Avoid these 3 mistakes when training for your bridal body

13 Aug, 2018 | Wedding Tips

Avoid these 3 mistakes when training for your bridal body

It’s the late wedding season and many couples are getting married at the same time as just engaged lovers are starting their journey to the aisle. For brides the wedding dress is probably something they have been dreaming about for a good while and now that the day is set it is time to start shopping for the right gown (you should start at least six months before your wedding). We also know that many brides set themselves fitness goals before wedding to achieve their perfect bridal body. We are all about healthy exercise and it can be a true mood booster when the ups and downs of wedding planning hit hard.

Exercise and wedding planning

We are all about healthy exercise routines and it can be a true mood booster when the ups and downs of wedding planning hit hard. But all the fitness isn’t the same and if you are shopping for a dress long before the big day it is good to keep few things in mind. As wedding style designers we have come across with many cases of dresses and body shapes and we want to share our experiences.

So if you are shopping early or getting a dress done just for you keep reading to find about how to make sure your wedding dress is the best match for you. 

 

Editor’s note: Exercising or losing weight is a personal choice and no bride is required to do it. Taking care of yourself and staying healthy is the most important thing!

1. Don’t overdo the squats

As the mermaid gown is wildly popular right now many brides want a bottom to go with it. Make sure that when you shop, you get a gown that isn’t too snug on the hips and that at least it has some room to take out. It’s hard to realize how fast your bum can grow when you commit to it. We’ve had a fitness enthusiast bride who almost grew out of her gown in just few weeks time!

 

2. Get a wedding dress that is right for your current size or just slightly snug

Everyone wants to look their absolute best on their wedding day and for some it also means shedding some weight. If you get a made to measure gown make sure that you notify your designer about your goals so they can make sure that it is possible to adjust the size even close to the big day.

If you are shopping for a dream dress of the rack then we advise that you get a gown that is fitting or just a little bit snug at the moment. We know that it is very tempting to get a size or few smaller just because but let’s be honest, it is very unlikely that you will lose, lets say, 10 + cm from your waist.

For a seamstress it is possible to take a gown in even two sizes but it doesn’t exactly work the other way around. So make sure that as you are getting your dream dress it will fit and you’ll look stunning no matter what.

 

3. When you train you lose weight from your breasts

We bet you knew this already but it definitely is worth mentioning. When you get serious about your fitness program you can expect that the your tits will get smaller. We have been taking in many dresses around the breast since many of the rack dresses already have quite generous cup sizes. The alteration isn’t too difficult to do but if you want to sport a fuller figure you need to be prepared to pad your bra.

Some seamstresses suggest sewing bra cups inside your dress but we need to remind you that if the cups don’t have padding they aren’t doing a thing for the overall shape.

It is also good to consider the fit and the style of the dress. If the dress has straps and it is a little bit snug on your breast, that’s a good choice considering fitness.

 

The key to a perfect fit

 

So if you are going to get your wedding dress early or ordering it just for you (you should do this at least six months before) keep in mind how exercising is going to modify your body shape. Notify your designer or seamstress about your fitness goals early enough and you will have the body and the dress you’ll love on your wedding day.

To get more great wedding dress tips read our blog posts 10 Most Common Wedding Dress Alterations You Should Now About, Thorough Guide For Wedding Dress Shopping and 4 Wedding Dress Tips That Take Your Wedding Day Look From Good To Gorgeous! Heili Bridal operates also in Finnish, so if you have any questions don’t hesitate to message us!

Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest for more wedding inspiration! You can also find Heili Bridal from Facebook and Tumblr.

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Love,

      Iida

Iida Silvennoinen

Iida Silvennoinen

Designer, author, blogger

Iida is a bridal designer at Heili Bridal and her passion is to help brides feel special in their big day. She grew up in the middle of wedding dresses and has been dressing brides in all shapes and sizes for years. She loves gardening and relaxed evenings at home.

Iida Silvennoinen is the author of The Wedding Dress Book in which she walks the bride through the wedding dress searching and shopping.

START THE JOURNEY TOWARDS THE PERFECT WEDDING DRESS!

