D's for the D

Dates for the Diary

March

5th - Barbara's Wedding (Adam's Cousin)
10th - Meeting with Photographer
10th - Bridal Shower
12th - 2 MONTHS TO GO
13th - 10 Months Together
17th - Bethany's Birthday (Maid of Honour)
19th - Adam going to Registry Office
19th - Mum and I going with Sarah L for fleurs
22nd - Interview for Volunteer Position at a school

So we have something going on pretty much every week of the month in March. Even in the last week I am off until 26th March 2012. (Sorry for the delay in posting, Bethany rang me to ramble, and because Bethany rang me I thought it'd be nice to ring Emily and see how she was doing. So, there you go.

I don't really know much about April yet, we just seem to be planning things for the wedding kind of the month before and then we get nice full diaries like the one above. I still need to email my friend who is doing the cake because she doesn't know what I want for cake. I think I kind of know what I want for the cake so let's just hope she can make it!

April

12th - 1 MONTH TO GO
12th - Christina's Birthday (My Brother's partner)
13th - Maghan's Wedding (Adam's friend)
13th - 11 Months Together

And that's all I have for now really.

I went website shopping again today. Partyrama really is amazing... They have pages that are colour themed, so if you are having a party/social gathering that is white you can just click the link and the whole page is filled with lots of lovely white things! Ahh! It is actually quite hard to find any light moss green napkins, any help would be appreciated as they are on the shopping list for next month.

Useful Wedding Websites

So, throughout this blog I've posted quite a few different wedding websites that help with:

organisation

ideas

creativity

budgeting

guest lists

etc..

It is awesome to have this list available to you in case you need it for a rainy day when you've run out of ideas and you just can't focus anymore so I hope you have it handy. They were websites full of great, nifty and cute ideas that could help when you need them.

What? You don't know where they are? They're not handy because you don't know which posts I have listed them on and therefore they've disappeared into the deep abyss of the web and you can't find them? Well, that's a shame I suppose. I guess there was no point telling you before if you were going to lose them.

I should have just made a post like this listing all the great websites I went onto for my ideas, so without furthur ado I present to you my ever-growing list of super-duper resourceful websites:

Organisation/ Ideas/ Creativity:
Pinterest
Polyvore
theknot.com (it always sounds better as theknot.com and not just theknot)
Light in The Box

Budgeting:
theknot.com
Light in The Box

Guest List:
theknot.com

Handy and Useful Photographers to look at:
Ruth Mitchell
Nigel Dann
Rebecca Northcott
Marie Barber
Emily Byrom

Wedding Reception Hire:
Ev-ent Furniture Hire
YouCan Hire  
ByBrook
Waitrose or Sainsburys (glass hire)

Other useful links for Reception Decor:
Partyrama
Amazon
Ebay
HSAMUEL
Oh So Cherished
Carrier Bag Shop
World of Envelopes
Pocketfold Invites
Party Delights
Sweets Whole Sale

The last link is my personal favourite. I've never seen so many sweets in my life! Woooo! Click away to your hearts content, and this list will probably get longer! My list of important dates was supposed to be on today but well, only a few things have changed so I'll update that tomorrow.

You Make Me Feel...

...Like I'm Living a Teenage Dream.

Adam has finally booked an appointment with the registry office! So as soon as he does that we can go get our bits of paper to give to our Registrar, which is someone we've known a long time, and then we're sorted.

No matter what else happens we'll be able to definitely get married. This means that even if you all have to sit on the floor on picnic blankets with a bit of cake and cup of juice then so be it! That's what we will have.

We have also booked our photographer! We just need to hand over some pennies and meet with Ruth Mitchell on the 10th March; yes I am very aware it is the same day as my Bridal Shower; nothing say's busy like being fully booked. Look at Ruth Mitchell's photography here -> click here

I found a really cheap website last night whilst scouting the interwebs called www.partyrama.co.uk - this website has like EVERYTHING you could ever think of and more. They do sets of 144 packs of bubbles for £30.00. They have table rolls, organza table material; organza bows for chairs; cutlery; serving platters... honestly. Anything you can think of, it's there. So I've book marked about a million pages for when we finally get round to buying things for the reception. It's all the bigger bulk things that seem to be taking a while for now.

