Our wedding planning thread!

I love a planning thread! Your venue is gorgeous and love the flower ideas. Have you got your dress yet?

Looks like you're off to a great start. Love those flowers!

Haha, so I totally forgot about the dress!!! These are my top favourites so far (ok, so I love them all, and finding it really hard to pick!!):

Essense of Australia - Emma - I love this, and weirdly tried it on the States with my Mum, then found it at the Manchester wedding fayre when I was looking with bridesmaids. My only problem, is is it missing something at the back?

Essense of Australia - Rebecca: So I LOVE the back of this (obviously without a black bra!), but not sure it fits as nicely as the Emma.

Maggie Sottero: This one I tried on in the States, and fell in love with. I love the back, and the lace detail. I've lost weight since this photo was taken (and please excuse my black tights!)

Any thoughts? I'm trying not to think about the dress until a year before, as I've loved everything I've tried and it's the biggest stress for me at the mo!

They're all gorgeous. I love the Maggie one the most though, I think the train is amazing

Yay planning thread!

You get married the day before us!! we're also getting married on our Anniversary

aaaand the last dress gets my vote - love it!

xxx

Both dresses are lovely but I prefer the maggie just because the trial.

Love your flowers so romantic, the colours beautiful.

Yeh, we are going with 'rustic romance' as a bit of a theme, which fits well with the venue!

Thanks for the opinions on the dress. Part of me was leaning towards the Essense Emma dress, as thought maybe it was a sign because I had tried it on in the States, then randomly found it at the wedding show too. But I feel it's lacking something with the back, which is what I love about the others. Looking at photos again I have totally fallen in love with the Maggie dress....that may be the one (Now just got to find it over here and try not to cry at how much it'll cost!)

Update: we've paid deposits for the photographer (so happy with our choice!) and venue dresser/florist. Next step : finishing designing and order save the dates!

Happy Easter all!

All looks lovely! Love that almost immediately after proposing your oh told you your anniversary falls on a Saturday. Lovely touch, but random question will you celebrate x years of marriage or y years together or do both for double celebration? Sorry for the question just we're having two dates and yours is so sweet just how do you add it up? My mind works weirdly hehe.

Thanks! Haha, I know, he's very romantic, and had obviously been giving it a lot of thought! I think we'll do a double celebration - we always celebrate in a big way for our anniversary of our first date, so celebrating our wedding anniversary on the same day will just be lovely (and it's a date he's unlikely to forget!) Guess we'll always have our x wedding anniversary + 6 years for our other anniversary!

Update (less than 11 months to go!)

Save the dates all sent out (Although the 'final' guest list is still a little indefinite!)

I've asked another bridesmaid, so now have 3 - who all have dresses (bargain find in the Dorothy Perkins sale!)- ended up with 'mink' colouring:

Think we've booked the DJ, just waiting to hear back from him!

And we've finally decided on our centrepieces - going to have rustic log slices, each with a lantern and little tea lights (so far have 3 random lanterns...need at least 3 more!)

Next plans:

- Giving notice (we are in the process of buying/selling, and until this is all definite, I don't want to risk us moving to a different council's area)

- Designing invitations (planning to send these out September/October time)

- Buying my dress! Eek. Went shopping with bridesmaids to Wed2B at the weekend, which was a great experience. Got an appointment at a boutique at the end of July to try on the Maggie Melitta dress again and see if I still love it (Also ordered in the Londyn as love the back of it and fancy trying it)...then fingers crossed I will make a decision!!

Hope everyone else is getting on well!!!

I LOVE the Londyn dress!! Absolutely stunning, it's giving me dress envy, I wish I'd tried that on

Hi all!

Long time, no posting - apologies for that! So the last few months have got totally out of hand, and here we are only 8 1/2 weeks from the wedding. Figured it was time for an update.

So back in November, we visited my parents in the States for Thanksgiving, and whilst we were there, my Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer that's pretty far advanced and somehow gone undetected. After a crazy few whirlwind weeks of lots of investigations and scans, he's having chemo to try and manage things and give us more time. That in itself has been an absolute kick in the gut, and sent our worlds upside down.

We found out last September my brother and his partner are expecting a baby (yay!), although baby due 6 weeks before the wedding set about thoughts that his partner and our niece wouldn't be at the wedding (although she's meant to be our flower girl). Unfortunately there's been complications with the baby and we aren't entirely sure how poorly baby will be when he arrives, and (because my family is terrible at communicating with one another!) we don't know if any of them will be over for the wedding. We are a few weeks off baby arriving, and it's so uncertain what the next few weeks will bring, so a very tense time for us all.

After months of waiting for different appointments and referrals, my OH has been diagnosed with an auto-immune condition, which has been another kick whilst we are down. Then my Grandad got rushed in to hospital the early hours of yesterday morning.

So all in all it's been a pile of poo few months, and somehow we've kept planning the wedding!

Things in place now:

• It's my hen do this weekend (eeeek!). I don't know anything other than we are going to Anglesey, but the rest is a big mystery - I have been very lucky that my bridesmaids and closest friends have managed to sort it all out between themselves, and can't wait for a weekend with 7 of my closest friends!
• My dress has arrived and I'm more in love with it than I ever was, I've had one fitting, and got another at the end of March, which they think will be my last!
• I'm in the process of ordering my veil, which I'm excited for!
• I've got make up and hair trials at the end of March, still so undecided how I want both though.
• I've bought shoes for evening and day
• We ordered our rings the weekend just gone - we went down to London to 77 diamonds where OH ordered my engagement ring from, got amazing service, and a great price...and they're resizing my engagement ring for me (I've lost 3 stone since getting engaged, and gone down 3 ring sizes!).
• Invitations went out, and RSVP date was Saturday just gone...although think we've only had about half of them back! Grr!

