Travelling Central Europe in search of traditional wedding customs.

After travelling over 3,000 miles across Central Europe, I thought I would share with you my most interesting discoveries relating to various cultural wedding customs.

I started my journey from Edinburgh on Tuesday 14th January heading to the beautiful capital city of Prague in Czech Republic.

I have been to Prague in my early teens with my Granny, but I’ve always dreamt of going back and this dream has finally come true.

Following my visit, I thought to share with you all the wedding traditions I’ve learnt about:

Wreath of Rosemary

Bridesmaids create a wreath made with rosemary on the night prior to the wedding for the Bride to either wear or hold during her wedding ceremony, this is in hope for wisdom, love and happiness. Rosemary sprigs are also given out to wedding guests as favours to encourage happiness and fertility.

Rope gate

Another popular tradition in Czech weddings is for the couple to be stopped right outside of the ceremony venue with a rope decorated with flowers and empty bottles by the friends of the Groom. It is his responsibility to pay his way for the sins of his adolescence, permitting entry to the wedding venue.

Smashing plates

This one is a responsibility of a venue coordinator to smash a plate right in front of the wedding couple as they arrive for their wedding breakfast. It is the couple’s job to clean it all up in front of their guests, giving them the opportunity to prove the harmony in their relationship, and willingness to work as a team in the face of all obstacles.

Love of Beer

Beer in Czech Republic can often be found cheaper than a bottle of mineral water – this is yet another reason why weddings in Czech Republic are so popular.

Eating soup jointly

Could you imagine enjoying your soup jointly, using one soup spoon? This tradition prevails even today, showing that married couples must always work out difficulties together and go halves in everyday life.

Disappearance of the Bride

When the wedding is at its peak, the Bride is carried out by the Groom’s friends. The Groom must find her as soon as possible, if he doesn’t achieve that within a given timeframe, he’s got to yet again pay his way to be re-joined with his newlywed Bride. This symbolises disconnection of the bride from her parents and the start of a new life with her brand-new husband.

After five days of enjoying many amazing Czech attractions and their world-class beers, I headed from Praha Hlavni Nadrazi (Prague – Central Train Station) to Wroclaw Glowny, Poland on a four hour inter-state train journey through the mountains.

I travelled north to my home town of Legnica, in the south west of Poland. Whilst visiting family and wedding professional friends in Poland, I remembered a few polish wedding traditions, some of which featured at my own wedding two years ago.

Majority of weddings in churches

Polish people in majority are Catholic, which means that most wedding ceremonies will take place at a church, followed by a reception at a banqueting hall or venue. The Polish Government signed an agreement with the Catholic Church, meaning that all Catholic wedding ceremonies are legally binding.

Love of Vodka

Poland is very well known for its vodka, which is very reasonably priced, which is why so many wedding traditions involve vodka!

Firstly, the wedding couple are greeted with one shot of water and one shot of vodka upon their arrival to the Wedding Breakfast. Whoever selects the vodka is expected to be the boss in the relationship. The Couple then proceed to throw the shot glass over their left shoulder, symbolising the start to their new married life together, leaving the past behind.

Finally, vodka is provided on all tables for guests to enjoy along with a selection of mixers and replenished throughout the night, ensuring the guests have the best celebrations.

Bread and salt

Another tradition dedicated to the arrival of the couple to their Wedding Breakfast is the provision of a ‘wedding bread’ and salt. Both sets of parents are responsible to greet the couple with a specially decorated, and baked for the occasion, loaf of bread and salt. The Couple tear off a piece of bread and consume it with a pinch of salt. The bread symbolises no hunger and the salt flavour in the marriage.

Long celebrations

Can you imagine your wedding celebrations lasting two, three days or sometimes even a week? In Poland, this is quite standard. Most weddings last a minimum of two days, with main celebrations and the ceremony on day one and a full meal with all family and friends before the guest departure on the second day. In the highlands of Poland, however, weddings will last up to a week and each day will involve a different activity for the wedding celebrations.

Midnight Games – pol. Oczepiny

Since all weddings in Poland last into the wee hours of the following morning, sometimes as late as 7am, all guests gather round the dance floor at midnight to take part in the Midnight Games  (pol. Oczepiny). These games are normally organised by their ceremony witnesses and can involve both physical activities as well as quiz style games. This is a fun way to break the night and involve both the wedding couple and their guests in ice breaker activities.

After over a week of travelling, visiting family and enjoying some plentiful Central European food, I am now back to my beloved home in Scotland, to see you all soon at the upcoming open days and wedding showcases in Edinburgh.

If you have liked this blog, hit LIKE below and let me know which of these Central European traditions you liked the most.

Wishing you all a fantastic February!

Why Wedding Planning?

“There is not a better way to describe Oskar other than the wedding Guru!!

He is a true professional and his attention to detail is incredible. No matter what questions or worries my husband and I had he was always on hand to offer answers, support and reassurance. He made sure the run up to our wedding, our wedding day and the day after were as stress free and enjoyable as possible. Even keeping us in check when we had forgotten things.

I can honestly cannot recommend Oskar highly enough and I will never forget how relaxed and at ease he made us feel.”

Nicola – The Bride

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Why Wedding Planning?

I am often asked why I chose a career in wedding planning and I don’t really have one straight answer to this question. I also can’t honestly say that I planned for weddings to become my passion, they just did.

I started my career with hotels in 2009 when I entered my undergraduate course in Events Management at university. This was exactly 10 years ago last October! The management at the hotel I worked for very quickly picked up on the fact that I have an excellent attention to detail. For this reason, I was quickly moved to predominantly look after the weddings there and deliver them on the day. Both the management and the couples felt at ease with me at the steering wheel of all things weddings and I started realising that I really enjoyed weddings and I was good at running them. It was back then that I learnt about the practical logistics of delivering successful weddings, giving me a well-grounded experience for my next career steps.

Five years forward and I found myself in my first wedding planning role for four hotels in Edinburgh’s city centre. This is when I started learning about certain regulations and procedures relating to wedding planning, giving me a completely new perspective on this complex process. I grew my connection base with other venue coordinators and a strong network of wedding suppliers.

From there, I quickly progressed to take on my first management role in weddings for a portfolio of three luxury venues, this is when I was honoured by many of my wedding couples who nominated me to receive three Scottish VOWS Awards recognitions and I also received an industry recognition from the Scottish Hotel Awards during this time.

Following my success, I was privileged to support a team of nine venue coordinators UK-wide as a mentor in their wedding planning efforts and also presenting training workshops to venue coordinators annually at a national wedding workshop.

It was mid-year 2019, that I thought of planning weddings independently and for couples across the whole of Scotland or even world-wide.

So… why wedding planning? Because I absolutely love what I do, and I find my work incredibly rewarding and satisfying. I love seeing my couples faces on the day of their wedding, I always get a little tear…

What’s my favourite part of the job – you might ask?

I can’t say that there’s just one part of my job that I enjoy the most, but I most certainly have my favourites!

People – I just love meeting new wedding couples! They come to me excited, but at the same time a little overwhelmed and this is when I can provide them with much needed reassurance and just simply offer a pleasant introductory conversation. You’d be surprised how much of a bond you can create with a couple over many months of wedding planning, which makes it all even more fulfilling. I still keep in touch with many of my wedding couples to this day, and love hearing about their milestones!

Is there any one piece of advice I could give wedding planning couples?

Enjoy it all, because it goes faster than you think! I hear many couples throughout my career saying they would do it all over again as it’s gone way too fast, so take your time to truly enjoy your wedding planning together. If you can take time with your wedding plans and work on them together, you’ll find it bringing you both closer and you’ll experience some incredible things during this process. If you find yourself needing some help with your plans – I’m sure I could give you some advice.

Any particular stories that remain in my mind?

I have told you about the amazing story of Mr & Mrs Love in my previous blog – my heart still melts to this day thinking about their beautiful wedding.

There’s one more wedding story close to my heart that I would like to share with you… even my husband had a tear in his eye when I told him about it.

I worked with this loving and incredibly enthusiastic couple for over a year and a couple of months before their special day, I was asked to help with one aspect of wedding ceremony in particular – arrival procession.

Sadly, the Bride’s parents were no longer there to provide a resting hand on her special day and this beautiful Bride was having the dilemma of who to ask to walk her down the aisle. After some careful consideration, I came up with an idea that lighted up her gorgeous face, which also made my day! I suggested for her Groom to meet her ready in her dress, at this very important and special moment of entering the ceremony hall, and to walk her into the next chapter of their lives together. You can’t imagine how emotional and at the same proud the Bride looked when the doors to the ceremony opened and she entered the room with her soon-to-be husband! This is one of those beautiful stories that brings a tear to my eye, still to this day.

