July 2012 Brides and Grooms

laurarobby

Hi Ladies.....

Im going to be July 2012 Bride! friday 20th to be exact! we have found our venue for the ceremony breakfast and reception. getting the deposit together this week to book it. then we can ring the registrar and book that too!

Our budget is £3k the venue & food is £2k so have to get everything else for £1k! we are having 50(plus 7children) day guests then another 40 for the evening! im only having one bridesmaid and she has offered to pay for her dress etc for the day so thats good!

we have a son and another one on the way so were not having a honeymoon! we arnt that bothered either would rather have a nice family holiday x

littlemisspink

Hi to all the new July 2012 ladies!!!
Laura, we're having our first family hol abroad for our honeymoon, Disnayland Paris!!! Soooo can't wait, am such a big kid lol.
I went to the wedding fair yesterday, and have now booked my photographer and emailed a make up artist for availability for my hair and make up, inc trial (bargain at £160 and NO DEPOSIT!!!!) Plus have also penciled in for a photobooth!!! Just waiting for my venue to get back to me to see if we're allowed it (please, please, please!!!!!) Not very mse, at £545 but that will be our main entertainment, and will just have a dj instead of the singer/casino tables we were going for.Plus our photog came in at £100 cheaper than budgeted for, and have found my flowergirls posys on Ebay for £9 each, less than half price was expecting!! Oooh am so excited now am really getting somewhere. Now just need to save like mad haha!!
How far along is everyone else? I was quite shocked at the wedding fair yesterday as some were saying they are quite well into bookings for next summer already, so really hoping my make up artist isnt busy as she's fab!!

PinkPrincess83

Hello and welcome more July 2012 brides.

Laurarobby- your budget it similar to mine, im just hoping I can find loads of bargains in order to get it all in for that price.

Littlemisspink- sounds like you had a successful visit to the wedding fayre, loving the photobooth idea- hopefully your venue will agree to it.

Well I had a very successful visit to the bridal sale on sat and have my dress!!:j Im so happy, I love it, it was the only one in the sale I liked then tried it on and just loved it, and it was very mse.:jThats the only thing Ive sorted recently though.

laurarobby

urgh! im not happy! ive had some really bad reviews about my venue and im really dissapointed so ive been totally put off! im hoping to contact my local village hall and see what price they charge to hire then see how much to get it lined http://www.humberside-marquees.com/building_linings.html like this (pic at bottom of page)
im just hoping its not going to cost more then if we went to a venue if that makes any sense! x

littlemisspink

oh wow, pink princess, whats it like!! Bet you're so excited!!! I only got mine end of Dec, but feels like was ages ago lol!!!
Laurarobby, oh no!! Have you got a britannia hotels near you? Im going with them, they do a wedding package for £999 and its got loads included! Or Holiday Inn apparently do the same sort of thing! Quite a few hotels do them near me, as Im in Blackpool lol, so you could always ask around?! Hope you get sorted!
I've got the ok for my photobooth, yay Sooooo excited!!! My budget started at £4k lol, but even with this, its only at £5k, but thats without the honeymoon lol. Loving looking for bargains and Ebay is fab for them!!

PinkPrincess83

I dont want to put too much info on here- just incase anyone I know sees this (my oh knows I come on here so I wouldnt want him to see it!!). Its strapless and ivory and so nice!!:) It was reduced from £899 to £199! I do need to get it cleaned as it has a little mark on it, but the shop do a deal and it should be about £60 for that so such a good mse bargain.

Oh no laurarobby, thats not so good about your venue, and I dont blame you for being put off by the reviews. I think old english inns do a £1000 deal aswell, if you have any of them locally to you, you may find some local hotels do deals aswell, may be worth having a look online at their websites (like I have seen a posh hotel local to me are doing a £2000 deal so have a look about if your church hall idea works out too much).

I think ebay will be my fave site over the next 18 months, have seen some shoes I like that finish today so am hoping to get them for a bargain price!!

And yay about the photobooth!

Silaqui

There are lots of you getting married on my birthday (28th July lol - I didn't want to have to get married on my own b'day!)

