Unbridely - Modern Wedding Planning

Have you ever received a wedding invitation and felt a ping of disappointment when you saw it was on a Wednesday? The excitement for your friend was real, but so was the mental load that followed.  In this episode, we talk about weekday weddings from both the guest and engaged couple’s side of the situation. While the cost savings of a weekday wedding can be significant (like 30-40% off the venue...

You are not the only one deep in research rabbit holes at midnight while your partner sleeps soundly beside you. Wedding planning imbalance is one of the most common (and quietly exhausting) experiences during engagement, and almost nobody talks about it honestly without adding a punchline at the end.  In this episode, we get into why one partner so often ends up carrying the bulk of the wedding p...

Most engaged couples pick a wedding catering format the same way they pick a venue: because it just felt right, or someone recommended it. But the format you choose shapes everything from the energy in the room, to how long they stay at your wedding and, maybe most importantly, how much you spend. Josh de Haas from Chopping Board Catering, one of South Australia's most in-demand wedding cater...

Over half of couples planning a wedding right now are using AI, and most of them have no idea where it's quietly leading them astray. In this episode, Camille cuts through the hype for an honest, experience-backed take on AI in wedding planning. She breaks down exactly where AI earns its place in your planning toolkit, why it's structurally designed to tell you what you want to hear rath...

What makes a wedding truly unforgettable? HINT: it's rarely the budget.  It's the small, intentional decisions that show your guests (and yourselves) that you really care about their experience and comfort. In this episode, I break down 8 specific tweaks that my couple, Tess and Michael, did differently that completely transformed the vibe and energy of their wedding day.  Every single i...

More and more couples are choosing to offer a thoughtful non-alcoholic bar menu at their wedding; not as a restriction, but as a genuine upgrade in hospitality.  Today Camille breaks down exactly how to design a mocktail menu that stands on its own: how to name it (with 10 options you can steal), how to tie it to your love story, make it visually beautiful, and brief your bar staff so it's ac...

Money is almost always a touchy topic in weddings, but in the current economic climate there's definitely an added feeling of pressure and expectations. Making sure you have a wedding budget and are tracking expenses in a way that you are both happy with is crucial to a great wedding for sure, but even more so to the health and longevity of your marriage. So if you're planning the most e...

Have you wondered which traditions you should keep, ditch, or remix when you’re not a hetero-normative pair tying the knot? Jesse from New York reached DMd me on Instagram, asking for some tips on his same-sex destination wedding in Provincetown, Massachusetts. While this episode is tailored to Jesse’s questions, which include dilemmas around mixed gender bridal party titles, suggestions for outfi...

Do you want to include your dog (or dogs) at your wedding, but maybe bypass the chaos, the chewed bouquets or your dad picking up giant poos in his very best suit? Today we’re talking about how to include your fur-baby in your day in a way that’s truly calm, safe and, honestly, ridiculously cute. With an added secret advantage of actually making your guests relax and laugh more too. You’ll hear ho...

Engaged couples everywhere, like literally all over the world, are grappling with the harsh reality of wedding planning amid the ongoing cost of living crisis, and it's causing some people to make the decision to elope or cut back and in some cases even postpone their wedding until a time when they feel, I don't know, more confident about their financial situation. According to the resul...

Did you realise that the success, or dismal failure, of your wedding speeches can throw your reception timeline, energy and atmosphere into total chaos? Poorly planned, badly timed, rambling, or offensive speeches can affect everyone from your caterers, to your friends, your videographer to your DJ. We’re throwing it back to one of your all‑time favourite and value-packed episodes of the Unbridely...

These 5 wedding mistakes are breaking my heart this wedding season. And on the planning and lead-up side to your wedding, you might dismiss them. They may not seem as important as other things, or that they’ll have much of an impact on your day. But on the other side of your wedding, I see people genuinely upset, disappointed and sometimes angry too that they didn’t give themselves the best chance...

Joe Karso from Do Better Weddings is on a mission to help men seriously lift their groom game. He shares some eye‑opening mindset shifts and super practical ideas that make it easier for grooms to stop being passengers and actually show up as real partners in the planning, on the day and beyond. We talk about what it looks like when a groom is genuinely present and supportive, how tiny, thoughtful...

