How to Plan a Wedding in 2 Months!

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I have been quite sick the past 2 weeks so it has been really hard for me to concentrate on this. I'll try to keep up with it as I recover!

So this post is to share with you all the craziness I endured to plan my dream wedding! Warning-This is going to be very long, so to read or not to read. But I promise you that if you're bored and have ten minutes this will entertain you!

I moved to England on March 15th, 2011 and about the only thing I had planned was basically the date, the venue, the wedding party, the dress, and the MAN! :)

That was pretty much it.

Hopefully this can help out other women who are planning their wedding on a tight, limited, time-crunching schedule. I do suggest to prioritise and use a calendar and/or wedding planner book because that is what I did to keep track of payments and schedules, etc. You won't need a wedding planner either unless your wedding consists of a gazillion guests but for my small wedding I found it was easy to plan and I didn't charge myself anything ! :-D

                                               Wedding Gown  
The week and a half or so before I left America I made an appointment with David's Bridal to find my wedding dress. I knew it might be impossible but I had high hopes. I brought along my mom and her best friend Steph. Together, within 30 minutes of my visit I found my wedding gown. I'll show pictures when I post photos from the wedding! It fit me like a glove and I bought the prettiest veil to go with it. The only thing that wasn't great was that David's Bridal suggested that they clean it and make sure it's all perfect, which was up to me entirely anyways. I didn't mind really but that meant that my mom would have to ship over my wedding gown. It wasn't a problem, she shipped me my gown and it arrived up to two weeks after moving here. Along with it my mom sent me her dress for the wedding that way she wouldn't have to carry it on the plane with her. Sorted!

(Off topic non-wedding plans but big milestone for Sam and I: On March 20, 2011 we bought our first car together, an automatic Volvo!)

...Back to the wedding planning saga!

                                                  Notice of Marriage

Since I am from America, I had to wait I think it was about a week-10 days of me living at Sam's, to apply in person for our notice of marriage. It was really straightforward we basically just brought our identity documents, etc. 

We picked the date of Friday the 20th of May because to be honest, to get married on a Friday just worked out cheaper and we were pretty much on a low-ish budget. My parent's and Sam's parents helped us tremendously pay for our wedding but we didn't want to spend loads of money. 

We decided we wanted to get married at the local town council's Registrar office. Some people think it's cheap and tacky I suppose but the room was perfect for our needs. It would have been amazing to get married at a pretty, old, English church but the registrar office did the job! Also, the officiant down at the council who did our wedding was a wonderful man and made our wedding ceremony so memorable.

                                                       Venue

Our venue was at a hotel in town. A lovely hotel on the river with a big party room, a private bar, and our very own patio overlooking the water.  I promise to post pictures of the decor in my other wedding post, the venue looked lovely once decorated. The staff there are so kind and helpful. Within my first few days of arriving here Sam and I met with the wedding coordinator and she helped us a great deal. We chose to have 2 buffets because we planned to get there in the afternoon after the ceremony, and then at night we had other wedding guests come after work and so we provided them with food also. We were allowed an open bar which was a nice gesture for our guests. And the best part about our venue besides the price, is that we got to spend the night in the honeymoon suite on our wedding night and it had a jacuzzi on the balcony and the greatest shower I have ever seen!

                             Wedding Invitations: You're Invited; R.S.V.P!

After sorting out the venue we picked our wedding invitations. We basically found lovely paper and Sam created the layout/wording over the computer and printed them out. Pictures will be coming of those soon. Once those were sent we got a number on the guest list. Mostly family and close friends would be coming to the ceremony and the after do. Other friends would be arriving at the 2nd buffet in the evening.

                                         Accomodation for Guests

Besides wedding planning I had to figure out accommodation for the 9 Americans who came over for my wedding (parents, brother, best friend, Uncle, mom's best friend aka mom #2, my dad's friend, and my dad's two cousins). Now, no one wanted to be seperated from each other in different hotel rooms, b&b's, etc. So I went on the internet and searched for self-accommodating cottages and we found the perfect one in town that sleeps up to like 15 people. It was more of a mansion than a cottage and it was a 10 minute walk from my place and it was literally next door to where our wedding ceremony would take place. The website is: http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/ ..The staff were so polite and helpful when my dad made the reservation and the cost for a couple of nights did not break the bank. The place was lovely and the owner's kept it in mint condition. Here's a pic. of the cottage:

                                                  Groom's Attire

Since I had my gown, Sam needed a tux! Well we were in luck, our friends got married in 2010 and because of this we used a lot of their resources. Sam rented his tux/ shoes from : Frocks & Flowers  . During the months leading up to our wedding they had a discount sale going on which was very reasonable. We also rented suits for both of our dads, both of our brothers who also ushered, the best man Craig, and usher, Mark. We also had two page boys, our nephews, and they both had their own suits so all we had to do was buy the right color ties for them. 

                                               Bridesmaid Dresses

Speaking of colors, my idea was to have coral bridesmaid dresses for the girls in the wedding party which consisted of the maid of honor my bff from America, Kelly, my friend from over here, Cat, and Sam's sister, Emma.

That idea soon changed when Cat and I went bridesmaid dress shopping together and couldn't find ANY pink colored dress whatsoever. So I settled on royal blue which turned out perfect, especially with all the hype surrounding the Royal Wedding and the color of Kate Middleton's engagement dress (lol). It worked out great but there was a major problem with the dresses..I thought I would have been able to buy 3 dresses in all 3 different sizes, it was a big retail chain store after all, if I had to I figured I could have ordered at least one of the dress sizes on their online store.

I was sh!tt!n' bricks you see, I chose my wedding party around October 2011, little did I know until week's after choosing my bridesmaids that Sam's older sister was pregnant! That was fantastic news, I couldn't wait to meet her bundle of joy! The only problem though was that come MAY 20TH, Emma would be about 7 months pregnant....OH SHIT. 

Gif via Google Images.

                                                     
^^That pretty much sums up how I felt/ looked when I did the pregnancy math. 

It really sucked because I didn't want to tell her, ''Sorry you can't be our bridesmaid anymore because you're pregnant." That would be nasty and awful. I worried about it a lot because I bought Cat and Kelly their matching dresses so now it was about a little over a month to go, I had to find a dress for Emma that would fit her most importantly, and match the other two identical dresses. This was one of the most stressful aspects of the whole wedding planning. At one point Emma saw how down it got me that she said it'd probably be best if she wasn't a bridesmaid. I didn't know what to do but then she suggested some sites to find maternity dresses and such, but they all ended up either not the right shade of blue, or would end up arriving too late if it needed to be altered, etc etc. And she was constantly growing day by day. One day up in town, Emma spotted a nice blue colored dress in a window at M&Co. She told me about it, so we went to see it and we knew right away this would be her dress..We got her a size that would fit but it might need some alterations, I had no fear though because her friend could alter it for us! Yay..Everything was perfect again...For the meantime anyways!

                                                 Decorations

Around the time we chose the color scheme, Sam and I went out shopping to buy decorations since we would be decorating the venue ourselves. This is where my "setting up posh events at a country club job" came in handy ;-)

For the decor we chose to have white linen tablecloths. On the table tops I wanted to have votive mirrors, and on top of the mirrors I put a gorgeous glass candle holder, and around the base I put a flower ring thingy, and also three other small candle holders. Around the whole table I sprinkled fake blue rose petals, especially on the buffet and cake table I scattered them around. I also scattered white crystal marble things also to give the tables a pretty effect. I think the decorations were glam and inviting. I bought most of them online through Amazon but we found a lot of products in shops around other towns. I also set up place names because on each table I arranged for 'so and so' to sit together.

                                               Flowers

After we took care of that I sorted out the wedding flowers. I knew a girl Emma who is a friend of my best friend over here. Emma had her own florist shop at the time and it worked out well..We met to discuss what type of bouquet I wanted, what the colors were to be, how many bouquets I needed, how many flowers for the men, etc. She was so helpful and she did an excellent job. Unfortunately she closed the shop and moved somewhere else, otherwise I would have linked her business website on here because I definitely recommend her for the great job and price!

                                           Wedding Cake

Next, Sam's mother's friend was able to make our wedding cake. She is a very good baker and decorator. We had a white vanilla sponge cake with delicious white cream frosting and pretty details around the cake which I will share a photo of soon! The cake was a hit with all of our guests.

                                            Hair & Makeup

I chose my hair stylist to be a friend of Sam's family, Kim. She did a trial run on my hair and was there on my wedding day working on my hair for hours while her friend also did my bridesmaid's hair beautifully. Usually when you choose a stylist you then go on to find a make-up artist. I can proudly say I did my own make-up simply because I don't like other people doing my make-up and I know what I like and it worked out to be free of course! I suggest to you Brides out there to just do your own. Kate Middleton (sorry but I admire her) did her own on her wedding day too, it isn't that hard. I love doing make-up and it takes patience so I suggest to either look through some magazines for inspirations before-hand, or to search youtube looking for makeup tutorials. Trust me, there are tons of tutorials on the internet & they help loads. I also did my own nails and toes.

