I’m Getting Married Next Year!
I’ve been looking at wedding venues lately and I suddenly remember that, although I’ve mentioned it a few times in passing, I’ve never actually announced my engagement properly on the blog. Now that it’s January 2020, I can officially say that I am getting married next year!
Without going into too much detail, Mikey proposed to me in The New Forest last April. It was all very cute and romantic and my ring is absolutely gorgeous. He chose a sapphire because he always says that my “eyes are like sapphires”. Corny, but I mean…it worked, right? We had a lovely day and he proposed in the best possible way, we both cried, we drank Prosecco and we, well, you don’t need to know what happened next.
Needless to say, we’ve been looking at various venues and wedding bits ever since then.
No big fancy weddings over here!
We aren’t overly fussed about having a big fancy wedding; we definitely both just want something small and simple. I think we’ve finally found our venue – we’ve got the pricing through and we’re just preparing to take the plunge and book it now.
Saying yes to the dress?
Obviously I have been looking at wedding dresses from the get go. We are working on a budget and, if I am honest, we’d rather spend most of our money on the honeymoon. So although we’re keen to keep costs down, my wedding dress is an area that I’m happy to splurge a little bit on. I have a few ideas and I think I may have found the dress, but we will have to wait and see.
Autumn themed…sort of.
We’re planning on a November wedding so I’m thinking that we can just about get away with some autumnal theming. I’m actually thinking about dip dying my wedding dress with some dark yellows/purples – making it look a little bit like a sunset. Obviously I’ll be having sunflowers in my bouquet, those I will probably be making myself and I’m also planning on having an autumn flower crown. The flower crown might be real flowers or I might buy one – I haven’t decided yet. I think it’ll probably be cheaper to make one but do I want wilted flowers sitting on my head all day?
Wedding reception ideas for small wedding numbers? Help!
We haven’t yet found somewhere suitable for our wedding reception, which is the next big stressful thing to tick off our list. We at least have the venue pretty much sorted, but trying to find somewhere nearby that serves our needs/numbers is proving more difficult. Does anyone have any suggestions for wedding reception ideas suitable for small numbers? It’s proving difficult – we might see about renting out a pub but even then I’m not sure that would be exciting enough.
I basically have no idea what I’m doing.
I’ve realised that being engaged is really exciting but when it comes to actually getting married – well no one tells you how to do it! If you have the money for a package then you’re relatively clued up, but we want to do things on a much smaller budget and so we’re having to figure it all out as we go along. That’s obviously taking up some time as we’ve been engaged for 9 months and we still haven’t got a clue what we’re doing.
We even have a wedding planner book, but it seems that even that’s not very helpful when you’re planning a smaller wedding.
Help me?
So if there are any wise people reading this who happen to be amazing at planning weddings or can pass on some words of wisdom, I am all ears! Please tell me that it’s not as difficult as it seems? I feel like we’re never going to get anywhere at this rate.
Anyway, roll on November 2021, the date that I will officially go from a Miss to a Mrs!
I’m going to be chatting a lot more about wedding plans and things over 2020 as I start to actually get my head into the zone and plan things properly. Join me if you’re a fan of weddings, or if you just want to laugh at a very clueless woman trying to muddle her way through planning and organising one!
Lukeosaurus And Me
Rachael is a 31 year old mum to 10 year old Luke and 5 year old Oscar. She lives in England and writes about family life, crafts, recipes, parenting wins(and fails), as well as travel, days out, fashion and living the frugal lifestyle.
30 Comments
Talya Stone
I’m not married so don’t have any wedding tips to share. I am guessing Pinterest will be your best friend though! Love the idea of an Autumn theme wedding – congrats! x
Lukeosaurus And Me
I’ve been spending A LOT of time on Pinterest, haha! Thank you.
Cassie Mayers
Table decorations, !!! there are SOOOOOOOO many lovely ideas of things you can do yourself. One of the things me and my partner love to do is collecting stones by the river, So I can see us polishing these up and having them around our tables.
Lukeosaurus And Me
Aw that sounds so lovely and extra special as it’s something that you enjoy doing together.
