T minus 6 months: Visiting the venue again.

We booked our wedding venue in February 2010. We went to view it, chatted with the wedding coordinator and loved it (and the prices!) so much that we booked it and sent the deposit that same day.

That was a year ago (doesn't time fly?!) and, although it might sound strange considering how obsessed I am with this wedding planning business, we have had no contact with the venue over the last year. None at all, since they sent us the receipt for the deposit, back in February 2010.

I will admit, when I realised that it had been a year since we had spoken to the venue, it worried me a little. I mean, what if they had forgotten about us? What it the woman who took our booking had made a mistake, or forgotten to put our names in the book, or quit her job and not told anyone that we had actually made a booking? What if the prices had gone up dramatically and we couldn't afford it now? What if the venue said that all our ideas wouldn't work and we couldn't have them? What if the celebration garden, which hadn't even been built last time we were there, wasn't nice? What if the whole place had been burned down in a horrible kitchen accident and no-one had told me?

As you can see - I'm a worrier. You're probably wondering why, if I was so worried, I hadn't been in touch with the venue over the last year. I'll tell you - because I was worried they would think I was bothering them, being a bridezilla, or just a bit too OTT. You see, I didn't actually need to speak to them about anything over the last year, so what would have been the point in contacting them?

Anyway, since 6th February this year was exactly 6 months until our wedding, I decided to email our venue to find out when we could arrange things like food tastings and just general chats to iron out all the details. The coordinator got called us up and invited us to come in to have a chat with and another look round the venue. So that's what we did today!

We met with the lovely Carrie, who wasn't working at Pryors Hayes when we originally booked. She was so nice and extremely helpful - she answered almost every question I had written down, without me even having to ask them! We chatted about all the little details so she can get a full price quote emailed out to us soon and explained that we had booked at a good time because a few months after we did, they started charging for the use of the marquee. We still get it for free because we that's what was agreed when we booked - lucky us!

So many things have changed since we were there last - but all for the better! The menu's have been changed to be made simpler, but what we wanted was still on there, and they are willing to make us a different dessert just because that's what Karl wanted.

When we pulled into the car park, this was our view:

 

You can just about see the top of the gazebo where we will be married! Whoop! I was so distracted trying to see the celebration garden that I almost didn't notice the other big change...

Hang on a minute! That huge, white marquee looks much bigger than it did last time we were here! In fact, it looks like a different marquee altogether! Well, that's because it is! It is a much more solid structure, which walls and actual doors instead of just tent flaps and it is about 4 times bigger than it used to be!

 

To put it into perspective, last time we were there, we were told that the marquee could hold about 40 people for the meal, meaning we would have to have our meal in the club house. No big deal, the club house is still lovely, and we could use the marquee for the DJ and dance floor. However, withe new giant marquee, it can fit 150 people for the meal, meaning that we can have all of our tables set up in there, plus the DJ and dance floor! Hurray! This makes me very happy - the marquee is so lovely and it will be nice to have the whole wedding in there as opposed to dancing in one part and sitting in another. I also got very excited when Carrie started talking about the marquee being finished - it will be carpeted (dark grey) and have the white swag style curtains all around the walls. It sounds like it will be gorgeous, and here's the best part: the ceiling will have a star cloth! I might have even gasped when she told me that part - I love the look of star cloths! 

Star cloth example (source)

Amazing, right? 

We talked about the photo booth, and the various places it could go, about the timing of the ceremony and meal etc, the food we wanted, the drinks we wanted, the decorations we wanted, the music we wanted - everything! 

Then we went to look at the celebration garden. Remember, when we booked the venue, it hadn't actually been built yet. I've been drooling over the photos of it for months, but we never actually got around the driving up there to see it in person. 

 

It's a shame the weather was to rubbish, as it looks much nicer in the sunshine! But it's still lovely - smaller than I thought it was, but that's a good thing as it makes it more intimate and we don't have to worry about people not being able to see or hear us. 

Here is Carrie showing my mum the gazebo where we will stand to get married. It has lights in the roof so it will be lit up in the evening, and the speakers inside it will play our music, plus project our voices to out guests during the ceremony. 

Inside the gazebo will be just the registrars, our 2 witnesses and us. I'm quite excited about this because I think it will feel quite intimate, being slightly separated from our guests - I will be bale to pretend that we are alone! lol 

We discussed the seating for the ceremony - the chairs are gold with pink cushions, so we will be having white chair covers on them. Carrie suggested buying some purple and green ribbon and tying the together around the backs of the chairs along the aisle, which is an idea that I love! She showed me a photo of the covered chairs set up outside and it looked stunning! The chairs for inside the marquee are silver with black cushions, so we will probably cheap them as they are without the covers. I think if they were covered, it would be a bit too much white inside the marquee! 

