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It almost goes without saying that most brides will spend a few hours on their wedding day being groomed and pampered by hairstylists and make-up artists. The groom is usually left to his own devices, which often means a quick shower, shave and a splash of Hugo Boss. However, there's no reason why grooms shouldn't smarten up in style as well.

For London grooms, we love the service offered by Gentlemans Tonic, a "unique establishment in the heart of Mayfair that affords the modern man a traditional barbershop and a variety of lifestyle and grooming services." (For Americans, there is also an establishment in Houston, USA.)

However, forget about an old-fashioned barber shop. Banish all thoughts of something staid and dull. This is men's grooming with a modern edge. The private haircutting stations and treatment rooms boast high-tech music consoles and LCD screens and the service is all about understated quality and high-level care.

If you think your man would enjoy some pampering but would never admit to it, then why not do it for him and buy him a gift certificate? That way, he'll have no choice but to surrender and you get to have a deliciously stylish groom. It's a win-win situation.

A wedding day is about both the bride and groom of course but, to be honest, it's the bride who is usually the shining star of the day, with all eyes upon her as she makes her entrance.

Chaps, it's time to steal back some of the limelight and make a grand entrance of your own, with all the glamour and style of James Bond.

Ditch the traditional limousine and charter a helicopter. Rise Helicopters charge £740 (excl. VAT) to get you to the church on time. And they'll give you one hour to get there, so if you don't need that much time why not arrange for a flying tour of the area before you arrive at your destination?

Rise Helicopters offer a Platinum Wedding package that includes a bottle of Vintage Champagne and a £100 voucher for use at a luxury Spa.

For more details, check out their wedding service here.

For an idyllic and fairytale wedding venue you can't beat Caverswall Castle in Staffordshire, England. Built in 1275 by Sir William-de-Caverswall (who is mentioned in the legends of King Arthur's court) this is a location that will suit brides with a taste for romance, drama and splendour.

Available on an exclusive basis only, the castle is licensed for civil weddings and can accommodate up to 70 seated guests. Your reception can be held in the Dungeon rooms, which can hold up to 90 people, or for a smaller group the dining room can seat 22 people. There are also loads of gorgeous settings for magnificent photographs, including the castle battlements and an olde-worlde moat.

Your day doesn't have to end when the reception is over. Make like a medieval Princess and sleep over. There is accommodation for 22 people, including four turret cottages and seven superbly designed bedrooms, beautifully furnished in period style.

Rates for a days exclusive use range from around £3000 to about £5000. Contact the castle for more detailed information.

Novelty cakes are nothing new but to find a baker who consistently does it really well isn't always easy. There are so many design elements in a novelty cake that it must be really neatly executed, otherwise it runs the risk of looking shoddy and amateurish. That's why we are so pleased to have found Dragons and Daffodils Cakes, a Welsh bakery that produces wonderful novelty cakes and figurines.

One of the quirkiest figurines they make are sheep. Yes, amazingly, sheep, which are apparently much-loved by Welsh brides and grooms living abroad and wanting a little touch of home at their wedding. The sheep can be used as cake toppers, or as pillars to support each cake tier. Whichever way, they are a lot of fun and quite adorable. Other figurines include Welsh dragons, mice and rabbits and enormously cute miniature bride and groom replicas.

Our favourite designs, however, are the amazing luggage and parcel cakes. Loads of fun, they must make an amazing focal point at any wedding. We like the clean, simple design of the cakes, which allows the figurines to shine and tell the story.

If you want to find out more about ordering one of these fabulous cakes, please read their order info page here.

Most earth-friendly guru's will agree that when it comes to green living one of the very best ways to do it is to recycle, recycle and recycle. You wouldn't think this could be applicable to a wedding dress, no matter how special an old gown might be. All the best will in the world might not be able to do something with your mother's 1960's wedding dress, or even the Flapper gown your great-grandmother wore.

Time can ravage fabrics and render them absolutely useless. But, rather than sighing regretfully and then putting that special family dress aside, take it to someone who specialises in restoring old gowns. In England, that someone is Heirloom Couture.

Even if the dress seems to be beyond repair, Heirloom Couture will take key components and details from the gown you bring them and make something new from them. It doesn't, of course, have to be a family heirloom. Any vintage dress you take to them can have new life breathed into it.

In this age of cheap mass production, it's wonderful to find ways to hold onto, and use, precious things from our past.

