Despite working at the same company, Monika and Phil didn’t meet each other until they met on a night out!

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While a beautifully decorated fruit cake may be a traditional favourite, there are plenty of equally delicious alternatives

A Royal Icing covered, multi-tiered fruit cake may be a traditional wedding favourite, but it’s hardly the only choice. Whether you’d like to serve something a little different or simply do not want a heavy fruit cake with rich icing, modern brides have plenty of alternatives.

Expert cake maker and decorator Heidi Lee from Heidi’s Dream Cakes in Glenwood, NSW says the possibilities are endless and that, “with all the alternatives on offer, sometimes it really is difficult to pick just one flavour”.

The solution? Heidi suggest tiers in different flavours.

“It’s a perfect solution to the dilemma of choosing your wedding cake because this way your guests have a choice of flavours and couples don’t have to fight over picking just one type of cake.”

Heidi says her top three requested flavours are chocolate mud, vanilla butter cake and banana, but that most cake makers have a variety of offerings, everything from egg-free cakes to a plain old butter cake.

However, if you’re looking for something less traditional, Heidi suggests the following fruit cake alternatives:

1. Chocolate mud – a rich chocolatey taste that melts in your mouth is always a hit
2. Vanilla butter – a traditional cake that is soft, light and not too rich
3. White chocolate mud – offers a lovely sweet chocolatey taste without being too heavy
4. Marble mud – giant swirls of milk chocolate and white chocolate ensure it looks fabulous when cut
5. Banana - Heidi’s favourite, she says this is pure deliciousness without any fuss
6. Orange and poppyseed – has a refreshing, zesty that is perfect with a cup of coffee after a heavy main meal
7. Carrot cake – has a lovely colour and adds to a casual wedding’s relaxed feel
8. Almond praline - just divine and one piece is never enough, this is a moist cake filled with almond and almond meal rather than lots of flour
9. Caramel mud cake – thoroughly indulgent and rich and just what a cake should be
10. Red velvet – at present, this vibrant red cake is incredibly popular. It’s bold and unforgettable

Visit Heidi’s Dream Cakes at Easy Weddings

Sticking to a few rules will ensure your guests will find filling in your wedding guest book easy. Image: Michelle Gardella Photography

Your wedding guest book is a keepsake that you will treasure forever – and certain revisit many times over the course of your married life, so you want to ensure that all your guests contribute to it.

However, it’s no easy task and, the bigger your guest list, the more troublesome it can be trying to get everyone to sign it or leave a message and, of course, you’re not going to have time on the day to worry about who has and who hasn’t filled it in.

Thankfully, most guests will expect to sign some sort of guest book, so here are some tips for ensuring as many as possible do:

1. Provide instructions

Especially if you are doing something unusual such as writing on a postcard or having pictures taken in a photo booth, be sure to provide instructions. Putting up a friendly sign explaining what they should do is always a good idea, even if it just says “We’d love you to share your thoughts or advice on our marriage in this book”.

During the speeches, ask people to look out for the guest book or ensure they seek it out before they leave. Who can resist a bride or groom’s request on their wedding day?

2. Delegate responsibility

In order to ensure as many guests as possible sign contribute to your guest book, delegate the task to someone trustworthy. It’s a big responsibility and someone you know will be happy to help out on the day. That way you don’t have any added stress on the day. Ask a guest or member of your family to be responsible for getting all your guests to leave a message.

3. Provide enough supplies

If you are having a traditional guest book you will only need to make sure there are plenty of pens readily available as some are sure to go missing while the book is doing the rounds. If you are asking guests to stick in photos or draw pictures, however, you may need scissors, glue, crayons, glitter, or various other arty supplies.

4. Put the book out early

Your initial reception, just after the ceremony, is the ideal time for guests to start signing your guest book. It will give them something to do while you are having your photos taken, and they will still be full of the emotion of the ceremony without being too full of champagne to write something coherent.

5. Leave enough space

Think about the size of your guest list when you buy or make your wedding guest book. There’s no point in having two hundred small message spaces when you only have fifty guests. Try to give each guest plenty of space for their message. While some will simple write ‘best wishes for married life’ others will want to wax lyrical about love or your relationship.

6. Include photographs

Try to add pictures of your guests to your guestbook, either taken at the time with a Polaroid camera, or inserted afterwards when you get your photos developed. It’s a sad fact that you will lose contact with a few of the guests at your wedding, and when you are reading your guest book many years down the line, the photos will make it more interesting. Again, this is a task for the official guest book supervisor!

