But this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people would much prefer to keep the whole thing simple and celebrate with close friends and family.

Firstly, you need to decide on your wedding stationery and send out your save the date cards to the guests that you do want to invite.

Then it’s time to decide on the venue. If you are opting for a smaller guest list then you will have the option to choose something with a little more charm; perhaps a boutique hotel or historical place of interest. If it’s only close friends and family members coming to your wedding, then you could even consider having your wedding abroad.

By only having a few guests, you can make your day extra special and intimate. But you may need to think a little more carefully about your reception. When you have a lot of guests at a wedding, it’s very easy to create a party atmosphere, but with just a few, it can sometimes fall a little flat.

In order to create a celebratory mood, you could organise a sit down meal. But keep everything relaxed and not too formal. You don’t need formal speeches for an intimate wedding; just keep things relaxed and have fun.

Well, ultimately, the decision is yours to take. Wedding days can be very boring for young children so it may be that you want to avoid any trouble by not having any there in the first place. But inviting children to your big day can make it into a really fun and pleasant day for all your friends and family.

If you do decide to invite children along to your wedding, the key to ensuring that they don’t get bored is providing them with plenty to keep them occupied.

For a start, when you are organising your wedding table plan, you should probably think about having a designated children’s table at the reception. The children will have much more fun if they are able to sit with each other and relax rather than trying to behave well on an adult’s table. You can make the experience even more fun by placing a tub of crayons in the middle of the table and allowing the children to draw on the table cloth.

If you have a summer wedding, you might want to hire a bouncy castle for the children to enjoy outside too.

The search for the perfect wedding dress is a long and sometimes frustrating one. Unless you have an exact design in mind, it can be difficult to narrow down your search.

But the most important thing to do before you begin the search for your perfect dress is to carry out research. Look over the internet, cut out pictures from magazines and make a note of anything that catches your eye.

You should always take a trusted friend or family member with you when you are trying on wedding dresses and make sure you wear clothes that you can easily change in and out of as you try on a range of dresses.

It is a good idea to start searching for your dress as early as possible, particularly if you are getting your wedding dress especially made. That way, you have time to make an informed decision and to have any alterations made as you go along.

Make sure you don’t make a purchase until you are absolutely happy with your decision. Once you’ve found the right one, you will know – so don’t be hasty.

Taking time over your decision will ensure that you make the right choice and that you look stunning in those wedding photo albums that are just waiting to be filled.

It may be that you have split your wedding invitations up into different categories; sending out two different batches of invites. One batch will be for the wedding ceremony itself while the other batch will be wedding evening invitations for the celebrations afterwards.

In the same envelope that you send your wedding invitations out in, you should also send wedding rsvp cards too. These wedding RSVP cards will be completed by each guest in order to let you know whether you will be attending or not.

Because so many of your preparations depend upon who is coming to the big day, it is always advisable to send out your invitations as early as possible.

Once you know who is coming, you can then get on with your wedding table plan and booking your caterers. With a list of who is attending, everything begins to fall into place.

One thing that a lot of people forget to consider though, is the different dietary requirements of their wedding guests.

When you have a huge list of people that you want to invite to your wedding, there are bound to be people on that list with allergies or restricted diets and there will usually be a vegetarian or two to consider as well.
The last thing you want is for your big day to arrive, only to find that half your guests can’t eat the meal you have chosen.

The best way to avoid this happening is by asking your guests to specify any dietary requirements when they RSVP. When you send out your wedding invites, ensure that you enclose your wedding RSVP cards so that your guests can respond to the invitation. Ask them to specify any dietary requirements on these RSVP cards.

Once you have these cards back, you will be able to inform the caterer of any special meals that need providing. With everyone catered for, your wedding will be a hit with your guests and of course your mind will be completely put at ease.

For example, some couples have decided on a James Bond themes wedding where the groom is dressed in a white tux and there are cocktails and casino games aplenty at the wedding reception.

Other couples have decided to have a Star Wars themed wedding, where each of the guests is dressed as a different Star Wars character.

Of course, your wedding theme does not need to be whacky at all. In fact, the majority of people will stick to simply choosing a colour for their wedding theme and asking the guests to wear something to match this. Other couples will decide against having a theme at all.

But if you do have a theme to your big day, this is a great way of deciding on your wedding table names.
Wedding table names help the guests to know where they are sitting and they also add a bit of fun to the wedding reception.

If you have decided on a coloured theme to your wedding, perhaps you could choose a different colour for each of the wedding table names. Or if flowers are the focus of your big day, you could have your wedding table names based around different types of flowers.

There is no restriction when it comes to wedding table names so consider your theme carefully and have a bit of fun with them.

When a new baby is born, every second is treasured. The first time they open their eyes, the first time they smile and even when they manage to roll themselves over are all moments that are hugely exciting to the parents and family.

You will find that during these times, a camera is never too far away. Friends and family are constantly clicking away in an attempt to get the cutest picture of the baby and you end up with a collection of hundreds of photos.

Display them in baby photo albums and you will have the perfect collection of your child’s developments over the years. These baby photo albums are great for showing to friends and family and of course for showing to the baby when they are older.

One thing to consider though is that you may need more than one baby photo album. With the number of photos being taken of the baby, it might be that you need three or four baby photo albums to store them all in.

They will all be really happy to share your special day with you and you will have some lovely memories to share together in the future.

Before your wedding, you will have arranged a wedding photographer to take photos of your big day and no doubt, you will have invested in wedding photo albums in which to store these.

But there is one more thing which you can order before your wedding to ensure that you have some fantastic memories of the day. Wedding guest books are becoming increasingly popular as a way of recording your event and the feelings of the people who shared it with you.

Wedding guest books are normally passed around at the reception celebrations after the ceremony of your wedding. Guests can write their thoughts and feelings into the book and by the end of the night, you will have a fantastic memory of the day.

Wedding guest books allow guests to say exactly how they feel – something which they may struggle to do face to face. These make lovely mementos of the big day. Particularly when paired with the official photographs in your wedding photo albums.

From your sister, who is making all the wedding favours by hand, to the caterer who doesn’t bat an eyelid each time you change your mind about the starter; these people are making the planning of your big day a lot easier than it may have been.

So when you are ordering your wedding stationery, make sure you order some wedding thank you cards. They may not seem much, but when your guests receive these cards it will mean a lot to them that you have thought to send one.

Wedding thank you cards should be sent to your guests for their attendance at your wedding, as well as to the people who helped make it all happen.

Wedding cards can be bought to match the rest of your wedding stationery so that everything ties in with the set theme. But you must remember to send them out as soon as possible after the wedding as the day will be fresh in your mind. If you put it off, then you may never get round to it. And your guests and helpers definitely deserve a thank you.

It is also chance for friends and family to get together and it is sometimes the first time that certain family members or friends will have met your baby. It really is a special occasion and one that should be considered thoroughly.

A lot of effort goes into the planning of a christening. And it all begins with the christening invitations.

Having met with the vicar to decide on the date of the ceremony, you will need to send out christening invitations to the people who you want to attend.

There are plenty of different designs to choose from when it comes to christening invitations. From a cute invitation with brightly coloured child’s toys on the front, to a simple design featuring hand prints of a baby, you can choose anything that you feel suits the occasion as well as your family.

There are even christening invitations especially customised to suit twins or triplets and of course you can always choose between pink or blue designs depending upon whether it is a girl or boy.

Whichever christening invitations you choose, make sure you send them out early so that your guests have plenty of notice of the special day.