Wedding Tips start here...

mini

Congratulations Vicky, another mse wedding :j


I think playingcreep as the first song is great, eash to their own:D

mini

RACHIE77

Hi, I've stumbled across this thread whilst 'dreaming' of a wedding - my boyf says "we can't afford it" and hence as I saw this thread I thought.... hmmm maybe....! lol!!

I've booked a lot of conferences in the past and the hire of a room for a conference seems to be a whole lot cheaper than booking it for a wedding - menu prices too!! I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of pointing this out to venues and getting good rates? I can hardly pretend it would just be a party as i was hoping to find a nice venue and have the ceremony there too... surely if I decorate the place myself, pay for the registrar and then organise evening food through them it is hardly any different to them organising the whole schbang????

Any location suggestions in Hampshire would be helpful too!

Oh btw - boyf doesn't know i'm on here as he thinks weddings cost thousands and thousands so I'm seeing if I can price up my dream and then see if he's right or not - lol!

VickyA_2

Well, my mum is already looking at quotes for a marquee and caterers, even though it won't be until July 2006 I know we have to book these things early.

I've asked my two friends to be bridesmaids and another friend is going to be in charge of confetti (she wants me to have a special day and knows that I've always hankered after some real petals as confetti, so will be co-ordinating that!). oh, and my parent's dog is going to be a bridesmaid too. Mr-nearly-VickyA thought that I was joking. Ooooooh no.

And we're saving money on the wedding cars - we're not going to have one! I'm going to walk to the church from my parent's house (5mins walk tops) and we'll walk back again for the reception. If it rains, we'll just hop in a car!

However where my parents live is miles away from any hotels. The local town has a couple of dingy BandBs, and the next best place is to get people to book hotels in Lincoln (20 miles away). Has anyone had to do anything like this before? What we thought was to hire a coach - so what we save on not having a wedding car will go on getting coaches! I've always wanted to be married from home and have the marquee on the lawn, so moving the reception venue isn't really an option - and there's no where suitable nearby for a reception venue!!!

VickyA_2

Hi folks,

Me again. How do you decide who to include in the ceremony and who not to? Mr-nearly-VickyA has a twin sister who quite intimidates me and his mum asked whether she'd be involved in the day. Er, why? She didn't ask whether his elder sister would be involved, just his twin. This quite upset me. Plus the fact that (selfishly, I know!) I've got a couple of people that I want to help me and do readings in the church, but how do the rest of you cope? I don't want to fall out with anyone, but at the same time it's MY WEDDING! How did the rest of you come to an agreement between families? Sorry, I just need a sounding board!

sally_pearson

We had My Everything by Barry White for our first dance. It was fantastic. We twirled and dipped all over. It was so much fun, even though we didn't have a clue what we were doing.

Becles

VickyA wrote:

but how do the rest of you cope? I don't want to fall out with anyone, but at the same time it's MY WEDDING! How did the rest of you come to an agreement between families?

When I married my first husband, my mother took over. I ended up having a reception where none of my friends were allowed to attend, at the expense of distant relatives, who I didn't even know. So distant, they never sent me Christmas/birthday cards and vice versa and I wouldn't know them if I walked past them in the street.

I ended up wearing a veil which I hated and didn't really want to wear. We carried silk flowers when I really wanted real ones, as my Mam wanted to make the boquets in advance.

We also had a big argument with his parents as I'd chosen melon as a starter at the reception and black forest gateau for dessert. They'd offer to pay half and threatened to withdraw their offer as they wanted soup starters and apple pie for dessert. I don't like apple pie and the wedding was in July so I didn't think soup was appropriate. They eventually relented and as it happens it was one of the hottest days of the year, so after standing around in the sun for photos, guests were thrilled at the site of a cold refreshing slice of melon!

I'm getting married again next year and b/f and me have decided that it's our wedding full stop. Nobody knows any of our plans and we will arrange everything how we want it. If people don't like it, then tuff! Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's your special day and I think you and your b/f should have exactly what you want. If people get offended, then that's there problem.

Jay-Jay_4

Becles wrote:

When I married my first husband, my mother took over. I ended up having a reception where none of my friends were allowed to attend, at the expense of distant relatives, who I didn't even know. So distant, they never sent me Christmas/birthday cards and vice versa and I wouldn't know them if I walked past them in the street.

I ended up wearing a veil which I hated and didn't really want to wear. We carried silk flowers when I really wanted real ones, as my Mam wanted to make the boquets in advance.

