Vintage Bride Carlye's Tips for a Wonderful Wedding.

Dear Reader, 
Today, we have the last of Carlye's wonderful posts: her tips for future brides...

1. Make sure your day reflects you as an individual and as a couple! Don't do anything because someone else wants you to or because it's what your 'supposed to do'! You and your guests will have a far better time knowing all those big and tiny details reflect you both! 

2. Make sure you have a way of collecting photos in one place such as a website, Instagram etc so you don't miss a moment.
3. Ensure you have an idea of what type of photos you want and who you want in them but also give a bit of time for guest to ask your photographer to take pictures of them so you don't miss a vital group or couple which you may forget in your own personal list! That way you have everyone covered! 
4. Shop around for what you want and stay within your budget. Don't settle for anything less on the big things like your dress, venue, food, photographer if you can – as these are what will make your day! 
5. It's worth spending a bit more on your photographer as this is your record for years to come! Get the best for your budget! 
6. And once you both know what you want, ask family and friends to help where they can. They'll be happy to do it as a wedding present. This will allow everyone to be included and  adds that personal touch, while saving you time and money. 
7. Only invite who you really want and who know you both. Don't feel obliged to invite people's other halves or someone from work or someone you don't know every well. This can be tricky but ultimately it will save you money and ensure you only have your nearest and dearest! Just ask yourself: will we still see each other in 3 ,5, 10 years time? We had everyone we wanted and it felt so much more intimate! 
8. Try not to stress and worry. Ensure you enjoy your day as much as possible. Things may not exactly go to plan but make the best of things – it's your big day and it's never gonna come round again! 
9. Try to see everyone and do everything you planned to get the most from it. But it's important to accept this isn't always possible – and that's ok as long as everyone else enjoyed it! 
10. Try not to be too precious about your dress. Just enjoy it. Don't be afraid to move or eat or dance! It's there to make you look beautiful but for you to also enjoy your day as well. If there's a hiccup – mine got stood on and I caught my sleeve – it can be fixed. Don't panic! 
11. Remember your day is about you both most of all, about enjoying yourself with friends and  family! Capture moments and make memories for years to come. That way, when you're old and wrinkly you can smile and enjoy looking back! 

Thanks so much Carlye – for sharing your brilliant day and all your wisdom. 
Readers... what a girl! 
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

For a snapshot of more gorgeous Real Vintage Brides, 
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Weddingness- Top Ten Wedding-related Websites for Planning

10. Emmaline Bride-Emmaline sometimes has cute posts, but mostly they schlep for a bunch of independent (read- mostly etsy) sellers. If you have something in particular in mind, sometimes you will have better luck starting here and then getting linked over to Etsy.

9. The Perfect Palette- This blog is the best for the very beginning of your wedding planning, when you are trying to figure out exactly what you want the feeling to be. She even organizes her blog by color, so if you have one color that your really love you can start thinking about combos. I personally think that color is the heart of all happiness, so people should really keep it in mind when they are making those big picture decisions in the beginning.
8.WeddingBee-I have to say, I never really navigated WeddingBee as I site on its own, but if you type in an angsty question on Bing, often weddingbee chats will be the first thing to come up. It is nice to realize that other people are going through the same thing, hearing these things won't matter in the long run, and even hearing actual solutions! It helps for making decisions and moving on.

7. Style Me Pretty-  Pretty classic WeddingPorn. Nothing too outside the box, but the photos are beautiful and they put up more than anyone. You can definitely identify the trends by going through the pictures.

6. Love my Dress wedding blog-Great British wedding blog- since they are European, you of course can count on them to be super fancy and fashion forward. This blog also is great because it offers a lot of different body types without congratulating itself for doing so. If I wanted to see what a dress looked like on a model, I would just look at the pictures with models. I like seeing women with curves- even more so, I feel like this blog is encouraging because it is mostly women who are genuinely cool with who they are and choose dresses that correspond accordingly. They show off their bodies and personalities in a way that you can go through the blog and see a ton of women who look amazing, but you don't want their look, because they totally look like themselves.
5. Ruffled- Wedding Porn if your favorite store is Anthropology. Also, if you want all of your wedding pictures to look like instagram. In all seriousness, their photographs are often so pretty. They also talk about people's song choices and which have reminded me that we will never be cool enough to be on this blog.

4. Green Wedding Shoes-A little bit quirkier than Ruffled, and they often feature cool how to's which are very simple and useful.I have so many pictures saved from that site. My favorite part is where you hear the couple's favorite memory and advice for the big day. So important to see what people can come up with while simultaneously maintaining having a life and being a couple.
3. The Knot-sign up. If nothing else, you will love actually getting to check things off their online task list. It shouldn't be as satisfying as it is, and yet, I love it. Also a good choice for etiquette advice. Or you can read some of their chatboards if you want to feel better about your dramas.

2.Pinterest- Pinterest is a clear window into every woman's psyche, but it also can be very useful in early brainstorming phrases. My main advice would be to use the search as much as possible, rather than just browse the wedding section. That area gets repetitive (really, how many of the cutesy picture of bridesmaids butts do I need to see? definitely between 0-1), but if you use it to look up retro hairstyles or wedding shoes, you will be impressed with things you find. Remember, it's all about maintaining inspiration!

1. Offbeat Bride- When you are going through the heavy blog, always always always check Offbeat Bride. First of all, some of the ideas there inspired the ideas we are most proud of in our wedding. Way more importantly, you need to see the 99% of the content you would never use, because it is totally them, not totally you. I mean this as much as I have meant anything in planning- the more you can throw out what you should do for what you want to do, the happier you will be not only with the wedding but just enjoying the planning itself. Even if you don't want a super retro backyard lesbian polka dot wedding (I mean, I do, but I get not everyone does), this blog and all of its super fun posts serve as constant reminders and inspirations to do what is actually true to yourself and your relationship. They also write great, very thoughtful posts on everything from brides who want to wear their glasses to secular wedding readings and more. Plus, it is just way way more fun than other blogs. If you want to wade in, try following them on Pinterest, and just see how many of their ideas you love, you closet nerd!

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