Choosing your venue is one of the hardest choices you’re faced with when planning a big event like your wedding, and if you’re considering a religious or spiritual ceremony first, it can make the decision even tougher – do you have both in the same venue? If not, should they be near each other? And how are guests going to travel from one to the other? While you might have a very clear image in your head of your perfect venue, it’s very hard not to be influenced by other people’s views and expectations. Here are some tips to follow to make choosing your perfect venue that bit easier:
1. Start with the guest list
Practicalities here: if you’re just in the rough stages of planning and your guest list is already hitting the hundreds, you might need to compromise on the intimate candlelit venue you have in mind. Or if you’re staying with a family-and-close-friends vibe, you might not want to be rattling around in a huge country barn or festival-sized marquee. Most wedding venues are flexible and super-helpful, with many very happy to make the odd adjustments here and there – additional chairs to accommodate more guests, or perhaps an alternative dining room or hall for fewer numbers – but check websites, social accounts and reviews to give you an idea.
2. Be realistic with your budget
Be realistic with your expectations, but remember most venues will have a variety of different packages to suit different budgets. If you’ve got your heart set on somewhere in particular, the venue’s events manager or wedding planner will be able to suggest some ways where you can save money without compromising on your day: perhaps you can serve grazing platters or canapes to your evening guests rather than a meal, or choose a midweek or evening wedding. Venues like Brocket Hall for example, set in over 500 acres of leafy Hertfordshire countryside, provide a variety of different options from the Oak Room at the Melbourne Club, situated on the grounds of a breathtaking lake, or the smaller Auberge du Lac, another stunning venue suitable for a smaller gathering.
3. Location, location, location
Your guests will travel for you, but making things easy for them will mean you can relax and enjoy your day without worrying about guests getting lost and desperately contacting you for directions. If you choose to have a ceremony is in a separate location to your main wedding venue, that’s absolutely fine – just make sure it’s super-clear on your invite or wedding site, along with any travel times between the venues and details of public transport, Uber coverage or a taxi number. I remember at least a few guests at my wedding checking into the venue hotel then settling in for a drink at the bar, before realising our ceremony was in a church 20 minutes away – resulting in a mad dash across the countryside and a pint or two that had to wait till later!
4. Keep an open mind
Some couples know exactly where they want to host their big day from the moment they announce their engagement, while others spend months and months deciding. Many end up choosing a venue that’s worlds apart from what they originally had in mind. Just like when you’re buying a house, sometimes it’s the smaller details that are the deciding factor: maybe you love the way the natural light falls in your venue or perhaps there’s a focal point in the grounds that you think would make the most beautiful backdrop for your wedding photos.
5. Consider what works with the seasons
Some venues naturally lend themselves to certain seasons: a manor house with a beautifully-kept lawn provides a stunning backdrop for a midsummer wedding, or a gastropub’s oak-beamed room with a roaring log fire offers warmth and atmosphere for a chilly winter wedding. Other venues work all year round in ways you might not have expected. I’m lucky enough to photograph weddings at Kew Botanical Gardens, and it’s fascinating to see the changing seasons and the impact they have on couples’ weddings: although you’d assume spring and summer are the most obvious choices there, the softer colours, changing light and warmer hues of autumn and winter also create a really special day.
6. Be creative – and ask friends and family to help
Still can’t find what you had in mind? Get creative. Look for quirky and unusual spaces to hire; consider renting furniture to create your own style, from jewel-coloured sofa and reclaimed wood tables to LED colour-changing bars and dance floor hire ; and check pre-loved sites for vintage décor finds. Alternatively, keep it hassle-free and hire an events company to take care of it all for you!
Choosing to have your wedding photos printed and supplied in a wedding album or provided in digital format can be one of the hardest decisions you face when you’re planning your big day.
