Wedding Vendor Wednesday – Beautiful Beach Weddings

Beautiful Beach Weddings is a creation by sisters Nicole Ritchie and Justine Douglas. Beautiful Beach Weddings not only provide their clients with ceremony and reception styling, but they also have an amazingly comprehensive online store, stocking over 850 products to complement any beach wedding. Beautiful Beach Weddings really is a one stop shop, they have everything covered to ensure you have the beach wedding of your dreams!

Beautiful Beach Weddings aim to create a beautiful wedding day for every couple that invite them to style their wedding. A big congratulations also go to the team who, for the second year running have been awarded as Queensland’s Number One Wedding Stylists at the ABIA (Australian Bridal Industry Academy) Awards.  Beautiful Beach Weddings won the coveted gold star award, with a rating of 99.46% voted by brides who have used their services for ceremony and reception styling. You can’t argue with that!

The online store caters for everything!! Even if you don’t know what you are looking for, you can shop by theme or colour – it couldn’t be easier. While I write this blog post, I have spent 30 minutes clicking through amazing products that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Even if you aren’t having a beach wedding, you need to check out Beautiful Beach Weddings– I promise you won’t be disappointed.

My sister-in-law is having her wedding ceremony styled by Beautiful Beach Weddings in December, and I just can’t wait to see how it all comes together on the day!

To get in touch with the amazing team at Beautiful Beach Weddings, give them a call on (07) 3272 9069 or alternatively email sales@beautifulbeachweddings.com.au

Images Courtesy of Beautiful Beach Weddings 

You Paid What??!

According to a recent article, published by Brisbane Times, the average Australian couple is spending a whopping $36,2000 on their wedding day. This is  a 6.5%  increase from 2010-11. The article states that the Australian Wedding Industry is worth $4.3 billion and is expected to reach $4.7 billion by 2016.

So what is an appropriate amount to spend on your big day? Unfortunately I don’t have  the answer to this one, and there are many factors that will influence how much an individual Bride and Groom will spend. I am however an extremely strong believer  of this – no matter who is paying for your wedding, whether it be yourselves or your parents, you should not enter into years of debt (actually any debt is even better).

Sometimes you need to take a step back and put things into perspective – $36,200 is a lot of money to spend on one day. Yes, it is possibly one of the most important days of your life, but is it worth $36,200?  A little fact – Approximately 42% of your budget will be spent on food, drinks and your venue/s.

I can gladly say, that including our Honeymoon, we spent just over $13,000 –  with not 1 cent of debt. If we didn’t have the money, we simply couldn’t afford to buy it!

Image courtesy of The Providence Journal / Tom Murphy

Peaches and Cream

Peach is such a wonderful colour – warm and classic! I had a request for a Peach Inspiration Board, so here is it!

Polka Dot Bride – Unique Wedding Gifts

Just a brief blog post to let you all know that another one of my guest blogs for Polka Dot Bride went live on Friday! Check out my Unique Wedding Gifts post when you get a chance!

http://www.polkadotbride.com/2011/09/unique-wedding-gifts/

Wedding Vendor Wednesday – Worn Only Once

For some of you out there the decision to keep your wedding dress after marriage is a no brainer,  BUT I can assure you that there are plenty of ladies out there who have considered selling their wedding dress, because hey – lets face it, you may never wear it again, you need the extra cash, or you simply have nowhere to store it. So today’s vendor, Worn Only Once, is here to help those ladies wishing to sell their wedding dress for whatever reason!

Worn Only Once is the creation of Sky-Lee. After many unsuccessful efforts to sell her own bridesmaid dresses via traditional methods, Sky-lee thought that there had to be an easier way to market pre-loved wedding dresses and formal wear. In 2008, Worn Only Once was born!

If you are on the hunt for a pre-loved wedding dress for your big day or looking for the perfect place to sell your gown, then look no further than Worn Only Once. Worn Only Once offers its customers a fantastic classifieds style website that is extremely easy to use and really easy on the eyes. It makes it so easy to search through the pages of amazing weddings gowns on offer at greatly reduced prices. You will find gowns from Vera Wang, Maggie Sottero, Brides Desire and many more – it couldn’t be easier!

Don’t just think you can list your wedding gown. Worn Only Once also caters for bridesmaids gowns, formal dresses, men’s suits and any other formal wear you can think of. You can even list children wear and accessories!

The great thing about Worn Only Once is that all communication relating to the sale and purchase of items listed is done between the seller and the potential buyer. Once you have found an item – you deal directly with the seller, which keeps the cost of selling your dress down!

So why not pop over to Worn Only Once and take a look around. You might just find that perfect wedding gown, or you may just get that nudge you have been waiting for to sell your gown!

Image Courtesy of Worn Only Once

U on Sunday – Weddings

For those of you who don’t read the paper or who didn’t recognise me (of course, why would you?!?), our wedding featured in the “U on Sunday” lift out of this past weekends Sunday Mail. I submitted our wedding when we returned from our honeymoon in May earlier this year. I had no idea it got printed until I received a few text messages saying “Nice picture in the Sunday Mail”. My husband and I were left pondering as to what they were referring to, so of course I had to dash out and buy a copy! I was very excited to see that we had been featured as I am sure they receive 1000’s of submissions. Better late than never I say!

Nautical Trend

For all those sea lovers out there, here is a Nautical themed Inspiration Board to get those creative juices flowing!

Wedding Vendor Wednesday – Larissa Brooke WeddingElegance

Are you a Perth Bride still on the hunt  for a hair and make up artist who does it all?  Well look no further and check out Larissa Brooke WeddingElegance!

Larissa if a fully qualified hairdresser and make up artist who strives to make you look and feel gorgeous on your wedding day. Larissa is so confident she will be able to make you look amazing, that she will not let you leave unless you are 100% happy with the look that she has created for you. The happiness of Larissa’s clients is always her number one priority and guarantees that you will be happy with her services!

Larissa has a wonderful home salon where you are more than welcome, or if you are after a mobile service, Larissa will be able to travel up to a few hours north or south of Perth for an additional fee.

Larissa Brooke Wedding Elegance is currently offering SMD Wedding Blog readers an End of Year Special. If you book your 2o12 wedding with Larissa Brook WeddingElegance before the end of the year, you will receive current 2011 prices. What a fantastic saving!

To get in touch with Larissa or to get a quote for pricing please email larissabrookemakeovers@hotmail.com
Images Courtesy of Brittany Lee Photography

Lost In Translation

A Bride invests a lot of time and emotion in choosing the perfect wedding gown. The ultimate wedding planner, Mindy Weiss put it perfectly when she said ” What bride isn’t excited to step into six yards of ivory silk and see a version of herself that she has long imagined?” Now I don’t know about you, but if you put 2o wedding dresses in front of me, and asked me to pick out the “ivory silk” one, I wouldn’t be able to tell you!  The choice of fabric for your wedding gown will not only determine  the shape of your dress, but the texture and sheen. The fabric you choose for your wedding gown is almost always hands down the most costly element of your gown, unless you wish to have beading, lace or hand embroidery. Don’t forget you also need to take into consideration your comfort!

So for your information, and with help from “The Wedding Book” by Mindy Weiss with Lisbeth Levine – below is a Glossary of various fabrics that will help you look like an expert when you head out dress shopping!

Brocade – Is a rich, heavy fabric that is woven to create a multitone pattern.

Chiffon or Georgette –  Sheer, lightweight and fluid. Great choice for an outdoor wedding.

Double-faced Satin – Heavyweight with a sheen to both sides. Is used for structured styles and tends to be a high-end, couture fabric.

Duchess Satin – Characterized by a quiet luster, it can be made of silk, rayon or a blend. It can be affordable but this satin is often favoured by high-end designers.

Doupioni Silk – Often on the less expensive end of silk varieties, this textured silk, which sometimes naturally sports a wavy pattern, can be a good choice if you’re on a budget. Also available in many different colours. Is a popular choice for brides and bridesmaids.

Organza – This semi-sheer, stiffer fabric holds a lot of shape, so it is usually used in structured styles, like full skirts of overlays.

Taffeta – A crisp and lustrous fabric with a trademark rustle, taffeta is usually woven of silk or polyester. It can either be draped or structured and tends to wrinkle easily.

Tulle – A fine netting, tulle is the material that ballerinas’ skirts are made of. Though the silk variety is softer than the polyester kind, it’s still rough on the skin and necessitates petticoats of slips.

Yellow Sunshine

I promised a yellow inspiration board before the end of the week, so here it is! Yellow is the color of sunshine and is usually associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.Yellow produces a warming effect and arouses cheerfulness…perfect for a wedding don’t you think?