2016 brides!

emzibob

MIN2511 wrote: »

Anyone getting married in Dublin consider using the women on Grafton st for flowers? I'm not fussy, and want whatever's in season. Getting married in April - Calla lilies, I asked Sabrina on Grafton st. and she couldn't give me exact prices. I'd like to know what to budget for - any ideas?

1 bride bouquet
1 bridesmaid bouquet
2 button holes
1 floral arrangement for the church & reception

I got a girl who was recommended to me on Facebook,shes in blanch and I have to say so far I have found her brilliant and very reasonable rough prices were:
1 bride bouquet €60
1 bridesmaid bouquet € 40
2 button holes €5 each
1 floral arrangement for the church €45
I am going to have diamonds added coz I love my bling so it's slightly extra but not much

LEH

Will definitely be shopping around for videographers so! Thanks for the tips. My mum and I are considering doing the flowers ourselves, she and my godmother would be fairly handy at flower arranging, but wondering if it would be too much hassle the day before and better to get someone else in... Every idea seems to lead to another question:)

ShaShaBear

LEH wrote: »

Will definitely be shopping around for videographers so! Thanks for the tips. My mum and I are considering doing the flowers ourselves, she and my godmother would be fairly handy at flower arranging, but wondering if it would be too much hassle the day before and better to get someone else in... Every idea seems to lead to another question:)

I know how you feel. I crochet and did consider making my own flowers. I'm still considering making my own but then I keep thinking if I make them now will they look alright for the day, or what if I start them too late and don't get them done on time and can't get a florist etc. I might get buttonholes and table arrangement done by the florist and just make the three bouquets to take down the price.

shortstuff!

I have all my bouquets ready to go!! Used foam flowers, brooches, diamontes... As nice as anything I've seen for the style I wanted. Have them stored so they won't get damaged or dusty. Still have to start the buttonholes & corsages if I decide to do them. I'd say go for it shashabear, maybe do a bridesmaid one & see how it works out, that's what I started on & before I knew it I was done! Have since done 3 friends wedding bouquets!

LEH i was considering the same but think it might be a lot of pressure/hassle so close to wedding. Also risk of having to get the church ready morning of wedding if there was a funeral.

Pistachios & cream

LEH wrote: »

Will definitely be shopping around for videographers so! Thanks for the tips. My mum and I are considering doing the flowers ourselves, she and my godmother would be fairly handy at flower arranging, but wondering if it would be too much hassle the day before and better to get someone else in... Every idea seems to lead to another question:)

I got married 6 weeks ago and did my own flowers. It is a lot of work but I really enjoyed it. I made 22 hanging jar arrangements for pew ends, altar arrangement and 4 vases for flowers in church. 2 huge baby's breath arrangements for outside the church, my own bouquet was peonies, bridesmaids were baby's breath and buttonholes were baby's breath.

I had to transport the flowers to another county do that made things a bit more stressful but if I lived near my venue I'd definitely do them again.

Couple of things I'd do differently.

Less flowers in church. I'd do pew ends and altar arrangement and leave it at that.
Depending on how many you have I'd maybe get the buttonholes and bouquets made. Though I loved making my bouquet.
Because I had to transport the flowers the day before the wedding I had to have my buttonholes and bouquets made on the Wednesday. I did put them into floral foam and the bouquets in water to keep them hydrated but I was still worried they would go off. My own bouquet I had to remake as in the heat of the car it over bloomed.

I also wanted very natural looking flowers so the srrangements were easy too do.

laneyk3

Does anyone know where can get superhero wedding invitations done I know you get on etsy and print yourself but does anyone know any where that does these

Jwacqui

ahayes84 wrote: »

I got married 6 weeks ago and did my own flowers. It is a lot of work but I really enjoyed it. I made 22 hanging jar arrangements for pew ends, altar arrangement and 4 vases for flowers in church. 2 huge baby's breath arrangements for outside the church, my own bouquet was peonies, bridesmaids were baby's breath and buttonholes were baby's breath.

I had to transport the flowers to another county do that made things a bit more stressful but if I lived near my venue I'd definitely do them again.

Couple of things I'd do differently.

Less flowers in church. I'd do pew ends and altar arrangement and leave it at that.
Depending on how many you have I'd maybe get the buttonholes and bouquets made. Though I loved making my bouquet.
Because I had to transport the flowers the day before the wedding I had to have my buttonholes and bouquets made on the Wednesday. I did put them into floral foam and the bouquets in water to keep them hydrated but I was still worried they would go off. My own bouquet I had to remake as in the heat of the car it over bloomed.

I also wanted very natural looking flowers so the srrangements were easy too do.

Any chance you could post some photos? Would love to see how they turned out and what I can do myself to save money.

Pistachios & cream

Jwacqui wrote: »

Any chance you could post some photos? Would love to see how they turned out and what I can do myself to save money.

I don't have the professional photos yet but here are some bad enough quality ones. YOu'll get an idea of them

My Bouquet
http://i.imgur.com/E5zpClK.png?1

All the bouquets
http://i.imgur.com/n5utOOO.jpg?1

All the bouquets and my dads buttonhole

http://i.imgur.com/LkUpPF8.png?1

Flowergirl
http://i.imgur.com/YYGZOvP.png?1
http://i.imgur.com/vj5N6dA.jpg?1

Church flowers
http://i.imgur.com/AwCLM5m.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/5dCStWJ.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/ULNrJr3.png?1

Flowers outside church door (it was so windy these had to be brought in (Aside from that i wouldn't bother with anything at church door if i was doing this again. As it was i rushed them and just used the leftover flowers)
http://i.imgur.com/72WyUM0.png?1

Candles (my mum decorated these)
http://i.imgur.com/g3XXwlz.png?1

WannaBbride

Has everyone got their dress? I am August 2016. I've tried on maybe 20/25 dresses in 3 different shops and I just cant seem to decide. They are all lovely but its so hard to decide!!

Can anyone recommend a shop where the sales assistants are helpful and might suggest dresses based on your body shape? Dublin/Kildare area and anywhere an hours drive I guess.

lainey316

I'm getting mine made. I wanted a particular dress but it was not perfect, so using that as base for design - next meeting with designer on Oct 19. I'm sure I should probably be more worried than I am for my April wedding but I trust her

Town Bride do do that recommendation wannabbride - in powerscourt in the city centre. It was the first thing he did, wouldn't discuss detail until shape was confirmed. The stock is quite traditional tho, so I didn't see any dresses I liked.

stargazer 68

WannaBbride wrote: »

Has everyone got their dress? I am August 2016. I've tried on maybe 20/25 dresses in 3 different shops and I just cant seem to decide. They are all lovely but its so hard to decide!!

Can anyone recommend a shop where the sales assistants are helpful and might suggest dresses based on your body shape? Dublin/Kildare area and anywhere an hours drive I guess.

Been trying on loads too - have it narrowed down though! Fiona Todhunter in Tallaght has lovely stuff and the girls were great. I did know what I wanted though as I had been to a couple of other places and had decided on the shape.

Ms.Sunshine

WannaBbride wrote: »

Has everyone got their dress? I am August 2016. I've tried on maybe 20/25 dresses in 3 different shops and I just cant seem to decide. They are all lovely but its so hard to decide!!

Can anyone recommend a shop where the sales assistants are helpful and might suggest dresses based on your body shape? Dublin/Kildare area and anywhere an hours drive I guess.

I went to Dinagh Modes in Castlerea Roscommon and she was brilliant. She makes you try on many different styles of dresses and tells you which ones suit you best and which ones to avoid and then she writes down everything for you to bring with you. She is very good at what she does.. she charges 50 euro for this 1 hour consultation but if you buy a dress with her it's put towards it. She also makes dresses.

Jwacqui

ahayes84 wrote: »

I don't have the professional photos yet but here are some bad enough quality ones. YOu'll get an idea of them
]

You did a great job. Especially love your altar flowers and pew ends. Also bridesmaid flowers are very similar to what I want for mine.

Did you save much by doing? And was it hard to do. Budget is already over in areas so trying to save what I can and spend wise.

Pistachios & cream

Ok this is going to be long but i'll go into as much detail as possible so you know what the costs are and the workload.

I'm not sure exactly how much i saved as i didn't get what i did priced but i'd say if i asked a florist it would have cost me about €750. In total i spent €350 including flower materials and flowers. I could have spent a good bit less on flowers as i had lots left over.

I had
1 Bride Bouquet
3 Bridesmaid Bouquet
1 Flowergirl Bouquet
2 Mothers corsages
14 Buttonholes
Altar arrangement
5 Vases of flowers (2 at back of altar, 2 at front, 1 by a statue)
22 hanging jar pew ends
2 large arrangements for outside the church

I spent €300 0n flowers and to be honest i didn't need that much at all. I had loads left over. I bought them from Flowers4florists.com and they delivered them to my house.