This weekend we'll have to put our wedding plans on the shelf as we go north for a wedding on a Sunday; I've never known a wedding be on a Sunday but I guess it just depends on when places are free. It's also the first time I meet pretty much all of (the) Adam's family (badum duushh) so it's going to be a scary weekend too. At this moment in time I haven't got anything to wear, but I'm sure they won't mind me going in my birthday suit. JUST KIDDING. I'm just glad that the day won't be about me at all because then no-one will focus on me which is fine. I am not good with new people and making friends - I'll just hide in the corner and eat cake; no, not cake. I'll eat grapes. But honestly I am sure it'll be fun.

Little By Little

We gave you everything you ever dreamed of.

I am getting there aren't I? Slowly; or actually should I say, so fast that I can barely blink. I was telling my mum today that this next week will go quick because Adam and I have his cousin's Wedding to go to in Scotland and I have Monday 5th of March off work, but then I said the week after would go quick too because I have my Bridal Shower on the 10th. But, then I also realised that in March from 19th until 26th I have time booked off work so that means the week after my Bridal Shower will go quick because I'll be excited to be off work. Then I'll have a week off in March so obviously that is going to go quick and before you know it... It's April. Woah. Scary. Not really; I'm very excited to be getting married. I can't wait.

It has taken us two days to print, slice, stick, fold and write all the invitations but they are now written. Some of you lucky people that are in my ward at church have gotten yours first, then it'll be the people I work with (friends who have watched me pull my hair out constantly since this whole thing started) and Wednesday we are looking to post all the rest. Annoyingly enough they definitely won't fit in first class normal post so we're going to have to go for the bigger sized ones but we'll manage and it'll be worth it.

Overflowing - Ooops

 We have potentially booked the morning of the 10th of March to see our photographer so she can get a feel of the building we will be getting married in and it's surroundings. Then I'll be whizzed away to my Bridal Shower in the evening. We've also asked my friend and florist if she is available the week I am off work so we can go buy wedding flowers, so I think, all in all, we are getting there and back on schedule. I like schedule. Anyone can tell you I'm not the best organised person in the world but I am getting there.

When my mum handed the invitations out today you could tell people were really pleased for us, their faces just lit up - it's quite obvious what the invite is before you open it. I am so glad that I was able to fit close friends from church on the wedding list because I know they'll all do anything they can to help with getting things ready for the Wedding.

I must say I am VERY PLEASED with how the invitations have turned out. They've gone exactly the way I wanted them too and I added some little extras too it that mum said they didn't need but I like the finishing touch. Quite a few people at church commented on how great they looked which I really appreciate.

Overall, the wedding invites cost roughly £2 per person. (£150) but like I think I said before we could have easily halfed this price but not, I don't think, for the same quality invitations we have now.

Ingredients to Invitation Success

1. Go shoe shopping

2. Go to stationary and office supplies shops to find ink at the cheapest price.

3. Leave one ink shop and go back into another for cheaper ink.

4. Scurry around second supplies shop in desperate need of finding the card you swear you saw online in stock.

5. Ask a stockist if they have said card because you can't see it.

6. Get extremely emotional with a manager and stockist at said shop until they both go running around the nice large store and warehouse trying to find you some paper that is nearly as thick as card but isn't card.

7. Be extremely polite but firm when saying "no, I don't want your printing service, where is the card?"

8. Smile happily and wipe a tear away from your eye because they found some card-like paper (160gsm - very thick) pay at the checkout.

9. Go food shopping.

10. Come home and put ink in printer.

11. Don't get mad at said printer because it won't play nice.

12. Print invitations

13. Repeat step 11

14. Change ink because cartidge has run out.

15. Repeat step 11

16. Slice all paper/card with guillotine

17. Make a mess

18. Stick said pieces of card on to invites without sticking them to your fingers, the board you are working on or to other invites.

