Wedding Tips start here...

sheng719

FairyElephant wrote:

Darling B/F proposed to me last week, and we got the ring on Sat, so now he is Darling Fiancee....and I have a wedding to plan!

I am soooo excited....he said that he would never do it again (ex-wife did the dirty on him), it didn't mean anything etc etc, but now he has changed his mind!

People in work think I am mad as we are hoping to get married at the beginning of March - I thin 'well, why hang about' but they all seem to think it takes years to plan.....welll, I did want a 'dream wedding' on the beach on holiday, but family were not too keen. Normally I would say 'sorry - my day', but as his kids are really keen to be involved I have backed down (future family harmony may have been at stake otherwise!!!!)

Progress so far:

I have a registry office appt for us this Friday, to sort out the 'legal bits' and hopefully be able to book the date. Going for Friday as it should be easier to get.

I have 'pencilled in' a date at the venue I want for the party (small wedding, followed by massive great party so all our friends & colleagues & associates can join us to have fun!) - again helps going for a Friday as Sat's are soooo busy.

Spoken to the band I want to play, but they can't tell me if they can do it for a week (how much do people think I should be paying? - I normally book jazzbands for events, but this one is costing quite a bit more, and I haven't actually mentioned the W-word to them yet, just said 'family party'). I really, really want them though, so it all may hinge around them.....

We already decided where for the honeymoon, as it was going to be our big 'once in a lifetime' sort of holiday anyway, but yet to book it, although I checked and it is still available when we want it at the moment.

I've got ideas about making invites, know what sort of dress I want (evening, not really wedding) and seen a couple I like, and even have thought about dress for Step Daughter' and matching waistcoats for Fiancee & his 2 boys.

Have I missed anything important so far? Am I mad to think I can plan & execute wedding in 19 weeks (oh - almost forgot, I need to lose 2 stone in weight....aaarrggh!).

Can see me spending a LOT of time reading this thread!

FE

Have you thought about the flowers? I do apologise if I have said this a little bit late...Are you going to have some keepsakes to give away afterwards? Cake? there might still be some things that you might be forgetting. do think it might be helpful to have a sort of wedding checklist? It really helped me a lot planning my wedding ...19 weeks is very sson and there are lots of things to think about... Godd luck and I do hope you'll the best day ever!!!

sheng719

alison6692 wrote:

Wow - sounds bloody good idea.

I am trying to be a money saver - however our wedding is going to cost £10k. The feeding and watering of guests at our venue is 5k. Thats the luxury bit now I am trying to cut costs.

I have sorted a budget planner and it works out at just under £5k - This does not include honeymoon.

I could do with saving money in

- entertainment - does anyone know a good wedding DJ?

- Dress - once I have found the one I want then how to get it cheaper?

- Flowers - they seem such a lot for what they are

alisonx

Hi ali, there's a place in southampton that does the flowers...They wholesale flowers and I'm quite sure they also do arrangements. Remember I told you that I have only spent £85.00 for 50 red roses, 50 white roses, 3 bunches of gypsophillias, 5 bunches of chrysanthemums, a lot of foliage, 10 blocks of oasis with their respective containers where you can arrange the flowers as a table decoration...These lot could have cost me well over £300 - £350. - sheryll

FairyElephant_2

Good luck Reverend_Darkman - hope you have a wonderful time!

Thanks Sheng_719....
We have decided not to bother with cake - we are not fussed about eating it, and don't think othersare either really - guess most people have a slice to be polite - and if people have been drinking (which they will be!) they are not so inlined.

We're having a buffet rather than a sit-down meal, so I'll get them to include some sweet stuff for those who need a sugar-rush!

We are having a Humanist ceremony, and as part of it we will be lighting a candle together, so can have photos of us doing that instead of cutting a cake!

As for flowers - florist ' bouquets etc. are rather pricey...we have dispensed with the idea of button holes and I was thinking of running to my local Sainsburys (who do lovely flowers) the day beofre and buying some roses & gyp and 'hand-tying' my own bouqhet (mainly having one because someone told me that holding a bouquet of flowers always makes yours arms look slimmer!!!!). Bridesmaids will have 'evening bags' to carry instead. 'Ceremonial table' needs a small floral display to set off the candles, but I think I can maange that myself with some oasis, ivy etc, as I am quite arty!

Not sure about 'keepsakes' or wedding favours...probably won't bother, but will see hoe the budget/time goes.

TODAY'S NIGHTMARE is that the band we really, really want to play at the reception can't make that date. Soooooo disappointed. Just when all the plans were going so well!

MysticIndia

Blimey, i just love this site!

Fairy Elephant, sorry to hear about your band plans........have you thought about a english/scottish/irish ceidlidh instead? Alternatively is there any way you could move your wedding by a day or a week so that your band could play?

Pippa h - I'm getting married next September in London in an Art Gallery. No Art though. Walls are totally white with white iron pillars throughout which i'm hoping to decorate with lots of fairy lights and voila, my venue.

Rental is £1000 but we're able to supply our own food (indian buffet at around £6 per head) and drink from a booze cruise to France. No flowers, no favours, no frills. Cake from choccywockydodah - £150 (expensive i know), but it will feed 150 guests and be desert. Music will hopefully be from our ipods connected to a laptop (bf's from work) with super speakers that we can rent out for the day. Also we're hoping to keep a corner of the venue for the kids, we'll bring along a projector and show movies on the white walls.

Well that's the plan anyways. Does anyone know where i can get dead cheap fairy lights?

pippa_h

MysticIndia wrote:

Pippa h - I'm getting married next September in London in an Art Gallery. No Art though. Walls are totally white with white iron pillars throughout which i'm hoping to decorate with lots of fairy lights and voila, my venue.

