T minus 6 months: Visiting the venue again.

We booked our wedding venue in February 2010. We went to view it, chatted with the wedding coordinator and loved it (and the prices!) so much that we booked it and sent the deposit that same day.

That was a year ago (doesn't time fly?!) and, although it might sound strange considering how obsessed I am with this wedding planning business, we have had no contact with the venue over the last year. None at all, since they sent us the receipt for the deposit, back in February 2010.

I will admit, when I realised that it had been a year since we had spoken to the venue, it worried me a little. I mean, what if they had forgotten about us? What it the woman who took our booking had made a mistake, or forgotten to put our names in the book, or quit her job and not told anyone that we had actually made a booking? What if the prices had gone up dramatically and we couldn't afford it now? What if the venue said that all our ideas wouldn't work and we couldn't have them? What if the celebration garden, which hadn't even been built last time we were there, wasn't nice? What if the whole place had been burned down in a horrible kitchen accident and no-one had told me?

As you can see - I'm a worrier. You're probably wondering why, if I was so worried, I hadn't been in touch with the venue over the last year. I'll tell you - because I was worried they would think I was bothering them, being a bridezilla, or just a bit too OTT. You see, I didn't actually need to speak to them about anything over the last year, so what would have been the point in contacting them?

Anyway, since 6th February this year was exactly 6 months until our wedding, I decided to email our venue to find out when we could arrange things like food tastings and just general chats to iron out all the details. The coordinator got called us up and invited us to come in to have a chat with and another look round the venue. So that's what we did today!

We met with the lovely Carrie, who wasn't working at Pryors Hayes when we originally booked. She was so nice and extremely helpful - she answered almost every question I had written down, without me even having to ask them! We chatted about all the little details so she can get a full price quote emailed out to us soon and explained that we had booked at a good time because a few months after we did, they started charging for the use of the marquee. We still get it for free because we that's what was agreed when we booked - lucky us!

So many things have changed since we were there last - but all for the better! The menu's have been changed to be made simpler, but what we wanted was still on there, and they are willing to make us a different dessert just because that's what Karl wanted.

When we pulled into the car park, this was our view:

 

You can just about see the top of the gazebo where we will be married! Whoop! I was so distracted trying to see the celebration garden that I almost didn't notice the other big change...

Hang on a minute! That huge, white marquee looks much bigger than it did last time we were here! In fact, it looks like a different marquee altogether! Well, that's because it is! It is a much more solid structure, which walls and actual doors instead of just tent flaps and it is about 4 times bigger than it used to be!

 

To put it into perspective, last time we were there, we were told that the marquee could hold about 40 people for the meal, meaning we would have to have our meal in the club house. No big deal, the club house is still lovely, and we could use the marquee for the DJ and dance floor. However, withe new giant marquee, it can fit 150 people for the meal, meaning that we can have all of our tables set up in there, plus the DJ and dance floor! Hurray! This makes me very happy - the marquee is so lovely and it will be nice to have the whole wedding in there as opposed to dancing in one part and sitting in another. I also got very excited when Carrie started talking about the marquee being finished - it will be carpeted (dark grey) and have the white swag style curtains all around the walls. It sounds like it will be gorgeous, and here's the best part: the ceiling will have a star cloth! I might have even gasped when she told me that part - I love the look of star cloths! 

Star cloth example (source)

Amazing, right? 

We talked about the photo booth, and the various places it could go, about the timing of the ceremony and meal etc, the food we wanted, the drinks we wanted, the decorations we wanted, the music we wanted - everything! 

Then we went to look at the celebration garden. Remember, when we booked the venue, it hadn't actually been built yet. I've been drooling over the photos of it for months, but we never actually got around the driving up there to see it in person. 

 

It's a shame the weather was to rubbish, as it looks much nicer in the sunshine! But it's still lovely - smaller than I thought it was, but that's a good thing as it makes it more intimate and we don't have to worry about people not being able to see or hear us. 

Here is Carrie showing my mum the gazebo where we will stand to get married. It has lights in the roof so it will be lit up in the evening, and the speakers inside it will play our music, plus project our voices to out guests during the ceremony. 

Inside the gazebo will be just the registrars, our 2 witnesses and us. I'm quite excited about this because I think it will feel quite intimate, being slightly separated from our guests - I will be bale to pretend that we are alone! lol 

We discussed the seating for the ceremony - the chairs are gold with pink cushions, so we will be having white chair covers on them. Carrie suggested buying some purple and green ribbon and tying the together around the backs of the chairs along the aisle, which is an idea that I love! She showed me a photo of the covered chairs set up outside and it looked stunning! The chairs for inside the marquee are silver with black cushions, so we will probably cheap them as they are without the covers. I think if they were covered, it would be a bit too much white inside the marquee! 

