October 2015 brides....

I love it MrsWatkinsToBe! Fellow geek here

SaraPoppy - I was shocked by the prices. I have only had the cards printed for the 1st wave of invites. I am expecting that most of my family from abroad will not be able to make it so I didn't see any need for the extra inserts. At the bottom of the card they have all the RSVP details of home phone, mobiles and emails to confirm whether they are coming or not.

I am not sure whether we will do the same for the UK invites. I am thinking of adding an insert for details of accommodation at venue and nearby, that kids can't be accommodated due to limited spaces and other useful details. I will not do RSVP cards as I have just watched Fiancée's cousin go through the trouble of chasing for the replies and getting very stressed if people did not send it back. I am happy with a text confirming that they will come or not.

We got our invitations from Vistaprint. They seem to have ok prices and after the 1st order they seem to bombard you with more discount emails for repeat orders. This is where I got the idea from for two separate invitation orders so that I could get the 2nd order at a reduced price.

As for the wording, we went with 'Emily Smith and John Adams, together with their parents request the pleasure of ................. 'Etc

I read up on the whole parent thing and it was traditionally the brides parents that were the hosts. However, hosting should not be confused with paying for the wedding as I learnt that some people assumed that is why the parents are named in the invitation. For our wedding, we believe that it has been a joint effort to get it all together and both our parents are going to welcome the guests with us. I know for a fact that mum is looking forward to being the perfect MOB! She can't wait.

Gosh you ladies are putting me to shame with all your organisation!

For the wedding invites I think we will probably send ours out in April as my brother is getting married on 2nd April and I think it would be nice to wait until his wedding is over and done with before inviting some of the same family etc to my wedding.

I'm making invitations like the below but with orange wrapping paper:

Have folded about a third of the invites but not yet printed off the information to go inside or bought the envelopes. We'll probably go with similar wording to here, i.e. me and he invite you to their wedding.

As far as other planning is going I'm currently wrapped up in deciding and soon to be booking (hopefully) the honeymoon. We're going to go to Iceland in the hope of seeing the Northern Lights because that would be so romantic and something totally different to the holidays we've been on before.

I'm also too busy worrying that my 2 year old soon to be step daughter will talk through the ceremony/ cry/ have a tantrum so at this stage I'm more worrying that the focus of the ceremony will be about her rather than me and my OH getting married so it feels a bit difficult to get all excited and carry on planning things. ?

Hi Ladies,

Hope you are all well ?

AlmostMrsS – your dress and bridesmaid dresses are beautiful.

MrsWatkinsToBe - Yey for paying the deposit and the hotel rooms or your family J

AnnaMolly & Sarapoppy– I’m the same without invites, I’m trying to work out final numbers to think about how many extra I should buy in case people say no. (Which is my biggest worry). Invites are becoming the hardest section of the thing. I know I have until May to create them and send out but I still need to create the wording, select the meal choice and work out a list of hotels and wording for gifts on top of the wording for the main invite for evening and day people!

Who knew these would be the hardest section. Sarapoppy, I think I would find that adorable if someone sent me and inivte with their child requested our attendance.

Happyorangeconfetti – Those invites are amazing! You should flash when you have created your own!! ?

Everyone got some lovely plans for the weekend?

Lui... I'm glad someone likes the idea of the invites coming from our son :-) We thought it would be really cute but we still want to make them as formal as we can. I'm actually quite excited about the invites today. We have decided to make our own. I've found a really simple design on YouTube that look so easy to do and fit our theme perfectly. My fiancé is out on a work do tonight so once the baby is in bed I am going to work on the wording. We aren't planning on sending then out til April but I am starting a new job as cabin crew in 3 weeks so I will be away training til then end of march, although I'll have a couple of days off during the week. This combined with trying to sort out our new home and looking after our soon means time will go really quickly! I want them sorted before I start work so I'm being a bit pushy! Poor fiancé!

Hi all,

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

I went to our venue yesterday and sorted out the room allocations for family and friends - booked rooms in the following priority order - wedding party, family, friends travelling more than 2hrs. This meant that all rooms except one were reserved. Since of those booked I had the majority of guests I let my fiancé decide on the last one and he chose a close friend of his and wife. I messaged a local friend (lives within an hour of the venue) today and told her that at present there are no rooms at the venue but as some family are coming from abroad this might change and I'd put her top of the list of people for a room if one came up. She was very stroppy about it suggesting that we thought my fiancé's friends are more important than her. I came up with a solution that the hotel has got the room I'm staying in the night before but it wasn't available to check in to until the afternoon of the wedding as I would be getting ready in there. Plus as it was a 4 poster room it was a bit more expensive. So I asked her if she'd like me to reserve it for her with the option to swap to a cheaper room if one became available. Got a short response of 'No it's Ok' followed about 20mins later my a message saying she'd discussed it with her other half and as they are going on holiday the week after they won't be able to come to the wedding. Since she'd said previously she could and had arranged for her mum to have her kids I think she is just trying to spite us (by cutting off her own nose to spite her face) it seems. I am a mixture of saddened (as she is a friend from school days) and annoyed with her attitude. I think our method of allocation rooms was fair. Part of me is even pleased she's decided not to come to the wedding as we only want people who really want to be there and our numbers are limited.

Other than that - I have bought a dress from Preloved - an unworn Maggie dress (unsure of the design name but it's in light gold taffeta with a lace up corset top and A-line skirt). It was very reasonable so I decided it was worth a try - if it works out it will free up money for other things. If not, it's cheap enough that I should be able to sell it on for no loss. Due to arrive Wednesday so I will let you know how it goes!

Currently working on designing table names, place names and table plan.

Hope your weekends have been full of good things and nothing stressful x

Following the stroppy friend earlier and the stress over that, I've just heard from some friends who live 4hrs away. They are going to do everything they can to find someone to look after their kids so that they can make it ? Plus as he is a TOG he said if they come he'll take pictures of the wedding preparations and the reception (both of which our booked photographer isn't doing - our choice for budget reasons) plus others during the day which we can have for free :-)

Shows that those who matter will make the effort no matter what.

Good Morning Ladies!

how are well all today?! Sorry I haven't been around much this past week (feel like I've missed so much!) work has just been so busy and I feel so stressed! Today isn't much better, although I have procrastinated for most of the morning so far which hasn't helped things at all! The emails are pilling up in my inbox! I think today I am just generally feeling a bit crappy, kinda feel like work has stolen my wedding mojo, although it's not like I have much wedding stuff left to do with is good! Think I just want it to hurry up and be here! Mainly so that I can go on my honeymoon and forgot about everything for two blissful weeks!

How was everyone's weekends?! Did you all get much wedding stuff done?!!

xx

p.s sorry for the mildy depressing post; work is just really getting me down at the moment xx

I understand how you feel Sparkly Bear, work is crazy for me too at the moment.

We've had a good few days wedding planning. We now have our photographer sorted, so that's a big weight off my mind. He was really lovely and I would recommend him to anyone. He doesn't work with packages, we told him our budget and he told us everything he would do for us for the budget we had, which was a lot more than other photographers

We also sat down last night and went through hymns and readings because we're going back to see the vicar tomorrow, so we now have a good idea of what we want.

I update my wedding spreadsheet (sad but true) this morning and we have most of it sorted now. We've got the groomsmens outfits to sort out, the bridesmaids outfits, our wedding rings and wedding favours and gifts. I think that's about it now

How's everyone else getting along? x x

MrsWatkinsToBe I just caught up with your post. I can't believe your friend did that! It's just awful! She doesn't sound like the sort of person you should have at your wedding if she can't be reasonable over a hotel room x

Totally know how you feel SparklyBear. Work is killing me so I'm procrastinating by coming on here, ha!

There's not loads left for me to sort now I don't think. Invites, rings and groom/best men suits is left of the big stuff and my OH is sorting the suits so that's good (if he ever gets of his bum and does it that is!)

MrsWatkinsToBe that's such a shame about your stroppy friend, you just don't need stress like that. I totally agree that those who matter will make the effort.

Morning ladies,

Here to procrastinate too J

Mrswatkinstobe – I can’t believe your friend has been like that to you. It’s a shame that she can’t look at the bigger picture and not just be happy with the fact that you’ve tried your best to sort them out. What would she have done if you weren’t going to arrange hotels for people? I agree you don’t need the stress of it all. Hopefully you can put it all behind you and get excited for the future.

Sparklybear & AnnaMolly– I have emails piling up but just not feeling t today either. Glad I’m not the only one heheh.

We have a productive evening last night, we finally narrowed down our first dance song, father/daughter mother/son dance song and the music during the day. We also brought parts for our invites and have receive a quote back for the inserts of the invites which was so much less than I expected which made me happy. H2B now just needs to design them when he gets a chance. He’s got some time as we want to send them out in may.

We haven’t got much more to do. We have to confirm final things with the venue, complete some place names and H2b needs to get his suits and I just need to pay off a few things!

Love that fact it’s now coming together.

Good morning everyone...

