To find the best gold prices for my jewellery I simply used this gold calculator at the conveniently named “Best Gold Prices” site (lol). Prices are updated every 30 minutes and the values do seem to be very accurate. So anyway, I managed to find about 300 grams of 14 karat gold which worked out to have a market value (in terms of pure gold) of £6363.00!! So straight away I was on the phone to gold dealers across the UK. I found that a lot of them would massively under charge (about 50% of what the actual value of the gold was) while others would give around 80-90%. So I ended up getting 86% of the actual price in gold of my scrap metal! Which, considering the gold dealer had to melt down the gold and purify it (high cost!), was not a bad deal!

Well the UK was blessed with the show TOWIE (that’s ‘The Only Way is Essex’ for those not in the know) and the Vajazzle hit the British shores in a big way. Now, 1 year on, there are all sorts of websites popping up! You’ve got ridiculous sites like ratemyvajazzle.com that does what you might imagine as well as the more serious sites that vajazzle.co.uk.

But if you didn’t know what a vajazzle was, here’s a piccy:

Photo: GaryHE.com

In the UK, Asian weddings are becoming more and more popular. The ability for a wedding venue to cater for a traditional Indian or Asian wedding is more important than ever. Indian wedding traditions are detailed and must be taken very seriously, here are some of the more common Indian wedding traditions:

1. The bride and groom cannot see each other for several days before the wedding as this will bring bad luck.
2. During the marriage ceremony, the bride’s parents was the feet of both the bride and the groom with milk and water to symbolise the purity of their marriage.
3. The couple also hold in their hands: rice to symbolise wealth, oats to symbolise health and green leaves to symbolise happiness.

There are many more traditions during an Asian wedding ceremony but these are just a few.

Asian Clothing Traditions

Indian and Asian clothes are some of the most extravagant and beautiful in the world. With embroidery and jewels sewn all across their clothing, Asian clothes can be incredibly eye catching! Some of the traditions for Indian wedding clothing are as follows:

1. Indian brides often wear a traditional red wedding sari embroidered with gold.
2. The naval of the Supreme Being is believed to be the source of life on Earth. This is why the sari is bare at the midriff.
3. Sari means ‘strip of cloth’.

The admins over at the Meaning of Baby Girl Names are constantly updating the site with a news feed, baby name of the week and star ratings to show off the most popular baby names. It’s a great new website and one that I definitely recommend for those thinking about baby names or the meaning of them. Don’t forget to check out the numerology calculator and discover what your name says about you!

Wedding Cake

Many wedding venues, especially wedding venues in Leicestershire take care of not only the wedding cake, but also the groom’s cake as well. This will save you loads of money and keep you from having to search around for the best possible prices on them. Sometimes you can even find packages that include the wedding cakes for free.

Food & Drinks

This is also something that is usually taken care of easily at these venues and sometimes you can requests specific foods depending on your type or their of ceremony. If you plan on having an exotic theme, just let the venue know that you want something unique and different like colourful and exotic fruits.

Music

Finding the right musician or DJ for your big day can be hard, but many venues will also include this in a package as well as supply the DJ equipment so you will not have to lift a finger. You might even want to make a list of some special songs that you would like to have played. Venues are usually open to your own selections.

Bouquets

Almost every single wedding venue you find will have bouquets listed as part of a package as well. Usually you will get a chance to choose the type of flowers that you want and the colours that you want as well. If your wedding has a theme, be sure to let them know so they can help you pick out your colours

These are just the main things that many wedding venues will do to keep you happy and keep things hassle free on your big day.

Wedding venues may suddenly scream out at you from every direction through many available sources, but the truth is that finding the right venue consists of having a gut feeling or instinct about the perfect place you have envisioned. Couple that instinct with the physical and practical requirements you will need as you plan and host your wedding, and soon you begin to find the field narrows down considerably. A key tip that might assist you in planning which of the many available wedding venues to choose from is to look for the staff and trained professionals that the venue offers. If a potential venue has a well trained staff that are more than ready to assist and help you plan and organise the fine nuances of your wedding, that’s an excellent sign that things will run smoothly. Everyone realises that when it comes to weddings an untold number of last minute calamities can happen. Having a solid staff of qualified professionals backing you up assured a bride and groom, their families and loved ones that well intentioned wedding plans can materialize into superb occasions.

Wedding venues in Leicester will be as diverse as there are couples, and every bride dreams of the perfect wedding. Dreams do come true too, if we plan right.