7 Tips To Help You Sell Your Wedding Dress

So I finally sold my wedding dress (big cheers)!

It has taken a few months from when I first decided to sell it and I could have probably sold it sooner if I had put my mind to it. But it was only recently when we were unpacking in the new house that I thought to myself I really must do this and before the baby comes!

After trying a number of different sites, I finally sold her on eBay via auction, which I was originally reluctant to do given the temperamental outcome of auctions but in the end I was satisfied with the result.

If you’re thinking of selling your wedding dress, here are my seven tips to help you sell :

1. Decide on what is important to you and then get emotionally detached!

When I first decided to sell my dress, the return I got for it was important to me. While it could no longer be classed as a new dress, it had only been worn once and I wanted to recoup some of the cost of what I paid. However I think is why it took so long to sell. Given that the dress was still being sold new, the price I wanted for it was not realistic in the second hand market (I wanted 50% of what I paid, rather than 30%-40% which is the norm). So the second time round I lowered my expectations and took the view that sitting in my house it wasn’t earning me anything, so whatever I sold it for (within reason) I would be happy to accept.

Another reason why I think I was slow to sell the dress was that I was still emotionally attached to it. It holds a lot of positive memories for me and sometimes I would think, why am I selling it? However in the end dress or no dress, I will always have great memories of my wedding day with great pictures to boot, so having it hanging it my house for months on end was not really a good used of space.

2. Choose your preferred site

Like I mentioned earlier, I tried a number of different online sites to sell my dress. From general selling sites to sites dedicated to selling wedding dresses, all of which were unsuccessful. One site, Preloved, I did receive a number of enquiries but nothing ever went forward. In the end as my last attempt I decided to use the auction option on eBay. Benefits being that it would reach a wide audience and I could have the dress sold within a week.

There are lots of sites out there who will claim to sell your dress for a fee, but I was a bit dubious about them and wanted to do it myself. Whichever site you do choose remember to factor in any fees that you will have to pay when you sell it.

3. Write a detailed description

This is key not only because it will minimise the number of questions you will be asked but it will also help people make an informed decision on whether they wish to buy your dress. Having researched around, I realised that my original descriptions were quite basic and brides-to-be wanted a lot more information, especially around measurements etc.

This is a copy of my final advert:

I am selling my wedding dress.

Designer: Maggie Sottero

Name of dress: 'Harriet' {still available as part of her collection}

Size: 14 but due to bodice can fit 12/14. Bust - 41 inches Waist - 35 inches Hips - 43.5 inches (Important to mention)

Colour: Diamond White

Alterations: I am 5ft10 and had an extra 2 inches added to the length {wore 2" heels} and a bustle put in at the back. (Important to mention)

Has not been dry cleaned. (Important to mention)

Dress Description:It is a one-piece, strapless, A-line gown with corset closure. It features an asymmetrically draped A-line silhouette with Duchess Organza creating an airy lightness. Lovely embellished lace motifs decorate the bodice, skirt and train.

Fell in love with the dress when I saw it and got loads of comments on the day.  Reason for sale: Baby on the way and want to create space in our home. (Always good to include)

Open to reasonable offers.Feel free to ask any questions or request for more pictures. Happy for you to come and view the dress as well.

4. Take lots of pictures

Unless a person comes and views the dress before hand, they will be making their decision based on your description and pictures, which is why it is important to include as many pictures as possible from all angles. You don’t need to be a David Bailey, these are a mixture of camera and iPhone pics. (The picture at the top of this post is Instagram for iPhone!)

5. Investigate delivery options

At first I was dead set on ‘collection only’. I mean how was I going to be able to pack up this huge dress and post it anywhere. However when I started getting lots of questions from people asking whether I would post it, I realised that I was limiting my market by saying collection only.

So I took time to find a suitable box and gently folded the dress to fit into it and enquired about couriers. Surprisingly it was not as expensive as I thought. Given the size of the box, it would have made it quite expensive with Royal Mail but sites like Parcel to Go are great in finding a range of courier prices.

