We have a winner!

Last Monday we ended our competition to win $15,000 cash and a luxury honeymoon at Hayman worth $11,000! And today we are very proud to announce the winner…. are you ready?!

Our warmest congratulations to….

Kate Shaw
Victoria Park, WA

When we called Kate last week, she had just finished speaking to one of her bridesmaids… and something tells us she was back on that phone pretty quick after we told her she’d won!

Kate, we can’t wait to hear all about your wedding – so do keep in touch!

And for everyone else – stay tuned to this blog and our website this week for some more very special announcements!

A touch of paradise – for you!

It’s the middle of another week… so we thought we’d treat you to a little touch of paradise, and take you on a tour of the stunning Hayman – where one of our lucky members will be spending their honeymoon!

Australia’s most awarded five-star resort, Hayman is a 400 square hectare paradise nestled next to the stunning Great Barrier Reef, more than 30 kilometres off the coast of tropical north Queensland. Best known for its lagoon – a tranquil body of sapphire coloured water – and views across the Coral Sea, the island is also not far from the much photographed Heart Reef… making Hayman the perfect location for honeymooners!

The relaxation begins as soon as you land at Great Barrier Reef Airport (Hamilton Island), where a member of the Hayman team will welcome you and arrange for your luggage to be transferred to Hayman’s fleet of luxury launches for a breathtaking one-hour cruise across the Whitsunday Passage to the island.

Enjoy a glass of champagne as you take in the magnificent view, and complete your check-in formalities, book any resort activities, dining experiences and reef adventures before you arrive at the resort. On arrival at the resort, you will be escorted to your room, with your luggage arriving shortly after.

What you do after that is entirely up to you! You may want to relax in your room for a while…

Or head out to the pool, with its stunning views…

If you’re feeling energetic, you can head out in a catamaran…

Or you might want to check out the beautiful locals – either by day or night!

And after a relaxing night’s sleep in your luxurious suite, you can wake up to a champagne breakfast here:

Paradise! Wish we were there right now…

Well you could be!

In case you haven’t heard yet (and you really must have been under a rock to miss this!) we’re giving away a luxury honeymoon at Hayman worth $11,000 and $15,000 for your dream wedding. But there’s only FIVE days left to enter the draw! So head to the website now to become a member – and it could be you enjoying this luxury escape!

Where would you rather be?

Here?

You could be!

There’s now less than 20 days left to enter our incredible competition to win $15,000 cash for your dream wedding and a luxury Hayman honeymoon worth $11,000 – so get your entries in quick!

To enter, simply become a premium member on our fantastic website! For $99 you’ll receive

• access to all the premium content on the web – our Inspiration Gallery, Tip of the Day videos, extended Real Weddings features and much more
• the next 3 copies of Real Weddings delivered to your door – before they go on sale
• access to all our digital back issues (that’s 20 magazines full of inspiration!)
• a free gift from Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton – currently the gorgeous Jasper Conran 8-piece breakfast set worth $139
• and, of course, entry to our incredible competition!

You don’t want to miss out on this exclusive offer… it could be you sipping that espresso martini at sunset on your honeymoon! Head to the Real Weddings website to go in the draw!

Inspirational Image #15

We thought we’d attempt to cure any Mondayitis this morning with this beautiful image of Hayman, in the stunning Whitsunday Islands.

Don’t you wish you were there? Slipping into the pool, cocktail in hand, watching the sun set….

Well, you could be there sooner than you think thanks to our extraordinary competition! You could win a Hayman honeymoon worth $11,000, AND $15,000 cash towards your dream wedding!

For full details, and to enter, head to www.realweddings.com.au!

And the fun begins!

And we’re off with the RW online treasure hunt! The first five people to reach the finish line will receive a VERY exclusive prize related to our website!

So head over to Twitter now, follow the Real Weddings team, solve the first clue, and you’re on your way!

Here’s the first clue:

There’s one in Rome
It’s where people meet
You can create an Avatar
And share a kind of tweet

Send the solution to @realweddingsmag and you’ll receive your next clue!

Good luck! x

New year, new issue, and big news!!

Have you got your copy of our stunning summer issue, The White Issue, yet?

It features 27 gorgeous weddings from black tie to country casual and everything in between, styling inspiration for white and nautical-themed celebrations and for entertaining in your new home, the best beauty buys and gifts, and real advice from all our brides, PLUS our incredible Luxury Honeymoons and Destination Weddings feature – which has five gorgeous destination weddings, a London travel feature, and the hottest honeymoon destinations and travel products. This is one jam packed issue – it’s so huge it has TWO covers!!

