Sunday, December 31, 2006

Looking for Diamonds?

If you are one of those lucky ladies who has received a romantic marriage proposal this festive season, then we have just the thing for you.

More and more couples are opting to purchase their engagement rings online, and one such website madlydeeply offers you the opportunity to design your own engagement ring, or they can design it for you with their bespoke design service.

Their engagement rings come in Platinum, Yellow Gold and White Gold and all rings over £850.00 come with an independant valuation. This company also gives you a 100% Refund Guarantee.

For more information on their products and service, pop on over to the madlydeeply website where you can also take advantage of Live Help.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

The first Christmas Proposal!

Well, I just knew there would be a number of proposals this Christmas and judging by the number of visitors to our wedding sites Mrs2Be.com and Shelaghm.co.uk over the Christmas Holidays, I was absolutely right! And one of them is extremely close to home in the shampe of one of my best friends - Nicky and her other half - Chris! I received a text on Christmas day to tell me that she received something hard and sparkly in her stocking and that her other half was going to make an honest woman of her! We are thrilled as it was my husband and I who brought these two together (unintentionally!) exactly a year ago. Now here they are enjoying their first Christmas together with their baby daughter (oh yes) announcing their impending wedding in the summer of 2007!

So - congratulations Chris & Nicky!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Christmas Proposals


I love Christmas, it is such a cosy, romantic time of year and what better time to propose to your loved one than in the subdued lighting of the christmas tree lights with a roaring fire and a warm feeling in your heart?

Not only is Christmas a wonderful time of year to propose, but I personally think that it is also a wonderful time of year to get married. There are some truly beautiful winter wedding dresses around and there are some fabulously romantic winter wedding venues too.

So, I am looking forward to all the new Mrs2Be we will hopefully see after December 25th!

If your loved one proposes to you this Christmas, be sure to pop on by and let us know here at Mrs2Be won't you!

Monday, December 18, 2006

Get Fitness & Diet Advice Online

This blog is written by a instructor and I love the name of it for a start: NoExcusesGym.com! We all know that you want to look your best for your big day, afterall you are going to be the centre of attention on the big day and you are also going to be looking at your wedding photos for years to come! So, you need to love them! But, losing weight and getting fit has to be done properly in order for it to be successful so it is great to be able to get advice from personal fitness instructors, particularly if like many women, you don't have enough room in your ever expanding budget to add a Personal Trainer!

The blog is written by Personal Fitness Trainer and Aerobics Instructor Marcela who lives in Southern California. Marcel has many, many years experience in all manner of womens fitness and has been involved as a University Professor, Physical Education Teacher, Personal Trainer, Aerobic Instructor, Dance and Choreographer.

Her blog covers many issues of health, fitness and diet including muscle fitness, fitness for women, training, diet, muscle strenth, weight training, running, aerobics and workouts. There are also some really handy hints on things like squeezing exercise into your hectic schedule, Tips on getting fit to look good on the Beach - v.important for your Honeymoon snaps! As well as daily tips.

So, if you are determined not to pile on the pounds over the festive season, head on over to NoExcusesGym.com for some no-nonsense advice.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Beyonce's High Hopes for Marriage - but not yet!

Following the rumours that were flying about regarding the possible wedding of Beyonce to Jay-Z - Beyonce has been said to say that he is simply not yet ready for marriage.

So - no big plush wedding on the Island of Anguilla then!

Beyonce does admit though that she has high hopes for marriage particularly as her own parents have been happily married now for 27 years. Interestingly she also states that she was never one of those girls who dreamt about having a big wedding.

Her secret of success? Friendship. She says ""It's wonderful to understand and want the same things, but the friendship is most important.

"You know someone loves you by the way he treats you and respects you. You know it by how you both feel when you're together." (source: Jamaica Gleaner)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Financial Advice from The Thrifty Scot!

We love this website - I mean if you are going to get financial advice, who better to get it from than a Thrifty Scot! Known for their thriftiness - this website gives you plenty of practical advice on various financial aspects. From basics such as the best savings accounts for you to put that hard earned cash for your big day, to mortgages and home insurance. If you are looking to raise finance to help pay for your wedding, then you will find plenty of practical advice on which credit cards are available to help you make those purchases. If you are using this time in your life to consolidate your finances then perhaps information on secured loans is what you are looking for, and they even cover that!