We also discussed our photos, and Carrie told us about the pond they have out on the golf course. They will drive us over to the pond on golf buggies to have our private photos taken, which is something I am really looking forward to! Not only will it be loads of fun to ride around in a golf buggy, but it will be nice to have a few minutes away from all the noise etc, just us (and a photographer!). 

The pond is over there, somewhere...

Golf buggies!

I am so glad we went to visit Pryors Hayes again - it has renewed my excitement and put my mind at ease. The most exciting thing was finding out about the new, bigger marquee and that we can have our meal and reception in there. This also means that, since we are not taking up the golfers club house, we can set up the marquee the day before the wedding. I know that as much as I trust the staff at Pryors Hayes, I would be worrying all morning about whether everything was set up as I wanted it, and had already made plans to send a friend there early to move things around if needed. If we can set up the day before then I will be able to relax, knowing everything is perfect! 

There is a wedding fayre at Pryors Hayes on 6th March, and I will probably go along just to bask in the loveliness of our venue again. If you're int he area, you should definitely pop in to see it for yourself!

Aisle Decorations

Recently I have been thinking about ways to decorate our aisle at our ceremony site. I was unsure whether we needed to add something, since we are getting married outdoors and so, in theory, we could let nature provide the decorations.

However, I think it might be nice to add a little colour to the aisle and I really like the look of pomanders handing from the chairs.

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Right now, I'm not sure what the ceremony chairs will be like, but I'm sure we woud be able to hang something from them.

Pomanders made from flowers would work out crazily expensive, even if I used silk flowers, so I think I'd definitely go down the tissue paper route. I found this tutorial on Project Wedding and they sound like they would be time consuming, but fairly simple to make. If I can find the polystrene balls for cheap enough, I think I'll have a go at making these.

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I love how nice and fluffy they look!

Another option that I think is quite cute for lining the aisle is paper lanterns:

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These would be much easier than the pomanders, and give a similar sort of look.
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I also really love this idea, although I doubt we'd be able to have it at our venue:

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How cute is that? And I love hay bales for seats too!

I'm going to keep looking for more inspiration for something to line the aisle - something cheap, simple and pretty. If I can find the balls to make pomanders at a reasonsble price then I think I'll be sold on that idea, but I have ages yet until an actual decision has to be made!

Order of Ceremony Fans- with a twist!

We never wanted Programs or Order of Services for our wedding - we didn't really see the need since we are having a civil ceremony so there are no hymns or blessings that need to be printed for the guests.

However, I had been toying with the idea of giving fans out as favours, because it will (hopefully) be hot and I don't want everyone to melt during the ceremony! I'd seen program fans before, but dismissed them as nice but unnecessary as we didn't see the point in listing all of the wedding party by name, since we had already put that information on our wedding website.

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 I like these fans, but I think it is more of an American tradition to have a "program" where all the wedding party is listed, with their names and roles. In the UK, I think it's only common to have an "order of service" for a religious ceremony, because you would need to print any hymn or prayer words, and explain the meaning of certain things to guests that might not be of the same religion.

Anyway - we didn't need them, but when I saw these fans on Wedding Bee, I fell in love!

From WeddingBee

Now, I know that the picture above looks like every other program fan, but if you click on the link, you will see that these fans are amazing, because they have puzzles on the back!

I immediately wanted them! I thought it was a great idea to keep guests busy while they waited for the ceremony to start, and it was just really fun too. The tutorial on Wedding Bee is really simple and clear, so the fans should be fairly easy to make.

I set about designing our fans. We decided that they would be "Order of Ceremony" fans rather than programs, since we just wanted to include a list of the different ceremony parts (e.g. processional, reading, vows, exchange of rings etc) with the names of any songs or readings.

It took me a while to decide which puzzles to have on the fans - I loved the 'Fill in the blanks' quiz from the tutorial, so I shamelessly stole that, plus I decided on a word search, a crossword and anagrams. Four different puzzles seemed like a reasonable number.

Fill in the blanks Fan

 I wanted to include the same pattern that we will use on the invitations, to tie everything together. Plus I just really like the pattern! I tried to keep it relatively simple, with just the basic information on it. 

Word search Fan

I made the word search for this fan using this site and it was pretty simple. You literally just type in a list of words that you want in the puzzle, set the fonts and size etc, and then hit "make puzzle". I just right clicked and saved the created word search as a picture, then pasted it on to my fan template, adding a coloured border to it. Easy.

Anagram Fan

I have to admit, I love anagrams! I used this site to find the anagrams - you just type in the word and it will give you hundreds of different anagrams. I preferred to choose the ones that sounded funniest - for example Bridesmaid = mad birdies. I wont tell you the others - you have to work them out for yourself!

Crossword Fan

I knew that I definitely wanted to include a crossword, but this was by far the most difficult and time consuming. I used this site to make the crossword and it was really easy - the hard part was coming up with the clues! I was trying to keep the clues fairly simple, because there will be children doing the puzzles too - and these are supposed to be fun, not an IQ test! Anyway, when I eventually managed to think of enough clues, I saved the puzzle as a picture and pasted on to my template. It also took me a while to arrange it so that the clues fit on the page, but I got there in the end.

So those are our Order of Ceremony Fans!
As per the tutorial, we will just print them onto card, fold in half and glue a stick in between. The tutorial shows how to attach a pencil to the handle with a ribbon, but I think we will probably just have a jar of pencils next to the fans for people to take. The reason for this is that I want the fans to actually be used for cooling people down, and a big bit of ribbon with a pencil on the end might get in the way slightly. I've not decided for sure yet, but we'll probably leave the pencils separate.

I'm quite excited about these fans - hopefully our guests will find them fun and useful! If it rains, they could always use them as tiny umbrellas, I suppose!

I created these fans in Powerpoint, just by drawing a line down the middle of a (landscape) slide and arranging the various text boxes and pictures. When I print, I will print 1 slide to a full page, so that the fans will be A5 when folded.

I have no idea how to make a ppt document available to download here, but if anyone wants a copy of the powerpoint document with the fan designs then I would gladly email it. 

DIY Ceremony Book

So I have had a busy, wedding related day today!

I got around to making my Ceremony and ring book!  I'll run through a quick step by step of how I did it:

First of all, I stuck the pages of the book together, keeping a few pages loose for me to stick our readings and vows onto for the ceremony. I did this by simply spreading some glue on the all edges and leaving it overnight, with a heavy weight on top. 

Next I drew a rectangle on the top page to mark out how big the hole would be. I used a craft knife to slice around each side and then just pulled the cut pages out, then repeated. It can get a bit tricky in the corners, so I'd reccommend taking your time - I rushed it a bit and the corners ended up a bit messy.

When I got to the bottom, I had to spend a while tidying it up from the other side (A good reason not to stick the pages to the back of the book at the beginning!). I also stuck a piece of paper to the back, just because the back cover of the book was blue, and I didn't want the bottom of the hole to be blue.

You can see here that the corners are still a bit messy, but I wasn't overly worried because I'd decided to cover them anyway. I decided to cut the hole underneath the words "Chapter two" just because I think it'll be quite sweet to have our wedding rings as chapter two, like our marriage is the second chapter of our life together (Awwwwww!)

I tried putting ribbon in (sticking it under pages) to tie our rings onto, but I decided that it was too wide. Thin ribbon would work well, but I didn't have any. Instead I used a beaded belt off an old skirt that was going to a charity shop, and cut the ends off it.

Then I used an old t-shirt, cut up, to cover the book completely. I didn't take any photos of me actually covering the book, but I did it the way that I was taught to cover my exercise books in school!

I like the fact that the book is stripey, like my dress will be! 

Next, I added a purple ribbon to the spine of the book, just to make it more colourful (and also because i'd cut the material a tiny bit too short so a bit of the blue spine was still showing!)

And finally, I stuck a bit of purple ribbon around the edge of the hole, to cover up my messy corners. I like the look of this, but if I had done it neatly to start with, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the ribbon.

I used double sided tape to stick the ribbon on, since I didn't want the glue to show through. It seems to work well enough!

And that's it! The only thing left to do is attach blank paper over the loose pages of the book, so that I can write our readings and vows on them, and we can use the book to read from during our ceremony - and have a lovely keepsake after the wedding!

Ring Book

I mentioned in a previous post that I loved this ring bearer book idea, and I was determined to use it somehow, even if we aren't having a ring bearer!

From Offbeat Bride

Anyway, I have decided to make a book like the one in the picture above, with a space cut out to keep the rings in, but I'm going to leave a few pages loose at the front of the book.

My idea is to stick some plain paper on the loose pages and write (or print) the readings for during our ceremony on them. I was also thinking about writing our wedding vows in there too. That way, the people who are doing the readings can read from the book, and it can be passed to us to recite our vows from, then to the best man to retrieve the rings and pass them over.

I like the idea of everyone reading from the same book, as I was planning on writing up the readings and mounting them on something for the girls to hold anyway. I also think it will be a lovely keepsake after the wedding - our vows, readings, and space for some little trinkets to be kept safe.

