Your Glos and Wilts Wedding news and ideas from around the area

New interactive feature to make hen and stag dos less stressful

A new randomised spinning wheel feature has been launched by Hen Weekends and Stag Weekends in an effort to make the planning process of hen and stag parties easier and less stressful. This comes as their recent study of hen and stag party bookings found that 30% of hen and stag party organisers have no idea which location to book, with so many different options on offer creating quite the predicament.

New honeymoon experiences for couples with a conscience

Hotelgift is the ideal way to share the joy of travel with a newlywed couple with a conscience; from uber luxury glamping to wellness journeys for two. For every Hotelgift bought and for every gift card that is redeemed for a new hotel stay, 1,000 litres of water are donated to support local communities in places that need it most through a partnership with Made Blue.

Milston Flower Barn offers DIY wedding flower classes for 2023

With the 2023 brides in mind, Susanne Kennedy from Milston Flower Barn Wedding and Event Florist based in Salisbury, Wiltshire reveals that the florist has launched private DIY wedding flower classes for next year. "These are fun-filled workshops for brides, grooms, bridesmaids and family members who want to help contribute to a do-it-yourself wedding theme and create their own natural, seasonal wedding flowers," she tells us, "It's a great way to start preparing for the big day, whilst learning a skill that will come in handy for many occasions, not just weddings." Susanne explains how arranging your own wedding flowers is a perfect way to bring a unique and personal touch to the special day, whilst spending some quality time with your partner or loved ones.

Average ages we are hitting life’s milestones

A new study from Confused.com has revealed the average ages we are hitting life's milestones in England & Wales, including getting married at age 35! So how does your milestone timeline compare? Typically, the first milestone people in the UK reach is moving out of their parent's home at age 20, followed by moving in with their partner at 27. The next life milestone those in the UK usually meet is having their first child, with couples seeming to have children before marriage. The average age for having children is 29, while the average age for getting married is 35. The data also suggests that on average, people are choosing to have children before purchasing a property. This could be a result of house prices continuing to rise making it harder to save for a deposit.

The team at Daylesford Organic win award

Daylesford Organic are delighted to announce that their head baker, Michael Engler, was recently named a winner at the Tiptree World Bread Awards with Brook Food. The awards are hailed as the UK's leading celebration of the art of bread-baking, where stars of the industry gather together annually for a much-anticipated prize ceremony. Michael's much loved Organic Fruit Bread was voted the winner by Stephen Hallam, chair of the judges, in the awards' Fruit category. A well-deserved win, the loaf is one of Daylesford Organic's most popular products, densely packed with delicious apricots, raisins and walnuts.

Couples are opting for eco-friendly weddings

One of the UK's leading waste and recycling management companies BusinessWaste.co.uk collected data, which shows how much attitudes to environmental and sustainable choices in regard to weddings are changing. According to the research searches for 'sustainable wedding' has skyrocketed by 75% over the last year, while 'sustainable wedding venues near me' saw an 80%+ increase along with 'sustainable engagement ring' which saw a staggering 96% search increase. What's more, us Brits came out on top overall for our eco-friendly mindfulness, with France and Greece also seeing the biggest increase in searches for sustainable wedding venues.

Keep your wedding guests warm this winter

Putting the chocolate back into drinking chocolate with their unique fine beads, Cocoa Canopy are making winter weddings super cosy with its sample-szie offering. Perfect for winter wedding favours, they offer the ultimate in comforting hot chocolates, guaranteed to put a smile on the receiver's face! Cocoa Canopy is the only UK drinking chocolate brand to craft unique fine chocolate beads for beautifully smooth, real chocolate drinks made from only a handful of sustainably sourced ingredients.

Stick to Dry January with Cotswolds Distillery's Dry Gin Essence

If you're using this January as a month to be more mindful about your alcohol intake then Cotswolds Dry Gin Essence offers a great low-alcohol alternative making your Ginuary damp rather than dry! Cotswolds Dry Gin Essence is a full-strength gin designed to reduce the amount of product and alcohol required in a drink while retaining the intensity of flavour. Cotswolds Dry Gin Essence is made using ten times the botanical concentration of their award-winning Cotswolds Dry Gin, resulting in a lighter and deliciously refreshing gin, with all the taste and 90% less alcohol than the standard 50 ml serve. Each 5ml serve of Cotswolds Dry Gin Essence contains just 0.23 units of alcohol and only 14 calories. One bottle makes a total of 20 almost alcohol-free cocktails.

How to throw an insta-worthy engagement party

You never have to scroll too far to stumble upon a celebrity engagement party on instagram and if you've recently got engaged yourself, you're probably thinking - should I throw one too? The short answer is yes, absolutely. While planning the wedding is always top priority, there's no reason why you shouldn't have a party to get all your loved ones together and celebrate the big news straight away - particularly when most weddings take place a good 12 to 18 months post-proposal. However, hosting an engagement party of your dreams can still be quite a daunting task. To help, wedding jewellery experts, Queensmith have pulled together 11 tips for taking your celebratory soirée to the next level.

Disconnect to reconnect this January at the Cotswold’s chicest bolthole

Bergman Design House, the award-winning studio founded by Marie Soliman and Albin Berglund, is delighted to present The Lund Collection, the Cotswolds' chicest bolthole. The one-bedroom residence, which opened in Spring 2022, is perfectly positioned between Chipping Norton and Great Tew and offers the ultimate January escape for couples, friends and solo travellers alike. "There's nowhere better to reset, relax and set those New Year intentions than in our beautiful British bolthole" said Albin Berglund, the Swedish-born co-founder of Bergman Design House. "The name 'Lund Collection' stems from my surname and means 'green pastures' in Swedish – which couldn't be more apt for describing this countryside oasis. Marie and I wanted to channel the Swedish concept of 'Hygge' with a warming, nature-inspired colour palette that brings the outside in, soft and tactile textures and of course, an open roaring fire. Here, guests will swap the sounds of city traffic for tweeting birds and tranquil nature, and feel the weight of the world lift from their shoulders as they cross the cottage threshold."

Spotify data reveals the most popular wedding songs

Luxury engagement ring retailer, Diamonds Factory, has scraped Spotify to find the top 100 most popular wedding songs to include in your playlists. To do this, Diamonds Factory analysed over 100 Spotify playlists containing the word 'wedding' and found the most featured songs across all playlists. These playlists included 3500 unique songs, and the data scrape also used additional keywords to reveal the top wedding ceremony songs, wedding party songs and top wedding artists, too.

New planner reveals when you can afford to tie the knot

With wedding costs rising by 3,000% since the 1950s, and set to reach an all-time high in the 2020s, making and sticking to a wedding budget can be a real headache for couples. To help would-be newlyweds with the complex task of budget planning their big day, the wedding finance team at money.co.uk have created a new wedding budget planner, to help couples account for all their costs for each stage of their dream wedding. The new planning tool also helps you calculate the earliest date you should set for your big day, based on how long it will take you to save up enough money to pay for your dream wedding. The wedding budget planner page also has lot of tips to help couples save cash, including:

Win a ‘One Night Luxury Four Poster Hotel Break for Two’ in Essex

County Weddings Magazine has teamed up with The Rose and Crown Hotel to give our readers the chance to win a 'One Night Luxury Four Poster Hotel Break for Two' in their 700 year old hotel. The lucky winner will receive a voucher which can be redeemed any time in the next 18 months. Also included is a bottle of champagne waiting in your room on arrival, breakfast in the morning, early check-in and late checkout, and a delicious three course dinner in their onsite restaurant

Slater Menswear in Gloucestershire offers advice for newly engaged couples

Jonny Rose is the marketing manager at Slater Menswear with a store in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Amid the cost of living crisis, Jonny has revealed some easy ways that newly engaged couples can keep their wedding expenses low while still enjoying an elegant and lavish venue. He tells us, "While the idea of inviting everyone you know to your wedding seems like tradition, this can end up costing you more so limit your guest list. Stick to a set amount of people that you want to invite, for example, 40 to begin with, and make sure that all the important people are accounted for. By only keeping it close family members and friends, you'll be saving thousands of pounds in the long run."

