Every girl dreams of her dream wedding.
The dress, the venue and the man.
Sometimes though, you realise that a lot of these are societal expectations, obviously not the dream man part!
We didn't have a fairytale engagement, though it is a funny story involving a trip to Paris, cocktails in Bearsden and the bathroom at my mum's house - but that's a story for another time.
When Simon popped the question it was a very emotional time for me, as I mentioned in a previous post I lost my gran, so it was really important to me that she made it to my wedding. I also lost one of my Papas, so I had to make a couple of decisions.
Firstly, if I wanted to have my grandparents at my wedding we'd need to put our foot on the gas and get it done.
Secondly, could I see past the dream wedding that we're all programmed to want? If I'm totally honest, my wedding was never exclusively about me and Simon, yes it's our big day and one that we'll remember for the rest of our lives; but it's important that your guests enjoy it too!
I'm lucky in more ways than one in my marriage, but in Simon I found someone happy to take my bizarre ideas and run with them. So when I suggested that we got married in nine weeks, I wasn't told no flat-out. I was told that we'd make it work.
TOP TIP: you may have found The One, but have you found someone that will share your views and efforts? You have your own vision, so make sure you're supported. Not only did we have no time, we had no money. Simon had money saved from when he was younger in an ISA, so instead of a tiny wedding in the church and then back to the pub it became a possibility that we might be able to have something slightly more traditional.
It was quite brass-necked, but we asked our families and guests to contribute to our future rather than buy us gifts, we still lived at my mum's and had begun to collect bits and pieces.
Top Tip: don't be embarrassed to ask for what you need. Maybe a gift list is more your thing, but if you've ploughed all your cash into your big day, money isn't the worst idea.
I knew straight off that I wanted to have a Catholic wedding in the church I've gone to since I was a child. Because Simon wasn't a Catholic we had to attend weekly meetings with the priest, basically just to be sure that I wasn't coercing Simon into marrying me, or vice versa. This gave us an hour each week among the madness of planning to talk properly about our plans, never underestimate having time to think amidst the craziness of a wedding.
Something I can’t stress enough is to talk, talk, talk. Whether you have nine weeks or nine months – the time will fly by and as with anything, communication is so important.
I'm super excited to create this series, I just celebrated my second wedding anniversary and have loved every minute so far!