Wedding planning... highlights so far!

I'm getting married at the end of August (eep!) so I've been busy wedding planning since we got engaged last September. Although it can be a very stressful task at times, I have really enjoyed quite a few aspects of the planning.

I thought I'd share some of my favourite wedding planning tasks and tools with you, and I'll also take this opportunity to give you a little insight into what our plans are for the day so far.


1. Wedding cake samples

I think this must be everyone's favourite wedding planning task. I've had one appointment with a cake maker so far and she provided me with the amazing cake samples below. We asked for lemon, chocolate and fruit cake samples, and we also threw in Neopolitan as an outside option as we were allowed to choose up to four samples. Unsurprisingly, we were busy eating cupcakes all weekend. I can't wait for the next wedding cake appointment... I won't even fit into my dress at this rate!

2. Wedding invitations

Regular readers of my blog will already know that I work in communications and am obsessed with proofreading. These two important factors meant that I was in my element when looking at invitation designs and wording. I possibly spent more time than was necessary on this aspect, but the look and general feel of the invitations was very important to me. The lovely (and very efficient) Anna from Cardiff Invitations has designed our invitations for us, and they'll all be sent out within the next few weeks. I won't write a blog post on them until everyone has received them as I don't want to spoil the surprise. They're beautiful!


3. Choosing my dress, shoes and accessories!

I went wedding dress shopping with my mother at the end of January and managed to find a dress on my first outing. I did try on five dresses, but the one I chose really stood out for me. It's quite similar to the dress I've always pictured in my mind for my wedding day, but there are certain aspects to the dress which I would never even have thought of and which make it very unique. I've also bought a few of my accessories for the day, including this amazing bag for the wedding reception! No sneak previews of anything else I'm afraid, you'll have to wait until after the big day.

4. Browsing wedding ideas on Pinterest

I've already blogged about how much I love Pinterest, and it's been invaluable for my wedding planning sessions. It's been really useful to search for colour schemes, ideas for hair and make up, wedding cakes, table centrepieces, flowers and even ideas for our honeymoon. You can browse my 'Weddings' Pinterest board here. Let me know if there are any other wedding-related boards I should be following!


5. Researching colour schemes

This leads on nicely from the last highlight. We toyed with a few different ideas for colour schemes, but have settled on teal/turquoise with ivory. Teal is quite an awkward colour to get right as there are so many different shades, but I think everything will look really warm and pretty on the day as it's such a rich colour. The ivory will complement the main colour really well, and I like the fact that ivory is traditionally a very 'weddingy' colour. I'll be writing a separate blog post on our colour scheme in the next few weeks... watch this space.


6. Choosing items for our gift list

We've just bought our first house so our Debenhams gift list is full of bathroom and kitchen essentials, photo frames, little things for the lounge and just general items to help us with the process of turning our house into a home. I've loved browsing the Debenhams website for ideas and adding things to the list, as this has also involved choosing colour schemes! Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to add any clothes or jewellery for myself to the wedding gift list.


7. Keeping my wedding planner up to date

I bought a wedding planner at the first available moment after getting engaged, and it's one of my favourite things in the world. It's already chock-a-block with receipts, confirmations, paper samples, flyers and business cards, and I'm busy recording my every move in all the various sections. A decent wedding planner is an absolute must if you're attempting to plan a wedding!

8. Wedding fayres

We've been to two wedding fayres so far this year. One was in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay and the other was in the Copthorne Hotel, our reception venue. The wedding fayre at the Millennium Centre was extremely busy with a lot of pushy 'bridezilla' types, but I did pick up some very useful contacts there such as my florist and the designer for our invitations. We also got to taste lots of wedding cake samples! The fayre at the Copthorne Hotel was much more pleasant and relaxed. We managed to pin down a few more things while we were there as well as having the opportunity to have another look at our reception venue. Wedding fayres can be extremely scary when all the other brides seem to be getting married about 2 years later than you are, but don't be pressured into thinking that you have to sort everything years in advance!


9. Visiting our wedding church 

We're getting married in a lovely church in Penarth and I've really enjoyed going to the morning service every other Sunday for the last few months. Everyone is very friendly, including the Reverend who'll be conducting the wedding service, and it's nice to be welcomed into such an inviting atmosphere. I also love having a good sing song on a Sunday morning!


10. Planning all the food for the day 

Yes, I love food. This isn't a secret. I've loved planning all the food for the day from choosing our menu options for the wedding breakfast, sorting the wedding favours, thinking about flavours for the wedding cake and choosing our options for the evening buffet. I'm hoping I won't be too nervous to eat on the day as we've got some amazing food lined up!


Have you planned a wedding lately? What were your favourite planning aspects?

Idyllic Images #16

Lovely engagement flowers from Kevin... he knows what my favourite colour is!

My Disney engagement!

Regular readers of my blog will know that I recently got engaged in Florida. Although I briefly described the proposal and the aftermath in my previous blog post, I thought I'd write an entire blog post on the engagement as it was such a special and exciting occasion. Also, it's not something that happens every day! Hopefully not, anyway...

