Going Up…
- It’s my birthday next Tuesday! Can’t wait to celebrate with Mr. LA and the children… Mmmm birthday cake!
- A week in Cornwall with the family. We’re renting a huge cottage and I’m really looking forward to big family meals and lots of beach time with the children. Lets all pray for good weather shall we?!
- Finally getting round to watching the second season of Gossip Girl, kindly lent to me by my sister.
- OPI Strawberry Margarita on my toes. Makes me feel like summer even though the British weather seems to have fast forwarded to Autumn already.
- Grey skinny jeans with my coral ruffled tee. Loving this colour combination.
- Having a legitimate excuse to pour over copious amounts of wedding porn.
- Strawberry jam on toast. And tea. Lots of tea.
Going Down…
- OK, tell me ladies, am I weird? I am really struggling with this whole wedding thing. I just can’t picture it, any of it. Not the dress, not the bridesmaids… nothing. I’m not one of those girls that grew up with a crystal clear mental image of her big day (divorcing parents probably nipped that in the bud) and I’m feeling really overwhelmed by the shear number of decisions I’m expected to make over the next 18 months. All I can manage to mumble to people who quiz me about our plans is that we want something vintage (was there ever a vaguer term) and glamorous. I’m stumped.
Please help, dear readers. Any brides that are reading, how did you figure out what you wanted, what inspired you and how did you focus and incorporate it into the day?
Perhaps you could even suggest the sort of wedding you could imagine for me, that could be very revealing!
Loveaudrey xxx
I know where you’re coming from with the wedding thing. I couldn’t picture anything in my mind except the thought of being with the man I love for the rest of my life.
In the end, we opted to buy our outifts and rings and then go to Sri Lanka where we married on the beach with just our closest family (7 guests in total). The flowers were picked from the gardens that morning and for our ‘reception’ we had a candlelit dinner on the beach. Whereas my sister had a big church wedding with all the trimmings- for her that was perfect.
You need to think about what the two of you want for your special day rather than be swept along with what everyone else thinks. Is there a venue nearby that would be suitable for an elegant, vintage affair?
dont overthink the wedding. Just go with what you like, taking one decision at a time. The more you stress about things the less likely you are to enjoy your day. I planned mine in 9 months and it was all fine. We had a fantastic day and so many guests commented on the relaxed atmosphere which was nice.
I can see you going for something unexpected but beautiful, like a red silk dress instead of white, hair down not up with flowers in it. Or ivy instead of flowers(if it is a Christmas wedding ivy would be lovely!) and lots of candles everywhere! Wedding magazines always seem a bit samey to me. Congratulations by the way, it was a lovely engagement story! xx
@L I’m glad it’s not just me then! Your wedding sounds wonderful. I suppose I do know that I want all our family and friends with us and lots of children running around and enjoying themselves.
You’re so right about not getting swept along with everyone elses ideas, I guess that’s where I’m struggling. I’ve been leaning towards a kinda 1930s art deco inspired day… me in a slinky gown, red lipstick… you know very glamorous, vintage hollywood etc. But everyone keeps telling me that they can’t picture me in anything but a full skirted, tea length 1950s dress (a la Audrey in Funny Face). I feel torn between what I *think* I want and what everyone seems to think would suit me, and you want to get it right, don’t you.
We’ve looked at a couple of venues, I’m hoping that finding the perfect one might help everything else fall into place. Thanks for the links, very helpful.
@Jules Very good advice, thank you. I’d love to achieve a relaxed atmosphere on the day.
@sophie rosalind I’m so glad you left this comment! Maybe going for what I want will be unexpected enough, seeing as everyone else seems to have such a clear image of what they think I’ll do! I love the idea of lots and lots of candles! And thank you for the congratulations, I still get a soppy grin on my face when I think about the night we got engaged.
xxx
Franky, having not been married, proposed to, or anywhere close, I can’t offer any advice other than, it’s YOUR day, do what YOU (and Carl) want, and make sure that YOU are both happy. Personally, I think I would be awful at organising a wedding, and to me it’s more about the marriage than the day etc…I’d be happy running off to a tropical beach somewhere like the first commenter did, because I probably couldn’t deal with the hassle of it all!
