Getting Hitched Is Full Of Insight + Tips For Couples Getting Married: Recent Episodes
Steve Mummery
You want to have the perfect wedding don't you? All the insight and tips to get you through to your wedding day. From getting engaged through to getting married, Steve takes you through all the things you need to think about in regards to what type of ceremony is right for you, through to what should be in the speeches at the wedding. All episodes are short and straight to the point. Steve Mummery is a marriage celebrant based in Perth, Australia. He has a media background and has married over 200 couples. You can find more on his website at smcelebrant.com.au.
The uncharted waters of marriage can be a bit tricky for most couples. This isn’t something you do every day. So be prepared to make a few mistakes along the way, but in the end you need to make sure it's the day you wanted!
This 1st episode in this series gives you a mantra to help you get through the journey towards marriage and in fact the rest of your life together.
I also ask the Brides Brains Trust what their best piece of advice for couples getting married is (now that they've been there and done that, along with the worst piece of advice they got and how other people poked their noses into how their wedding day should be.
A wedding will probably be the biggest and most involved party or ritual either of you have ever put together, so before you get overwhelmed, take a deep breath and tick these 10 things off your list.
Plus the Brides Brains Trust let you know the best piece of advice they got was.
Around 80% of couples marrying in Australia choose a marriage celebrant to guide them through their ceremonial vows because traditional church ceremonies don’t fit the dream of many of today’s couples. Modern civil ceremonies reflect their individuality and diversity better.
In this episode I talk through the different types of ceremonies that are being done, plus Amy from the Brides Brains Trust have a great tip if you're having a destination wedding.
Learning how to establish. wedding budget is not something that most people have done before, so it's worth taking the time to understand what's involved and where the pitfalls may be. Once you have all the finance and your budget in order, you can then start to do all the fun stuff of planning your wedding. This episode gives you 4 tips to help you establish your budget.
Plus the Brides Brains Trust tell you what they now feel the biggest waste of money on their wedding day was (always easy in hindsight).
One of the most important things to do once you have settled on a budget amount is to actually stay on budget. It's also one of the hardest things to do, as little things start to slowly increase the cost. This episode gives you 4 tips that will help you do exactly that.
Plus, the Brides Brains Trust let you know how their costs got out of control and what the best money they spent on their wedding day was.
Once you actually work out how much your dream wedding is going to cost, you usually find that you need to cut it back, so in this episode I look at 10 ways you can cut back your costs.
Plus the "brides brains trust" give you their tips in how they cut their costs.
This episode lists more than 20 questions you should be armed with to ask about the venue you have chosen for your wedding. Uncovering info like venue curfews, hidden fees, set up times, capacity and even parking spots. Before you sign any contract, make sure you have asked all the right questions.
Plus Hannah from the Brides Brains Trust gives you some more valuable advice.
Exactly what does a wedding planner do? Well in actual fact the answer is as much or as little as you want. Paul McAllister the Perth Wedding p.a. (personal assistant) takes us through the role of a wedding planner and points out the difference between a wedding planner and a wedding coordinator that a venue may supply as part of your package.
You'll find out what a wedding planner does exactly including all the individual jobs they can do, as well as what the difference is between the wedding coordinator that the venue provides you and what a wedding planner does.
Paul is based in Perth Australia and you can find out more about him and what he does at perthweddingpa.com.au
Everyone agrees you need more than a bunch of flowers from Woolies on the way to the ceremony, but how much is too much and how important are they? In this episode I talk to Stacey from Beans and Bunches about what the priorities are for couples and why flowers can be so expensive.
Beans And Bunches is based in Perth Australia and you can ask Stacey any question you have by emailing her at stacey@beansandbunches.com.au or go to their website Beansandbunches.com.au
Engaging a photographer for you're wedding is one of the important steps along the way because the end result is something you live with forever and continue to look back on.
In this episode I talk to wedding photographer pro Chantelle Venter about all you need to know in selecting a photographer and what the process is on the wedding day.
