tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63636674535456918792023-11-16T13:29:48.428+00:00Tenant Chic WeddingKatiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-48073991308831566442014-07-13T18:00:00.000+01:002014-07-13T18:00:01.003+01:00Decisions Decisions So Many DecisionsI've started dress shopping! I'll write a post on the experience once it's finished...but it made me think of a post that I think would be a good conversation starter or at least a way for me to get my feelings down. This for me is a diary on wedding planning to look back on, and if anyone else finds it helpful that's great. <br />
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I've had a bit of decision making burnout over the last few months. We started off so well, booking the venue then the photographer in quick succession. Then booking the registrar and caterers. Then I kind of lost motivation. It isn't like I lost interest, but it just seemed a bit overwhelming and I was putting things off.<br />
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It was odd really as it's not like me, usually I just pick a point and start there, but I felt like there was so much to do that I didn't know where to start. I was quite clear on the timeline I have, and that the dress and/or music was next. However I just didn't have the mental energy to go ahead and start looking, as I knew that wouldn't be the end there would be a million large and little decisions to follow. And everyone is asking <i>me</i>. Like I suddenly know about flowers, dresses and napkins. It wasn't even like anyone could help as it was literally just making choices that I didn't want to do. I think it was combined with booking the Kilimanjaro trip and also having all that to think about, plus working full time and all the training for Kili...so how did I get over it?<br />
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<ol>
<li>I made a list of what roughly needed to be done in what order, then put it away for a couple of months. I'd gotten it all down on paper so it was out of my head, and I knew I didn't have to rush as we were in good shape wedding planning wise so I could take a few months break from the wedding and focus on Kilimanjaro and training. That also helped the funds to build back up too so when I came back to it we weren't so skint! Don't be afraid to take a break if you can.</li>
<li>Start with something important to you to get the creative juices flowing again. While dress shopping wasn't something I was really looking forward to, finding the dress was (I kind of just wanted some fairy godmother to magic it to me). I was actually very pleasantly surprised by the shopping experience last weekend, and it has really got me back into the wedding planning groove.</li>
<li>Organise. While not everyone will enjoy it as much as me (I am a bit of a Monica) a bit of organising never goes amiss when you're feeling overwhelmed. For example my wedding board on pinterest was becoming so big that it was hard to see the wood for the trees, so I split them into smaller boards like 'wedding shoes' 'flowers' etc and it is much easier to see clear themes coming up in my pins, making it easier to make those dreaded decisions!</li>
<li>One you have made a decision, don't second guess it. My ulterior motive for rearranging my pinterest boards was to get all the dress pins onto one board, so when I buy the dress I can delete that board. Yes delete it, all those carefully curated pins, so that I won't look back on it in 6 months and wonder if I picked the right one. </li>
<li>Just book an appointment already, or send an enquiry. Do something. I made a dress shopping appointment to force me into looking at dresses, but it didn't mean I had to buy my dress at that shop it was just a first step into dress shopping to break the ice. It's not that I didn't want to go dress shopping, it just seemed like a big thing and a lot of things to decide (plus I am not typically found clothes shopping it is not something I love). So I booked an appointment far in advance, and this last month I started getting more excited about it.</li>
<li>I passed things on. I have said Tom can sort the car, and he has taken the lead on the honeymoon too. He then looks things up and consults me, rather than me wading through the hundreds of hotels etc.</li>
<li>Little by little. If I think about all the things I have to do this year at once it makes me dizzy. So I think about the next thing to do, which is order the dress. Then after that it will be music, and I am not thinking after that. Most of it will wait until we are back from Kili now.</li>
<li>Prioritise. I was thinking about a lot about things we were realistically not going to notice weren't there if they didn't happen. And when we actually only have a half planned wedding and a mountain to climb in 3 months then favours or chair decoration is really not something to be worrying about. If I can get the things that are important to us sorted, and the little things don't <i>all </i>happen, it'll be ok. </li>
<li>Admit you don't know. Like I said above sometimes people (especially vendors I've found) might assume you know about whatever aspect of the wedding you are discussing. I have no idea about flowers other than I usually have tulips because they are cheap, and I make sure to tell this to florists so they won't confuse me with names and options that mean nothing to me. If you don't know then just ask, or get someone to help you decide.</li>
<li>Admit you don't care. Not that I don't care about my wedding, but as it stands right now (this may change) I am indifferent to a few things. Like the cake for example, I personally am not going to eat it...I feel it's something we wouldn't have if it wasn't one of<a href="http://weddingtenantchic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/well-you-must-do.html"> those weddingy things</a>. So if there is a cake then great, but I'm not going to give myself a million more things to think about for the cake. It'll be a basic cake if it exists at all!</li>
<li>Alternate wedding planning, don't think about it all the time. The last few months have been Kilimanjaro oriented, but now we are paying for it soon and then will just be training. So the summer can be a bit more wedding oriented mixed in with gym and running etc. Then September and October will be just Kilimanjaro. Then when we are back it will be wedding...I can't do both so gave up trying. Maybe book a day every couple of months with your partner to do wedding things, either formally or just for example we have said that on Sunday we will start looking for a band online and sending off enquiries. </li>
<li>Elope. Haha joking...kind of. </li>
</ol>
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Hope you are all having fun if you are planning you're wedding too, if you've experienced this comment below with your tips!</div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-34369766526702392562014-04-25T16:00:00.000+01:002014-04-25T16:00:00.859+01:00Wedding Planning TimelineIt's a year until our wedding! 365 days and I'll be a Mrs. It's also my grandparents golden wedding anniversary, so congratulations Granny and Grampy!<br />
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Yes we get married on their 51st wedding anniversary, which we didn't know until we booked the wedding but I think it's really nice that we'll share our wedding anniversaries.<br />
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This kind of got me thinking about the wedding planning timelines and date booking conundrum people face. We booked ours once we found a venue and let their availability decide the date, but we did have a little bit of disappointment that we couldn't have it this year. Now we have started planning I really appreciate that we have a bit more time as it would have been much more stressful to plan a wedding in 6 months rather then nearly 2 years, but I kind of wanted it this year rather than waiting a whole 12 months more!<br />
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So what do you need to think about when booking a wedding date?<br />
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<b>Special dates</b><br />
We had a few dates we didn't want the wedding on (birthdays, anniversaries of deaths, valentines day) but no special date we really wanted it on. It may have been nice to have it on the anniversary of our first date, but that's in September and Tom is in car sales so booking 3 weeks off over September is not going to happen. Are there any special dates you would like to get married on?<br />
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<b>Season</b><br />
We both instantly agreed we wanted a spring or summer wedding, it's just our preference as we prefer warmer weather, so talk about what time of year you prefer. Bear in mind that a lot of venues charge more for the same wedding in July than in March, so look at the season you want to get married in but also how that choice will influence the cost of your wedding. We saved £1000 by booking a week earlier at the end of April rather than the start of May.<br />
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<b>Venue</b><br />
Like I said, we chose the venue then set the date depending on when they were available. So if you have a venue in mind which you love and have to have then go in with an open mind on dates. Also depending on the type of venue what season does it suit better? Are there other factors to think about like traffic on a weekend at peak tourist season in a scenic area?<br />
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<b>Mundane things like work and time off</b><br />
We got engaged in May last year, and Tom originally (like the day after we got engaged) said he wanted to get married in Spring this year. However once we started looking into it we realised this would put a bit of a strain on us both financially and time-wise. We were already into the financial year that we would be getting married in and I had already used up most of my leave so would struggle to get time off for the wedding and honeymoon, let alone time for planning it. With an almost 2 year engagement I can do most of it weekends and evenings and book the occasional day off when needed and not have to push myself to much. However say you have loads of annual leave left, or you have lots of free time then you might want to just go for it!<br />
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<b>Money</b><br />
Everyone will tell you how expensive planning a wedding is, and even if you are planning a budget one there is still going to be some financial outlay. Be realistic about how long you need to pay for this. If you have savings in the bank, or lots of credit which you are willing to use (I'm a credit phobe so not advocating this!), or someone is paying for the wedding for you, then you might be in more of a position to book a wedding date soon. I could have <i>maybe </i>planned a wedding in 6 months, but we couldn't have paid for it in that time unless we had a really budget wedding, and even then it would be tight so we decided to leave it a year longer. We wanted to pay for our wedding as we went, and had offers of help from family as well, so we wanted to leave ourselves breathing room to save and pay for things as we book them. For example we booked and paid for the venue last year, and we have recently booked the caterer and paid their deposit this month. Next up is dress and music and we are saving for those now.<br />
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<b>Other commitments</b><br />
I'm not 100% sure how this happened but we appear to be climbing 2 mountains, raising a target of £4000 each for charity and getting married in the next 365 days. Safe to say this influenced our date booking. Had we gotten engaged 2 years ago we might have been able to plan it in a shorter time as we weren't so busy then, so the benefit of a longer engagement is that we have more time (although I have a rough timeline that I am trying to stick to of what I want booked by when). Although a shorter engagement means you are married sooner and don't have to plan the wedding at all after that...<br />
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<b>Relationship style</b><br />
Not sure what to call it but your relationship style or temperament will have a big effect on how you want to do this, are you a couple who got engaged after 6 months or have you been waiting for that proposal for years? Are you a couple who does things spontaneously or are you both planners? Tom and I are quite laid back, our relationship isn't a dramatic whirlwind romance. Don't get me wrong we are romantic (occasionally) but really we are a team and work together to build our little life in a way that sets us up for a good future. We therefore didn't want to start getting into debt for our wedding, we also aren't in any rush. We will have been together 7 years when we get married. Although saying that Tom wouldn't have proposed if he had no intention of actually getting married, so once we were engaged we were both keen to start planning the wedding but in our own laid back, considered, we'll do it when we're ready style. I sometimes daydream about eloping to an island to get married barefoot on the beach...but that just doesn't seem us somehow.<br />
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<b>You</b><br />
Really this is down to you, are you the kind of people who can plan a wedding in 3 months? Are you organised and efficient? Or would you prefer longer to let yourself book things at your leisure and to have lots of time to think things over? Really think about how long <u>you </u>want to take to plan your wedding. Don't feel pressured to do it all in 6 months if you think it will stress you out just so you can get married this year, why not wait until next year and really enjoy it? Or vice versa, if you're sure you will be able to plan a wedding in a few months, and you have the funds available, then go for it!<br />
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<b>Family</b><br />
Not sure how to word this, but if you have old or sick family members you really want at your wedding then that might influence your decision on how soon to get married. Also if your family are difficult or maybe not so supportive of you getting married then you may not want to prolong the agony of dealing with it, or you might want to leave it a while so they have time to get used to the idea before the wedding...<br />