The person who won the dress did not live locally and the dress was sent to her by courier.

6. Promote your advert

Throughout the whole week of the auction I promoted the dress on my personal Facebook page and the blog Facebook page. I also tweeted about it and my friends re-tweeted it as well. Don’t know if it helped but it’s all promotion!

7. Respond to questions and queries promptly

This should be a given as you are talking to a prospective buyer. Equally with having a 7 day auction on eBay, I was on a timeline so the quicker I responded the better, so that they could decide if they want to bid or not.

If you have successfully sold your wedding dress do you have any additional advice that worked for you?

Reader Question: The costs of being a bridesmaid

It’s been a while since we’ve talked weddings on this blog but I thought I would take us back there following an email I received recently from a reader about bridesmaid dresses.

Hey Chichi,
Just wondered if you could help me out with something? A friend has asked me to be bridesmaid at her wedding taking place next year and I'm expected to pay £200 for dress+ accessories and the headtie and lace for her engagement ceremony. I'm good for the money so financially that isn't an issue but its still a lot of money especially considering my relationship with this person isn't a close one. In fact I use the term friend loosely here. The fact that I've been asked by her I should consider it an honour to be a part of the wedding but I keep asking myself why I should spend such an amount on someone I'm not close to and by the way this person is Nigerian and so you know a wedding gift will also be expected.

What would your advice be and what price range did your bridesmaids pay for your wedding?

I've always been under the notion that if someone wants you to be part of their bridal train they should at least pay 50% towards the dress, after all you wouldn't expect your wedding guests whom you invited to come and share your day with you to bring their own food.

But anyway what's your two cents on this?

Bridesmaid-to-be

Dear Bridesmaid-to-be,

Thanks for your email.

I personally think £200+ is a lot to pay especially if you’re saying you are not 'close' to this person. For people you care a lot about, money is not an issue, but as you have stated in your email, whilst you are honoured you use the term 'friend' loosely.

It really all depends on how much she means to you and whether you want to be her bridesmaid. If you feel the price is too much to pay, then my thoughts would be to politely decline her request or see if she is willing to contribute to the costs. My guess is, if she was in a position to contribute to costs she would have offered from the outset. Maybe if the style/design hasn't been confirmed you could suggest cheaper options e.g. tailor make the outfits, choose a colour and you all get your own dress. There are different options which are cheaper.

There is no set rule around who pays for what but from a bride's perspective I was conscious that I couldn't ask my friends and family to fork out loads for something they might only wear once. I wanted outfits they would comfortable in and would not break the bank. Hence why we went down the “buy fabric and use tailor” route.

For my bridesmaids the most they paid was around £65 which included the dress and accessories. I did not expect a gift from them even though some of them did kindly buy a gift, some even bought the aseobi as well. Bear in mind that 5/7 of my bridal train were family and the remainder best friends.

Hope this helps!

Bridesmaid-to-be response back…

When I was first told of the costs involved I did mention it were a lot of money but the bride-to be insisted she had been bridesmaid at a few weddings where she had had to pay £500.
The dress has already been chosen by her and I'm still deciding whether its something I see myself wearing again, it would've been nice to have had some input in choosing the dress since I'm asked to pay £110 for it, the rest of the money is towards accessories and gele+ lace which I haven't even seen.

I wouldn't mind being a bridesmaid but then again I would be just as happy as a guest at her wedding but I feel that by declining, she'll hold it against me which is not something I want. By asking her  to contribute to the costs I would see it as inconsiderate of me knowing full well that she has other expenses to cater to in regards to her wedding.

Like I said before, she didn't have to choose me as one of her bridesmaids but she did....*sigh*.....I dunno, guess I'll put this into prayer and seek God's wisdom in this.

Readers…what advice would you give?

