Getting into the wedding shizzle: 20.09.13

[DonnaBallona]

Thought id start my journal as im finding it hard to keep track of where im going now!

SO-introductions....

I am Donna, 26, engaged to Alan who is 32. We have been together for 5 years and have 2 gorgeous children, Brooke who is 3 and Bertie who is 2. I am expecting our third bundle December 27th

Alan proposed on christmas day 2008, completley out of the blue. I was pregnant with Brooke and we were opening presents in front of our christmas tree, shortly after moving into our first home together. I was sat on my birthing ball and he went outside to his car 'to get my christmas card'. He came back looking flushed, I opened it and it said "to my fiancee at christmas time".

I informed him-maybe not too tactfully- as I was reading the inside that he'd bought the wrong card-completley oblivious to the poor bloke!
I remember looking up over the card when id finished reading and nearly fell off my ball when I realised what was going on!!!!! boy did i feel daft

anyhoo, as they say the rest is history

Looking forward to sharing this long awaited journey with you other brides to be

I shall update the thread with what Iv already got going on and add as and when. whoop!

 

[MadameJ]

That's my wedding date too awesome choice

 

[DonnaBallona]

RIGHT: SO

we are getting married at Taplow House Hotel on September 20th next year. We chose it after a looooooooooong search for lots of reasons:
its not too far from ours to visit but far enough that guests can stay over (a bit of a wedding tradition!), its got gorgeous grounds, the rooms for the ceremony and wedding breakfast are HUGE light and airy, its got a massive staircase which Id always wanted, is a bit posh and is quite unusual. we are having the evening reception in their cellar bar which is gorgeous.

Ill try and link some pics.......

https://www.taplowhouse.com/wedding_packages.html

the pic at the top is the ceremony room. We are having those chair covers too, minus the flowers on them. I like the way they are fitted round the chairs.

This is the wedding breakfast room....
https://www.taplowhouse.com/wedding_coordinator.html

and this is where we're having the evening 'do-well, this is the dancefloor anyway. gorgeous!

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=c...w=203&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0,i:72

We chose the exclusive use package: meaning it will only be our wedding guests in the hotel for 2 days over the wedding weekend. im super excited about that! they close the carpark gates meaning nobody else can get in. That means we have all 31 bedrooms too obviously, and closer to the time we are going to go to the hotel and take a peek in a few of the rooms and allocate our favs to our fav guests!

 

[DonnaBallona]

We are having a VERY loose 'vintage' type theme. Im a bit reluctant to use the word vintage to describe it, as really im just playing about with stuff that I like, but others have described it that way-so vintage it is! we are having black (definatly) and ivory (probably) as wedding colours.

My bridesmaids- 2 of my sisters and my future SIL- are going all Audrey Hepburn and wearing black Vivienne of Holloway sarong dresses. we went up to London together at the back end of September to try them on and they looked IMMENSE!!!!!!! we are going back to buy them in February, and then I can hopefully start looking at dresses for me whilst im there. Im going to try some of their wedding dresses on too.

We booked our photographer, who is going to be about £1000 I think? weve paid £300 deposit already and now pay nothing until weve seen the piccys after the wedding which is a relief

Iv been buying 'stuff' for decorations (iv got a whole hotel to fill!!!!!) which so far consists of
*a super old (Alan described it as 'manky' LOL) suitcase in which to hang the table plan,
*loads of wooden signs with funny quotes on (eg 'if you find something that makes you smile, giggle or laugh, buy it or marry it!') to hang all over the place
*oversized tealights,
*200 glowsticks for the evening do, (with a sign that says 'youve made our future bright, now do the same for tonight!')
*an ENORMOUS wooden plaque that says 'and they lived happily ever after!'
*a heart shaped chalkboard
*60 vintage style 'naughty' postcards to be used instead of a guest book.

and a load of other things which I have forgotten for now

We have also ordered our cake, which is going to be 4 tiers of various fillings, decorated white with black silouettes of Paris scenery. This may seem a random peice I realise, but we had our favourite holiday together in Paris shortly before Alan proposed, and the cake seemed to 'fit' us and this is the cake topper.... it was the first thing I bought actually: its a bit of a standing joke between our group of friends that weve been engaged so long and never set a date- so this will tickle the entire room!

https://www.google.co.uk/products/c...a=X&ei=IPeGUPHnMMWh0QWuz4CYBQ&ved=0CFYQ8gIwAA

we booked the DJ too, hes been doing the music for the hotel for years and I have also heard him before, so easy choice for us. Cant remember how much we paid as of now, but its definatly just deposit and he needs the rest of the money 3 months before. I think

Erm........... im sure theres more but I cant remember right now!

Looking forward to adding more as the plans come together

 

[lozzy21]

The hotel looks beautiful, wish we had something like that around here.

 

[DonnaBallona]

Thanks Lozzy It did take us months to decide on a venue-we actually looked at a golf course near here first too. It had beautiful grounds we just decided on the hotel because we liked the fact the guests could stay and have breakfast together the next morning, and that it was all ours, even for a short while.

xx

 

[lozzy21]

Exclusive use does sound great, not so sure about the breakfast thing the next morning. The last thing i would want to see on the morning after my wedding would be my MIL sat there tucking into a sausage.

 

[Tasha]

It looks amaing Donna. I cant wait to see it all come together.

Lozzy, yeah that doesnt sound fun.

