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

stationaryace

Cleverclogs - love the photo!

I'm going to see my dressmaker this weekend to make sure the bodice fits and that the skirt folds are in the right place. Yes it is 5 weeks and 5 days til the big day and my dress is still under construction. I'm hoping it's finished before my away weekend in April (two weeks before the big W) but if it's not then it's not the biggest disaster.

Had my hen night on saturday. We had a session at Go Ape in the afternoon then everyone got on their pirate gladrags for the evening. It was great fun and my two bridesmaids did such an amazing job, even if they made the worst mojitos known to man (rum and soda anyone?), I still can't believe how much work they put into it. And how many bags we had to cart in and out of the travelodge... luckily the unmanned reception desk means it's easy to sneak in and out as I'm sure I saw a no hen party policy on their website

other than that have done very little wedding work. so much for getting everything finished by end of March.

this week I WILL be -

• writing out evening invites
• picking my flowers
• choosing a cake topper or alternative cake decoration
• starting the stationary for the day, place names etc
• picking up OH's kilt
• possibly chosing the wine - have a Groupon voucher for winetasting in a "local" winery only 1.5 hours away (45mins from my parents my the dressmaker) so if we find a wine we both like we'll be stocking up from there.

I've actually started agreeing with my OH now when he says "I'm really looking forward to the honeymoon" as everything is booked and paid for so we just need to turn up. bliss!

bride2be2012

Cleverclogs, you look stunning in your dress!!

Stationeryave, glad you had a great hen night. I'm kinda dreading mine as I have said all I want is a nice meal and a few drinks. According to my bridesmaids, this makes me boring and so they have arranged a few surprises. God help me! Chief bridesmaid seems to think that because I dressed up in pink, wearing feather boa's and sashes and went on a pub crawl for her hen night, I want to do the same for my own. No - I did it for her as it was her hen night, and that's what she wanted. I don't want the same for my own!!

I've loads of wee things to buy this week for the wedding, but all are going to have to wait until pay day at the end of the week! Then hopefully we can go book a honeymoon at the weekend too - OH starting to get excited too - came home last night and he has written on the calendar in the kitchen 'OFF WORK, HONEYMOON'! Normally it's left to me to write things like that on it, he does all the boring things like car MOT!

Edited to add - Our RSVP cut off is this weekend. And I'm still waiting on 30, yes 30, replies!! AGH!!

clairus

Cleverclogs-nice choice of dress, you look amazing!

Can't believe we are so close to May-2 more paydays left for me (but one is 2 days before the wedding so no real help at all!)

Can't remember if i have posted on here since trying on my dress, but the good news is that it is somehow the perfect length for my Amazonian 5'3" height, and it is now too big (getting the dress taken in is the only thing I am happy about having to pay for!).

Just got lots of little bits left to do no, finish the bouquets, make the buttonholes and wait impatiently for the RSVPs!

stationaryace

5 weeks today at this time we'll be doing our first dance! :beer:

got my next dress fitting tomorrow after the wine tasting! OH is entirely kitted out, flowers are done, bridal party is going shoe shopping next saturday and i'm still trying to pick a hair style.

apparently tonight is for stationary plans, evening invites and cake toppers (stoopid list). oh well, good thing I don't have any other plans....

MsShopper

Hey all

Hope you've had a fun/productive weekend!

After yet another crazy week at work I somehow mustered up the energy on Saturday morning to jump on an 8am train with H2B to visit our church and priest (120 miles away, as is everything for our wedding!) to do our final prep (filing out forms mainly).

I then jumped on another train to the dressmaker (about 50 miles from home) for my first fitting. I was a bit disappointed at first, as it wasn't sitting quite right on me. Plenty of tweaking, a different petticoat and a couple of dozens pins later and it was looking pretty much how I'd hoped. Yay!

Other things we've sorted in the past couple of weeks:

• Sent out the invites and have been getting RSVP fever! (36 'yes'; 3 'no'; 76 day guests and 34 evening guests tbc)
• Bought bridesmaids gifts and gift boxes
• Flower girl dresses arrived – they are stunning, love them!
• Bought men's suits
• Bought contents for the kids' activity bags
• Bought almost all the centrepiece items (just waiting on Matalan to restock the pillar candles I want)
• Bought Wahanda voucher for half price 'Geleration' manicures
• Bought materials to construct our favours and wedding pompoms (going on the end of the pews in place of flowers). Just need to buy the sweets to go in the favours.
• Chose readings, hymns, procession/recessional music
• Designed order of service

Things on the list for the next week or two:

• Confirm hair trial date
• Sort out giving notice (still haven't done it!)
• Got a Brazilian blow dry appointment booked at a posh salon on Wednesday to eliminate the frizz! (Groupon voucher)
• Meet with our photographer
• Practice first dance (gulp!)
• Design kids' activity book
• Design menu
• Decide on parents' gifts
• Decide on table plan design (don't know whether to go traditional or quirky)
• Buy final bits and bobs: flower girls' shoes, men's ties, favour sweeties (still not decided what to have); bridesmaids' stole/shawl (bought pashminas and the colour's just not right).

