Hi again! I’ve been on and off the blog lately because I’ve been travelling and working a lot, and mostly it’s all been good. After a few months off it, I’ve also come back to wedding planning, which is why I’m sharing my wedding planning update today.
We obviously got engaged a year ago and promptly booked the venue as they get booked so early in Scotland. However, I’m not going to lie, I’ve slowly let go of my wedding planning excitement. I love making spreadsheet and finding the best option for us, but once it was booked it felt like the biggest part of the wedding planning was done.
In May, I bought my wedding dress on a whim while on a trip to Montreal. And after a photographer friend emailed us to do an engagement photoshoot with us, we sent save the dates. Since then not much has happened.
In the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to get back on the horse, because despite what I’d like to believe there is still plenty to do.
What we’ve done so far:
- Book the venue (which includes catering)
- Book the photographer
- Book the band
- Buy wedding dress
- Send save the dates
- Design wedding website
- Design invitations
- Book family accommodation (We recently booked accommodation for our parents and siblings. This made us realise that St Andrews is mad! Most B&Bs were almost completely booked out! 9 months in advance! Madness!)
That obviously still leaves us with much to do:
- Mail invitations
Now that we’re back from Iceland, I really want to mail the invitations. The first batch anyways to the far away people, which is almost half of our list as I realised recently. I’m still playing with the guest list. We’re trying to keep numbers around 50-60, not accounting for friends who may get in relationships in the next few months. We know that it’s unlikely that 100% of people will turn up, but we really don’t want more people than that, so it’s difficult to manage expectations.
- Book our own accommodation
We have narrowed it down to two hotels where we would like to stay. Some of the hotels haven’t opened their books for May yet, so we’ll wait and see.
- Book for rehearsal dinner / family dinner
I’ve been trying to make a restaurant reservation for our families to meet over dinner the night before the wedding but dear god all the restaurants want like £50-90 deposit. Still pondering over whether a reservation is needed…
- Figure out decorations
I’m trying to get ideas for centre pieces, including greenery and books. Weirdly this is one of the things that stresses me out, although it’s so unimportant. The rooms of the venue don’t need much much decorations, but I’d love a simple yet charming (maybe interactive?) center pieces for the tables. Any ideas?
- Finalise outfits
Both the Brit and I will need to pick a few more things for our outfits. I mostly only need shoes and some sort of head dress. The Brit has decided to wear his kilt, as it’s important to him, but to make it special (he has worn it to all of other friends’ weddings…) he may buy a new jacket, waist coast, a new sporran and new socks.
- Beauty ..stuff (?)
I’ve recently found what kind of hair style I would like for the wedding and need to figure out how to get it done. I don’t want to pay the extortionate prices that salon charge. Same with the make up. I also want to book a few beauty treatments, facial and waxes, in the weeks prior to the wedding, and a manicure for my mom and me, the day before we head to St Andrews.
- Buy wedding bands
We’ve started looking into wedding bands, which we bought found incredibly weird and fun all at once. We both want something simple, so we may go with an independent jeweller in Stirling.
- Playlist
While we are having a band, which will play covers and provide a fun ceilidh for our guests, it was really important for me to finish the evening on dance music, which includes francophone and latino music. I’ve started putting the playlist together on spotify.
- Figuring out readings for ceremony
For the ceremony I want a poem in each language, one in English from Scotland, one in French from Quebec, and one in Spanish from Chile. I got some great ones but realised that they were all written by men, so I’m on a quest to find some beautiful poems or songs written by women.
- So much more?
I have a feeling this isn’t a very exhaustive list. Was there anything in your wedding planning that took you by surprise? Things you wished you’d done/known about? Or rather had not wasted your money/time on? xx
