New Year... New Start - onwards and downwards.

[night-owl]

That was some birthday you had, no wonder you couldn't sleep! Poor you, hope you manage to get some sleep tonight for school!
Yes, there was a lot of purple there, taken from the bridesmaid's dresses, mine were lilac. Are you thinking of purple for the bridesmaids dresses too?
Bev would so love to help you out with ideas and where to get things. She had a very tight budget and it was a wonderful wedding. I'll friend you on FB if you want and then you can see her photos and get in touch with her through there.

 

[RainbowRose]

Aww bless you for not being able to sleep ..well how are you and your fiance today then?

I'm with Francess on the favours, traditonal and inexpensive. My sister bought a huge bag of sugar almonds from a cash and carry, wrapped 5 in small lacey bags and sealed them with the colour theme pieces of satin ribbon..very pretty

I think there is a pre-loved? site which has wedding dresses as knock down prices. I was a bit funny thinking of 2nd hand, but you know what, I got a lovely 'worn once' from ebay and absolutely loved it

Have you thought of venues yet hun and location..or is your head still in a spin with all the excitement?

 

[KateR]

Morning caz... Are you on *********? If not you need to be. There are millions of wedding ideas on there... Some great some bit so much. I pin things for my wedding just in case it ever happens hahaha xx

 

[RainbowRose]

Hmmm wonder what site it is??? Kate, have you been swearing again? hee hee

 

[Caz]

It's all a bit overwhelming at the moment! My parents have said they want to help financially which is great, so hopefully it could be next summer. Struggling to get definite thoughts about it all from Aaron though, think it's all a bit overwhelming for him too! Here's my thoughts so far...

First step - guest list, getting Aaron to do his list today and I'll do mine to get a rough idea of numbers.

Venue
Not really sure on this one at all at the moment. We're still not sure if we want church and then reception venue or what. My sister is a vicar (almost, still training so is a curate but can do weddings) so we'd like her to marry us so it probably will be church first. I really like this place though - The Court House. Here's a few pics from there...



Dress
1360 compare to Maggie Sottero Wedding Dresses - Style Mirin A3562

That's my favourite dress that I've seen so far, at an amazing price too. I think I need to go and try things on at some point, see what styles suit me and then I'll probably get something online as it'll be so much cheaper and once I know what I want, it'll be fine to do that. This is my favourite so far and the kind of thing I'd like IF it would suit me anyway. I think dresses will come after Christmas though, give me the chance to lose a little more weight first so I don't feel quite so much of a whale trying things on!

Bridesmaids dresses
Love these swing dresses.


Favours

I've spoken to a lady at a bath company I've ordered from and she couple make these mini soaps for wedding favours which is quite nice I think, not 100% on them though. Or I'm thinking little bags of retro sweets including a little roll of love hearts and a little personalised tag with some cheesy line like love is sweet on it!

Colour scheme - purple! It's my favourite and Aaron has agreed to it

We'll have to make invitations, wedding place cards, table seating plan etc. Hoping to make as many of the decorations as possible to keep costs low. That's it for thoughts so far! Will be keeping an eye on ebay, preloved and other wedding sites with forums for bargains over the coming months!

 

[RainbowRose]

Lovely ideas there Caz, stunning venue and beautiful dress and how cute are those soaps and so original!

Take a deep breath hun..enjoy the newly engaged glow..plenty time to make definate decisions

I remember the butterflies in tummy feeling the day after we got engaged. Hubby went to shop and came back with a bridal magazine for me and we flicked through it together, smiling at each other ...the first thing we did after that was write a guest list to gauge the numbers involved and possible cost In the coming days, weeks and months I daydreamed over dresses and everything else

Try to concentrate on one or two things today..then it shouldn't become too overwhelming You've made a good start already and always remember you have time to prepare the day exactly as you want to..good news re your family helping out

Take some time out today just to enjoy being engaged

I'm excited for you

 

[Caz]

Those are just things I've come across, been sent or have seen before. I'm not doing too much today, just browsing and dreaming inbetween some school work! Job for the day - guest list. Like you said, that's the first step to be able to gauge other things on really.

 

[KateR]

The site was pin ter est... Not sure why I wasn't allowed to tell you about it? It's very very good for weddings etc though. I love it and I'm not even getting married hahaha


Some of the stuff is a little off the wall... Some is so lovely I want it now just to have! Hehe


LOVE the colour of the bridesmaid dressed!!!,

 

[night-owl]

You've more than started alright, you've nearly got it organised now LOL! Love the venue you're thinking about but there is one thing I just don't get -- why they still charge for the room hire if you are paying them to cater? I mean, if you go to a restaurant or a nice hotel for a meal, they don't charge you table and chair rental do they? The venue is sort of included in the price of the food. Can you see what I mean? Crazy really. Our reception was in the Golf View Hotel overlooking the Moray Firth and they just charged us per head, said something about there was no room hire charge so long as you had more than 30 guests dining, which I think is more reasonable.

 

[Caz]

I'm not sure, I think that's something that we'd try and negotiate with them. I use that site already Kate, got a full on board going on atm! It's all just thoughts at the moment Frances, nothing set in stone just yet. Lots of dreaming going on today lol

 

[Caz]

http://www.*********.com/cazzieg/wedding-stuffs/

Not sure if that link will work!

 

[MinnieMel]

Whoo Hoo -- how romantic. I'm so happy for you both. How did Aaron's parents react?

You are so organized. Impressive.

 

[Caz]

Replace the * with pin ter est!

Well Aaron sent his brother a picture and he said that we needed to get drinks to celebrate but couldn't really tell his mum to get the drinks in without saying why so Aaron told him to tell them we had big news for them. Aaron was convinced that they wouldn't guess whereas I thought what on earth else were they going to think?! We got there and I kind of hid my hand away to give him time to tell them himself. I went into the dining room and he was in the kitchen with his mum, I saw him through the door and kind of tried to ask if he'd told her with a gesture of my head and then she came in smiling and asked to see the ring so that answered that one! Then his dad and brother walked in and in true man style his dad was like 'What? What's going on?' so I held out my hand to show him the ring, he looked a bit surprised at first! Surprised but happy, they all said congratulations, gave us hugs etc. His dad asked if Aaron got down on one knee and then started giving him jip when I said no! I felt really nervous going in there but they were lovely, no need to have been nervous at all.

 

[MinnieMel]

Fabulous. I'm glad it's gone so well.

 

[Aymz]

Wow just caught up with everything! Congratulations!!!! It's all so exciting and I love the ring

 

[night-owl]

I'm not sure, I think that's something that we'd try and negotiate with them.

Hope it works as it's a huge outlay to start with, and one that I believe a lot of venues wouldn't charge if they are doing your catering. In fact, our hotel even threw in the bridal suite with a four-poster bed and sea view, as opposed to charging for use of the reception room!

 

[Caz]

I think we may arrange a look around and would bring it up with them then.

We've suddenly had a very productive half hour! We've set a date, found/booked our cakes and made a guest list! How early is it to send out save the date texts/emails/facebook messages? We were actually very limited as my sister is already half booked up for the month we wanted and we want her to do the ceremony so had to choose a date quick. Then Aaron was showing me these cupcakes a friend of his makes and I absolutely fell in love with one of her designs and had to have them! She wanted to know rough numbers for pricing so had to do a guest list. Eee it's exciting!

 

[Squeezyweezy]

I am so happy for you caz. Huge congratulations. I LOVE the bridesmaids dresses

 

[night-owl]

Fast workers indeed! I reckon 6 months is plenty of notice for the guests. So long as you let them know about Jan/Feb as that is when people tend to start booking their holidays.
How many do you reckon it will be?
Maybe hold off on the cupcakes.....they might get a bit stale LOL!

 

[Caz]

I feel like today has been so productive! It was meant to just be a dream day and ended up getting a fair bit sorted now really. Set a provisional date (16th August 2014), done a guest list, sent out save the dates, arranged cupcakes, made a budget spreadsheet... I think this might be why I'm a teacher haha We've already had a few family dramas with it being an awkward date, it clases with my BILs brotehrs 50th birthday party and my niece's possible uni placement out in Australia. I got a bit worried but they both basically said we only get married once and they can't miss it so will sort it, phew! Because we're going for August and people book holidays really early we figured we'd let people know the date now as I'd hate to miss people coming because they booked a holiday the week before we sent it out or something.

These are the cupcakes, did I already post a pic? Can't remember but I LOVE them!



SW tomorrow! Dinner last night wasn't good, Aaron's mum did a buffet of pizza, breaded chicken, wedges etc. with gateaux for pudding. I had a very small piece of gateaux and didn't eat that much really. I've had 14 syns across the other 5 days including today so hopefully it'll be ok and even out! Guess I'll find out tomorrow.