Wedding Tips start here...

Evansangel

Buy it now in a couple of sizes above? and if it doesn't fit sell it on ebay and look for the same dress on ebay to?

x x

thermalnermal_2

Mighty_Cruiser wrote: »

Kate and I got married last Christmas eve. Ours was definitely at the low end of the wedding budgets. Comments we received were 'Wonderful day', 'Best wedding I've ever been to', 'Wonderful atmosphere', 'Thoroughly enjoyed it'. What's more, Kate and I did as well!

Our tips are:

1. Don't think you need to spend a fortune to have a wonderful day - money can't buy that, it happens with effort and love. A smaller venue also forces you to be more selective in who you invite - you end up with those who are closest to you.

2. It's your friends and family that make the day

3. Don't think you have to do something because it is 'expected' - for example don't bother with favours - the favour is that your guests were invited in the first place!

4. Try to create an atmosphere. Ours was obviously based around Christmas - reds, golds and creams for the colours, plenty of flowers, plenty of candles.

5. Don't be afraid to ask friends for help, both with the preparations and for contacts

6. Look for ideas you like, but work out how to make it yourself!

7. Don't think you need a long period to organise a wedding. I proposed at the end of last August, so we had barely 4 months! Less time to think up unnecessary details.

8. Above all be realistic, both in your budget and on the day- something will go wrong, so just go with the flow.

The breakdown (in no particular order) was as follows:

Venue: Kilngreen Church, Saddleworth - both the wedding and reception - one of the few places Kate's Dad feels comfortable going to in his wheelchair. Hall hire £42, though there were the usual church fees on top.

Catering: 3-course meal @ £18 per head plus hot beef muffins @ £3.50 a head in the evening, Manns Wharf, Greenfield - received many compliments about the food

Flowers for the church/hall: cost of the flowers only, arranging kindly provided by the Saddleworth Floral Society

Bride's bouquet: Country Posies of Greenfield, though sadly they have closed due to ill health

Car: Jaguar, driven by a friend

Photos: Friend and work colleague who is also a semi-professional photographer. Another benefit was that we had the CD of all 160-odd shots - no need to go back for copies or extra shots

Album: TBA - we are still looking for one we like! But given the budget so far, we are prepared to spend a bit on this one.

Invitations and order of service: approx £100 in materials, design concept by Kate, graphical design by yours truly, assembly by a team of friends

Ceilidh band: £450 - local band that were delighted to do it, very enthusiastic, very good and got everybody dancing

Brass trio: £165 - students from the Royal Northern College of Music, played incidental music and the carols in the service

Cake: £180 from Cake Heaven, Lydgate - they also provided a stunning high-speed repair service when the groom let the cake slide in the back of the car!

Video: £150, again a friend who normally does this professionally

Brides and bridesmaids outfits: cost of the material, though that wasn't cheap! It helps when the bride's mother is a fully qualified seamstress!

Honeymoon: a quiet cottage in the Lakes for just the three of us - me, Kate and the dog Tess! All we wanted was some time away by ourselves, and a chance to catch up after the efforts of putting the wedding together.

Several things helped to make this a really special day. Somebody used to organising is needed for getting things done - but then Kate and I are both amateur stage managers, experienced in presenting shows on low budgets! The only downside - we both had shows to organise in November, the month before the wedding!

Marrying into a village atmosphere was great - everybody pitched in to help.

The venue is a combined hall and church, with the altar in an alcove off the hall itself. So we set the tables out from the start, with the flowers and candles but no place settings. The atmosphere rapidly became like a party before the service even started, rather than the sombre atmosphere a church can present.

If you are in the Saddleworth area, find a copy of the May/June issue of the Saddleworth magazine - there is a two-page write-up of the day in there!

We're looking for a ceilidh band for our wedding in Marsden. Who did you have?

marshmallows

fairydiamond wrote: »

You can get your new passport with your NEW name on it before your wedding. I have read about it somewhere, I will go look.

My youngest bridesmaid is 7 and very small. I want to get a dress from BHS for her, but she will have probably grown by October. I don't know what to do. She would probably fit into an AGE 6 at the minute, but I'm stuck as they won't have the dresses in September/October. Any advice?

i had my bridesmaids dresses from bhs, youngest bridesmaid was 6, she had to have a size 7. She is probably average size for her age. Many bhs stores have their wedding range all year and if not the online store does

TracyO_2

Do not just look at hiring the usual hotels or stately homes for your wedding and reception. There are some very nice Village and Town Halls around if you look. We decided to celebrate our Sept 2008 wedding in Chipping, and I could not have imagined how fabulous a day we would have. Revd Sue Williams at St Bartholomew's conducted an extremly moving & beautiful blessing for us and then Kate & her team at the Village Hall were fabulous in ensuring that our all day reception went without a hitch. All of our guests had an amazing time, as my husband and I did. Thanks to all who made or day memorable. If you live in Central Lancashire I would recommend Chipping Village Hall for any type of celebration or function.

bigzippy

thermalnermal wrote: »

I've no idea how it works, hadn't even thought about it until some one mentioned passports in the post above.

The Home Office website does not seem to be very helpful in answering any of my questions so perhaps someone who has done it can help, save me a long and expensive phone call!

- How soon after your marriage do you have to change your passport name?
- Can you go on honeymoon immediately after the wedding with your maiden name on the passport?
- It seems risky and not to mention expensive to pay for your passport to be amended in advance of your wedding. Do you have to do this? What if something goes wrong and you don't end up getting married, you'd have to pay again to get it amended again.

Any hints or tips?

