Thanks to all who entered last week’s giveaway to win a copy of All Things are Ready – A Bride’s Complete Christian Wedding Planner.

Drum roll………And the winner is……

Becky Holt!

Congratulations Becky! The lovely folk at Doorposts will be in touch with you to get your details to send you your prize.

For those of you who didn’t win or didn’t enter, don’t forget that you can purchase your own copy of this fabulous Christian wedding planner from Doorposts, or from Amazon.

God bless

xXx

I am so excited to share this book review and giveaway today – it is truly fantastic!

All Things Are Ready – A Bride’s Complete Christian Wedding Planner is an great wedding planner (or organiser if you’re from the UK) put together by Amy Hayes. Amy has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to wedding planning and decided to put a resource together specifically for Brides who want to glorify God in their wedding and indeed in the months, weeks and days leading up to the big day, and who want to have an approach different to the world’s when it comes to wedding planning.

Here she is talking about why she wrote the planner:

 
The Christian perspective is woven through out the planner and in addition, at the end of each section, there is a devotional for the bride to ponder on and to help keep things in perspective. The devotionals are available as a standalone book – I Am My Beloved on Kindle via Amazon (if you don’t have a Kindle, but have a smart phone, you can download the Kindle app for free).

When Amy subtitled the planner with ’A Bride’s Complete Christian Wedding Planner’, she really wasn’t messing around when she used the word complete!! This planner is the most comprehensive one I’ve seen! Aside from the introduction and Master Lists (a super section with a complete checklist and contacts section for you to fill in, and sections for the bride, groom, bride’s mother and bride’s father to read individually), there are 16 sections covering the engagement through to after the wedding, and each section is really packed with practical information on things to consider, and fantastic worksheets – I totally love those.

With the comprehensiveness comes flexibility, in that the planner doesn’t have a specific timeline that you have to stick to (those can be so stressful and can make you feel like you’re failing with your wedding planning schedule). Rather, you can focus on the sections as they are relevant to you, and probably more practical for wedding these days, Amy even details how it is possible plan a wedding within 12 weeks (I seriously didn’t think that could be possible, but now I am convinced otherwise!)

The planner/organiser itself is in a large (sorry, I’ve not taken the dimensions) 3 ring binder/folder, with tabbed sections and a handy wallet at the back to pop bits and pieces in, as well as  a small pocket inside the front cover. It’s a bit too big to carry around, but it is something that is immensely useful and practical and would totally be an open book during the wedding planning time. The only things I would change are to have coloured section dividers (as opposed to black and white) and possibly the front cover image – but those are minor points – the planner is super duper! It’s an awesome  (I’m running out of adjectives but seriously this planner is fab – I can’t praise it enough) resource for brides, church wedding planners, and mothers of brides-to-be.

All Things Are Ready can be purchased either directly from the publishers – Doorposts, or from Amazon.

Giveaway

Can you believe it, the publishers – Doorposts are being so gracious by offering a copy of this fantastic wedding planner to one blessed Hephzibah Bride reader!! Here are the details:

• In the comments below, simply tell us what you think about planning a wedding in 12 weeks and what you would do with this planner if you won – use it of your own wedding, use it to help plan other’s weddings etc.
• Unfortunately, this competition is only open to US residents (so so sorry UK people – maybe you could rob me of my copy – lol!)
• Only one entry per person
• Closing date for entries is Sunday 1 April 2012 23:59 GMT.
• The winner will be announced on Monday 2 April 2012.

While you’re around, it would be great of you would pop over to like the Hephzibah Bride Facebook page

So, it’s the weekend – here’s something light but very serious at the same time. You know how I like videos on this blog, but seriously, this isn’t one to miss and it’s one that I wish G and I had watched before we had gotten married. I found it on the Skit Guy’s site – it’s like a mini marriage preparation course.

I’ll let the video speak for itself.

I’d love to hear what you think – comments below please!

God bless

xXx

Your wedding invitations set the tone for your big day, and guests get a peek of what is to come – so it’s a perfect place to show how much your faith means to you.  This can be through using scripture, or through the wording of your invitations (more on that in a later post). {Obviously, if your invitations do not have any Christian references it doesn’t mean that you’re not having a Christian wedding}

I’ve done a search for Christian Wedding invitations and to be very honest none tickled my fancy, so I decided to get designing…

{Modern Christian Wedding Invitation}

{Modern Christian Wedding Invitation}

{Vintage Floral Christian Wedding Invitation}

Do you like? Both designs can be found in the Hephzibah Bride Etsy store

God bless

xXx

There’s the on-going debate on whether or not to have children at weddings – I’m all for it, and Jesus was and is a great advocate for the kiddies

Assuming you are having children attend your wedding, the usual ideas for keeping them amused include party/activity packs, bouncy castles, entertainers, movies etc. Well as a child, to me all those things would have been fun, but one thing I particularly enjoyed is playing weddings! 

