Wedding Jewellery for the Bride

Floral headpiece, which can be altered to make a neckpiece

For every bride that doesn’t have that piece of jewellery to complete their look here are some hints on how to co-ordinate to get the right look.

1. If your wedding dress is a simple sheath dress-empire line, floaty, drapy chiffon material your neckline will need a matching light and airy look. Go for a light chain and a drop pearl or diamond. If this is not working a floral piece on the neckline can look stunning and not too overdone. As your overall look is light elegance the piece must match. If nothing is looking great consider putting a floral hairpiece in instead-possibly to the side to give a natural look. I just picked up some in Dunnes Sores recently on sale for €8. They were fab with an organza rose and a hint of feather strand in light ivory.

2. If you are Wearing a traditional aline wedding dress with a sweetheart neckline or straight one, you accessories can be a bit more spectacular. If you like everyting to match and follow a theme, usually the bustier part of your dress will have some embellishments on it in the form of crystals, pearls and sequins. 9 out of 10 times these are done in a floral pattern. Many tiaras and headpieces are available to match the floral theme with neckpieces and earring to compliment. If you don not want to overdo it, a simple set from a jeweller will work well. For example if there is a lot of heavy detailing on the top of the dress it sometimes is best to have more understated neckpieces with simple detail on it instead. Something that mirrors the theme of the embellishments of the dress to pick up on it.

3. If you are wearing a lace/vintage look dress something with pearl it in can be fantastic and comlete the look brilliantly. Keep it modern though as if you are wearing too much pearl it can look a bit too mumsy/bree off desperate housewives. That is fine if that is your general look, but not great if you are going for a more stylish-sex in the city/carrie look. A great place to pick up vintage jewellery is Rhinestones 18 Andrews St, Dublin, 2, Ireland‎ – 01 4755031‎, and for some interesting twists on costume jewellery www.catrionahanly.com where I have found some cracking pieces in her interiors store in Newbridge Whitewater Center-in the Mall.

Wedding Trends to Keep with the Budget!

Recently we have noticed that a lot of couples are trying to watch their spend and get the most for the budget they have. I have listed below some of the newest ways we are helping brides reduce their costs without cutting down on everything.

1. Wedding Invitations 1-very few people are going with seperate RSVP cards anymore, we have worked on adding all the detail to your invitation-without looking squashed, to include details on how to rsvp the bride and groom. This includes mobile numbers so people can text and addresses for those who prefer traditionally sending back cards.

2. Wedding Invitations 2. We have a specific line of evening invitation cards that we customise for couples and they retail at €25-€35 for 20 of them. We have now started to use these cards as the main invitations and have found brides love them-a great way to reduce the cost of the invitations. They can come printed for you too, and with a customised ribbon colour of choice along with Swarovski crystal details!

3. Wedding Favors-brides are still going with these but reducing the number of favours given out. Personalised candles are still being used but only 1 per couple. A major change has started on the chocolate boxes. We have advised brides to scatter heart shaped chocolates (in the colour of choice) along with rose petals on the table. The 2 intermingled look great on the table and dedcorate it and get people talking as they are reaching over each other to go for the chocolates!

4. Veils! These are expensive and can cost anything from €200 to €600. A lot of brides are borrowing friends veils as using that as their something old and something borrowed on the day! Don’t forget something new and blue!

5. Cakes. If you have a wedding of about 100 guests a 2 tier cake will be adequate for that amount of guests. The most popular flavours are chocolate fudge, Lemon Madeira and the oh so yummy chocolate biscuit. Our cake maker adds crunchies and maltesers to her recipe so the cake is soft and delicious and definatley not dry!

6. Wedding Flowers. Not that many brides really mind what flowers go into the church. We are doing a lot of silk flower hire for the church and fresh flowers for the bouquets as these are the main flowers in the photographs. This is a really easy way to reduce cost. If you have a church that does good flowers, consider talking to the priest and making a donation towards the flowers for your wedding day and just use what is in the church. The donation will possibly sway the colour choice of whoever is arranging those flowers on that given month to what you want (matching bridesmaids colours)-worth a shot if you are not that into flowers.

If you have found any great money saving tips post them here for all to see and I will continue to update on any major trend changes in the coming months!