I think whatever you go for, it will emanate elegance, glamour and pure Franky, so just don’t stress, don’t put too much pressure on yourself…and most importantly, have fun and don’t lose sight of why you’re doing it 🙂
x x x x x x
OH…forgot to comment on all of the ‘ups’, but I hope your birthday and trip to Cornwall are both really magical times spent with your beautiful family 🙂
Enjoy Gossip Girl, I’m going to re-watch series 3, for more Chuck action 🙂
xxx
@Laura Thanks lovely! There is a big part of me that would just like to run away and do it, just us and the kids… you know. But then I also want everyone to share in the joy of the day and have a bloody good party to celebrate it all! I’m so ridiculously excited that I get to marry this man that I love so, so, much and I want everyone to see the stupid grin on my face when I get to do that!
You’re so right though sweets, I just need to chill out and enjoy it all!
Hee Hee, I think of you every time Chuck Bass is in a scene!!!
xxx
We did the beach thing then had a ‘bloody good party’ with everyone else when we returned which was brilliant as I got to wear my dress twice!
xx
I always hate when people talk about how all women have been dreaming about their wedding day since they were little girls. I feel like the oddball, because I didn’t do that! Should I ever get married, I doubt I would know where to start. Except that I’d like my wedding song to be Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose”. (Okay, so I came up with that when I was rather young, but that was as far as I ever got.)
I certainly can’t offer any advice seeing as it’s been years since I’ve even attended a wedding. But I think (hope) I recall that you were planning a winter wedding? It’s funny because I remember thinking about that just a few months ago. I thought (while in the grocery store or some such random place), “I want to get married in winter. Do people do that? Is it possible?” I just had the most random vision of a long white fur coat and a vintage veiled hat, like this: http://bit.ly/aEd6Ym. And of course a horse-drawn sleigh.
But anyway. Enough of my silliness. Happy early birthday! And Gossip Girl, I think it lost me somewhere in that season. I just lost track and never did get caught up!
I didn’t have an image of our wedding either. I never thought about it til we got engaged. A good place to start is the venue. Once you’ve decided on that, you can start to envisage how you’d like the room & day to look- what would work, what wouldn’t, and slowly your whole vision will come together. I think you need the venue sorted before you can go any further because thats integral to the whole day/ look/ feel.
Also, get a range of wedding mags and hack out pics of anything you like- colours of flowers, favours, candles, dresses, cakes, everything, and maybe either arrange them onto a corkboard, or into a scrapbook. Then you can figure out what you like and what will go together to create an overall feel. Wedding Ideas is a good one, as is Brides.
Also, if you need to decide on a budget, then maybe get that agreed as a starting point too. No point in deciding on things or mulling them over if they won’t work into the financial side.
But don’t forget, its very early days yet, I don’t think many people have their vision at all clear this far ahead. We started with the venue, then the dress, then the decoration and flowers, and worked down like that.
One last thing to remember is that the only things you physically take away from the day are the rings and the photographs, so make those two a spending priority! xxxx
Hi! I didn’t grow up day dreaming about “MY DAY” either (it’s *our* day, after all!). I think it helps to have a basic idea – you want a winter wedding. That’s a good start! From there just do one thing at a time.
Our wedding is on October 2nd. We knew:
1. I wanted to be married in a non-white dress. I found a lovely pale, pale silvery blue gown. Since my dress is a color it helped define the other colors we needed to pick.
2. We wanted it near the ocean, so that was easy.
3. We wanted an open bar, good food, dancing. Done.
4. Our favorite color is blue. The bridesmaids will be in dark teal and that will be our accent.
5. It needed to be cool b/c in the Boston area, it can be very hot and sticky (like today, ugh!) and when it’s hot and stick I am a wretched bitch.
So piece it together a little at a time and build on it. I think having a cohesive plan from the beginning is nice and makes life easier but it’s not necessary. You can pull it together in pieces and not have it be disjointed. Do one little thing at a time (and start now!!!).
– Pick your place: what will look pretty in your area that time of year? Do you expect there to be snow? Maybe a woodsy setting with snow covered pines would be pretty.
– Will you marry in a church? Will it be non-religious and be at the reception site? From there you know if your ceremony will be mostly pre-determined (church) or if you have to build it yourself (we are).
– What colors do you like, and what colors look nice in January? Black is always classic for bridesmaids but maybe scarlet red would liven up the gloomy weather. Once you have the dresses you have the ability to narrow down flowers, linens, candles and other decorative items.
Good luck and congratulations!
Oh and PS: pick your battles and relinquish some control. You don’t need to assign a huge value to every decision. I let Dave pick out some things simply so I didn’t have to worry about it and we opted not to try and aim for TOTAL PERFECTION – as we feel our sanity and bank accounts will thank us.
Thank you so, so much for all the advice ladies! I’ve taken it all on board!
xxx