Using Lighting To Decorate Your Wedding

Lighting is one of my favourite things for weddings – it can create exactly the atmosphere you are looking for, whether it be romantic and intimate or lively and exciting.

Candles
These are the most popular option for weddings. They can be used on the tables or scattered around venues for a traditionally romantic effect. And if your venue doesn’t allow naked flames, why not hire battery operated candles to get the same effect?

Fairy Lights
Fairy lights can be used all over a venue to create a beautifully romantic effect. If there are wooden beams or banisters showing, wrap them up in fairy lights or hire a fairy light canopy as shown here.

Backdrops
Back drops are also a very popular option for weddings, often with fairy light backdrops featuring behind top tables or to cover an area that you want disguised. They are great to make a feature of one wall or to draw attention away from something. We love this one from Perfect Finish.

Uplighting
Uplighters can help to completely transform any venue, helping to create the perfect atmosphere and mood for your special day. Justin Banwell now offers this service.

Monograms
Monograms are quickly becoming the next big thing for evening receptions. Justin Banwell does some great monograms, such as this one.

For help designing and delivering your perfect wedding, contact Weddings by Rachel today.

Top Wedding iPhone Apps

There are lots of wedding apps on the market nowadays that can help you pick things out, schedule your time and plan your wedding. Here are some great ones that have come in handy in the past and that you may find useful!

Wedding Day
This app lets you countdown to your wedding day, and even tracks how long you have been married afterward!

Vera Wang App
Very Wang has released a wedding app which includes Vera’s personal style advice, planning expertise, thousands of images and much more.

The Knot
The Knot have released this free app offering style advice on wedding dresses. Think of it as your on-the-go shopping source for the hottest wedding dresses – from beautiful ball gowns to modern mermaid styles.

Wedding Flowers Moodboard
The Wedding Flowers Moodboard App, helps you create the image you want for your wedding bouquet. The app takes you through a large selection of images and tips to help you choose the shape of your bouquet, the style, the colour and also looks at the season your wedding is going to take place.

Fun Wedding
Fun Wedding gives you access to 19 unique music charts updated monthly from millions of actual song requests. Includes top 200 most requested and top 100 decades from 1950’s thru 2010’s. You also get the top 50 bride & groom, bride & father, groom & mother, bridal party, bouquet, garter, and introduction songs.

BRIDES Wedding Genius
BRIDES Wedding Genius 2.0 is the go-to app for brides-to-be, and now it’s faster and easier to use than ever. Download this new app and browse hundreds of dresses, jewelry selections, and honeymoon destinations. The Digital Wedding Binder upgrade keeps everything organized and offers expert advice.

Aisle Love Aisle Markers

Aisle markers are the way forward. They create a beautiful effect in either a religious or civil ceremony and can be as simple or extravagant as you want. The beauty of them is that they can then be used to decorate your reception room as well.

Here are some that have caught my eye recently:

Top 10 Picks for Centrepieces

Are you looking for something a bit different for your wedding tables? Weddings by Rachel love doing things a little unusual, which is why we adore these centrepieces.

Citrus Fresh
If you’re having a spring wedding why not opt for bright, citrusy colours and incorporate this into your centrepieces. Fresh fruit makes for an outstanding effect, just like these table centres.

Take It Away
Why not do something extra special and create a table centre with things that your guests can take with them? It can double up as favours, which could save you money, and there’ll be less clean up at the end!

Use Your Favours
Alternatively, do it the other way around! Stack your favours up on a cake stand, like this table centre!

Recycle Those Bottles
Love wine? Then why not save all of your wine bottles and use them as candle holders on your big day? Stack lots of them in the centre of each table (different shapes and sizes will look great) and use different length candles to create a staggered effect.

Go French
Alternatively, go French Inspired with these lovely bottles, which can be decorated with flowers or candles.

Beautifully Bright
Candles create a romantic feel at a wedding, so why not combine this with some funky colours to match your scheme. Use all different shapes and sizes of candles in different or bright colours to create a real talking point.

Coloured Vases
Hire in coloured vases to match your flowers for a really dramatic effect, like these red roses in a red vase.

Keep It Fresh
Herbs make a great talking point for a table centre, especially for a country or outdoor themed wedding. Not to mention they smell great too!

Potted Plants
Alternative sized potted plants look great and you can start collected them early! These can also double up as favours or you can use them to decorate your house and garden after the wedding.

Glass Ponds
Create your own glass pond using water, candles and pebbles for a very pretty, natural table centre.

I’ve Been Neglecting You…

I’m sorry. I’ve been neglecting you this past couple of weeks but rest assured, times are changing!

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Not only am I on the brink of finalising some beautiful weddings but I’m relaunching my entire marketing campaign, doing wedding fayres, meeting with couples, organising lots of wedding details and much more. Needless to say it’s been a bit manic.

This week sets to look really good for me though, professionally and personally. Personally, because this week is my mum’s birthday and that means cake! And cake is possibly my favourite food…which is also why I’ve taken on a personal trainer. My first session was early Saturday morning and I am still struggling to get up and down from the chair because I am aching so much – but this is all good.

Professionally this week looks great because I’m tying up a lot of loose ends, meeting with some great suppliers and of course, working with my lovely couples! One of my suppliers really pulled through for me recently working on some last minute details with me, so a big thank you for that. I love being able to call on such talented, reliable suppliers at a moment’s notice and still be able to get the best price possible for the couple. This is one of the factors of my job that I love – the satisfaction of completing things and making a bride happy.

This week is also the 1st anniversary of one of last years lovely couples, Mr and Mrs Hampson. Your card is in the post 🙂 I hope you’ve had a wonderful year together and I wish you many many more in the future.

Anyway, this week is a bit of catch up week for me. I’ve kept my diary to a minimum so that I can be planted in front of my computer at all times to get completely up to date with all the admin and business planning aspects of being self employed (which can easily get overlooked when you’re busy planning weddings – as many of my brides will tell you!).

I’ve got some great blogs and tips lined up for you this month and next but if there’s anything particular you want to see, please email me as I’d love to help.

Love

Rachel
xx