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When a royal wedding is announced, one of the biggest things everyone wanders about, talks about and looks forward to seeing is the wedding gown. Some of the most iconic wedding dresses of all time are those that were worn for a royal wedding. 

Grace Kelly’s royal wedding gown is probably one of the most iconic. Just like Meghan Markle, she too was an American actress who married into royalty. Over the years, there have been many a royal bride donning a stunning gown made worthy of being recorded as iconic but the most iconic of all was none other than Princess Diana’s wedding gown. Hers may have not been to everyone’s taste and quite fashionable for the 80’s, but it will forever be remembered well. 

The latest talk of royal wedding dresses comes from the recent wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She had a lot to contend with after Kate Middleton’s much anticipated and ultimately perfect wedding dress. Kate Middleton wore a 50’s style gown from Sarah Burton who is creative director for Alexander McQueen. She was the vision of a modern-day princess in her elegant wedding gown.

Meghan Markle’s wedding gown was less traditional and a lot simpler but, stunning and sophisticated nonetheless. Her wedding gown’s timeless simplicity, however, did not mean that it didn’t possess some incredible details. It was designed by Givenchy’s Waight Keller and featured some interesting details like the 53 flowers on her veil to represent the 53 commonwealth countries.

There is no rule stating that a bride should spend a certain amount on her wedding dress but it is certain that the wedding dress is typically one of the more expensive items of the entire wedding event. This comes as no surprise as the gown is one of the most important parts of the wedding too. Every bride wants to feel like a princess and wear a wedding gown that will leave her groom and guests breathless as she walks down the aisle.

The wedding dress is a major item to consider when preparing the wedding budget or allocating amounts from that budget. Wedding dresses don’t come cheap but while there are ways to cut the costs of an expensive dress, the amount a bride can and is willing to spend should be known before the entire budget is blown on other things.

Unless the wedding budget can easily fit a stunning Vera Wang bridal gown, there’s no need to break the bank. Some options on cutting the costs of a wedding dress include buying a second hand or even vintage bridal gown, renting a bridal dress, buying a wedding dress from the previous season as it will be cheaper or keeping up to date with sample sales. 

Planning for your wedding can be a stressful time but it is also packed with excitement as you count down the days. Every bride wants all aspects of her wedding day to be perfect but none more so than how you look in your gorgeous wedding gown and getting into shape is the best way to look your best.

A 6-month wedding workout plan gives you enough time to reach a realistic goal without compromising your health through crash diets and starvation. Every bride is different, some want to shed extra pounds and others just want to tone so it is best to plan accordingly. After all, you want to have reached your goal when you walk down the aisle looking stunning in your wedding dress.

A good exercise regime and nutritious diet is key to your 6-month wedding workout plan.  

The extent of your exercise regime depends on your body and your goal. Remember that your groom loves you as you are so there’s no need for drastic weight loss unless it is in your best health interests. The ultimate goal for this should be to be healthy, confident and comfortable in your wedding gown.

6-months before the big day, prepare yourself with comfortable clothing; running shoes, a mat and 2 or 3-pound weights or resistance bands. According to experts https://www.theknot.com/content/six-month-fitness-makeover, the first month should be spent focusing on engaging in your new workout plan and becoming active. By the second month you will find more of a routine.

The Workout Plan:

Week 1 and 2

Do 20 minutes of cardio exercise about three times a week. Anything that raises the blood pressure and gets your heart racing such as jogging, cycling, aerobics and so on.

Week 3 and 4

Do the same type of cardio exercise but increase the time to around 30 minutes at least three times a week.

Week 5 and 6

Do cardio exercise for 40 minutes at least three times a week but add about 10 push ups and stomach crunches to begin toning.

Week 7 and 8

Do cardio exercise for 40 minutes at least three times a week and double up the push ups and stomach crunches.

Week 9 and 10

Do cardio exercise for 40 minutes at least three times a week as well as the same number of push ups and stomach crunches but include a set of 10 squats.

Week 11 and 12

Do cardio exercise for 40 minutes at least three times a week as well as push ups, stomach crunches, squats and include biceps and triceps curls.

Week 13 and 14

Do cardio exercise for 40 minutes at least three times a week as well as push ups, stomach crunches, squats, biceps and triceps curls and begin doing chest presses too.

Week 15 and 16

Do cardio exercise for 40 minutes at least three times a week as well as push ups, stomach crunches, squats, biceps and triceps curls and increase the number of chest presses.

Week 17 and 18

Continue with the same regime but increase or add the particular exercise for a specific area you want to target.

