My wedding plans, any ideas appreciated

Emmzi

black-saturn wrote:

Thanks everyone.

On the whole do you think it's worth having a wedding gift list or not? And if so wheres the best place to have it?

Personally I never buy off the gift list because I prefer something mor epersonal/ something I've made/ something cheaper!

However I think they're ok if sent out as 'suggestions', with it clear that gifts are not expected/ required, your list is just registered with debenhams etc because some people asked....

Also if you register at Debenhams or Argos, as i recall you can swap the value of the gifts people got for you for what you really want (without them knowing) before delivery - so if you got 75 things for a tenner and you really really want a £750 big telly, you can have that instead...

The morality of writing the thank you letters afterwards is up to you :-)

Rachie_B

sarah*a wrote:

We booked our slot with the registery office in Oct 04 - got married Feb 06. We had to pay a deposit to hold it, and the remainder had to be paid no later than 10 weeks before the wedding. So you can book more than 12 months in advance.

What you can't do earlier than 12 months beforehand is 'give notice to marry' - It costs £30 each and gives you license to marry and is valid for 12 months from the date of issue.

So go ahead and contact the registry office - remember that August is one of the most popular months so you need to get in early.

:

ah things must have changed then

we got married in july 2004 and started planning in july 2002,we werent given the option of being able to book the date or anything until exactly 12 months beforehand

RE gift lists,we too were nagged into making one & i hated the thought of one ,!!!
for us we werent bothered about gifts at all,besides we had lived together for 4 yrs so had pretty much everything we wanted
but lots of guests were asking us / our parents what they could buy us

so we set up a small list with argos,it suited us as there were lots of little / cheaper things we could add and we shop there anyway so we like their stuff
a few people bought us lovely gifts that werent on the list and many gave us cash / cheques / vouchers

if you have everything you need black saturn then you could let it be known that you would like euros for your honeymoon / money towards home improvements or whatever

just dont fluff it up in one of those very cheesy poems <shudder>

"asking " for a gift is cheeky enough as it is IMO lol no need to go down the route of fluffy poems lol

jellyhead

hi, congrats on getting married i had a cheap day, a mate did us an 80's disco and i just loved it. my wedding dress was from darkangel as has been suggested and yes i did wear black but i'd have preferred green. i left it too late though, they had lots of hallowe'en orders so i had to take what they had in the shop. it was heavy velvet and october, not your sort of thing but for a summer wedding the re are some suitable dresses and maybe they'd make one for you in a different material, or another dressmaker could copy the design lol! http://www.thedarkangel.co.uk/catalogue2.php?c=2

the pixie dresses in the children's section look cute but i suppose they're a bit young for your bridesmaids. i like coloured wedding dresses. my friend was married in a gold-ish silk and she looked gorgeous.

whay style did his first wife wear? is yours a different style? i think you could wear black if you wanted to, but red will look gorgeous, very attractive. i also like dark green, but then i'm just odd :rotfl:

black-saturn

jellyhead wrote:

whay style did his first wife wear? is yours a different style? i think you could wear black if you wanted to, but red will look gorgeous, very attractive. i also like dark green, but then i'm just odd :rotfl:

He told his parents about our wedding last night and the first thing they said (knowing I like wearing black) was "shes not wearing black like the last one is she?" so I think thats out of the question. I wish I could though.

jellyhead

lol! what about purple? i think red will be fab. i'm not a fan of white wedding dresses, just a personal preference.

kitty123

Hi,
Congratulations! I would highly recommend an ebay shop called No1RockAvenue for wedding rings. I have bought mine from them (they made it) and have had alterations done to my engagement ring for much cheaper than a high street jeweller. They are genuine, kind and also auction some of their stuff on ebay.
We are getting our cake from tesco - 3tiers will cost about £30 and we have bought decorations from hobbycraft.
It sounds like you want a more unusual style dress, but I got mine by trying on loads in a shop, getting the details of the one I wanted and emailed loads of people on ebay/bridal shops asking if they had it at a cheaper price. A bridal shop (they do also trade on ebay under the seller ID joshuauaua) sold me their shop "model" dress that had been tried on. £165 instead of £700+!!! It needed taking up and a few beads sewing back but it's perfect. I just can't wait for September 1st now!!
Good luck....

Silver_Lilly

The dress is beautiful: have you tried local dress makers I got mine made a lot cheaper and as I designed it myself a mismatch of other designs I was unique.
Another option may be to buy both pieces for a high st store can you spend any reward vouchers in debenhams?
Or maybe mix and match one bit high st and other hand made.
Charity shops also do pieces like it or wedding dresses worn only the once (or maybe not at all if you get my drift.) I am sure if you rang round or took your picture into some local ones they ill keep a look out for you
the same with nearly new shops.

I think design is great as both pieces can be won separately after wards.

