Tuesday 21 June 2011

Read all about our final bride to be Sandy Gaggini's wedding plans!

Hi! I'm Sandy and will be regularly posting my blog on here!

I'd say I'm quite a relaxed and calm bride-to-be, definitely haven't turned into Bridezilla... Yet!!! I've been watching Don't Tell the Bride and if these guys can plan a wedding in a matter of weeks then I'm confident we'll do fine!


I never really thought of myself getting married so the wedding planning process is very new and I'm starting completely from scratch with no pre-existing thoughts or ideas.


My fiance, Adam and I got engaged Boxing Day. We live in Birmingham but Adam is originally from Manchester and so had spent Christmas day with his Family up north and I'd spent Christmas with my Mum in the Midlands. We'd exchanged presents but had decided to keep one present back to open together! I unwrapped what I thought was just a Christmas present in front of a glowing Halogen heater as the boiler had packed in with the cold weather. It was a total surprise, an engagement ring that Adam had chosen all by himself and he popped the question! All I'd bought him was the Toy Story trilogy box set! I love the ring! Its modern and untraditional looking. I couldn't have chosen better!

The wedding is booked for March 17th 2012, St Patrick's day, but not a St Patrick day theme and neither of us is Irish!!!
We're getting married at a beautiful Roman Catholic Church and the Reception is at a Golf Club.

Invitations, Wedding Car and Photographer are sorted, and I am currently in the process of Wedding Dress shopping! Fun fun fun!


I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Introducing Angela Harkin our second bride to be!

Bridezilla? Me? No way! I think I’m in the unique position where my H2B is probably more demanding about our wedding than me!

My Groomzilla is my lovely John, who I met 3½ years ago. After whisking me off to Rome last October and getting down on one knee in front of the Trevi Fountain (and an audience of over a thousand tourists!), we returned to our hotel to be welcomed by a bottle of champagne on ice in the rooftop terrace. Little did we know that this trip would help us set the scene for our wedding plans and within a fortnight of returning home, we had our wedding booked at the Gailes Hotel, simply because it had a rooftop terrace! We’re a bit impulsive and believe fate has a hand in everything so our wedding is no different.

With just over a year to go until the big day (2nd July 2012), there is so much to think about….I mean, with so many choices out there nowadays, I really don’t know how we’re going to make decisions. We’ve recently been looking at cakes and that in itself has taken far too much of my time (and destroyed my waistline!).

Everyone seems to have a theme these days and we can’t be any different so our shared love of music and going to gigs will feature heavily in the wedding along with my love of stars (my one and only Bridezilla moment – let’s hope it doesn’t rear its head again!). We need to find something for my ten year old son, Ethan, to do at the wedding (apart from singing Tinie Tempah songs at the ceremony – as he requested last week!)

This will be my second wedding (but the most important!) and we don’t want it to be a small affair. We want it to be unique to us and hopefully, with all our ideas, it’ll be unforgettable for us and our guests. We want to enjoy the big day and I want John to enjoy being a Groomzilla!

Bring on the fun!

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Meet Katherine Charles, our first blogging bride!

I am definitely one of those girls who has dreamed about getting married since I was little. Interestingly, I never thought about the big white meringue dress or all the sparkly jewellery, I was just always excited about the thought of having all my friends and family celebrating together. So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to be surprised with a proposal from my (then) boyfriend David, back in September 2010.

We were on a road-trip down the west-coast of America and, up until that point, had had the most amazing holiday, seeing so many great things. Friends had joked to us before we went that we would come back engaged and, although I wasn’t expecting it, it had crossed my mind! I thought that if he was going to propose, he would do so while we were in Palm Springs at a very romantic hotel, however nothing happened. I wasn’t disappointed as we had only been together a short amount of time so I didn’t think any more of it. Little did I know, just 2 days later (on the 1 year anniversary of our first date), he would surprise me by getting down on one knee at the Grand Canyon. This was always set to be an amazing trip, as we had planned a sunset champagne picnic after flying over the Canyon in a helicopter – however, being proposed to made it absolutely unforgettable. I remember being so excited flying back to Las Vegas and couldn’t wait to phone home and tell my Mum! After that, we waited to tell everyone until we got back home a couple of days after...although I was allowed to buy a wedding magazine at the airport!

So, 9 months later, we are well underway with our wedding planning. We both love Christmas and decided to be a little different and opt for a winter wedding, so we are getting married on December 16th at Rivervale Barn in Hampshire. We are planning to have about 90 people to the day for a civil-ceremony, drinks reception and sit-down meal, followed by an evening reception where we will have an additional 40-50 guests. I have found the most gorgeous dress which I absolutely love and we have also organised the men’s suits (we will be having 2 ushers and 2 best men) and the bridesmaids dresses (I am having 4 bridesmaids) simply because 3 of them have/are emigrating to Australia before December (luckily they are coming back for the big day!). There is still lots to do...sorting out the food and drink, hair and make-up, flowers/decor and the smaller details like fittings, favours and thank you gifts, amongst other things.

My parents are divorced so my biggest challenge has been keeping everyone happy! To save any arguments, I am doing a few things the ‘non-traditional’ way, so I am having my Mum give me away and both my Dad and my Step-Dad delivering speeches. As my husband-to-be couldn’t choose his best man, he is having 2 of his closest friends and his brother will be our MC. We really wanted to involve our close family as much as possible. I am so excited about creating a really rustic feel at our gorgeous venue with lots of candles, ivy and glitzy Christmas accessories! Only 192 days to go (but who’s counting?!)...