7. Think about placement

Decide in advance where you are going to place your guest book. You want it to be out of the way so that food and drinks aren’t spilled on it, and guests don’t feel self conscious writing in it in the middle of a crowded room. However, you don’t want it to be totally out of sight in case guests miss it altogether. If your reception venue has a hallway or lobby before you get to the reception rooms, this could be the ideal spot. Of course, some people prefer to pass it around (which virtually ensures not everyone will get a chance to sign it) or have it carried from guest to guest by the delegated guest book supervisor.

2013 is a big year for change. While traditional colours and themes will always be favourites, this year’s brides are bolder and more game to try new things, new colours and new combinations.

Coloured wedding dresses are already becoming more common but we’ve scoured our colour palettes and inspiration boards for new themes and schemes that are a little unconventional, but still beautiful and here’s what we’ve come up with!

You can incorporate these colours as part of a larger colour scheme or colour block like crazy! Either way, they’re gorgeous colours that deserve a place, big or small, in any modern wedding.

1. Mint green

Gold and mint green are two of 2013′s hottest runway colours and when paird together, well, they look smashing, especially as part of a wedding theme. Mint green is crisp, fresh and subtle and it’s an excellent base colour for spring and summer weddings. It is also a spectacular hue for bridesmaids’ dresses. Think mint green table cloths accented with gold place holders, tiny vases of wild spring flowers and antique gold organza sashes for chairs. For a little more formality and contrast, consider sprays of light green orchids as table centrepiece.

2. Gold

Krikor Jabotian’s regal 2013 range of wedding dresses feature gold as a highlight colour and it works beautifully.

You’ll feel like a queen or a ancient Roman empress heading up a grand wedding banquet with gold as your wedding theme. Add a hint of regal elegance with this year’s most versatile metallic. Whether antique gold, yellow gold or a shade bordering on brassy, gold is a beautiful accent colour that will add a touch of class to any wedding colour scheme. The trick with avoiding your wedding looking fake and tacky is experimenting with a variety of gold hues to avoid colour overload. Pale antique gold linens look especially pretty with table posies of blush pink and cream roses. If you’re going for a formal look, how about including gilt-edged china, or gold cutlery for table placements? Gold is a fabulous accent for a white wedding cake, and if you’re going for an au naturel theme, you could also think about incorporating spray painted twig baskets to hold wedding favours for guests.

3. Orange

Are you planning an autumn wedding? Orange is a daring (albeit a little obvious) choice for a pre-winter wedding. However, it’s such a vibrant hue, there’s no reason you can’t integrate it into a summer wedding too. You don’t necessarily have to go all out with orange accents to make a statement. A neutral colour scheme of cream linens and gold placecards for guests is the perfect foundation around which to build your theme. Summer ideas might include bowls of zesty fruits interspersed with coral tulips and protea, or for something a little more nouveaux, how about tropical orange flowers encased in large hanging glass bulbs? Orange might seem a little extreme for your bridesmaids, so you might want to consider a more delicate pastel shade. We love nectarine, or even peach shades.  Autumn naturally brings with it an abundance of inspirational ideas, especially since it’s associated with harvest around the world. If you’re thinking about going rustic, place-holder corn dollies and carved pumpkin candle holders and sheaves of wheat can add a touch of warm, homely, harvest-time authenticity.

4. Monochrome
Monochrome doesn’t have to mean checker-board black and white. In fact, an elegant banqueting hall furnished with black, cloth-covered tables is an inspiring canvas for a wedding theme and it means you can add just about any colour to it. The key to pulling off a monochrome theme is simplicity. If you’re using black as a standalone colour for linens, drapes and chair coverings, you’ll obviously need to add contrast with white flowers, placecards and favour boxes. Vintage tromp l’oeil patterns are fast gaining popularity for weddings. Alternatively you may want to consider bringing in one or two other colours to break up the monotony of black and white. Gold is a particularly lovely accent with black, and you could incorporate it with statement decorative objects like gold candelabras or hanging lanterns.

5. Coral

Multiple shades of coral worked beautifully in this Chicago wedding. Image: Olivia Leigh.

Warm and feminine, coral is such a pretty shade for both spring and summer weddings, and there are so many variations in hues. Pale coral tones in the bridesmaids’ posies are gorgeous. Ranunculas are a beautiful variation on normal roses, and come in such a wide range of pretty coral hues. They’re also perfect for table centrepieces. For contrast in your own bouquet, why not opt for a few cream lilies and hot pink freesias? When it comes to décor, you’ll need to consider visual impact. Coral is such a warm and fiery shade, it can be overwhelming if overdone. Mint green and gold are two hot tones that work exceptionally well with this vibrant colour, but you could also consider sunshine yellows and cerise pinks for tableware, candle holders and bunting, as well as bridesmaids’ dresses – or even your own wedding dress.

If you want to move away from traditional white décor and linens, this year’s fabulous shades all have one thing in common – they all work together in harmony.