The most popular wedding foliage 2022 revealed

Wow, 2022 was quite the year for weddings with a bumper amount taking place. Looking back at what was trending last year, perhaps inspiration for those tying the knot in 2023, wedding insurance specialists Protectivity have researched the most popular wedding flowers, based on UK Google Search Volume. The most popular wedding bouquet foliage was Eucalyptus, with 585,000 searches! Followed by, Ivy 495,000, Jasmine 458,200, Rosemary 374,600, Ferns 351,200, Monstera 319,500, Silver Birch 219,600, Philodendrons 219,400, Olive branches 143,000 and Myrtle 133,300.

Birdland Park and Gardens is offering new adoption packages

Enjoy a day out this January at Birdland Park and Gardens in Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire. Whether you're enjoying a mini-moon in the region, or wanting a break with the family after the festive period, give the gift of unlimited visits to Birdland Park and Gardens for a whole year - the perfect present for bird lovers and great value too. Fans of the feathered friends at Birdland now have the chance to Adopt a Bird which means they'll be able to help support a beaked buddy throughout the year. By adopting, you're helping the team to care for these animals by meeting their dietary, housing and social needs. Options are available to adopt penguins, flamingos, owls, parrots or pelicans with different tiers of packages available,

Honeymooning in your married name

If you are dreaming of jetting off to sandy shores with your sparkling new ring, spouse and matching passports...then this guide from NameSwitch will tell you how to make your dreams come true. Please do have a proper think about whether having matching passports straight away is really that important to you because, trust us when we say, it's not an easy thing to pull off! With recent changes to how processes work, effects of the Pandemic, and added complications like not being handed your marriage certificate on your wedding day, or needing the name on your NHS records to be the same as the one on your passport, an already stressful undertaking just got even more nail-biting! Now it's not mission impossible, but you do need 3 key things to be aligned (and nerves of steel) if this is going to work...

Enjoy a festive tipple this New Year's Eve with whiskey gifts

Enjoy a festive tipple this New Year's Eve with whiskey gifts from The Cotswolds Distillery. Nestled in the heart of the beautiful Cotswolds countryside, it's the perfect one-stop-shop for gin and whisky gifts, with gift messaging available with every purchase, and all available at the click of a button. The award-winning Cotswolds Signature Single Malt Whisky was launched in 2017 and is the first whisky ever distilled in the Cotswolds. Rich and fruity, Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky is sippable with notes of honey, Seville orange marmalade and dark red fruits. Available in a beautiful gift box, it is the perfect gift for a whisky lover and is very versatile.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve in Style with Pride of Britain Hotels

Pride of Britain Hotels, the collection of leading luxury hotels in the UK with properties in Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire to name just a few is pleased to announce its top picks for the very best experiences this New Year's Eve. The carefully curated portfolio features over 50 independently run properties; each one unique and characterful with many of them offering exciting experiences and F&B offerings to bring in 2023 in style. Best for jazz and champagne surprises - The Headland. From the 30th of December 2022 to the 2nd of January 2023, celebrate the new year at The Headland nestled in one of Cornwall's most beautiful locations. The weekend of celebration includes a black-tie New Year's Eve party, with champagne tasting and The Headland's sumptuous six-course tasting dinner. The evening will be full of musical surprises, and plenty of dancing with a sweet treat of mini pasties after midnight. New Year's Day brings a family treasure hunt, jazz in the lounge and a special New Year's Day lunch. Room rates start from £439 per person, with a minimum three-night stay over the festive period.

The rise of double-barrelled surnames

n the past couple of years, there's been a continued increase in the number of people wishing to join their names. For example, in November, research by The London Mint Office to mark The Queen's platinum wedding anniversary shows that 11% of married couples between the ages of 18 and 30 joined their names. As the UK's leading Name Changing Service, NameSwitch has also seen an 18% year-on-year growth in couples wishing to adopt a double-barrelled surname, which accounts for 12% of the thousands of name changes we've assisted over the last 12 months. So, why are more of us opting to double-barrel their surnames?