I am currently likening our wedding reception to the Royal Variety Show! Ok so it will not be quite so grand as that and we certainly have budgeted in the cost of the Albert Hall but the amount of entertainment Mark is coming up with it might as well be billed as a variety show.
These are the ideas so far:
Tango Dancers
Battle of the Bands
Performance Poet
Magician
Fire breather
Juggler
Performing dogs
Disco
Mime artists
Fireworks
Acrobats
Before you start getting excited (I guess that will only be if you're going to be invited anyway!) I can tell you now we will not be having them all! We will only going to be able to afford a couple of them but we are currently weighing up our options and getting quotes.
Each morning Mark wakes up with another idea and so we have to rethink everything we thought we wanted originally! It's so exciting knowing that we are basically planning the party of our lifetime having exactly what we want. I am also loving the fact that Mark is coming up with ideas. I have heard so many brides say in the past that their fiancé is not interested in the planning of the wedding. Mark is being as involved in it as I am and it is great for me as I know it's going to be our day. It's so nice on wowing that Mark is as excited as I am.
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
The Dress
If you thought you were going to get to see my dress you were wrong! This is actually for two reasons:
1. I want it kept as a surprise
2. I don't yet have one!
I did go dress shopping with one of my bridesmaids today though. We went to Surrey Brides which is a little bridal shop in Weybridge not too far from where we live. I went knowing that I wouldn't be choosing one as I knew they would be out of my price range. Most of them were around the £1000 mark which we just don't have to spend on a dress. They did have a couple of dresses in the sale which were a bit more in my budget but I didn't fall in love with any of those. What the trip today did help with was knowing what it is I am looking for. I now have quite a clear picture of the style of dress I want.
Our next stop is the UK bridal dress sale! It is happening this weekend coming in several cities across the country. The one nearest to us is Guildford. Me and bridesmaid will be going along on Sunday. They say they have a wide range of designer dresses at half the price. The dresses there are all ex-samples, ex window displays or last in the range. I am quite excited about Sunday although I know that there will be issues to do with alterations by not buying new from a bridal shop.
I am worried about false economy I.e buying a dress on Sunday because it's cheap but then ending up having to pay quite a bit of money later on have it altered to fit properly. If I have no joy on Sunday I have seen another couple of bridal shops which seem to be more in our price range than the one I visited today.
One last point:
It was great fun dressing up in lots of wedding dresses this morning - I felt like a princess!!!
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Weight
You may have noticed that I have now added a weight loss tracker to the blog. I am trying to lose about 2 stone but this didn't start because of the wedding. I don't believe in losing weight just because you are getting married. I think that on your wedding day your shouldn't look wildly different to normal apart from the gorgeous outfit of course!
Anyway about two months ago I weighed myself and got a bit of a shock! I knew I'd put on some weight as I could no longer fit into a couple of pairs of trousers but it turned out I had put on two stone in about two years.
Later that week I discovered there is a weigh in club at work. It is a very low key affair where you pay £1, weigh yourself and then a lady keeps a note of your weight loss (or gain!). The money all goes to a local charity. I decided to join in as a motivation to try and lose some of this extra 2 stone. Since then I have lost 10lb.
I had been doing really well losing anything between 1lb and 4lb a week but unfortunately last Thursday I put on 2lb. I haven't changed anything major in what I eat. I have cut out snacks and have smaller portions at mealtimes. I am still eating the same meals as before including a Friday night takeaway!
As I said I had not decided to lose weight because of our wedding but that has now just given me a target. It would be great to be at my previous weight of 9st come our wedding day.
Hopefully this Thursday will show better news than last week. Yesterday I was really ill with sickness and diarrhoea so that should have helped! Always look on the bright side of these things! I still don't feel well today so prob won't be eating too much. But don't worry I won't get into that habit!
Anyway about two months ago I weighed myself and got a bit of a shock! I knew I'd put on some weight as I could no longer fit into a couple of pairs of trousers but it turned out I had put on two stone in about two years.
Later that week I discovered there is a weigh in club at work. It is a very low key affair where you pay £1, weigh yourself and then a lady keeps a note of your weight loss (or gain!). The money all goes to a local charity. I decided to join in as a motivation to try and lose some of this extra 2 stone. Since then I have lost 10lb.
I had been doing really well losing anything between 1lb and 4lb a week but unfortunately last Thursday I put on 2lb. I haven't changed anything major in what I eat. I have cut out snacks and have smaller portions at mealtimes. I am still eating the same meals as before including a Friday night takeaway!
As I said I had not decided to lose weight because of our wedding but that has now just given me a target. It would be great to be at my previous weight of 9st come our wedding day.
Hopefully this Thursday will show better news than last week. Yesterday I was really ill with sickness and diarrhoea so that should have helped! Always look on the bright side of these things! I still don't feel well today so prob won't be eating too much. But don't worry I won't get into that habit!
Saturday, 22 June 2013
The Reception
So onto the reception...
Mark works at a school which is just four doors up from the church. He has worked there for 10 years so felt that he could call in a favour. The head teacher has agreed for us to hold our reception in the school hall for free.
There are several bonuses to this arrangement:
1. The ceremony and the reception are next door so really convenient for us and guests with no transport needed.
2. The school has a massive car park so once again convenient for guests to get to the wedding.
3. No charge for venue.
Possible downsides to this arrangement:
1. It's a school hall.
2. Cost of decorating hall quite high.
3. Will have to do everything ourselves including getting in bar and DJ.
Counter points to downsides:
1. Although it's a school it is large and we will be able to fit a lot of people in it. They had their school prom last night and so we went down to look at it. It was totally transformed by drapes and decorations and looked amazing.
2. Have countered the cost of decorations in our budget.
3. Have friends who have offered to do decorations. Have looked into bars and DJs and can get for reasonable prices.
I am so excited about the reception and having seen the hall last night at the prom I am completely sold on the idea!
Mark works at a school which is just four doors up from the church. He has worked there for 10 years so felt that he could call in a favour. The head teacher has agreed for us to hold our reception in the school hall for free.
There are several bonuses to this arrangement:
1. The ceremony and the reception are next door so really convenient for us and guests with no transport needed.
2. The school has a massive car park so once again convenient for guests to get to the wedding.
3. No charge for venue.
Possible downsides to this arrangement:
1. It's a school hall.
2. Cost of decorating hall quite high.
3. Will have to do everything ourselves including getting in bar and DJ.
Counter points to downsides:
1. Although it's a school it is large and we will be able to fit a lot of people in it. They had their school prom last night and so we went down to look at it. It was totally transformed by drapes and decorations and looked amazing.
2. Have countered the cost of decorations in our budget.
3. Have friends who have offered to do decorations. Have looked into bars and DJs and can get for reasonable prices.
I am so excited about the reception and having seen the hall last night at the prom I am completely sold on the idea!
Friday, 21 June 2013
The Date
As we were coming up with lots of ideas we wanted to use for our wedding we were quite anxious to set a date. We are limited to school holidays as Mark is a teacher. We looked into the costs of registry office weddings, hotels and churches. I was not actually too fussed about where we have the wedding. The point for me is that we are getting married and that is the most important part. I do go to church and so God is important to me but I believe God is everywhere not just in churches! Mark seemed to be favouring the idea of a church wedding although the other option was Weybridge registry office. Hotels are way too out of our budget!
We decided to look further into a church wedding. I have been married before so I was a bit concerned about whether a church would marry me. There is a beautiful C of E parish church round the corner to our house and I help out with their youth group on a Monday night so have connections with it. I tried to contact the vicar and this took longer than I wanted! It took him three weeks to get back to us but luckily we managed to meet him last week and set the date.
The church will marry me as long as I can prove my relationship with Mark is not what caused the break down of my previous marriage. That's an easy one to prove as I separated from previous husband 8 yrs ago and met Mark for the first time 2 yrs ago!
So yes the date.....
It is going to be during the middle of the Easter Holidays so that we can both have time off work the week leading up to it and the week after. It is:
We decided to look further into a church wedding. I have been married before so I was a bit concerned about whether a church would marry me. There is a beautiful C of E parish church round the corner to our house and I help out with their youth group on a Monday night so have connections with it. I tried to contact the vicar and this took longer than I wanted! It took him three weeks to get back to us but luckily we managed to meet him last week and set the date.
The church will marry me as long as I can prove my relationship with Mark is not what caused the break down of my previous marriage. That's an easy one to prove as I separated from previous husband 8 yrs ago and met Mark for the first time 2 yrs ago!
So yes the date.....
It is going to be during the middle of the Easter Holidays so that we can both have time off work the week leading up to it and the week after. It is:
Friday 11 April
And it is going to be here:
Thursday, 20 June 2013
The Diamond
So my other half only went and proposed to me during half term! To be honest it wasn't completely out of the blue as we had already been discussing getting married but I was still obviously very excited - and still am! He bought me the most gorgeous platinum diamond ring which I absolutely love!
The picture doesn't show off the way it sparkles. The lighting at work makes it sparkle even more than normal. It picks up all the colours and is just so shiny. I always catch a glimpse of it in the corner of my eye when I'm working and just want to wave it around!
The engagement happened four weeks ago tomorrow so planning is on its way but I'll tell you all about that in future posts.
The picture doesn't show off the way it sparkles. The lighting at work makes it sparkle even more than normal. It picks up all the colours and is just so shiny. I always catch a glimpse of it in the corner of my eye when I'm working and just want to wave it around!
The engagement happened four weeks ago tomorrow so planning is on its way but I'll tell you all about that in future posts.
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