                                           Photographer

Most important thing to have on your wedding day is a photographer. Oh hail Claire! We met Claire a year before at our friend's wedding. She has a full-time job but does photography as a hobby on the side. She is the best photographer I have ever met. Also, a photographer is usually the most expensive cost of your wedding day besides the venue, dress, etc. Claire didn't charge us an arm and a leg but she deserves so much more. She not only took thousands of photos from us getting ready, to our guests waiting, to the ceremony, to the after bits, and prints them on the best photo paper. No, she also stores all the photos on cd's for you to keep forever in case you would like to print others. That's not all, she also chose a few of the best photos and made us larger sizes. And lastly, that is still not it! She made us a wedding photo book which didn't cost loads. She is incredible. I highly recommend her and if anyone reading this would like to contact her, please just ask me & I will send you her e-mail. Another thing, I never had a videographer because I think it's a waste of money. Luckily my dad filmed our ceremony and first dance, simple!

                                     With This Ring I Thee Wed

Rings..What is a wedding without the wedding ring? Sam and I are very traditional when it comes to some things and a wedding band is definitely one of them. We bought our matching gold wedding bands from H Samuel, not because this jeweller has Samuel in its name but because they are very affordable and they make lovely jewellery -hence my engagement ring :)  

                              DJ Got Us Falling in Love

A non-important thing to some, but important to us, was to hire a DJ for the evening reception. Thanks to our best man Craig, his ''postie" friend was also a DJ on the side apart from being a mailman. We spoke with him, gave him our wedding song play list, and he was the cheapest rate of DJ's in this area and he was freaking good. I'm not sure if he has a website, but if you would like to have him DJ your wedding in the Shropshire area I am sure he wouldn't mind. Just ask me.

                                    Transportation

We needed to have transportation to drive us to and fro on the big day. Instead of wasting money on fancy schmancy cars we asked our friends to help us out. So our friends drove us in their nice cars and everyone was sorted out with rides. We arrived in style.

                                        Wedding Favours

Finding wedding favours for your guests should be one of the easiest things to do. We personalised ours to give everyone a feel of our long distance relationship that blossomed into a marriage. I found some favour boxes for dirt cheap on either Amazon or some wedding website I can not remember. I bought about 50-total (number of guests). When they arrived I wrote all around the boxes, this: Samuel and Kalyn's Wedding 20th May 2011, and around the cornered outsides I wrote LOVE KNOWS NO DISTANCE. <3 Inside I decided to put one British sweet, and one American-style candy sweets which I found online for bulk at a cheap price. I chose to put a tiny pack of the Love Hearts (because they are lovey dovey and I love the way they taste here in the UK). As for the American sweets I chose Hershey Kisses (I love that they are lovey dovey too and 100% American, but most of the British guests didn't like the chocolate..Oh well. .:shrugs:.). One would think nothing could go wrong once you've ordered the favours, one of the last things I had to do. But, there was a dilemma. 

Since moving into Sam's parents house I gained not only the pleasure of living with his parents, but living with his 2 doggies: Scampy and Sparky. These dogs are harmless, friendly, love-able, yet mischievous/crazy, bark your head off type of dogs. They also hate being left alone and will eat the mail when it comes through the mail slot (they've ate my letters numerous times). Well the day my wedding favours arrived I can't remember if I was home or not but whatever, the mailman A.K.A. our wedding DJ (lol)  left the Hershey's chocolate package near the back gate on the side. Hours and hours later Sam's mother found silver wrappers in the backyard and melted chocolate in different places. The dogs must have jumped up, knocked the package off the gate and attacked it and ate the chocolate. Dogs aren't even supposed to eat chocolate for crying out loud!! I was fuming, I wanted to cry because there wasn't much time left until the big day and I ordered the Hershey's from an American site. Who knew how long until they could dispatch me some more. Luckily, Sam told me to take a deep breath and I did and we ordered some more! I don't think I was charged again, so thank god. This was a major upset because of the short time I had, but now that all is said and done we laugh our butts off when we think back to that dog-gone-it moment!

Image via Google Images again.

Lastly, I needed to have accessories. On a girl's wedding day it's tradition for her to wear something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. My something old was my earrings, bracelet, and handbag. My something new was my wedding gown, and veil. My something borrowed were the shoes I wore on the day, they were a friend's who had gotten married years before me and they fit me perfectly and were comfy! My something blue was the color of the ribbon and lining on my garter.

*Thank you for reading, my apologies for it being so long. Next I will blog about the bachelorette party weekend and...THE BIG DAY!!*