The Venue

One of the first things on every ‘to do list’ is to book the venue – but before you can do this, there’s a lot of things you need to consider.

1.The budget – You need to have a realistic overall budget which includes
venue hire, reception food and drinks, evening food and any extras such as
welcome drinks, decorations, and any staff and bar hire costs.

2.How many people are you going to invite?! You need to have a good idea
in your mind about the total number of people who will be attending in the day
as well as any extra people who’ll be attending the evening do.

3.Parking and accessibility – Even though it’s boring, you need to think
practically about getting people to and from the venue. Mamma Mia was a fab
film but it’s not really practical to expect your friends and family to climb up a
cliff or be carried there on a donkey (even if it does seem like cheap
entertainment!!)

4.When are we getting married? – You should already know this answer by now, and this will depend on a lot of things including the availability and practicality of the venue.

Once you’ve considered all of the above, in theory your original ‘dream’ wedding venue list will be cut down substantially! In South
Wales there’s a fantastic choice of venues and locations which cater for weddings, and to suite every budget.

I’ve been to some wonderful weddings in hotels such as The Stradey Park Hotel Llanelli, Gwenllian Court Kydwelly, and more recently in Pant yr Athro, Llansteffan. I also know that the Vale Hotel Hensol and Morgan’s hotel Swansea are both great locations for wedding’s too as I’ve seen many weddings taking part in both locations over the summer. Another great location I found recently was the Arts Center in St Donnats, near Llantwit Major it’s really quirky and romatic.

Look for inspiration in local newspapers, magazines, and online. Also, have a nose at friends wedding photos on Facebook!!
Top Tip! Visit the location for dinner or coffee just to have a good nose around! This is a really good way to get an insight into the
location, the food, the service, the decor and to seek locations for photos!

Myself and Gareth are both from the same village, Aberdovey in Mid Wales, and although there’s far more choice down here in South
Wales we’ve decided to get married at home. We both wanted to get married in the same location, on the beach in Aberdovey – even
though that’s not really practical in September, it’s all possible and if it’s your dream then go for it!

For the reception, I was surprised how little choice there was at home, and how most of them could only cater for a maximum of 80
people. Fortunately the ‘Plas’ building, which was the old Celtica Museum in Machynlleth is being renovated, and although it’s currently like a building site with no electric, floors or lights I just knew when I walked in that it was the right location for us!

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To do List

Once you’ve got the ring on your finger and the date is set the panic starts kicking in! Everyone tells you not to, but it’s only natural to
have panic attacks about it every now and then (I’m assuming everyone goes through it as I’ve already had a handful of sleepless
nights!!). The best tip I can give you though is to create a ‘To do list’, I’ve created a monthly ‘To do list’ so that I can ensure that I’m
organised, and also once I’ve completed each monthly task I can then forget about it until the following month!

I think every bride to be will know the basics of what’s needed to organise a wedding – a venue, food, vicar, wedding rings,
bridesmaids, ushers, flowers, cake, guests, transport, entertainment and plenty of alcohol! But the reality is, there’s a lot more to it than that and you only discover these things when you’re actually getting married!

Top tip! The best thing I did was talk to friends, relatives and family members who recently got married, and I advise you to do the
same. They will be able to talk you through their own plans and all the ‘extras’ they organised – from favours to PA systems, from
marquees to table plans, and from hairdressers to colour schemes! All the ‘little’ extras which ensure your day is as personal and as
unique as you want it be – don’t feel like your hassling them, the reality is that they will love to tell you all about it!

Top tip! Another good way of ensuring that you have thought of everything is to buy bridal magazines! I had always thought that I
would never be one of ‘those’ brides, but the reality is these magazines are a great source of research, they help you think outside the
box. There are many bridal magazines out there, but my two favourite ones are ‘Brides’ and ‘Cosmopolitan Brides’, they are both
packed with ideas, photos, and their own ‘monthly’ check lists and count down calendars to the big day.

Another good thing about these magazines is that they are also jam packed with suppliers, stockists and bridal sale dates and also the grooms worst nightmare - wedding fare dates! They also have monthly bridal offers from outfits and venues to honeymoons, as well as competition offers which I keep my eyes out for!

