Absolutely massive, really overdue wedding update!!
Hi guys!! Oh my goodness, so here we are 54 days out from the day we fly, 58 til the wedding! Eeeeeek!! I’m so sorry I haven’t posted in so long, as i'm sure you can imagine things have been pretty full on!! I feel like we’ve managed to get a lot done in the past week or so though so I’m feeling slightly more organised. Benj is off on his stag do this weekend and I’m having a nice chilled Sunday catching up on our to do list and just trying to get stuff sorted. With that being said, I’ve got so much to update you on, so let’s get to it!!
Hen Do
Okay this was a biggie! I don’t think I’ve mentioned this as I originally wasn’t going to have one - I felt people were already spending so much coming to Florida with us that I didn’t want to ask the girls to splash out for a weekend away or anything. Plus I didn’t know what I wanted I just knew I didn’t want a night out in town cause we hardly ever do that anymore anyway, been there done that haha!! So I wasn’t going to do anything. But then gradually lots of the girls in my life started asking me what I was doing and then seeming a bit gutted when I said I wasn’t going to do anything haha. Soooooo I was really on the fence about it! It was mainly my sister in law (not really but she practically is haha) and the lovely Victoria who were saying they really didnt’ think people would mind and that they;d want to do something, so over the next couple of weeks when I saw people I put the feelers out….and everyone was super up for it!!! So I spent a nice Sunday googling some different options of what we could do, and I decided a super chilled spa weekend could be nice with everything contained within the one hotel, and somewhere local and not too expensive!! So I set up a FB group for all the girls and invited everyone, and then eventually picked a lovely looking hotel near Winchester.
Now, I know most brides don’t plan their own hen do and Victoria absolutely would have planned it and done an amazing job cause she knows me inside out, but I really enjoyed all the researching and choosing!! So, my hen do is on the 10th September
We’re all meeting at the hotel at 10.30am - half the group are gonna go for our treatments (either 2 x 30 min ones or 1 x 60 min treatment) and the other half will go to the pool to chill! Then we’ll swap, and then at 1pm we’ve got lunch! Mmmm!! Then we’ll all chill round the pool a bit longer before heading back up to shower and get ready
We’re going to meet in my room (there was an odd number of us so I’ve got the double room on my own haha!) for drinks and games etc, before heading down for dinner at 7.30
We’ll then have a lovely meal, a lovely kip in our posh beds, and breakfast the next morning before heading back to our respective homes. All this was included in the absolutely bargainous price and I think everyone’s really looking forward to it. It honestly is my perfect weekend and I am soooooo excited
Just need to get a new swimming costume!! Essench!!
I’ve also bought this dress to wear, which I’m also planning to wear at our rehearsal dinner at ‘Ohana...and possibly at Palo too! Gotta recyle these things when you have limited luggage space!!
UK party
We’ve also really made headway with our UK reception/party thingy!! We took my parents to see it last week and bless them, they are really helping us out with the food and everything which is awessssooommmmme
So food-wise, we’re sticking with the cheese and charcuterie theme, and my parents are buying some massive quiches and lovely ham to be carved, and we’re getting loads of crackers and fresh French sticks on the day too. We’ll also get some nice big wheels of brie and cheddar, and my Mum is making lots of cupcakes
So cute!! So I’ve been super busy buying this past week!! We’ve stuck with the blush and gold theme throughout
To decorate the hall itself, I’ve bought 500 LED fairylights
And 55m of bunting handmade by another bride! Shamazing!!
To achieve a look similar to this…
We’ve bought pale pink and gold plates…
Blush and gold tablecloths…
Cutlery (boring so no pic!!) and cute striped straws!! Essential, I think you’ll agree!
Table confetti!! (priority item)
I bought these ‘LOVE balloons for one wall too
And my father-in-law is hopefully making us the light up LOVE letters which I am SUPER excited to see!!
