There are often times during your wedding planning when you really want some advise that your friends and family simply can’t answer for you.
You may also want to make a booking for a wedding supplier, but what to know someone else’s opinion first.
Well, as of today there is a new wedding forum available which is free to join, and will become a place you can chat to other brides to be, or maybe even discuss your wedding plans with potential suppliers who have the expertise to discuss your requirements.

TalkWeddings.co.uk is a brand new wedding site, with a chat forum aimed solely at wedding discussions. The new website also has a wedding directory of suppliers for you to browse through and get some fresh ideas for your special day.

The website has an article section which is regularly updated with wedding articles, advice, tips and funny wedding stories. It’s a good place to look for ideas, and amusing or quirky options for your wedding day.

There is also a newsletter you can sign up for, which will email you with special promotions and wedding tips direct to your mailbox.

So if you’re beginning to feel like you’re always “talking weddings” – and some of your friends and family are beginning to switch off – take a look at www.TalkWeddings.co.uk and join the forum to chat with other brides-to-be and wedding services.

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Fake Wedding Cake

Most couples who are marrying this Summer are looking for little ways to reduce the overall bill of their wedding costs, and we think we may of found a useful little money saving tip for you all – a FAKE WEDDING CAKE.

Strange as it may sound, this idea is becoming more and more popular amongst frugal brides and grooms who are looking to ensure they get value for money, and the concept is a fairly simple one.

The idea is that your cake supplier provides you with a “dummy” cake made from foam. The fake cakes come shaped in a variety of different sizes with multiple tiers as required.

The cake company ices and decorates the cake shaped foam to match your requirements, and the whole thing looks so realistic you would want to eat a slice… except obviously you can’t !

When you’re happy with how your fake wedding cake looks, you simply place it on the table for all your wedding guests to admire and photograph you standing beside it with knife in hand.  A further option could be that the top tier is an actual cake, so at the moment of cutting, the whole thing is even more realistic.

Fake that Cake – then eat a real one

The bakers then make you a nice simple, square cut fruit cake, or sponge or whatever option you’d like – at a fraction of the cost of a full blown wedding cake. And of course, when it’s cut into slices for your wedding guests to share, none of them will ever know the difference.

It’s a good way to save yourself a few pennies, and actually if you kept it a secret, it could be a good fun personal joke between yourselves for many years to come.

Although if you’d prefer the real thing, then we have a large selection of Essex Wedding Cakes suppliers in our main directory, follow that link to take a look, and get in touch with one of them. You never know, perhaps they can also supply you with a fake wedding cake.

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Wedding news from Tokyo now, and an interesting development in the way marriage vows have been exchanged.
In our digital age, the first wedding ceremony officiated by a ROBOT has taken place.

In a rather peculiar design, the 4-foot “I-Fairy” robot, conducted the ceremony complete with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails.
unsurprisingly perhaps, the manufacturer Kokoro Co, claimed it to be the first time a marriage had been led by a robot.

The wedding took place in Hibiya Park, in Central Toyko, with the I-Fairy wearing a floral wreath – conducting the wedding on a rooftop of a restaurant.
The robot was apparently controlled by a man behind a curtain just a few feet away.

Blushing Bride Satoko Inoue, 36, who works at manufacturer Kokoro said “This was a lot of fun. I think that Japanese have a strong sense that robots are our friends. Those in the robot industry mostly understand this, but people mainly want robots near them that serve some purpose,”

If you’re interested in copying the Japanese robot wedding, then an I-Fairy can be purchased for 6.3M Yen. (Apparently!)

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Okay, if you’re looking for a really cool gift for your Best Man or Ushers, why not give him something that he doesn’t have to feed, can’t kill, and can use at home, in the office, or in his garage if he really wants to.
I’m talking about a houseplant, a fake one of course. There are some really impressive fake houseplants out there these days.
The best thing about them is that they don’t require any sunlight to thrive. So, if your Best Man wants to put the plant in a corner somewhere away from any windows, he can!
A funny thing would be to get a plant that looks real, but isn’t. Make sure to add a lot of detailed instructions on how to care for the plant. For added effect, put a handful of potting soil in the container!
Unless your Best Man has a PhD in agriculture, it might be quite easy to fool them. Sure they’ll figure it out eventually, but why not make really creative Best Man gifts by adding the following “plant care” instructions:

1) This plant requires at least one hour of cold temperatures every day. Place in a plastic bag and leave in the freezer for only one hour each day.

2) Fertilize regularly. Coffee grounds work best.

3) Keep the leaves free of dust by carefully wiping each leaf with a damp cloth. This should be done two or three times a day.

4) Once every two days, take the plant completely out of the pot, change the soil, reposition the plant, and pack down neatly.

5) Water as required.

Let’s face it, your Best Man probably won’t go through all of those steps, but if they do, they’ll soon figure out the joke. Just to see the initial look on their faces is worth a laugh!

