Pro wedding vendors’ advice and recommendations to help you plan your modern wedding quicker, easier & with less stress
Congratulations on your engagement!
There are exciting times ahead but right now, you’re still drunk on the love, right?
This is the best part, but also, that’s when ‘they’ get ya!
Like it, or not (mostly, not) you are going to be on the receiving end of a lot of (sometimes unwelcome) advice and it will all start from the moment you announce your engagement.
So I wanted to give you a little heads up BEFORE you start planning ANYTHING.
A modern, Unbridely approach to weddings means couples have the freedom to choose if they even want to have a wedding party in the first place; as in attendants; bridesmaids, groomsmen, maid of honour, etc.
So if having a squad of your closest friends or family members by your side on your wedding day brings warm, squishy, happy feelings for you, then we want to help make sure they look the part.
Here are some of the hot bridesmaid dress looks we are currently obsessing over for the 2022 season.
From quality print wedding invitations, wedding stationery sets (with save the dates, rsvp cards, wedding invitation cards and bridal shower invitations), paper goods, signs and laser cut items, it’s sometimes confusing for engaged couples to know where to start.
Kate from Bluebelle Studio prides herself on offering custom design services to bring her clients’ vision to life with letterpress, white ink laser-cut, foiling, engraving and printed wood modern production processes.
We asked Kate for her best advice and top tips for sourcing, planning and ordering all your wedding stationery needs.
Planning a wedding with divorced parents can present an engaged couple with a virtual minefield of unspoken misunderstandings, hurt feelings and tension. Navigating the sometimes complex dynamics between family members requires some sensitivity and planning ahead.
Here are a few of our best tips to help make your big day as stress-free as possible for everyone involved.
If you were planning on getting married, and your plans have been put on pause I'm so, so sorry. I know that you’re feeling lost, devastated, angry, sad and ALL THE FEELINGS right now.
But chin up, gorgeous.
Even with no definitive date of when life will go back to normal, there are ways to move forward, put some backups in place and make some progress in the meantime. So let’s get stuck into it.
When it comes time to plan what is (likely to be) the biggest and most public celebration of your relationship, you want to make sure it will be a party to remember.
And it’s this ideal, wanting to make your wedding special because you don’t want to have any regrets, that can contribute to your decision making becoming clouded. Spending can easily get out of control, the expectations of family and friends can feel oppressive and then the overwhelm starts to set in.
Bingo bango; a happier engaged couple enjoying more of their wedding planning experience!
When a couple gets married, as much as it’s about them, their relationship and their future, it’s also the coming together of two families.
There are customary or traditional roles for the parents of the couple in a wedding ceremony and including siblings is becoming more common as well.
But when the couple getting married already have children, either from a previous relationship or before they get married, it stands to reason that they’re included and recognised during the wedding ceremony too.
While the sand ceremony or ritual is wonderfully inclusive and symbolic, it has been DONE (and done and done again!).
So we need some new, relevant and maybe less kitch (?) ways to include children (and sometimes other family members too) in a wedding ceremony and I think these 6 ideas are unique and fun.
Wedding thank you notes and cards are easily one of the most neglected parts of wedding planning.
But, when you reflect on the time and money that many of your friends and family would have put into your big day (the planning and celebration itself) you know they deserve a thoughtful and timely thank you.
And unless you’re planning on hosting a slide night when you get your professional photos back (you sadistic bitch!), the wedding thank you card is also usually the last form of communication they receive from you about your wedding. Leave them with a sweet memory of your big day and a feeling that their efforts were truly valued.
Here are our top 4 tips to keeping wedding thank you cards quick and easy.
It's one of the most common worries that my couples have about their wedding ceremony: "How do I stop myself from ugly crying?"
The good news is that there are steps you can take to 'minimize the damage' (and embarrassing snotty snorts) as you're reciting your heartfelt vows in front of your nearest and dearest.
When I first meet with my couples to discuss their wedding ceremony, once we get past all of the 'where, when and how' logistics, what I really want to know is their top 3. Some of my brides and grooms are are puzzled; what do you mean 'Our Top 3'?
Your top 3 are the ultimate and unique measure of a successful wedding for YOU.
There’s little argument that booking your wedding photographer is a big thing to check off your wedding planning to-do list.
Given the big bucks involved, and considering the fact that this might be the first, or only, time you’ve ever needed to hire a photographer, it makes sense that you might be looking for a little help with the process.
Hiring your wedding photographer is an investment in the quality of the photos (prints, albums, etc) that you will look back on for many years to come. And, given that you will spend up to 12 hours with them on your wedding day, choosing the RIGHT ONE FOR YOU will also affect the way your wedding day feels.
So I asked a friend of Unbridely TV, wedding photographer and high five enthusiast Alex Szczesniak of Time With Alex to help pull together this handy checklist of what to ask your wedding photographer - BEFORE YOU BOOK THEM IN.
Pete Thornton is somewhat of a black sheep; but I find his ‘take no prisoners’ perspective on photography, and the wedding industry as a whole, a much-needed breath of fresh air.
He calls ‘bullshit’ on much of the outdated etiquette that surrounds couples and their big day and concentrates his energy on the story behind the celebration, the snorts within the laughter and the wink after the smile.
The parts of life that make being a great photographer so much more valuable than simply clicking a shutter.
And, in recent years, these home-grown celebrations have been enjoying a resurgence in popularity and refinement thanks to the quality and availability of small-scale but high quality catering with food trucks and carts, new furniture and marquee/tent/tee-pee hire options and mobile entertainment packages with DJs, MCs, photo-booths and the like.
To help you start to piece together a comprehensive to-do list for your very own homely nuptials, we asked wedding planner and stylist, Nicole Bailey of Your Party Plannery and some newlyweds who had recently planned their backyard wedding, for their top tips and advice.
Also, be sure to download or Pin the DIY wedding drinks guide so you know exactly how much alcohol to buy!
Bronte Price is a marriage celebrant from Melbourne, Australia and long-term active advocate for marriage equality. As a newsreader on radio channel JOY 94.9, he keeps in touch and up to date with other members of the LGBT+ community, which he loves.
He is a subject matter expert on gay weddings and Bronte has also been featured in an article for The Age and a segment for TV show, The Project.
So when he wrote to ask if he could share his extensive experience and gay wedding etiquette knowledge with Unbridely readers, my answer was a firm, ‘hell yes!’
Thanks very much for your insight, Bronte!
Dogs at weddings - aaaaw, cuuuuute! If your furbaby is the (other) love of your life why wouldn't you want them with you on your special day?
Sometimes dogs can become over-excited, anxious, clingy, snappy, jumpy or plain scared in environments they’re not familiar with or in unusual situations - like at a wedding.
And (even more importantly) who would you trust with your pet with, when you're busy being the guests of honour?
She has witnessed firsthand what happens when sparkler exits go bad (think: Michael Jackson in that Pepsi commercial - ouch!)
So when I approached Kiera for some info on how to recreate one of the hottest (no pun intended) trends for your wedding, she was happy to share her checklist with Unbridely.
Thanks Kiera!
An 'unplugged wedding' happens when a couple getting married have made a decision that they would prefer that their wedding guests don't take photos and/or upload them to social media.
There are many variations on this, from having an unplugged ceremony only, when guests are encouraged to put their phones and cameras away until after the marriage certificate has been signed, to a strict 'no photo policy' for the entire wedding celebration, to a complete 'social media blackout' until the following day or when the bride or groom have a chance to announce their marriage themselves.
