Background:

I'm marrying my gf (same sex marriage) in December.

We aren't having bridesmaids or best men/women etc.

Both my parents have passed away.

Her parents are socially awkward to the point of rudeness. They have both said they are dreading the day and I know they're going to struggle with all the hoopla.

I am going to give a speech (the only speech of the day) and I'm stuck on how/if I thank her parents. They've not contributed financially to the wedding and I fear they will both burst into flames if I draw any attention to them.

Am I better off just not acknowledging them in the speech at all (feels brutal) or just give them a small thanks and hope they don't lose their minds?

Any thoughts?

Hi!

My fiancé and I are securing a date soon and would love any (not too crazy) priced recommendations for a day of coordinator in London. Would need assistance with a ceremony as well as reception!

Did anyone get married in a catholic church here? I hear they are strict about music. So the church where we will be has an organ and to be honest am not sure I like how it sounds but then I again maybe I am ignorant. Wanted to ask what songs did you have for the Catholic ceremony?

It’s really delicate so think I need delicate shoes, don’t know where to start. Any recommendations gratefully recieved 😊

My venue hasn't done a contract because it's classed as a private event not a wedding.

We've booked a hotel that is licenced for ceremonies (but having a celebrant so irrelevant) but because we're having a smaller event not booking out the whole place and all the rooms, they've said they don't use a contract. We are having the ceremony and then dinner for 30 in their private rooms. Should I be concerned?

Their communication is quite poor, I still have no idea what the final bill is going to be despite asking, or what happens if I do need to cancel. It's in June 2025 and we booked it in July 24

It's the perfect venue otherwise!

What tasks are people having their mother in law do? Mine is complaining that she’s not being involved enough in the wedding… I didn’t really want her seeing my dress as I didn’t want everyone to know details of it, or risk her showing people photos (she had already looked on the website trying to figure out which dress I got by this point), and she’s cornered my FH about the top table and is trying to dictate that. She’s now making issues about the guest list..

I’m thinking on giving her like a bathroom box to focus on, and maybe like a blanket box for if people want to go outside as we’re a november wedding - what else are people doing? Also thinking of having a separate mini hen do for family as I just want my friends there, so possibly get her to organise an afternoon tea?

The issue is most of the stuff is done now - my FH has to get a suit, but we’re worried she’s gonna say she hates what he likes (she’s done that with a suit for another family wedding)

I’ve told him we need to ask her how involved she wants to be and with what, cause our idea of her being involved might be very different from hers. But we did try to involve her from the start and she was the first to see the venue and find out the date and tbh, she shat all over it and said she didn’t like the venue and we shouldn’t get married on a Thursday, so I think sub consciously, we might have been a bit more guarded with things…

It’s really starting to get to me now, I don’t want to have to compromise on what I want and my happiness when I’m spending thousands on a wedding. She’s now only talking to my FH about the wedding as she doesn’t want to bring up anything to me cause she thinks I’ll say no, and is asking him if he’s happy with decisions that have been made and saying I’ve changed since we found the venue.

I really don’t want to give in and let her start calling the shots cause it will never stop, but I also just need her off my back

Does anyone have recommendations for any great and reasonable potential wedding venues in Yorkshire area, for about 100 people? We'd love somewhere with some countryside. We’ve been looking at places like Whitley Hall, Woodman Inn, and the Coniston Hotel - we are open to other ideas!

For background my partner is from the Sheffield area and I’m an American. We live abroad and already had a small civil ceremony at the embassy, but now want to celebrate with another ceremony and reception in England with family and friends who couldn’t make it. Appreciate any recommendations. Thank you!

We are looking at booking our wedding for April 2025 and are just looking at insurance options.

Thankfully ours is a small wedding/ reception held at an inn, so should be simple.

Reviews on all seem....mixed, but I suppose that's standard for insurance companies!

It seems like Wedcover or Emerald Life are the best of the crop.

