The wedding fund

Ideally, our wedding fund would be limitless. But it is most definitely not.

So here we are with one year, eight months and four days to go; Mr M and I are saving away like crazy squirrels saving nuts over winter. We’ve cut down on doing ‘fun stuff’ (we haven’t totally cut it out as its important to relax every so often), and we’re saving as much as possible from our wages to put together a deposit for our house (Mr M’s job) and for our wedding (my job).

Although our families have said they’ll contribute where they can, they themselves have not got endless amounts of money, nor do we want them to fork out all their own savings on one day. So it’s another case of wedding DIY!

This is totally fine with us. We can have what we want without interference or conditions as to what the money is used for, and we can set and (hopefully) stick to a budget that works for us.

I don’t want to pretend or make out that we’re only spending a couple of thousand on our wedding, because we’re not. We have (I re-phrase, Mr M has) an extremely large family and friend network, which brings out total guest list to around 150 people, which realistically could not be financed by a total budget of £2000. However our budget is less than half the ‘average’ a couple spend on their wedding these days, and is only do-able because of the amount of DIY we are doing, and the amount of corners we’re cutting to enable us to have everything we want.

For example, we’re getting married in the ‘low-season’ for weddings, having two buffets instead of full sit down meals, not having a free bar, sourcing products from new companies with cheap rates, or using companies we can get discounts from and making as much as possible ourselves.

I am even saving pennies in a jar. Well, in fact I have two jars; one jar for ‘big money’ i.e. £1 and £2 coins, and another jar for coppers and silver coins. What is quite handy, is that the jars I’m putting the coins in can only be opened by smashing them – so I can’t cheat and take money from them early!

But saving money is hard. There are so many beautiful things that I see on blogs and websites, and where I can make some things DIY style, that isn’t possible for everything. For example, we’d love a live band. But the budget says that can’t happen. I’d also love a fireworks display to end the evening. But the budget says that definitely can’t happen.

However, at the end of the day, the thing I am most concerned about is marrying Mr M. It sounds corny, but I honestly cannot wait to be his wife, and have him as my husband. He is a wonderful man and I know we’d have a fab day even if we got married without all the frills and fancy stuff!

So… I’m getting REALLY EXCITED! Only 614 days to go..and counting!!!!

So we re-visited our wedding venue on Sunday...

We re-visited our venue at the weekend to ask the co-ordinator some questions, and it was great to go back!

It was really nice to see the place again, and we took a lot of photos that I’ll be using when designing the decorations and styling the rooms over the next 618 days! The place even looked nicer than I remembered!! There were quite a few other couples visiting at the same time which was a bit annoying as we didn’t really get the place to ourselves to walk around and just chat privately, but it was good to nose into their conversations to hear what they’re planning for the place!

It was also being set up for a wedding later that afternoon, so it was good to see the venue dressed, and the table decorations that were being used by other couples! It was also good to see where things were placed around the venue such as the wedding postbox, and the cake table, which was something we hadn’t see ‘in action’ before.

We also got a list of prices for all the food and drink aspect of the day which means I can now do a proper budget plan, plus we were given a copy of the menu for the hot & cold buffet which we’ll be having as our main meal, which looks FAB!

What was a bit of a bummer, was that we found out that the venue would be un-staffed overnight prior to our wedding. I was planning to stay the night before,  and although the wedding co-ordinator said this would still be fine, I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable being ‘responsible’ for the building on my own! So I think I will have to find an alternative place to sleep the night before! Luckily there is another hotel about 50 metres down the road, so this could be a good option!

I’ll add in some photos of our visit very soon…

Wedding ring design confusion

What with the price of gold steadily going up, it has been suggested that I start to think about what kind of wedding ring I’d like.

My engagement ring was beautifully hand-crafted by my soon to be Father-in-law; a very talented jeweller who makes lots of lovely sparklers for some very famous people! When Mr M and I were ‘pre-engaged’, one of the conversations we had was about engagement ring styles. I knew that I didn’t want a ‘run of the mill’ engagement ring, I wanted something a bit different. So after searching online for HOURS, I came across the Marquise cut diamond. They are quite rare (a good quality to me! haha) and simple, but different at the same time. I showed Mr M lots of photos, and pointed out what I did and didn’t like about each ring, and left him to relay this to his Dad who would work his magic.

The inspiration photo for my little beauty..

And my very own beauty..

However, what I didn’t really think about was how a wedding ring would fit with my oddly shaped ring.

Because the diamond has a deep ‘v’ either side, a normal band wouldn’t fit snugly alongside it – it’d leave a 5mm gap between the two rings. This was no good for two reasons; firstly, I think it looks silly, and secondly, the space between my knuckles isn’t very big, and so that 5mm gap would mean it’d make my fingers hard to bend because of the space the rings would take up.

So I know I need something shaped to fit my ring. This in itself is a really easy project for Mr M’s Dad; its as easy as making any other ring. BUT, for me, the decision is harder because there are NONE in the shops to try on!

There are no marquise diamonds (because of their rarity), and only a tiny selection of shaped rings, none of which have deep enough ‘v’s to compensate the shape of my ring.

I am also determined to have diamonds in my wedding band. No, I know its not ‘traditional’, but diamonds complement the look of my engagement ring better, and in my opinion, you can never have too many diamonds!

So once again I’ve been searching the internet and I’ve come up with two options:

Option 1 – v-shaped diamond wedding band. My engagement ring will slot neatly into the V. 