I’ve also got a guestbook, and we’re hoping to blow some photos up of the actual wedding to stick on the walls if Ashley Jane is able to get a few over to us
We also sent the invites out! I designed them and we printed them using Printed.com which is the best website ever, I’m chuffed with how they came out
We’ve just started sending them out this week so hopefully start to get some replies soon
Hair/Make-up trial
So this was what I spent last Sunday doing! My lovely maid of honour and bezzie Victoria (Vikstar on here!) came down to my parents house to do my Mum a hair and make-up trial, and also go through some makeup ideas with me
My Mum was originally going to have Beaute do hers, but then she decided she didn’t need all that and Vic offered to do hers for her, cause she’s amazing! So we had a lovely girly day and my amazing parents pulled out all the stops for us!! We were greeted with prosecco and chocolate dipped strawberries (!!)
Then we had afternoon tea a bit later on, in between all the hair and makeup funs!!
My MUm had Vic put her hair up and to the side and she was sooooooo in love with it, it was really sweet! Then she did her make-up and my Mum couldn’t stop staring at herself in the mirror haha!! It was so cute
SHe looked beautiful!! So she’s over the moon, and she’s gonna hunt down some false eyelashes in the meantime, and we’re also going to do a heavier eyeliner line on the day. But, sorted!!
Next up was me!! So since my hair and makeup trial in Dec I’ve been really stressing about my makeup (I LOVED my hair) Basically I just didn’t like my eyes, or my brows
And I didn’t think the rest of the face was even that great. I’ve been really practicsing my eye-makeup this year and I’ve got to a point where I’m really happy with it, and I think with eyebrows they are so personal that I know for me, I just need to do them myself. So I emailed Beaute to see if they would just do my face for me, and she said she would, but she’d still have to charge me $75
Eek!! We’ve budgeted for that anyway so it’s not the end of the world but I still felt maybe I should just do my own, but then I didn’t know enough about which foundation wouldn’t bounce back the light in photos or anything and I was stressing about it so much!! Plus would I do my brows before she did my face, or like after!? Arghhhh!
Enter Victoria!! She has done bridal make up before, plus she’s just obsessed with make up and has all the kit! And she knows what I like and what I wanted. SO. She bought her entire stash with her haha bless her, and I started by doing my brows and then she did my eyeshadow. I then nipped to the bathroom and did my eyeliner and put my false lashes on, came back, and she did my face.
OH MY LORD. Girl’s got skills!!!! Honestly, I felt so pretty
And my hair wasn’t even done haha!! I finished off the look with a matte lipstick I was thinking would be the best choice (I’ve tried a LOT haha) and a bit of gloss over it and I was so so happy with it
What do you think???? Ignore the hanging off false eyelash I didn’t even notice in the excitement haha so hadn’t glued it down properly!!
So this really was a massive weight off my shoulders. Even better, Victoria had all the correct makeup for my (very pale) skin and said she’d be taking it all to Florida anyway so all I needed to buy was my lippie!! What an absolute babe, I am so lucky to have such an amazing best friend
I’m so grateful!!!!
Veil/hairpiece/earrings bought
This leads me nicely onto my hairpiece and earrings that you can see in the pics! Really happy with these, I got them online and they were a fraction of the price the bridal shop wanted for essentially the same thing, so it’s win win!!
Got loan!!
Ahhh this was a biggie haha!! It was a slightly stressful situation for a few different reasons haha but the moral of the story is we got the loan we needed to pay off the final balance to Disney and the last few bits we need to, and it’s honestly a huge weight off my shoulders too
I know there’s loads of negative views of getting things like loans for weddings but honestly the majority of people I know who’ve got married have got loans, and no ones ever said they regretted it! If you can afford to pay it back then it’s absolutely okay to get one if you need one, or if you feel it’ll take the pressure off. Because we felt it was important to us to fly out for our planning session, it meant we were a little short savings wise for the honeymoon (not the wedding, which I think is unusual!) and rather than postpone anything or cut back any more, a loan was the best option for us
Paid Disney minimum balance
Following on from this….we paid the final balance to Disney!! Obviously Brexit has had a massive impact on the pound/dollar rate and it’s stressed me out soooo much since June, but I’ve had to push it out of my mind now, what will be will be and I really can’t control stuff like that. We managed to get an okay rate to pay Disney (I mean it literally could have been a thousand times better haha but there you go…) and we’ve got the loan based on worse case scenario for spending money (which has actually got worse since we did the worse case but HEY) but that’s life. We’ll be okay! I think!! So Disney minimum balance is paid and then we just have the final balance to pay mid September. So please everyone keep your fingers crossed that the rate gets a little better by then!! We also have to pay our videographer which will be in dollars, and obviously spending money, but mostly everything else is in pounds.