So, why not pop over to Thrifty Scot and take a look for yourselves.

Hurley Gets Health for her Spring Wedding

Liz Hurley who is due to get married in March 2007, has decided to follow a health regime in order to be in peak condition for her big day. Prompted by the fact that her recent schedule has left her feeling "dreadful" through lack of sleep and little exercise, she and Fiance Arun Nayar have decided to follow a health regime involving regular exercise, low-fat diet and plenty of natural vitamins.

Knowing how beautiful Liz looks, we have no doubt she will look absolutely stunningly beautiful on her big day!

Monday, December 11, 2006

Cheap Wedding Favours

If you are looking to buy your wedding favours online, then here is another wedding favour website for you to consider.

There are some products on here that I have not seen elsewhere such as coin bags, photo CD cases, and lipstick holders. They seem to have quite a number of oriental themed wedding favours too.

This site is ideal for those brides on a budget as they do offer cheap wedding favors so ensuring your budget will go further while still giving out something more interesting than sugared almonds!

The site is easy to navigate if a little uninspiring to look at, but they do have a Live Help option which is always nice though remember that this is a US based company so bear in mind any time differences.

DIY Wedding Stationery


We know that many brides are either getting married on a budget, or they simply want to have a hand in every part of their own wedding including creating and making the wedding invitations.

So, with that in mind, we decided to review the website of one such company who offers DIY wedding stationery.

Razzle Dazzle Wedding Stationery has an online wedding card shop which allows you to purchase the kits. They sell wedding invitation kits in packs of 10 though this is not immediately evident when you visit the site. These kits start at £11.95.

As well as wedding invitation kits, they also offer Evening Invitations, RSVP Cards, Thank You Cards, Save The Date Cards, Orders of Service, Menus, Place Cards, Favour Boxes and Guest Books, to allow you to create a completely co-ordinated theme.

The downside is that there are only 8 designs to choose from. Each design though, does offer you a number of colour choices and you can also request a sample, though at £2.50 for an invitation sample and £3.95 P&P we feel this is quite expensive.

In summary, whilst the website itself is slightly annoying, what we like about this particular service is that they sell you the complete packs with the design and everything already mapped out for you so it is ideal for those brides who are not too worried about having creative control, but still want to either

a) enjoy the experience of making her own invitations
or
b) save money!

Pop a long and see what you think: Razzle Dazzle Wedding Stationery

UK Credit Cards

It is a fact of life that many couples go into debt to fund their wedding day and it is always difficult to advise against it as a wedding is such an emotional event and it is every little girl’s dream to get married and have their very own fairytale wedding.

That said, it is highly unlikely that you will have a bank account full of cash and so it is highly likely that you will be borrowing money in some form or another so it is best to do it in an informed and sensible manner.

Therefore this particular website may well be of interest to you if you are planning to put some of your wedding purchases on your credit card. It can sometimes be difficult to filter through some websites to get to the detail you want particularly if they cross over into many different financial products.

This particular website focuses on UK credit cards, which we liked. It also clearly lays out the menu option to click on if you are specifically looking for Balance Transfer deals or if you are looking for the best Credit Card on the market which again saves you faffing around the website.

If you are looking for a 0% balance transfer fee card, then it details those cards available in a table, but there didn’t seem to be any particular sort order in the table and I think it would have been nice to be able to sort this table according to your personal requirements i.e. if the length of time of the 0% was most important, then being able to sort them in order of the longest term first would have been useful.

Each card also has a link directly to the lender.

Rather than just leaving you to get on with it, the site does give you some more detailed information on the different considerations such as “True Cost of Balance Transfers”. This article helps you to understand whether or not you would truly be saving money in the long run.

Whilst the site is well laid out, neat and easy to navigate around, one criticism I would make in terms of look and feel is that the writing is quite small and faint due to it being grey and not black. Though I do prefer to read grey text sometimes as it is less harsh, perhaps a darker shade of grey would help. Also the sub-headings are in lime green (which I do like) but sometimes lime green can be difficult to read on screen.

