October 19th - Excel is my new best friend!

Hello All!

Well firstly I must say a huge thank you to everyone who has emailed me over the last two weeks – your emails have been inspiring, helpful, and some just a little terrifying as I now realise everything that I have to pull off over the coming months!

I have to say a very special thank you to Lydia who sent me the most amazing Excel wedding planner which has quickly become part of my wedding bible…there were things in there I hadn’t even thought of!  Lydia will be getting married in April and I can’t wait to see the photos as she seems to be planning the most perfect day – far more organised than I am at the moment, but she tells me I will get into the swing of things soon enough (fingers crossed).

Also, thank you to Nicola who is roughly on the same time scales as me (I was thinking of a September/October wedding next year) and she advises me – like many others – to work on getting that date set in stone as soon as possible.  Nicola has opted for getting married abroad which myself and Darren have also considered.  Darren is very relaxed about the whole affair and I think just needs a place, date and time and then he’ll turn up!  Big decision – getting married at home or abroad?  My heart is swaying me to a ‘home’ affair and I almost don’t want to have a peek at what’s available a plane ride away just in case I fall in love with something exotic and beautiful.  Nicola also advised about the length of time it can take to order a wedding dress – I had no idea!  Methinks date and venue first, dress second.

Julie also got in contact about cakes which gave me food for thought (and also made me hungry enough to reach for the pack of cream cakes in the fridge - there goes the wedding diet!), and Jennifer got married just a couple of weeks ago and gave lots of good advice – especially about the importance of setting a budget.  This has now been done, although it is an overall budget and Darren didn’t mention anything about how much of it I could spend on the dress…

So, the budget is now set – we are paying for everything ourselves so have decided on an amount that wouldn’t bankrupt up but still allows us to do everything that we think we want and to have a memorable day.  The home/abroad venue debate will basically mean that if we decide to go away and do it we can’t take our families with us.  We are going to have a long talk about it this weekend and hopefully make a decision – and maybe even set a date, yikes!

Keep those emails coming – your stories are so lovely to read and I am learning so much, so please keep sending them in!

Laura

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