****2016 Brides**** 326 brides (and 3 grooms!) so far!

Hi fab to see so many other 2016 brides! We're 6th October and it cant come quick enough for me!xxx

I have started designing our invites... Which is going to take over my life. I suppose that is Ok as I have nothing else wedding related to do at the moment.

Im going for one piece of cardstock, double sided, designed completely digitally. No ribbons/bows/crystals etc. Its just the software on my laptop isnt as great as my old one, I might have to bite the bullet and fork out a bit for it... Meh!!

GOOD LUCK! I tried to make some last week as a tester - I made two and OH made one but they looked a bit 'too' handmade and it took ages for each one. I am now looking at making them digitally as well but will get them printed/cut professionally. It would work out roughly half the price to how much they would be to get them all done for us so it is worth it in the end.

I found a template to download which may really help you get started. I think its in indesign.

Is there space for another 10th September?

Now I've broken the 2 years to go mark I feel I'm allowed to start seriously planning stuff lol. Had the venue booked since Feb last year! Still waiting for the fella to make it official though and put a ring on my finger. He's got to do it 'his' way apparently, bless him

Cheers Stephanie104! Just had a quick look at indesign and Wowza it is not cheap! Will give the free trial a go for sure though!!

Welcome! ? There are quite a few on your date now!

I remember your venue from when you booked it, it's amazing!! Looking forward to seeing your planning come together in that place

Thanks Laurafish . Was looking back at the pictures we took when we visited it last night, and tried to picture how it would look. Still have no idea lol. Don't want a theme, but want to bring the outside in somehow. Having a blank canvas is good in one way, but I need something to start the imagination going lol. Maybe going again when there are leaves on the trees will help as it looked a bit bare in Feb x

Kizzi10000 - I can just picture ivy.... I don't know what your venue is like, but ivy curling round any beams/poles etc would look pretty cool

There will definitely be ivy . Fern and fir too maybe. OH is talking about turning it into a woodland grotto, but I think that's a bit ambitious lol. It's a treehouse - a wooden classroom on legs so it's in the trees, used mainly by schools to learn about the countryside, with activities in the woods and pond dipping. We've even got a fairytale tower . Trouble is, it's very classroomy, so that needs covering up, somehow. Lots to work on, but gathering ideas from here and other places

Kizzi10000 - ARGH! That. Is. Awesome!!

I suppose you could drape and pin fabric on the walls (I assume they are wooden lol) to cover any notices/general classroom displays. The fabric will make it feel more 'den-like'. I suppose as you are in a tree, with the windows open, you probably won't need to bring so much outside in, just a bit here and there. Would you be allowed candles? Candles and forest go very romantically together Having various candles at various heights in the tree house would look cool

I agree, that sounds fab!, have you flashed any photos of it before? We may be able to help better if you do.....plus we are a nosey bunch, te he he ?

THIS! THIS! THIS!

Hahahaha

I'm not kizzi, but her venue is here:

https://www.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/t/366780.aspx

Love it!

Oh sorry I have it through work so wasn't sure how expensive it was. Get everything planned in word then hopefully just copy and paste over to indesign in the free trial! Let me know if you need any help with it. I am not a wiz but might be able to help.

Nom Nom that is lovely

I wanna get married in a treeeeee!!

That's is effing amazing! Love it, I'm sure we'll happily help you research ideas

Cheers Stephanie104!

Soooo I have gone over the budget again (I have made a TOG payment today - woohoo), AND it is looking peachy According to my sums and how much I am currently putting away each month, I will end up with about £2500 change! IF we manage to make some money back from the cottages we had to rent out to get our venue then our wedding cost will jump down by about £1400. I just hope we can make some money back off of them, as 90% of our guests are from our hometown 5 mins away Seems a bit pointless for them to fork out for somewhere to stay. However, if I put away just £75 less per month, we will just about afford this by the skin of our teeth.

Currently the dress/shoes/undies will go on a credit card, and the rings on finance. But that is a debt we can handle.

I feel a little uneasy, in case we get an unexpected expense and I cannot put away my normal amount of money per month for the big day! And it sucks not knowing if I am going to make any money off of these cottages or not. I fear they will remain empty...

But yeah, on the plus side, we won't start married life in horrendous debt that we will have to pay off over the next 10 years!

HeavyMetalMaiden have you asked anyone if they are interested in staying? How many cottages have you got to fill?

