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You've agreed to propose the toast to the bride. Even though you've known her for years, when you start to consider what you might say, you draw a complete blank. You've never been great at public speaking. Where do you start? Gary Drevitch at Freelance Dad consulted with experts as Toastmasters International, and came up with these tips:

Brainstorm. Jot down everything you can think of about the bride. List her good points, special memories you have, why she and her beloved make a good couple. The brainstorming will give you a general outline for your toast. Research will fill in the gaps.

Know your audience. Don't say anything to annoy or embarrass the bride and groom, and keep it clean.

Write it all out so you can practice it, but when the time comes, use short notes. A cue-card or two should be enough; ten typed pages is too much!

Sound like yourself.

Start with a joke, end with sentiment. As Drevitch notes, "One of the classic rules of wedding toasting is to end by tugging on the heartstrings. If you can't be sentimental at a wedding, where can you?"

Keep it short. Toastmasters suggests three to four minutes, but we can guarantee that if you want to make it shorter than that, your audience will not object!

The wine-kind, not the kitchen appliance.

One of the traditional duties of the male contingent, toasting can be done either by a specially-appointed (or even hired) MC, but most often it's done by the best man.

Anywhere you look, you can find a list of who toasts whom, in what order, and with what. Thing is, all the lists are different. Who toasts whom, in what order? Who knows?

This can be a good thing. With so many possibilities, you can do it any way you like! Another piece of even better news:

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.

If you're going to do the traditional mother-son dance, you'll need to be considering just your musical options, and as you do you'll want to take mom into account. No fair forcing her to dance to music that you forced on her as a teen (which we're pretty sure you've outgrown by now anyway, right?). Nor should you be trying to get her to groove to stuff you love which leaves her cold.

Though there's room for musical compromise, the odds are good that you'll be dancing to something that sits firmly on the "Oldies" section of the shelf. And that's all right. Cool and cutting-edge though you may be, if there's a time to trip the very traditional fantastic, the mother-son dance is it. Besides, that oldies stuff is generally pretty easy to dance to, which could save you both a heap of embarrassment. We doubt you and mom have spent many hours dancing together, at least not since she gave you a few pointers the night before your Senior Prom.

Okay, guys, it's your turn. Will you be having a mother-son dance? And if so, what music have you chosen, or are you considering?

Your eyes keep shifting between your budget spreadsheet and your potential guest list. You love your friends and family -- all 250 of them -- but at 35 bucks a head for dinner, you can't afford to invite them all. You could save thousands of dollars by cutting your guest list in half, but how do you decide who makes and who misses the cut? This part of wedding planning is no fun.

So here's an idea: instead of an expensive, fancy feast that blows your whole wedding budget, ask your guests to bring a dish to share instead of a gift. Provide guests who travel or guests who simply don't cook with a list of pre-made items that can be bought at your local grocery store, and appoint someone to field all the phone calls about what to bring. Sure there will be some repeats, but with several dozen guests, you'll surely get a nice variety for your buffet.

Make sure your invitations are clear about this. "In lieu of gifts, the bride and groom request that you bring your favorite dish to serve at our reception buffet. Call Mandy, the Maid of Honor, at 555-5555 with questions." Then you can take the money you saved on food and buy your own wedding gifts, so you get exactly what you need and want. Encourage guests to include the recipe with the dish they bring, so that you can create a wedding cookbook. You can even post the recipes online to share with all the guests.

This week we brought you Do It Yourself (DIY) weddings. One of the great things about doing it yourself is the money you can save. And who else knows what you want better than you do? Here are the things we found for you:

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.

We confess to being just a little dubious about this. We can see the temptation, however. Receptions eat up (no pun intended) a huge percentage of your wedding costs. If you're working with a very tight budget, those costs may well be something you'd like to reduce. Is it realistic to self-cater?

It would depend a lot on the size and formality of the wedding, of course. Catering your own formal sit-down four-course banquet for 300 guests? We can't imagine how you'd manage that. A simple cold buffet for 30? That could be do-able.

