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Plan Your Wedding in six Months

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Month one

  1. Agree on a budget and create a checklist – First thing’s first, agree on a budget both you and your partner are happy with. A checklist is also a must because it will help to keep you organised and on track of things.
  1. Write out a guestlist – The guestlist can be tricky, but give yourselves a number of guests each and start with close friends and family, then work from there.
  1. Pick a number of dates – It’s best to have a few dates in mind because you can see which works best for your close family and friends, you want to make sure they can all make your big day!
  1. Choose a venue – Planning six months in advance, it’s best to look for somewhere that offers packages!

Month two

  1. Book Vendors – Don’t forget to book a wedding Photographer, Officiant, Florist, Cake Baker, Musician or Band. If you book these around the same time it avoids anyone being forgotten.
  1. Wedding Ceremony Outfits – Start the hunt for the perfect wedding dress, groom’s tuxedo, ushers’ tuxedos and bridesmaid dresses. Remember to only take a couple of people whose opinions you really trust!
  1. Send out Save The Dates – These aren’t official invites, these remind your guests they need to put the date in their calendar!
  1. Accessories – Purchase shoes, jewellery and find your something old, new, borrowed and blue!

Month Three

  1. Purchase the wedding rings – These are quite significant for a wedding – don’t forget them!
  1. Send out Invitations – Make sure you add an RSVP to your invites so you can get an idea of numbers!
  1. Plan the rehearsal dinner – The rehearsal dinner is useful for everyone and avoids any unexpected surprises on the day!
  1. Decide on wedding favours – Wedding favours are just an added touch to all your guests, these could be anything from an edible sweet treat or a sentimental trinket.

Month Four

  1. Plan your honeymoon – After all this planning, you’ll be ready for some down time in an exotic place, best get it booked!
  1. Select a wedding breakfast menu – Meet with your venue or catering service to choose your wedding breakfast, you want to make sure you have the perfect spread! You should also meet with your cake baker to select your wedding cake flavours!
  1. Pick a song list – Hand your song list over to your DJ or musician with a good mix of new music and old time classics.

  2. Hair and Makeup Trial – This is very important, especially if you’re fussy about other people doing your makeup! Have a pamper day and choose a look you that remains true to your general style.

Month Five

  1. Create a seating chart – Now you have your final numbers you can decide where everyone is going to sit!
  1. Buy Gifts – It’s a nice idea to buy gifts for anybody within the wedding party as a thank you. It doesn’t have to be pricey, just something to show your gratitude!
  1. Get Your Marriage License – A very important part of getting married!

Month Six

  1. Confirm All Bookings – Ring up and confirm that all of your bookings have the right date etc.
  2. Get Married! – We hope you have a magical day…

Perfect Wedding Reception Songs

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If you’re looking for wedding reception songs to get everyone dancing, you’ve come to the right place. Here, we’ve rounded up the most popular songs played at weddings, with plenty of classic anthems and unique tunes that will have all your guests singing along.

25 Perfect Wedding Reception Songs Guaranteed to Fill the Dancefloor

Music can make or break your reception, so we’ve teamed up with one of the UK’s best party DJs, DJ Platinum and wedding singer Dominic from Sweet Soulful Sound, to bring you this definitive list of love songs – stick to these top tunes and you’ll create the perfect party atmosphere.

5 of the best first dance songs

First dance songs are traditionally romantic and tend to say something about you as a couple. But remember, they don’t have to be slow like the five popular choices here.

If your wedding ceremony isn’t traditional, then why have a traditional first dance? Go for something faster, choreograph a professional dance – perhaps a tango – or just have a mass dance with your friends.

  1. At Last by Etta James
  2. A Thousand Years by Christina Perri
  3. Let’s Stay Together by Al Green
  4. Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls
  5. I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing by Aerosmith

5 of the best wedding reception floorfillers

The one thing a lot of wedding guests always comment on is the wedding entertainment. Keep them dancing all night, and give them great memories of your big day with these classic floor fillers!

Why not choose one of these songs to play after the first dance to encourage everyone onto the dancefloor?

  1. Dancing Queen by ABBA
  2. Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars
  3. Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen
  4. Sex On Fire by Kings of Leon
  5. Mr Brightside by The Killer

5 of the best wedding reception songs to end the night

We always suggest that a bride and groom make their exit before the lights come on at the end of the night. Who wants to see messy reception tables anyway?

Choose a song to be played at about 11.30pm, dance with all your guests and then make your final exit. We love running out of the venue under a tunnel of sparklers – the perfect photo opportunity!