I bought 5 bunches of Babysbreath €100. (I really only needed 3 especially if i scrapped the large vases for outside the church)
3 bunches (60 stems 70cm) of sweet avalanche roses €80 (these were great and i did use them all as i put any extras into the jars.
1 bunch (20 stems 50cm) of avalanche roses €14.40. These were good too, i had heard that the longer the sem the bigger the rose but there was no difference between these and the sweet avalanche. The shorter stem is cheaper though. I only bought one of these as i was worried they would be tiny.
1 Bunch (20 stems 70cm) of Vendela roses €17.80. (Never again... thorniest flowers ever, i bought these as i was worried about the avalanche roses being small.
1 bunch Peony sarah bernhard (20 stems 55cm) €32.20 ( loved these though i had to place them in warm water to open properly)
1 Bunch of Vermeer lilies(20 stems) €22.20 (wouldn't get these again. many never opened properly so i'd just buy a bunch from tesco or dunnes. I used them mainly in the altar arrangement so really only needed 5 stems.)
I also bought 2 bunches of greenery (Eucalyptus and A fern type). i had way too much but i couldn't find somewhere to supply a smaller amount. it cost €30 for both.
I also spent €7.50 on spray carnations. In hindsight i should have got more of these for the pew ends as they look very pretty and are a great filler for a cheap price. I got mine in tesco, get them about a week before the wedding so they open properly.

The Work side

1) Prepping the flowers. the flowers arrived, on a tuesday for a friday wedding, in cardboard boxes you have to get them out of the boxes and into water and feed. You need to cut the stems on them all and get them into water and feet so they start to open up. THey do look a bit sad at this stage. I also saw that some of mine (lilies and peonies) would need to be forced open so i put them in the conservatory but out of direct sunlight.

I had to take over the bathroom to do this and there were flowers and leaves everywhere. Also in the middle of this we had 3 separate visits from people calling to wish us well and drop off presents. (this will happen periodically) Id say it took about 2 hours of non stop work and 4-5 with the interruptions to get all the flowers in buckets and water and then cleaning up after them.

2) I then put all the pew ends together that night. Even though the roses were not open properly as they were going into the jars with water and feed i knew they would be fine. Then we had another visit (3 hours long) As i was making tea for them i'd do a bit as i was passing by. Without the visit these would have been done and all cleaned up in an hour and a half. ( i had the ribbons already on the jars from a few weeks before thankfully as that can take a while.

3) Altar arrangement and vases. My MIL and SIL came over on the wednesday to help with these. My MIL did the vases and myself and SIL did the altar arrangement. all the babys breath for the altar arrangement has to be cut and this does take a while so thankfully SIL did this. Otherwise the altar arrangement was a breeze. I used ferns at the bottom layer, then covered with babysbreath and then added roses and lillies. My MIL did the arrangements for behind the altar. She is quite particular so this took a while. Additionally i thought it would be a good idea to do all of this outside and then we got 3 huge downpours followed by blazing sunshine so we had to run and take cover inside a couple of times. it took about 3-4 hours including tea, lunch and sheltering from the rain.

4) Bouquets and buttonholes. I did the buttonholes on the wednesday morning and they took about an hour. ( i placed them in floral foam so they would keep ok) Bridesmaid and flowergirl bouquets took about an hour and a half once they were done i taped them but left the ends long and then i placed them in water. My own bouquet took about half an hour. However i had to re make this the next day as it overbloomed in the heat of the car (2 hour drive) I also forgot to trim the ends of the bouquet on the day of the wedding.

Finallly i'm glad i did the flowers as firstly i got the look i was after for a cheaper price, it was a very personal thing to do and i did enjoy it However i'm not very fussy and the flowers i wanted were not perfectly symmetrical arrangements.

I also think there is a lot of unnecessary pressure put on brides to have fabulous flowers, to love their florist, have everything perfect etc. I like pretty flowers and that was what i wanted and got. The wedding was not about the flowers to me so i was happy to take on the job knowing that if it wasn't perfect i wouldn't mind.

My original plan was to just do the church flowers and if i could have found someone who would do 14 buttonholes for a reasonable price i'd probably have done this. but paying €5 each for these just put me off as i have had numerous rose buttonholes die on me at other family weddings.

I also think if i hadn't done the flowers myself i would have done very minimal flowers in the church.

Pistachios & cream

Another thing i really liked about doing the flowers were that some people took the pew ends to put on graves (they did ask) which i really liked. because they were mini arrangements they would last a while

shortstuff!

Ahayes84 you did a great job! Thanks for the detailed post:) particularly love your pew ends! so tempted to do flowers myself as well particularly since I've the bouquets (foam) done already. I'll def be doing the buttonholes myself. Did it take long to set up the church? Did you do that or delegate?!

michellie

I've got a great price for flowers from a woman who does it from home. 1 bride bouquet,3 bridesmaid,1 flowers girl, 9 buttonholes, unity arrangement and big lanterns with candles for the top of the aisle and a small arrangement for the cake €390.

I'm not doing flowers for the pew ends because our church has funny ones that I can't really hang anything from! But I have something nice for the aisle .

bearhugs

michellie wrote: »

I've got a great price for flowers from a woman who does it from home. 1 bride bouquet,3 bridesmaid,1 flowers girl, 9 buttonholes, unity arrangement and big lanterns with candles for the top of the aisle and a small arrangement for the cake €390.

