Planning from afar - advice needed!

Hi Jumbly

I think you have covered all the essentials, really racking my brain and can't think of anything else you would need to organise face to face.

Maybe some of the married Hitchers can help more as I am still in the very early planning stages :o)

Hi Jumbly

FWIW we didn't do a food tasting (though we did have a meeting with the venue to chat over how the day would progress, really nothing that couldn't have been done over the phone as long as you've got a fairly good idea of the venue's layout (or a floorplan in front of you while you're on the phone!). If the venue is a hotel or whatever you could maybe send your mum/MOH or someone who's opinion you really value to go have a meal in the restaurant and report back what they thought - obviously it would be nice if you could do that yourself but if flights up are going to cost a fortune it could be one way to minimise the number of trips you need to make.

Similar story with meeting the registrar - you probably don't NEED to do this, although we did and I'm glad we did - it means we at least know what she looks like and don't each assume she's an aunty on the other's side on the day!

I'm not sure where abouts you are down south but we got cracking prices on advance tickets to/from Manchester airport for our honeymoon - £14.50 each, each way and by the time you cut out check ins, airport transfers etc it worked out about as fast as well. You have to be careful with when you book as they release a set number of cheap tickets about 12 weeks (I think) before the date of travel and when they're gone they're gone. If you book too far in advance before they're released you'll pay the expensive price and same if you leave it too late and they're all sold.

HTH

First of all relax and try not to stress. I know it's easier said than done but it sounds like you are pretty much on top of things. You don't want to ruin your planning experience by panicking. What is your wedding date? I gather you have your venues booked? There are a number of sites online that will provide you with relevant lists to check things off. You will find them under timelines. Have you a cake sorted? It may be better to source this in Scotland as you don't want to be travelling with it. Also when you are going to meet your suppliers before the wedding it's a good idea to have a time schedule for the day itself so that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. As a Wedding Planner I always think its better this way, to bring everyone together as one team. Also remember to take photographic ID, birth certificates and of course the RINGS etc. Will you being going on honeymoon directly from Scotland? Lists are the main things with organising any event, as you always know where you stand at any given moment and you know whats been done and what needs to be done. As I don't know all of your details, these are only a few general things.

Oh yes and last but not least, its a good idea to take an emergency kit. I would never be without mine and I have had to use it at some point at every wedding. If you would like a breakdown of the kind of things included let me know and I will forward it to you. Good luck and enjoy.?

Awesome stuff. Thank you all for your advice!

I completely forgot about the cake. I'll try and combine that with an Xmas visit (or send my mum, as she loves a good cake).

Venue is booked and we've decided to hold off the honeymoon until we've recovered from the wedding debt, so don't need to worry about packing for that as well (phew!)

Leagh, I'd be very interested in your emergency kit list. Are you able to share it on the forum (I'm sure loads of brides would find it useful). If not, how do I contact you directly? I'm being a muppet and haven't quite worked all of this technology out yet....

No problem at all. The list of items is quite long but in my line of work I need to be prepared for almost anything. If you send me an email to ****@************.**.** I will send you the list in reply. If anyone else would like the list just ask.

Have you looked at train prices Vs Flights. Obviously I know it'll take longer but always an option to look at!?

Hiya, I got married in Scotland back in September 2007 and we live in East Anglia so I know exactly where you are coming from! We planned for just short of two years and I think we had three trips up to sort out suppliers. There was a lot we just couldn't fit in but we found that if you make sure you choose very reputable suppliers and build up a good repport with them throughout the planning, you shouldn't have any major problems.

We didn't do any food tasting as our venue does not run as a hotel and every time we were up, they had other functions on so it was just not possible to fit that in. If we had of had family in the area we would have sent them though as I am sure a tasting was complimentary. We did meet with our minister but if we were having a registrar we wouldn't have bothered as you have to go in and see them to pick up your wedding licence a few days before you get married anyway. I also had trials with my hair and make up ladies but as they often worked together, they very kindly arranged it so that the hair stylist came to the makeup artists studio so I could have both done together.

About 6 months before our wedding we went and met with the venue to go through exactly what we wanted, we had the use of the whole venue for our wedding so we took photographs of every room in the house so that once we got back home we could allocate guest bedrooms, choose the room we wanted to have our sit down reception in, and where the casino and disco was going to go, where we would get married in the gardens if the weather was fine and where we would do it if it rained (I am pleased we had a plan B has it did rain) and we also discussed our menu options and schedule for on the day. You need to be really prepared when planning from a far and I had a huge folder as I knew we would not be going back again until the Friday before we got married. While we were at this meeting we arranged for our florist to meet up with us which was great as she saw the venue and suggested loads of things I never would have thought of, most of which saved us money!

I never met the cake lady (once again, if I had family near by I would have sent them for a sample) and we choose our string orchestra, piper and disco by listening to demo Cd's and MP3's. That worked fine.

I also never met our photographer or videographer before hand. I would have preferred to have been able to do this but the photographer we had chosen lived as far North from our venue as you can get, so we couldn't get to him and it was too far from him to come to us and our videographer was not available the weekend we were up. I was not overly worried as they are both excellent at what they do and both went out of their way to send me demo discs and got permission from several recently married couples for us to look at whole weddings. Both actually met up with us the day before the wedding so that we could have a chat and go over stuff so it was nice being able to put a name to the faces before hand. On the day they were both brilliant and I could not have chosen better if we had visited them in person!

Every thing else was sourced locally to me and my mum took it up in the car for us so we could fly as we went up three day before our wedding and had to be back in good time for our honeymoon flight. The one good thing was that EVERYTHING had to be done by the Wednesday before so we had no last minute panicking to do as other than meeting with the registrar and a few suppliers, we were all done and ready!

I hope my waffling has helped a bit. Where are you getting married as I am always happy to pass on the names of some of my suppliers if you are still looking.

Happy planning x

Jo - this is great stuff. Thank you so much! It's reassuring to know that other people haven't had a chance to meet suppliers/bands etc. Everyone else just gapes at me when I say that I'm going to have to choose my band based on MP3s!

I think I have sourced most suppliers already but it would be great to find out about your cake lady. We're getting married on Loch Lomond. Is that close to where you had yours at all?

kcole83 - thanks for the thought. Unfortunately, I can't take any more time off work beyond the wedding and honeymoon (no more days!), and to travel up on the Saturday and come back on the Sunday means I wouldn't have much time there. Plus trains are usually (and bizarrely) more expensive than flights ☹️ .

But it looks like I may have things in hand from the sounds of things - so thanks, ladies, for reassuring me - you're fab!

I'm getting married abroad, i have a wedding planner doing everything! I have to pick the cake and flowers 2 days before the wedding and tell her my colour scheme! Sorted!