June 2013 brides

Blushingbride, I think you're well on your way. I feel like I did too much too soon, because it left me with a year of doing very little!!

The only thing I haven't really looked into so far is the florist. I also keep waffling about decor and whether I need to do anything more. Ah well.

Woo hoo! Am a happy bunny ? bridesmaid dress has arrived today, just been tried on and it's perfect colour + really suits her ...another big tick against the to-do list!

What are folks doing about make up - are you going to be doing yourself or having professional to do? x

I was going to do it myself... but then I found someone lovely who I could afford, and I prefer the no hassle route. I'm using Lisa Bridal Beauty. I remember seeing the real wedding of the blonde with the birdcage veil in a magazine a while ago and I absolutely loved her make up, so when I found out Lisa was her make up artist, I booked her straight away!

I'm having a pro - I don't usually wear a lot of make-up so really do not have the know-how. Tbh, when you start looking into what it cost to buy good quality make-up and brushes, I'd end up spending the same or more doing it myself for makeup I would only wear one day and never use again. But that may just be me

Can see your point re cost of professional v doing self/buying make up etc ...not sure yet what I'll be doing -don't wear m/up day to day so not used to doing but then again not sure I want to spend loads on prof either!!! Hey ho a decision will be made at some point ?

xx

If you don't do make up day to day, I would definitely go with a pro. If you were to buy proper good quality make up to do yourself up, you would be spending EASILY £150. This would make sense if you normally use make up, though, because you would then use the product you bought over time and the money would well be worth it. If you're going to spend that amount of money on product you'll likely never or rarely use (and make up does go off after a few months, you know), you'd be better served using that money to have a pro do it, as they will be better skilled than you.

I rarely wear make up. And when I do it's just mascara and blush. And sometimes I use a tinted lip balm in place of my plain nivea lip balm. Because of this, it would be a waste for me to purchase all the toner, foundation, bronzer, powder, eye liner, shadows, lipstick, and not to mention the brushes for them all. It would just go to waste. Instead, I've booked a pro, which will come out to costing less than buying everything would have, and I'm planning to use that little bit extra in the beauty budget to get a few skin care products to use for the 3 or so months before the wedding.

Still trying to decide what to get, though. My skin isn't so bad, but quite dry. Though I have a few blackheads on my nose and chin. I'm hoping to get a ready good body product and a couple good face products - one definitely for eyes. You girls have any suggestions?

To give an example, this is the total of all products I had used on my face when I had a free bobbi brown bridal trial:

-hydrating face tonic £19

-extra repair SPF25 £58

-eye balm repair £38

-foundation stick £27 (this was actually quite nice, almost bought it, but realised I'd still never really use it!)

-corrector £17 (made a huge difference in the pinkness of my skintone and under the eyes)

-medium bronzer £26 (in place of blush)

-shimmerbrick £30 (I bought this, it's awesome - dust under the eyes, across the cheekbones, and the colours can double as eye shadows!)

-lipstick £18

-cream eye shadow £16

-gel eyeliner £16.50

-mascara £18

-concealer brush, blush brush, eyeliner brush £21, £35, £21

All in all: £360.50

WOW! As someone who never usually wears makeup that total price is shocking!

Oh my word!!! That is a lot of money but I can see your reasoning Venart, think I'd better get practising!

x

Hello June brides, just checking in with everyone! How's the planning going? Anything left to do? You're all so amazingly organised, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was no.

We gave notice last week, so we're all set legally (phew!), and the next big thing on our list is our food tasting on the 7th of March. Has anyone already had a tasting? Chosen the menu? Are you offering choices to your guests? We didn't have the option, so we have to choose one set meal for everyone (barring veggies of course). I hope it ends up being fine. I don't want to just end up choosing the chicken because it's likely to be least offensive.

Hope planning is treating you all well!

I am getting married on June 1st and we had our tasting last Saturday. We took 4 friends with us and I'm glad we did as we've ended up changing our original choice of starter and pudding from their comments! We were originally going for a starter of mozzarella, fig and rocket salad but I underestimated people's hatred for the fig so we're now looking at a substitute for that. We've also opted for a chocolate fondant for pudding instead of our original choice of champagne fruit terrine. Our main course of fillet beef went down well which was a relief as we're having it cooked pink. We're not offering people a choice so if they don't like it they'll have to fill up on bread!

We also had a wine tasting at home last weekend and I ended up with a two day hangover...grim.

