Hi guys!!! Wow, I can’t believe it’s been like 2 months since we got back from Florida!! What a crazy, whirlwind time it’s been. I just feel like the days are flying by at the moment and I haven’t really had a moment to sit and think about the fact that we’re getting married in SEVEN MONTHS. Whatttttttt??? Can you say crazy!!?? I know seven months probably sounds like a pretty long time to most of you, but having been engaged 2.5 years, and knowing how quickly the last 6 months has gone, it is slightly alarming!!
I really don’t want the time to go by quickly, I’m so enjoying the planning and although I can’t wait to marry Benj and have this experience, I also don’t want it all to be over and done with! So I’m trying to be really mindful and just enjoy every second of the planning and the anticipation
Soooo, so much has happened since my last update! Let’s get to it!!
First of all, probably the BIGGEST news - we got our floral BEO and full BEO back! We got the floral proposal back first, and while it was expensive, there was a lot we could cut straight off the bat which we weren’t too attached to, so that was good news
In fact, I’ve now had a revised version back from Heather Sparby (our floral planner) and it’s cut $900 off already
yay!! A couple of weeks later, we got our full BEO back. Again, because I’d done so much planning and budgeting, we weren’t shocked with the amount, and it was pretty close to what we’d imagined. I set a budget based on what I thought it was going to approximately be after filling out Carrie’s form in the back of the Passporter, and we’ve had that figure in our heads ever since. I then added up the cost of all non Disney elements (photog/videog/outfits/wedding presents/UK party etc) and then we had our approximate wedding cost. We then worked out how much we could save a month, and then we had our wedding month! Ha! So it was all very well thought out
ANYWAY, totally gone off topic here. So yes, we got the full BEO back. Some things have shot up in price, others weren’t as bad as we thought, and there were def places we could cut back. I don’t want to go into too much detail in case any wedding guests are reading this because there are a couple of surprises we have planned. Suffice to say, one has shot up in price and we’ve gone back and forth on whether or not we really want, and if we didn’t get it what we’d have instead (we have to meet the $5000 minimum either way!) but we’ve come up with an alternative solution using outside vendors, and this way we get everything we want, for only slightly more than the minimum amount
Sticking to the minimums is important for us, as we’ll still have the most magical day, but we don’t feel the need to spend on unnecessary (in our opinion) things
We’ve also added in things we thought we weren’t going….the Wishes soundtrack for the dessert party! We watched Wishes from Sago Cay during our planning trip, and while it was still beautiful without the music, you just can’t beat having that soundtrack as IMO it’s what really makes the fireworks special. So we’ve decided to push the boat out and add that in. There’s nothing we can cut back on to accommodate this as it’s kind of in a little section of the budget on our own, but hey. We’re happy
IT’S ONLY MONEY ISN’T IT!!!!! Oh wow I feel so excited writing all this down, I really feel so so lucky to be getting everything we want! I can still remember how nervous I felt about getting all our venues and getting Sago Cay, and now we’ve got it, WITH the music!!!! Eeeeeeeek
So yes. We’ll go back and forth a lot more over the next few months regarding the BEO I imagine, but it’s such a relief that we’ve got the ballpark figure and it’s just a case of paying for it now haha! *wipes brow* We’ve also had a few more guests book up since we got the BEO so we’ll need to add them in too
We’re currently waiting for Lisa to come back with us on suggestions for our DP food as we’d like to see what other canape/mini food options they have. So that’ll be exciting!
Next! I bought some wedding stuff! Yay!!!
