July 2013 Brides and Grooms

Pinzy

Hello all, another July 2013 bride here.

Got engaged a week and a half ago, have just today got confirmation from the venue that we can have 12th July, so just need to get that booked so we can then book the registrar!

We were planning on May but it turned out my pa is on holiday for most of it and I'd rather like him to be there!

We've got a minimum of 50 guests. The venue doesn't offer corkage so we're having to pay out rather more for the wine! Our local registry office only holds 30 people so we had to look for licenced venues (the nearest registry office that holds 50 people is 30 minutes drive away and looks like a council building). One the plus side it narrowed down our choices considerably so less traipsing around! We had it down to 2 - a pub or golf club, the pub did have a really lovely room and a courtyard, but there's no greenery, and we both love our greenery. The golf club has a view directly over the city and we just fell in love with it for our photos. More expensive (of course) but they're able to take a lot more for the reception. It also includes a DJ (a friend has been to a reception there and said it was good) so the entertainment is sorted.

I went to a dress shop, found a dress I love, it looks fabulous. It's £1000 :eek: The search continues..

Oh and we have 9 attendants! 2 bridesmaids, 2 flower girls, 2 pageboys and 3 ushers. There's quite a few nieces and nephews between us and I wanted them all to be involved. Just found a webshop called Roco which seems to do very reasonably priced kids wedding stuff.

Photographers - what's with the cost?! Especially now things are digital. I want good photos, but don't want a "deluxe luxury coffee book album". Just want all the pics taken on a disc so I can play with them myself. At the moment, that's my biggest concern.

Chair covers - I definitely want them, seen pics of the venue without and... nah! Went to a small wedding fair on Sunday and found a supplier who's cheaper than any online and they do it for you (some companies just deliver it all to your house). £2.75 for linen with sash.

Cake - I'm planning to do my own - have been watching many online videos about making sugarpaste flowers! Likely buying in the biggest white iced fruit cake from Tesco, a chocolate ganache cake from Waitrose, and having a wheat free one (for me!) made for the top. Tracking down Optimus Prime & Barbie cake toppers.. yes. We're aiming for elegant, with bits of our own little oddities added in.

lisajane8482

Hi everyone,

Laura, I haven’t made my mind up yet about the chair covers, it was suggested to just have the top table done but I’m not sure if that'll just look strange. You sound like your planning's going well.

We've stock piled all our wine and cava ready for next year, we got it about 3 months ago I think, we must have looked like right plonkies buying 36 bottles of wine and 15 bottles of cava.

I'd love a string quartet or pianist but they're just so expensive, and our budget just wouldn't stretch that far.... unless of course we win the lottery before then

OH and I are still disagreeing on the suit hire as he wants to ask the ushers to pay (best men said they wanted to pay for their own which is why he wants to ask the rest). I think that we should be paying for everyones, best men included. Originally all the men were going to wear their own suits and we were going to buy them matching shirts and ties. He bought a lovely Jeff Banks suit a few months ago for the wedding but he suddenly changed his mind and decided he wated to hire them. I suggested that he reconsiders that they wear their own suits but he's not happy with that idea at all. It's getting to the point now where I just feel like telling him to do what he wants as he won't back down and I'm sick of arguing about it.

What type of flowers have you decided on Wendz?

Hi Pinzy, congratulations and welcome to the thread, we went for a humerous cake topper (I changed the hair colour myself as she was blonde and I'm dark haired), I wish we'd bought some custom made zombie ones now though. I'd love to have one of us, our two daughters and the cat and may still splerge out on them after christmas if we have some spare cash.

My nana and little girl have made 2 fruit cakes which will have "matured" by next year apparently, I personally don't like fruit cake so I've just let them get on with it.

I’ve booked my hairdresser and have a trial in January to see if I need to grow my layers out for the wedding, although I’m thinking of putting it back until February/March as we’ll be moving house shortly so will be a little short of cash for the next couple of months.... unless we get our bond back quickly off our current landlord.

I haven’t really done anything else weddingy for a while now and probably won’t be until after Christmas due to moving, we're putting all the wedding stuff at my mum's so it doesn't get damaged. I will have to re-order or do something with my invitations as they all have our current address on, I guess sometimes being super organised isn’t such a good thing. I was thinking about cutting them in half as they are folded and just printing the invitations on the back but I'm not sure if they'll just look rubbish.

Pinzy

Hey LJ, give cutting one in half a go, you never know.

Maybe the OH could say to the ushers that the best men are paying, if the ushers want to contribute to the suits as well they're can, if they can't contribute then it's no problem. We're covering the cost but OH's suit was paid for when he was best man to his two best men, and the rest is pretty much kids. If the parents offer to help I'm just gonna say that if they really want to they can give as much as they can afford but it's absolutely fine if they don't.


Today's brain-stresser was worrying whether I and the guests would be too hot in July, especially when it comes to dancing in the dress!

wendz86

Hi Pinzy,

Your venue sounds great.

We are having a disk only wedding package as i don't think we would get use out of the coffee table photobooks etc and if i want to create one will just do it myself. Worked out a lot cheaper and they are only coming for 4 hours so won't be photographing me getting ready etc but i guess that part depends on what you want.

Lisajane - thats a difficult one about the suits. I agree with you on paying but is expensive!