It also reminds me a little of a tradition I once heard, where the wedding rings are passed around the guests during the ceremony, and they are asked to warm them in their hands and bless them, or imbue them with love and luck, so that when the couple put their rings on, they are warm from the love of their family and friends (all together now... awwwwwww).  While I love the sentiment behind it, it's not something we thought would fit in our own wedding - but I like the idea of the girls holding our rings while they read something lovely to us, and us holding our rings while we make promises to eachother.

Anyway, I went and bought a book today, from Cancer Research. I got Peter Kays autobiography for £1.50 - partly because it was the perfect size, and a hardback, and partly because I wanted to read it!

The book, minus the cover

I liked the fact that when I removed the cover, the book was nice and plain underneath. But even so, I'm going to find some nice fabric to cover the book in - I decided that paper might get a bit scruffy around the edges - and tie a ribbon around the middle.

But I'll wait til I've read the book!

Wedding Signage

Recently I've been thinking that it might be nice to have a sign outside our venue, showing guests which way to go. Not that it's difficult or anything, but I want to be sure that they know that they don't have to walk around to the front, and through the reception room in order to get to the ceremony garden. Plus, I found some really cute signage inspiration:

Our "motto" , so to speak, for the wedding is "Eat, drink and be married" so I love the sign above, but I think I might prefer a nice, simple "Wedding this way" or "Karl and Kayleighs wedding this way" with an arrow.

I do love the look of the wooden, hand painted signs though. I think we could make one of these really easily and for  next to nothing - I bet we could find an old piece of wood in the shed somewhere! I wouldn't make it look vintage and worn, like moast of these examples though. And I would try to use the same fonts that we are using on the invtations, rather than the fancier, swirly script in the above photos.

I think this would be areally nice first impression to give the guests when they arrive for the ceremony.

To toss or not to toss...?

I'm talking about bouquets, obviously! Get your minds out of the gutter!

Anyway - tossing the bouquet. Is this outdated and sexist, or fun and traditional? Personally, I think it's quite fun, and no-one is going to take it too seriously and actually think that they will be the next to get married just because they caught the bouquet, right?
But a lot of people nowadays seem to be skipping the bouquet toss for various reasons. From what I can tell, one of the main reason why people choose not to throw the bouquet is because they don't want to embarrass their single friends my making them partake. I suppose being forced to take part in a ritual just because your not married is a bit horrible, so I would probably choose to invite all women  to take part, including the married and engaged ones. And if people don't want to, then it's not really a big deal.

A friend of mine went to a wedding, and caught the bouquet - she was embarrassed because she had jumped for it, like she'd seen people do in films, and everyone else had just stood still. Well, if I'm throwing my bouquet, I want people to jump for it! I want Olympic worthy gymnastic displays and cat fights over it! Really, I just think that it would make some really funny photos - like these:

 

Looking at these pictures makes me really want to do a bouquet toss! I think it looks like so much fun! Also, I think it's quite nice that one of your guests gets to take home the bouquet. But then, of course, there is the possibility that it will end up like this:

These are brilliant photos and will no doubt end up as hilarious wedding memories, but I don't really want my bouquet ripped to shreds! I want to keep it, and since it is artificial, I will be able to keep it forever.

So I decided that I will need a 'throwing boquet'.  A mini version of my bouquet, that's sole purpose is to be thrown. And then the ladies can fight over it as much as they like!

So I ordered a couple more flowers from Excelsior Wholesale, since I needed to order more ribbon anyway and I decided that I wanted a few more white roses in my bouquet. I bought a few white, green and purple, to make up a smaller, simpler version of my own bouquet to throw. That way, the catcher gets to keep the bouquet (or rip it to pieces) and I get to keep my own too!

Eeeeeeek!

I am very excited right now!

Remember our venue? We love it so much, but the celebration garden, where our ceremony will take place wasn't actually built when we last saw the venue. We saw the plans for it and the sketches etc, and we really liked them, but I have been dying to see our actual ceremony site. How am I supposed to imagine walking down the aisle, when I don't know what it looks like??

Anyway, today I went onto the venue's website and found these pictures of the celebration garden, fully built!

The pavillion where we will stand during the ceremony

Our ceremony site

How gorgeous does that look?!

The stone path down the middle will be the aisle that we walk down, and then chairs will be set up on the grass areas for guest seating.

Obviously by next year all the plants and bushes will be bigger and fuller. I am so excited to finally get a look at our ceremony site! We are going to try and visit the venue tomorrow afternoon to check it out in the flesh, so to speak. I really want to see how long the aisle is - and maybe have a little go at walking down it!

[all photos are from the Pryors Hayes website]