Digital photos can mean flexibility, choice and an opportunity for you to create incredible, engaging content for your social channels and for you to share with family and friends quickly and easily. Printed photos supplied in a beautiful album are timeless, classic and a gorgeous memento of your big day. There are benefits to both types of format – but how do you choose? Here are a few points to consider to make the decision a bit easier for you.
How are you planning on sharing your photos? Many couples love the flexibility of images provided purely in digital format. I will provide you with an agreed number of images based on the package you’ve chosen, and will provide you with a password-protected site for you to download the images. It’s quick and easy for you to download the ones you love the most. You can then use them to create your own content – gorgeous reels, beautiful posts and stunning stories – and you can share them with guests via a link or you can upload them to your own wedding website. It’s also really special – and nostalgic - to receive display-ready printed photos, perhaps for parents or grandparents who may want to proudly add you to their wall-of-fame. I have my own trusted suppliers who will print the photos for them, to their highest standards with proper colour correction, so you know you’re going to get the best quality images that will last.
How quickly do you want them? Whether you choose digital or printed photos will also depend on how fast you need them. There’s nothing like that feeling of being on your honeymoon somewhere tropical with a chilled glass in your hand, looking through the photos together on your ipad and reliving the day you spent months and months planning. Printed photos naturally take longer, and if you order a wedding album you’ll need to allow time for me to receive the album and carefully put together your prints to retell the story of your day, but you’d see the digital copies sooner so you’d get the best of both worlds.
Where are you planning on storing them? Make sure you have somewhere you can store digital copies safely and securely – cloud storage is perfect, just check your subscription, storage and renewal date. You don’t want to have your cloud storage removed because you haven’t updated your bank details, for example. I will have copies but you might have to pay a retrieval fee if years go buy and you decide you need them again – some will waive this, but a retrieval fee is definitely something I’ve seen before among photographers. If you’re ordering a printed album, it will take up a lot of shelf space, but it’s a keepsake you’ll have forever.
What’s your budget? Printed photos in a wedding album are more costly than digital copies – expect to pay £500-£900 for an album of prints - but established photographers will have their own suppliers whom they know and trust, whose albums are superior quality to those that can be found cheaper. A good photographer will know a supplier that meets your values and ethics, so if you prefer vegan leather or you want a particular colour, let them know – there’s no need to compromise on style and quality. Ask your photographer to show you examples of ‘real wedding’ albums they’ve put together so you can see the quality of the albums they provide. This way you can discover their storytelling skills, too: an album should tell the story of your day exactly as it unfolded. My couples love the longevity and tangibility of an album – some are lucky enough to have their own memories of leafing through dusty pages of parents’ and even grandparents’ wedding albums, and want their children to have the same opportunity to follow their parents’ love story.
How busy are you – really? Some of my couples initially ask for digital-only format, intent on getting them printed themselves and ordering and creating their own album. But life gets in the way, they’re incredibly busy and before they know it, months – even years – have passed, and it’s still on their household admin list. I know exactly how this feels: my wife and I got married, relocated from London and had a premature baby in the same year. I know for a fact if we’d been provided digital images, they would be backed up somewhere safe but would remain digital until the end of time. Instead, our photographer provided prints in the most beautiful bound album that we leaf through with a glass of fizz on every wedding anniversary, sometimes joined by our elderly parents (lamenting how young everyone looks) and sometimes joined by the children (the reason for how much older we look!).
What would you genuinely prefer? Ultimately the decision is yours, and I will be there to chat to and help you decide which package is right for you. If you’re looking for a visual story of your wedding day, a photo album is a timeless choice. If you’d prefer the flexibility and ‘shareability’ of digital prints, go for a digital-only option. Don’t forget many photographers will offer a ‘mix and match’ package with digital and print, and if you see the digital prints and realise you just don’t have the time to put together an album yourself, a good photographer would be delighted to put one together for you.