Moving on

Thank you all for your comments on my last post about the wedding video problems, I appreciate all your kinds words! It is incredibly disappointing but you live and you learn.

I was talking to a friend at the weekend and it could have been a worse situation, in as much as we could have paid someone to do it and they still mess it up. I have seen that happen to people and whilst you can get a refund, pay or no pay, your wedding is one day that cannot be re-done.

Anyway, I have a few leads of people to talk to {thank you readers}, which I will be doing this week.

Will keep you posted of what progress we make!

Picture {source}

Wedding Video Disappointment – Please can you help?

If you’re currently planning your wedding or have recently got married you will be very much aware of how much it costs for a wedding videographer. Back in my post about keeping your wedding costs down I wrote about how we found our videographer on Gumtree.

I had originally started discussions with a guy from church about shooting the day. As we knew him and he knew us, we knew he would do a great job; however a few weeks to the wedding he broke his arm, so he wasn’t able to do it.

Then I came across the Gumtree advert. An existing videographer, {let’s call him John} he told me he was looking to move into wedding videos and in return for use of footage on his site when he launched, we would get our wedding shot for free with a 20 min highlight DVD. We had a preliminary meeting and he came across as professional and personable. He was happy to travel up to Birmingham from Manchester and also agreed to give us all the raw footage as well. I was happy with what we agreed and looked forward to seeing him the day.

On the day itself, John was good. He came with quality equipment, was engaging and appeared to be a doing a good job. He also worked well alongside Jide, our photographer and we both looked forward to seeing the final result.

Post wedding we expectantly waited for our wedding video. One month…nothing. Two months…nothing. Three months nothing. After six months of calls, text, emails on Christmas Eve {Who doesn’t believe in Christmas miracles!)} we finally received 6 plain discs, in a brown envelope, inside a padded enveloped. No note, nothing.

So our agreement was that our wedding would be shot with two cameras and we would receive a highlight video. What we received was 6 discs of incomplete, chopped up footage and an incomplete highlight video with no sound, all shot with a single camera, so in the vows for example you only see my face and not Afam’s expressions at all.

To say we were disappointed was an understatement. The footage was shaky, blurry and key bits of the day were missing e.g. cutting the cake, speeches. Okay so we didn’t pay the guy but come on…there was some expectation of what we would receive!

I went back to John and voiced our concerns and disappointment. Firstly about why it took so long for us to receive anything and secondly about why he didn’t deliver what we agreed. His response…we didn’t pay him, he had other things on and it wasn’t a priority. In addition he filmed things what he thought were important. Err so you don’t think speeches are important or cutting the cake is important!

Well we have learned our lesson. It always better to pay, that way you have some sort of come back and you get videos that look like this. Our only saving grace is that we have fantastic photographs - thank you Jide Alakija.

So here’s the thing…we have lots of individual footage but I’m no video editor. I can work my way around Windows Movie Maker but it doesn’t have the capability to do what I need it to do. We have a half finished highlight video which we would like to edit, add scenes and add music.

So I’m putting out a plea to Blogland - if you or anyone you know has good video editing skills and you’re based in the UK {and you would like to make a couple very happy}, please drop me a line. In return for your kind help, I will promote your services here on the blog gratis.

Muchos Gracias!

Image {source}

Reader Question: Keeping The Wedding Costs Down

I love receiving mail from my readers and I recently got a lovely email from my reader, Kunbi who is getting married….

I've been a keen visitor of your blog and I love it...always advertising to friends. I'm engaged and my fiancé & I have started planning our wedding. I know you said you were going to write stuff about wedding but could you talk about finances as I know nothing about what to save towards. Could you give estimates? e.g if i want a wedding for 300 people in UK, what should we be aiming for? or how can I find out. Many thanks and I pray God continues to bless your marriage. AMEN

Firstly congratulations on your up coming wedding! One thing to know is that every wedding is different. Some people have got married with £2k and some have spent £20k. It all depends on your budget and how much you are prepared to spend.

