Tres Inviting

The wedding invitations may not be the very first entry on your bridal to-do list, but they are one of the most important things to get right. Your wedding invitations set the tone for your special day, and give your family and friends the first hint of the celebrations to come.

If you’re looking for personalised wedding stationery with flair, Très Inviting can help with everything from save the date cards, to invitations and place cards. You can choose a template, which you can then customise (at no extra cost) with your choice of colour, font, and font size. Or, if you have a specific idea in mind, Très Inviting can work with you on a fully customised design.

Know your wedding theme

Before you select your wedding invitations, it’s important to have a clear idea of the style and theme of your wedding, and the sort of atmosphere you want to create. Your invitations should then mirror that vibe. Although the team at Très Inviting leans towards contemporary design with clean and simple lines, they love a challenge and can produce unique invitations in a variety of mediums, including wood. If you have a special request, just ask. You may be surprised with what they come up with!

Know your colours

Have you chosen a colour theme for your wedding? Your colours can be incorporated into your wedding invitations and other wedding stationery for a polished, cohesive look. By purchasing your invitations from professional designers like Très Inviting, you’ll have a much wider range of colours and fonts to choose from, but remember some curly fonts, especially in metallic colours, can be difficult to read on coloured backgrounds. The basic rule is to avoid light ink on light backgrounds, and dark ink on dark backgrounds. Of course, your invitation specialists will be able to advise you on colour, font and readability.

Have fun with shapes and sizes

Traditionally, wedding invitations are 4.5 inches by 6.25 inches, but modern brides are happily swapping potentially lacklustre traditional invitations for a more playful approach. Whether your ideal invitation is a different shape, or has a 3D appearance, professional designers have the experience to help transfer your dream to paper and print. However, keep in mind the postage costs may be more for bulky or extra large invitations.

Choose your words wisely

Traditionally, weddings were hosted by the bride’s parents, but this isn’t always the case with modern weddings, so it’s important to be clear on the invitation who is hosting the wedding.

While you can put a modern spin on how you word your invitations, it’s a smart idea to take a look at traditional wording and think about possibly blending both.

Double check the final proof

Although the experts at Très Inviting will send you a total of three proofs to ensure your invitations are word perfect, don’t rely on checking them yourself. It’s very easy to overlook a mistake or a misspelled word when you already know what the invitation should say. Get a friend to check the final proof. If there’s not a grammar-savvy person to be found, steal a tip from copy editors and read the proof from right to left. It sounds weird, but you’re less likely to skim over an incorrectly spelled word that way.

Other wedding day essentials

The invitation wizards at Très Inviting don’t stop at providing personality-filled wedding invitations, they also have loads more essential wedding stationery, including order of service booklets, place cards, menus and wedding thank you cards. They can even help with the appropriate wording for each design, with a variety of pre-worded templates.

All this and an extremely fast turnaround; you can expect to receive your order no more than two weeks after you have approved the final proof. Was that a sigh of relief we heard?

Icon Makeup Emporium

You’ve spent months searching for your dream wedding gown and all the romantic accessories that go with it. Now you’re at the pointy end of your budget, and wondering if it’s worth handing over more money and getting a professional makeup artist to do your wedding day makeup and complete your look. The answer is a resounding yes!

There are many benefits to hiring a professional to do your wedding makeup. They are trained and qualified to create a look that enhances your natural beauty, and that will complement your entire wedding day. This is particularly important if your wedding has a specific theme, perhaps Gatsby inspired, for example. And even more importantly, professionally applied makeup will stay in place all day and look fantastic in your wedding photographs. Hiring an expert also eliminates the potential problem of wedding day jitters getting in the way of effectively applying your own makeup. Shaky fingers and liquid eyeliner are never going to be anything other than a disaster in the making!

Once you’ve settled on a makeup artist you feel comfortable with, it’s important to make an appointment for a pre-wedding makeup trial, so when your big day arrives, you’re 100% happy with the way your makeup looks and feels. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Book a morning appointment

By scheduling your makeup trial in the morning, you’ll be able to see exactly how well your makeup copes with a normal day’s activities. Remember to keep a note of how and why you refresh your makeup during the course of the day, so your makeup artist can add or adjust products accordingly.

Consider having your wedding makeup trial on the morning of your engagement party, or another special event. This allows your friends to critique your look, and photographs from the event will show you how your makeup looks under different lighting conditions.

