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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 10/18/2010 Posts: 45 Location: Barnsley
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I always swore I would never be one of those women who got all obsessed with the planning of her wedding. I used to roll my eyes and think 'here we go again' when I had a friend who was getting married and for the period she was planning it she seemed to lose the ability to talk, or even think about anything not wedding related. However, I fear I am slowly becoming one of those women...but not half as bad as some of them! I've spent all day yesterday and today researching wedding related things on the internet ready for my wedding next August and in the process managed to happen upon the most perfect bridesmaid dresses from Debenhams which I have ordered and should be arriving in the next few days. And I have also found my perfect honeymoon which I need to run past the other half and then hopefully we can book it. I'm so glad that I've managed to save myself a day, or possibly even more days, traipsing around bridesmaid dress shops. Anyway, I'm just very excited at the moment  So most of the big things are now sorted and I only have the finer details to thrash out. I should have plenty of time to do that over my next 2 weeks off sick! Gem x Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered
Joined: 3/24/2010
Posts: 102
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well done you - having had 2 weddings in the last 13 months for both my daughter and son - I know how complicated things can be- . and although sometimes 'tense', very enjoyable!!!!!!!
There are so many options nowadays - hope you have an great time in the next fortnight - investigating - I'm sure you will find some things that will be 'just perfect'
Beth
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009 Posts: 1,081
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Excellent work Gem - there is a positive side to being off! I've been reading your initial posts and the experience you've been having is so similar to mine it's unbelievable. Please do think of this as time for yourself to rest and help you through the flare - don't feel guilty for making the most of it (as I did!). Take care.
Julie
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009
Posts: 1,035
Location: in a house
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well i had a big church wedding . But simple I got married in a £30 very classie suit size 8 and in a sale and hubby in his suit he al ready had . made all invites Bridesmaid had a nice outfit in pink Made all flowers and hired flowers from counclie in big planters .Took a mini bus to pick them up . food was done in everyones kitchens baked spuds salads and sweets stuff served at lunch music was done buy friends who are as good as anyone else i would pay money for . photos done by friends but dont recomemed but ok i all ready belong to the church so it free . about £80 for wedding about £200 for everything 25 years ago every one talking about our wedding for years afterswards bit differant ask me now if i want a big white wedding no thank you .Its a waste of money Just have a nice day i did with 150 friends Christine The chocolate eating housewife ...The washer woman .....naughty lady
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 4/20/2010 Posts: 1,749 Location: Somerset
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Gem,
Glad you are enjoying the well earned rest from work, very exciting time for you
preparing for your Wedding.
Rose
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009 Posts: 838 Location: Nottinghamshire
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What a lovely way to spend your time off.
I was only talking to me daughter the other day about wedding cakes and what a price they charge for them.
When my daughter Julie got married we needed extra cake to give to her work colleagues. I didn't want to cut into a another tier of her cake. I went to Marks and Spencers and got one of their plain iced cakes and used that. You can buy them in different sizes and I think that they would make an inexpensive but nice wedding cake. I think you can buy a sample to taste.
Sometimes in our local shopping centres they have wedding events and I have seen ladies sitting there with their wedding cakes on display. I use to go to cake decorating lessons years ago and I know how easy it would be to do these expensive cakes that are on show. There is a specialist cake decorating shop in my town what sells decorations for cakes, flowers, models etc and they always give advice on how to tier up cakes etc. You only have to buy the cakes from Marks and then you could do them yourself and save serious money. There is plenty of cake decorating books/magazines in shops for you to look at for ideas (you can just look, no need to buy).
Just remember...............less is more..............a simply decorated cake looks far more elegant than a busy over the top one.
I did see at a wedding fayre that I went to when Julie was getting married, sprays made up with fresh flowers for cakes to match the brides bouquet, looked really nice.
Paula x x
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 8/25/2010 Posts: 1,289 Location: Buckinghamshire
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hi Gemma,
glad to hear you're making good use of your time off ... hope it is helping you.
exciting times for you ahead.
also hope you are feeling a little better too,
Suzanne x
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/4/2009 Posts: 1,524 Location: W. Yorkshire
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How exciting Gem! When my daughter got married I paid for a plain iced sponge (she doesn't like fruit cake) cake from a baker and then put the extra weddingy bits on myself-saved a fortune! YES I'VE CHANGED, PAIN DOES THAT TO PEOPLE.