It's been great reading all about your plans, and seeing lots of lovely flashes
Hopefully this week will bring more good things and no family/friend/wedding dramas!!

MrsWatkinsToBe – I love your evening shoes, very cool idea and your little bridesmaid dress is adorable!
Glad to hear you’ve got your photographer booked, and big YAY for getting your dress!
Really hope its perfect for you
The music for your service sounds awesome and I say that as a fellow Firefly & GOT geek…
Sorry to hear your friend has been a bit of a madam, hopefully she’ll realise that she’s being silly

AnnaMolly – glad to hear you got the MUA you really wanted, that’s another thing off your list
Have you got much left to do?

Lui – how are your plans coming along?

SaraPoppy – your dress is absolutely stunning! You looked nothing like a chipmunk, but obviously you have to be comfortable with your style. Have you thought about what accessories you’d like?
How are your invites coming along? Personally I think it’s really cute to send them from your son

LeighB3 – good luck for when you give notice J everything feels very real once that part is over…

Mrsbelcher2015 – yay for finding your dress, when its meant to be its just meant to be
Glad to hear your photographer is all sorted now as well, hope your meeting with the vicar goes well today

Happy Polly – can I join the aggressively saving club? Sparkly Bear and I were discussing this a little while ago, it’s getting to me a little bit as I’m convinced I’ve screwed up the savings plan =/
It’s exciting that you’ve sent out your first lot of invites, fingers crossed you’ll have some RSVP’s soon
Your table numbers and heart frame for the table plan are really nice and your shoes are lovely too, comfy shoes are a must!

AlmostMrsS – wow you've been really busy, go you
Your wedding dress is simply stunning, and the bridesmaid’s dresses are gorgeous.

HappyOrangeConfetti – I love your invites, their so cute
I'm sure your soon to be step daughter will be ok, my niece was 22 months old when my sister got married and she was really well behaved. We gave her a flower so she could match her mummy and myself, she was content sit with my mum and play with the flower. The ceremony was only 30 minutes long though =/
Your honeymoon sounds lovely btw

Sparkly Bear - how are you? Sorry to hear works being a nightmare

***
Sorry I haven't been around much lately ladies, I had to go to York to see my grandma and on top of everything else my car blew up
Despite all that I managed to have a very productive weekend so am feeling rather pleased with myself.
My make-up trial on Saturday was brilliant, I was so happy with what the MUA did and it lasted all day (naturally I had to have a few drinks in the evening to make sure it was wine proof!).
I had a bit of shopping spree beforehand...I bought my MOH & bridesmaid their necklaces, earrings & handbags and I also got my necklace and hair comb.
My MOH & I decided to try our dresses on afterwards, so we could check that the accessories looked ok, and I was quite surprised with how well everything goes together. All I need to do now is get my shoes and wait for my veil to arrive

I finally sorted out my invites as well. I decided to buy some from the Hitched stationary section, as there's a selection that are 50% at the moment. They arrived on Thursday and I really like how they've turned out
One of my friends is now armed with glue and some sparkles to bling them up a little bit!

xxx

Which invites did you end up going with LMP?

Oh no can’t believe your car blew up! Is everything ok? I tried to PM you last week to see how your Nan was but I don’t think it went through ☹️.

Hopefully now you’ll have some nice times and less stress!! Big hugs for you lovely!

Yey for all the stuff with your MOH through ?

Hope you're invitation customising goes well LittleMissPanda, you'll have to flash them when you're done! That's rubbish about your car on top of everything else!

Good to know it is possible for them to be well behaved. I have no children of my own but worry that the consensus seems to be that 2 is the year of the tantrums! I'm just worried that she'll either have no clue what's going on and how important it is to me and OH and she'll talk all through the ceremony (at 18 months she kept saying 'oh no' 'oh no' really loudly through OH's cousin's wedding ceremony) so that would upset me, particularly if her word of choice is 'mummy mummy mummy mummy' as she is prone to say at our house. Or on the other hand she will understand what's going on and that it means that mummy and daddy are never ever ever ever ever getting back together...like ever (to quote Taylor Swift ?) and throw a massive tantrum. Ho hum, time will tell...

We chose these ones...
https://print.hitched.co.uk/invitations/wedding-c2//design-d9734#id:hDHcZfp8wZd8iO6-ShtIKlJhaBPIOamiTBsqNkbCfRg

I took out all the pre-printed wording and changed it to this...

