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

Love the flash Shelley!! Looking good!xx

Just past the 12 month mark, productive week, booked cars,flowers and paid deposit for my dress, now just need a piper! Can't believe less than 12 months now eek.

All looks great!

We just booked an ice cream bicycle to serve guests after our big picnic - absolutely love it!

That sounds fab H&G!

@Shelly, looks good

@Laura, how did you get on on Monday?

@HG...YAY, love the ice cream bike. We wanted one, but it would not fit through the gate at our venue so we up-scaled and went for a van instead

Ooohh ... Love the ice cream van/cart ladies. We don't have room at our venue!

Thanks Jen, appreciate you asking went okay-ish. Plus point - I don't need brain surgery, or at least not yet. This is obviously good because it would be invasive, they'd take off a lot of my hair, long time to recover, lots of risks etc etc. They are going to try first gamma knife (radiosurgery) which is non invasive and if all goes well I will only be recovering for a few days. Problem is, it then involves 2-3 years of waiting to see if it's worked. If it hasn't back to the surgery route

Ideally the gamma knife will be done this year, which means by the time the wedding planning gets more demanding and eventually the wedding itself happens, I should be fully recovered from the procedure. If I do need surgery, it will be way after the wedding.

So good and bad! Still waiting now for appointments and so on, but at least I know there is nothing I can do for now and it shouldn't interfere with the wedding, which was my main concern. Didn't want to be wearing a wig on my wedding day if I could help it!

For now, back to wedding planning. Feeling so glad we have been planning so early, because I've been told to take it easy, so I'm glad nothing should be rushed. This week we booked coaches for hotel > reception and back, and tonight we are bringing home OH's parent's printer so we can get the save the dates ready to give out. Things are moving along

How's your planning coming along Jen? Not sure I've seen an update from you recently? (Super sorry if I've missed it!)

Hi changed my forum name, I'm now Steepdene, not SunnyRedStationery318.

Things are starting to come together. Going to see our chosen Reception venue on Saturday, it looks fantastic from the pictures on their website and both my fiance and I love it. The cost is within our budget so far, although we've still got to arrange entertainment and buffet. The venue has suppliers who they use so we hope to sort that out on Saturday. We have someone to make the cake, so we now have to decide on what we want.

@laura

Glad it went ok-ish, that's better than awful ? If you ever want to talk about it, or get anything off your chest, you know where we are

Well, it definatley paid to be organised then. We will need a sneaky flash of your save the dates ?

Don't worry, don't think you missed much. I haven't done much for a while. The last thing we booked as the hotel for the night before and night of the wedding and my OH said we can stay for 3 nights so that's good and im so looking forward to it. Booked hair and make-up, and just waiting for the phone call to say the bridesmaid dress is in. Im still waiting for mine to come in, it's been over a year and they have now said it'll be at the latest 3 months before the wedding.☹️. Im just being impatient I guess, there's still plenty of time. Think i'll have a mess about with the website over the weekend but that's about it.

Can you believe we are nearly at the year mark though?? it's crazy! ? Did you say you have much left to do, or you in the organised group? te he he?

Changed you now Steepdene

That's frustrating about your dress, any idea why it's taking so long? Like you say there is plenty of time but it's still nice to know it's sorted.

I know, it's insane! Time is going so fast.
We're pretty organised, I think! You reminded me, I started on a website (must have made about 3 now haha) which I'm pretty pleased with, needs some tweaks but looking good.
All the main stuff is done, bridesmaid dresses, suits and invitations are probably the next big jobs. BM dresses hoping to look in Jan sales but if not will just buy them anyway around that time. Invitations I'd ideally like to know they're designed this year for peace of mind, aiming to send them out around April with RSVP date late May, so we do have some extra time if we need it. OH has an idea of the suit he wants so just need to find time to go trying on.

It's odd cause on my To Do spreadsheet loads of it isn't done, but I don't feel like right now we can really do much. I'm sure that'll change soon though!

The way I word it at the moment is if we did nothing else but pay what we've already booked, there would be a wedding. A ceremony with a wedding dress, a meal and music afterwards, flowers and photos. Everything else is kind of extras.

That's how I'm feeling Laura, the main jobs are done, the rest is just the bits that make it fancy. Though we have nothing to wear yet we will actually get to the church, have a ceremony, get to the reception, eat, boogie, all with some flowers, someone taking photos and my make-up looking fab!!

Found a great cake makers /shop today, which is changing my mind about getting my friend's sister to do it - though she's professional (she made my son's christening cake and is about to make his 1st birthday cake), she now makes them from home and I just worry about insurance and if she gets sick etc.

Have set a date for my hen do - planning a spa, meal & karaoke booth in a nightclub. Just need to get it all booked - If only I had a chief bridesmaid (having my 2 nieces for BMs) - though I might see if my sister can help me.

