From Proposal to Wedding: How to Plan the Perfect Engagement

/in , ,
Engagement ring on his neck

From Proposal to Wedding: How to Plan the Perfect Engagement

You meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you get down on one knee, you propose, they say yes and you live happily ever after. Sounds simple, right?

The truth is, your engagement process can be lengthy and complex. Maintaining a level of excitement throughout the intervening period between proposal and wedding isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve broken down everything you need to consider to plan the perfect engagement.

Engagement ring in banksia

How to Plan the Perfect Engagement

The proposal

First things first: the ring. There’s a lot to consider when it comes to finding the perfect engagement ring. You can browse an array of engagement rings from Larsen Jewellery to give yourself the best chance to find something they’ll love. Once you’ve secured the perfect piece of jewellery, it’s time to plan your proposal. Some things to consider before proposing include:

  • The likelihood of a positive response.
  • The perfect location – it could be somewhere with sentimental value for your relationship, or simply a picturesque venue.
  • The weather forecast – if there’s a high chance of rain, ensure you have an indoor backup plan.
  • Discuss with the family – if your partner’s family is more old-school, or you think this is a touch your partner would appreciate, having a conversation with your partner’s family is a good idea.
  • Optional extras include professional photography or an immediate surprise engagement party.
Engagement ring perched between heels

Engagement party

You can choose to hold your engagement party as a surprise event to cap off the day of your proposal. More traditionally, you can hold the event in the weeks following the proposal.

Orthodoxy suggests engagement parties should be held by the parents of the bride, but these days there’s really no need to follow such a tradition. Whoever’s willing to put their hands up and has access to an appropriate property is the perfect choice.

Remember that anyone you invite to the engagement party should also be a wedding guest. Beyond that, the rules for your engagement party are pretty much up to you! Choose a form of a food service that works for you, be it finger foods or a sit-down meal. Fill up the fridge with your favourite beverages, and don’t forget to include fun engagement party games like the newlywed game, “how well do you know the bride and groom?” and a plastic ring hunt.

Guests looking at phone together

Wedding planning

Once your proposal and engagement party are in the books, it’s time to get down to the serious business of wedding planning. Splitting this burden of wedding planning very much depends on the nature of your relationship.

Many couples include one person who has been obsessively dreaming of their wedding day since they were a child. Often, this individual will be happy to take the lead on the wedding planning. Other couples may require a more collaborative approach.

Either way, it’s important you outline at the beginning of the wedding planning process how involved each member of the relationship is going to be. When in doubt, aim for as close to a 50-50 split as possible to keep things fair.

Here are some additional tips to keep your wedding planning process smooth:

  • Make the guest list a top priority. Your guest list is crucial to deciding other factors of your wedding like your venue. If you feel your expenses ballooning too much, cut down on the list.
  • Avoid problematic dates where there are major concerts or conferences in town.
  • Consider enlisting the services of a professional wedding planner.
  • Keep a close eye on the weather forecast.
  • Read the reviews – ensure your wedding vendors come well-recommended.

That’s just a small taste of everything that goes into wedding planning. You can read our full 12 month wedding planning checklist here.

Bride and groom amongst the vines at Sneakys

Keeping the spark alive

It’s no secret that wedding planning can be a stressful experience, and it can put some strain on your relationship. But your engagement should be a magical time in your relationship. Here are some tips to keep your relationship going strong during your engagement and not let your worries get the better of you.

  • Don’t skimp on date nights.
  • Make a conscious effort to constantly check in with one another and constantly communicate.
  • Ensure you are fairly splitting the engagement duties.
  • Allow each other to have some alone time – absence makes the heart grow fonder, after all.
  • Stay adventurous and always try new things together.
Bride and groom splashing one another in Lake Louise

The wedding

You’ve made it! The day you’ve been dreaming of is finally here. When it comes to the wedding day itself, the key is to stay in the moment. Truly enjoy every single moment, make your rounds, and above all really feel the love you have for your partner. Next stop: honeymoon!

There’s everything you need to know to plan the perfect engagement. The same tip for your wedding day applies throughout your engagement. From proposal to planning to saying your vows, try your best to enjoy every one of these critical milestones in your relationship and in your life.

Why are wedding gowns white? A History

/in , ,
Wedding dress hanging in green trees

Why are wedding gowns white?

It is perhaps the most iconic scene from any wedding day, the white wedding dress adorning the beaming bride. But why are wedding gowns white? And why do brides wear white? There is a huge number reasons, not in the least the fact that white is the brightest of colours, further enhancing the bride’s visibility on her big day, but it’s a tradition that has evolved over hundreds of years for a variety of reasons.

Alru Farm wedding bride

Why are wedding gowns white?