  1. Come On Eileen Dexys Midnight Runners
  2. Bohemian Rhapsody Queen
  3. Don’t Stop Believing Journey
  4. Ho Hey The Lumineers
  5. All You Need is Love The Beatles

5 of the best sing-a-long wedding reception songs

Your wedding video should capture all the special moments of the big day, and by that we don’t just mean the emotional, romantic bits. It should also capture those candid moments with you and your friends laughing and jumping around on the dancefloor, having the time of your lives. These songs will help you do just that…

  1. Valerie Amy Winehouse
  2. Celebration Kool & The Gang
  3. Can’t Help Myself The Four Tops
  4. Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel Tavares
  5. My Girl The Temptations

5 of the Best Father-Daughter Dance Songs

Not every bride has a dance with her father, but we think it’s a tradition that’s worth bringing back for 2019! Show your dad just how much he means to you (and that he’s still the number one man in  your life) with a dance at the reception. The songs below all have a great sentiment behind them but Father and Daughter by Paul Simon is our favourite here at Wedding Ideas HQ…

  1. My Girl First The Temptations
  2. Father And Daughter Paul Simon
  3. Isn’t She Lovely Stevie Wonder
  4. When You Need Me Bruce Springsteen
  5. Ain’t That Love Ray Charles

First Dance Songs

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While this dance is probably the most momentous you’ll ever have, it will also be the first of many. It’s one dance at the beginning of the evening that will soon slip into a dance floor full of people partying with you, so relax. Yes, all eyes will be on you as you enjoy your first dance together, but in a lovely kind of way and not in the style of a Strictly judge.

That being said, there are a few golden rules when it comes to first dance song choices. Follow these and whatever first dance song you choose, you’ll love it.

Don’t rule out first dance songs simply because they are popular – they are popular for a reason! Of course it’s lovely to make your wedding unique, but there are other elements of your reception that allow you to do that. Plus, just because a song has been played for a hundred first dances before yours, it doesn’t make it any less personal or appropriate for the two of you, too.

In recent years, our featured couples have turned to Ed Sheeran’s songs above and beyond any other artist. Original? No. Perfect in style and sentiment? Absolutely.

Don’t be tempted to jump on the bandwagon of a trend on a day as significant as your wedding. You’ll remember this dance forever, so the first dance song you choose needs to stand the test of time. While it might sound oh-so funny at your hen do to choose ‘Sex Bomb’, come your wedding day you could regret it.

We’re not saying all first dance song ideas need to be slow, but you do need to think about how you’ll actually dance to the song.

We recommend at least a handful of evenings spent practising in your living room. Why not wear in your wedding day heels at the same time? You’ll make hilarious memories and feel natural but prepared come the big day.

 

How to Deliver a Wedding Speech

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Everyone gets nervous delivering a speech, some people run better off the adrenaline and some people dissolve into a trembling mess. Those who get overly nervous can end up being too serious or lose track of where they are up to fairly quickly. Take our wedding speech advice into consideration and it should help to take the edge off.

Keep it simple

If you are a nervous public speaker, don’t try to run before you can walk. Crack a joke but don’t try too hard. Don’t hang too heavily on the punchline when your delivery isn’t guaranteed to land.

Tell a story

Speech advice 101: you’re making a speech, not a toast so your audience is expecting something more. If you are delivering a wedding speech, you are most probably going to want to share some anecdotes and happy memories. When writing your speech think of the journey you want to take your audience on and what the key messages you want to convey are.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

The more practice you get in, the better the delivery. You’ll know when your jokes are coming up and how you want them to land. If you are nervous, you will be counting on your memory to help you get everything out as you try to maintain a calm and composed exterior.

The more of your speech you can deliver without having to look at your notes the better. However, do keep some notes handy should you need a gentle reminder of what on earth you’re talking about.

Be yourself

You are only going to deliver this speech once so enjoy it, be yourself and let your personality shine through. You are delivering this speech because of your relationship to the newlyweds, not because you’re being lined up for a future presenter. Nobody’s perfect and delivering a flawless speech is tough. As long as you get your message across, be it a little nervously, everyone is sure to love it.

The toast

Finally, the toast! Don’t rush to sit down but rather, invite everyone to join you in raising a glass to the happy couple as you round off your speech.

 

Mad Hatter Weddings

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Do you love that things are not conventional, do you love to have fun, or you just don’t want to grow up yet? Well, we have an idea just for you that is just Mad, and just like the Mad Hatter himself we’ve come up with some wacky idea for a Wedding Breakfast..

