Peter Bruce Photo & video was lucky enough to go and shoot Ken and Eugene’s wedding in Washington DC
Here are some of the photos,to see more go to Peter Bruce Photo and click on the tab at the top right ‘STORE’ or click here
You may also see more photos on this blog…www.peterbruceweddingphotography.com/blog
There are lots of things to think about when brides plan their wedding. In the rush they tend to forget about taking care of themselves on the day of their wedding. A number of simple but practical tips to help pave the way to truly enjoying your day.
And every bride has lots of things to think about when she’s planning her wedding, but so many tend to forget about
taking care of themselves on the day of their wedding. And it’s important that those small, but mighty, details not escape even the most well prepared bride!What should be at the top of every bride’s list on the day of her wedding is to relax and enjoy it! Whether you’ve been working with a pro wedding coordinator have done all the planning and preparation on your own, it’s now the big day and you deserve to have at least as much fun as any of your guests.
Here are 5 simple, but practical tips from Peter Bruce Photo & team bELLE to help pave the way to truly enjoying your
wedding day…Create a wedding day make-up bag two weeks before your wedding day Do a complete test of your wedding-day look (make-up, hairdo and shoes), for as long as you expect to have it together that day, so you’ll know if it will “go the distance.”
Put together a little make-up bag for touch ups that you can take along with you the day of
the wedding to keep you looking your best. And on the big day, have a friend, bridesmaid, or family member hang onto it or stash it somewhere handy so you can get to it when you need it. Be sure to use waterproof mascara, and don’t forget to pack the hairspray!When purchasing your make-up, see if you can persuade the sales gal at the cosmetic counter into giving you samples of everything you’re buying (they’ve got ‘em, you know they do). They won’t take up much room and it will be more than enough for the day!
Get together a emergency kit for those unexpected emergencies just like the back-up, make-up bag for touch ups (say that three times fast!). Consider an “emergency kit” filled with items you may need on your
wedding day. Fill a small bag with items such as a travel size sewing kit (you’d be amazed at the magic tricks just one safety pin can perform) nail polish which is clear (for panty hose/stocking runs), an extra set of panty hose or stockings, throat lozenges, and aspirin. Other ideas for the “ emergency kit” include tissues, breath mints, tampons, hand cream, and band-aids.Most of these items can be found in the travel size bins in your local drug store.
Start your wedding day with healthy and filling nourishment. Since most brides don’t get to enjoy the meal served at the reception, you really should consider having something to eat before
the wedding, no matter how worried you are about how the dress fits! While food may be the last thing on your mind on your wedding day, it’s nonetheless important that you start the day with some healthy and filling nourishment. It’s going to be a long (and wonderful) day and you’ll want to have plenty of energy so you can keep dancing and socializing for hours!Stash a power bar snack in your purse or “
emergency kit.”Pre-arrange for there to be something to eat at your honeymoon hotel (believe it or not, most couples are starving after the
wedding day festivities and will want to re-fuel before the wedding night festivities!)Kick off the heels & settle into a more comfortable shoe; you know those stunning, sexy, strappy, ultra-high heels that work perfectly with your wedding gown? They’ll be great for the ceremony and for the formal pictures, but if you’re planning to kick up your heels at the reception, you’ll be better off kicking off the heels and settling into something more comfortable. So get a pretty, more practical pair of shoes that you can change into to keep your dogs from “barking” the entire week after the wedding!
It’s not a bad idea to practice walking in the shoes you’ll be wearing during the ceremony. Take a test run in the shoes and
the wedding gown and get used to both.Keep track of time with an itinerary and a point person. Whether you’ve worked with a wedding consultant or carefully planned everything yourself, you should have an itinerary for the big day. Make copies, give them to a few good friends and/or close family members, then choose someone to be the “point person” who will make sure things are running smoothly and reasonably on time. You will be able to rest easily knowing at least one of your deputies will keep track of the time while you’re busy greeting those out-of-town guests and brand new in-laws whose names you can’t quite remember!
We hope this helps you,please let us know
Best wishes Peter Bruce Photo & team bELLE
A wedding budget is absolutely essential to planning your wedding. In fact I think setting your wedding budget is one of the first things you should do and as a couple talk about. Peter Bruce Photo & team bELLE have put together this handy wedding budget worksheet to plan out what you’ll need to pay for, and how much you should plan to spend on each thing. We really hope this helps you. Please let us know.
