Weddingbee boards

I'm getting married on April 10th at St Mary Abbots in Kensington.  Booked two red Routemasters to take everyone from the church to the reception venue; we will take a black cab. Reception at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the Mall, two gorgeous Nash rooms with three floor to ceiling windows and balconies - when you go outside you've got the full panorama from Trafalgar Square, Horse Guards, Whitehall, the London Eye, Big Ben, St James Park and round to Buckingham Palace.  It's lovely at night when everything is lit up.  We're having a cake of cheese from thecheeseshed.com who are fab, respond very quickly and are full of helpful suggestions.

I tried on some dresses at Mirror Mirror in Crouch End - they were really lovely but I didn't fall in love with any of the dresses (pretty much all strapless) so I had my dress made in China; alterations at a place just off Kensington High Street with a hilarious Romanian seamstress for more than the cost of the whole dress!  Underthings from Bravissimo, and wearing some lovely blue suede shoes from Hobbs that I can wear again after the wedding - thinking of getting some white flower shoe clips to put on them as well.  Also considering getting a short white dress to change into for dancing but there don't seem to be any in the shops at the moment - all suggestions welcome!!

My FH is wearing a suit he bought at John Lewis - we were shopping for something else but he saw a suit he liked and right off the peg it fit him like it was bespoke.  Still need to do something about shoes though.  He wants to wear a blue or green tie with a white waistcoat with this silvery blue embroidery but I'm having bridezilla-ish thoughts about it (it looks too purple to me, I really don't like purple).

Photographer is Emma Case (emmacasephotography.blogspot.com) - found her through Rock 'n Roll Bride, got a great rate since she's just starting out, had an engagement shoot to make sure we liked her and her pictures and booked her as soon as we saw the results - she's fantastic!

Biggest snags have been finding accomodation in Central London that's affordable - people have real difficulty understanding how expensive things are!  The biggest headache are the guests from the US converting things into US dollars and freaking out - is it that hard to understand that £120 a night in the middle of Mayfair is actually a really great deal?  The reason we had it in London and not somewhere else is so people didn't have to fly into London, then spend £50 on a train to get somewhere else and pay for a hotel room that probably is no cheaper than £120 anyway.

Other stress has been with the ICA (the reception venue) - they wanted to limit the cuban salsa band to four people (which would have made it sound crap), they don't want us to have too much furniture in the rooms for health & safety reasons (so I am now worried there won't be anywhere for people to sit)...thankfully I have a planner who is dealing with all this stuff but it's still annoying!

Im getting married on the 10th september 2011! cannot wait! we are getting married at a lovely church in Poole and then our reception is at a local hotel called The Orchid. As soon as i saw it i fell in love, all the chandeliers and drapes...heaven!

Nice to hear about all your plans ladies!

Good luck xx

that sounds lovely! you will have a great day! hope the weather picks up for you it is pretty poor down here in poole! Good luck with everything its all worth the wait!

xx

lol thats the spirit!! xx

Ohhhh April 30th is around the Corner!! Good luck! I wanted advice from all the UK brides. I am a photographer in the US and looking to break into to UK Market. Besides Rock and Roll Bride - what other resources do you all go to looking for vendors - specifically wedding vendors?? Any help would be appreciated! 

I'm getting married near Milton Keynes on October 24th 2011!! We are having a small wedding (about 50 people) with a budget to match! We're getting married here:

http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/newport-pagnell/mlklr/hoteldetail

It's a Holiday Inn, which is funny watching peoples faces when we tell them, but it's really nice inside, and they do an amazing package :) I'm doing a lot of DIY including making my own dress!

@ ndadlani When we were choosing our photographer, I googled photographers in the area and then looked at their websites, so I would suggest a good website. We then went to meet him at a bridal fair before setting up a 1:1 meeting. Also, he was recommended by our venue, so if you can make connections to local venues, that would prob help too. Don't really know what else to suggest! Hope this helps.

Thanks so much! Yes, I have a website and have 1:1's with clients all the time - but booking remotely from the US is a bit harder. Would love to break into the UK Market and expand my client case. If you think of anything else please do let me know!