So a coat hanger has been one of the things I’ve been on the fence about. I’m trying to buy little wedding bits and bobs each month out of my non-wedding fund money, so money I’m just spending (or not, as the case may be hahah) that isn’t part of the money I put into our wedding account each month. So because these extra bits are stuff that aren’t strictly neccessary (not like our DFTW stuff, for example) I’m basically trying to do them as cheaply as possible. Wedding hangers seemed to be running at about £20 on Etsy which isn’t obviously a lot of money, but it felt like a lot when I didn’t really need it. But, I’d seen so many pretty photos of girls with lovely hangers and I did really see it as part of my vision for the day
One day after my usual Google fest, I found a new seller on eBay who was making and selling gorgeous looking hangers. Unfortunately she had no feedback...I loved the look of her hangers though and decided it was too good to pass up. I messaged her and was very honest and said I lvoed the look of her hangers but I was wary of buying something off a seller with 0 feedback. She sent me the CUTEST message back saying she was a bride last year and she totally understood my concerns because everything needs to be perfect for your wedding day! She then said give me 10 minutes, and the next thing I knew she’d mocked up the ‘Mrs Millier’ wire and put it on a hanger! Not all fixed etc but still, what a sweet move! I was blown away and bought it there and then for £10
Bargain! I then left her amazing feedback because I was so impressed
Table centrepieces
Next up, table centrepieces!! I Googled sooooo long and so hard to find exactly what I had in mind, and eventually found them online at the Range! I should add, I had no problem finding what I wanted, but what I was willing to pay was quite another matter!!! These were £4
They’ve since arrived and I’m a bit bummed because in the flesh they appear quite silver to me - like the gold is really pale, and pretty much just looks silver. My awesome Dad currently has the frames and is planning to spray paint them proper gold for me
I just need to buy or make prints to go in these now! I ordered 4 - we’ll probably be having 3 tables, and the sweetheart table doesn’t need one because it’ll have other stuff on. The fourth one will be for our cocktail of the day sign
Something like this
Placecards
Placecards are sorted! I initially bought a pack of pink placecards from eBay very cheaply, along with a gold pen. However, when they arrived I didn’t think the gold on pink looked nice, and it all looked quite cheap and homemade
I went back to the drawing board, trying not to think about the wasted £5 (i really do worry about money waayyyyy too much…) and bought a new pack of pearlescent ivory placecards
These look SO NICE with the gold pen and they are much better quality. We’re roping in a friend of my Mum’s who apparently has life-changingly good handwriting so she’s gonna write all our guest names on there haha!! I’m then going to add little gold pen confetti coming from the tops, to match our invitations
Vest top
I have my outfit for our stag and hen do! Well, half of it!! I fell in love with a vest top like 2 years ago, saved it to my Pinterest and have since been unable to track it down, or anything remotely similar to it
I was beginning to lose hope when I messaged our very own Tabitha (Tabz) who said she could mock one up for me, and it’s perfect! Can’t wait to wear this for our drinking round the world afternoon, with my Minnie veil ears of course!!
I think that’s it in terms of stuff I’ve bought...actually, there almost definitely is more I just can’t remember….
Onto stuff I still have to buy! There’s a long list on my Google docs, so I’ll just share some highlight
Floral getting ready robes
My lovely Mum has very kindly said she’d like to buy these, YAY!! We’re going for these, a white floral one for me, and coral floral ones for Mum and Victoria. These will be for us to wear whilst we’re getting ready the morning of the wedding.
Cake knife
Just getting a super cheap one off eBay and going to decorate it, potentially with Harry Potter ribbons because I need more HP in our wedding!!!
We’ve also got other stuff in the pipeline but again, can’t share really in case any guests read this
They probably won't, but I don't want to spoil anything!! I hope y'alls understand
Bridesmaid dress
One thing we almost definitely have sorted is the bridesmaid dress! Saw a pic on FB of a friend of a friend wearing it at a wedding, tracked it down and will be buying it at some point in the future! Victoria loooooooves it too so that’s really good
A few weeks ago I had an appointment to see my wedding dress! YAY!!! It was literally just to see it, try it on again, and try to make some decisions of what I need in terms of earrings/tiara/veil/necklace etc. Obviously I can’t share photos but I will say I was ABSOLUTELY OVER THE MOON with how it looked and fitted. I felt amazing in it!!! I had been having those ‘OMG am I still going to like it’ feelings because it’s been like 7 months since I bought it. Obviously I couldn’t have done anything if I hated it haha!! Only joking, I was just nervous to see it again
But it’s so so stunning. I didn’t want to take it off!!
