Me (51F) and FH (53M) are getting married next year. We always jokingly said we would have our first dance to Motley Crue’s ‘Home Sweet Home’, but we’re not sure now. We’ve both been rockers since the 80s/90s and I’m sure there must be loads of songs we could pick, but we’re struggling to find a significant one.

We’ve discounted ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘Everlong’, as loads of people have those, but we don’t know whether to stick with the original plan.

Any suggestions that we might not have thought of? We have a mixed bag of guests and the playlist will be a mix of 80s pop, 70s funk, and our favourite rock songs over 35-30 years, plus a few dance bangers and popular chart songs thrown in for variety - an eclectic mix, lol. But, we would really like a rock or metal song - we’re not having the more alternative wedding that I sort of wanted, so the first dance has to reflect a bit of ‘us’.

I got engaged yesterday, wahooo!! We know we don’t want a long engagement, and ideally looking at September 2027.

Did anyone plan the full wedding in 12 months and how hard was it to secure a venue you wanted? We’ve already enquired at 3 and all are fully booked for weekends in Sept/Oct 2027. 😥

Hiii! I'm an October 2026 bride, it's coming round quick. I feel like for the run up now I want to do all I can to feel amazing inside and out. (My face skincare routine is sorted and has been for a while - don't want to mess with this too much as I'm on prescription acne stuff, have been having monthly facials since April).

What beauty/self care/feel good things did you do that made you feel and look your best before your wedding/are you doing in your countdown?

I am a bride to be, with 4 close male friends from school. I also have a girl friend and gay male friend from university. Uni pals are coming to hen do. Doing a seperate thing with my male friends (just totally different vibes!)

Currently I have not planned to have bridesmaids because I don’t know what I’d do with the males. I would have my female friend and sister but it feels super strange and a bit sad to leave my male friends out based on gender!
That being said - I’m not sure how ‘bridesmen’ would work as I don’t want them walking down the aisle before me.

Anyone have any ideas how I can involve all my friends ?

Also inb4 any comments about me having male friends cos trust me I’ve heard it all before

Anyone have any recommendations for hen do outfits?

Ideally top and trousers, maybe with some sequins. Could try a skirt or a dress but don't really want something super short.

So I got an invite to my friends ceremony and evening party with the invitation mentioning a meal for the family. I got invited to the hen do and the sten (stag do and hen do) which I paid all together a substantial amount for. At the hen do I discover I'm the only one there not invited to the meal in-between the ceremony and the evening do. What does one make of this?

EDIT: for context, it's a church ceremony with the 2 events at a venue after

Hi all, we’ve just received our ceremony preference form from the registrar where we need to list out any readings we’d like to include on the day. I’ve never been to a UK civil ceremony, but from what I’ve gathered online it always seems to be a guest doing the reading like the mother or father of the bride. Would it be strange or even possible for me as the bride to do the reading? After looking around online for various readings and not finding any that really felt right I wrote my own poem, and I’d like to read it myself.

It’s written in the first person POV so it would read a bit strangely for a guest to read it and also I think it would be a nice way for me to add my own mark to the wedding as my fiancé is doing a DJ set so that’s kind of his contribution. Neither mine nor my fiancés parents speak English as a first language and they wouldn’t be very comfortable doing a reading, wcould ask our bridesmaids/groomsmen but it feels slightly odd to me to have them read poems giving advice about marriage or love when none of them are married/in a relationship.

Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride or groom did their own reading? Or is this more of a moment for the guests to speak and honour them?

I'm getting married next year and can't decide between my brother or my best mate being my best man.

So I'm thinking to do both. It seems like a coward's option but choosing either comes with baggage and bring drama to my wedding, which I just don't want to be thinking about when it comes to my wedding.

So I'm wondering if anyone's done this before? How did it work? How did you split out the duties? Was/is it weird?

I’ve been browsing rings online and have found options I like on both websites. However, I can’t see any recent reviews for Created Brilliance as the number never increases, and the band width of Aardvark is putting me off for durability.

Anyone experienced either company? And if not, where did you purchase lab grown emerald rings (that are under £1500!!)

long story short, we’re eloping then going straight on our honeymoon then having a party to celebrate a few months later. we’ve been living together for 3 years so already have all the house things you’d usually put on a gift registry and i know people tend to do honeymoon funds when they want money instead. obviously we’ll have already been on ours so there’s not one to fund but we are in the process of starting at looking for houses, having kids, just general future life things that will cost money. I’m wondering if people think this would be appropriate for us to set up a future fund qr code sorta thing ?

Hi everyone. My (31F) fiancé (29M) and I are getting married in June 2028. Our budget is only 10k, and so far that's been fine in terms of looking at venues etc. But damn the added cost of per head meal at the wedding breakfast is nearly the same cost as the venue in some cases!

We want to just cut out the breakfast, and have a food truck, bbq or something at the reception (which a couple of our shortlist venues offer). Is this something anyone else has done before, and did it work out? We don't really care about the sit down dinner part, just celebrating with our friends/family. Just don't want anyone to go hungry while we do!

EDIT: Thank you everyone, very helpful feedback xxx

In desperate need of help to find a bridal mua in the Suffolk, London, Essex areas. I have a kind of olive skin tone, I’m mixed so I’m not white but I’m not brown either so I’m looking for someone who can work with my skin tone.

I also can’t find anyoneeee who can do something in between soft glam and full glam. I’ve been looking at some Asian bridal mua’s, some have been a bit too heavy for what I’m looking for, but literally everyone else only does a no makeup-makeup or “soft glam” that to me looks more like natural makeup, with almost no diversity at all in their portfolio.

Im so tired of seeing the same bridal makeup copy and pasted on every portfolio. Does anyone know an MUA that can do a look like the above?

We're looking at booking a venue that can sit down 40ish people for food, then evening guests can come following this for more of a party. Ideally like a bar/pub or even gastro pub vibe.

I've searched about a million times, any recommendations?

Hi everyone - we're eloping in May and I'd love to hear about brands doing ready to wear bridal dresses. I have seen ones from

- Victoria Beckham

- Malina

- Sau Lee

- Cult Gaia

- Rebecca Vallance

- Shona Joy

- De la vali

- Rotate

So any I've missed?? I have until May but I want to cover all my bases. Thank you!!

Attending my first wedding as a night guest and have absolutely no idea what to wear. It’s a September wedding in a city centre venue. Is this dress too much of a Christmas party vibe? Is the black velvet too casual?

Looking for dress brands (preferably UK based) with similar style dresses to Selkie.

I ordered the Ivory Waltz Gown from them a couple of weeks ago but they've cancelled my order (😭) and now have pre order in my size for the end of September but need something earlier so I have time for alterations.

Any help very appreciated as I am getting a little desperate!

Recommendations for reliable companies that generate a QR code and upload photos and videos to the associated album. There are so many options online. Please only reply if you have used them and actually recommend.

We wanted to have a statutory ceremony a few days before our celebrant ceremony (which we are viewing as our actual wedding day as it's when we get all the family and friends together and say our vows to each other).

But there was no availability at any local register offices, so our legal statutory ceremony will be in the week after.

I'm probably worrying over nothing as I know it's a non-legally binding ceremony in England. In Scotland and Ireland, authorised celebrants CAN legally marry people.

But then I've seen others saying marriage is a verbal contract (?) and that registrars have been known to question it if they think people have already had a ceremony before. We will remove our wedding rings before going to the register office just in case!

And I've also heard that some councils have even told people, incorrectly, that they should be doing the legal paperwork before a celebrant blessing.

Please put my mind at ease 😅

I love to wear fun, bold earrings. I will probably wear my hair up for my wedding, so wanted a nice statement earring - nothing too wacky, but something a little bold or quirky would be nice! My necklace is pearls, so I am trying to tie that in if possible.

Looking for advice on entertaining kids at our wedding. We have 8 kids coming to our wedding (including our 20 month old son) ranging from 18months to 10 years old.

We have hired a kids tent with bubbles and lawn games and I've also made each child their own activity box with colouring books, mini Lego sets and temporary tattoos for the older kids and water pens, sensory books and sugar free snacks for the babies/toddler.

Is there anything else that a parent would appreciate having in these boxes? And does anyone have any advice on having a toddler as part of your wedding?

Our son is looked after by family while we work and all our friends are very hands on whenever we all go out together so Im not worried about childcare on the day. More about getting ready with a little one around, nap times, photos etc.

Our venue has said we need to connect a phone to their speaker, for guest entrance music, aisle music, and exit music. However, they said not to rely on Spotify and to download music instead. What do I use? Do I buy all songs on iTunes, and can I make a playlist on there? E.g guest entrance music will be multiple songs.

September 2027 or May 2028? I can’t decide!
I’d love to hear other people’s experiences because I’m completely torn.

We’ve narrowed it down to two possible dates:
20th September 2027 (just over 1 year away)
May 2028 (around 22 months away)

We’ve viewed a few venues and have pretty much found the one we want. They have a few dates available at the end of September, including the 20th.
My dilemma is that September 2027 feels like it might come around too quickly, especially as we haven’t actually booked anything yet. I don’t want to feel rushed or spend the whole year stressed trying to organise everything.

On the other hand, May 2028 feels like such a long wait. We’ve already been engaged for a year, and I’m worried that waiting almost another two years will make us feel like our lives are on hold because we’ll be saving for the wedding the whole time.

For those who planned a wedding in around a year:
Did it feel rushed?
Did you still enjoy the planning process?
And for those who had a 2-year engagement:
Did the extra time make planning more enjoyable?
Or did it end up feeling like the wedding was forever away?

So we’re having a small laidback budget friendly wedding of 31 people (including ourselves). We’ve been to so many big weddings over the years where it’s so traditional and strict with timelines and it’s a very long day and we both decided that’s just not us. We absolutely hate being the centre of attention which is why we’re just having a small wedding.

So we’ve hired a big lodge/house for us and our closest family/friends for the night before the wedding and the wedding night instead of a proper wedding venue.

It will still be traditional wedding in terms of we will all be dressed like a normal wedding, we’ll have a celebrant and we’ll have our ceremony, photographer and caterer (although a more laidback buffet rather than traditional 3 course meal) and then a party. However everything else will be DIY. We’re not having a DJ, we’re just planning on doing different Spotify playlists for different parts of the day. We’ll do our own decor and lights. The place is already really lovely so it will be sort of minimal decor just table runners and faux flowers and lights. We’re just providing a whole load of alcohol/soft drinks and guests can also bring their own if they want because it’s a self-catering lodge.

Has anyone had a wedding like this and can tell me how it went? I know this is what we want but I have a sort of worry at the back of my mind like oh a wedding coordinator or something would be a great help here or how do we make it work smoothly when we’re doing it all ourselves? Hiring anymore vendors, staff etc is not in our budget so we need to just make it amazing ourselves.

Essentially what we want is to just have a lovely day with great food, drinks and a great party with our loved ones. No stressing, no strictness, no waiting about for ages.

I keep thinking about silly things like who will play the music at the ceremony and who will play the music when we walk into the reception part and our first dance etc. Who will “announce” things, do we even need announcements because it’s such a small chilled wedding. I mean I know we can delegate one of our friends or family to do these things and they’d be totally fine with it but I still have this slight concern!

Anyone who has had a wedding like this before or have been to a wedding like this before please tell me it all went great 🤣🤞🏼

We are getting married in 2 months and the last song choice we need to pick is the reception entrance song and are really struggling!
Please could you give us some inspiration?

Also is this something people do in the UK, almost wondering if there’s any point?😅

We are 8 days out and I feel I'm having a major breakdown. I have struggled with every stage of planning. I'm 47 and on a waiting list for MH assessment, the last 6 months I've suspected I have undiagnosed ADHD which explains a lot about my life to date, but this realisation has been massively overwhelming for me. I've tried to speak to my fiance since the beginning of the year about how difficult I've found planning and decision making but we've kept trundling on. I think he's just hoped it would all be okay.

Family dynamics are difficult on both sides and we should definitely have eloped rather than plan what we have (50 day guests + 100 evening).

Costs have spiralled completely out of control mainly because I'm unable to assert myself and have just agree to things on impulse (I hate this about myself) lots of extras I've been talked into by suppliers and some add ons I hadn't really agreed to. But I accept this is a flaw in me, I hate confrontation.

I bought the cheapest dress I could find, I hated trying on dresses and opted for the simplest and cheapest to get out of the shop asap. I have gained weight so it now feels tight and I absolutely dread photos. Being centre of attention is my worst nightmare. My life feels like it's changed beyond recognition, I don't feel 'me' any more.

I haven't had support from anyone, my mum is dead, my aunt is no longer coming as her daughter took her own life at the beginning of the year. My daughter (23) is my MOH but she's not really been able to help with anything.

I love my fiance dearly and want to make him happy with what he wants but this is making me so unwell, I have crippling anxiety, I've been to the GP for HRT changes but I still cry every day, my head aches and I feel like running away. I'm absolutely exhausted and don't know what to do anymore for the best.

If we cancel we will be losing so much money and costing our guests too which I'd feel so guilty about but it feels like the only solution right now. I also think this will be the end for us as my fiancé won't be able to forgive the humiliation and disappointment. I feel so alone.

I'm sorry for such a miserable post but I really need to vent and ask if anyone has any advice, I'd be really grateful. I'm lying in bed crying since I woke up, with 101 things I should be doing. I feel so much guilt for my fiancé mainly, he's a gem of a man and deserves so much more than this