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WeddingsOnline.ie

Fiona & Dave

"Planning the Wedding"

In my current job, I have had to organise two large medical conferences and this experience has definitely helped me in organising my wedding. Without this experience, I would have cracked up as I have had to do almost everything myself. My family and friends live in the North, and I live and am having the wedding in Dublin, so I have not been able to delegate but as I am a control freak I probably wouldn't have delegated anyway! However, it would have been nice to have someone to accompany me on trips or to give me their opinion. My fiancé is a head chef and works evenings and weekends, so I didn't have his company either. However, all that said I am enjoying myself immensely and will be really sad when it is all over, and I will have to find another hobby to occupy my time!

With the exception of organising the wedding cars, the men?s' outfits, wine and getting my shoes dyed, I have done everything else - accommodation, maps, stationery, everything to do with the ceremony, the band, the cake, dealing with the reception venue, the flowers, make-up and hairstylist, the photographer, the wedding rings and the honeymoon. Personally, I think I deserve a medal but I got an ulcer instead! I tried to get Dave involved but with his working hours being so contrary to mine, this was not really possible.

A critical time was about 6 weeks ago, when the wedding stress got too much for me, I wasn't feeling well, Dave and I weren't getting along too well and I was feeling depressed and finally burst into tears in public. We decided to make a point of a night out together, but with my ulcer (which has since been cured I'm glad to say) I wasn't really up to it. Now, however, at the 6 week mark as most things have been done, my health is improved and I can finally sit back and see everything coming together just as I want it, I am a lot calmer and so excited. I can understand why some people would hire someone to do the organizing for them, as Dave and I have not had enough time for just us over the last 6 months. All that will of course be put right on the honeymoon and when we come home to start our new lives together as husband and wife.

Louise & Ed

"Planning the Wedding"

We got engaged six months before our wedding day. Given the time scale we needed to get plans into place very quickly. Luckily we are both organised people and my speciality is project planning. It's amazing how you take care of detail when you are forking out your own money!!!!

The first thing I did was set up a project plan!!!! For those of you who know project management the first think is to set down milestones in the run up to any event. There are tons of details to remember, as I am a firm believer in the detail.

That is where people will notice the difference. Ed was great in that regard. We broke the plan into a number of areas like The "church", the "reception", the "honeymoon" and "wedding attire". We then made a note of what had to be done and then assigned tasks to different people.

We had the added disadvantage of living in Germany so we really had to be super organised. I really feel that it pays off at the end of the day. I want to be relaxed on my wedding day - I don't want to feel stressed. Of any bride I've spoken to after the wedding - the advice is always - "DELEGATE" - this is your day - and people are only too happy to help with small details.

Jillian & Niall

"Planning the Wedding"

I really don't think Niall and I realised just how much planning goes into a wedding until we were planning our own! Any friends who have got married have all said the same thing. Niall and I have planned the entire wedding ourselves, which is a great achievement but also one very big headache! I can honestly say that there have been days when I've felt like chucking it all in and eloping with Niall!! There have been tears, tempers flaring and tantrums but there have also been some great moments of sheer happiness, lots of laughter and great excitement (I'm glad to say that it's mainly been the latter).

Our planning started in July last year when we gathered together as much information as possible on everything for the wedding- hotels, bands, photographers, flowers, music/singers for the church, wedding stationery etc. At first, Niall didn't seem to be too interested in organising anything and was only too happy to leave everything to me! However, I was having none of that so I started delegating! Delegation - one of the best things a bride to be can do!! I got Niall to research photographers and wedding cars for starters and after that he was very much involved in the whole planning process.

Once we had booked everything, we started a plan for the year using the calendar on our computer. We used the calendar as a checklist with reminder dates such as when to give the notice of our marriage to the Registrar, when to contact the band to confirm our booking (very important that) etc. but also with target dates by which we were to have certain things done, e.g. organising suit hire. The list seemed endless but it was invaluable and such a great idea!

When we reached the "eight weeks to go" mark we sat down and revised our list. We set ourselves some more targets but we didn't stick to them at all! Never one to panic, Niall told me not to get too caught up with our list - I think he was concerned that I was turning into a bit of a Monica from Friends!! I'm a dreadful worrier and I was becoming very concerned that we hadn't got some things done by the target dates! Niall's helped me to realise that it's not the end of the world if we don't have something done in time; after all it's not a military operation we're organising!!

With only ten days to go to our big day, we're finding that there's hardly a minute to spare! There are certain things that can only be done at this stage such as seating plans, contacting the hotel with final head count, final fittings, preparing wedding speeches, hen and stag parties etc. They're little things but they all add up!

The advice I have been given from other brides is that there's no point in getting stressed out with all the plans, the best thing to do is to relax and enjoy the week leading up to the wedding because it's such a special time. So I'm doing exactly that!

Claire & Gary

"Planning the Wedding"

As our wedding plans have progressed I think we both have worked hard to try and make something of our day. There are certain things that Gary could not help organise, like dresses and flowers etc and then other things that he doesn't want to organise like table decorations and other "girlie" things - so those were things that I took care of.

Gary organised the cars, the honeymoon, the suits, the order of service and the music for the church and reception (as long as it was the music that I wanted!). The only things that we have both organised/fought about are the invitation list and the meal at the reception. At least at this stage the invitations have gone out, well most of them have but there are still issues to be discussed over the meal.

At the end of the day I do not think that it will really matter what we have to eat on the day. I know that I will be that hyped up that you could put a plate of super noodles in front of my face and I still would not notice. It is becoming more difficult to actually spend time together as the big day draws closer.

There are a lot of things that you can't actually do until your wedding is four or five weeks away and most evenings there just is not enough time. At this stage I have to book Gary?s time about a week in advance if we want to do something together.

One thing we both decided to do was to take a few days off work a few weeks before the wedding otherwise by the time the actual day arrives we would both be absolutely wrecked and that would be no fun.