Following our lovely week in the Cotswolds we returned home on Saturday evening. I spent the rest of the evening with bridesmaids Lucy and Karen-Louise then we went to the wedding fair at our reception venue yesterday.
We went with very specific objectives in mind which were to book the florist, the chair covers and look at cakes. We had a very productive hour and managed to accomplish each item which was great and it takes care of the major remaining items on our list.
The florist we booked is Val Hamilton, whose arrangements we had previously seen at the last wedding fair and open day we attended at Norton House and really liked, especially the tall table centres. The arrangements she was showing yesterday were also really nice and she had plenty of examples of bouquets to look at as well. As she doesn't have a shop, and only concentrates on wedding flowers, she is able to keep her prices reasonable and it means that any appointments can also be made at weekends or in the evenings which suits me better since the studio isn't based in Edinburgh. We didn't get a chance to speak to Val at the fair, just her colleague but the next step is for me to make an appointment to go and see her and discuss ideas.
After looking at many cake makers previously, most hideously overpriced, we came across Cakes by Elinor at the fair. We saw a really lovely 3-tier cake which was the sort of style & design we were looking for, including square tiers, plenty of ribbons & sugar flowers. We wanted to make sure they were available for our date so we paid the £40 deposit there and then. We are going to have the same sort of cake that we saw, but with 4-tiers instead of 3. Thankfully its only £50 more for the extra tier, unlike another company we spoke to the same day, who wanted to charge £200 for the extra tier! We are also going to have different fillings in each tier as Graham doesn't like fruit cake but I would like to have some on the bottom tier and hopefully the top so we can keep it afterwards {which is the main reason for the extra tier!} We will meet with Elinor in January to finalise our design.
With the last of the main items complete, we also looked at the two chair cover companies that were exhibiting on the day. We thought it was so much easier to get the ones here as we didn't have to worry about seeing the covers on the chairs or if they would fit which we would have had with other companies. I will admit that they are still quite expensive for what they are, and that many people don't see the point of them, but its something we both wanted to have and had calculated into our budget. We did end up going with the slightly cheaper company as the other was just too much and we thought they looked better on the chairs. We paid the deposit to Ambience venue styling who are based just a couple of miles from our venue and we will finalise the tie colour and exact number required about 4 weeks before the wedding. She showed us a dark purple colour they called plum which was similar to the bridesmaids dress colour which will probably work well. It was similar to the photo below, maybe a bit darker and I think its going to look fab.
So it was a very successful planning day and I feel much happier with our progress. We have tickets to another wedding fair in Edinburgh on the 8th of November but I'm not sure we need to go now, as we already know which rings we are going to order and Graham knows where he is ordering his kilt from. I may go to have a look at veils, tiaras and shoes, since that's the other things I need including jewellery but I may use the time to continue with the invites instead!
We went with very specific objectives in mind which were to book the florist, the chair covers and look at cakes. We had a very productive hour and managed to accomplish each item which was great and it takes care of the major remaining items on our list.
The florist we booked is Val Hamilton, whose arrangements we had previously seen at the last wedding fair and open day we attended at Norton House and really liked, especially the tall table centres. The arrangements she was showing yesterday were also really nice and she had plenty of examples of bouquets to look at as well. As she doesn't have a shop, and only concentrates on wedding flowers, she is able to keep her prices reasonable and it means that any appointments can also be made at weekends or in the evenings which suits me better since the studio isn't based in Edinburgh. We didn't get a chance to speak to Val at the fair, just her colleague but the next step is for me to make an appointment to go and see her and discuss ideas.
After looking at many cake makers previously, most hideously overpriced, we came across Cakes by Elinor at the fair. We saw a really lovely 3-tier cake which was the sort of style & design we were looking for, including square tiers, plenty of ribbons & sugar flowers. We wanted to make sure they were available for our date so we paid the £40 deposit there and then. We are going to have the same sort of cake that we saw, but with 4-tiers instead of 3. Thankfully its only £50 more for the extra tier, unlike another company we spoke to the same day, who wanted to charge £200 for the extra tier! We are also going to have different fillings in each tier as Graham doesn't like fruit cake but I would like to have some on the bottom tier and hopefully the top so we can keep it afterwards {which is the main reason for the extra tier!} We will meet with Elinor in January to finalise our design.
With the last of the main items complete, we also looked at the two chair cover companies that were exhibiting on the day. We thought it was so much easier to get the ones here as we didn't have to worry about seeing the covers on the chairs or if they would fit which we would have had with other companies. I will admit that they are still quite expensive for what they are, and that many people don't see the point of them, but its something we both wanted to have and had calculated into our budget. We did end up going with the slightly cheaper company as the other was just too much and we thought they looked better on the chairs. We paid the deposit to Ambience venue styling who are based just a couple of miles from our venue and we will finalise the tie colour and exact number required about 4 weeks before the wedding. She showed us a dark purple colour they called plum which was similar to the bridesmaids dress colour which will probably work well. It was similar to the photo below, maybe a bit darker and I think its going to look fab.
Cadbury purple tie on white chair covers
So it was a very successful planning day and I feel much happier with our progress. We have tickets to another wedding fair in Edinburgh on the 8th of November but I'm not sure we need to go now, as we already know which rings we are going to order and Graham knows where he is ordering his kilt from. I may go to have a look at veils, tiaras and shoes, since that's the other things I need including jewellery but I may use the time to continue with the invites instead!
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