Even counting that out just now, I can’t believe it’s been 8 months since that wonderful day when M and I went for a walk on the beach and came back an engaged couple; with a sparkling diamond glistening on my finger!
And what an 8 months it has been! In that time we have moved from one county to another, into a new house, have both started new jobs and have also managed to get quite a lot of the wedding planning done too!
We found and picked our venue in September which set our date, ceremony and reception venues in place. We had so many viewings booked in but walking around this venue, we just knew! I wrote a post about it a little while back – have a read here if you fancy!
After the venue, one of the first things on the list was a caterer. As big foodies, we knew we wanted to find our own caterer so we could pick our own menu completely from scratch, and plan it around the things we love. We were lucky enough to find the perfect one the same week as finding our venue! We went for dinner at his restaurant, had an amazing dinner and then he came and sat with us afterwards to talk through how he works and the different ideas we had. We are still finalising the final menu details, but it’s already so exciting being able to pick exactly what we want and making it perfect!
We’ve also finalised our wedding photographer. We spoke to loads of people and if anything it was made very difficult to decide because there are so many amazing photographers out there, but in the end we managed to decide and we couldn’t be happier with our choice. I love his style and his work, and the way he manages to capture the feel of the day so well – particularly candid shots of everyone having a good time and some fab photos of fathers seeing brides for the first time on the day, something I know I want captured!
We knew from the first day of planning that we wanted a videographer, and very shortly after we got engaged we saw a videographer shared on one of our shortlisted venue’s websites. After browsing through countless others, we couldn’t get this first person out of our minds and eventually placed a deposit a couple of weeks back. I’m not going to name any of our suppliers just yet but I will be doing a feature on each after the wedding, sharing the amazing work that I know they will do on our special day!
From really early on we knew we wanted to have live music at our reception and initially we looked at a relatively local midlands band for this; the band that were playing the weekend we met. But when we looked a bit further into the logistics, their set up was just too big and dominating for any of the venues we had looked at and and once we found our venue and knew immediately it was perfect, we knew that the band just wouldn’t work there, so started looking elsewhere. I’ve found the recommended suppliers lists for venues really useful and we actually found our band on the list for our venue. They are fab, include all the DJ service between sets too, and let you customise your set lists – really exciting! We saw them in a showcase recently and that was us sold – deposit paid! They even have the option to have musicians play earlier in the day during canapés etc which is a fab little add-on!
I haven’t been dress shopping yet, and don’t think I will be for a good few months yet – we aren’t getting married until next year so I’ve got plenty of time and don’t want to get my dress to early and go off it!
I’m still in the process of speaking with hair and makeup people, and we had a consultation last weekend with a florist which was really exciting. Just a case of making a few more initial decisions (cake is another thing we have yet to finalise a supplier for….just brainstorming ideas at the moment!) and then it looks like it is all going to go quiet for a bit in the world of wedding planning, until about 6 months before the big day when it all kicks off again!
Stationery-Wise, I’m making all of ours myself (because I’m a nutcase!) and it’s coming up to the time to be sending Save The Dates out so any day I’m not in the hospital over the next month I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to find me sitting at our dining table with some kind go crafting implement or addressing envelopes! Making our own stationery was a decision we made quite early on and along with being more personal I also think it is going to save us quite a lot of money which is a big plus! Ill be sharing my wedding crafts as I go so check out my instagram for more on that!
Otherwise it is just a case of getting to know the local area around our venue a bit better. We know the region well but not the town specifically, but as we need to visit the church regularly its quite a nice chance to stay in some local airbnbs and get to know the town and where might be a nice place to go for dinner the night before etc.
I’m actually really enjoying the planning; lots of people keep asking me if its stressful or if I’m wishing I wasn’t planning it but honestly I’m really enjoying sitting down together and choosing our suppliers and how the day is going to run. It helps that we both have very similar ideas for what we want so there aren’t any contrasting opinions – certainly makes decision-making easier!
Images by Jamez Picard & Dan LeFebvre
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