Phew! Sorry for the long update. I think it's more to help me than anything else!

Cleverclogs, your dress is absolutely stunning by the way. You look gorgeous. No wonder you were bouncing around!

bride2be, hope your final week and leaving do went well. You must be so glad you have the new job sorted now. Do you start straightaway?

stationaryace, your hen night sounds so much fun! Mine's in a month's time (first weekend in May) and I can't wait! Hope your dress fitting went well.

Seven weeks, six days to go until 26th May…..!!!

bride2be2012

Hi everyone!

Well, we are all getting married NEXT MONTH now!! :j

I had intended to do lots this weekend, wedding wise, but had my works leaving do on Friday, and wasn't feeling the best on Saturday lol! (we went to an 80s and 90s bar, lots of dancing to VERY old tunes involved hee hee!).

Did go and see our wedding car (VW camper) which was fab, exactly what I wanted, so that's paid off now.

Will hopefully get more done this week, as I'm not starting my new job until after Easter. This week I will be:
Chasing up RSVP's and also people who RSVP'd but forgot to put on dietary requirements and kids meals etc!
Deciding on and ordering thank you presents (only have ones for my flower girls so far).
Get forms to give notice.
Get frame for signing poster (this has been on my to-do list for weeks, it's about time I got it done!).
Make up favour boxes, mainly to stop OH eating all the Love Hearts!!
Order blue I-DO stickers for the soles of my shoes
Go to the travel agent to sort a honeymoon!!
Pay photographer
And hopefully on Friday we will be heading of to a friend's wedding for the weekend, if OH's work will confirm he has the days off - he asked about 4 weeks ago, and was told to ask nearer the time. He asked last Friday, to be told again ask nearer the time - it's at the end of this week for goodness sake!! :mad:

clairus

Next month! It has all gone so quickly.

Had my 2nd hair trial this weekend, loved it so that is another thing sorted now.
Also did well on the shopping front, made my regular pilgrimage to Home Bargains (my mantra being 'if I like it, then surely I can fit it into the wedding...') and found glittery/sparkly Babyliss hair slides and clips for 39p each. Was planning to put some brooches in the bridesmaids hair, and these clips look just like little brooches. Bought 20 cards of them, I must have looked like a mad woman, rooting through the basket to make sure I had all the best ones, with no room for anyone else to look!
Was also really pleased to find bookmarks for 10p each...I have no need for bookmarks, especially not 27 of them, but they do have a traditional Japanese painting/scene on one side. I was going to have labels hanging off our origami display trees explaining why we have 1000 pieces of brightly coloured paper around the room, now the explanation will be attached to the Japanese-scene bookmark. Bought all 27 as I didn't want to think of something else I could use them for and have missed out on them.

Also while we were out, mum bought what will become our card box. Originally we were going to decorate an old A4 paper box, but now we have bought something similar to this

which will be altered to include a slot for cards to be posted through.

OH is having his stag do on Saturday. I've offered to go along to make up the numbers but his best man is having none of it :rotfl:

Cleverclogs

Don't say next month! It seems so close!!! Looks like you have got some bargains there Clairus! I love the card box idea.

All RSVPs are now in - fanfare please! I've printed off all the name tags so I'll be making up the favour boxes this weekend.

OH's parentals are down for a visit this weekend so we are all off to church this Sunday to hear our banns being read in the church we'll be marrying - and then we're off to our local church next Sunday to hear our banns read in our parish.

The most exciting thing I did at the weekend was to buy a mini glue gun! My OH looked at me like I was off my rocker - but with all the leftover stationery I figured I may as well make my own thank you cards. Secretly I think it's because I enjoyed the wedding craft projects so much, I don't want to let it go!!!

Apart from that, I'm now having wedding-related drama of another kind (see other thread) with a friend who is having a hen-do abroad. Argh, weddings! Who'd have 'em?!!

bride2be2012

oh, I just replied to your other thread Cleveclogs, never realised it was you lol! hope you get things sorted x

clairus

All RSVPs in Cleverclogs? Well done! Our deadline date is next Thursday so not long now, still plenty of people to chase up though. Not looking forward to doing that!
There are of course the people who have asked my parents, "Oh, do we have to reply?", and the people who somehow mistook their daytime invite for a "Come to the church then go home and come back for the evening buffet'...good job you only have to do this wedding invite stuff once!

Question for anyone with flower girls:
will you be asking your flower girl to do any 'special' jobs for you on the wedding day? I have one flower girl who is 6 (the other is 1 1/2 so i'm not so worried about her, she can do her thing and look cute!)
I'm going to visit her this weekend and as it's her first time as a flower girl/brides maid, I would like to tell her more about what she will be doing...but i'm not really sure myself. I was hoping to put her 'in charge' of something (maybe confetti throwing or something) but I am lacking inspiration!