*November 2011 Brides and Grooms* Time to Chat!

Bluespirit

I hope you all had a great festive period! Now that all the celebrations are over, its back to wedding things for us! And, the exciting news is - we've booked our honeymoon. We're going here: http://www.chaayahotels.com/ChaayaLagoon.htm We're so excited as its exactly what we were looking for. We're so pleased to have found a water villa within budget, and its a sea plane transfer which sounds great, plus its a tiny island so it should be really quiet and romantic.

We've also started looking at wedding rings. I've found one I absolutely love - its a platinum band with 4 absolutely tiny diamonds set across the front of the band. As I have very small fingers, its very thin and delicate and looks lovely with my engagement ring. The price is within our budget too. OH has also seen one he likes, but it is way above budget at over £2k, so we'll have to keep looking for him.

Swinstie73

Wow Bluespirit that place looks absolutely stunning!

What kind of budget have you set for rings? I need platinum (or palladium which is much cheaper) but OH can go with anything as he's not gonna be wearing it much (works outside - safety).

Well not done much for wedding but - WE'RE INTO 2011, almost there, woo hoo!

Have paid the registry office and looked at some flowers (can't decide between artificial or fresh), going to take mum to see dress as I need a picture of it for wedding undies. Also got my ivory shoes (off ebay for £9) but will change into my purple ones at night. That's about it, couldn've had it all planned by now but some things can't get until later on. Also found a fab DJ, but need to find out if the venue will make us use there resident DJ.

Bluespirit

We've not really set a proper budget for rings (I know - very bad!) as we really didn't have a clue how much they would cost. The one I like is £405, though I may end up just getting a plain band as that's £270. I have to get platinum too. If we could keep the total for both of us under £1000 we'd be happy as we would prefer OH to get a platinum one too so that we match, however we're thinking he might just get gold to keep the costs down. We still have to visit a jeweller that he knows though, who has promised us discounts, so hopefully they'll come up with something.

I need to get dress shopping, but put on so much weight over Christmas, and I'm worried that I won't fit into the dress samples they have in the shops. I don't want to buy anything without at least seeing it on a bit (even if I'm squeezing and it won't do up!). I'm on major diet and exercise mode and hopefully will lost a bit and can start shopping next month

Enchantica

Hello again everyone! I hope you all had a fab christmas and new year.

Bluespirit - your honeymoon looks absolutely idyllic. Fab!! I hope you manage to get your rings sorted. And ditto with the weight lol...

Swinstie73 - sounds like you are getting organised Still got plenty of time so no need to worry.

Me and OH met up with our celebrant and booked her so that's all done. She's really nice and is going to help us personalise our ceremony completely. Really happy with her. We are booked in at a cake place for a consultation on 12th Feb so REALLY looking forward to that! The lady seemed nice, said cake and coffee would be waiting for us when we arrived. We are having cheesecake (NOT a cake of cheese!) because OH doesn't like regular cake. A big one will be on a stand for us to cut and then there will be individual portions for everyone. It will be the sweet part of the buffet.

I also got my new dress from China It's gorgeous and I'm SO happy with it. I will still wear the ice blue corset and my mum is going to modify the dress so that it's a skirt. It's massive lol. I couldn't even view the whole thing in the mirror haha. But it's exactly what I wanted. A big netted puffball lol. Not everyone's idea of perfection but definitely mine Over all I have spent £250 on my outfit, incl the skirt I'm not using now. Not too bad. I will post pics when my mum modifies it in the summer time.

My dad pulled a surprise on us... has said he's now footing the wedding bill! I'm in shock. First he was going to pay half and I was so appreciative of that. Now he's paying for all! I think it's because he thought I would have a £20k wedding or something. When now it's going to be around £6k. Still a lot though. So all we are saving for now is our honeymoon to Florida. Really happy I feel a bit bad though for him shelling out all that money (he's self employed, works 7 days a week in his shop etc) and wish I could make it up to him somehow to show how much I appreciate it. But I can't think how to do that. We are giving all the parents a photobook after the wedding when we get the photos. Maybe I will make my parents one extra special or something.

Bluespirit

Enchantica - that is brilliant news about the celebrant, and about the dress. I can't wait to see pictures! Good luck with the cake - a cheesecake wedding cake sounds brilliant! It's fantastic news that your dad is paying for the wedding too - must be nice to know that you don't need to find extra cash. I replied to your thread earlier, but just had another thank you idea - would your parents like a digital photo frame? I bought some for my family this Christmas and they went down very well. I also bought everyone memory cards and put some pictures on them so they could use them straight away. Maybe you could do one with pictures of your wedding and/or get some old pictures of your parents scanned and put on as well (thinking their wedding pics, pics of you as a kid, etc.) if you can get your hands on them. The frames I bought were these: http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/16350225/Elonex-7-Digital-Photo-Frame/Product.html?searchstring=digital+photo+frame&searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&urlrefer=search very good value, and they look nice as well. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Enchantica

Thanks for replying to the earlier thread Bluespirit. Very helpful I think my brother actually gave my parents an electronic photoframe a year or so ago for Christmas and they don't seem to have used it which is a shame. But I will have a think about things I'm going to make sure to get them a really nice photobook and maybe add some other photos into it or something, like a photo of their wedding too. Thanks

Chrissy1981

Hi everybody, can I join the thread please! I've been engaged for almost 3 weeks and we booked our venue last night for Fri 11th November 2011! I've made the appointment to apply for the marriage licence and have pencilled in the registrar. Seeing the photographer on Tuesday. Now we've got the date confirmed, I'm going to start on everything else... Oh and I've planned the engagement party too, am so excited!

Bluespirit

Hi Chrissy, welcome to the thread, and congratulations on your engagement and picking your date and venue. Now the excitement really starts!

Well I've started booking appointments to look for weddings dresses - going to a couple of shops on Feb 12th and another on Feb 19th. I'm both excited and nervous. I'm worried that I won't find anything I like, as all the dresses I've seen in magazines and at fashion shows are really not me, but I am looking forward to getting into a wedding dress!

Chrissy1981

Bluespirit, I know exactly what you mean. At the moment I'm concentrating on everything EXCEPT the dress as I'm starting to work myself up that I won't like or suit anything. Decided on the suits and starting to think about music for the civil ceremony. So much to think about. The next thing on my list is the cars! Keep changing my mind what I want though... Good luck with your dress shopping!

Chrissy1981

OMG Losingpatience you have made me panic a little more! At first I was like, yeah yeah, I'll do a couple of things a week. I'm now 4 weeks on and I don't feel like I've made much progress! I have booked the photographer now and sorted the stationery but I'm really stuck on cars. Have my heart set on 2 RR's but local companies don't seem to have 2 of the same car! Also booked the company to do the chair covers and backdrop today but that seems a little trivial compared with sorting out the flowers and my DRESS!!!!