It's been a year since Bristol Wedding News first launched in early June 2011. I started it as way to promote all of the great stuff happening in the wedding industry in Bristol. It's really taken on a life of it's own with input from local suppliers and is regularly viewed up to 6500 times per month.

As I'm shortly expecting a second baby I have been thinking about ways to balance work and family life and how to take some maternity leave to enjoy time with the new baby and our gorgeous toddler. However I really want to keep the blog going, as I think it's worth investing time and effort in. It's strong presence on google means it will continue to be found by more and more engaged couples under many different categories relating to Bristol Weddings.

I have decided to dedicate one working day each month to planning, writing and editing around 12 to 14 new blog posts to be scheduled three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the following month. This allows me to make the most of my permitted "keep in touch days" and also take some time off. To make this work I still need as many guest posts and submissions as possible to keep the blog interesting and varied.

Please can Bristol or locally based wedding suppliers continue to submit useful articles, real weddings, news, competitions and press releases to add into the schedule of posts. If you are reading as a Groom or Bride to Be, please think about submitting your wedding or perhaps a guest post about how you chose your venue or suppliers or how you are managing your planning.

Thanks to everyone who has supported Bristol Wedding News over the last year and please keep coming back and sharing the blog with other Brides and Grooms.

Steph

As today is Follow Friday (#ff) on Twitter I thought a little post on Twitter was a great idea. If you are getting married and don't use Twitter, you are missing out as there is a huge and thriving Wedding community on there from bloggers to magazines and individual suppliers who all regularly share tips, ideas and pictures to inspire you.



If you are new to the world of Twitter it can be a little confusing at first so here's a little guide.

RT: Retweet -when you like someones tweet and want to share it, just retweet it
@: All usernames begin with @ and are up to 15 characters such as @brisweddingnews
#ff: Follow Friday -If you want to recommend people to follow use #ff and their username
#ww: Wedding Wednesday -Say hi to friends and share wedding stuff



                                                


Twitter will recommend some people for you to follow. You can search for people too such as your fave celebrities. There's so many great Wedding people on there and I could spend hours listing my favourites, but here's just a few to get you started...

Love My Dress Blog @LoveMyDressBlog
How 2 I Do @how2ido
The Little Wedding Helper @weddinghelperuk
Wedding Ideas Magazine @wimagazine
Emma Woodhouse @cloggins
Rachel Goodchild @RachelGoodchild
Bridezillas @bridezillasltd
Bristol Wedding News @brisweddingnews

If you love Twitter or it has helped you plan your big day, please let me know in the comments below.

Words by Steph Allison

This week I was lucky enough to attend a cupcake decorating workshop in Henleaze, held by the lovely Kim from Swirls and Curls Cupcakes. I thought that this workshop would be ideal for Brides to Be to learn how to make their own cupcakes for either fun favours for their Big Day or to stack up in a tower instead of a traditional cake.

What really amazed me is how easy to follow the course was and how professional my cakes looked at the end. My Husband will testify to the fact that I'm not a skilled baker but look at what I made!




The workshop begins with making the little decorations for our cakes out of pink and blue fondant, which is surprisingly easy due to a range of templates and cutters. I love the little butterflies and flowers we made and think they look so pretty and professional.



After a cuppa and the chance to sample a cupcake, we moved on to learning how to ice the cakes. We began with learning how to pipe a rose onto a cake. I mananged a pretty good rose first time, but it seemed to be beginners luck as they went down hill from there! A few attempts later, I had some pretty good looking cakes.


We piped some more in chocolate icing and learnt how to do pretty two tone effect and a whippy topping. At the end we put all of our handy work together with some edible glue and a flourish of glitter and here's the results. Not bad if I do say so myself.



Sue Davies, who attended the workshop with her friend Sarah said "It was great fun and easier than I imagined. You get a great result and the cakes look really good. You can try again with no pressure and it's really helpful. The workshop was very enjoyable and I would throughly recommend it"



Lynwen Evans, added "It's highly recommended, a thoroughly enjoyable evening meeting different people with the same interests and learning new techniques."

My piping partner for the evening Claire Gallagher said "it was an enjoyable evening creating some exciting cakes". Thanks Claire for helping me and many thanks to Kim and her Mum Sue who helped make the evening such fun. Here we all are proudly holding our finished designs.



So for a great night out, look at Kim's website. There are two workshops available to book on Monday 26th September and Monday 24th October for £50 per person, including a starter pack to take home.

Aspirational Weddings have been in touch to share all of the latest news about their Autumn Weddings Fayres, which begin in September. Here's the details and some key dates for your diary.

Autumn Wedding Fayre at Ston Easton Park - 25th September 11am - 4pm. Free entry, complimentary drinks and luxury goodie bags for first 100 brides/couples.

                                          


Autumn Wedding Fayre at The Manor in Somerset - 16th October 11am - 4pm.  Free entry, complimentary drinks and luxury goodie bags for first 100 brides/couples.

                                           

Autumn Wedding Fayre at The Hill, Stroud - 23rd October 11am - 4pm.  Free entry, complimentary drinks and luxury goodie bags for first 100 brides/couples.


                                  


South West Region Aspirational Weddings Show at Cheltenham Racecourse - 20th November 11am - 4pm. Advance tickets available from the Apirational Weddings website, with special offers.



You can learn more about each of the fayres on the Aspirational Weddings Website and don't forget to keep an eye on our Wedding Fairs page for all the latest Bristol and local fairs.

There have been reports in the local press that Hinton Grange has closed unexpectedly leaving some couples with impending Weddings not knowing what's going on. The Hinton Grange had not contacted a couple due to get Married on Monday about closures and there is no-one at the Hotel for people to speak to to find out what is happening. Apparently there is a hand written sign on the door stating that the Hotel is closed due to "unforseen circumstances" and directing visitors to another nearby Hotel.


If you are planning to get married at the Hinton Grange please look into a contingency plan until more information is available about whether Weddings booked at the Hotel will go ahead. The Hotel's website is currently offline. There had previously been lots of great reports about Weddings at Hinton Grange and it's a lovely venue so let's hope that future Weddings can go ahead.