Other than that we've also FINALLY written our invitations this week but we still have tonnes to do!

Ooh, enjoy your food tasting session...I know we did!

We're giving our guests a choice of 3 options for each course that they will need to choose before the big day, hoping everyone sends their choices when they rsvp to invites so we're not chasing them at last minute...that's the plan anyways ;-) x

Hi, Im getting married on 20th June

Got most things sorted exept the rings! Quite important but still not bought...

Invites went out this week so starting to get replies which is exiting

Mainly little details to sort now like BM accesories, presents etc. Although we are meeting with the co-ordinator to sort menu, order of day etc

Need to check when things have to be paid for! x

Yes, definitely double check when things need paying. We went through and put deadlines into our diaries, and were quite surprised to see the registrar needing paying a full 16 weeks ahead of the wedding! That's kent, but others could be early as well.

The thought of paying the venue thousands of £s in the next few months is making me feel slightly ill.

I'm really really antsy to get started on the last minute things, like table plan and place cards and centrepieces, and it's painful not to be able to. There's nothing for me to do right now!! Just focus on losing weight I guess..

RR, you're not the only one in that boat! My wedding is the day before yours and I've still not sent invites out ? As of this morning they're all written, sealed and stamped but I don't want to actually put them in the post until our venue confirms they've booked our 'definite' guests in to the rooms we've allocated them, cos when guests who've not sorted accommodation receive invites they may ring our venue to book and I don't want the hassle of double-bookings!

I sent the venue the list of guests/rooms yesterday, chased up the coordinator this morning and she said she'll email me back later. I know it's not been long and she has other work to do, but seriously, how long does it take to book a list of guests in to empty rooms (we've already checked this) and confirm it with us?! Haha, how much of a bridezilla do I sound like ?

I sent out my invitations on Monday and picked up my ring today ?

My bridesmaid dresses are my main cause for concern at the moment. We found a dress that everyone liked online and ordered one to see how it looks. All three bridesmaid liked it, but then decided they wanted straps (none of them mentioned this before I ordered the strapless dress!) and it was too long as they decided they want flat shoes. The lady who is doing my alterations said she will take their dresses up for £30 and add a halterneck strap from matching ribbon, if I can find some suitable. So I am happy with this, and can now order the other two dresses. Except that the other two bridesmaids still haven't told me what size they need. And the zip didn't work on the original dress, so I've sent it back and haven't received the replacement yet.

And we haven't even started on their shoes. And they haven't organised anything for my hen do yet, although they said they will sort it all, so I'm concerned that none of my friends will come as they won't have had time to budget and they will all say they have no money.

But we have a date in the diary for shoe shopping, and I'm hoping to get a hair trial in that weekend as well as this is the only other thing that isn't sorted. One bridesmaid's sister is a hairdresser and is supposed to be doing my hair, but she never replies to my messages and she doesn't answer the phone when I ring her, and she still hasn't told me how much she charges!

Now I feel like I've moaned a lot, so here are the good things: my alterations are booked in and I am really happy with the lady and the price. We were planning to make our own cake and only decided last month that we don't want the stress, but the cake lady my Mum recommended has put me completely at ease, has quoted us a really good price, and will transport and set the cake up at the venue. My Granny has started looking for her outfit, which is really good as she wasn't sure if she'd be up to attending the wedding or not (she is 90, and at Christmas she said she would try and live another 6 months so she could come!)

I'm 8th June & I haven't even made my invites yet! Got all the stuff this week, and hoping to start on them this weekend - it makes me feel so much better to see there are some other June brides who havent done it yet! Finally sorted a florist which is good, but not sorted transport or rings yet, so still got some stuff to do.

Ravioli and Kyanya, did you get your invitations out?

Aurora, have you sorted out the bridesmaid dresses?

Since I last checked in we've paid a lump sum to the venue, and we've also had our menu tasting. It was all so delicious!! And it looked so posh, the servers all wore white gloves and everything! And they served chocolates at the end with the different wives of Henry VIII on them (Hever Castle having the Anne Boleyn connection) ?

I've bought all my table decorations now, too (see my thread of tea cup flashes if you're interested).