We also discussed our photos, and Carrie told us about the pond they have out on the golf course. They will drive us over to the pond on golf buggies to have our private photos taken, which is something I am really looking forward to! Not only will it be loads of fun to ride around in a golf buggy, but it will be nice to have a few minutes away from all the noise etc, just us (and a photographer!). 

The pond is over there, somewhere...

Golf buggies!

I am so glad we went to visit Pryors Hayes again - it has renewed my excitement and put my mind at ease. The most exciting thing was finding out about the new, bigger marquee and that we can have our meal and reception in there. This also means that, since we are not taking up the golfers club house, we can set up the marquee the day before the wedding. I know that as much as I trust the staff at Pryors Hayes, I would be worrying all morning about whether everything was set up as I wanted it, and had already made plans to send a friend there early to move things around if needed. If we can set up the day before then I will be able to relax, knowing everything is perfect! 

There is a wedding fayre at Pryors Hayes on 6th March, and I will probably go along just to bask in the loveliness of our venue again. If you're int he area, you should definitely pop in to see it for yourself!

Of Bridesmaid Dresses and Wedding Licenses

I know, I know - I haven't updated for ages, but I have been crazy busy at work. Deepest apologies, and to make it up to you, I will show you  picture of the bridesmaid dress that we have finally decided on!

From the front

From the back

Pretty, right? They don't come with the belts, so I'm going to tell the bridesmaids that they if they want to wear a belt, they can choose their own black one. That way they all have the same dress, but there is a little bit of individuality coming through with the belts. They also don't come with the underskirt, but we are going to wait until the girls try them on to see if they actually need one. My mum says she could make the underskirts if we decide we want them (which we probably will).

I love this dress! I love the 50's style, the colour, the halter neck, sweetheart neckline, everything. I especially love the price! This dress is available from this eBay shop for only £34.99.

Now all we need to do is order them! I really want to order them now, because I'm impatient like that, but I know at least one of the bridesmaids wants to wait a few months because she is planning on losing weight. I might have to demand the dresses be ordered soon though, because I will constantly be worrying that the dresses will sell out and be unavailable by the time we get around the actually buying them!

I will be asking the girls to wear black shoes on the day, but I don't mind what kind, and they certainly don't need to match or anything. I will also need to speak to the girls about their hair, as I don't necessarily want them to have matching styles, but I'd like to either all have their hair up, or all have it down. 

The other very exciting thing that Karl and I did since the last post, was go down to the registry office to give notice of marriage! They will display the notice for 15 days, in which time anyone can raise objections, and then on the 16th day, our marriage license will be issued and be valid for a year. It's nice to get all the legal formalities out of the way, it makes everything feel a lot more real!
It was really simple to give notice, just lots of repeating our names and addresses, and confirming that neither of us had ever been married before. We had a few issues with the fact that Karl doesn't have a passport yet, so had to take his birth certificate and a parents birth certificate. However, the only parent he is on contact with (his dad) is not actually named on the birth certificate (long story!). Luckily, the registrar took pity on bus and let us off with just Karl's paperwork. Unfortunately, she didn't let us off the fee - £33.50 each!

Chalk board speech bubbles

I think I have mentioned before how much we want some chalk board speech bubbles to use as props in our DIY photo booth. I love the idea of them, and the fact that they will hopefully  help us to get some hilarious pictures!

Here's a few examples:

Source

Source

Source

Source

Anyway, I had definitely decided that I wanted something like this for our photo booth, but when I looked into buying them, I could only find them for £30 - which is way more than I was willing to pay! To be honest, when I actually thought about it, I wasn't really willing to spend much at all on these - I'm a skinflint like that!

Anyway, I mentioned to my dad (who is quite handy with a saw) that I would be eternally grateful if he'd have a go at making me something along these lines. I believe his response at the time was "Hmmm? Oh yeah, OK" or something equally as non-committal

So imagine my surprise when a week or so later, he announced that he'd made them for me!

Speech bubble

Thought bubble

and handles on the back to hold them with

How amazing are they? All I need to do is give them a few coats of black board paint and they're ready to go! I am so excited to have these - together with the mustaches they will be brilliant in the photo booth! I think I'm looking forward to the photo booth pictures more than our actual wedding pictures!

And of course, the fact that they were free is an extra bonus. I've been thinking that we could hang them on our wall after the wedding and use them as notice boards, to write reminders and notes on.

In other news, I plan to order my wedding dress very soon! And I should probably get started on the invitations soon too. Exciting times!

Damson Vodka favours - nearly done!

You may remember a while ago, I made damson vodka to use as our favours, which we will serve in test tube shots. Well that was about 4 months ago, so it was time to get around to straining the damsons out of the vodka!