19. Smile happily as you have finally finished one invite!

20. Repeat steps 12 - 19 until you have said amount required... (this means x 69 for me)

Organisation is the Key

Seriously. If you don't have organisation for planning your wedding... you need to find someone who does, because you won't last. Honest. You'll be pulling your hair out in no time.

In fact even if you are organised you'll still be pulling your hair out because you'll want everything to be done right now right this minute, partially from excitement and partially because you have this nice and neat wedding list of when things need to be done and NOTHING IS CROSSED OFF... and every day that goes by and your list still looks neat and pretty you panic because it doesn't feel like things are getting done when in reality they really are. So, don't panic.

Sometimes I write these posts and it feels like I am trying to reassure myself but I'm not, I am just trying to reassure a stressed hopeful.

Write lists... lots of them
Then write them again.
Did you know that in the run up to your wedding most of the planning you'll do is actually research. So research lots, you'll only know what it is you want when you see it.

Adam put the deposit down on the rings today so they should be sorted by next month. Money is as money does and we haven't enough to pay them both off this month but we will next month. I'm finishing off the invitations tomorrow with Mum and they'll be out next week.

Kudos to Bethany, one of my MOH's, she sent me an email full of a list of table cloths and table runners for the Reception which look really cheap so once we've paid off this, that and the other they will be next.

My mum thought doilies would be really good as place mats for the tables, and they excude spring and sound like spring so we'll be using those too! See it is coming to together kind of.

The Beat Goes On

Since I've pretty much talked to death about the things we are buying with our wage from February, I'm gonna start droning on at you about the things we are going to buy with our wage in March!! I personally think the wage from March is going to be a little bit exciting because we'll finally be puzzling together all the little pieces from the wedding that make the day a whole. For example, shoes & accessories, the guest book, table runners and cloths (this will help really make the Reception idea come alive).

I just need somewhere to store it all because right now, my room still looks very similar to what it did when I moved back to my mums. The reason for this is partly because I am pretty lazy sometimes; and I don't get home until 5:45pm, by that time I am knackered and just want to go to bed, and it is partly because out of the last 4 weeks that I have lived here (actually a little less) I've been ill for possibly nearly 2 and 1/2 of them. For different reasons too! A-noy-ing

Surprisingly enough through my search for table runners for RECTANGLE TABLES I found that CIRCLE TABLES were actually more expensive... I guess it's because there is less material used on a oblong table. I'm not complaining as this has obviously cut costs immensly. We're very lucky to be in a Latter Day Saint Stake (Leeds) where we can borrow tables from other Wards so that hopefully we won't run out. We've counted that we will need 20 large tables and 2 small tables in the big main room where we'll be holding the Reception. They will fit in... and if they don't then we'll be seating people outside.

Best place for table runners and table cloths... ONLINE. I found a brilliant website for table runners, for 21 table runners it will cost me $32.76. I think that's pretty cheap in £'s but the most amount of money will go on the postage! From America! That is why I presume they can do all these deals cheap. It is worth a look though. My sister got a big roll of paper table cloths for £12.99 which is sat in the living room waiting to be used for the Bridal Shower (WOOHOO I am so EXCITED!)

So to dress all the tables it is going to cost roughly £80-£100. Not bad. Could be more. But I'm glad it is less. Remember it isn't about the wedding it is about the marriage.

Little Bit O' Bling

Everyone likes a bit of sparkle now and again.

I am thinking, as well as wearing a veil, of getting a tiara. Many people have said wearing a veil without a tiara would look a little weird because it won't have any 'bling' on it and everyone needs a bit of bling - I agree. When trying wedding dresses on in about 10 different stores (no joke) I found the tiara's were a little on the expensive side to say the least! The cheapest one I saw was £49.99. And so consequently the idea of getting a tiara went very quickly out of my head.