Yes, most kids like dressing up and pretending to be grown-ups, so why not capitalise on this? In a separate room (if possible), have a selection of (fake) bouquets, wedding type shoes, christening dresses, bridesmaids dresses, net curtains (for the veil of course!), waistcoats, ties and any other bits you can think of – all from charity shops or donated before hand from friends and family. The children will have endless fun ‘playing weddings’, from picking a dress, to walking down the aisle and have the ‘minister’ perform the ‘marriage’. Yes, even the boys will enjoy playing ushers (after some protesting maybe!), and of course, there may be a few ‘issues’ when it comes to choosing who will be the bride and groom, but it’s all part of the fun and they can take turns!

Make sure someone takes photos to give the parents and perhaps a few years down the  line, you can see if any of the matches come true (of course as directed by the Lord!)

God bless

There are so many fun and creative ways of expressing your Christian faith at your wedding, without being cheesy. Are you loving this 1st Corinthians 13 paper chain as much as I am?

Each chain quotes a quality of love as listed in 1st Corinthians 13 and I love the vintage styleYou can use this chain to decorate your reception venue, welcome table, dessert table, or use it for your bridal shower decor.

And how about these fabulous favour tags, also quoting 1st Corinthians 13?

I love!

Yes, yes, I’ll let you in on where you can get these from – the Forever After shop on Etsy is where you need to look! Unfortunately, Forever After only ship within the USA, but for those of us who do not reside in the US of A, we can still get hold of the paper chains directly from the Ormolu website :-)

God bless

xXx

Not many brides and bridal parties are calm and unflustered on the morning of the big day. More often than not, there’s someone flapping about who’s meant to be where, when, and for how long, and if the Don’t Tell the Bride series is anything to go by, the bride ends up in floods of tears.

Well here’s a free printable tool that will put everyone in the know so that everything works like clockwork on the morning of the most important day of your life.

Simply print out the Big Day Schedule (there are two on a page) and list out events such as ‘hair dresser arrives’, or ‘flowers delivered’, together with times, key people, and contact numbers, and give out a copy (photocopy is probably easiest) to everyone involved in the preparations. This way, everything is super organised, you are asked minimum questions, no one is scrolling through a phone contacts list looking for the hair dressers number, and the only tears seen will be those of joy! If anyone starts to get cranky,  just point out the verse at the top of the sheet to them – lol!

If you’re having a DIY wedding, you can also use this tool for those helping out with setting up the ceremony and reception venue(s).

Here’s to a stress free day!

How a year flies by! On 1st March 2011, after a while of generic wedding blogging, I changed focus and launched this Christian Wedding blog – Hephzibah Bride. God has been so faithful and I’ve enjoyed the ride – I hope you’ve been blessed too.

It is so great to be able to think about weddings from a Christian perspective and I wish there was something like this when I was getting married, but I am really grateful that I have had the opportunity to bless others. Apart from the blog posts and comments, it’s been great to connect with readers personally. From time to time I receive emails asking for advice on various aspects of wedding planning, and also prayer requests from those who are not married. I really enjoy responding to those emails and particularly praying for the individuals specifically.

I have no idea what the Lord has in store for the coming year (if He delays His coming) although I do have somethings planned – His will be done. I must admit that time is very tight for me, but you all have a special place in my heart and I want to continue to do my best to bring you ideas and inspiration for your Christian wedding and indeed marriage.

Here are some favourite posts over the past year:

• Bible verses for your wedding
• Praying for your wedding series
• The Power of Three
• My Husband Rocks!
• 5 ways to share your testimony at your wedding
• Modest vintage wedding dresses
• Daffs, burlap and lemonade inspiration board
• Honouring God and your future spouse
• 5 Ways to occupy your guests during your wedding
• Modest wedding dresses – House of Micaela
• Christian Wedding song – The One He Kept for Me

If you don’t already, please like Hephzibah Bride on Facebook, and it would be lovely if you could share this blog with your friends and church family – any Christians that you know are getting married

God bless

xXx

30 days hath September, April, June and November,

All the rest have 31, except February alone,

Which has 28 days clear, and 29 in each leap year.

February is  special month – not least because I’m a February baby but it’s also the month of love, and the only one that gets an extra day every 4 years.

Traditionally, a leap year is an opportunity for ladies to turn the tables around and make the marriage proposal, so, you know what I’m gonna ask – what do you think? Would you do this? Is it appropriate? Is it Biblical? I guess Ruth is the closest we get to in the Bible in terms of a female making the first move…

Discuss!

God bless

xXx

My wedding dress was at least three times more expensive than G’s suit and we didn’t bat an eyelid at that fact. Generally when comparing the cost of wedding attire for men and women, that seems to be the norm. But are we gals short changing the guys or should they just accept that that’s the way it is?

Check out this funny take on the whole matter by Christian comedian Rex Haven …

So what’s your view of your wedding dress?

• Did/will you rent your dress?
• If bought, did/will you sell your dress?
• Did/will you spend a significant portion of your budget on your dress?
• What did/will you do with your dress once the wedding was/is over?
• Is the groom’s outfit just as special?