Whenever a wedding is announced amongst my friends our first thought turns to the hen-do, where we can go to have a brilliant weekend away. The hen-do is now as an important part of the getting married process and the actual wedding days itself. First of all you need to decide if you want to stay in this country or go abroad, but keep in mind the cost implications of travelling abroad, although your wedding and your hen do might be the most important day of your year, your friends might have other holidays booked or financial constraints. It is always best to organised your hen do with your friends, you want to make sure that they can all make it and that the date you choose is one that they can all attend. Also make sure it is a destination that they can all get to, if it’s somewhere in the countryside organise a mini bus as not everyone will drive or have a car.

As a friend of mine got engaged back in November 2011, all my friends and I were hoping that she would book the wedding for later summer or early autumn in 2011 as there were no other weddings this year amongst that group of friends. However shortly after announcing her engagement she also announced that she had booked the church and the venue but that it was going to be held in October 2012, nearly 2 years exactly before the actual day. Another friend of mine booked her venue and church 18 months for the actual big day so it seems to be that if you want your dream venue or the church that you have dreamt about for years then you need to ensure that you book them all well in advance to secure your perfect day.

I was a bridesmaid last year for the first of my friends to get married and one aspect of the big day that I thought she dealt with really was picking the right bridesmaid dresses for the bridesmaid. She had 4 bridesmaids in total all of who were totally different in shape, size, colour and style. I am relatively small framed, small height and blonde, whereas another bridesmaid was very slim, very, very tall with dark hair and pale skin. However my friend had the great idea of getting all 4 bridesmaids together at the dress fitters so that we could all try on different styles and colours of dresses until she found one that we all suited and that she liked as well. There were certain styles that did not look on certain bridesmaids but in the end she managed to choose a lovely ‘crushed raspberry’ full length dress which we all felt great in.

The celebrity wedding is usually an occasion for the bride to have the biggest dress, the longest train, the brightest flowers and for the bridesmaids to wear the tightest dresses and fake tans. One of the best or worst (depending on how you look at it) was the Beckham’s wedding. They really started off the trend for over-the-top, tacky celebrity weddings that we see every week plastered across OK! magazine. The Beckham’s wedding really set the bar high in terms of celebrity weddings. Victoria wore a beautiful Vera Wang dress for the ceremony before returning to her footballer’s wife roots as they both wore matching purple outfits for the evening party. There were thrones for them both to sit on and even their eldest son, who was less than a year old wore outfits that matched his parents.

Over the last couple of months there has been an influx of celebrity engagements, stated first of all by the announcement of Prince William and his long term girlfriend Kate Middleton. They announced their engagement on 16th November after he proposed whilst they were on holiday in Kenya after 8 years of being together. They have already set their wedding date as 29th April 2011 which will be only 5 months after their engagement. Another celebrity who recently got engaged is Emma Bunton, or Baby Spice. She announced her engagement on 23rd January 2011 on her show, Dancing On Ice, where her fellow judges and contestants were very delighted for her. She has been with her long term partner Jade Jones for 11 years and they have a two year old son together as well as another one on the way.

A wedding involves hiring a lot of different people who will provide services on the big day. Finding the right ones for you is a major ask and unfortunately, there’s no way around the laborious process of speaking to each one, short of relying on the recommendations of friends and relatives.

You need caterers, photographers, a venue, for each of which there will be multiple possibilities. The key is to get organised.

Business cards are your allies here. You can collect business cards off everyone you speak to and then make notes on the back. Obviously, you can’t write much, but even something as simple as ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ will cut your time. You may see so many wedding photographers that you can’t remember who you’ve spoken to. If you’ve got a business card, you can instantly see that you’ve been in touch and you can also see your initial reaction. With so many potentials and so much to organise, don’t rely on your memory.

Business cards can also give you a bit of a clue about the person providing the service. Weddings are all about attention to detail. If someone has a shoddy or uninformative business card, they lack this quality.

As your wedding day is supposed to be the best day of your life i have got some tips below on how to have your hair on the day:

• Choose your hair style before you choose your head dress (Veil)
• Have a few practice goes with your hair dresser so they are entirely comfortable so there are no flaws on the day
• Keep your color up to date and the cut is done regularly in order to keep your hair looking good

Give yourself plenty of time on the morning of the wedding so if there are any little hitches you can get these rectified easily.

I hear an engagement ring is supposed to cost 2 months wage of the man buying the ring but i am not sure if i agree with that.  Personally i would be happy if the ring was cheap, expensive as long as it was the ring which i really wanted as i am the one wearing it for the rest of my life (Hopefully) so dont want to end up with one that is not to my taste.

I have emailed and left pictures of the ring i want so my boyfriend can either find one in a shop or have one made and a lot of people have told me it seems cheaper if it is made.

The wedding cake is one of the main things in a wedding with the cutting of the cake after the meal so why go for a normal cake when you can get an unusual one.

I know a lot of people go for the traditional tiered cake with the plastic groom and bride on the top but when i get married i want to be totally different and have a chocolate cake as i have jam, fruit cake, sponge cake or anything that is not chocolate.

Go online and see what cakes you can get as there a lots of designs you can pinch and take to your local baker to make yours for a cut down price.

There is nothing worse than your guests standing around in between your ceremony and wedding breakfast so i have been looking at ideas that will keep them entertained until they get to eat.

I went to a few weddings last year and the main thing that kept popping up was to get either a band or a singer and this always seems to be what they do but than i went to my Best Friend’s wedding and she got a carousel, some fire throwers, a candy floss machine and also a ice cream stall (she was going for a old time theme) and this kept people entertained for hours even after the food was served.

I am sure if you actually think about it you can come up with some great ideas and not just go for the same boring ideas as everyone else…