Amy and Graham's Wedding

Thought it was time to blog as I haven’t done in a little while. Progress hasn’t really been made on new wedding stuff until very recent weeks. I went to the Birmingham NEC wedding fair with my mum and both my sisters. It was really busy and every bride for herself pretty much. I was also taken aback with how many brides had brought with them an army of people (some had 5 or 6!!) which would then fill a stall up and no one could get in properly to look which wasn’t ideal and really quite selfish.

It was a fab weekend (drank faaaar too much wine lol). I tried on 2 dresses while I was at the fair, the very first I tried on was loooooooovely and on sale (from 1700 to 600). When I left the wedding fair I was really concerned I’d let it slip through my fingers, but recent events have removed that feeling (thankfully!).

There were a lot of local suppliers at the Birmingham fair for things like photography and flowers, but I have been aiming to get those more local to Southampton, so I didn’t find those stalls so useful.

The most useful thing I found out of the fair was looking at dresses. I’d seen plenty in magazines but none ‘on the hangers’. Something that strikes me is just how awful some dresses look hung up, then on a person really nice. To be frank I saw more dresses I didn’t like than what I did which was a little disconcerting in one way, but at least it made me more clearer on what I wanted.

We had a brilliant weekend, ate at some wonderful places and went through I fair bit of alcohol and had such a laugh. The hotel was a nice place my sister picked, close to the station and the shops too. Susan managed to get a bargain on a 4 star hotel, so it was quite posh.

On Sunday before we all went home we went shopping in the city centre too, Birmingham is a brilliant place to shop.

A week and a half ago Graham and I visited a wedding fair which was exciting stuff. SOOOOOO many adverts came our way lol. We also got some little freebies while we were there – like food samples and fancy toiletries which was nice. It was at the Botleigh Grange hotel which is VERY pretty. The outside has a lovely paved area with seating and then a huge grassy area with steps leading down to a large pond. It’s very picturesque. Graham and I have put it on our venue list and while it would make for great wedding photos – it wasn’t such a great deal with the kids that will be attending the wedding or with the drinks for the adults, so while it’s a possible venue, I’m not sure so far that it’ll win on the venue front.

Very good wedding fair though it has to be said – they had a bag-piper at the gates AND a horse and carriage that was giving rides (we didn’t go on one cos it was busy though). Inside there were loads of stalls with loads of ideas and now we have ideas for the sort of photography we’d like to have which is good. While we’re probably not looking to get things like ‘a formal toastmaster’ it’s great to see the options. We also found a couple of custom ring makers too…but we’ll see where that goes.

The first week of engaged life has brought a number of wedding books, magazines and adverts into our humble abode. Most of it is good but some of the adverts are for dresses that are double our entire wedding budget.

Amy still doesn’t actually have a ring that fits on her finger, but she hasn’t quite turned into ‘Bridezilla’, as she calls it.

This Sunday we went to a beautiful hotel called the Legacy Botleigh for a wedding show. Everyone asked when the wedding was and the answer was ‘we’ve only been engaged a week’. Ah well, they won’t be getting money out of us just yet.

The hotel has a lovely garden that would look fantastic in photographs (hence why they let the shows happen there) and we’ve been trying to do some sums about it all. They certainly don’t have the most included in their wedding packages but the album would look very nice.

Another hotel we are looking at has a lot in the price, strangely enough including centrepieces, which I thought were too expensive to include free. We aren’t sure if it really has an outside though. Hard choices, if a little premature at this stage.

We’ve also been trying to blast through a few numbers. Fortunatly both our families aren’t exactly big and although we have a few friends there aren’t many that I’d feel close enough to bring to the actual ceremony. Money wise we’re looking at self funding it, anything else we come across might be a bonus, but we aren’t expecting it.

Is it really that modern to feel like we shouldn’t be asking parents for piles of cash to pay for these things? I’m not even sure whether or not we want a guest list! We’re toying the idea of just telling people to spend the money staying in the hotel and enjoying themselves. We have no room in our kitchen as it is; imagine if we got a new dinner set and another toaster. Hell, we’ve just got an Ikea within walking distance, I could have 5 toasters here in a couple of hours.

So I’m sure this will all be interesting. I’ll have to make an effort to blog how things are going. I know no-one reads this, but I’m sure it will be interesting to look back on once the day has gone by and see how we have paniced / lost hope / given up / decided on flowers with a spin-the-bottle game over the months.

p.s. How can I find a wedding photographer that costs £500 for two hours that supplies negatives (well a DVD seeing as they don’t use film anymore), yet the ones that cost £1750 don’t?