The flowers are going to be similar to this but without the darker purple/blue ones.

ska_kitten

Laura,
Please google 'Front Row Weddings' for cheap wedding chair cover hire near manchester or on Facebook search 'Front Row Weddings'!
Thanks

Justengaged

I've been crazy with work and not been able to log on much and take part in posts, but was wondering how other July brides were getting on, loved reading the posts above though.

Having originally posted in 2011, here we are only days before 2013, and unfortunately our plans have progressed no further than when I last posted, and now the wedding is only 7 months away.

I wanted to run some things by you guys if thats ok, and get some opinions. It'll be a bit lengthy, so sorry for that in advance

Dress - I've been trying to lose some weight, and have managed to get down to a size 16, I'd love to be a size 14, but realistically I'm struggling to budge the bulge, and will probably go with a size 16 dress.

Are they easy to take in if I do manage to shift enough weight to drop another dress size?

Venue - I think we might have found a wedding venue, we just need to tell them we want to use it (it's National Trust), but there's no reception venue yet as we're keeping it small and can't afford the caterers costs. I'm not too concerned on that just yet though, as a last resort both sets of parents have offered their houses as it'll be a small function with only immediate family and close friends, and then we're planning to do a big casual party on the Saturday for everyone together.

Has any one else split the main reception for a small one, and then had a 2nd party - how do it go, worried people will get upset, but at same time OH can't handle too many people so he comes first, just trying to manage it as best as possible.

Rings - We've not bought these yet, but I'd love for us to design our own rings if it doesn't cost too much. Does anyone know of any cheap, but nice ring designers in the S.East please?

Cakes - Seen plenty of stunning cakes at Wedding Fayres.... and all with stunning prices. Would like a cake designed to certain requests, but not sure how much ppl will ask for them, so need to check around.

Photographer - No one booked, or even considered yet. Seems they're all quite expensive, and we can't do much expense. Was thinking about approaching local colleges that have photography classes, or perhaps posting on a photographer forum and seeing if anyone would be interested in doing it for free and being able to use our photos in their portfolio perhaps - has anyone else tried this, or had a similar experience while saving money? Potential brainwave, or potential nightmare and to be avoided at all costs?

Flowers - yeah, none of them either, but as other posts had suggested fake ones instead, I'm starting to like the idea of this as long as they look beautiful and not awful.

Nothing is organised at all as you can see, and just wondering if anyone else is being as disorganised as me, or perhaps can help advise on any of the above please?

wendz86

Hi!

Nice to see someone around. I am looking forward to getting stuck into wedding stuff in the new year.

With the dress i was told its a lot easier to take them in if you lose weight. Nothing you can do if its too small.

I don't see anything wrong with just doing a small reception and a bigger party later if thats what you want to do.

I hope someone can help you with the rest!

Not much news here but as i said looking to get stuck in , in the next few weeks. Next few tasks are to make the invitations in Jan and Feb as am planning to send them out in March. Also trying to find some shoes in the sales. I was originally thinking ivory but my dress is quite white so now i'm thinking more silver. Won't be able to see them much anyway.

Justengaged

Good luck with your hunt for shoes, if you're having trouble then it might even be worth a try on Ebay, some of the shoes on there are brand new as well.

Laura, thanks for the link I had a look at the rings, expected prices to be ridiculously high but they weren't. Will definitely look into them.

laura_hoggle

Grr was halfway through typing a message then flicked away from the screen to look at something else and lost it!

Justengaged - I was quite surprised by the cost of that company, others I've looked at are far more expensive!
Re- your cake, as with the photographer, have you got a catering college near you who might be willing to make one? Might be something worth considering if you want something bespoke but not at bespoke costs! This might be worth considering for catering as well. Or do you have a local restaurant you know well? My friend had their local Turkish restaurant cater their wedding, food was amazing and much cheaper than the caterers they looked at.
I agree with Wend about the dress, much easier to get it taken in than made bigger! Also sometimes wedding dresses can come up small so don't worry if the tag says a size bigger than what you would normally.

We have also taken a bit of a back seat with wedding stuff but will get back into it in Jan - along with a diet hopefully! We need to buy a new printer as ours has helpfully decided it doesn't want to print in black anymore. Then I might have a go with making some invites.

Has everyone had a good Christmas? Ours has been fairly quiet. Spent Christmas at my parents and at the future in laws now. My future sister in law has offered to lend me her veil, tiara, hair clips and jewellery from her wedding, so I have that to try on with the dress when I'm at my parents next. My mum is quite insistent on buying me a veil, but they are so expensive, and I like the idea of it being my something borrowed. If this one isn't right I might try my friends as she has also offered to lend me hers.

Justengaged

Hmm, I need to get to work on the something borrowed etc, hadn't even thought about it. Shouldn't be too hard hopefully, everyone constantly giving their advice (wanted or not ), I'm sure if I ask for help with that they'll have stuff though.

I'm going for a purple theme, not sure how blue will fit in, but thats the least of my worries lol.

I was talking through stuff with OH today, and as the mini reception is about 20 people, I was thinking maybe a nice pub would let us hire part of them for the evening. We live near Devils Dyke, no shortage of pubs in the countryside here so could be quite nice if it's the right one. Will investigate.

Have just been browsing invites on Ebay, having mentioned it in my previous post, some lovely butterflies ones on there.

P.S - had lovely Christmas thanks, hope everyone has a very Happy New Year, gets sloshed where able and then we can all panic at our impending weddings getting closer (for those not so organised like me ofc)

:T:j:T