Fran Back With A Bump
You can make your wedding as simple or lavish as you want. It was second time round for me and Mr J so we stuck to a smallish budget and just went for a registry office followed by a nice country pub. We could have got them to marry us there but it was loads more and only a couple of miles down the road. My dress was from a wedding dress outlet type place (I ended up swapping my dress as should have been 7 months pregnant but instead had a 3 week old preemie). Our cake was from M&S, cakes and stands bought and rings were from the Jewellery Quarter. Flowers I got bridesmaid bouquet which looked no less than a brides bouquet but loads cheaper!! Happy planning!!! 🙂
Lukeosaurus And Me
That’s a great tip about the flowers! I have been worrying about them and wondering whether to do my own or get a florist to do them. We’re thinking about a pub too, it does sound like and cosy!
Lucy clarke
Congratulations!!!!
I planned my wedding in 6 months and DIYd as much as I could. It nearly broke me, I’m not gonna lie, and I cried all the way down the aisle cos I was so relieved planning was over…. haaaa and undying love for my spouse to be of course!
My blog might help you out, but please reach out if I can be of any help!
Lukeosaurus And Me
That’s amazing haha! I am terrified of walking down the aisle and having everyone staring at me. I want to DIY a lot too and save the pennies. Thanks, I will have a look.
Nicola
Good luck for your wedding next year. I am hoping that 2020 is the year that I finally get a sparkly ring and proposal of my own but I highly doubt it 🙂
Lukeosaurus And Me
Thanks so much, you never know!!
Kelly-Anne
Oh how wonderful and super exciting. Planning a wedding isn’t so simple and easy there is so much to take into consideration, but it will be worth it all in the end. I absolutely loved planning my wedding and my sisters wedding.
Lukeosaurus And Me
It’s just that no one tells you what to do or where to start unless you’ve got a nice package!
Sarah | Boo Roo and Tigger Too
Congratulations! Such wonderful news, you must be so excited! I can remember booking most of my wedding things online as I worked full-time and didn’t have the time to go and source things in person.
Lukeosaurus And Me
Thank you, I’m really excited! Yes I have spent a lot of time looking at things online, it’s a lot easier to do it that way now I think.
Laura - Dear Bear and Beany
How exciting! Congratulations. We got married in November and its a lovely time of year to do it in. Good luck with the planning.
Lukeosaurus And Me
Thanks so much, my best friend is getting married in Nov this year too so we’ll both end up having November weddings!
Mudpie Fridays
Congratulations very exciting. We did all the planning ourselves it was an empty barn so there was a lot to it. My only advice is do not get pulled into the Pinterest trap. As there were so many ideas it was over overwhelming and we ended up getting obsessed by every little detail.
Lukeosaurus And Me
That’s really great advice, thank you. I don’t want to spend loads and loads as I’d rather use the money to go on our honeymoon!
What Mum Loves
Your ring is absolutely beautiful! I have never been married so I can not really advise on a wedding reception, but I want to say that spending most of the budget on honeymoon and having a simple wedding is such a clever choice. I love it! Good luck with preparations and try to take it easy x
Lukeosaurus And Me
Aw thank you so much, he did a really good job choosing the ring. I love it.
Kara Guppy
I loved planning our wedding and that was before pinterest! We are now helping my daughter plan hers. If you are going small, call in favours from talented friends, we had friends do our flowers and invites which made it more personal.
Lukeosaurus And Me
My friend is getting married this year and she knows loads of people who are all pitching in. I wish I knew more people who were talented and could help me out haha!
Rebecca Smith
Oh how exciting, congratulations! We’ve been engaged for a while now and are hoping to start getting organised soon, haha!
Lukeosaurus And Me
Thanks so much. It’s kind of daunting but it’s exciting once you get going !
Laura
Oh we got married last year with only 12 in attendance, it was a perfect small wedding. We went to a local cafe for breakfast after the service, but I do agree planning a smaller wedding can be very tricky!
Lukeosaurus And Me
That sounds perfect!
Jenni
Oh, how exciting! Congratulations! We had a low key Autumn wedding too. We made it garden themed, with lots of plants (which doubled as favours for guests to take home – I grew them all from off cuttings from out own plants, month in advance). And instead of a guestbook we painted a giant tree and guests wrote messages on leaf shaped post-in notes to stick on the tree.
Lukeosaurus And Me
Aw I love the idea of a tree instead of a guest book, that’s so lovely.
Anosa
Congratulations on your engagement and that ring does look super gorgeous, good luck with your planning.
Lukeosaurus And Me
Thank you!