Premature Planner's DIY planning blog

Nearly two years ago, my soul mate (or as close as you can get, the [Tim Minchin-esque] cynic in me feels compelled to add!) proposed to me in beautiful Bayahibe. Over that summer I managed to put a few ideas together, before being thrown into an intense teacher training year that left little time for us to talk, let alone plan a wedding! 

We are in an interesting situation, I work as an English teacher at a Secondary school here in the UK, working my a$$ off day in, day out; leaving me no time, other than holidays to plan for my big day.  

Therefore, last summer, I found myself suddenly with time to breathe, time to take a break and time to obsess over a day that seemed both scarily close and horrendously far away at the same time!

I planned A LOT. I crafted A LOT. I posted on here A LOT. I delved, as much as I could, into this wonderful world of chiffon, flowers and bubbles.

There have been trials and tribulations over the past year: family and friends doing the 'yes/no/yes/no' dance as to whether they'll even attend, flights STILL not being released and guilt trips galore.

But despite this, I am happy to (at last!) be able to say that I will be saying 'I do' next year, and (hopefully without feeling as foolish now that it's getting closer) I can share with you my story, my DIY to date and my INCREDIBLY gradual build up to my 'I DO' moment.

THE START:

FI and I were friends for an entire year before the thought of being together had even crossed our minds. My best friend (or new uni flatmate at the time) had gotten together with FI's best man our first week of uni, and thus a wonderful new circle of friends was formed. Despite us being in the same circle, there were members of the group that each of us was closest to, with little overlap. So despite the fact that we were both always around each other, I don't think either of us really even noticed the other... We went a full year in that same circle, talking to each other every now and again, but never anything more. To be honest, I'm pretty certain he thought I was a gobby cow and aimed to avoid me as best he could . But then the group got smaller. I lost one of my sub-group, and he lost one of his... We grew closer over the passing months, though I don't think either of us really noticed it at the time. And eventually we ended up at a party, the only singletons amongst our vastly diminished group (and a lot of people neither of us knew)... the couples departed; we stayed. The rest, as they say, is history...

THE PROPOSAL:

FI and I had always talked about getting married, even from early on in the relationship we'd tripped up and accidentally talked about 'our wedding', and we'd already bought a ring (albeit months earlier on a trip away) 

The day itself though, was perfect from start to finish. 

We'd visited the Dominican Republic the year before and had loved the people, the culture and the stunning scenery so much that we'd booked to return less than a year later, albeit to a different part of the country. This time we were to stay down the beach from the fishing village of Bayahibe, at a resort called Dreams La Romana. 

The morning began with breakfast in bed and the opening of presents and cards to mark my 22nd birthday. By 9am we were at 'The Private Corner' a secret spot with the ocean-view jacuzzi that wey had pre-hired to celebrate my surviving another year. It comprised of many wonderful elements: a meeting with Edwin- our wonderful personal waiter for the day (and amigo for the duration of our stay ), a *lot* of champagne and corona, meerkat raving (don't ask), a three course gourmet meal and a couples massage.

It was so lovely to relax and spend quality time together being silly, and it will forever remain one of the most perfect days of our lives.

At sunset FI suggested that we went for a walk down the beach, where we watched the waves splash against the rocks and shared some romantic words, all of which are a blur now.

(I also took to photographing the scenery, completely oblivious to the fact that he'd left the ring back at the jacuzzi- I think he nearly had a heart attack!)

As we walked back to our special spot, FI pointed down to behind some flowers, 'surprised' to see a turtle (of the cuddly variety) protecting a ring box.

(I'd always joked that when he proposed he should have a [real] turtle present it to me in its mouth . This was a superior option to a lost ring and a dead turtle! Turtles were kind of an in joke, and a continued theme in our wedding)

At this point I grabbed him and kissed him, preventing him from even being able to ask the all important question! When I finally released him, he got down on one knee and asked.

Obviously I said YES!

THE LOCATION:

We had always known that we wanted to get married somewhere that had real personal meaning to us, rather than just some random hall or hotel. We had jokingly discussed Glastonbury festival as well as the Dominican Republic, but after two of the best weeks of our lives at Dreams La Romana, as well as it being the proposal site, we knew that this was where we wanted to say 'I do'. It was a place that was special to us and that we genuinely loved, a beautiful setting, and a place that we wanted to share with our loved ones.

Much more to come.... 

I've just stumbled across word that flights for next July will be being released in exactly 13 days.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

It will feel so much better to have ourselves booked and know for certain who, out of all the 'maybes' will actually bother to book! Think there'll be as many tears and there will smiles but at least FI and I will know for certain. As always, it's the not knowing that's the worst! 

Congratulations on your engagement!!!

As I've mentioned, after the proposal came that exciting flurry of planning: picking out all the little details, researching the location (although we had less to do than most, as we'd just left our wedding site!) and broaching the plan with family and friends... We'd initially hoped to be getting wed this summer, but with the cost of travel to family members, we had to put it back a further year. 

In those weeks we planned, created and decided a number of things...

Our website: http://www.mywedding.com/adamandkimberleyforever/

Our colour scheme: originally ivory and turquoise, now ivory, turquoise and purple.

Our engagement announcements went out: 

We decided on the beach gazebo (over our initial choice of the garden gazebo):

Decided on the decorations:

We intend to have ivory voile material with ivory and purple flowers (lilies and roses), turquoise, purple and ivory rose petals forming an aisle, and paper squares on fishing wire/string as above (these were one of the projects that I started last summer and currently decorate my flat) Here's one:

 Each square is separated with turquoise beads that I'm hoping will glitter beautifully in the sunlight.

Similarly, the chairs will be an ivory colour with turquoise sashes, as below, for both the ceremony and the reception.

Last summer I also purchased and 'did up' an ivory parasol for myself and parasols for my two bridesmaids. 

On here, I'd seen and fallen in love with wedding photographs like the one below, so despite my plan to have a bouquet, I also purchased an ivory umbrella for myself for following the ceremony.

We decided to have fans and bubbles on the chairs:

Bubbles were purchased and done up last summer, fans are still to come... We're also hoping to get a few bubble machines for during the reception.

With the ceremony planned, let's hit... 

THE RECEPTION:

Having (from a distance) watched a reception taking place on the beach, whilst taking a walk on the pier after dinner, we knew that's where we wanted ours to be too. 

We're hoping to be able to move our decs from the gazebo to one of the palpas also, and use it as a makeshift dance floor/ shelter (not that it's going to rain... definitely not )

In terms of the cake, it will probably be a simple one tier cake with turquoise ribbon around it, then with a personalised topper. This will be on a beach and have palms with the wedding date written in the sand (A <3 K?); a personalised bride and groom (designed from photos of us, my dress and hair), the mini groom will have an xbox pad in his hand behind his back .

Jam jar candle holders- These are a bit of a DIY jobby that I've already had a go at., I intend to decorate them using our turtle logo as well as things like hearts, the date, our names etc. and filling them with tea-light candles and either sand or beads. Here is an example of one done properly:

Next came the monogram, this I created last summer, with the help of you guys on here. It went over a major journey, thanks to the people who gave me some pointers on how to improve it.

Version 1:

Final version:

Great work keep it up!...I'm getting married this July there. The pics all put together has gotten me even more excited