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Old Fashioned Wedding Ideas That Are Still Relevant Today

16 Feb, 2018 | Wedding Inspiration, Wedding Tips

Old Fashioned Wedding Ideas That Are Still Relevant Today

Vintage wedding themes have been extremely popular for many years now. Those carry a feeling of DIY and the simplicity of the old times. But under all those beautifully styled photos the modern wedding can be really expensive even if it’s vintage inspired. There’s nothing frugal or budget in them. If we ask the people who came before us, I bet many of them would tell how their money was used to setting up home rather than paying for a big party. How did our grandmas really get married and what can we learn from them? Even if we count in the inflation, most weddings used to be simpler and much cheaper.

Plan your whole wedding outfit with this beautiful easy to use planner!

18 pages going through your whole bridal look from hair to shoes, not to forget your wedding dress. It’s free!

A brief history of today’s weddings

The big wedding we know today is very much a 1960’s and -70’s love baby, as the big society weddings from before were imitated and recreated with easy to produce mass-products.

After the war years the society and advertisement was all about women getting married, living their day as a princess before moving into suburbs to be housewives and mothers. Even back then not all people had that.

The American Wedding dream that’s so well known all over the world was aimed mainly for well payed, white, upper middle class and huge amount of people weren’t in that picture perfect position.

Let’s dig to the bottom and see how our grandmothers and their mothers before them got married and what we living in 21st century can learn from their traditions and how we can adapt the vintage practices into modern time!

Average wedding cost has been steadily rising towards 30,000 dollars in the last ten years. During the year 2016 it was 35,000 dollars in USA (The Knot Wedding Survey). Big weddings are a thing but I can’t but think that maybe we could do with just a little bit less. Less doesn’t always mean that you have to give up on something but rather think about gaining control of spending and focusing on what really makes the wedding day important.

So how can you achieve the less-hustle wedding? I think our grandparents have a thing or two to tell us.

 

1. Focus on the ceremony

The main thing in the vintage wedding was the wedding ceremony and everything else could be put back burner. Many couples didn’t have receptions or held one for only the closest friends and family members at home.

Modern way:

Small and elopement weddings are getting more and more popular. You can invite people only to the ceremony and hop on to your plane or train after that to start your wedded bliss just by two of you. There’s nothing wrong to meet with your friends and family afterwards for a dinner or other ’dates’ when you can really chat with them and share the stories of your adventure.

2.The vintage wedding was often held earlier in the day

In the 19th century weddings were held in the morning and wedding breakfast was really that, a breakfast, brunch or lunch eaten with the closest guests. Later during the 20th century weddings moved slowly from daytime and lunch affairs to evening parties we are familiar today.

Modern way:

By moving the wedding and reception to the earlier hours you can save lots of money and offer cheaper brunch buffet at the reception instead of a sit down dinner. The wedding couple in the picture is from the year 1954. (Walter)

3.Champagne weddings were a thing

It meant that after the ceremony, guests were invited for champagne and cake to a nearby hotel or the home of the bride and it was considered extremely fancy affair.

Modern way:

Your wedding could be a day time event with great cake and great drinks and the wedding couple could continue the party only with the nearest and dearest later on. Champagne weddings should really be made trendy again.

4.The wedding dress can be simple or not wedding dress at all

Well into 20th century is was typical that the wedding dress was bride’s best outfit or a new better dress. It was thought that afterwards the wedding dress could be used in any fancy party or occasion. The rough times of WWI, Depression and WWII meant that the big white dresses we seen in vintage wedding photos were used only by the luckiest. Other popular colors for wedding dresses have been black (!), pale blue and powdery pink and mauve amongst others.

Modern way:

For modern day’s simple and frugal living brides the way to learn from our elders could be that any beautiful, simple white dress can be fancy enough for a wedding. It doesn’t have be a big ball gown from a bridal shop. If you add beautiful jewels, wedding bouquet, a veil and get your hair done nicely you’ll certainly feel like a bride.

The black dress is also making a comeback! You could really splurge on accessories as you can use them again later on! Fun fact: In the picture of a wartime wedding couple the bridal bouquet is filled with self made blooms to make it appear fuller. 

Plan your whole wedding outfit with this beautiful easy to use planner!

18 pages going through your whole bridal look from hair to shoes, not to forget your wedding dress.

5.Don’t overthink the cake

There’s so many wonderful cakes nowadays and the wedding cake can be an event in itself like in the Champagne weddings. Earlier times and in the country weddings the cake might have been baked at home and decorated by someone who was artistic with things like flowers, cream, sugar paste, the figurine that was used in every wedding of the family, fresh berries etc. In the countryside the vintage wedding might have been abig event but it was understood that everyone would pitch in.

Modern way:

It’s good to remember that the cake will be eaten so focus on the taste and that there’s plenty of it. The simple white vanilla flavored cake with berries and cream is always classy and good option. Did you know that for decoration real flowers are more budget friendly than those made of fondant!

6.Honeymoons were much cheaper

People traveled inside their own country for honeymoons if they had a possibility to have a honeymoon. Very few got a chance to make a trip to somewhere exotic. If the honeymoon in Maldives isn’t in your budget, you could think what kind of other places you have always wanted to visit.

Modern way:

Nice idea would be renting a cottage in somewhere idyllic. Think about Ireland or France or Italy where you could spend days in bed or outside bicycling to the nearby villages. Doesn’t sound too bad, yeah? You could even find the perfect spot somewhere within your country’s borders. Save on the trip and splurge on the place, maybe take the beach holiday at your five year anniversary for example when you don’t have a wedding to pay.

“Instead of beach holiday, you could book an idyllic cottage to spend your honeymoon in with a fraction of a cost of Maldives holiday.“

 

7. Use what you have for wedding flowers

Flowers have always been a big part of weddings. When fresh flowers were almost impossible to get like in cold seasons during WWII in Europe, brides crafted small sprays of flowers from paper for their wedding day. In 1920’s brides added things like feathers and love knots into their bouquets. Roses, lilies, carnations and sweet peas have been popular flowers through the ages.

Modern way:

Stick with easy to get flowers that are in season. Little posy type bouquets are classy and budget friendly. If you want something big, ask the florist to ad plenty of greenery to give the bouquet more volume with smaller cost. Read our blog post 10 Easy To Grow Vintage Wedding Flowers to get ideas!

“Don’t forget to check our Instagram for more ideas and inspiration!”

There you go! We hope you’ve gotten many ideas and things to think about. If you liked the blogpost, drop the like and follow us in our Instagram!

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Love,

      Iida

Iida Silvennoinen

Iida Silvennoinen

Designer, author, blogger

Iida is a bridal designer at Heili Bridal and her passion is to help brides feel special in their big day. She grew up in the middle of wedding dresses and has been dressing brides in all shapes and sizes for years. She loves gardening and relaxed evenings at home.

Iida Silvennoinen is the author of The Wedding Dress Book in which she walks the bride through the wedding dress searching and shopping.

Plan Your Fantasy Theme Wedding in 6 Steps

12 Dec, 2017 | Fantasy Wedding, Wedding Tips

Plan Your Fantasy Theme Wedding in 6 Steps

We love fantasy books and movies, it’s our kryptonite. A fantasy theme wedding is great way to include your favorite stories to your big day. Fantasy can be difficult to bring into real world without a million dollar budget and one Oscar winning film crew behind you but you shouldn’t worry! The easy solution would be hiring a wedding planner but sometimes their vision isn’t quite there or you just don’t have budget for it. Good news is, that planning and designing is not a rocket science and you can do it by yourself! Download our easy to use wedding theme planner for FREE!

Let’s get started!

A way to get the Oscar worthy fantasy weddings is simple when we divide the process in two parts:

Forming the theme

1. History vs. the fantasy world

2. The source material

3. Finding main element. 

Achieving the right feeling

4. Getting a good venue

5. Using elements from the source material

6. Having one main element

We wanted to share our top tips to rule any fantasy wedding theme without looking tacky or cheap. As a former theater professionals, we know tons about creating imaginary worlds. Really, there is so much same in theatre and weddings! So, here’s our six step way to create a stylish fantasy wedding with any theme of your choice.

If you’re interested to see more designing examples, do head to our blog post How To Design A Wedding Theme -Example: Fantasy Wedding With Lord Of The Rings Woodland Elves Aesthetic. Check out also our inspiration posts: Moody Viking Wedding, Rivendell Inspired Wedding, Cinderella Wedding, Moomin Wedding and Black And Orange Halloween Wedding.

 

1. Compare your theme to real history – what does it remind you of?

Thing about good fantasy is that it should remind real things enough that it’s believable. Love or hate Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings, but they worked miracles with Weta and one thing they kept as a guide was that the viewer should believe what they see.

That’s the thing – believable fantasy.

