THE RESULTS ARE IN... YOUR WEDDING STYLE IS
Small & Intimate
Small and intimate is the way to go. You love spending quality time with your close friends and family and the thought of saying your vows in front of hundreds of people fills you with dread.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TWO OF YOU
The most important thing is that you are committing to each other and spending the rest of your lives together. Everything else is a bonus. You want your day to be special, but all about you and your life together. Personal touches and unique details are ultra important to you. You may want to get married in a location that has meaning to you as a couple, even if it's in the middle of nowhere!
YOUR WEDDING BUZZ WORDS
Intimate
Personal
Special
INTIMATE A smaller wedding of up to a maximum of 60 of your most favourite people. Possibly a lot less, especially for the ceremony itself. There's no need to feel nervous or like you're on show, all of these people are there because they are extra special to you and you want to share your special day with them.
PERSONAL Your day will be full of special personal touches for you as a couple. Everything you choose for your day you do so because it has meaning. The location for example may be where you met or somewhere you had a special date. The food choice could be a memorable meal you have shared or the local cuisine of your favourite travel destination.
SPECIAL You want your day to feel special for both yourselves and your guests. Because you have a smaller guest list maybe you want to spend a larger part of your budget on the food or special personalised favours for your guests, hand chosen for each individual by you. Or, you may want a breathtaking ceremony archway as the centre piece for your day.
THREE EASY ACTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED ON YOUR WEDDING JOURNEY
1. Secure your Budget
The most important place to start with any wedding, no matter how big or how small, is the budget. This should always be your starting point. There is no point in deciding what your dream day involves if it's going to be completely out of your price range and leave you paying off a mountain of debt for the next 5-10 years. Not a great way to start married life together. A well thought out budget gives you the anchor from which to start planning your day.
I have put together a budget template spreadsheet to help you get your finances sorted from the start. And you can download it for FREE below! All you need to do is fill in your total budget figure and it works out the rest for you!
2. Avoid Inspiration overwhelm
There is so much amazing wedding inspiration out there, whether it's Pinterest, Instagram or any of the amazing wedding blogs and magazines. However, when starting out on your wedding journey this can get quite overwhelming and confusing. You end up with hundreds of beautiful images that you have saved, but they don't all go together and you definitely can't include everything in your day, so how do you hone in on the inspiration that you really want, that you will end up using for your day?
Well my advise to start with, is to have only two places you save this info, for example you may have a Pinterest board and a folder on your computer where you save screenshots and downloaded photos. If you have things saved in too many places you will lose track of what you have and end up even more confused.
Secondly I would say to keep revisiting your collection and delete anything that you no longer love and anything that doesn't fit in with the overall look and feel. You will be planning your wedding for between 6 and 24 months, over that time your ideals and dreams will change, so something you loved the idea of the week you got engaged you may no longer feel the same about when it comes to booking in your stylist or florist or hiring your props for example. And you don't want to be giving your suppliers inspo pics you no longer care for.
3. Consider the Environment
My third action for the start of your journey is to think about the environment. You may not think that just one day matters, but when you consider how many weddings take place around the world, every week throughout the year. An estimated 2.5 million in the US alone during 2022 and the UK will be close behind. Then when you consider that the average UK wedding produces 14.5 tons of CO2, your one day becomes a little more significant in terms of the effect on the environment. It would take 84 new trees being planted to offset 14.5 tons of CO2.
There are many quick and easy ways to make your wedding instantly more sustainable. For example holding your ceremony and reception at the same venue rather than all of your guests travelling between venues. Choosing a summer wedding instead of a winter wedding as there will be less heating and lighting needed for your event. Choosing local suppliers and local produce to cut down on transport and travel or having a meat free menu for your wedding breakfast. These are just a few ideas, there are many more helpful tips and ideas over on my blog. So why not take a look? There is a link below.
Hey there 👋 I’m Samantha Withey, founder and chief designer at Willow and Rust Weddings, a successful sustainable wedding planning and styling business. I have helped many couples to achieve their dream day and now i'm here to help you!
I offer a range of products and services to help you on your wedding journey from Full Planning or Full Styling, to On the Day Coordination or simply helpful tips and advice to get you started.
Your wedding dreams can 100% be a reality – however, it can also be confusing when you’re starting out.
BUT that's where I can help....
1. Take a look at my blog There is lots of helpful info and inspiration on there to help you get started. And I post new articles all the time so there is always plenty to keep you going!
2. Take a look at my Instagram page Full of beautiful Inspiration to get your creative juices flowing.
3. Book a call See how I can help you and take the stress out of planning and Styling your dream wedding.