The Build The Day blog
Latest · BudgetingWedding Venue Contracts: What to Check Before You Sign
The venue is the biggest thing you will sign for, and the contract is the part nobody reads properly. Here is what to check before you pay the deposit, from minimum spend and access times to what happens if the date has to move.
Planning & TimelinesWedding Fairs and Venue Open Days: How to Get Something Out of Them
Autumn is open day season, and most couples only ever view three venues. Here is how to walk into a wedding fair or an open evening with a plan, what to ask while you are standing there, and what to write down before you get back in the car.
Seasonal WeddingsAutumn Weddings: How to Plan Around the Light
September loses nearly two hours of daylight and the clocks go back on 25 October. Here is how to build an autumn wedding timeline backwards from sunset, so the photographs, the speeches and the evening all land where you want them.
Seasonal WeddingsYour Wedding Rain Plan: What to Sort Before the Forecast Turns
September is one of the busiest wedding months in the UK and one of the wettest. Here is the wet-weather plan worth having, the questions to ask your venue now, and the small things that make a rainy wedding day feel deliberate rather than salvaged.
Wedding FashionWhat to Do With Your Wedding Dress After the Day
The dress is still in its bag behind a door. Here is what it costs to clean and keep, why the clock matters more than anyone tells you, and the honest options if you would rather sell it, alter it or give it away.
Wedding Websites & RSVPsChasing Wedding RSVPs: What to Do When Guests Don't Reply
Your RSVP date has passed and a third of the list has said nothing. Here is why that happens, what it costs you, and the exact order to chase in so you get to a final number without falling out with anybody.
PlanningVenue Coordinator, Planner or Neither: Who Runs Your Wedding Day
Most couples assume someone is in charge on the day. Often nobody is. Here is the honest difference between a venue coordinator, a wedding planner and an on-the-day coordinator, what each actually costs, and how to run the day yourself if you would rather spend the money elsewhere.
PlanningDo You Need a Wedding Videographer?
A videographer costs about the same as a photographer, yet only around a third of couples book one. Here is an honest look at what you get for the money, what you lose without it, and how to decide without spending another fortnight on it.
PlanningYour Wedding Day Contact Sheet: Who Rings Who
At twenty to ten on the morning of the wedding, the florist cannot get through the gate. She rings the only number she has, which is yours. A one page contact sheet fixes that, and it takes about twenty minutes to write. Here is exactly what goes on it.
PlanningWhen a Wedding Supplier Cancels: What to Do Next
A photographer stops trading, a caterer pulls out six weeks before, a band quietly splits up. It happens more often than couples expect. Here is what to do in the first hour, how to get the deposit back, and how to find a replacement without starting from nothing.
PlanningThe Day After Your Wedding: Brunch, Gifts and Getting Everything Home
The wedding day is planned to the quarter hour. The morning after is planned by nobody, which is how a box of cards goes missing and someone's dad does four car runs in yesterday's shirt. Here is what to sort in advance, in about twenty minutes.
PlanningCan Everyone Hear You? Sound at Your Ceremony and Speeches
The vows and the speeches are the two moments people came for, and they are the two most likely to be inaudible past row four. Here is what actually goes wrong with wedding sound, and the short list of questions that fixes it.
PlanningThe Drinks Reception: How to Fill the Hour After the Ceremony
The gap between the ceremony and the meal is the least planned part of the day and one of the longest. Here is how long it really runs, what to feed people, and what to do about the fact that you will not be there for most of it.