Everyone tells you to sit down and work out your budget first but this can be really difficult if you don’t know how much things cost. We had over 500 people at our wedding and didn’t have a first clue about how much a wedding of this size would come to.

The first thing I did was download a budget planner {Wedding Chaos has a Wedding Budget template you can use}, this was so that I could identify the areas where we would need to spend money for the wedding. I then began to do research about the costs of different things using the internet, making calls and speaking to other brides and newlyweds. Once this was done we were able to compile our budget. We then compared this to funds available and tailored it accordingly.

Breaking it Down

The biggest expense you will face on your big day is your venue and/or food/drink. They typically come to around 40-50% of your budget. As your venue is central to proceedings if you can find an affordable venue, it will really help with your overall budget. I know people who got married in their local church and had their reception there has well, as they had a big hall. Cost – zero as it is their home church, so it really depends on your circumstances.

After that you will have things like your attire and photographer which again their prices will depend on what you go for.

It’s hard to provide estimates for things because price is reflective on what you go for and where you live {London is far more expensive than Manchester say} but I can give you some tips which helped us. One of the best pieces of advice given to us was, was that we should come up with a list of things that are non-negotiable. These are things which you must have/include in the wedding. The reason for this is that when it comes to having to make choices about particular things you know how far to budge. If it is a non-negotiable then you fight for it, if not you can let it go. Also remember that nothing is yours until you put down your deposit as in most cases this confirms your booking.

Another thing is about expectations and comparisons. Every wedding is different. Every bride and groom are different. It can be very easy to get sucked into a Wedding Industrial Complex and start to feel like you must have ‘x’ or ‘y’ because you have seen on The Knot or Martha Stewart weddings. Those places are great sources of inspiration, but that is what they should be…inspiration. If you’re starting to feel that your wedding won’t match up or is inadequate, requiring you to spend more money than planned, stop reading those magazines and blogs because your wedding is about creating the day unique to you and your fiancé.

So without further ado here are my tips on ways to save money planning your wedding:

1. Design your own wedding stationery or get someone who can*. It definitely saves you money when you have a lot of guests. I designed all our wedding stationery from 'save the dates', invites, wedding programme and thank you cards and my dad printed them all. If you have design skills definitely have a go, buy some card and print yourself. Ghenet over at teneleventen created her invites and they looked amazing.

2. Utilise the internet. You can get some great deals on everything using the internet. Ebay is especially good for things (picked up coloured envelopes really cheaply on there) as well as sites from overseas if you have enough time to wait for the items to come.

3. Don't forget the obvious places. We got some fantastic items from Ikea as well as local thrift stores. My wedding planner was very financially savvy and picked up some great bargains that we use to decorate the hall.

4. Negotiate with your vendors. My husband and I agreed that whatever price a vendor gave us, that would be our starting point to work down.  This was not because we did not value their service, far from it. We had a budget which we wanted to stay within but valued the skills of certain individuals and wanted to work with them. In those cases we strip things away from the original package quoted in order to keep the price down. For our photographs for instance we just booked Jide to shoot our wedding and provide the photos on a disc rather than the whole album package which we can always do at a later date.

5. People are very talented. People will offer their help, accept it. Our cake was made for free, our DJ was free. Our wedding rings were a gift and our Videographer was free. You might have friends who are skilled in certain areas, don’t be afraid to accept their help.

6. Cut out the un-neccessaries that don't matter to you. Focus on the things that are important to you as a couple. For us that meant not using real napkins, real flowers or having boutonnieres for the men.

7. Skips the favours. Controversial? Maybe. Save you money? Definitely. If you can avoid to give out favours great if you can’t it won’t take anything away from your wedding. We didn’t have favours but we did give gifts to the people who bought the ase-obi.

