Wedding decorations on a budget
The credit crunch is hitting everything, even the happiest day of your life. There’s no need to cut corners when it comes to beautiful decorations for your special occasion, all it takes is a little bit of lateral thinking, and a stash of sello –tape! Here are our top tips for creating your own unique wedding adornments on the cheap.
Table Centrepieces
• Summer weddings or those which are taking place near the coast can take their inspiration, and their decor, directly from the sea. Collect an assortment of sea shells and fill clear or coloured vases full of the free ornaments. Your shells can also double as place name settings with a name tag delicately tied around an individual shell.
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There’s something about candlelight which makes it eternally romantic -plus candles are dirt cheap, and you’ll probably be able to get them even cheaper if you buy in bulk. Have a selection of different candles to create different effects. A range of church candles of varying sizes arranged on top of a mirror adds an extremely glamorous touch to any wedding table. Alternatively you could have tea tree lights floating in a crystal bowl with a few choice petals or flower heads for an elegant centrepiece. If you have a bit of time of your hands, collect glass jam jars and decorate with coloured glass paint. Pop a tea light candle in after dark and you have your own coloured lanterns.
• For inexpensive floral centrepieces choose flowers which are in season to keep costs down. If you’re planning your wedding in advance, why not grow your own? Sweet peas are very easy to produce and grow like wildfire in the summer months, they come in a rainbow of colours too so you can coordinate them into you theme easily. You could also call on friends and neighbours for flowers from their gardens.
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Head to the park and pick up some broken branches from any kind of tree, the more spindly the branch, the better. Spray your find in either silver or gold and decorate with clear fairy lights.
• Utilise your bridesmaid’s bouquets by using them as the centrepieces for your table. After the actual ceremony they have little need for their posies so why not put them to good use during the reception?
The Cost of Celebrity Weddings – and how long they lasted
With celebrity couples falling over themselves to outdo each other in the wedding stakes, we take a look at the cost of some of showbiz’s most exclusive weddings and investigate whether there’s a link between the cash they splash, and the marriages’s staying power.
The world was shocked when Hollywood’s golden couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston called time on their marriage. It was all going so well for the down-to-earth Friend’s star who’d managed to bag one of the world’s sexiest men. They tied the knot in a sunset ceremony in Malibu surrounded by 200 guests in the summer of 2000. Despite splashing out a £1 million on the wedding and Jen vowing to always make Brad’s favourite banana milkshake, they announced their split in 2005 after 5 years of marriage.
As high profile celebrity couple Katie Price and Peter Andre play out a very messy break-up in front of the media, we
take a look back to happier times. After falling in love on reality TV show “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” the pair wed in an outrageous ceremony in 2005 which was later televised. The bill for this “fairytale” wedding topped £1 million and they also renewed their vows in private ceremony in South Africa in 2008. Despite these displays of undying love, Andre announced he was leaving the glamour model in May 2009 after 3-and- a-half years of marriage.
Odd couple Liza Minnelli and David Guest treated us to one of the most extravagant weddings of all time. After dating for only 6 months, the pair tied the knot in a bizarre ceremony which saw Elizabeth Taylor as the Maid of Honour and Michael Jackson as Best Man, and no fewer than 1,000 guests. The lavish affair set them back a whopping £3.4 million but their marriage lasted just over a year.
Marriages which have so far lasted the distance include Hollywood royalty Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas. Despite the 25 year age gap, this couple are still going strong after tying the knot in 2000 at The New York Plaza in a £1.5 million ceremony.
Surprisingly the WAG couples fair pretty well. Power couple David and Victoria Beckham spent only £500,000 on their 1999 wedding and will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this year. Cheryl and Ashley Cole spent the same amount when they wed in 2006 and despite a rough patch where Ash was caught cheating, the couple are back on track and happily married. The big spenders are Colleen and Wayne Rooney who rocked up a bill of £5 million for their exclusive Italian wedding in 2008. Colleen’s dress cost over £200,000 and Rooney’s favourite band The Stereophonics were hired to perform. A year on and the young couple are expecting their first child together.
The Indian bridal tradition of Mehndi
Mehndi has found its way into western culture in the form of henna tattoos, however its significance is hugely symbolic in the Indian marriage tradition. Although the designs and customs differ depending upon the region the family originate from, the importance of the bride’s Mehndi remains constant.
The Mehndi or henna design is an intricate artwork which comes to form a temporary skin decoration covering the bride’s feet, including the soles, and her hands and palms. The mother-in-law must paint the first dot of ink on to the bride’s skin and the deeper the colour, the greater the love she will receive from her in-laws; a deep colour Mehndi also foretells of a happy and love filled marriage. However brides do have alternative motives for wanting their Mehndi to last longer; the custom is that a bride must wait until her design has completely faded before performing any housework.
Popular Mehndi designs include the peacock, the national bird of India, an elephant with a raised trunk which is a symbol of good luck and the lotus flower which signifies purity. It is also customary to have the bride and grooms names concealed amongst the design, the groom must find both names before the wedding night can begin. In some parts of Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sudan, the groom is also painted with a Mehndi design however this is rare and the tradition is more commonly associated with the bride.
Designs and symbols differ, some incorporate jewels and glitter to create an ornate spectacle, others use block colours on the tips of toes and fingers, however the essence of the custom remains the same. Ultimately Mehndi symbolises love, fertility and prosperity and is an integral part of the bride’s transition from single woman to wife.
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