HCTC has beautiful, luxurious stationery for the modern bride. From the stationery I’ve seen, they use only the finest materials from lush satin ribbon to thick card stock, and a range of chic fonts.

They’re normally booked months in advance so if you need wedding stationery soon, book yourself in!

Thanks Suzanne and team. We’re forever grateful.  xxoo

Thank you to all the phenomenal vendors who helped with this wedding at Claridges, you’ve been amazing!

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You’re thinking, “I just got engaged! I’m going to shout it to the world!”  Right?  While you may be tempted to ask everyone and their pet goldfish to save the date for your wedding, don’t verbally ask them OR send out save the dates until the guest list is finalised. You will likely have to edit the guest list as venues have restrictions, your budget has gone over, or your fiance forgot about Aunt Susie and her family.  Can you imagine having to cut already asked guests, yikes!

We recommend having two different types of table centrepieces, regardless of guest size or budget. Having one high and one low arrangement will create the biggest visual impact and always impress guests. Some couples are hesitant to have high arrangements thinking their guests might not be able to see across the table. Just make sure your arrangement is high enough to avoid this, or you choose an arrangement that doesn’t have flowers cascading down to the table.

Credits:

Danny Weiss, Ben Matthews, Joe Buissink

What

The ultimate girl event where the ladies play silly games that date back many generations, and shower the bride-to-be with gifts. More and more bridal showers are involving the grooms to make a “Jack and Jill” party.

Host

Anyone can play host for the bridal shower except the bride! It’s often someone other than the maid-of-honour or bridesmaids and can be a parent, aunt, sister, or groom’s mother.

Traditions

• The bride-to-be opens gifts in front of everyone while the guests oooh and aaaah. As she takes off the ribbons and bows, the maid-of-honour makes a bouquet and the bride uses it as a stand-in during the ceremony rehearsal.
• Passing photos of the couple around
• Games, games and more games! For example, pulling a charm out of a cake, guessing games, scavenger hunts, etc.

Themes

Around the world: Assign each guest a country and have them bring a gift representing that destination.

Time: Assign each guest a time of the day and have them bring a gift that would be useful for that time.

Location

On some occasions the bridal shower may be a surprise to the bride, but if it’s not, it’s always best to get her opinions and advice when planning the shower. Favourite restaurants are always a popular choice, as are bridal showers inside the home. As with a wedding, they can take place during the day or in the evening but do consider your guests social lives.

Gifts

Gifts are a big part of the bridal shower and the gift-giving options are endless. The host might ask you to bring a gift around a theme, or possibly visit the registry. If not, think about the interest of the bride or something she may need from kitchen utensils to lingerie, or even a couple of gift cards to her favourite spots. If there isn’t a gift theme or gift registry then many guests purchase a negligee for the bride.

You may have heard or seen the words “Escort Cards” thrown around but what exactly are these and what’s the difference between Escort Cards and Table Plans?  The escort card is a more modern approach to assigning a table to your guests, the trend starting in American weddings. These are generally handed out at the cocktail reception and assign guests to a specific table for the meal. Once they find their table they will have a place card and seat waiting for them. Escort cards are a great ice breaker as guests tend to walk around with a card in hand asking other guests what table they’re sitting at! They make beautiful decorations as well- see below.

A table plan is mounted onto an easel and visually shows guests which table they will be seated at. They can look beautiful but the flaw with the table plan is that you will need to cross guests off the board who didn’t show up and you will need to add names for those unexpected guests. It’s not something I would recommend if you are a perfectionist. You can create additional escort cards for unexpected cards, or pull them for those that did not show, which is a much cleaner look.