Top tip! It’s worth your while taking a few weeks to create a comprehensive To do list as this will be your complete recipe and guide for the months ahead – if it’s all down on paper you have a plan of action and as long as your disciplined enough to stick to it – it’ll save you a lot of time and stress in the planning process!

Top tip! Make sure YOU don’t end up doing it all! The groom should have his tasks within the To do list, and remember that you’ve
appointed bridesmaids and ushers to help you – they are not just there to look glamorous in the photos, you have appointed them to
work and to take the strain away from you! (My bridesmaids, Nia, Sarah, Emma and Mair will be regretting the day they accepted the
offer after they read this – sorry girls!!)

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Setting the Date!!!

Once you’ve visited all your friends and family to show off your new engagement ring the very first question EVERYONE asks you is ‘So have you set the date yet?!’ The reality is your both so happy and excited that actually putting pen to paper and thinking about actually planning your big day is all a million miles away in the first few weeks – but the reality is YOU HAVE TO!

In the olden days weddings were far cheaper and easier to plan, but now you’ve got loads of stuff to organise and you’ve got to get a
rough idea of the budget – that’s a huge task in itself, and you have to think what your budget is so you know how much time you need
to save up – the budget and how much you save determines when you CAN get married!.

In order to work out the budget I created a spreadsheet in order to make a note of everything we needed to consider for the wedding –
dresses (always top of the list for us brides!!), transport, favours, flowers, gifts, entertainment, wedding licence etc...and then following a little bit of research and talking to friends who got married in the last few years, we decided how much we needed to save – all very depressing!!!

TOP TIP! Always add an extra 10% as contingency as you’ll probably forget something when you create your initial list!! We worked out that it would take us around 18 months to save up for the big day, and we set up a direct debit from both our personal accounts to a new ‘wedding account’ so that we could forget about it and resist temptation and my usual visits to Topshop every month!

We knew that we could then aim to get married from June 2010 onwards – but setting the actual date was still difficult!!! You have to
think about your work and what your timetable is – I work as a TV Producer and Director and the summer is a really busy time for us as we produce many programmes during the summer shows and festivals. The summer is also more expensive, and venues, hotels, entertainment etc is more difficult to organise as everyone’s booked far in advance.

The weather is another factor that determines the date, but in Wales – well judging by the past few years it’s extremely difficult to gage!

We’re both from Aberdovey in Mid Wales, and want to get married on the beach – weather and tourists were both major factors we had to juggle with and so we both decided it was best if we got married in September – it’s out of season so it’s cheaper all round –
especially for our guests who wish to stay in the village, also, if it’s anything like the last few September’s – the weather is actually quite good (we live in hope!)

Juts to make it extra special, we decided that the best weekend in September would be September the 11th – (yes I’ve heard all the
09/11 comments thank you!!), because it will also be my 30th Birthday!! Yes it does mean I only get one celebration – but it will be the
best Celebration EVER – I hope!!!

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Choosing the 'ring'

In the olden days it was traditional for the groom to propose with the engagement ring in hand, but these days, as us girls get more and more fussy, I think that most men are too scared to go off and buy the ring as there’s so much choice and their frightened that they might get it horribly wrong! From my point of view, this is a good thing as I’m very VERY fussy when it comes to clothes and jewellery – Gareth knows this only too well which is why he chose the love spoon to propose to me! (Safe move, and it meant I had an extra keepsake!)

It was on the second day of our holiday in Dubai that we went shopping for the ring, as he’d only just proposed to me on the night
before I hadn’t had any time to think about what type of ring I wanted, which was a bit of a nightmare as there’s so many to choose
from!

The first tip I can give anyone is to have a budget in mind!! We went to the malls, and I tried on all types of rings, one ring was £25,000! Gareth almost fell through the floor bless him! I didn’t know what his budget was but I knew it was nowhere NEAR £25,000!
The second tip I can give is to shop around and be cheeky! In this current climate you can haggle for anything, even engagement rings!

After being gob smacked by the prices in the malls (we were in Dubai after all!) We soon learnt that the Gold Souks were the best
places to go – there were about 100 gold shops under one roof, slightly intimidating even for a well known shop a holic like me!
Once you’ve tried on a few rings you know what suits you and what feels comfortable, choosing an engagement ring is NOT like
choosing a new pair of shoes or a new dress – you have to wear this everyday for the rest of your life, therefore the next tip is very important – It must be practical for your day to day life, unlike big sparkly heels you won’t be taking this off after a couple of hours!
I’m a TV Producer and Director, and my job involves working in all sorts of environments – from farmyards to jungles, therefore a massive sparkler, as nice as they are, was not going to be ideal! Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want a diamond so small that you had to have a microscope to see it, but I didn’t want something that would be in the way, and cause me more worry than enjoyment!

After trying about 100 rings and dragging poor Gareth around every single shop in the souk I decided that
the ring I was going to go for was one of the first ones I’d tried on! (Yes, typical woman!). I’d had
shopkeepers trying to sell all sorts of rings to me, saying stupid things like ‘Oh Madam, this suits your skin tone!’ and one crazy woman who tried to force us into her car to go to another shop she had ‘just around the corner’! Crazy!

I know it’s cliché, but you will know when your wearing the right ring, I knew the shape suited my short little fingers, it was slightly unusual and quite vintage looking – everything I wanted all in one – and luckily this one WAS in the budget!

The last tip I can give you if your going to buy a diamond ring, is to ask for a diamond certificate – you will need this in order for your insurance company to agree to insure it, we had to pay extra for this but it was worth it, especially if you are buying it abroad like we did, it gives you real piece of mind that you know exactly what you are buying.

For us brides to be, there’s nothing more exciting than putting that ring on for the first time, and also showing it off to all your friends
and family of course! I’ve been wearing mine every single day for four months now, and I still can’t stop staring at it! It’s been on several farmyards and it hasn’t been at all uncomfortable – I absolutely love it!

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Popping the question!

‘Like every other girl out there I had always dreamt about being proposed to – I always imagined being out on a date in a posh
restaurant, all glammed up and sipping champagne and then the man of my dreams bends down on one knee and proposes – as I
accept everyone starts clapping and he swings me around in his arms ...the reality, of course, was quite different!

May 2009. Myself and my boyfriend Gareth, who had been going out together for three and a half years were on holiday in Dubai, it was the first night and we’d just walked back to the hotel after dinner and a Starbucks coffee, it had been a long day of travelling and the heat was overpowering, so we decided to chill out on the balcony overlooking the hustle and bustle of Jumeriah beach.

We were not glam – we had changed into ‘comfy’ clothes – Gareth was in fact in his ‘Mr Cool’ boxer shorts, and I was enjoying the
views while sipping a glass of rose (from duty free as alcohol is so very expensive in Dubai!) The next thing I knew, Gareth gave me a
brown paper bag with ‘Corris Craft Centre’ written on it (this is a craft centre up in Mid Wales where we’re both from), I opened it up to
reveal a love spoon with both our names on it – I was totally touched as I didn’t expect him to give me a gift on holiday (I actually also
felt really awful as I hadn’t bought him anything!) I did get excited and swung my arms around him, but as I sat on his knee he said ‘turn it over, there’s message on the back’ – and indeed there was! On the back of the spoon he had the following words engraved ‘Will you marry me?’ – I was totally shocked, as anyone who knows me knows only too well - it takes a lot to shut me up, but for once, I was as quiet as a mouse, I was totally taken by surprise!

After a few seconds, I started having palpitations, I was convinced it was a dream so I started hitting my right arm with my left hand to
see if I was sleeping – I then frantically started taking photos of the spoon with my mobile phone camera as I was still totally convinced it wasn’t true! Finally reality struck – IT WAS TRUE! And I was behaving like a maniac – but rather than composing myself and replying, I then began to cry! Finally, after about forty minutes, with mascara all down my face and covered in red blotches from when I was hitting my arm I said ‘YES!’

After the ‘big’ decision was made, the following day was when it hit me – from now until the big day I was on one long decision making journey! Gareth was adamant that he wanted me to get the engagement ring in Dubai, we were only there for ten days – so I had no time to waste! I realised that very day that planning a wedding was going to be no simple task!

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