Wedding Planning Stress

So back in February, I announced some exciting news. I got engaged! My wonderful boyfriend of two years spent a long time planning a treasure hunt around the house and eventually I found my engagement ring in a most unlikely place. I was ridiculously excited. I am so happy to be marrying the man of my dreams. And of course I said yes!

Of course I am a girl so naturally I've had my dream wedding planned out in my head for years. I began putting these plans together in earnest, doing research. creating pinterest boards and ordering samples of things. I know that a lot of the decorations are going to be home made by myself or one of my willing volunteers (Future mother in law is a whizz with the bunting!). We have planted the flowers that are going to be used, so will be doing all the flower arrangements and bouquets ourselves. (I say we, again it's the FMIL that will be leading the way because she is fantastic).

But now that's come down to actually planning things and booking things and asking for quotes, I had no idea that planning the happiest day of my life was going to be so stressful! Could somebody please have warned me? And do you know what's really annoying? Is that men really don't care about weddings. I sit there on pinterest in the evenings looking through table decorations and rustic looking cakes and show Rick and his response is a standard "yes that's nice". Some more feed back would be helpful dear. But let's be honest here, I will have the final say. And that's his argument. I see his point. He says that he would quite happily go down to the registry office, sign the paper and then have a meal at the pub. The wedding is for the girls. Yep.

We started our wedding fund as soon as we got engaged. We already had a bit saved up in individual saving funds but we decided if we were going to build our lives together, we needed to be more adult and have a joint account to be used for wedding savings in the mean time but for adult things after the wedding. We had quite a bit saved up, I was quite proud of our little fund. This week I have kicked off the plans by starting to book things in earnest. I have booked the catering, the band and the photographer. We have also been to see the reverend who will be marrying us and booked in the ceremony at st Peter's Church in Chillingham.

What is really terrifying is that I have spent most of our fund on deposits! Of course we have almost a year to continue saving and the saving plan that we've put in place in theory should mean that we have more than enough for the size of wedding that we would like. But seriously, weddings are expensive. It's frightening how much money Rick and I will be spending, considering we are going with the most economical options on things. How much do people usually spend on weddings?

Trying to sort out bridesmaid dresses that all my bridesmaids will agree with is also proving a challenge...but I think we've got it sorted out...just about.

To top it all off, the emerald in my engagement ring came loose so at the moment it is off being repaired. Rick was angry to say the least because of the time and effort he put into choosing that ring. After all the money stress, I was thinking "oh gosh, is this an omen? Is the universe trying to tell me that I'm spending too much money?" But I realised quickly that I was being hysterical.

I have downloaded a helpful app onto my phone called Wed Happy which is basically a hand held wedding planner. It's really useful. You can put in your budget and then it keeps track of how much you're spending so that you don't go over that budget. Although I'm fairly sure that we'll be going over budget. Don't tell Rick. The app also sends me little notifications to tell me to do things such as phone back the caterers or post save the date cards etc. Very handy.

Right now I am looking forward to the few days before the wedding where there is nothing else to be planned, everything is as prepared as it can be and I can just relax with my family. I will get my hair and nails done, eat some takeaway and prepare for the chaos and hectic-ness that will be my wedding day.

We have planned some fun things for the day as well which we are both really excited about. I've been to a few really boring weddings in my time where everyone stands around waiting for things to happen, and I didn't want that for my wedding. I can assure you that everybody will be entertained!

So, I will keep persevering and hopefully not lose many of my marbles. Do you have any wedding planning tips? Any ways to keep sane? Anything I should just chuck out? I would love to hear from you.