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

Hello my fellow 2016 brides ... an update on our progress so far:-

Our ceremony and reception venue is booked. I already have my dress, shoes, jewellery and tiara. Our invitations are printed and I have all the decorations for our reception. And now OH has his suit and cravat. All exciting stuff.

Am also loving reading about all my fellow brides plans. It seems a long way off but it will be here soon enough ladies x

Hello ladies,

I'm glad we're not the only ones getting married so far in advance. We've just provisionally booked our wedding for the 15th July 2016, which feels like miles away but has to be because of my work situation and lack of savings. I'm resisting the urge to plan everything now or I'll run out of stuff to do over the next 2 years.

Looking forward to hearing how everyone else is getting on xx

Hi everyone I feel a bit of a wally as my OH hasn't even officially proposed yet but he says he is just waiting until he can do it properly as we are going through an unexpected financial bump in the road.

We are dream-planning for 23rd March (hopefully it will be late enough into spring to bring out the cherry blossoms ) and have already spoken to a photographer and a priest, as well as looking at potential venues on here.

Anyone have any great advice for me?

How exciting xxx

Ladies, need your thoughts.

As our venue doesn't have a lisence and to keep costs down we had always planned to have the 15 minute legal but in the morning just with bridal party at the registry office then our 'wedding' in the afternoon at our venue.

However the local council have just changed their rules so that they no longer offer the 15 min ceremony (£45) on Fridays, it's now the full price £180 30 minute one or nothing!! Not impressed

Spoken to main people in bridal party and a few have said Friday is def easier for them but to do what we want.

Our date is in school holidays but if we moved it to a Thursday would that be a real issue? Do you think guests would find it more awkward?

I mean not many people actually work Mon - Fri these days anyway do they?

My fear is people will leave at like 9pm stating they have work the following day.

Happy Monday ladies! Just catching up with all your posts from the weekend (I don't tend to log on over the weekends) and am happy to see so many of you getting organised

I've updated the list so all should be correct there now.

snow bride - If it was me and I was invited to a Thursday wedding (I was last year), I would take off both days, not just the day of the wedding. I think if you give people enough notice so they haven't used up all their holiday or anything, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I can see how Friday is easier but it still involves booking time off work for most people so I wouldn't say there's too much in it really.

Morning all, and welcome all new 2016 brides ?.

Snowbride - I agree, if you give people enough notice it'll be fine.

Well, we went to see our venue with the marquee up at the weekend to get an idea of what it will look like and it looks fab, but, we asked my FMIL if she would like to come with us which she said she would love too and then went and invited the rest of the family, without asking us if it was ok!! only my OH's sister came in addition but we were not happy and couldn't exaclty make a scene. She was putting all kinds on facebook about it and also had a pop about not being a bridesmaid ?. I said to my OH, are you going to have a word with your mum about what happened and he said no and in future we will not tell anyone and then everyone can be upset together that they weren't involved. Also to add to the "upset" of the day it doesn't look like the ice-cream cart we wanted to have will fit through the side gate for acess ? now trying to find a plan b for the ice-cream.

Apart from the mini "drama" of the day, it was lovely to see what the marquee was like and it gave us a better idea of how we could decorate it and things like that, it's all exciting.

Did anyone else do any wedding realted stuff over the weekend?

Also, has anyone passed the less than 2 year mark yet?

Hi everyone!

I'm a 2016 bride too - July 2nd.

All the initial planning is so much fun. I have the venue and the cake sorted so far. My moms work colleague is a fabulous baker and cake decorator so she will be making our cake.

My OH is now trying to convince me to leave it another year :/ He is worried that planning the wedding will majorly impede my work and won't even consider just having it in the autumn instead. Men... difficult creatures

I agree with you on that one ?. Why does he think it will impede your work? admitedly I am in work now (on my lunch hour ?) and I still manage to do my job as I always have done.

I get carried away *blushes* As soon as he said he wanted to get married I started planning furiously. I get very carried away. But still! It is important!

Nothing wrong with wanting to plan things. The good thing baout planning for 2016 is there is enough time to spread it all out. We are doing the last big 2 things next week, food and photographer then we are on a wedding ban for the month of June. If we talk about it we have to put £1 in a jar te he he. It'll be nice to be able to enjoy being just engaged and not talk about it if that makes sense. I'm sure well have a month off here and there. Anyways he should be chuffed you are "getting carried away" as you are just excited to become his Mrs ? te he he

Dress Flash *** !

