T-minus 365 Days

This time next year it will be our wedding day.

Jon was quite surprised when I told him it was only a year away. But Jon was also quite surprised when he discovered he was turning 26 this year, not 25 as he'd previously thought, and that next week was November, so perhaps he's not the greatest litmus test of how quickly it feels like this has come around.

This feels like a good place for a gif, but I don't really have one that suits this situation, so have this instead. I imagine this is what happened in Jon's brain when I told him how far away the wedding was.

That said, having discovered that the wedding is now only a year away, Jon has become somewhat less curmudgeonly in the discussion of wedding planning. Nothing like a bit of pressure, gently applied, to grease the wheels of cooperation.


What we have done so far
- Church
- Reception venue and food
- Photographer
- Dress
- My wedding ring


What we have to do
- Flowers, because flowers
- Cake, because cake
- Music, because otherwise we might have to talk to people
- Jon's wedding ring so he has something else to lose around the house other than his watch
- Jon's suit so he is not naked
- Bridesmaids dresses so they are also not naked
- I should probably have some shoes too, don't want to turn up to church looking like that episode of Sex and the City where Carrie gets mugged for her shoes.*

 Can you believe no-one had made a gif of this already? I'd expect one with the caption "Somebody stop him, he stole my strappy sandals!" But nope. For shame, internet. For shame.

*Yes, I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for making a reference to Sex and the City, however I only know about it because I worked at Blockbuster whilst I was at University and got free rentals, and was alone for like three weeks over the summer, so I watched it all, but only because it was free.

What we have to do, continued
- We should probably work out who we are inviting to this shindig at some point
- And I guess we should make and send them invitations so they know where and when they should turn up
- Also maybe we should make a table plan so they know where they are sitting for dinner, and so no vegetarians end up with a very meaty meal
- and there is probably some other stuff we should do as well, but when I get to this point in the list I start to drift a bit and get distracted.


Part of the reason I get lost towards the end of the list is because then it all becomes variables and things that will be longer and more complex to do. I want to get things done, but I want to get the quick-and-easy things done first. Flowers, boom. Cake, boom. DJ, boom boom shake the room. That sort of thing.



Basically I want to put off the difficult bits for as long as possible. Procrastination makes the world go round! Eventually!

Flower Power

This week I am not talking to Jon about the wedding. Whilst I'm actually pretty good at not obsessing over it or bringing it up loads and loads, or handle bits myself so he doesn't have to, sometimes I have to actually talk to Jon about things. This is exacerbated by the fact that he says he wants to be involved, and then when I try to involve him he gets fidgety and tries to get out of it. Every time I ask him to think about something that he needs to decide on (when he wants to get his ring/when he wants to get his suit/where he wants to stay the night before the wedding) he laughs and tells me that I think way too much about the wedding.

I promise there's a reason I'm telling you this.


On Sunday, I got a text from his best man's fiancee, asking what the plan was for the night before the wedding, so they could think about their plans, and Jon followed my question up by telling me that I couldn't go one week without talking to him about the wedding.

So this week I'm not talking to him about it.

But I am talking to other people about it (although actually to be fair, it's this blog and one email, so not exactly masses), just not in front of him, and it's winding him up. Serves him right.

Tangentially, our latest wedding project has been trying to get the flowers sorted.

This has proved particularly tricky, because I am certain that I would like real flowers, and have an idea of the colours and sort-of look I'm going for, but aside from that, I'm rather clueless.

And it transpires that flowers, as with everything 'wedding', are freaking EXPENSIVE guys.
 

But Jon and I had discussed this, we had planned to do it as cheaply as we could whilst still going the florist route to alleviate stress. The lady who does the flowers for the church was going to do our church decorations, and we were going to do our own table decorations for the reception, since it's a very decorative venue anyway. So all we really needed from the florist were the flowers that people were going to be carrying/wearing, and we specifically requested seasonal flowers.

- 1 Bridal Bouquet
- 4 Bridesmaid Bouquets
- 1 Flowergirl Wand
- 9 Boutineers (in Carnations as well, which are both the cheapest and Jon's favourite)
- 2 Corsages for mothers

WELL.