Neil and I had been vaguely talking about getting married for a while, but I had no idea that he'd propose while we were in Florida. He'd successfully put me off the scent, so I thought he'd be asking nearer to Christmas or even next year. I also didn't think he'd had any opportunities to buy the engagement ring or to speak to my parents, so I'd definitely decided that it wouldn't be happening while we were on holiday.

We went to the Magic Kingdom on our first day in Florida, which was something we'd planned to do since we booked the holiday nearly a year ago. It's my favourite of all the Disney parks and the atmosphere is just amazing. It's a great place to start your Disney holiday as it just epitomises everything everyone loves about Disney. It also contains the spectacular fairytale castle! I'll be writing a separate blog post on the many merits of the Magic Kingdom, but let it be known that it's probably my favourite place in the whole world.

We had a great morning at the park and blitzed all the most popular rides fairly early on. Space Mountain was amazing as always... probably one of my favourite rides in Disney World. I loved the Dumbo ride and Splash Mountain is always a lot of fun, even if you do get a bit wet. I would probably have been slightly more concerned on these rides if I'd known that Neil was secretly carrying such precious cargo in his pocket!

Splash Mountain...

We had lunch reservations at the Plaza restaurant for 1pm so decided to take a break from rides at around 12:15. Neil suggested that we sat down in the little pavilion in the Plaza Rose Garden, near Cinderella's Castle. My feet were tired by this point (Disney parks are massive!) so I was happy to have a break. The rose garden is a very pretty area and is always quiet as it isn't on the main pathway. We had the pavilion all to ourselves, apart from a few inquisitive ducks!

We sat down and started chatting about how good the day had been so far. I still had no idea what was coming! I was mostly too busy thinking about what I was going to eat at the Plaza. I'm sure you can all guess what happened next by now... Neil got down on one knee, asked me to marry him and presented me with this very beautiful ring!

My initial response in my head was 'Are you serious?' as I was so surprised. Luckily, this isn't the response that came out of my mouth. I obviously said 'yes', in a very shaky and quiet voice. My voice is quiet at the best of times, so I'm amazed he even heard me. I then phoned my parents to tell them the good news, even though they already knew it was coming as Neil had been to see them a few weeks ago. It was a very well kept secret!

After all the excitement, we went to the Plaza for lunch where I had a burger and the most amazing New York strawberry cheesecake. You've just got to have a big burger on your first day in America.

After going on a few more rides, we made our way back to Old Key West at around 4pm when it started to rain. There was another surprise waiting for me back at the resort... a Disney engagement gift set! Neil had ordered the set a few weeks ago and had arranged for it to be delivered to the resort in time for our return on the first day. The gift set included Mickey and Minnie teddies in wedding outfits, a lovely framed photo and personalised greeting from Mickey and Minnie, personalised bridal ears with a veil and tiara, a Mickey chocolate box, Lindt chocolates and a bunch of amazing flowers. As Neil said, he couldn't have chickened out of proposing on the first day as the gift set would have been a bit of a giveaway...

So I was massively surprised for the second time in a few hours! It was such a nice way to follow up the proposal, and something I definitely didn't expect. It also made the engagement even more Disney-esque! 

You can probably expect a few blog posts on wedding planning in the next few months, but I need to write a few more blog posts on the holiday first... keep checking back to see which aspect I cover next!

Has anyone else got any lovely engagement stories to share? Send me some links!

I'm back! With some news...

I'm back from Florida! This holiday was my most eagerly anticipated holiday yet...  you'll already know this if you were following my Frantic about Florida posts. You'll all be pleased to know that it definitely didn't disappoint. This was my second visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando and I can confirm that I want to visit another 164 times during my lifetime. I could never ever get tired of it!

We stayed in Disney's Old Key West Resort, which is in the Downtown Disney area. The resort is beautiful and peaceful, sprawling across a massive piece of land. Just like everything else in Disney World, everything is immaculate and the service is always spectacular. I'll be writing a separate blog post on the resort, but here's an image to give you a vague idea!

So what was my main highlight?

There are always going to be masses of highlights in such an amazing place so here's a quick snapshot:

Space Mountain, meeting Duffy the Disney Bear, my four Ghirardelli's sundaes, Portobello, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, feeding a giraffe, Tower of Terror, Thunder Mountain, the Cheesecake Factory, the Magic Kingdom night show, the World Showcase, Sea World's dolphin show...
However, one special event stands out above all the others. I'll give you a clue...

Can you guess?

Neil proposed on the first day of the holiday at the Magic Kingdom (probably my favourite place in the whole world), and I said yes! As his father said, it would have been a very quiet holiday if I'd said no. I'll be writing a more detailed blog post on the engagement in the next week or so, but here are a few photos to whet your appetites! 

The venue...

The gifts...

And more gifts!

So as you can probably guess, I'm a very happy lady at the moment! I also have a wedding to plan... I've obviously already bought my wedding planner. 

I'll be writing a few more posts about Florida during the next few weeks so keep an eye on the blog. Posts will include the engagement, Disney's Old Key West Resort, the various theme parks, the food and the shopping! I'll probably still be blogging about this holiday in December. 

Have a magical day!

(I wish people actually said that to me every day rather than just when I'm in Disney World.)