I have had my dress since January and wasn't looking for one this early but I "found the one" and had to have it!

It may be boring to some but I am so excited and just had to share with my fellow 2016 brides.

YAY, lovely dress, I don't even think you need to add anything to it (I mean like a belt) ?. You're not the only one who has got their dress already. I got mine in January too. Im just waiting for it to come in to the shop.

Anyone else got their dress yet?

That's a beauty! Not at all boring ?

Love your dress Shelley70, I can't wait to start trying some on!

I want to look at dresses!!! But at 6 1/2 months pregnant no real point

Also worried how tiny my budget is

I was worried about cost too but I went to a local bridal shop during the sale and got it for less than half price. I'm sure you will find something to suit your budget x

Thanks MrsSands2be. I was nervous about my dress as I know it's not the most fashionable style But I felt it suited my body shape better than a strapless dress!

Thanks MrsSands2be. I was nervous about my dress as I know it's not the most fashionable style But I felt it suited my body shape better than a strapless dress!

That's a beautiful dress Shelly. I have decided I'm too busy for dress shopping/anything else wedding related for a while. May start looking properly again at the 18month mark or thereabouts. Still keep checking this thread for a date twin though!

Hi! Can you add me to the 29th of May? Super excited...wish it was closer!! xxx

Eeek, another 'question'!

Was chatting to a friend yesterday about the Thursday wedding dilema and got talking weddings. I completely forgot her OH was a wedding photographer and to be fair I've not really looked at his stuff. So I had a quick scroll through his facebook page and actually liked what I saw!

Mentioned to her I really liked his stuff (he's quite new to it so doesn't have a huge portfolio yet, but this year is packed with weddings) and she said she'd ask him to put a quote together for me.

Well I'm shocked to be honest! We're having a budget wedding but I wanted a good photographer, but didn't think we'd be able to afford much. However they've quoted us:

Ceremony, Formal Shots and Cake Cutting - £250

Ceremony, Formal Shots, Cake Cutting, Speeches, First Dance, Evening Reception and Photo Booth - £325

Getting Ready, Ceremony, Formal Shots, Cake Cutting, Speeches, First Dance, Evening Reception and Photo Booth - £375

We'd never even thought about a photo booth as we just assumed we could never afford one! Above prices also include a visit to our venue to discuss photo locations / options.

I know we'll need to sit down and go through his photo's a bit more (he said he's happy to show me entire wedding collections on his ipad as his facebook page obv just has a few from each wedding) but should I be biting his hand off?

I'll be honest we weren't going to look at doing ANYTHING until next year! As we agreed to concentrate on bump for now. But would I be silly not to do this?

Well, what's the harm in having a quick look and paying a deposit to secure youre dated if you have found what you like in a photogrpaher then you can worry about paying the balance off next year and then you can sort out a bit more of the type of phots you want if you know what i mean.

One thing of advice though, (i've heard a lot of TOG's mention this on other threads) If you are only getting digital photos off him then looking at them online is fine, but if you want to get an albumn make sure he shows you some printed examples too.

Hi and welcome ?

*Sigh*

Alrighty - date has now changed to 22nd August. Many small reasons but this seems to be settled on now

Have updated you now should be nice weather for you!

I haven't even started thinking about dresses yet. I'm not sure what the budget is going to be for it yet and I want to try and drop a couple of dress sizes first. How far in advance are the rest of you ladies doing it?

I've most definitely started *thinking* about dresses, but in all seriousness I'm probably going to put off looking for a little while. Budget-wise, at this point I have no idea how much anything should cost so I'm more thinking of trying some on and getting an idea of how much they cost. And if they are far too much, I can go bargain hunting with a much better idea of what I want.

I'm also trying to slim down in time for the wedding as I've gained ludicrous amounts and need to drop some first.

Think I'm going to go and get an idea with trying on styles I like to see what suits me? I want to drop weight as well....but so want to try a few on haha!! Xx

With dresses, I've tried on a few but am not really looking seriously. I'm glad I've started looking early though as it turns out I'm pretty hard to please! I'll probably get more serious next year, I think. That gives me about 18 months which should be plenty. I definitely don't think there's any harm in looking at styles now though, to get an idea of what you like