Nightmare On Nuptial Street

I will admit now, I can be a bit of a control freak, and I do like things to be perfect. Who doesn’t want their wedding day to go smoothly and just like they’ve been imagining throughout all that planning? But I’m not naïve enough to believe that as long as I’m super organised, there won’t be any hiccups. It’s inevitable, from what I can tell every wedding faces at least one or two bumps; I’m just hoping none of them are too bad.

With Halloween approaching, here are ten wedding horror stories  that I’ve been told about.

1. While my mum was training for her Sugar Craft qualification, a woman in her group had a friend who dropped an entire wedding cake. While taking it out to her car. On the morning of the wedding. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t just a case of a last minute touch up to a few flowers. She had to call the bride, and explain they would not be getting a wedding cake. I’m not sure who it sounded more stressful for, the bride or the cake maker!
   
2. My fiancé’s colleague got married this summer in Greece, around the time when travellers were being advised to take cash with them rather than rely on the banks. They followed this advice and ordered £2000 worth of Euros on a trusted currency exchange site. Which then got lost (or stolen) in the post two weeks before the wedding. It was covered by the insurance, but it would take at least three weeks to get sorted. Thankfully, friends and family came to the rescue and loaned them enough to change over in time for the wedding.
3. I think one of the most important things to any bride is being happy with how you look on the big day. When my mum married my dad she trialled her makeup with her makeup artist and they got a look that she was happy with for the wedding. Somehow, the end result on the day wasn’t quite the same. Her words to me were “you couldn’t actually tell that my face was under there somewhere”. There was even a moment of her scrubbing at her face with kitchen roll less than an hour before the ceremony.
4. Another make up crisis comes from Practical Ever After, a blog that I follow, which I definitely recommend heading over to. She found out the day before her wedding that the make up she’d booked to have done at Smashbox the morning of her wedding hadn’t been booked in. Here’s the link to their blog for you to read more about the disaster! http://www.practicaleverafter.co.uk/
5. This next one comes from the wedding I posted about in The Colour of Love. Remember the ice cream trike? Well that wasn’t all smooth sailing. Two days before the wedding, the one that they had originally booked was written off while being transported. They got a full refund, but had less than 48 hours to replace the one they had booked. I turned up at the bride’s house at 2pm the day before the wedding just as she had managed to confirm a new one. Needless to say she was a little stressed.
   
   
   
6. One risk that comes with having little ones as bridesmaids is sticky fingers. Or in my case, clumsy fingers. I was three years old when I was my mum’s bridesmaid at her and my dad’s wedding. Once the ceremony was over and everyone was getting drinks, I spilt my whole glass of Diet Coke down my dress. Despite being soaked through I insisted on keeping my dress on.
7. There always seems to be some degree of potential family drama at weddings. A manager at my work went to an evening reception where the family drama spiralled a little out of control. At 10pm the DJ put out an announcement that the venue staff had asked all of the wedding guests to vacant the party early. It turned out that the brother of the bride and the brother of the groom had gotten into a punch up, which understandably the venue management weren’t particularly amused about.
8. Another colleague at work recently told me about the mix up she had with her wedding cake days before the wedding. She didn’t like the traditional cake shapes and had opted for star shaped tiers. When her and her fiancé went to pick the cake up the week of the wedding they were greeted with a round cake. Apparently the cake maker had another order in the same colour scheme and very similar decorations which had been ordered as a round cake. That bride had been sent the star shaped cake days previously so my colleague ended up accepting the round cake and, unsurprisingly, a partial refund.
9. When the bride walks down the aisle all eyes are on her and the dress she’s chosen to wear. So what you don’t want are wardrobe malfunctions right before the ceremony. Unfortunately for one bride, a major wardrobe malfunction was faced when her sister stepped on the train of her dress as she was walking, and tore it. I will definitely be spending the morning walking behind everyone else.
10. This last one is actually a post wedding disaster which has fed into my need for a very professional and trustworthy photographer. My fiancé’s cousin asked an old colleague who was coming as a guest if he minded doing the photography.  He spent the day snapping away, taking them outside into the hotel grounds and setting up some lovely group photos. However in the weeks that followed the wedding, they heard nothing from him and weren’t able to get in contact with him. To this day they have never received the professional photos that he took on their wedding day, and have had to ask friends and family to send them any photos that they took.

So there are some of the biggest wedding glitches I’ve heard about. Did you have any problems leading up to the big day? Or have you heard any horror stories about wedding planning gone awry?

The Future Mrs Love xx

The Colour of Love

At the start of this month I got to attend a wedding which I was really touched to be invited to. The mum of my best friend of ten years was getting married, and what made me feel special was despite wanting to keep it small, I was still invited to both the wedding and the hen do the night before.

The wedding was held at Salmestone Grange in Margate, which used to be a monastery. More recently built onto the venue were two surprisingly spacious cottages; the perfect setting for our hen night in. It really did feel like we were scoffing pizza and chocolate in someone’s living room. The only difference to a cosy Friday night in (well different to mine anyway!) was the steady flow of champagne. 

I don’t know how she did it but she organised this wedding in less than a year, on top of her busy work life. But she still managed to include so many coordinated details and surprises for the guests. One thing which surprised me was how difficult she’d found it to gather these little details to match their theme; colour. Personally, I don’t feel that a multi coloured theme for a wedding is one of the most “out there” themes around, but she really struggled. So many suppliers were geared towards catering for the big white wedding that she had to source most of her decorations online from American companies.

But wow did she do well. There was colour everywhere you looked. In the form of chair sashes, table crystals, candles for the candelabras, balloons, cupcakes (made by my wonderful mum, might I add). Even her dress broke tradition, having opted for a colourful Per Una dress to wear for her big day. In fact, the only dress code requirement for guests was that they wear something with a splash of colour. Now I will admit, as a 21 year old planning my own wedding, I am a big fan of the traditional white wedding. But seeing so much colour and mismatch at a wedding was actually really refreshing.

 On top of all this well planned detail and coordination, there were a few surprises for the guests, and even one for the groom. There was a chocolate fountain in the evening, as well as an ice cream tricycle and sweetie table (as well as all the cupcakes piled high in the reception room). And at 6 o’clock she led everyone to the small chapel in the grange, to reveal an eight lane, fifteen foot Scalextric track for her petrol head groom. I’ll admit, if I set up a PC gaming room at our wedding, I’d be pretty worried about not seeing my fiancé for the rest of the evening. But to his credit he still spent most of the evening dancing and laughing with his bride. What can say true love more than that?

I’d love to hear about some of the unusually themed weddings you’ve been to. Or maybe a wedding with a few unexpected surprises throughout the day?

The Future Mrs Love xx