Five tips to choosing the most unforgettable wedding flowers
Selecting exquisite wedding flowers can quickly change from being one of the most enjoyable tasks on your to-do list to one of the most confusing and overwhelming. How do you know what’s in season? Which flowers are within in your budget? Which blue flowers are in season for a February wedding (spoiler alert – try blue muscari)? When did Lily-of-the-Valley get so expensive? What’s the difference between a posy and a bouquet? And are there really 300 species of roses?
Here are five tips to help you guarantee beautiful blooms that provide the most perfect backdrop for your day:
Selecting a wedding menu should be one of the most enjoyable and straightforward parts of your planning, right? Just choose a caterer, pick a few options from their menu – maybe have a leisurely afternoon tasting the very best they have to offer - and book them.
In reality, crafting a delicious and memorable menu that you and your partner adore, that accommodates every guest's dietary needs, fits the style and theme of your venue, and doesn’t blow your budget can feel like an impossible task.
I’m lucky enough to have 20+ years of experience photographing some of the UK's most breathtaking weddings, and have spent time chatting to many incredible caterers. I’ve pulled together what I’ve learned to create this checklist to help make wedding menu planning a little easier for you. Follow these tips to rediscover the joy of menu selection, so you and your guests can look forward to memorable dishes that delight every palate.
Involve your caterers in your vision: they’re the pros, it’s not their first gig – involve them, ask them for their advice and suggestions. Find out what other couples have chosen at your venue, ask them for sample menus, and if you have your heart set on something, tell them. Likewise if there’s something you can’t bear, let them know. Make sure they’re kept informed of guest numbers, too.
Keep it seasonal and local: if your wedding menu is guided by the seasons and uses locally-sourced food, you won’t go far wrong. Comfort food is a welcome antidote to a chilly winter’s day – think warmly spiced dishes, hearty roasts and root veg – while summer is the perfect backdrop for lighter dishes with an abundance of veg, salad leaves and fresh herbs in season. Your caterer can let you know what’s likely to be in season and will talk you through their suppliers.
Be adventurous, and don’t be influenced by anyone else: if your Mum says the wedding breakfast must have a fish starter, then a chicken main, then a chocolate pudding – you don’t have to listen.
How does it fit with the rest of your day? Maybe you’ve got Bollywood dancing or a Ceilidh planned, and you don’t want your guests sitting down to multiple courses for hours, so grazing tables from earlier in the day would work better. Or how about lighter self-serve options, and a candlelit sit-down dinner later in the evening?
Choose festival-style food vans for quirkiness: queuing for sugar-crusted hot doughnuts or mozzarella-laden pizza slices at a wedding is a world apart from festival fare – it’s fun, hassle-free and a great way for guests to get to know each other. And it doesn’t have to be unhealthy: create-your-own salad vans, smoothie bars and frozen yogurt trucks with add-your-own-topping-selections are great options.
Consider something striking as a sharing centrepiece: a centrepiece on each table which requires guests to dig in, to help themselves or serve each other can be a fantastic, interactive experience and complements an informal, relaxed wedding. Try an antipasto starter, or a fragrant paella served in a cast-iron paella pan for jaw-dropping drama.
Make it personal: the menu should reflect you both as a couple. Maybe one of you cooked an incredible dish in your early days of dating; maybe there’s a dish you both loved on a favourite holiday today, or perhaps you both have family favourites from your childhood that are meaningful to you. Tell your caterers, and ask if they can recreate them.
Know your guests: make it easy for guests to let you know their dietary preferences well in advance and give them a deadline for the information, to help the caterers. Add a section on your RSVP, or on your wedding website, and highlight allergens on any printed menus. Discuss any allergies with your caterers and inform event staff. It’s also worth asking staff their process in the event of an emergency – not to sound dramatic, just to be sure that everyone can relax and enjoy themselves on the day
The past few years have seen weddings shift towards eco-friendly, sustainable practices and materials. With the average carbon footprint of a wedding estimated at 60 metric tons of CO2 emissions - compared with the average person’s carbon footprint estimated at around 16 metric tons a year - it’s easy to see why sustainability is a top priority for couples in 2025.