But, when I was trying MY wedding dress on Debbie told me the better and much less expensive way of getting a tiara is to BUY ONE FROM CLAIRE'S ACCESSORIES or ACCESSORIZE. She said every tiara she had on sale in her store was between £5.00 and £20.00. So, if you're really strapped for cash check these places first and you'll probably find one. There is also Ebay/Amazon and lightinthebox.com - all very good websites for getting things cheap and sometimes a lot cheaper than you expect (especially with Ebay).

I haven't mentioned any of the above websites on here before because I haven't used them as of yet for anything for the wedding except Amazon for the jigsaw pieces for the Favour Bags at the Reception. But pretty soon in the next month or so I'll pretty much live on Amazon and Ebay. I trust Amazon a lot more than Ebay - for some reason I've never heard any really bad stories from Amazon but Ebay is full of them... anyway back to the bling.

Until recently, I never really was a 'bling' person. I always imagined my wedding ring would be very plain and it isn't, I'd imagined my dress to be quite plain and it isn't... it is bright pink though, which is something I'd have never gone for before ;) I've pretty much started to love the little bit o' bling that seems to be invading mine and Adam's wedding, but that's okay. I've always loved twinkly lights anyway because they are so shiny.

Talking about bling reminds me that I don't have my something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. I'm all for traditions so if anyone in the family has any idea's I'd be more than happy to have any suggestions.

Old; A Threepence Piece
New; A Silver Horseshoe Charm
Borrowed; A Gift From Me to You
Blue; A Swarovski Crystal Heart

Wedding Planning Outlook

Not Outlook as in the software Outlook, but as in how the planning seems to be going.

Adam had to ask me the other day how the planning was going so he could tell other people when they ask... shows how much he knows! Haha. He's been more involved recently to tell the truth. I honestly think that men say they don't mind what goes on with the wedding planning when really secretly, the nearer the day comes the more excited they are; this is shown through the amount of questions they ask about things like... "What are we eating", "What will the seating be like?" these questions are made to look like they're slightly interested when really all they need to do is ask you one question about the wedding and you're like a bomb that's gone off and he can't stop you from talking about the wedding, BAM before you know it he knows everything and leaves satisfied.

Well, planning was on schedule until money had to be spent elsewhere (train tickets to Adam's... either that or I wasn't going to see him for 3 full weeks, not gonna happen). So now I have to wait until my wage comes in next Wednesday to spend some of that on buying ink for my printer and card, and tiny extras. I'd say another £40.00 and we'll be sorted. But this means invites now won't be going out until NEXT WEEK. Needless to say I am slightly annoyed and I'll have to change the date on RSVP because otherwise people will have like 20 days to get the invites back to us; if they'd been done when they were supposed to be then peeps would have 7 weeks to reply but nevermind.

This is how the wedding planning is panning out so far:

What we have:

Wedding Dress

Bridesmaid Dresses (ordered)

1/2 Invitations

1 Wedding Licence (need 2 - Adam c'mon)

Men's Morning Suits

Order of Service (just need to talk to Bishop)

Table Plan (no allocated seating yet)

Wedding Rings picked

Hair Stylist for moi

Isle Music

Photographer (fingers crossed)

Wedding Sign

Bird Cages

What we need:

To be done with February's wage:

Buy Wedding Rings
1/2 invitations
1 Wedding Licence
Flowers
1/3 Photographer Expenses

To be done with March's wage:

Reception Decor (table cloths/runners/napkins/glass bottles/flowers/LED lights/bow material)
Guest Book
Shoes & Accessories
2/3 Photographer Expenses

To be done with April's wage:

Cake
Food
Drinks
Presents for Bridesmaids/MOB/MIL/Other importants
3/3 Photographer Expenses
 
Just generally needed from other wards in the Stake:

3 x 10 able bodies for the week before the wedding getting things ready - sorting out food preparation - clearing up as we go along
1 x 20 able bodies for the night after the wedding to put things away and deep clean the chapel
20 x 8 seat tables (to be rounded up from the Stake)
150 chairs



....Honeymoon in the tent in the back garden it is then?

Paparazzi Wedding Photography

This means you. Or rather the 'you' that is invited... which shall be revealed once you get our lovely invites in the post... before the end of this month. I honestly, honestly promise. 