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The best quote I've heard is that a task expands to fill the time you have, so if you have 3 months it will take 3 months, if you have 3 years it will take 3 years...but as long as you are happy with the end result that's all that matters.<br />
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Don't forget to enter my <a href="http://tenantchic.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/first-giveaway.html">easter giveaway</a> over on the main blog, and have a lovely weekend :)Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-38165128992114912642014-02-01T10:18:00.001+00:002014-02-01T10:18:05.968+00:00Winter Wedding InspirationI pinned a few things on winter weddings for a <a href="http://www.rockmywedding.co.uk/">Rock My Wedding </a>competition (any brides to be reading if you don't follow them already you should, major inspiration). A lot of these aren't applicable to our spring wedding, or I hope they won't be, but they were too pretty not to share.<br />
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Some winter wedding inspiration this weekend, anyone getting married soon or next winter?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://petalsedge.com/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUZSwLqqLi7ff9VsqxB-noHY7dwPOj7tp9Z6Xm2Gnf-k9QVveBN8A65q11UPYMiTIhKQu8oiWK-Uec8wsWFq4Ybul3mNj8QX7G1PkD5Yu5GNz-pcgI6fvaARrpuK3RmBzTPqa09sPizLN1/s1600/winter+bouquet.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winter flowers and a faux fur stole</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://laurengeiger.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/diy-christmas-decor.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_7Rq8Kw2YwzFD2WWVKd8Q7lGERFirOEVNSiW99cnRvnVnLiznvgfsvFZq53YPrDrzqYqttqa9iudq_P7SvXbJbYgPXBAyCQpPj_VrikpNwtZ7zIx5dKTJ1KiuKXDqbwztJkc3rPApkpO/s1600/pears+glitter.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glittery glamorous decor</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjALB_JBqyys5GaYJ7o94Brwg94FWxw_oi0cLX_x4Xf7k43IUV78qyu6LUvlX6I4AIkuElvyZWiHFIC0yU88xm3uEpP-K-NR1xDoT1f5B0VnwmhB1_NzOfNRkLefkR_Y3sso9GfGnXiX434/s1600/vintage+fur+wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjALB_JBqyys5GaYJ7o94Brwg94FWxw_oi0cLX_x4Xf7k43IUV78qyu6LUvlX6I4AIkuElvyZWiHFIC0yU88xm3uEpP-K-NR1xDoT1f5B0VnwmhB1_NzOfNRkLefkR_Y3sso9GfGnXiX434/s1600/vintage+fur+wedding.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If we could only guarantee snow in the UK, winter doesn't often look like this...love the hair here and the horsies</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZ-s9wSmKry43el5ziu1e3AVGUyPsSMLFc1SzD2UIYaD5E_j7ojbvwj75q1NinPKqodd0nNDlZ_FrWvka9xISNke625yCY9snf5eFQV0iIeSW3_MM3H_IfbplqEWaXSZiskPgJAhDRqcK/s1600/wedding+dress+with+sleeves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUZ-s9wSmKry43el5ziu1e3AVGUyPsSMLFc1SzD2UIYaD5E_j7ojbvwj75q1NinPKqodd0nNDlZ_FrWvka9xISNke625yCY9snf5eFQV0iIeSW3_MM3H_IfbplqEWaXSZiskPgJAhDRqcK/s1600/wedding+dress+with+sleeves.jpg" height="640" width="470" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sleeves on a wedding dress to keep covered up</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGQodDUubFgI1WGS4n8IHWmKt2fTvjmMcGyUKt2VJWD7ps1KdspigU_6gD97jMNqOAGBeJuPnZxDTl9jhmAkGQPjcVQPxFgvOuTsgpY7huNaOJiv0P2CRWbIVYwZ4jns1x9t4zqH4TR5q/s1600/autumn+wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGQodDUubFgI1WGS4n8IHWmKt2fTvjmMcGyUKt2VJWD7ps1KdspigU_6gD97jMNqOAGBeJuPnZxDTl9jhmAkGQPjcVQPxFgvOuTsgpY7huNaOJiv0P2CRWbIVYwZ4jns1x9t4zqH4TR5q/s1600/autumn+wedding.jpg" height="640" width="424" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An autumn wedding</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rhemafaithphoto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/colorado-wedding-photography-magical.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPLJcSUMbPxwf-QloYXkhEK7bU7v6Qwysz-lphmVQ9-CG4NJ02E7KaLmRChqnTpyTKro7By1DC_t1e7tE1cpDX7nWtESGKtJ9rjMce6XwM3a0Fb_AwVFD_-X8Jga-6Tyu0QjGTxm8K_-a/s1600/winter+wedding+decor.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simple and wintery table decor</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPWpEHQGF8AJ7ajG_Yw-LcOluxa6PQSVuiT7iS6eiuqAZ2pMvkdshAtdJbDeMIOuSZwF5Jj4RNbI55HbfUDXOs2qWUzjGljLN7b4uvHIQfEivvnl_8WjdKrawt0bNwF-b2jcQSGmlnQSh3/s1600/vases+with+twigs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPWpEHQGF8AJ7ajG_Yw-LcOluxa6PQSVuiT7iS6eiuqAZ2pMvkdshAtdJbDeMIOuSZwF5Jj4RNbI55HbfUDXOs2qWUzjGljLN7b4uvHIQfEivvnl_8WjdKrawt0bNwF-b2jcQSGmlnQSh3/s1600/vases+with+twigs.jpg" height="640" width="498" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great for an autumn or winter wedding</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70vXnDfzB4XPf0BgDv1JVYs7zhlA-plyXc95-QG5tmOEKdQ213I0p5ZcxD5408xwknslbKyQWdTHkVL0tSQq3wYk4BeKLlHHrr-hTtXWvoNxBanIHW50nA7l_XkNbW_-_IsIpfl3Z1xxl/s1600/white+christmas+lights+with+stars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj70vXnDfzB4XPf0BgDv1JVYs7zhlA-plyXc95-QG5tmOEKdQ213I0p5ZcxD5408xwknslbKyQWdTHkVL0tSQq3wYk4BeKLlHHrr-hTtXWvoNxBanIHW50nA7l_XkNbW_-_IsIpfl3Z1xxl/s1600/white+christmas+lights+with+stars.jpg" height="640" width="428" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think these are Christmas decorations but they'd work well at a winter wedding</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie1W_ePGgJKySsALvpRUeY2vY9wiPiARX-23McsuensmiViPuMJ6jlUC9552SOZujrvLVOpqMxkm5TQmbcfIr6L_o-BSjJhY3B5ysrQHAGr3VSoSp1y3tNH2mQE-JSLE6TGzrQnwz36vHV/s1600/twigs+lights+and+lanterns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie1W_ePGgJKySsALvpRUeY2vY9wiPiARX-23McsuensmiViPuMJ6jlUC9552SOZujrvLVOpqMxkm5TQmbcfIr6L_o-BSjJhY3B5ysrQHAGr3VSoSp1y3tNH2mQE-JSLE6TGzrQnwz36vHV/s1600/twigs+lights+and+lanterns.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Twinkling lights and lanterns</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdqsfLZ055Fe2xB5y4ar0ieuMFhsUla5kOFeWx-J7_Gun4t857m7y-_OHVGv7A4rj89t1k7FTtNk5nVbo_-Eoxqddib-DcyJRTsYeWYxt-41SQi_9EllxJQqBxQHN0yG-EU7T8vG2YM2d/s1600/winter+wedding+grey+gresses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVdqsfLZ055Fe2xB5y4ar0ieuMFhsUla5kOFeWx-J7_Gun4t857m7y-_OHVGv7A4rj89t1k7FTtNk5nVbo_-Eoxqddib-DcyJRTsYeWYxt-41SQi_9EllxJQqBxQHN0yG-EU7T8vG2YM2d/s1600/winter+wedding+grey+gresses.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Great bridesmaid look for winter</td></tr>
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This one kind of cracks me up, if on your wedding day you want to sit on the floor holding a pine cone while a wolf looks at you from the background then you must do it wearing a cape with some random ice skates in front of you. Who could ice skate in a wedding dress anyway? The cape is nice though.</div>
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<a href="http://www.onewed.com/photos/show/vintage-winter-bride-wears-chic-fur-jacket"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaRHiu2FfudClpwl9hyphenhyphengkUZn5vYqSlo8SiHiMJ6ya67jBs-zlACJYgW3Wlt7xpwQAAgMTCeEmEdfE3RZlZcRGOzfkvTDvEQD6f90WddYw7aoFgB2ga2shKu-w8anARtsxmELM2ky6afuYO/s1600/enchanted-bridal-cape-for-winter__full.jpeg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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Happy weekend all!</div>
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xxx</div>
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<br />Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-68827847015234734602013-11-30T12:00:00.000+00:002013-11-30T12:00:00.562+00:00Now we will try to do...<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Moany post last week (can you tell it was getting a bit much?) so positive post today! The ideas and tips we have been given that are really great and we will try to remember! I might do this as a semi regular post once we get a build up of good tips as it’s great to have somewhere to record them all and they are really handy. These are just general tips we have picked up not specific to our wedding so many of them may not actually get done they’re just really useful things to think about.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">Saving Money</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Use the bouquets for flowers on the top table to save having more flowers.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">If you do a meal then a buffet later always do the evening buffet for less people than you think, don’t cater for the whole evening do otherwise it will cost a fortune – most people having eaten a 3 course meal earlier won’t want anything else.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Free printable invites</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Free printable place cards</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Free printable signs.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">P</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">retty much free printables of any sort…cheap way to do a few personal touches</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">Decoration and DIY’s</span></div>
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<li style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Other options than a guest book – Polaroid photos, signing a canvas or photo, advice or joke cards.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">DIY chalk board for the table plan or timetable, or a charity shop large mirror.</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Centrepieces – DIY discussions like growing pots of spring flowers, making candles, arranging our own flowers.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">To make flowers float in water (Like in a bowl with some floating candles) put them on a little bubble wrap raft, just cut a hole in a small square of bubble wrap to poke the stalk through and make sure you can’t see it under the flower – the most epic tip I have ever had!</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Make favours something that guests take away from the table décor – like a candle holder or their name card holder. This way you don’t have to double up on work and can incorporate the favours into the décor. Trying to think of something to do as this is genius.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Don’t stress about the décor too much, if people are snarky on the day about the napkins not matching the table cloths then </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">you've</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> invited the wrong people.</span></span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"> H</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">air, beauty and dress</span></div>
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<li style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Get some flat shoes for the evening (I actually thought about these before the main shoes for the daytime) even if you don’t end up wearing them it’s better to be able to change if needed.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Don’t take too many people dress shopping, 2 or 3 at the most otherwise it gets too confusing, and if you go to numerous shops have at least one person who has been to all of them with you so they </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">have</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> seen all the options. </span></span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">Timing and organisation</span></div>
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<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Make a wedding website with all the info on, to save you being asked the same question over and over.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Make it so people can RSVP via the website as well, nobody posts anything </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">any more</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> so it will encourage people to RSVP quicker.</span></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Number the RSVP cards as someone will send one back without a name on. </span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Put all the suppliers, what they are supplying, the quantity (i.e. caterers - how many of each dish), where it needs to be set up at the venue and when, and their contact information on one sheet of paper. Give this to the staff at the venue, your bridesmaids, your maid of honour, ushers and best man, keep one in your room as well. Then everyone knows what is meant to be arriving when, from where and where it is meant to go so most little queries or problems can be resolved without people having to ask you.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Put someone in charge other than you or your fiancé on the day. Most likely your maid of honour or best man, or both. Meet with them before the day and run through what is happening when, where and with who so they can be in control of rounding people up for photos, asking people to move on to a different area, initiating speeches and generally being the person guests can ask for directions to the loos etc.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Don’t worry too much about entertaining your guests</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;">at all times</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">, they will be happy to go to the bar or just chat between themselves before the music or after the ceremony for a little while, obviously hours of nothing to do and no music might be a bit dull but you don’t need to fill every minute of the day.</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Allow a few minutes after the ceremony for you and your husband to have some time to yourselves, just to have a glass of champagne or a quiet few minutes before starting the photos or going out to the drinks reception.</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Plan your wedding as if it is a week earlier. Don’t actually book things for a week before the date like flowers of course but aim to be done with the planning, have all the bills paid, finish DIY projects, have all the RSVPs and table plan completed etc a week before. You then have a week buffer for any last minute issues (late RSVPs, room changes, supplier queries etc) so they are hopefully all out of your system by the day. Also you have a week to spend time with your fiancé, family and friends to relax, unwind and get pampered ready for the day!</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Allow more time than you think you need for everything on the day! You don’t want things to be rushed or cut short. Getting ready will take longer if you want photographs taken, if you have to book the church or registrar for a certain amount of time then allow a little bit longer than you think it will take, photos might take longer if the weather or light isn’t great and you need to allow time to round up everyone who needs to be in the photos. Allow enough time for the food to be served and for a bit of time between courses.</span></li>
