Wednesday 30 July 2014

Planning a wedding your own way

Great news, three of my closest friends are engaged! One of the weddings is next week, I am so excited, not only as I am super happy for my friend, but also because I get to wear my gorgeous 50s style dress that I MADE (will post pictures in due course).

So anyway, it got me thinking and reminiscing about my own wedding last year and what lessons I learned... read on if you're interested...

1. What sort of wedding do you want?
I wasn't the kind of girl who grew up picturing her wedding so I knew I didn't want a big day. Once we established that, the rest kind of fell into place by process of elimination...Where is close to the registry office? Pettigrew's!... Beautiful building in the bay? Norwegian church!....Easy way to transport people there?....Boat!
Tea cup and saucer at Pettigrew Tea Room

2. Call in favours from talented (willing!) friends and family
I am lucky to have a very skilled professional wedding photographer as a step-father and an amazingly talented baker as a close friend. This meant we didn't have to spend money on these. Of course a gesture of thanks will go a long way and you don't want your guests to feel like staff. More often than not, however, you'll find people want to help. I myself have been called up to crochet various things for a hen do in September and am thrilled to be able to help!

Our delicious wedding cake
3. Accept you don't know everything
I gave our florist completely free reign to do what she wanted as my knowledge of flowers is shamefully lacking. I gave her the vases we were using and muttered something along the lines of "wild flowers, purplish" and left her to it. The finished product was just perfect.

4. The internet is a wonderful thing!
Etsy and Not on the High Street were some of my most frequented sites in the run up to the wedding. Such cute, personalised items can be bought for very little money.
The Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay- our evening venue

5. Relax!
It is so easy to get caught up in the whole thing but when I told myself it was just a day in a new dress, with the people I love the most I tended to calm down.

6. Things will go wrong- embrace it
My ride (an awesome vintage VW camper) didn't turn up to take me and my friends to the wedding. It was a bit of a hairy moment but we eventually called a taxi. Instead of it being a complete disaster it is one of my favourite memories as the driver plugged in my friend's Ipod and played the Beach Boys at full volume, us singing along merrily!
Arriving in style- albeit not the planned way

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