How much notice - starting from scratch!

[Greeneyesbigbottom]

We have seen an offer and our preferred venue, an amazing deal - all inclusive - that is just too good to miss. The only problem is the latest date is 23rd April this year!! Is that too short notice to get a dress etc??? Is it possible? Am I mental?

I think it's fine
do you want a big White wedding or are you happy to buy off the peg?

Do it! Just get an off the peg dress from Debenhams or somewhere and have it fitted by a dressmaker. This is about you and your DF having a wonderful day surrounded by friends and family. Congratulations!

As long as the people you want to be there can attend then go for it. You might have to compromise with your dress a wee bit, but you will be amazed at how quickly you can get things done. Also a lot of wedding retainers... Cakes etc will still be quite quiet, oh and as it's last minute I would try and negotiate a discount with everyone, cars, cake, the lot

Congratulations!

I would suggest you give those people you absolutely could imagine the day without are available on that day as people may have holidays booked but otherwise yes go for!

Love the name BTW, me too!

Obviously I mean 'couldn't' imagine the day without.

It seems its not possible. Our best man will be away on holiday so its back to the drawing board!

However, we are still thinking if we can find another late availability then we'll try again!

Many thanks for your congratulations!

Have you got your dates fixed?

I wish, all up in the air at the moment but hopefully either the beginning of June or September.

How are the rest of your plans going?

It seems the only thing we agree on is that we're getting married late 2011/early 2012

We have done guest lists, ruledoutvisited a few venues and asked out bridesmaids and best man, but have no date, no idea what we want, whether it be intimate, small, massive party.

Stressed before I've even started!

Have been on all the wedding sites but they all seem to be aimed at huge £20k traditional weddings and we a) can't afford b) dont want it too traditional

Where to start????!!!

Well we started by setting our budget which is £2k which seems like a lot to me but lets face it in wedding terms it's a drop in a very large ocean! Then we looked around at what we had available locally. Ask every one you know scour council websites, village halls all that sort of stuff.

I found wedding photographers website really useful as 'look books'. Got an idea of what I liked and didn't like. For me I want an outside wedding with lots of kids running around, trees, very free form.

Oh and I've found I hate wedding mags!

Good luck!

ooh, don't go on wedding sites!

that's dangerous - they all make you want to spend more money than you could ever have!

Just think about what you need and want and go from there.

Think about the kind of things that are important to you, and work out your "theme" from there.
for example, hobbies?

DH and i are both big in our church - he's the organit, i'm in the choir - so it was important for us to have a full choir and DH played me in at the beginning!
our cake fitted this as it was a replica of our church organ, we had our afternnon reception in the church, etc.
Music is huge for us and we're big 80s fans, so our disco had only 80s music.
I bellydance, so my troupe did a Guard of Honour for us outside the church and also did a set for us before the disco.

Taht kidn of thing - start with what you love and go from there.

errata - he's organist - afternoon ,that kind of thing

I can't type.

my DSIL announced her wedding date on 4th dec last yr and got married 27th dec last yr and was big white wedding (although she was unpopular for few wks for giving 4wks notice over xmas too!) but she managed and was a wonderful day.

Check on availability of guests before worrying about the dress! There are loads of lovely dresses about but people are one-offs

Greeneyesbigbottom same thing happened to us. Booked in in September 2010 for March 25th, so 6 months.
Dress shouldn't be a problem, dressmaker I saw said she would need 6 weeks, but in the end I bought one in the sale which I took away that day and I have my fitting 5th March.
Everything else was booked within a couple of weeks and now we are just finalising things.
Best of Luck

oh, yeah, we gave ourselves 3 months from finding the evening venue and booking it till the day.

I made my dress, which was very complicated, and I did it within that time frame.

Guest list is definitely your first job. Then out of that check that the most important people can make the date.

(Don't care if that pisses people off, it's more important that your own sis can make it than if Sue from accounts can).

Dress will be fine, off the peg and dressmaker.

I wonder is this a silly idea but could you get say 4 suppliers email address and send one email to them all, outlining what you want when you want it. Then they know they're in competition and will be anxious to get the business.

Hi everyone, thanks for your advice. We have now scrapped the idea as some of our closest friends are not able to come, so back to the drawing board.

As we have other issues to deal with at the moment, we decided we're going to aim for 2012, so we can have exactly what we I want . Not a large over the top wedding, but just something that we will enjoy and our guests will have a good time at.

So much more relaxed and enjoying the wedding fayres and obsessive internet searching!

I have an idea in my head, but the local area has no venues we like. Really struggling to find somewhere suitable.