You are all getting lots of stuff done and making me feel a bit jittery! Well done on getting the dress sorted PinkPrincess, where are you going to keep it so your OH doesn't see it? I can't imagine a wedding dress being the sort of thing you can sneak in the back of the wardrobe! :rotfl:

Hope you get the venue sorted Laurarobby, might be worth signing up to Groupon if you haven't already as I've seen a few wedding deals on there on and off. It's a bit hit and miss but you never know when you might get lucky.

We had a look at a venue the other day - it's our first choice, a little village pub and it's close to the church too, only problem is it only holds about 90 comfortably - we have 136 on our provisional guestlist (all thanks to OH's massive family, theres 60 of them and although they might not come, we still have to invite them!). I'm a bit torn because they are meant to be having an extension so it would fit 140 which would be perfect, but they don't know when they will get permission from the brewery to do it. Hmmm.

Also haven't decided on a colour scheme, but I haven't got a clue about that. I thought I'd find it easy as I'm a designer by training but I can't decide!
I'm possibly thinking PURPLE & LIME GREEN but not sure, I also quite like the idea of SKY BLUE & RED or maybe even ROYAL BLUE & LEAF GREEN, any thoughts?

xx

PinkPrincess83

Hey Silaqui, im really not that organised, the only things I have are my dress and my flowergirl dress, and thats only because they were too good a price not to get! And the ceremony is booked and reception venue, but thats it and that was only booked so we could get the date we wanted!! it still feels like its so far away, even though really time is whizzing by!!

All your colour ideas sound lovely, i like the purple and lime green and the royal blue and leaf green schemes, sorry that isnt much help, i can see why your finding it hard to decide!!!

Sounds like youve got a tough decision to make about your venue- have they got any ideas when they will know if they can build the extension or not?

MrsDrink

Cor I absolutely agree - Silaqui - reading about all the things that you guys have organised is definitely getting me a) scared as hell that I'm going to forget something and b) all excited that there are other people who are going through this and I can imagine you all jumping around clapping your hands as another piece fits the jigsaw! :T

Laurarobby - where have you read the bad reviews? Are they from friends/family who have been there? In what capacity? Or are they somewhere on the internet. The reason I write this is because what one person considers to be a dive will be another person's idea of heaven. Also consider how old the reviews are, for example has the place exchanged hands - could the new owners be better etc. I think if I was in a similar situation I'd chat to the venue - tell them what you have heard and give them the opportunity to put your mind at ease... if they don't or can't then yep I'd consider looking for somewhere else.

Budgets? Well our moto is as cheap as possible... I haven't actually budgeted for individual things... simply cause I've no idea what to expect to pay... I do admit though I have read a fair few threads on here and nearly choked on my drink - Some things are just so bloody expensive - and they must be bargains if they're mentioned on MSE!! Scary!! We are doing it on the cheap though... registry office ceremony for maximum of 18. Then a house party at ours (assuming the renovation is completed lol) at the weekend for 50 or so. I'm not doing 'save the date' cards - don't want the expense of the materials, I have told those who I care about to put it in their diaries. I'm going to make our own invites. I'm considering doing my own hair and make up. I will wear a nice dress (which my mum has said she'll pay for - but I'm not sure I want her to - I'm fairly independent when it comes to this sort of thing), MrD will wear trousers and a shirt (possibly a jacket but that'll be it - no tie or button hole thing). Shoes for the two of us. He won't wear a ring, I'm not sure if I want one (I don't even have an engagement ring - I wear one ring that was made for my 30th birthday using the sapphire from my 21st birthday ring, and the diamonds from my grandma's engagement ring). So that is the ceremony. The party as I've said will be a party at ours - I am considering making the buffet myself (the party will be 4 days after the wedding so plenty of time to organise). I have looked at places like M&S - and completely scoffed at how much their party food ranges are!! Cakes - will make some cupcakes I think and decorate them myself. Really all we'd need is some sort of marquee incase it rains lol. Entertainment? I don't 'do' family discos, I think I'd be happy with some strategically placed speakers and my ipod set up with lots of my fave tunes. I would like to think we can do all this for under £3k... but I don't know if I'm being realistic or not.