It's important you go through an interview process with your photographer as you are going to be spending many hours working with them on your big day, so it's important that you feel comfortable with them and that you are all on the same page with what you want.
You can see Chantelle's work at chantelleventerphotography.com
You can also see my Pinterest board on wedding photo ideas here.
There are also a bunch of other photographers I have worked with over the years and you can find them on my HELP page on my website here.
The traditional five tier wedding cakes has long gone these days, with lots of modern contemporary options to choose from including no cake at all. In this episode I talk through the options with...
What would I know about hair and makeup for a wedding? Zilch. That's why my good friend Dr. Google came in handy for this episode that gives you the down-low on all the facets of hair and makeup that you need to think about for your wedding, like whether the bride should go first or last in getting her makeup on. The answer btw is neither. Listen in for the answer.
Lots of couples dream of that destination wedding and it is possible, so in this episode I take you down the track of getting married overseas and some of the important things you need to think about.
There are lots of ways you can involve children in the ceremony, depending on their age and capabilities, so in this episode I walk you through some of those different ways and alert you to some actions you need to think about.
Plus we get some more valuable advice from Amy in the Brides Brains Trust on wedding traditions.
It's a special day for mums, but quite often they can feel a little left out. Dad gets to walk his daughter down the aisle. Dad gets to do a speech at the reception. This episode explores some gorgeous, simple ways to involve your mum in the day.
Plus Amy from the Brides Brain Trust has another tip for your wedding reception.
Making your entrance on the big day is one of the special moments you'll remember forever, so in this episode I talk through the things to think about to make a perfect entrance to the wedding aisle.
Plus Amy & Hannah from the Brides Brains Trust have advice on makeup, your MC and being selfish!
Apart from about 2 minutes of legalities, the rest of your wedding ceremony can be whatever you want. This episode takes you through how a typical ceremony can run, featuring the different elements some couples wish to include in their ceremony.
Plus Hannah & Amy from the Brides Brains Trust have some advice on your venue, your celebrant and stress!
Don't worry, this is something most couples struggle with. After all, it's not like you do this every day. great it like writing a love letter to your partner. This episode includes a bunch of questions to ask yourself and if you write down your answers, your vows will form from them.
Plus Lauren from the Brides Brains Trust gives her best piece of advice to couples getting married.
There are many rituals that can be carried out within a wedding ceremony. Some come from different cultural or religious backgrounds and that always depends on how much of the ritual you wish to include. Other non religious rituals that might interest you are explored in this episode involving everything from candles to stones, to butterflies, to jumping booms(!) to wine.
There are so many wedding traditions out there. This episode breaks them all down and talks you through whether you need to have them or not, or whether you can adapt them to your own personalities.
Should you sleep separately the night before and not see each other on the wedding day? Should the bride be given away by her father? Should there be a first dance at the ceremony? Do you toss the bouquet or save it? What about wearing a garter? Right down to consummating the marriage. It's all in this episode.
I resisted the Pinterest hole for a few years, but after my friend Nat suggested it would be good for my business I jumped down the hole and never returned!
Within minutes I realised what an excellent resource it could be and set up my own boards for everything to do with weddings like; dresses, shoes, groom attire, flowers, rings, arbours etc.
It's like a giant scrap book and you can see all of my scrap book at pinterest.com/smcelebrant
Keeping up with the trends for wedding styling is a huge task, that's why you might want to hire a wedding stylist. In this episode Paul McAllister from perthweddingpa.com.au takes you through the latest trends in styling for wedding ceremonies and receptions.
If you want to talk to Paul, he’s based in Perth Australia and you can find him at perthweddingpa.com.au
On your wedding day there can still be a few surprises, so don't get caught short. A little preparation in the days prior could help you avoid a tantrum or tragedy. This might be a good task for one of your crew to pull together.
Just run through the Emergency Day Checklist and make sure you've got everything.