Wedcover seems higher rated but has no rearrangements cover.

Any thoughts/ advice please? Many thanks!

We are looking to get married on a May bank holiday Monday but someone mentioned that vendors such as florists and hairdressers might be shut on these days? I’d imagine that if they do wedding flowers/hair they’d expect to open on a bank holiday for a wedding but not sure. Anyone had any experience with this, and do they charge any extra?

Hey girls ✨

My wedding is in two weeks and I still haven’t figured out how I’m walking down the aisle.

Of all the many, many wedding traditions rooted in patriarchy, the father walking the bride down the aisle and ‘giving her away’ is just not one I can get behind. I really don’t like the idea of it.

My instinct is to walk down the aisle by myself, but I’m afraid it will look and feel awkward, any some family members might take it to be a shun at my dad (who I don’t actually think would have a problem with it). I suppose I could do it with both parents, but I don’t really like that either! Seems like overkill

Has anyone walked themselves down the aisle? How did it go? Would you recommend it ?

Merci 🩷

Hey,

We’re looking to get married within the next couple years. We realized we need to give notice to the registrar and we were planning on trying to get done early enough so we have a years leeway. The sticking point is that we live outside of the UK and have no address there outside of friends and family. I read in the documentation that you need to have lived in the district for at least 7 days before giving notice.

How do you prove this when you don’t actually live there? The documentation said that if you don’t have a permanent address use a friends or family members. Do they just take you on your word that you’ve been there 7 days or are they looking for more concrete proof?

Thanks for any help!

Wedding is two weeks away - vendors are paid, place cards are printed, dress is ready and waiting - what else?

Anything last minute you can think of I might’ve forgotten? 😰

All suppliers for our wedding have asked us to enter into a contract, minus our makeup artist. I am now booking a hair stylist and the person I’m speaking to says they don’t use a contract either, and that paying a £50 deposit secures the date.

To me, this puts us both at risk? My wedding is in peak summer and either of us could cancel without notice. Her Instagram/website looks professional and she has done a lot of weddings.

I just feel quite unnerved without a contract - am I overreacting or is this normal?

UPDATE: despite confusing guidance the registrar was fine with an online statement from Revolut and seemingly couldn’t care less, phew

Hiya, giving notice tomorrow, on Richmond council website I just read this line in “supporting documents” for proof of address - statements printed from an online provider must be verified by the service provider. Whereas on gov.uk they don’t mention any of this bs. Good luck getting anything verified from Monzo, Revolut or any other online only banks? Our utility bills are for joint names, so my bank statement would be the safest bet (diving license has the old address yay)

So did anyone recently give notice at Richmond with “unverified” bank statements? Thank you

Hi all,

We will be travelling from AU to have a symbolic ceremony in the UK with our UK based family (we will do legal bit in our country)next year August. This will be a very intimate wedding with 10-15 people max. I am struggling to find a suitable venue that caters to this size. I’m finding it even harder with not being familiar with the Uk. Desperately seeking in any locations or venues. If anyone knows of Airbnb that would cater that would be a bonus. many thanks!!

Apologies if this isn’t the right sub! Please feel free to delete or redirect.

So much of this may sounds quite alien and frankly borderline silly, but here goes!

I’m quite a private person, and was a little apprehensive posting our engagement on socials, but eventually did because my fiancé thought it would look weird if he posted it and I didn’t do anything. I don’t post very much and if I do it’s normally quite rare, and on Instagram.

Now I’m starting to get worried about the wedding. I’m really not looking forward to the whole social media deal. The compromise I’m thinking was posting a “non-descript” picture (no full-body/faces, etc.) from the day with the status update, so I don’t look bad for not posting anything. I think I’m coming round to being okay with it.

However, biggest my worry is other people. There’s obviously nothing you can do to stop people from taking pictures and posting them anyway, because that would be unrealistic and I have no right to control what people put on their pages! It just makes me anxious, because I keep wishing it could be kept private so we can show people pictures in person from our album, that feels more personal and touching to me (this genuinely isn’t me trying to slam social media, I’m happy for other brides to splash their pics if that’s how they want to share it!).

