THE BIG DAY...
Today I would like to talk about wedding planning. Getting married is one of the most amazing things you will ever do in your lifetime. Planning is essential to get the day you really want.
I got married in 2012. We had a tight budget of £5000. So this meant planning everything in detail. Once we had set a date the first thing I did was to buy a scrapbook. This became an essential tool and I would advise every wedding planning couple to get one.
We knew we wanted to do something with a theme but not so that it became 'cheesy'. Initially we looked at a venue which had small tipis and a very American theme. We quite liked the idea of cowboys and indians. Getting married by a 'Big Chief', having a hog roast and everyone dressing like the 1890's frontier. Unfortunately the dates we wanted could not be booked so we went back to our scrap book to try again.
Pinewood Park, Scarborough (our first choice) is a great venue so do have a look if you would like an outdoor wedding.....
We then had to reconsider our options. We still wanted something outdoor if possible and we discovered a wedding fayre at Castle Howard. The fayre itself was held in a massive tipi. We were so overwhelmed and inspired by this as a venue. Unfortunately there was nowhere locally where we could have these large tipis put up. The prices then became out of our budget. So we went back to our scrap book to try again.
There is now a local venue that can offer tipi weddings and events with stunning views and a fire pit to snuggle round when the sun has gone down.... http://minnehahaevents.com/
We then visited The Crown Spa Hotel on The Esplanade. We knew when we walked in the events room that this was where we wanted to get married. For us it just had the right feel. They had the date in May that we wanted so we booked there and then.
Following this all the good stuff had to be planned. The cake, the menu, the dress and accessories, the wedding favours, wedding invitations, this list can be endless.
This is why we had a scrap book. Everything went into this. It had our guest list in it. It had bits of fabric, potential wedding favours, designs for invitiations and the most important thing out budget broken down. Because we had such a tight budget we only had two bridesmaids and a pageboy (these were children family members). We couldn't stretch to any adults. This is probably my only regret, I have three very good lady friends and I wish we'd found the money for them to be part of it.
We handmade our invitations and our guest book. With a handmade stamp of a peacock feather and gems. We were really happy with how these turned out.
We visited a lot of wedding fayers for inspiration for our special day. If you need some inspiration here are some local wedding fayres taking place soon. You may even see me there as gekoglass will be having a stall at these events...
Saturday 12th March - Roscoe Rooms, Scarborough
Wednesday 16th March - The Mayfield, Seamer, Scarborough
Sunday 3rd April - The Barn, Burniston, Scarborough
Sunday 10th April - The Downe Arms, Wykeham, Scarborough
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| Handmade by gekoglass £15.00 |
So our theme... We went for 1920's vintage. we used the colours in peacock feathers to create the colour pallet. The balloons below show our colour scheme.
I did not consider how we would get to The Crown Spa Hotel from my parents house. As a fantastic surprise my parents had hired this wonderful bus to take us all there. I was overwhelmed. The whole family went in the bus, which took two trips. It was brilliant. If you would like something like this visit Thornton- Le -Dale, (on the way to Pickering). There is a vintage car showroom and that is where the bus was hired from.
We asked all our guests to dress in the 1920's theme, in return we asked for no gifts. We wanted everyone to spend the money on their outfits. I have to say, no one let us down. Everyone looked superb.
Our wedding happened before we had gekoglass so we didn't have any of our own favours. Instead we put a pot of bubbles on each place setting. We also got over one hundred 1920's images and turned them into a place setting ice breaker. Each card had a 1920's word and we challenged everyone to use this word throughout the evening.
For me it was important to include our family. My father in law spoke during the ceremony as did a close friend and my youngest brother. My brothers speech made everyone in the place cry!
We only had two after dinner speeches one from my dad and one from us. Our best man did not wish to say anything as he wasn't great with crowds so we respected that.
The entertainment included a great local DJ that I asked to come out of retirement and my other brother performed a plethora of his own songs for us in an hour set.
We also had a roulette table half way through the evening to give another 1920's vibe.
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| One of our amazing wedding cakes (we had three!!) |
We spent a total of £5230. So we were only a small amount over budget. Both sets of parents paid for our extras and without this we would have gone very over budget so a big thank you to all four parents.
If you are planning a wedding you must focus on what you as a couple want. Not what family or friends want to do. Don't be swayed if it is not your vision. Anything can be achieved, even when on a small budget.
My wedding day was the best day of my life. It should be yours too.
Thank you for reading and see you next time
#wedding #gekoglass #love #blessing #enjoy #bestdayofmylife