<li style="line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Allow a bit of time after the food before the evening celebrations for people to go touch up their make up, go to the loo, check in with the babysitter, park the car etc. Otherwise you will lose people for the first part of the evening and people might miss the first dance.</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;">General genius ideas</span><br />
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">The bride and/or maid of honour can make a speech if they want to…undecided if I want to yet!</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Emergency kits – have one or 2 bags made up with plasters, spare buttons, sewing kit, chalk (for dress smudges), spare makeup, deodorant, hairspray, hair accessories, pain killers and heartburn and indigestion tablets, any medication you take and anything else you can think of. Have one of these left out somewhere obvious in your room and one in the maid of honours room on the day so that it is all easy access and you don’t have to send someone rummaging through all your bags to find a hair grip or a paracetamol.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Get some nice umbrellas in case it rains, you can return them/sell them after if they aren’t used.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Don’t worry about the drinks – people mostly don’t know the difference between expensive and cheap champagne and if people don’t drink wine they can get a drink at the bar.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Simple is key – don’t make it unnecessarily complicated!</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Take some money with you on the day – sounds silly but a lot of people apparently forget to take their purse and you end up having to pay for your room on checkout or paying for breakfast etc if it’s not included! You can obviously leave it in the hotel room as it’s just in case really, you won’t need to buy any drinks at the bar!</span></li>
</ul>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-41712045517531104732013-11-23T12:00:00.000+00:002013-11-23T16:20:16.508+00:00Well you must do...<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">Now before I start this one, let’s just make it clear that I really value people’s opinions and help, after all this is the first time </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> done this. Advice and opinions are always appreciated and I’d always rather people be honest with me if they think something is naff rather than just go along with whatever I say. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">However, our wedding </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">doesn't</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> have to be the same as your wedding, or any other wedding, in fact it really </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">shouldn't</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> be. There are no rules. We do not </span></span><i style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;">have </i><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">to do anything other than sign the register with the registrar, the rest is optional. Pressuring someone to have something at their wedding that they do not want is not cool. My word, people can get funny about weddings, even when it is not their own wedding. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">I know a wedding is a traditional thing, but it doesn't mean we can't put our own stamp on it, we don't have to do something </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">just</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> because it's </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">traditional</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">. Really if we had to do </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">everything</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> the traditional way we wouldn't have been living together for the </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">last</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> 6 years, our parents wouldn't be divorced and attending with their new </span></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">partners</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">, </span></span><span style="color: #444444; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">Dad</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> would be paying for the whole thing, we'd probably be considerably younger and my unmarried sister and her daughter wouldn't be in the bridal party. Traditions move on guys, keep up.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">Tom and I </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">aren't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> religious, so we will not be having a church wedding as it seemed hypocritical to get married in a church just because it looks pretty when neither of us go to church regularly (or at all) and people seem to accept this quite willingly but then are horrified when I say we might not have headdresses for the bridesmaids!</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">My advice on this is to just do </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">what</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> you want to do, I'm hoping it will get easier once we've actually bought/booked things as at the moment we have just booked the venue so all this is </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">theoretical</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">...and people seem to think they can </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">persuade</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> us out of it but once it's booked and paid for they can't really do anything about it. I am taking practical advice on board from lots of people (like on flowers and the timing of the day as I have have no idea) but the stylistic and trivial things like suits, dresses, hair and favours are really down to mine and Toms taste, not up to anyone else to dictate. Also as we are planning on mostly paying for the wedding </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">ourselves</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> (with help from family but not them paying for it all) I think if it's our wedding and we are paying for the objectionable item then really it's nobody </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">else's</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> business.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some things we are considering or thinking of not having that are a break from tradition and have caused a bit of a stir:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Not having loads of posed photos – I’d rather the photographer take more pictures while we are mingling, chatting etc. I hate having my picture taken (I literally cannot smile on command without looking like </span></span><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mr+burns&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3ViHUoLdG4fIhAf-wIGwDg&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#es_sm=93&espv=210&q=mr%20burns%20excellent&revid=1609308790&tbm=isch&imgdii=_" style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;">this</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">) and Tom would rather be having fun, so we will have a some done after the ceremony of us together and with our families and we will get my ones with my bridesmaids etc and Tom with his best men etc out of the way before the ceremony…but no we won’t be having a 1-2 hour long photo shoot…</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Tom not hiring a morning suit. Oh wow people are really attached to these morning suits, and when I asked Tom what he thought he might wear his first response was 'well I suppose I'll just hire a </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">morning</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> suit?'. After I said he could wear whatever he wanted to (if he </span></span><i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;">wanted </i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">to have a morning suit that's great I </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">just</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> wanted him to choose what he wore), he actually has had some </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">really</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> great ideas of his own what he would like to wear and what his best men and ushers could wear. Although when we say to people we are thinking of buying suits or </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">hiring</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> something different to morning suits (maybe a tuxedo? Maybe a designer suit? No idea yet) they say 'still go and look at the morning suits though' or 'well that's...different'. If I didn't like a certain wedding dress nobody would dare tell me I had to wear it, why should it be </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">different</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> for Tom?</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">I might wear my hair down…although I know an updo is probably more practical or 'bridal'. I have really long hair that I always have up, and I’d like to get it done nicely and wear it down (depending on the dress of course, I might eat my words if it looks stupid with the dress).</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Bridesmaids – </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> having them, but </span></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> not going to loads of effort getting them designer dresses and asking them to spend a fortune on their outfits.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> not worried about headdresses or hats, or complicated matching hairstyles or whatever for them.</span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Yes I am having a hairdresser, but no I am not paying for everyone to get their hair done and I am not going to demand that all my bridesmaids get their hair done. I’ll get the hairdresser up to do my hair on the morning, and anyone else can book in to get theirs done if they want to but they will have to pay for it themselves. My bridesmaids are very capable of doing their own or each other’s hair if they don’t want it done professionally.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">I will not have a makeup artist. </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I've</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> been putting makeup on my own face for years and am quite capable of doing it again.</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Music – A bit of a sticky one for us, as we are yet to decide on ANY songs for ANY of the wedding (We both have very broad music taste which is mostly wildly inappropriate for a wedding ceremony!). We can’t have any religious connotations either as it’s a civil service. This means no hymns. People are more disappointed by this than I thought they would be!</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Favours – Oh if I have another conversation about favours. People all say ‘Well you don’t need to go over the top...’ or ‘They really </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">aren't</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> that important…’ but if you say you might not have them then you’re a cheapskate or not making the effort!</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Money – This is also a bit of a tricky one as lots of people have lots of ideas, but we don’t want to get into debt to pay for our wedding so even though some ideas really are great and I’d love to do it we just </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">wouldn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> be able to afford them or they are too over the top for our intimate wedding.</span></span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">A more positive post next week on the great ideas </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> heard so far!</span></span></span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-35905741515167511322013-11-16T12:00:00.000+00:002013-11-16T12:00:08.211+00:00Let's start on the pretty stuff!I am trying not to get ahead of myself, as we aren't on pretty things yet but I just cannot help myself sometimes! So here is a little inspiration post...not necessarily anything we will have but things I love the look of. All from <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/katieog/wedding/">my wedding pin board.</a><br />
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Decorations<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga90-qjqWxilGy_A4b0-t-rXyJaie76gcQtWms2DUnSjwD8P2mY1LE8xW-avK8CsTx_dTnHw7XdR-1PbmFkE8ONbzu5vtOPHi7GoZmiSJfzQn4XjmD6y9OiFr0ACxsCn2cTkag8aIo09BJ/s1600/wedding+decor+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga90-qjqWxilGy_A4b0-t-rXyJaie76gcQtWms2DUnSjwD8P2mY1LE8xW-avK8CsTx_dTnHw7XdR-1PbmFkE8ONbzu5vtOPHi7GoZmiSJfzQn4XjmD6y9OiFr0ACxsCn2cTkag8aIo09BJ/s1600/wedding+decor+3.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBXt52U4E3bQzWYFY5Y8lmTHPIwvgDidI9_i9WNrFNutVBjEKnEEOh4EmhwqlJtwyuCCDeRMoJlj-2szSeWDN10mG35GDOhyphenhyphenE_Lq3_vDHjxhGlYkZVWKILHTIJX3RVmPEUrCNPbwK7A2sp/s1600/wedding+table+decor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBXt52U4E3bQzWYFY5Y8lmTHPIwvgDidI9_i9WNrFNutVBjEKnEEOh4EmhwqlJtwyuCCDeRMoJlj-2szSeWDN10mG35GDOhyphenhyphenE_Lq3_vDHjxhGlYkZVWKILHTIJX3RVmPEUrCNPbwK7A2sp/s1600/wedding+table+decor.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSdu0oUHGsJ3HfP6nyVEikJzz_yYVYXidmw1Ot52F4xyixCuwIyw-4-ntFCGA77ugztnlLHZUd9QhaAoRQHCA8S-UVFLDTJ_jmV5lfBOfSTTlu15ycMXRxKYdG34PGKd1KwFle2B2na45a/s1600/wedding+decor+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSdu0oUHGsJ3HfP6nyVEikJzz_yYVYXidmw1Ot52F4xyixCuwIyw-4-ntFCGA77ugztnlLHZUd9QhaAoRQHCA8S-UVFLDTJ_jmV5lfBOfSTTlu15ycMXRxKYdG34PGKd1KwFle2B2na45a/s1600/wedding+decor+2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Hair<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46MTzcokDwcI4pmsDPY4Ul0-0RVBxS7qIHYBZDUhdLLLPjDP6mMsrLgKd5-K3hSQ-M8Aih_DSlL-Ppg2po0hOanw-pAwZV248As98zpNFYVBZp8iBmfBPTzsz0bpKUDbFw8uLP_qTkQmt/s1600/wedding+hair+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46MTzcokDwcI4pmsDPY4Ul0-0RVBxS7qIHYBZDUhdLLLPjDP6mMsrLgKd5-K3hSQ-M8Aih_DSlL-Ppg2po0hOanw-pAwZV248As98zpNFYVBZp8iBmfBPTzsz0bpKUDbFw8uLP_qTkQmt/s1600/wedding+hair+2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy2uH0WZ8XN5iY0xGDoCaDYmaS42YmrWi7VDYiyvGIxXn1TNFOKJXXWbPRojfkzmkixudaoL-rdOwKV6vJcuTmbMfLbHeGL1iyh0Zn1zSH30l6Oi_FYdo1afbfvdzMAdBmlfEH8h6oEk_T/s1600/wedding+hair+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy2uH0WZ8XN5iY0xGDoCaDYmaS42YmrWi7VDYiyvGIxXn1TNFOKJXXWbPRojfkzmkixudaoL-rdOwKV6vJcuTmbMfLbHeGL1iyh0Zn1zSH30l6Oi_FYdo1afbfvdzMAdBmlfEH8h6oEk_T/s400/wedding+hair+3.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPD73jmg7AvcoBf_nd9iLFGrr2GqX1Nlnh27CF7DJHdMzeUnlX8FVTzS-nahSBYFI-aixaPioxmA_K5pdqzWI3F9N5qaHZLJ3VDqnfqsq0JG2Wzko0ehD-Cd5VxRkDxKYv31Rqx1tAWHI2/s1600/wedding+hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPD73jmg7AvcoBf_nd9iLFGrr2GqX1Nlnh27CF7DJHdMzeUnlX8FVTzS-nahSBYFI-aixaPioxmA_K5pdqzWI3F9N5qaHZLJ3VDqnfqsq0JG2Wzko0ehD-Cd5VxRkDxKYv31Rqx1tAWHI2/s1600/wedding+hair.jpg" /></a></div>
