Planning Tips For Your Dream Wedding

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

Many women have dreamed of their wedding day since they were little girls. Although I didn’t and had no idea what I wanted on my big day after getting engaged. I had to start getting some ideas together and make what felt like a million decisions. It was fun but it was stressful. To cut down the stress for other brides I wrote my wedding planning book. Hopefully it will make the journey easier for other brides. In the meantime, here are some tips for creating your dream wedding.

Your Dream Wedding: Wants And Compromises.

You may have a specific idea of your wedding in mind but the reality will probably be different. This doesn’t need to be a bad thing. Just choose the things that you are not willing to negotiate on. When you know what is most important and worth spending money on you can focus on that and then look at cheaper options for other things. Or rope family and friends in. Most will be happy to help.

Budget.

This is the tough one but you need to work out what it is and then you need to stick to it. Enquire if any family members can help and then sit down with your fiancé and have a proper discussion about what you can and cannot afford. There is no point in going into debt for a wedding or taking out a loan. It is only one day of your life, an important one, but one day. You can have an amazing wedding on a small budget. No one should start their married life in debt. Watch out for the ‘W’ bomb. As in ‘wedding’. The W word makes everyone vastly put their prices up.

Guessing cost.

Always overestimate. That way you won’t be left short. Always remember VAT. Some venues and suppliers will be coy about whether VAT is included but ask them and get a direct answer and then make a note of it.

How much it will cost.

This is the question. The answer is: quite a bit. My husband and I managed to get married for less than £10,000. We paid for the majority of this ourselves but did have some family members contribute. Not bad when the average wedding costs £21,000. Spreadsheets are your friend. Negotiating will also be your friend. Try to get money off everything. Don’t take the first quote and rope family and friends into the planning if money is tight.

Controlling Costs.

This is very important. Watch out for VAT and always account for everything. Use a spreadsheet if you can. Keep an eye on the small things as they can all add up.

Dealing With Suppliers.

When dealing with suppliers always remember that you are the customer. Be polite but always be firm. Read the small print and make your wishes clear. More importantly, don’t pay any final invoices until everything has been checked. One supplier charged us for VAT despite the fact they said they wouldn’t. Hmm. Always be careful.

Hatton Gardens.

Hatton Gardens is the area in London where all of the jewellers are located. You can get a very good deal here.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are your friend. If you don’t know how to do one then quickly brush up your skills. They will be your saving grace. Have one for your wedding budget and one for your wedding guest list. For the wedding guest list one, leave space for information such as dietary requirements, RSVP received, gift given and thank you card sent.

Organisation Tips

Have everyone’s contact details to hand. Use spreadsheets and have plenty ‘to do’ lists. Make sure your partner pulls his or her weight. Weddings are hard and stressful to organise, don’t go it alone.

Wedding Planner: To Go It Alone Or Hire Help.

If I had the money I would have hired a wedding planner in an instant. However, they are expensive and you don’t really need one. I am not saying that in a rude way, they will save time and probably a lot of money but weighing up the cost is important. Your venue might have a wedding planner or venue coordinator onsite. If so, this is a tremendous bonus.

If you get a wedding planner make sure you check their recommendations and also have a clear idea of what you want. It is their job to take your ideas and make them into the wedding of your dreams. Don’t accept anything less, budget permitting.

If you are getting married then get your hands on a copy of The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity. It has great advice on planning your perfect wedding and is written by our editor, Catherine Balavage. It is also available in Ebook format and is a great guide for wedding planning.

The Antarctic Pavilion: Alexander Ponomarev – Concordia

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

Fondaco Marcello, Calle dei Garzoni, Grand Canal, Venice 56th Venice Biennale of Art

Saturday 9th May – Sunday 22^nd November

For anyone who happens to be in Venice between the above dates I think I trip to the Antarctic Pavilion would be an extraordinary experience. Following the critical success of the Antarctic Pavilion’s inaugural exhibition at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale, Concordia is a major installation by the celebrated Russian artist Alexander Ponomarev.

Concordia is Latin for ‘harmony’ – the personification of concord, a treaty or pact. It is also the name basis of the Costa Concordia, wrecked off the coast of Italy in 2012 after a catastrophic blunder by its captain who abandoned ship before the safe evacuation of his 3,229 passengers.

For the 56th Venice Biennale of Art, Alexander Ponomarev’s installation, curated by Nadim Samman, deploys the Costa Concordia disaster – specifically, the broken pact between Captain Schettino and his passengers – as a provocative lens through which to view the fragility of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. This agreement suspended military activity and sovereign claims on the continent’s territory, limiting human activity there to the pursuit of peaceful scientific endeavour. As the global struggle for resources intensifies, the future of this treaty is in peril.

In Ponomarev’s sculptural intervention a scale model of the grounded Concordia, tilting like a tipped iceberg (or perhaps a shift in the polar axis itself) stands as an image of terrestrial re- orientation: a new worldview.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, fire invokes a notorious act of arson by a staff doctor from the Argentinean Almirante Brown station, who burnt his base to the ground when the setting sun announced the onset of winter.

Further works are based on the artist’s recent expedition to the (Russian Orthodox) Trinity Church of Antarctica when the whole expedition party received marriage sacraments from the southern continent’s only resident monk.

In addition to its invoking of paradigmatic disasters, Concordia is a meditation on community, responsibility, security and the strength of the ties that bind us together amid shifting personal and political landscapes.

The Antarctic Pavilion is a European interface platform for The Antarctic Biennale, to be held in Antarctica in 2016 aboard international research vessels. The Antarctic Biennale is also devised and implemented by artist Alexander Ponomarev and curated by Nadim Samman both of whom were named by Foreign Policy Magazine among the ‘100 Leading Global Thinkers’ of 2014 ‘for designing a blueprint for Antarctic culture.

www.antarcticpavilion.com

How to Plan a Wedding on a Budget

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

When I first started planning my wedding I was daunted. The cost of most weddings is over £20,000. It seemed insane to spend this on one day of our life. The majority of our wedding was paid for by my (now) husband and I so I had to keep things cheap. I decided to stop panicking and start researching instead. This research became my book, The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity. I have an excerpt on wedding planning from my wedding book below. I hope this eases the stress and helps a little. You need it when planning a wedding.

Tips For Saving Money On Your Wedding

Cutting the guest list.

This is the best and easiest way to cut the budget. Every single person who comes to your wedding costs you money. So be ruthless and don’t feel you have to give everyone a plus one. Cutting children from your wedding will also save money but if you do this make it a rule across the board. If some guests have gone to the expense of hiring a babysitter and then see other children running around they are probably not going to be happy about it.

Cut the hours

The longer the wedding the more it will cost to feed people and give them drinks. You don’t have to have a long wedding, just do whatever you want. This will be easier if you have to be out of the venue at a set time but don’t feel like you have to use all of your allocated time, or pay to entertain your guests for the full amount of time. As long as you feed people and give them a certain amount of alcohol then they should be grateful and not too bothered if they have to put their hand in their pocket at the end of the night.

Marry off-peak

Getting married during the week will save money not only on the venue, but also with suppliers too. Your guests will have to take a day off work so factor this in. An autumn or winter wedding will also be cheaper.

Go Online

Buy things cheaply online and also check for cheaper deals than you have been offered. Car boot sales and charity shops will also have cheap stuff that could come in handy.

Getting Organised

Being organised and booking things in advance will save lots of money.

Minimoon

This is a mini honeymoon that couples have when they have to delay their honeymoon. You can also extend your first night hotel stay into a mini honeymoon. Staycations are best for minimoons. There are plenty of amazing places in the United Kingdom where you can have a romantic getaway. Cornwall, Brighton, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Devon, London…the possibilities are endless.

Have Your Honeymoon in Europe

If you live in the United Kingdom then not only will having a honeymoon in Europe be easy to get to, it will also be a lot cheaper. There are plenty of beautiful, romantic places to go.

Have Prosecco Instead of Champagne.

It is cheaper but tastes just as good. As long as you buy the right one.

The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity is available in print, ebook and Kindle. The Kindle version is only £2.99.

