****2017 Brides****Currently 166 Brides and 1 Groom****

Aww thank you I was certainly quite proud of it!

Hello ladies first time of posting, we are getting married 12 may 2017, venue and registrar booked, appointment booked with photographer for begging of Feb, x

Welcome! Xx

So far I have booked the venue, provisionally booked the registrar, photographer, cake, makeup artist.

Looking at invitations at the min and they are quite expensive. Vistaprint are very reasonably priced but they don't have a space on for you to write the guests name? I'm not inviting children so I don't want any confusion when I'm sending them out! Is anyone else using them?

X

MrsKTB, have you tried looking at somewhere like LightintheBox? We got ours from there - about £40 for 50 invitations, including postage.

I met our florist yesterday. We got on really well and I'm excited to see what she comes up with. We're having centrepieces which are loosely styled around the Japanese Ikebana, but each one is going to be themed around a different anime, game, or movie. I'm getting the containers myself, and putting together little "moodboard" sheets for each one.

Here's some of our inspiration for the styles:

Great flowers. They'll look really striking on the day.

im struggling with florists as the ones in my area don't really have great websites or Facebook pages, so I can't really judge them well. We're having a meadow flower theme, and I want a big bright mixed up bouquet.

We've got a meeting with my first choice photographer/videographer on Tuesday but I don't know if I'm going to be able to convene DP it's worth the money. I love his work, and he's the only person I've contacted who has actually chased my business.

My florist doesn't have a really active FB or website. I found her completely by chance when we were in one of the local high streets. I saw some of the displays she had in the window and popped in for a chat. If you go into florists, you should find that they have a portfolio that they can show you, even if they don't have very much online. If you've got some very definite ideas about what you want, you can take pictures in and ask to see photos of similar things that they've done.

Hello all!

Long time no post for me- Christmas got in the way and I kind of lost my wedmin mojo! Good to see everyone else is still busy plotting and planning!

I went to a wedding fair at my venue today and have found my mojo again now.. nearly didn't go as I've been to one before but it was a wet and miserable day and it was something to do and I'm so glad I went ?

Found a fabulous lady who has a dress shop locally and is also a dressmaker who assures me that my 'dream dress' (read: covering all the wobbly bits, that doesn't make me look like mutton dressed as lamb or an old maid!) can actually be made for me within budget.

Met with my preferred cake maker who I think must have listened to my 'mad idea' last time I spoke to her, because there is was, in all it's glory- a beautiful 'classic' four tier cake with a 'surprise' on the back... minions everywhere! (Mr C is a big minions fan!)

Here's a flash... the flowers will be in lilac to match our colour theme and the lace will match whatever lace I end up with on my dress... oh, and the bottom tier minion bit won't have a minion being chased by a shark, it'll have a minion walking a model of our dog!! ?

I also met the 'house DJ', who I assumed would be very expensive and/or very irritating, and he was neither... a really nice man who obviously knows exactly what he's doing with the venue and I have no doubt can get even the most awkward party started... not that I think my wedding will be an 'awkward party' but you never know!!

It did me good to go to that fair today, I'm all excited again now!

Wow! That cake is amazing! :-)

Thank you! I think it is, but then I am biased! What's more, I've tasted the cake she makes and it tastes even better than it looks... and it's not stupidly expensive either ?

I loved our cake tasting! I finally decided on half chocolate and half vanilla. What have you gone for? X

I think we will have two 'false' cake layers to be replaced by a large fruit cutting cake and a large vanilla sponge cutting cake, then the third layer will be a fruit cake to take home and the top layer (if it can be done without contamination!) will be a gluten free cake as we have a couple of coeliacs amongst us!

I'm not sure why, but our cake lady doesn't like doing the whole cake 'real' when it's more than three layers- probably because it would just be too heavy to transport safely I suspect- our cake is going to be about 2ft tall!!

Love the cake and sounds delicious as well as gorgeous! X

Love the cake!

Exciting day today. More containers have arrived for our centrepieces - "ice cream cone" style glasses this time - and I've booked for us to give notice at the register office in May.

How exciting! We're not giving notice until later in the year, we come back off holiday in October and will have a day off work so we've said we might as well go then rather than take extra time off. My front runner cake lady emailed me with a list of cake flavours and fillings. There are so many options for fillings I just cannot choose. We're having a naked cake and I was just planning Victoria sponge with buttercream and raspberry jam but now she's made me rethink what I want completely!

Cake-wise, we've gone for:

Strawberry sponge with strawberry filling

Vanilla sponge with fresh cream filling

Black Chocolate sponge with chocolate filling

Hello 2017 brides! FI and I are getting married on 20th April 2017, and I'm so excited to be finally say 'next year' when people ask when we're getting married. Planning is beginning in earnest now. It's going to be an exciting 15 months!