So torn between up do or hair down...all depends on the dress.<br />
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Photo shots and inspiration for poses<br />
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Our 2 flower girls would look so cute in something like this shot<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCTp92_sGEuk_jP3eO_Cfx3ZJnbt1Sr1Ob2mXkvxUmgwdl-0Zo_qPgNDZ9Oi3TrIVKthLcnO8casqyP7LOpC-rhFWrmj6kO7Qpe6ZrU8KX-qA_T46FsJB6Tcawuk2Sx2B4PTcvxT5pWf3O/s1600/wedding+photo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCTp92_sGEuk_jP3eO_Cfx3ZJnbt1Sr1Ob2mXkvxUmgwdl-0Zo_qPgNDZ9Oi3TrIVKthLcnO8casqyP7LOpC-rhFWrmj6kO7Qpe6ZrU8KX-qA_T46FsJB6Tcawuk2Sx2B4PTcvxT5pWf3O/s1600/wedding+photo+2.jpg" /></a></div>
I might be reluctant to lie on the ground in a white dress (the most expensive dress I ever bought as well!) but I like this for the engagement shoot<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1u_Fb6bOBEhLdEvDhW7xybP_vSkJnIHHSrDpognQdtownWWAbuR2IYutT5oMcuJ0DjukW-ygwyHHv6oi6SP5NLwGdfhIYbtutgfzEhRRjMIInwy7Pq5AVtOlSqbLtrmn3eibX1LkYqWnK/s1600/wedding+photo+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1u_Fb6bOBEhLdEvDhW7xybP_vSkJnIHHSrDpognQdtownWWAbuR2IYutT5oMcuJ0DjukW-ygwyHHv6oi6SP5NLwGdfhIYbtutgfzEhRRjMIInwy7Pq5AVtOlSqbLtrmn3eibX1LkYqWnK/s1600/wedding+photo+3.jpg" /></a></div>
There is a gorgeous staircase at our venue and I love this as a less formal couples shot.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE9OC0BJmiRLsueT1mu_JaVHQOU-XdZA7_nF7hpApnuLqRLBBhFhu59SebCVCQD24yD-yYaU_60pxrnsZvQCeD_RVhcWSMNG6w0rmD_HRQ30uOoPhAKPeuz_aZ-TY22_ngOBzBb6mNIQxe/s1600/wedding+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE9OC0BJmiRLsueT1mu_JaVHQOU-XdZA7_nF7hpApnuLqRLBBhFhu59SebCVCQD24yD-yYaU_60pxrnsZvQCeD_RVhcWSMNG6w0rmD_HRQ30uOoPhAKPeuz_aZ-TY22_ngOBzBb6mNIQxe/s1600/wedding+photo.jpg" /></a></div>
So there we got he first 'inspiration' post, I'm hoping to do a few mood boards and more inspiration posts. Mainly to keep myself reigned in, we have so many more things to sort out like food, drinks, music and paying for those and the photographer before we can start on pretty stuff like dresses, suits, flowers, décor etc but I can't wait!Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-13834420984192943592013-11-10T11:00:00.001+00:002013-11-10T11:00:04.589+00:00To theme or not to theme?<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">People keep asking what our colour scheme or theme will be… the answer is actually that we have no idea yet! We have colours that we like, mostly blue tones as I wanted green but Tom hates it so we agreed we could maybe compromise on a turquoise or light blue. We also have our own personal styles and likes but a theme seems to restricting for me. I don’t know if nowadays you really need to have one either. We don’t have to decide just yet, but it’s not too far off that we will be looking for dresses and suits so we will need to think about it then.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">I think I’d like to set a general ‘feel’ for the day but not restrict it to a theme or certain colour only. I think it allows much more freedom, for example if I love a certain table decoration but it’s not the right colour exactly to match my strict colour scheme and I have to keep looking even though </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> found something I like, that seems to be adding unneeded stress to the process! I would however like to have a general feel of the day in mind to help us, otherwise it might get a bit jumbled and messy and hard to choose things.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">Your wedding should be all about you and your style and personalities. Anyone who knows us would agree that a blinged out fancy wedding just </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">isn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> really us. I’d like to have a quite relaxed day so </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">wouldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> go for a feel that’s too formal, like with a dress code and a massive load of decorations, flowers, bling and a </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">humongous</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> dress. Although if that’s your style of course there’s nothing wrong with that!</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">Some themes </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> seen which I liked, but that we probably </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">wouldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> go with (Out of practicality and just what suits us and the venue) are:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Circus/Fairground – Love the idea but a bit much effort to make it worth it (you’d have to go all out to make it work and I don’t have the time/money/patience)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Certain Films or Books - Pride and Prejudice, Water for Elephants etc – Again too restrictive and I could never pick just one book!</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Glamour and Glitz – Nice to see everyone dressed up but would like a more relaxed day.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Princess/Disney – Dangerous as I </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">wouldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> want it to be too childish or themey. I’ll be going on 30 on the wedding day so no dressing up like Cinderella but I did fall in love with <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918918124231/">these Beauty and the Beast centrepieces</a>, so simple!</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Literature – Like favourite books as table names, readings from books, themed favours etc. Love it. Only problem is </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> the reader in the relationship, </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I've</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> seen Tom finish about 2 books in all the time </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">I've</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> known him so that theme would be </span></span></span><i style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;">all</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"> me.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Travel – We LOVE to travel, and there might be a part of this in the day but as an overarching theme it </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">wouldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> work as although we love travelling we haven’t really been to enough interesting places to fill the whole day…that’s what the honeymoon is for :)</span></span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;">Some feels that </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"> considering are:</span></span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Vintage – I like vintage but Tom </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">doesn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> like stuff that ‘looks old’ so thinking vintage but high end vintage (i.e. Carrie Bradshaw vintage not charity shop find vintage) like 1920’s-1930’s glitter or 60’s/70’s hippie chic.</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Almost a country fair feel, with games outside, nibbles and talking points spread around the venue.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A garden party or tea party – the venue lends itself to quite posh stuff really, and quite nice or old fashioned parties.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">A general spring theme – like with the flowers and colours, it gives you a theme or feel but </span></span><span style="line-height: 16.99652862548828px;">isn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"> too restrictive and is open to interpretation.</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Festival – no tents but a general festival feel like food outside, sitting in the grass, music and a chilled atmosphere.</span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To be honest it will probably be a mixture of a load of things, like a vintage fair in spring with a travel and literature twist! OK that’s exaggerating a bit, but I was seriously considering favours that incorporate reading and travel, and have been looking at vintage dresses online, and the wedding is in the spring so we are almost there already on most of those…I think we will let the theme and feel of the day kind of evolve as we go...</span></span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-41527485661333613882013-10-19T12:00:00.000+01:002013-11-06T18:54:23.588+00:00Let's talk money<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Right...how much is this whole shebang going to cost? We have already allocated/spent some of our budget, but really at the moment everything is pretty fluid.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">OK...I'll admit some things we don’t even know how much they will cost yet…I never thought about how much buttonholes cost before I started planning this!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">We know how much we want to spend on the expensive stuff like venue, catering and photography. </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">We've</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> already booked the venue for £3500 (nearly paid off) and have actually booked the photographer for £1000, less than we thought it would be. Catering is next on the list and we’re looking for around £2000-£3000.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">After this we will have already spent around £7000 which seems like loads, in fact it <i style="line-height: 21px;">is</i> loads but this will be the bare bones of our wedding - venue, food and drink, registrar and photographer. We could get married with just that, the rest is just dressing really. It’s so surprising how much money you can save up if you really try and have something to aim for, I would never think we could get £7000 together in under a year until now, it makes me feel so stupid that we never got our deposit saved up for our own house – after the wedding this will be our next step and now I know we can do it I want to get it together pretty quick!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The budget for the rest is pretty fluid but we want to keep it near to the £10,000 mark for the whole thing, so we have around £3000 left (<i>around </i>being the operative word here this is far from accurate budgeting). We </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">aren't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> stuck to that limit though, we’re really just going with what we can afford at the time so it might be more, or it might be less. I don’t want to get into debt to pay for our wedding, and while I want to have a beautiful day I also don’t want to make loads of work by having unnecessary stuff there, </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> busy enough as it is! </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> hoping to have the venue paid off by the end of the year and have the money saved up for the catering by early next year so we can pay it off in one go, this will leave us clear for all the other stuff to pay for next year. Our approach is to do this bit by bit, so paying things off as we go and then moving onto the next rather than paying for it all together on a credit card then paying it off until our 10th </span></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">anniversary, remember we still don’t own our own home and have that to think about in the future.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">We do also have the offer of help from family which we are so grateful for, for example Toms mum has offered us the exact amount that our photographer costs, and my Dad wants to help us out although </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> not yet taken him up on that offer but we will (possibly with the catering). We are adding in help from family as additional to our budget, so this is where we can allow ourselves a bit of an overspend if needed, and where we can maybe have some nicer things that we </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">wouldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> be able to afford on our own. To be honest we </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">weren't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> counting on our families to pay for our wedding, in this day and age I don’t think you do, but its traditional for them to help out and they want to so we’ll happily let them.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The things we have left to pay for are:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Music - The ceremony and in between music we're planning to be free, so the evening music is the only thing. About £500 seems to be an average price for a DJ but to be honest we haven't enquired anywhere yet!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Invites – Less than £200 if we can. Hoping to DIY some parts and use offers/coupons for money off printing. Debating also just printing some of the parts ourselves like the accommodation information and directions to go with the invites. We don’t want anything too fussy with ribbons and bows etc, just a nice invite, maybe with a photo background. Postage is also a factor for them, we can hand deliver to our immediate family but will need to post some, and some need to go abroad.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Clothes – Dress no more than £1000 (hoping a lot less but it depends on sale prices, I have a whole year to stalk the sales!), and accessories, hair and makeup less than £500. Suit for Tom – Not sure yet depends if we buy or rent but less than £500 hopefully.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Flowers and Décor - Hoping to DIY a lot of the décor and centrepieces so the budget for that is as low as possible but around £500, the only flowers we will get from a florist will be 4 bouquets and the buttonholes so hopefully less than £200 – depends on what flowers we have, not decided yet.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Cake – Around £100 for a shop bought cake...unless we have another option - more on that soon!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">There are also the additional and miscellaneous expenses, which we won’t know the amount for yet but it will probably be for things like travel, last minute disasters (replacement shoes or adjustments to dresses etc) or just stuff we add on as we go.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Those are mostly our highest estimates, some will be less, some will be more, we will have unexpected expenses, and I may look back at this and laugh at my naiveté after the cake costs £800…</span></div>
