Ok it’s been a while since my last edition of Wedding Planning Diaries, I admit. But the funny thing about wedding planning is that it’s lots of booking the big things in advance, a really big gap where you’re doing little bits here and there, and then everything else comes at once. I, my friend, am in the latter camp. It’s actually a bit stressful, funnily enough.
So basically, I have a lot to catch up on!
But first up, I’m going to talk about the bits and bobs I did at the end of last year, aka the slow bit in the middle. Just because I like things to be in chronological order! But spoiler, I’ve done a lot since this part.
I’ve caught you up on booking our venue, getting my photographer locked down and choosing our menu and then finding my dream wedding dress. After those big things, it is a bit of an anti-climax. So I did everything I could to stay in the moment and enjoy the wedding planning process…
Save The Dates
Once we’d locked down the big stuff, I was keen to send our Save The Dates out for our all-day guests. We’re actually having quite a small ceremony and then inviting a lot of people in the evening, so we didn’t really need Save The Dates… I could’ve just sent a text, let’s be honest. But I already knew we were going to be doing a Wedding Website instead on Invitations, so I figured this was a way to get a reminder on everyone’s fridges!
Our wedding is not formal. It’s in a pub. So I didn’t want a fancy Save The Date. I opted for a funny little design I found on Pinterest (obvs) and got Josh to put it together (benefits of a Designer fiance). I’ve blocked out the date and location in case any of you are weirdos, but doesn’t it look cool??
The Florist
Another sort-of high-profile item on the wedding to-do list is securing the florist. But I’d already thought to myself that I didn’t want to spend loads of money on a part of the wedding the only lasts a day. (Yes, in contrast to my wedding dress post where I well and truly blew the budget, I have found some self-restraint in this process…). So I wasn’t massively worried about it?
In the end I decided to lock down the florist over the road from the venue. They do loads of weddings at our venue, know the people and look like they would do a good enough job. And to be honest that’s really all I was worried about. My bestie got married recently and had the MOST AMAZING flowers and I did start doubting this decision a little, as it does sound like she got really awesome service. But at the end of the day, I know I’d rather spend the budget elsewhere, so I’ve gone quite budget in this area. I had to do it somewhere, right?
The Wedding Rings
If you know me, you would know I have a mammoth wedding spreadsheet, with every item we have to buy and budget for, timelines of when we have buy it, etc. So I am very prepared. And with that preparedness, I wrote a massive list of stuff I could potentially get in Black Friday sales. And one of those was the rings.
To be honest, I was planning on a bog-standard, gold band, from somewhere really easy and affordable like H. Samuel or something. No-thrills. But then in the Black Friday sales I saw that Carrie Elizabeth was offering a discount code and snapped up a lovely ring with it. A gold band with diamond stars along it. Definitely my vibe.
Was it over the budget? Of course it bloody was. But still super affordable compared to most wedding rings. I had no idea that they would be so spenny? But I guess it’s one of the few things that outlives the wedding day, so what you gonna do…
The Bride’s Shoes
I also added my wedding shoes to the Black Friday list. But I had a bit of a turn-up for the books when I got told by my work that I could get a voucher for anywhere I wanted as I had been with the company for 5 years. Enter: Loeffler Randall… The shoe brand I’d been eyeing up for a while but had been thinking I couldn’t quite afford seeing as I had spent so much on the dress already. But lo and behold, my voucher perfectly covered my dream shoes – the pleated Dahia heels in light blue. So dreamy. (Affiliate link.)
Honestly, I’m not sure if I bought the blue ones on impulse because they don’t actually go with anything else in the wedding, BUT THEY SO PRETTY DOH.
Wedding Budget Update
Ok, so I promised I would continue to give you budget updates on these posts because I’m keen to truly show how the budget changes, and really explore how much weddings cost! But because I’m backdating this one, I can’t actually remember where I would be up to. So let’s just recap the budget on these items.
Save The Dates we mocked up and got printed on Printed.Com so it was mega cheap as expected, about £30. For the florist I had a very sensible budget of £650 and it came in around £700, so I’m happy with that. For the rings I naively budgeted £150 thinking that getting a couple of plain rings for £75 each would be totally doable. I’m sure I’ve seen it on Don’t Tell The Bride. But actually our rings came in at £330. So more than double. For my shoes I’d budgeted £100 and they came in at £230. But seeing as I used that work voucher, they’re basically free right?
Lol who am I trying to convince? Bloody budget is in tatters.
Ok that’ll do for this one, lads. Don’t worry I had lots more to catch you up on in the world of wedding planning! Watch this space.