We recommend you print this wedding budget worksheet and put it in your planning notebook so it will be handy whenever you are out shopping or talking to your vendor.
My Total Budget is (hope dad was feeling good this day) $ ___________
| Expenses | % of total budget | Your estimate | What you actually spent |
| Ceremony Location fee, officiant fee, marriage license, musician’s fees, ring pillows |
3% | ______ | ______ |
| Reception Reception Site, Food, Drinks, Rentals, Cake, Favors |
48% | ______ | ______ |
| Attire Dress, Headpiece/veil, undergarments and hosiery, shoes, accessories, jewelry, hair and makeup, Groom’s Tuxedo or Suit, shoes, bow tie, cuff links, studs, suspenders |
10% | ______ | ______ |
| Rings His and her rings, engraving |
3% | ______ | ______ |
| Flowers Ceremony, bride’s bouquet, maid-of-honor and bridesmaid bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres, centerpieces, flower-girl basket |
8% | ______ | ______ |
| Music Ceremony Musicians, Band and/or DJ, cocktail hour musicians, sound system rental |
8% | ______ | ______ |
| Photography Photographer and Videographer’s fees, albums, additional prints, disposable cameras for candids |
12% | ______ | ______ |
| Transportation Transportation for wedding party, guest shuttle and/or parking attendants |
2% | ______ | ______ |
| Stationery Invitations, response cards, thank you notes, postage, calligraphy, guest book |
3% | ______ | ______ |
| Gifts Bridesmaid and groomsmen, parents, welcome baskets for out-of-town guests. |
3% | ______ | ______ |
Here are a few ideas and tips from Peter Bruce Photo & team bELLE to help you plan your wedding without stress.
Wedding Date…
You can attain substantial savings if you choose to have your wedding on a Friday or on a Sunday.
You can book many professional services at substantially lower cost because Fridays and Sundays are bonus days in which they are usually free and available.
Wedding Cake…
Order a 3 Tier Beautiful Cake and the same flavor sheet cake to be serve from the kitchen Keep the cake simple by minimizing the hand made design of the baker and decorate instead with fresh matching flowers of the wedding Some Wedding facilities (Hotels, Wineries, Bed & Breakfast) may include the wedding cake as a package deal.
Flowers…
Purchase fresh flowers from a wholesale mart and have close family and friends make-up the boutonnieres for the Groomsmen and relatives.
Purchase fresh Roses from a wholesaler and make your own bridal bouquet with matching smaller bridesmaid bouquet and tie the stems with 1″ satin ribbons that you can purchase from craft store either by the foot or by the roll.
Centerpieces – Rent some crystal bowls about 12″ round and put floating candles and 3 or 4 gardenia ( gardenia usually cost between $1.25 to $3.00 each) Incorporate more tulle with less flowers in your decoration Bring your Church flowers to your Reception.
Bridesmaid make bouquet can be use to decorate the cake table and the head table Incorporate Taper candles with small flower centerpieces to create a very romantic ambiance
Photography & Videography…
Never cut corners on Photography or Video, it is the only thing you will have after the wedding to look at review the wedding day. There are way of making it cheaper and have more valve for money. Call us or e mail us and we can give you some good idea, like asking for an album as a gift.
Wedding Coordinator…
Hire a professional coordinator by the hour and have them help you with very specific wedding task Be very clear in what you want as to not waste any time on planning ideas that you don’t end up using Ask a very organized girlfriend to help you carry out your wedding itinerary on your wedding day.
Wedding Gown…
Buying a White dress or Gown off the rack and having it altered.
Shop bridal outlets
Shop Consignment stores for slightly used gowns
Having a dress custom made for you sometimes may cost less than purchasing a designer gown
Reception/Caterer…
Bring your own Champagne and Wine – Corkage fee will usually apply but is always negotiable
Have a buffet style banquet and still have assigned table sitting
Having a luncheon reception instead of a dinner banquet Favors
A 1×2 mini picture frame will serve as place cardholder as well as wedding favor
A mini glass candle votive wrap in tulle place on each place setting will serve as table décor as well as a favor for your guest to take home
Have a cake and champagne reception instead of a sit-down dinner.