Things left to do:

• Decide on music - I've chosen what I'm walking down the aisle to, although I'm not telling OH as want it to be a surprise for him. We have narrowed down a few choices for first dance, but just can't pick. Need to choose a 'walking out' song and 3 for signing register too.
• Readings - we'd like 2, we're having a civil ceremony - I've chosen loads but can't get OH to agree on any of them!!
• Menu - we have some ideas, but need to narrow them down. We're meeting with venue in 2 weeks so need to have decided by then!
• Cake - So after A LOT of debate, we think what we're going to do is me decorate 2 tiers of 'fake' cake, have a cutting tier...then buy a variety of cakes to be cut and served. I'm gluten free so won't really get to appreciate the cake anyway and begrudge spending a lot on it.
• Favours - we think we know what we're doing but haven't put them together yet!
• Gifts - We would like to try and organise for an 'experience' for my parents as they'll have to carry physical gifts in their baggage (any ideas are very welcome!), would love to get bracelets for my bridesmaids, but struggling to find anything I like!

What have I forgotten?! I feel like there's potentially a million things I still need to sort - any tips or things anyone notices would be amazing!!!

Hope everyone elses plans are ticking along!

Aww hon sounds like you have had a rough few months. Fingers crossed for everyone's health and that they can all make the wedding.

Yay for hen weekend though! Make sure you tell us all about it next week.

8.5 weeks sounds so close, you sound pretty calm though. Which dress did you decide on in the end?

Even though I've known everything that's happening seeing like this really confirms to me that you're a super woman! Can't wait for this weekend we're going to make it amazing you deserve it xxx

Wow Pookie, what a lot on your plate! Hope everyone's health improves between now & the wedding & that you have a great hen weekend.

Thanks everyone. Sorry I've been so absent recently, but I promised miss_conduct I'd have a big catch up on here this weekend!

Things are so-so...I had a bit of a meltdown last week, and think OH realised how tough I'm finding things finally. Wedding planning has just been the tip of the iceberg and so overwhelming....! My parents have booked flights over for the week of the wedding - 'luckily' (not sure that's the right word!) the wedding falls in between chemo treatments, so Dad is just coming over for the week, and they fly back the Monday after the wedding. My brother is not coming (although, with 4 weeks to go, he has still not told me this himself....), and neither are my grandparents.

But I'm trying to focus on the positives, and focusing on walking down that aisle. But it's 4 weeks today!!!!! EEEEEK!!

Hen do was AMAZING! 8 of us went to Anglesey (that was all I knew when I got in the car with one of my bridesmaids!). They'd booked a beautiful cottage in the countryside in Anglesey. The Friday night we drank lots, played silly games, spent some time in the hot tub (despite the fact it was pelting it down with rain!!). Saturday we all cooked an awesome big breakfast together, and went go-karting...SO much fun! I've never been, and not sure it was ever something I would have suggested, but would definitely go again! We had an absolute ball! We spent Saturday afternoon chilling out, having naps and grazing! The girls had organised cocktail making on the Saturday evening - so everyone had bought a bottle of something, and had each chosen a cocktail recipe to make - they'd even made up a book with all the recipes in. We went out for an amazing meal, and then had more hot-tub laughs in the rain! Sunday morning, we went to a local B&B (who owned the cottages) for breakfast, which was lovely.

The weekend was incredible, and I was so overwhelmed by and grateful for the efforts everyone had put in to make it extra-special. There were so many special little touches (even the fact that everything edible was gluten-free, so I didn't have to worry about what I was eating!), and it was exactly what I needed. Only problem is, I want to do it all again!!!

So, update on wedding planning - suddenly feeling very poor as all the payments are coming out in this last month!!! Haha!

Hair and makeup - Had my hair and makeup trials last weekend, which I was really happy with. I LOVED my hair. Not convinced on my makeup, just because it was so different from how I normally have it. On the hunt for a decent, neutral lipstick if anyone's got any recommendations?

Dress - went for a fitting last week, just a few more alterations to be made. I LOVE my dress so much and it's one of the things I'm most excited about is finally getting to show my OH!!! Just got to get it so I can actually sit down!

Favours - we are stuck here...we were going to buy macarons from Costco, but unfortunately they're frozen, and are meant to be kept refridgerated until a few hours before. So we are looking for plan B....

Gifts - Totally stuck here. We have bought bracelets for the bridesmaids, and I'm going to do a few extra things for them on the day. Best Man we are thinking an amazon voucher, as that's what he did for OH when he was best man, and it seems a good idea. No idea with Mum and Dad though, as obviously they've got to get it back on a plane! Thinking of booking something for them to do once they get home....but if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful!

Suits - We just need to order my Dads, as we weren't sure how much weight he was going to lose. And then just got to find ties....do you know how difficult it is to buy silver ties (That don't cost a small fortune?!?!).

Cake - We have bought dummy cakes for 2 layers, and I'm going to make myself a gluten-free cake for the top tier for cutting....then we think we are just going to buy some cakes from costco for serving.

Music - this has got to be one of the hardest decisions! We've narrowed it down to 3 first dances, 8 songs for the ceremony....we have GOT to make some decisions!

Sure I've missed lots out...I'll try and be more around for the next few weeks!!!! How's everyone else getting on?

How about a really nice photo frame to mum and dad. Easy to pack between their layers then something for them once home maybe a meal out or theatre etc for after dads next chemo. I'm pleased your dad will make it. X