We also had a big argument with his parents as I'd chosen melon as a starter at the reception and black forest gateau for dessert. They'd offer to pay half and threatened to withdraw their offer as they wanted soup starters and apple pie for dessert. I don't like apple pie and the wedding was in July so I didn't think soup was appropriate. They eventually relented and as it happens it was one of the hottest days of the year, so after standing around in the sun for photos, guests were thrilled at the site of a cold refreshing slice of melon!

I'm getting married again next year and b/f and me have decided that it's our wedding full stop. Nobody knows any of our plans and we will arrange everything how we want it. If people don't like it, then tuff! Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's your special day and I think you and your b/f should have exactly what you want. If people get offended, then that's there problem.

Becles you sound just like me.

My Mother in law took over my wedding and I had over a hundred strangers at my reception. She even hired an effing Scottish Piper, as a surprise who drove many people home (not in a car.....!)!!!!

I'm getting married again in 5 months and we've just 'arranged it'. It will be lovely but only 19 people (including us and our kids) in a beautiful castle with no fuss. I'm having a dress (£100 from Debenams) and our girls are wearing pretty dresses but I'm not having bridesmaids, flowers, cars, photos.

Our theory is it's going to be like a dinner party at a lovely venue where we just happen to be getting married. I haven't asked any advice from anyone, we decided what we wanted and told everyone to turn up please

I can't imagine having to go through the big whole wedding rigmarole again. I think everyone should have a 'trial' wedding just to see how much stuff actually goes unnoticed on the big day.

I would say to anyone getting married "don't get swept up in what everyone else wants to do. YOU are getting married to YOUR fiance....it's YOUR day"


Lovely Jubbly

Moose_2

I will be celebrating three years of marriage in May.
We didn't have much money at the time (still don't actually!!) and hubby said that we couldn't afford it so I did a little searching in my area.
I eventually decided a local hotel, it is actually a Pub! Hubby was chuffed.

As we aren't religious, we got married in the pub/hotel. We decided to keep dowm costs by only having imediate family, best friends as bestman and bridesmaid so including Me, Hubby and our son there was a total of 17 people.
The lovely thing about this Pub was the fact it had a Marquee set in a pretty garden at the back and provided the disco at a cost of £50.
Because we did it all in one place it only cost a total of £1,200 for the hire of 2 rooms, Marquee, meal and buffet for 125 guests in the evening. My dress was a bargin at £450.
I had my invites made for me at the cost of £75. I didn't hire a suit for my son because it would have cost £75, so I only hired the waistcoat and cravat at a cost of £13, bought him a pair of black school trousers, £6 and as it was a warm day, he didn't need a coat so I saved myself £££ there. Dads paid for their own suit hire. My bridesmaid paid for half the cost of the dress and her own shoes, really good friend!
As for my make up, I took a chance and went to boots to the Max Factor counter, gave a sob story that a friend who lived in bristol was supposed to travel down to do my make up but her car had broken down and she couldn't make it and the girl at the counter gave me a hug and said she'd do it, it was free! She did a lovely job and loads of people commented on how lovely my makeup was! saved me at least £30.
I could go on and on but all in all our wedding, which was a wonderful day, didn't cost us much more than around £2,800 which I think was quite cheap.

Good luck to all Brides and Grooms, hope you have fantastic weddings.

H

macchicken

Vicky A, im getting married in februay and for some strange reason everyone thinks their opinion counts?
You cant have those flowers, the bridemaids cant wear that colour, you cant get married there, you cant have that for your meal!
Ive heard them all!!!!
It is your wedding and if you have it how you want it then you'll always regret it! As mr macchicken to be, keeps telling me!
Try politely saying this to people and if they try pushing you then, sorry but then a bit of falling out is what u need! Ive lost count of the times ive said 'well if u dont like it dont f****** come'
Dont be beholding to anyone and a few verses of 'its my wedding' will do no harm
Get mr vickys backup on this one!
Stand your ground!
Have a great day!

VickyA_2

Thanks macchicken,

At the moment we're stressing over the date.......................... I had said the last weekend in July 2006(28th?), but my mum has been telling all the suppliers 21st July. To most people this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I'll be a teacher by then and depending on the school, the last day of teaching would be on 24th July. To make matters worse, my dad is a farmer and his harvest will have started by then anyway. There seems to be no option of no marquee (I've always dreamt about it), so holding it at any other time of year eg Christmas or Easter isn't really possible. We're going to sort this out this weekend!