Last time I showed you the vodka, it looked like this:

Day 1

Day 2

After 4 months, it looked like this:

Beautiful! So the next step was to strain the fruit out...

...and taste, to see if it needed more sugar.

It tasted gorgeous! Very strong, but then it is neat vodka. I added a little bit more sugar, then returned it to the bottle to sit, where it will only improve in taste and consistency, until we need it.

So there you have it! Our damson vodka favours are basically done - all that's left is to put the vodka into the test tubes, which we'll do just before the wedding.

Oh, I meant to say - I have used a plastic bottle, since it was the only one big enough I could find, but the experts so that you should use a glass one to stop the plastic taking any of the smell or taste away from the drink. Personally, I'm not that much of a snob about alcohol, so I wasn't too bothered (and I refused to buy a huge glass jar just for this purpose!) but if you have glass bottles big enough, you might as well use them.

Now I have to think of something to do with a load of vodka soaked damsons - I've heard about people drying them to use in cakes, or eating them in their porridge. Even dipping them in chocolate!

A little gift from my future Father In Law

Karl went to see his dad today, and returned with a present for us! Don't you just love unexpected gifts?!

Anyway, here's what my Father in Law to be had made for us...

An 'Our Wedding' cut out photo frame! Isn't it cute?
It has a wooden frame, which is painted a sort of matt silver (in the photo it's still wrapped in the black plastic, becuase I dont want it to get scratched or dirty before we have a chance to even use it!). The cut out board bit is cream, with a black layer in between, so that the edges of the letters are sort of staggered, if that makes sense? Sort of a 3D effect. 

I'm really excited to get wedding photos to put in this! I think it will look really lovely, and it's something a bit different than just having the pictures in a regualr frame.

Lovely FIL2b had it made especially for us, when he went away at New Year. Isn't that so sweet of him? It's a bit weird too, as I was just thinking the other day about getting some nice frames to put pictures in after the wedding! This is exactly the sort of thing that I would have wanted to try and DIY, but I don't think it would have turned out half as nice if i'd attempted it myself!

Thank-You FIL2b!

7 months today!

Did you know that today is the 6th of January? Of course you did. But did you also realise that that means that it is exactly 7 months today to our wedding?! Holy crap!


The problem with the 6 or 7 month mark, is that it seems like a really long time and a really short amount of time, all at once. It's a bit weird actually - when I think about it, it seems like the wedding is still so far away. But when I think about all the things that need to be done, it doesn't seem like enough time! I really am going to have to pull my finger out and get some more stuff sorted soon!

Another thing that has happened recently is that I've started to feel all emotional whenever I see weddings on tv or in films - even when it's not a soppy ceremony moment! For example, the below clip from Glee makes me get a little bit choked up, and it is the single most cheerful wedding entrance I've ever seen!

**NOTE** This clip is from Season 2, so if you live in the UK, where it hasn't aired yet, be warned that it contains spoilers!



Isn't that amazing! I wish we had Glee clubs in the UK (and that I knew people in one!)

Anyway, if this clip got me teary eyed, you can imagine what it does to me when a film of programme shows a really emotional wedding ceremony! It's even worse when I stumble across people's wedding videos online (not in a creepy stalker way - I mean when they have posted them on blogs and things!). I nearly always end up teary eyed, and I don't even know the couple! God help me when I have to attend my sisters and my friends weddings!

Incidently, I love the song from the clip - I'm off the find a way to use it on our wedding website!

Photo Booth Props

My amazing friend, Sam, bought me a present today....

Oh yes! A pack of fake mustaches! She knows me so well...
These little beauties are going to be the star attraction on my Photo booth prop table. I plan to attach thin wooden stick to them and then let the guests go wild. I couldn't resist a little practice shot though...

Attractive, yes? In reality, the stick will be much thinner. This paintbrush was the only thing I could find to use at the time!

 I also picked up this fairy wing headband thingy to use as a prop - purely because it was cute, and only 99p.

A while ago, Sam also bought me this set of comedy false teeth to use as Photo Booth props:

I'm not sure if they will work though - there is the hygiene aspect to consider. We couldnt just leave the teeth out for people to use, since after the first person has used them, no-one else will want to have them in their mouths! I did consider having sterilising wipes or something but I think it would end up being too much bother. What I might do though, is hand out one set each to a few key people for a couple of photos, rather than leaving them for eveyone.

I'm going to be on the hunt for more props for the next few months. I'm hoping for some interesting hats, funky glasses, and maybe one or two masks. I'm still planning to make some 'Smiles on sticks' and also some chalkboard speech bubbles.

I'm so excited to see how the photo booth pictures turn out!