Week 19 and 20

Continue with the same regime but increase or add the particular exercise for a specific area you want to target.

Week 21 to 24

By the last month you should be seeing a huge difference. The entire regime should be continued but if you wish, you can increase the amount of exercise you do as you feel comfortable and confident in your wedding gown.

Embarking on a healthy eating plan is very important. Not only for shedding the pounds and fitting into your wedding dress but for ensuring a healthy glowing skin too. It is best to cut out all processed food, fatty foods, added sugars and sodium. Drink plenty of water and eat fresh fruit, vegetables and protein.

According to nutritionists https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/What-Eat-Week-Before-Your-Wedding-44747746 it is most important to avoid foods and drinks that cause bloating and skin irritations. Even alcohol can cause bloating and redness so should be avoided as much as possible.

Very often a lot of brides-to-be get overwhelmed with the number of things they need to prepare before wedding. It is easy to lose track of the list of things to do when organising a wedding.

Some brides-to-be choose to pay wedding organiser to organise their wedding if they can afford it. However, it is not an option for some brides-to-be as some find hiring a wedding planner a bit costly, and prefer get a bit creative for their own wedding.

We have prepared a wedding checklist to keep our brides organised. Simply follow this 16-month checklist to keep yourself on track with the planning.

Start planning your wedding…

Start a wedding folder, research and understand the type of wedding ceremony you would like to have in mind – venue, food, fashion and gardening design etc. Then bring it to the groom for discussion and work out top 3 priorities for the bride and groom then combine these priorities together:

Example:

Based on the priorities, decide you budget. Keep it realistic, re-evaluate and estimate based on your families’ contributions and your own. Break down the cost of each elements and source supplier based on budget allowance. A free wedding planning budget template can be found here.

Wedding Budget Spreadsheet

Once budget has been allocated, work on the guest list (Template available below)

Guest List 

Once it has been finalised, research on wedding suppliers, styles and put them into wedding folder, including quotation to ensure everything is within budget.

List of things to research and include in wedding folders, this should be completed at least 13 months before the wedding.

Once the research has been completed, by now you should have a good idea what you want for your wedding. The wedding folder should be filled up, cut out unnecessarily items or pick alternative option to ensure you are within budget.

Our Preserving Flower is made using the technique of freeze drying, it is a sophisticated process widely used to preserve flowers in order to maintain it’s natural appearance and freshness out from the garden!

As mentioned in our earlier blog, flowers were used in different festivals and ceremonies, they have always been used to express feelings, messages and very often they are also the key element for celebrations and events.

Flowers are essential for events such as Wedding, Mother’s Day and Thanksgiving Day just to name a few. However, freshly-cut flowers have short lifespan which means that they can’t last forever.

Thanks to latest technology, It is now longer possible to keep these beautiful flowers looking fresh after any memorable events. Now you can Imagine paying the same amount of money for flowers that can last up to 7 years with proper care, definitely a better choice with more value of money and it also helps reducing flower wastage.  

Preserved flowers have countless possibilities in floral decoration, making them perfect for any occasions especially weddings. Hence preserved flowers are very popular among brides.

Check out our preserved flowers range here. 

Flowers that never fade:

Most of the time flowers remind us about the great memories in life, it is often used for festivals such as weddings, mother’s day, birthdays or Valentine’s Day. Although it feels great receiving flowers, some people may think it is a waste of money. It is even more frustrating to witness these beautiful flowers withering after a couple of days, in other words they have a very short life span. There are different method to preserved flowers.

The best known method is to leave them to dry by dehydrating naturally. This method
 is the most commonly used method to preserve flowers at home where the flowers need to be bundled up using ribbon and hung upside down out of direct sunlight in a warm, well ventilated place. Using this method may result in flowers discoloration, flower petals wrinkled up due to dehydration. During the olden days, flowers were preserved using the method of Pressing or Glycerine, unfortunately these methods fail to maintain the color, shape and texture. These days the flowers preservation technologies have significantly improved during the past few years in order to eliminate unwanted flowers discoloration and change of shape. These technologies allow suppliers to dehydrate flowers and make them into different products. One of the most popular method is freeze drying.

Freeze drying was initially introduced back in 1813, this technology had since advanced further in Japan. It involves freezing the flowers for at least 12 hours and slowly vacuum the moisture out of the flowers to maintain the shape, texture and nature color for up to 7 years. For this reason, freeze dried flowers are now very popular among brides and widely used in other industries.   Why throw away your flowers accessories if you can keep them?

Click here to view some of our latest preserved flowers wedding accessories by Le Vow Bridal.

Models wearing: Ophelia & Vanessa