Being chosen as a Maid (or Man) Of Honour is literally, an honour and should be treated as such. This episode takes the MOH down the path of the role and what the person entrusted with this role needs to take care of and achieve.
Whether you are having a best man or best woman by your side guys, this podcast is for you and for them. It runs through exactly what is involved being a wing-man to the groom. All the duties involved in their role are in this episode.
So why not just send them a link to this episode so that they can hear for themselves what they need to do.
Music is one of the important elements of your big day. It helps set the energy, tone and feel of not only the wedding ceremony, but the reception as well.
Carefully picked tunes help bring the wedding ceremony together as well as setting the scene for the post wedding music and the reception.
To get you started here's 440 of them...
- The 75 Most Romantic Wedding Songs from brides.com
- The Top 250 Best Wedding Songs from the knot.com
- 100 Wedding Songs For Your Wedding & Reception from music notes.com
- Top 15 Wedding Songs from discovermusic.com
So what speeches should you have at your wedding reception? The rule is...there are no rules! You can have whatever speeches you want, however you need to make sure they are all short and entertaining for the most part.
This episode runs through what speeches you can have, who does them and where they should be placed during the reception. Future episodes run through the individual speeches and what they should contain.
The speeches at a wedding reception can either make or break a night. It's a big risk to stop down, make everyone shut up and listen to people gush over how gorgeous their daughter is or how lucky a man is to finally get a partner who will stick with him. So there are ways to make your speech tight and entertaining.
This episode takes you through the process of creating the best speech of the night.
The Father Of The Bride's speech usually kicks off the night as the first speech, so it should be kept tight and be entertaining. It sets the pace for further speeches at the wedding reception during the evening. So make sure you put some time and effort into it. After all, it's not every day your daughter gets married.
The Father Of The Groom's speech at a wedding reception is one of the first speeches of the night, so it needs to be tight and entertaining. This episode gives the father of the groom some tips on what should be included in his speech.
The Maid (or Man) Of Honour is sometimes asked to do speech before the Best Man. Sometimes it includes all of the bridesmaids. Sometimes it just involves the main bridal attendant of the bride. If this is you, then make time before the wedding day to prepare your speech. Don't do it off the cuff. It shows the bride that you respect her and care about her. This episode runs through what should be included in your speech.
Besides the groom's speech, the best man's speech is the most important one for the night. There is nothing better than a well prepared, hilarious, broad minded speech from the best mate of the groom. It can even be done by a Best Woman, it doesn't really matter as long as it's well thought out and entertaining. This episode runs through what should be included in the speech.
It's probably "the" most important speech of the night. The groom's speech on behalf of himself and his partner. Sometimes they both do it, sometimes it's just one of the happy couple. It doesn't matter which one of them does it, as long as one of them does. This episode covers what exactly who should be thanked and what should be mentioned in the groom's speech.
Traditionally the groom does the speech on behalf of himself and his new wife. However, it's increasingly popular for the bride to either join him for his speech, or to do her own if she has some special thank you's to do. This episode takes you through how to structure your bride's speech.
It's important to be able to enjoy your big day from start to finish. This episode contains lots of insight and tips into making sure you stay chilled ALL day. It all starts with getting a good sleep the night before and staying ahead of schedule on the day.
It's not all over the day after the wedding you know (sigh). There's still a few important things to do and one of them is extremely important when it comes to opening your gifts. This episode runs through all of the things you need to take care of after the big day.
And now, it's all up to you!
You're on your own from here on in lol. No seriously, there are a million marriage podcasts available to help you out from here on in. I'll leave them up to cleverer people than me to do. But I hope you got some great insight and tips along the way through this series.
My thanks go to Lauren, Amy and Hannah who I named as The Brides Trust who imparted their valuable advice as "been there done that brides". My thanks also to Paul, Nermin, Stacey and Chantelle my wedding industry experts who contributed valuable insight along the way.