08 July 2009

The Wedding Day

I can't believe I'm married. We've been planning this wedding for 18 months, and it felt like it would never arrive. But it came and went, and Hubby and I (because I can now actually refer to him as that), have had three blissful days away on our mini honeymoon.

But first; the wedding...

Where do I start? Our wedding day was incredible.

Hubby and I woke up at 7:00am to spend a little time together before the chaos of the day began. But it didn’t really work out like that, because we’d had a late night before, so we just pressed the snooze button until 8:00am came around.

By 9:00am I was at the hair salon, but they were running late, and didn’t see me until 9:40am. My dad, brother and one of the photographers picked me up, and would you believe it was raining!! We’d had the most fantastic weather in the two weeks running up to the wedding, so this wasn’t expected.

But anyway, I got back to the house, and my mum helped me into my dress. We didn’t have time for any pre-ceremony champagne, because the car (a cream and red Morris Minor) had arrived.

Hubby and I weren’t worried about seeing one another before the wedding, because we’re not very traditional. But because I was running late, there was barely any time for him to see me anyway, because as I came downstairs, he was getting into his car and leaving anyway.

It was still raining a little as my dad and I got into the back of the Morris Minor. One of the bridesmaids (Hubby’s cousin, but like a sister to him) came with us, and the other would meet us at the register office.

We arrived at the register office and the rain was pouring down on us. The driver of the car was prepared with an umbrella though and so I pulled up my dress (in a rather unladylike manner), and made it inside.


I was almost thrust into a meeting with the registrar while Hubby was still in there, but luckily he didn’t see me, and I was sent into a different room to wait. I was in there with Hubby’s aunt, who by this point was all emotional. She told me how happy she was that I was marrying Hubby, and that she couldn’t have imagined a nicer person for him to marry

I had my meeting with the registrar soon after, and then it was time to get married. I entered with my dad, to silence, which was weird, but there was a problem with the CDs we had made, so there was no music. But it didn’t matter, because there was Hubby, and he was wide-eyed as he saw me coming. He later said that my dress was similar to what he expected, but so much nicer than he ever thought possible.

We got married, and we had photos outside on the steps as the weather was now clearing. We had three photographers snapping away; my uncle, a friend I studied photography with at college, and an old workmate that went off to study photography at uni. It allowed them to capture the day from their own perspective, and give us such a varied collection of photographs.


After the group photos, the guests then disappeared off to town for a few hours, while Hubby and I got into the Morris Minor and headed back to the house with a glass of champagne each. We had some photos taken outside the house with the car, and our photographers navigated the traffic, as we were in the middle of the road at this point.


The car left, and this is when I realised that I had dirt all over my train! I was upset about it for a few moments, but the photographer assured me that he could photoshop it to look clean, and that it would be dirty later on anyway.

We headed off to our photo venue shortly afterwards, and got some absolutely incredible shots:
















We also stopped for ice cream, and I tried very hard (and managed) not to spill it on my dress:


And this is Hubby trying (and failing) to bustle me while I held my ice cream and bouquet:


More updates later...

26 June 2009

Collecting the Flowers

My colleague used to be a florist, and she's been great with negotiating a good rate with the local florist. We collected the flowers this afternoon, which you may think is really early, considering that the wedding isn't until next week; but apparently cut flowers are already over 10 days old by the time the customer purchases them (which is probably why they only last about 4 days in our vases at home!).

Anyway, the lady that's helping me is going to take them home this evening and store them away for the week. But for now, I've managed to get a quick photo. On the left is eucalyptus, then cream roses, then on the right are the red Grand Prix roses. Between the two bunches of Grand Prix's is a small bunch of red spray roses:



And here are a couple of the blooms themselves:



I absolutely love them. It's a shame that the camera didn't pick up the fantastic red of the roses, but you get the idea. The man didn't manage to get hold of any cream hydrangea, so we're going to look around locally to see if we can find a potted hydrangea...

If you missed my post about how they're going to be used, click here to see my ideas.