Can you guess what a space disco in a Texas ghost town, and a punk rock concert with a merchandise table, have in common with a traditional wedding?  In today’s episode, I’m chatting with New York–based founder, author and self-confessed “anti-wedding planner” Amy Shack Egan, the woman behind Modern Rebel, the Love Party movement, and the day-of coordination marketplace, Cheersy. We dive into what...

This is a topic I've actually had on my list to talk about for about four months now. Recently, the story about Brooklyn Beckham and his mum, Victoria Beckham, hit the headlines, and the internet just went wild. Brooklyn said in an interview that he and his wife, Nicola, felt uncomfortable and embarrassed by some of his mum's behaviour at their wedding three years ago. And then, chaos. I...

Have you had the band vs DJ chat with your fiancé? You know, the one where one of you imagines a soulful jazz quartet playing your old-school first dance song, while the other wants a DJ who can read the room, and keep the dance floor absolutely packed all night? What if the whole “band vs DJ” debate has been the wrong question all along, and the real secret to unforgettable wedding entertainment...

Do you want a wedding ceremony that’s a total vibe? Of course you do. But…what the hell does that actually mean? What most modern couples are really aiming for is an energetic, fun, relevant ceremony that isn’t too long, but still has meaning and feels. So what really makes guests remember your ceremony? What leaves them happy, valued, and, dare I say, impressed? The biggest impact that you can ma...

If you and your fiancé have been bombarded with targeted ads on socials from faceless wedding photography and/or videography agencies promising huge limited-time discounts and “handpicked creatives,” or if you’ve heard stories about engaged couples not receiving their photos from agencies or being unable to contact anyone in person, I think you’ll find this episode very interesting. Today I’m chat...

Does DIY-ing your wedding flowers and styling actually save you money—or does it quietly steal your time, your sanity, and maybe even hijack your dream look without you even realising it? In this episode, two of my long-time colleagues and trusted Adelaide wedding pros, Emily from The Modern Approach and Gabrielle from She Runs Wild Flowers, join the conversation to share what really goes on behin...

Have you ever wondered how planning a wedding might be different the second time around? And why does it feel like such a touchy topic? As if the couple and their guests need to pretend like the first marriage didn’t even happen. What unique challenges do couples face, and how can they create a day that they’re really happy with? Today, I’ll talk about why second marriage weddings feel, to me at l...

Just the other day, I was chatting with three seasoned wedding vendors about how, lately, they’ve been hearing from engaged couples asking tons of questions about details that, honestly, aren’t likely to be problems at all. They were frustrated by how they’ve been micromanaged or not fully trusted. So I asked them: “How can an engaged couple really tell who’s a legit, experienced vendor who won’t...

Have you ever wondered what happens when a wedding feels too good to end, but you’re not quite ready for the party to be over? Maybe you’ve noticed how after-parties are suddenly cropping up in everyone’s wedding plans, or you’re curious why couples are making space in their budget for this bonus round of celebrating. On today’s episode, we’ll dig into the real reasons after-parties are getting so...

Are you a games person, or does the very mention of the word cause you to start dreaming up excuses to opt out? I’ve never been big on games myself, especially at weddings; sometimes they feel awkward or a bit forced, in my opinion. But in this interview, Matthew Vercoe, an experienced MC and now celebrant, really changed my perspective.  Through our conversation, I saw how thoughtfully designed w...

Have you heard about the growing trend of co-piloting wedding ceremonies?  What does it really mean to have the responsibility of the mic shared on one of the most important days of your life, and how can both engaged couples and celebrants team up to make the experience something truly out of the box?  Today I’m chatting with Annie Moz of Celebrant Lady Love about the rise of co-piloting ceremoni...

If there’s one question I’ve been getting a lot from couples lately, it’s how to handle all the emotions that come up on your wedding day. Between the joy, the nerves, the deep sense of meaning and connection, it’s a day that’s bound to move you.. sometimes to happy tears. With so many of you asking how to stay present without completely breaking down into an ugly cry, I thought it was the perfect...