Intendeds suit - Any ideas?

Again above might also work for this my husband got his made through NEXT so it was personalised and still wears it.

Mini reception and food - Hoping parents will sort this out.

We planned this in detail and were very strict on numbers etc and still had plenty to take home for people who were staying with parents!
If in summer what about a picnic in the local park or borrow a friend with a large garden?
Maybe every one could bring a different dish/platter .if you search out a theme and the recipes there will be no suprises

Way of getting to wedding and party - Any ideas?
How far will you be going how about walking in procession? Any younger brides maids etc will love the attention!
We booked a local taxi for as much as we could and requested their black London cab for all trips.
We planned the most scenic route and got them to cost it up in advance.
We did hire a car but on a fix price for a few hours again on a timed route so we could maximise the amount of journeys.

Cake - Any ideas? Please don’t suggest making my own because it would be a disaster.
We designed it our self and found the cheapest local cake maker, who also delivered to venue and set up within set a set cost.
We gave her a copy of the markings we wanted and our wire flowers for on top of it.
Maybe buy a base and take it to someone just to ice it.
Look at other cakes options i.e. profriterol or cupcake tower




Bridesmaids - 3 bridesmaids. One of 18, one of 14 one of 12 wearing white dresses - ebay?
Again see point one
ask who has already got what. We found that with a bit of attention to detail we only had to buy one new shirt and for our page boy one young bridesmaids mother paid for her dress but everyone else actually matched dup and had or could borrow what they needed.

Flowers - Red to match my dress. Any ideas? There are some nice artificial roses on ebay.
I used 3 white lilies ( But you would use roses try the big ones) from our local flowers shop who lent use the correct storage container. We practice dressing similar cheaper versions and tied them our selves.
Again get quotes for other types of red flowers

Rings - Ebay?
Again we made up our design and sent out loads of emails to see who could make them.
Or who sold similar and then paid for the inside to be engraved with a personal message.

Video of the wedding - I'll lend someone my camcorder.
Yes a friend did ours and we then took it to a cheap professional who edited it so it looked brilliant when finally finishes.

Photos of the wedding - Planning on giving a few of the guests a disposable camera to capture it for us.
Good idea.
But why not just ask every one to remember there camera and suggest they focus on certain things, people or angles

If I haven’t bored you I will see what else we saved on. I could share some costing if you like although it was eight years ago and in Bristol (where are you.)

Other tips, we made our own invites, guest book seat cards confetti, candleholders etc.

We also spent a long time planning and thinking through, a design scheme that would run through and tie everything in.
Get yourself on as many mail lists, request info generically from who ever you can to get ideas
Get people to compete for your business tell them your lowest amount you have been offered and get them to beat it.
See who offers extras free delivery etc.
Initially and for as long as you can do not mention the word wedding as prices will come in a lot lower.
Ask people for freebies samples etc .we got loads
Got to as many free wedding fairs, farmer’s markets tastings as you can.
An extra tip use a data base on a computer or large note book and keep notes of everything so you have back ups take pics of ideas of make up hair flowers etc so you don’t forget. For the last few weeks we had a white board on dinning room wall that we used a s a planner.
A tip that was the most important to me. We stayed in a local hotel just the two of us the afternoon and night before and on the wedding night. In a nice room do not get conned into the honeymoon suite! We relaxed and my husband drove home on our wedding morning to get dressed etc and met me at the venue.

GOOD LUCK AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE IS ANY THING ELSE!!

vik6525

Hi! I just wanted to add something about the cake! Have you thought of maybe not going down the 'iced fruit cake' road? two good friends of mine got married last year, and they had what must be the cheapest, but also the most personal and lovely wedding ive ever been to (and ive been to some right flouncy expensive weddings!) Anyway, for the cake... they went to 'morrisons' in the morning, and bought two huge fresh cream and strawberry sponges at the barginous price of £2.99 each. they got us bridesmades to whip up some more fresh cream for the top, and arrange fresh strawberries on top of that again. we covered two boards with silver foil, and displayed them like that! they looked fantastic, and cost next to nothing, and tasted bloody lovely! (i could be biased though, i hate fruit cake!)... Anyway, Congrats Black Saturn! Im willing to bet your day will be fantastic! looking at the pic of your wedding dress, you have incredible taste!

black-saturn

Thanks everyone. All these suggestions are going in my little notebook.

jellyhead

my MIL made our wedding cake, instead of flowers and suchlike on top she added han solo and leia 'star wars' characters :rotfl:

for a giggle you could always have an ordinary iced cake and stick jack and sally from 'nightmare before christmas' on the top.

or even a photo cake from asda if you happen to have a really special photo, from when he proposed, or from your engagement party.

or am i just a cheapskate lol! i'm not one of those girls who dreams about her wedding day from early childhood, any cake would have done okay for me lol!