Demi Barnes of West Sussex, England, with her inventive creation, a wedding dress made from divorce papers. Image: Lingfield Notre Dame School

A 15-year-old British student has become an internet sensation after posting images of her final-year high school art project – a wedding dress made entirely from divorce papers – on Facebook.

Her task was to create a piece of artwork using the theme “Art and Word” and, having thought deeply about it, she decided to create a wedding gown from magazines pages but felt such a creation would have no meaning.

“I wanted to create a wedding dress with meaning.” Demi wrote in an email to ABCNews.com. “For me, the dress represents that too many people rush into marriage and end up getting divorced. I love the irony of the idea.”

The eye-catching outfit took Demi, a student at Lingfield Notre Dame School in Surrey, England, about two days to complete and required the use of about 1500 genuine divorce forms, each of them placed precisely.

She told ABCNews.com,”It was mainly trial and error being a very challenging piece. “I constructed the bodice with wire and then folded the papers (this was the most time consuming part) and stapled them on.”

When her project was completed, she put the image on Facebook to share it with a cousin in Italy and, “Within a week, it had had over 40,000 hits and people were approaching me to design their wedding dresses!

“Major designers have asked for copies. I’m passionate about fashion and design and am hoping someone will approach me with a work experience placement so I can turn my passion into a career.”

15-year-old British student Demi Barnes created a wedding dress from 1500 divorce papers and, naturally, it’s gone viral

The school’s Head of Art, Claire Davis is quoted as having said that “Demi became charged, like electricity, when she had the idea for the dress.

“This was an incredibly ambitious piece and it took courage, patience and tenacity to see this through from concept to final piece.

At last count, Demi’s dress had nearly 50,000 likes.

 Watch a BBC interview with Demi.

Could this sublime vintage wedding in the Adelaide Hills be any more perfect? The elegant affair with foodies, Sophie Goldsworthy, 30 and Mark Duncan, 33, had all the ingredients to make the most memorable celebration. And it wasn’t just the mouth-watering menu (which included shiraz-glazed duck, mmm).

Cassie Dotts donned her cap, gown and wedding dress for her recent graduation

Getting married is a big deal – and so is receiving your PhD. So, with lots of friends and family converging on her Washington state home to witness the receiving of her doctorate in veterinary medicine, Cassie Dotts decided to make it a double celebration.

She wed her beau of several years, Ben Ho, on Friday and then graduated from Washington State University on Saturday – in her wedding gown, no less.

Cassie proudly donned her cap and gown, but underneath wore her simple and elegant strapless wedding gown, complete with diamente encrusted sash.

She says she decided to wear her wedding dress on her other big day so that her friends and family could see her as both a graduate and a newlywed.

Cassie and Ben met on dating site RSVP and plan to relocate to Cassie’s home town of Las Vegas where she intends to work as a vet.

Between the cost of your gown, the reception and the wedding and engagement rings, it’s hardly surprising to learn the average Australian wedding typically costs upwards of $36,000.

While many couples hold weddings for significantly less (and significantly more), getting married can be an expensive business, but with a little planning and financial savvy, you can ensure you get the most bang for your hard-earned buck.

Step one in keeping on top of spiralling wedding expenses should be to create a comprehensive budget based on your incomings (ie. your wage) and outgoings (bills, regular expenses etc).

Step two, of course, is trying to stick to that budget!

Online budget planners are fantastic for helping you identify your costs and then for helping you keep track of your spending. Easy Weddings’ popular Budget Calculator  is free, as is our iPad app which contains a snazzy, mobile version of the Budget Calculator, allowing you to keep track of your wedding-related finances on the go.

Budgets work best if the couple is disciplined and consistent in their saving and spending. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially today when so many couples are already juggling mortgages and kids long before they start planning their big day.

Liam Janke, a Senior Manager of Consumer Lending (Finance Products) at Aussie says the best way to afford your wedding is to start saving as early as possible. However, if that isn’t possible, a personal loans can give you the financial boost needed to pay for your dream wedding.

“A personal loan, or wedding loan, is a practical way to pay for a wedding as long as you are disciplined with the spending and ensure you make regular monthly payments to bring down both the principle and interest.”

Liam says that credit cards, when used cleverly, have their uses too, especially when it comes to the convenience of making purchases online where things may cost less.

He adds, “Most of us compare and search for the best deals on all those small but important wedding items online. A credit card is the most convenient way to secure those must-have wedding item but make sure you watch your spending and try to keep track of how much you’re saving compared with how much interest you may have to pay.

“Have a budget, be disciplined and stick to it. Don’t over-capitalise with your card and find that your wedding has been completely paid for with credit. Many cards offer interest-free periods, which, with a bit of discipline could reduce your interest repayments substantially.”

Whichever path you choose, Liam says it’s about using your money as wisely as possible and getting the most bang for your buck.

