May 2012 Brides (and Grooms) + Diary of a 2012 Bride

bride2be2012

Grr, am having a rubbish day! OH text me to say his day's have been swapped at work, and so now he can't go to see the venue with me again on Saturday (my mum is going to come instead though).

And have just come back from the doctors (who was running sooooooo late) and managed to prang the car on the wall, and it now has a big huge scrape on it...and it couldn't be our wee scrappy run around it happened to, but OH's pride and joy...so, the money to get that fixed will have to come out the wedding fund, as we don't have much savings otherwise at the moment. Wishing OH would hurry up and come home, so I can get the lecture about being more careful and him being in a bad mood out of the way!

Cleverclogs

I hope you recovered from your bad day and successfully endured the lecture/man strop!
I know exactly how you feel - my car had to go in to the garage on two separate occasions, with two unrelated problems, in the space of two weeks last month. I was hoping and praying it wasn't something so serious I'd have to delve into the wedding fund and had nightmares about having to buy a new car and forego a wedding dress! It wasn't so bad I had to touch my savings but I am praying my car (AKA the money pit!) will last me at least another year without any expensive repairs so the wedding fund can remain untouched...!

bride2be2012

lol, thanks..OH was surprisingly all right about it, and recons he can fix it himself and it won't need to go to the garage for a respray :j

Now having venue stresses as we can't find anywhere we like, that will allow us to have small numbers, that is free on our date! OH sees a lot of the 'back-end' of hotels as he delivers laundry to them for work, so has ruled out a lot of local hotels as he's seen what goes on behind the scenes, if you know what I mean!

Cleverclogs

Venue hunting was incredibly hard work so I'm feeling your stress! I think it's probably more difficult if you have a specific date in mind which happens to fall on a Saturday. Most of the hotels we looked at wanted 80 people minimum for a Saturday wedding - and we don't even know that many people!!!
Have you tried looking at venues other than hotels? Some nice restaurants/pubs in our area were able to cater for smaller weddings, or sports clubs eg: bowling clubs, golf clubs etc. We've got some lovely golf clubs nearby and they generally have lovely outside spaces for photos!

bride2be2012

lol, great minds think alike - we have a lovely golf course just 5 minutes walk from our house, and they are available on our date! We've never actually been inside, but the clubhouse looks lovely from the outside, looks out over the course towards the sea. Just need to persuade my other half now - as most of our family's (both sides) will be travelling and need to stay overnight, we ideally wanted somewhere with accommodation. But there are plenty B and B's/hotels near by. So hopefully will go and see the golf course over the weekend.:j

Cleverclogs

Oooh, let us know how it goes! It sounds lovely.
Accommodation is always a problem though. Despite our wedding being in a hotel, we are still having to think about alternatives as the hotel rooms are really expensive. But there are plenty of hotels & B&Bs around so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'm not sure what the norm is regarding accommodation for guests, as I've been to weddings where we were given a list of hotels/B&Bs where some of them had already reserved rooms, but then I've also been to weddings where we were told where the reception was and just found local accommodation ourselves. I'm sure all our guests have the internet so can search for themselves which seems a way of reducing time for us but not sure whether that's ok - any advice?!!

ruthybabs

hello ladies

Well he's home and we've had a very busy few days! I have finally been proposed to and have a lovely sparkly ring to prove it! Families have been told and are on the whole delighted (long story, but my parents aren't exactly known for their support of my decisions! But my mum has actually congratulated us and seems pleased.) So the secret is out and my DDs can breathe again! Much excitement in our house!!

We have been to the registrar to give notice this morning so that's all official now. As regards the venue, we have visited 3 this week including the boat and have eventually settled on a social club instead after being really objective. The boat is being slowly renovated and it looks like the function suite may well be a building site by May. Most of the outside is rusting and is probably unlikely to have been repaired by then, so is going to look a bit ropey in any photos and the area where people would go to smoke (I know but we have to consider them as it includes MIL!) is all covered in rust so someone is bound to ruin their clothes.

Also we won't have to worry about any children (or his ex squaddie mates) climbing in open areas and ending up in the Tyne! We both loved it, but it really isn't practical and as they can't guarantee what state things might be in by then, I couldn't cope with the stress of it not being right and having to find somewhere else, and H2B is such a perfectionist that it would wind him up all day if the renovations weren't just so. So we have decided to keep it as somewhere nice for us to visit for a drink.

The club was surprisingly nice inside-much bigger than expected and light and clean-much cleaner than some of the very expensive hotels I've looked at and is right on the edge of the beach with big picture windows looking out over it, so from that point of view is lovely. They are happy for us to bring in our own catering and decorate how we like and have offered to let us in the day before to sort things out so there's no stress on the day. They have offered us a lovely sunny room downstairs for the afternoon and a big party room upstairs for later on too so we can have 2 distinct parts to the day, which we weren't really counting on. The best part is that the room hire for both rooms from 2pm-1am is only £80! I can't believe it's so cheap!

We have decided that as we are on the seafront that we'll have fish and chips for our reception and am toying with getting someone in to do ice creams (there's an ice cream parlour next door) so that has left us with enough money in the kitty to provide a 2nd buffet for later on. (We thought we could only afford one set of food) We are now going to have to try all the local fish and chips to find the best one, but they're all pretty good as the fish comes right off the boats.

So the ceremony is booked and notice given, the reception is booked and paid for, the food has been chosen and the wedding rings ordered (he loved them!). Have to decide finally on colours, as may or may nott go with blue now then can order dds dresses and design invitations and decorations etc. Oh, and we have booked and paid for a hotel for the weekend for our honeymoon and already have the promise of a babysitter for the weekend from my sister.

So a busy week for us, but lovely to finally get a few things confirmed!

Hope you're all getting on well, sounds like the cars are being a bit of a nightmare, but glad it wasn't more expensive.

DD1's birthday tonight so a house full of teenage girls is a good reason to go and have an engagement drink with H2Bs family I think! Then we're away to a caravan with the children so no wedding stuff this week. Will be interested to see how you're getting on when I'm back.

Have a lovely weekend xxx

MsShopper

Hi ruthybabs, glad you had a great reunion with your man, and got the congrats you deserve from your mum. Sounds like you made a wise decision about the venue. Beach views - gorgeous. And £80 as well - what a bargain!

By the way, I thought of you yesterday when I came across this Pinterest board. I was on the look-out for ideas for wedding cakes/cupcakes with a navy-blue theme, and found someone who's collecting nautical-themed wedding ideas. Maybe it'll help you decide on your colour scheme!

I also have some spare invites for Pinterest if anyone wants them, by the way. I love it - it's brilliant for collating ideas and inspiration, and you can also look at others' boards and nab great images/ideas from them too.

ruthybabs

Hi thanks, looks like some great ideas.

Please send me an invite so I can have a really good look. I love those nautical touches so might stick with plan A-we're still going to be entirely coastal, so it will work well I think.

Have you made any progress or still researching?

MsShopper

Mostly still researching. This week, I've been trying to find a hairstyle that will go with the dress I have my eye on (which looks a little vintage-y but not specifically 60s style, like the BM dresses are). It's daft, we have months and months to go, and I'm worried that I haven't yet found the perfect hairstyle to match the bridesmaid dresses!

PM me with your email address, and I'll pop you down for a Pinterest invite.