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

clairus

MsShopper wrote: »

I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one doing the whole Catholic wedding thing! We had our wedding prep back in November, and it was relatively painless. Half a day doing workshop exercises with other couples and no mention of the G word until the parish priest came in at the end for a chat.

There was no mention, however, of the 'notice of freedom' thing – only that we need to have our full baptism certificate. What's helpful, I hope, is that I'm getting married in the same church as the one I was baptised in, by the same priest – my uncle! He's arranged a chat with me and H2B in Feb to go through things, so hopefully I'll know then if I need to contact the seven (!!) parishes I've lived in since I was 16. Hopefully not

I hope you don't have to chase them all down, I thought we were awkward having to speak to 4! I have never spoken to so many priests! But each one has been really helpful.

Not sure when we are doing the prep course (:shhh: we've been living together for 5 years) but looks like we may be able to get on one where we live, rather than back in Liverpool. No doubt the OH will be quite dismissive of the whole thing!

Cleverclogs, your cake toppers are awesome. I'd looked at them online and decided they were too expensive and couldn't figure out what to search for to find 'blanks'! Any idea where you got them from?

Right I'm off to fold some paper cranes!

bride2be2012

Morning All!

MsShopper, loving your invites! At first I was going to make ours (I made the save the dates), then was going to go down the Vista Print route, but think I'm going to order of Ebay after all! We don't need that many, so for £30 I think it'll be worth it in terms of saving me lots of stress!

Cleverclogs, I love your toppers! They are fab! And totally reminded me I need to phone my mum's friend who is making our cake!

Well after the stressing of last week with MIL2B, I decided at the weekend she can sort herself out, it's doesn't really matter to me where she stays on the night of the wedding! Then she calls on Sunday evening to 'check we have a photographer and videographer booked'. Yes to photographer, no to videographer, as I don't want one. Cue MIL2B saying she'll organise and pay for one! I still don't want one, and if she wants to contribute to the wedding, I'd rather she put the money towards the reception (like she said she would!). I'm just hoping with a little over 4 months to go, she won't find anyone.

On a more positive note, OH has decided on what tartan he wants for the wedding, and we don't need to hire his kilt until 6 weeks before hand. Also found a place in town that makes tartan jackets, so my dad is going to order from there instead of online. (he doesn't want to wear a kilt but does want to wear something tartan, so this is his compromise).

I've also just ordered one of these. I'm going to mount it in a frame for people to sign instead of a guest book. We are having a slight VW theme to the wedding, and we already have lots of VW pics and posters about the house so this will fit right in!

MoneyMiser

Hi Guys,

We're meeting with our venue on Friday evening to discuss all the details.

They have set menus for the wedding breakfast, the cheapest being £32 a head. Not everyone will like the menu so I have asked for just a regular three-course Sunday roast, which they said would be £30 a head. This figure seemed to be picked out of thin air btw.

I was wondering, do you think it would be possible to haggle this price down to say about £20 a head, if I could guarantee a certain amount of rooms to be booked at the hotel, each costing £130 b&b?

Dont want to annoy them but there is a travel lodge 5mins down the road.

Has anyone had any experience haggling venue food costs?

MM

MsShopper

Thanks Cleverclogs, that's really sweet of you to offer your spare wooden dolls. Unfortunately, I'm not very gifted in the drawing/painting department (stationery is about my limit!) so I'd probably mess them up. Maybe clairus might like them though? (As if your cranes weren't keeping you busy enough, clairus! )

bride2be, hope your MIL2B has no luck with the videographer - or even better can just listen and honour your wishes! I love that VM print, by the way – what a brilliant idea! Nicest signing frame I've seen.

MoneyMiser, I'm not a very good haggler, and our event co-ordinator deflected my lame attempt to negotiate a better rate. That said, they're already competitive (from £25 a head) and he did agree to honour last year's prices when we booked, so I can't complain. Good luck.

Only update from me is that OH and I have finally picked out our wedding rings! :j Just got to wait a little bit longer till we've saved up enough to buy them! (Sorry about the pic sizes – I can't find these any smaller!)

stationaryace

Cleverclogs - those dolls are so cute! I was looking at the fimo cake toppers and thinking about making one. They could come out very wrong but I could say our nephew and niece made them.

In the end we settled on the final mock up for the invites down at my mum's at the weekend. It's just a basic invite design that we can assemble without any hassle. My OH is printing out the inserts at work (shhh, don't tell anyone!) but when I asked my mum for the dimensions of the insert she gave me the invite measurements(!) so we need to tweak the template. I have a few days off this week and next so my mum is helping me assemble, address and post all the phase 1 invites on Monday.

MrsErtas - you're doing the step by step version of what we did in one go. If your OH didn't like lesson 1 wait until you reach lesson 4

Clairus - I couldn't look at my OH when they tried to suggest that you shouldn't live together before the wedding and if you already were then someone should move out :eek: we just doodled in the booklet at the stage and tried not to giggle.

bride2be - aww that will make a lovely signed print and fit in with your kinda theme (and your house after!)

