Wedding Forum - Our wedding plans so far........Invitation...

I thought I would start a planning diary so that I can see everything coming together & to also see what still needs doing.

I will start with a little bit of background info, I met my H2B at work 12 years ago & fell head over heels straight away :)
We have a 10 year old son together & H2B has 2 children from a previous relationship (that live with us), one is almost 13 & the other is 16.
We have been engaged for forever (8 years) so about time we got this wedding under way!!

So we have set our wedding date for the 8th August 2015 & have booked the church for a 4pm ceremony. We decided straight away that we didn't want separate day/evening guests so decided on a later wedding, meaning we only need to provide 1 meal & can afford to invite everyone.
We have also booked our reception venue, we have exclusive use from fri-sun so plenty of time to set up & tidy up. Our venue has stunning grounds so I will be praying for good weather, so that we get lots of photos.

We have purchased our centrepieces, they cost £20.30 each which I thought was a bargain & sell very we'll second hand, so we can hopefully recoup some money from them.

I have made diy pocketfold invitations, I still need to make the inserts but I have plenty of time for that.

The little birds have mint & peach wings which are our wedding colours :)

So that's everything so far, we are going to a local wedding fair in early march. The cars that we love will be there so if we like them as much in the flesh as in the pictures then we will be booking them.


I have also emailed a few photographers & am awaiting their replies.

Our target that we hope to achieve by the end of March is to have the church paid in full (have enough for this but need to get payment details), book the transport, photographer & pay at least £300 off of our venue.

Great start to planning. Venue is stunning xx

Everything looks stunning wedding twin :)

I thought I was organised, love your invites :)

Your ring is quite similar to mine as well haha.

Your centre pieces are so cute, I love them :) I'm keeping fingers crossed for amazing wedding on that date too ;)

Your venue looks beautiful :) and I love your cars too! we havent picked cars yet but that is the kind of style I want to go for xx

Would you believe our venue is actually a school!! A private school with very high fees lol.
It didn't come up on g00gle when I was searching for venues, I came across it when looking at photographers. He had shot a wedding reception there & the pictures were stunning, I would love to book him as his pictures were so creative but his cheapest package is £1800!! So not going to happen.

I agree the cars are stunning & worth every penny, I wanted to book asap as the company has just won 2 awards (regional winner & national winner) at the 2014 wedding industry awards so I imagine there prices will rise. Can't believe that a few months ago when we were working out a budget, we put cars as least important & would spend as little as possible on them, until we saw these :)

It's all looking amazing. We spent less on the cars as neither of us are particularly into cars, and £400 for a ten-minute drive seemed excessive, but I love the ones you've gone for.

Wow you have done really well your venue is gaugouse and another wedding twin how exciting x

We have now paid our venue & cars in full, we've also booked our florist & have paid her in full.
We still need to make appointments with wedding photographers, keep putting it off but really want to book asap.
These are the flowers I've gone for

After months of searching we have finally found a photographer & have paid her in full, this has proved to be the hardest choice so far!!
I'm going to ring my local mori lee stockist tomorrow & hopefully book an appointment for next saturday, I'm absolutely dreading dress shopping.
Also had lots of hair & make up quotes, so far most have come in around £300 for myself, 2 adults & 2 child bridesmaids which is what I have budgeted for.

Updated booked/paid so far:
Church @ £744 (paid £40 deposit) will increase slightly when 2015 prices are released
Reception venue @ £1900 (paid in full)
Cars @ £730 plus £50 for evening collection (paid in full)
Photobooth @ £449 (paid £100)
Dj @ ?? haven't set price yet but will be mates rates (will pay on the night)
Centrepieces @ £270 (paid in full)
Food & cake, dad's paying
Invites & save the dates @ £70? (Paid in full)
Insurance @ £37 (paid in full)
Photographer @ £600 (paid in full)
Florist @ £299 (paid in full)
Chair & table covers @ £365.95 (paid £162)
Have enough to purchase our wedding rings too, just need to go to the shop & buy them.

Wow you are doing so well :) x

Thankyou, we'll I'm booked in for next Saturday to try on dresses, I'm so nervous!!

Because I feel huge at the moment, i've lost 2 stone but still have 2 to go. I really wanted to get down 1 more clothing size before I tried on dresses but the weight is coming off so slow & my bridesmaid keeps pestering me to try dresses.

Sounds fab what you've done so far. We are also having trouble finding a photographer that ticks all the boxes. I didn't think it would be this hard :/

Elinor is right about not ordering size down ! As the amount of TV shows I have watched and brides have not reached target weight and dress doesn't fit is crazy ! Remember you have done so good with the weight loss so far x

Well today we purchased our wedding rings so I thought I'd update my wedding diary, these are the rings we went for:


Booked so far:
Church @ £744 (paid £40 deposit) will increase slightly when 2015 prices are released
Reception venue @ £1900 (paid in full)
Cars @ £730 (paid in full) also paid an extra £50 to collect us in the evening
Photobooth @ £449 (paid £100)
Dj @ ?? haven't set price yet but will be mates rates (will pay on the night)
Centrepieces @ £270 (paid in full)
Food & cake, dad's paying
Invites & save the dates @ £70? (Paid in full)
Insurance @ £37 (paid in full)
Photographer @ £600 (paid in full)
Florist @ £299 (paid in full)
Chair & table covers @ £365.95 (paid in full)
Rings @ £630 (paid in full)

Still to do:

Suits
My dress, shoes, etc
Bridesmaids dresses & shoes
Hair & makeup
Sweet buffet (purchased jars already)
Hotel for wedding night
Honeymoon

Yay the to do list is getting smaller!!

My hen do will be getting booked this month, looks like were going on a Butlins adult weekend, we've been a few times & always had a really good time.

Wow-I love the lovebird biscuits <3 we looked at camper van biscuits but they were expensive.

Well.... hopefully the cheaper company will reply, if not it will probably still be a good thing that you didn't book with them, as they may have gone bust. Imagine if you'd paid a deposit and then they weren't replying.

Yeah, I have a few suppliers we booked last year we could do with checking up on... but I'm not sure when the right time to do it is... we still have over 6 months until the wedding so seems a bit soon to be saying we're checking over final details.

Love the BM dresses and the mens suits. Did you buy all of the suits?

The love bird biscuits are cute. We looked into having biscuits but was too expensive.

Loooove the BM dresses and the love bird biscuits, such a good idea! x

Everything is coming together nicely for you :)

Love all your new bits and bobs :) the colour of the bridesmaid dresses are gorrrgeous xx

Thank you, I've asked for a biscuit sample to be sent to me, I'll put a pic on here once it arrives.

I've also had a message to say the bridesmaid dresses will be with me in the next 6-11 days, one of my bridesmaids said to text her as soon as they arrive so she can try it on lol.

I'm going dress shopping tomorrow, hopefully I find something I love!!

Ooooh exciting about dress shopping! Have a fab time xx

Good luck dress shopping! Exciting! x

That dress is gorgeous and really suits you. That's lovely of your mum to offer to pay x