Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

To be honest, there hasn’t been a lot of wedding planning lately, it’s still over a year away.  We’ve booked the registry office and the reception venue,  decided on a caterer and we’ve pretty much worked out who will be providing the bar services on the day. So other than that, there’s not much we can do at this stage except keep notes of our ideas for decoration, music outfits etc.

The only thought I’ve given my own outfit is that I want a dress but not a weddingy one, if that makes sense.  That’s why I’m really liking the Monsoon bridal range, it’s simple and budget friendy.  I’m considering doing some customization though - if I think it’s something I can do myself that will be great but otherwise I may be calling on Ruth from Nice Day designs to work her magic. My other half needs a new suit anyway so we’ll just buy a regualar two-piece suit, I don’t think either of us are into all those fancy morning suits and top-hats and tails.  As for the witnesses, well they can wear whatever takes their fancy.  I’ve decided that I’m not choosing wedding colours, I want the whole event to be as colourful as possible so I don’t want to limit the palette.

I did invest in this book of crochet flowers patterns because I’m planning on crocheting my wedding bouquet and the lapel pins for the fellas.  I have yet to actually try any of the patterns though so this could turn out to be purely aspirational.

My main focus lately has been the decoration of the reception venue.  I’ve been keeping a note of any ideas we have and I’ve been roping in family and friends to help with different things.

By the way, this is wedding planning HQ……..

That gorgeous wedding planner you see at the front is from Paperchase and I’ve been using it to jot down ideas as well as keeping cut-outs from magazines etc for inspiration.  If you’re looking for a great wedding folder than I would definitely recommend this one, there’s just loads of blank pages so it’s not one of these ones that gives you ridiculous check lists!  There are also super-handy plastic pocket pages at the back.

So, how do you set the date of your wedding when you’re not going down the traditional route?  In our case we had Summer 2010 in mind and taking the World Cup into consideration (I was deeply concerned about same, as you can imagine) we decided that late July/early August would be best.  Then we spoke to the manager of the venue and found out that July is their quietest month so she advised us that we could have any Friday or Saturday in July 2010.   After that we had a look at the calendar and decided on 23rd/24th July.

Next step was making it official.  I checked the website groireland and got the number for the registry office in Limerick.  If you’re looking for a Civil Ceremony you will be put through to the Registrar and he/she will go through the process with you.  But basically it’s like booking an appointment with the hairdresser.

Him:  When were you thinking?

Me: July 2010, do you do Saturdays?

Him: No, only Monday to Friday?

Me: Would you be able to do the ceremony in our reception venue?

Him: Only on Wednesday.

Me: Oookay then, what about Friday 23rd July 2010?

Him: No problem, what time would you like?

Me: How about 1pm?

Him: Ah sure we’ll be on lunch at that time, we can do 12.30.

Me: OK, see you then.

And just like that I’d arranged the date and time that we would sign our lives over to each other.  Whether you’re doing the Civil or Religious ceremony you still need to give three months notice in person of your intention to marry so I also made that appointment for later in the year.  The registrar sent out all the forms that day and also the list of documents that we need to bring with us.  I’ve filed these away in my new accordion file devoted to the Big Day (I seriously recommend one of these files to keep all your bits and pieces together, I got mine in Easons for €10).  I would also recommend that you get two notebooks, one small one that will fit in any handbag for jotting down things on the move and one larger one to take to meetings with vendors etc.

Another organisation tip is google documents.  I’ve done out our budgets (one for the party and one for other stuff like rings, outfits etc) and our guestlist on a google spreadsheet with a seperate sheet for the three things I mentioned above.  I’ve shared this with my SO so that both of us can access and make changes to things at any time and of course we can access the info anywhere in the world (made all the easier by my SO’s iphone).

PS: I have a few crafty projects on the go so it should be business as usual here in the next few days and you’ll have a break from the wedding stuff.

To gather my ideas together in some kind of organised fashion I decided to make an inspiration board using mosaic maker.   The mosaic below should give you all some kind if idea of what I* have in mind.

Here are the links to the original Pics

Daghdha External

Daghdha Inside

Crochet Flowers

Lego Bride and Groom

Knitwear Vases

Purple Sandals

Earrings

Monsoon Bridal Wear

Monsoon Dress

Wall Art

Hydrangeas

Centre Piece

Invitation

*Note: I feel the urge to say “we” but in fairness his prioroties for the wedding are different to mine and since this is my blog I’ll most likely be focusing on what’s going on for me.  Being focused on different things seems to be a very positive thing because it means that every angle will get covered.  Predictably, I seem to be focusing on stationary, decoration, dresses, flowers (both crochet and fresh), the guest list and how I’m going to fit a pair of Louboutins into the budget And my SO seems to be focusing on food and audio visual stuff.  I’m sure some of you will be interested in those things too so I will try to blog about those too.

Photo from The wedding Wire

So, many of you will already know that my significant other (from now on to be known as my SO) and I got engaged late last year.  Many of you may also know that I’m more than a bit uncomfortable with the idea of being a “Bride”, I want to be married far more than I want to get married - if you get my drift. My dream wedding was 25 people in the Registry Office and the off to the Market Square for dinner, no speeches, no hired cars, no chair covers, no wedding music and no “giving away”.  My SO on the other hand wanted a larger, more public affair (although he didn’t want hired cars or wedding music either and I’m not entirely sure that he knows what chair covers are) .  So after many discussions we came up with a compromise - a small private ceremony and a big casual reception. I asked around (i.e. on twitter and it seems that this might be a topic suitable for the blog - since there will be a lot of handmade/homemade aspects I think I’ll get away with it.  First up - venue finding.

So, the search was on for a reception venue.  The problem with this was that  we didn’t want to have it in a hotel, mostly because we are wannabe foodies so we didn’t want a traditional “wedding” sit-down meal and also we just wanted something a little bit different.   The first idea we had was a marquee on the lawn of my SO’s families house in Ballyferriter, however the more we looked into it the more problems that came up, for example someone mentioned public liability insurance and that immediately put me off. Also the thoughts of having to hire portaloos really didn’t appeal to me.

So we searched on, Margaret suggested the Daghdha dance space in St Johns Square and a cousin suggested a local yacht club.  The yacht club was a no-no due to the necessity to jump through too many bureaucratic hoops and I didn’t really give Daghdha too much thought, that is until I went to a Swell Season gig in that very dance space.   I was pretty much smitten as soon as I walked in the door and as it turns out my SO felt the same.  So we sent an email and a very nice lady came back to us and said that occasionally they do rent out the space for functions and that as long as our date didn’t coincide with any of their own functions that we could hire the space.

Next up, what to put into the fabulous venue. Stay tuned.

P.S. Soon after we decided on our venue, I found out about the lovely Ciara Crossen and her website devoted to helping you find the perfect place for your BDO (Big Day Out).  It’s called weddingdates.ie and you should definitely check it out.