Option 2 – straight wedding band (which will sit flat against the engagement ring by cutting out some of the metal under the marquise diamond)

Both are lovely. Both will be sparkly. But both are VERY different. And I honestly don’t know which I prefer!!! Its really hard to make a decision without being able to try any on, so I think I’ll give Mr M’s Dad some old silver and ask him to mould me one of each so I can try them both on! Hopefully that’ll help me decide!

How many guests?!

When we first spoke about getting married, and who we’d invite to our wedding, I NEVER imagined that I’d have 80 odd guests watching me walk down the aisle. 

I thought we’d have our family and a handful of our close friends, and invite the whole world to the evening reception. But no. We have EIGHTY people coming to our ceremony, and a further 60 people coming to the evening do.

Where on earth did all these people come from?!

The answer? Plus ones.

When we started writing the guest list, we almost forgot that people have boyfriends and girlfriends who’d need to be invited too. We most definitely forgot that all those singletons might actually get a boyfriend or girlfriend in the two years leading up to our wedding and extra spaces would be required for them.

Okay, so we don’t HAVE to invite plus ones; we could just say partners are invited to the evening, but if it were me, and I was invited to a wedding without Mr M, I highly doubt he’d bother making the trip just for the evening, and also I’d feel a bit uneasy about being all alone at the table. I’d hate to sit there, perhaps not knowing anyone, and without Mr M to check for spinach in my teeth or dust off the crumbs that I am guaranteed to drop down my front (messy eater haha!).

So like my Mum always says, I am going to ‘do as I would be done by’. In all honesty, I’d feel happier knowing that my guests will be happy having someone there to share our day; after all, thats what weddings are all about!

It does make me ‘eek’ a bit inside when I think about the rows and rows of chairs I’ll have to pass before reaching Mr M at the end of the aisle!!

Vistaprint goodies... again!

Yesterday, I finally relented and gave into Vistaprint bargainous goodies again!

I designed and bought my Save the Date magnets from there (they went down a treat with friends and family) and have had regular emails from them offering different products for affordable prices.

So this time, I designed and bought my RSVP cards, and wedding website cards from there.. one hundred of each, plus envelopes for the RSVPs.. all for less than £15 including p&p!!

The only reason I didn’t buy my ‘proper invitations’ from there is that there haven’t been any nice designs in the colours I wanted.

Okay, so NONE of my stationery actually matches (literally none of it!), but thats not something that really bothers me. My ‘proper invitations’ are gold, and I found RSVP cards in a similar purple to my Bridesmaid dresses, so thought it’d be a nice contrast to have slightly different RSVPs.

I also ordered some little business cards, to direct our guests to our wedding website using the design below. I didn’t want to put this on the actual invite, and it wouldn’t be any good put on the RSVP as that’d be sent back to us! So I thought some little cards would be cute! Once again, it doesn’t really match the rest of the stationery (though it is a complementary colour), but I chose these as I liked that I could edit the inscribing on the tree to add in our initials. It also reminds me a little bit of a particular scene in Disney Robin hood (my favourite ever film).

And just to prove that my stationery really doesn’t match, here are my day and evening invitations….

Day invitations..

Evening invitations..

So no, nothing matches, but who cares!?! 

Spring wedding - photo inspiration!

So Spring is finally here (although the weather is sometimes a bit dubious), but its inspired me to upload some photos for you all to coo over!

Think daffodils, bright colours mixed with pastel shades, sunshine (sometimes!)… And of course, its important to remember that the ideas and products in these photos can all be DIY’d to fit your own wedding, whether that is a Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter wedding!!!

Oh go on, take a look at these beauties!!

Spill or surprise?

Friends and I have recently been talking about whether we are sharing our wedding plans, or keeping them as surprises.

I personally am doing a bit of both! I like to share the excitement of things I’m making, but at the same time I do find myself being quite secretive with our plans! I think the reasoning behind this is that Mr M and I still have another 627 days, or to put it in an easier format, 1 year, 8 months and 17 days till we tie the knot. Within our friendship group, 5 of us ladies are engaged, and although I was the first out of the group to get engaged, I am the last to be married (only one couple hasn’t yet set a date, but they only got engaged 2 days ago so I’ll let them off!)! I suppose I don’t want ‘my’ ideas to be used 4 or 5 times over before I get to become a Mrs!

Before getting engaged, I would have scoffed at anyone who had have said that and thought “they’re not YOUR ideas, they’re just ideas”, but planning a wedding (and having so long to plan it) turns you a little crazy! I can see myself morphing into the Bridezilla I said I’d never be. But lo and behold, those infamous words “it’s MY wedding” have fallen out of my mouth on numerous occasions.

I am recording each and every step of planning our wedding via my ‘wedding report’, which is starting to become a bit of a novel! Once married, I’ll reveal all the personal touches I’ve put into our wedding in more detail, rather than just mentioning them, or adding the odd photo here and there.

Another reason for keeping my ideas to myself, is that I really want it to be a fun surprise for everyone who is invited – including Mr M!! I want our friends and family to turn up and say “wow, I never expected this!” or “how did you keep that quiet?!”. I’m not saying our wedding is going to be anything particularly special entertainment wise; our budget doesn’t support that, but I still want the things we’ve saved so hard for to come as a surprise for our guests, rather than have them knowing beforehand what to expect!

I think our wedding will be a little different to the ‘normal’ wedding, not in the sense that its particularly wacky (its about 2% wacky), but we’ve really personalised it to fit US and what WE are into, some  of which may not fit into the normal wedding sterotype.

Sometimes though, its just so hard to keep things a secret as everything is just SO exciting!!!