The Planning Slog

I've refered to planning a wedding as a 'slog' because it is, in fact I would liken wedding planning to DIY: necessary to create something lovely to last for a long time but takes over your life including any free time you may have both at home and at work. It even sneaks into the Land of Z - dreaming of weddings has been a bugbear of mine this year. How can I possibly be expected to concentrate at work when I have venues and florists and photographers and bands and colour schemes (more on those later) and wedding rings and dresses all floating around in my head. I have been abducted by the wedding aliens during the last few months and only now have they released me!



I completely admit that getting engaged meant I could buy lots of lovely wedding magazines (I do have penchant for magazines of any sort really). However, I quickly realised that I was being charged between £3 and £5 for magazines that contained an obscene amount of dress advertising and very little else of any substance. These magazines do encourage the competitive and envious streak in a bride - 'real life' weddings all seem to be so perfect but they also seem to be hovering around the average cost of a wedding mark i.e. £20,000.



So the first and most important thing to get sorted was a venue; where we currently live doesn't hold any personal connection but similarly neither of us have parents living where we originally grew up. Initially we looked at the Lake District, Scotland and Northumberland but quickly decided that viewing venues could be time-consuming, which is something we want to avoid - the wedding taking over our life! Stan's ideal wedding would be just us two abroad but there was no way I was going to get married without my family there so that option rapidly got binned. We did look at that new buzzword 'a destination wedding' but I wasn't sure that everyone we wanted there could afford it so we ditched that as well. Mum eventually suggested her local CofE church (we're catholic), which escalated into looking at venues nearby and the local catholic church. I also had a look at venues close to home but couldn't really find anything that ticked all the boxes so we went with my first option but getting wed in a catholic church didn't feel right. We were about to plump for a civil ceremony when Mum had a word with the local vicar who would quite happily wed two catholics in his CofE church. Hoorah. It is on Mum's doorstep and we walk the dog around it when we're there and we just love it - fantastic, venue booked!



Second biggie was a photographer. This was something that really meant a lot to me as I am keen on photography and I am keen to have a certain look. I spent ages and ages and ages looking at photographers ranging in cost from £550 to £5500 (!); days were spent looking at online portfolios and albums until I was about to go mad with photo overload. I met with two in the end - both ladies - and liked them both. Jo Hansford won in the end as our personalities clicked, I liked her use of cross-processing with film and I just thought she had a lovely outlook on life. I can't wait for her to photograph our wedding.



So two biggies sorted - venue and photographer. Next - florists. So far have only met with one - a local lady who lives near Mum but she seems to be very nice and very accommodating. I'm also meeting this weekend with the florist who is local to the venue so will be updating you on who I choose as soon as I decide.



Finally, and quite frankly the most fun, dresses....