Images by Sugarlove Weddings (left) and Blumenthal Photography (right).

This issue also has all the details of our new website, including our unbelievable competition: by subscribing to our website, you’ll go in the draw to win $15,000 for your dream wedding, and a luxury Hayman honeymoon worth $11,000!

Your website subscription includes a 12 month subscription to Real Weddings Magazine, and access to all our digital back issues, as well as access to exclusive web content including extended features from our most extraordinary weddings, Real Weddings TV, Founding Editor Kirsten MacKelden’s video Tip of the Day, a searchable image library of 10,000 images, our Luxury Honeymoons section, and the latest behind the scenes news from the Real Weddings team!

And guess what? Subscribers will receive a free gift from Waterford Wedgwood Royal Doulton – the first gift is the stunning Vera Wang ‘Love Knots’ Cake Knife and Trowel Set worth $99.95!

Our fabulous new website will be launching VERY soon – we’re just bursting to show it to you! If you head to www.realweddings.com.au you can register your details to be the first to know when it’s live! Stay tuned!

Quick! Cupcakes!

Just a quick reminder that our competition to win a packet of gorgeous green cupcake wrappers from The Cupcake Wrapper Co ends this afternoon! These sweet little wrappers are the perfect way to jazz up any occasion – but particularly all those pre-wedding parties: engagement parties, hens nights/kitchen teas… And since they’re reusable you can also enjoy them at all your post-wedding celebrations too: Christmas, birthdays, christenings… the list is endless!

To be in with a chance to own some of these sweet wrappers for yourself, just head over to our Twitter page (www.twitter.com/RealWeddingsMag) and tell us in 25 words or less what you would use these cuties for! The competition closes at 5pm today, Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time, and is open to Australian residents only… so get in quick! We’ll announce the winner tomorrow so stay tuned… Good luck! x

Smarty Pig Winner!

After many days reading through some fantastic entries we’ve selected the winner of our SmartyPig Competition!

Congratulations to Melanie Hince of Victoria, who told us that she and her fiance have created a weekly meal plan which forces them to shop to a list. With clever thinking and a little forward planning, they are now saving more than $40 each week to put towards their dream wedding!

Melanie and her fiance will now have a $100 boost to their savings thanks to SmartyPig – we hope you can use it to add some magical touches to your celebration, your honeymoon, or newly married life!

Best wishes from the Real Weddings team x

SmartyPig competition update!

Thanks to everyone who entered our SmartyPig competition to win a $100 boost to your savings. We’ve been inundated with fabulous entries and are finding it hard to pick a winner – you brides-to-be are so creative!

But we will try to make up our minds by next Friday – so keep checking back here for updates!

Get smart about saving!

Like many people, I am terrible at saving money! One minute I’m determined to stash my pennies away for a holiday, the next I’m distracted by a new CD, a great pair of jeans, a gorgeous pair of shoes…

But now there’s a new online tool that can help me – and all the brides out there saving for their dream wedding – to reach their savings goal without breaking a sweat!

It’s called SmartyPig, and it’s basically an online savings account with interest calculated daily, which guides you through setting a savings goal, and then helps you achieve it through monthly contributions from your regular bank account or your credit card. It’s completely free, extremely secure (setting up an account involves creating five security questions, a password, a security phrase and picture, and sending a written confirmation with certified copies of your ID), and trustworthy – the program is provided by ANZ bank.

If you want to, you can make your savings goal public through Facebook and other social media, which means your friends and family can encourage you to save and even contribute to your goal by giving you a SmartyPig gift card credited with the amount of their choice.

When your virtual piggy bank tells you it’s full, you can convert your hard-saved pennies to gift cards for retailers such as Myer and David Jones – so you can get out there and buy your dream item!

To kick off your savings, Real Weddings has one $100 SmartyPig voucher to give away!

All you need to do is answer this question in 25 words or less:

What have you given up, or how have you changed your spending habits in order to have the wedding of your dreams?

For example:

“I only have one latte a day instead of three – which saves me about $30 a week!”

“We have video nights at home instead of going out each week.”

“We now eat out according to the Cheap Eats Guide, instead of the Good Food Guide!”

Send your answers to info@realweddings.com.au by 5pm on Wednesday August 12, 2009, and we will reward our favourite answer with a $100 Smartypig card!

Note: entrants must be Australian residents aged 18 years or over.

With thanks to: