Category Archives: Advice

5 famous British wedding venues

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Claire

A guest blog post this morn­ing to make you smile. Fancy step­ping in the hal­lowed foot­steps of the floppy-haired secret-crush induc­ing naughtier-than-he-looks Hugh Grant? Here’s how…

Even if you don’t live in the same parish as the famous UK wed­ding venues men­tioned in this list you could pull a few strings to try and stage your wed­ding at one of them. It might be a bit tricky to arrange a wed­ding at num­ber five in the list though!

Luton Hoo Hotel wedding venue by Calotype46 on Flickr

Luton Hoo Hotel wed­ding venue by Calotype46 on Flickr

Luton Hoo Hotel as seen in Four Wed­dings and a Funeral. Photo by Calotype46 on flickr  Read more…

Posted in Advice, english weddings, to make you smile, Venues | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Engagement Rings: Taking the First Step towards a Perfect Wedding

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Claire

This guest blog post brought a wry smile to my face this morn­ing — so for any men plan­ning to pro­pose in the near future, here’s some advice to help you pro­pose with­out a hitch!

engagement ring by wedding photographer Alison Groves

Photo credit: Ali­son Groves (click to see fea­tured wed­ding blog)

Of course the first step in any wed­ding is the pro­posal, and what is a pro­posal with­out the per­fect engage­ment ring? Tak­ing that first step can be a fright­en­ing prospect as there is always some amount of doubt in the back of the man’s mind as to whether or not his pro­posal will be accepted.  Read more…

Posted in Advice, english weddings, Jewellery | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Cosmetic surgery and the wedding industry — a rant

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Claire

I’m going to show you an email, and then I’m going to say just what I think about a) plas­tic surgery and b) the idiots who think brides are their ideal cus­tomers for procedures.

This could get messy…

Here’s the email I found in my inbox this morn­ing:
I can’t fault Bella’s polite approach, but it’s cer­tainly a one-email-fits-all thing, so I don’t feel bad about my response. She’s only ask­ing for a guest post about skin­care… all per­fectly harm­less (I’ve noth­ing against mois­turiser!)  — but the string attached would be a nice back­link to a blog about cos­metic surgery. Kerch­ing?  Read more…

Posted in Advice, debate, english weddings | Tagged , , | 20 Comments

Wedding suppliers — do you blog?

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Claire

Pre-wedding sea­son, I was peer­ing through the tum­ble­weed at var­i­ous wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy web­sites and gen­uinely sur­prised by a) the num­bers of wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers out there, and b) the lack of blogs!

A quick look at this as a lit­tle aside: I searched for ‘wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers’ and got a map with chicken pox. There are so, so many pho­tog­ra­phers out there! (Even more if you zoom in). I knew that though…

wedding photographers map UK

wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers — a rash across the UK?  Read more…

Posted in Advice, debate, english weddings, wedding blogging, wedding blogs, wedding marketing | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments

How Grooms Can Look Gorgeous in Wedding Photos

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Claire

Some of the guest blog post ideas I’m sent for Eng­lish Wed­ding are fab­u­lous. This is one. Hon­estly writ­ten, funny and charm­ing — and full of gen­uine advice for grooms. We’ve heard a lot about look­ing good in wed­ding pho­tos from var­i­ous blogs recently, but never a real focus on the groom. And I like to think I know what men need: prac­ti­cal advice, use­ful ideas and humour. The other thing men need is Tamara Kuzmin­ski — a full of great advice. She’s the author of today’s guest blog post — so wel­come, Tamara, and thank you!  Read more…

Posted in Advice, english weddings, Photography | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Warnings: Royal Mail and your wedding

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Claire

posting wedding invites UK advice (5)
Hello! For starters: I’m only cring­ing a lit­tle bit at the title. OK, so it’s not a dire warn­ing about the Royal Mail. Your wed­ding won’t be flash­mobbed by angry post­men; even postal strikes aren’t going to have that much impact on your day. So let’s not panic — this is a sen­si­ble blog post with wed­ding advice for cou­ples and sup­pli­ers alike: a few things that can go wrong when you’re rely­ing on our won­der­ful postal ser­vice, and how to make them go right instead. (PS do you like my pink stamps? I love Pho­to­shop! Queen, take note!)  Read more…

Posted in Advice, Calligraphy, english weddings, Invitations, Stationery accessories, wedding planning | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Saving ideas for your wedding — an infographic

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Claire

Please feel free to share this help­ful, tongue-in-cheek wed­ding info­graphic  — tell your face­book friends, or share this on your wed­ding web­site or blog! A link back to this page on Eng­lish Wed­ding blog would be mar­vel­lous, thank you kindly. Click on the info­graphic to see it in all its big friendly glory — and enjoy the read.

How to save for your wedding Infographic Smil­ing? Then please do share with your friends, or embed the graphic on your own wed­ding web­site or blog if you have one. Its url is

http://english-wedding.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/how-to-save-creatively-for-your-wedding.jpg  Read more…

Posted in Advice, daily UK wedding inspiration, english weddings, to make you smile, wedding blogs, wedding budget, wedding planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Is blogging your wedding business a step too far?

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Claire

One for the wed­ding busi­ness own­ers today… As I write blog fea­tures for Eng­lish Wed­ding I often find myself vis­it­ing web­sites of jew­ellery and cake design­ers, wed­ding venues and sta­tion­ers, wed­ding bands, cater­ers and make up artists. You’re all on face­book; most of you are on twit­ter — it’s amaz­ing how the way we pro­mote our wed­ding busi­nesses has changed.

Aside from wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers who usu­ally do blog, it seems to me the last step in the flurry of social media activ­ity required from a wed­ding busi­ness these days is a busi­ness blog. Could it be that we’re all so time-pressured now a blog would be a step too far?  Read more…

Posted in Advice, wedding blogs, wedding industry, wedding marketing | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

A Mark of Distinction: wedding invitations

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Claire

I have really strong feel­ings about today’s wed­ding blog post so I’m going to jump straight in and share them with you: wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers have the right to add their sig­na­ture or brand­ing to their designs. It’s a mark of qual­ity, proof an artist takes pride in their design work. Today I’m urg­ing wed­ding sta­tion­ers to add their name to their designs; I want to per­suade cou­ples who are buy­ing hand­made to choose designer invi­ta­tions with the maker’s name on.

designer wedding invitation

UK designer wed­ding invi­ta­tion — Photo credit: Bunny Deli­cious  Read more…

Posted in Advice, debate, Invitations, Stationery accessories, wedding industry | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Does wedding photography seem expensive to you?

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Claire

… said the wed­ding blog­ger as she tipped the worms out of her tin. But no, I’m not try­ing to rat­tle any cages or have a big dis­cus­sion today. A lit­tle while ago I read a really thought-provoking com­ment on my wed­ding indus­try blog post and it really got me think­ing. This is a ques­tion I was ask­ing myself — and with the help of some great friends I like to think we’ve answered it for you.

Photo credit: Fiona Camp­bell Lon­don www.fionacampbelllondon.com  Read more…

Posted in Advice, debate, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments