169 Days to go ( Ahhh! 😬 ....)

Hello!!

Things are really starting to get real now!
In the last few weeks alone we've booked cars, photographer and ordered our wedding rings!!

I realise writing that down that seems so simple but I'm fussy soo ...

Photographer

Photographers are so expensive! And quite often you don't get an awful lot for your money so I started shopping around - I wanted someone who had fabulous photos, was happy to listen to our ideas and wasn't ridiculously expensive (also someone who wasn't rude! The amount of photographers I spoke were horrid!)
Luckily we found a lovely man who not only listened to our ideas but shared some of his fabulous advice for our big day - and he doesn't cost the earth! Yay :)

Cars

Now this is the thing I've been really looking forward to ever since we booked our date. I've always really loved vintage cars with running boards down the sides, but OMG!!! They are so expensive !!! Honestly £500-600 were starting prices 😱
However Ms Bargain Shopper came to the rescue again ! I've managed to find a gorgeous Beaufort car to take me to the church for £250! I can't wait :D xx

And Finally ...

Our Rings
Andrew has said from the start he wanted the strongest ring he could get because not only does he work in the mechanic world but also he's rather clumsy - sorry Bub! You know it's true ;) - so he found a lovely Tungsten ring pretty much immediately so he was happy.
My ring was slightly trickier though - my engagement ring is white gold so my wedding rings needs to be as well - providing I keep both, I was unsure for a while whether to keep my engagement ring on that finger or to swap it. However I've finally decided to keep it - because I love it! So I have found a simple white gold band with a dip in it so it fits around my engagement ring :)
So all in all everything's booked and our wedding rings will be here in the next three weeks ahh!

Can't wait xxx

The Dress!!!

So the last 4 months have mainly been focused on dress hunting - I needed to find my perfect dress by April in order to get it made in time for our big day!
If I'm honest dress shopping is usually about as high on my to do list as watching paint dry, to say I am not a dress person is such an understatement! However I thought I would be open minded and OMG! I have to say I am in love - the structure, the fit, the sparkle...

Now first things first I would suggest finding a silhouette that suits your body shape and running with it - I'm honestly considering suggesting my other half keeps me in wedding dresses for the foreseeable future ;)

Once you find your perfect shape I would recommend trying on as many examples as you can - try lots of sparkle, less sparkle - dare I say it, no sparkle! Gulp! With sleeves, without sleeves - all and any, I only say this because I have, like many people I know, had an idea in my head for a number of years of exactly what I wanted but actually after trying on lots of styles (roughly 20-25 different dresses in total) I ended up going for one that was completely different and looked 100 times better on than any of the others.

Now to my dress ...
Large☑️
Sparkly ☑️
Princessy ☑️
I have chosen a large, Ivory princess style dress with a sparkly belt and about 15 layers on material to give the dress a super shape. I have chosen to add a cover to the top for the church which can be removed for the reception in the evening. So I have placed my order and my beautiful dress will be ready by July hopefully! Just got to hope my size does not change too much between July and November :) xxx

Our Night at the Church...

So last night we were invited along to our local church, where we will be saying 'I do' in 10 months time! 

We had literally no idea what to expect or what was expected of us so with a fair amount of trepidation we headed into the church. We were first greeted by our vicar, then everyone else who was there to be helpful was introduced and the night was explained to us, after a customary glass of wine! 

We were taken on a tour of the church, where yes I may have practised walking slowly! It was beautiful, we are so excited and being in the place where it is actually going to happen made it so much more real for us. The wedding has now stopped being this abstract thing and every time we pay for another thing or organise something the butterflies kick for us both. 

We were shown the arrangement of flowers we could have if we wished, no pressure at all which definitely made me rethink the 'no flowers' idea - I mean an archway of flowers! Come on that is pretty cool and so so pretty. Also the flowers were remarkably reasonable, especially considering it will be remembrance weekend  and obviously there is usually a set theme to the flowers in the church.  We also discussed music and optional hymns, 1-3 and the entrance, exit and signing music. At the end of the night - we were last in a long queue - we met with the vicar and he told us what were and were not allowed to do on the day and also that we were to have a rehearsal the night before with just 3 specific people, we will be letting them know today and my dad in particular is going to go ape! He loves everything to do with the wedding and will be super excited about 'having a sneak peak' before everyone else, especially by a special invitation from the vicar. 

Overall the night was lovely and as I said made everything that much closer in our minds, it was a really helpful evening and I would recommend going along just for some piece of mind! 

The List!

So now that the count down is properly on I need to make sure that I don't forget anything so here is hopefully my definitive list which will map out my next few blog posts...

• Book Hotel - We obviously want to the Honeymoon Suite so I am going to phone around two or three local hotels and see who can give us the best deal!
• Wedding Cars - He is using his fathers gorgeous sports car, unfortunately I'm not sure I will fit in it in my dress so I need at least two cars - preferably with running boards! This is the one thing I've always wanted!
• Favours - Now I want to be careful here, these are, in my view, an expected and useless part of the day so I do not want to spend hundreds of pounds on something just to end up with 50 of them myself! Cheap, cheerful and a little bit quirky will suit us just fine ;)
• Centre Pieces - Now for these little lovelies I love the idea of having lanterns or birdcages that we can then take away with us and use in our garden (When we have one!) as a constant reminder of our day.
• Flowers - now I know usually a lot of money is spent on flowers but as we wont be having them as centre pieces and we are getting married in a beautiful church we will not be wasting time and money decorating places with flowers - bouquets and button holes only !
• Thank you gifts - now for the parentals these will be something pretty and something wanted/useful - again flowers are lovely for a little while, we want something that is going to last a little longer!
• Invitations - we have already arranged the save the dates - (We seriously need to send these!) and until we have our meeting at the church (January 15th ;)) we cannot know our order of service and what not so these will be on pause until then.
• Rings :) - for our rings we want to create our own so we have found somewhere we can make each others, unfortunately my skills in this area may be lacking so we will see how the Mr's turns out!
• Outfits! - I have found the perfect style that I love but I tend to have a habit of choosing the first thing I like! As this is such an expensive part of the day I will be shopping around for this particular item. As for suits and bridesmaid dresses, suits will be purchased in the summer - time for getting healthier and what not and three of the bridesmaid are children so they will definitely have to be September/October purchases.

This is my optimistic Wedding List but let's see how much more gets added to it! All that's left for me to know is to get shopping!! YAY!

The adventure begins...

So now there really is no going back so to speak, the deposits have been paid on both the ceremony and reception venues and actually, after the initial sick to the stomach nerves over the amount of money we are going to end up spending on one day! Eek! I am really excited for everything to begin! 

It took us ages to find somewhere that was unique enough for us - boring and stuffy were not quite going to cut it and ultimately we found somewhere that was both unusual and pretty enough for both of us! 

To begin our day we will be saying our vows at a beautiful local church - superb pictures to be had! Before moving on to the unique and wonderful Woburn Safari Park !!!