Courtney & Jayden
EATONS HILL HOTEL COURTNEY & JAYDEN What can I say about this beautiful couple? Courtney and Jayden sort me out as their wedding planner soon after booking their wedding venue with Eatons Hill Hotel. As a busy family with some cute as a button children their priorities for the day were to be stress free and have everything handled for them. AMAZING! However it wasn’t an easy road for them. Due to the amazing year of 2020 we tackled postponements from life and covid but after 2 years of planning we finally made it down the aisle at Eatons Hill Hotel in 2021. And it was beautiful. THE VENUE: Eatons Hill Hotel Eatons Hill Hotel has a beautiful lakeside ceremony area with stunning gardens but due to wet weather on the day we moved to Plan B and it was absolutely stunning. Eatons Hill Hotels venue coordinator and staff were so incredibly helpful on the day, and we moved the ceremony setup into one of their large function rooms upstairs to The Hills West room and the reception area was moved from The Fig Tree Deck into The Green Room. The staff were incredibly accommodating to my couple. Thank you, Eatons Hill Hotel, you made their day so special! THE SETUP Courtney and Jayden’s colour palette was red, white and toffee with a few navy blue elements. The One Stop Wedding Shop did a beautiful job creating their ceremony setup including florals and bouquets. I cannot recommend Deb and John enough, they truly go above and beyond for their clients. THE CEREMONY Held in the Hill West Room of Eatons Hill Hotel, the ceremony was performed by the lovely Robbie. It was an extra special ceremony for her because she is a close family friend of Courtney and Jayden and she made their wedding her very last one for her career as a wedding celebrant. Such an amazing achieve Robbie. THE RECEPTION Held in The Green Room of Eatons Hill Hotel, the reception was an informal cocktail style format with a beautiful buffet spread catered by Eatons Hill Hotel. With no formalities such as speeches, first dance and cake cutting the couple spent the rest of their beautiful night mingling with friends and family and having the best day / night of their lives. Thank you Courtney and Jayden for choosing me to be apart of your wedding day. It was truly an honour to work with you and get to know you both. Wishing you every bit of happiness. Janette CLIENT REVIEW FROM OUR BEAUTIFUL COUPLE “Janette is put on this earth to be a wedding planner! Not only did she make our day so perfect, she made it completely stress free! Even on the day, I was the most relaxed I’d been during the whole process. How often do you hear of a bride having literally no stress on the day of their wedding… Janette handled everything perfectly! Including postponing our entire wedding and making so many changes to our plan when we had to change things. She even made sure everything was done and perfect while having a newborn of her own. Janette was worth every cent and more! Do yourself a favour and hire Janette! You won’t regret it.” ❤️ – Courtney and Jayden THE TEAM Wedding Planner: Olive Rose Weddings and Events Venue: Eatons Hill Hotel Photographer: LM Images Celebrant: Marry Thee – Robbie Reeman Invitations: Invitation Designs by Eliza Ceremony décor and florals: One Stop Wedding Shop Hair and Makeup: Hollywood Brides Cake: Jackie’s Cakes By Design Bridal Gown: Exquisite Gowns by Yvonne Bridesmaid Dresses: Elite Bridal and Formal Wear Congratulations Courtney & Jayden
Wedding Expenses – Top 18 Wedding Expenses You Haven’t Budgeted For
Top 18 Wedding Expenses You Haven’t Budgeted For Wedding expenses and wedding budget. The words that sends shivers down most people’s spines. But creating a wedding expense budget is something that I truly believe will set your wedding up for success and avoid those costly mistakes a lot of couples make. I know, I know … wedding expenses and budgets are not people’s favourite things to do. Hey, I get it. It’s annoying and quite frankly you’re creating a wedding budget when in most cases you have no idea how much things cost in the wedding industry. THAT IS HARD! How are you supposed to budget for items you don’t know the amounts for as well as maybe have no idea that you need something to make your wedding day a success. Below I have listed to top 18 wedding expenses I have found in my experience that couples tend to either forget or just don’t know they need for their big day. DAY OF COORDINATOR Probably one of the most important factors when setting your day up for success is a Day/Month of Coordinator. Yes, you may have a Venue Coordinator – however that is not the same thing. A mistake that a lot of couples make, that the Venue Coordinator doesn’t handle all details of their day. A Venue Coordinator only handles aspects that directly involve the venue. E.g., Catering (only if it’s inhouse), Table setup (most times doesn’t include styling or decorating). Now what does a Day/Month of Coordinator do? A Coordinator is someone who can professionally execute all of your hard work you put into planning your big day. Creating run sheets, timelines, floorplans, contacting all vendors to make sure they know the details you require on the day, coordinating setup, cueing music and festivities, plus so much more. A Coordinator understands the logistics and timings of a wedding and will personally oversee all planned festivities to create a beautifully effortless and seamless day. No matter how good anyone’s planning is something will always happen that can’t be controlled. This also means handling any wet weather arrangements. Being your first point in contact, this frees you from any stressful situations that you don’t need to be involved in on your big day. Everything will be taken care of so that you can concentrate on the important things, like getting married! VENDOR MEALS Another big element couples don’t know to add into their wedding expenses is providing a meal for their ALL DAY vendors. These are your Wedding Planners/ Coordinators, Photographers, Videographers, DJ’s, etc. Essentially vendors that have a very long shift on your day. In many cases vendors have this added in as part of their contract to be supplied a meal. But hey think of it this way, these people have gone above and beyond for you on your wedding day to make it absolutely perfect. They haven’t had lunch because they’ve been by your side. At most they have shoved a cracker or muesli bar into their face that’s been steaming away in their hot car. Look after your vendors because they most certainly have looked after you. MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE Not a big expense. It’s $50 bucks. But a lot of couples don’t realise that they are responsible after their wedding to purchase their wedding certificate online via the Government site. A fantastic celebrant will advise you of this. It’s their job to submit the legals after your day and in most cases, they will send you an email once this has been done and when and where you can purchase your marriage certificate. If in doubt, ask your celebrant. They can help. ALTERATIONS When it comes to wedding attire unfortunately one size does not fit all. Annoying I know. Generally, these alterations take place roughly one month out from your big day. Sometimes it is a small amount, other times it’s significant depending on the circumstances. Ask your bridal store for their recommendations when trying on your gown or suit. HAIR AND MAKEUP TRIALS A trial is testing out an artist’s skills to see if they can nail your Pinterest inspiration and if it suits you and your bridesmaids. Keep in mind sometimes it doesn’t work out and there might be multiple trials to get a result you want. Also factor in if you are wanting trials for your bridesmaids, flower girls, mothers, etc. While it’s not necessary (especially for the kiddies) it’s something to think about when planning your wedding expenses. BEAUTY TREATMENTS These can be any number of appointments. Tanning, waxing, eyebrow sculpting, teeth whiten, haircuts, dying your hair, skin and beauty products, nail appointments. It all adds up. Have a think of all the things you want done, because hey, treat yo self and incorporate them into your wedding expenses. DAY OF STATIONERY You’ve ordered your invitations, but have you thought about name placement cards, wedding favour tags, menus, table numbers, welcome signs, seating chart, little signs for your candy bar or dessert table to let people know that it’s gluten free. There are so many options out there. And sure, of course you don’t need it all but if you do … put it in the wedding budget. POSTAGE Another expense that people overlook. Delightful postage costs. For wedding invitations you’re generally looking at approximately $2.00 per invite. POWER & LIGHTING This is one of those things that no one thinks about. This is more for our DIY venues, for example a rural property or out in a field. You need to think about how you are going to get power and lighting and sometimes heat to your reception. This might be in a form of a heavy-duty generator. Be mindful that generators are noisy, and this might put a dampener on the evening. Overloading the power source is another thing too. I’m my experience hot water urns are notorious for shorting out the power. RUBBISH REMOVAL Again, for those DIY weddings in most cases these venues will
10 Hacks to Make Planning Your Wedding a Breeze
