Wedding Stress...

Yes wedding are exciting, but the planning is not always fun... even with an endless budget there are little things to worry about.

I am finding it particularity difficult planning a wedding in the style I didn't really want to keep my H2B and the families happy, especially when it feels like a fight just to get his in put.

What to do?  Leave it and let him organise and accept it probably wont be how you imagined... or just do it all yourself and slightly resent him.

One Appointment, One Wedding Dress Bought!

So that wasn't to hard.., I had originally wanted a sparkly, beaded wedding dress, and I thought I'd end up with a prom dress as I had set a rather tight budget.  I really don't like the idea of spending hundred if not thousands on a dress I'll wear once!

So after suggesting to H2B that I might wear a coloured dress as most prom dresses aren't ivory or white he wasn't to keen, that is when I gave up on sparkles and went for a vintage dress.

I Google, I tweeted, I search and search... Etsy, eBay and all the other places I thought I could find vintage.  All I really came across was replica vintage wedding dresses, then I found Vintage Lane Bridal in Bolton, which I was going to visit later in the year as I live in London.

One night on twitter I saw a post by Brides magazine suggestion vintage brides to check out House of Vintage in Shorditch London... boom!

I booked my appointment for this Saturday just gone, Nov 22nd, my 'Maids' and myself picked 8-10 dresses and started the process of elimination.

Whilst trying the dresses on we were talking to the shop owner Marcia and she put one of our dresses to the end, to try on last.  As she had decided which she mentioned later sound like what I had originally wanted when describing how we came about to want a vintage dress.

I put this little number on and wow, there and then both the 'Maids', myself and Marcia thought it was a winner.  I'd also picked one other I was keen on from our selection.  We stood and eyed them both up and had a chat about HopFest15.

I was hesitant to buy it there and then, it was a lot of money to spend, having not seen any other dresses... but I thought if I don't buy it now someone else will, and to be honest I really hated the process of trying all these dresses on and once bought I can tick that off my list!  So 30-45 mins into our appointment I had bought my wedding dress :-)

Both Vintage Lane and House of Vintage Brides have all sorts of dress and pics do not do them justice.  If you are a bride on a budget, love vintage styling or just want something more unique do check them out.

Prices range from £200 - 1000.  Mine was a total of £650, which for an almost fulled beaded dress quite the bargain.

* one thing to be aware: vintage dresses my have some damage from the age... mine is missing a few beads on the very bottom.  Which you can't see when on and if I wanted I could have fixed.

Wedding Planning... so far

The fiance and I got engaged Sept 14th, and after a weeks break got straight into the wedding planning as we are getting married May 8th 2015... giving us only 7 or so months to plan!

Thankfully we had found the reception venue pre engagement, so I just went a head and confirmed that... then we viewed 3 venues for the ceremony, once that was decided we booked the registrar.

We have also confirmed the big items: marquee hire / toilets / photographer / catering and gave notice of marriage.

H2B & Bestman are in charge of finding beer kegs to hire & bar, PA system and suits.

Bridesmaid and myself are doing the DIY element, which turns out eBay and Amazon are amazing for.

As we are having a wedfest I've been buying bunting, face paint, glow sticks, glitter, temporary tattoos... 

And tomorrow I have my first wedding dress shopping appointment at House Of Vintage in Shoreditch London.

So much still to do and sadly its all the bitty stuff that needs to wait until closer the date!

http://hopfest15.blogspot.co.uk/ #HopFest15 our wedding website :-)

GET THE LOOK: Wedding Festival Theme

This theme is inspired by many modern weddings, and is what we'll be having for our 'big day' next May !

Wedding Festivals are a great way to make the most of your celebration, in a relaxed fun setting.  Must haves:  marquee/ti-pi / food vans / bar / music / hay bales / games / lights & vintage dresses

We are adding fancy dress, face painting etc. for the bestial vibe.

#hopfest15

My pinterest board

Useful link: Festival Bride

www.rocknrollbride.com

thesimplifiers.com

isabelsmithweddings.co.uk

marrymeink.co.uk

Wedding Website... I do?

So HopFest2015 is now in full swing planning mode...it has come up in conversation and just in general research, should be have a wedding website or not?

I was think I could just link it to my blog, through blogger and it might be a good place for people to find info?! But is it impersonal and does anyone actually look at it?

To blog or not to blog...that is the question.

http://glosite.com/

http://uw.theknot.com/admin/choosedesign/

http://www.mywedding.com/free-wedding-websites

Engagement Sexism?

So we've been engaged now for just over 3 weeks and its been lovely, lots of cards, gifts and happy messages from Friends, Family and Work Colleagues.

I get the pleasure of working with Danny my H2B, and something I noticed was a little sexism between the celebratory comments,

We or I received lots of congratulations... he on the other hand received well done, or comments relating to earning potential.

So size of the ring doesn't just matter to girls, it matters to men in the most primal way.  He how can afford the biggest, obviously is the best!  Before now I always felt pressure that it was just a girl wanting a big sparkly diamond.

Our Engagement

We're engaged!  My boyfriend of two year proposed the day after our 2 year anniversary (Sunday 14th Sept)... The day before he had asked my father for permission at a family birthday party, apparently they had quite a moment :-)

How did it happen?  Well I kind of ruined it for him a little.  Sunday morning we were lazing about on the couch and Danny asked where the cats were?  I assumed outside doing cat stuff.

Shortly after he got up and let Mark Francis back in, so both cats were with me in the lounge.
Getting up I thought Danny was in the bathroom and tried to sneak into the bedroom with an anniversary card I was yet to give him.  On entering the bedroom Danny was stood in the door way and questioned 'what are you doing'?  Confused I asked what he was doing!

He then turned to face me and asked me to marry him.  I said yes.  We hugged.

Turned out he had a whole plan with the cats involved... but I had gotten up to soon and walked in on him preparing his proposal! Ha, typical me,

Antique brilliant cut 1.83 carat / 0.10 on the side platinum band.

From Maria Krailing @ http://www.tyrrellblois.com/

We didn't announce our engagement for a few days, using the above pics from our Scotland trip.

Stowe School Wedding

This weekend must have been the busiest weekend for weddings, I knew of 5 happening!

We attend a work colleagues at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire.  Oh my, what a venue!!  Since we aren't close family we were invited to the evening reception and to make a day of it we visited the National Trust grounds, catching a glimpse of the new Bride and Groom taking photos.

Luckily one of our group went to Stowe for school and we go a discount on tickets, either way though it is worth a day trip.  What a beautiful setting!  Words can not describe.

Now back to the wedding.  They were married in the main hall, over looking the grounds.  When we arrived they were just taking to the dance floor for their first dance :-)  We also got to take part in catching the bouquet (or 2) and I missed both times!

The evening was a great mix of dancing to classic 80s, drinks (free bar) on the steps and then a magical fireworks display before a coach took all the guest back to the local DoubleTree Hilton where we all seemed to be staying.  A few more drinks and a late night Domino's were had before hitting the sack by 3 am.