Got updated final BEO from Disney
Yes! And it’s fine
So that’s good, all my planning and calculations paid off!! We’re just negotiating final things like the dessert party food (which is going to be INCREDIBLE by the way!!) so I think things are all good there! I imagine conversations with Lisa will crank up a lot in the next month so I’m trying to get as much done from my end before we start liaising with her loads!
Paid cruise
Yay!! This is turning into a bit of a checklist haha but it’s really helping me see everything written down that I’ve done! And making me super super excited!!!! So we paid the cruise, and logged in and booked Palo for dinner on our 3rd night which will hopefully be the pirate night. We aren’t fussed about missing that dinner so hopefully it’ll work out like we planned! Super looking forward to this and currently spending large portions of the day googling Palo dinner blog reviews haha, bit cool!! There’s no internetz on the ship though guys so obvs I need to be fully prepared on what I’m ordering...can you imagine if I ordered the wrong thing!? Nightmare at sea!!! I’ll go into this in more detail in my honeymoon update
Okay, enough about money! Just assume we’ve spent a lot of money and paid a lot of things off hahah!!
Let’s talk about….WEIGHT LOSS!!
Last Wednesday, 10th August, was a momentous day. I HIT MY SLIMMING WORLD TARGET!!
2 whole stone gone, in fact 2 stone 0.5 lbs cause I was half under haha! Smashed it!!! Honestly I am so so so happy and proud of myself, it’s taken me so flippin long to get that last half stone off but I finally did it
I feel amazing!! I may try and lose a bit more just to feel my absolute best for the wedding but I am so enjoying the more relaxed approach, I really was so strict the last few weeks and it’s lovely not to have the threat of weigh in hanging over me hahah. More importantly, I don’t have to pay £5 a week!!! I will continue to go to group every 2 weeks or more though to stay on track, and as I said, hoping to lose just a few more lbs in the next 8 weeks
(SCARILY SHORT AMOUNT OF WEEKS THERE OMG) Again, more updates in my honeymoon updates but I’ve bought a few new clothes for the honeymoon too which is really exciting as it’s smaller sizes
Okay, let’s continue with wedding updates!! What have I been buying? What HAVEN’T I been buying!? Well that’s what it feels like at least!! :O
Cake topper
So I bought this ages ago and can’t remember if I shared but here it is, it’s absolutely beautiful and we are so chuffed with it
We’re having a simple buttercream cake with a few blush and ivory roses on each tier
The inside isn’t simple though, one tier is choc cake with raspberry filling and the other is red velvet with cream cheese if you recall, mmmmmmmmmmmm
Cake knife
In other cake-related news, I bought us this rather stunning, engraved/personalised cake knife and server set! It was an absolute bargain online (seeing as pretty much only us will be seeing it we didn’t want to spend a lot ha!) and it’s lovely! Done and dusted.
Wooden Mr and Mrs
I bought this off eBay for our sweetheart table! It was silver though originally, which OBVS doesn’t go with the scheme, so my amazing Dad spray painted it goooooooooollldddd and now it looks way classier and just awesome
Unity Candle
Ooof this was a ballache!! So we’re having a unity candle as part of our ceremony as we think it’s a really sweet gesture, and nice to get the Mum’s involved too
Now, it’s a fairly insignificant part of the day seeing as only really 4 of us will see it, but it’s also quite important as it has so much meaning. If that makes sense? So it was important to me that it looked nice, but it was also stressing me out that I couldn’t find a single design online I liked!! Also, they were crazy money!!! I then had a brainwave to email Lisa and check if they had unity candle holders, which they can provide us with for a teeny fee, so that pretty much halved the cost of what we’d need to be. So that was tres good. But I really couldn’t find a design I liked. They were all very...how to put this delicately..
think cheesy wording, horrible script font, kissing Disney characters...eek!! I’m sure you can imagine!! I then found a seller on Ebay who would print any photo you sent him onto a candle, and I thought I’d design a monogram or something for us and then put that on. But what if it looked awful and I couldn’t send it back? ARGH!!
Eventually I was driving myself so mad, and Ben was like why are you spending so much time on this!? Haha! So I found one I didn’t find unbearable, and he was like just order that one, right this second. So I did! But then I had a flash of inspiration!! It has two hearts, and then it said ‘two hearts become one’ which is very Spice Girls esque (not necessarily a bad thing but not really the vibe I was going for) and I messaged the seller seeing if there was any leeway with the wording, and if so could we have Happily Ever After? She came back straightaway and said yes! BOOM!!!
So this is our unity candle set! I’m actually really pleased with it!!
Ring Box/holder
So, second only to my love to Disney is my love for Harry Potter. It’s a massive part of my life and has been since I read HPATPS, so it’s really important that I get some HP into the wedding
So I’ve done just that! In the shape of this absolutely amazing ring box…
After all this time/Always (and the entire story behind it) is my absolute favourite part of the books, so I was chuffed when I found this
Our best man is also a massive HP fan and he got a bit emosh when I showed him haha
Rings
So following on from my last update, we now have both wedding rings
We ended up going up to Hatton Garden (not as posh as it sounds hahah) as we couldn’t get the size or band thickness right and so Benj took me for a daytrip cause I was fed up spending money on postage each time
We had a lovely day, went to the teeny tiny office of the website I’d bought mine from, tried on a few and they had the right size and the right thickness and it looks amazing next to my engagement ring
We then had a lovely veggie lunch at Mildred’s, came home and ordered Ben’s online (he didn’t see anything in Hatton garden he liked) and then we were sorted!! So mine is the one i showed in an earlier post just smaller, and Benj just has a plain silver band
Robes for getting ready
This was an essential item from day one and my lovely Mum treated myself, Vic and her to 3 ‘getting ready’ robes! I’ve got the white one and the girlies have got pink! Although there was some initial concern about the shortness of the robes even though we ordered XL hahaha but they are from China! But I was more than happy, and I think the girls just kind of went along with it haha and they may wear shorts under
I think I’ll be overheating though anyway so I’ll be just undies and the robe!! Go hard or go home!!!
Sorted Benji’s look!
Okay, let’s talk about Benj!! Although it may seem like I’ve been focusing on my own appearance a LOT (and this is not untrue) we have sorted Benji’s look now
He’s having this gorgeous tuxedo suit
He looks sooooo handsome in it I can’t even tell you!! Such a lovely, high-quality suit.
We’ve also bought all the men’s ties and pocket squares. We’ve gone for pale pink - it’s not an exact match to Vic’s dress but I really think it’ll be fine and hopefully all come together on the day - we’re not really going for the matchy matchy look anyway
They are good quality though and I’m really pleased with them
I also gave Benj an early wedding present
We aren’t doing wedding presents cause we’d rather spend our pennies on honeymoon treats together, but I saw these like a year ago and wanted to give them to him before in case he bought his own cufflinks!! Awks. As life-long Disney/Disney Parks/Walt fans, I knew he’d love these
let’s just say there were tears haha! I love them soooooooo much and can’t wait to see him in them on the day
Ok I’ll leave it there as this is a mega post!! Don’t panic though, I’ll be back soon with more wedding updates, and honeymoon updates, and most excitingly - DAILY PLANS!! I am honestly feeling so so so excited at the moment
I actually feel so emotional right now guys. Like it doesn’t help that I’m listening to our first dance song hahahha but I just feel like the luckiest girl alive that so many of our friends and family are coming out with us, it honestly is gonna be the most amazing time. We’ve got sooooooo much fun stuff planned! Which I can’t wait to share with you all in our daily plans! I can’t even wait for sooooo many things/events!! My to-do list really getting there, and although there’s still lots to do, I feel like we’re making really good progress
I’m just going to try and slow down the next few weeks, try and do a bit of wedmin each evening after work, and then just enjoy the build up of the last few weeks
eeek!!!!!
Hope everyones having a wonderful week!!!
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Congratulations! Your dress is perfect! I just read through your whole PJ when I'm supposed to be studying. Looking forward to reading more updates, it's the only thing that gets me through planning my own wedding
And the ring box is perfect. I think that's a great place for some Harry Potter. And your robes are so pretty! I've debated getting some... My in-laws are gifting us a honeymoon cruise, and I hope we can eat at Palo. I can't wait to hear what you think!
