Wedding menu ideas for a summer wedding would have to consist of something light and tasty and not too heavy. If the sun is shining and the day is hot the last thing you want to do is overwhelm your guests with hearty meal that is hot and makes people feel stuffed and bloated.

Wedding Menu Ideas

Starters:
Salmon Tartar with a selection of breads served with a warm horseradish cream
Chicken liver pate served with toasted brioche
Duck terrine with a red onion marmalade
Avocado soup
Roasted red pepper and tomato soup
Goat’s cheese served on a bed of salad with crispy breads

Mains:
Steamed chicken stuffed with a mushroom sauce served with seasonal vegetables and baby new potatoes
Pork loin served with herbed mash, green beans and baby corn
Salmon fillet served on a watercress salad with buttered charlotte potatoes
Oyster linguine with chilli and lime dressing
Venison served with dauphinoise potatoes, asparagus and baby carrots

Deserts:
Lemon and lime soufflé
Warm chocolate brownie served with vanilla spiced ice cream
Almond tart served with thick cream and mint sauce
Crème brulee
Profiteroles drenched in dark chocolate
Chocolate truffle mouse served with a raspberry coils

When putting together your wedding menu ideas you will always need to take into account any special dietary requirement. Of course this will include any vegetarian or vegans that may be attending the wedding. It is best to find all this information out before hand, most often this is included in the reply card so you will have some idea how many you will be catering for.

Wedding Menu Ideas For Vegetarians

Starters:
Cheesy avocados
Melon
Normandy tomatoes
Sautéed mushrooms with spinach
Fresh field mushroom stuffed with a mixture of cheeses served on a bed of salad
Artichoke brushetta

Mains:
Artichoke quiche served with warm beetroot salad
Aubergine Rolls
Chestnut pie
Stir fried vegetables in a Thai sauce
Creamy courgette lasagne
Roasted butternut squash and goat’s cheese served with a water cress salad

Desert:
Apricot and pear crunch crumble
Brandy snap baskets
Baklavas
Chocolate refrigerator cake
Sweet Thai samosas

One of the best things about putting together your wedding menu ideas is that it is a great time to sample some new and exciting tastes. Try something new, you never know it could be the perfect food for your big day.

Personally I think that your wedding ideas should be personal to you and your partner, and they should reflect your interests and what you both mean to each other as opposed to a pre conceived ideal of what a wedding should be and what other people will be expecting.

With this in mind you are probably thinking of things such as designer wedding dresses, outdoor wedding ideas, indulgent wedding menu ideas and a venue that will take everyone’s breath away!

The most essential part of a wedding is planning. If you plan the day properly your day will run smoother, your budget won’t go out the window and everyone will remain calm and happy and enjoy themselves.

Of course the easiest way to get organised and make everything go to plan is to hire a wedding planner. A wedding planner will take on a variety of duties, these include:

• Selecting a range of venues to hold your reception at.
• Taking you to the venues to have a look around.
• Making sure the tables and wedding venue are decorated accordingly.
• Arranging the flowers.
• Organising invitations.
• Helping to select your wedding cake and recommend places to have it made
• Organising entertainment such as bands and DJs for the wedding reception
• Recommending and hiring a photographer

A wedding planner is someone that will help with whatever wedding ideas you want them to be involved with. The general way it works is for the bride, groom and wedding planner to spend a good deal of time discussing exactly what they want. The wedding planner will make notes about all the wedding ideas you have and also the budget they have to work with for each individual aspect.

Once all the wedding ideas have been discussed the wedding planner will then go away and research the best possible deals around. Once this is done he or she will take you to each of the places to try out wedding menu ideas, look at designer wedding dresses, check out fabulous wedding venues and look at stunning wedding cakes.

Once you have seen everything you will then have some time to discuss with your partner before deciding on which wedding ideas you are going to go with. Once the decision has been made, you then inform the wedding planner who will the organise everything on your behalf.

Don’t be afraid to ask you’re wedding planner for their opinion on every little detail. Remember they will be an expert at this and would have organised lots of weddings so will know what works and what doesn’t .

Traditionally wedding gifts for the bride and groom would generally consist of house hold items that would help with the expense of setting up a home and new life together. However, these days most couples would already be living together and have all the white goods already in their homes. This makes finding unique wedding gift ideas that little bit more interesting.

