bit like this – The bride-to-be goes on a wedding planning site – which is effectively a glorified yellow pages for weddings. They bribe her with big prizes and all she has to do is part with her email. Said wedding site then proceeds to sell her information to every business that has signed up to their service in the form of a spreadsheet. Businesses start a cold calling / emailing campaign and bombard every bride they come across with offers.
What’s the end result – no ones a winner (well , except for the wedding site)
The brides get fed up receiving offers from businesses that they had no contact with and businesses get no ROI (return on investment).
At Bride Book, we set out to do things quite different from whats in the market. Our aim is to help brides and businesses find each other better.
If you look at our site (www.bridebook.co.uk) you will not see any adverts on the front page or any other pages for that matter. This is a bold step. We could make money slapping on adverts left, right and centre but then wheres the value in it?
When you sign up as a bride, you get access to all our tools to plan your wedding.
Now here’s where the magic happens – When you search for wedding suppliers, the results that pop up are suppliers that meet your criteria. Not random businesses but ones that fall within your budget.
You can chose whether you are interested in hearing from this wedding business by simply shortlisting them. They get an email telling them that you want to hear from them and they can contact you with any special offers they may have. Matchmaking for brides and businesses.
Isn’t that just easy and painless?
No more endless trawling through directories to find that one supplier who may match your criteria and we don’t spam you. Every communication you receive will be relevant to your account.
You can sign up to Bride Book now and start planning your wedding for free.
If you are a wedding business then you can join our exclusive wedding supplier list
Please feel free to share this with people you know – brides or wedding businesses by clicking on the share buttons on the side.
My name is Manuel da Costa and I am the founder of Bride Book – helping you plan your wedding effortlessly!
We have created a free downloadable and printable wedding planning checklist for brides to to use.
For those signed up to Bride Book , you will find this integrated into your account area as an interactive checklist.
You can download your free wedding planning checklist by clicking here.
Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
Weddings celebrate the happy occasion of uniting two people in love. You can have a simple wedding with only the people you love and care about or a gala event. Face it, every girl loves to dream of the regal wedding when they stand in front of the mirror with the pillow case hanging from the back of their head, blushing like a new bride. So, how about making that dream come true and making the day count?
Kew Gardens
Looking for something green? Then the Kew Gardens is the venue for you. Fitted up for both a daytime and an evening party, it is located at an easy distance from both the Heathrow airport and the M4 motorway. If you two share a love for the nature, then saying your vows being surrounded by the tropical greens would be a treat neither can forget.
Wellington Arch
The Wellington Arch, built to commemorate Britain’s victory over Napoleon, will now be a witness as you and your beloved embark on a new journey. With newly refurbished halls that can hold about 80 guests this would be a very good wedding venue for those who would like to have a grand private wedding party.
The Tower Bridge
Is this where you two first met? Then, it would definitely be memorable to have your wedding reception here. Even for those who didn’t this is one of the most unique wedding venues in London. You can hire the wonderful high-level walkways, the bridge master’s dining room, the majestic Victorian engine rooms or even the North Tower Lounge for the reception party.
Shakespeare’s Globe
Been enamored by his plays? Now, you can get married in the theater hall. The Bard’s hall is now open for hire throughout the year for weddings and other such events. The “Balcony Room” on the top floor has a panoramic view of both the St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Thames.
Madame Tussauds and Stardome 4D
Love the stars and want to be on the A-list? Tie the knot at the Madame Tussauds. The halls have been recently done up to accommodate anything from a small private wedding to a gala party of 1,000 invitees. With the stars by your side, you can’t help but have a smooth ride into the future.
Spencer House
Have you always dreamt of your Prince charming coming on a white stallion and take you away? Well, you can have the dream partly by getting married in one of the most magnificent Augustan private palace of London, the Spencer House. Built for John Spencer, the first Earl Spencer, the palace has a wonderful terrace that has a beautiful view of the Green Park and looks out to the private garden.
Author’s Bio
The author Stephen Richard has a deep interest in anything and everything associated with wedding planning and arrangements. Here, he talks about some of the unusual wedding venues in London.
So we were thinking of some new ways of making the blog more interactive and fun and we need your help.
We would like you to vote on the ideas below. If you have ideas that you would like to share, leave them in the comment box below.
Basically this will be a page dedicated to beautiful wedding dresses, flowers, cakes, photography,etc…Anything that will inspire you for your own wedding.
We intend this to be interactive, so you as the visitor will be able to share your own photos and ideas
2. Join in the conversation with other brides -
Do you like the idea of connecting with other brides to know how their wedding planning is going,share ideas and have fun? Think of it like facebook but just for brides.
Share your own ideas with us by leaving a comment below
We know there are a lot of other passionate people out there who write a lot about weddings – wedding planning, wedding ideas and even your own personal experience.
We want you! We are looking for Guest bloggers. We want to you to join our little community.
And all you have to do is write. Your articles will be viewed by all our website visitors and subscribers.
We will link back to your website as well so visitors interested in reading more can visit your own blog.
And another thing – we will give out some brilliant prizes to the best guest bloggers every month – fancy a spa break , gift vouchers etc…?
If you are interested, then all you need to do is email us at info@bridebook.co.uk with the subject line : Guest Blogger application and tell us a little about yourself and a link to your blog if you have one.
Thanks for stopping by.
The Bride Book blog will publish a number of articles and tips to help you plan your wedding day. These will be written by industry insiders and by Brides like you who have planned their own weddings.
We will also have competitions and special offers for all our subscribers. So if you haven’t joined now then enter your email in the box on the right hand side of the screen.
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