Garth and Louise's 2018 New Forest Wedding

[LostPrincess]

Photography

We have now booked our wedding photographer! We went to meet Rhinefield House Hotel's recommended photographer Martin Bell a few weeks ago. It just so happens he got married at our venue on the same date we have booked so it's destiny! His pictures were amazing and he was so friendly so we've signed the contract and paid the deposit! We had quite a large budget of £2000 because we didn't want to scrimp on our photos, they are the only things besides the rings that will last from the day. Our package cost £1950 and includes:

Engagement photo shoot with one framed 8x6 photograph of our choice
Coverage from Bridal preparations to first dance
A slideshow set to music containing your wedding photographs
All edited high resolution jpeg photographs on a bespoke USB, licensed for re-printing
Queensberry wedding album

We were going to do our own wedding album but having seen them at our meeting with Martin they really are something special and we won't be regretting this decision in years to come!

The deposit was £300 and we don't need to pay the rest until 1 month before the wedding day which is handy.

In other news we have met with one florist who was lovely, but Martin recommended another florist who works with the venue a lot and we're arranging a meeting with them. Hopefully at the next update we'll have our flowers sorted!

[LostPrincess]

It’s been a while since I updated as university has been sooooo busy. We’ve booked a few things though and are making good progress so thought I’d do an update.

Accommodation
Knowing that our venue is 45 mins from home and the morning of the wedding is going to be a busy one, I wanted to book a B&B for myself, close family and bridesmaids. Brockenhurst is a lovely little village with loads of B&Bs but most of them only have a few bedrooms. In our research we found Daisybank Cottage.

(Picture from TripAdvisor)
It has 7 rooms so it's more than big enough and they were willing to do us a deal on booking the whole place! We've taken up 5 rooms with BMs, parents and my siblings so have 2 rooms left that we'll offer to family nearer the time. The rooms are all so big and beautiful!

(Picture from Sawday's)
We went to visit the owners in person and they were so friendly, kind and accommodating. Because we're so young I feel sometimes intimidated by suppliers, and feel like people are judging us. I did not get this feeling at all here. We’ll be staying here the night before the wedding, then the others will stay the night of the wedding as well while I’m in Rhinefield’s honeymoon suite!

Florist
We were really unsure about where to go for our florist so started looking online and met one but we didn't really feel like she was interested, she took ages to send the quote and then didn't really respond to our questions so we figured it best not to choose someone like that. We then followed a recommended supplier of the hotel who did amaaazing flowers and stunning venue decor but were very keen on which centrepieces were the "best" for our venue... and they were £250 each! That quote came to £1800! So after having met two florists we had a firm idea of what we wanted, and what we didn't want, and decided to go local. We visited Corbin's Florist in Brockenhurst and met lovely Sarah and decided we wanted to go with them. My bouquet will be a pink shades, creams, whites and greens, made up of pale pink Roses, cream Roses, pink Hydrangea, pink Bouvardia, white Astilbe, and a nice selection of foliage. Should look something like this

(Picture from google)
Bridesmaids will have white hydrangea bunches.

(Picture from pinterest)
We also have buttonholes, corsages for Mums and wrist corsages for Garth’s “best women”. On the tables we have short silver candelabras with a wreath of flowers matching my bouquet, and then we’re having fishbowls on the top table to plonk the bouquets in to reuse them! We’ve also got candles on the top table. Depending on how many centerpieces we have this all comes to £900, half the price of the other supplier. We had budgeted around £1000 so this comes under budget, and depending how budget works out we may decide on a formal arrangement for the top table but we’ll see.

Ice Cream!
We knew from the start we wanted an ice cream bike for after the ceremony. Rhinefield recommended Brock Ice so we enquired and got a quote for £315. This includes 7 ice cream flavours of our choice, toppings and sauces. The bike looks so cute and we’re so excited for this part of our day.

(Picture from Brock Ice website)

So we're slowly getting through things that need sorting! Next on the to-do list is DJ and cake, although I’m in two minds about the cake. There will be cakes included in the afternoon tea so I’m thinking of maybe having something like this?

(Picture from google)

Garth and I love cheese and after eating our body weight in it over Christmas I think it’d be a great idea! We'll have to do some research.

We're also thinking constantly about our honeymoon. First we wanted a west coast road trip but I just don't know if we can afford to do it how we want to, it might be worth waiting a few years so we can make the most out of it. We considered a budget Orlando but we're doing a big one this year so it just won't compare. We may well have a really cheap week away and then have a delayed Disneymoon once we're settled. Something to be thinking about anyway.

That's all for now! Hopefully won't be too long until the next things are sorted

[Nesbits]

It all sounds wonderful. A cheese wedding cake - how original

[Yorkie Girl]

I love your flower ideas x and also the cheese cake

[plutofan1]

All coming together
Rhinefield house is beautiful
Love reading your plans my dd is getting married next year and is nearly all booked and organised and as she is getting married from where she now lives I feel a little bit out of it at times.

[Jesslydevie1]

All sounds like it is coming along , love the ice cream cart .