MoneyMiser - I can't haggle. Just don't have the gene I think. If it's too expensive I will just go somewhere else.


We met with a photographer a few nights ago and decided he's not right for us. The style just doesn't fit and when I tried to get rough figures out of him (usual number of photos taken on the day, the number he edits after, costs) he managed to not answer anything. After 90 minutes he showed us a lot of his process and how he works, but we came away without any answers to compare with other quotes. And then I find out last night he is the photographer at my best friends wedding :eek: (where I am CBM) later this year so must make sure it's a nice rejection or I might have my head cut off her photos! We are seeing another photographer on Saturday based 150 miles away but their photos use and play with the setting instead of blurring it. Our venue is gorgeous so it would be criminal not to use it.

We are meeting with local priest (P1) tomorrow for hopefully the last time. Still finalising a time to sit down with the priest (P2) near our venue to discuss the wedding day itself - only realised at the weekend we haven't got a time for getting married which we might need for the invites! we're going with a time and now hoping for best - so either this Monday or next. And I'm still trying to get hold of the priest (P3) where I was baptised for my baptism certificate. Oh and we might be inviting a family friend who is also a priest (P4) to the day itself who may or may not be involved in the ceremony. Doesn't help that my OH associated priests with Father Ted so spends the whole time trying not to make Father Ted jokes....

Next week: chase caterers for final menu and find wedding rings!

MrsErtasToBe

Stationaryace, is lesson 4 the one about sex?! Im dreading that one!!

So tonight is our first viewing of a venue and i am SO excited!! I am going with my dad because my fiance is working and he isnt really too bothered about it, helpful! Lol!

Just a little question: Can you haggle and barter with the price? What's the normal thing to do in this situation? Just take the first price you are told?

Eeek!! Its really happening now PLUS in exactly 4 months, ill be getting married! YAY.

Cleverclogs

Hi all, I will find the website where I got the dolls from! It's been a bit manic at work this week so I haven't had a chance to search yet. But I do have a spare pair if you're interested Clairus? Something to break up the monotony of paper cranes? Hah!
I love your rings MsShopper. I'm glad someone is joining me in trying to get as many diamonds as possible on one hand!
I can't believe quite how many priests you're in contact with stationaryace. I'm with your OH. In my head they're all like Father Ted. Or Dougal. What a great show that was! Good luck with the photographer hunt. And good luck with the venue hunt MrsErtas. Let us know how it goes!
Unfortunately neither me or my OH are particularly MSE when it comes to bartering. We tend to shop around to pay the best price, but rarely barter! I'm just not very good at it. We are paying less per head for our reception than other hotels in the area, the guests get to choose their menu & we're not paying a premium or subject to minimum numbers for having a Saturday wedding (which most local hotels do) so we were happy to pay the quoted price. We've gone with a package so there wasn't much negotiation to be done, but we are having fewer day guests and have opted for bacon rolls instead of an evening buffet to keep costs down. So I'd see what they're offering you for your money. If there's not much room to negotiate on price per head, see if you can get any extras thrown in!

MrsErtasToBe

Thank you, thats great! x

clairus

I love it when this thread is so active!

I spent last night gluing glitter to my wedding shoes: I now have these shoes, but with only a tiny frill of grey patent leather


Cleverclogs, I have sent you a PM. The paper cranes are driving me crazy!

MsShopper, I love your rings. Your oh's ring is just like mine wanted but for work he isn't allowed to have any shapes, grooves, stone etc so we had to go plain.

Money miser, good luck with the meeting tomorrow, as with everyone else, I'm not much of a haggler but I hope it goes well for you, will have my fingers crossed for you.

B2b2012, the print is gorgeous, it will look fantastic with the signatures on. We are intending to do one (but with a photo of us, feel really vain now!) but haven't looked for a mount yet.

MrsErtas, you will have to keep me posted on your prep classes. Have found some sessions for us to go to, (luckily) only need to attend one session so sounds like it won't be too intense for me.

Stationaryace, hope you manage to get the invite tweaks done, you have motivated me to try and write some invites this weekend!

X

Cleverclogs

Oooh lovely shoes Clairus. I've PM'ed you (although the website did something weird so I can't tell if it sent or not!)

How did the venue visit go last night MrsErtas? Was it The One?!!

Had a bit of a tiff with the OH last night - I voiced my concerns over the fact that I'm a bit anxious we haven't seen our band play live (and we probably won't before the wedding) - he read this as me not trusting his judgement, as finding the band was his job (despite the fact that he hasn't seen them play live either but most members of his family have, so I'm having to trust their judgement and not his!). I'm sure it'll be fine, and we're meeting with one of the band over the weekend to confirm price & set list, but I think I just wanted a bit of reassurance. Instead he took everything personally and I didn't feel any better about it at all!
With the endless hours I've put in thinking/researching/planning/crafting for the wedding - I'm feeling quite resentful that I can't share my anxieties without getting my head bitten off. I guess we're both feeling the stress (and I don't think it helps that I've cut out wine in January in order to kickstart my wedding diet!) but I'm a bit fed up with it all today tbh. Bloomin' weddings, who'd have 'em?!!