Thursday 29 October 2015
10 tips to choosing your dream wedding dress
Posted by Lindsey Archibald at 06:15 0 comments
Tuesday 27 October 2015
My Wedding Planning Book is Finally Here!
Posted by Lindsey Archibald at 02:37 0 comments
Saturday 12 September 2015
Top 15 websites and apps for wedding planning
Here are a few of my favourites that helped reduce my stress levels:
Wedding Planning App
When we were keeping tabs on all the things we had booked and how much we had already paid we just used an Excel spreadsheet to keep things simple. However, there are lots of cool app you can download on your phone to keep you right. Just type in 'wedding planning' into your App store and choose one, I liked one called 'iWedPlanner' as it was really good to use as it had everything you needed to think about for your big day.
Weddingquotes2u.co.uk
As I've mentioned a few times in this book, planning a wedding can cost a fortune. To help save some pennies we used www.weddingquotes2u.co.uk to get some prices from various vendors. The site allows you to compare prices with wedding professionals up and down the country- they offer everything from car hire, photography, flowers, music to hair and beauty. It's a one stop shop.
photographers4me.co.uk
This website is how we found our amazing photographer for our wedding for just £350. You log on and pop in when your big day will take place and where it will be held then you put in a total cost of what you are willing to pay. However, it's then up to photographers to bid for your business and you will receive emails with quotes as they all try to outbid each other.
We used Facebook from the moment we started planning our big day. It was just brilliant for keeping in touch with most of our guests.
We set up a page for the wedding countdown then we set up a further two pages to help organise the stag and hen nights.
We then updated them regularly with our journey to becoming man and wife as well as informed our guests with all the vital arrangements.
Wedding Websites
To keep your guests all up to date with your journey many couples set up their own wedding websites. There are lots of sites online which you can just join and choose a template which will allow you to post what you want and for your guests to check out. Most will offer a basic free service (which is all you need) but many will offer you an upgraded package for a one off fee. Popular ones include www.gettingmarried.co.uk and www.appycouple.com where you not only customise your own website but you also create your very own app. Prices start from $35.
Amazon
We use Amazon all the time and it really came in handy for some of our wedding planning. We hopped on and bought all our candy buffet equipment as well as things like table diamonds and other accessories.
Amazon is also great if you want to set up a wedding gift wish list. You can pop all the things you would like to receive from your guests and then you can post the link on your wedding Facebook page for them to have a look at.
Hobbycraft
We used hobbycraft.co.uk to buy little things for the wedding such as our party poppers and bubbles. However, the store has quite an extensive range of wedding accessories to help you plan your big day. If you don't want to just order online you can also visit one of their many stores dotted across the country.
Evernote
During the last month in the run up to the wedding we used the Evernote app on our phones virtually every day. My husband and I shared documents and our to-do list and each time one of us completed a wedding task then we ticked it off the list.
I think this app is really handy when you are constantly on the go and you want to keep track of things.
Skype
My husband's family live in America so communicating with them via Skype is essential and when we were in the midst of planning our big day it was great to keep them included via video link.
It's also a great tool for on your wedding day and you have guests who can't make it. You can hook up to them via Skype and let them join in part of the festivities, especially if they live on the other side of the world.
This is a great website for gathering ideas for your wedding. You can collect anything from wedding dress designs, colour schemes, stationery templates and hair and beauty ideas. It's a great way to collect all your creative ideas all in the once place for you and your other half to consider for your big day.
Myfitnesspal
Booth my husband and myself wanted to lose a bit of weight for our wedding as we wanted to look and feel great on our big day. The myfitnesspal app came in really handy as we could keep track of our calories as well as how much we were exercising by using the app. You can also put all your measurements and weight into the app and when you tell it how much weight you want to lose it will then tell you how many calories a day you should be eating.
Wedding Accessories
I found a great website for glitzy wedding accessories called www.crystalbridalaccessories.co.uk It's where I got my necklace and earring set which cost me less than £60 and the jewellery was just beautiful. The online store has designs to suit all tastes and budgets. They also do other accessories such as tiaras, shoes and bridal handbags. Well worth the visit.
Stationery
We initially got our wedding invitations made by a woman we met at a wedding fayre. However, at a very late stage we discovered we hadn't invited certain people so we decided just to order more invitations online from a store called www.brideandgroomdirect.co.uk They have a huge selection of beautiful wedding stationary in all different shapes, sizes and colours that will meet any budget. We also bought our thank you cards from that website as well as our wedding guest book we passed around our reception.
Booking.com
When it came to organising accommodation for all our guests this website was invaluable. All you do it pop the location where you want to stay and the date you want to go and it will search all the available hotels and Bed and Breakfasts for you. We popped the link on our wedding Facebook page and we let guests book where they wanted to stay the night.
Wedding countdown app
There are lots of wedding countdown apps you can download for your phone. They are a great wee accessory as all you do it pop in the date when you are getting married and they it automatically starts counting down to your big day. When I reached various milestones I used to post a screen grab and post it on my social media accounts. Now that I am married my counter is counting down to our first wedding anniversary.
Posted by Lindsey Archibald at 03:40 0 comments
Tuesday 1 September 2015
Forget sex, the secret to a great relationship is COMMUNICATION
A new relationship survey that has just been released has some surprising findings.
Read the FULL story here.
Posted by Lindsey Archibald at 03:25 0 comments
Wednesday 5 August 2015
Tuesday 28 July 2015
Kate Moss doesn't have a pre-nup- Should you??
Posted by Lindsey Archibald at 03:26 0 comments
Friday 24 July 2015
One in five Scots have given up on finding love
One in five Scots have given up on finding love – a greater percentage than any other UK region.
New research from relationship site eHarmony.co.uk reveals that one million Scottish adults don’t think they’ll ever fall in love with somebody.
Of the 1.6 million Scottish adults that are currently single, more than a third think they won’t find love. While nearly a tenth of these have been single for less than a year and nearly half have been single for more than a decade.
For singles in particular, bad dates are a serious issue.
Close to one third of Scots have had some kind of negative dating experience – among the most common factors are not liking the same things as their dates, their dates only talking about themselves or even having inappropriate images sent to them.
Psychologist Dr. Linda Papadopoulos said: "To some extent saying that you've 'given up on love' is a self defense mechanism, lowering your own expectations so you won't be disappointed if it never happens.
"It doesn't mean you aren't hopeful or even actively looking for a partner. However people need to be aware of self-fulfilling prophecies where our negative expectations stop us even looking for love, because the reality is that you're much more likely to make a meaningful connection if you believe in the possibility of it happening."
Most Scots have given up on love because they don’t feel they are attractive, people don’t seem interested in them or they find it hard to trust people.
Jemima Wade, spokesperson for eHarmony.co.uk, added: "People get in touch with us every day to tell us about about their newly found love stories.
"They’re all different ages and from up and down the UK, and many confess that they’d given up on finding someone who really gets them.
That's how we know compatibility matching works, which is why eHarmony partners people on their beliefs, values and characteristics – the stuff that counts! It means better matches that you instantly click with, and will stand the test of time."
However, despite thinking they would never find anyone, one in eight who had previously given up on love actually went on to meet someone, predominately through friends, at work, or via online dating.
Posted by Lindsey Archibald at 07:20 0 comments