All in all though I think this website is a good informational resource if you are considering using UK credit cards to help pay for some of your wedding so take a good look.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Arrive in Style!

Actress Lucy Davis of The Office fame - has married her fiance Welsh Actor Owain Yeoman this weekend at St Paul's Cathedral! Wow - what a venue that is! Not usually available to non-royal weddings, the couple were granted permission because Lucy's father the acclaimed comedien Jasper Carrott is an OBE.

Lucy arrived at the venue in true style - a London Black Cab! And guests arrived in Red Routemaster Double Decker Buses! Fantastic idea!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Baby Shambles Frontman buys Baby Pink Wedding Dress

Paul Doherty - frontman of Baby Shambles and Kate Moss' other half has been reported as having bought Kate a Vintage Christian Dior wedding dress from a second hand shop for just £120.00.

Personally I think that is one heck of a bargain (providing it is as nice as he thinks it is), but I have to admit, I can't help but feel that the prospective Groom2Be buying his Mrs2Be's wedding dress is a bit - well - wierd!

Festive Fun!

I know this blog is meant to be about weddings, but I really think that you busy wedding planners need to take a break over the festive season and have some fun!



To help you get into the Christmas Spirit we have found some fabulously fun themed wallpapers and christmas screensavers. Better still they are free!

So, get creative with your PC and add some Christmas magic this holiday with these lovely festive images. There are snowmen, christmas trees, father christmases and snow scenes galore! These will help take your mind off budgets and colour schemes and wedding favours, if only for a short while!

Is Beyonce Planning a Secret Wedding?

Rumours are flying about that Beyonce is using a 4 day birthday party bash for Jay-z's 37th birthday as a cover for what is actually their wedding. The couple have been dating now for 4 years and it is rumoured that friends and family have been asked to make sure they have their passport applications filed by last Friday!

The couple's four-day party will begin on a luxury yacht. Guests will then be ferried across to Anguilla for the alleged wedding ceremony, which is rumoured to be taking place at the five-star resort of Cap Juluca.

Hmmm - we shall have to wait and see.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

No Scary Wedding!

It is rumoured that Mel B and Eddie Murphy have ended their relationship - ahhhhh - Murphy apparently dropped the bombshell live on Dutch TV when he also announced that no-one could be sure that Mel's Baby was his until the child was born and tested.

So - there will be no Scary Murphy Wedding then!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Honest Honeymoon Travel Reviews

I know how hard it is to choose where to go on holiday, never mind on honeymoon and let's face it, you want this to be the holiday of a lifetime so getting it right is so important.

The difficulty as I see it is that when you go and pick up the brochures from your local travel agent, everywhere looks beautiful - of course it does - it is meant to! And then you speak to the sales staff and they make it all sound beautiful but let's be honest, how many of them have actually been to these resorts?

However, help is now at hand with a highly popular travel idea blog called Tavel Plan Idea. This blog gets a good amount of feedback from people who have actually visited the places that they are commenting on, and they have a specific honeymoon travel section to the blog too. All of the feedback is honest as there is no sales target incentive to be met!

There is information on getting married in Disney, on board a ship and in Italy. Or perhaps if you and your Mr2Be are particularly active, you might want to consider something completely of the beaten track such as climbing Kilimanjaro! Yep, there is even a post about that!

So, why not pop over there and take a look prior to booking your honeymoon.


Sunday, December 03, 2006

H&M Join the Wedding Dress War

H&M have joined the Wedding Dress War now selling designer wedding dresses at just £219.99! The dress is designed by Viktor & Rolf and a limited number have gone into selected stores last week.

Viktor & Rolf are couture designers of 15 years and have now teamed up with the high street store to produce this limited edition line of wedding dresses. The dress has a silk bodice, silk overlay a bustle back pleat and a Mermaid tail train.

This dress has been bought by people who haven't even set a wedding date yet - in fact one woman, who bough 3 - hasn't even got a boyfriend!

The dresses are also now being sold ol ebay apparently for twice the price!

A sign of the times I guess!