We are asking, not an odd request, that any photography taken isn't uploaded to Facebook for a number of reasons but here are a couple:

1. We would like to see them all before they go up for the whole world to see (speshly since Facebook don't have any privacy stuff these days)

2. We don't want to come back from our honeymoon and find that 100 odd people have uploaded pics to Facebook and tagged us in them when we don't know what they are. 

2.2. Hmm yes I am a bit of a control freak, and even though I shall be looking my prettiest on my wedding day (or I sincerely hope I will be) I'd rather see all the pics before everyone else.

3. We may want to use some of your pap' shots for our wedding album, which we'll put together once we're back from our honeymoon.

This may seem like a strange or odd request to make but I assure you it has been made before at other weddings, my FMIL told me. You'll have a few options open to you which will be made clear at the wedding/in your favour bags or through word-of-mouth; I haven't quite decided which yet. 

1. Put all the photographs you took on to computer and then onto CD for us to look at ourselves. 

2. Email pics you have taken to either Adam or myself (ask for our email addresses from my mum)

3. Or I open a private account on a website where photographs can be uploaded by anyone using the Username and Password. This way Adam and I can look through them easily without problem.

Which do you think would be the easiest option? Unless, I open up the proverbial floor and let you choose how you want to give them to us. It'd just be easier if it was all done one way. 

We've hopefully booked Ruth Mitchell for our photography as I may have mentioned before but until we pay a deposit at the end of this month the date is really open for anyone who can give her the money first. Fingers crossed people are way more organised than us and are therefore wanting to ring Ruth now to book her for 2013. 

12 WEEKS TO GO! (Yes, that's less than 3 months)

One Ring To Rule Them All

I wrote a similar post to this quite a while ago, but back then I was taking about my engagement ring, this time I am talking about my wedding ring. So, I suppose it should be 'TWO' rings to rule them all.

Today, Adam and I walked into HSAMUEL and looked at rings! We looked at shiny ones; small ones; ones with diamonds; ones without diamonds and weirdly shaped ones until we finally came up on the two we wanted. I won't spoil the surprise of them by showing you what they look like but I will say that we decided upon a more modern thing of not making them the same. Some rings just didn't compliment the way I wanted the engagement ring and my wedding ring to look like together on my finger so I decided on a ring I wouldn't normally go for.

When you want your rings from HSAMUEL you have to pay 20% how much they cost together before you can even order them to come in store so make sure you have money on you when you definitely decide which ring it is you want... otherwise you may end up coming away looking sadfaced like we did. But, I like HSAMUEL for TWO REASONS:

ONE

The staff are really friendly and offered us 10% off BOTH rings when usually it's just 10% off the woman's ring.

TWO

When you pay the 20% for the rings to order you can go in at any time and pay off the rings as and when you have the money available. So for example, if our rings cost more than we can afford this month, then we can just put down the amount of money we can afford (which is about 3/4 of the amount of the two rings) and then go and pay off the rest of the amount later; our rings are still there ready to be picked up any time we want.

Just for the record though, Adam tried on more rings than I did.

Oh and another thing that Adam's mum mentioned to me today. If you want to ask that special someone to marry you but are weary of two things:
1. Her/Him not liking the ring you chose/or it not fitting
2. Too expensive and you can't afford it

Then KEEP READING!!

HSAMUEL have devised a new amazing idea. You can buy an engagement ring in your girlfriends/boyfriends size for £49.99 and it looks like the real deal. It looks amazing. It has a big cubic zuconia diamond on the top and you can get it in silver or gold. Get this, you can propose to your partner with this ring and then come into the store together and choose a different ring that you both love by swapping the £49.99 ring for another one, OR you can use this £49.99 ring as a deposit for another more expensive ring that you like.

This way, you still get to bend down on one knee and propose to your beloved without feeling bad about them not liking the ring or it being too expensive. I must admit though, there are some really good deals on in there at the minute; an engagement ring and wedding ring (ones that match each other for a woman) are £549 when they used to be £1249... So, proper diamond and everything. It's worth a look.

