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Local experts offer stellar advice on wedding dilemmas

RING-A-DING-DING

We’re looking for the perfect wedding rings; what advice can you share with us?

To ensure you receive the perfect rings, have an expert jeweller make the pieces for you. That way, you’ll receive something unique with the perfect design and fit.

Sometimes when couples come to see me about having their rings made, they know exactly what they want. But more often than not, they need help discovering the options available.

The fact that you’ll wear these rings for the rest of your life can add a bit of pressure to the process. That’s why we’re here to share advice

The A Team

We’re trying to create a stress-free wedding; how can a master of ceremonies help us achieve this?

A toastmaster can help couples create the perfect day by removing extra pressure and ensuring everything goes to plan. Most couples don’t have much experience when planning a wedding, which is why a toastmaster’s skill is so invaluable as they can spot problems before they arise, act as a point of contact between you and the venue, deal with questions from suppliers and oversee timings on the day. There’s nothing more stressful than having to obtain guests’ attention or directing people in the right direction. You should be relaxing and enjoying your day without these extra worries.

The company should always be happy to help if that’s offering advice and tips such as the contents and duration of speeches. They should introduce you both at the wedding breakfast, the speeches, cutting the cake, and the first dance to ensure loved ones don’t miss a thing. A toastmaster should be on hand to ensure the correct procedures and good communication are in place.

Peter York | Peter York Toastmaster | www.peteryork-mc.co.uk regarding the metal, purity, shape, width, size and finish. When creating the perfect rings, consider the metal and design of your engagement ring as well as your personal taste. A good jeweller can advise on practical aspects such as durability and comfort.

Commissioning bespoke rings means you’re guided through your decisions by an expert who knows this field like the back of their hand. That means the process will be stress-free and utterly enjoyable. After all, there’s no jewellery more meaningful than the rings you give to one another as a symbol of your life-long partnership.

Olivia Brown | Olivia Brown Jewellery www.oliviabrownjewellery.co.uk

Bring On Spring

We’re planning our spring wedding, but we’re unsure where to start. Do you have any ideas?

A spring wedding will be fantastic, and the first place to start would be to look for a venue. The time of year in this country can bring all sorts of wonderful weather, so ensure your venue has a back-up option indoors in case of bad weather for al fresco events. Umbrellas can make for great wedding photos, but warmer areas for your guests to congregate are essential.

Consider how much natural lighting you can get indoors, as spring is about lighter mornings and evenings. There’s also a demand for beautiful pastel colours, and there are plenty of ways that you can include these shades. Putting the focus on your flowers and bridesmaids’ dresses are the easiest ways to add colour to your wedding – think light and bright!

As spring is the season of new life, flower seeds can make great sustainable wedding favours for the guests to take home.

Holly Annetts | Entwine Wedding Planning www.entwine-weddings.co.uk

Darling Buds

We hate the idea of chucking our flowers away after our wedding. How can we enjoy them after our big-day?

Flowers play an essential role at weddings as the blooms will show your personalities, add a romantic atmosphere to your venue and convey memories after the day through the certain florals used.

But what happens to all those lovely and expensive flowers once your wedding is over? They can be given away to guests or displayed for a week or so, but they will inevitably get thrown away.

Aside from your wedding photos, there’s no lasting physical memory of the beautiful florals.

You get more value out of your flowers by getting them professionally pressed while gaining a genuinely bespoke and sentimental piece of artwork to display for years to come – it might even become a family heirloom! For loved ones that have been a big part of your special day, giving them a piece of art created from your wedding flowers is a

Setting The Tone

What venue styling trends should we look out for in 2023?

It’s going to be all about colour this upcoming wedding season, whether that’s focusing on the tones within a specific spectrum or pops of bright hues.

Viva magenta has been released as Pantone’s Colour of The Year 2023, which has been described as a brave and fearless shade that promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration. As we desperately need the most extravagant sense of celebration, incorporating this colour will only cement these feelings. Opting for a statement colour doesn’t mean your look needs to be garish and overbearing. Get the best results from your desired shade by featuring it through arrangements alongside complementing hues. Perhaps you might decide only to bring hints of your statement colour into your table styling through the candles and napkins or by adding silk ribbons to your bouquet.

Why not take that colour and roll with it, choose to use nothing else but the tones from that shade spectrum for some serious wow factor? However, this tends to lend itself to colours on a more neutral scale. Select tones of lavender, also prominent for 2023, blush, nude or mocha to explore the scale from the very pale through to the much deeper tones. Consider a tonal spectrum for bridesmaids’ dresses, table styling and florals to create a bangon-trend look.

Tessa Haskell | Penn Creative Collection at Pennsylvania Castle Estate www.thepennestate.co.uk

personal and special gift.

If your wedding has passed and you didn’t preserve your bouquet, there’s always the option to get it recreated to be pressed – can you think of a more perfect anniversary gift?

Lucy Whitfield | Fields of Pressed Flowers www.instagram.com/fields_of_pressedflowers