It's been a full-on month darting from one wedding show to the next, cramming in ideas for how we want our big day to look.

The Modern Wedding Show in London - a new one which was fairly small - had some lovely flower displays as well as some gorgeous wedding dresses.

Our wedding venue, The Reid Rooms in Essex, also held a wedding fair, which was great as it gave my fiancé and I the chance to see what colour themes would work in situ. There was a host of caterers, wedding cake suppliers, musicians and entertainers.

We got some great ideas regarding catering - as well as tasting one or two wedding cakes - and we are now speaking with a couple of suppliers to see which can provide what we want.

For the wedding breakfast, we're looking to have something really social - so platters or mezze-style food for starters, then a main course (bearing in mind five guests are vegan!) and our wedding cake for dessert.

Rich also saw some great designs for suits for him, his best men and our pageboy - we want everyone in tails - and possibly a top hat.

We made one of the exhibitors laugh (and in turn she made me panic) when we told her we hadn't settled on a colour theme, despite the wedding being in June.

Our first meeting with our photographer, James Ruane, went really well. For about an hour we chatted over a beer so that he could get an idea of the type of photography that we want. He also showed us examples of his work on an iPad, which was great as we could see so many.

Pleased that we are all on the same page (nothing too cheesy, but definitely fun and colourful), we've arranged our pre-wedding shoot at the Reid Rooms next year.

Talking of cheese, I have found this really fun Ford Farm Cheese Wedding Cake – the tiers are made up of different cheeses and it can be decorated with fruits or flowers. Despite having not decided on our actual wedding cake, we’ve opted for The Dorset to have during the evening – it’s 11kg of goat's cheddar, Wensleydale, Dorset Red smoked, stilton and coastal cheddar.

This week we’re wine tasting – I’ll let you know how it goes next month!

Catch up with Carol’s August blog here…

Or her September blog here…

Or her October blog here…