Wedding Planning Essentials

I have no shame in saying that after we got engaged one of the first things I bought was a wedding planner. I can safely say its one of the best things I’ve bought. As we delve further into our own wedding planning, I thought I’d compile a little list of the things I have found useful (and sometimes just plain pretty) for wedding planning.

A Wedding Planner
I looked around for a while for one of these and found the perfect on from John Lewis. It was around £20, but has been the most useful thing ever. It’s full of lists of things I didn’t realise we would need and has lots of space for ideas. A budget planner which is super useful, and little spaces to put leaflets and bits and bobs collected from weddings fayres or from magazines. It’s also something nice to keep for later when you’ve got kids/grandkids or just want to reminisce about your wedding, you’ve got all the plans and ideas inside!

Busy B Wedding Planner here

A White Board
Now, I knew when I bought the wedding planner that it was mostly going to be for neat, final ideas, and I wanted to keep it as tidy as possible. So we bought a white board to throw down any ideas we had and wanted to mess around with, and then we popped the final ideas, down in the planner, along with costs and etc.

Pinterest

Whilst it’s easy to get carried away on Pinterest and loose hours of your life, it’s also like looking through one massive wedding magazine. I’ve gotten some great ideas and inspiration for some things on there, from the venue decoration to cake ideas. Whilst some of the stuff on there would be pretty expensive, its given me ideas and made me look for cheaper alternatives. Pinterest also has a feature where you can collaborate on a board, so you can invite your bridesmaids/groomsmen and get planning, without feeling like your sending them loads of emails and messages.

Wedding Magazines

Now, its easy to get sucked in with these guys and some of them are a waste of time. However, if you pick up one thats about the area you want to get married in (e.g. I picked up Yorkshrie Bride) it can be a little gem as it will have lots of suppliers, fairs etc that are local to you. Sometimes googling, ‘Wedding Venue in Yorkshire’ doesn’t always bring up what you want. It’s also good to have a flick through and get some decoration ideas? Particularly the ones that do features on certain weddings. I’d always have a little flick through the magazine before buying it. These can however be a little over priced, so any brides/brides to be that you know, talk to them and do a magazine swap when you’ve both finished with them! Helps keep costs down.

Notepads/Post-It-Notes

I guarantee these will become your best friends. I have two notepads dedicated to wedding things, filled with questions for the venue/suppliers, things that I don’t really want in my wedding planner, things that help you along to securing final details. Pages and pages of photographers and wedding fayre dates. Post it notes are also great if you and your other half need to get stuff done but maybe don’t have time to do that together. A Facebook message is great but once its read doesn’t always mean it gets done or looked at. A post it note starring you in the face is quite hard to ignore!

So, there are my planning essentials so far! Let me know if this was helpful, and what are some the things you swear by for wedding planning?

 

 

5 Things I’ve Learnt Since Getting Engaged

Being engaged is a pretty wonderful feeling and a super exciting time. You feel all excited and bubbly and it’s pretty impossible to wipe away the big fat stupid grin that sits on your face afterwards. If you’re married or engaged you’ll know what I mean, but I thought I’d kick of my first wedding related post with what I’ve learnt in the last 7 or so months since becoming engaged.

1) “That’s lovely…have you set a date?”
It is no exaggeration when I say in the first 48 hours of being engaged the amount of people that asked us if we had set a date yet was unreal. If you already have an idea of when you want to get married, great! But if not, then maybe prepare yourselves for the attack of the same question. (This question also never really goes away as anytime anyone brings up the subject of weddings, me and my fiancé (still feels fancy) still get asked)

2) You start putting a price on everything
Weddings are expensive, there is no denying that. But after the excitement of getting engaged you start thinking about money and how much everything costs, and now I keep looking at stuff and thinking, “Yes, I would like to buy you, however you are also the cost of half a bridesmaid dress and so, I won’t be buying you.” In some ways this is good, as saving for weddings is good, in other ways…it’s not, and will take some getting used to, but will be worth it in the end!

3) Your ring might not fit, and that’s okay
Okay, it’s happened, you’ve gotten engaged! Woohoo! They slide the ring onto your finger and as you look at it in all its engaged shininess you realise…it’s too big. But that’s okay. We had to wait six weeks for the ring to come back as it had to be remade, and as an engagement party loomed over us and we wanted it before that. But as it was beautifully put to me, I put it to you, ‘six weeks is not long, when you wear the ring for the rest of your life’. That pretty much put it into perspective for me, even though I was desperate to wear it. And then when we got the ring back properly, it made it all extra exciting again, and I felt newly engaged again! We also got the ring in time, the Tuesday before the engagement party which was on the Saturday.

4) There will be tears, and smiles
I cried when I got proposed to, I cried when I told my mum, my dad, my sister. When I told my friends, when I went into work and was met with balloons and cards and hugs. I cried at the kindness of friends and the excitement of family. I cried at the engagement cake my Aunty made for us. There were many tears and I can only say that there will be more. Carry tissues at all time. But, for a good month after, I couldn’t take the smile from my face. I was constantly grinning like a cheshire cat. What am I chatting, I’m still grinning like a cheshire cat!

5) It’s the best feeling in the world
Knowing that your other half has gone through all of this to do something this amazing and thoughtful is such an amazing feeling. I also felt so flattered that even though we had talked about getting married and being together forever, it was actually happening and that the guy in front of me had chosen me and was asking me to be his forever. That is one of the most amazing feelings that I will never forget! It was also amazing to find out how much effort my other half had gone through, and how involved my family (particularly my sister) were and I had absolutely no idea about it, so it was the biggest and nicest surprise knowing they all knew it was going to happen. And I get to relive the feeling every time someone asks me to tell them how it happened.

Have you guys had any similar experiences or other things you’ve learnt since popping/being asked the big question? Let me know! 🙂