16 June 2009

Dress Fittings

I had my dress fittings on 26th May and 16th June. The seamstress worked wonders with my size 20 gown (US equivalent is a size 18), and now it fits like a glove:

FRONT:


BACK:


SIDE:


BACK BUSTLED:


SIDE BUSTLED:

11 June 2009

Budget

FOOD & DRINK:
Hog Roast - £200, actual
Beer, Wine, Champagne - £200, actual
Soft Drinks - £100, actual

FLOWERS:
Bouquets & buttonholes - £80, actual £160

BRIDE'S ATTIRE:
Dress - £400, actual £755
Alterations - £100, actual £240
Veil - N/A
Tiara - £20, actual £8
Accessories - £30, actual £30
Shoes - £20, actual £17
Lingerie - £40, actual £75

GROOM'S ATTIRE:
Suit - £100, actual £0
Shoes - £30, actual £60
Kravatte - £20, actual £18
Waistcoat - £20, actual £40

ATTENDANTS' ATTIRE:
Bridesmaids Dresses - £120, actual £68 + ?
Bridesmaids Shoes - £0, actual £0
Best Man Suit - £0, actual £0

BEAUTY:
Hair - £0, actual £105
Makeup - £0, actual £17

PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photographers - £300, actual £0
Printing - £50, actual

STATIONERY:
Albums - £20, actual £55
Save the Dates - £20, actual £8
Invitations - £50, actual £40
Hen/Stag Invites - £0, actual £15
Photo Upload Cards - £7, actual £17
Thank Yous - £20, actual £20

VENUES:
Register Office - £300, actual £105
Reception Venue - £300, actual £0
Marquee - ?

ENTERTAINMENT:
Evening Music - £0, actual £250

RINGS:
Total - £400, actual £250

CEREMONY MUSIC:
Total - £0

HOTEL 4th JULY:
Total - £100, actual £0

HONEYMOON:
Immediately after the wedding - £200, actual
September - £3,000 plus spending, actual £3,200 plus spending

19 May 2009

Thank You Cards

We thought about getting our thank you cards printed at Vistaprint, but in the end we decided we wanted to make them ourselves. They say they should be hand-written in order to seem more personal, and we thought; if we're hand-writing them, we may as well make them from scratch. I found some blank cards and envelopes from WH smith, costing £5 for 50. We will be having our favourite wedding photo printed, and glueing it to the front of the cards.

Ceremony Music

We have made our final selection, and sent our choices to the register office for approval. Having a civil ceremony means that we can't use any music with religious connotations, and it's been hard trying to find a selection that both works well together, as well as remaining neutral in regards to religion. So here are our final choices. I've added links to the music on You Tube in case you want to hear it:

Guests' Arrival
* Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
* Beethoven - Ode to Joy
* Handel - Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
* Vivaldi - Four Seasons, Spring
* Handel - Harp Concerto in B Flat

Bride's Entrance
* Pachelbel - Canon in D

Signing the Register
* Pachelbel - Canon in D
* Bach - Air on a G-String

Exit
* Craig Armstrong - PM's Love Theme

Evening Entertainment

In the early evening (5pm-7pm), we will have a compilation playing, by linking up my iPod to the speaker system.

We had booked a live band to play at our reception, but after being let down a week before the wedding, we have subsequently booked a DJ for the night. Nat has played in clubs in New York, but he's recently come back to the UK, and can usually be seen in London.

Nat was recommended to me by my stepmum, who hires him to do additional work in the area, and I'm told he's amazing.

Transport

We will be hiring a cream convertible Morris Minor for the wedding day. With a red interior, this car, known as "Millie", fits our colour scheme perfectly, and it also means that if the sun is shining on 4th July, we can go through town in style. I can't wait!

For our wedding, we will be taking advantage of the "Twin Venue" service, which provides Millie, a chauffeur, ribbons and bows, a floral arrangement, half a bottle of champagne. I will be driving to the register office with my dad, and then my new husband and I (!) will be taken back to the reception after the wedding.

Photography

Photography was one of the things I wasn't happy to negotiate with. I wanted a good level of skill, but we couldn't afford to pay out for that sort of talent. In the end, my uncle offered to take the photos for us. My uncle has been doing photography as a hobby for about 40 years, and his work is amazing.

But then it occured to me that if he was behind the camera, he wouldn't be able to be in any of the family photos. I then asked my friend, Sasha, who studied photography with me in college, if she would help out too.

On top of that, we have a mutual friend that began studying photography a couple of years ago. He's photographed a few weddings too, and we like his style. He concentrates on reportage photography, opposed to more formal compositions.

