Bride Q&A – My Real Answers

So now that I’ve lived through, and survived, my own wedding, I wanted to turn the tables on my previous ‘Real Brides, Real Answers’ post, and give you my honest answers to the very same questions. 

Here goes! 


1.     What was your best tool or help when you were wedding planning? 

Blogs!  I scoured numerous wedding blogs for ideas before I did anything.  I wanted to see what worked for others, and take the best bits and make them work for me.  Blogs were my main starting point for finding a venue too, as these gave real pictures of real weddings, rather than the contrived images you see on venue websites.  I used London Bride, Rock My Wedding, Style and the Bride, and Love My Dress to get me started.  My next best tool was Pinterest, by a mile, it gave me lots of inspiration and helped me gather my ideas together into something slightly more coherent. 

2.     Did you and your husband argue or bicker over anything about planning your wedding?

My hubby left me to it mostly, the deal was for me to do the wedding and he did the honeymoon.  Any bickering stemmed from anything guest related; me trying to please everyone and my husband constantly trying to rein me in! 

3.     Did you stick to your budget? 

In terms of original budget, erm, no!  But once we were more realistic about costs, we had it pretty under control.  I tried to be quite creative and do a lot of things myself, which made the wedding more personal to us but also meant we saved quite a bit on overheads.  One thing that really helped was not having a wedding cake.  Having seen a lot of wedding cakes go to waste at friend’s weddings, we cut out the expense of having one entirely.  We also cut out dessert from our meal and asked all of our local friends to bring a cake with them instead of a present, and then had a massive ‘pudding garden’ for dessert and used this in place of a traditional wedding cake, too.

4.     How many dresses did you try on before you found ‘the one’? 

I think I tried on around 8-10 dresses before I found ‘the one’, but I only went into 2 shops.  I had no idea what I was looking for, so went with my sister to David’s Bridal at Westfield just to start trying on dresses, of all shapes and sizes.  I was quite open at this point but had no intention of buying anything yet, so this made it quite fun!  I tried on some ridiculous dresses, but some I tried on for a laugh I ended up loving!  I nearly walked away with a short Vera Wang number, but as it was the very first shop, I wanted to think about it first.  Thank goodness I did, because very soon after I fell in love with a dress on the US website BHLD, and managed to source it back to a tiny designer’s studio in east London – right on my doorstep, and also in their sample sale!  It was meant to be!  

5.     What were you most nervous about? 

Before the wedding, I was most nervous about all the moving parts coming together on the day, but on the day itself I was most nervous about walking into the Town Hall and seeing everyone there waiting on me – my flowers were shaking!  I just couldn’t wait to get to the front and see my hubby! 

6.     What was your favourite part of your wedding day? 

Probably when we were pronounced as husband and wife, and we got to kiss!  My husband just swept all my nerves away in that instant, and it was a massive relief and comfort!  Also when we walked into our venue and got to see it all properly, and see that everyone was there and that everything had come together (décor, props, cakes, etc).  It was such a lovely moment to see everyone waiting on us and cheering us!  It seemed like we were away for ages getting our photos done, so once we got a drink we knew it was party time from then on in! 

7.     What part do you remember most vividly? 

Signing the register, as I was still shaking and couldn’t sign my name properly!  I had to have a few practices at it!  

8.     Was there anything that made you cry? 

My husband’s speech – it was funny but also completely from the heart and so moving, I was so proud!  And for the record, I did not write any of it for him!  (He joked in his speech that I do everything for him, and that I even wrote his speech!  -I didn’t!) 

9.  What was your first dance? 

We chose Lauryn Hill’s cover of ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You’.  We don’t have ‘a song’ as a couple, as we both have such different tastes in music, but we choose this as it was a modern twist on an old classic, that we knew everyone would be able to join in to.  I think it suited us quite well and got the party started as everyone was up dancing to it by the end of the song.   

10.  Were you drunk at your wedding? 

At some points I felt a bit drunk, but I was so full of beans it was hard to know at times.  I was too excited mostly! 

11.  What do you wish you’d spent less money on? 

Honestly, nothing.  We saved loads of money by doing a lot of things ourselves creatively, so this meant we were able to spend decent money on the things that were important to us, like our photographer, the music and our rings. 

12.  Is there anything you would change if you did it all over again?
   
No, not at all!!  However, the things that I tried to DIY quickly turned into chores, as there was lot, so perhaps I should have involved more people along the way to help me – that would have definitely saved me a lot of time and a lot of late nights!  I’m so OCD though, I liked having control of everything, but I was also conscious not to be overbearing on friends and family and just wanted to get on with it at my own pace.   



I hope my answers help you in some way, I think it’s fair to say everything was a lesson learned, but what fun it was! 

Do you have any stories or real answers you would like to share?  Or any questions you would like answered?!  Please drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you!

P.S Don't forget to nominate me for 'Rising Star Wedding Blog' and 'Best Bridal Real Talk' at the 2016 Wedding Blog Awards here!  (Voting closes 19th August.)  Thanks so much!!  xx  

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