I’m back from another unintended mini blog break after a busy couple of weeks of birthday celebrations (which you can follow along with on my YouTube channel!) and wedding planning! I’m going to resume my normal blog content schedule from next week onwards but I thought I would give a quick personal wedding planning update 🙂
Since we booked our venue, it’s been all systems go on the planning front and I feel like we’re so much closer to defining our vision for the day. First things first though: I really wanted to get the major vendors out of the way and booked so I could properly enjoy the planning process. I don’t know if any of you other brides-to-be felt the same way, but booking the vendors we want has been the most stressful part of everything so far.
The knowledge that there aren’t unlimited vendors out there, and particularly vendors who are within budget and whose style we like means that I’ve wanted to book the most important ones (to us, anyway) as soon as possible. I very much wanted to avoid finding a great vendor only to discover that they’re booked on our date so I’ve been spending a fair bit of time in this initial stage to try and get as much booked as quickly as we can.
Photography & Videography
I am so thrilled to say we’ve booked both our photographer and videographer as this was at the very top of my list of priorities. I had thought that we’d found our videographer ages ago only to discover that the price quoted had not included VAT (definitely one to look out for!). This added 20% on and in addition to unexpected travel costs, meant that this option was unworkable. Thankfully, I asked our photographer if she had anyone she could recommend – and her suggestion not only came in exactly within budget but I also loved their work even more! Lesson learnt – always ask about VAT and definitely ask for recommendations from vendors you’ve already booked!
Cake
I’ve spoken before about wanting to create our own cake but unfortunately with our venue choice, making our own cake wasn’t feasible anymore due to lack of accessible kitchen space. I did a little search online and stumbled across a wonderful cake maker who just so happens to be 15 minutes away from our venue! I’m usually a firm believer in getting more than one quote but I thought she was so perfect that I only contacted her and booked her on the same day! I think my mum is a bit relieved not to have the added pressure of making the cake and I’m so excited to have our tasting and decide on the exact design!
Hair and Makeup
I booked my hair stylist a few weeks ago after finding her through a blog post. I am in love with her work so I’m very excited to work with her to find the perfect style (once I’ve nailed down my dress choice!). I also booked my makeup person on a whim at the weekend. I was debating doing my own makeup because I just hadn’t found anyone whose work I loved within a reasonable price range. Instagram to the rescue though and I stumbled across a lady who works in the South of France whose skills looked seriously impressive! After a few emails, I decided to go ahead and book and I’m having my trial with her early next year!
Still Left To Do
As to what’s left, I’m expecting to book our florist and DJ this week and I’m hoping to hear back from a few wedding coordinators. I didn’t want (or budget for!) a full on wedding planner but I’ve heard time and time again how invaluable a day-of-coordinator is for staying sane and truly enjoying the day so I made sure to budget for this.
The only other major area that we need to focus on is the caterer. We haven’t fully decided on the kind of food we’ll serve yet (although we definitely have a wishlist of things we’d like to eat on the day!) so I suspect we’ll get cracking on that as soon as everything else is booked.
Phew! And that’s where we’re at with the planning. Now that we have so many of our vendors booked, everything has become so much more real. We even started planning my bachelorette party this week! It’s also a double whammy for wedding content today as a wedding vlog will be going live on my channel later tonight so make sure to keep an eye out for that 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Love this! You have certainly accomplished a lot in the last few weeks! One tip- make sure to really enjoy the wedding food tasting if you have one with the caterer. If you are anything like me, you will be so busy and excited you wont feel much like eating and you wont even really taste your food (or enjoy it if you are able to eat) on the actual day! Dan will likely enjoy both days 🙂
Great tip! Dan is already insisting he’s having an eating party on the day of course haha. But I definitely intend on enjoying the tastings 🙂
It’s a sin calling it a bachelorette party. Surely one Americanism too far!
I hate the term hen party so don’t use it out of principle haha. Plus we’re heading to the US for it so a bit more appropriate 🙂
Love this post ! I am sure your wedding will be amazing ! Getting recommendations from a vendor to another is a great idea !
https://afrenchgirlsthoughts.blogspot.fr
Hey Amie,
I found you from another blog who said you were a fashion blogger who also talked about money. As someone who loves personal finance and also nice things, consider me a fan!
Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I just did my wedding recap (I got married in NYC), but have a few tips:
-If you’re unsure about a makeup artist I don’t think you can go wrong by doing it yourself. It’s the only way to make sure you look like you.
-Definitely YES to the day-of coordinator. Our venue had a coordinator, but we found she cared more about taking care of the venue than the bride. For example, they wouldn’t push the ‘play’ button for the music. We hired our own coordinator and she was the best money we spent!
As someone who thoughts flowers was the funnest part of the wedding, excited to see what you come up with!
This is so exciting!!! You’re going to be the most beautiful bride, Amie! I have to be honest, I am loving the long sleeve gown for you. It is so stunning and like a Christmas/winter wedding but the first one is also gorgeous! I love how it has pockets on. Thank you for always sharing and update it. Always fun to watch your vlog and read your vlog. xoxo
It’s great that you’ve found a make up artist you loved! Can;t wait to see the style you’ve chosen for your wedding!
A wedding day coordinator is a must! We had a friend who very bravely volunteered for this thankless job and we were so so so grateful for him afterwards. Prior to the day though, I was my own wedding planner and I did everything myself that was virtually possible. I prep actual day event run-down, emergency contacts lists, vendor contact lists etc! Then I walked him through my vision for the day and had him execute it on my behalf! I swear it was the best decision we made for our wedding! I attended a few weddings after that where someone in the bridal party was also the coordinator but none of those worked out beautifully as I feel it was too overwhelming for anyone to be part of the bridal party and oversee the wedding schedule at the same time.