May 2014 Brides :)

I'm having real issues focussing and making actual decision instead of flitting between ideas. All of done since the year mark is buy a pair of shoes that doesn't go with my dress! I've started to try to get a list of things to tick off. Started ring shopping last week and doing BM dresses this week. Going to try to get a start on the invites the following week! Just scared I'll change my mind if I make firm decisions (bar the venue and the dress, which are already done).

Crumbs!
Yeah, haven't got anywhere near *anything* organised yet, haha! Compared to you it's like I'm not even engaged, LOL!

Rings are one thing that is no bother at all for me, being a jeweller - I have 3 flower girls and 3 BMs to still dress and I also need to learn flower arranging so I can do my own flowers!

Man, you'll be all done and dusted in a month and I'll only just be starting in March, knowing me!

I think we're pretty much done! I have an appointment with the florist on Saturday, have the menu to finalise with the caterer and the suits to get booked. I still need to order the inserts for my invitations too but all decisions have been made apart from my hair and make-up. I'm currently making my favours and will start on the stationary next. I feel quite organised but I still have quite a lot of my DIY bits to finish which should keep me occupied through the colder months.

I worry about this too - I'm terrible for changing my mind :/

Arrghhh this has just totally freaked me out Icklefee! I'm feeling very behind schedule compared to a lot of people!

Alabastamasta, you're making me feel a little better!

LOL! Happy to help!

I tried my dress on again today so feeling super excited! I've done most big things (Venue, dress, florist, DJ, cake). Now we need to find out how many of our relatives from Australia are coming (could be lots) before we can think about how much space we'll have for everybody else.

All May brides... when will you ladies be sending out invites? we are not doing save the dates as most people who will be invited to the day (60 people) know when it is any way. we are getting married on the 17th May and was thinking of sending out invites mid jan early feb time to give everyone enough time to send RSVP back! Also when booking things did you haggle on the price of things much?!

Im 22nd of May. Was planning on sending my invites beginning of March. x

We're getting married on the 4th May. We're planning on sending our invites out next month. I know it's quite early but it means we can avoid Christmas post by asking for them back before Christmas but gives people enough time to respond and book hotels. It also means we have a good amount of time to chase any rsvp's after Christmas and sort out allocating rooms to guests at the venue.

I want to avoid leaving too much stuff til much nearer the time and then getting stressed about it. So far so good

Ladies! So nice to see my emails filling up with my fellow may brides!

Definitely feel like I'm getting my ooomph back, after months of doing nothing I have bought my bm dress, bought a proper ringbinder with different dividers for different things and am currently hunting my wedding ring!

I feel like xmas is coming and suddenly I will have five months to go... aghh!!

Wont be sending the invites out until I've bloody made them hahaha!!! (so april then!!)

And am happy to announce i have been on hitched every day this week.... yay goldpants is back x

I know I'm quite far ahead but if I didn't make decisions and get on with things before I had a chance to change my mind I'd still be choosing stuff after our first anniversary. From 1st October until Christmas I have birthdays galore, homework every night with 3 children so wanted all the big stuff out of the way before that. We have loads going on in the early part of the year with hen/stag weekends and various other commitments, I know how quickly the first few months of the year fly in. I don't handle stress well and if I leave too much until the last minute I'd end up in meltdown.

Um, I guess we will send out once we've a) sorted the guestlist and b) I've worked out what they will be! Have sent save the dates to the people that have to travel from overseas, or have a habit of booking a gazillion holidays!

I'm tempted to send before Christmas then remind people a bit closer to the time, but I haven't really got that far (no surprises there!)

And yes - we haggled on the venue - just got nearly £2k off!!
Dress I am getting made via a bridal factory, so that's at cost, rings are already at cost, centrepieces is my next job - mainly assembled from eBay and jumble sale finds
MUA and hair is chief BMs job as she's a professional (handy!
Flowers I'm doing
Wine I think we will do some sort of booze cruise for, food is through the venue

So I can only really haggle on tog, cars (not even fussed about them) and um, I don't know what else!

Yeah, you see I *should* be where you are as I know I'll be in meltdown come a few months time, but I just can't get me bum in gear!