You might be surprised by who will stay because i know that in some of our family weddings loads of people have stayed over either because they know they will be there til the end of the night and its sooo much easier to just go up to a room/cottage and also to experience the whole venue. If i was invited to a wedding in a nice hotel for example i would want to stay to enjoy the hotel and be able to have my things in a room close by xxx

We have asked some people. my mum, stepdad and nan will stay (only option they will fit in is in a cottage for 8). My Dad didn't really give us an answer, but to be honest I doubt he will be able to afford it.

We were counting on a group from London, but they were only on the guest list due to MIL insisting. Now she has calmed down and we were thinking of not inviting them due to me never meeting them and OH having not seen them in at least a decade!! We have had to shrink the guest list and they were the first to go.

Basically it there are 2 cottages that sleep 8, and 2 cottages that sleep 2. OH & I will have one of the 2 people ones.

It works out as £80 per person for 3 nights. I guess as a back up plan I would have to offer a bed to drunk mates for £20 a pop. Or charge £40 per person if they want to stay 2 nights so it is more affordable.

Meh. I am just including it into my budget, and not expecting anyone to stay, so if anyone does that would be a bonus

If we were to not charge for them, they would fill easily!!

Thanks everyone, and thanks Laurafish for posting the link . Was looking on Fabricland the other night and making a shopping list - chiffon draping at the windows in the ceremony area, and bunting around the fences (if I can convince the fella), and have looked into those LED tealights, though not sure how to hang them yet. Getting a chap to put coloured lights in the trees too, so might see if he can do a 'star' ceiling in the main room.

Ooh, after losing heart for a while and feeling the whole thing should just be cancelled and taken out of the equation cos OH and I had a big row about his reluctance to pop the question, you lot have made me want to get on with things again. I can't really chat about it with anyone else yet, as though they won't be surprised, only a select couple of people know, and it's been hard keeping everything under wraps. So it's nice to be able to chat on here

Photographer booked

So this is what is done so far:
Venue (service and reception)
My dress
Overnight rooms
Flowers
Centrepieces
Chair covers
Whiskey for OH morning of present (Special edition and hard to get - took me 4 months to find so it now sits in my drawer at work)
DJ
Dancefloor
Photographer

Next Saturday we are seeing someone about the cake! So excited for samples!!!
Tried to make invites, blah! Will get the printed and cut, then we just have to put them into the pockets. At least we know the design we want.
Bridesmaid dresses - changed the colour to silver from purple! Am thinking silver will be easier to get hold of at an affordable price (new years dresses)

Has anyone started thinking about veils yet? I know I want a long plain one but not sure how long.

Hi

I am new to this site but I saw this forum and thought I'd post to say I am a 2016 bride also. I got engaged on 26 July this year and the date is set for 6 February 2016 - very excited but so much to organise and so much money to save!!

To all my fellow 2016 brides

In about 94 days we can all say "We're getting married next year"! Can't wait to say that. YAY !!! ?

Wow! That gave me goosebumps lol. Hard to comprehend, and knowing how fast this year has gone so far it will fly by lol

Oddly enough, me and the OH were talking about that this morning, and that we've nearly been engaged for a year, it does not seem that long at all.

Love this!!! But we are getting married in December 2016 so still over 2 years away :-( xxxx

28th May 2016 for me! What a great idea!

Welcome to SunnyBlueStationery190 and Sparty - Sparty you are a triplet ? ?

Stephanie104 - You are so organised! Veil wise, all I know so far is that I definitely do want one, and I want it to be fairly long. Aside from that, I have no idea what I'd like! My dress has some lace edging on the train so I don't know whether it'd be nice to match that with the veil, or whether it'd be too much?

Eeeek, that made me feel all funny! I absolutely cannot wait to say that I think at the moment I'm holding off on doing some things until I can say "it's next year", sooo looking forward to it!

I love it!! The more organised I am, the more time I have to save the money we need, I think we will come in £1000 over budget.

I have the same type of dress - maybe a long plain veil and let the dress really stand out

Hello ladies

Hope your planning is going well! I actually went to try on some dresses yesterday. Some of you might think I'm mad as we haven't officially booked a venue yet but my local bridal shop had a 50% off sample sale, so I thought why not! The ladies were so lovely and helped me try on a few different styles to see what suited my figure. I didn't find the 'one' but I am going back again in December when their new collection arrives- excited!

Happy planning x

I think we are shooting for a 2016 wedding also Although need to book somewhere so fingers crossed there is somewhere available!

I'm getting married on the 2nd April 2016 - venue is booked and registrars. We've got bridesmaid dresses shoes cake ordered, buying the suits on Saturday. Still got a lot to do but I want to get it all sorted so I can enjoy the run up instead of stressing about it.