Your Wedding Theme and Your Budget

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

And just like that we have started a new decade, it's time for us to get ready for another busy wedding season!

If you didn’t catch up in our previous blog, we've started a new series enabling and empowering brides with the tools to confidently identify and choose their perfect style for their wedding day, so be sure to read our previous posts on how to find your wedding theme.

Setting a theme is more than just adding a few accessories to a room, every element plays a critical role in enhancing and accentuating the atmosphere of the day. Yet, time and time again I see brides with beautiful visions compromise their ideas by not paying enough attention to their season, budget and venue choice. These factors tend to be overlooked when planning a wedding, resulting in inconsistencies in the fluidity and style of the day.

So, in today’s post we will discuss and explore the influence that budget has on your wedding colour, style and overall theme.

Tip Number One: BUDGET

IMPORTANT: When planning make sure you figure out how much you can afford and how much you are happy to spend, as soon as possible.

With the average wedding costing around £30 000 in London, I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a budget when planning your wedding. This should be the first thing you discuss with your spouse once you have announced your engagement.

Knowing how much you are willing to spend on your wedding day gives you the opportunity to allocate your budget accordingly. Your allocated budget will be the main factor to determine how elaborate your wedding will be, so please be realistic when choosing a style for your big day as certain elements and designs will cost more money than others.

Once you know how much you are willing to spend on your wedding, take off 10-15% as a decent contingency plan for unexpected costs that may arise during the planning process.

Decide on your priorities by making a list of the things that are most important to you for your wedding, whether it's the decoration, the photographer, the food or whatever is non-negotiable for you. Try to limit it to six or seven elements at most.

Example: If you know that food and music are most important, choose a simple decorative design with flowers in season to reduce cost, that way you are able to prioritise on what matters to you without completely compromising on style. It's also wise to make a note of the elements that don't really matter to you so that you can allocated a bit more money to certain elements and opt for less expensive items for things that are not that important.

Keeping to this list will enable you to prioritise what is truly important to you as it is very easy to get blown away with insignificant elements when planning.

Finally, if you are getting any contribution from parents or relatives, be sure to ask them to be clear about their expectations and what they are. The last thing you want during the planning process is a misunderstanding or having to compromise on your style because your mum wants you to wear a certain style of dress or use a specific type of flower that will clash with your wedding theme or colour.

Happy new year once again and I cannot wait to share a bit more on our next blog post.

Stay tuned!

x

Finding Inspiration: Part 2

Researching IS overwhelming as there are so many options available, so my next suggestion would be to create a mood board, whether that is a physical or digital mood board (Pinterest).

Although researching will still be quite daunting, if you do, choose to get to know yourselves (likes/dislikes) it will make filtering even within this process a lot easier.

Personal Inspiration

Tip Number Three: PINTEREST, MOOD BOARD

You can never assume anything these days, so for those who may not know what PINTEREST is, it is a search engine that enables you to find inspiration and ideas about ANYTHING, giving you the opportunity to create mood boards and save all your ideas.

It is a force to be reckoned with. It leads you down a never ending path, drawing your attention to everything you never really knew you desired or needed in your life, until you saw it and obviously had to pin it.

In all seriousness, it is an amazing tool to use as a guide to understand and develop your preferences for your special day.

Look at as many photos as you can and save the ones you love the most. Then, after a while, you’ll notice that all your saved pictures seem to follow a specific trend which is usually the theme/trend that will speak to you the most.

As Pinterest incorporates images from all over the world, you need to be aware that certain ideas/visions may not be as easy to replicate in the UK (or your home country).

If you opt for a style, venue (or even types of flowers) that come from a different climate you will have to pay extra for the decorator to source all of these elements to create that vision.

When searching put "UK" (or wherever you wedding will be) as it will give you a more accurate idea of what is available to you, and from there you can decide.

REMEMBER: It’s easy to get lost in the search so always remember to take breaks and clear your mind. While your wedding aesthetic is important, remember that some details are less important than others and most importantly trust your gut feeling.

Personal Inspiration

Tip Number Four: DON’T GIVE UP

Choosing a wedding theme isn’t easy so don’t beat yourself up about not knowing what you want. It doesn’t matter whether it takes weeks or months to choose a theme that you love!

It is your special day and you shouldn’t have to settle for less. Take your time and really think about what you want as this will influence the season, venue, colours (the fluidity) of your day. It is better to take a little longer and love it, than to not be so sure and having to end up making changes along the way (this will cost a pretty penny).

I hope this will help in finding the perfect theme for your wedding or any special event you are planning. In the meantime don't hesitate to share, comment and let me know how you've manage to find a theme that both you and your spouse loved.

Until next month,

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

x

Finding Inspiration: Part 1

As a Stylist and a Floral Designer, the one thing that I will never get tired of seeing is the endless amounts of eclectic wedding styles, visions, themes and colour palettes. After all, this is at the heart of all that I do, but it doesn’t mean it doesn't come with its own set of challenges.

Vision is important, it is the essence of every idea, but without practical application its nearly impossible to turn it into a reality.

And so I want to let you in on a few ways to steer your inspirations in the right direction to fulfil all that you have envisioned for your special day.

Firstly, there are two key steps within the process of identifying and choosing your ideal vision for your wedding day.

1. Finding Inspiration

2. Narrowing down your options

Factors to consider

Personal Inspiration:

Likes/Dislikes, Personality, Favourite things to do, Search Engines (Pinterest) etc.

Practical Inspiration: Budget, Season, Wedding Venue, Wedding Decorator

Personal Inspiration: Tip Number One: GET TO KNOW YOURSELVES FIRST

Personal Inspiration: Generally, your wedding ideas and inspirations are an extension of what you and your spouse love the most, from choice of season to your theme colours.

Therefore, when thinking about the type of theme you want for your wedding day, begin to assess and ask yourselves.

What do we like? What don’t we like?

What are our favourite colours?

When and what are we doing when we feel most like ourselves?

When do we feel most at ease and comfortable?

Begin to look at your furniture, the music you listen to, the clothes you wear, the places you enjoy visiting as inspiration to really understanding what it is you love and enjoy. As this will mirror the type of atmosphere and theme you desire for your special day,

Choosing your favourite season alone will begin to narrow the ideas, colours and most importantly the day of your wedding.

A good question to ask yourselves is what would you want your wedding to reflect about you and your spouse?

If you are unsure about what you like and dislike, asking family and friends to pinpoint attributes, likes/dislikes, as they may be able to tell you things about yourself that you may not even realise.

Bonus Tip: With that in mind, with a lot of research you may be surprised that you will be drawn to certain designs and ideas that never crossed your mind, which is why it is always helpful to remain open-minded, even when you are set on an idea.

Personal Inspiration

Tip Number Two: RESEARCH

When you don’t know where to start, begin to look at magazines, search engines like Pinterest, blogs, Instagram...

Essentially, any visual tools that will begin to give you an idea about what is on offer (NB: there is no pressure to follow what’s trending).

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On our next post, we will share more tips on how to narrow down your ideas and find a theme for your wedding.

Until then don't hesitate to comment, share and let us know what is your favourite tool for wedding inspirations.

Love,

Mannuela