WELL.

The first florist seemed like she gave us a really great deal, until we worked out that yes, it was indeed just for the flowers that people would be wearing.

After that, I took a day and blitzed around other florists in the area, getting comparative quotes. I was doing well, things were looking promising, until Jon then blindsided me a week later by saying he thought we were going to be getting flowers for the tables AS WELL AS making our own decorations.

This is not a huge deal, but does mean that I have to go back to the places we got the cheapest quotes from and go "Plans have changed, how much will it be for THIS instead?" and then compare prices on an even keel.


Of course, this also means that I need to talk to Jon about what specifically he likes as table decorations so I can get an accurate idea from the florists.


Oh, but I'm not talking to Jon about the wedding this week.


FULL CIRCLE STORY. BOOM.

Smile for the Camera

Probably the HARDEST CHOICE that we've had to make so far in the wedding planning has been the photographer. And having seen the way I flapped and faffed over just about every decision so far, I feel like this should put it in perspective.

Photography was basically the second most important thing on our list after the venue, so it felt like the pressure was very much on to Get It Right. This lead to some intensive research and listing of pros-and-cons and generally trying to make a decision.

Eventually, we narrowed it down to three photographers. The next step was - as every website, magazine, forum and blog to do with weddings ever informed us - to meet with each one to taking a closer look at their work, and get to know them a little to see if you could work with them, and discuss pricing options.

What these places all neglected to tell you was that once you have met someone face-to-face for something like this, you become somewhat emotionally invested. There is now a personal element involved, to add to the difficulty of making the decision. You're not just turning down a website, or a building, or a dress, which obviously none of those things have feelings so why would they care anyway? You're turning down a person, who has sat in your living room and done their very best to sell themselves to you at their greatest, they've drunk a cup of tea with you, and all in all been very lovely. And then you have to turn around and ultimately reject them LIKE A HEARTLESS BITCH.

 

We were in some ways very fortunate that our top three photographers were all very good at what they did, and were all very personable and generally a fantastic roster. Unfortunately this made the choice much more difficult. I could have had any one of them as my photographer and my wedding photographs would still be awesome. I told them that I would be happy to recommend any of them to people I know, and it's true, so find below:


1)  JEMS Photography 
These guys were one of the first we came across, having discovered them through a contest in a wedding magazine (which we didn't win, natch). We met John, the primary photographer, at a couple of wedding fairs as well and he was always cheerful, professional and very easy to talk to. He's known particularly in our area for this amazing night shots and use of light.

Images copyright JEMS Photography. For more examples, check out his website, or facebook page.


2)  Andrew Ward Photography 
 I loved how bright and exciting the colours were in Andrew's work. He manages to make everything seem very bold and cheerful, and that was what drew me to him in the first place. He was very friendly and confident, and brought so much to show us when he came to visit, and was really great at putting us at ease. His detail shots were what particularly caught my eye, and how dynamic everything seemed.

Images copyright Andrew Ward. To see more visit his website, or his facebook page.


3) Jon Thorne Photography
Jon was a really friendly man, and came across as very gentle and respectful, whilst knowing exactly what to do. Unlike the previous two, Jon didn't offer an engagement shoot, but this was something that actually appealed to my Jon (this could get confusing...), who hates having his photograph taken at the best of times. His photographs have some amazing textures in them, and he had experience with the types of venues we were working with, so he clearly knew what he was doing. We also really loved his dramatic skies!

Images copyright Jon Thorne. For more, check out his website or facebook page.



I cannot express how difficult it was to choose between these three photographers, and it was even harder working up the guts to email the ones we didn't choose. No-one likes giving bad news, and this further confirmed that I would SUCK as a judge on the X-Factor.

We went with Jon Thorne, by the way, and I'm super excited about working with him. Of course, given that our engagement is lengthy enough to produce 1.7 sperm whales, obviously it's been a while since we last spoke to him. And we're not due to meet with him again until a month before the wedding. Which in some ways actually means that it currently feels a little anticlimactic after the intense stress of actually choosing a photographer. OH WELL.


Did you struggle to choose any of your vendors? How did you cope with telling people you'd gone with someone else?