Coming Home By Annabel Kantaria Book Review

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

After a heavy work week I was looking for something enjoyable to read. Luckily Coming Home By Annabel Kantaria came through the letterbox. I was drawn in from the first page. The story is engaging with enough twists to keep you guessing. The character of Evie is likeable and warm, even when her mother is bringing out her immaturity. Kantaria captures family life and all of its difficulties. I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. It is a triumphant debut from Annabel Kantaria. Recommended.

‘An utterly compelling story of loss and betrayal – I loved it’ – Judy Finnigan
Your parents make you who you are.

But how much do you really know about them?

After her father unexpectedly passes away, Evie leaves her life in Dubai behind, and returns to England. Her family home is the same as it ever was: perfectly pristine, but filled with her mother’s unspoken grief for Evie’s brother, who was killed as a child in a tragic accident.

Evie knew that coming home would be hard. But whatever she expected, she’s definitely not prepared for her whole life to unravel in front of her. And as one secret after another is uncovered, she begins to realise that everything she thought she knew about her family has been one big lie…

Coming Home is available here.

Is Acting Training Worth It?

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

To train or not to train, that is the question. To paraphrase some little known writer, ahem. It is a debate that has raged on. The truth is, there is no easy answer. Frankly, studying at Cambridge will get you noticed but training at some random never-heard-of polytechnic won’t do you much good. In a recent Mark Strong Acting masterclass I went to Mark made the excellent point that it is not the training that is important, but the confidence it gives. Sometime people who don’t train have a chip on their shoulder, Mark said, much like people who don’t go to university think they missed out on something. It is all rubbish and in fact they did not miss anything at all, but the lack of confidence is there.

So, do you need three years worth of training? Especially with the exorbitant fees that universities now charge? The answer is yes, and no. There is still a hierarchy to acting. If you go to a school which is a brand name it will look great on your CV and open some doors. RADA is one, as is Central and LAMDA. Ditto Oxford and Cambridge. The acting industry is just as snobby as the wider world. People love brand names.

Some training is smart. Although I believe that acting is a talent you either have or don’t, but you can improve. Take classes, join improv groups, make your own work. Keeping up your skills as an actor is important but just doing three years of training for the sake of it is not. Many great actors have no formal training. You will also have the added bonus of not having any debt which will take you years to pay off.

In the end the decision is yours. Just don’t think that your acting career is over before it began just because you cannot go to a prestiges school. Not everyone has the money to do so and they only take a small number of applicants every year. Developing your skills is important but this can be done on the job, doing student films, fringe theatre, in drama classes and even in (shh) amateur dramatics. None of this has to go on your CV. Just get out there and work. The acting industry is not the closed shop it used to be. Go to the theatre, watch film and TV. Learn as much as possible. Actors who went to one of the top schools may get a head start but the good news is that the acting game is a marathon, not a sprint.

Catherine Balavage has been an actor for over ten years. Her book on acting, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur, has gotten numerous five star reviews and has been called the ‘best advice available’ by numerous sources.

Pizza Rossa Restaurant Review

Posted on April 21, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

Last month Frost paid a visit to Pizza Rossa at Leadenhall Market. A popular restaurant in the City. Business was brusque. The restaurant is casual with a number of tables that fill up quickly, if you want a seat be quick. As well as pizza, they also have fresh home made meat or vegetarian lasagne, and a parmigiana which is only 300kcal per portion.

We tried a few different pizzas and they were all delicious. They tasted fresh and light. Unlike a lot of pizza, they are much healthier some of their pizzas start at 200kcal and provide at least one of your five a day, plus the dough, proved for almost 20 hours, is very digestible, naturally low in gluten, very low in yeast and salt, with no sugar or preservative added (which is what makes the dough rise quickly for a fast turnaround) – they are an artisan pizza maker, and the pizza is served al taglio – by the square slice, like you will find in Italy where street food vendors specialise in this type of lunchtime urban staple, especially in Rome.

We were very impressed at the delicious food. As my colleague put it: “All of the yum”.

