Getting Started

Lists are your friend!

I found it helpful to write down a list of things that were essential, important, would like and definitely don't want. These will help you make up your mind and will assist in focusing your mind when making important decisions. The wedding business is full of so many options on what to do, what to wear, how to look, the suppliers, venues, flowers, cakes that it is easy to lose track. 

I planned my whole wedding with my trusty scrapbook. Google Images is a fantastic source of information and inspiration and it is free! I searched for colours, venues, dresses, flowers and cakes using it and I was able to put together a scrapbook of the sorts of things I liked. When I visited my florist I showed her the scrapbook and she got a feel for my ideas for the whole wedding and knew visually what flowers and arrangements I liked and that made her job much easier. She was extremely creative and I was very impressed.  

I cannot emphasise enough the importance I found when planning our wedding the need to be open-minded. Most people have a general idea or picture of what they would like their wedding to 'look like'. They can see the sort of venue, the sort of cake, their dream dress etc etc. But let me tell you I was shocked at how many of my original ideas are not in the wedding photos I now have. 

For example, I always thought I would have a wedding dress with straps. Be they a halterneck or straps I was determined not to have a strapless dress. My ideas were like these:

But look at what I ended up with!

I am a firm believer that it is important to be adaptable and flexible with your ideas. However if you really are passionate about something you should go for it. I remember the first confirmed, non-negotiable item I decided on was the car. I was sitting on my mum's sofa while watching the BBC's Don't Tell The Bride, we were half watching half making plans and all of a sudden the chosen car came on the screen. I was instantly in love with it. I had to have that car. We immediately fired up the laptop and found a local car firm who had the same car. I booked it within days of seeing the program even though we hadn't decided on the venue yet!

Let me know if you would like me to write about a specific subject and I'll do my best to answer it.

Thanks for reading

Mrs O