Wedding Planning Tips - Music / Venue Decorating / Photography

During my wedding planning consultations, I often begin with an open discussion with the wedding couple about their plans in order to identify areas which require the most attention. This allows me to easily come up with simple and tried solutions to help them along this process.⁠

I have recently looked over my notebooks and noticed that three areas come up quite a lot in our conversations - music, venue decorating and photography.⁠

Over the next three days I will be revealing a few simple solutions referring to these hot topics, so remember to join me on my Instagram and Facebook stories.⁠

WEDDING MUSIC

There's really three questions to ask yourselves when planning for your wedding music:⁠⠀

What? When? and How?⁠

It is definitely worth looking at the types of music and songs you would like to have at your wedding, across the different parts of your day.

Will you be having music for your ceremony and will you entertain your guests during the drinks reception? Finally, are you planning for background music in your Wedding Breakfast?

It is also particularly important to consider how this music will be supplied - are you thinking of live music or will it be music supplied on a digital device? Does your venue supply you with a sound system?

You can now see why it is important to spend some time thinking about this part of your wedding planning too.

WEDDING VENUE DECORATING

There's much logistical planning needed when it comes to wedding venue decorating.⁠⠀
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Having delivered weddings operationally for over four and a half years, I will tell you exactly what elements of planning for your venue decorating you should consider.⁠

There’s really three integral wedding planning elements to consider when thinking about venue decorating:

1) Will your decorations vary between the different parts of your day? Are your decorations portable and easy to move?

2) Does it all require a specific setup and who will be looking after this? Including turnarounds and moves between different stages of your special day.

3) When does it all need setup? Is early access for setup permitted or will your venue permit setup the day before your wedding?

Venue Decorating does indeed take a lot of planning and it needs a lot of consideration - at the end of the day it only happens once.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

I see a lot of couples forgetting to think about this important element - which in turn will produce one of the only physical memorabilia of your special day. Of course, your professional photographer will have a perfect plan for your day, but if there’s any particular photos you want to have - you will need to consider these early. Once again, you’ve only got one chance to get these right!

I often recommend for couples to meet with their photographer for a briefing to discuss exactly what photos you want taken on your wedding day. Plan and discuss your timings and locations - if you’re planning to travel to a remote location for your wedding photography, you will need to take timings particularly into account.

Finally, who from your wedding party will be responsible for family portraits? Even the most experienced photographer might struggle with this when they don’t know individual members of your family - will you allocate somebody to take charge of this?

I hope you found this blog and my Instagram and Facebook stories useful - let me know in the comments below if there’s any other topics you’d like me to touch upon in my next series of wedding planning tips by the Wedding Guru - Oskar.

P.S. Special Engagement offers from my recommended suppliers:

Janet Annand - Wedding Harpist (LINK)

2 for 1 on ceremony and drinks packages OR 15% discount on ceremony or drinks only packages - for all bookings confirmed by 31st January 2020

Next Scene Films - Matt Crofts (LINK)

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BagPiper Online (LINK)

Special negotiated discount on all packages when booked through the Wedding Guru - Oskar

The Wedding Guru - Oskar (LINK)

2 for 1 on One Hour Wedding Planning Consultation for all bookings confirmed before 31st January 2020

REAL WEDDING - Mr & Mrs Love

I have recently been asked about the highlights of my career and one of those beautiful moments I often recall is the wedding of Amanda and Stuart in the winter of 2016!⁠⠀

I still remember to this day how excited Amanda and Stuart were at the prospect of their timeless and sophisticated winter fairy-tale wedding!⁠⠀

It was on the morning of their wedding during the final setup that I could fully appreciate Amanda's vision - see for yourself in the images from Amanda. It is these moments that make my job incredibly rewarding, to see the beautiful effects of my work with my lovely wedding couples.⁠

One very special moment of Amanda and Stuart's wedding will remain in my memory forever - during my morning check on the Bride, Amanda opened a gift from Stuart and in a little lovely decorated box were sitting two porcelain turtledoves with a love message. My heart was melting. This might sound like a cliché, but you genuinely could feel the love surrounding this couple!

