1. Direct guests from church to reception with maps of the area, customised with all your celebration locations and useful extras like car parks, train stations and local hotels.
2. Commemorate your bridal party with a pack of trading cards featuring cute illustrations of each bridesmaid and usher. Partygoers can get mingling as they trade for a complete set (including the prized Bride and Groom cards) during the welcome drinks.
3. One to add to your stationery order: print or letterpress your ceremony readings as a special keepsake for those lovely friends and family doing the honours.
4. Stock up on glassine envelopes from eBay and fill them with DIY confetti punched out of crêpe paper from Hobbycraft (bonus points if you go for the heart-shaped punch). Feeling really crafty? Make the envelopes out of brown paper.
5. Literary types will love this twist on bunting: cut shapes (hearts, circles, stars…) out of charity shop books – or photocopies if you can’t bear to deface the tomes – and string together to create garlands.
6. Shake up the classic guestbook format with themed mini-notebooks for guests to write in: Places to Go, Words of Wisdom and Favourite Part of Today.
7. Give the best man (and your groom!) a helping hand during the speeches by making ‘Applause’ and ‘Laughter’ signs, which can be held up at key moments.
8. Make badges for guests using kraft paper circles, hot glue and safety pins. Fill a mason jar with different designs at the pre-reception drinks or personalise them and leave on tables as place names. They’ll be the must-wear item on the dancefloor later.
9. Take basic white linen from bland to grand with napkin rings made from wallpaper offcuts or remnants of wrapping paper. Glam or rustic, quirky or vintage, there’s a pattern for any style!
10. Fill kraft paper pouches with potpourri, your favourite coffee blend or loose leaf tea for thoughtful, personal favours. Label it something super-sweet, like ‘Lovers’ Blend’.
11. Still, sparkling or super-cool? Dress up your table water bottles with mini luggage tags monogrammed with your initials or a theme-appropriate motif, attached with ribbon, raffia or string.
12. Going village-fête style with a cake table of assorted desserts? Send guests home with recipes as mementos – either bound into a cookbook or on cards they can add to their recipe boxes.
13. Spoil out-of-town guests with a welcome bag in their hotel room (think locally sourced edibles and a hangover kit). Theme with ribbons that match your stationery and a rubber stamp.
14. Splash out on getaway-car décor with a professionally calligraphed ‘Just Married’ sign that can be framed later, or go retro with streamers and honeycomb bells .
15. Origami flower balls make fab pew ends or flowergirl pomanders (look online for tutorials) – or recruit friends to fold paper cranes for cool mobiles. As the crane symbolises long life and happiness, it’s the perfect sentiment for your day.
Trendwedding.co.uk has all kinds of wedding dresses short.
The Church of England is shaking off its conservative image to pave the way for couples to host wedding ceremonies with the celeb factor. Inspired by church wedding celebs, Kate Moss and Jamie Hince, Lily Allen and Sam Cooper and Posh and Becks, who said their vows 13 years ago while sat on golden thrones, the initiative hopes to encourage more couples to consider a church wedding.