Finding a unique wedding gift is fun because you are not necessarily buying something that the couple ‘need’ so, any unique wedding gift ideas are therefore more likely to be some sort of keepsake or gadget they may not necessarily want to pay out for, but at the same time they would love to have.

You need to think about both the bride and groom when selecting your wedding gift. Think about what the couple like and dislike. Do they enjoy food and cooking? If so look for something food orientated such as a personally selected hamper. A hamper could include the full ingredients for a special meal that the couple can cook together.

Or maybe a kitchen gadget would be more suitable? This could include:
• a bottle opener
•  a trendy wine rack
•  magnetic spice rack
• Onion glasses to avoid the eyes sticking when you chop onions
• Coasters containing personalised pictures of the couple
• Condiment gun
• Designer coffee maker
• Electric cork screw

If the couple prefer to eat out, many restaurants will offer some form of voucher where you can simple pay for an entire meal on behalf of the couple and simply give them a voucher that entitles them to a free meal.

If food isn’t their thing then why not organise and pay for a day out. Try to choose something that both the bride and groom will enjoy but would not necessarily want to pay out for themselves such as:

• A day at the zoo
• A day at a theme park
• A day at a local farm
• A river cruise
• Tickets to a show or musical
• An activity day like a Ferrari drive or parachute jump

Whatever you decide to do for the couple it is important to make sure you pay for the entire gift and there are no hidden extras they will need to pay for. There would be nothing worse than organising a meal in a restaurant only to have to couple asked to pay towards what they have eaten and drank with out prior knowledge.

If the unique wedding gift ideas you are looking for are really unique it would be a good idea to keep hold or the receipt or give it to the couple so that they could exchange the gift if it is something they are never going to use.

Planning all of your beautiful wedding decoration ideas can be great fun to sort out, and one of the best aspects of arranging your big day. The first thing you need to decide when putting together your wedding decoration ideas is what theme you are going to have.

For instance, is your wedding going to be an outdoor wedding? Will it be in summertime? Does your wedding have a specific colour scheme, or do you have some unusual wedding ideas that do not involve decorations usually associated with a traditional wedding.

These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself when trying to plan your perfect day. This article will give you some really handy tips and information to help you with your decorations whether it is a designer wedding or something you are going to create yourself.

Things To Consider When Planning Your Wedding Decoration Ideas

Location – Location is clearly so important when it comes to wedding decorations. For example you would not necessarily use the same flowers and decorations for an outdoor wedding as you would for a church wedding. Visit your location as much as you can, and take samples of the decorations with you so that you can see how good or bad they look.

If you have a wedding planner then that is even better. He or she can spend time creating a mock scene at the wedding venue for you to have a look at. You can then decide if the decorations work well or not.

Colour – Most wedding have a colour scheme. The colour scheme of your wedding should not only include the bride, groom, bridesmaids and best man but it should also be part of your wedding decoration ideas. The last thing you want is the wedding party’s outfits to clash with the decorations.

Season – The season or time of year of your wedding will also affect your colour scheme. Try to think about what flowers will be in bloom when planning your wedding. If it is an exotic flower you are using and you want it to match the button holes and brides bouquet, you need to make sure you are able to get hold of these particular flowers at the time of the wedding. If the colour is not a standard colour you may find it difficult to find decorations to match, so allow yourself plenty of time to find decorations that match your wedding flowers.

Cost – Whether you are looking at no holds barred decorations or if your wedding decoration ideas are more modest it is still important to set yourself a budget. It is far too easy to get caught up with all the frills and fancy wedding decorations and find yourself spending far more than you have anticipated

Time – The most important thing to remember when sorting out your wedding decoration ideas is time scales. Make sure you have plenty of time to order and receive the decorations. In fact I would go as far as to say it is a good idea to have the decorations delivered two months before the wedding so there is enough time to rectify any mistakes that have been made or return or exchange any of the items you have ordered.

The wedding photos are something that will last forever and be a token and reminder of your special day, so it is important that you only ask someone whom you trust to do the best job possible. You must have complete faith in their ability to ensure your wedding photographs are up to scratch as undoubtedly, if they do make a poor job of it, your friendship will be tested. Remember you will not be able to have a second chance at getting your wedding photographs right.