Hi ThermalNermal
You can order a passport in your new name any time upto 3 months before the wedding. You can't use it until the day of the wedding. (see link below)
You can use your passport in your maiden name so long as you have booked the flight in your maiden name. There's nothing to say you have to change your name at all and some people use both for bank accounts etc.
You don't ever have to change your passport name if you don't want to.

fairydiamond wrote:

You can get your new passport with your NEW name on it before your wedding. I have read about it somewhere, I will go look.

My youngest bridesmaid is 7 and very small. I want to get a dress from BHS for her, but she will have probably grown by October. I don't know what to do. She would probably fit into an AGE 6 at the minute, but I'm stuck as they won't have the dresses in September/October. Any advice?

The link for the passport info when getting married is here:
http://www.ips.gov.uk/passport/apply-amending-married.asp

As for BHS I've got my bridesmaid dresses from there. The oldest two (16 and 13) have ordered theirs already as they have bodices that are lace up at the back and they're so skinny that if anything we'll be taking them in, not out. Plus I figured it was better to have something to take in/out rather than nothing. The flowergirl dress for my youngest niece (she'll be 6 in may, wedding's in Sept): the size 8yrs was a little too long but not that much bigger than she is, I reckon she'll fit in it fine but the shop assistants (who I made swear on her unborn child!) swore that they had the styles in all year round, January to January. You can get them online as well as in store too. I think we'll get the flowergil dress in June time, something like that.

HTH

nat82

thermalnermal wrote: »

I've no idea how it works, hadn't even thought about it until some one mentioned passports in the post above.

The Home Office website does not seem to be very helpful in answering any of my questions so perhaps someone who has done it can help, save me a long and expensive phone call!

- How soon after your marriage do you have to change your passport name?
- Can you go on honeymoon immediately after the wedding with your maiden name on the passport?
- It seems risky and not to mention expensive to pay for your passport to be amended in advance of your wedding. Do you have to do this? What if something goes wrong and you don't end up getting married, you'd have to pay again to get it amended again.

Any hints or tips?

You don't have to get it changed but remember that your holiday tickets and your passport must have the same name on. So, if your booking your honeymoon in your married name you'll need to change your passport to match IYSWIM???

Nat xxx

TugaGirl

Hi everyone,

I found this when I went to Ikea the other day.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/40113180

they would make great centre pieces, but personally I am thinking of using them for my invites… at only 0.38p they are a bargain!!

angel13

sillylittlejill wrote: »

Hi everyone :wave:

Me and OH are looking to get married in the next 2 years and are starting to think about booking things etc etc.
I am going to college in September to study NVQ Level 2 Professional Cookery and my idea is that with help from a few friends that can cook, we could make our own wedding food? Something a bit better than the ol' Peter Kay "vol-au-vants, chicken legs, cheesecake" kind of thing but something we can cook the day before and stick in a fridge (albeit pretty large fridge!) so do you think this is a good idea?
Any suggestions on things that would be good? I am thinking things like pasta salad, bread with different toppings to choose from, chicken legs (okay maybe it will be like Peter Kay!!) but lacking some inspiration at the moment.

Has anyone else done this? How much did they spend? Did they regret it?


thanks
xxx

we are planning a non wedding style party and elopement - been planning for 18 months and still nothing booked due to money issues.

anyhow right from the start ive wanted picnic and then afternoon tea (finally found a venue where we can do this and its allowed and theres no hidden extra costs and they dont treat me like a freak!)

anyhow why not go for a luxury afternoon tea - you can cook tons of nice cakes and goodies and then do standard finger sarnies and then go for some unusual things - why not wraps, bagels that sort of thing.

angel13

ok this is our situation we are not trying to do anything traditional so there will be no aisle no white dress no bridesmaids no cake no flowers. so i thought it would be easy to book a venue for a big party cheaply but seems impossible to find. not religious so cant set foot in a church so thats out.

anyway the stuff we are planning is as follows:

elopement just the two of us elopement package photography - wanted to do this in europe if anyone can suggest somewhere amazing as inspiration that would be great as i have searched the globe wanted a humanist ceremony in middle of nowhere but only legal in scotland....

i will be wearing a standard dress from debenhams or the like H2B will be in standard suit - using same clothes for party

then want to organise a big family picnic garden party style event - this has been a nightmare
finally found somewhere back home in the south west but more than we wanted to spend. hire for the weekend is £2000 from fri - sun and you can self cater so no set caterers, 30 dorm style bedrooms for any guests and most beautiful gardens and lovely rooms for afternoon tea
then planning on doing picnics for guests as they arrive and garden style games - theres tons of water and woods and hoping they can organise an evening wildlife walk as they do these for schools when they stay there
then really fancy afternoon tea inside - considering doing all of this myself or getting food from caterers and everything else myself
then board games parlour activities in the evening hopefully with a nightwalk and camp fire and going to make a cake of cheese with biscuits and fruit - i can do this bit for definite myself.

our budget for elopement has always been the same at £1000 - but not sure if we can do it for that
and then budget for the rest of it was going to be £3000. the venue will see is over this but im going to ask guests who sleep to contribute a small amount for room and breakfast so that might help get that back down a bit.

any tips would be fantastic - btw all food needs to be vegetarian hence we have had hell from any caterers we go near! lmao

chardonnay_2

angel - have you looked at the humanist society in scotland you could have your ceremony in the middle of nowhere in beautiful scotland. some of the ministers have blogs detailing some of the venues / unusual places they have done the ceremony in.

http://humanistweddingsbymary.blogspot.com/