To be perfectly pedantic, the traditional colour of a modern white dress isn’t actually white, it’s more “Candlelight,” “Ivory,” “Ecru” or “Frost” when putting my graphic designer hat on.. But to the common layman, they all look like a white wedding dress, right? Anyway, the answer to the question of why are wedding dresses white all has to do with the popularity of some people who happened to wear white on their wedding day, and as a species who like to copy our idols, the fashion caught on and became tradition.

Victoria Albert Wedding

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria of England who reigned from 1837-1901 was the first to make white wedding dresses fashionable by wearing a pale gown trimmed in orange blossoms for her 1840 wedding to her first cousin, Prince Albert. Naturally, because she was the queen and the center of all things high society at the time, whatever she wore, everyone tried to copy.

Kind of like how it is now with everything Kate Middleton, or any red carpet celebrity wears being reported on. As a bit of a side note here, Anne of Brittany also made white wedding dresses popular all the way back in 1499, believing that white was a symbol of virginity – despite being married once before. Royal brides also chose white as it was the most difficult solour to achieve using the washing methods of the day.

Before modern wedding gowns were made to be white by Queen Victoria’s wedding, it was quite common for wedding gowns to be any colour. In biblical times, blue (not white) represented purity, and the bride and groom would wear a blue band around the bottom of their wedding attire, contributing to the poem of ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed, something BLUE’.

Blue wedding dress

The Traditional Colour used to be Blue!

Generally though, before Queen Victoria made it a tradition to wear a white wedding gown as a bride, the most common item of clothing a bride would wear was simply what her favourite, or best garment she had available to her and could be any color, even black. To convince her groom that she came from a wealthy family, brides would also pile on layers of fur, silk and velvet.

This was partly due to the fact that the more layers of clothing one wore meant the less body odor people were able to smell, being that bathing was not something people did often in those days.

In Modern times

Today though, the answer to the question of ‘why are wedding gowns white?’ seems to be primarily because in modern society the colour symbolises innocence, purity and certainly makes the bride stand out in a crowd, like the princess she’s made out to be on her wedding day. It may also be just ‘because’, as that’s what everyone else does right? It’s tradition! 🙂

Everything on a wedding day has some sort of roots in tradition, some going back thousands of years – others being quite a modern occurance. The fact is that the answer to the question ‘why are wedding gowns white?’ is simply because people today associate this with brides and this hasn’t changed since 1840. Perhaps in another 200 years, wedding dresses may be purple? Who knows?

Bomboniere ideas for your wedding

/in ,
Wedding gift shot

Bomboniere ideas for your wedding

Bomboniere gifts, or ‘favours’ to your guests on a wedding day have become quite common place over the years, however it’s usually a bit of a task to find bomboniere ideas that really speak about who you are as a couple and that your guests might actually want. As a wedding photographer I’m in a great position to get to experience weddings of all sorts, of couples of all different personalities, so I get to see a whole heap of different bomboniere ideas. I thought it might be helpful if I gave you a bit of a list of the more unique, or practical I’ve seen.

bomboniere ideas

What is a Bomboniere?

But first, a bit of history behind the idea of bomboniere gifts. The practice of giving bomboniere dates right back to 14th century Italy, when the families of engaged couples swapped small packages filled with sweets as a sign of good fortune. Over time, those horrible sugar-coated almonds became the preferred choice of sweets and are pretty much now the staple of Australian bomboniere gifts… unfortunately. Hopefully this list will give you other ideas! 🙂

Bomboniere ideas

Lolly Bar

This idea I’ve seen a few times at weddings I’ve covered. The idea is that your guests are given a small bag or basket of some description in order to fill up themselves with a selection of sweets. It’s also there to augment your menu during the reception of course 🙂

bomboniere bar

Bridal party deck of cards

This one can be fun, how about printing off a deck of cards featuring an image of the bride and groom, along with their entourage as King, queen, Jack, etc? Doing this is surprisingly cost effective when done on the scale needed for wedding favours, and you can literally personalise it with yourself!

Home made sauce or Jam

I often mention this to new wedding photography clients as an idea to get the older members of your family involved in your wedding day. It’s common to have members of the family who might want to be involved with your wedding, but cant for whatever reason. Why not let them sort out your bomboniere gifts with their cooking skills? This is right up there with the lolly bar in terms of how often I see this at weddings.

Home made jam

A scratchy lottery ticket

While perhaps not the most personal of bomboniere ideas, an instant win lottery ticket would be very cost effective (or expensive, depending on how much you want to spend) and can create a sense of excitement and even delirious joy in the off chance someone strikes it lucky! Could even double as a last minute gift for your guests to give back to you via your wishing well.

