You may have noticed that we Veggie Runners have been a bit on the quiet side these past couple of weeks. This is because Bibi got married last weekend so we were a little bit pre-occupied. It was the perfect day, full of love, joy, laughter and, of course, tears – and not just mine! It all went like clockwork too, so any heightened emotions on the day were all about the wedding, not about the logistics. Given this, we are now able to bring you top tips for planning the perfect wedding day, based on experience! It’s not exactly a running post (though, as usual, the day did start with running). It does fit with our approach to making life as mindful and stress free as possible though. Plus it gives me chance to share these photos of my gorgeous little girl on her wedding day.
Don’t Interfere
This tip is for the family. Bibi and her new husband, Adam, did all the planning for their big day, from invitations, through guest list, to catering – and everything in between. The rest of the family left them to it, wanting them to have exactly the kind of wedding they wanted – no opinions were offered unless asked for, no requests for guest places for obscure aunts or comments on what the food should be like. The whole family paid into the wedding, the bride and groom included, but our only other input was to do anything they asked us to do.
Set A Budget And Stick To It
As you’ll know from past posts on the blog, we hate waste in any form. Bibi wanted her wedding to be special, of course, but aimed to make it that way without overspending. She bought her dress from a thrift store in Canada and had it altered and had her veil made at the wonderful vintage Bridal Emporium in Leeds. We didn’t have cars on the day, choosing instead to walk the few hundred metres to the venue, the stunning Russell Cotes Art Gallery in Bournemouth. Everything else about the wedding was done in the same vein. The guest list was kept to a strict 80 people. The DJs were friends and family (one of whom does happen to be an actual DJ, my sister Sally from A Man Called Adam and the other was our good friend, David, who’s made loads of our great free running mixes, so he really knows his music shiz too). Every decision was made on how to keep things low cost but high quality.
Use Online Tools For Planning
There are millions of things to remember when planning a wedding but thankfully there are now loads of online tools to make it easy. Bibi pulled together some of the best of these for her wedding. Check out her Planning Your Wedding Without Losing Your Cool post, which details all the online resources she and Adam used to make it all as stress-free as possible.
Get Guests Together Before The Big Day
We had a drinks reception the night before the wedding to let people get to know each other. Nothing fancy, just a room in a pub and people bought their own drinks. This meant that the whole wedding party was the best of friends by the time the got to the ceremony. The chat flowed freely, there were no awkward conversations round the tables at the reception and everyone was up on the dance floor together as soon as the music started. It’s such a simple idea but it really made a difference to the tone of the wedding – plus we all have new friends for life now!
Ban Phones From The Ceremony
Bibi and Adam asked guests not to use their phones during the ceremony, not because they were being precious about their image but because they wanted everyone to really share the occasion. The unplugged ceremony meant that nothing was mediated through screens and that everyone paid attention to every single word of the ceremony. I know this is true because every single person their, including people who insist they never cry, was blubbing by the end of the ceremony! Hundreds of photos were taken after the ceremony – no ban there – but keeping the service tech-free made it truly magical.
Check out the stunning photos in the link below from fantastic photographer, Paul Underhill. He’s a definite recommendation if you have upcoming nuptials – friendly, fun and blended in with the party so well he could easily have been one of the guests!
Bibi – you look stunning! Your dress is beautiful! I hope you thoroughly enjoyed every minute of your wedding. 🙂
Although we didn’t ban phones from any part of our wedding day, we kindly asked our guests not to visit or share images on social media during the day. Our guest list was around 80 in number too and we wanted to spend the day with those people. So often I have seen at weddings where guests have been scrolling through Facebook and not interacting with other guests, which is rather sad.