Instead of or as well as the above book, if you want expert help with writing and delivering a wedding speech, check out www.public-speaking-skills.co.uk.

You can find further advice about every aspect of planning a wedding, from the hen and stag parties to the honeymoon, on www.confetti.co.uk.

And here are a few suggestions of our own:

Entertainment

It’s your wedding, so choose the sort of entertainment you like best. However, think also about the people you’ve invited and what sort of entertainment they will enjoy. It’s traditional to have music and dancing in the evening but, while a lot of people love dancing, not everyone feels like it or is able to. It’s good if you can have another room available for these guests to sit in, so they can chat without having to shout over the music.

It goes without saying that you’ll need a magician at your wedding reception! If you’ve got up to 100 guests, the magician will almost certainly be able to show magic to everyone who wants to see it in the course of an hour and a half, maximum two hours. If you’ve got many more guests, you might like to split the magician’s time and have some magic in the afternoon and some in the evening (or, let’s say, before and after the wedding breakfast). Particularly if you suspect that quite a few of your guests will not want to dance, it might be a good idea to have magic for them to watch and be involved in at this stage of the proceedings. Generally, magicians don’t perform while people are actually eating, because the spectators are not able to concentrate fully on (and therefore enjoy) either the food or the magic if they have both at once. However, the magician can be on hand to cover any unexpected delays in, for example, bringing the next course.

In addition to magic and dance music, you might like to have a singer (classical or otherwise), a string quartet or harpist, a caricaturist, a chocolate fountain or even a ‘fun’ casino. Depending on the number and temperament of your guests, you can make your wedding reception as demure or as wild as you want to.

You'll find more ideas about entertainment for your wedding reception on www.wedding-entertainment.eu.

Children

Children can get very bored at weddings and be quite disruptive. It’s a good idea to have a separate room for them to be based in, where there is at least a television and DVDs. If you have a friend who is willing, ask her/him to take responsibility for looking after the children and keeping them busy. Arrange for the children to be fed in that room too; it can be hard on adult guests (particularly childless ones) to have small children at their table, mainly because the breakfast is the main time for guests who don’t know many people there to get to know those at their table, and bonding with children doesn’t answer the social purpose. In any case, a long formal meal can be tedious for children and they will almost certainly be happier being fed and entertained in a more casual atmosphere.

Although he is not a children’s entertainer as such, if you hire Iain Moran as your wedding magician, he will be happy to show some tricks to the children as well. If there are going to be a lot of very small people, you might want to hire a clown, a balloon artist, a face painter or some such dedicated children’s entertainer as well.

Miscellaneous

Confetti has become an issue because the paper stuff doesn’t easily biodegrade. However, it is a terrible pity not to have any; it’s an integral part of wedding tradition and there is something very festive and exciting and, well, so “getting married” about it. We recommend dried petals, which are available specifically as confetti. It’s a bit more expensive than the standard but it’s definitely worth it. You may wish to point your bridesmaid(s) in the direction of this website: www.confettidirect.co.uk.

The formal photographs will be a lovely memento of your wedding but do make sure people take lots of casual snaps as well. It’s nice to have as much of a record as possible of your big day.

The main thing is, whatever happens, go with the flow and enjoy yourself! There will almost certainly be a snag or two in even the best-planned day but it really doesn’t matter. You, the bride and groom, are the stars of the show, so just shine. Other people can take care of everything else.

Particularly if you’re getting married in the summer, do book early. Once you’ve got the venue and the key people booked, you can relax a bit and focus on the more detailed aspects, such as choosing the readings and working out a colour scheme. You can book your wedding magician right now!