broke bride

Hair and make-up

I am unsure about what I’ll do with my hair. My hair is long at the moment, it reaches to my armpit, and it’s currently bright red, although I am prone to changing my hair colour frequently! I like messy hair, and if I’m going out I’ll usually backcomb it a lot to mess it up and make it big. I’d like to have messy but glam hair on my wedding day. I am terrible at doing hair, so I’d need to get a hairdresser to help.

I’ve just been looking at some pictures for inspiration, and I like these:

I have no idea what I’ll wear on my head yet, a tiara or a veil, or anything.

I will do my own make-up - I’m good at it and I get complements on it all the time. I will probably do something similar to my usual look - I will get experimenting close to the time.

Cake!

So, the choice for the wedding cake is obvious.

My Mom is amazing at baking cakes. I have been living off the gorgeous chocolate Easter cake she made me all week.

For my uncle’s wedding, she made this:

A giant cupcake that could be cut, and little ones for people to take. I am assuming she would make one for us!

I’d like to have one stand of cakes, maybe surrounded by a sweetie buffet.

Wedding shoes

It’s way too early for me to be thinking about shoes really, but I’m too excited over this wedding.

I am going to have to get some nice shoes, as my dress will be short. I don’t really like plain boring shoes. My first thought was Irregular Choice, and I really like these:

Wedding reception

We are thinking of getting married at about 4 pm, so that the day doesn’t drag on too long and we can keep costs down by only feeding guests once.

I have looked at all sorts of wedding reception venues, but they all seem to be outrageously expensive. The other thing that I don’t like, is that they all try to serve ‘posh food’.

Me and my fiance and our families are happy with simple things. My family always does me a little tea party with a buffet for my birthday, and his family always do us a little buffet when we visit. In the summer, my and my fiance spend half our evenings eating picnic food in the park instead eating in the house. We like sandwiches and chicken strips, not tiny, fancy food. We are not bothered about trying to appear more classy than we are!

I have found a sports club that is about a four minute walk away from the register office that hires their function room out at approx. £100 for the evening. It says on the site that it’s set in an attractive parkland, and the function room looks decent:

It can hold 50 people for a seated event, or more if some people stand. I think it could be good once decorated, but we need to arrange to see it. There is a kitchen and a bar there too.

I’m sure with help from family, we could easily cater a buffet for our guests - sandwiches, salads, pizza, chicken, etc. I don’t think it would have to cost too much.

Bridesmaids

How do you tell people they are not going to be your bridesmaids?

I have four close friends, and I think they’d all expect that we’d be bridesmaids at each others weddings. 

However, our wedding will be small, and I don’t want all of my guests to be in the wedding party - there’d be noone there to watch the ceremony. In addition, I can’t really afford to buy tons of bridesmaids dresses.

My first choice would be my sister, who is about to turn 18 - she is lovely and hilarious and has to be a bridesmaid. Next, my fiance’s sister has a beautiful one year old daughter and it just seems that naturally she should be a bridesmaid. My fiance also suggested asking my brother’s girlfriend, which I think is a great idea - she has fit into our family so well, and I think she would feel really happy to be asked. I could also ask my fiance’s sister, I think she would appreciate it and it would be cute to see her with her daughter. 

I am really family orientated, and I would feel happier having family around me on the day. I can’t have eight bridesmaids, as I said before the costs would spiral out of control and that would mean more than a fifth of the guests would be in the bridal party.

I hope it won’t be awkward when I tell my friends I am getting married.

Guest lists

I have to admit to being a bit of a loner. This isn’t because I’m socially awkward or weird, or anything like that, I can get on with anybody but I just like my own company. I have my close friends, and my family, but above and beyond that I’m just not that bothered about people! My fiance is similar. 

So far, this is how our guest list is looking.

• My parents
• His parents
• My brother and his partner
• My sister
• His brother, partner and teenage son
• His sister, partner, teenage son, young son and baby daughter
• My aunty and uncle
• My uncle and his young son
• My nan
• My mom’s best friend (practically my aunty)
• My close friends and partners (7 altogether)
• His close friends and partner (8 altogether)

We are happy with just these people coming to the ceremony. I only want to share it with the people I am close to.

However, I’m not sure what we should do for the reception in the evening. We are thinking of a buffet and disco, but I’ve never been to such a small one. Would people dance in such a small crowd? But do we just start inviting random people we know to come along just to make the numbers up? If we invite some random people, will other random people be upset and there’ll be drama?