Rental is £1000 but we're able to supply our own food (indian buffet at around £6 per head) and drink from a booze cruise to France. No flowers, no favours, no frills. Cake from choccywockydodah - £150 (expensive i know), but it will feed 150 guests and be desert. Music will hopefully be from our ipods connected to a laptop (bf's from work) with super speakers that we can rent out for the day. Also we're hoping to keep a corner of the venue for the kids, we'll bring along a projector and show movies on the white walls.

Well that's the plan anyways. Does anyone know where i can get dead cheap fairy lights?

That's very interesting - we're planning to get married around that time/October too.
What gallery is it? It sounds fantastic - exactly the kind of thing we're after and it sounds like you got a very good deal!

Woolies, Poundstretcher etc usually stock cheap fairy lights. Ikea too - plus they often have more interesting (I have some little stars) shapes.

I have a few sets of fairy lights that I'd be more than happy to lend you, if you like? I'm planning something similar for my wedding, but strung through topiary etc.

If I can help with anything else, do let me know - it can all seem like a lot to deal with!

ginger_nuts

I would STRONGLY recommend all you brides to be read "The good wife's guide "
This is from Housekeeping monthly 13thMay 1955 but it is still relevant today .I will edit it but you will get the idea ...
Have dinner ready .Plan ahead even the night before ,to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return .
Catering for his comfort will provide you with immense satifaction .
greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in you desire to please him .
Listen to him ,remember his topic of conversation is more important than yours .Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you .,instead try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home relaxed .
Dont complain if he is home late or stays out all night ,count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day .
Have a cool or warm drink ready for him .
Dont ask him questions about his actions or question his judgement or integity ,remember HE is master of the house and as such will always excercise fairness and truthfullness .
You have NO right to question him .!

A good wife ALWAYS knows her place .

.Stick to this girls and you cant go far wrong !

sphrp2

I want to play music from my PC through speakers to avoid DJ costs at a family function, but does anyone know how to get around the gaps in the music between songs without physically standing at the computer and skipping to the next song?

ginger_nuts

sphrp2 wrote:

I want to play music from my PC through speakers to avoid DJ costs at a family function, but does anyone know how to get around the gaps in the music between songs without physically standing at the computer and skipping to the next song?

try posting this on the techi thread

Becles

You can buy software that will queue the songs and play them one after the other without having to physically click them on. The one I'm familiar with is called Tracktor, but there is other software out there.

lynneinjapan

Update on my wedding MemoryBooks from Snapfish:

In the end I ordered 3 x 36-page books - one for us, one for each set of parents - and they came to a total of about £70 once I'd had my 20% discount. (They seem to have some sort of discount coupon operating most of the time on photo gifts - currently it's 15% off until end Nov - though that might stop as Christmas approaches! They were very good about making sure I got the 20% discount that I missed the window for due to their slowness at replying to my emails.)

My three books arrived yesterday (only 5 days after ordering) and I'm very pleased with them - or I would be if they didn't have precisely the problem that I went to such great lengths to avoid! It turns out that after all the trouble I went to with the aspect ratios, they ratio they gave me was wrong: it's actually 1.33 to 1, not 1.25 to 1 as they told me, so just as I feared, my photo montages have been truncated top & bottom. So I've filled in their "Refunds and Returns" form and am waiting for them to get back to me.

The book itself is very nice quality. The picture on the front cover is printed on sticky-back photo paper and stuck on, so it will peel off easily if you decide you'd rather not have it there, but otherwise should (I hope) stay put, as long as the book doesn't get too much abuse. The photos are of similar quality to photos printed on a home inkjet printer - they've got that slight graininess about them - but I think you'd only notice that if you were being quite critical.

For anyone else who's considering doing the same thing, here are the actual picture sizes (in mm) for the various page layouts offered:

Cover photo 156 x 104, aspect ratio 1.5:1 or 3:2
Title page photo 145 x 109, AR 1.33:1 or 4:3
(I used horizontal images for both of these; don't know whether the same ARs apply for vertical images)
Single full-page horizontal photo: 241 x 181
Single full-page vertical photo: 152 x 203
2 horiz. photos, stacked: each 126 x 94
2 horiz. photos, side by side: don't know, I didn't have this layout, but I guess they'd be the same width as the 2 vertical photos, i.e. a little smaller than if you had them stacked.
2 vertical photos, side by side: each 116 x 154
3 horiz. photos, stacked: each 87 x 65
1 horiz. & 1 vertical photo: 145 x 109 and 82 x 109
1 large & 2 small horiz. photos: 179 x 134 and 87 x 65
The bottom image, just above the text page option, doesn't seem to actually be an option and I can't work out why it's there.

In fact the aspect ratio for ALL the photos, except the one on the cover, is 1.33 to 1 for horizontal images (that's the same as 4:3) and 0.75 to 1 (3:4) for vertical ones. If only they'd told me that in the first place! That's probably the most common aspect ratio for digital cameras, though some use 1.25 to 1 (5:4). 35mm film photos are usually 1.5 to 1 (3:2), so they're longer & narrower.

Snapfish seems to frame your photos so that they fill the frame, so if you put a square photo into a horizontal frame then it will fill the whole width of the frame but the top & bottom will be chopped off. You can avoid this, and keep the whole photo, by enlarging the canvas (I do this in an old version of Paintshop Pro) so that the picture is in the middle of a rectangular image with the correct aspect ratio and a white background. The white background won't show up when it's printed.

Apologies for waffling, I'll shut up now! Hope this post is of use to someone!