The trick is liable to be in spreading out the work. Most people have family or friends who love to cook. Maybe you could organize a reception pot-luck for your casual wedding. In that case, you're likely not going to be doing much of the food preparation yourselves, but instead be organizing the people who will be bringing the food. What do you think? Could the couple organize their own catering, or is this one wedding task that really should be left to the professionals?

If you'd like to create one-of-a-kind glasses for the two of you -- either wine glasses, champagne flutes, or even just simple water goblet -- it can be a simple project to take on. Some glass paint and conditioner, a brush or two, and the glass. If you're not the best artist in the world, a few hearts or just some swirls can create a very attractive effect. Remember, for an elegant effect, less is very often more, particularly on glass, where you can see the design from both sides, and it can easily get looking too busy.

If you have a little more talent as a painter, you might want to get more adventurous. Check out the gallery for inspiration!

You read our post about the floating candle centerpieces, and you really want to make them for your reception. Thing is, you want something unusual, let's say, oh ... unicorn candles! Yes, unicorn candles to go with your fairy-tale theme. Sadly, you just can't find them anywhere.

There might be a solution. Instead of hunting in candle stores, try cooking supply stores. If you can find a cookie-cutter in the shape you're after, you're all set, because you can actually make candles from cookie cutters. You'll need the cutter, of course, some modelling clay, wicks and wax. If you're adding scent or color, you'll need those, too.

For complete how-to details, head over to All Free Crafts and follow the instructions. As long as you're appropriately careful when working with hot wax, you can easily create one-of-a-kind candles for those centerpieces!

Floating candles are an ideal way to create a peaceful, romantic atmosphere at your reception. They are one of the simplest centerpieces to make, too. Simply choose an attractive receptacle -- a wide, shallow clear glass bowl works very well. Fill it with an inch or three of water, place the candles on the surface, and light them. Done!

There are many easy ways to add a little flare to this basic idea. You might choose to put some pretty river pebbles or glass beads on the bottom of the bowl, or float flower petals or metallic (inflammable) confetti on the surface of the water. Perhaps you could even add a few drops of food coloring to the water to create a glowing basin of color.

Choose candles that match your color and/or theme. Wax floats, so any candle that is wider at the top than the bottom will work.

Using fruit as your centerpiece is an easy way to add a dose of rustic chic to your table settings - in addition, arranging fruit in square glass vases will dress up even the most inexpensive flowers.

We recommend using fruit that will hold up well over time - citrus is a good bet (in fact you should check out this citrus-themed wedding at The Knot, it's just beautiful!) - but really, use your imagination and don't skimp on quantity. More is better!

Do it Yourself Weddings has some clever ideas for you - we like using limes because they're green and will camouflage the stems very nicely.

Tie it all with some raffia or pretty ribbon and - voila! You've got centerpieces!

Imagine yourself walking down this aisle for your winter wedding. Wouldn't you feel like you were taking a romantic walk through an ice-coated forest? The pale branches glitter with what looks like ice crystals, or even glass, but is in fact plastic -- it will last longer than ice, and cost a whole lot less than crystal!

Given that each branch is coated in the plastic ice crystals, you might fear this would be a very time-consuming and fiddly craft. In fact, assuming you don't paint the branches, each one probably takes no more than 10 minutes to assemble, and is done when the glue dries in an hour! If you wanted to paint the branches to match your color scheme, this would become a two-stage craft: first the painting and then drying, and then, likely the next day, the glue and crystals.

For more samples of plastic crystal crafts, and full instructions on this craft, check out Save-On Crafts.

Light creates mood. Brilliant daylight bouncing off crystal wine glasses raises the spirits. Candles create a romantic mood. Too little light is somber. The lighting you choose at your ceremony and your reception will do a lot to create the mood you want for your event, whether that be playful, reverent, romantic, or something else entirely.

Save-On Crafts has an interesting page of ideas. Whether you want the tall and feathery centerpieces shown above, or the more subtle immersible LED ice cube, or the funky glow necklaces, there's an arrangement that uses it. You can make them as shown, or use the ideas as a springboard for your own creativity. (And of course, SaveOn Crafts can provide all of the necessary bits and pieces to enable you to make them yourself!)

For more information and a wide range of other delightful centerpiece ideas, check out SaveOn Crafts.