Where has the time gone!? Our wedding is getting ever closer and our wedding planning throughout December has become a bit of a race to sort out the finishing touches; the extra little things that seem to have a long list all of their own. But it’s so wonderful to know that the bulk of our wedding planning has been completed. We’ve been able to tick off so many boxes, which feels very satisfying. It’s quite time-consuming, but we’ve never felt stressed by it. You can read our Wedding planning update for November here, and our October update here.

Our wedding planning for December has mainly consisted of deciding about wedding presents, checking up on the RSVPs, finding someone to make our wedding cake, making sure my wedding shoes arrived in the post (which I was getting quite concerned about), and discussing which flowers we would like for the service. But, with the main bulk of our wedding planning done, it was nice to spend some relaxing time over Christmas to enjoy our first (and last) Christmas being engaged. 

Photo taken by Christina Lynn Creative

Wedding presents

It was quite hard knowing what to say about wedding presents. It’s a tricky issue, and we wanted to be sensitive to everyone’s individual circumstances. Having our family and friends there with us is the most important thing, and although we appreciate any gifts that people get us, it’s having those that are special to us there with us that is important and means so much to us. So, after looking on Pinterest for inspiration and ideas for what we could write to go with the invitations, we came up with a few sentences, to say that it’s having our guests there with us is which is important, and that if they wish to give us a gift, we would greatly appreciate money to go towards our ‘home fund.’ We have so much ‘stuff’ between us already, that we felt that this was the most sensible option, and enables us to acquire the things that we would love for our home when the time comes. 

Last minute RSVPs

We knew that we may have a few late RSVPs (which we chose to be in December), so we were quite conscious that we might need to follow this up with some guests, due to our needing to know the exact number of guests to tell the catering company. Thankfully, there were only a few people who we had not heard from, so it just meant double checking that they were able to come. We had quite a flurry of replies to start with, and then it seemed to go quiet for a long time, so we were a little concerned in case people were unable to come. But towards the RSVP date, we had another flurry of replies. 

Finding someone to make our cake

We were very surprised to find that finding someone to make us our wedding cake was one of the hardest things! We had saved quite a lot of ideas to our Pinterest board, so we knew the style of cake we were looking at having, and we had also discussed what flavours we would like too. It was surprising how many people didn’t reply back at all, so we had to try a few people before we settled on someone. We found there was a huge range in cake prices, some which were as much as my dress cost! So, a top tip is to be mindful that you may have to do some searching, as there are some cake companies that are very affordable. We had to find someone who could do what we wanted, had availability, and was able to make something within our budget. Thankfully after much searching, we found someone who is available to make our cake for us, and who was also within our budget. 

Finding my wedding shoes

One thing for my wedding outfit that was proving to be a little difficult and frustrating, was finding the right shoes. For someone who isn’t very good at walking in high heels (there have been many instances where I’ve fallen over or twisted my ankle), I knew I needed them to be a height and a heel that I knew I would be comfortable walking in. Also, because my shoes are matching our lilac/lavender theme, it was actually quite difficult to find an affordable, suitable lilac shoe that is a size 3! 

Thankfully, after lots of searching, we found some lilac shoes with a slight, but chunky heel, that were the perfect colour and at an affordable price. They did, however, take quite some time to arrive in the post, so I definitely recommend that if you are ordering shoes from either Amazon or EBay, make sure you order them in plenty of time, just in case you need to send them back, or they are not quite what you were hoping for. Thankfully, they arrived in the middle of December and they fit nicely, although I will be wearing insoles too. I was getting a little concerned as they did take quite some time to arrive, but as I had ordered them quite early, they still came with plenty of time left just in case they did have to go back, especially as it was the middle of December.

Another tip is to pop into your local shoe shop and find a pair that are similar, so you can get an idea of what size you might need. Usually in shoes with heels and flat shoes, such as ballet pumps, I’m a size 3, and in trainers I’m a size 4. So I definitely found it very helpful to get an idea of which size I may need, which also hopefully saves you from sending them back due to not fitting correctly. 

Choosing the flowers

I feel that it’s very important not to leave the flowers until the last minute, as for us this has been quite a long process, and one which is still being sorted. There’s lots of factors that have had to be considered when choosing flowers, such as colour scheme, taking your budget in to consideration, looking at what flowers you would like, what shaped arrangement you would like, and where you like the flowers to be placed inside the Church, along with choosing whether to have button holes, bouquets or a flower that you wear on your wrist…and lots more too! For us, it’s been a case of looking at what our budget may cover, looking at how we can make it more cost-friendly, and deciding where we would like the arrangements being placed inside the Church. This is something that we are still working out. 

The flower company who we have chosen to do our flowers created a mood board for us, which we found to be very helpful. It allowed us to look at what flowers may be used, how our colour scheme will look, and what our arrangements would potentially look like. It also helped us to discuss our ideas and any alterations to the ideas on the mood board that we had. 

December wedding planning summary

We’ve definitely come to realise that even though the main bulk of our wedding planning is done, there are still many little things that need to be taken in to consideration and thought about. A top tip is to write down anything and everything you can think of and make a long list, which is what David did. It’s surprising the little things that you may think of.

We’ve especially found that making sure we keep on top of all the planning and keeping check with what needs doing, has helped us to not find anything stressful and it has kept very enjoyable. It’s also good to then have time to relax and enjoy those last few weeks of being engaged, without rushing about.

We would love to know if you have any tips and advice on anything that we have mentioned above in our December wedding planning update, and what your thoughts are?

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