Category Archives: Hotel

Your wedding photography checklist

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You don’t want to forget anything. All those important moments need to be captured.

  • The Photos You Really Don’t Want to Forget on Your Wedding Day
  • Before the ceremony
  • Shots of the bride and bridesmaids getting ready
  • The bride and father in the wedding car
  • The groom preparing
  • Wedding dress hanging on a beautiful hanger
  • Wedding Shoes
  • Groom waiting (nervously!) outside venue
  • Shot of the bridesmaids
  • During the ceremony
  • The bride’s grand entrance
  • The guests’ faces on seeing the bride
  • The groom waiting at the altar
  • The ring exchange
  • The kiss
  • Register signing
  • Bride and groom leaving
  • A confetti shot
  • It’s traditional to have photographs of:
  • Bride, groom, best man and ushers
  • Bride, groom, and both sets of parents
  • Bride and groom as new couple
  • Bride and groom with bridesmaids
  • Bride and groom with brothers and sisters
  • Bride and groom with grandparents
  • Bride and her mother
  • Groom and his father
  • Bride and groom with friends
  • Whole bridal party and guests

 

Reception

  • The decorated room and table plan before the guests arrive
  • Bride and groom entering
  • Speeches
  • Cake cutting
  • First dance of the bride and groom

Of course, you can add to and amend this wedding photography checklist however you want. But these are the classic images to build around. Enjoy your big day!

Get to know your Registrar

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If there is one wedding vendor you’d really like to connect with on a personal level, it should be your Registrar. This is the person who will legally join you and your future spouse together. They’ll coach you through reciting the special vows that will help you express your love and commitment, and they’ll possibly even impart important wedding advice that you’ll keep with you forever.

That said, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of five questions you should ask a potential Wedding Registrar to be sure you’re hiring the best person to work with you. Here we go:

1. What are your credentials?

You’ll want to work with an experienced Registrar who can provide testimonials from other happy couples. They’ll need to be familiar with the marriage laws and requirements where you’re getting married,

2. Can we customize our ceremony?

If your Registrar works directly with a wedding venue that does numerous weddings every day, they may stick to a set “script” for every wedding and may not allow customizations. If you want to write your own vows or include particular readings, make sure the potential Registrar allows it.
3. Do you attend/run the rehearsal?

Some Registrars include a rehearsal and others don’t. Most charge an additional fee for it, which you’ll want outlined in your service contract. If there is an event coordinator find out whether they or your Registrar will run the rehearsal.
4. Have you ever made a mistake during a ceremony?

This is a tricky question, as most people will be tempted to say no. But we’re all human and make mistakes, right? The key thing to look for here is if they can admit they’ve made mistakes and how they responded when they did.
5. Why are you a ceremony Registrar?

This is perhaps the most important question you can ask a potential Registrar. Why do they do what they do? Does their answer tally well with the reasons you’re getting married? You can get a great sense of their personality based on their response.

There are other questions you can ask to gauge the Registrar’s character, such as what they considered the most romantic thing they’ve ever seen at a wedding, but the above questions should give you the answers you need to determine if the person you’re interviewing is the right for you.

Garden party ideas

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One of the biggest wedding theme trends last year was ‘garden party’, but this year’s brides are set to combine this elegant theme with rustic country details. With these top tips, you can make this ever-evolving theme personal to you.

Outdoor wedding venue

To hold an authentic country garden wedding theme you usually need one of three types of venue – a country barn with fairy lights wrapped around the beams, a marquee reception with hay bales for seating, or a quintessentially English manor house with beautiful gardens filled with blooms where you could set up garden games for your guests to enjoy.

This year’s brides will also be giving their country garden theme a festival edge with large tipis and marquees, camping areas for their guests and live music.

Pastel perfection

From the details through to the bridesmaid dresses floral prints and pastel shades are best suited to a country garden theme.

The best floral prints for this theme are pansies, daisies and roses. Think pink, lavender, turquoise and lemon for perfectly pretty girls. Keep shoes nude and hair accessories minimal – flower headbands, perhaps?

