For a scented bridal party, try herbal bouquets

Handtied bouquet of white roses surrounded in sage

Here’s why you should opt for herbal bouquets:

1.  Instant wedding memories at every Sunday roast.

Imagine this. If you have herbal bouquets, then every time for the rest of your life tha you have a nice roast lamb stuffed with sage or a juicy roast chicken stuffed with rosemary and thyme, you’ll be transported back to dizzy wonderfulness of your wedding day.

2. Unbreakability.

Herbs are easy to play with if you’re doing a DIY bouquet, and set off roses nicely. However bad you are a floristry, they still wont wilt or snap.

3. You can make the boys buttonholes herbal too.

Leave your ushers smelling sweetly with rosemary and rose buttonholes like these:

Rose and rosemary buttonholes for the gents

4. Herbs symbolise all manner of positive things.

Rosemary symbolises remembrance, love, loyalty and fidelity. And apparently it can improve the memory.

Sage symbolises wisdom, long life and immortality.

Thyme symbolises activity, bravery, courage and strength.

Sedum symbolises welcome and traquility. Technically it is a herb,  not an edible one, but still a herb, and a good filler.

See more herb symbolism here.

5. Herbs are cheaper than flowers. Innit.

You can get a huge two-handed bunch of mixed herbs from New Covent Garden Market for a tenner (if you’re prepared to get up at 5am two days before your wedding).

Me with a small forest of herbs and mixed roses in my hands

So normally I don’t like to show my mug on my blog, but here’s a once-in-a-blogtime exception, so I can show you my bouquet. It’s a mix of pink tipped roses, hot pink roses with green tips, ivory roses and pink roses mixed with sage, thyme and rosemary. I felt like a walking bouquet garni (in a good way).

My best woman and flowergirls with a selection of the finest herbal bouquets

These are my lovely flowergirls and best woman – each has a different colour rose and a different type of herb (except the sedum, which is technically a herb, but not the sort you’d put in a dressing). The ribbons are all different colours, matching with their mismatching outfits. But more about this in subsequent posts…

Pimp your ushers

The usher uniform can be terribly dull. Unless of course you do this…

Add braces (or suspenders, if you’re American).

Pimp your ushers with braces and monochromatic ties.

Mix up smart and casual

Black suits. Black converse. It's a beautiful thing.

Add a colourful twist. A bright handkerchief or maybe striped socks.

Striped socks to liven up formal suits. Now add jazzhands.

Go totally casual. But matching. So it’s like everyone’s just rolled out of bed and happened to fling on exactly the same thing.

These ushers are rocking the casual look.

Add random props. Like Stormtroopers masks. Why? Just because.

Star Wars Ushers. Obviously.

What to do with your wedding dress afterwards

In cost-per-wear terms your wedding dress is likely to be by far the most expensive piece of clothing you’ll ever buy. And the likelihood is, you’ll never wear it again. Unless of course, your first marriage doesn’t work out and your next fiance is both frugal and unsentimental. Or, you do one of the following:

1. Trash it. This American tradition involves putting the dress back on and getting a photographer to shoot you destroying it on camera.

Run through forests, throw yourself in a river, roll in hay - whatever it takes for the perfect picture

2. Donate it. Oxfam have a number of specialist bridal departments that can make a decent amount of charity cash for your dress.

3. Sell it. Try OnceWed, PreLoved or the all time favourite, Ebay.

4. Dye it. No, not yourself, you’ll inevitably cock it up. Get professional dyers to do it. Worst case scenario is a polyester lining that’s shrunk and hasn’t taken the colour properly and has puckered the seams of your lovely lace outer, plus lace and beading that’s still its original colour.

Only silk dyes properly, anything synthetic wont really work (polyester, acetate, polyester satin). Nor will beading or lace. 2BirdStone on Etsy dyes your crinoline to order if you fancy.

Dye your wedding dress pale pink and have it shortened. Maybe it'll look a little like this Reiss dress...

5. Shorten it.

5. Turn it into throw cushions. Or a baby blanket, or a quilt.

Erica Mills, in California specialises into turning your dress into a Christening outfit

7.
Preserve it. Get it dry cleaned pronto, before any stains have time to become part of the fabric. Then vacuum-pack it in a sealed carrier with acid-free tissue between the folds. Plastic can discolour fabric over time, so make sure you have tissue paper around the outside of the dress as well. Add moth repellant and keep it away from light for the next 30 years… until your daughters tell you they’re lesbians and even if they weren’t they’d never wear your dress anyway because it’s stained, moth-eaten and 30 years out of date.

Wow. A special boxes with plastic windows to keep you dress in.