With the Christmas build up well and truly upon us, we are so excited to share with you part 3 of Lauren & Matts wedding planning blog. For this special Christmas edition, Lauren has handed the pen over to Matt, so we can gain a little insight into planning a wedding from the grooms perspective. Over to you Matt....
So the time has come for the Christmas special, and at the time of writing there are only 13 sleeps until Father Christmas arrives! The time has also come for a non-bride, Bride blog! I should start by saying 'hello' - my name is Matt West and I'm very lucky to say on 1st September 2018, I will be getting married to Lauren in St Peter's Church, before celebrating with our closest family and friends at Coombe Trenchard. Lauren and I really wanted to do something different for this bride blog and give you a different perspective - so here I am coming at things from the Grooms angle.
Lauren and I had been together for just over 6 years when I found the perfect moment to ask Lauren the big question. I always knew that I wanted to ask Lauren in St Ives, as we have so many memories down there - its almost like our second home, away from where we currently are and where we grew up. I kept the buying of the ring to the very last minute to ensure that there was as little time to slip up as possible, however trying to keep it all a secret for the 3 days we were away was exceptionally tough. I think I did a pretty good job, until Lauren asked me to borrow my jacket...with the ring on the inside pocket...on the evening I popped the question, so I'd like to think it was a pretty good, non-surprising surprise!
From the moment we got engaged, I'm confident that Lauren (like most brides out there) had our dream day all lined up in her head. However, I was also pretty confident that I wanted to have as much involvement in planning the day as possible and make it a team effort. As soon as we returned from our trip to Cornwall, Lauren started to get her wedding planning hat on! I knew that Lauren was a super planner but she had everything lined up thanks to the handy BrideBook app, and I think she set herself the task of outperforming the app and beating the recommended timeline!
For me, a wedding is about the two people who are 'tying the knot' and I'd like to think that our day represents what Lauren and I are about really well. We have kept our guest list to the people who mean the most to us from really close friends and family only, and we were certain that we only wanted people along who we would remember in 5 years time (and beyond!). This perfectly represents Lauren and I to a tee, as we are not big showy people either - its all about having a good time, celebrating our relationship so far and getting excited the rest of our lives together.
I can't believe that by the end of 2017 we have all of the 'big' elements of our wedding lined up:
Coombe Trenchard - as soon as we walked around the beautiful venue, we knew that there was no other place that could potentially compare to the atmosphere and surroundings you experience here.
St Peter's Church - a quaint little church just a 5 minute walk down the way from Coombe Trenchard, a perfect size to fit our relatively small wedding party.
Dress and shoes - the only thing I know nothing about (and don't planning on finding out until 2pm on 1st September 2018!)
Bridemaid's dresses - this was definitely the biggest challenge is finding something that suited 3 of Lauren's closest friends.
Suits - something I took the lead on! We have definitely gone traditional with tails and a top hat for me!
Save the dates - a labour of love and an afternoon of painting and stencilling with 2 very excited cats!
Music - an incredible string quartet (Lauren always dreamed of this) and a DJ to play during the evening.
Flowers
Cake - we still have cake tasting still to come...yippee!
Food - what a great way to spend a birthday, we sat out in the gardens of Coombe Trenchard just under a year from the biggest day of our lives testing and sampling our potential wedding breakfast.
1st September 2018 is not that long away, and I have to say that the ride to get to where we are has been enjoyable, and far less stressful than I would have imagined. As a groom, you always hear people talk about the impending threat of a Bridezilla - but I haven't seen anything of the sort and the planning (and food-testing!) has been nothing but enjoyable. Long may it continue for the next 9 months and beyond!
Happy Christmas 2017 -
'So often we become focussed on the finish line we fail to enjoy the journey' (Dieter F Uchtdorf)