LMP and Himself
request the pleasure of the company of………………………………………………
to celebrate their marriage
at 12pm
on Saturday 3rd October 2015
at xxx

Followed by their wedding breakfast
at xxx

The evening reception will be held a txxx
from 7pm

R.S.V.P. by 30th June
Our Address

I didn't get a PM, but thank you for thinking of me & for the hugs

Unfortunately my nan isn't going to get any better but I saw her last week and have said my goodbyes now :'(
Just waiting for the awful phone call now...

My car has completely had it as the cam belt has snapped and written the engine off so I'm now trying to find a new (cheap!) car
I spent all day Saturday with my MOH & bridesmaid to take my mind off it and actually ended up buying quite a lot ... oops ...

I really hope your soon to be step daughter doesn't throw a tantrum HappyOrangeConfetti!
Maybe she'll be old enough to sense its important but not old enough to twig that her mummy and daddy are never (ever ever :p) getting back together...

Those invites are beautiful!! Can’t wait to see when they arrive!!

The wording is good as well! Looks like it’s all coming together for you which must be nice. Do you have much more to do after this?

Oh LMP ☹️ that’s so sad, you just have to remember about all the good times you guys had and everything. We are here if you need anything!

Cars are useless, I have my MOT soon and I’m dreading it, I have a feeling it’s just going to take up all my savings which I’m really scared of! Hope you find a nice car that suitable and cheap!!

I imagine you and your MOH being like that scene in friends, you know where all the girls have the wedding dresses on and are drinking a drink on Monicas sofa! Glad you had a good time.

LittleMissPanda - love the invites and the wording and thanks for all the lovely comments about my plans :-) I am so sorry to hear about your nan - lots of thoughts being sent your way xx

Thanks to you all for your comments and support about my friend's attitude. I've decided that life is too short to worry about it. On the day whether she's there or not will make no difference to our enjoyment, as we will be surrounded by friends and family who want to share our day. At the end of the day by taking the attitude she has and saying they won't be able to make it all she's done is cut off her nose to spite her face.

Today I'm not at work so am going to focus on looking for flower ideas for bouquets and top table and trying to find the adult bridesmaid dresses.

Hope you all have a good day xx

Wow, so much to catch up on in this thread! Work has just been mental this past week...

MrsWatkinsToBe - I'm with the others on the lady declining to come; how stroppy and selfish? It is ture that weddings bring out the absolute worst in some people!

I lost a BM the other day (!), one of my best friends actually, she has started a little business on the side selling utilities at discount prices. I received a really long text message (poor form) saying how she didn't have the time to be a BM any more, wouldn't be coming away for the hen party, but wished me and OH the best for the future!! Totally out of the blue, felt like I'd been punched in the stomach! I'vebought her dress, booked hair and MUA, would have been buying them all shoes, jewellery etc...I don't think I've been a particularly demanding bride! Well, so far anyway ha ha...all my other lovely friends have really stepped up since it happened, she's cut herself off from the group completely, so strange...

Anywhos, I've had a very productive weekend buying artificial flowers from Ebay though, I must have bought hundreds of the things, plus about 20 x 2 metre garlands, oasis, florist tape, ribbons etc. Think I've paid under £60 for the whole lot. Can't wait for it to all come so that mum and I can start putting it all together

Little Miss Panda, so very sorry to hear about your nan xx hope you are ok sweetie xx

Thank you for the lovely thoughts and Internet hugs ladies, very much appreciated at the moment
And all the nice comments about my invites have made me extra happy with my choice now
Once my friend has blinged them up a bit I will flash them properly

Lui - I hope your car passes its MOT with flying colours and then your savings will be safe
I've been browsing Auto Trader today and I've found a few cars that don't look too bad...
I don't think I have much wedding related stuff to do currently, I need to arrange my food tasting but the venue are rubbish at emailing me back and I'm not in the mood to deal with them. Apart from that its mainly the smaller things like venue decoration etc.
I'll probably remember something huge that I've forgotten next week =/
Haha that scene from Friends is exactly what the 3 of us were like, it was brilliant fun!

MrsWatkinsToBe - Well done for taking the high road regarding your friend. I really hope she comes to her senses and apologises to you for being so silly.
How are you getting on with the flower ideas and adult bridesmaid dresses?

Stephied9384 - I'm really sorry to hear that your friend has pulled out of being a bridesmaid, I had the exact same thing happen to me. Only my 'friend' didn't tell me she no longer wanted to be involved she just stopped speaking to me and my other friends (we all work together). So strange how weddings make some people go nuts!
I hope you haven't lost too much money on the things you've bought/booked for her...
It's nice to hear your other friends have rallied around you
Ooh good luck putting your flowers together, can't wait to see a flash...

xx

Thanks lovely! Heres hoping too! Glad you found something that may be suitable! It’s strange once this has been done and we have nothing else to pay out for, we will be rich!! Well not rich but in a better position than now! Always the way though, when you’re saving for one thing a million other things do crop up!

Hahah totally glad that my vision of you guys doing the friends thing was correct! Always wanted to do that, totally jealous you did that! Hehe!

The small things mount up. I’ve got the girls coming over in March to work on the paper flowers for the centre pieces and then I’m going to have to start making the centre pieces instead of having them all in a box at my parents. H2B will have a lot of spray painting to do with things.

I actually don’t know what I’ll do with myself when I’ve finished planning.

Had a successful day.

Bridesmaid dresses chosen and ordered :-)

Have also decided on the favours. Much as I loved the Lego idea it was proving to complicated and expensive to do what I wanted so instead I'm going to go for cellophane bags with a royal blue organza ribbon bow, containing a poem scroll tied with blue ribbon, bubbles, royal blue foil wrapped chocolate hearts and gold rock with Just Married on :-)

I also planned the favours for the 4 children who will be coming - same cellophane bags and ribbon, containing the heart chocolates and rock, plus novelty rubbers, pencils, crayons, bubbles and a Lego Minifigure mystery bag, plus an activity book.

Hope your days have all gone well x

It beggars belief doesn't it?? The money aspect aside, she was a very close friend and had been for donkeys' years, clearly I didn't mean as much to her as she did to me ha ha..! How awkward though if you still work with your "friend"?! Have you spoken to her since? I'd like to stay friends with mine, not sure how that would work out though...

Gave notice today!

Heard stories of all the questions and the issues people had! Literally had no questions apart from our names, jobs and address.

Glad its over now and should have our certificates in 15 days time!

Lui - one more step closer :-) We get to go and pick up our certificates on Monday - very excited.

Been working today so no progress on the wedding planning since yesterday, however the dress I bought from Gumtree is due to arrive in the post tomorrow - can't wait to see if it's as nice as I'm hoping and if it fits :-) Will let you all know.

Last night, as well as sorting the bridesmaid dresses I also decided on the flowers. We're not having flowers on the guest tables (mirror plates with blue glass bottles, ivory petals and diamond-like crystals), but will have an arrangement on the top table. Going for silk rather than real in ivory and royal blue. Will have a 9" bouquet for me, 7" bouquets for the bridemaids and a basket of flowers for the 7 year old bridesmaids plus buttonholes for the men (not sure whether single or double flower for those yet though).

This is the bride bouquet I'm looking at :-)

Hope everyone is having a good day xx

Hi everyone, Im enjoying reading how everyones plans are coming along.

Ive ordered my wedding cake tonight, we've decided on a Naked Wedding Cake, three tiers, the bottom Victoria sponge, 2nd Lemon drizzle sponge and the top tier Champagne sponge. Quite different, I'm sure my mum will be moaning about it not being a fruit cake!

MrsFRtobe - that looks and sounds delicious.

We're still thinking about what type of cake to go for. I was thinking about a mix of tiers of fruit and sponge. It hadn't occurred to me to consider lemon drizzle (my favourite) - definite food for thought :-)

That cake looks amazing! We really wanted a naked but the person doing our cake has refused :-( we are only paying £120 so we can't really argue. He isn't comfortable doing it as he said it might sink or go dry. To be honest I think that's more a reflection of his skills but we have had a few birthday cakes and my baby shower cake from him and they were amazing. He's great at what he can do so I'll let him off ;-) we now want 3 giant french fancies. The only problem is the traditional colours don't fit our theme and don't look rustic. If we change the colours then the guests may not recognise them as french fancies.

I'm a bit confused about the whole giving notice thing. Is this the same as getting a marriage license? Where do we have to go? I've been so caught up in table decorations that I haven't thought about the important stuff, haha!

SaraPoppy - if you are having a civil ceremony, you have to register your intent to marry at the registrar office nearest where you each live no more than a year before your wedding, but more than 15 days before. They display your intent to marry in the office for a 15 days and then you get an authorisation to marry certificate which you give to the office of the registrar who is carrying out your marriage service - it costs £35 each.

If you are having a church wedding you don't need to do that as it's the same as the Banns of Marriage in the church.

Hope that helps x

We have given our notice of marriage..but to be completely honest with you i don't exactly know what it means, they asked name, address etc and checked ID, then I think the notice gets displayed for a couple of weeks!

Thank you! Yes it does help... It doesn't apply to us as we are having a church wedding, haha! And back to my sequin tablecloths... ?