Christmas Time

I'm taking a bit of wedding planning backseat time with the run up to Christmas. I'm writing a nativity play for the Sunday School, and I'm very bored of sewing favour bags! I can do about five in a go, but have largely ignored them this month this far as technically, there's ages to go and I work better under pressure!

I'm heading to Exeter for the Christmas weekend and am sad to have my first Christmas away from my family, but it'll be the start of the alternate visits and I wanted to be with Steve for our first (and only) engaged Christmas.

Ho ho ho one and all!

Arriba Arriba!

Our honeymoon is booked! I'm so very very excited.

We've booked two weeks in Mexico at the Hotel Catalonia in the Riveria Maya.

It's an all inclusive resort and food and drinks are included. It's right on the beach and we can go snorkelling in a lagoon and the sea. There are various trips to do and relaxing to be done and I can't believe we're going to have quite such a luxorious holiday together. It's going to be so perfect.

This is the website for the hotel :- here

And it's right by a marina where there are dolphins and manatee turtles. We can eat in a buffet restuarant for dinner and lunch and also at an Italian restaurant, a Japanese, a steak house and a Mexican, and there's a creperie for pancakes and milkshakes, a snack bar for nachos and much more! We can hire bikes, kayaks, see entertainment shows and I just want to lie by the beach with Steve and enjoy our time together. I can't believe we'll be married! I'll be his wife and he'll be my husband.

And I'm checking up on Trip Advisor frequently and it all looks great. Only 117 days to go!

Jewels

Found these pieces on Amazon, after having seen some beautiful earrings on Ebay which I was outbid on at the last minute. Grr.

So these are £17 and I quite like them, and they would go with my other bits I think. I'm going to go for studs rather than dangly I think.






And these ones are £21 and similar, but a bit bigger I guess. Not sure of the differences really.











And this is a lovely one from Carolee with the sort of drop element I think I'll need to fill the space. This is only £14.50 at the moment. I can't really spend any money at the moment, I only have £60 till pay day and need to buy some food for the weekend, but still, I've put it in my Amazon basket, and hopefully, it may come down in a sale after Christmas? Maybe?





xoxo

Glitzy Secrets Success!!

My headband arrived yesterday and I tried it on last night. It is so beautiful I felt like weeping! I love, love, love it! Hurrah! Am taking it to show mum tonight after work. Love love love it.

The Dress! The Dress!!

The dress has arrived! Hurrah!

Here it is in it's box. All carefully wrapped up and sent from the US of A. Exciting much!

After opening it with care we found pink tissue paper and a flyer. Lots of pink tissue paper. There is still pink tissue paper on mum's carpet! =D

Here it is on it's hanger in it's bag with a

pretty pink and purple bow. and tan tarra, here's me in the dress.
I do love it. I love the length, and the fact my shoes go very well, and that my birdcage veil goes with the headband, and the colour, feel and texture of it.I will have to have a couple of adjustments made, but will book in somewhere say, the beginning of March to just have it nipped in over my shoulders, and maybe nipped in at my waist as it does feel a little roomy there.

I can't believe I have my wedding dress now. It's getting more real!

Glitzy Secrets II + Hen Party

Well the headbands and comb arrived, and they're beautiful!

But, I liked the headbands so much, I've decided maybe I need something bigger. The comb is lovely, but wouldn't be seen as well as this... It's really lovely. So as I was still in the 25% discount week, I've bought it too! Oops.

I think it'll go with a birdcage veil though. I shall have to have a play once they're all here.

Also, I've been planning my hen-party, and this is the plan:

Friday 5th March - for those coming, on the Friday night we'll have a pizza, a girly film and cocktails and something of a sleepover.

Then Saturday 6th March, we're hiring a mini-bus and trundling down to Stratford for a picnic, shopping and a boat cruise along the river avon. Then at 6.30pm we'll head over to Warwick Castle and change into our 18th century costumes to go to a Highwayman's supper and it'll be lovely!

I'm really excited about it now, and have bought a costume for it. That was a bit of a mishap. I got it into my head that I wanted an Elizabeth Swann dress and found some on Ebay in America and it was a best offer sort, so I put quite a low offer in (it was $99) and I got it for $70 which is £40 which is fine, that's the cost of rental, but still, 3 weeks before Christmas when I need to buy a shower and pay an electricity bill is a bit stupid. :(

I had an email saying it had been despatched already too. Which is good, I can't wait to try it on, but arggh! Money needed.

Bookings Galore

A quite update on the booking side of things I think, just to clear my head...

Church - booked
Reception at Littywood - booked
Jenkinsons Caterers - booked
Registrars - booked

Chair covers - booked - for a bargain £1.50 per chair! Hurrah!
Dress - ordered - Mum just called to say it's arrived. Nervous much!
Pageboys - bought - very cute, two little waistcoats.
Bridesmaids - ordered

Theme - decided
Colours - sorted

And I think that's most of the important things looked at.

Putting the 'Kate' in Catering

We met with Jenkinsons today. It was a good meeting.

A very nice man came round and he talked us though things, such as crockery, and table linens, and how we'd want the napkins folded (you can see why Steve wasn't interested at this point) but he also talked us through the timings of the day, which has given us a very good idea as to how it will all pan out.

So the day now looks a little bit like this...

08.00am - Breakfast
11.00am - Hairdresser
12.00pm - Make-up
01.00pm - Dress on and Photographs
02.00pm - Ceremony
03.30pm - A few photos at the Church with tea and cakes
04.00pm - A receiving line at Littywood to say hello to everyone, and the drinks reception
05.00pm - Canapes and a few group photographs
05.30pm - A few photos of Steve and me somewhere
06.00pm - Sit down for dinner
08.00pm - Speeches and Toasts

And the food will look a bit like this...

Canapes - 6 different types, including mini sandwiches (Steve chose the fillings - chicken and stuffing, pate and cucumber, salmon and cream cheese), mini spinach roulade, duck pancakes, and I can't remember the othe two!

We thought cold would be better as hot ones will go cold too quickly as this will be on the lawn (still praying for sunshine!)

Bread rolls with butter

Main - Roast sirloin of beef, hand carved ham, poached salmon with lemon mayonnaise or vegetable terrine silver served, with hot new potatoes, mixed salad, waldorf salad, rice salad, homemade coleslaw and mustards, horseradish sauces.

Pudding - Scones with jam and cream, wedding fruit cake and fairy cakes.

Cheese board - Stilton, Brie and Cheddar served with crackers, celery and grapes Teas and coffees with fudge.

The nice thing is, they've said we can add extra bits, for example Steve wanted Wensleydale with Cranberries, which would increase the cost of the menu (currently £25 p.p.) but we can just buy a chunk and add it to the board, and he can have his Mexicana cheese as well, and we will provide the fudge to be served with drinks afterwards too.

Then there will be champagne or Prosecco served for the toasts, and hopefully, be a nice long, chatty atmospheric meal :)

So that was all very good. They seem very keen to do things as we want!

And, the fellow was saying when Littywood began doing wedding receptions they'd approached them with regards catering but were rebuffed rather, so with us asking to have Jenkinsons, and her caterer friend not really being able to cope with larger numbers, they're looking at how things would work with Jenkinsons in the future, and between Littywood and Jenkinsons, they're hiring an extra marquee (!) to put on the back as a catering marquee and sorting out a tunnel down some steps and another tent, so when he said this I thougth eek, that's a bit more money for us, but they're not asking us for any more! So that's good and will work really well. Jenkinsons are pleased we're helping them expand into another wedding venue I think.