Another increasingly popular way of helping defray the cost of a wedding is for newlyweds to forgo physical gifts and, instead, request a gift of cash from their guests.

These days, many couples are marrying later in life and already have their own homes or are living together. They usually have everything (sometimes two of everything) needed to set up home, so receiving traditional wedding gifts such as toasters or dining sets, seems pointless.

Don’t forget, the aim of giving such wedding gifts was usually to help a young couple set up home but, with so many of today’s newlyweds well and truly settled by the time they make it down the aisle, cash is often the most sensible gift.

Of course, whether you’re asking for a pay raise or a cash wedding gift, requesting money can be awkward.
Aussie customer Nicola Wood says she wishes she plucked up courage to ask for cash when she married her partner last year.

“I didn’t want to appear ungrateful so I didn’t ask for a cash gift,” says Nicola “but my fiancé and I had been renting a place for years, so we already had everything we needed. We ended up with half a dozen casserole dishes, multiple toasters and several other items we already owned.

“Nobody can use three toasters! I felt bad as I ended up giving away most of the gifts. I should just have bitten the bullet and asked for cash presents.”

In fact, when it comes to other parts of the world, cash is king at weddings. Red envelopes stuffed with money have always been part of the Chinese wedding tradition, just as the idea of guests pinning cash to the bride’s gown has been part of European wedding tradition for centuries.

“No matter how big or small your wedding budget, the important thing is to ensure you enjoy your big day when it arrives,” says Liam.

“Soak in every moment because you’ll remember your wedding day long after you’ve paid it off.”

Aussie’s top five tips and tricks for saving money for your wedding:
- Create a wedding budget and stick to it
- Deposit your savings into a high-interest saving account or term deposit and let the compound interest accumulate over time
- Use any windfalls, such as your tax return, to your wedding budget.
- Set up a wishing well for guest to contribute financially to your wedding
- When in need for some additional finance, consider a wedding loan or a credit card but ensure you can meet the repayments

]]> http://www.easyweddings.com.au/blogs/easy-weddings-blog/bridal-budgets-ensuring-paying-off-your-wedding-doesnt-become-a-life-long-commitment/feed/ 0 http://www.easyweddings.com.au/blogs/easy-weddings-blog/newlyweds-demanding-social-media-blackout-on-wedding-day/ http://www.easyweddings.com.au/blogs/easy-weddings-blog/newlyweds-demanding-social-media-blackout-on-wedding-day/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 02:11:11 +0000 Samantha http://www.easyweddings.com.au/blogs/?p=12842 No Tweets. No Facebook posts. No Instagram pictures. They’re the three little social media rules that are fast becoming the norm at modern weddings as more and more couples ask guests not to share their private wedding news and pictures online. With mobile phones almost as pervasive as people, an... Read More]]>

No Tweets. No Facebook posts. No Instagram pictures.

They’re the three little social media rules that are fast becoming the norm at modern weddings as more and more couples ask guests not to share their private wedding news and pictures online.

With mobile phones almost as pervasive as people, an increasing number of couples are requesting guests not post or share pictures of their big days online before they get a chance to vet the pictures – or at least share them first.

Others wanting to protect their privacy simply do not want the images online at all.

NSW couple Maddie and Matt encouraged guests to post images of their wedding on social media – but not everyone is happy to do so

Wedding photographer Meaghan Cook told The Sydney Morning Herald that she banned social media on her big day, largely because it was a private event for the couple’s friends and family, not one to be shared for all the world to see.

“Our wedding was a private moment in our lives and wasn’t for public consumption,” she said.  “For us it was about taking back ownership of the day.”

“It’s ridiculous. I’ve seen posts going up during ceremonies and wedding photographers spruiking their pictures online before the bride has even had a chance to see them.”

Wedding celebrant Koren Harvey told the SMH that more worrying was that guests these days seem so concerned with capturing the moment – they don’t actually experience it.

”They [guests] don’t engage with the day at all and before the couple has had a chance to process what is happening, it’s all over the internet,” Koren said.

“Those present [at the wedding], the couple’s loved ones, have been invited to be just that – present,”she adds.

But, while the trend of requesting guests keep their images to themselves is increasing, it’s not a rule for every modern couple.

One Easy Weddings bride, Katana_Geldar recently wrote on our forums, “We welcomed it. We knew we weren’t going to get many photos for quite a while (we only just got them), so it was nice to see photos posted by our friends so we could see the ourselves.”

Another bride, Maddie Gale of Dee Why, told news.com.au that she had no problem with guests posting images to social media, “It’s the thing now, to post photos as soon as possible,” she said. “We saw photos online before we had even got to the reception.”

What’s your view? Yay or nay on allowing guests to post your wedding images on social media?