Wedding Photography Tips

• One of the most important wedding photography tips I could give you is to expect the unexpected. I think it is safe to say that very few weddings go exactly to plan but the important thing is not to panic if things are not going right.  Remember that these ‘unforeseen events’ however stressful at the time will, in time, be funny memories that will laughed about in years to come.

Whether it be the groom not being able to find the ring or the wind blowing the brides dress up, try your best to discretely capture these moments because however distraught the bride and groom may feel at the time, once the day is over, looking back at the pictures I can guarantee they will see the funny side.

• Keep every picture! Another wedding photograph tip is not to delete any of the pictures you take. If you are using a digital camera you may be tempted to start flicking through your pictures and start deleting them. Keep in mind that although the whole picture may not be usable, once cropped and edited you may find there is a perfect picture in there.

• Take photos in varied locations both inside and outdoors making sure you adjust the camera settings correctly when you are taking photos at night at the wedding reception venue.

• Another one of my wedding photography tips is to use more than one camera. Although this may be costly, I recommend borrowing more than one camera so that you have different styles and quality of photos to choose from at the end. If bride and grooms budget can stretch to it and you can not find anybody to borrow a camera from, you could always hire one for the day.

• Make sure you know what the bride and groom want. Sit down and create a wedding photo checklist of photos that need to be taken. For example:

The bride with mother of the bride
The bride with father of the bride
The bride with mother and father of the bride
The groom with best man
The groom with bride and best man
The bride and groom with both sets of parents
The entire wedding party
The best man and maid of honour
Obviously don’t forget to take plenty of photographs of the bride and groom, and also of the bride separately wearing her fabulous designer wedding dress.

Creating this checklist mean that the bride and groom will first and foremost get the pictures they want, anything else that you take is an added bonus.

The last and probably the most important of my wedding photography tips are to relax have fun and capture the moments. It is a wedding after all.

The most traditional wedding favour ideas include sugared almonds and small chocolates in boxes. However, in recent times the wedding favour ideas are becoming far more elaborate and adventurous, and are often integrated into the overall theme of the wedding.

Coming up with wedding favour ideas is great fun and something that you can do with other members of your family and friends. You may even decide to cut costs and make your own wedding favors.

Here are some wedding favor ideas for a winter wedding:

Snowflake favor box containing a white chocolate
Winter themed candles
Snowflake design wine bottle stopper in a luxury gift box, with white ribbon
Miniature sweet jars containing white sweets such as bonbons, mints or fruit balls
Personalized wedding notebook in a winter design
Small mint tins with a winter theme
Snowflake candles
Miniature snowflake or winter themed name holder
Winter themed miniature picture frame
Scented pine cones
Glass photo coasters
Snow cone bath salts
Mini mittens containing chocolate treats
Strawberries dipped in white chocolate in a themed box
Small winter themed ornaments
Cameras that have winter wedding design on the case

When selecting your winter wedding favors try to stick with the seasons colors such as white or blue, however you will still what your favors to correspond with your overall wedding theme. Make sure the do not clash in anyway, as this will look unsightly.

I would always recommend getting more than one quote. If you have found a design you like on the internet and another shop doesn’t have it displayed on their website do not be afraid to ask. Weddings are a very competitive market and most wedding shops whether online or in the High Street, will endeavour to provide you with what you want, at competitive prices.

On the other hand, if you have some great wedding favor ideas of your own and intend to make them yourself, then you will need to allow plenty of time to get all the favors made. It is worth asking for help as you do not want to be worrying about not getting them finished on time when you have many other aspects of your wedding to worry about.

Remember to budget accordingly and try your best to stick to it. It is very easy to be sucked into buying a more elaborate design of wedding favors when really you should have stuck with the cheaper option. The last thing you want is to begin your married life with money worries and debt hanging over your heads. So always keep your wedding favor ideas within your budget.
 

I quite often get asked for wedding photography tips due to the fact that more and more people are deciding not to use a qualified photographer, and instead use a family member or friend. Of course this is possibly to save money but also could be because the cost of a decent digital SLR camera has fallen significantly in recent years. There seems to be many more budding photographers out and about nowadays that would probably do just as good a job as a pricey professional photographer. 

