Real Brides Diaries

Maitha and Ken have been engaged for a year and have finally chosen a date... follow them on their journey to plan their perfect big day...

Hi everyone

So we've finally set a date for our wedding after much to-ing and fro-ing, July 16th! With just six months to go I've realised how much there is to get done and have decided there are only two options: 1) panic, stress and get everything in the last couple of weeks because I've spent months stressing, or 2) make lists, lots of lists!

I went for option 2 and have made lists and tables and spreadsheets galore.

Having been engaged for 12 months and not done a single thing I decided it was time to get started so in three months my fiancé and I agreed a guest list, viewed venues, chose a venue, booked the venue and civil ceremony, sent out save the date emails, choose the best man and bridesmaids and bought the bridesmaids' dresses.

The main problem so far is that when Ken proposed I was over the moon, but I have never been a girl obsessed with big white weddings...so this has meant that every decision seems to take me twice as long as it should! I have no idea what kind of dress I want, no idea what flowers to choose and no idea what wedding breakfast we should go for.

I started reading bridal magazines religiously, cutting out pictures of weddings and cakes and dresses that I liked the look of. It's easy to get carried away though as the magazines and You & Your Wedding website offer so many different ideas and inspirations. Although at each stage Ken has reminded me that we both agree what we wanted was a small, intimate, informal and most importantly fun day to enjoy with our closest family members and friends.

With this in mind, none of the venues we viewed seemed right. And the ones that did were just too pricey for us. Luckily one of my bridesmaids saved the day by revealing that her uncle had a farm, complete with a barn, which we could use - perfect! We used our next available weekend to go down to East Sussex to have a look around and loved it before we had even seen the inside. So it was decided, Robertsbridge Farm it is! The barn is gorgeous, nice and rustic as it's on a working farm, but absolutely fine for a party. Not only is there a barn that will easily seat 50 for the wedding breakfast, but there's also a paddock with a summer house which backs onto a beautiful field!

So that's the venue sorted and Ken has declared that there are only two things he really wants, to have a BBQ and to not have to wear proper shoes! So I'm now on the hunt for a Sussex caterer offering reasonable and laid back BBQs while Ken shops for his black Converse trainers!

Hopefully I'll have an update in my next diary entry, but until then enjoy the snow!

Maitha x