Various wedding questions

[HollieES]

We're getting married in September and with not much time to actually do a lot of planning, I'm looking for some tips/advice from others. Things I'm looking for at the moment in a nice London hotel and transport.

The hotel will be for myself, my son, my mum and 2 bridesmaids to stay the night before the wedding, and for my husband and I to stay at after the wedding, so I'd like it to be really lovely but not ridiculously expensive. Somewhere along the lines of The Grazing Goat (http://www.thegrazinggoat.co.uk). We are getting married in Balham so hotel needs to be relatively nearby (Soho is fine, or somewhere SW/SE London, nothing too far north).

Transport wise I'm looking for a routemaster bus to take our guests from the Church in Balham to our reception which is here above the EDT. There seem to be so many companies doing this so I'm just looking for recommendations of companies that anyone's used and been happy with. Would also like to get a taxi to take bridal party from the hotel to the church, as I'll be going in a separate car with my dad. Again, any recommendations gratefully received.

Lastly (for now), does anyone have any unusual/quirky ideas for wedding favours? Our entire wedding budget is aroun ?7k so want something thoughtful but thrifty!

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help x

[sunbob]

Are your locations definite? We had a v limited budget and found that keeping the ceremony and reception close to each other saved a lot of money. It also made for a lovely relaxed day.

[Serena2012]

Check out the following post on fabulous wedding blog Rock My Wedding for inspiration - you should read the commebts as well as the original blog post. Personally, I love the idea of damson gin, home made jam and/ or chutney. A friend of mine had tea bags containing tea leaves from his family's tea plantation in Sri Lanka as favours last year , which I thought was a lovely touch. I also think sunflower seeds in a nicely decorated hessian bag/ envelope would be fab. Happy planning! http://www.rockmywedding.co.uk/to-favour-or-not-to-favour/

S

[JBoylen]

I just came back from my sisters wedding and have been to so many others. My sister gave a very useless but nice gift to all and I honestly don't even know where mine is at the moment, how awful!

I agree with Serena in that it should be something actually useful for the guests. Trinkets and whatnot with your names and dates are nice (for you) but for me I always found the jams, candles, CDs, chocolate, jars of cookie dough mix, etc were actually put to use. Those uses become memories and reminded me of the wedding at the same time.

As for ideas, I have none, just that input. ;)

Congrats!

[lucyA1308]

my one bit of advice, which my husband tried to convince me of, and I didn't listen, but he was right.

When we got married in Dulwich village, we had a flat in Tulse Hill. I stayed at the flat, and it is not a very long journey into Dulwich Village from there.

I wanted to arrive in a black cab. I think they are so stylish, and even that is a luxury for me, who mostly travels on the bus.

My husband found a company that specialises in black cabs for wedding hire. It cost about ?130, and I thought that was a ridiculous amount of money to travel from Tulse Hill into DV, just for a black cab with a ribbon on.

So the day before the wedding, I phoned up London taxis (what ever the company is called), and asked to book 2 cabs for a specific time the following day.

When that time came, I got a call from the taxi company saying that they had been putting calls out but there were no cabs in the area. (I imagine they might have come up to Brixton, but were not really many driving around Tulse Hill looking for customers on a Saturday afternoon.

I didn't know that was how they opperated, and thought that if i had booked a cab, then they would make sure they would be there - not just call out for the nearest one at the time, and see if there were any around.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous sunny bank holiday weekend (almost our anniversary coming up), and all our neighbours were either at the wedding, waiting, or had gone away for the weekend. So we all piled into my dad's car (they live in the countryside, and the car was full of sacks of gardening stuff). Mum, Dad, my bridesmaid and my aunt, and me in my dress, and all the bouquets of flowers.

We were actually early, because of the sudden panic, and the thought that we needed to make up for lost time. With all the adrenaline, I almost ran down the aisle when I got there.

moral: Listen to your husband to be, if he makes any useful suggestions, and also don't rely on being able to pick up a passing black cab in Dulwich.

[jennyh]

We got married last September and our favours were homemade jams, my mother in law is a keen cook so made huge batches of different jams and we bought jars and put little stickers and gingham lids on them. Was a nice touch and everyone liked it which helps, so often favours are nothing special but cost the earth!