Here are some wedding photography tips that you may want to consider if this is the route you are choosing to take:

• Get Organised - If there is no wedding planner then you are going to be faced with the task of organising all of your guests so they are all in position for any photos you have specifically requested.

This is where you may need to ask another family member or friend to help out. After a few drinks most of the wedding party will become relaxed and start chatting to other guests making it really awkward to organise people and get them into the right place for their picture to be taken. This is the last thing a bride wants to be worried about on her wedding day. Having another person on hand that can help will save a lot of time and effort.

It is worth having a wedding photography checklist that has all the photos requested by the bride and groom so the appointed person knows who needs to be in what photograph, and they can then go and find them and bring them to where they need to be.

• Check out the location – One of the wedding photography tips I can give you that will save you a fair amount of time on the day is to visit the location before the wedding day. By doing this you can have a look round the grounds and makes notes of good places where the pictures can be taken. You may also want find some indoor places just in case the weather turns bad and the light fades.

Always carry a note pad and pen and add notes to your wedding photography checklist every step of the way. If you really want to super organised arrive at the venue around the same time you will be taking the photos on the day itself so that you can check out how the lighting will be at each particular photo location.

• Be prepared – This may seem one of the most obvious of all my wedding photography tips but you will be surprised how many people will forget to do this. Make sure you have batteries charged, clean memory cards and spares incase you run out. Make sure that you put these items somewhere safe so that they can easily be located on the day should your memory card fill up or your battery runs out.

• Be familiar with your equipment. This is one of the best wedding photography tips I can give you. Chances are you may have invested in a new camera so make sure you have used it many times before the wedding day. As most cameras these days are quite complex gadgets you do not want to be fiddling about with settings and trying to find the right exposures as well as trying to heard you guests into position. Remember if you mess your photos up by not knowing your equipment then you will never be able to retake them and will never forgive yourself.

• Noise – There is nothing worse than someone’s mobile going off during a wedding ceremony. Not only does this distract for the moment it will also be something that will be heard on the wedding video should there be one. So one of my noise related wedding photography tips is to ensure that you have set your mobile phones to silent so that no beeps and sounds will be heard during the ceremony.

The final tip on my wedding photography checklist is to thing very long and hard as to whether or not it is a good idea not to employ the services of a professional wedding photographer. Whilst using a professional wedding photographer may initially seem costly you must remember they know what they are doing, and have taken wedding photos hundreds of times before. It is easy to think that it is just a case of pointing a camera and pressing click, but that is far from the truth.

Using a professional wedding photographer means your wedding photos will be perfect and it is one less thing for you to be worried about on the day.

Winter menu ideas usually consist of something warm and satisfying. With many more couples deciding to have their special day in the winter months it is a good idea to look into appropriate wedding menu ideas that suit this time of year.

Although without doubt the temperature at a winter wedding will be cold and you will think the wedding menu ideas should consist of something wholesome, make sure you do not make your meal too stodgy. The last thing the bride and groom as well as your guests will want to feel is bloated and full up.

Wedding Menu Ideas For A Winter Wedding

Starters:
Chunky vegetable soup served with bread
Melon with strawberries and a fruit coulis
Potato and leek soup served with mixed breads
Pork and apple terrene on a bed of mixed leaves with an onion relish
Smoked haddock in a filo pastry served with a saffron sauce
Butternut squash risotto with parsnip crisps
Pear and stilton tartlet with warm rocket salad
Mixed bean salad

Mains:
Smoked salmon with sautéed potatoes and stir fried vegetables
Medallions of pork served with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables
Traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings
Oven baked chicken stuffed with stilton and white wine
Penne pasta served with a seafood medley
Beef filet served with potato wedges and crispy salad
Mini hot pots served with organic vegetables
Traditional shepherds pie served in individual dishes with a selection of vegetables

Deserts:
Chocolate torte served with a strawberry sauce
Selection of cheeses and biscuits
Fruit baskets served with cream or ice cream
Sticky toffee pudding
Chocolate cake served with mint leaves and cherry ice cream
Traditional ice cream Sunday
Mixed fruit salad served with brandy cream

The most important rule when deciding on your wedding menu ideas is to select foods that you and your partner will enjoy. It is after all your special day and you should have the menu that you want for your big day.