Pizza Rossa is at 4-12 Whittington Avenue, corner of Leadenhall Street at Leadenhall Market, London EC3V 1AB Tel: 020 7621 0676 Nearest Tube: Bank www.pizzarossa.com @pizzarossaUK www.facebook.com/pizzarossa

The Extra-terrestrial Film Festival: The St Albans Film Festival Returns

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

A “Secret Cinema” experience, films in the park after dark, and a swim-in cinema are planned for St Albans 3^rd Film Festival which will be out of this world

Visitors to the St Albans Film Festival will have the opportunity to take part in a ‘Secret Cinema’ experience when the Odyssey cinema holds an immersive Space film event on opening night, 1 May.

The Extra-terrestrial Film Festival The St Albans Film Festival Returns leoni

Leoni Kibbey says that the event will bring some surprise and excitement to the opening night. “I am a huge fan of the ‘Secret Cinema’ phenomenon, she says, “and wanted to bring a bit of that fun to the film festival. This is different to the usual secret events as the location and time is known beforehand, but the film itself is being kept under wraps. We may release some clues nearer to the day though, and it is definitely a film in line with our Space theme, so we are definitely inviting people to dress accordingly!”

Since 2013 the St Albans Film Festival has earned its place alongside the bigger international film festivals, gaining credibility by attracting over 1,000 entries from filmmakers from 40 countries into its short film competition, and also securing Christiane Kubrick, widow of film directing legend Stanley Kubrick, who lived and worked in the area, as its Patron.

The Extra-terrestrial Film Festival The St Albans Film Festival Returnsfightingcockspub

The Festival – which has taken Space as its theme this year, coinciding with the centenary of Einstein’s general theory of relativity (gravity), and also the current general release of The Theory of Everything; the Golden Globe winning movie about the famous scientist and space expert, Stephen Hawking, who hails from St Albans – is holding its grand launch event and closing awards ceremony at the recently restored Odyssey cinema, which first opened in 1908. This was one of the first cinemas to open in the country.

Other firsts for this year’s film festival include a pop-up cinema at the country’s oldest pub, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which will be screening Alien on 29^th April and Aliens on 30^th April, in the garden, with a barbecue as part of the ticket price of £12. Landlord Christo Tofalli says: “To my knowledge, this is the first time in the pub’s 1,222 year history that it has turned into a cinema!” Tickets are selling fast so visit the film festival website to buy yours.

The Extra-terrestrial Film Festival The St Albans Film Festival Returnsstage

The festival team will also be managing a central ‘hub’ based at another historic building: the St Albans Town Hall, a Georgian Grade ll listed building which has received funding from the HLF to be transformed into an exceptional new museum and gallery of national and international significance in 2017. The Town Hall will hold the official screenings of the finalists in the short film competition, and run a selected number of events about filmmaking.

Just a short drive from St Albans is Bayfordbury Observatory: the University of Hertfordshire’s astronomical and atmospheric physics remote sensing observatory, and one of the largest teaching observatories in the UK. The centre opens its doors to the film festival on Saturday for an exciting evening for ages 8+ which includes a talk on ‘Space and Astronomy in Films: the Facts and the Fiction’ and an HD planetarium show, followed by a visit to their telescopes with live observations.

Don your pointy ears and Trekkie gear in homage to the late Leonard Nimoy (Spock) as The Maltings Arts Theatre invite you to startrek across the universe with Spock, Kirk and the rest of the crew of the Starship Enterprise as they host a trilogy of the first star trek films from the ‘70s & ‘80s.

Take a trip to Westminster Lodge’s Alien Day on Saturday 1^st May as they once again open their Swim-in cinema, with family film ‘Monsters Vs Aliens’ in the day and, for ages 18+, Alien Resurrection with the famous underwater scene, in the evening.

Film & Media Students from Oaklands College on Hatfield Road host a packed weekend of events inspired by Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. All events are completely free and suitable for all ages – including workshops and a chance to try out professional film equipment, Odyssey, film quizzes, lectures, indie screenings and lots more.

One of the coolest events at the festival and not to be missed is the stunning screening of new indie feature ‘Always in the Present’ the debut feature from Writer and Director Oliver Guy-Watkins. This exclusive screening will include a live score by French band Metropolitan Parc and screens in the afternoon on the Saturday.