For couples who are looking for a destination wedding venue that combines spectacular beauty, adventure and value for money, the Drakensberg region of South Africa is an excellent choice. The Drakensberg (which means Dragon Mountain) is also known in Zulu as uKhahlamba (Barrier of Spears) and is one of the best eco-tourist destinations in South Africa, as well as being a World Heritage Site.

The awesome mountain range would make a stunning backdrop to a wedding. The area is steeped in history, stretching from the Stone Age through to the 19th century struggle to gain independence from the British. The Berg, as it's known locally, offers a myriad delights to visitors: peace and tranquility in splendid, magical surroundings, amazing outdoor activities, luxury accommodation and eating experiences that rival the best the world has to offer.

Because it's a mountainous area the weather can be extremely unpredictable and it's best to be prepared for diverse weather conditions. Snow has been experienced even in summer! Generally, though, summer (December to February) is very hot with ferocious, late afternoon thunderstorms. Winter (July-October) can be icy cold with snowfalls. Autumn and Spring are, of course, milder. Rain and mist can abound all year-round.

Iced cookies are currently a big favor favourite with many brides and, although they come in all sorts of shapes and colours, it can be hard to find something that's different to the usual wedding cake/shoe/dress design. It does exist though. For something a little bit edgier, a little bit funkier, with a lot more pizazz, try the cookies from Whipped Bakeshop.

What makes these cookies so special is that they aren't decorated with standard icing. They are 'hand painted', which gives them that fabulous customised, arty look. Whipped Bakeshop is run by Zoë Lukas, who is both a baker and a painter, and she has pulled these two talents together to create these little masterpieces. A real marriage of art and food.

If you don't live in Philadelphia you can still order these cookies as Whipped Bakeshop delivers throughout the USA. Custom cookies are priced from $3.50 each, excluding delivery/shipping costs.

Fabulous favors indeed.

Grooms, if you're feeling a bit stressed by the mounting bills and can't justify spending an absolute fortune on your suit, yet don't want to let your bride down by looking anything less than tip-top, then worry not.

The answer to your dilemma might just be the Great Universal website. They have a superb range of affordable tailored fashion that isn't terribly wedding-y and can be worn again after the big day.

We like this Ted Baker suit, pictured right, at £329, featuring flat front trousers with plain bottoms and hand stitch seam effect and a single breasted jacket with two button fastening, centre back vent, six internal pockets, internal security zipped pocket and luxury lining.

Visit Great Universal for the full range of tailored wear.

It may just be that one of your bridesmaids is going to be sporting a baby bump on your wedding day. Which is fine, of course, but what is she going to wear? Most makers of bridesmaids dresses will probably alter one of their existing designs to fit a pregnant tum, so it isn't really a huge problem.

However, if you've more or less given your bridesmaids carte blanche with their outfits, with perhaps a few guidelines, a pregnant bridesmaid might appreciate a few pointers beyond "It must be pink-ish and long".

Send them to Destination Maternity, where they can browse through a large range of maternity-wear in different online 'shops':

A Pea in the Pod has a good range of dressy maternity fashion and a lot of it is suitable for bridesmaids. They also have this great dress, which would be perfect for a bride, as well as this one here.

Mimi Maternity also has some great dresses, for brides and maids alike. Both sites are well worth visiting for the stylish designs, and the prices are really affordable too.

Looking for a great gift for your bridesmaids? Jewellery is something that most women appreciate so you can't really go wrong with a bit of bling, but for something just a little bit unusual, why not get you bridesmaids a set of girly cufflinks?

Yes, we know that cufflinks are usually for men, but we love these pretty cufflinks for women from Shefaly. Made from Swarovski and Austrian crystal they are seriously glamorous and sexy and add a fabulous finishing touch to a chic outfit. They'd be great in the office, livening up a formal suit, and would probably draw a lot of admiring looks and remarks.

Here's another use: if you're planning on wearing a sophisticated and sleek suit to your wedding, instead of a gown, then wear the cufflinks to add a dash of glitz and sparkle to your outfit.

There's a large range to choose from, with loads of different designs and colours, and they are very affordable with prices from around £27.

There's nothing new about iced wedding biscuits and there's no doubt that they do make great wedding favors. But how about an iced biscuit bouquet? It's certainly a fun and quirky idea and while it isn't really suitable for a traditional and classic wedding (can you just imagine the bride swooshing down the aisle holding a bunch of biccies?) it could be quite a funky bouquet alternative for the offbeat bride in a fun and informal setting. Well, why not?

