Ever wondered what a wedding is like from a Grooms perspective? Over the next 12 months Simon, one of the founders of The Bridal File will regulary blog about the preparations for his & Laura's big-day preparations!

Busy busy busy busy...

10/02/2012 16:37:10

Sorry for not blogging recently. It's not that we havent been doing wedding stuff... it's just been such a busy week. I'm going to catchup tomorrow inbetween preparations for Laura's birthday. She's 29 on Sunday. Which is cool because it means I'll be a 32 year old man marrying a girl in her 20's still. Living the dream.

Have a good weekend all!

Wedding Rings and Gift List - Done

02/02/2012 16:41:03

Well, last weekend, since we were in the rare position of not having 400 things to do, we decided to go wedding ring shopping and also get together a gift list.

Gift list came first, and I have to say it was a bizarre experience wandering round a department store just zapping items that you would like other people to buy you. It felt a bit odd, and took us a while to 'scan' our first item. Fortunately once we got the first couple out of the way we got into the swing of it and before we knew it had about 3 times as many things as we had guests. We resisted the temptation to scan funny items (we were tempted to put a breast pump on there, even though - to the best of my knowledge - Laura is not pregnant) but I realised my family share my same sense of humour - so some smart arse would have brought it for us.

I think we were quite sensible really, other than the odd expensive item that we put on there just in case someone is feeling particularly generous, it was mostly just nice stuff that we'd actually really like, mostly kitchen stuff, just because I love cooking. Good fun for sure. In fact if you ever happen to have an afternoon to kill, even if you are not getting married, do it anyway - you get a free voucher for a cup of a tea and a cake. Bargain.

Next on the list of things to do that day was wedding rings. We went into shop number 1, I don't know if I can say who it was for legal reasons, but lets just say Clive something (that's covered me surely?) and were met by a clearly disinterested sales person, in a very unfriendly, not-very-special-feeling part of the shop. Given that it's a pretty significant purchase I expected a bit of razzmatazz. They wanted a lot of money. We left.

Just opposite them was Beaver Brooks. We were introduced to a lovely young chap called Paul who chatted about our big day, sat us down, offered us a drink - much more like it. He was extremely knowledgable on different metals, and what could and couldn't go with Lauras engagement ring. Brilliant chap, and a fairly decent price. Highly recommend them.

So that's two more items crossed off the list. Easy peasy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - planning a wedding is as hard or easy as you want it to be. For us it's been easy. Bingo bango.

This is better!

23/01/2012 19:41:20

Short blog post, but a worthy one as it's been a productive day! String Quartet confirmed - details to follow, suits designed - through a VERY cool online designer, invite samples ordered - again details to follow, and finally we have an appointment to see the florist on Saturday followed by a visit to the venue to measure up for dance floors, lighting and all that jazz.

Not bad for one day.

Had a conversation with a friend the other day about how their wedding was a nightmare keeping everyone happy. Being honest I didn't understand. This is our day, we are planning it, we are paying for it, so frankly everyone else can just turn up, smile, eat, and dance. Although the table plan with separated parents might be fun... with my 'questionable' sense of humour however I might just put them all on one table...

Flights - Booked

19/01/2012 16:57:53

Small piece of news, but I have finally got round to booking our honeymoon flights today.

Rather then opt for the usual 2 hours of hell that is an EasyJet flight, Laura was fairly insistent that I book flights with BA. To be fair, even I must admit that it will be nice to fly with an airline where you don't have the mad scramble to get a seat next to each other. I'd hate to be stuck next to a fat man called Bob on my first flight as a married man.

So there we go, two return flights, with BA, from Heathrow. Booked.

Now we just need to blag ourselves a free upgrade, based on the fact it's our honeymoon - and unlike 99.6% of other people that try it, it actually WILL be our honeymoon.

Planning a wedding is easy, I don't know what I panicking about 8 hours ago.

A picture paints a thousand words.

19/01/2012 10:48:26

Well, after the venue, the next most important thing to us seemed to be the wedding photographer.

I've always considered myself quite 'arty' and do quite a lot of camera work myself, so had a fair idea of the style of photography we were looking for - nothing too formal, and definately a good selection of photographs in which the subjects have no idea they are even having their picture taken. Laura agreed. Which is fortunate.

So, we had a browse around the internet, and found a couple of local photographers who had some fantastic pictures on their websites.

The first one we met with was not particulary inspiring I have to say, and seemed to concentrate more on selling us a selection of photo albums post-wedding that were bound with everything from leather, to albino aligator skin (maybe not, but to give you an idea). Now don't get me wrong, the albums were lovely, but that's not why we were there. I felt a bit like if you go to a car dealership to buy a new car, and rather than answering your questions about the engine the salesman spends all his time trying to sell you chrome door knobs. Frustrating.

On the second meeting however, we hit the jackpot. Nicky invited us to her place in Bristol and we sat in her living room with a nice cuppa and answered questions about our big day whilst we browsed through her incredibly impressive portfolio of previous weddings. I think both myself and Laura knew straight away that we liked Nicky, and most importantly could imagine her fitting in to our big day - after all, she is effectively a guest at our wedding, so we felt this was important as I'm a firm believer that a photographer gets the best photos when everyone is at ease with them.

Unlike our previous encounter, Nicky showed us some albums but there was no pushyness, and more importantly she said we could go back to her whenever we like after the wedding to arrange this side of it. Which is good, and I think a very good idea. After all, wedding days are bloody expensive, so in the run up you might not be so keen to spend hundreds of pounds on a stunning album of the events of your big day... but a month or two afterwards, when your bank balance starts to go black again, you would be far more likely to shell out a bit extra on something special.

Amusingly, Nicky was sporting a rather impressive broken foot at the time, and after assuring us she would do her very best not to break any bones in the 3 months before our wedding, we were sold. We left feeling good that one of our 'biggies to sort' could be crossed off the list and above all confident that Nicky will make our day look as stunning in photos as we hope it will be on the day.

As a footnote, just a bit of a congrats from myself and Laura as Nicky herself got married just a couple of weeks ago :)

Check out Nickys profile here - http://www.thebridalfile.co.uk/wedding_photographers/city_of_bristol/nicola_jane_photography.html - and if you are getting married, I'd highly recommend giving her a call.