A picture frame

If you happen to have a photo booth at your wedding reception, and if it’s like the SvenStudios photo booth, that prints proper sizes prints for your guests to keep, why not keep them in style with their own photo frame?

photo frame

Polaroids

As a bit of a segway from the photo frames, perhaps have a few polaroid instant cameras floating about your reception? your guests can pick one up and create their own little keepsake from your wedding.

Individual caricatures

Or how about even having a cartoon artist wandering about drawing everyone? This bomboniere ideas as it always makes people smile and how awesome is having a piece of art to take home from your wedding?

Wedding Reception Keepsake SketchArtist

Lego minifigs or small toys

For the child in all of us, a recent wedding I was a photographer at had little bags of toys for every guest, and included were lego minifigs. Both young and old had a blast opening their little lego man and spending time building them while waiting for their entrée to arrive. By the end of the night, every table had a small army of little men running about. It was pretty awesome… Because everything is awesome.

Lego

Selecting the perfect bomboniere for your special occasion can be a daunting task, but with a little creativity and thoughtfulness, you can create a meaningful and memorable gift for your guests.

Whether you choose to go with a classic favor or a more personalized option, the key is to keep your guests in mind and choose something that reflects the overall theme and style of your event. With these bomboniere ideas and tips, you can make sure that your guests leave with a special token of appreciation that will be treasured for years to come.

4 Questions to Ask During Last-Minute Wedding Planning

/in ,
  • Grooms watch on ties

 

Last-Minute Wedding Planning

Let’s face it: love can be a whirlwind experience. One day, you may just go out on a date, then tomorrow you find yourself walking down the aisle because your heart is ready to say “I do”. Because of this, you are forced to go through last-minute wedding planning, which can easily be pulled off if you know what you need and find the right people to help you.

To get started, consider the following questions you and your soon-to-be spouse should ask yourselves:

4 Questions to Ask During Last-Minute Wedding Planning

  • Do you have the necessary itinerary for your friends and family for your wedding? 

If you plan to do a destination wedding, which means holding a wedding in a beautiful location of your choosing, you have to ensure that everyone you care about is there to watch you get married, like your friends and family. While it may be fun to think everyone is available, that is always not the case. particularly with travel restrictions due to COVID.

Since time is of the essence here, you first need to check who can make it to your big day, include them in your group travel plans, have the necessary accommodations ready, and coordinate with them about the fine details. This part of wedding planning can be the most exciting yet tedious, so ensure you get the help you need from either your partner or a planner. 

It’s been a common occurrence – particularly in the past year for couples to have a tiny ceremony, and perhaps plan for a family celebration later

Santorini Couple Shoot

  • What do you want to eat during your reception? 

The reception is what your guests would look forward to the most on your day, since you and your guests get to mingle and meet your partner. You do have to take note of the activities, like who will perform or give their speech, but the highlight of the reception will always be the food. It’s a way to entertain your guests and showcase your tastes as a couple by selecting the menu options you want. 

Eating the food

  • Have you bought the rings yet? 

As surprising as it might be, many people overlook the need to purchase rings when last-minute wedding planning! It’s just something that is taken for granted and as it doesn’t effect anyone but yourselves, is something people forget.

The rings are a reflection of your tender bond as a married couple, so it’s not something that you should ever forget to shop for when you are planning your big day at the last minute. Luckily, you can always purchase them online and find favourable options within your budget. You don’t necessarily have to go for luxury-looking pieces; it really boils down to your preferences as a couple. 

Wedding rings on tie 2

  • Did you hire a wedding photographer and plan your photo ops already? 

Ok, as a wedding photographer this may be a little biased, but your photos are the only thing you will have to document this whirlwind portion of your life after the big moment!

The best way to do so and document every lovely moment is to hire a wedding photographer right away! Also, you may want to set up your photo ops, like the creative shot or group shot, which are the quintessential wedding photos to have. These pictures can serve as gifts for your guests while reminding them of your special day and how they were a huge part of it! 

The fun thing about last-minute wedding planning is that you may have to plan for a smaller wedding – which means you can have all the time in the world to travel to some funky spot for your photos. this cannot always be done on a typical wedding day.

bride and groom in the water

Wedding planning traditionally takes months or even years to accomplish, but who’s to say you can’t say do so in a few days? After all, if your heart is in the right place and you have your life partner by your side, who else is there to stop you? Thus, ensure you start now, consider the following questions mentioned above, and tick off “find a wedding photographer” from your list because we’ve got you covered!

Sven Studios can provide you with the best wedding photography Adelaide has to offer, allowing you, your partner, and your guests to have picture-perfect moments worth revisiting. Our team of professional photographers can take you through different creative shots and produce high-resolution wedding photos. Download our price list and determine which option fits best for your big day!