After 2 years we decided it was time for a change! We loved the old site but felt it needed a face lift. The new site is easy fresh, clean and easy to navigate!

Whoever thought a simple idea like rebuilding a site was easy! About 4 months ago I was thinking how great it would be to redesign the site. I talked to my contacts and it all seemed like such an easy thing so I gave them the go-ahead! Boy was I terribly wrong!!

It has taken a total 7 people over 400 hours to complete the new site. We have employed experts from around the world to ensure we were using the latest design and coding technology to bring you the best site possible!

Along with a new site there are exciting new features! Here are some of the highlights: 

- New Forum: We have a brand new updated forum where you can chat to other brides, brides to be, newlyweds and experienced married ladies! Not to mention a few guys to give you a mans perspective on things! The forum has fantastic new profile features where you can create albums for your photos and personalise your profile. We also have a blog section where you can blog about you big day or anything in general! http://www.beyondthebride.com.au/forum/

- Beauty Blog: A brand new make up and skincare column written by one of Sydney’s leading make up artists Rebekah Foxe. Rebekah has been a make up artist for over 5 years and will be writing a monthly column to help everyone with their make up and skincare needs! http://www.beyondthebride.com.au/beautyblog/

- Bride Of The Month: We are taking submissions for our Bride Of The Month. One lucky bride will be selected each month and featured on our main page. If you would like to submit your wedding story please email me using the contact us form.

- Photo and Article Submissions:  Do you have a great DIY idea? Would you like to write an artcle for Beyond The Bride?Or would you like to submit photos of your wedding or your business photos to be used in our gallery? If so please email me using the contact us form.

- New Supplier Directory: Coming in early 2009!

I would like to say a big huge thank you to a few people who helped me with the new site!

- To Brigit at Graphic Foxx thank you so much for your amazing artwork and banner ads!

- The team at LTSEO for their hard work

Also to our loyal members for giving me great ideas and the inspiration to make Beyond The Bride the best wedding website in Australia!

I hope you all love the new site as much as I do!

Jen xx

Ok how many of you all love candles? I know I am not alone! One thing I actually never really took any notice of is what the candles are made out of. I always thought … A candle is a candle! But how wrong I was!

I must say I am a sucker for the shop Dusk! I love the atmosphere and the smells in the shop and find it very hard to walk in without spending our weekly food budget on candles! I recently discovered though that dusk and many other candle makers are using a wax called Paraffin to pour their candles. Paraffin is an oil based wax and is not only bad for the environment to burn it is also supporting the already rich and greedy oil industry.

Soy however is a renewable source, is environmentally friendly and also supports our local farmers. By burning soy wax you are reducing the amount of harmful emissions being released into the earths atmosphere and also reducing your carbon foot print. Global warming is one of the biggest environmental problems we are being faced with and it is hard to imagine that even burning a simple candle is contributing to the problem.

A friend of mine has just started a soy candle business - Kellie’s Powder Room. Her candles are made from 100% soy based wax and contain lead-free wicks. I purchased some last week and was amazed at how amazing they were and honestly they are much better than the candles I have bought from Dusk and other candle shops.

Candles from Kellie’s Powder Room can be made to order in any fragrance, colour or container. There are over 70 different fragrances to choose from including - Apple Orchard, Bamboo & White Lily, Caramel Apple, Sandalwood, Frangipani and much much more! My favourite fragrance is Champagne Strawberries! As well as candles Kellie’s Powder Room make yummy melts for your oil burner!

These candles are a great idea for bomboniere, mother of the bride and groom gifts or just something special for yourself!

Kellie’s Powder Room is a small business and Kellie is starting with an ebay store before moving onto an online store. Please help support her business and help the environment and our local farmers in the process!

Visit http://stores.ebay.com.au/Kellies-Powder-Room

*note: I did not received gifts or financial benefit for this review, it is 100% honest and unbiased.

It has amazed me the amount of rivalry that goes on between wedding websites. Websites accusing others of copying their ideas or having “website envy”. Hearing all of these things really blew my mind.

When creating Beyond The Bride, I did not have any need or want to be like any other site. In fact my main focus was to always be different. To offer my members a completely different experience to any other wedding website in Australia.

Here are a few ways Beyond The Bride promises to be different:

* At Beyond The Bride we allow freedom of speech, we allow all members to write real reviews about their wedding suppliers and to mention wedding suppliers in our forum.

* We will always have free advertising space in our review section. We believe that even the smaller business should not be limited due to their small advertising budget and that just because someone can afford to advertise everywhere does not mean they are the best!

* Our online store The Wedding Parlour will always bring you low prices, we will always aim to be 10% below other wedding online stores.

* Beyond The Bride will always bring you the latest news and ideas without being biased to our advertising suppliers, we will never be affiliated with one supplier and will bring you the best articles and ideas we can find!

We promise we will always be different and will never enter into website rivalry, we do not aim to be like other sites … frankly how boring! We want our members and guests to have a completely different experience at Beyond The Bride.

If you have any suggestions for Beyond The Bride, please email me.

Jen xx

A very popular American bridal tradition has finally made it’s way to our shores!