I'm planning mid Jan for my invites

to be honest I'm feeling a bit tired of it all now. For the last 3 or 4 months it's just been wedding stuff constantly. Now I'm seeing the light at the end of it all I'm losing interest in it. Not sure if it's because I'm exhausted after a month in a new job, kids going back to school after the holidays and a nasty cold doing it or if I've just bored myself.....but still I keep looking at stuff!

Ah, probably all of the above! I think I've bored myself before I've even started :/ Maybe a little break is called for? I have to say, I'm slightly dreading how full on I know it's going to get, what with doing the dress/flowers/centrepieces/invites/venues/presents/jewellery myself.

Ah well, who needs to be SANE as they walk down the aisle?

Hello Hello Hello.

I've been meaning to write in here for a while but I to have reached a wedding planning slump.

A mixture of venue doubts, money worries and lots of other silly things have been playing on my mind.

We are still making little bits of progress though.

My jar and glass bottle collection is growing - I think i've got enough for one table now. My OH and mum still aren't quite convinced that they will look nice but i'm hoping once I have mocked a few up they will change their mind.

I now have a venue, photographer, dress & have sent the save the dates. Oh and we give notice in just over a week.

I really want to book a DJ and Hair and make up but I am waiting for the Milton Keynes wedding fair because i'd much rather meet the person I am booking. The fair is the 20th October, which still seems forever away.

We still don't have a colour scheme because I keep going back to dusky pink (my OH refuses any pink at the wedding!) So at the moment we are at Lilac but i'm not 100% convinced.

I think I feel like I am in wedding planning limbo.

For all us May 17th girls, happy 'just past 8 months to go' mark 241 days!

Hello everyone, I'm going to be a May bride too we get married on 17th May next year at my husband to be's local church followed by the reception at Alderley Edge Hotel. We only got engaged in July and confirmed our date a week ago so we have a lot of planning to do! I'm loving reading about how everyone else it getting on

We havent decided on a definite colour scheme yet, thinking of royal blue or olive? and i cant wait to start trying on dresses I'm going to the north west wedding fair at event city on Saturday so I'm hoping to get some ideas / contacts there

Look forward to continuing to get everyone's updates as we all get closer to the big day

I'm finally under the 8 months to go mark!! Eek!!! So damn excited!

Time does feel like it's starting to go a bit quicker now! Welcome - Gaynor - on the photographer front of I'd recommend getting someone in you don't know and letting your friend enjoy the day. Otherwise it will be hectic for them but also you might not feel like you can demand certain thongs from them as they're your friend and if shes doing it properly she won't be able to enjoy the day too much

A very tentative hi. Never done this before!!!

I'm a May bride. 17th May 2014. As for invites, I'm thinking end of Jan for the main (day) invites, then mid Feb for the evening invites. I figured get the Christmas rush over and have something to look forward to doing in the darkest months of the year and finally because it means we can get replies back in good time to give final numbers.

I'm a bit of an organising freak (as mu daughter calls me!) and I have everything sorted and I mean everything, have even made the wedding favours up and have them stored safely in a dark, cool cupboard (they are sweeties ?). Now that ive written it on here Im beginning to think Im a little strange!!

Thank you DreamCatchMe, that's what I was thinking about the photographer too. Lainey13, I'm very impressed with how organised you are! I have now ordered a dress, which I'm so excited about I ordered it at the wedding fair on Saturday, it was the very first dress I tried on and I absolutely loved it straight away. I tried on some other styles just to make sure, but the first one was just what i wanted and my mum and sister loved it tooIt's so hard not to tell everyone what it's like, but I want it to be a surprise for the big day! I have an appointment to look at cars next week and then it's bridesmaids dresses, still can't decide on a colour scheme yet though!

I'm very lucky as cars are taken care of. I do a little casual work for a funeral company so get my cars (black limos) as a gift and driven by lovely work coleagues. What more could a girl want ?

My colour scheme is red, was decided as soon as the ring was on my finger. BM dresses and shoes all sorted. OH goes to chose his suit on Sat. Like he has a choice lol.