POST COURTESY OF WEDDING LIFE TIPS

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It’s been a while since we added some decent videos about wedding dresses, so we thought we spend some time check through YouTube to help you find some nice wedding dress ideas.

Inspiration for your wedding dress can easily come from flicking through magazines or visiting wedding dress shops, but there are plenty of ideas to be found on video searches too.
This clip is a collection of new styles for 2010. Enjoy.

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A classic example of “Bridezilla” is caught on CCTV cameras after a bride entered a wedding shop to purchase a dress.
The shocking video clip shows the angry bride-to-be trashing the store after a bust-up with the staff.

To see the CCTV footage in full -> Bride starts wedding shop brawl

Wedding Shop owner Hekmay Putruss asked the lady to leave the store, after some “bad-mouthing” the confrontation ended with an almighty brawl, all down to the fact a staff member refused to make alterations to the ladies’ wedding dress.

Mr Putruss said “She started threatening me, saying ‘you don’t know who I am, I’ll call my husband to kill you, to teach everyone here a lesson’.”

Shortly after, three men arrived at the wedding shop, whilst it was filled with customers, and shoved Mr Putruss into a display cabinet, then tackled him to the floor.

Bridal mannequins were used as weapons in the shop in Oakland County, Michigan, USA. When police arrived at the store, all three men were arrested and later charged with assault.

No matter how stressful your wedding planning is becoming, we’re sure they’d be no brides from Essex who would react in such a manner.
For easy wedding planning, including finding a suitable wedding dress shop in Essex, visit our main website via the links on the right hand side.

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We get lots of emails here at Essex Wedding Services, we get a lot of junk too, but every now and then we get an email that we can’t wait to share with our readers on the blog, so today we’d like to tell you about the Breast Cancer Campaign, and their Pink Ribbon Wedding Favours idea.

Breast Cancer Campaign is encouraging all brides to be to help beat breast cancer by treating their guests to one of its pink ribbon pin badges.
These delightful sparkly pin badges can add a unique touch to your wedding day, and of course you’ll be helping one of the best charities around by funding vital breast cancer research.

There are currently three different pink breast cancer pins available, including the charity’s pink ribbon, jigsaw style pins or an elegant pink ribbon diamante style.
Also, should you decide to have these pin badges as your wedding favours, Breast Cancer Campaign will provide you with small place cards for your tables, to inform your wedding guests of your charitable donation.

Of course, those of you feeling strongly about this great charity, can also ask wedding guests to donate to them, instead of buying wedding gifts.
Not only can you support the charity with these pin badges, but they can also supply you with balloons, banners and invitation cards, that is, as long as you want them all in pink !
All three different pin badges make perfect wedding favours from a great charity.

For more information or to purchase any of the charity’s merchandise, please call 020 7749 3709, email akelly@breastcancercampaign.org or visit the Cancer Research UK Wedding Favours website

If you’re looking for other ways to make charitable donations for your wedding day, then please take a look at Special Moments Bridal Wear shop in Collier Row, near Romford which is run by Saint Francis Hospice. They supply bridal and evening wear, with all profits going to the hospice.

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10 of the best wedding movies of all time

OK, so we’re not professional movie reviewers, but if you’re in the middle of your wedding planning, there is nothing better then to chill out and watch a great wedding movie, so for those who are wondering which is the best, here’s a list of 10 if the best wedding movies of all time.

Four Weddings and a Funeral
Ok, so this one is a little about funerals as well as wedding, but hey, Hugh Grant is at his bumbling best in this feel-good farce about whether or not to tie the knot. British filmmakers showed Hollywood how to make quality a romantic comedy movie and Oscar nominations soon followed.

The Wedding Singer
Possibly the most fun and romantic wedding movie of them all, Adam Sandler plays the Wedding Singer and Drew Barrymore a waitress, they first meet at someone else’s wedding where they are both working. They soon meet again, when Barrymore is making plans for her own wedding, even though deep inside she feels that she’s “settling” for security rather then true love. Meanwhile Sandler finds out about the two-timing groom to be, when the he starts to brag about his adventures with every sexy girl that comes his way. Secretly in love with Barrymore, Sandler eventually sweeps her off her feet. Cracking 80′s soundtrack makes this a must see.

The Wedding Planner
The wonderfully sexy Jennifer Lopez portrays a successful wedding planner in Manhatten who is successful in her career but apparently unlucky in love. That is of course until she meets with her knight in shining armour (Matthew McConaughey). The only problem here is that Matthew is getting married to one of her new wedding planning clients and she may very well be doomed to a loveless life married to some loser from high school who used to pick on her.

My Best Friend’s Wedding
A 28-year-old woman (Julia Roberts), years earlier made a pact with her closest male friend (Dermot Mulroney) that if neither were married in the next ten years time they would marry one another. However, he ends up asking her to be his “best man” and she agrees, planning to go to the ceremony and then break up the couple before they exchange their vows.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Great fun, this movie is centered on Fotoula “Toula” Portokalos, a Greek-American woman, who falls in love with a non-Greek protestant fellow, Ian Miller.
Toula is going through an early midlife crisis. At thirty, she is the only woman in her family who has “failed”: her family expects her to “marry a Greek, have Greek babies and feed everyone, constantly.” Instead, Toula is stuck working in the family restaurant. In contrast to her “perfect” sister, Athena, Toula is frumpy and cynical. She fears she’s doomed to be stuck with her life as it is.

Father of the Bride
Steve Martin stars as George Banks, a wealthy upper-class businessman living in Suburban America with a gentle wife (played by Diane Keaton) and feisty son. His oldest daughter has finally grown up and departed the family home, and the day she comes home with a fiancée the father literally has a panic attack. Steve Martin plays the role of the father losing his only daughter brilliantly. Funny, warm and enjoyable to the end.

Muriel’s Wedding
The movie is about Muriel (Toni Collette), an ugly-duckling character, and her one motivation in life – to get married. Her motivation arises from the fact that all of her friends from high-school, the ones she tries so hard to fit in with, are walking up the aisle. Muriel thinks she finally has her chance when the bouquet from one of her friend’s wedding lands in her hands. The movie is well-backed by an ABBA soundtrack that fits the theme rather appropriately.

Runaway Bride
Another Julia Roberts wedding movie, where she plays a spirited and attractive young woman who has had a number of unsuccessful relationships. Maggie, scared of commitment, has left three men waiting for her in church on their wedding day (all of which are caught on tape), receiving tabloid fame and the dubious nickname “Runaway Bride”. Big shot reporter Ike Graham (played by Richard Gere), writes a column about her that contains several factual errors, and is fired for not verifying his sources. He then decides to write an in-depth article about Maggie in a bid to get his job back by travelling to Maryland, where he finds her on her fourth attempt to become married.

27 Dresses
While working the wedding beat for a New York newspaper, Kevin crosses paths with perennial bridesmaid Jane, who has stood beside 27 brides as she has waited patiently for Mr. Right to come around. Jane loves, her boss George, but can’t work up the courage to tell him. Then Jane’s younger sister, Tess, blows into town. She is introduced to George by Jane at a company party, and they immediately hit it off. Weeks later, they’re engaged to be married, and Tess asks Jane to be her maid of honor .

Corpse Bride
Perhaps not your traditional bridal movie, but still worth a mention in our 10 best wedding movies of all time – Set in a 19th century European village, young Victor is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride, while his real bride, Victoria, waits bereft in the land of the living. Though life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love. Even the kids find this tale great fun to watch.

So there you have it, our list of 10 of the best wedding movies of all time. Got any more you want to add or comment on, if so, leave your comments below.

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For those of you who have never heard of DJ Mike Porter then you probably aren’t really from Essex at all. Mike is a (now retired) wedding DJ and more well known for his shows on Southend Radio, Essex FM, Time FM and probably more radio shows around Essex that we can’t be bothered to research ourselves at the moment.

Anyway, Mike is now making movies, as well as holding down his day job on Southend Radio, and here is a recent clip from a Channel Five show called My Wedding Day Ruined my Life.

“Absolutely anything can go wrong at a wedding, from the groom getting caught with his pants down, to a bar room brawl, and whatever happens you can guarantee that the trusty wedding DJ will be there to witness it…”

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This is our first post of 2010, and it’s been a crazy start to the year. After a fairly quiet December with not too much going on, 2010 has started with a huge bang, plenty of new businesses have already listed their services with us meaning we’re offering more and more options for the brides and grooms of Essex to plan their perfect wedding – and judging by our stats, there are an awful lot of people planning their weddings at the moment.

Perhaps there was a flurry of engagements in Essex over the Christmas period, if you got engaged then just complete the little form to join our mailing list so we can tell you about any special offers that our services have for 2010.

If you’re planning your wedding, and are daunted by the thought of saving up for your wedding budget, then consider something similar to this crazy couple from the States. Pete and Andrea are on a mission, to save up for their wedding that they are planning for July this year, but they are doing it slightly differently by collecting aluminium cans to claim the recycling refund that their state offers for each can.

Andrea Parrish, 25, and Peter Geyer, 29, from Washington, have already collected more than 18,000 cans which are currently sitting in their living room. The couple said: “Saving the environment and throwing a killer party… what could be better?”
Their target is 400,000 cans, and have accepted cans as gifts from well wishers – if they reach their target they will have collected around 5 tonnes of aliminum sitting in their house, an expect to earn around $3800 (£2375) for their efforts.

The pair have even set up their own website to help advertise their mission, so if you’re feeling generous, or just want to have a nose at such a great story, their website is www.weddingcans.com

I’m sure there are plenty of weird and wacky ways to save some money for your wedding day, so if you think you’ve heard of a better one then complete the form below and let us know.

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