Trash the dress is about capturing amazing photos without the fears you have of ruining your dress on the big day. After the wedding a professional photographer will follow the bride (and groom) on an amazing photo shoot where the bride in her wedding dress can take a dip in the ocean, roll in the sand, play in the mud or climb tree’s! There really is no limit!

I can hear some of you say “that is insane! who would want to do that?”. Before you write it off completely think about the amzing images you can create and the wonderful memories you will have of such a fun day. Most wedding dresses will only be worn once, boxed, drycleaned and kept in the hope that one day your daughter will want to wear it. In all reality, who will/did wear their mothers dresses? Fashion will change so much over the next 20 years, also your daughter might be the wrong size for the dress. Rather than having the dress only have one day to shine, why not create even more memories by doing a Trash The Dress session?

The great thing is you can go as far as you like when trashing the dress. Some brides choose to only get the dress a little wet or have a few photos taken against graffiti walls, others will decide to swin in the ocean, roll in the mud or even set the dress on fire!

Here are some amazing photos that were added to our Trash The Dress Facebook

Almost everyone I know is a Sex and The City fan! I must admit I am still addicted to my DVD set!

** Spoiler Alert **

Well we only have 3 months and 11 days to find out what happened to our favourite 4 New York girls! The movie is set for release here in Australia on 5th June 2008. The story will revolve around the wedding of Carrie and John - her Mr Big. The story will also follow the other girls on their life and love.

I really liked the ending to the series and I loved how it felt complete, I am hoping they will tie the ending up nicely to retain that complete feeling. I don’t like unanswered questions!

Well here is the official movie trailer! Enjoy!

I was watching something on tv the other day and saw someone had made a documentary about the Filene’s Basement’s Bridal Event - aka: The Running Of The Brides!

For those that have no idea what I am talking about! The Boston USA store has a twice yearly sale that can attract 100’s of brides from all over the USA. It has now become more of a sport than a need for a cheap bridal gown.

Lines can start days in advance and can reach over 3 blocks in length! Most brides will assemble a team with some teams having 10-15 people.

Once the doors open at 8am, the brides and their team mates sprint to the bridal section and grab anything off the racks they can get their hands on. No gowns are inspected, they are just removed from the rack and taken to other team mates who are waiting in the aisles ready to try on the gowns.

The bride will then strip off the her underwear and try on all the gowns she has in her collection. With some brides having up to 50 dresses. If she is lucky she will find the perfect gown in her collection. If not then starts the fun part! The bidding and trading of dresses, with some women paying other brides for the the gown or making a clean swap with dresses they are not interested in.

I know a lot of you will be sitting there wondering if it is really worth it? The sale has gowns worth $1ooo’s reduced to between $300-$700. So brides on a budget who are lucky enough to find the gown of their dreams can save $100’s and even $1000’s on designer gowns. However it has become so popular that it is now concidered a right of passage for some brides and that finding a gown is not the aim of the game, be merely a bonus.

The “running of the brides” is so popular it was even featured on an epsiode on Friends - when Monica is marrying Chandler and she enlists the help of Rachel and Pheobe to tackle the sale. The episode represented perfectly the organization and craziness involved in participating in the running of the brides.

Here are two video’s I found that will show you how crazy it can become!

Jen xx

Even though it was a month ago, I still want to write about my favourite celebrity wedding last year! One of my favourite actresses, Katherine Heigl married her boyfriend musician Josh Kelley in winter wonderland ceremony in Utah on December 23rd, 2007.

As a winter bride myself I loved the location and christmas theme she used. I think winter is such a romantic time of year, especially if it snows!

The ceremony was held at Erickson Lodge in white tents, decorated with beautiful white flowers and white candles. The bride walked down the aisle in a couture gown created by Oscar de la Renta and to an intrumental version of a song Josh wrote, played by a guitar and cello.

The reception was held a short walk away with the walk way lined with flickering white candles glistening in the snow.

A Christmas theme, meant Katherine and Josh used large evergreens and Christmas ornaments to decorate their reception and each guest was given a basket of Christmas cookies as a wedding favor.

Here are some photo’s from Katherine and Josh’s exclusive interview with OK Magazine

Beyond The Bride has a wonderful online wedding store which can be found here http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au

The new year is always an exciting time for our store as it means we have lots of new products!! I thought I would share some of my favourites with you.

Crystal Stone Flutes

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/tube-stem-with-crystal-stones-flutes-p-916.html

Mini Gumball Machine

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/mini-classic-gumball-dispenser-p-921.html

Paper Wedding Gift Bags

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/paper-wedding-gift-bags-p-991.html

Monogram Window Cling

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/monogram-window-clings-p-969.html

Jelly Belly - Jelly Beans

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/jelly-belly-gourmet-jelly-beans-1kg-approx-900-beans-p-962.html

“We Clicked” Mouse Pad

http://www.theweddingparlour.com.au/we-clicked-mouse-pads-pack-of-6-p-958.html

Those are just a few of my favourite things! Ohh I sound like Mary Poppins! lol

I hope you love them as much as I do!

Jen xx

I would like to welcome you all to the Beyond The Bride blog!

Here you will find out all the latest news on Beyond The Bride and anything in the world of weddings!

Don’t forget to bookmark this page!

Jen xx