We did have a photographer planned but have had to find another one. He comes round on Sat to chat. Saw his work at a wedding fayre last week and was impressed. It's a lot of money but as I have read on a site "a good photo lasts longer than a good marriage" think of all those old photos people have of their grandparents marriage! So we are going to pay the shocking amount of money and get our memories imortalised (hopefully!)

Welcome to all the newcomers!

Lainey, I have made all my favours up now too. So glad to get that job out of the way, it really was the most tedious part for me so far! I've finished making my flower girls's horseshoe, guest book, jars for the tables, guest book table decor... in fact all I have left to make are my invitations! I've also ordered my jars for my sweetie table and just paid my florist deposit which was the last thing to book. I think apart from ordering my tiara and the sweets I'm actually DONE! Quite exciting really because now I can start shopping for Christmas and saving for honeymoon clothes!

I'm showing these posts to my H2B He thinks I'm obsessed, I want him to see I'm not unusual I just like to be organised and I want my day to be stress free. On my daughters orders I have booked December to be a 'no wedding planing month' apparently Christmas is more important than my wedding plans not sure I agree lol. Icklefee As for making up the favours, I only had 23 to do and the hardest part was stopping my daughter and my H2B eating them - we having haribo hearts and loveheart sweets in little organza bags. My guest book will hopefully be a photo of us 2 taken before the big day with a large border which the guests will be able to sign like a guest book then the photographer will frame. I think it sounds wonderful. Table decor consists of 3 tall cylinder vases containing water, one rose each and a floating candle all on a large mirror. Sorted. The florist will bring the gerbera from the church pew ends and put in little vases for the evening tables. See said I was organised lol

We are not having a honeymoon until the following year as my then husband will celebrate his 40th birthday so we will combine them. But we couldnt wait that long to get married lol

It's my H2B's 40th in 2015 too! I couldn't wait that long for a holiday!

Oh dear, I'm still not much further along than a month ago, haha!

I've seen some togs, should be getting the dress designed over the next couple of weeks, ready to send to the factory (yay!)

No idea on invites yet, but starting to get venue dressing and theme ideas - I'm going ALL OUT with an Alice in Wonderland theme, so exciting!

BMs have now all met each other - at last! And will be wearing a dark charcoal grey, flower girls in dusky pink, both with a bright teal/turquoise accessories

Engagement ring nearly done! Wedding rings still need sorting. Not having favours, so that's one less job!

Oh, and we've finally booked a venue!

Still need to decide on:

- final dress design;

- cake design;

- flowers

and loads of other stuff, I'm sure!

We're getting married on May 24th. We're planning to send our day invites out early too, around end of October/early November. I have quite a large chunk of extended family on my Dad's side who I have to invite really but I never ever see them. My aunt and uncle are getting on a bit now and may possibly not come because of that in which case some of my cousins may not but I need to know because it means I could invite people from work who I'd really want there but can't quite afford at the moment. I hate that I have to divide the guests into day and evening but it is just a cost thing. The other thing is we're getting married on the bank holiday weekend so the hotels may get booked up quicker.

I haven't really thought when I'll be sending my invites yet. Maybe Jan/Feb time.

I have started looking at designs though and prices ? I am not very crafty at all but I think I'm going to have to make my own - although of course my plan is still to win my invites from paper themes :p

I went to The National Wedding Show on Sunday and everyone was saying 'ooo you don't have much time left now then!' It was getting me nervous.

I think i'll be happier once I have the DJ and hair and make up booked (venue, tog, cake, flowers and dress already sorted)

I have found some shoes in the sale at BHS but the heel is half an inch too tall for my dress.

What do you think if I get them, ask the dress shop if I can try them in with the dress (the sample is the same size I have ordered) and then send them back if they are too tall?

Wow lots of very organised brides, cant wait to read all your reports next year ?

Mrs B. We hd similar problems with my BM shoes. When we asked the shop owner if the dress came in different lengths she said no. Its long she said and can be taken up if needed.BM's shoes are 3" heel. Shop owner said 2" max. My BM is 5'9" and we had already bought her shoes. We went back and arranged a 'try on' again (actual dress gets ordered in November) Her shoes were perfect. So my advice is go back with your shoes and try dress and cross your fingers lol Your shoes are beautiful BTW.