Not going to lie, so far, planning a wedding has been heaps of fun.
Mainly because every meeting we’ve had about it, has taken place in a pub. Fair to say, dry January has not been a thing in our household *insert shrug emoji*.
Given we already had a pretty solid idea of what we wanted from our wedding, and knew roughly when we wanted to have it (mainly based on the desire to have a 3-week honeymoon), G and I thought we may as well crack on with the planning and booking. A few people have told me that we’re being super organised but we’ve already encountered people and places booked up 18 months in advance so not sure what the deal is tbh.
Anyway, you may or may not be interested in our plans so far; if not, feel free to close the tab and go browse asos or summin’. But I very much want to capture them for memory sake so here’s what we’ve planned for all things wedding over the past month.
Grab a cuppa, this is going to be a long one!
Location
It will surprise no one that we wanted the day to be in St Albans. We also decided to try and keep all aspects as local as possible so I’m hoping that all our suppliers (for things like the cake etc) will also be St Albans, or at least Hertfordshire, based. We’ve stuck to this so far!
Ring
Shopping for my engagement ring has, by far, been the easiest task yet. A lot of people gave us advice on buying the ring, including where to go, but in keeping with our keep-it-local idea, we thought we’d start with a local independent jeweller approximately 50 yards from our flat. A friend said to me that I probably wouldn’t come out with what I thought I wanted, and she was right. I thought I wanted something simple; I came out with a ring with seven diamonds in it so, er, yeah. I did a lot of online window shopping and that was where I first saw the ring I ended up choosing – just by accident on the shop’s website – and then I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the next couple of days. When we actually went into the shop, I tried on several of the styles I thought I wanted but it was that one that I kept coming back to. It was part of their antique range and was labelled a ‘vintage diamond cluster’ (it’s so damn sparkly). Both G and the woman in the shop noted that it was clearly the one I wanted so after about half an hour, we just went for it. I had to wait a week to get it because it had to be downsized a fair bit (I have surprisingly skinny fingers apparently) but otherwise, we were in and out the shop within an hour; after being fully prepared to spend the entire day shopping.
Date
Like I said above, we know we want our honeymoon to be about 3 weeks long (and have already scheduled a lot of annual leave this year). We know we’re inviting friends who live abroad, some as far as New Zealand, who we want to give plenty of warning. And we know that we like to plan ahead and know the score. For all those reasons, we’ve picked a date for approx. 18 months’ time. We wanted it to be spring/summer time but other than that, we just kinda plucked the exact date from thin air and rolled with it.
Reception venue
We were both in firm agreement that we wanted our reception to be in our favourite pub. We go there regularly; for dinner, for Sunday roasts and for many booze-soaked nights. G and I love pubs and have spent a lot of our relationship in them, plus a pub fits with the chilled vibe we’re after. We knew it was available to hire for weddings so we enquired behind the bar, got the landlord’s email, and had a meeting set up for a few days later. We liked him instantly; he bought us drinks, said we could have whatever food we wanted at the wedding and swore a lot. My kinda person. Originally, we were thinking to just have the evening bit of the day at the pub, and food/speeches at an old converted barn nearby, but by the end of our first meeting with him, we decided to have everything there (apart from the ceremony obvs…although that would be cool).
Ceremony
We did a full circle re where we wanted to have a ceremony. We originally thought the registry office but the main room is limited to 60 people. We currently have 130 guests (!) on our list and we weren’t sure if we could be bothered to pick and choose between people. So we spent a week or so enquiring at other places (two hotels and a converted barn) but for one reason or another, they didn't work for us. So we decided the faff wasn't worth it and booked the registry office. As long as we can decide who we want at the ceremony, it'll be grand.
Band
After booking the ceremony, we had another meeting with the pub landlord where we brainstormed ideas and paid a deposit to secure the booking (and drank and ate pub food obvs). He recommended a local band that play at his pub regularly. We discovered they were playing at a different pub nearby the next day so went to check them out (we went out on a Sunday night and felt wild). I honestly loved them instantly; they put on such a good gig, playing a mixture of their own stuff and amazing covers. They instantly made me want to get up and dance, which is important for a wedding right? I bought their album off them before leaving and have been playing it the last few days. Needless to say, we’ve requested to book them.
Photographer
I was always going to be particular about the wedding photographer, as photos are so important to me (let’s just say anyone with cheesy photos of couples doing piggy back rides did not make the list). However, when we first found out the cost, I genuinely had to sit down and take a few deep breaths. G was horrified (understandably) but it was probably the one thing I was actually willing to pay wedding-industry-prices for (and deal with the nausea that comes with it). After a fair amount of research, I discovered Hannah, a St Albans-based photographer whose pictures I really liked. We met her in the pub for a drink and immediately really liked her; she was a laugh, had some great stories and I knew I’d be comfortable having her around on the day. So we booked her!As you can see, we’ve been pretty darn busy (congrats if you’ve made it to the end of this mammoth post), although it hasn’t been remotely stressful – just a lot of fun. Now that all the key stuff is booked, we plan on putting it aside for a while, but let’s hope the level of ease continues...
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