The little details

It’s the little details your guests will notice, so consider some of these country inspired ideas… Handpicked flowers for the bouquets and centrepieces, raffia-tied jam jar favours filled with mini eggs and handmade bunting with Cath Kidston-style material spread all around the venue.

Searching for cheap and cheerful favour ideas? How about attaching a place card to a shiny green apple, or laying a sprig of lavender on your napkins?

Boho bride

For a country look, consider a short or tea-length wedding dress, and for a bit of fun, add a coloured underskirt with matching shoes! Put real flowers in your hair and accessorise with pearls – the chunkier the pearls, the more modern the look.

Make sure you have some wedding wellies on hand for your outdoor reception, as well as some white umbrellas should you need to shelter guests at any point.

Country stationery

Textured stationary with a DIY feel will work really well with this theme. Raffia, cotton or button embellishments are great.

Tea and cake

What’s a country garden party without high tea? Instead of a traditional dessert, put a tiered cake stand on each table filled with scones, muffins and cupcake so guests can help themselves, with a pot of tea and coffee on hand to wash it down. Why not stir up a little competitive spirit among your guests and have a Great Wedding Bake-Off?

Set up a table in the marquee and ask guests to bring their homemade goodies. The bride and groom can then present first, second and third prize before cutting their own wedding cake.

Arrive in style

Instead of a traditional vintage car, consider something a little more authentic, like a tractor! Just make sure you give it a good clean beforehand or you could end up with a muddy dress!

Country garden brides may want to take advantage of the (hopefully) good summer weather and walk to their ceremony – the ultimate eco-friendly way to arrive at your ceremony or reception.

Country entertainment

The obvious answer here is country music, maybe a live folk band for the evening? This type of fun upbeat entertainment will appeal to all ages and will certainly get everyone on their feet.

Hollywood Honeymoons

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If you and your other half are film buffs, or just love the idea of including some Hollywood glamour into your honeymoon, incorporate a stay at a world famous hotel that’s been used as a film location. Here are some ideas to inspire you:

Italy

The Please Garden (Alfred Hitchcock’s first film): Villa D’Este

Alfred Hitchcock spent nearly every summer at the Villa d’Este and was completely enamoured with the beautiful surroundings. He filmed his first movie The Pleasure Garden on the hotel grounds in 1925. The hotel has over 150 rooms, all completely unique from one another with their own style and size. Hitchcock isn’t the only artist to fall in love with Villa d’Este; distinguished fashionistas have all fallen in love with the place including Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan and Paul Smith.

A Room with a View: Degli Orafi, Florence

The famous 1980’s film A Room with a View charts the romance between Miss Lucy Honeychurch; a young Edwardian woman, with a free-spirited young man she meets in Italy. The couple first meet at a hotel in Florence, and modern-day visitors to the Degli Orafi hotel can stay in the exact room they meet, room 414 on the 4th floor. The view in question is from the room’s spectacular terrace which overlooks the Arno and Ponte Vecchio.

The United States of America

Ocean’s 11: The Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas

The Bellagio is features a few times in Ocean’s 11. Firstly, the Las Vegas Boulevard entrance is seen when Saul arrives at the casino to place some big bets to get Terry Benedict’s attention. Saul walks right through the main entrance underneath the hotel’s distinctive glass flower chandelier. Also, whilst the movie makes it seem as though Basher Tarr is in a remote location when he pulls the trigger to turn out the Vegas Strip lights, the scene is actually filmed from on top of Bellagio’s self-park garage!

The Bodyguard: Fontainebleu Miami Beach

In The Bodyguard the Fontainebleu makes an appearance as the host of the charity benefit where Whitney Houston’s character Rachel sings ‘I Have Nothing’. However, the luxury grounds of the hotel have appeared in more than one Hollywood blockbuster. In the third James Bond film, Goldfinger, the Fontainebleu is where Sean Connery’s 007 checks in before thwarting the movie’s villain during a game of poolside Gin Rummy, and in Al Pacino’s Scarface, the beach hotel is where Montana and Manny Ray relax and eye up ladies.

