Your East Anglian Wedding news and ideas from around the region

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.

New hen/stag do offering in Stratford, London, March 2023!

Grab your #weddingsquad, it's time to get dressed up and put on your dancing shoes because Tony n' Tina's Wedding - the immersive hit Broadway show from America - is coming to London! This unique live theatrical experience - during which the audience and cast interact together during a 'live wedding' - will officially open at the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London on March 16th, 2023, and here at County Wedding Magazines HQ we think its got all the ingredients for the ultimate stag/hen or sten do!

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.

Award nomination for local wedding cake designer

Hadleigh-based EriVica Cakes was lucky enough to be voted one of eight regional finalists for the East of England at The Wedding Industry Awards (TWIA 23) in November. Owner, and baking extraordinaire Terri Newman says, "Sadly we didn't win but to be in the top eight cake makers in the East of England was an amazing achievement for us and we are very proud as we are only a two-person business. It was voted for by our brides and grooms throughout the year, so we must be doing something right!"

For more information, call 01473 828 192 | www.erivicacakes.com

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.

Events at the Fellows House in January 2023

The Fellows House, Curio Collection by Hilton is delighted to offer a dedicated events programme throughout January where guests can "Feel at home, Feel Inspired and Feel like a Fellow'. The apartment-style hotel at the heart of Cambridge, encourages long-stays, providing full access to what the historical city has to offer. Consisting of 131 rooms, including 123 studio and apartments all featuring fully equipped kitchens – The Fellows House goes above and beyond to make their guests (and locals) feel welcome and will be hosting a selection of events throughout January including weekly themed house parties every Wednesday.

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.

Spotlight on... The Pantry Bridalwear, Cambridge

The Pantry Bridalwear invites a fresh take on the industry through a contemporary concept and refreshing approach to bridal shopping. The Pantry Bridalwear ethos ( 'do you on your day' ) centres around helping brides to find a wedding outfit that makes them feel confident, comfortable and most importantly like themselves on their wedding day. That is why the store stocks a carefully curated collection of contemporary dresses, tops, jackets and skirts as well as bridal accessories to give brides the opportunity to discover something which represents their unique style and elevates yet complements their 'look'.

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 Colchester

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.

Cambridge staycation hotspot

It's official, Cambridge is a top destination for a weekend getaway! The university city has been named third best staycation hotspot in the UK behind York second and Oxford in first place. Great news for couples in the region looking for somewhere close to home to take time out from the wedding planning! The research, conducted by travel insurance experts Forbes Advisor, scored UK locations on key factors such as the cost of eating out, transport and attractions, to discover the best places for visitors to enjoy a memorable experience.

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.

More cake please from Norfolk supplier

Norfolk's Sponge has a wide variety of wedding cake options available to order online and personalise to your preference including specifying dietary requirements. A new product coming out in the next month or so – so keep your eyes peeled – is The Cake Card. A personalised card with a square of cake in the middle, you can send to your bridal party members to ask them 'Will you be my...?' or to wedding guests post-vows to say thank you for attending the big day – the choices are endless!

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...

New jewellers in Cambridge

Family-owned national diamond, jewellery and watch retailer Beaverbrooks, has opened its first store in Cambridge's Grand Arcade Shopping Centre. The national retailer will also be opening the first dedicated TAG Heuer boutique in the city and will be the only stockist of the Luxury Swiss watch brand in the area. The new Beaverbrooks store has been specially designed to create a more immersive shopping experience for customers, introducing an exclusive 'diamond room' – ideal for those in the midst of wedding planning. As well as stocking first-of-its-kind diamond collection Beyond Brilliance, the store also brings a wide range of luxury bridal pieces and the latest exclusive diamond range from the retailer, Essence.

Venue spotlight: Shire Hall located in the heart of Woodbridge

Located in the heart of Woodbridge in beautiful Suffolk and surrounded by traditional inns, restaurants and historic quirky buildings, the magnificent 16th-century Shire Hall is steeped in history and provides the perfect setting for weddings. Built in 1575 by Thomas Seckford the building has been a focal point of Woodbridge for more than 400 years and stands proud in the centre of Market Hill. Displaying its iconic 17th-century Flemish gabling and stone capping, with elegant long iron staircase either side of the large impressive arched doors, the Shire Hall is the picture-perfect.

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?

Your wedding, your way

With the Pandemic derailing wedding plans since 2020, the next few years look set to be a busy time for couples celebrating their union. But couples themselves are evolving – from individuals who feel shoehorned into traditions or cultural expectations they don't feel comfortable with, to those who feel more confident creating their own idea of how a wedding should be, encompassing a far wider range of preferences, traditions, and cultures. When NameSwitch was invited to speak on diversity at a recent industry event, Bridelux Symposium, the overwhelming consensus of wedding professionals was that they, too, are seeing a change in how weddings are becoming more individually unique; created to celebrate the heritage (often blended) and preferences of each couple.