Amanda says that the turledoves are still make a very important part of their Christmas tree decoration to this day! You could simply feel the strong bond surrounding this beautiful couple - Mr & Mrs Love!⁠

TOP THREE TIPS on Wedding Planning for Newly Engaged Couples

Did you know that over 40% of annual engagements take place during the short period, between Christmas and New Year?

This is why, I have decided to put together a short guide on my TOP THREE STEPS on wedding planning for newly engaged couples.

TIP 1:

The first questions you will hear as a newly engaged couple when approaching wedding venues and suppliers are:

1)     Anticipated Guests Numbers

2)     The Date of you Wedding

3)     Ceremony Arrangements

It is definitely very helpful for you to look at your anticipated numbers as a lot of wedding venues will either have minimum numbers requirement or they might have varied options for you dependent on your numbers and you wouldn’t want to learn about them all – your time is also precious when planning for a wedding! In some cases, you might even benefit form better rates if your numbers are above a certain level too, so I highly recommend you consider your guest numbers before making enquiries.

Do not worry, you do not need to have an exact date of your wedding sassed out right away! (Trust me, not many couples do either!) What I mean by the date is a provisional range, seasons or even months you would ideally like to get married in. There’s a couple of reasons for that, firstly, a lot of wedding venues offer season pricing and you might be benefiting from deals and offers if your ideal date/period falls slightly out of the main season. Secondly, seasonality will also affect your choices of flowers, ceremony arrangements and supplies of certain foods, so once again, I recommend you have a think of your ideal time of the year scenario.

Thirdly, ceremony arrangements! This one is particularly important if you’re panning for a religious ceremony. Availability of your religious venue and person conducting your marriage ceremony might be restricted, so it is worth checking with them first too. Additionally, some venues with charge additional setup and early facility fees for ceremonies taking place on site of your wedding reception.

TIP 2:

I am often asked by couples who booked their venue: “What should we think about next?”

My answer is very simple – consider those suppliers that will truly make your wedding and my recommendations here are:

1)     Ceremony Officiant

2)     Photographer

3)     Evening Entertainment

Remember, a lot of these suppliers are a “one man show” and if you’ve got your heart set on them, you might want to consider them first!

Marriage ceremony is truly the reason why you’re making all these plans in the first place, therefore it is important for you to consider your arrangements early – will it be religious, civil, independent or humanist? Particularly the religious, independent and humanist Officiants will have a very limited availability so if you’ve got one in mind, approach them early.

I also don’t think that I need to explain how important wedding photography is – this is the one element of your wedding that will stay with you for the rest of your lives together and if you’ve got your heart set on a specific photographer or style of wedding photography, ensure you do your research early.

Finally, evening entertainment, weather that’s a band, DJ, saxophonist, tribute act or otherwise – these suppliers book up quickly, so don’t wait to book your choice as soon as you can. At the end of the day, evening reception is the longest part of your wedding and the one that probably most of your wedding guests look forward to the most.

TIP 3:

This one is very simple! I recommend you plan, plan and plan again! For a lot of you wedding will be the first large scale event you will be planning for in your lives! It is a big project with many integral parts to it, therefore it is important for both of you to sit down together early on in your planning and decide how you’re going to support each other in this process and delegate tasks between you both. If you’re organised and plan your wedding arrangements far out in advance and in smaller milestones, you will truly enjoy this creative and one of the biggest projects of your life!

If you find, however, that certain parts of wedding planning are a little too complicated, time-consuming or simply overwhelming OR if right at the start of your wedding planning, you realise that you might not have enough spare time to do it all by yourselves, there are people like me out there that can help you as little or as much as you need it. Imagine having an expert in the wedding planning by your side at all times, guiding you and supporting you along this process – wouldn’t that be just amazing?

If you’ve found my TOP THREE TIPS on wedding planning for newly engaged couples helpful, leave a comment below or drop me a text on +44 (0) 7492 385 310. I would love to hear how you’re finding the whole process of wedding planning?

If you’d like to find out more on wedding planning tips, feel free to check out the tips from my friends at the WeddingWire: https://www.weddingwire.co.uk/wedding-tips for some more exciting ideas that can be found useful in your wedding planning efforts.