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 3/8/2010 Posts: 914
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Hi Gem, Lovely to hear your getting married, I was in Norway about 4 weeks ago out shopping with my elder daughter for a wedding dress. We had a lovely time and she looked stunning in all of them. There is a wedding site for you to look at with lots of tips and suggestions, I will ask her for the address for you. My daughter gets married in 2012 as she is in the final year of a PHD and does not have the time at the moment to do too much organising. Lots of Love and Happiness for you both. Lorna x 
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/4/2009 Posts: 856
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Great news Gem
Enjoy.
My wedding was similar to Chrissie in that it was very low key- although we did manage to have a meal in a restaurant, part of which some friends paid for as a present. My dress cost £45 though!!! The same friends also provided my transport to the church- all of half a mile away from where I lived.
It was by choice, and we're still happily together 24 yrs later.
Maria x
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Registered
Joined: 8/26/2010
Posts: 30
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Hi Gem
Not been on the forum for a while but was really pleased to see that some one else planning their wedding!!
My other half proposed to me in italy in sept and really surprised as we have been together since I was 14 and I am nearly 36 well in december.
I have been looking on websites and I am totally confused with all the tat that is on there, I too would hate to turn into bridezilla and would love only a small low key not big budget wedding. I did look at one place and thought that was the one and did not have to look at anything else but then did not calculate all the 'you need our food' 'our bar prices' oh my word!!!!!!!
I think I am going to leave the mooching for wedding venues and all that comes with it alone for a little while as I still have 20 years in which to organise it!!!
I bet you look forward to seeing the dresses!
Good luck with mooching for the finer details, and hope you are feeling better soon
Best regards
Dawn
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 10/18/2010 Posts: 45 Location: Barnsley
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Hi Yes it's really exciting planning the wedding and a welcome distraction. The bridesmaid dresses came on Saturday and I love them. The 8 year old bridesmaid loves hers, one of the older bridesmaids has tried hers on and it looks gorgeous on her, and the other older one is trying hers on on Wednesday night. Well, she is going to try to try it on as she is currently 5 months pregnant so not sure if she'll be able to squeeze into it! As for wedding cakes, well neither of us likes fruit cake so we decided to go for a tower of cupcakes. We found a lovely place that specialises in doing cupcakes and we went to visit them well over a month ago now and had a consultation. But they still haven't given us a quote despite lots of emails flying back and forth. So I had a look on Marks and Spencers and they do cupcakes, 48 for £35 which is waaaaaaay cheap. So we may buy our own large stand (about £35), get 2 lots of M&S cupcakes and one of their small plain cakes for the top tier for cutting and we'll be sorted for a fraction of the price of having one made. I have another meeting with the venue this Saturday to put more solid plans for the day in place and then I should be able to order the invitations (from vistaprint.co.uk - cheap!). If the weather is nice (hopefully it should be as it's in August) we'll be getting married outside in a victorian bandstand in the grounds of our venue, and we're having a string quartet too so I really hope it'll be nice weather. Although this year on 13th August it was grey, miserable, and rained all day so fingers crossed it's not like that next year! xxx Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009 Posts: 2,237 Location: nr Southampton
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oooooh I LOVE Weddings!
When richard and I married, I had a pale champagne pink full length satin skirt with train and matching bodice with embroidery. we had 30 people for the reception (I had been married before and didnt want a big fussy do) and we had a great big party in the evening.
Got married in church with dispensation and had an emotional and delightful service one cloudy April morning. Star gazer lillies and roses and gip for flowers. beautiful music.
We had it all at my Dads work club house. It was fantastic. You could buy your own drinks and there was a pool table and a quieter bar area if people liked away from the main room.
Our children were very much part of it.
We had balloons in an arch over the top table and the mums decorated tables with ivy and matching pink bows.
We did have a fruit cake. We had pink hearts on it and a lot of pink hearts sticking out of the top on wires. it was very pretty.
Our only real extravagance was that I wanted a live band for the party. They were great.
We have been married 6.5 yrs now and I have to tell you it is great. Sticking together is such a great thing.
