My Wedding Update - 7 months to go

Right it is time for me to really start getting down n' dirty and actually plan my wedding as I am drowning in wedding magazines but am yet to do very much. There is a lot of ummm'ing and ahhh'ing over the thousands of different suppliers and to top it off my Sister just got engaged so that is another wedding to plan. So basically I really need to step up my planning game. In my day-to-day job I actually plan events everyday so you would of thought this would have been really easy but sadly it's not....

Anyway I thought I would share with you what I have actually done and what you might want to book before you get to your 7 month milestone:

1. Get Engaged...although I did actually buy my wedding shoes before I got engaged, as they are Jimmy Choo and I found them in a sample sale for £75. I had to right?!

2. Engagement Party: This is actually a great way to start planning your guest list, I was already quite busy with wedding planning and as my family are out of the country I didn't want anything big or fancy just a nice afternoon with a few friends at a local pub which was right by the river and with the sun out it was beautiful.

I was a bit confused on what to order at the party, like do you put money behind the bar? but I also have an expensive wedding to pay for. We ended up buying a bucket of beer and a magnum of Champagne, which helped everyone get pretty merry and cheers to our engagement. 

For decor as it was outside I did not need to do too much as it was in a beautiful location with views of Hampton Court Palace and the river.

I did need to include one of my favourite brands: Bubblegum Balloons - who just produce the most beautiful balloon designs for events and weddings and they also have an online shop with some stunning items for a parties which I used for mine and have also used for a baby shower before as well - look how pretty they are:

Pack of baby pink confetti balloons
Personalised Engagement Confetti Balloon

Venue: The next action was to actually find a venue and you really wont have many options if you are booking 12 months in advance everywhere was already getting booked up for 2019 so I did not have that many dates to choose from for 2017 so we had to make a decision FAST. We ended up finding a cute barn in Surrey...I will reveal all the details after my wedding day but I fell in love with the venue due to the fact that is was full of flowers, character, had a separate barn for the ceremony and it was small like Adam and I.

Save The Date Cards: I wanted to get these done quite quickly as we do have a few friends and family all over the world from Houston, LA, Australia and Dubai. I did not want to be restricted to having the design similar to my formal invites or stationary on the day so I thought I would create my own personal design via Canva (if you have not used Canva before it is a brilliant FREE tool and you can make some beautiful designs for invites) I used the photo Adam and I took to announce our engagement then used InstantPrint to print them on high quality card in postcard size they also have a beautiful wedding range and even a FREE downloadable wedding organiser – which includes a 12 month checklist!

Wedding Fairs: Before you can start booking items for your wedding to need some inspiration and wedding magazines can only take you so far but Wedding Fairs happen all year round and I am sure there is one just around the corner.

- Wedfest, Sussex Wedding Festival : A festival themed wedding fair based at Tulleys Farm in Sussex with over 50 exhibitors with tipi's, photographers and even wedding dresses Pimms and nibbles. This one was very close to our venue so thought it would be good to check out the local suppliers.

- The National Wedding Show: This is one of the largest wedding fair's in the UK and they are all over the place. I came away with like 5 bags of brochures from Honeymoon destinations to stationary.

- Brides the show: Brides The Show is a little smaller than The National Wedding Show but it seems to have a more high caliber of stalls but they all do seem to have a higher price point. The stylish decor of all the stalls does draw you in and some beautiful designer stalls.

  

Some other bits I have finalised are: