Top Tips For Brides...

1. Work out your budget - it's a good start to have an idea of what you want to spend rather than letting things spiral. It is an important day but it's also worth remembering that it is just a day and it's the years after the wedding that counts with you and OH!

2. Don't be afraid to ask others for help - family, especially like to be involved, even if it's just small things!

1. Take some time to work out what wedding YOU want. Don't be swayed by what your parents had, what your friends have, and what you see in magazines. Make sure it's the right wedding for you, despite what anyone else says. As others have said, a chief cause of interfering mothers is that they never got to have the wedding they wanted, and try to live out their own dreams through their daughters. Time to stop this trend by having the right wedding for you, now.

2. Don't worry about the small stuff. It really really doesn't matter if shades of colours don't match, if someone is sulking about the guest list, or if the cake doesn't turn out like the picture. Exceptions to this rule are the lasting memories, so photos and rings. The rest will be forgotten in time. Can you really remember the centrepieces of every wedding you've been to? Probably not, but you would remember a happy day, a smiling bride etc. You would also remember if the bride were a total stress head and fretting all day about trivialities. Don't be that stressy bride!

3. Don't get into debt. Weddings aren't expensive, they cost £200 ish if you marry at the registry office in clothes you already have, and have no reception. The rest is trimmings, and it's so easy to think you need xyz because everyone else has it, or it's the latest thing in magazines. A case in point is flip flop baskets. Surely adult females are perfectly able to bring suitable footwear to an event where they will be dancing? Naturally, point 1 above does need to be taken into account, so...

... 4. Prioritise. If you want a traditional white wedding, but have a limited budget, something has to give, whether that's guest numbers, venue, length of engagement etc. We made 2 lists, one of factors (date, style, guests etc) and one of items (dress, photos, rings, hair, shoes etc) and gave them all an A, B, or C depending on priority. A meant no compromise, money no object, must have. B was things we would have, but be flexible about, and C was things that would be nice if we had the time, money and enthusiasm for. Lots of As became Bs, and lots of Bs became Cs as I just stopped caring about the details. Prioritising this way also helped me keep a sense of perspective when spending. Yes, expensive shoes may have been nice, but they were a C from the start since the actual wedding was on the beach, barefoot, so I didn't let myself get carried away.

5. Finally, expect things to go wrong. They will, you'll forget stuff, people won't turn up and things may get broken. It won't matter. Trust me, it won't matter a bit. Smile through it, and remember point 2.

Xxx C

I have some more tips that I will be abiding by ....

1. Contact your suppliers the weekend before to confirm everything.

2. Make a contact sheet for the Best Man or someone similar so that they know who to contact if a supplier doesn't show up etc.

3. Warn OH not to disturb me on the day with things going wrong, I'm going to ask that should he be the person contacted that he and his grooms men sort it out as I will be being pampered. On the day, I won't care about anything but me & OH getting married.

4. Timings. This may be OTT for some but I've been BM in the past and not known what time I need to be at brides house, when its my turn to go into hair chair, what time I need to be in my dress to go etc. I'm doing a time sheet and just giving it to the BMs so on the day they can organise themselves and I can sit back and relax and worry about myself only.

Every word of this! The small stuff doesn't matter a hoot!

Don't listen to anyone else. If parents/in laws offer to pay something towards the wedding, make it clear they are contributing only and don't have a say. This seems to be one of the biggest issues I read on this page. You are grown up and therefore CAN have this conversation, no matter how difficult.

I put my foot down with MIL right at the start and she got the idea quickly. Made for a lovely planning experience and a wedding that was exactly what me and OH wanted

Also don't get upset if OH doesn't get too involved. It doesn't mean they don't care.