It's all coming together, I want the next 99 days to fly by. Except that I wish I could lose more weight before the wedding. Is anyone else trying to lose weight? I'm really kicking myself for being so lax for the first year of being engaged. I dropped nearly a stone in that year, so I didn't gain weight or stay the same, but I could have accomplished so much more, and now I'm on weight watchers I've lost just 8 lbs since mid January (a little under 1 lb a week, but have only shifted maybe 1lb in the last 4 weeks frustratingly enough). *sigh*

Next dress appointment is on 2 April, and I'm super excited. The skirt will be hemmed, the bodice taken in slightly, and tulle purchased to pin over top of the skirt. And I believe the toile fitting for the lace bodice will be ready to try on and adjust!!

Hi all new to this I'm getting married June 29th this year done everything apart from the rings getting very excited now tho xx

Hi everyone, our wedding is 21 st June am about to print & make up the invitations, can I ask you all that have a similar date how long you have given for guests to RSVP?

We're getting married 22nd June and have given people until 15th May to reply, we sent them out about a month ago and got about half the replies so far.

I received my replacement bridesmaid dress today, it is all good! So I have ordered the other two, just need to find some matching ribbon now to make straps ?

You are my date twin!

That would make me date triplet lol I'm 29th too x

We're getting married the day after you, and we've got a couple different rounds of invitations. Our day invitations went out at the beginning of February with a deadline of 22 March, but that was just so we could bump up guests from the evening list when we send out additional day invitations and evening invitations on 22 March with a deadline of 22 April. It's pretty early, but more than half our guests are coming from overseas of quite a distance in the UK. In hindsight we probably didn't need to give that much time since we had given out save the dates, but I had guests asking about hotels and things at Christmas, so thought we should get the info out there with the invitations.

We're getting married on the 14th, and asked guests to RSVP by the 1st May. Haven't actually checked with the venue when they need final numbers, but I thought 1st May would give us a chance to chase people up if needed.

Invites are going out (slowly!!), and had two RSVPs back-I got so excited then!! Still need to get table decorations and some more decor for the hall, sort out favours (but can't do that until I have the final guest list), find a MUA, and get bridesmaid dresses!! Starting to worry about the dresses now, time is running out. We've ordered some, but the two girls who've tried them on, the dresses don't fit. I'm sure it will be fine in the end!!

Heeey! I'm 29th too!

Got almost everything sorted, need to get suit for groom, and the rings. Final fitting for dress still to be done, and I have yet to decide on veil. Going for the hairtrial next month, and having a meeting with the venue in a couple of weeks to discuss menu/seating and whatnot. We sent out invitations just after new year and have gotten all our RSVP's, but we are getting people from abroad, so thought it best to get done a little earlier that usual. It's just the little details that need to be done tbh, as all vendors are booked. Oh, and I bought flowergirl dresses from BHS in their sale, so hopefully they fit! xx

Definitely check with your venue for when you need final numbers. We have to pay our 'expected balance' by the 22nd of April, which is why we made that our reply deadline; however, our venue doesn't officially require final numbers until 3 days before the wedding. This means that if our numbers change between 22 April and 19 June and the number goes down, we will be some money back, or put that money towards the bar, but if the number goes up, we will have to pay a final balance after the wedding.

Because of this, we probably could have just guessed at a number for our April payment, but I thought it made for a good cut off date.

Thanks for your replies everyone

Ooh we're date twins!

Sent our invites out in Feb and given guests 2 months to reply, with RSVP date of 21 April

I'm 1st of June, my invites went out 1st feb with an RSVP date of 17th March. We have had quite a few who can't come as they have already booked holidays despite all receiving save the dates, so I would say get them out as early as possible. My RSVP date has been and gone and i am outstanding 3 invites all evening ones so not too bad.

I have most things organised now, meal tasting was a great success, we saw the rooms at the hotel which has made me really relax about how my guests will feel when they see their rooms. Just need to sort smaller details out now, like lil bridesmaid shoes, bridesmaid alterations, and my dress should be finished tomorrow!!!! Eeeek then I can go pick it up. Got activity bags for kids to organise and a few pressies, cake is underway not by FMIL and my mum is churning out order of services!!

Its lovely seeing the list get smaller, I have even done the rough draft of my table plan!

How are u guys doing with planning?

J x

Sounds like is all under control purple sparkes. I made a to do list of everything earlier today and was 2 sides long, was very detailed and included paying all the suppliers etc. but still is making me slightly nervous.

Made my first order of service last night. Got most of RSVPs back now too so going to start writing name places and stuff now to get as much done now as can as am expecting to be freaking out in May/June when have to do all the little things that can't do just yet as still too early.