The three of them have offered to do the photography for free, and because we will have three photographers, they will be able to capture the wedding day from three completely different angles. We are also lucky to have this, because it allows us both to have a photographer with us while we're getting ready, and my uncle can relax until the ceremony!



Another thought that occured to us is to take our cameras to the wedding, and offload them onto people that haven't brought their own. We can then take them back at the end of the day, download them onto the computer and have instant photos.

Wedding Vows

Unfortunately, you can only write your own vows in the UK if you are having a non-legal ceremony, as well as a legal ceremony. Some churches let you, but we're marrying at a register office, so we only have a choice of three vow types, which are more or less the same, just differing lengths - we went for the longest. Although I don't have the exact wording to hand right now, it's more or less:

"I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment, why I _______ may not be joined in matrimony to _______.

I call upon these persons here present to witness that I _______ do take thee _______ to be my lawful wedded husband/wife."


Photo Frame

We bought this photo frame from Habitat, costing £18. It fits a 10 x 7 inch photo, and best of all, it has a border on which our guests can sign their names. Once we choose our favourite wedding photo, we will have it on our wall for years to come. It's a bit like a guestbook, but we get to see this every day.

Photo Albums

We found this photo album in Paperchase for £25. The leaves are plain cream, and it will fit around 200 6 x 4 photographs:



I found our second photo album in Paperchase too. It's only got space for about 20 photos, but it means we can put a small selection of photos into it, and it can be the album we carry around to show people after the wedding, without risking damage to the main album.

Guestbook

This is our guestbook, which I found at Ordning & Reda for £20. It will be available to sign at our wedding reception. It's got a simple red cover, and plain white pages with silver edging, measuring 8 x 8 inches. Simple, understated; the way we like things!

I also bought it in white, but when I saw it in red, it had to be done. Now I need to find someone to give the white one to...



Bridesmaids' Gifts

I found two of these necklaces at H Samuel, and thought they would be ideal gifts for my bridesmaids, to say thank you for their support. It's only a small token, but I wanted to show them my appreciation. I just hope they like silver!

Joint Stag & Hen


We will be having separate hen and stag events, but since we have so many mutual friends, we also thought it would be a good idea to have a joint party a couple of weeks before the wedding. The hope is that we can have all the silly tiaras and badges out of the way on our separate events, and have a Blues Brothers themed night out for our joint event. I even bought myself a red and white garter especially for the night, and we've already found our fedora hats!

I designed these postcards using Photoshop, and had them printed at Vistaprint, and we slipped them in with our invitations.



And this is the garter I've bought specifically for the joint stag and hen; in our wedding colours and everything! I know it's a waste of money, but I really wanted to have a garter for the night, and I didn't want to risk ruining the one I bought for the wedding. And besides, this one's crazy big!

I bought this garter on Ebay from the seller L-Amore, who, once you buy an item, she makes it for you from scratch and sends it to you. I got mine the following day; so I would definitely recommend.

Lucky Sixpence

In the UK it's an old tradition for the bride to sew a "lucky" sixpence into the hem of her wedding dress. I was given this sixpence by one of my friends, who is also playing in his band at our wedding reception. He got it for me when they were recording their album in the studios which Queen recorded in. This very sixpence was used by Brian May to strum his guitar when Queen recorded their albums in the same studio!

Flowers

A lady I work with used to work as a florist, and has kindly offered to do the flowers for my wedding! We've discussed the look I'm going for, the budget ("as low as possible"), the colours and what sort of flowers I like, and have come up with the following, all for around £90:



For my bouquet, I will be having...

An 8" arrangement of this shape:


Red Grand Prix roses:


Small red spray roses:


Eucalyptus around the edges & scattered throughout:


Hand-tied with a red ribbon:





My bridesmaids will be having...

A 6" arrangement of this shape:


Cream Roses:


Cream Hydrangea scattered throughout:


Eucalyptus around the edges & scattered throughout:


Hand-tied with a pale green ribbon:





Hubby's buttonhole will be...

A single Grand Prix rose:


A cream Hydrangea spray:


Eucalyptus:





The other buttonholes will be...

A single cream rose:


A cream Hydrangea spray:


Eucalyptus:





The centrepieces will be...

Potted Hydrangeas: