Introductory Guide to Honeymoons

Many overestimate the cost of a good honeymoon – as a travel consultant I get many money conscious couples in my office restricted by the unruly cost of their big day leaving little to budget towards their romantic getaway. I feel like a counsellor at times as I put a halt to a brewing argument about just how far they are willing to break the budget to embark upon the travels of their dreams. I promise you this does not have to be the case, if you find the right dedicated agent who truly understands what experiences you seek to gain from your honeymoon, you will take that exact romantic journey you have been dreaming of and most importantly at the right price!

A key to a good travel agent is finding one that you can trust, one that will help keep within your budget, not encourage you to go over so their commission levels look good for the month. If you can find an agent that is honest, knowledgeable and offers to be by your side every step of the journey (and they are out there) then you can be sure that your honeymoon will meet both yours and the bank accounts standards. Further to this, there is nothing worse than travelling blind, if you feel nervous about your itinerary or if something should go wrong before or during your travels make sure you speak up and ask lots of questions, by no means should your agent leave you feeling alone. This comes back to just how important it is put your trust in the hands of the right travel agent, one that makes you feel comfortable, confident and leaves no questionable gaps in your itinerary.

As your personal travel guru, my promise to you is to seek out a wide range of honeymoon ideas with specific suggested itineraries to meet the needs of not only you budget conscious couples but those who generally  are stuck for travel ideas. Whether you desire a luxurious or backpackers experience, an active or relaxing experience, whether it be by air, land or sea and everything in between I will guide you every step of the way. My passion is travel, and with a degree in tourism and event management, you can be sure that I am dedicated to helping you live out your honeymoon dreams.

Stay posted for a new and unique suggested itinerary each month with specific hotels, tours, cruises and sightseeing ideas. In the meantime if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Warmest Regards & Happy Travels

Yasmin x

Should we write our own vows?

If I had a dollar for every time couples asked me this question, let’s just say I would be lying on a beach in the Bahamas sipping a cocktail.

There is really no right or wrong answer to this question and it is honestly nothing more than a consideration of what kind of person you are and if you feel confident with words and your ability to deliver them in front of a live audience. One thing that I have definitely noticed is that the ladies are always far more eager to take on this task than the gentlemen. Why? I really have no idea but for some reason it almost always seems to be the case all but for a few exceptions.

When I sit down to put together a ceremony with a couple, the vows is always the section that takes us the longest to work through. There are lots of options and different methods of delivery and it’s often hard to decide in advance what your level of confidence will be like on the day.

The easiest way to do this is to break it down into 2 sections and they are Delivery and Content:

Firstly, Delivery:           Do you want to repeat them after the celebrant or priest?

                                    Read them from a card or

                                    Recite them from memory

Making a decision about which method of delivery you will use greatly affects your content but we will look at that in a moment.

Secondly, Content:       Do you want to write something personal from the heart

                                    Choose a standard vow (modern or traditional)

                                    Adapt/reword a standard vow or one personally written
                                    by someone else

Choosing a particular mode of delivery directly affects your choice of content due to the fact that if you really want to repeat the words after the Celebrant/Priest then 2-3 lines is about the maximum length you can use. Something personally written is usually not a good choice in this instance because it tends to be longer than 2-3 lines and does not come across well to guests. Vows longer than 2-3 lines are not pleasant when repeated because as you can imagine the guests feel like they are watching a tennis match, celebrant says a couple words, bride repeats the words, celebrant says a couple more words, Bride repeats and so on and on and on and then it’s the grooms turn to do it all over again!

Repeat:

 If you choose the option repeating after the Celebrant/Priest, by far the best idea is to choose either a short standard Vow or a personal Vow that is no longer than about 3 lines in length (including the legal wording).

Read:

 If you are happy to read your Vows from a card then you are free to write anything you want as long as you ensure that the approx 2 lines that the Commonwealth stipulate must be said in order for your marriage to be valid (your celebrant or priest will discuss this with you).

Handy Hint: If you decide to write your own vows then a great thing to bring it all to life is to write your vows to each other secretly and submitted them to the Celebrant/Priest separately so that the other does not know what will be said on the day. This is wonderful and adds an element of excitement for you as the couple on the day. I have seen this leave couples sobbing when the words are spoken.

Recite: The final option is to recite your vows from memory. When I got married years nearly 13 years ago I remember the Deacon who married us saying that we MUST learn our vows because it is the one thing that we have to do for ourselves on the day. I understand his point about the fact that each person should make the effort to at least remember what they want to say to the other, but in all honesty it ruined my experience of my ceremony because I was so petrified of forgetting the vows that it was all I could think about or concentrate on rather than really enjoying my wedding day and having all of my family and friends together.

Since then I have only ever had two couples who were absolutely sure that they wanted to recite their vows from memory and they were practising right up until the last moment and ………. in both cases I ended up having to prompt them through it. It is not because they just suddenly forgot, it is because it is very difficult to anticipate how powerful it is standing up there and the rollercoaster of emotions that is consuming you as you look at each other with all of your loved ones looking on.

My final bit of info on this topic is just a small caution. If you are going to write your own vows and especially if you are going to keep them secret, MAKE SURE that you are on the same page in terms of the tone. For example I had a couple who submitted their vows separately and while his was a full page of gushing about how divine his beautiful bride to be was and how he had fallen in love with her from the instant he saw her, when I read her vows my heart almost skipped a beat. Her vows were a hilarious account of their life together and all of his bad habits that disgusted her and drove her crazy and how she loved him for it. Both were great stories, but it would have been a disaster for him to give his loving speech only for her to follow with her comedy routine.

When deciding on what to choose for your vows, talk to each other about it and try to find an option that you are both comfortable with. A good Celebrant or Priest will always have a stack of options and ideas so rely on their expertise to guide you in the right direction.

If you have any problems or questions at all, feel free to comment and I am more than happy to help.

Regards

Susan

Welcome to the very first blog for Wedding Guru’s!

We hope that you find this blog not just entertaining, but informative and helpful and above all that we are able to use our expertise to help you in any way that we can.

We have set out to try to do something a little different with this blog and within the blogging world of the wedding industry. So how are we different you are probably wondering? Because rather than just blogging about up and coming events, reporting on what dresses people are wearing and what the latest trend of wedding shoes are, we are actually bringing together three resident bloggers, each with expertise in a certain area of the wedding industry. We hope to create an amazing blog that is able to answer ANY question you may have about your big day.

Let me introduce you to the team:

My name is Susan and I am a practising Commonwealth appointed Civil Marriage Celebrant. I have been a Celebrant for 5 years and in that time I have had the pleasure and blessing of having conducted all different types of ceremonies including weddings, baby namings, commitment ceremonies, funerals and anything else that has been requested by one of my clients. The stranger the better! Over the coming blogs I am going to take you on a tour of ‘everything ceremony’. What I mean by this is that I will be posting blogs on everything to do with how to create the most amazing ceremony. From the short and sweet ceremony to the most extravagant ceremony that includes everything a fairy princess has always dreamt of, music, mood, location and of course Content and legal requirements. I am an expert in the area of rituals in ceremony and with my clients permission I hope to be sharing some of these with you as we go along. I am lucky enough to be one of only a select few of celebrants contracted by a prominent TAFE college to provide Ongoing Professional Development to other Marriage Celebrants. Check out my full profile on our ‘about’ page.

Yasmin is on board as our resident travel and honeymoon guru, with a thriving career as a travel agent she has hot tips on the absolute best destinations in the world. Yasmin will be posting blogs on how to get the best deals on your honeymoon, secret tips on how to get upgraded and how to ensure that you get the honeymoon of your dreams within that dreaded budget. After all who doesn’t need a great holiday after planning a wedding? Yasmin also has a degree in Events Management and will be available at your beck and call for advice on any questions you might have about venue, set up and co-ordination of your big event.

Tracy the photographer extraordinaire, will be providing us with fantastic tips on how to get the best wedding photos you could imagine. Wedding photography is something that is a huge cost to brides and grooms and Tracy will be really focussing on how to get those all elusive amazing snaps on a budget. She will also be looking at venue choices for background shots and the classic pics that you want to make sure that you get. Tracy is also a Reiki master and EFT practitioner and she will from time to time be providing us with valuable tips on how to get yourself into a state of total and utter stress free contentment for your big day. Planning a wedding can be a massively stressful event in your life so it’s imperative that you have some strategies in place to deal with this.

So that’s us in a nutshell, but if you would like to see our full profiles head over to our ‘about’ page and have a little look.

At wedding Guru’s we will make you one promise:

We will answer any question that you throw at us about your big day and if we don’t know the answer we will find it for you!

So until we meet again Happy Planning!

The Wedding Guru’s

 

Planning and Hire Adelaide SA

A Moment in Time Planning and Hire

Northern Suburbs, Adelaide

"Turning your event dreams into a beautiful reality"

ph: 0423 229 525

web: www.amomentintimehire.com

_________________________________________________________________________________

Wishing Well Wedding Hire

4 Dashwood Rd, Beaumont SA 5066

ph: 0416 201 722

La Vianto Wedding Candelabra Hire

26 Cummins Drv, Summertown SA 5141

ph: (08) 8390 1079

Jag Wedding & Party Accessories Hire

72 William St, Norwood SA 5067

ph: (08) 8364 4497

Dazzling Decor Hire & Wedding Supplies

Shop 103 Glynville Drive, Hackham West SA 5163

ph: (08) 8382 0773

Adelaide's Wanderer Wedding Hire

Enfield SA 5085

ph: (08) 8260 2557

Statesman Wedding & Hire Cars

Prospect SA 5082

ph: (08) 8344 8205

Southside Wedding & Hire Cars

Glenelg SA 5045

ph: (08) 8294 5771

V.I.P. Wedding & Hire Cars

PO Box 252, Mitcham SA 5062

ph: 0409 092 803

Adelaide Wedding & Hire Cars

Prospect SA 5082

ph: (08) 8344 3557

Style & Grace Wedding Function Hire

Smithfield SA 5114

ph: 0408 834 469

Diamond Wedding Plannners

PO Box 677, Brooklyn Park SA 5032

ph: 0413 624 277

 