Pretty Woman: The Beverly Wilshire, California

In the 1990 blockbuster Pretty Woman, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel is where Edward Lewis (played by Richard Gere) puts up his escort Vivian Ward (played by Julia Roberts). Vivian endears herself to the staff of the hotel, resulting in the hotel manager teaching her about place settings, and the hotel is conveniently located next to the designer’s shops in Rodeo Drive. The hotel celebrated the 25th anniversary of the film by offering Pretty Women packages that ranged from $15,000 to $100,000 and included homages to the film including a night in the presidential suite, a personal shopper on Rodeo Drive with $3,000 shopping money, couple’s massages, a diamond pedicure and a romantic dinner on the Veranda Suite Terrace.

Maid in Manhattan: Roosevelt Hotel, New York

Jennifer Lopez plays a hardworking maid at the fictional Beresford Hotel in the 2002 romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan. The exterior of the Beresford was actually the Waldorf-Astoria but the majority of the filming took place within the Roosevelt Hotel. The Roosevelt has also been featured in a number of other Hollywood films including The Taking of Pelham 123, The French Connection and Men in Black 3.

An Ideal seating plan…

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If you’re having 50 guests at a buffet, you may or may not want to give people specific seating assignments. But if you’re having 100 guests or more and serving a seated meal, you’ll want to make sure everyone’s got a specific place to sit. Why? For one, people like to know where they’re sitting — and that you took the time to choose where and whom they should sit with. It’s also helpful if you’re serving several different entree choices, because the wedding caterer and wait staff can figure out beforehand how many chicken, filet and veggie dishes a given table gets, because they (you) know who’s sitting there.

Create a Paper Trail

If you’re feeling more low-tech, draw circles (for tables) on a big sheet of paper and write names inside them (make sure you know how many people can comfortably be seated at each one). Or you could write every guest’s name on a sticky note and place it accordingly.

Head Up the Head Table

A traditional head table is not round but long and straight, and it’s generally set up along a wall, facing all the other reception tables. It may even have two tiers if your wedding party is large. Usually the bride and groom sit in the middle (where everyone can see them), with the maid of honour next to the groom, the best man next to the bride, and then boy/girl out from there. Flower girls or ring bearers usually sit at the tables where their parents are sitting, much to the relief of the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Decide to sit this way, or plan a sweetheart table for a little one-on-one time

Switch Things Up

But you don’t have to do it that way. All the bridesmaids can sit on the bride’s side, and all the groomsmen on the groom’s. Or maybe you’re not into being on display, or you don’t want your wedding party to feel isolated from other guests. Let your wedding party sit at a round reception table or two with each other and/or with their dates/significant others, and have the head table be a sweetheart table for the two of you. (How romantic!) Another option: You two sit with your parents and let that be the head table, with the wedding party at their own tables.

Place Your Parents

Traditionally, your parents and your parents to be sit at the same table, along with grandparents, siblings not in the wedding party, but for one reason or another you might want to let each set of parents host their own table of close family and/or friends. This could mean up to four parents’ tables, depending on your situation — or have the divorced parent who raised you (or your partner) and his/her spouse/date sit at the table with still-married parents.

Remember, the parent-seating question is a flexible one. Set it up in whatever way best suits everybody. If you’re unsure, don’t hesitate to talk to the parents in question about it before you make your final decision.

Tame Tensions

There may also be situations in which certain family members just do not get along. Maybe they haven’t spoken in years. Maybe the last time they saw each other there was a drunken catfight. Understandably, you want to keep them as far apart as possible. Think about these kinds of relationships (or lack thereof) before you even start making your chart, so you can take them into consideration in the first place and begin by seating Auntie Maud at table three and Aunt Lucy across the room at table 15. Trust us — they’ll appreciate it.

Play Matchmaker

Again, all your University or school friends will be so pleased to sit at a table together. This especially works out well if you and your beloved went to the same school and have the same friends. It also gives them all an opportunity to catch up with each other, because they may not have seen each other for a while. But again — reception tables offer a great opportunity to mix and match your friends and your partners — who knows who’ll hit it off? Consider seating friends who don’t know each other (yet), but who you think will get along exceptionally well, at the same table — and the rest is history. It can’t hurt!