Here are six ways to reduce your wedding’s carbon footprint and to make sure your event doesn’t cost the earth:
Travel
Don’t be afraid to tell guests you’re trying to reduce your carbon footprint, and make it easy for them to make sustainable choices. Encourage lift shares and provide information on public transport links on your wedding website or in your invitations.
If your venue isn’t near public transport links, hiring a vintage bus for your guests to take from nearby railway stations is a great way to ramp up the excitement while reducing the need for guests to travel to your venue individually.
Energy use and recycling practices at your venue
Speak to your venue about ways they can help you reduce energy use; they’re likely to have their own Net Zero goals and they’ll be able to make suggestions around timing and use of rooms – if the room with the DJ and dancefloor is separate to where your wedding breakfast will be held, they can manage timings for you so the DJ and any lights and effects only begin once guests filter out from the meal. Ask your venue what recycling facilities they have in place and think about whether you need to provide options for your guests to recycle – paper towels in bathrooms, for example.
Catering
Choosing local suppliers and locally-sourced food and drink supports the local community as well as helping to reduce to carbon emissions generated by food and drink transportation costs. Selecting a seasonal menu also helps. Your caterers will advise you on the most sustainable ways for your food and drink to be served. Choose glass water bottles only on tables; you can buy and reuse gorgeous retro cordial bottles from The Range and Homesense, while Belu is a UK-based company that focuses on sustainability and offers mineral water in glass bottles, as well as donating 100% of their net profits to WaterAid.
Wedding favours
There are so many options you can get creative and provide sustainable wedding favours that will delight your guests. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Plantable Seed Paper: Give your guests plantable seed paper hearts or cards that will sprout wildflowers when planted. It's a beautiful way to remember your special day
Reusable Tote Bags: Provide guests with reusable tote bags made from natural cotton. These can be personalised with your wedding date and a special message
Bee-Friendly Seed Packets: Packets of wildflower seeds that attract bees and butterflies are a lovely, eco-friendly favour.
Soy Wax Candles: Opt for candles made from soy wax, which is a natural and renewable resource. You can choose scents that match your wedding theme and personalise the labels
Bamboo Straws: Engraved bamboo straws are a practical and eco-friendly gift that helps reduce single-use plastic waste
Succulents: Small potted succulents make for charming and sustainable favours.
Organic Soaps: Handmade organic soaps in various scents are a luxurious and eco-friendly favour. Look for soaps made with natural ingredients and minimal packaging
Locally-made sweets, honey, jams and pickles make fantastic favours
Reusable Water Bottles: Provide guests with BPA-free, stainless steel water bottles that they can use long after the wedding. They’ll help them stay hydrated throughout the day too!
Décor and materials
Visit local markets, antiques stores and charity shops while you’re planning your event, to see what’s out there: you can try salvage yards for reclaimed materials and vintage signs that add character and a sense of fun, and check local and national online marketplaces for features like champagne glass display holders, flower walls and garden games like giant Jenga. If you’re heading off for honeymoon, ask your family to pop back to the venue and bring home flowers and decorations, or encourage staff to take them home after the event.
Bridal party outfits
Thrift shop buys, vintage gowns and suits and natural fabrics are the more sustainable options, but if these are not for you, why not think about renting a gown? There are some fantastic suit hire and wedding-gown rental companies, or to up the glamour stakes you could rent a designer evening gown. You can explore rental options for your bridal party too, removing the ‘Will they wear it again?’ dilemma altogether. Alternatively, choosing colour palettes and encouraging your bridal party to select their own outfits might require a leap of faith on your part, but they’ll be more likely to feel a million dollars in a dress they wear regularly, rather than it languishing in the back of their wardrobe.
What options are you choosing to make your wedding sustainable?