Hi, I have done a holiday very similar to that itinerary and it was fab (quite a lot of driving...!) If you need any tips just let me know :-)

Hi everyone, First post for me!! I am Friday 22nd December 2017, the Friday before Christmas, Christmas day on the Monday so hoping for a Christmas theme!! Been spending a lot of time on Pinterest! Venue and registar booked.... xx

MadamRed, those cake flavours sound delicious! I have began to plan in ernest now that it is next year! Here is what I have done so far: Booked the venue Booked the registrar Caterers included DJ included Booked accommodation for the weekend for the bridal party and close family/friends Booked a lovely B&B half a mile up the road for other guests who want to stay and a big breakfast buffet the morning after the wedding so that everyone can have breakfast with us Booked the photographer Booked the photo booth Paid for wedding insurance I have received quotes for a videographer and meeting with one on Wednesday to make my final decision I have booked appointments with four florists over the next few weeks Appointment with the caterers booked for next Saturday to discuss ideas Appointment at a bridal boutique for wedding dress shopping booked for 30th April Hair and make up trial booked for 9th April (getting hair and make up done for my birthday night out) Spoke with a friend who is a professional cake maker last night about my cake. She has booked me in and will meet with her soon to discuss requirements. It's all just so exciting! X

Glad to see that we are at virtually the same stage as each other FutureMrsSmith, given that we are date twins haha! I have everything you have booked, except am still yet to decide on an MUA, and am also in the process of choosing a florist based on the meetings I had with some last weekend

Hi,

Sorry I've changed my username from BrideWirral92 to MrsJFC2be, please can it be updated? Thank you

Hope everyone planning is going well! x

Ahh that's good RomanticBrownFlowers. I would be worried if I was lagging behind!

How did your florist meetings go? I need to put my ideas together over the next few days so that I can get quotes. I have chosen to meet with two who are recommended by our venue (one I prefer more than the other but the other one is the company that we HAVE to use if we want any form of chair covers so I figured I may as well get a quote from them for the flowers too). Another florist who did my nail lady's wedding and comes recommended and another I saw at a wedding fair who I liked. I'm a bit nervous about the quotes though. If it is any less than 2K then I shall be pleasantly surprised! X

I've pretty much stalled! I just don't know where to start next. So far I have sorted:

Venue

church

3 x bridesmaid dresses (still need MOH and 3 flower girls)

Photographer

DJ

Catering booked but not chosen menu yet

Save the dates have been sent

Table numbers & glitter have arrived but need to have a DIY day for those

Cake is booked (my mum is making it) but design & flavours not chosen

There is still so much to do and I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all. I still don't know what I'm doing for transport as I really begrudge paying hundreds of pounds for vintage cars that just aren't my thing. I haven't booked to try on any dresses yet as I want to lose a few more lbs first. My mother in law is being a complete cow about the fact that I haven't chosen FI's sisters to be BM's and my MOH is currently trying for baby #2 so I can't buy her dress until much later down the line depending on whether she's pregnant or not which throws out my timing on flower girls too because MOH will have a different dress to the BM's so the FG's need to bring them altogether! I'm also debating what to do with decorating the venue. As its a marquee I really wanted lots of fairy lights but the one event hire company I spoke to wanted to charge £400 for 4 strings of lights!! Gah!

What flowers are you thinking of? £2k sounds like a very generous budget.

Peonies, roses, hydrangeas and gypsophilia. We will have my bouquet, four bridesmaids, six button holes, a top table arrangement, ten table centrepieces and then decoration of the outside ceremony area. Everyone that I know has spent around 1.5K on flowers so I figured that this was around average

Wow that is a lot of flowers! I can't really compare our flower prices as I am the complete other end of the scale! Mine will be about £500 for my bouquet, 2 BMs, wrist corsage, 5 buttonholes, and a few hundred flowers which I am arranging myself into jam jars - cheap option haha!

The meetings were OK. We met 3 and by the end of the third I was DONE! I'm not really that into flowers (as you may have guessed by my budget) and I can sense when H2B is bored without even looking at him, which he was the whole day! One was great, sat us down, offered us a coffee and were full of ideas and inspirations which was great as someone who knows nothing about flowers and fairly unfussy. The 2nd one didnt offer us a seat, so we spent the whole hour appointment standing at the till in the shop, but her ideas were good and she had good albums etc. The third rambled a lot and spoke to me in a bit of a patronising way so discounted her straight away. since the appointments, the second and third gave me quotes within 2 days, the 3rd has been in contact but not actually got a specific quote yet which is annoying, though I am confident they will do the best job and gave me most confidence that they "get" my vision for the flowers.

So we are going with the first one, just got to refine the details a bit to ensure if comes in at budget. H2B says he doesn't care if it doesn't as he would rather increase the budget by £100 then meet with another florist and go through it all again! I tend to agree with him!

April 29, 2017!!!

That's the day before meeee

Flowers are next on my list. We get the top table with the venue cost and we're not having any pew ends/centre pieces so I've not made a huge budget. I want seasonal meadow flowers so hopefully that will keep the costs down.

I'm in photographer/videographer hell as we have two we both really like and are similar in price. It'll be the second biggest expense (after venue) so I really don't want to mess it up, but I know I need to decide really quickly so I don't lose either of them.

Flowers are next on our list too. We sorted the photographer (who isn't cheap but we love her) so we need to look at a videographer. We'll probably scout the Wedding fayres for ideas there.

Florist is next on our list after that - no idea where to start really! We don't have a big flower budget either as we just need bouquets and buttonholes. Not doing pew ends (no pews!) or floral centrepieces.

Snap!