8. Look out for deals. I was browsing Gumtree one day and saw an advert from a video company who were advising for couples getting married in the next month. They normally shoot documentaries but were now looking to move into weddings. In exchange for being used in their promotional material (e.g. Website) they would shoot the wedding for free. Slaters where we hired the suits for the men had an offer that if you hire so many suits they give you one free. That helped bring the overall cost of the suits down.

9. Be prepared to think outside the box, especially when it comes to venues. Had our numbers been smaller like yours, our choice of affordable venues would have dramatically increased. We discovered that a lot of schools and Universities have fantastic great halls at affordable prices. Speak to them about what they can offer and be prepared to be visionary and think about how you can transform the place.

10. Use your own caterers. One venue we saw which was available for our date wouldn’t let us use our own caterers and wanted to charge £55 a head to make their version of Nigerian food! Even after hosting a Nigerian wedding recently and receiving poor reports about the quality and authenticity of the food, they still refused to allow us to bring our own food. So we said goodbye to them. This will definitely save you money than going thorough your venue and you can control the menu.

11. For decoration be creative. Visit craft stores for inspiration. Hobbycraft is very good for this.

12. You don't have to purchase all you bridal accessories from the same store. Feel free to tap up Etsy where there are lots of creative people who make great items. My bolero was made by the lovely Joy Kelley of ‘How Joyful’ who has her own blog and Etsy shop. Don’t be afraid to buy things from overseas (point 2) as the exchange rate can work in your favour.

13. If you have time, purchase wedding items as and when you see them rather than the last few weeks before the wedding as you can grab some bargain in the sales.

14. Get married in your local church {or the local church of a close relative} as they won’t charge you or charge you as much.

16. Bridesmaid dresses: You can either get your girls to purchase an outfit from the high street {my friend Mel got a great bargain on Coast dresses as she bought them off season} OR buy some fabric you like and get a seamstress to make them for you. Either way it works out much more cost effective. If you need a good tailor in Manchester, drop me a line.

17. Make use of the great technology around. We hosted our wedding on mywedding.com and with that we were able to set up online RSVP which gave people the opportunity to respond to us quickly. We used wufoo to collate everyone’s full names and addresses {you can also do the same using Google Docs). Both of these things didn’t cost anything and as they say time is money, so anywhere you can save yourself time is also of benefit to you.

Hope this helps Kunbi!

Useful Links

Money Saving Expert

Frugal Bride

Confetti

I’m sure other people have great money saving tips for weddings, please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.

If you have your own wedding or relationship questions, please drop me a line.

* Happy to provide any assistance in this area. Please get in touch.

{Picture source from here and Jide Alakija}

20 Things I Learnt Planning My Wedding

 

I hope you enjoyed Reflections.

It's been a pleasure to take you on the journey that was our wedding.

Planning our wedding was one of the most challenging but growing experiences I have ever been through. I quickly learned that whilst your wedding is about you, the day is not. It is shared by so many people who have their own expectations of how they think things should be and while it can be incredibly frustrating, you just learn to accept it. Despite the frustrations, I learnt a lot and would like to share 20 of those things with you.

In no particular order...

1. It's all about the baby family. This is your first project together, working as a team. You will have to make decisions that are a reflection of you and are based on your values and opinions. Not your mother's or your fathers. You have to be courageous and make choices for your family, your new family. It’s not about taking sides but understanding the importance of your upcoming union together.

2. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate. Don’t be a control freak {like moi} and let people help you!

3. Don't break the bank. Negotiate, call in favours. Forgo certain things that you don't deem necessary.

4. Trust your instincts. You know yourselves better than anyone. Not Cosmo Bride or Martha Stewart Weddings. If it don't feel right, leave it out.

5. Communicate. With yourselves, with your parents, with your vendors. So important.

6. Make sure you have a honeymoon. Even if it is a few days locked up in a hotel away from it all, you will need that time together. You deserve that time together. {More on that in a future post!}

7. Organise your thank you cards before hand. We still have not sent ours and I feel B-A-D! {Edit – Following this post on APW, they have now been ordered and will be sent out very soon!}

8. Don't kill yourself trying to be something your not. Don't like flowers? Don't have them. Don't want your bridesmaids in matching outfits, let them reflect their own style. You make the rules.

