It’s time for another wedding planning update! In this month’s update, we’re sharing what we’ve been upto since our December update, and filling you in on where we are up to now. We’re at the stage now where the majority of things are just about done. It feels like the planning has sort of slowed down now, but it’s definitely been keeping us on our toes! There have been a few hiccups shall we say since our last update, and I’ll be filling you in on these further down. I’m also going to be sharing a few tips that we really want to share in this post, which will also hopefully help you if you are in wedding planning mode too. 

Our wedding planning for January has mainly consisted of organising the flowers, our wedding rings being finished, having a meeting with the vicar who will be marrying us, sorting out the wedding banns, choosing what we would like our afternoon tea to consist of, and creating some fun quizzes to lay on the tables at the venue for after our wedding. I suppose in some ways, January ended up being quite a bit busier than we expected for wedding planning, but you’ll find out why further down! It definitely felt very satisfying having our wedding flowers finally organised and booked!

Photo taken by Christina Lynn Creative.

Meeting with our Vicar

It was so lovely to be able to meet the vicar who is going to be marrying us. It was really nice to be able to sit down and go through everything, especially as we knew we would be meeting her a few weeks before we get married, which just made me feel even more excited! We went through all the information that was needed, and then we went through things such as the service, hymns, discussing and organising the rehearsal, knowing all about what will happen during the service and everything in between. Plus it was nice to just sit and chat.

A top tip is to have a folder ready full of everything that you can think of that you may need for the meeting. Having a very organised fiancé, David came very prepared, even with questions written down that we wanted to ask. Inside were also the hymns that we have chosen and copies of the readings that we are having too. We also had to remember to take ID such as a driving licence, bank statement and passport.

Wedding rings

Alice, who is making our wedding rings, very kindly sent us a video of our finished rings which will soon be arriving with us. They are absolutely beautiful and we are so happy with them. We spent quite a while discussing wedding rings and thinking about the types of rings we would like. We also sat down and spoke with someone in a local jewellers. The rings, which were all so beautiful, just didn’t feel that they were the ones. But, it did give us that extra boost in knowing what sort of rings we would like and we could at least get fingers measured too. Whatever you’re looking for, I recommend going to a jewellers as it allows you to see the sort of rings that could be potential wedding rings, and also enables you to get your fingers measured too. Plus, it also helped us to realise that we wanted rings that were unique and had that extra special meaning to us.

After trying on different rings in the jewellers, I just knew that I would love a ring that fitted in and around my engagement ring. Having our rings made has also enabled us to have the same design matching my engagement ring. Another factor which David and I discussed with Alice, was the sizes of the rings. We knew that we didn’t want big chunky rings, and especially as David plays the piano, he wanted a ring that felt comfortable on his finger and would be suitable for playing the piano in. 

Flowers

Although we are loving every moment of our wedding planning, I must admit that with the flowers, the stress level marker did slightly start to rise! But thankfully, a wonderful flower shop local to me, saved the day! I’m going to come straight in with the top tip for flowers: make sure you get different quotes first, and take the time to look around at different options. You may remember that in our December update, we spoke a little about choosing our wedding flowers. Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite work out. After waiting for quite some time to be given a quote for the flowers, the price just ended up being way over our budget. It was disheartening, especially as it’s quite close to our wedding and it felt like we were having to start right from the beginning again in that area. The one thing though that was a plus, is that we had a clear idea of what we would like for bouquets, buttonholes, an arrangement and other decorations that we had discussed. 

Thankfully another company was very quick to answer an email which I had sent, and after exchanging emails, I arranged to meet the lovely lady who was helping us at the flower shop. We went through everything and she noted it all down including different ideas, with flowers and colours to match in with our theme. Honestly, it was such a wonderful experience and I came out just feeling very relieved and happy. Plus, the flowers were affordable, within our budget, and were about almost three quarters the price we were originally quoted. 

Wedding banns

Wedding banns, now where do I start with this part! Let me go straight in again with our top tip. Just before the date the banns are going to be read out, we highly recommend that you get in contact with your parish churches and confirm when they are going to be reading out the wedding banns. Let’s just say that again with this, those stress level markers did start to rise again. Plus getting in contact and confirming is also a great way to avoid unnecessary stress and upset.

It will be slightly different for each couple, but our banns had to be read at the church we’re getting married at, as well as at our own parish churches, so three readings in total. To cut a long story short, although we had been told the dates on which they would be read, not all churches were quite on the ball when it actually came to it. Several weeks were ‘forgotten’, so at two of the churches, we’re now playing catch-up. It’s probably been one of the only things which has, so far, caused us real stress. As it’s a time-critical thing (we can’t get married without the three banns certificates), and with only a few weeks remaining, we’re having to check-in and confirm on a weekly basis that they have been read. It’s a good thing we checked, as once we realised one church had forgotten a week, it prompted us to check with the others; something which proved to be very necessary! 

Catering

Although we have the catering all booked and arranged, we just needed to finalise what food we are going to have. We were sent a questionnaire to fill in which enabled us to write down and make note of what food we would like. We had a rough idea of what we wanted our afternoon tea to include, so made a note of some things we definitely wanted, but also indicated we were happy for these to be supplemented as necessary. We also found it very helpful going on to the catering company’s Facebook page as it helped us to get a better idea of what may work best for our wedding afternoon tea. 

We also wanted to keep it simple and to make sure we have a range of food that we know people will enjoy. When sending out the wedding invitations, we also asked if anyone had any dietary requirements. Having spent quite a few years myself having to cut out certain foods, I know how difficult it can be to find something to eat when you are eating out. Accommodating those with dietary requirements was no problem at all.

January wedding planning update summary

Although we had a couple of hiccups along the way, we were able to get them sorted and thankfully get our flowers arranged, which I am very happy about. I feel it’s definitely opened up our eyes more to the little things that may need checking up on, such as the wedding banns. Also, it’s worth shopping around first before settling on a company, so you are able to get the best price, and get other quotes when looking around.

We’ve still got a few things left to think about and organise, which we will be sharing in February’s update, (I’ll also be sharing updates over on my Instagram) along with some fun things for our guests to do after our wedding, so stay tuned for that one. I’m definitely looking forward to our wedding rings arriving. I think I’ll just be constantly opening the box to have a peek!

We would love to know your thoughts. Please let us know if you have any tips and advice, including on anything that we have mentioned above, we would love to read them. Join us again at the end of the month where will be sharing our February update.

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