The biggest expense is going to be the honeymoon - cause we have to learn to dive (October half term) which is going to cost the two of us around £1200. (Which will include buying our own wetsuit, snorkels, masks and fins). Then we'll need to book somewhere posh for the honeymoon to dive. Thailand or Australia have been mentioned. As a child I dreamt about diving the Great Barrier Reef so that would be a dream come true.

The only other thing I have been thinking about is colours... and invites. Because of the way we're doing things I'm struggling to decide on how best to write my invites. The ones for those just invited to the party is easy. But the ones inviting people to both the ceremony on the Tuesday and the party on the Saturday is a headache already lol. I'm in two minds - a) write it all on one invite but it being really long and wordy or b) send two invites and run the risk of people thinking I've gone mad and have sent the same invite out twice... to get round this I've been thinking about colour schemes... I quite like the idea of having a deep red, black and ivory/white as our 'theme' I could then do the ceremony invite as red with black accent, and then the party invite as black with red accent - or something so they look visually different but linked at the same time.

Must admit I am jealous at those of you who have already got your dresses!! PinkPrincess83 that is an absolute bargain!!

**edit**
Oh - lol I have done my first bit of wedding spending- I have ordered a couple of sheets of coloured card and ribbons to have a play around with my invites... and a mat, steel ruler, and craft knife to make them with. Current total £19.84... eeek lol it's already far too much!

Silaqui

PinkPrincess83 wrote: »

Hey Silaqui, im really not that organised, the only things I have are my dress and my flowergirl dress, and thats only because they were too good a price not to get! And the ceremony is booked and reception venue, but thats it and that was only booked so we could get the date we wanted!! it still feels like its so far away, even though really time is whizzing by!!

All your colour ideas sound lovely, i like the purple and lime green and the royal blue and leaf green schemes, sorry that isnt much help, i can see why your finding it hard to decide!!!

Sounds like youve got a tough decision to make about your venue- have they got any ideas when they will know if they can build the extension or not?

I know, it's going to go really fast isn't it... I need to lose some weight before I can go dress shopping
The owner of the vene is going to ring us at the end of Feb to let us know what they've heard - if it's going ahead then great, if there's no new news then we have to decide whether to go for somewhere else, or bump the people we don't like off the guest list!! :rotfl:

MrsDrink wrote: »

Cor I absolutely agree - Silaqui - reading about all the things that you guys have organised is definitely getting me a) scared as hell that I'm going to forget something and

I know! Every time i look on this board someone is doing/booking/organising something I hadn't even realised you had to do!!:rotfl:

MrsDrink wrote: »

The only other thing I have been thinking about is colours... and invites. Because of the way we're doing things I'm struggling to decide on how best to write my invites. The ones for those just invited to the party is easy. But the ones inviting people to both the ceremony on the Tuesday and the party on the Saturday is a headache already lol. I'm in two minds - a) write it all on one invite but it being really long and wordy or b) send two invites and run the risk of people thinking I've gone mad and have sent the same invite out twice... to get round this I've been thinking about colour schemes... I quite like the idea of having a deep red, black and ivory/white as our 'theme' I could then do the ceremony invite as red with black accent, and then the party invite as black with red accent - or something so they look visually different but linked at the same time.

Must admit I am jealous at those of you who have already got your dresses!! PinkPrincess83 that is an absolute bargain!!

**edit**
Oh - lol I have done my first bit of wedding spending- I have ordered a couple of sheets of coloured card and ribbons to have a play around with my invites... and a mat, steel ruler, and craft knife to make them with. Current total £19.84... eeek lol it's already far too much!

I like the idea of that colour scheme, sounds really elegant! Glad I'm not the only one who wants to really keep the costs down - I don't mind paying for a nice venue (as you'll be spending most of the day there) and good food (although thats likely to be a barbie or hog roast ) because that is out family 'thing' - but I hate the idea of wasting money on flowers, favours and a dress I'll never wear again - so I probably won't!

I need to sit down and do some invitation designs too, I think thats going to be my favourite bit!

xx