I think a bit crux of this is that I have also disowned a family member who I want to shield my life from after they’ve abused me and my parents. I’m scared of others potentially being a leak or not private enough and them getting a hold of my life.

What can I do to reconcile myself knowing my photos will get out there anyway, and essentially “get over” this anxiety? I know it’s an odd situation but I just need advice or even my thoughts picked apart

Does anyone have very dry skin and have any wedding make up tips to do it yourself? Also very pale and cool toned!

I'm currently planning a London 2025 wedding, and am deciding whether or not to get professional hair and make-up. From what I've seen the services a lot of it is exactly what I would be looking for? A lot of bridal hair and make-up seems to be angled towards a specific type of look – not sure how to describe it! – whereas I kind of want to go for a more "rockstar" vibe, so something a little on the theatrical end of things. The wedding is literally taking place in a theatre, for context.

Part of me wonders if I should be looking for freelance hair/make-up artists who work more in the theatre/cabaret type world – has anyone else turned to these types of freelancers? If so, how did you find them? Were costs similar to the more "traditional" MUAs? Were the results fabulous? Should I just learn to apply my own make-up?? Any advice gratefully received!!

I just bought my dress for 50% off but the boutique has now dropped even further to 70% as they close in 4 weeks. If they have styles that you like and work for you for size, I highly recommend you check them out to get a great deal! It’s called LeSposi in Great Kimble

Having 2nd wedding next year, and not sure if I’m having “wedding party”, the idea of which is a bit confusing for me. My 2 SC are very keen to be my bridesmaids and I’ll be getting them nice outfits and flowers etc, and with that I just don’t see the point of having grown up bridesmaids. I’ll have a few friends helping with a few tasks on the day, and will thank them after with smth special; a group of friends is in charge of a hen do, which should be v low key and not too much pressure on the budget. Why spend money on dresses they won’t wear again?

I'm a US bride, probably planning for 2026, and my fiancé is from Scotland, where we’re hoping to have our wedding. We’re currently based in the US, so planning an international wedding remotely is a bit of a challenge. I’m doing lots of vendor research but also would love to get a realistic idea of how to budget based on actual, real weddings in Scotland since I’ve noticed some differences in costs — for example, photographers and florals in the US are often way pricier than similar style ones in the UK.

I've already received several quotes for venues in and around Edinburgh, so at least I’m starting to get a feel for that cost (and I'm open to venue recommendations!). But before we commit to a venue (+food and drink packages with their caterers), I’d love to know what we can expect to spend on other key areas so we don’t have to cut corners later on.

Does anyone have a go-to blog or website (aside from this sub) that shares detailed budget/spend breakdowns from real weddings in Scotland or the UK more broadly? (Something like this US-based example: Luxurious Destination Wedding in Mexico). I’ve tried Google but haven’t had much luck finding specifics, maybe because I'm in the US?

Thanks in advance! I’ve already learned so much from this sub :)

Hiya - wanted to get a feel for what people think is a reasonable travel expectation for guests.

Background: my FH is from a different country so we are going to plan a wedding somewhere in continental Europe (country TBD). So already a bit of an ask of UK guests to fly to the wedding, but there is no avoiding that for at least 50% of the guests since he's not from here. We will probably have around 60 guests and will try to keep costs low for them where we can e.g., might subsidise accommodation, etc. The cost of this kind of travel (with 12mo+ notice) wouldn't be a significant burden for any of my friends or family.

My question is - what is the 'limit' of what people will consider reasonable for travel? e.g., is a 2hr drive from an airport at the other end too far? Is it unreasonable to arrange something near a smaller airport that doesn't have a ton of flight options / multiple flights a day?