I am all about avoiding drama, so I also want to keep it small and quiet for another reason. I haven’t seen my dad, or had anything to do with his family for 16 years, since I was 10. The short version of the story is he’s a horrible man who let down his kids. I have no feelings for him, no desire to get back in touch with him, and I have an amazing stepdad who I think of as my dad. When I was in touch with my dad, he used to take us to our cousins house because my three cousins are a similar age. I loved playing with them. Last year, one of them tracked me down on Facebook. And invited me to her wedding. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think this is lovely, but I just feel awkward about the whole thing. My dad would have been there so it wasn’t an option really. I couldn’t go anyway. I feel that although they are trying to get to know me, there is an agenda - they asked me to write a letter to my dad and if I would meet up with him, etc. Now my other cousin is getting married next year, and again I’m invited. I am worried and thinking I will have to keep my wedding completely off Facebook, because I think they’d expect to come, and I would die of horror if my dad did turn up (he turned up uninvited to my 13th birthday party, but I got someone to ask him to leave before I saw him). My cousins, although sweet, often have Facebook drama going on and cryptic statuses about other people. I like an easy life, and don’t want to get involved in this stuff.

So - maybe I’ll just keep it as low key as possible!

The dress

I’ve always known I didn’t want a bog standard wedding dress. I wanted something short, or asymmetrical or not white. I love beautiful dresses, but I want to look like me on my wedding day.

I was browsing the internet, and came across Light in the Box. It’s a Chinese site that sells wedding dresses, among other things. Now I have read all the warnings about Chinese wedding dresses, but I instantly fell in love with this dress:

The detail on the bodice is stunning, and the style is just so quirky and beautiful. I wanted a strapless dress because that’s what suits me, and I was looking for something short as I am not really into long dresses. I can’t imagine finding anything I would like more.

And best of all, it was reduced and was on sale for the grand total of £63.13! With half price shipping. 

So, even though we haven’t set a date yet, and it will be about a year till we get married, I bought it!

I believe for £63 it’s worth the risk. If it needs alterations, my mom’s best friend is amazing with a sewing machine (she made her nephew’s wife’s wedding dress), and if it is hideous I’m not too out of pocket and I have time to find something else.

I will update you on the actual quality once it arrives. Fingers crossed!

Wedding jewellery

I already own beautiful jewellery I can wear on my wedding day. My parents gave me a necklace and some earrings for my birthday a few years back. I just went online to see if I could find some pictures, and just saw how much they cost - oh my God! If I’d have realised I would have worn them less, as they are too precious!

They look like this, except the pearls are all white or black:

Bouquets

I do not like cut flowers, never have and never will. I like flowers growing in the ground, not dying in my house. I do not want a flower bouquet.

What I do want is this:

It’s made by Love Bouquets. While the price of £220 is very reasonable as far as brooch bouquets go, it’s just a bit out of my price range. I’ve looked at DIY tutorials, and although the materials and the time taken to make it will add up, it’s the more affordable option for me.

I was thinking that bridesmaids could carry crystal and pearl bouquets, like this:

The tutorial for the above bouquet is on the Oh Dear photography site.

I am planning to start sourcing the materials soon and see if I can actually make one of these things±

About to explode…

Well, I’m planning a wedding.

I’ve been with my fiance for seven years, and we are still ridiculously happy. Embarrassingly enough, we originally met on MySpace (when it was still cool) and bonded through our mutual love of Prince. We became close friends, but we were living 200 miles apart. We met after a few months and it became immediately obvious that we were massively in love with each other. We spent every weekend visiting each other, until one day he came to stay with me and decided not to go back home! We’ve been living together ever since. He proposed to me after we were together for nearly a year. We’ve been engaged for about six years.

I was never the kind of girl that dreamed about her wedding day (to be honest, I don’t get how you can plan a wedding day without first knowing who you’ll marry and what they want), and I could never justify spending over £20,000 on one day. I like the idea of being married, I’ve just never been into weddings too much. And me and my fiance have always had other financial priorities - buying our apartment, university costs, and so on.

Until all of a sudden, a few weeks ago, we both said ‘let’s do it’. I have no idea what has now made it seem like the right time, but it is. We aren’t going to have much to spend, and ideally I’d like to spend less than £1,500. We are planning on paying for it ourselves.

I have suddenly become completely obsessed with weddings, can’t stop thinking about all the little details and looking at pictures. However, the problem is - we can’t tell anybody yet. My fiance’s brother is getting married in June this year, and we don’t want to step on his toes or appear like we’re trying to steal his thunder. We’re looking forward to his wedding, and don’t want to do anything to ruin his day.