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Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-76916205335695005062013-10-12T12:00:00.000+01:002013-10-12T12:00:00.161+01:00Photographer<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I said in last weeks post that we had already booked the photographer. We were planning to book the photographer early next year after looking around and meeting with a few different ones, however on the August bank holiday I saw one I liked the look of on an offer on </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">Facebook.</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> Her style of </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">photos</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> were exactly what we were looking for, plus she had a bank holiday offer running of £100 de</span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">posit and 20% off, but this offer was to expire that day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> looked around and this price seems pretty good, most other good photographers who’s work I liked the look of were at least double that, although many did include printing. However if we get the photos printed somewhere else </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> sure the total cost will be less. I really like her style also, not too formal and very natural, she does do some of the traditional family line up shoots and bridal party etc but prefers more candid and natural shots – exactly my preference! A lot of the photos on her website are of couples smiling, laughing, playing around, not all serious and posed or ‘moody’, which is just what we want.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">We just went for it and booked. It might seem like jumping the gun a bit but we liked the style of her photos, she seems very nice, and the price and what we get for that price are great so </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> not too nervous about it! Also it’s only a £100 deposit, so if we end up cancelling </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">we've</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> not lost a massive amount – although I doubt this will happen.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">For the price (Just over £1000) we get an engagement shoot (and all the photos from that shoot – maybe for use in the invitations), the photographer all day at the wedding from getting ready in the morning to the first dance, a photo booth setup, use of a Polaroid camera and of course her editing afterwards. The price </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">doesn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> include printing, although she can offer this in various forms, but we will get all the edited photos on a memory stick and in an online album and are free to print them elsewhere if we don’t like her prices or options. Her printing options start from £400 for a wedding album, but to be honest we’ll probably look into getting them done somewhere else. I like this freedom as we have heard of people not getting their photos after the wedding and them being the property of the photographer so you can only buy prints and albums from them and don’t get the photos electronically…not what we want.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So all in all </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">we've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> taken a gamble booking someone so quickly, and without really looking at others (</span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I've</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> browsed websites etc but not met or spoken with any other photographers) but I think it will pay off as we seem to have found the style of photographer we wanted for less than we would have paid elsewhere. So far she's is getting great feedback in the 'brides group' she has set up on Facebook. </span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">We'll see how it goes at the engagement shoot!</span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-71596817845805837802013-10-05T12:00:00.000+01:002013-10-05T12:00:03.948+01:00What Next?<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">OK so we have the venue booked, what now?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Well we have to pay for it first which we will hopefully do by the end of this year, but I thought I’d get our rough plan after this in writing. We actually booked the photographer already, we were planning to look around a bit and book one early next year but we found one sooner than we thought we would.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">This will probably change over the course of the year but this is the rough order we’re planning to do everything in:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Early 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Firstly we will sort catering – Start of 2014 we want to be going around the 4 caterers tasting food (looking forward to that!) and hopefully choosing one and getting a menu put together. We’ll look at adding a drinks package as well with the venue.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Spring 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Then we get onto the official ins and outs of the day, like paying the registrar and declaring our ‘intention to marry’ with our local council. In England you book the registrar in the area you are getting married to actually do the ceremony and you sign the register of that area, but you must also inform your local registrar where you live of your wedding date and the registrar who will be marrying you so they can record it there, you cannot do this longer than one year before your wedding date so we’ll do that spring next year.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Music and entertainment. We want music in the evening (undecided still on band or DJ but leaning toward DJ) and something for the ceremony, the venue also has an i</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">Pod</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> system so between the ceremony and meal and also after hours (the amplified music has to stop at midnight) we can have background music, so we’ll need to get going on some playlists and get someone booked. We also like the idea of some entertainment in the day like games (We loved the duck race idea <a href="http://weddingtenantchic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/venue-2-small-hotel.html">back here</a>) so will be trying to come up with something and looking into options with the venue.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Summer 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">We will get our invites printed and sent out around this point as I want to get the invites out with plenty of notice as we have to allocate the bedrooms ourselves before the venue will start taking payments from our guests for their rooms, so we need plenty of time to sort that out! We also won't be bothering with save the date cards or anything so we'll just get the invites out early. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I’ll start shopping around for my dress, and dependent on the state of my bridesmaids (there are possible baby plans) we will start looking for dresses for them and the flower girls. I might choose the dresses so we can start planning flowers, accessories etc but have them on standby so we can get them nearer the time dependent on everyone’s size! We will start looking for suits for Tom and his best men (he has 2) and the ushers. </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> not overly keen on the rented morning suits, mostly because everyone around here gets them from the same place and they’re really old fashioned with cravats and cummerbunds etc so we might look into a nice tuxedo or suit but will shop around and see what Tom likes. We said he wants a cape, top hat and cane last time we discussed it so you can see how serious he is about it. This could all run on into autumn as there </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">isn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> any rush to get all this done in summer, I’d just like to make a start on it.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15.555556297302246px; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">We will be getting to less than a year before the wedding so once we have the colour scheme and the dresses we'll look for the cake (more tasting – yay!). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Autumn 2014</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">I’ll want to start looking at flowers, decorations, table settings and favours (He’s currently really into all the planning but I think Tom may lose interest once we start talking flowers and napkins so I’ll draft in the bridesmaids and mothers to help) and will hopefully be getting some RSVP’s from the invites so can start allocating the rooms out (I might give this to Tom to do if he’s not helping with the rest).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Winter 2014/15</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">In winter next year and over into 2015 we should be working on the extras and finishing touches, I want to have a dress either bought and having alterations or on order and be shopping for shoes, underwear, accessories, makeup etc. We will buy Toms ring (My Nanny left me her wedding ring when she died, so I won’t need to buy one), and book any hairdressers or beauticians. We should probably start looking at the order of the day and the details like the first dance song (seriously the hardest part to decide?!), who will do readings (so we can ask them and give them time to practice), the layout of the tables for the meal and the chairs for the ceremony, any extras we want to add like photo montages, canapés or activities for the guests.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Hopefully at this point our wedding party will also be working away on the hen and stag do’s :)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">2015</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Once we get into the start of 2015 we’ll be on the home stretch, we can then start on the seating chart, last minute logistics for people coming from further away and last dress and suit fittings for everyone. We’ll also have meetings with the venue, photographer, hairdressers, caterers etc to get everything finalised with them. We’ll also be doing any DIY stuff like centrepieces and decorations in the run up to the day. Luckily the venue has large tables and we only have 60 planned for the meal so we won’t need loads of table decorations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> sure there are millions more things to add to this list, but that’s the kind of general idea of how we’ll progress. Really the gist is that we want to get the big and expensive stuff booked and paid for first before we start on all the little things. I want to try and DIY as much of the decoration as possible, like the centrepieces and table settings, because I enjoy that kind of thing and to save a bit of money, so the longer we have for this the better. We are hoping to have a beautiful day but not planning to go to over the top on having loads of extras and make more work for ourselves. Although there is still so much to do, and looking at this list </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> actually starting to appreciate having it booked in 2015 even though it </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">wasn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> our first choice!</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">We’re trying to keep the budget as low as possible, </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">we've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> already allocated a huge chunk of it (more than half) for the venue and catering which is why we want to get that booked first so we can pay it off before we start on the rest. I’ll do a post on our budget at some point. We do have the offer of help from family, which we are immensely grateful for and will add to our initial budget. We are trying to allocate the money that we have from other people to specific things as it makes it easier to work out the budget. I really want to have as much paid off at the time of booking as possible as </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> such a credit phobic, so through autumn and winter this year we will be paying off the venue and saving up the catering money and hopefully can start next year with a good chunk of it paid. After this we will just keep saving throughout next year and be able to pay things off as we go.