Wedding Planners SA

Strathaird Blv, Smithfield SA 5114

ph: 0410 386 452

Belinda's Wedding Planner

15 Wilkins St, Enfield SA 5085

ph: 0402 259 983

Wedding Whispers

Glynde SA 5070

ph: 0411 981 661

Wedding Designs

Hyde Park SA 5061

ph: 1800 223 933

Wedding Girl App

Belair SA 5052

ph: 0414 618 433

Fairytale Wedding Decorating

Elliston SA 5670

ph: (08) 8687 0450

 

Adelaide Wedding Decor

24 Caloundra Drv, Paralowie SA 5108

ph: (08) 8250 2668

 

Crystal's Dream Wedding Bar

31 Kirrawee Drv, Redwood Park SA 5097

ph: 0466 320 102

Online Wedding Boutique

Lockleys SA 5032

ph: 1300 766 829

 

Anton Wedding Decor

97 Regency Rd, Croydon Park SA 5008

ph: (08) 8340 8261

 

The Wedding Organisers

7 Humber Crt, Happy Valley SA 5159

ph: (08) 8322 8564

Expressions Wedding Stationery

Toorak Gardens SA 5065

ph: (08) 8364 3702

The Wedding Flower Room

336 Findon Rd, Kidman Park SA 5025

ph: 0405 694 346

ISHO Lifetime Wedding

Croydon Park SA 5008

ph: 0413 564 380

Adelaide Wedding Pages

PO Box 101, O'Halloran Hill SA 5158

ph: (08) 8381 3063

SA Wedding And Party Entertainment

PO Box 461, Fullarton SA 5063

ph: 0417 316 911

Star Dust Wedding & Events

39 Gleenson Gr, Evanston Park SA 5116

ph: 0433 476 156

Wedding & Event Management Services

Lucindale SA 5272

ph: 0428 832 273

 

Middleton Rob Wedding Arrangement, Engagement & Special Occasions

9 Venlo Crt, Salisbury Downs SA 5108

ph: (08) 8285 9699

Event Planning Services

PO Box 1021, Campbelltown SA 5074

ph: 0414 342 901

Budget Party Hire

2 Starr Ave, North Plympton SA 5037

ph: (08) 8294 0225

Blue Lake Hire

135 Gordon St, Naracoorte SA 5271

ph: (08) 8762 3038

Dazzling Decor hire

Shop 103 Glynville Drv, Hackham West SA 5163

ph: (08) 8384 2126

Shiell Party Hire

37 Rudall Ave, Whyalla Playford SA 5600

ph: (08) 8645 3687

Limestone Coast Party Hire

8 Calula Drv, Mt Gambier SA 5290

ph: (08) 8725 1290

A. Able Party Hire

Oakden SA 5086

ph: (08) 8261 2770

Festival Hire
 

45 Ledger Rd, Beverley SA 5009

ph: (08) 8244 9180

Derringers Hire Equipment

66- 68 Leader St, Forestville SA 5035

ph: (08) 8371 1884

Jukebox Party Hire

Windsor Gardens SA 5087

ph: (08) 8262 8615

Holland Party Hire

9 Aberdeen Crs, Findon SA 5023

ph: (08) 8445 7829
 

EZ Event Hire

10 Prescott Cres, Gawler Belt SA 5118

ph: (08) 8522 4664
 

Aussie Party Hire

Beverley SA 5009

ph: (08) 8347 1989

Rite Party Hire

Shop 7/ 865 North East Rd, Modbury SA 5092

fax: (08) 8395 8589

Barossa Function Hire

59 Tanunda Rd, Nuriootpa SA 5355

ph: (08) 8562 3399
 

Down South Party Hire

42 O'Sullivan Beach Rd, Lonsdale SA 5160

ph: (08) 8326 3531

SA Party Hire

Waterloo Corner SA 5110

ph: (08) 8380 9666

Blackwood Party Hire

5 Gulfview Rd, Blackwood SA 5051

ph: (08) 8370 0094

All Party Hire

Henley Beach SA 5022

ph: (08) 8235 2316

Reno's Mobile Coolroom Hire

Paralowie SA 5108