Warren Bacci, director of Top Talent Agency, based in St Albans, and judge for Best Actor award, says: “We really recommend visitors see at least one of the short film category screenings, as showcasing filmmaking talent is at the heart of the festival. In previous years, the festival has discovered exciting new talent in filmmaking internationally, as well as recognising acting talent such as Luke Treadaway, who won Best Actor at the festival last year.”

Some of the stars of this year’s eclectic mix of short films include: Cillian Murphy, Ricky Tomlinson, A BAFTA winner, A Disney Animator, A Gay Rugby Team and the band Enter Shikari. Audience members will get to meet the best up and coming filmmakers as each screening has a Q&A session after and this year introduces the audience vote, which count towards the final voting score and winners are announced at the closing awards ceremony at The Odyssey cinema on the Sunday evening.

Leoni Kibbey, festival director, says: “I am so excited about this year’s theme – so look out for all the added extras we are known for – see the city taken over by aliens and spacemen for one weekend. In our first three years, we have established a reputation for putting on an innovative and ambitious programme of events and this year we have taken a giant leap forward and let the local residents and businesses take more ownership of their festival by putting on more of their own events and initiatives to celebrate film.

“Edinburgh Festival started small with one person’s idea and now thousands of productions and events take place around Edinburgh. I would love to bring a slice of that kind of energy to our city, which was itself at the forefront of modern filmmaking and cinemas a hundred years ago and see the festival grow for years to come.”

Tickets to the secret cinema event are available direct from the Odyssey box office, and tickets for all other film festival events are available now from www.stalbansfilmfestival.co.uk, and from the box office, which is now open at the old court rooms in the Town Hall.

Expecting Better: Why The Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong Book Review

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Catherine Balavage

Expecting Better: Why The Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong created a huge amount of buzz when it was released, and rightly so. Women’s bodies are always political minefields. Everything from our breasts to our rights to abortion are subject to scrutiny and sexism. No more so is this true than when a woman is pregnant. Everyone has an opinion on what you should eat, on what you should do. The amount of unsolicited advice is irritating and the amount of judgement from the conception all the way to how you give birth can be overwhelming. God forbid that people live and let live.

Which is why I love this book. Emily Oster is an associate producer of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has done her research and has the facts. That is the thing with facts: you can’t argue with them. I mean, people will try but the truth is the truth. Let’s start with caffeine and alcohol. Women are told to limit caffeine and not drink during pregnancy. Coffee allegedly causes a rise in miscarriage. But as Oster says:

“Women who drink coffee tend to be older so is it the coffee or is it the maternal age?”

On alcohol she says: “In continental Europe women drink wine when pregnant and there is no evidence at all that there children are not as smart as American children or have any other health problems. In fact there is no evidence of more foetal alcohol syndrome in continental Europe; if anything, rates are higher in the United States. This is interesting as any drinking is frowned upon in the US whilst in continental Europe before are less judgemental.

Ultimately I concluded that these recommendations were not just very cautious, they were too cautious. In moderation, pregnant women should feel comfortable with both alcohol and caffeine.

For alcohol, this means up to one drink a day in the second and third trimester, and a couple of drinks a week in the first. In fact, for the most part studies fail to show negative effects on babies even at levels higher than this. By a drink here I mean a standard drink – 120 millilitres of wine, 30 millilitres of hard spirits, 350 millilitres of beer.”

Considering that a recent legal test case brought by a council tried to pass a law in the UK to make it illegal for women to drink in pregnancy at all, that speaks volume. Women are not trusted with their own bodies and decisions. As Oster puts it “This feels like pregnant women are not given any more credit than children would be in making important decisions.” Quite.

My review of Osters book could go on for thousands more words. Instead I will say: buy it. If you are pregnant, buy it. If you have a pregnant friend, buy if for them. It is the essential pregnancy book. Emily Oster should be applauded for her excellent work and research. This book is groundbreaking, fascinating and practical. I loved it and I could not recommend it more. Steven D. Levitt, the co-author of the brilliant Freakonomics, said this book ‘may be the most important book about pregnancy you read.’ There is no ‘may’ about it. Read it.

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know is available here.

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