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Phew it's a lot to do but looking forward to getting my teeth into it, the </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">hardest</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> part at the moment is keeping myself reigned in as I keep trying to get ahead of myself and have been looking online for dresses already!</span></span></span></span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-29094227658527921342013-09-28T12:00:00.000+01:002013-09-28T12:21:16.417+01:00How did we choose?<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">In the last 3 posts you can see the 3 different venues we looks around, how did we decide which one was for us? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The venue is such a massive part of the wedding day and it's also the first thing that a lot of people book, therefore setting the tone for your whole day. It's big decision! All 3 venues that we saw were very similar in price so cost was not really part of our decision making between them. They were all also within our requirements for size, amount of rooms, style and location. This is really what made the decision hard as on paper we could have chosen any of them and it was really down to which one we just liked best.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">It seems pretty obvious now which is the best venue, but we were really torn between the private house and the small hotel. So how did we decide in the end?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">We viewed all the venues then went off for a few days to Cornwall for a beach break as we had the rest of the week off, so we had time away from work etc to really relax and talk through all our options at length. I would definitely recommend doing this, taking a few days after viewing to really think about it, don't feel pressured to book there and then. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">What we found was that we had disregarded the large hotel, and on an emotional basis we loved both the private house and small hotel but when we weighed up the pros and cons there were some concerns with the hotel that we </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">didn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> have with the private house. Mostly that all the parts we loved were outside and if it rained we </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">wouldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> get to use them, and as we’re looking at Spring so March/April/May there is a good chance it might rain. Well actually in Britain there’s always a good chance it might rain! Also if the small hotel had just been in a quieter area it might have won, but the crowds and very public nature really </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">couldn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> compete with having our own manor house for the day tucked away in a few acres of land. The house has also been converted with events, especially weddings, in mind, so is really well suited to a wedding and has plenty of space, rooms, toilets etc and the décor is all pretty and compliments the house but is very neutral to allow you any colour scheme for your day.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So we mainly chose the private house for the size and the fact we get the whole place to ourselves, other than that the bridal suite and gardens/location also were quite persuasive. The only downside was the shared bathrooms in some rooms, other than that we really </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">couldn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> think of any drawbacks! The rooms are a reasonable price for the venue (more than a cheap hotel or B&B but not expensive) and there is a cheaper Holiday Inn/Travelodge type hotel about a 2 minute drive or a few minutes’ walk if people did want to stay there instead or if we filled all the rooms at the house. The catering is all done externally and we have caterers to chose from (we will be arranging menu tasting as soon as </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">we've</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> paid a bit of the venue off) and most seem to be reasonable prices and have nice looking menus.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Also we could just see our wedding there. Tom said he could actually almost hear my sisters, mum and bridesmaids all chatting and running between the bridal suite’s dressing room and its interlinking rooms with rollers in their hair carrying hairbrushes and bouquets etc. I really liked the suite and like the idea of getting ready there, neither us, my mum or dad have huge houses so everyone getting ready there would probably be a lot easier and it would save us hiring a wedding car for me to arrive in (Tom is rather gutted about not having a cool car though so we might have to arrange something for him!). It might also make the morning a little more chilled as no worries about getting to the venue on time if we’re already there!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">We could also just visualise the ceremony and meal there in a way we </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">couldn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> at the other 3 places, I think because it is such a personal venue and we can really do whatever we want with it that just made it so much easier to picture. It means we can have a completely bespoke day, and the house is pretty as it is so </span></span><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">I'm</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> not planning to go too OTT on the decorations but we can have anything we want and put decorations in every area of the venue if we wanted to not just a function room.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">I just can’t wait to start on the rest of it! We are looking at spring 2015 so have a while to arrange and pay for stuff, they </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">didn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> have any availability for later next year (and I could organise it by then but spring 2014 is too close to get it all paid for!) so we had to go to the year after which I was a bit disappointed by but Tom has the outlook that it’s longer to organise and means we can afford to have some nicer things. We’re aiming to pay off the venue hire quite quickly (by the end of this year hopefully) as we have the catering to arrange, so rather than if we had gone for a hotel and had it all in one go it’s split in half to pay for the venue hire then the catering separately. This kind of works for us as we can pay off the venue part then save up for the catering, rather than paying one massive chunk of it at the start.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">My advice if you're torn between 2 venues would be to weigh up the pro's and con's and look at all the details, also as I said in </span><a href="http://weddingtenantchic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/viewing-venues.html" style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">this post</a><span style="line-height: 20.98958396911621px;"> don't be afraid to go away and think about it, or take someone for a second opinion.</span></span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-53140206769450812072013-09-21T13:10:00.001+01:002013-09-21T13:10:25.586+01:00Venue Number 1<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The one we booked!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">This was the private house, and was my favourite although neither of us had been there before but on the website it looked good. We saw this venue first, on the morning before going to the large hotel. The house is a private hire venue, so you hire the whole place exclusively for the day and night, an idea I really liked.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">I was actually really surprised when we started looking that we could afford this type of venue, I looked at the website for one private house on a whim expecting it to be way out of our price range but nice to dream about hiring a stately home for the day, and was shocked to find that it was within our (modest) budget.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The house has a long tree lined drive, you can’t see it from the road, it faces away from the road and looks out over the gardens to the river at the end (too big and deep for duck races unfortunately but lovely for photos). The gardens are pretty simple but look good, with a walled courtyard between the house and coach house, then a patio area onto a rolling lawn sloping away from the house down to woods and a river. There is a pagoda in the garden for an outdoor ceremony, which we are considering, they can set up for an outdoor ceremony but if the weather isn’t great bring everything inside on the day so it’s nice to have the option.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">You enter into a hallway with a spiral staircase at the end which goes up through all the floors of the house and has a glass dome at the top, it was really pretty and let in loads of light and really a feature of the house. The manager who was showing us around showed us examples of photos people have had on the stairs and they make a great backdrop. There is the bar adjoining this room with a big fireplace and a few tables with chairs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Also on the ground floor are the room for the ceremony and next to it a larger room for the meal and evening entertainment. All the rooms on the ground floor have large windows (floor to ceiling in some rooms) and the whole ground floor had hardwood floors and was decorated neutrally in white, cream and beige tones so you could go with any colour scheme. I really liked the ceremony room as it was light and airy and felt very spacious, we would stand in front of large windows looking out into the gardens to say our vows. It also had nice features like a fireplace and chandelier and was large enough to easily accommodate our guests.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The ballroom where we would eat and have the music in the evening is also really spacious and has huge windows that let in loads of light. On the ground floor there are also 2 other smaller rooms, the ‘garden room’ had windows covering one wall facing out onto the patio and a bar along one side, it’s apparently usually where people serve the evening buffet. There’s a TV mounted on the far wall and we’re debating on some way to display photos people have taken at the wedding, like on a twitter feed or instagram. The smallest room was the library or ‘white room’, a corner room with nice views over the gardens, it would be where we would meet the registrar prior to the ceremony and nice for people wanting to get away from the music and partying later on.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Up the spiral stairs were the bedrooms, the bridal suite was huge, you entered into a hallway and off that was a large corner bedroom with views over the gardens, then a bathroom and a large dressing room with a sofa, hanging rail and bar and stools along one side with mirrors for applying makeup. We would be able to go up early to get ready, or even stay the night before if we booked a minimum of 15 rooms. The dressing room also had 2 doors coming off of it interlinking into 2 other bedrooms, which in turn linked to another so you could have 4 rooms all opened up for getting ready in the morning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The rest of the suites and rooms were nice, although with it being an old house some had odd layouts and not all rooms have en suite bathrooms. Most do have an en suite, some have a private bathroom which is over the corridor or next door, but a few rooms have shared bathrooms and some of the suites have 2 bedrooms but only one bathroom. This was the only downside of this venue really, but it isn’t too much of an issue. Already we have some people earmarked for the suites with shared bathrooms as they’re perfect for a family of 3-4 to share (most are a double room, single or twin room and bathroom). The rooms with shared bathrooms we will just make sure are occupied by people who know each other very well, we get to say who goes in which room so we can hopefully sort it out that everyone is happy. There are also ground floor rooms which is good as there isn’t a lift.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">There were nice touches around upstairs as well like large seating areas with coffee tables and magazines etc between the rooms, and all the rooms were decorated well and most had a nice view over either the gardens or farmland to the nearby village.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">So, what was right?</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">It would be completely ours all day we wouldn’t just be confined to certain function rooms or areas, so if the weather was bad there’d be plenty of room for everyone inside as the ballroom and bar would be large enough but we also have the other 2 rooms and the entrance hall etc in between.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Flexibility. The manager we met was very helpful and made suggestions of what other people tended to do and what has worked well before but really it would be completely up to us what we want to do where, and if for example a painting didn’t fit with our colour scheme or we didn’t like it they would take it down for our day.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">I liked the idea of having a separate area/room for the ceremony (rather than having it all in one room and having to change it around between sections) as it means we can set up the tables etc before and not have to kick everyone out to change the room over straight after the ceremony.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The gardens and area were scenic but not too far from main roads for ease of access</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The bridal suite was the best one out of the 3 venues and was complimentary on the wedding night.</span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.98958396911621px;">What was wrong?</span><br />
