I had dreamed of this day since I could remember... There was one point in my life where I thought I would never get married, it would never happen for me, I would never get my happy ending. I suffered massive heartbreak when I was in my early twenties, it taught me a lot and I'm very thankful for it now. But yeah, I got my happy ending!
After the proposal in NYC on Valentine's Day 2018, the wedding planning process was exciting, expensive, stressful and magical. We were super organised from the outset and had our finances in order.
We briefly spoke (straight after the proposal) about where we'd like to get married. Would we have a UK wedding? A wedding abroad? Once we decided that we wanted all of our family and friends to attend our wedding, the decision was made to have our wedding close to home.
With that decision made, we agreed on our local church. This church is one I've grown up around, it's located in the village close to where I grew up, the village I spent many years of my childhood playing in and the village where I used to meet my friend every Saturday at 12pm to catch the bus into town (teenage years eh). Many of our family members and friends have been married at the local church, it holds so many fond memories.
Once we booked the church wedding, we had to get serious with the finance side of things. According to hitched.co.uk, 'The average total cost of a wedding in 2019 was £31,974...' That's probably more than the average person earns annually! We budgeted and budgeted well... we over estimated everything by a few hundred pounds at least and we did lots of online research. We got lots of quotes from local wedding suppliers regarding venue dressing, flowers, cars and everything else that goes with a wedding! My better (and more intelligent) half set up a very useful spreadsheet on excel (I cannot do formulas for toffee) so we could keep track of our spending.
The most expensive thing for us was definitely the wedding venue where we held our wedding breakfast and reception party. Prices for wedding venues are extortionate, especially if you're wanting a Summer wedding in an exclusive venue (we didn't want a venue that had multiple weddings happening on the same day).
We chose this stunning venue which was great for our friends and family commuting to our wedding.
We had full and exclusive use of the venue the whole day and it was quite frankly breath taking (picture below shows my reaction on our wedding day at how stunning the venue had been dressed with the most beautiful flowers. Hubby looks like he's checking his emails)!
Following the wedding venue, the next biggest expense were the flowers. I knew I wanted Sarah from The Floral Lounge to create my bouquets and stunning centrepieces. Sarah has provided flowers for my step sister's and my dad's wedding, she's truly amazing and so talented!
Our colour scheme for the wedding was pale blue, blush pink and white. I wanted to keep it light and Summery to fit with the season and my favourite colour is pale blue. Sarah made me the most amazing bouquets and centre pieces, I was so blown away with them and they were worth every penny. We opted for fresh flowers and made sure they didn't go to waste after the wedding day. Bouquets and centre pieces were taken by parents and grandparents and some were taken to the gravesides of loved ones.
Our flowers were made up of hydrangeas and roses, they make me so emotional looking at them
These stunning (and enormous) centrepieces were my absolute goals! We did only have four of them as they were £250 each.
The next biggest cost for us was our photographer. Again it's something we didn't want to try to save money on, I definitely believe you get what you pay for. These are the only images you'll have forever to remind you of your big day and I wanted them to be perfect (they were). We were so thrilled with our photographer, we used Sarah Beth Photography and would recommend her 100 percent.
Our rings were purchased from a local jeweller, hubby went for a plain brushed band and I went for a diamond encrusted band which matches the set of my engagement ring.
Venue dressing was a BIG thing for me. I obsess over interiors (as most of you know) so how my venue looked was really important to me. I wanted it to really represent me (hubby really couldn't care less, he just left it to me and said he 'trusted' me) and everyone said it was definitely me!
Our venue dressers were a local company to us called 'Sophisticated Shindigs'.
Although we paid a florist and a venue dresser to dress our venue, we did want to make some things ourselves.
- Card box
- Flip flop basket (these were a life saver and were all gone within minutes)
- Seating plan
- R&J flower filled letters
- Personalised favour biscuits
- Memory ladders (photos of loved ones who have passed)
- Table names (we named them after NYC landmarks)
I loved that we named our tables after NYC landmarks, I was really pleased with how the seating plan and the table pictures turned out. It was nice to tie in our love for NYC and the place we got engaged into our big day.
Onto cars! As we had a church wedding and then moved onto a venue, we needed transport. We opted for two cars to chauffeur only a handful of the bridal party to the venue. Here were our cars...
Hubby and I travelled in the traditional wedding car (ours was a Viscount), my mum and sister travelled in the Aston Martin (which was a very tight squeeze)!
So I've covered how we budgeted, the venue, florist, photographer, rings, venue dresser, cars and now onto the dress.
I remember the day like it was yesterday... I set aside one day to visit three different dress shops in the city. I took with me my mum, nanna, sister and my mother in law. I just wanted to get the whole thing done and dusted, I didn't want to spend weeks/months traipsing around different shops only to forget what the first dress in the first shop looked and felt like 2 months prior. I wanted to try them all with a fresh memory and hopefully find the one during the day... (I did)!
Ok so first dress in the first shop I LOVED!!!! We thought we'd found THE ONE! It was a champagne coloured Ronald Joyce strapless princess dress. Granted I didn't go looking for a champagne dress (although a strapless princess was always a contender) but I absolutely loved the colour on me. I still wanted to try on everything I could in every shop before settling on one but I was convinced it was the one.
The next shop was erm... not as great. It was a shop that didn't stock designer gowns, they stocked their 'own brand'. They had some lovely dresses however for my shape, I needed support and the dresses didn't quite make the cut.
Onto the third and final shop, I had high hopes for this place. My dad's wife had purchased her dress from there and they had some stunning dresses in stock. Every dress I tried on though I just knew I was comparing it to the first dress in the first shop. That really confirmed that it was the one.
Now by my description of the first dress in the first shop (the strapless champagne princess dress) and that you've seen a photo of my dress, you know I didn't buy the first dress in the first shop. Anyway... I told the bridal consultant in the third shop about the first dress in the first shop (gosh this is complicated). She pulled a 'face' when I told her it was strapless. She said she wouldn't have suggested a strapless dress with my shape... she asked if I'd sat down in the strapless champagne princess dress (I hadn't). The consultant put me in a strapless princess dress and told me to sit down, all I can say is I looked like an extremely well enhanced woman attending Oktoberfest in a super tight corset costume... not appropriate I thought.
So that concerned me about the first dress in the first shop. I'd tried on around 10 gowns in the third shop but I found myself picking faults with something on every dress... So the final dress in the third shop made its way into the dressing room. I was told "This is the last dress". I put it on not holding much hope for it... I spun round to see myself in the mirror and I loved ALMOST everything I saw.
There were lots I loved about the dress, one thing I did not love were the straps. To say I had my heart set on a strapless princess dress only 3 hours earlier, I was now in a dress with the widest, lace and quite frankly 'frumpy' straps. I told the consultant what I didn't like, she got out some dress pins and within a minute the straps were perfect. I couldn't believe how a few dress pins would change a dress so much.
I then knew it was the one. I felt all those overwhelming emotions you expect and that you see on T.V (say yes to the dress comes to mind) but it was confirmed by the emotion I saw on my families' faces. The veil went in, a crystal hair slide and there I was, standing in front of the mirror, a bride to be, a bride to be in an Ivory A-Line lace wedding dress with straps! The dress was 100% classic bridal (with the added crystal belt that was to die for) and I quickly realised the strapless champagne princess dress actually looked more of a prom dress rather than a bridal gown.
I said yes to the dress and was then given the astounding news that the dress was half price in the sale!!!!! The consultant didn't tell me this until I said yes to the dress as she didn't want the fact that it was half price to sway my decision (it wouldn't have done).
Here we are looking all pleased with the purchase!
My dress was perfect for me, I'm just utterly devastated it's now hanging in a dress bag dirty and lonely...
Bridesmaid dresses... lord how expensive they can be! I totally begrudged paying upwards of £100/£200 per bridesmaid dress although I wanted them to look expensive and fit well. One Saturday while shopping with my mum and sister in Debenhams, we came across some pale blue bridesmaid dresses in the sale for £65 each! I had 4 bridesmaids however bought 6 dresses of varying sizes (to cover all basis). When it came to alterations I had lots of spare material from the dresses that were not used, the dresses were originally strapless however I decided to have straps added and a cold shoulder drop sleeve. My stream-stress was absolutely amazing and made the dresses look expensive and tailored to fit beautifully.
Many people asked if I did my own makeup for my wedding day, I did not! Although I love makeup and I know I can adequately paint my face, I didn't want the stress of it on my wedding day. I wanted to sit in the makeup chair and be pampered and that I was! I used a local MUA called Sabina who owns The Glam Doll.
I loved my makeup, it was natural yet glam and it stayed put all day and night!
Did someone say cake? I am such a cake lover, well, my whole family are. My birthday cakes have always been totally OTT and the wedding cake just had to be as fabulous as everything else. I knew I wanted height so we had extra deep tiers and I also knew I needed ruffles and a bow (I love bows). Our cake maker was the lovely Jill from Jill Fisher's cakes. She created exactly what we asked for and it tasted amazing. We had fruit cake on the bottom, a vanilla sponge tier and a lemon sponge tier, the other two were dummies. We did cut and serve the cake at the evening reception but we still had plenty to take home (and on the plane on our honeymoon).
Our wedding day was the most amazing day of our lives, it really did flash by in a heartbeat. It was everything we could have hoped for and more, the sun shone, all of our family and friends attended and had a good time and honestly, things couldn't have gone any better.
Here are a few other wedding pictures I'd like to share with you.
Two days after the wedding we flew to Meeru Island in the Maldives for our stunning honeymoon staying in a water villa. It's an experience I will never forget and it was absolutely perfect. I'll do a separate post on our honeymoon soon but for all those brides to be my tips would be, set a budget and stick to it, shop around, plan plan plan, cherish every single moment and have the best day of your life.
August 2019, you were a blast!
Speak soon,
x
P.S No we did not spend the UK average on our wedding... I won't say what we did spend but it wasn't as much as that!