 

[DonnaBallona]

I am one of the lucky few who like my inlaws-so this doesnt bother me! we are having 18 under 5s to the wedding too, so everyone will be busy doing their own thing I'm sure I'm hoping it'll be like an extended 'thanks for coming and goodbye!'

xx

 

[Lauren25]

Wow your venue is gorgeous and I am so jealous that you have exclusive use! I'm still not sure how I feel about other brides walking round on MY day
Loving all your plans so far, will deffo be stalking

 

[lozzy21]

I would be secretly hoping she would choke on it

 

[DonnaBallona]

*BUMP*

Finally got a minute to come and update my poor wedding journal! 3 days after I wrote my opening post here I had my little baby boy Jude 9 weeks early unexpectedly and things have obviously been slightly mental since then!
He is finally home now though after 7 long weeks in the NICU and is actually home on Oxygen-so not quite back to normal yet. But getting there!

ANYHOO-

So, I have been collecting yet more random things for decoration of the venue-I have recently acquired 3 wicker hampers which I am determined to find a use for! One is allocated to put all the vintage postcards in for the guestbook-although I found a sign saying 'To keep their marriage nice, lets give them some advice!' so I think Ill put that instead of actual guestbook as I think we'll get more interesting responses that way

I have booked an appointment to go try on dresses-the bit iv been absolutley dreading-but obviously necessary! Im going with my mum and chief bridemaid on January 19th so im excited and a little nervous for that.

Iv got loads of gorgeous little jobs that I am super excited to start working on- I am going to tea-stain newpapers and then punch heart shaped confetti out of them for the table, i have written a brief background history of our relationship like a humourous newspaper article which I need to print for the ceremony chairs, I need to stamp some manilla luggage tags so I can print the thank you Iv written for each guests place name; and I need to make up some labels for things like the glowstick jars. I also need to cut out the word 'cards' for the second hamper.
and lastly-I need to source a glue gun to make my table plan in the vintage suitcase I bought-eeek!

I love having loads of little weddingy jobs to get on with-although im going back to work soon (to pay for this wedding!!!!!!) so better not leave it too long to do bits. I have been toying with the idea of making my own invitations too-have played around with a few designs on the computer but so far nothing looks 'right'- so that is most definatly a work in progress.

OOOOOOOH and I nearly forgot, I bought my little girls flower girl dress in the Monsoon sale today, Its cream with a couple of petticoats underneath and a flower corsage on the side. I also got her a little white headband to match, so thats one less thung to worry about.

I totally wish my DF would hurry up and choose his best man and ushers..aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhh!

xx

 

[aly888]

Oh my gosh! Congratulations on the early arrival of Jude!! Obviously too impatient to meet his family

Sounds like you've got everything under control on the wedding front. I love your table confetti idea and we are having wicker hampers around our day too. Got one for cards and the madlibs that we're doing, one full of blank CDs for people to take (and upload their photos too to then send back to us), and I'm sure I'll find a purpose for the third one

Off to nosey at the Monsoon sale now...

 

[Lauren25]

9 weeks wow I bet that was a shock, congratulations on baby Jude, I LOVE the name and its great to hear he's doing well!

I was dreading going dress shopping, even when I went I kind of just stood there, didn't know what I was looking at or what I wanted but everyone was so helpful, made me feel at ease and having my Mum and MOH there making me try on EVERYTHING was very helpful, you will have a great time once your there, trust me

All your ideas sound fab, love the advice postcard ideas, think I may have to steal

 

[Tasha]

So glad Jude is home now


Love all the little bits you're getting on with x

 

[DonnaBallona]

I ordered this today: https://www.etsy.com/listing/100922980/retro-wedding-guest-book-gumball-machine?ref=cat_gallery_3 and I'm MEGA excited about it! been searching for ages for the perfect one, seen everything from plain trees to birds, to bicycles made for two, to hot air balloons, to VW campers....but this one is perfect and I'm so glad I held off for the right one

Am off to Dunelm Mill tomorrow to check out some large vintagey looking jars that my sister reckons she saw there today. I want some nice looking ones of various sizes as iv bought 100 glowsticks for the evening reception, which i plan on displaying with a sign saying 'you've made our future bright, now do the same for tonight!' so have been on the lookout for interesting looking ones for ages.

I'm planning a curfew on children from 7.30pm I think so that the adults can let their hair down, so ill get the coordinator to put them out after the kids have left.

is anyone else slightly concerned that they're going to be left with a whole load of random stuff after the wedding is over? LOL!

 

[aly888]

Aahh love that Etsy find!

Dunelm do have jars. They are Kilner jars. They should be on their website too if you wanted to nosey before going down there They do various sizes too.

I hadn't thought about a curfew for children. That's a good idea.

And yeah, I'm conscious about what I'm buying/collecting coz I either want to be able to keep it or sell it on. I'll probably end up keeping loads of it. I'm such a hoarder. Haha

 

[Lauren25]

Ohh wow that is fab, I've never seen one like that before, deffo worth waiting for!

Haha I am, I keep thinking ill be able to sell it all but now I keep thinking i don't think it's going to be so easy! Ill probs not even want to get rid because of the memories!

 

[DonnaBallona]

Really must get on with some of my wedding jobs!

Need to start sorting a hen do...am going to have 2, one for the mums, aunties etc and the ones who are a bit square and then a second mental one for my girlfriends!

I dont really have any requests for them, other than
1; Im not carrying around an inflatable anything
2; I refuse to do a dare of any description
3; It has to involve dancing

I am soooooooooooo tempted to organise a pole dancing session, I think that would be such a giggle!!!!

I totally need to start with the 'making' jobs that iv accumalated all this stuff for. Im concerned that Ill have nowhere to store it all though!

Once I get started I fear I may not stop too......eeeeek!
x x x

 

[Lauren25]

Woo for your hen do's have you got any ideas for them?