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<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">The only slight complaint I would have is that the rooms with shared bathrooms are the same price as those with en suites when I think they really should be cheaper, I don’t think people would be so worried about sharing if they were getting the room cheaper! We will probably leave the shared bathroom rooms until last to allocate and do en suite first come first served. So if you’re invited book a room asap!</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">So that's the one we booked, we've been up again recently for a wedding fair and showed some of our family around. Next on the list is the catering, then the dress :)</span>Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-27006279486935748272013-09-14T12:00:00.000+01:002013-09-14T12:00:08.331+01:00Venue 2 - The Small Hotel<div class="ecxMsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was a boutique hotel in a beautiful village. It’s a typical Cotswolds village (similar to Bourton on the Water or Broadway) and very picturesque. Think Cotswold stone, winding lanes, doorways with roses growing around them and a small river running through the centre with stone bridges crisscrossing it. It was a sunny day in July so there was quite a lot of tourist traffic, a coach full of Japanese tourists was arriving as we got there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This had been our third choice venue, neither of us had been there before but we liked the look of it on the website and people had told us it was nice, however we really didn’t have any preconceptions and were completely blown away by the beauty of the village and the hotel from the outside. It was an old hotel on the side of the river, built in Cotswold stone and covered in ivy. As we drove into the village and it came in to view we both went quiet and I think I might have whispered something like ‘oooh it’s pretty’.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The hotel was decorated nicely inside, quite dark blues and greens and with fireplaces, eclectic furniture and overstuffed armchairs etc (Think stereotypical English countryside hotel). The function room was being redecorated, but would eventually be dark blue walls with white panelling on the bottom half, and a blue and green tartan style carpet. The carpet wasn’t laid yet but it was throughout the hotel in other rooms, and one wall was painted, so we could get a vague idea of what it would look like. The blue was a pretty overpowering colour to be honest it wouldn’t leave much choice of colour scheme. They would have been happy to hold a date for us until the work was completed a few weeks later and we could look around again before making any financial commitment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We would have had use of the main function room and also the adjoining library exclusively and then could also use the bar and communal areas of the hotel. The restaurant and bar had a nice terrace area and were decorated in a modern but comfortable theme. The bedrooms were nice, although expensive, and all had gorgeous big bathrooms and huge beds. However, the ‘Bridal Suite’ was really just a standard room with a few added extras, and while most rooms had nice views over the village it looked out into the back of the hotel. It had a 4 poster bed and a nice bathroom but in reality it was the same as the other (expensive) rooms and would have cost even more. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The real reason we liked this place so much was the village it was in and the garden of the hotel, it was on the other side of the road from the hotel and not massive (about the size of 2 tennis courts maybe). There were 2 streams/rivers running the length of the garden on either side and the landscaping was well done, with paths, trellis (trellis’? trelli?), nice garden furniture and deck chairs, level grassy areas and flowers and shrubs in beds at either end. You could have the ceremony outside, and although the village does get busy the hotel gardens are for guests only, and we had them to ourselves that morning. The hotel and gardens were on the main road through the village though, literally right on it there wasn’t even a pavement, so they weren’t actually that quiet or secluded and I would maybe feel a little on show having the ceremony outside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The events planner also said that the village hosts a yearly duck race, and a popular thing to do is to have a mini duck race in the river running through the garden. We thought this was such a lovely idea, you could give the rubber ducks as favours and let people decorate them then have the race after the meal while the room is being changed around for the evening. The river ran through a paved channel in the garden and ended at a grate on the wall which would catch the ducks at the end of the race, it was quite shallow and even so would be easy to drop ducks into and everyone could take part.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, what was right?</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The location. The surrounding area, the village and countryside were gorgeous. The backdrop for photos would have been great.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The gardens and the duck race, I was so in love with this idea that it really was the main plus point of the venue for me, and we’re trying to think of something similar at the place we actually booked (any ideas please let me know!).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The hotel looked very well run and the events co-ordinator was very organised, it felt like the event would be well handled.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The hotel itself was also pretty as well as the area around it, the inside was nicely decorated and everything felt quite luxurious and well done.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The menu in the restaurant looked good, and it was the kind of place where we could adapt the menu to fit.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The bedrooms were nice, spacious and beautifully decorated.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What was wrong?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">In </span><a href="http://weddingtenantchic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/viewing-venues.html" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">this post</a><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"> I explained that we didn’t want to book somewhere just on the strength of the outside as the British weather may let us down on the day. We were there on a glorious day in the middle of the July heat wave, but we tried to imagine it on a wet day. If we were confined to inside, the hotel actually was not very large so we would be in 2 rooms which although they were nice were just function rooms at the end of the day and would maybe feel a bit cramped.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The tourists. While we were in the gardens people were all milling around outside and taking photos of the hotel and gardens (and us in the gardens). It kind of spoiled the vibe of a nice country hotel tucked away in a little village having it surrounded by crowds of people. The road was right outside the hotel and it was pretty busy with cars going over the bridge to get in and out of the village. This was midweek, on a sunny Saturday it would be even busier.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The bedrooms were very expensive although they were the nicest ones out of the 3 venues, but the bridal suite was disappointing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;">The popularity of the area with tourists also meant that hotel rooms are booked up far in advance, so we would need to reserve a lot of rooms. We would have had the cost of the rooms taken off our final payment, and our guests would just pay for their rooms at reception on check out as normal but it was an initial outlay we wouldn’t have elsewhere.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All in all we loved it, and agreed we would stay there sometime for a nice romantic break. It only just lost out to the other venue that we had seen. Although we really went back and forth for a few days and had to do a list of pros and cons for both before we really were sure. More on the one we booked soon!</span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-81397219223160054742013-09-07T16:00:00.000+01:002013-09-07T16:00:06.875+01:00Venue 3 - The Large Hotel<div class="ecxMsoNormal">
I’ll do these in order of choice from last to first, as I want to end on the one we chose! Also I’ve decided not to tell all about our wedding on here, as I want to keep some things private or a surprise before the day. So I’m not actually going to tell you the names and locations of these places, although if you want more info for your own wedding or event on any of the venues or suppliers I talk about here please contact me.</div>
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We viewed this venue second, after viewing another nearby venue in the morning we went there after lunch. On arrival I think my words were something like ‘Wow, it’s big’, it was a pretty impressive looking old gothic style hotel, it almost looked like a castle from the car park! Tom had been here before on a course with work and this was his favourite, the one he had suggested we go and see. The reception was huge and the massive stairwell wound up through about 4-5 floors, all in all it was pretty big and pretty impressive. We looked at the orangery first, the bit I was most excited to see as on the website it looked lovely. It looked like a massive conservatory out in the grounds, which was self contained with its own toilets, bar etc so you could have your whole day there and not intermingle with other guests or weddings. It would also be the best of both worlds between inside and outside, on the website it looked like the orangery was in a garden so you could all be outside if it was nice or inside if not and at night it would look great all lit up.</div>
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We got there and the orangery bordered the car park. As soon as I saw it all my notions of a romantic, small, secluded and pretty orangery went out the window. It did have some bushes and trees around it which in the pictures gave the illusion of a garden but it was paved all around. The inside wasn’t as nice as I’d thought it would be either, the website actually didn’t have any photos but I’d hoped for tiled or wooden floors and nice lighting etc. It was red patterned ‘hotel’ carpet, red velvet conference chairs and painted inside in a yellowy cream colour. We moved on pretty quickly as the events co-ordinator must have seen our disappointment. This really shows the benefit of looking around places in person!</div>
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We continued the tour through some beautiful gardens with stunning views, and on round to the marquee and large function room. While both were very nice they really didn’t have anything a function room in a Holiday Inn wouldn’t have (nothing wrong with a Holiday Inn of course, but it would be a hell of a lot cheaper!). The one plus point of the function room was it had a soundproof wall at one end that folded back, so the DJ or band could be setting up behind it while you ate to minimise changeover time from eating to dancing.</div>
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The rest of the inside of the hotel was nice, with wood beams and cosy seating areas mixed in with glass walls and modern touches. It also had a pool and a spa which would be lovely the day after or the day before the wedding.</div>
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We carried on the tour round to the atrium, an area recently licensed for ceremonies, currently being used as a café/bar it was a room about 3 stories high with a glass ceiling and stone walls. It was stunning. They really should start the tour there instead of end it as the orangery being such a disappointment really let it down right at the start. It would be a lovely room for the ceremony, it was oblong shaped so a long aisle with 5-6 chairs either side could be made, the bar would be screened off and then once the ceremony was over opened for guests to have a drink before the meal. We kind of looked at each other like ‘there might be hope for this place yet’ but after going through all of the packages and options with the events co-ordinator and looking around the grounds a bit more we just weren’t feeling it. </div>
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So, what was right?</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Stunning gardens and a beautiful view over countryside</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Impressive hotel and architecture</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Plenty of room for people to stay over, the place has hundreds of rooms</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>The Atrium was lovely and we could visualise the ceremony being held there</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Experienced wedding and events team, this hotel has hundreds of events and weddings per year</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Multiple options of rooms for the ceremony/reception. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Flexible catering, the kitchens can cater for any diet and have loads to choose from</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Size – The hotel itself is huge so no way we would feel cramped, it also meant plenty of space for parking, extra guests and plus ones, space for the wedding party to spread out into the bar etc if needed.</div>