So once I’d finished prancing around in the dress shop, we got down to business. I tried on loads of veils and we quite quickly narrowed it down to the one that went best with the dress and the look I was going for
I’m going to have a fingertip veil with a thin edging, sparkly headband (i thought I wanted one on the side but fully across looked a lot better
) no necklace, and sparkly drop earrings. I tried on various combinations but this combo looked the best. Felt really organised to have sorted all this! So now I just need to buy them!! I’ve seen a few online so I need to order a few and just have a trying on sesh
We went wedding ring shopping a few weeks ago! It was just to see what was out there really rather than actually buying anything. Wedding rings aren’t super high on our list of priorities, we aren’t really jewellery people (Primark necklaces FTW) and we’d rather spend our budget in other places. Unfortunately, because my gorgeous hubby to be bought me a platinum engagement ring, it means I have to have a platinum or palladium wedding ring to avoid the e-ring basically beating the w-ring up!!! Soooo that pretty much ruined our white gold wedding ring dreams hahaha!! We sat down in a really posh jewellers and had the full experience which was really nice, but the rings were just crazy money. It did help me narrow down a style I’d like though, and I’ve since Googled extensively and found 1 or 2 which are very similar, but a lot more in our price range. So that’s good. Benj has also picked a metal he’d like to have as he really isn’t fussed on the design of it, which means we have a little more budget for mine. Which isn’t necessarily what I want, but it’s either that or get one from Claire’s Accessories and get a proper one in a year haha! Which isn’t quite the same. So the wedding ring saga continues, but will hopefully be sorted soon. We’re a lot closer at least!
In other, non-buying news! The majority of our guests have now booked their flights! So flights and accommodation for everyone is sorted bar Ben’s stepDad’s son (mouthful) and his girlfriend, who are booking their flights when they get paid this month
But everyone else is all booked up. We also MAY have 3 extra guests coming which is a recent development and they are going to let us know by next month I believe. If they come we’ll have 31 guests including me and Benj, plus my two little nieces
Speaking of which, we have flower girls!! My two gorgeous twin nieces will be just over 1 year old at the wedding, and we gave my brother and SIL these cute little cards:
And they said yes! Yay! I think they were really chuffed
I am so so so happy they’re coming because obviously they found out they were expecting after we’d planned the wedding and we weren’t sure if it would be feasible
But they’re all booked up, staying 1 week at CBR wooo!! We’ll be buying little flower wands for them but we’re unsure of if they’ll be walking by that time or still crawling or whatever, so we’ll wait and see. Either way, they’re coming up the aisle haha! It’ll be so so adorable
Okay well I think that’s enough updates for now! I am going to write a little honeymoon update this week or weekend too because I’ve hardly shared what our plans are, and we have a lot haha!! I really want to start focusing on wedding planning now, I need to hurry up and finish my dining review from Christmas haha! We’ve had a busy few weekends previously and we’ve got a couple of busy ones coming up, but after that we’ve got some lovely free ones so I’m really going to get a lot of things ticked off my list
We’ve also got 7 of our bestest buddies coming round tonight for a Florida planning evening so I’m super looking forward to that!! We’re doing pulled pork rolls and fries and everyone is bringing snacks and drinks and it’ll be super fun
It’ll be great to get our friends together and chat about our plans for the wedding and the wedding trip, and all get excited together
I honestly have to pinch myself that so many people want to fly to Florida to come to our wedding, it really is overwhelming
Life is good!
Hope everyone has a lovely week
Look out for the honeymoon update sometime in the near future!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Need more Libby
You sounded like you had so much fun. I love what you said about the CC hallways imagining your guests walking through, sounds like something I woulda thought too haha. And we have Heather as well, love her so much!
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