Tea

Earl Grey is the only tea to be served. It needn’t be high quality and can be of any origin, just make sure it’s Early Grey.

Sandwiches

There are three sandwiches which are appropriate for a Mad Hatters Tea Party; minted cucumber, egg mayonnaise and mustard cress, and smoked salmon and cream cheese. Cutting your sandwiches into heart shapes is cute, but would Alice approve of your allegiance to the Queen of Hearts?

The Chelsea Bun

The Chelsea bun is known predominantly for throwing, so get involved, it’s what Tea Parties are made for.

Shortbread

Height should not be discriminated against; therefore, shortbread is totally acceptable at the tea table.

Floristry

Wedding flowers perfection should be avoided at all costs. If you have a budget for plants, stick to twigs, decaying leaves and fungi.

Invitations

The maddest guests needn’t be invited, they will simply fall through the rabbit hole and stumble across your party by chance.

Dress code

Colourful, bold and avant-garde.

Hair code

No one is allowed to have similarities in wedding hair colour or style, other than that, anything goes.

Wedding Décor

Matching furniture is forbidden; the more quintessentially Wonderland, the better.

Guests

Be specific when choosing your guests based on personality, if they aren’t at least slightly crazy, they won’t fit in.

Hospitality

Being hospitable is essential. This can be achieved through planning a range of unrecognisable party games.

Weather

If you’re worried about being outside and it raining, it doesn’t matter too much as the best Mad Hatters Tea Parties are set in very little sunlight. For big budget tea parties, rain and mist machines are encouraged.

Seating

If you can’t get bums on seats, bums on anything is fine. Stools, shelves, giant mushrooms; anything goes.

Cheshire cat

One ginger cat is required as ‘purr’ its Cheshire heritage.

Timekeeping

This is banned as there is no time in wonderland. However, we would only suggest this tip as optional as if adhered to it can cause havoc, after all, you don’t want your guests to be late for this very important date.

 

Unusual wedding entertainment ideas

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Perhaps, but you want your special day to be unique! So how can you make your wedding day extra special? What sort of wedding entertainment should you hire for your big day? We’ve come up with a few unique cabaret ideas to help get you thinking!

Drag Queen

A Drag Queen isn’t a typical addition you might expect to see at a wedding but they can be a wonderful Master of ceremonies and deliver a stunning and outrageous show at the reception. From stand up to singing, a drag queen diva will wow your wedding guests. The ultimate in unique wedding entertainment.

Aerial Silk Artist

One for the larger wedding venues, there is no piece of unique wedding entertainment more beautiful than an aerial silk artist. Suspended from the ceiling by flowing silk drapes, a talented performer can twist and turn to music to create an ambient acrobatic display or even improvise a hanging routine. A majestic and graceful act, it’s best to let the photos speak for themselves! No performance is ever the same.

Classical music artists

One for the classical music lovers how about a little background music on your wedding day? Classically trained singers from the Royal Academy of Music will captivate your audience. A fabulous addition to any wedding, enjoy a flawless rendition of your favourite classical piece to make your wedding day truly magical.

Dancers

When it comes to unique wedding entertainment ideas, it’s often easy to forget that your guests are as part of the big day as yourselves. A function band is great to get the room going but many attendees are often too shy to hit the dance floor. By booking a dance group who relate to the style of music that your function band play, the evening can incorporate the fun nature of your event and music that suits your particular musical tastes.    

Fail safe weddings

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It’s natural to stress over all aspects of planning a wedding but if you follow these basic wedding event planning rules, you’ll be a brilliant event planner in no time! So whether it’s your first time booking entertainment or you’re an old hand, here are a few tips that it’s always worth remembering.

Budget Wisely

Decide on a budget far in advance of when you sit down to allocate the funds to each part of your wedding. Entertainment can be pricey, but shrewd event planners are the ones who do not waver from their initial costings and ensure that they are getting a good deal. Musicians in particular vary widely in price but rest assured we at Red Masque only advertise the very best acts who have excellent reviews.

Give Yourself Some Time

People like to plan early so don’t leave it until the last minute before booking the wedding entertainment for your event. Some of the most popular acts are already being requested by planners for weddings late in 2019, so don’t delay if there’s a piece of wedding entertainment you just have to have! It’s better to book sooner rather than later as this also gives time to deal with any possible song requests or dealing with venue difficulties like sound limiters.

Make a List of Entertainment Ideas

This may seem like a no-brainer but always make a list of wedding entertainment ideas you have in mind for your wedding so that you don’t get side-tracked when looking at all the other entertainment which is out there!

Get the latest exciting acts.

One of the most important things about planning a wedding that you need to know what is available on the market. After making your list of wedding entertainment ideas, it’s now time to look out for any other acts the people seem to be excited about and consider the date as well. Make sure you get the latest exciting wedding entertainment act.

Think About Everything Else

Once you’ve booked the wedding entertainment, it’s time to focus on other things. Planning a wedding is all about juggling tasks and assigning time to each of them. Once your entertainment is booked, start thinking about how to improve your wedding venue by picking a nice theme. Then onto the catering and flowers. It feels like it’s never ending but it doesn’t have to be. So book your entertainment early and then allow yourself some time to think about everything else.

 

Garden party weddings

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When planning a Garden Wedding, these top tips can make this ever-evolving theme personal to you.

Outdoor venue

To hold an authentic country garden wedding theme you usually need one of three types of wedding 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.

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.

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… Hand Picked 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 wedding venue.

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 wedding hair and accessories 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.

 

Create the ambiance of a Royal Wedding

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If you loved the Royal Wedding and you would love to have all of the music and create the same ambiance (without the Queen of course) then why not replicate some of the music and musicians at your Wedding.  There are plenty of wedding entertainment musicians that would cater for you.

Wedding Singers.

Kicking off proceedings at the Royal Wedding was Elin Manahan Thomas, who sang Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine accompanied by a full orchestra. If an array of musicians is in your budget then go ahead, though we expect that most couples would be very happy booking a soprano and having her sing to a backing track.

Gospel Choir

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a choir and it’s fair to say that the whole world was impressed by the aptly named Kingdom Choir as they performed Ben E King’s Stand By Me at the Royal Wedding. You could book your very own Gospel Choir at your Wedding to sing a song that means so much to you both..

Cellist

Sheku Kanneh-Mason wowed the guests at the Royal Wedding as he performed three pieces by Faure, Schubert and Maria Theresia von Paradis respectively. His impact on proceedings has been so great that in the days hence, his classical album is currently at number one on the US iTunes pop charts. Talented cellists would be a great addition to your Wedding, making it as Royal as it can be.

So if this has got you all excited about planning a Royal(esque) Wedding, we hope it goes smoothly (but maybe forget the long speeches from the Pastor!!!)

 

The Benefits of a Toastmaster

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As anybody who has ever attended a wedding will know, they can be stressful affairs. Celebratory occasions yes, but there are a whole host of timings to abide by from arriving at the wedding venue right through to the final minute of the evening. With this in mind, some prefer to book a toastmaster to worry about the day for them, to make sure everything is just so and ensure that your wedding day really is the best day of your life.

No matter whether a big or a small celebration, a toastmaster can be a fabulous booking at a wedding and that’s simply because they know exactly where and when everything will be happening, all whilst taking a traditional role of calling out proceedings as and when they occur. So what does a toastmaster do at a wedding?

A toastmaster will ensure that the wedding venue is ready, greet guests as they arrive, organise the photographs, direct guests as required, announce the wedding breakfast, orchestrate the moments that nobody wants to miss, introduce the speakers and take on each and every duty that will help everybody else to enjoy this most special of days. For the bride and groom, it will be a stress-free day and ultimately, that is the finest way to enjoy your own wedding!

An experienced toastmaster will sit down with you weeks in advance to make sure that everything is perfect. Even so, things can occasionally run awry on the day and they can therefore step in if things aren’t quite going as planned – allowing more time for wedding photographs, noticing that the food is taking longer to prepare than expected – and will ensure that all being well, nobody will ever notice that the day was very briefly going ‘off-plan’. In a sense, a good toastmaster are the eyes and ears of the bride and groom on a day when they can’t be expected to be everywhere at once!

Many might feel they have no need to book a toastmaster because everything a toastmaster does could be done by an usher or best man already in attendance. This is possible but whereas many of the groomsmen are required to be with the groom ahead of the ceremony, that would leave nobody to greet guests or check on the venue. The ushers and everybody else involved in the day want to have a good time themselves so it wouldn’t be fair on them to take away from the proceedings.

In summation, if you are wanting a wedding that runs to plan and on the hunt for an entertaining master of ceremonies to guide you through proceedings, a toastmaster is an excellent idea, especially considering that you can often book a toastmaster for less than the price of the wedding cake!