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What wasn’t right?</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>It was almost too big, it felt quite impersonal and like our smallish wedding would get a bit lost in this massive hotel, and there may have been 2 or 3 weddings there that day if they were at full capacity. I really didn’t like the idea of this. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>The décor was not as good as the other 2 places, not bad but pretty generic. The gothic style reception, atrium and entrance were grand and impressive but also some areas were quite dark, due to the style of the building and the period it was built in but dark carpets and furnishings didn’t help. The outside and gardens were beautiful, but other places we had seen also had good gardens and as I said in the last post because we can’t rely on the weather we didn’t want to book somewhere just because of the outside. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Really we just didn’t like it as much as the place we had viewed that morning, and after seeing the 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> one the next day it was completely out of the running. It just didn’t feel right, neither of us were very excited about it and while the atrium was lovely and we kind of considered that for a few minutes the rest of the hotel really didn’t match up to it for the evening and the meal.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>We never saw the bedrooms but looking on the website and in the brochure the rooms look pretty standard (It is a chain hotel) and we noted that they do not have a bridal suite, the other places did and one even had the bridal suite complimentary on the wedding night. </div>
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All in all we felt we should like it but it just wasn’t us, we wanted somewhere nice but personal and more fitting to our style. The next few posts will be on the venues we were really torn between, and how we managed to choose in the end.</div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-67191992929611531372013-08-03T11:57:00.000+01:002013-09-13T19:04:46.513+01:00Viewing Venues<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.35em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">After getting a shortlist of a few venues you really like, now it’s time to go and look around them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">We booked to go and see 3 venues which were pretty different to each other (A private house, a large hotel and a small boutique hotel) and I’ll write about our thoughts on each type, but some general tips we found along the way which I thought would be useful to remember were</span></div>
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<li style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Try not to be biased before you go. We both had different favourites before we went to see them and then we had a third choice which we just booked because it looked pretty on the website. After viewing we were actually really taken with our ‘third choice’ and one of our favourites was completely disregarded!</span></li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Make a list of requirements (on paper or just mental points) and ask the events person if it’s not obvious they have them. Good events co-ordinators will hopefully answer most of your questions before you need to ask if they give you a thorough tour, but sometimes if a venue is lacking something they may gloss over it and you may need to ask outright.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">Ask to see the bedrooms if your venue has them, 2 out of 3 venues showed us the bridal suite, a suite and a standard room. One venue </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">didn't</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> show us any rooms but it </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">wasn't</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> until we left that we realised, and as we had pretty much already disregarded it </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">didn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> bother going back to ask. It’s really helpful to see the rooms and actually helped us to decide on our venue as we were torn between 2 places and one place the rooms were very expensive and the bridal suite was actually not much different to a normal room, and another place had less expensive rooms and the bridal suite and other suites were much nicer. The bridal suite accommodation was also included in one but not in the others, so it’s worth asking what accommodation is included or discounted.</span></span></span></li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Ask if there will be any changes/renovations to the venue before your wedding. You may be booking quite far in advance, and if you love a particular room, colour or style of furniture make sure it will still be the same on the day. One venue we went to was having the room we would hire redecorated, she showed us the paint colour (one wall was painted) and carpet (in another room) but also said we were welcome to come back at the end of the month once the work was completed, and would be happy to hold a date for us without us making any financial commitment until we saw the completed room.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">Weather. Being in Britain we can’t guarantee to have nice weather even if we booked the height of summer. We therefore </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">didn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> want to book somewhere just on the strength of the gardens and outside areas as we might not see much of them on the day! All the venues had nice gardens but we also wanted plenty of room inside and nice areas inside in case we end up spending the whole day indoors. Think about when your wedding will be and the weather where you live. We decided to book in spring to save a bit of money (Usually March, April or May is cheaper than summer) as we are still as likely to get a sunny day but it’s not classed as ‘high season’ in some places.</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">Some venues (especially here in the UK) can give you 2 options, so you can plan to have drinks or even the ceremony outdoors and if the weather is bad on the day they can move it inside. It’s worth asking as I really love the idea of an outdoor ceremony but was always worried about the weather. Both venues that could offer this said they’d need our decision by mid morning on the day so they could set up in the appropriate place, it might mean being flexible in your decorations by choosing stuff that would work inside or out but could be worth it if </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">you've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> always wanted an outdoor wedding.</span></span></span></li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">We booked all our venue viewings over 2 days so we had them all fresh in our minds to compare, but don’t be afraid to take photos or ask to go back for second or third or fourth viewings to make sure you are completely clear on what each place offers before booking. Also don’t be afraid to get a second opinion, take family, friends or someone who’s taste and opinion you trust for a look around, they may well see things from a different perspective.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">Pros and Cons. It’s likely you will ‘just know’ after </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">you've</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> been to see all the places which one is ‘the one’, but what if you don’t? If like us you’re torn then making a list of pros and cons might help you see which one has the advantage. If you really love 2 places and cannot decide on an emotional basis then getting down to the facts of it really helped us to pick the winner. If you have only one place you really have your heart set on (maybe it has special memories or a family tradition) then it’s still a good idea to go and look around it, even if </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">you've</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> been there before, as it’s good to meet the events person and discuss your requirements. One of our venues Tom had been to before for a work course, but when looking at it for a wedding your priorities are different and you have different things to ask.</span></span></span></li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">Price, and what you get for that price. You will likely have been given a general idea of how much the place costs on enquiring, but when you meet with the events person at the venue is when you can get into specifics. A lot of hotels have packages, but remember to ask how much things cost per person as well in case you want to add to a package, or in case it’s cheaper to just book per person rather than a package. Some venues will not do the catering in house and will have recommended caterers, the private house we viewed had 4 caterers that they use but we needed to contact them separately for prices and this was not included in the quote they gave us. Also remember to ask if little things are included like cake stands, table cloths, chair and table hire, seating chart stands, accommodation, parking etc. You’ll be surprised how much all the little stuff adds up to if it’s not included! All 3 venues took all our information and requirements and emailed us a quote after our visit, so make sure to tell them every detail of what you will need to get an accurate quote.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">The feel of a place is really important, if it ticks all of your boxes on paper but in person you just can’t see yourself getting married there then chances are you can do better. One place as soon as we walked in I could see our wedding, but another more grand and impressive place which on paper was better we just </span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">didn't</span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> seem to be able to get excited about. Don’t worry about what other people would chose or where’s more impressive, go for the one</span></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><u style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; text-indent: -18pt;">you</u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; text-indent: -18pt;">like the most.</span></span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">I’ll share a bit more on each venue and our experiences soon, but most of all remember to have fun looking around, it’s the first step most people take to actually planning their wedding and it’s fun to see all the places you <i>might</i> get married. Also even if a venue is a complete bust and not suitable at all you usually at least get a few free drinks and a nose around a nice hotel or house :)</span></div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-32338314989322236012013-07-17T21:00:00.000+01:002013-07-17T21:00:04.480+01:00How to make a venue shortlistWe viewed some wedding venues yesterday and Monday, but when we started looking it was pretty overwhelming as there are literally hundreds just in Gloucestershire! Obviously we can't go and look at all of them, and there wouldn't be any point in that as we'd just end up confusing ourselves and wasting loads of time viewing places that aren't suitable. We wanted to get a handful of places that we really thought might be 'the one'.<br />
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How do you narrow it down to just a few to go and look round?<br />
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<li>Make a rough guest list, just to get an idea of numbers and so the size of the venue you need. We ended up with 50 for the ceremony and just over 100 for the reception. We then added a few to both totals to give us some room to expand (this is really a rough list just to get an idea).</li>
<li>Get your core requirements set - Size, Price, Location, Look and people being able to stay over were our 5 non negotiable requirements. It will vary for everyone though so sit down with your fiancée and think about what you want. At this point you don't need to get into too much detail as it can get a bit tricky to decide small details before you've been to a place, so just the main things you want.</li>
<li>Size - We wanted enough room to not be restricted and have to stress over the guest list, but also we didn't want to pay more for somewhere too big with space we didn't need.</li>
<li>Price - For £5000 or under we wanted the bare bones of a wedding, hire for the ceremony, meal and reception, food, a drinks package, maybe evening entertainment and then we'd look at what each venue includes extra to this. Most times you can get a rough idea of price from the website or brochure but until you go and meet with the events person at the venue you can't get an accurate quote, so just keep a ballpark figure in mind.</li>
<li>Location - We wanted to keep it reasonably local, for ease of organising (I want to be able to visit the venue beforehand easily) and also we do live in a beautiful part of the country.</li>
<li>Look - We obviously had to like the look of the place, from the brochure or if we had been there before.</li>
<li>Rooms - Tom was really keen on the idea of there being plenty of room for people to stay over, I wasn't so fussed as long as there were hotels near (we could just book taxis) but it does make sense to have rooms available to make things easier on the day.</li>
<li>We both looked around online and requested brochures from loads of places, and also contacted places we had been to before or heard good things about. After a few weeks we had collected quite a few, so we looked through them all together and got a shortlist together of ones we wanted to look around and booked in some appointments. We don't get a lot of days off together so we use this approach for a lot of things (houses, holidays etc) where we research separately then get together with our choices and decide, if you can though it would be good to look around together.</li>
<li>We looked through about 20 brochures, they were all lovely (we only requested brochures from places we liked of course!) but most of them lacked one of our main requirements so weren't included in the final cut.</li>
<li>Eventually we had 3 venues to see, we booked the appointments all quite close together over 2 days so we would have them all fresh in our minds to decide.</li>
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Luckily I've had experience finding event venues with work, so I had an idea of how to go about it but it can still be pretty hard to decide! I'll do a post on how we got on viewing them and how we decided soon...</div>
Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6363667453545691879.post-19026758029898732042013-07-01T20:11:00.002+01:002013-07-01T20:11:30.642+01:00New PageI wanted a place to share wedding oriented stuff away from the 'main' blog, as I know not everyone wants to read about it, but some people are interested! So welcome to the wedding page of tenantchic...updates to come soon as we are going to look at venues in 2 weeks :)Katiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09550058687845405403noreply@blogger.com0