And so it begins

Not only my blog, but my married life. I married my partner of 4 years, Chris, in June 2010. In the process of planning our wedding, I came to realise several pearls of wisdom, which I wish I had know beforehand.

I would like to share with you now some of these pearls:

- Make it known from day 1 that you and your partner are in control. If anyone is thinking of 'helping', or talking to family about the event ask them to ask you first!

- Shop around. It may sound obvious but it can be very tempting amidst all of the goings on when planning to 'save time' and just go ahead with using a company or buying that dress without having a proper look around. Look around so that you know you are paying the right sort of prices and getting the right item.

- Choose a 'theme'. By this I don't mean 'Let's all dress as Xena' (unless that is your thing...), I mean think about what feel you want your wedding to have. A lot of this may depend upon the venue, but not necessarily in every case. This theme can be the thread that runs right the way through, from invites to table decoration to the music.

Would you like it to feel modern, traditional, classic, chic, hippy, goth, country life, pagan, beachy? Or maybe it's just a colour theme. Doing this can give you continuity and help in your decision-making.

And finally (for now...)

- Make it personal. This maybe the biggest party you will ever throw. All of your loved ones will be there, in one place, for you. Add those personal touches which reflect your personalities, hobbies and interests; your guests will always remember that. For example, some friends of ours who were married a couple of years ago had their reception in a sailing club. They are both into watersports and they had large pebbles on the tables, the invites included a diary reminder in the shape of a sail, one of their favours was a small boat and their cake consisted of individual friands with sails made out of paper. Fabulous!

Adding a personal touch, as well as a theme

I will be exploring more about themes in future posts, but for now I will leave you with this to ponder:

If you were to be married or to marry again, in what way would you reflect your personality?