Appreciate this is a bit of a vague question but just want to try to put some sort of limit around the areas that we're considering, narrowing down venues is kind of overwhelming!! TIA

ETA: Appreciate all the feedback so far and this has been really helpful to narrow down the types of options that we'll discuss with friends and family as a next step. For what it's worth, the two examples I listed above (2hr drive from airport / airport with fewer flights options) were intended more as examples of what the 'red lines' might be, not things that we are necessarily considering. I know it's a big ask for people to travel to a wedding and if we had an alternative option we would avoid it, but unfortunately being from different countries this is looking like the least worst option that is fairest to both sets of family and friends. All the feedback on how we can mitigate the burden is super helpful and we will be taking a lot of these tips on board!!

Hiya, does anyone have any ideas where to get super long table runners please? We have four long tables (6.5 metres long or so) and I really want some fun pink table runners for them, but unsurprisingly all runners are for normal tables.

I’ve booked a farmhouse for my sisters (f33) hen - she isn’t the clubbing type. For 10 people - spa on arrival day, hotel dinner then a “drunken sleepover.” We’ve paid for 2 nights because we didn’t want to be checking out at 10am whilst still drunk/ chronically hungover. Any ideas what we could do the 2nd day when everyone is feeling a bit bleurgh and skint ..? I can’t think of anything worse than doing cocktail making/ pottery classes etc when hungover and also skint.

So far I’ve come up with like an afternoon tea in our pjs, maybe a movie night but any other cheap and easy going ideas??

Hi all! I have been searching everywhere for a playsuit for my wedding reception. I have found the absolute PERFECT one from Rosa Clara (link here: https://www.rosaclara.es/en/product/dorleta), but brand new it's completely out of my budget! I have searched all the second hand sites including Still White, Vinted, Oxfam online, Ebay etc but I haven't found it or anything like it.

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions at all? I would also be happy with a jumpsuit in a similar style which I could tailor to make into shorts on the playsuit. Ideally I'd like something backless/low back, and would be great if it was lace but I'm willing to compromise on this. Any suggestions deeply appreciated! xx

Short version of a long story; My fiancé has a dysfunctional family and isn’t massively close to her brother although they keep in touch via text fairly often.

She and him recently had a falling out which ended with him sending a very long, very personal and very unpleasant message to her which upset her a lot.

Our wedding is in 7 weeks and he has previously confirmed his attendance (pre-argument.We no longer want him there as he’s behaved so badly and has said some things which show him to be a severely toxic person. My OH has no idea what her brother is planning to do now as communications are now down between them. How do we go about uninviting him? Do we assume he won’t turn up as he was so rude in his message?

Such a mess. Sorry for the rant. Can anyone advise?

Hi Everyone!

I’m planning my wedding at Thornbridge Hall near Bakewell in Derbyshire. I’m looking for recommendations on bands and photographers right now. I’m hoping this page can help since I’m in NYC and don’t have access to much local knowledge.

Photographer - looking for someone who can do timeless images that are more editorial and not edited to be darker which seems to be a current trend. It would be great if the photographer could shoot both digitally and on film.

Videographer - not as important to me but looking for someone to capture our moments.

Bands - looking for a really fun band that can play all different types of music - Taylor swift, oasis, Robbie Williams, Harry styles, classics, and more. I’m finding a lot of bands that are men and would really love to have some female vocals. Additionally I’d like to have a band that can do an early set up and have some acoustic music during the cocktail hour.

If you have any recommendations please send them my way, thank you!!!

Hoping to get some ideas if anyone can think of something! I have a box of my Dad's old vinyl records, my Dad passed away December 2023 and I thought incorporating them into the wedding in some way might be a nice idea and a bit of a tribute to him as he was really into his music and so am I. I've seen people use them as charger plates but I'm not sure as they could get ruined, I'm sure a lot of them aren't playable due to their age but even so I wouldn't like them to get broken.

Please comment if you have an idea I would appreciate it a lot 😊