Natural doesn’t always mean minimum

Like many brides-to-be, you probably want a natural look. But from a makeup artist’s point of view, a look that appears natural both indoors and outdoors, during both day and night, and works well with the style of your hair and gown, requires a lot more than a tiny splash of foundation and a smidgeon of colour.

The reality is a natural makeup look isn’t achieved by the amount of makeup applied, but by the skill of its application. So don’t be too hasty in wiping off what you consider to be too much makeup. Instead, get your makeup artist to explain their choices. It may be that lighter colours will likely wash out in photographs, leaving you looking pale and tired. And that’s definitely not the type of natural look you’re aiming for!

Ask questions

The only time you need to be quiet during a makeup trial is when colour is being applied to your lips, and that leaves a lot of time for talking. So ask as many questions as you need to understand how to keep your wedding makeup looking fresh and fabulous every minute of what could be a very long day.

Along with asking questions, give your makeup artist as much information about your wedding day as possible. Include the setting and the season, whether it’s an indoor or outdoor wedding, supply colour and fabric swatches for the bridal party and overall wedding theme, and images of makeup looks that you admire.

Finally, keep in mind you may need more than one trial with your chosen makeup artist before you’re completely happy with the results, so book your first trial at least three months in advance. This allows plenty of time to experiment with different looks. It’s also a smart idea to have a final makeup try-out within a week or two of your wedding day, when the condition of your skin and the weather temperature are likely to be similar to your big day.

3L Photography

Photography is without doubt one of the most important elements of your wedding day, whether it’s the posed formal photographs of the bridal party or the candid shots of all those lovely spontaneous moments that make weddings so special.

Your wedding photographs form the most tangible reminder of your big day in years to come. Photography is one of the most important things not to skimp on, no matter the size of your budget. Here’s why it’s vital to hire a professional photographer who is skilled and experienced, and someone you are comfortable with.

Snap happy guests

It’s a fact almost everyone has a camera, and many of your family and friends will take candid shots during the celebrations. But very few people know how to swiftly adjust a camera’s settings for just the right amount of light, get the focus precise, take a shot and immortalise a perfect moment – all at the same time!

A professional will photograph you and your groom at your best and make you feel so at ease and comfortable that every candid encounter will be captured without a hint of awkwardness or fuss.

At the end of the day, a professional photographer using professional equipment will produce the highest quality photographs, edited and printed to achieve the best possible result. What more could you ask!

A rare family get-together

Although planning a wedding is all about the details, celebrating a wedding is all about the people. This is something that can be overlooked in the bustle of planning your day, but it is an important factor when it comes to your wedding photography.

An experienced wedding photographer will understand that weddings are sometimes the only occasion where all extended family members are together, and they will be on the spot to capture each and every happy reunion. Looking back on these special images will enhance your sense of family togetherness on a day where love is celebrated.

So now that you appreciate the benefits of hiring a professional wedding photographer, the hard part begins – choosing the right studio for your needs. They key things to look for are communication skills, professionalism and bang for your buck. We think 3L Photography fits the bill nicely.

Communication and flexibility are key

The team at 3L Photography believes that good communication is the key factor in creating wedding photographs that not only capture the events of your wedding as they happen, but also the emotion and atmosphere of the day.

3L Photography specialises in photography for small to medium-sized weddings in and around the Hunter Valley region, and the team is known for a very personal and flexible approach.

Take a peek at the design-it-yourself online tool and you’ll see how easy it is to choose the photographic coverage that best suits your wedding day, and skip the products and services you don’t need. This allows your wedding photography package to be unique and individual, not the cookie-cutter version many other studios offer.

Mix and match to suit every budget

It can be tough fitting the cost of a quality photographer into your wedding budget. That isn’t a problem when you hire 3L Photography. The studio’s DIY packages not only allow you to choose a package tailored to your wedding, they give you the opportunity to tailor to your budget as well.

Regardless of the size of your budget, it’s a good idea when making your selections to focus on the services or products that are going to fit in with your wedding theme and add to the atmosphere you’re hoping to create. Think, “What will work best for my wedding?” rather than “What’s cool and trendy right now”.

Finally, even though having your wedding photos stored digitally is just the way it’s done now, it’s still worth immortalising your day with a traditional wedding album. The digital version is great for sharing, and to keep as back-up in case you need reprints, but there’s always something wonderful about being able to leaf through an album on the sofa with grandma!