Okay, maybe that is stretching the imagination just a tad but the idea of sending a bouquet of biscuits as a thank you gift is actually lovely. It's always nice to have a delicious biscuit with that mid-morning cup of coffee and how cool would it be to munch on a iced wedding-gown or shoe or top hat? Lots of fun, we think. Another good idea is to use them as funky table centrepieces, and they can do double duty as favors too.

There are a number of companies that supply biscuit bouquets, ( a quick Internet search will bring up a good list) but we really like these ones from Biccies. The biscuits are handmade, they look good, they taste good and at £44.99 they're not too destructive to your bank account.

Imagine spending ages hunting down your dream wedding dress, finding it, paying a small fortune for it and then, when you go to collect it, finding that the dress shop has closed. A nightmare scenario for any bride!

Well, it's something that recently happened to 170 women in England. The shop they bought their dress from unexpectedly closed its doors last month, after just two years of trading.

It's been an enormous shock for the brides affected and and some of them are so angry they have sent death threats to the shop owner, Lisa Clarkson, who has gone into hiding.

Sadly, there will be no refunds and no wedding dresses for the dress-less brides, leaving some women scrambling to find a dress just days before their wedding, and paying a fortune for a last-minute replacement.

The worrying thing is, could this happen to you? With the current economic downturn, more and more businesses are feeling the pinch so it pays to be aware and take some steps to protect yourself:

• Buy from a well-known, reputable dress shop rather than one with a short and unknown trading history.
• Don't pay for your dress in full, in advance.
• Collect your dress as soon as possible after you have paid for it, rather than leaving it until just before your wedding day.

Flowers on wedding cakes? Tell us something new. Since as far back as we can remember, wedding cakes with floral decorations have been the norm. So why get excited about yet more flowers on cakes?

Because these are so cool and sharp and funky that they can't be ignored.

Cake designers nowadays are constantly looking for new ways to create confectionery masterpieces, and floral embellishments have undergone a major overhaul but mostly, as lovely as they all are, there hasn't been anything terribly contemporary and sharp. Until recently, that is.

Emerging from the pastel prettiness are some rather bold, modern and somewhat retro flower designs that get a huge thumbs up from us. Designers and bakers such as Bijoux Doux, Maisie Fantaisie, Sugar-Couture, I Dream Of Cake, Jim Smeal and Lovin Sullivan Cakes never fail to deliver on interesting designs and we simply love their contemporary takes on florals.

Check out the gallery and you'll see what we mean!

Move over the shoe-a-holics, hello the clutch-a-holic! We've recently found a fantastic Etsy designer who makes the most gorgeous little clutch bags that are a must-have for any girl, never mind just those about to tie the knot. But let's be honest - a wedding is a fabulous reason to spoil yourself with a gorgeous and stylish bag, whether you're the bride, a bridesmaid or just a wedding guest looking for that perfect finishing touch. Or why not give these to your bridesmaids as thank you gifts?

Red Ruby Rose makes her stunning bags by hand, using beautiful fabrics and lining each bag with Dupion silk in a complementary colour. Priced from $58 to $80, depending on the design, Red Ruby Rose ships worldwide so there's no excuse not to treat yourself!

Have a quick browse through our gallery for a peek at some of these divine little bags and don't forget to visit her site for even more bag-candy.

If you're trying to rein in the spending, and endeavoring to stick to a tight wedding budget, then you you may be thinking hard about where you can shave off unnecessary extras and reduce costs. You probably won't want to do that with your wedding cake - who wants a nasty, poor quality cake? Nobody. But an area where expenditure can easily be reduced is your wedding stationery.

You could make your own invitations or, instead of choosing pricey, customised invitations, opt for a less expensive, standard design.

This doesn't necessarily mean having to make do with something awful. There are some excellent stationery companies who offer very good value for money and one that we've recently come across, and really like, is Fabulous Stationery.com.

They have a vast range of all-occasion cards and notes, and a good selection of wedding stationery too. The cards are good for bridal shower invitations, save the date cards, thank you notes and, even, informal wedding invitations. The designs range from contemporary to retro to bling and are very reasonably priced between $35 and $55 for a set of 25 customisable cards and envelopes.

That's pretty good value. Check out the gallery below for our pick of the wedding designs, or visit the website for the full and fabulous range.