Planning a wedding can be a stressful time for both you and your partner … but it doesn’t have to be!!! Check out my easy to implement wedding hacks to make planning your wedding that little bit easier. BRIDAL EXPOS Create and print out your own sign up form! THIS WILL BE THE GREATEST THING YOU EVER DO!!! Print and cut out your details including *** Your name, Email, Phone number and wedding date. Most vendors will have draws and competitions instead of writing your details over and over and over just use these pre-filled out entry forms!!! GENIUS RIGHT!!!! If you only do one thing from my list of 6 make it this! This will save you hand and your sanity. Create a specific wedding email address so that all your wedding information is in one place. This is such a great idea! It’s free to setup another email so why wouldn’t you. No need to sift through a million emails to find your wedding things. Make it cute like mrandmrsstafford@—- or jenandstandswedding@—- or weddingofthecentury@—-. Have fun with it. I also recommend creating folders within your new email address and label them for each service (Wedding Planner, Celebrant, Venue, Etc) so that later on when you need to find a particular email it couldn’t be easier. 😉 RSVP CARDS On your RSVP cards, put a space for your guests to request a song. This way you will know what your guests want to hear and they will get excited when their song comes on! Number your RSVP cards so you can easily see at a glance if you’re missing any. BUDGETING Weddings can be extremely expensive and can get seriously out of hand when you don’t keep to your budget! Firstly, work out how much you are willing to spend on your wedding. Secondly, can you afford it? Do you need a longer engagement to save the money, or are your parents chipping in? These questions need to be answered before you start planning your wedding. If other parties are willing to help pay, organise a chat with them regarding how much they are willing to pay. Or perhaps delegate certain aspects of the wedding each party can pay for. E.g. Reception catering, bar tab, etc. Once a plan of attack has been made create a budget spreadsheet and keep those (if any) helping pay for your wedding updated with expenses. This will avoid any surprise payments at the last minute. BE PREPARED Create a Plan B for unexpected weather. I could not recommend this any higher. If you don’t have a Plan B chances are everything that could go wrong will go wrong. So you need to be super organised and on top of this. Talk to your planner or coordinator to discuss a wet weather plan. And to be perfectly honest … wet weather weddings are my all time favourite and they make for STUNNING photos with a chance of a rainbow. Amazing. Create an emergency kit! This is super fun to create and why not make it a fun scavenger hunt between you and your bridal party!!! (Wishing now I did this with my girls). This kit should enclose important lists and schedules for your day as well as health, beauty, sewing, items as well as anything you can think of. Try searching Pinterest for lists you can use. THE DRESS Make sure someone in your bridal party knows how to strap you in and bustle your dress This comes in under being prepared but really needs its own section. No point on buying the most beautiful dress in the world and not having a single person that knows how to strap you in or bustle your dress after the ceremony. I suggest taking your mother and one of your bridesmaids to your fitting to learn how to do these 2 things. Don’t just rely on a safety pin and your girls knowledge of wedding dresses. Get your seamstress to add a bustle to your gown. If you’re like me and can’t stand the thought of buying an expensive dress only to have to buy a second one for the reception so you can dance in it! Crazy right! By getting your seamstress to sew a hook or button into your gown allows you to hook the bottom of your train up to the lower outside back part of your gown so that it’s lifted off the floor and you can dance the night away. PAWFECT ATTIRE When dressing up your pet for your wedding you to make sure what they are wearing is not constricting or distracting for them. You want to make sure they are comfortable and not irritated. We suggest a floral collar or bow tie which can be situated behind the head or under the chin, this also reduces the chance of them pulling it off before the ceremony. Be mindful that clothing will often result in overheating your precious pet especially in Summer. Just remember you can’t control everything! And if something goes wrong it’s not the end of the world and in most cases, can be fixed without any issues. But if something really bad goes wrong, well you’ll have a fantastic story to tell for years to come. If your smiling the whole world will smile with you. Have a fantastic day and just relax and enjoy all the things we take for granted because it’s your day to shine and sparkle. You deserve it. Written by Janette Newell I Event Planner of Olive Rose Weddings & Events About the Author: “My passion for weddings showed itself to me when my handsome husband proposed to me. I had always loved weddings but had no idea of all the little details that tied such a beautiful day together. This is when the obsession started. I will tell you now Pinterest will be your best & worst friend! There’s so many amazing ideas that it can become a little overwhelming. That’s