February has traditionally been a wonderful time of year to raise the question of marriage. February 14th, Valentine’s Day is a suitably fitting day to ask that all-important question. A marriage proposal is a huge step forward for any couple, getting engaged marks, for many people, the beginning of a lifetime together and an eternal commitment.

Valentine’s Day

Perhaps Valentine’s Day owes as much to the pagans as it does to any Christian Saint. February was named after the Latin februum, which means purification. The festival of Februa was held on February 15th in the old Roman calendar. It was a purification ritual consisting of spring washing and cleaning and was in harmony with the rainy weather of this time of year.

Another ancient Roman festival, Lupercalia, was held locally to the City of Rome between February 13th and the 15th. This was an archaic rite connected to fertility, but not of romance, but perhaps this was to become the seed of what we now know as Valentine’s Day. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, and it was suggested in the 18th century that this was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia, which the Pope also abolished.

Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas has argued that prior to Geoffrey Chaucer, no links between the Saints named Valentinus and romantic love existed.

In Parlement of Foules (1382), Chaucer wrote:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

A nice day for a white wedding (proposal)

According to both early Roman and Celtic traditions spring begins in early February. In Finland, February is called helmikuu or the “month of the pearl”; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice. So in many ways February the 14th is a great day to propose marriage! In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the 29th of February in a Leap year is said to be the one day when a woman can propose to her partner, so again February is arguably the best month to propose. Unfortunately 2008 was a leap year, so you will have to wait to 2012 to get the chance to propose again. . .

Valentine’s Day and Wedding Proposal Ideas

Before you drop down on one knee and ask "will you marry me". Here are some proposal of marriage ideas:

• Hire a chauffeur-driven limousine to help make your future fiancée know you are taking this marriage seriously! Pick her up at home or work and take her to a romantic restaurant for a candlelight dinner. Present her with the diamond engagement ring on the way home in the limo.
• A chauffeur-driven car is a great surprise for a Valentine’s Day Surprise too!
• The History of Valentine’s Day
• Brilliant Marriage Proposals

One of the most important considerations when planning your wedding day should be your wedding travel. You might have bagged your dream wedding dress or got your name down on the most exclusive of wedding venues, but this would have been all in vain if your wedding ride doesn’t arrive.

Credit crunched wedding planning might favour taking a large chunk out of your wedding car budget, but are you being realistic in your choice of wedding car supplier? This year many wedding car businesses will struggle, many could even disappear altogether as the crunch bites harder. So it might be worth looking again at your choice of wedding car supplier. The first consideration should not be price. Sure, you can drive a hard bargain, but if you have several quotes for similar cars, and one of them is significantly cheaper - beware. Most wedding car businesses operate on similar pricing models. If they have invested many thousands of pounds in wedding cars, they know they have to charge a certain amount just to stay afloat. In bad times they might even have to charge more as the number of jobs they do reduces, their operating costs will not lessen as well. Their largest overhead is the cost for the vehicle, if they do one or one hundred jobs a year, this cost remains the same. So be warned, if that wedding car quote seems to good to be true, it probably is!

Getting value from your wedding car hire

Many wedding car suppliers will throw in free wedding ribbons, but when you are negotiating with them why not see if they can throw in a free bottle of Champagne for your wedding hire? Conversely, if they offer complimentary Champagne already, and you and your fiancee are not great bubbly drinkers see if they could reduce the cost of the hire by letting them keep the Champagne.

Another way to get value from your wedding car hirer is to ask them to make more journeys. Most weddings are pretty localised affairs. The collection, ceremony and reception addresses are normally only a few miles apart. Which means that your wedding car could first drop brides maids to the venue, then the mother of the bride and then they could drive the bridal run. Many wedding car suppliers would be agreeable to this sort of scenario, and this way you are getting even more value out of your wedding car professional. One such business that does offer it’s wedding clients, multiple journeys for no extra charge is iChauffeur Weddings. iChauffeur’s Will Senior said, " We have always tried to give our wedding customers more than they might have expected with their wedding car hire. If we can do several journeys for our clients, then we will do so. "

Feel free to drive a good bargain out of your wedding car hire, but do so realistically and responsibly. No one will thank you for saving an extra £100 from your wedding car budget, if the car never turns up! Use your common sense, intuition and take your time to find a well priced, reliable and stylish wedding car for your very important day. Crunch or no credit crunch, everyone wants to go cheap, but at what expense? Learn more from London Wedding Car - Stylish wedding cars on a budget.

Manchester Wedding Car is a new resource focusing on wedding cars based in Manchester and the north of England. Featuring information about some of the best wedding cars in the area and also the history of one of the world’s most celebrated car manufacturers and wedding cars for that matter - Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce are now a renowned and highly revered maker of cars and their roots are to be found in Manchester where Sir Henry Royce and Charles Rolls first met, and where Mr Royce built his first cars.

Along with Rolls-Royce wedding cars, such as the new Phantom, Manchester Wedding Car profiles Bentley wedding cars including the Bentley Arnage and Flying Spur bridal cars and also features ways to hire luxury wedding cars like the Mercedes S Class, without busting your wedding budget.

Are you trying to plan your dream honeymoon, but lack the funds to jet off on your ideal getaway? Don’t let lack of funds stifle your plans, you just need a little ingenuity and be prepared for some hard work.

John and Ann Till, from Hampshire, took thousands of cans and bottles to a recycling centre in order to collect enough air miles for their honeymoon.

They amassed 36,000 miles, which they used to fly back in style from their US honeymoon. They had enough money for the cruise to New York but could not afford the flights home, so the couple started rummaging the streets for rubbish, earning miles for their dream honeymoon and helped to tidy up their area in the process.

Read the full article from the BBC.

English Wedding Cars is a new website showcasing the finest wedding cars from England. Examining wedding and bridal cars from Bentley including the Arnage and Continental Flying Spur, Rolls-Royce including the majestic Phantom as well as Jaguar and Range Rover wedding cars.

English Wedding Cars, like the cars is handcrafted in England!

Your wedding car search can be as elusive as finding the right wedding dress or venue. Finding the perfect wedding carriage to match your theme without breaking your wedding budget can be easier said than done.

Fortunately, iChauffeur have introduced a Wedding Car Quote engine, which will find you cars available for your wedding day, and at many different price points. iChauffeur are a wedding car specialist, and have chauffeur driven many famous and celebrity wedding couples and guests. The quote form lists modern and vintage wedding cars including Rolls-Royce and Bentley wedding vehicles. You can also email the quote in order to make your wedding car comparison easier and to show your fiancée.

Planning your wedding can be a stressful affair. With so many things to organise and schedule. How can you be sure that you haven’t forgotten anything? The biggest day of your life could be ruined by forgetting a little detail from your ever growing wedding to-do list. So, what can you do to prepare for your wedding day?

Get organised. Get all those notes and scrap bits of paper into one location. Make sure you have all your wedding suppliers listed. So that if they don’t turn up, you know exactly who to ring! A notebook is a great way of storing all these useful collections of names, addresses and clippings into one convenient location. One of the best notebooks you can get is the Moleskine notebook.

What is really cool about Moleskine is that they have a pocket in the back to keep any notes, bits of material and other pieces of your wedding planning jigsaw. All bound nice and safely together by an elastic band. Not very high tech, but it works. It will also make a nice wedding momento, so that you can look back on your wedding plans for many years to come, and be proud of how well organised your wedding was.

Moleskine was the preferred note book of many celebrated writers and artists. Hemingway and Chatwin swore by their Moleskines. Today many writers, artists and designers use them to collate ideas and jot down notes and thoughts.

Moleskine are available in 2 different sizes; pocket and large. The pocket version is ideal for the wedding day. Where it can be kept to hand in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Mojo London sell Moleskine with free gift-wrapping and free UK delivery. They offer a printing/embossing service as well as discounts for large orders. A lovely wedding gift.

Welcome to WeddingCompare.co.uk The UK wedding comparison magazine. Fall in love with our hand-picked selection of wedding suppliers. Created just for lovers of wonderful weddings. A marriage of convenience to help make your wedding day sparkle.

We’re romantically inclined to feature only a select few of wedding companies that we are happy to present to you. Companies that will melt your heart with wedding wares with a difference you can feel. A delicious indulgence of wedding produce that caresses your palette. From bone-tingling wedding gifts to glamourous wedding gowns. When nothing less will do.

Bestow a romantic touch to your wedding day with WeddingCompare.co.uk.