You can make your fantasy atmosphere to feel more real by tying it to the historical era it reminds you of. Be it Lord of the Rings in Middle Ages, Steampunk Victorian times or Antique Midsummer’s Night Dream. Sometimes the era is easy to find: like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in the 1920’s. In some other case you might need to just roughly decide the era you are going for in your fantasy theme wedding.

2. Use the source material to dig deeper

If there’s a movie or tv-series, watch it through once more and pay attention to the visual world. What colors do they use or where it is filmed. Put down the adjectives of the mood (dark, jewel tones, grimy, light, earthy, blueish) and details. Or find illustrations to see how other people have visualized the story. You can also check the book covers or fanart or inspiration boards made by others to get a better feeling of things. For a quick reminder sometimes just watching the trailer can sum up things nicely.

3. Determine the main element

Try to pin down one thing that makes the story look just so. What is the main element that separates the movie/show/book from all the others.  Then make sure you have that one Thing in your wedding. Sometimes it can be a color, item, shape or motive. Sometimes it’s more difficult to pinpoint: light or music or some specific scene. But it’s the main element that takes you right to the mood, what makes you say “Oh! This is just like in that one movie/book/story/series!”.

 

You’ve got the idea, let’s make it reality!

It’s time for you to take your notes and move into booking, ordering and making things for your wedding. There’s two good ways to include something to your wedding: through small details or going big.

If you want a more traditional wedding then the small details are the way to go. That way you can keep the overall tone close to what people expect a wedding to look like but have little personal touches to make your smile even wider. A guest can spot the small details hinting to a certain theme if they know the couple well and have eye for details.

Big elements make a big impact. They embrace the whole wedding design and set the tone to make your wedding different from others. Your guests can see the big elements starting from the invitations and later all around the wedding venue. 

Budget wise these two options can get close to each other. Bigger the things the fewer you need, on the other hand you might spend major part of the budget to the small details if you need several of them. It’s like comparing a huge flower arch, fantasy menu and a themed band to stationary, place cards and a headpiece. 

4. Book a good venue

Space makes the biggest impact. Now it’s good time to think of the real historical era you decided and try to find a venue closest to that era in time or in style. Castles or old manor houses are great, maybe old library or townhouse. Woodlands, parks and barns are good in a way that they don’t really have an era and can be a venue for almost any fantasy realm. The more ambient place you can find, the less you need to work with decorations later and it really can save you some cash. This is the GO BIG kind of a way.

5. Pick elements from the source material

Now bring in the colors or visuals you have picked from your source material. Compare them to the historical era and pick things that work well in both: history and fantasy. Let’s say you’re having a Wizarding World themed wedding. We would use royal blue and velvet and a star motive. Pick one or two things and use them in your decorations and stationery or even in your bridal party outfits. Maybe use colored ambience lights or cinematic music. To keep everything neat pick just few things.

6. Use the main element

Use it in as many places as you can. In a Wizarding wedding wands and magic would be my pick as the main element because J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World wouldn’t be the same without wands. Put them on invitations, as part of flower centerpieces, tie rings into a wand, and have more wands as favors or place cards. Why not put them on top of the wedding cake too. Use the main element in the details as much as you like. To learn more about choosing a main element and using it, read our blog post How To Design A Wedding Theme -Example: Fantasy Wedding With Woodland Elves Aesthetic.

 

 

Now you’re ready to rock your fantastic fantasy theme wedding! Don’t forget to ease your fantasy wedding planning with out easy to use wedding theme planner. It has all that I have talked here in a form of handy visual guide you can print and fill as you go. Checklists, moodboard worksheets and inspirational examples teach you even more about visual wedding planning. If you liked the content, leave a like and follow us in our Instagram and Pinterest.

 

Love,

      Iida

Iida Silvennoinen

Iida Silvennoinen

Designer, author, blogger

Iida is a bridal designer at Heili Bridal and her passion is to help brides feel special in their big day. She grew up in the middle of wedding dresses and has been dressing brides in all shapes and sizes for years. She loves gardening and relaxed evenings at home.

Iida Silvennoinen is the author of The Wedding Dress Book in which she walks the bride through the wedding dress searching and shopping.

START THE JOURNEY TOWARDS THE PERFECT WEDDING DRESS!

The only wedding dress guide you need is here.

Take the first step

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