[patt1980]

I decorated these Snaps glasses from Ikea as my wedding favours (and served Snaps as a toast) and tied a name tag to them so they doubled up as the place setting. With a mix of Swedes and Scots though most our guests were big drinkers so may not work as well if yours aren't:-)

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60015131/

[BeccaL]

We bought mini packets of LoveHearts for our favours. Depends on your budget but we decided that as we weren't likely to stay in a London hotel often again, we stayed in the (?)Radisson in County Hall, overlooking the Thames and Big Ben. Figured we might as well find somewhere we could enjoy the view! Enjoy your day!

[Ramble66]

To follow on from Black cabs, I booked a corporate taxi rather than wedding. Much cheaper only thing different is no ribbon.

For the night before and getting ready I booked an apartment for 4. Again cheaper than a hotel room and lovely to get ready in. Then we paid a taxi to take our bags to the hotel for wedding night.

[katgod]

Cannisaro house in Wimbledon has just been refurbished. Don't know the grazing goat you referred to but Wimbledon pretty close to balham. 13 years after a big traditional wedding and having been to loads over the years I would say skip favours and put the money behind the bar. No one except the bride gives two hoots about them :-)

[Ole]

lucyA1308 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> my one bit of advice, which my husband tried to

> convince me of, and I didn't listen, but he was

> right.

>

> When we got married in Dulwich village, we had a

> flat in Tulse Hill. I stayed at the flat, and it

> is not a very long journey into Dulwich Village

> from there.

>

> I wanted to arrive in a black cab. I think they

> are so stylish, and even that is a luxury for me,

> who mostly travels on the bus.

>

> My husband found a company that specialises in

> black cabs for wedding hire. It cost about ?130,

> and I thought that was a ridiculous amount of

> money to travel from Tulse Hill into DV, just for

> a black cab with a ribbon on.

>

> So the day before the wedding, I phoned up London

> taxis (what ever the company is called), and asked

> to book 2 cabs for a specific time the following

> day.

>

> When that time came, I got a call from the taxi

> company saying that they had been putting calls

> out but there were no cabs in the area. (I imagine

> they might have come up to Brixton, but were not

> really many driving around Tulse Hill looking for

> customers on a Saturday afternoon.

>

> I didn't know that was how they opperated, and

> thought that if i had booked a cab, then they

> would make sure they would be there - not just

> call out for the nearest one at the time, and see

> if there were any around.

>

> Anyway, it was a gorgeous sunny bank holiday

> weekend (almost our anniversary coming up), and

> all our neighbours were either at the wedding,

> waiting, or had gone away for the weekend. So we

> all piled into my dad's car (they live in the

> countryside, and the car was full of sacks of

> gardening stuff). Mum, Dad, my bridesmaid and my

> aunt, and me in my dress, and all the bouquets of

> flowers.

>

> We were actually early, because of the sudden

> panic, and the thought that we needed to make up

> for lost time. With all the adrenaline, I almost

> ran down the aisle when I got there.

>

> moral: Listen to your husband to be, if he makes

> any useful suggestions, and also don't rely on

> being able to pick up a passing black cab in

> Dulwich.

Ha ha, this happened to me too! I got a call just about when the cab was due to be told that no cabs where in the area (Denmark Hill and I do see quite a few cabs around because we are so close to Kings but must have been a quiet day). Everybody was at the venue and I was facing having to drive myself (in my wedding dress and with a long veil!). Instead I decided to call my brother and hope that he could find his way to our flat without getting lost and in record time. He did, and although it was hardly a glamorous arrival (my bother has 3 children and the car was a clapped out volvo strewn with crisp and other paraphernalia) it was touching that for that short ride it was just my parents, my brother and I, just like when we were children, and of all the memories from my wedding day that car ride is high up on the moments I cherish.

[theasidonio]

We are making mini jam jars with homemade jerk seasoning in them. we had considered chilli seeds or sunflower seeds too.

[patt1980]

You could also try High Road House in Chiswick (part of soho house group) as have heard it's really nice and not too far from Balham in a taxi I wouldn't have thought.

[HollieES]

Some really great ideas there, thank you so much everyone - and to those who have sent PMs. I will definitely try and listen to my future husband too ;)