MISS TO MRS: MY NEW SERIES!

Hey lovely reader! Today I want to kick start my new blogging series! Woohoo! If you read my 'Another Greek Adventure' post, you will know that I recently got engaged!! You may be able to gather from the title, I am now starting my 'Miss to Mrs' posts documenting the process of planning my wedding. I thought this would be such a great project to have on my blog as it may help future bride-to-be's and also it will be amazing to have an online diary so I can look back on how I felt and the different stages of it all. Hopefully it may help or inspire some of you and maybe you'll enjoy joining me on this journey. Have no fear, I will still post reviews on the things I've been loving or what I've been up too but I thought it would be pretty cool to drop these in the mix! So after taking some unintentional time off from blogging I'm looking forward to these dairy style entries!

I am happy to share ideas and tips but I probably won't get too personal as this stage but a little bit of background might just help you context my little life! So I've been with my now fiancé (eek!!) For 10 years since I was 17 years old! I know right, I totally deserved my ring! Ha ha! I had no idea he was going to propose when he did, we spoke about things like that as though it had already happened if that makes sense. Like 'when we get married' or 'when we have kids we should definitely....' just dropping it onto casual conversations so now that it has become a reality it still feels so surreal! We have had so many lovely cards and presents we really have been so spoilt and it's so lovely to see how happy others are for us. I have had a really helpful wedding planner file and some personalised note books from my friends which are so handy and I love a bit of stationary and I'm a bit list maker! So these are going to help my be a organised wedding planner and hopefully avoid becoming a bridezilla. Although I make no promises!

Love this monthly breakdown

I've come to realise that I'm not one of those girls who has had her wedding planned out in her mind since she was 12 years old. I literally have no clue what type of dress I want, the colour scheme, how I want my hair. Nothing! This did slightly panic me initially as when people started to ask me these type of questions, I felt slightly embarrassed that I didn't have an answer. I could see their faces going, you've been with this guy for 10 years how do you not know? But I guess I never really thought a out the wedding itself, more the life we were going to have together, places we'll explore, holidays we will take and the type of home we will live in.

Thankfully, the internet is your best friend or sometimes it's the enemy. When your tired eyes look up from the screen and realise you've been scrolling the pages for an hour and a half! True story. I didn't have Pintrest until I got engaged. I kind of didn't see the need for it but I have to say if your looking for ideas and inspiration it has tonnes of wedding related ideas and is so simple to use. I am constantly pinning!

Another thing I have found really fun and useful is the bridal magazine's. I bought a couple of then to start with and I picked up a blank A4 note book so I can make a wedding scrap book of the things I like. A bit like a real life Pintrest board. Also I think it's a good idea to make a scrapbook from the magazines as my wedding is two years away and I don't have the room to stock pile magazines!

The only part of my wedding that I definitely did know I wanted was the venue itself. My partner and I found our perfect venue a few years ago and we always said it would be the places we wanted to get married. It's a beautiful hotel on the beach with a marquee for the evening celebrations and they are so busy with weddings there is a two year waiting list! So needless to say when we got home from our Greek trip I was straight on the emails and we have booked our wedding for September 2017! I'm so happy we've secured our dream venue. It's so important to get married where you feel connected to. This venue is in a very special area for us aa a couple and we went a few weeks ago to meet with the wedding planning team and to be shown around the areas we hadn't seen. The venue we have chosen means we can get married and have the night do at the same place which I really like so our guests don't have to travel in between. I went armed with my wedding g planner file and a list of questions.

These are the questions I asked when we visited:
1) Can you go through the breakdown of our wedding package and what is included.
2) Is wedding insurance part of the package?
3) Do you have liability insurance? (If they say no, ask why. A public venue absolutely should have this and if they don't be cautious before proceeding)
4) Do you hold one wedding a day?
5) Do you have a wet weather/ power cut contingency plan? (This was important for us with having a marquee for the evening)
6) Will we have our own wedding coordinates throughout the process?
7) Are the table linen, cutlery,glasses etc all built into the package price or are these charged at extra?
8) Are there any restrictions as to how early the ceremony can be held?
9) When would we be able to decorate the marquee?
10) Is there a payment plan available?

This gives you an idea of the types of things to consider and maybe it might spark something you think you might need to check with your vendor.

I hope this first edition of 'Miss to Mrs' have been useful and interesting and I can't wait to tell you more next time!

Take care, Steph xx