Your wedding is a huge life changing adventure which will come to symbolise immeasurable new possibilities and spellbinding opportunities for you both and here below are a few pieces wedding advice which I hope may help you in your journey.
The idea of getting married and having a beautiful wedding is supposed to be a magical event so that's more wedding advice taking on board.
Very quickly we create a vision of a perfect day filled with stunning flowers, beautiful weather, delicious food, champagne on tap as well as all your favourite friends and family on hand to witness what will be the most important day of your life.
And yet, many couples find the experience of wedding planning filled with stress and anxiety.
Bride and grooms to be find themselves having disparate ideas about wedding day perfection.
Perhaps there are arguments about whether to marry in church or to have civil partnerships, a civil wedding ceremony, the choice of reception venue, the colour schemes or worse still whom to invite or not as the case may be.
The whole process can leave many couples feeling disenchanted and weary with stress.
Before you get too carried with your planning and preparation it may a good idea to sit down and cast your eyes over this helpful wedding advice list.
Expectations
Wedding advice and managing expectations is extremely important and not only does that include the two of you but also extends to both sets of parents.
Your parents will inevitably have their own ideas about how to manage the day as well as whom to invite and it is crucial that you find the time to manage their expectations in the process.
Okay, it's your wedding but if your parents are helping to pay for the wedding then there's a good chance that they will want to be involved in some of decision making.
If you are adamant that you would not like to marry in church and your parents are regular church goers then you will need to address this sooner rather than later.
Don't bury your head in the sand.
Do make sure you find the time to sit down with your parents to calmly talk through your ideas about how you would like to shape the day and ask for their advice to make sure they feel involved.
Perfection
Wedding advice and the idea of perfection.
Of course every bride and groom wants to experience a flawless wedding day without a single hitch or snag in sight and yet it can be the smallest imperfections that could just make your wedding complete.
I once photographed a wedding where the Rolls Royce had safely dispatched the bridesmaids when it suddenly conked out outside the wedding venue.
The day was already running behind schedule and this could have been a reason for everyone to get very agitated and stressed.
And yet the issue was resolved when one of the guests offered to collect the bride and her father in his beaten up old Nissan Micra and when they finally arrived, instead of stress and anxiety I was greeted with fun and laughter - in fact those images captured one of my favourite shots of a bride getting out of bridal car.
The story of the Rolls Royce breaking down and the brides arrival in an old banger made their wedding day unique and thankfully the bride and her father were able to view the situation as being humorous instead of being weighed down with disappointment seeking out perfection.
Decisions
Wedding ideas and decision making.
There are a thousand decisions that will need to be made in the run up to your wedding and naturally some decisions will be more important than others.
Also some extra words of wedding advice.... it goes without saying that some people will have very different ideas and opinions and whilst you may not agree, it is important to listen and respect the ideas of others including your families.
Even if you are planning to to do something which is counter to what has been mooted by your parents, it is important to let them know that at least you have considered it though the bottom line is that it is your day and ultimately the decision making is down to you both.
What you choose to do and how you will achieve it will be determined by you and don't be bullied into doing something which is against your wishes.
Expense
Wedding advice and expenses.
Weddings these days are expensive, especially London weddings which is why it is important to have a proper budget in place, so my wedding advice would be to start using a spreadsheet.
Make sure you stick to your budget if at all possible because if you go over budget on let's say your wedding videography, then you may need to try and find the money from other sources or worse still, reduce the costs elsewhere.
If you have the budget for one, a good wedding planner can really help to keep a lid on wedding planning as they are well versed in managing and allocation of budgets.
Communicate
Wedding advice and communication.
It sounds so obvious but communication is key in this process, especially between the two of you.
This wedding is your day and the fine tuning of the wedding arrangements should be shared equally so that any worries and concerns that you may have can be shared together.
It should never fall to just one person to manage such a huge life changing event like a wedding.
The responsibilities will need to be shared and enjoyed, as planning can and should be lots of fun.
Don't forget, your wedding day will pass by in a flash so if you can try to keep things in perspective and make sure you actually enjoy the process and all the preparations for what will be a fantastic start to rest of your lives as newlyweds.
So that's it for my wedding advice.
I could and maybe one day will write a book giving my wedding advice as I have been to more than 500 weddings and have seen it all.
I just want to close by saying that all my wedding advice above is subjective so please feel free to take it with a pinch of salt or indeed simply ignore it and take your own path.
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