I'm not doing flowers for the pew ends because our church has funny ones that I can't really hang anything from! But I have something nice for the aisle .

That's a brilliant price, would you mind telling me whereabouts in the country she is based?

Hiya,

Haven't posted in a long time. Just to let anyone of you looking for bridesmaid dresses know that DRESSCODE are having a 90% off sale starting today ending Saturday.

I'm heading up the road soon to see if I can grab a beautiful bargain.

Pistachios & cream

shortstuff! wrote: »

Ahayes84 you did a great job! Thanks for the detailed post:) particularly love your pew ends! so tempted to do flowers myself as well particularly since I've the bouquets (foam) done already. I'll def be doing the buttonholes myself. Did it take long to set up the church? Did you do that or delegate?!

Thanks. I setup myself with my parents and my MIL, SIL and FIL.

If you live near your church then it will be no problem. You can make a few trips and just place things where you want them.

That was not the case for me and to be honest that was where the most stress was. I really enjoyed the flower arranging but the transporting and setting up was the hard part.

Because we got married in a different county to where i'm from we had to transfer all the flowers and all the other wedding stuff down to kerry the day before the wedding.

Because of this we had to put all the arrangements in buckets and then transplant them to vases in the church. This took a good bit of time and because i was afraid things would get broken on the drive i packed all the extra flowers. This meant there was a lot more mess in the church so we had to clean up. My FIL was brilliant hoovered the whole church a couple of times.

All the flowers being re-arranged meant all the vases being filled with water in the church and for 5 vases and2 more huge ones this was a lot of trips to the tap. And the pew ends needed to be topped up.

If you are near your church i would advise making a couple of trips with one or two people in the car to hold vases still.The altar arrangement should be grand on a flat surface like the boot of the car and the pew ends canbe packed in boxes.

Once you get to the church you can just place them where they need to go. IF you have to make changes then you are close enough to be able to go back and change it.

It took us about an hour and a half to setup the church not including travelling time.

Preset No.3

Ladies, I come into this thread as a DJ so my experience is based on what I see at weddings. I was looking at replies about videographers and the prices they charge. Much like all wedding suppliers you will have those who are really cheap and really expensive.

I have seen a lot of video people these days use the likes of SLR cameras with external mic packs which I feel lack the overall professionalism of the product. Stick with the old school is my opinion. Those who are in the game a long time and have a long list of happy clients. The 2 people I recommend the most are Richard Gill and Cyril Fox. 2 great guys that have worked in the business as long as myself. I could be very wrong but when I heard about someone charging €500 alarm bells rang in my head.

michellie

bearhugs wrote: »

That's a brilliant price, would you mind telling me whereabouts in the country she is based?

She's in Waterford if you want more info PM me!

pampootie

Just wondering, has anybody seen any nice bridesmaid shoes for about €40 or under? Looking for a neutral enough sandal, not too high, and it's surprisingly difficult to find! Wrong time of year I suppose

Milly33

A ref heel sandal or any shoe is a bit of a nightmare nowadays... Spent ages looking for my own bridesmaids one. Ended up getting them in Debanams for far more than we had set out to pay. It was Nine West ones we went for eventually.

If you have the time Id say take a look online and see if you can find any, nine west have a sale on at the moment. Korkys are great online or Blue China

emzibob

pampootie wrote: »

Just wondering, has anybody seen any nice bridesmaid shoes for about €40 or under? Looking for a neutral enough sandal, not too high, and it's surprisingly difficult to find! Wrong time of year I suppose

I got mine in new look might be worth a try?

pampootie

Cheers, will have a look. Next had nice ones but typically the sizes I need are sold out!

lainey316

Try Folkster, tho they might be too high?
http://www.folkster.com/powder-heels-green this one is coming in in nude this month

They have a few others
http://www.folkster.com/shoes/rosela-nude
http://www.folkster.com/shoes/senza-sandal-nude

They used to do these in nude might come back in
http://www.folkster.com/perton-black

pampootie

Ooh I like the first ones-bit higher than I'd planned alright but I'm sure I could talk the bridesmaids round!

Saraeavan

Hi everyone,

so we’re getting married April next year and have our venue arranged and everything, I’ve been waiting for them to confirm menu and wine costs etc. and have just now got an email from then with an invoice for the hire fee (over €3000) asking to be paid in full and that the food and drink would be billed after the wedding. Just a bit surprised. Thought there might be a deposit due and then an instalment plan, was not expecting a bill for nearly €3.5k asking full payment with 8 months to go. Is this normal practice?



Thanks

westernlass

It is for exclusive venue hire. Every venue has its own terms