When deciding who will be doing the catering choose wisely. The last thing you want is for your guests to be served up cold food or worse still be struck down with food poisoning.

Ask around your family members and friends and find some good recommendations before deciding who you are going to use. Make sure you make several appointments to sample their food so that you know the exact quality of what you are going to have on the day.

When consulting with the catering people make sure you have your wedding menu ideas to hand, so that you can discuss and adjust your requirements until you have found the perfect wedding menu ideas for your wedding day.

An outdoor wedding will most probably already offer a substantial amount in terms of both ambiance and vision but you will also need to consider a sudden change of weather when creating the perfect outdoor wedding venue.

The wedding arch where the bride and groom will stand is often the focal point of an outdoor wedding. This is the place that you will need to set aside adequate time and resources to ensure the arch consists of outdoor wedding decorations that will really capture the scene and ambiance of the day.

When decorating the wedding arch it is important to know your measurements. This will give you a good idea as to how many flowers for example; you will need to decorate it. When selecting the shape and size of the arch bare in mind that this will then need to be decorated with outdoor wedding decorations so it may be a good idea to go for a simple shape to allow it to be decorated with ease.

If you also have other outdoor items such as pillars. I would strongly recommend that whatever outdoor wedding decorations you use for the arch, a similar theme will then be used for the pillars, trellises and pavilions you may also have.

Ornamental trees are a great way to decorate an outdoor wedding because these can also include various outdoor wedding decorations added to them such as garlands and hanging decorations.

Another aspect of an outdoor wedding that needs to be thought about is the lighting. Do not rely on the sun for lighting because clatter on in the evening you will need an alternative light source. If possible try to opt for something non electrical to lessen the amount of wires and leads that will be visible. Candles and large flares are a good choice. However, you will need to consider any children that may be attending the wedding and ensure they are not able to burn themselves on any naked flames.

There are many places that will offer a wide range of outdoor wedding decorations and a general rule of thumb is the more you order the bigger the discount. Do not be afraid to ask for any discounts as most online shops will not offer this as standard unless you ask.

Ask around for recommendations and try surfing the internet for ideas and inspiration that may help you find the exact outdoor wedding decorations that you have in mind.

Although the word ‘cheap’ may sound off alarm bells with the bride to be, it is important to remember that cheap wedding ideas does not have to mean tacky or bad quality. In fact, it is entirely possible to incorporate your elaborate and creative wedding ideas into the mix by cutting costs on items that would not even really be noticed.

A good way to reduce the costs of a wedding is to cut down on the amount of people you employ. For example, one of the cheap wedding ideas that spring to mind is to create your own wedding favors. You may have your heart set on something expensive or something that you have already seen in a shop, but why not have a good look at the wedding favour, see how it is put together, and then see if you could make this yourself, or at least something very similar.

Do not be afraid to ask for help. Your wedding day is the most important day of your life so ask your family and friends if they would be available to help make the wedding favors. You could even make a night of it by grabbing a few bottles of wine and getting your friends together for a ‘favor making’ evening.

Another one of my cheap wedding ideas is to ask a friend to take your wedding photos. Although this may seem a little concerning and you will be putting a lot of trust into someone, I am sure if you ask around you will be surprised at just how may people you know consider photography a passion of theirs and they would therefore be the perfect person to ask to do this job.

Trying to incorporate designer wedding ideas into your cheap wedding ideas is not easy but then again not impossible. If the dress you have set your heart on is a designer wedding dress, you could save a huge amount of money by simply purchasing your accessories, such as the tiara, hair pieces, bridesmaid dresses from a different bridal shop giving you the best of both.

When reducing costs and trying to decide on cheap wedding ideas it is important to realise that sometimes cutting back is just not worth the risk. Rather than using poor quality materials for your decorations stick with your original designer wedding ideas but just buy less. For example if your expensive wedding ideas included balloons, candles, flowers, table decorations, wedding favors, entertainment, floral displays for each table try either reducing the number or not having one of them all together. In all honesty what you need to ask your self is, ‘would anyone notice if they weren’t there?’

There are so many areas that can be reduced to bring the cost in line with your original budget without leaving any major things out of your wedding. You just need to plan carefully, do not be over extravagant and most of all enjoy your day.