Practical tips on all things to do with planning a wedding
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Helen Carter Weddings provides bespoke wedding planning throughout London and the South East. We have a wide range of services available, from full wedding co-ordination to venue or supplier sourcing and wedding day management. We’re passionate about creating distinctive and stylish events, and are dedicated to ensuring our clients enjoy a unique, personal and stress-free wedding day.
We love everything to do with weddings, and we’ve created our blog to share advice, ideas and inspiration. We try our very best to credit everything we show both here and on our design boards page. However, if you see something that hasn’t been properly referenced and you know who it belongs to, or you see something that is yours and you would rather it didn’t appear here, please contact us.
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Planner Q&A
In our weekly Wedding Planner Q&A we look at how to deal with common anxieties, questions and problems that often crop up when you’re planning a wedding. Today I’m offering advice on paying for bridesmaids’ outfits.
Do we have to buy the outfits for our bridesmaids? We’re on quite a tight budget and paying for their dresses means we can’t have some of the other things we would like on the day.
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Planner Q&A
In our weekly Wedding Planner Q&A we look at how to deal with common anxieties, questions and problems that often crop up when you’re planning a wedding. Today I’m offering advice on how to deal with distant relatives who expect to be invited to your big day.
I have lots of aunts, uncles and cousins but we don’t really keep in touch and I haven’t seen them for several years. However, since they heard I was getting married they’ve called to say how much they’re looking forward to the wedding. I don’t really want them there as I feel I barely know them – how can I tell them they’re not invited without causing a family rift?
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Posted in HCW News , Planning Advice
Today I’m super-excited to announce that we are now running a special winter offer of 20% off all wedding planning services booked before 31st January 2010 .
Winter is traditionally a time when wedding planning takes a back seat – let’s face it, both time and money are in high demand over the festive season! This means that it can also be a time when you start to feel increasingly stressed about your wedding, particularly if you are getting married in the Spring. Suddenly you’re getting married ‘this year’ and not next, and in the midst of all the Christmas shopping, parties and visiting you still need to find the time to keep on top of your wedding arrangements.
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Planner Q&A
In our weekly Wedding Planner Q&A we look at how to deal with common anxieties, questions and problems that often crop up when you’re planning a wedding, and today we’re looking at how to deal with divorced parents at the wedding.
My parents got divorced some time ago and now both have new partners. They don’t get along at all and I’m worried that they’ll start arguing at the wedding. Do you have any advice as to how we can make sure they don’t ruin our day?
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice
You’ve set a budget, chosen the date and booked your venue. So what’s next? As part of our Planning Advice series we look at some of the different suppliers you may need to hire for your wedding, and offer some of our top tips on how to go about finding the perfect service providers for your wedding day.
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Planner Q&A
In our weekly Wedding Planner Q&A we look at how to deal with common anxieties, questions and problems that often crop up when you’re planning a wedding. Today I’m offering advice on how to tell your guests that children aren’t invited to the wedding.
Lots of our friends and relatives have young children, but we don’t want lots of children running around at our wedding. How can we tell them children aren’t invited without causing offence?
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Planner Q&A
In our weekly Wedding Planner Q&A we look at how to deal with the anxieties, questions and problems that often crop up when you’re planning a wedding, and today I’m offering advice on how to deal with an unhelpful bridesmaid.
I asked my friend to be a bridesmaid when I first got engaged, but she isn’t helping me with any of the planning or providing any of the support I need. She doesn’t seem to have any interest in the wedding and I feel she’s making my life more difficult and stressful. I don’t really want her to be a bridesmaid any more, but how can I tell her without losing her friendship?
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Planner Q&A
Part of my role as a wedding planner is to provide impartial advice on anything relating to a wedding. This is a very emotional time, and it can be easy for worries and concerns to get blown out of proportion and cause huge amounts of distress.
I see these sorts of problems all the time when helping couples plan their wedding, so today I’m launching a new Wedding Planner Q&A series where I’ll offer advice on how to deal with common situations and problems. If you have a question you’d like to share, drop me a line at with “ Wedding Planner Q&A ” as the title, and I’ll be sure to feature it here on the blog. Today we’re dealing with wedding finances…
Our parents are helping us to pay for our wedding, but we’re worried that they might start to take over with the decision making. How can we have them help and still have the wedding we want?
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Venues
Last month we looked at how to start researching prospective wedding venues, and the main things to look for on an initial viewing (see the full post here ). Today we’re going to look in more detail at the questions you may want to ask of a prospective venue, as well as how to understand venue charges and avoid any unexpected extra fees.
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Posted in Design Concepts , Planning Advice
One of my favourite wedding blogs is Abby Larson’s Style Me Pretty , which is jam-packed with gorgeous weddings and design inspiration. If you haven’t already, make sure you pay it a visit, but be sure to allow plenty of time because you will end up swooning at all the beautiful details!
Abby’s recently added a fantastic new feature called the “ Style Circle ”, which includes a tool where you can create your own wedding design boards. I use Photoshop for all of my design concepts, but as not every bride has access to this software (or indeed the patience to use it!) I thought I’d check it out, and here are the results…
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Venues
Once you have decided on a date, drawn up a planning schedule and set your wedding budget , you’re ready to start organising your big day. The first thing on your list is to find a venue – this is a very important decision, so it’s worth taking plenty of time to make sure you find the perfect location. As part of our Planning Advice series, we examine the important questions to ask when considering wedding venues.
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Posted in Planning Advice , Wedding Styling
I think it’s fair to say that almost every bride wants the sun to shine on her wedding day. What, then, if the unthinkable happens and it rains? I came across this beautiful post over on Kiss the Groom , and it totally inspired me to write about how to cope with a wet wedding day. So how can you make sure wet weather doesn’t spoil your big day?
