I announced at the end of 2017 that the Brit and I finally decided to get married. We’d thought about it for a while but now it’s official, we are getting married in late spring 2019. This is exciting news and exciting plans!
I love planning things. The Brit always worries about me when I plan imaginary trips, but it’s my happy place. Wedding planning has been no different. I love going over menus and doing research and compiling all of it into spreadsheets. I love calculating and making lists. However, the politics of the whole thing quickly caught up with me. Even though we have so much time, I’m finding wedding planning a bit stressful. Because every single time I mention it people invite themselves, I thought I would stop talking about it in person and start chatting on my blog about it instead.
Today I’m sharing a few random thoughts on wedding planning:
>> Because we’d talked about it for a while, I’d done my research and ended up booking our venue very shortly after our ‘official engagement’. I love it and I think we can make the most of it!
>> To me, the two most important things about the venue were: not be expensive, and be in St Andrews. Two goals that don’t often go hand in hand. We met in St Andrews and got engaged there, so it was obvious we would get married there too, since it has a special meaning to us. However St Andrews is very expensive and venues book super early.
>> Exhibit A: We got the only date available for the month I wanted in 2019.
>> Exhibit B: DIY venues in/near St Andrews went for well over £3000-5000. Which is the entire budget that we wanted to spend on this one day.
>> I never wanted to have a wedding much less a big wedding, but it feels like the UK is so traditional that it’s difficult to step away from that. Hotel weddings, white dresses, boring songs, fruit cakes, big diamonds, sausage roll evening buffets. It all sounds like a nightmare to me. That said, we are dedicated to making it as small budget and as ‘us’ as we can. This means being creative, which I’m all for!
>> Pinterest always looks like a dream, but now that we have concrete plans, I’m looking for real ideas that I (or my Brit) can make with our own two hands. It’s all about utilising our strenghts and resources.
>> I’m planning on baking my own cake, which is exciting!
>> Honeymoon is basically already planned, South America for Christmas and New Year 2019-2020. That’s the least stressful part of the whole thing and what I look the most forward to…
>> I want to wear a coloured dress and I’m finding it very hard to find coloured wedding gowns that aren’t just ‘blush’. Please let me know if you have any tips for me on that one!
>> I really want to get married outside, but, Scotland. I’ll have to think about it for a while haha
>> People have so many opinions. When I used to watch Say Yes To The Dress, it always seemed surreal that people would feel so free to give such comments! Well I’m even more shocked to find people close to me (or not) giving me all their unwanted opinions.
>> The first and only real problem we’ve really encountered is the guest list. I started drawing up some names and boom next thing we know we’re at 150 people. No idea how. It’s mostly the politics that has gotten me hung up on it. I know who I would like to invite for dinner and whom I don’t, but it turns into the nightmare of ‘I can’t invite this friend and not this friend’. I always thought I’d be above that and not care, but I do.
>> I absolutely hate it when people invite you to their ceremony and then tell you to fuck off until the reception because they can’t afford to invite you to dinner. But budget wise, I totally get it. We’re trying to find a better way to get around the issue, because I don’t want to be those people.
>> Because of this guest list issue, I think we’ve decided to cut it as drastically as possible to avoid issues. I wish I could have all my family and friends there, and I wouldn’t regret inviting them, but I’d probably regret spending ALL that money.
>> Another big issue (guest list related…sort of): People inviting themselves left and right. People say ‘congrats’ and I mention the wedding a little and boom people ask if they are invited, or that they can’t wait to attend. I’m not entirely sure where this comes from. Some people I’m not even that close to. I’d only assume my bffs would invite me to their wedding, no one else, so potentially they think we’re bffs? No idea, but that makes for awkward talks.
>> We are planning on having a second reception in Montreal. I know that most of my family won’t be able to travel so we’ve decided to hold a party over there to make it easier for everyone. It’ll also be my 30th birthday next summer and my dad’s 60th, so what better time to go home to celebrate!
Have you planned a wedding and encountered any of these? Do you have any tips?xx