Jenni xxhow to be a velvet bulldoser
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009 Posts: 714
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I love weddings too. Have not been to one for years and then two this year. I did get all misty eyed at both and thought back to my wedding nearly 20 years ago. We had no money and married in a registry office but I can still feel my Husband's arm around my waist squeezing me tight as we had our photos done. My younger sister who is 23 (from my Dad's second marriage) is getting married on 21st July 2012. My Dad has just put down a deposit of £14,500 (yes I have got the noughts in the right place) and she has already bought her wedding dress for £3,000. I am NOT the green eyed monster but I cannot help thinking that surely they could put the money to some better use, but I am sure a lovely day will be had by all.
I think you are being very sensible, Gem, and I love your idea of the cupcake wedding cake. You cannot get more personal than that. I think you should bore everyone with your plans until next August as hopefully this will be the only time you get to plan a wedding for yourself.
Jackie
xx
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009 Posts: 1,110 Location: London
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Hi Gemma, as one of the oldies on here, I married at the age of 19 in February 24th 1973. We had a full white wedding, with 3 bridesmaids, my sister who was chief bridesmaid in peach and the other 2 girls in a pale green. My husband had hair down to his chin makes us laugh now!!!! we had around 80 people at the church, we had the reception in the church hall, another 50 joined us there. My dress cost £50, very expensive then lol!!! bridesmaids dresses were £30 each. Flowers came to £30 and then my dad paid for the car, a daimler, even though we lived 5 minutes walk from the church. I have never regretted it, and can recall much from the day and evening even now, its something which doesnt have to be expensive, it depends on what you want and expect, as well as trying to please yourselves and not everyone else. We are still happy all these years and 4 children later BARBARA
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 10/18/2010 Posts: 45 Location: Barnsley
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Hi everyone I love reading about everyone elses weddings :) £14,500 is soooo expensive!!! Apparently the average cost of weddings is about 20k! I have waaaay better things to spend that kind of money on - if I even had that kind of money in the first place! We refuse to start our married life bankrupted from the wedding. We have friends that took out loans and allsorts for their weddings and are still paying them off 5 years later. No doubt I'll keep updating this thread as and when. We're going to meet the wedding planner at the venue this Saturday so I have lots of questions to ask there. Gem x Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
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Rank: Advanced Member Groups: Registered
Joined: 12/3/2009 Posts: 838 Location: Nottinghamshire
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My daughter got married a 7 years ago. We had already given her the deposit for her house and then had to put away the same amount for our other daughter. We always treat them the same. When she announced that she was getting married and her plans were to get married at the registry office and then go back to her house and have a BBQ. Well, I said no daughter of mine is having a burger in a bun for her wedding breakfast so we digged into our pockets again to pay for the wedding. Keeping to a budget. We had about 25 people to the main event with a sit down meal and then had an evening do with more people being invited. It really was lovely, but Scrooge my husband everytime I told him how much things were costing, dress, flowers, photo's etc he just kept saying...HOW MUCH!!!! can you not get it cheaper. The only thing that he didn't remark on was the reception, thought that was reasonable. I think we did it for around £3,000. It was really nice, you just don't have to spend a fortune to have a nice time.
Everything was done in the hotel. We booked a room the night before so I could take everything there and get organised. She got married in a lovely room, went outside for the photos, back in a lovely sunny conservatory for the meal, the room where she got married in had a disco in, we had a nice lounge for people to sit it away from the music. Everything was really nice. We then stopped the night at the hotel. I did put on a bus for people attending the wedding.
Because it was a civil wedding I wanted to make it a bit special for her, so I got up and read out a lovely poem. I had been saying over and over so I remembered it word for word. After I had finished I was so relieved that I didn't cry, it was such a lovely poem. I stood there saying Phew I did it without crying.........I then heard a voice next to me sayiing.........It's alright for you, you've finished, we've got to carry on. Both the lady registars where sitting there with tears streaming down their faces.
I have somewhere got a book that I kept when I got married in 1974 I will have to try and find it and share with you my shoe string wedding costs.
Paula
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Rank: Advanced Member  Groups: Registered
Joined: 9/5/2010 Posts: 364 Location: mid glamorgan
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Hi Gem
All your plans sound fab! And its great that youve got such a wonderful distraction from everything else.. Make the most of it and good luck with the wedding planner today! Ceri xx
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