I'm Not Past My Sell By Date!

I get email updates from theknot.com, I think they are every week and the other day I received one that had a list of all the "in-things" for 2012 and as far as I can remember I pretty much ticked about 5/6 of those boxes. BUT...

...Annoyingly enough I cannot seem to find the email that I received the article on AND I can't seem to find where it would be on the website so I'm afraid you're just going to have to take my word for it.

One of the 'in things' for this year is apparently having your reception in the same place as you are having your ceremony, well CHECK on that. We are having them in the same place and there are quite a few good reasons for this, 1 being that obviously it is cheaper having the Reception and Ceremony in the same place and two, we don't have to send people extra information detailing how to get to the chapel and the Reception afterwards - this means less paper being printed AND less money being used - we're all for using less money around here.

It also said another trend being set for this year is light and airy feel to your Reception which is really what I am trying to go for with the ideas that I have. It said to use water colours for the wedding so to me that means light and airy, right? So yay!

I am a little happily surprised that for once I seem to be 'in fashion' or 'in trend', for those of you that know me I tend to just go with the flow when it comes to what I am wearing. I like to be comfortable and I just like what I like. Am I still classed as being 'in fashion' if I just accidentally follow the trend that seems to be going on?

On another note, tomorrow Adam says we are going to go look at pretty wedding rings! We are helping one of his ushers go get sized for his suit and then we are going to be chillaxing in the evening. Sounds like a good weekend to me. Hope you all have a good weekend too!

I Spy With My Little Eye...

Some thing's in a category beginning with W:

WEDDING!!!

The invites will look a lot like the above for those of you who are supposed to be receiving an invite, don't worry you are still invited. Just cash flow problems have prevented me from actually finishing the invites until next week, keep an eye on your post boxes!!

I wish I could find somewhere that would sell me these cute little jars. There is a sweet shop in Sunderland called Sweet Home Alabama and I have sent my sister on a mission there to see if they will sell me some jars! I love the little decor on them (ribbons). 

I showed this cake to my friend who is making the actual wedding cake for me, I told her I wanted something like this, then she looked at me with a concerned face and said, "Yep I can do that". I just couldn't tell whether she was being serious or whether she had a sound of panic in her voice.

 

 

 

 

I know these are real flowers but they are just so beautiful. I don't know which flower the big white ones are but I really love them. I saw the smaller ones at a friend's wedding and thought they looked so cute and so minimalistic but yet they were so gorgeous and just added to the class of the day.

 I wish I had enough money to make my Reception look exactly like this because I think it is so beautiful and really grasps the thoughts I want for the Reception but no matter what we do it'll still be exactly what I want. I love the bottom left flower/weed/etc. in the bottom left of this picture so if anyone can tell me what it is I would be very grateful.

Mum brought these flowers to my attention a couple of days after Adam and I had got engaged; I had given her the task of flowers. That was her job, flowers. Little did she know that these flowers would eventually match the exact same colours we want for the wedding... in the beginning they were something completely different. Maybe she read my mind before I even did.

I love this cake, the flowers scattered are exactly what I want so I may have to put this idea to my cake-ist?? I don't want it to look chocolatey though, I just want it white. And I don't want the chocolate twisted rim, but apart from that I love the size, shape and flowers. 

Ah, the infamous bottles. That nobody seemed to think would work, but I think they will look great and just you wait until the wedding day. You'll see. I'll post pictures up once I have come back from my honeymoon.

You have no idea how long it took me to try and get these pictures on this post... nearly 3 hours! (Seriously - that's how dedicated I am to this blog) These are just some of my favourite favourites that I've been collecting on my pinterest account. If any of you are getting married I seriously recommend Pinterest it is amazing. I have decided that I am keeping this blog when I get married but I am just going to change the name to 'The Bradfordian Bell'. <3

I don't know why the captions under the pictures are a different, no idea. If it hadn't taken me nearly 3 hours to put this post up I would try and figure it out, but right now I'm ready to chuck my laptop out the window. So *deep breath* and post....