Choosing a colour scheme (PANTONE SMART 16-0906X)

When choosing your colour scheme there are a few things to be aware of, firstly try and match the colour to your personalities, certain people are naturally "pink" people you will know at least one of these people, quite happy to be seen wearing bright pinks, usually feminate and outgoing.
This is not to say I don't like pink it just gets you in the mind set, if you think about your friends and family, think of their homes and the accessories and wall coverings you see in their homes you could probably pick the perfect wedding colour for them just from their tastes and tollerence levels.
Often people may buck this trend and suprise you with a colour scheme that nobody was expecting, however most of the time you will hear the phrase "it's a very them/her colour" this indicates that the chosen colour matches the style and personality expected.

The second thing to be aware of is colours are subjective, unfortunatley our eyes are all different and colours are seen differently by many different people depending on the light conditions and material the colour is being applied to, I often get reminded of a conversation about suits, a brown or grey suit, i can't remember what colour it was supposed to be but 3 people all had differing opinions on the colour and when it was viewed in natural day light this became even worse.

The only real consistent guide to colour is Pantone Chart, these colours act as a universal reference for colour and can be used to comunicate colour shades when you choose a non standard colour.

As you have probably guessed by now we have chosen a non-standard colour, neither of us are "pink" people and having attended a few weddings in the last few years we have seen an array of colours however agreed that none of them where really "us"

Our home is neutrally decorated with hints of colour in a couple of rooms however mainly neutral earth tones, this has definatley influenced the decision of our colour.

When describing our colour we have come to use the word "Taupe" this is then followed up by "a mushroomy latte type colour" as nobody understands the word taupe !

The closest colour is Pantone Smart 16-0906X

However we have variations of this colour keeping the same tone and having various degrees of shade. When we ordered our Save the date magnets (i'll come to that later) we had to upload a digital image which was then printed on a white magnetic surface, as you can imagine this developed a varying shade of our original colour and was not exaclty what we had envisaged, however we decided to keep them anyway and have now sent most of them out.

In summary dont be put off by being a little daring, don't pick a colour you don't like and certainly don't get drawn in by the "wedding colours" if they really do not suit your personality.

Our wedding colour is perfect and i think everything will look awesome on the day, and that's the most important thing, that we like it and we like the look on the day.

Wedding (un)fair

When it comes to wedding fairs we are somewhat professionals, we actually begun attending wedding fairs before actually setting a date for the wedding.
Some would call this preperatation, others may describe it as an obsession however we never really thought of it as anything other than part of the planning process.
As things stand (8 months until wedding date) we have attended over 20 wedding fairs and registered with just about every wedding company in the north east who host these events.
However i would not change a thing, although they can be tedious, they are also invaluable for finding suppliers for your wedding.
I would say speaking with suppliers and getting a feel for the people and the service they supply is the best way to introduce you to their work, however i also think research is just as vital.
Having attended so many wedding fairs i have compiled this check list to help you on your search and hopefully make the experience a little more pleasurable (tolerable).

Dont go for a browse - If you just go for a look round that's exactly what you will get, go with a purpose and this will help focus your attention.

Make A List - although not always practical try and use each fair to look for one item from your list, if your looking for just photographers you will be more focused on comparing the prices and services they offer rather than mixing your thoughts with cakes and dresses etc.

Dont buy on the day - never get suckered in with "fair offers" or "today only" deals, these are a myth and companies will match the price you saw at the fair even if booking a later date (they want your business after all)

Do your research - once you have a selection of companies to compare go home and do your research, look through their work, view their website and compare the pro's and con's of each supplier.

Never Settle - your wedding day will be the most expensive day of your life (in most cases) never settle for second best, if you are not happy ask the supplier if they can change the way they do something or if you can be quoted for a service not on their website. You are the customer and should get exactly what you want, not a one for all package you should fit in to.

Pick up the free magazines - for the cost of your details you can receive various glossy magazines, these often contain discount vouchers or special offers which should not be sniffed at or often just inspire you for other ideas for your day.

Get in the mood - if you dont fancy wandering round a hall or marquee full of people asking you "when your date is?" or if you have "picked your dress yet?" then don't you wont make any decisions or like anything you see if you genrally are not in the mood, if you dont want to go then dont, wait until the next fair and you will find a lot more you like.

We have become so regular at many fairs in the region Craig Maddison of Darlington Weddings (an old school friend) now just asks "are you not married yet?"

