Wedding Planning

So it’s been 9 months since Craig and I got married and pretty much an entire year since our invitations went out.

 It was also around this time that I was frantically trying to meet with suppliers – some for the first time face to face – and so instead of one of my normal sarcastic posts, I thought on the eve of such an insignificant anniversary, I would write a blog that actually might be of use to someone – with hopefully some practical advice along the way! Here goes nothing…

One thing that became abundantly clear when we decided on our wedding venue was how bloody impractical our choice of location was for a control freak like myself. We decided to get married in Nottingham. Craig was based there at the time, my parents live there, I had gone to uni there and it’s the town where Craig and I spent much of our early dating life. However I no longer lived there… I lived 1hr and 40 minutes away (on a good run). I might as well have picked a destination wedding! All I was missing was the weather and beach.

VENUE HUNTING

Craig was about to go to Cyprus for 6 months, so we had to get serious quickly about hunting down a venue. Those that I had rung up to check availability were already starting to be booked up two years in advance! This is how crazy wedding planning can be for a summer date... So one weekend I booked 10 viewings back to back. Reality had well and truly struck then, that those in the vicinity of Nottingham (i.e. Craig and my mum) were going to have to do most of the meetings or I was going to have to take time off work.

We found a venue that was perfect, but I wanted to get my parents opinion and the only way they could view it was during the week due to other events the venues had in place. In stepped Bride number 2 – or shall I say Craig – who took them around without me. That was a low point for me as that was something that I had always wanted to share with my parents, but it just wasn’t meant to be. With time ticking before his deployment, we provisionally booked it 23 months out from the wedding!!! We will gloss over the fact that we had to change wedding venue 6 months later due to a double booking error….

Tip 1

 I bloody hate this phrase but, for anyone in a similar situation, don’t be afraid to ‘divide and conquer’ and split the workload between the people you trust most. If a control freak like me can do it, I promise you can get through it! It will mean you aren’t wracking up the motorway miles and tiring yourself out before the day has even hit.

Tip 2

Whilst fancy locations with nice outdoors are great for photos and I guess pivotal for an outdoor wedding, ultimately, once you are inside and the place is decorated you could be almost anywhere. We (or shall I say the original venue) saved ourselves thousands by using the Officers Mess on camp. We did that much decoration you could have been at any venue, in any marquee and you would never have known.

FINDING SUPPLIERS

My first wedding fayre was at the ‘Wedding Show’ Event City in Manchester. Myself and a friend, who had also recently got engaged, went on our own to check it all out. Another strikingly obvious issue was that the suppliers were mainly regional based (unless you wanted to spend crazy crazy money – because lets me honest all wedding expenses are overpriced!). I needed to start considering fayres that were in the same vicinity as the venue. More weekends of travel were ticked off with those!

We went to quite a few and as anyone who has planned a wedding will know, came away with armfuls of pamphlets and business cards. I started sifting through them and ringing up suppliers to talk options and most importantly numbers! A lot of my research was done online and over the phone. When it came to trying to choose between people, I either had to send my mum or Craig – obviously once he was back from deployment – or Skype them.

It’s a widely known fact that most grooms aren’t overly concerned about the detail – if you have one that’s the opposite my god you made a wise choice! I would send him armed with a list of questions that he would write the answers down next to and then scan it back to me. I did note at the beginning of this that I am somewhat of control freak…

 But it worked.

I can honestly say that I didn’t meet the majority of my suppliers until 2 months before the wedding. Some were on the day itself and it was purely due to travel and the suppliers availability at weekends.

Tip 3

 Source locally, it's much cheaper and they can be more flexible on when they meet you due to them being closer to the venue. They may also be able to assist with suggestions for other suppliers.

Tip 4

Use Technology – when bride number 2 (or 3) wasn’t around, Skype and FaceTime were my best friends. Whilst it was virtual, it allowed me to form some kind of a relationship with our suppliers and made me feel more comfortable. Technology was also how I found the majority of our team. I found the videographer on Facebook, our pizza supplier on a forum and our sax player through Google.

Tip 5

Use People – in the nicest way possible obviously! We saved ourselves thousands by beg, borrowing and stealing connections from friends, and their time to help us with the wedding. For example we used the military wives choir instead of the churches own. It meant we didn’t have £150 fee, it was more personal to us and the choir benefited from a collection at the end.

Win Win!

Tip 6

Don’t overstretch yourself – Budget is a huge thing and to get the wedding we wanted we had to pretty much do EVERYTHING ourselves. However that did come at a cost. The week in the build up to the wedding was manic and stressful for all involved, and I ended up with the worst flu I had had in years on my wedding day because I was so run down. For the sake of a few £100 here or there, if you can justify it, pay the extra rather than cutting corners.

I will split this into 2 blogs just because there is so much info! stay tuned for the second part soon :)

GL

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