July 2012 Brides and Grooms

MrsDrink

Well we've changed our mind - we're going to miss tonight's jog - it was Friday's that never got ran. Instead we're going to repeat this week starting tomorrow, two 4 mile runs (mon & weds) and one 5 mile run on Friday.

sweetilemon

pbny24 wrote: »

been dress shopping today, and the main one i liked is £1200...will have to stay in the shop and i'll have to keep looking!

What is your budget? I fell in love with a maggie dress at £1200 but bought the bridesmaid dress (£170) in the same shop and managed to bargin down to £1250 for both. or if you fit the display dress they may be able to sell you it discounted.

wxy

My real name is Alice - that would make it easier :beer: I'm in Berkshire.

Natalie - I've so far spent just under £500 for all the fabric and other materials for my dress and the bridesmaid dress. It may not sound very MSE but believe I tried to find the cheapest silk dupion EVERYWHERE! Hopefully the spending will stop here and I'll have lots of fabric leftover :j

I've uploaded my bouquet attempt now onto my blog (my progress on the dresses are also reported there).

How much (if you don't mind me asking) has everyone spent on photographers? I've currently got quotes in a huge range (of course due to different experience etc) and I'm not sure how to choose.

MrsDrink

That sounds great to me (£500 for your dress and your bridesmaid's dress!). Especially if you consider how much you'd have spent to buy a similar dress made by a designer or even to get a seamstress to make it for you.

My photographer is £200 for 3 hrs plus a CD of photos with copyright. We wasn't going to have one, was just going to get my mum to take photos - but figured she'd struggle to watch the ceremony if she was too busy focusing on getting photos. We've gone with this guy mainly because of his nature - it was really important to us that he'd blend into the background.

Could you re-post your blog address when you add bits (photos) to it? That way I don't have to scroll back to find it - lol yep I am a lazy moo!

PinkPrincess83

Hi Alice- Im emma, There is a list of our proper names on the front page. That is a fab price for both your dresses, especially as ull be getting exactly what you want. Im paying £210 for my photographer, thats for 2 hours and all edited photos on a disk and we can use the disk to print of how ever many photos we want. I didnt really want one all day but wanted one to take some pictures of the ceremony and some of me and oh and our families. In the evening for cake cutting, speeches etc ill get my sister to take some photos, may get her oh to record some bits aswell so we can have a dvd of it, but ill have to have a word with her and see if they mind. I think I would look at how much you are willing to spend and the type of photos you want and would maybe meet up with a couple of them, looking at their work and the style of photos they take and then decide from there.
Your bouquet is going to look fab.

Natalie- here is Alices blog
http://smoonbeam.blogspot.com/
it was only on the previous page!!:p

FutureCooper

Morning all . . . .

Alice - I don't think £500 is all that much if its a good quality bridal material and you have enough for your dress, bridesmaids and some left over. The fact you have the talent of dressmaking, in mo opinion it would be a crime not to use it!! On the photographer note i have recently secured a local photographr for £300 for 3 hours of time and an edited disc with copyrights. So we can choose to make an album at a later date if we wish. My suggestion would go and chat to the ones you like the work/portfolio of and see how you like them. You have to be happy to have them as part of your day and confident they will take the pictures you want. These are optical images you will look at forever!!

After a very grumpy Bridezilla moment Friday night i have calmed down now and decided that i just don't like the wedding planner at the Hotel . . . its not the venue its her shabby way of dealing with us. She actually pulled her nose up when i asked if it possible to lay the tables out 'different' to how she has always done it!!! Then when i explained that i didn't want my guests with their backs to each other and would like a huge sort of square shape so where ever they are seated they all see each others faces she suddenly said 'ooh what a lovely idea'. H2B was fuming about the hidden costs as such, and he wants to look for something else and tell them to stick the deposit but i don't want the hassle (not today anyway!!) but we agreed we will definitely take our own napkins. I have sourced them on Ebay for a quarter of their charge. The thought of having to find another venue (that is the only hotel in our town), source caterers, decorate somewhere from scratch, sort table and chair hire, bar etc etc fills me with dread.

Natalie - you can officially say that you are going diving next week!!! Loved the wetsuit look, you looked great.

LauraR - pleased you enjoyed your weekend away and hope your son has a super birthday

Emma - Phew . . . got the venue sorted, that could of been a disaster. I had a sweat on for you!

PinkPrincess83

Melanie- thanks, i am so glad it is all sorted, I looked at my booking form and it has been booked since 31st July 2010 so you can imagine how worried I was when the new manager had no record of the booking, thing is when she wrote us in the diary as an enquiry we had already booked, confirmed and paid a deposit so im not even sure if the enquiry related to us or not! Deposit has been paid to caterers now aswell, we need to meet up with them next April time to go through a few things. Its starting to feel even more real as it gets closer each month!:D

I dont blame you for your bridezilla moment on Friday, I dont think its even a bridezilla moment though- they should have told you the added costs at the time of booking. At least you got some on ebay for a good price. She sounds very snooty!

wxy

Hey you lot are very chatty! I didn't check MSE for a day and there were so many comments!

Ah I feel better about the costs of fabric already! just hope that they will be enough and that the dresses turn out well!

On the photographers front, the cheapest one is £400 for 2 photographers from getting ready to after the speeches. Now with this one, I don't think they have that much experience although I have had a photoshoot (thanks to Groupon!) with one of them and enjoyed working with her. The only issue is that she hasn't been very reliable (eg responding to emails, and originally she was going to be doing it alone before deciding to bring another photographer on board etc... which caused delays as the other person wasn't happy with splitting the money) and doesn't seem hugely keen on signing a contract... We're going to see her this wkend though and I'm going to bring a contract that I can hopefully find on the internet for them to sign... for wedding insurance and for our peace of mind! Other ones we've spoken to are over the £1k mark which is just ridiculously expensive...

Melanie - I'm impressed that you are managing to deal with the nasty surprise so well (of course I wasn't there for your 'grumpy' moment) and
perhaps you could use some of the decorations to use as favours? so in the end you won't need to worry about taking everything home? just a thought.

Natalie - do let me know when you want me to post the link to my blog again... maybe I'll do that every time I post something new (and good) on there

lovecake

Hi Everyone,

I haven't been on here for a while (been on hols and then catching up with a heap of work when I got back). I'll have to have a read of the last few pages and catch up on how you are all getting on!

A wee progress update from me...
OH has ordered his kilt - he is having one made instead of hiring as he'll use it a lot for friend's weddings / hogmanay / ceilidhs etc. but will be hiring the jacket etc. to save money. I haven't seen it as I'd like it to be a surprise on the day! (Is this brave/trusting or stupid?):rotfl:

We have also ordered our wedding rings which was so exciitng! We got a really good discount from the jewellers because we went back to the same one where we got my engagement ring - so we saved £55 on what I had budgeted on my geeky spreadsheet! :rotfl:

So that's: venue, registrar, photographer, hairdresser, my dress, bridesmaid's dresses, groom's kilt, and wedding rings all sorted :T

How is everyone else getting on?

Rach x

jemb

Afternoon ladies! Honeymoon booked! Check! Kitchen ceiling fallen in, Check! And yet I'm still smiling! Lol. 1 year tomorrow since Mr P popped the question!