Please visit Darlington weddings website for some brilliant information and be sure to pick up a copy of their glossy magazine well worth a read :-)

www.darlingtonweddings.co.uk

Financial Planning - Setting a budget

When planning our wedding, the most important aspect was our budget we had a good idea of the things we wanted but had no idea of what they would cost. We knew what we could afford to save but had no idea if it would be enough, so where to start.

Well we simply divided our expenditure into the following categories

Wedding breakfast + evening reception venue
Church
Cars
Suits
Photographer
Cake
Florist & Room Decors
Table Decor
Rings
Stationery / insurance
Hair & Makeup
Dresses & Bridal
Secret (will reveal later)
Thank You Gifts & Favours
Honeymoon
Contingency Planning

These simple categories made planning our budget a lot easier and knowing how much to spend on each category kept things in perspective, we could spend a little more on bridal wear as we saved a little on the cake etc.

We then sat down and went through each category and decided how much we would like to spend on each item, any bride will give you a rough idea of the cost of the dress she wants, and with a little bit of research you can find average prices for things such as photographers, cars, florists etc and this average will be a good starting point for planning the costs of your day.

After putting a value next to each category it soon became quite clear we could not afford to get married, something had to give, we added everything up and the total of nearly £25000 was a lot more than we knew we could afford so something had to give.

As we were paying for this wedding ourselves we had calculated our monthly income and average monthly outgoings and allowed ourselves a fixed amount of savings of 1000 per month, and with a little over 18 months until the wedding day our 25000 quickly needed to become 180000.

We then made the decision to drop the honeymoon and reduce other outgoings to get our budget down to somewhere close to the 18000 it needed to be, it was sacrifices we needed to make not sacrifices we wanted to make.
We made the decision going in to debt for our wedding was not the way forward, having seen friends and relatives taking this approach we wanted to make sure that the day we get married we have as little debt as possible hanging over our newly married heads.

I will reveal as time goes on just how our budget has fluctuated, but primarily we have stuck to our guns and remained on budget as much as possible.

The Venue - Everything happens for a reason

Since long before getting engaged we had chosen our wedding venue, Wynyard hall is a palace like venue a place we fell in love with the first time we ever saw it.

Having attended a variety of events at the hall, when we finally fixed a year to get married it was the first place we visited and met with the wedding coordinator.

We had read the pack from front to back and had a range of Saturdays from June to September in mind ready to secure our special day we were excited to finally have the first item on our list and really starting to think of our wedding day, even though it was 2 years away.

Yes we met with Wynyard hall 2 full years before we were wanting to be married, and after a lengthy discussion of our numbers and which drinks package we would have we came to the date....

.... As confident as you like we claimed not to be "too picky" just any Saturday in the summer two years from now,  "sorry we have no Saturdays available"

No Saturdays available ! for a wedding two years time, we were dumb struck ! "oh but you can have a Friday" this was the final straw, the fact we would have to comprimise with our table centres and have to invite 20 extra guests to meet the minimum numbers, now we can't even get married on a Saturday - time for a rethink.

It was now on to looking for wedding venues, something we had never done, we had no need, we were getting married at wynyard for as long as we were getting married.

Now it was like starting from scratch, we quickly wrote off a selection of venues Redworth, Hardwick, Walworth, Manor House, Jersey Farm all had there reasons (which i wont go in to, but for us were just not right)

We then went to view, a couple of places with land with the idea of a teepee tent wedding (this proved more difficult than i would have liked).

Before we knew it we had an appointment at Headlam Hall, a place neither of us had been before (already a winner) and met with a lady who claimed not to be the wedding coordinator but could certainly show us round.

For so many reasons Headlam was perfect for us but below where our real deal makers :-

Location (4 miles from the church we are to be married in)
Style (The style of the venue matched our emerging wedding theme)
Room Size (Not overpowering however not too small)
Candles (allowing open flames on the tables)
Menu (a good choice for all)
Price (within our budget for venue)

With this in mind we had our date pencilled in the very next day still having never met with the wedding coordinator.

We couldnt be happier with our choice, both Andrew and Angela are a delight and the venue really does make me think everything happens for a reason, its perfect for us and we couldnt be happier (providing everything goes to plan on the day)

For more information on this venue visit the website below

www.headlamhall.co.uk

The Wedding Blog

Today i have decided to begin blogging our wedding plans, in the hope that some of the information will be useful to those who are also planning their wedding and looking for inspiration.

Most of our wedding plans remain a mystery to our guests, however i dont expect a great deal of views to this blog until the wedding is all done and dusted therefore this will hopefully keep the plans under wraps.

I hope you are able to enjoy the blog and find the information contained usefull, if you have any questions please feel free to ask and i will try and provide as much information is possible.