We've Started Wedding Planning

I've been with my other half for seven years, engaged for six. It was always our intention to have a long engagement and up until recently the thought of getting married hasn't bothered me much. We live together, we have three beautiful daughters. Would a piece of paper be worth spending thousands of pounds over? Would it really change anything?

In the last month or so, we've sat down and talked about actually setting a wedding date, May 2020. Exactly 10 years after we first started dating. We've been looking into all the ins and outs of a wedding, what you need to plan and most of all, how much it would cost to make the day perfect.

Since there is a date on the cards, my view of getting married has somewhat changed. I can understand why people truly get married. It isn't for a piece of paper at all. It's to show their commitment to each other, to show their unity together and to show everyone they are a whole unit, a family.

Wedding planning is completely out of my comfort zone. I am not a very girly person. I am not one of those people who had planned their perfect wedding by the time they were 10. It's just not in me to be like that.

I keep visiting all of these wedding websites with tick lists and such however it all seems to overwhelm me. I really want to become excited about this yet I am still a little anxious to set anything in stone yet but watch this space!

Equalli have some amazing tips for planning a gay wedding however covers budgetting, planning and alcohol which I believe are really helpful to any wedding!

I do have a couple of silly questions floating around my head so if you can answer any, please comment below.

• Does the bride usually have 2 pairs of shoes?
• Is it common to buy the bridesmaids shoes with their dresses?
• How many flower girls is too many? How many did you have?
• How do you go about sitting divorced parents/ partners on the top table?
• What is common to buy as thank you gifts for parents?
• Did you buy the mother of (bride/ groom) outfit?

Let me know if you have any other tips for starting to plan a wedding!