Home Wedding…
This can dramatically reduce your wedding cost if you’re able to host the ceremony and reception in your home or your family’s home. (A nice garden wedding)
You can have the food catered by a favorite restaurant and serve buffet style
You can hire servers or the restaurant may provide servers with the food purchase
You can purchase your flowers from a wholesaler and decorate the house 2 days before the wedding You can hire a cleaning service a week before the wedding and have them return a after wedding clean up
Entertainment…
Hiring a DJ or having a pretape recording of your favorite songs and having friend play tape during a your reception can save you an average of $ 500.00 versus hiring a live band
Invitation & Calligraphy…
If you’re handy with the computer, you can print your own invitation on your laser printer. There are so many resources for beautiful paper and envelopes from resources like mail order and office warehouses
You can purchase pretty blank thank you notes from stationary stores for less than $5.00 for a box of 12 notes and matching envelopes.
Select smaller invitation to save on postage – larger invitation weight more and therefore require more postage to mail out
Inquire with friends, maybe one is learning calligraphy. Perhaps he/she may want to do yours a half the cost of a professional calligrapher – take note from the holiday cards you received from your friends, you may be a calligrapher in the making.
Wedding Accessories…
Make your own flower girl basket – purchase a cute little inexpensive wicker basket from a craft store and spray paint it white or off white and decorate it with fresh flowers the day before the wedding.
Borrow a ring bearers pillow from a previous bride Purchase an inexpensive garter from a lingerie store ($3.00 to $6.00)
Use your Champagne flutes that you may already have at home
Use the reception facilities cake servers and knife and toasting flutes and decorate them with ribbons & fresh flowers
Purchase gifts for the bridesmaid that they can also use during the wedding day – such as mother of pearl necklace, put the pearls in a mini silver jewelry box with their names engraved would really be a nice added touch.
Saving Time and your Sanity…
One of the key aspect in planning your wedding is your time, if you see what you want, if it fits your budget, buy it… especially with accessories, not only do you save money but you also save time and save stress from not having to go out and look for the same accessories again
Once you have made your purchase whether its your wedding gown or bridal shoes don’t spend any more time on looking at the same item anymore, this will save you time and also not cause you to second guess your first choice
Getting Help…
Its time to call in a few favors – think about the people you know in their respective profession that you have helped in the past, perhaps you may know a professional photographer having done legal work for them. Bartering – it’s a good thing.
The secret in asking for free help is not to burden any one individual with an overload of things to do for your wedding….spread it out, no more than 1 to 2 task per person, you want them to share your wedding day not work it.
We hope this helps and please let us know
All the best Peter Bruce Photo & team bELLE
We always like to share tips with you and here are some tips from one of the brides that Peter Bruce Photo & team bELLE worked with, Megan. We hope this helps you out.
Wedding is the most important event in one’s life but the fact remains that this wedding will be the one which will give you a maximum of stress and a whole lot of sleepless nights.
The reason being that generally wedding is such a grand affair and there are so many aspects to a wedding that it will be impossible to find one such thing which you can leave to others. Yes without doubt you will need the help of others but then since it is your wedding you will have to make the maximum effort and try not to get stressed out.
Here are some of my wedding tips so that you can enjoy the wedding planning process as opposed to having to gloomily do everything.
Timing is of essence so make sure that you start planning the wedding very early and that will mean that start planning the wedding probably a year in advance. This assumes all the more importance if you are having a destination wedding.
Wedding dresses is another thing which will take time especially the wedding dress for the bride. So start searching for a wedding dress as soon as your engagement is done and it will give you sufficient time for searching a good dress and getting the alterations done.
Next make sure that you have sent the save the date cards to all the guests and also you have finalized the guest list.
If you are planning on taking the help of a wedding planner then make sure that the wedding planner is available to you in time. Almost all the good wedding planers have booking well in advance of two years so make sure that you finalize the dates of the wedding based on the availability of the wedding planner.
Then if you are planning on having a wedding at a distant place then try to fly there at least once and see for yourself what kind of hotels are available and even if that place has wedding packages available. That is a must as the destination weddings will generally cost you a lot more. Also an important point to note is that ask for wedding coordinator at the wedding day and talk to him or her on a regular basis regarding all the arrangement to be done.
Arrive at the venue a few days earlier and that way you will be able to take care of any last minute wedding arrangements.Tips from One of our brides,Megan.
We hope these were good tips, please let us know
Best regards Peter Bruce Photo & Team bELLE