9 Stay off the biscuits. You want your dress to fit, right? {I'm really talking to myself there}. 20 mins on a cross trainer is the equivalent of one kit-kat stick. So. Not. Worth. It.

10. Don't forget your other family. Embrace your in-laws. Make efforts to build a relationship with them, especially your mother in law.

11. Put things in writing. Having evidence is always good {especially when dealing with vendors}.

12. Surround yourself with the right people. Positive, prayerful and kind people. Stay away from the haters. In fact don't even listen to them or let them into your space.

13. When you've had your 25th argument over seating arrangements or what things to keep/scrap remember it will be over soon. This is the road to marriage, people. Once you say 'I do', you are also saying 'bye, bye' to all the craziness.

14. Order your rings in advance. We did not realise that jewellers do not stock every ring size and had a mad dash the week before the wedding trying to sort out our rings. Funny thinking about it now. Not funny then.

15. Get yourself some counselling. Pre-marital counselling is ace. Not only is it good to talk about things together, but it is necessary in ensuring that you're both on the same page. Your church might do it. An older, wiser couple might do it. But definitely get yourself some because beneath all the glitz and glamour of the wedding, the marriage comes first.

16. Get stuff done when you can. Have a free afternoon one Wednesday, crack open one of your DIY projects. Otherwise you will end up 3 days to your wedding, with a million and one things not started, which you were certain you would have time for, but then life got in the way!

17. Realise that weddings do things to people. Even people you think should care about you and be on your side can let you down in a BIG way. Try not to let it take over your life. Remember the end game. Forgive and move on with your life.

18. People don't and won't notice the detail you do.

19. Remember your spouse. It's their wedding too! Take time out together throughout the craziness to remind each other why you’re doing this!

20. Finally and most importantly, commit everything to God in prayer. That fact that you made it to the altar in one piece is no mean feat. Marriage is God's creation and the devil hates it. He will try and do whatever in his power to stop it happening. Need examples...Mr E and I can give you plenty!!!

When all is said and done, marriage is a gift from God and it is wonderful. While for us, the wedding day is a distant memory, married life gets better every day!

Have a great weekend!

Reflections…Daytime weddings rock!

So you all remember the Great Venue Hunt of 2010. Well we found our venue and I promised to reveal all after the wedding.

So here it is…Usmania Banqueting Hall in Manchester. It was a race against the clock to get the place ready in time as they were still renovating when we booked them. However the owners came through and were a delight to work with. We had all day access to the venue, which gave us enough time to set up etc.

In terms of decor we kept it very simple as the hall had a lot of character on its own. Our main colour was purple, which was highlighted in the table runners, centre pieces and napkins. Originally I decided against chair covers as the cost wasn’t worth it, but at the 11th hour we struck a deal with the owner and were able to get the chair covers included at a very reduced price…score!!!

As we were the first event at the venue, everything we were using was brand new, so basically the owners said you can have everything but you will need to iron anything you’re not happy with. We didn’t think anything of this until we arrived at the venue three days before and realised that all 50 table clothes needed to be ironed.  Cue our wonderful family and friends who went to the venue every evening to iron the table clothes for us. Indebted…yes we were! Thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts!

The High Table…

Dancing in…

  

Food time…

The food was so tasty. {I had been off carbs the four weeks prior, so eating rice for the first time in ages was heaven!}

We had a ‘double’ bouquet toss! i.e. I threw it twice, so the Videographer could capture it as he missed it the first time. 

  

Lucky catcher and now ‘bride to be' Dele who is getting married very soon!

 

End of the ‘night’ group shot with the younger guests who stayed long after we had gone! 