Also spoken to the hotel today, as we fancy getting an ice-cream bike too - they are working out a charge for this (are other people being charged for non venue things?) I've booked a date to go and see them and plan out our day / check on decor etc.

In the middle of trying out table decorations - I'm quite crafty so want to do my own, just trying out different looks - but a massive box of polystrene balls arrived in the post, so I'm deffo going to have to use them - currently punching out paper and pinning to balls to make a flower pomander ball. Also buying up large jars and things for sweet table.

Finally feel like I"m getting somewhere with it all. Just need to keep focussed on my diet so Ive lost my baby weight before dress buying starts in Sept!

Hi there, I'm Katie. I get married on the 14th of May 2016. This is my first post on hitched so just thought I would introduce myself. :-) xx

Hi all,

I am slowly booking things, the other day I booked a light up sign and some table centrepieces. I paid via a bank transfer on the spot as it was a 50% off deal - but I have tried emailing and asking for a booking confirmation, and also tried calling but had no responses at all... Prior to paying they responded to emails almost immediately...

So now I am not sure what to do? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Danielle

Hi Happy Brown Diamonds, when did you make the bank transfer? Does anything else about the company ring alarm bells, i.e. have they got a good reputation/reviews? Are they local enough to you to pop round? This sort of thing would make me nervous if I suddenly stopped hearing from a supplier after paying. I would keep trying to call for another few days but if I didn't hear anything I would probably be contacting Citizens Advice to see if there was a way of getting my money back.

Hi Katie

Welcome and congratulations. Hope you enjoy your planning. There's a lot of lovely people on here who can give all sorts of help and advice etc.

Look forward to hearing all about your plans.

Shelly?

Afternoon ladies, just wanted to pop on for a quick save the date flash! Yesterday we printed, cut stuck magnets on, and put all the save the dates in their envelopes. Any that I know are definite hand deliver have been written on too - the rest I'm waiting in case I need space for full address.

Pleased they are now done, nothing that exciting but we did them all ourselves so feeling happy We used the heart design on our engagement stationery as well so it's nice to carry it on.

Just got to wait a month to start handing them out!

*Flash removed for now*

Laura, I love your save the dates. They definately do not look like you printed them at home. (I think we've used the same font that you have used for the "16th July" part that we have used on our invites)

Great job. ?

Laura, they look great!

Just thought I'd show you all a new photo of where we're marrying...

I cant wait!!

Thanks girls!

Jen, I think it's called always forever, does that sound familiar?

H&G that photo is gorgeous!!

27th August for me!!! ?

16/06/16 for us.

So excited! ❤️

Laura I Love your save the dates!! They look great

Hi Laurensmum!! You get married the week after me. Hope the wedding planning is going well so far. x

Those save the dates are lovely Laura - I should be sending mine out next week and I'm just so excited for people to know and to see our handy work!

We've just moved house and I'm feeling like I want to get on with things for the wedding... but at the same time, I'm worried that if I make any decisions now I'll change my mind! Dress shopping isn't until August so I want to do SOMETHING but I don't know what Any suggestions for things I should be getting on with?

@laura, yep its the same font ?

@HG incredible. Can't wait to see more of your venue.

@soraneko what have you got left to do?

How far in advance are you guys sending save the dates (if at all)?

Were getting married in the summer holidays and my mum has already booked her holiday to leave 3 days after the wedding. Was thinking around a year and just hoping that my mum is just eager!

Awww Laura, love the save the dates.

i plan to send mine in the next couple of weeks, so a year in advance

We sent ours a year in advance.

We aren't doing STD's - no matter how much i want to! OH doesn't see the point which i can kind of understand as everyone already knows the date

Laura I love your save the dates, they look really good.

hell and glory your venue looks absolutely stunning, the picture is beautiful.

We hit the 10 month mark tomorrow so we're starting to pay things off gradually so we don't have that scary lump sum just before the wedding. I'm just getting impatient waiting for my dress to arrive now, they told me between 4 & 20 weeks and it's been 9 so I'm hoping it will be here sooner rather than later as I can't wait to see it again. Only downside seems to be that one of my bridesmaids have lost all interest which is a little disappointing, but I do appreciate no one is going to be as excited about my wedding as I am.

Hope everything is going well for everyone else

Laura I love those save the dates, I'm currently looking for inspiration for ours. When are people generally sending them out?

Hell and Glory, that venue looks absolutely stunning, the photos will be amazing!

I've just come back from a hen weekend which was lovely and for the first night there was only four of us, one just married, one getting married next July, myself and the Hen, it was wedding chat overload! I loved it! I think our next job will be researching caterers and getting them booked!