Tip: If you’ve never considered a daytime wedding, definitely give it some thought. You get to leave your wedding around 6pm/7pm and still have the evening ahead of you to spend and chill with your new husband!

Happy Monday!

Reflections…The little things

Aaah (sigh)… the little things we do to make our weddings our own. Before I talk about the reception, I thought I would share about the things that made our wedding ‘ours’.

Some things were ideas I had seen when wedding researching and decided to incorporate into our day. Others were a little more unique. We also wanted to ensure that we didn’t break the bank, so Lexie and I had to be smart when it came to reception decor. Fortunately as the hall was grand enough, we kept the decor very minimal but used purple runners and napkins to bring some colour into the room, as well as tall centre pieces.

Here are some other things we did to make our day our own…

We hired a classic Rolls Royce to drive us in style. Unfortunately it only managed to take me to the church and then the first ten minutes of the journey to the church, before the engine started smoking and we had to get out! Fortunately one of our guests happened to be behind us and took us the rest of the way to the reception! {Definitely a story for the kids one day!}

The only real flowers used were for my bouquet and the bridesmaid flowers. Everything else was a mixture of real and artificial, making some of the items reusable, if we so wish.

  

We opened our Reception with a traditional Igbo Kola Nut Ceremony…

Our parents ‘passed the baton’, praying over us as the ‘next generation’…

We got serenaded by our friends…

Our candy buffet was a big hit with our guests… 

As well as our personalised labels from Nigeria… 

Our wedding cake was a gift from a family friend, designed to our spec…

 

And was housed on our personalised cake table, with our hand painted ‘WE DO’ letters…

  

We had our first dance to Etta James’ ‘At Last’…

And when we finished my parents decided to join in on the fun and have their own dance…

We got our friends to DJ…

and then everybody DANCED!

        

What things did you have in your wedding that made it ‘yours’?

Reflections...The Ceremony

So our laptop has officially died. We're not sure what's wrong with it, but it keeps freezing and even after reinstalling Windows, no joy. So not only have we lost everything on the hard drive {thank goodness for Dropbox which will recover the majority of stuff}, I lost all my draft posts in Windows Live Writer :(

So I'm writing this from another computer, but the good news is I can continue recaps and today we're picking up at the Ceremony.

For Mr E and I, the Ceremony was the most important aspect of the day for us. I know a lot of people focus on the reception and food etc, but for us we really wanted people to be blessed by our service.

We met with our Reverend to go through the ceremony a weeks prior and he was super flexible with what we wanted to do and how many songs we wanted to include! Whilst we didn't organise ourselves to write own vows, we were able to shape the ceremony how we wanted it.

Our readings came from:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

¹⁰ If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

¹² Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

1 Cor 13 and Songs of Solomon 8:6-7 and they were read by Mr E's Aunt and my good friend, Buki.

Worship and songs were really important to us and we had my best friend SB leading worship, which was amazing. She had a team of backing vocalists and band who were so good and the worship was beautiful.



We said our vows and exchanged our rings…    

Then had our first communion together…

 

We were then prayed for by the Elders…

We sang some more and then we danced our way out…

My only regret about the Ceremony was that due to my lateness, we didn't get to sing all the songs we had planned and the address had to be done at the reception.

Apart from that we really, really enjoyed the service and I think our parents did too!

Mr E’s parents… 

My parents…    

Our Programs…


I created the programs for our Ceremony myself using a mixture of Photoshop and Publisher, with an inclusion of our monogram. I literally pulled an all-nighter the week of the wedding to get them completed. Mr E couldn't understand why I wanted to do them so badly and why I didn't delegate the task, but I wanted the Programs* to be a reflection of us and personalised, so I HAD to do them! My dad printed them and they turned out great!

TIP: Let your Ceremony be a reflection of you. If you want songs, have songs. If you don't want readings, don't have readings. Just do what you feel is right.

Next up...Reception!

{*I will do another post showing the inside of them, once I can find the file in Dropbox!}